80 lAnnean Society. [May *J, 



lateral or axillary ramification, and that in this way it may have 

 extended over the immense space it now occupies, is highly probable, 

 and perhaps may be affirmed absolutely without involving the ques- 

 tion of origin, which I consider as still doubtful. 



" My conclusion, therefore, is somewhat different from that of 

 Baron Humboldt, to whom I would beg of you to forward these 

 observations, which will prove that I have not been inattentive to 

 his wishes and to your own, though they will at the same time 

 prove that I have had very little original information to communi- 

 cate." 



Read also " Notes on the Dry-rot, as observed in the Church of 

 King's Wear, Devonshire." By A. H. Holdsworth, Esq. Com- 

 municated by the President. 



The church of King's Wear is immediately opposite to Dartmouth, 

 and stands about 100 feet above the harbour, on the north-west side 

 of a very steep hill, which rises 200 feet above it. The walls of the 

 old church ha^dng become unsafe, the whole of it was taken down 

 except the tower at the north-west angle, to which a new church 

 was attached, standing within the site of the old one, and the new 

 building was completed about two years ago. From the north and 

 south doors eastward the ground rises rapidly, and an area is formed 

 round the church to preserve it from damp ; from the same doors to 

 the westward the ground falls far below the level of the floor within. 

 The floor and ground beneath the old church were removed and the 

 graves filled up. The new seats, which were open, rested on oak- 

 sleepers, supported by new dwarf walls, the floors of the seats being 

 about sixteen inches above the ground ; but the earth on which the 

 paving of the aisles or passages was laid was as high as, and rested 

 against the sleepers on, the dwarf walls. The other parts of the 

 seats were of Baltic deal. Good limestone masonry was used in the 

 construction of the walls ; the pillars and windows were made of 

 stone from France ; and the aisles were paved with closely-jointed 

 fine black slate. 



Within a few months after the completion of the church a fungus 

 was observed at the seat at the corner immediately behind the south 

 door, and soon after decay appeared in other seats near it. Fresh 

 passages for air were made through the walls running under the 

 seats, but in a few months these vvere filled with a species of vege- 

 table matter looking like fine mould. This was found to spread 

 under the whole of the seats to the west of the south door, and suc- 

 cessively affecting those to the eastward of the same door and those 



