PROVINCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIETIES. 
537 
voyages. In addition to its gatherings, the society is employed in the 
collection of microscopical specimens, for which a cabinet has been pur- 
chased ; and we would direct the attention of dwellers in seaports to the 
fact that this society is collecting, and solicits contributions of deep-sea 
soundings, especially of such as contain Foraminifera. 
We are a little puzzled to discover where are the head-quarters of this 
society. We presume in Greenwich, where the Report is printed ; hut as 
the President lives in Blackheath Park, and the Secretaries at Lewisham, 
it would he well if some hint were given to intending subscribers concerning 
its locus' in quo. West Kent is a large place ! 
MANCHESTER FIELD NATURALISTS 5 SOCIETY. 
The report of this society for 1863 shows that it is daily extending its 
sphere of usefulness. Its excursions and soirees have been fruitful in 
results; and the most interesting feature in its transactions appears to be 
Mr. Holland’s address on poisonous plants. 
The specimens collected to illustrate the lecture comprised the following 
(with others of less importance), and those from which any danger was 
apprehended to the audience were enclosed in glass cases : — 
Living Plants. — Helleborus fcetidus, Aconitum Napellus, Daphne Mcze- 
reum, Digitalis purpurea , Cicuta virosa, Mercurialis perennis, Buxus sem- 
pervirens, Colchicum autumnale , Arum maculatum, &c. 
Dried Plants. — Chelidonium majus, Hyoscyamus niger, Atropa Bella- 
donna , (Enanthe crocata, Conium maculatum, Veratrum album, &c. 
Products and Preparations. — Opium, morphia, bitter-almonds 
hydrocyanic acid, nux vomica seeds, strychnine, and various other seeds 
and poisonous alkaloids. 
Mr. Grindon, the secretary, also delivered a very able lecture on the 
“Prefigurations of Nature,” in which he showed that external nature 
everywhere abounds in objects which prefigure other higher ones ; and 
he selected his illustrations from the inorganic as well as the organic world. 
His lecture did not deal with the theory of development ; but tended to 
show that all nature is founded upon one great plan, and that man is the 
“ summary and synthesis of all other natural objects.” 
We are glad to observe that prizes are now granted by this club to the 
ladies who make the best collections of plants of various kinds at each 
excursion. 
DUDLEY AND MIDLAND GEOLOGICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY AND 
FIELD CLUB. 
This flourishing society was established last year, on the foundation 
of a former geological society which once existed in that neighbourhood, 
but which, under a somewhat too rigid mode of management, had not in it 
very much vitality. The new society seeks to combine the main features of 
a field club, archaeological association, practical miners’ society, and general 
scientific body, and has hitherto met with an amount of support and 
success that augurs well for its future prosperity. It has now nearly 400 
