190 THE JOUEXAL OF HOT ANY 



results in the formation of four, three, two, or one desniid only, 

 usually accompanied by an atrophied nucleus in the surrounding- 

 protoplasm when the smaller numbers are fonned. The protoplasm is 

 subsequently assimilated and the desmids go free. The process of 

 conjugation is usually of the normal type, and the zygospores are pro- 

 duced between the two desmids without the formation of a conjuga- 

 tion tube ; but in one instance the occurrence of this rather un- 

 common condition was observed and a conjugation tube about 80 yu 

 in length and 10 fx in diameter was seen. The conjugating desmids 

 were asymmetrically placed and the protoplasmic contents appeared to 

 indicate a slight ditt'erentiation of the sexes, as they were passing from 

 one to the other without a corresponding return. The conjugation 

 of a four-rayed Avith a three-rayed form is not infrequent, and a four- 

 ra3^ed form "may be occasionally seen associated with the three-rayed 

 embryonic desmids in the protoplasm discharged from the same spore, 

 when germination takes place. The vegetative division is often 

 accomplished by the development of a single circular bulging cell 

 between the two semicells. The contents of this may divide, or an 

 hour-glass constriction may cause the ultimate formation of two 

 desmids. 



At the meeting of the same Society on May 4 Mr. Edwin Ashby 

 exhibited pi-essed specimens of Orchids from South Australia includ- 

 ing' a number of the " spider-like" members of the genns Oalodeitia, 

 and the green-hooded forms of the genus Fferosfi/lis : many of 

 these have a sensitive labellum which on the entrance of an insect 

 closes up the ^itrance for a short period ; Mr. Ashby suggested that 

 this was for the purpose of fertilization. A member of the genus 

 Thehpnifra, which only open their bright-coloured petals in hot 

 bright sunshiny days, and two species of Caleya were exhibited, both 

 pro^dded with a sensitive labellum which, on being touched, folds up 

 in two separate movements. A species of Diuris intermediate be- 

 tween D. maculata and D. longifoUa, although now a fixed form, 

 seems certainly to have been derived by hybridization. For, many 

 years before it was described by Dr. Kogers as D. palachila, 

 Mr. Ashby had known it under his own own name of hyhrida, think- 

 ing it could hardly deserve specific rank. A very beautiful form 

 kirown as Caladenia Uitulata, intermediate between Olossodia and 

 CaJadenla, was shown and its characters explained. 



At the same meeting, a volume from the library of Henry Lyte 

 (1.529-1(507), which had been found by Mr. Harold Downes in 1916 

 in a general dealer's shop at Taunton, formed the_ subject of a com- 

 munication from its discoverer. The volume consists of two works of 

 Antoine Mizauld, a French physician (lo20-1.578), Alexikerus and 

 Nooa et Mira Artijicia, bound together. At the top of the title- 

 page of Alexikerus, in red ink, is the signature "Henry Lyte," and 

 across the printer's device (a mulberry tree) is "Henry Lyte, 1565." ; 

 the signature is repeated on the title-page of the second work. A 

 few trifiing mai-ginal notes are scattered through the volume, and 

 many passages are underlined, the notes and underscerings, as well as 

 the signatures, being in red ink. At the end of the volume are two 

 pages'of MS. notes mostly medical definitions or short descriptions of 



