the light of a taper will cause it to rotate two or three times in a minute. Its behaviour after extremely rapid rotation is very curious. When the light is withdrawn it soon stops, and then turns round for a few seconds in the contrary direction, finally resuming a motion in the normal direction, at a speed according to the amount of light in which it is placed. The action of this instrument is totally inexplicable upon any known laws of radiation, and, in spite of its having been subjected to almost every conceivable mode of experiment, it is yet impossible to decide the nature of the laws which govern it. Mr. Johnson remarked that physicists would wait with some curiosity the confirmation of the theory of light which will doubtless accrue from a further investigation.

Dr. CAMPBELL BROWN confessed the remarkable nature of the instrument, which appeared to realise a conversion of light into force; and remarks on the subject were made by the President and other gentlemen.

Mr. ALFRED MORGAN called attention to an article on Double Stars, in the last number of the Quarterly Journal of Science, and gave some details therefrom.

Mr. T. J. MOORE exhibited the skeletons of two species of Apteryx (A. Mantelli and A. Oweni), mounted by Mr. E. Gerrard, jun., and recently added to the Free Public Museum.

Mr. MOORE also exhibited, from the Derby collection in the same Museum, the first specimen of Apteryx ever brought to Europe, being the type specimen of Apteryx Australis of Dr. Shaw; and also the type specimen of Mantell's Apteryx, A. Mantelli of Bartlett, from the same collection; together with two recently acquired specimens, adult and young, of Owen's Apteryx, A. Oweni of Gould.

Dr. RICKARD then read an interesting Paper on "The Gems of Statuary, Ancient and Modern," illustrated with remarkable power and beauty by photographs under a magic

lantern. The exhibition of various works of Phidias, Praxiteles, Michael Angelo, Canova, Chantrey, M'Dowell, Foley, &c., was greatly applauded, and a discussion on the comparative merit of ancient and modern art, and other points, was conducted by the Rev. E. M. Geldart, Mr. H. S. Samuel, and the President, who also conveyed to Dr. Rickard the thanks of the Society.

EIGHTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, February 7th, 1876.

J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Ladies were present at the Meeting.

Mr. T. J. MOORE introduced Surgeon-Major Edward Nicholson, of the Army Medical Department, lately returned from India, and the author of a treatise on Ophiology, of great value to all interested in the snakes of India.*

The PRESIDENT congratulated Mr. R. C. Johnson, on behalf of the Society, on his election as an F.R.A.S., and referred to his numerous astronomical contributions to the Society.

Mr. J. NEWBY HETHERINGTON then read a Paper on "Repetition and Reduplication in Language."t

* Indian Snakes. An Elementary Treatise on Ophiology, with a Descriptive Catalogue of the Snakes found in India and the adjoining Countries. By Edward Nicholson, Surgeon, Army Medical Department. Second Edition. Madras, Higgin botham and Co. 1874. 1 vol. 8vo., pp. 186, plates i.-xx.

+ See page 129.

NINTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, February 21st, 1876.

J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Ladies were present at this Meeting.

The PRESIDENT exhibited a fac-simile of the Ardagh Chalice, presented to the Free Museum by Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, of Thingwall Hall. The original was found in a rath, or ancient hill fortress, near the village of Ardagh, in Limerick, September, 1868.

A discussion then ensued on Professor Crookes's experiments on a method of weighing a ray of light, and on his lecture given at the Royal Institution in London, on the "Mechanical Power of Light."

Mr. ALFRED MORGAN communicated the following note on "The Relation of Flowers to Insects":

Sir John Lubbock, in his paper on "The Relation of English Wild Flowers to Insects,"* details some experiments which he made in order to ascertain whether bees are capable of distinguishing colours, and which seem to prove that they possess the faculty of doing so. He placed some honey on a slip of glass, and put the glass on a piece of blue paper, and when the bee had made several journeys, and thus become accustomed to the blue colour, he placed some honey in the same manner on orange paper; then, during one of the absences of the bee, Sir John transposed the two colours, leaving the honey in the same place as before; the bee returned as usual to the place where she had been accustomed

* British Flowers considered in Relation to Insects, and also Proceedings of Royal Institution of Great Britain, vol. vii., p. 351.

to find the honey, but though it was still there she did not alight, but paused for a moment, and then darted straight to the blue paper. No one, he says, who saw the bee at that moment could doubt that the insect possessed the power of discriminating between the two colours.

In another experiment, after having accustomed the bee to come to honey on blue paper, he ranged other supplies of honey on paper of other colours, yellow, orange, green, red, black, and white; then he continually transposed the coloured papers, leaving the honey in the same spot, but the bee always flew to the blue paper wherever it might be.

Every student of nature knows as the result of Sprengel's, Darwin's, and Lubbock's researches, that there is an intimate relation existing between flowers and insects; bees, butterflies, &c., derive the main part of their nourishment from flowers, and the flowers themselves owe their existence to the functions performed by insects. Sprengel was the first who pointed out the service rendered by insects in the transference of the pollen from stamen to pistil, but Darwin was the first to perceive that the importance of this consisted not merely in the transference of the pollen from one organ to another, but from one plant to another, and that the colour, scent, and form of flowers is due to the insect visitors. Thus the lines and fronds which constitute the exquisite marking of flowers have reference to the position of the honey, and these "honey guides" are absent in night flowers, where, of course, they would be useless, because invisible. Night flowers are usually pale; for instance, Lychnis vespertina is white, while L. diurna is red.

Many flowers are fertilised by means of the wind simply, which distributes the pollen from one flower to another, or from pistil to stamen of the same flower; and it is remarkable that all wind-fertilised flowers have no colour, no scent, and no honey. When we consider that the largest and

most beautiful flowers owe the most to insect agency, we have an à priori reason for supposing that insects have a perception of colour, which Sir John Lubbock's experiments confirm. Recent researches show that insects, and especially bees, have an importance in relation to floral development that was, before the publication of Sprengel's observations, quite unsuspected. Sir John Lubbock thus concludes his Paper: "To insects we owe the beauties of our gardens and the sweetness of our fields; to them flowers are indebted for their scent and colour, nay, for their very existence in their present form; not only have the brilliant colours, the sweet scent, and the honey of flowers been gradually developed by the unconscious agency of insects, but the very arrangement of the colours, the circular bands and radiating lines, the form, size, and position of the petals, the arrangement of the stamens and pistil, all have reference to the visits of insects, and are disposed in such a manner as to ensure the great object which these visits are destined to effect. For it is obvious that any blossom differing from the form and size best adapted to secure the due transference of the pollen would be less likely to be fertilised than others; while, on the other hand, those which were rich in honey, which were the sweetest and the most conspicuous, would most attract the attention and secure the visits of insects; and thus, just as our gardeners, by selecting seed from the most beautiful varieties, have done so much to adorn our gardens, so have insects, by fertilising the largest and the most beautiful flowers, unconsciously, but not the less effectually, contributed to the beauty of our woods and fields."

Mr. THOMAS WARD then read a Paper on "Salt, and its Export from the Ports of the Mersey." *

* See page 183.