REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
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longiseta on Azalea leaves (new to Great Britain), found at Sutton 
Coldfield ; also Agaricus jubatus and Phragmidium violaceum from Barnt 
Green. Mr. A. Browett made some interesting remarks about the late 
meeting of tlie British Association at Aberdeen.— General Meeting, 
October 6th. The President made a few remarks upon the work done 
by the Society during the past session, and he expressed a hope that 
more of the members would attend the meetings in the future, and 
suggested that the meetings might be made more attractive and 
enjoyable to the ordinary student if the subjects were treated in a 
more popular and less technical manner, at the same time not to 
interfere with the specialist; that an account be kept of the various 
excursions, work done, specimens obtained and verified, and any other 
information, such account to be entered in a book to be called the 
log-book of the Society’s excursions, and that the record of each 
excursion should be read at the next meeting following. He 
thought this course, if adopted, would add materially to the interest 
of the meetings and prove a valuable source of reference. 
Mr. T. Bolton exhibited oak spangles (galls) made by the insect 
Ci/nips longipennis; Mr. Saunders, an eutomostracon ; Mr. J. Levick, 
Zoothamnium arbuscula and Cordylopliora lacustris; Mr. J. Morley, 
the male Gall Fly ( Tnypeta cardui ) and the Horned Ichneumon Fly 
(Eulophus nemata), both mounted without pressure. Mr. J. T. Blake- 
more, live foraminifera from Aberystwith ; Mr. J. Edmonds, the bush 
spider; Mr. W. P. Marshall, a flower of lobelia; Mr. C. Pumphrey, 
beaded hairs in the flower of the pansy; Mr. Cecil T. Davies, skulls 
of British birds ; Mr. A. Browett, Lycopodium clavatum, from Scotland; 
Professor C. Lapworth, a number of geological charts and maps of the 
Birmingham district, prepared by the students attending his lectures 
at the Mason College. Mr. J. Rabone exhibited some objects, kindly 
lent by Mr. W. Spencer, Regent’s Place; the first in point of interest 
was a part of a carbonised branch of a coniferous tree, found at a 
depth of 195 feet below the surface in the Kimberley diamond mine 
in South Africa. The branch had been converted into a brittle lignite, 
and adhering to it was a portion of the rock in which it had been 
embedded, and upon the surface was to be seen a small diamond in situ, 
about as large as a grain of wheat. He also showed a number of 
shells of the Avicula or pearl oyster, and portions of others which had 
been cut by the button lathe. The origin of the pearl is due to the 
presence of some foreign substance within the shell, which the oyster, 
not having the means of extruding, covers over with nacre, of which 
the pearl is composed ; specimens were shown which (the pearls being 
split) exhibited the bodies of small crabs perfectly preserved; a 
portion of the case of Terebellci was seen to have been enclosed, and 
other pearls had been formed over small stones. A number of small 
pearls, of a dullish yellow appearance, taken from the common oyster, 
and others of a darker hue from the common mussel, were also shown. 
Mr. R. W. (Jliase exhibited the following birds :— Muscicapa atricapilla , 
Pied Flycatcher, male, female, and young, Ebchester; Locustella nccvia, 
Grasshopper Warbler, young, in two stages, near Newcastle ; Serinus 
hortulanus , Serin Finch, adult, Yarmouth, 14tli June, 1885 ; Lanius 
pomeranus, Woodchat Shrike, adult male, Yarmouth, 16tli May, 1885 ; 
(Egialitis cantiana, Kentish Plover, female, Breydon Flats, 8tli May, 
1885 ; Fhalaropus hyperboreus, Red-necked Phalarope, male, and young 
in down, Shetland, lltli July, 1882 ; Strepsilas interpres, Turnstone, 
male, Breydon Flats, 14th May, 1884 ; Numenius phceopus, Whimbrel, 
in the down, Hascosea, 3rd July, 1882; Stercorarius catarrhactes, 
Common Skua, Shetland, 10th July, 1882; Stercorarius crepidatus, 
