110 
Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 
Zum Präsidenten der nächsten Sitzung wird Herr Willkomm- 
Prag gewählt. 
Anwesend sind die Herren; A m b r o n n - Leipzig, And ree - 
Münden, B e h r en s - Göttingen , Cr a m e r - Zürich , D u ff t-Rudolstadt, 
Er furth-Weimar, Ei ch 1 er-Berlin , v. G r o 1 m a n n - Giessen, Hoff¬ 
man n - Giessen, May er-Strassburg, 0 s s w a 1 d - Eisenach, Pfitzer- 
Heidelberg, P ri n g s h e i m - Berlin, R e i n h a r d t- Berlin, Roth-Berlin, 
Sadebeck - Hamburg, S t a h 1-Jena, Schwendene r-Berlin, Schmitz- 
Bonn, T h o m a s - Ohrdruf, T s c h ap 1 o w i t z - Proskau , Tschirch- 
Berlin , U h 1 w o r m - Kassel, Wi 11 ko m m - Prag, W i 11 m a c k - Berlin, 
Zimmer mann - Chemnitz. Behrens (Göttingen). 
[Fortsetzung folgt.] 
Linnean Society of London.*) 
June 1. — Frank Crisp, LL.B., Treasurer, in the chair. — Mr. H. C. 
Burdett was elected a Fellow of the Society. — Mr. H. IST. Ridley drew 
attention to a specimen of Equisetum maximum Lam. —The Rev. G. Henslow 
exhibited a specimen of malformed Wällflower, in which the petals 
were suppressed or represented by small green scales. It had no stamens, 
but in their place malformed carpels, either free or coherent with the pistil, 
as in similar examples described by Masters and others. Mr. Henslow 
also drew attention to a Rhododendron, in which every blossom had an open 
pistil with petals and stamens growing within and at the base. A third 
specimen shown and commented upon was a double garden Ranunculus with 
a mass of foliaceous petals. — Dr. T. S. Ralph, A.L.S., exhibited specimens 
of growing Vallisneria from Sydney, Australia, and supposed to 
differ somewhat from the European species, V. spiralis. — Dr. 
Marshall Ward read a paper on his ,Researches on the Life History of 
Hemileia vastatrix,’ the fungus of the coffee-leaf disease. The phenomena 
attendant thereon shows great analogy to those of the Uredine fungi. The 
spores under favourable conditions, viz., moisture, a due supply of oxygen, 
and a temperature of 75° F., usually germinate in from twelve to twenty- 
four hours. Complete infection or establishment of the mycelium in the 
intercellular passages of the leaf occurs about the third day after the for- 
mation of germinal tubes. The so-called yellow spot, or ordinary outward 
visible appearance of the disease, manifests itself about the fourteenth or 
fifteenth day, but may be delayed, its development and course being dependent 
on secondary causes, such as atmospheric conditions, monsoons, age of the 
cofl’ee leaf, &c. By watching the progress of the spots, it has been ascer- 
tained that the spores therefrom may be continuously produced for from 
seven to eleven weeks, or even more. Some 150,000 spores have been estim- 
ated as present in one yellow cluster spot, and as 127 disease spots have 
been counted in one pair of leaves the quantity of spores thus regularly 
produced must be enormous. According to amount of diseased spots the 
sooner the leaf falls, and though young leaves arise the fruit-bearing qualities 
of the plant necessarily are seriously interfered with. The various sorts of 
cofiee-plant are all liable to infection; the only possible remedy is the diffi- 
cult one of destruction of the spores, which are supposed originally to have 
been introduced from the native .jungle and rapidly spread under the favour¬ 
able conditions of artificial cultivation. 
June 15. — Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., in the chair. -— The 
following gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society: —T. D. Gibson- 
Carmichael, Rev. R. Collie, Chas. A. Ferrier, W. D. Go och, Sir 
J. R. Gibson-Maitland, Bart., M. Murphy, Rev. H. A. So am es, H. 
C. Stephens, H. G. W. Stephens, and James Turner. Mr. Dyer 
*) From the reports of Dr. J. Murie, see Journ. of Bot. new Ser. vol. 
XI. p. 254—256. 
