214 
REPORT OF MEETINGS. 
How few there are among us who know the flower of Gagea — 
the Yellow Star of Bethlehem. It appears somewhat more frequently 
than that of the wild tulip, but is almost as shy. And fewer still 
there are, perhaps, who can recognise the foliage when flowering is 
long past. Obviously this plant and the tulip increase and multiply 
without seeding, or independently of seed. In the case of Gagea the 
parent bulb produces from ten to twenty tiny bulbules, at first no bigger 
than sago grains, within its yellowish coat. These are soon cast off 
to lead a separate life, and then each puts up one tiny radical leaf. 
Year by year 'the annual leaf becomes wider and taller until, perhaps 
at the age of seven, if circumstances be favourable, a flower-stalk is 
developed. Meanwhile the children bulbs in turn have been setting 
out a progeny in circles round about. And so, perchance, when one 
is getting up the root of a brook-side plant in some deep dell where 
sunlight and shadow mingle between stems of alder and hazel bushes, 
one may find the earth full of these small granules with their tiny 
streamers, and perceive that it is a red-letter day, a day of good 
fortune, that comes not to the botanist offcener than he deserves. 
JAS. W. WHITE. 
GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 
rf'lHERE are 53 members at the end of this year, shewing a de- 
J. crease of 8 from the previous year’s membership. 
At the first meeting of the year Prof. S. H. Reynolds, M.A., F.G.S., 
was re elected President, and B. A. Baker, F.G.S., Hon. Sec. 
There have been 8 meetings during the year, papers being read 
at seven, while one meeting was devoted to an exhibition, when the 
members of the Naturalists’ Society as a whole were invited to be 
present. 
This proved a very great success, as a great many availed them- 
selves of the invitation, and the exhibits were of a varied character, 
including fine specimens of minerals and crystals, characteristic zonal 
fossils of the Carboniferous limestone exhibited by Dr. A. Vaughan, 
and many excellent photographs and lantern slides of geological 
subjects. 
The following were the titles of papers read : — 
Jan. 18th. — “ The Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendips,” by 
T. F. Sibly, B.Sc. 
Feb. 15th. — “The Igneous Rocks of the Eastern Mendips,” by 
Prof. S. H. Reynolds, M.A., F.G.S. 
Mar. 15th. — Visit to South Africa with the British Association 
in 1905,” by J. T. Kemp, M.A. 
April 26th. — “Minerals and Shapes, by Dr. A. Vaughan, 
B.A., D.Sc., F.G.S. 
May 17th. — “The Geology of the country around Weymouth,” by 
Prof. S. H. Reynolds, M.A., F.G.S. 
Oct. 18th. — Notes on the Geology of the Isle of Arran,” by 
Prof. S. H. Reynolds, M.A., F.G.S. 
