Linncean Society. '"* 131 



dark green ; those pinnae bearing the sori curved, the barren pinnse 

 straight ; pinnula pinnatifid, alternate, linear -lanceolate, acuminate ; 

 upper ones decurrent ; lower ones shortly petiolate ; lobes oblong, 

 sharply serrated, more or less truncated, acute ; margins somewhat 

 revolute, lobes in the upper row of each pinnula somewhat larger 

 than those of the lower row, and those nearest to the rachis in the 

 upper row the largest of all. Venation in the barren pinnae branched, 

 in the fertile pinnae simple ; veins alternate. Indusia pouch-like, 

 coriaceous sessile, situate on the apex of a vein at the margin, and 

 near the base of the lobe of the pinnula : dehiscence by a transverse 

 slit near the apex ; outer valve white, inner valve brown, and form- 

 ing a persistent operculum or lid. Thecce roundish, stipitate, half 

 surrounded by an articulated ring, Sporules numerous, angular. 



Read, " Observations on a certain Crystalline Matter found on the 

 recently cut surfaces of the Wood of the Red Cedar." By Edwin J. 

 Quekett, Esq., F.L.S. 



Mr. Quekett remarked, that on the recently cut surfaces of the 

 wood of the Red Cedar {Juniperus virginiana) a crystalline matter is 

 observed to form, which puts on the appearance of a mouldiness, but 

 which, when viewed with a magnifying glass, is seen to consist of 

 innumerable extremely minute crystals of an acicular form. The 

 substance was observed to form on the duramen or heart wood only, 

 and not universally, but in patches. It is easily volatilized by heat, 

 and gives out the well-known odour of the wood. Mr. Quekett 

 showed that the duramen of the red cedar contains an abundance of 

 a concrete volatile oil, on which the peculiar odour depends, and 

 that the crystalline substance is a compound formed between the air 

 and the oil, for when the latter was obtained from the wood, and ex- 

 posed to the action of the air, it was soon also found to be covered 

 with the same acicular crystals. This substance, which possesses 

 many of the properties of benzoic acid, Mr. Quekett considers new, 

 and he proposed for it the name of Cedarine. 



March 3. — Mr. Brown, V.P., in the Chair. 



Mr. Ward, F.L.S., exhibited a specimen of the Agnus Scythicus, 

 or Vegetable Lamb, from the collection of the Apothecaries' Com- 

 pany. 



Read, " A Note on the Fern known as Aspidium Baromez." By 

 Mr. John Smith, A.L.S. 



This plant, of which a description by Mr. Westcott was read at 

 the preceding Meeting, and of which an abstract has been given^ 

 was shown by Mr. Smith to be a legitimate species of the genus 



