REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
135 
the first of these two appearances. These researches may not 
improbably have some future bearing in medical jurisprudence. 
Botanists everywhere will watch with some interest the progress 
of an experiment upon which the Corporation of the city of Glasgow 
has just entei'ed in assuming control of the grand botanical gardens at 
Kelvinside. These gardens, which were started in 1816, were the 
property of the shareholders in the Boyal Botanic Institution, by 
whom they have been maintained, with the assistance of occasional 
grants from different sources for special considerations. They include 
twenty-three acres of ground, and have a collection of glass structures 
second perhaps only to Kew. The society has been, however, financially 
overweighted by them for many years, and now, in liquidation of a 
debt to the Corporation of £46,000, has handed the property over with¬ 
out any reserve or conditions to the Corporation. Fortunately the city 
of Glasgow is governed by a body of eminent public spirit, far removed 
from that mercantile littleness which is the bane of many corporations, 
and there seems little doubt that the Corporation will preserve in its 
entirety their new property. A curious difficulty has, however, cropped 
up, in that the gardens are situated in a suburb which is outside the 
municipal boundary, and a bill to annex which, though practically 
unopposed, has been thrown out by a committee of the House of 
Lords. It is unlikely that this will affect the result, especially bearing 
in mind that a botanical garden is an essential appendage to a 
university, and the whole weight of the university influence of 
Glasgow is thrown into the scale in favour of retention. 
Still another “ .Naturalist,” and this time connected in name as 
well as in fact with a religious body. The “ Wesley Naturalist,” with 
the Bev. W. H. Dallinger, F.R.S., Rev. W. Spiers, M.A., and Rev. H. 
Friend, F.L.S., as editors, has been started as the monthly organ of 
the Wesley Scientific Society. In his editorial Dr. Dallinger tells us 
that a study of Nature may, under certain circumstances, become a 
moral obligation. Perhaps we should ourselves be inclined to go a step 
further and mention that the study of Nature is, under all circum¬ 
stances, excepting the absence of the various sensory organs, a moral 
obligation. At least, that is our reading of the parable of the talents. 
iicports of Societies. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY.— Microscopical Meeting, April 5th. The president, Prof. 
W. Hillliouse, M.A., in the chair. Mr. Walliker sent for exhibition, 
Oxytheria stictica, Linn., a beetle found amongst flowers from France. 
Mr. W. B. Grove, B.A., exhibited for Mr. Hanson a number of speci¬ 
mens, prepared by Mr. English’s process for preservation of fungi, by 
powdered plaster of Paris, dry, and some preservative solution washed 
over; also, on behalf of Mr. Westwood, a double orange, one growing 
within the other. Mr. W. H. Wilkinson then read a paper on “ Colour 
Re-action : its use to the microscopist and biologist.” After pointing out 
the great advantages to the biologist, by the use of colour re-action, in 
studying the continuation of a given tissue, or tracing the course of a 
vascular bundle, or in revealing the structure of otherwise too 
transparent tissue, he illustrated the effects by placing under a series 
of microscopes specimens, plain and stained in several different ways. 
He then referred to the value of colour re-action in lichenology, both 
in showing the structure and in assisting in classification, and then 
showed the effect by causing three lichens to become three different 
