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the more honour attaching to them when they had been given. Whenever 

 they had done so in the past he believed it had always been with good and 

 sufficient cause, but on no occasion had there been more sufficient reason 

 than upon the occasion then present. He was glad to have the opportunity 

 of expressing how much he admired the work of their Librarian, as, indeed, 

 he did that of any man who carried out the duties which he had assumed 

 with a like degree of thoroughness. 



Mr. II. Epps made a communication " On some forms of life found on the 

 Cocoa Bean (Cacao Theobroma)." He had not prepared a paper, but had 

 been giving the subject his attention for some years with a view to some 

 day contributing one ; meanwhile, he took the present opportunity of report- 

 ing progress, and asking the opinion of others respecting the development 

 of the fungoid growth often accompanying the bean. As to animal life, he 

 had found living in the beans the following insects, measuring from % to 

 | inch : — Arceocerus cqffcea (Trinidad and Bahia), Carpophilus dimidiatus 

 (Trinidad and Maracaibo), Silvanus advena (Trinidad and Carupano), An- 

 tliocoris nemoralis (England), also two species of Tinea and one of Acarus. 

 These insects, etc., were found in the cocoa-beans of commerce, he not 

 having had any opportunity of seeing the cacao in the lands of its growth. 

 Mr. Epps then dealt shortly with a few fungi found in cocoa-beans, and 

 called attention to the causes that might regulate the varying development 

 of the common blue mould, Aspergillus glaucus, and its dimorphic form, 

 Eurotium herbariorum. Until comparatively lately the latter was thought 

 to be a distinct fungus, and only with close observation could the two be 

 traced, by the connecting threads of the mycelium, to be one and the same 

 fungus, with two kinds of fruit. The dimorphic form — Eurotium — was a 

 globose conceptacle, varying in size up to as large as ^\ inch ; colours — 

 white, yellow, red, or brown. He had been experimenting to trace, if 

 possible, the conditions under which the size and colour of the Eurotium 

 conceptacles varied. By saturating samples of sound beans with sea-water, 

 salted water, rain-water, and distilled water, he had obtained varying 

 results in the fungoid development, and was having his previous impression 

 strengthened that the variations were not accidental, but that they 

 depended on some direct causes or influences, although these may not yet 

 have been identified, in opposition to the view usually expressed. He did 

 not propose laying down any settled conclusion, as he intended devoting 

 further attention and experiment to the subject, but he thought he might 

 safely expect to find the large bright yellow Eurotium fruit in cocoa damaged 

 by sea- water, and the dark brown fruit in cocoa damaged by rain-water, in 

 addition to other varying forms of the mould, as large w T hite, or small faint 

 yellow conceptacles, and glaucous plumes. And it seemed to him a not 

 unwarrantable impression to arrive at, that the colour of the fruit could be 

 regulated by the presence of some one or other requisite stimulus, being 

 developed by some natural chemical process, somewhat as a good gardener 

 could regulate the size and colour of his roses. He could at any rate testify, 

 as the result of a considerable commercial experience, that sea-damaged 

 cocoa-beans were to be known by the presence of the large bright yellow 



