1885-86.] Edinburgh Naturalists Field Club. 319 



though introduced more than 200 years ago, it is yet comparatively 

 little known. Few of our deciduous trees, however, were more 

 graceful in foliage, which was suggestive of the most delicate 

 Ferns ; or in general appearance, its spring and summer greenery 

 being always most attractive. The protuberances on the root, when 

 growing in its native marshes, are commonly from Ij to 2 feet 

 high, and sometimes from 4 feet to 5 feet in thickness. Michaux 

 says that " no cause can be assigned for their existence ; they are 

 peculiar to the deciduous Cypress, and begin to appear when it is 

 only 20 to 25 feet liigh." Another writer has suggested that the 

 absorption of air is the probable purpose for which the knobs pro- 

 trude above the water. According to Loudon, these protuberances 

 are made use of by the Indians for bee-hives. The wood is uni- 

 versally employed throughout the United States for the best kind 

 of shingle ; and in Louisiana it is also used for almost every other 

 purpose to which timber is applied. 



MEETINGS OF MICROSCOPIC SECTION. 



During the past session six meetings in connection with the work 

 of the Microscopic Section were held, under the presidency of Dr 

 J. M. Macfarlane. The session was inaugurated with an address 

 by the President, delivered on Nov. 6, 1885, as follows : — 



ON THE PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL RESEARCH. 



When requested by the Council of the Society to open its 

 Microscopic Section with an Address, I consented with consider- 

 able trepidation. Composed, as our Club is, of members most of 

 whom are not scientific specialists, I felt that to deal with a purely 

 scientific subject might promote its advancement less than if I 

 briefly reviewed the grand progressive lines of microscopic re- 

 search. I propose therefore to trace shortly, and, I fear, very 

 imperfectly, the history of the evolution of our present micro- 

 scopic organisation. 



In the biological world the oldest plants and animals appear 

 to have been extremely simple in structure, and the life func- 

 tions exhibited by them w^ere correspondingly simple. But in 

 time higher forms appeared, which exhibited in their structural or 

 mechanical details more complexity of organisation, and this was 

 linked with a similar advance in function. At length we reach, in 

 comparatively recent time, the highest types of mechanical arrange- 

 ment in the richly coloured flowering-plant of the. vegetable world. 



