1845.] Linnean Society. 271 



these and other facts, which showed the great influence of light on 

 the instincts of the young animal, " to regard light as the primary- 

 source of all vital and instinctive power, the degrees and variations 

 of which may, perhaps, be referred to modifications of this influence 

 on the special organization of each animal body." This view has 

 suggested itself to him in connexion with the discovery recently 

 made by Mr. Faraday of the analogy of light with magnetism and 

 electricity, and the close relation, previously shown by Matteucci to 

 exist between electricity and nervous power, on which not only all 

 the vital actions, but also the instinctive faculties seem to depend. 



December 2. 

 E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 

 Edwin Charles Charlton, Esq., was elected a Fellow. 



Read a paper " On the Anatomy of Eriocuulonea." By the late 

 William Grifiith, Esq., F.L.S. &c. Communicated by R. H. Solly, 

 Esq.. F.R.S., L.S. &c. 



The observations on which this memoir (written at Calcutta in 

 1835) was founded, were made at Mergui between the months of 

 July and October 1834. The species examined were natives of that 

 place, and six in number. They appear to be destitute of true spi- 

 ral vessels, the place cf which is supplied by ducts occasionally, but 

 not freely, unroUable, aggregated in distinct fascicles and surrounded 

 by more or less elongated cells. 



Mr. Griffith describes the leaves oiEriocaulon setaceum,Li., as the 

 type of these organs in the genus, since they are in it reduced to 

 the simplest state. They are submerged in this species, and the pe- 

 duncles and their sheaths only rise above the surface of the water. 

 The leaves are subulate, somewhat flattened and colourless below, 

 green on their upper surface, and divided throughout their entire 

 length into two distinct collateral tubes, by means of the central and 

 only nerve which is attached both to the superior and inferior cutis 

 by cellular tissue. Numerous transverse septa of cellular tissue 

 divide each tube into chambers, which, however, have free commu- 

 nication with each other through fissures dependent on a partial 



