Proceedings of societies. 
m 
The donors to the Herbarium are still more numerous. 18,592 specimens, 
including 1,050 species, have been received. Besides these, upwards of 10,000 
specimens of foreign plants have been presented to the Society. 
The Council further acknowledge their obligations to the following members 
for their interesting communications, some of which will appear in the forthcoming 
Proceedings of the Society:—Dr. F. Bossey, Messrs. W. M. Chatterley, D. 
Cooper, G. E. Dennes, J. Riley, R. H. Schomburgk, J. Rich, A. Wallis, 
W. H. White, &c. &c. 
1839. 
Jan. 18.—The President in the chair.—Mr. Dennes exhibited garden specimens 
of Aspidium rigidum , sent to him by the Rev. W. T. Bree, from a root brought 
by him from Ingleboro’, Yorkshire, in 1815.—A paper was read by Mr. Cooper, 
being a continuation of his 44 Remarks on the Distribution of Plants in the 
Vicinity of London f from which it appeared, that of the 104 natural orders, 
536 genera, and 1,452 species, mentioned by Bindley in the first edition of his 
Synopsis of the British Flora , Mr. C. had found 82 natural orders, 351 genera, 
804 species, as mentioned in the Flora Metropolitan —a number, as was shown 
at the end of the paper, greater than recorded in any other local Flora of Britain, 
which was attributed to the great diversity of soil in the neighbourhood of the 
metropolis. 
MEDICO-BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 
Jan. 23.—Dr. Sigmond, F.L.S., in the chair.—The minutes of the anniversary 
meeting, held Jan. 16, were read, announcing that Earl Stanhope was re-elected 
President, with the other officers.—A paper was read on apoplexy, its causes 
and treatment, by Dr. Hancock. The impropriety of bleeding in many apparent 
cases of apoplexy was pointed out, as such symptoms were often referrible to 
diseases of the heart, and even to mere syncope. In connection with this subject, 
Dr. Sigmond stated that in the generality of accident cases at hospitals, the 
practice of blood-letting was abolished, as the effect of it was to destroy the 
power which alone could produce reaction. The Doctor might have added, that 
in homoeopathic practice bleeding is never resorted to under any circumstances.— 
The next paper was also from Dr. Hancock, 44 On the Maize de Dos Meses,” 
indigenous in Venezuela, the Pampas, and other parts of South America, which 
ripens in two months after sowing the seed, so that three or four successive 
harvests may be obtained within the year. The author gave it as his opinion, 
that its cultivation might be introduced into this country with advantage, from 
the circumstance of its growing well in colder climates in the Pampas. The 
