REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
01 
PETERBOROUGH NATURAL HISTORY, SCIENTIFIC, AND 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—Two “Gilchrist” Lectures have 
been given, under the auspices of the Society, during the month :— 
“ The Animals of the Coal Period,” by Professor Miall, F.G.S. ; and 
“ The Dynamo-Machine,” by W. Lant Carpenter, Esq., B.A. The 
Drill Hall was densely crowded at each lecture. No ordinary meetings 
of the Society have been held in consequence of these lectures. 
NOTTINGHAM NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY.—February 5th.— 
The members of this Society met for the first time in their new and 
commodious room at the Social Guild, Parliament Street, when Mr. 
J. J. Ogle read an interesting paper on “ The Dispersion of Seeds.” 
After a few introductory remarks, Mr. Ogle said that water and wind 
were the most evident means of dispersion, then animals, especially 
birds. The various adaptations of the seed itself, or of its coverings, 
or of other attachments, for this special purpose were most interesting 
and instructive. To begin with the contrivances adapted to the wind 
as the carrying medium. These were mainly wing-like or plume-like 
attachments. The ash, the elm, the fir, the maple, and several plants 
of the natural order Umbelliferee furnished examples of the former 
kind of expanded attachments to the seed. Great numbers of the 
Compositse, such as the dandelion, the goat’s beard, and the thistle, 
and of other natural orders, as for instance the willow herb, the bull- 
rush, the willow, and the clematis, gave good examples of connections 
more or less plume-like. In the fir the wing-like appendage was a 
development of the seed-covering; in the ash it was an extension of 
the covering of the fruit. In the lime tree there was another kind of 
wing, which served as a sail to a whole bunch of fruits, being 
in fact a modified leaf or bract attached along half its length to 
the main stem of the fruiting branch. The plume-like attach¬ 
ments of the seeds of plants of the natural order Compositse were 
modified calyces so contrived as to catch the wind which was to 
waft the seeds to their resting place. The pappus-like crown of 
the willow herb was a part of the seed—it was in fact a special 
development of the chalaza. In the clematis the top of the fruit 
consisted of a long flexible feathery tail which was simply the style 
of the flower increased and rendered permanent. The dispersion 
of seeds by animals was effected in various ways. In some cases 
the fruit (to use the word in its popular sense) was sweet and 
succulent, and eagerly sought after by birds, and the seeds were 
either dropped from their bills during flight, or were voided in an 
undigested state. The strawberry was well adapted for dispersion by 
fruit-eating animals, as also were the blackberry, raspberry, cherry, 
etc. The seeds of edible fruits were chiefly adapted for dispersion by 
birds, though in the case of such fruits as the hazel nut, squirrels and 
other animals were the agents. Then, again, there was a large class 
of hooked fruits, a familiar example of which was seen in the common 
heriff, or cleavers, the fruit being covered with minute hooks, so arranged 
as to cling to any animal that touched it. The fruits of the forget- 
me-not, agrimony, wood-sanicle, bur-parsley, and the enchanter’s night¬ 
shade, had hooks very effectively arranged for the end in view. 
Lastly, there was a large class of plants that disseminated their seeds 
by forces inherent to themselves ; the bursting of cells through high 
tension, the elasticity of some special part, together with hygrometric 
action upon the tissues and fibres, resulted in little explosions which 
threw the seeds a considerable distance from their birth-place. 
