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REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
Saxifraga Cerntta.— It will be interesting to some botanists to learn, 
on the authority of Dr. F. Buchanan White (see “Scottish Naturalist,” 
October, 1884), that this plant, which has been supposed to maintain 
itself on Ben Lawers indefinitely without producing seeds, has of late 
years at least been annually found in flower on that mountain, and is 
even extending its ground. It does not follow, of course, that it has 
produced perfect seed (of this nothing is said); but its flowering prima 
facie withdraws one argument from those who put it forward as 
contradicting the Spencerian doctrine of the necessity of fertilisation 
for the continued permanence of a species.—W.B.G. 
The British Moss Flora. —Part VIII. of this superb publication of 
Dr. Braitliwaite’s has just been issued. It is devoted entii’ely to the 
Tortulaceae, and contains six exquisitely engraved plates. We shall 
review this in our next number. 
George Bentham. —We omitted to mention in the last number 
the death of this veteran botanist, which took place on September 
10th. It will not be necessary to enter upon the details of his work 
here, as that has been fully done in an article in “Nature” of 
October 2nd; but it may be permissible to draw attention to the 
coincidence, by which his death followed at no long interval after the 
completion of the great work in which he was associated with Dr. 
Hooker—the “Genera Plantarum”-—at which he laboured for twenty- 
one years. His health had previously shown signs of weakness, but 
as soon as his long-continued labours were at an end it rapidly gave 
way, and he died within a few days of his eighty-fifth year. 
cprts of Sotieties. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY. —General Meeting, held September 30tli.-—Mr. Bolton 
exhibited Asplanchna priodonta and two new rotifers recently found 
near Birmingham and named by Dr. Hudson Conochilus dossuarius 
and Pompholix sulcata. Mr. Udall exhibited the head of the stag 
beetle, Lvcanus cervus; Mr. Marshall, plants, Ac., from the United 
States and Canada. General Meeeing, held October 7tli.—Mr. J. T. 
Blakemore exhibited Spongilla lacustris from Edgbaston Reservoir, 
and Saprolegnia on a dead entomostracan. Mr. W. B. Grove, B.A., 
exhibited the following fungi:— Cortinarius hinnuleus, Agaricus testaceus , 
and Arcyria nutans , from Bradnock’s Marsh ; Arcyria punicea , Trichia 
chrysosperma , Diciydium cermium , from Sutton ; and the fruit of the 
Spindle tree, showing the beautiful scarlet aril; he also exhibited 
quaternate spores of an agaric in situ. Mr. W. R. Hughes exhibited 
Crenilabrus Melops , the corkwing wrasse, and Gasterosteus spinachia, the 
fifteen-spined stickleback, from the Menai Straits ; he also exhibited 
the head of Vanessa urticce (smaller tortoiseshell butterfly), and a very 
young specimen of Hippocampus brevirostris (the sea horse), showing 
the gill tufts; both the latter specimens were mounted by Mr. F. W. 
Sharpus, London. Mr. T. H. Waller exhibited felspar crystals, showing 
zones of the glassy ground-mass of the lava shut in during the stages 
of growth, and basalt lava from Montserrat, West Indies; also minute 
intergrowth of felspar and quartz felsite from St. Davids, South Wales. 
Mr. J. F. Goode exhibited Spirogyra quinina in conjugation, and a 
section of chalk, showing organisms. Mr. R. W. Chase exhibited the 
