Botanical Society of London. 351) 



elude the influence of the atmosphere. Mr. Hassall then made a few 

 observations on a peculiar form of spiral vessel which he had found 

 in the Vegetable Marrow : it consisted of secondary fibres placed 

 longitudinally across and within the spire of the vessel, and when 

 the vessel was broken up or unravelled the longitudinal fibres were 

 found to be split up into short pieces and to adhere to each turn of 

 the spiral. A similar vessel, the author stated, had been noticed by 

 Mr. Edwin Quekett in the Canna bicolor (a specimen of which was 

 exhibited to the Meeting) and in the Loasa contorta, by Mr. Wilson 

 in Typha latifolia, and by Schultz in Urania speciosa. 



A letter was read from the Rev. J. B. Reade upon various matters. 

 The author sent for inspection a specimen of Cocoa-nut cake, covered 

 with a dense mass of minute filamentary fungi : the cake, which has 

 been proposed as a substitute for oil-cake, he found to contain a large 

 quantity of ammonia, and the fungi growing on it were remarkable 

 for the quantity of nitrogen they contained. The author then di- 

 rected the attention of the Society to a statement in Liebig's ' Or- 

 ganic Chemistry,' p. 114, that " the nitrogen in the air is applied to 

 no use in the animal ceconomy." Mr. Reade expressed his intention 

 of hereafter showing that it is only a very limited view of the wis- 

 dom displayed in the composition of the atmosphere, which denies 

 the agency of its larger constituent, and of endeavouring to prove 

 that it tends directly to the production of many millions of pounds 

 of carbonate of ammonia in the breath of man. Although the quan- 

 tity of this agent in a single expiration may be too small to be 

 " quantitatively ascertained by chemical analysis," it is discoverable 

 by the microscope, as was afterwards shown in a specimen which ac- 

 companied the communication. 



Specimens of microscopic animalcules, which had been sent up 

 alive from Lewes by Edward Jenner, Esq., through the post, were 

 exhibited by Mr. Ross. They had been enclosed, with the weeds 

 they were attached to, in pieces of wet linen, covered over with tin 

 foil. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



Oct. 7th, 1842.— Adam Gerard, Esq., in the Chair. 



Mr. Daniel Stock presented specimens of Thelephora caryophyllea 

 (new to Great Britain) discovered by him in August 1841, in a planta- 

 tion at Bungay, Suffolk. This is distinct from Thelephora terrestris 

 (syn. Auricularia caryophyllea, Bulliard) and Thelephora laciniata 

 (syn. Helvetia caryophyllea, Bolton, and Auricularia caryophyllea, 

 Sowerby). 



Mr. Stock also presented monstrosities collected by him at Ears- 

 ham, Norfolk, of Scolopendrium vulgare, bearing two fronds, the one 

 being barren and reniform, the other bearing sori and elongated, 

 with the midrib spirally twisted ; also of Aspidium lobatum, with the 

 rachis much abbreviated and slightly recurved, pinna? numerous and 

 overlapping ; and of two abortive specimens of a rose, from his gar- 

 den, both of which produced perfectly formed and leafy branches 

 from the axis of the flowers. 



