REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
23 
of natural history obtained on the journey. He compared the flora of the United 
States, in certain respects, with that of England, referring especially to the total 
absence of the common daisy, of which he did not see a single specimen, and 
also to the comparative rarity of the meadow buttercups. One remarkable 
fact he noticed : while he was at Washington, on the 3rd of May, the lilac and 
the chestnvit trees were just in bud, and during his whole journey northwards to 
Montreal he kept pace with the advancing spring, finding everywhere the same 
trees just in the same stage. In New York State, at An Sable chasm, a phenomenon 
interesting to a geologist was noticed. The cliffs between which the river flows 
are there over 100ft. in height, and the. path travels along them about half way 
up. At one point he observed a kind of well, by the side of the path, about 15ft. 
deep and 5ft. wide, evidently a pot-hole, scooped out by an eddy of the water, 
and still bearing on its sides the marks of the stones which the water had whirled 
round. In the river below could be seen a whirlpool, which was evidently engaged 
in making a similar pot-hole in its present bed, while on glancing to the top of the 
cliff above could be seen half a similar well, evidently formed by the action of 
the water at that higher level. It is but rarely that the pi’oof that a river has 
itself formed the chasm through wdiich it flows was so plainly obvious. The 
lecture, which was much applauded, was illustrated by limelight views, especially 
bj- a series which gave an excellent idea of the Niagara Falls from every point 
of view. December 12.— Biological, Section —Mr. Morley exhibited Swift’s 
college microscope. Mr. Bagnall exhibited two fungi, Polijporiis rufescens, new 
to Warwickshire, from Alveston Heath, and Leiizites hetulina from Hartshill; 
also a moss, Scleropodium ccespitosum, very rare in fruit, from near Preston 
Bagot. Mr. S. Walliker exhibited a species of Polyporus, probably P. nigricans, 
the “ Black-hoof Polyporus,” from Vossevauger, Norway, in which was enclosed 
a piece of Schistose rock ; also dried flowers, ferns, etc., beautifully mounted on 
cards by Sistei's of Mercy, Damascus. Mr. F. H. Collins exhibited two slides of 
Bacillus antUracis and B. tuberculosus. The former is the germ of “splenic 
fever” or carbuncular disease,a complaint very common on the Continent among 
cattle, under the name of Charbon or Pustule maligne. The slide showed 
a section of the lung of a guinea-pig, which had died of that disease 
in forty-eight hours after a hypodermic injection of the virus, and proved 
how the rod-like germs had, from the injection, completely permeated 
the lung of the animal (the kidney and liver being equally infested), and thus 
caused its death. The latter is the reputed germ of consumption. Exhibited 
under a power of 750 diameters, it clearly showed the rod-like form, but not the 
minute globular spores within the rods, by the disintegration of which they are 
set free, and then continue the species when they reach an appropriate position 
such as the human lung. The rods themselves multiply by subdivision, at a 
very rapid rate. These Bacilli were prepared by Heneage Gibbs’ method, 
the excellence of which is that, even if there should be other bacterial 
germs present, they will not be affected l)y the staining fluid (see p. 20 . The 
Rev. W. Houghton then gave an interesting and amusing lecture on his 
“ Trawling Excursions in the North Sea and Torbay, with especial reference 
to our Sea-fish and Fisheries,” an abstract of which will appear in a 
future number. December 19th.— Micboscopical Genebal Meeting— Mr. 
W. R. Hughes exhibited the wing of Empusa gongglodes, the walking leaf, from 
Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia. Mr. W. B. Grove exhibited three fungi from 
Sutton, Hypoxylon coccineum, Diatrype discifoDiiis, and Valsa aglceostoma, 
(very rare and new to the county;) also from Mr. Soppitt, of Saltaire, Yorks, 
Phlebiavaga, Hirneola auricula Judce,Orbiciila cyclospora, Geoglossuin difforme, 
Torrubia capitati, QUcidium ptericlymeni, and CE. quadrifidum, all from 
Yorkshire ; and a moss, Tetraphis peUucidu, in fruit (rare in that state). Mr. 
J. Bagnall exhibited c.-sp'daiaw, Bry. Eur., from Fillongley (new to the 
county), illustrated by microscopical preparations, and Polytrichuvi comymme, 
var. lierigoniale (not before recorded), from Sutton Park; also for Mr. C. B. 
Plowright, of King’s Lynn, a series of specimens of the plants upon which he 
had experimented in his trials of the heteroecism of the Uredines (see Grevillea, 
xi., pp. 52-57.) Mr. G. C. Druco, F.L.S., hon. sec. of the Oxfordshire Natural 
