50 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
Reports of Societies. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY.— Genebal Meeting, January 18th. Mr. R. W. Chase in 
the chair. Mr. J. B. Williams, Secretary of the Toronto Natural 
History Society, exhibited the following birds, which he had brought 
from Canada :—The cat-bird, white-crowned sparrow, towdiee bunt¬ 
ing, and the scarlet tanager. Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., exhibited 
for Mr. F. W. Sharpus, of London, a series of twelve slides showing 
the anatomy of the spiders, including specimens from Australia, 
South Africa, &c. While the specimens were under the microscopes, 
Mr. Hughes explained the more interesting features ; Professor Hill- 
house, M.A., Mr. Humphrey, and others took part in the discussion. 
Mr. 0. E. Bagnall, A.L.S. exhibited Vicia lathyroides, from Hart’s 
Hill, new to North Warwick. He then read a paper describing the 
mosses, &c., collected by Mr. J. B. Stone, J.P., from the Trosachs, 
Riviera, and other localities. He exhibited a fine collection of 
beautifully mounted specimens, and explained some of their 
peculiarities, and displayed their delicate structure by sections under 
the microscope. Amongst the many exhibited were the following :— 
Hypnum Crista-Gastrensis, H.fiuitans var. submersum, Neckera crispa, 
Mylia Taylori , Bozzania trilobata, and Hypnum dilatatum .—Geological 
Section. January 25, 1887 ; twenty-five present. Mr. W. P. Marshall, 
M.I.C.E., in the chair. The special feature of interest was a paper on 
“ The Processes of Crystallisation in Rocks,” illustrated by rock sections 
under the microscope, by Mr. T. H. Waller, B.Sc., who described the 
various processes of crystallisation which take place in molten masses 
of silicates on cooling. Beginning with ill-defined granules and heaps 
of granules, there gradually are built up very minute bodies which are 
not recognisable as definite minerals, but which show crystalline 
structure by their action in polarised light. These in some cases are 
seen to be aggregated into definite crystalline minerals of known 
species. The process of crystallisation in a rock has frequently gone 
on in two stages—the one before eruption, producing large crystals, the 
other afterwards, producing smaller ones. An interesting discussion 
ensued. After the paper had been fully discussed, a very hearty vote 
of thanks was accorded to Mr. Waller. A very fine geological map, 
the property of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical 
Society (date 1815), by William Smith, the “ Father of English 
Geology,” was exhibited. In February, 1831, the Council of the 
Geological Society of London honoured Mr. Smith by awarding him 
the first Wollaston Medal, “in consideration of his being a great 
original discoverer in English geology ; and especially for his having 
been the first in this country to discover and teach the identification 
of strata, and to determine their succession by means of their embedded 
fossils.” 
BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ 
UNION.—December 20th. A meeting devoted to Geology. Mr. P. T. 
Deakin exhibited a somewhat large collection of fossils from the Lias 
and Inferior Oolite of Gloucestershire ; Mr. Insley exhibited fossils 
from the Red Crag, and called attention to the conditions under which 
they were embedded ; Mr. C. F. Beale, specimens of Lepidodeiidron 
Sternbergii, L. selayinoides , and Lepidostrobus ornatus ; Mr. A. T. Evans, 
graptolites from the Lower Silurian ; Mr. Madison, slates of Keuper 
