97 
Ordinary Meeting, February 10th, 1880. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Professor Roscoe, F.R.S., exhibited some specimens of 
phosphorescent surfaces prepared according to processes dis- 
covered by his late friend Mr. W. H. Balmain, of St. Helens. 
These preparations are now being largely introduced under 
the name of luminous paint. Mr. Balmain worked for 
many years in conjunction with M. Becquerel upon the 
phosphorescent compounds of the alkaline earths, and he has 
succeeded in producing a material which when exposed to 
diffused daylight, or direct sunlight, not only becomes 
strongly phosphorescent in the dark, but remains so for 
several hours after insolation. The proposal is now made 
to utilise this property for special illuminating purposes, and 
Dr. Roscoe showed various preparations made with Bal- 
main’s paint, kindly furnished him by Messrs. Ihlee and 
Horne, of Aldermanbury, London. 
Professor W. C. Williamson, F.R.S., exhibited some 
specimens of Calamostachys Binneana, especially one recently 
discovered by John Aitken, Esq., in which the fruit displays 
both microspores and macrospores, the former occupying 
the upper and the latter the lower part of the same strobi- 
lus. This discovery equally separates the Calamostachys 
from the Equisetaceae with which so many authors have 
associated it, and from the Gymnospermans Exogens of 
which Brongniart was inclined to regard it as a pollenifer- 
ous spike. Professor Williamson has long advocated its 
association with Asterophyllites and Sphenophyllum, and 
ranked the whole with the Lycopodiaceae. This interpret 
tation seems to be now placed beyond doubt. 
Peoceedings — Lit, & Phil. Soc.. — Vol. XIX. — No. 9. — Session 1879-80. 
