Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 
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exhibited specimens of Equisetum gi gante um from Brazil, which is 
said to have aerial stems attaining thirty feet. Mr. H. N. Ridley exhibited a 
monstrosity of Car ex glauca. He also exhibited a specimen of Lolium 
perenne from Hendon, in which the stamens and pistils were converted into 
glumes or glumelike bodies, and in most of the examples terminated by 
stigmatic hairs, showing the transition from glumes to carpellary leaves. — 
Mr. G. J. Fookes exhibited and made remarks on malformed specimens 
of Wallflower and Clematis lanuginosa var. alba, the Wallflower 
resembling in most respects that referred to by the Rev. G. Henslow at a 
former meeting. — Sir John Kirk exhibited and gave information respecting 
specimens of the fruits, leaves and rubber of Landolphia florida? 
obtained from the Island of Pemba, north of Zanzibar; and also of bells and 
rubber beaters, made and used by the natives of East Central Africa. — A 
paper was read by Sir J. D. Hooker, „On Dyeria, a new genus of 
Apocynaceae from the Malayan Archipelago.“ Its nearest affinity is no 
doubt with Alstonia, from which it differs conspicuously in the sessile stigmas 
— a character perhaps unique in the Order—and in the singulär pistil. Jt 
further differs from that genus in the extraordinary minuteness of the 
flowers, which are scarcely one-eighth of an inch in length, whilst the ovules 
have a diameter of 1—200th of an inch. These latter organs are succeeded 
by fruits of immensely large dimensions for the Order. — Mr. W. T. T. Dyer 
read a paper „On the Caoutchouc-yielding Apocynaceae of Malaya 
and Tropical Africa.“ After giving a general sketch of the structural and 
physiological conditions of the occurrence of caoutchouc in plants, the author 
pointed out that the plants which appeared to yield it in commercial quantity 
in three widely separated regions all belonged to one tribe of Apocynaceae, 
the Carisseae. In the East Indies the „Gutta Soosoo“ of Borneo was the 
produce of a new species of Willughbeia (W. Burbidgei). Many other species 
of this and allied genera also seemed to produce caoutchouc in quantity 
worth collecting. ln Central Africa Landolphia, which was closely allied to 
Willughbeia but differed in possessing terminal instead of axillary flowers, 
was the most important source. On the East Coast caoutchouc was yielded 
by L. owariensis and L. florida, the latter a very ornamental plant. As the 
rubber exuded from the cut stems it was plastered on the breast and arms, 
and the thick layer when peeled off and cut up into squares was called 
„thimble rubber.“ On the west coast the most important species was L. 
Kirkii, the rubber of which could be wound off into balls on small rolls 
from the cut stems, like silk from a cocoon; this species was called „Matere“. 
L. florida also occurred, and was called „M’bungu“; its rubber was worked 
up into balls, but was inferior in value. The rubber of L. Petersiana was 
of little importance. In South America Hancornia speciosa yielded what was 
called „illangabina“ rubber. — A series of dried flowers, fruits, and specimens 
of rubber, &c., were exhibited, in illustration of the two foregoing papers. •— 
Lnder the title of „List of Fungi from Brisbane, Queensland, with 
Descriptions of New Species, by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Mr. C. E. 
Broome,“ a paper was read of considerable importance. It contained in¬ 
formation regarding collections of fungi received since 1878. The examples 
of Phalloidei are most interesting, and the occurrence of the Himalayan 
Mitromyces viridis is curious; there are other species worthy of consideration 
from the standpoint of botanical geography. — A paper was read „On a 
Collection of Ferns made by the Rev. R. B. Comms in the Solomon 
Islands“, by Mr. J. G. Baker. The series contained upwards of sixty species 
and varieties, a few being new and of special interest, while others were 
representative of widely spread Polynesian and Tropical Asiatic types. — The 
last botanical paper was „On two new and one wrongly-referred 
Cyrtandreae“, by Mr. H. 0. Forbes. The plants in question are Boea 
Treubii (which possibly may be representative of a new genus), Didymocarpus 
Schefferi, also from Borneo, and D. minahassae, evidently in error put under 
Boea by Mr. C. B. Clarke. 
