130 ACCOUNT OF GENERAL MEETINGS AND ANNUAL MEETING. 
£$3 IIS - Sd., being an increase of ^3 14s., yhd. The expenses 
of the year amounted to ^78 12s. iojd., as against £41 15s. 5d. 
in 191 2. Dr. Smith explained that this increase in expenditure 
was largely apparent, being due to various accounts, which in 
previous years had been a year behind in payment, now being 
paid up-to-date. The Librarian's Report was then read by Dr. 
Darbishire. In response to the President's request for exhibits, 
Dr. Darbishire demonstrated the ease with which some roofing 
slate could be split into thin layers of uniform thickness. 
Another member exhibited a flower gathered in South Africa 
and brought to England in the cold storage retaining its fresh- 
ness. 
Mr. C. Hunter then gave a lecture, illustrated with lantern 
slides, on the subject of " Peat/' of which he explained that 
there were two kinds, viz., dry peat, formed of the roots of heath 
plants on dry surfaces when the rainfall is small, and wet peat, 
formed in low-lying situations when the rain is heavy. Of the 
latter, Sedgmoor is an example. The region has evidence of 
having once been an arm of the sea, which was eventually shut 
off by the formation of a barrier from the Bristol Channel, after 
which the peat began to form. A British village has been dis- 
covered built on a foundation of brushwood and protected by 
palisades. Most probably it was approached by boat. There is 
a Roman road across Sedgmoor, which is found six feet below 
the surface at Ashcott. The iVbbot's Path from Glastonbury to 
Bartle, where the monks had a chapel, is buried from two to 
seven feet. The lecturer showed specimens of different kinds of 
peat and peat forming plants. 
Miss Roper exhibited a photograph of a boat, now in the 
Taunton Museum, supposed to have been constructed about 
250 B.C. A discussion followed, in which several members 
joined. 
A vote of thanks to Mr. Hunter concluded the proceedings. 
THE 440TH GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY. 
March 5th, 1914. 
{Western Daily Press, March 7th, 1914). 
At the meeting of the Bristol Naturalists, held in the 
University on Thursday evening, the chair was occupied by the 
President, Miss Roper. The minutes having been passed, the 
Secretary read a letter from Dr. Home, Kerlegh, Cobham, 
Surrey, who is preparing a monograph on certain species of 
Stellaria, asking for specimens of S. gr amine a, S. palustris, and 
S. uliginosa, from the Bristol district. 
Dr. Darbishire showed, by means of the ultra-microscope, the 
movement of the particles of gold in a colloidal solution of gold 
