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on “ Slienstone’s Life and Works.” After the customary votes of 
thanks, and a pleasant stroll in Mr. Gem’s grounds, the party returned 
to Birmingham, bringing to a close, by about nine o’clock, a most 
successful and agreeable excursion. General Meeting, July 21st.— 
Mr. J. Pumphrey exhibited the Lancashire asphodel (Narthecium 
ossifragum), from the English Lakes ; also abnormal specimens of the 
Canterbury bells (Campanula Medium), a purple flower with three 
perfect corollas one inside the other, and a cluster of white blossoms 
on a much fasciated stem, the corollas variously united, the numbers 
of the petals varying from 5 to 17 in each altered flower. Mr. A. W. 
Haines exhibited a proliferous rose. Mr. W. H. Wilkinson exhibited 
Potcntilla argentea, from Hagley, rare. Mr. W. P. Marshall (who 
was heartily welcomed back after his tour in America) gave some 
interesting accounts of his Natural History researches while in that 
country, and amongst the many interesting specimens he exhibited 
were the following:— Stem of verillia, 6£ feet long, from Puget 
Sound, California, presented by the Californian Academy of Science, 
as also a copy of their “ Proceedings ” ; Specimen of water, from the 
Great Salt Lake, Utah; an entomostracon (Artemisia salina), from 
the Great Salt Lake; blind cray fish, from the Mammoth Cave, 
Kentucky ; also a blind insect, allied to the grasshoppers, but not 
yet known to have been described ; swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio 
rutulus), from Yosemite Valiev, and from Sierra Madre, California; 
also a butterfly from Niagara ; dragon flies, from the Yosemite and 
Chicago; and three grasshoppers, from the Great Salt Lake. Also 
the following plants:— Plantago officinalis (?), plantain grass, 3 feet 
high ; JJrtica dioccca (?), stinging nettle, 8 feet high, stem fin. diameter ; 
Sequoia gigantea, Californian Big Trees ; wood and bark, Mariposa ; 
snow flower, Yosemite Valley Hoad; cypress, from Montereyl, 
California; original American cypress; oak galls, &c., with larvae 
suspended by threads radially inside gall; Chlorea vulupina, lichen, 
from Big Trees in Mariposa Grove. The whole of his explanations 
and descriptions were listened to with great attention, and the various 
specimens were much admired. Mr. Marshall promised to exhibit 
the remainder of his specimens, including geological ones, at the 
meeting next Tuesday. 
BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ 
UNION.—June 22nd. The President, Mr. C. Beale, in the chair. 
Mr. J. W. Neville exhibited specimens of copper and silver ores from 
Caldera, South America ; Mr. Hawkes, the following fungi:— Puccinia 
syngenesiarum, P. malvacearum, Urocystis pompliolygodes, and Uredo 
miniata, the latter an early stage of the Burnet Brand; Mr. Madison, 
specimen of travertine from the oolite of the Cotswold Hills. Under 
the microscope, Mr. Tylar showed a section of reconsolidated 
basalt from the Cakemore Brickworks, Rowley, also teeth of eel. 
Mr. Hawkes then read a paper on “ The Flora of a Country Lane,” in 
which he pointed out the fortunate situation of our great town in a 
rich and beautiful country, where botanists need never despair of 
finding abundant fields of labour. The lane selected leads from 
Min worth Green to Water Orton. The paper, which only dealt with 
the flowering plants, described the district as one yielding both heath 
and marsh plants, the latter mostly predominating owing to the 
lacustrine origin of the district. Lists were given of the more 
striking botanical features, and the paper concluded by regretting the 
necessity for the encroachments of the sewage farm. The paper 
was illustrated by freshly gathered and mounted specimens.—June 
