Linncean Society, 463 



very near the original locality named by Mr. Drummond. Mr. Hincks 

 stated that he had taken some pains in comparing the specimen, not 

 only with the description, but also with the original sketch made by 

 Mr. James Drummond on a blank leaf of the pocket-book in which 

 he noted down the occurrences of the tour upon which he made the 

 discovery of this curious plant. The specimen now exhibited was 

 marked by Dr. Wood when fresh, and he had no doubt of its identity ; 

 and the result of Mr. Hincks's examination was a confirmation of 

 this opinion. 



Read an M Essay on the Distribution, Vitality, Structure, Modes 

 of Growth and Reproduction, and Uses of the Freshwater Conferva." 

 By Arthur Hill Hassall. 



The principal part of Mr. Hassall's observations on the growth of 

 Conferva have been already published in various Numbers of the 

 * Annals and Magazine of Natural History/ 



At the period of their publication he was not aware of the ob- 

 servations of M. Morren, M. Dumortier and M. Mohl on the growth 

 of Conferva by the subdivision of their cells ; but he states that his 

 views of the mode in which this subdivision is effected differ consi- 

 derably from those of M. Morren. He does not believe that when 

 the endochrome of a cell has become separated into two masses, 

 leaving a transparent space between them, this space is occupied by 

 a formative intercellular matter such as M. Morren describes. On 

 the contrary, he states that the first indication of the partitions which 

 are to divide the parent cell into two consists of a solution of the 

 continuity of a portion of the periphery of the cell, the divided edges 

 of which become inflected and gradually approach the centre, where 

 they coalesce. 



March 7. — The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 



J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S., presented specimens of the aerial 

 processes of the roots of Sonneratia acida, L., sent by Mr. Templeton 

 from Ceylon, and described by him as affording a wood of an ex- 

 tremely light and close texture, admirably adapted for lining insect- 

 boxes, on account of the facility with which it admits, and the tena- 

 city with which it retains, the finest pins. 



March 21. — The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 



J. Janson, Esq., F.L.S., exhibited living flowering plants of the 

 "hungry rice" of Sierra Leone, Paspalum exile, Kipp., described at 

 p. 235, raised from seeds brought from Sierra Leone by Robert 

 Clarke, Esq. 



Read a memoir " On Pectinura, a new genus of Ophiurida, and 

 on the species of Ophiura inhabiting the Eastern Mediterranean." 

 By Edward Forbes, Esq., F.L.S., Professor of Botany in King's Col- 

 lege, London. 



Professor Forbes states that in his late researches in the ^Egean 

 Sea he found ten species of Starfishes of the order Ophiurida, several 

 of which are undescribed. In the present memoir he confines him- 



