Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 351 



in the centre of the machine. Under this ponderous weight, the seeds 

 are reduced to a mealy state, steamed in the tubs, formed into cakes, 

 and pressed by wedges in the manner above described ; the process of 

 mashing, steaming, and pressing being repeated with the kernels like- 

 wise. The kernels yield above thirty per cent, of oil. It is called 

 Ising-yu, sells for about three cents per pound, and answers well for 

 lamps, though inferior for this purpose to some other vegetable oils 

 in use. It is also employed for various purposes in the arts, and has 

 a place in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, because of its quality of chang- 

 ing gray hair black, and other imaginary virtues. 



" Artificial illumination in China is generally procured by vegetable 

 oils, but candles are also employed by those who can afford it. In 

 religious ceremonies^ no other material is used. As no one ventures 

 out after dark without a lantern, and as the gods cannot be acceptably 

 worshiped without candles, the quantity consumed is very great. 

 With an unimportant exception, the candles are always made of what 

 I beg to designate as vegetable stearine. When the candles, which 

 are made by dipping, are of the required diameter, they receive a 

 final dip into a mixture of the same material and insect-wax, by which 

 their consistency is preserved in the hottest weather. They are 

 generally coloured red, which is done by throwing a minute quantity 

 of alkanet root {Anchusa tinctoria), brought from Shantung, into the 

 mixture. Verdigris is sometimes employed to dye them green." 



2. "On Victoria regia^ Lindl.," by Edward Otto, Curator of the 

 Hamburg Botanic Garden. Communicated by Mr. G. Lawson. This 

 paper consisted of an account of the mode of treatment adopted in 

 the successful cultivation of the Victoria in the Hamburg Botanic 

 Garden, accompanied by observations on the plant's growth. The 

 quickest development he observed in the case of the fifteenth leaf, 

 from the 19th to 20th August, which increased about 9 inches in 

 twenty-four hours, and from the 20th to 21st of the same month, 

 when it increased 1 1 inches in twenty-four hours. The leaf-stalks 

 only extend after the leaves are nearly full-grown. 



3. "On the Structure and Reproduction of Volvox Glohator^^ by 

 John Sibbald, Esq. After giving a general description of this 

 organism, the author proceeded to give a history of the opinions and 

 observations which have been published concerning it. He alluded 

 especially to the accounts given by Leuwenhoeck, Baker, and Ehren- 

 berg, and next noticed the discussions concerning its nature which 

 have been carried on by Siebold and Eckhard. But what was more 

 particularly the subject of the paper, was the memoir lately published 

 by Professor Williamson of Manchester. According to the observa- 

 tions of this gentleman, the Volvox is a confervaceous plant, and the 

 animalcules described by Ehrenberg are merely the endochromes of 

 the several cells, reduced to a small bulk by the secretion (between 

 the outer cell-wall and the internal cell-membrane) of a hyaline 

 substance. The cilia described by Ehrenberg as belonging to the 

 individual animalcules are, according to Mr. Williamson, really at- 

 tached to the external covering of the organism. Mr. Williamson 

 also proposes the theory that the production of the young Volvoces 

 consists more of a process of growth than reproduction, and refers 



