96 
llEP0ETi5 OF SOCIETIES. 
present is, consciously or unconsciously, the possessor by inheritance of all the 
treasures of knowledge painfully acquired by the past. The doctrine of transmi¬ 
gration, as believed by the Greeks, the Hindoos, and the Jews, has not the 
meaning which we are accustomed to attribute to it. That the souls of men pass, 
after their death, into the bodies of animals, is an absurd addition to the real 
truth, which is that the descendants of each living being inherit therefrom a 
portion of their mind as well as a portion of their body. The savage—nay, the 
more educated man, who jierceives how the children inherit the mental and 
physical characteristics of their parent may be excused for believing that the 
soul of the latter has migrated into the former. Mr. Greatheed showed by 
examples how each higher group of animals inherits the experiences and 
feelings of all those below it, and how man himself, passing as he does in his 
development, though in a curio ns abbreviated way, through all the gradations 
of structure which mark the classes below him, inherits more or less the 
physical and mental attiibutes of all the animals from the amoeba to the 
anthropoid ape. Increasing complexity of structure is indissolubly connected 
with increasing complexity of mind. The ancients had then a dim anticipation 
of the reality; the past was not “ golden,” any future destiny to which man may 
attain must be nobler than any of those through which his ancestry has alre idy 
passed. The paper, which was of a highly philosophical character, was much 
applauded; and a discussion followed, in which Mr. S. Wilkins said that 
the writer’s aim was to show how there lay in man the potentiality of a 
higher life, to which the human race, by a continuance of the evolution which 
had made it what it was, must in time attain. Btological Section.— 
March 13th. — Mr. Bagnall exhibited Lichens: — Parmelia conspersa and 
Parmelia physocles, various localities; Pamalin t. farinacea and Bamalina 
fraxinea, from. Hampton-in-Arden; Peltigera spuria (rare , Hampton-in-Arden, 
new to Warwickshire. Fungi : — Ascobohis denudatus, from Handsworth 
(new to district ; Comatriclia Friesiana, one of the Myxomycetes, from Hands¬ 
worth (new to Stafford I, for Mr. G. S. Tye ; Peziza coclileata, from near Bewdley 
(from Dr. Arnold Lees). Mr. W. B. Grove exhibited Fungi:— Auricularia 
mesenterica, Arcyria ncarnata, Chondrioderrnaphysarioides, and PUizomorpha, 
from Sutton ; Peziza stercorea, from Quinton ; Zasmidium cellare and Podisonia 
Juniperi. Mr. J. F. Goode exhibited Ova of Cleanser Swimming Crab [Portunus 
depurator), and of Masked Crab (Corystes cassivelaunus). Geological, Section.— 
March 20th.—Mr. T. H. Waller exhibited a thin section of Foraininiferal lime¬ 
stone (carboniferous) from North Wales. Mr. W. G. Blatch exhibited Croptarcha 
striyata and Cryptarcha imperialis, two species of Clavicorn bettles found at 
Knowle, and new to the district. Mr. J. E. Bagnall exhibited four lichens— 
Lecanora atra, L. ulmicola, L. varia, and Pertusaria communis, from various 
localities. Mr. W. B. Grove exhibited two interesting species of Myxomycetes 
— Hemiarcyi'ia rubiformis and H. clavata, and two species of Torulacei 
(almost the simplest kind of fungi)— Bispora monilioides and Speira toruloides, 
all from Sutton, and all new to the district. Mr. Bagnall then read some “Notes 
upon Plants collected at Hunstanton, Norfolk, by Mr. R. W. Chase.” He gave a 
brief account of the distribution of the plants which he exhibited, and read 
extracts upon their peculiar medicinal virtues from the quaint old herbals of 
Gerarde, Parkinson, and Culpepper. Among the most noticeable were Suoeda 
fruticosa, and several species of Statice or Sea Lavender, which occupy several 
acres of marshy ground near Hunstanton, and when in bloom in August make a 
splendid show. He afterwards made some general remarks upon the distribu¬ 
tion of plants, with especial reference to the predominance of the Scandinavian 
flora, the occurrence of which in so many iparts of the world, in conjunction 
with such diverse native floras, he showed could bo accounted for by the theory 
of the Glacial Epoch. 
NOTTINGHAM NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY.—February 20th.—An interesting 
and able paper on the “Rhaetic Beds of Nottinghamshire” was read by Edw. 
Wilson, F.G S., illustrated with numerous specimens, diagrams, and maps. 
Twenty-five new members were elected and six proposed at this meeting. 
