395 Proceedings of Societies. [zoe 



lution assumed greater and greater importance as a factor in explain- 

 ing the origin of different forms. Thus arose the modern school of 

 morphologists, whose aim is to establish a classification which shall 

 represent as nearly as may be the phylogeny of the plant kingdom. 



Among the earlier of these men were mentioned Hofmeister, De 

 Bary, Tulasne, Thuret, Bornet, Pringsheim, and others. 



The subject of vegetable physiology was next briefly touched 

 upon, and some of the methods in use in various departments of the 

 subject referred to. The chemistry of plants, with some brief notice 

 of the methods used in determining the chemical constituents of 

 plants was the first topic. This included some account of micro- 

 chemical tests, and an explanation of water-cultures. In this con- 

 nection attention was called to the experiments of Pfeffer and others 

 with reference to the attractive force of certain chemical substances 

 upon motile cells, such as certain bacteria and spermatozoids, as well 

 as experiments dealing with the absorption of certain solutions 

 by the living cell. The subjects of nutrition, assimilation, etc., were 

 passed over, and only a brief reference was made to the important 

 topic of bacteriology. The subject of physiology was finally dis- 

 missed with a hasty reference to one or two of the most important 

 of the mechanical contrivances used in experiments in growth— the 



auxonometer and klinostat. ' 



The rest of the paper was concerned with a somewhat detailed 

 account of the progress that has been made in histological methods. 

 After recalling the methods in vogue among the earlier botanists, 

 the gradual advance in technique was followed with some reference 

 to some of the most important discoveries resulting from these 



improved methods. 



Owing to the necessities of the situation, zoologists were forced to 

 adopt methods of fixing and hardening tissues for histological 

 study almost from the first, and their methods were well perfected 

 before botanists awoke to the necessity of improving their methods. 

 Under such men as Strasburger, however, the methods have been 

 so improved that to-day the botanist employs the same careful 

 methods of preparation that the student of animal histology does. 



The paper closed with an account of the methods used in pre- 

 paring specimens for microscopical examination. This included 

 fixing, hardening and staining, dehydrating, imbedding In paraffin, 

 serial microtome sectioning, and mounting. 



