Otago Institute. First Meeting : 9th May, 1898.

F. E. Chapman, President, in the chair. New Members.—Mr. W. Moore, of Waikouaiti; Mr. Stanley Carr, Dunedin; Dr. Frank Hay. The President, in his opening remarks, stated that a message of sympathy had been sent on behalf of the Institute to Mrs. Kirk, together with the following resolution : “That the Council of the Otago Institute records its deep sense of the loss sustained by the colony in the death of the late Thomas Kirk, F.L.S., whose scientific labours have contributed so largely to the advancement of the study of botany in New Zealand.” Dr. T. M. Hocken read a paper on “The Fire Ceremony of the Fijians.” (Transactions, p. 667.)

Second Meeting : 14th June, 1898. Dr. T. M. Hocken in the chair. New Member.—Professor W. Blaxland Benham, D.Sc. Paper.—“On some Peculiar Attachment-discs developed in some Species of Loranthus,” by G. M. Thomson, F.L.S. Abstract The author described the various forms of parasitic flowering-plants which were to be found in New Zealand, dwelling especially on the dodders (Cuscuta) and the various species of mistletoe (Loranthus, Tupeia and Viscum). The dodders belong to the Convolvulus family. The seed falls into the ground and germinates there in the usual manner, putting out a delicate thread-like shoot. When this comes in contact with any part of a neighbouring plant it at once coils itself round it, and developes wart-like suckers, by means of which it abstracts nourishment from its host. These suckers send out minute root-like processes, which penetrate the tissues of the host, but this penetration, as a rule, does not extend much deeper than the cortex, so that the material abstracted consists of the already assimilated juices of the plant, and the parasite is therefore spared the necessity of producing leaves. As soon as the suckers develope the primary root dies. The mature dodder is then