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REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
Lancashire. The most characteristic rock of this formation is a 
quartzose conglomerate, and besides containing five important coal 
fields, it also produces iron, lead, zinc, copper, and salt. The writer 
described the birth, growth, and decay of the chain, its scenery, the 
erratic boulders found on its slopes, and some of the superstitions 
connected with their distribution. An exhibition of fossils and rock 
specimens illustrated the paper.—September 6th. Mr. C. F. Beale 
exhibited a specimen of Clionetes lata from the Upper Ludlow, and 
Anthapalcemon <jrossartii in Gubbin ironstone ; Mr. Bradbury, a series of 
photographs of the Rocky Mountain scenery. Under the microscope, 
Mr. H. Iusley showed Atlantic ooze from 1,180 fathoms, and Orbiculina 
from Bermuda.—September 18tli. Mr. H. Hawkes showed Chlora 
perfoliata and other plants, from Ross, also a number of fungi, 
including Cladosporium depressum and Rcestelia lacerata ; Mr. C. P. 
Neville, an abnormal growth of fuchsia, a leaf growing out of each 
side of the tube of the corolla; Mr. C. F. Beale, a leaf of fossil fern, 
Pecopteris hirsuta , from the coal measures, Illinois. Under the 
microscope, Mr. Hawkes showed a section of Picestelia lacerata. 
LEICESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
—Section D, Zoology and Botany. Chairman, F. T. Mott, F.R.G.S. 
Monthly Meeting, Wednesday, September loth. Attendance, eight 
(two ladies). The following objects were exhibited, viz. : By Dr. 
Cooper, dried plants from North Wales, including Spircea salicifolia , 
apparently wild. By Rev. T. A. Preston, a set of beautiful glass 
models, by Blaschka, of Dresden, of an obelia, showing the natural 
size of the polypidom, ifce same greatly magnified with the polyps in 
the cells, and the free medusae in two stages ; also models of several 
genera of sea anemones, and a few of Cole’s microscopic slides. It 
was stated that the glass models could only now be got through Mr. 
Damon, of Plymouth, that the manufactory produces models of 
nearly a thousand species, but that the demand so much exceeds 
the supply that orders are rarely executed within twelve months, 
and small orders are scarcely attended to. By Mr. E. F. Cooper, 
dried plants for distribution from Saltby, in Leicestershire, in¬ 
cluding Helianthemum vulgare, Asperula cynanchica , and Calamintha 
acinos. By the Chairman, a metacarpal bone of Bos longifrons , the 
smallest of the old races of cattle, taken from the floor of the butcher’s 
shop in the ancient Roman town of Uriconium, in Shropshire. 
The Chairman read a short paper on “ Rats, and the occurrence of the 
Black Rat in Leicestershire” ; exhibiting a specimen of the black rat 
recently captured at a farm about a mile from Leicester. The 
Chairman suggested that it would be useful and interesting work for 
the members of the section to practice the art of setting up life-groups 
of invertebrate animals, showing the history and habits of the species. 
These being small and easily preserved, groups could be set up 
pictorially without the apparatus of a special workshop, and such 
groups would be novel and extremely useful. He also stated that at the 
recent meeting of the British Association a committee was appointed 
to report on the Provincial Museums of the United Kingdom, and 
that he had undertaken the secretaryship of this committee, and he 
asked the members for information as to the existence of museums in 
various parts of the country, not established under the Public 
Libraries Act; of those under the Act he had a list already. The 
names of about a dozen such museums were at once suggested by the 
members present. 
