Journal of Proceedings.
xix
Donations to the Library were announced from Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell
and Mrs. Yeates. For the Museum some type specimens of Mosses from
Mr. E. M. Holmes, and Essex Sea-weeds from Mr. G. P. Hope.
It was announced that Mr. D. J. Morgan, Verderer, had sent a sub-
scription of £3 3s. towards the expenses of the Club's opposition to the
Railway scheme.
Votes of thanks were passed for these donations.
Mr. G. P. Hope sent a specimen of the curious "fibre-balls"—spherical
masses of matted fibre, evidently of a vegetable nature—which may be
found in thousands on the sea-beach at Cannes. Mr. W. Cole referred
to the letters on the subject, and on the formation of "mud-balls" and
"foam-balls," which had recently appeared in 'Nature' (vol. xxvii,
pp. 507, 681, and 580; vol. xxviii, pp. 31 and 55). In these letters
some very interesting particulars were given as to the nature and
mode of formation of these objects. Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S.,
writes:—
"Sir Anthony Musgrave informed me that on the beach in Australia,
I think near Adelaide, he had seen tens of thousands of such balls, all
perfectly spherical. It seems rather obscure why the fibres should begin
to mat together in such a form as to be rolled by the surf, but the perfec-
tion of shape is clearly due to incessant rolling. It is probable that, with
a fiat bath and some cocoanut fibre or oakum, the process of forma-
tion might be watched, but I have never tried the experiment. It is
very common to see after rain matted lines of such objects as pine-leaves
or the flowers of lime trees, but I have never seen any apparent tendency
to rolling, and such lines are left lying flat after the water has drained
off."
Mr. W. Cole exhibited a number of living caterpillars of the "Swallow-
tail Moth" (Ourapteryx sambucaria), which he had found commonly on
ivy in his garden, and explained their peculiarities, as being, perhaps,
the best examples of a "stick-like" larva among the English species.
He also exhibited some Neolithic flint-flakes from Waltham Abbey,
Warlies Park and Chigwell, and pointed out the desirability of all such
stations in the county being carefully recorded. He suggested that a
large map of the county should be prepared for such registrations, the
position in which flakes, tools, and implements of Palaeolithic and
Neolithic age were found being marked upon it by means of some kind of
symbols or numbers agreeing with a manuscript list giving fuller
details. He also exhibited a drawing sent to him by Mr. Worthington
Smith of a Palaeolithic implement already recorded (see 'Proceedings,'
vol. iii, p. lvi.), from Mucking, Essex, an entirely new station.
Mr. E. Meldola then read a continuation of his paper "The Phe-
nomena of Cyclical Propagation in the Animal Kingdom," the first part
of which formed the main subject of his Presidential Address,* January
* In view of the great length and comprehensive scope of this paper, as well as certain
difficulties connected with its due illustration, Mr. Meldola has since decided to with-
draw it, at least for the present.—Ed.