6 
NATURE NOTES 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
Business Meeting's. — The next meetings of the Council will be held on 
Tuesday, January 3, and Tuesday, January 24, at 5.30 p.m., and the Publications 
Committee will meet on Monday, January 9, at 5.30 p.m. 
New Members. — Central Society — Miss S. Pattison, Ripon. 
Ealing Branch — W. Deane Butcher, Esq., M.R.C.S., Ealing. 
Hampstead Branch. — Miss Winifred E. Bell, Gospel Oak ; Edward Bolus, Esq., 
B.A., Mrs. Bolus, Stoke Newington Common ; Miss Bessie Clissold, H P. 
Cooper, Esq., Mrs. S. M. Cooper, F. Falkenheim, Esq., Hampstead ; Miss Lucy 
Holmes, South Hampstead ; Mrs. Temple Moore ; Myer S. Nathan, Esq., LL.D. ; 
Miss D. Parsons, Hampstead. 
Subscriptions and Donations. — The Council has pleasure in acknow- 
ledging subscriptions of more than 5s. from the following members: W. H. 
Warner, Esq., £l is. ; W. Whitwell, Esq., £1 is. ; W. Smith, Esq., los. ; and 
a donation from J. J. Williams, Esq., of los. 
Library. — The Honorary Librarian has pleasure n announcing the following 
gifts to the Library of the Society : “ Notes on the Natural History of the Bell 
Rock,” by J. M. Campbell, and “ Dunstable : the Downs and the District,” by 
W. G. Smith, from the Editor; “ Introduction to Entomology” (2 vols.), by 
Kirby and Spence; “Journal of a Naturalist”; “ Howitt’s Year Book of the 
Country,” from William Carpenter, Esq. 
NEWS FROM THE BRANCHES. 
Clapton. — December 17. — A meeting was held at Sigdon Road School, when 
a most interesting paper was read by Mrs. Durrant. The subject was “ Plant 
Lore and Legends,” and it was shown that, from most ancient times, a number of 
curious and pretty legends centred around even the commonest plants and flowers. 
The selection included legends relating to National flower-emblems, the Rose, the 
Shamrock and the Thistle, and the Lily of France. A full description of the 
Passion flower was quoted from a monk who wrote in the year 1610, and who 
described in each part of the flower an emblem of the Sacred Passion. Of 
purely mythical plants Mrs. Durrant selected the Vegetable Lamb, Barnacle 
Goose and Mandrake, giving an account of each of these as described by 
writers of the seventeenth and earlier centuries. The wood of the Holy 
Cross has naturally formed the subject of many early and mediteval traditions, 
some of which were also included in the p.aper. 
At the conclusion of the meeting, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to 
Mrs. Durrant for her valuable paper. 
The next meeting of the Branch will take place on January 21, when a 
paper will be read by Mr. Ernest A. Nash on “ Some Legendary Explanations of 
Natural Markings in Living Nature.” 
Ealing. — December 10. — An understanding exists between the Ealing 
Branch and the Ealing Natural Science and Microscopical Society, by which the 
members of one may attend the meetings of the other, and on December 10 
.several Selbornians were present at a meeting of the Ealing Society, when Mr. 
Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S. (Honorary Secretary of the Selborne Society) 
delivered a lecture on “Evolution in Dress,” illustrated by lantern sli les, in 
which he applied the great principles of Darwinism to modern dress, and traced 
its history in many cases from the small vestiges which are to be seen here and 
there in our every-day clothes. The lecture was most cordially received and a 
discussion followed, in which Mr. B. B. Woodward, F.L.S. , F.G.S., and Mr. 
Deane Butcher, M.R.C..S. (who has succeeded the Rev. Professor Henslow in the 
Presidency of the Ealing Society), took part. 
Hampstead. — November 21. — Members of the Branch enjoyed the privilege 
of hearing the well-known astronomer, Mr. E. Walter .Maunder, F. R. A.S., of 
Greenwich Observatory, lecture upon “ The Sun and Sun-spots.” It was now, 
he said, possible to observe the sun and its markings without the old risk. 
