NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 203 



SCLAVONIAN GREBE OP, HORNED GREBE. 



PODICEPS CORNUTUS (Gmelin). 

 By the kindness of Mr. Clark, Alexandria, I am able to exhibit 

 a specimen of this species shot on Loch Lomond about three years 

 ago. A pair were obtained, and the one now exhibited is the male. 

 In my list I put down this bird as having been obtained on the 

 Loch, on the authority of a friend who knows birds well, but this 

 is the first specimen I have ever seen or that I have any definite 

 information about. I do not, however, doubt that the Horned 

 Grebe is a more common species than is supposed in many places 

 — the " Hell Diver," as the Americans call it, being hard to catch. 



II. — Vegetable Parasites and Saprophytes. 

 By Mr. Robert Turner. 



Of plants that depend on organic matter for their nutrition, 

 Parasites are those that attach themselves to other living organisms 

 and prey on their juices, Saprophytes those which obtain their 

 nourishment from dead and decaying substances. Plants that are 

 entirely destitute of chlorophyll belong, without exception, to one 

 or other of these two groups; but there are many in which 

 chlorophyll is both present and effective, that are, nevertheless, 

 largely dependent for their nutrition on the absorption of organic 

 matter. 



In the fungi the extreme degree of dependence on other 

 organisms is reached, this extensive order being wholly composed 

 of parasites and saprophytes, which are not only destitute of 

 chlorophyll but also of starch. Their mycelium is only capable of 

 growth where it finds organic matter to absorb, which it can 

 convert into its own substance. This is the case in regard to the 

 so-called " Yeast Plant," for instance, which multiplies indefinitely 

 in a fermentable liquid at a moderate temperature, but which in a 

 solution of pure sugar cannot grow, since that does not contain the 

 nitrogenous materials which go to form protoplasm. Besides these 

 materials the plant requires oxygen. When, as in the process of 

 fermentation, it cannot obtain atmospheric oxygen, it is able to 

 decompose the saccharine matter, absorbing the oxygen and setting 

 alcohol and carbonic acid free. If, however, it be exposed in a 

 fermentable liquid to the atmosphere, it will flourish and produce 

 plenty of carbonic acid, consuming the oxygen of the air; but there 



