240 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
rock, which is so well seen there, intruding into the coal measures, 
and charring the coal till it becomes a hard coke. The last meeting 
will take place on the 18th September, at Rock, near Bewdley. 
LEICESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
—Section D, Zoology and Botany. Chairman, Mr. F. T. Mctt, 
F.R.G.S. Evening Meeting, Wednesday, July 2oth ; attendance, nine. 
The Chairman exhibited a simple apparatus of wood marked with 
scales of inches and fractious for measuring the daily growth of plants. 
A discussion ensued as to the effect of light upon vegetable growth. 
Dr. Finch stated, on the authority of Sachs, that the shaded side of 
herbaceous stems grew faster than the sunny side, and that this was 
the cause of heliotropism. The subject is very complex, and offers a 
wide field for research. Mr. Palmer exhibited shells of Planorbis 
cornevs and P. carinatus ; Mr. Carter specimens of Cardamine ivipatiens , 
which had appeared as a casual in a garden at Stoneygate; Dr. Finch, 
specimens of Viola lactea, from Hampshire ; the Chairman, a number 
of garden flowers with their foliage. The Chairman read a short paper 
“ On the Results of Cultivation,” showing that cultivation imparted no 
new faculty, but was simply an unfolding of hidden potentialities; 
that the cultivator supplied the conditions necessary for the develop¬ 
ment of some special tendency already existing in the plant, and that 
by supplying or withholding such conditions he could develop almost 
any part of the plant at will; that civilisation was impossible without 
cultivation, because vegetable as well as animal food was essential to 
civilisation, and nature provided vegetable food suitable for man only 
at certain seasons and in small quantities; and that most of our 
vegetable foods were, in fact, artificial productions. 
SEVERN VALLEY NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB.—The third 
Field Meeting of the season was held at Stokesay and Hopesay, on 
Tuesday, August 7th, and was attended by about thirty members. At 
Stokesay Castle the club was met by the Rev. J. D. La Touche, 
President of the Caradoc Field Club, who gave an interesting account 
of the structure and history of the building. After visiting the 
church, the club followed their guide to the slope below Yeo Edge, 
where Mr. La Touche sketched the solid geology of the district, with 
special reference to the origin of the Stokesay Valley, which cut across 
the strike of the Silurian rocks, the escarpments of Aymestry lime¬ 
stone facing each other on opposite sides. He also touched upon the 
history of the region in the glacial epoch. Dr. Callaway, President of 
the Severn Valley Club, followed with remarks upon the relations to 
each other of the older Palaeozoic formations on each side of the 
great Church Stretton fault. He then outlined the recent views of 
the late Prof. Carvill Lewis, of Philadelphia, who held that in the 
glacial period a great ice-sheet flowed down the Irish Sea, sending a 
tongue across the plain of Cheshire to North Shropshire, where the 
ice terminated, and moraines and morainic lakes were formed. The 
club then took train to Broome, and, by the kindness of J. T. Barber, 
Esq., were conveyed in carriages to Hopesay, where they visited the 
encampment of the Hill of Barrow under Mr. Barber’s guidance, and 
were afterwards hospitably entertained at a sumptuous tea by the 
Rev. R. G. Maul, the rector. The fineness of the weather, the interest 
of the geology, and the kindness of their guides and hosts, made the 
visit of the club most pleasant and instructive. The advantages 
enjoyed were largely due to the energy and influence of the Hon. 
Secretary, the Rev. R. C. Wanstall, R.D. 
