136 Thveedside Physical and Antiquarian Society, out representing the spiral cells, which Delile does not appear to have detected. Two species of Blepharii are mentioned as possessing a structure very similar to that of Acanthodium spicatum, differing chiefly in the smaller and more uniform diameter of the spiral cells, and in their thicker fibre, which is always single and loosely coiled. The seed of Ruellia formosa on being placed in water develops from every part of its surface single short thick tapering tubes, within which in some case a spiral fibre is loosely coiled ; whilst in others the place of the spiral fibre is supplied by distant rings. In the seeds of Ruellia littoralis, Phaylopsis glutinosa, and Barleria noctifiora, the whole surface becomes covered with separate tubes, very similar in form, but destitute of spiral fibre, and terminating in a minute pore, from which streams of mucilage are discharged. Those of several species of Barleria, Lepidagathis, &c. are entirely covered with long tapering simple hairs, which expand in water, and like the rest are enveloped in a thick coat of mucilage. In all the foregoing species the hairs occupy the entire surface of the seed, and are usually directed towards its apex, though they occur often most abundantly at the edges ; in others they are only found attached to a marginal ring of a different texture from the rest of the seed. This is the case in Strohilanthus lupuUna. The seeds of many plants of this family are wholly destitute both of spiral cells or of any other appendages possessing hygroscopic proper-ties, such for example as Acanthus mollis and ilicif alius, Dipteracan-thus erectus, Blechum Brownii, &c., Ruellia secunda, and several spe-cies of Justicia and Eranthemum. TWEEDSIDE PHYSICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. A Quarterly Meeting of the Tweedside Physical and Antiquarian Society was held at the apartments of the Institution, Kelso, Feb. 1 7th, when Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, Bart., the Society's Presi-dent, occupied the chair. The attendance of Members was more than usually numerous. The donations which were announced as having been received by the Society, during the interval which had elapsed since the last Quarterly Meeting, were numerous, and many of them interesting and valuable. Among those in the department of Botany and Zoology, were a collection of British insects, of the orders Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, amounting to several hundred species, systematically arranged, being the first instalment of a general collection, illustrative of the ento-
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