LINKEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 1 1 



markedly zigzag between the internodes, while the leaves are 

 clothed beneath with a dense white tomentum. These characters 

 it transmits more or less to its hybrid offspring. In illustration 

 of this point Mr. Poe's hybrid {Senecio super-Heritieri X cruentus) 

 was exhibited (a similar one has occurred at Edinburgh); also the 

 Cambridge hybrid {S. super-cruentus X Heritieri). S. cruentus 

 crosses very freely with the garden Cineraria, and as the latter 

 never exhibits any trace of the characters of S. Heritieri, it was 

 concluded that that species had no part in its origin, and that, 

 as in the case of the Cyclamen, the striking development of 

 S. cruentus in cultivation was due to the continued accumulation 

 of gradual variations. 



Mr. A. "W. Bennett exhibited a series of drawings by Mr. E. 

 B. Grreen of Eoot-hairs of plants with various parasitic growths, 

 and showed preparations of several under the microscope. 



Mr. Gr. E. Murray exhibited several lantern-slides of Cocco- 

 spheres and E-habdospheres, prepared from specimens collected 

 by Capt. Milner, of the s.s. ' Para,' while on a voyage to 

 Barbados, including all the forms figured in the ' Challenger ' 

 Report. Of these remarkable organisms Mr. Murray gave a 

 detailed account, explaining the formation of coccospheres (so 

 named by Dr. AVallich) as the aggregation into spheres of tbe 

 so-called coccoliths described by Huxley from deep-sea soundings 

 taken in the North Atlantic by H.M.S. 'Cyclops.' The cal- 

 careous scales (or coccoliths) were shown to overlap each other, 

 and to constitute not only a defensive armour, but from their 

 arrangement to admit of the gi'owth of the organism, which is 

 thus not limited by its calcareous coat, as diatoms are by their 

 siliceous shells ; each coccolith being attached to the cell by a 

 button-like projection on its inner surface. 



In the rhabdospheres with projecting rods, of which figures 

 were shown, the plates (Ehabdoliths) do not tit into each other as 

 figured in the ' Challenger ' Eeport, but their bases are imbedded 

 on the surface of the cell each by itself without contact. 



As to the cell-contents, the exhibitor had found nothing more 

 than a granular material resembling protoplasm. There was no 

 trace of colouring-matter in the specimens, all of which had been 

 brought up from a depth of three fathoms. 



Mr. H. Grroves exhibited a large number of Gharacece col- 

 lected by Mr. T. B. Blow in various parts of Australia and Asia, 

 views of the localities referred to being shown on the screen by 

 the collector. 



The following paper was read : — 



" On the Grermination of the Spores of Agaricinecer By 

 Miss Helen B. Potter. (Communicated by Mr. George Massee, 

 P.L.S.) 



