in severalty to individuals. The account of the allotment in Joshua xv. 1, opens with the words, "And the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families was to the border of Edom, &c." Then follow the tribal borders, from verses 1-12, and, as soon as these are described, we read, "and this is the border of Judah round about according to their families." First Caleb is said to receive the large district of Hebron and its dependent villages, even, as we have seen, to 12 miles away at Debir, an enormous tract of country, which he must have received for his clan and not for himself alone; and in verse 20 the "family" division in general for the tribe of Judah is introduced by the words, "this is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families," and a list, not of individual holdings but of cities and villages, follows in verses 21-61. In the next chapter, Joshua xvi., it is the same. Verse 5 commences an account of the tribal boundaries of "the children of Ephraim according to their families," and verse 9 alludes to the separate cities for their families without particularising them. Joshua xvii. speaks in just the same way about the distribution of land to Manasseh. Then, after a short digression, at Joshua xviii. 11, the account of the allotment of the rest of the country amongst the seven remaining tribes is given in like manner, the tribal boundaries first and the cities allotted to families next, but not a hint anywhere of allotment to individuals. The "Tribe" and the "Family" alone come into view, yet this long description of the distribution of the Promised Land closes with the words, "and Jehovah gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it and dwelt therein " (Joshua xxi. 43). The discovery of the holding of land in common by Village-Communities, consisting of families or clans, for the first time, throws a flood of light which quite clears up the hitherto apparently defective and inexplicable account of the allotment of the land in the days of Joshua. VOL. XXIV. ORDINARY MEETING. THE PRESIDENT, SIR G. GABRIEL STOKES, BART., M.P., P.R.S., IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the following Elections were announced :— MEMBERS :-Rev. S. W. Beard, United States; J. Croston, Esq., F.G.S., Ry. Engineer, Manchester; J. G. Pochin, Esq., F.R.M.S., F.S.Sc., F.G., President of the Midland Soc. of Nat. Sci. and Lit., Sheffield; J. W. Teale, Esq., F.G.S., Northallerton; Severus Watson, Esq., M.A., Ph.D., A.N.S., Curator of Harvard Herbarium, United States. LIFE ASSOCIATE :-Rev. Prof. J. de Witt, D.D., United States. ASSOCIATES:-Rev. J. Barnier, LL.D., Ireland; Melville M. Bigelow, Ph.D., Jurist, United States; W. D. Crudass, Esq., Newcastle; C. H. Hooper, Esq., Stonehouse; Rev. Professor D. C. Marquis, D.D., United States; E. Quaile, Esq., Birkenhead; Rev. J. S. Thompson, West Indies; Rev. C. D. Williams, M.A., Ch.Ch., Oxon., Middlesex. At this meeting (6th Jan., 1890) part of the next paper was then read by the Author. ORDINARY MEETING.* H. CADMAN JONES, ESQ., IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the following Elections were announced :— ASSOCIATES ---Major John Bridge, F.R.G.S., F.R. H.S., Isle of Wight; Rev. F. Baylis, M.A., Manchester. The following paper was then read by the Author : THE BOTANY AND ENTOMOLOGY OF ICELAND.† By Rev. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L.S., &c. PART I.—Botany of Iceland. According to information kindly afforded me by Mr. Bennett, the flora of Iceland is a comparatively scanty one for an island somewhat larger than Ireland, and may now be stated at about 428 species. Of these the only true Arctic plants are Arenaria arctica, Epilobium latifolium, L., Gentiana detonsa, Pleurogyne rotata, Salix arctica, Platanthera hyperborea, and perhaps a few others. Two of the above-named Arctic plants, at any rate, namely, Epilobium latifolium and Platanthera hyperborea, were observed and gathered by me during my short visit. Of the 680 species found in Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroes, Iceland has about 390, the Faroes 310, Scandinavia 570, Nova Zembla 127, Spitzbergen 116, Arctic N. America and Labrador 310. Of the 428 Icelandic species, about 55 are not known to inhabit Great Britain, 165 are not recorded from Greenland. I have been likewise given to understand that a characteristic feature of the Icelandic flora is the large number of doubtfully recorded species (these are not reckoned above), and without actual specimens it is impossible to admit many of them, from their geographical distribution elsewhere being against the likeli hood of their occurring. These may be numbered at about 17th February, 1890. + This is the first paper upon the Entomology of Iceland which has been written since the advances of science in late years have required a fresh treatment of the subject.-ED. 150 species, that in one or the other of the published works have been recorded as Icelandic from König and Muller in 1770 to the present time. The first record of an Icelandic plant seems to be in 1597 in Gerarde's Herball, p. 847, where Archangelica officinalis is recorded as from Iceland. This seems to be before any Icelandic record; the earliest of these seems to be in 1676 (fide Frideriksson in Copenhagen, Botanical Society's publications) in Præsterne Jón Dadason's Laigbsgen, 1676. The two most reliable lists of Icelandic plants are Professor Babington's "Revision of the Flora of Iceland" in the journal of the Linnean Society, and Groenlund's "Islands Flora" (1881) Copenhagen. The latest knowledge of the flora is to be found in the publications of the Copenhagen Botanical Society. There is no full published list of all the works known to relate to the botany of Iceland; the Icelandic capital, the Advocate's Library at Edinburgh, British Museum, and library of the Museum at Copenhagen, are the richest in books. The island of Jan Mayen to the north of Iceland has only 27 flowering plants known from it. The coast of Greenland opposite Iceland is very barren, and plant life very scarce; taking the part opposite Iceland, and calling it mid-east Greenland, only 113 flowering plants are recorded (while on the opposite east coast 262 are named), the north part of east Greenland has only 100 plants recorded, while the southern portion has 160. Another list of species from Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and the Faroe Isles differs slightly in excess of that recorded above, and is as follows: Nova Zembla has 131 species. Spitzbergen The Faroe Isles How do the statistics of 428 species, being all that are certainly known to occur in Iceland, agree with the number of plants recorded by other travellers? At the end of Baring Gould's book, no fewer than 477 kinds are mentioned, and Sir William Hooker, if I recollect rightly, is the authority for many of the names, while in Paijkull's work are enumerated 413. Personally, I have not sufficient knowledge for determining whether all Baring Gould's and Paijkull's species are ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt or mistake. As the principal object on the part of Staudinger in 1856, as well as of myself last year, was the study of the entomology of the country, it will readily be understood that his list of the island flora is a comparatively short one, and my own also. His consists of 76 kinds, and mine, on the most moderate computation, of 82. The only facts probably that I have been able to add to the existing knowledge of Icelandic botany are as follows: (1.) The discovery of Dancus carota, L., small form new to Iceland, and a considerable extension of its northern limit in Europe just known from Norway, N. Sweden, Finland, or N. Russia. Judging by the specimen, it is evidently wild (ie., indigenous), as the plant has not the look or habit of a cultivated species. (2.) I gathered the second specimen of Orchis latifolia found in Iceland, and the first is said to be only doubtfully recorded. A large proportion of Icelandic plants, and some of them both very common and generally distributed, are either alpine, moor, or marsh species, these being the three prevailing features of the country. For example |