Notices of some Recent Botanical Facts. 88 



likewise been discovered. They diflfcr slightly from porrigophytes, and 

 Iiave been called by Gruby, aphtJiaphyteSf or mentagraphytes. 



Dr. Bennett remarked cellular plants of the same kind in the 

 mucous membrane of the lungs, and in the sputa of a patient labouring 

 under pneumo-thorax with tubercles. They resembled in many 

 respects the Penicillium glaucum of Link. 



All the cryptogamic vegetations to which we have referred, are con- 

 sidered by most authors as the result, and not the cause of disease. 

 They seem to make their appearance in cases where the constitution 

 has been enfeebled. 



More recently Mr. John Goodsir observed in the fluid ejected from 

 the stomach of a patient labouring under a particular form of dys- 

 pepsia, accompanied with water-brash, a vegetable formation, allied to 

 the Diatomacece, (a division of sea-weeds.) From its peculiar form 

 and locality, he has given it the name of Sarcina ventriculi. It is 

 microscopic, of a square form, its parts being arranged in a beautifully 

 symmetrical manner. The number of cells of which the perfect plant 

 consists, is 64. It propagates by the division of these 64 cells into 

 four new ones, so as to consist of 256 cells, — and simultaneously with 

 this increase in the number of parts, divides into four young plants. 

 In the fluid ejected from the stomach, a largo quantity of free acetic 

 acid was found. 



Similar bodies bavo been met with by other observers ; more 

 especially by Mr. Busk, who considers them, however, as not of vegetable 

 origin, but as ferments, and probably modified epithelial cells of the 

 stomach. 



Mr. Hassall attributes the rapid decay of many fruits, especially 

 apples and pears, to the formation of fungi in their interior. They 

 are of the mucodinous group, and occur in the form of ramified fila- 

 ments, which disturb the relation of the cells of the fruit, and stop the 

 process of endosmose. The disease commences on the outside of tho 

 fruit and quickly spreads. The fungi produce sporules which com- 

 municate the disease rapidly. Hence, the importance of removing 

 decayed fruit, and of keeping a fruit-room dry and airy. 



Another subject taken up by Mr. Hassall, is the different forms 

 assumed by the pollen of plants. The grains of pollen are found to 

 vary much in shape and in external aspect, as well as in the number 

 of tubes protruded from them. Characters derived from the pollen 

 may thus bo employed in classification. In endogenous plants the 

 granule of pollen is spherical, oval or elliptical, and generally composed 

 of two membranes, rarely possessing more than one pollen-tube. In 



