476 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



The Hon. James Norton exhibited a number of fossils 

 (Chaetetes and Spirifers) from Black Head, a few miles south of 

 Kiama. Also, specimens of a porphyrinic rock from Coolangatta, 

 Shoalhaven, with large crystals present in some, and decomposed 

 by weathering in others. 



Mr. Whitelegge exhibited specimens of a large species of 

 Nitella with the following explanatory note. 



" A short time ago I found in the Parramatta River a very 

 remarkable member of the above genus. It is an erect growing 

 plant between 3 and 4 feet in height, mostly branching near the 

 base, and giving off some five or six whorls of simple leaves, each 

 leaf consisting usually of three cells, sometimes of only two. The 

 stem and leaves (six in number) are usually about ^ of an inch in 

 diameter. The internodal cells of the stem are usually 4 or 5 inches, 

 but sometimes much longer. I have measured some of the largest 

 yet found, and they are from 7 to 8^- inches in length. It is 

 highly probable that the cells of this plant are larger than those 

 of any hitherto recorded. There are several other features which 

 may not have been noticed in the genus. For instance, the leaves 

 can be readily disarticulated from the stems without any apparent 

 injury to either. When a cell is ruptured the sound produced is 

 not unlike that of the bursting of the air-bladders of seaweeds. 



The rotation exhibited in the inner nodal cells differs from that 

 of the stem and leaves, inasmuch as the chlorophyll granules take 

 part in the general rotation. The protoplasm in the young leaves 

 when viewed under the microscope with the edge of the cell in 

 focus, appears as a series of elevations and depressions, and with 

 the higher part of the cell in focus, these elevations appear as clear 

 spaces surrounded by small granules. Within the layer of proto- 

 plasm there exist large numbers of spherical clusters of needle- 

 like crystals, which circulate along the line of demarcation between 

 the cell-sap and the protoplasm." 



