QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 445 



the chair, the minutes of the meeting held on May 14th were 

 read and confirmed. 



Messrs. Ashley E. Oram, John A. Manning, Geo. Eichard 

 Titchener, H. F. Green, F. Adolphus Brokenshire, Chas. J. 

 Lock and Wm. Geo. Collins were balloted for and duly elected 

 members of the Club. 



The Secretary read a note by Mr. E. M. Nelson on " Pond 

 Life," dealing with the particles 0*65 to 1*4 /u, in diameter present 

 in the cells of the confervoid algae which are old and about to 

 decay. If these particles, which are in Brownian movement, are 

 examined with crossed Nicols, those in the smaller filaments 

 become brilliant, while those in the larger filaments, which are 

 smaller, remain dark. This also can be seen with a 1/6 in. If 

 a water imm. 1/12 in. be used the particles are seen to have the 

 power of becoming invisible and again reappearing ; they also 

 grow, becoming double, like a diplococcus, and then passing on 

 to the tetraspore stage, but they have not been seen to divide 

 into separate spores. Mr. Nelson suggests that the movement 

 is a combination of pedesis and flagellate movement. 



The President then gave an address on " Some Points in the 

 Structure and Growth of Grasses." Dr. Kendle said grasses, as 

 generally understood, are herbs with slender stems and narrow, 

 ribbon-like leaves. They form one of the largest and most wide- 

 spread families of flowering plants, adapted to very different 

 conditions of soil and climate, but with a remarkably uniform 

 plan of structure. In the aggregation of many individuals of 

 one or a few species, either growing alone or scattered through a 

 mixed herbage, covering large areas, the family forms a pre- 

 eminent type of the earth's vegetation, as e.g. in meadows and 

 pastures, steppes and prairies. These sociable grasses keep the 

 soil warm and moist, and protect other plants during cold or 

 dry seasons, and their roots aiid creeping stems help to break 

 up the soil. Dr. Rendle then showed on the screen photographs 

 of various types of grass vegetation, viz. calcareous limestone 

 and chalk downs, with a short pasture largely composed of sheep's 

 fescue, probably of great age, and likely to continue treeless on 

 account of the thin layer of soil and poor supply of underground 

 water; swamps, in which the broad-leaved reed flourishes; 

 mud flats at Southampton Water, Poole Harbour, and other 

 places, where thousands of acres have been taken over by Sfartina 



