208 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
whence may be seen a magnificent panorama embracing parts of 
Herefordshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, and Worcestershire. 
At this point the President, the Rev. J. D. La Touche, delivered an 
able address on the geology of the hill, which we hope to give in extenso, 
illustrating its formation by that of Graham’s Island in the Mediter¬ 
ranean, which was thrown up by volcanic agency in modern times. 
After inspecting the exposure of columnar basaltic rock, visiting one 
of the coal pits, and collecting abundant fossils, the party returned to 
Ludlow, highly satisfied with the day’s excursion. 
LEICESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
—Section D. —Zoology and Botany. —Chairman, F. T. Mott, F.R.G.S. 
Monthly Meeting, Wednesday, June 17tli. The Chairman reported 
that on the field day on the previous Wednesday ten members went 
to Broughton Station, walked four miles by Cosby, and returned from 
Countesthorpe Station. A few of the less common plants were found, 
but nothing remarkable. Search was made, but in vain, for the true 
Cerastium semidecandrum. The chairman also reported that he had 
been invited to visit the Osier Grounds belonging to Messrs. Ellmore 
and Son, the well-known Leicester basket manufacturers, in order to 
give an opinion as to the cause of a serious blight which had destroyed 
£400 of young trees. He found about sixty acres planted with willow 
stools, of about forty different varieties— a most interesting and 
remarkable collection. Many had been imported from various 
countries, and each was considered to have its own particular value 
for certain kinds of work. The blight appeared to have been caused 
by myriads of black aphides, which covered the young shoots last 
summer, leaving a black stain on the bark of the withered and 
exhausted twigs. The stools being mostly only two years old, were 
unable to bear the drain of sap extracted by the aphides, and either 
died during the autumn or failed to put out fresh shoots after the 
rods were cut in the winter. He had advised the proprietors to 
employ a man at once to go through the whole nursery with a basket, 
cutting off every twig on which an aphis could be found, before they 
should have time to multiply again to any formidable extent. The 
following objects were exhibited:—By Miss Adderlv, a living speci¬ 
men of Sedum rhodiola, in flower, from the Isle of Skye ; by Mr. 
E. F. Cooper, F.L.S., a living specimen, in flower, of Orchis ustulatu, 
from Beachy Head, and a fine truss of the very elegant flowers of 
Kalmia la tifolia, showing the curious manner in which the elastic 
stamens are held back until ripe in pockets of the corolla ; by Dr. 
Cooper, a specimen of Hippocrepis comosa, from Eastbourne ; by the 
chairman, a mass of algse from one of the waterworks reservoirs, 
which Mr. F. Bates stated, after examination, consisted chiefly of 
Spiroggra long at a, Weberia tenuissima, and Calospora, with various 
desmids, diatoms, and bacteria. Miss Ions, of Craven House, Princes 
Road, was elected a member of the section.—The Chairman read a 
paper on “ The Campanulas of Leicestershire,” illustrated by dried 
specimens of all the British campanulas, and drawings of the repro¬ 
ductive organs of C. glomerata, showing the peculiar manner in which 
the anthers deposit their pollen on the hairy style. He also reported 
that the Council of the Society had passed a resolution inviting the 
sections to send in papers for publication in the Society’s transactions 
in extenso , instead of in brief abstract as before. This was an 
important change, and would place the Society on a footing which it 
had never hitherto held,as one of those which publish “ Transactions” 
in the technical sense. 
