FIELD CLUBS AND SOCIETIES. 
101 
without artificial means. A hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Nussey 
concluded the proceedings. 
December 7th : Three candidates were nominated for election 
at the next meeting. The following exhibits were made :—Mr. 
Potter, shells from Australia: Mr. Allbuary, B. per/a and B. 
muralis , from Deal ; Mr. Wooley, a fine spotless Var. of Menthas- 
tri taken at Millwall ; Mr. Old, living D marginalis from Plum- 
stead Marshes, also some pond life under his microcope ; Mr. 
Poore, a splendid var of //. hispida and alba forms of H.rotundata 
taken at Bostall Wood; Mr. Fitldhouse gave a microscopic display 
of wood sections.— Arthur C. Poore. 
Lambeth Field Club. —November 20 : At the meeting held 
on this date, a specimen of the fungus Polyphorus squamosus , 
measuring nearly two feet in diameter and weighing eight pounds, 
was exhibited. It had been obtained from an oak-tree near St. 
James’s Park about a fortnight previously. The table was 
covered with various sections of woods, about which Mr. Holden 
discoursed to an interested assembly, and answered a great many 
questions put to him on the subject, which he had made a special 
study of. In the absence of Mr. Baskerville, the president, Mr. 
Masters, read some notes on tin and lead, giving a brief sketch 
of the discovery, properties, and fluctuations in value of the two 
metals. Another member exhibited a specimen of “ grain tin,” 
the metal having formed into a semi-columnar mass during the 
process of “ fluxing ” ; the specimen possessed a historical inte¬ 
rest also from having been mistaken, from its appearance, for a 
burglar’s “jemmy” on a certain dark night, when it had been 
accidentally left on a table. 
December 4 : The president, Mr. George Masters, gave a lec¬ 
ture, on the above date, entitled “ Our Garden Flowers.” The 
lecture was a mass of collected facts relating to horticulture—it 
bristled with them from beginning to end. The first portion 
dealt with ancient gardens, in history and romance. The birth¬ 
place of man had been a garden, according to the legend, and 
among ihe ancient nations gardens were held in high estimation 
The old Jewish gardens were constructed for the pleasure of 
men, but the Greeks dedicated theirs to the gods. King Solo¬ 
mon, 1600 b.c., was a famous gardener, and imported many kinds 
of plants from foreign parts ; the descendants of some of these, 
according to Dr. Talmage’s work on Palestine, were to be found 
among the ruins at the present day, and nowhere else through¬ 
out the country. Then there were the “ hanging gardens” of 
Babylon, built to relieve the monotony of the flat plains around 
the city, the Persian gardens, and the public gardens at Athens, 
in which Epicurus taught. So great was the love for flowers 
among the Romans, that Nero had, at one supper alone, roses 
to the value of ^30,000. During later periods of history garden- 
