1850.] Linnean Society. 95 



of their growth they are to be distinguished from the surrounding 

 cells only by their peculiar arrangement ; but as the development 

 proceeds, the epidermal (including these stellate) cells contain a 

 smaller proportion of chlorophyll than those under and above them 

 on either side of the leaf, and become gradually freer from cell- con- 

 tents, until at last they appear perfectly clear. In other water 

 plants, such as Lemnce, Potamogeta, &c.. Dr. Lankester had not 

 succeeded in detecting any similar bodies. As regards their func- 

 tion, he states, that it at first occurred to him that they might per- 

 form the office of stomata ; but he was unable to discover any orifice 

 among the cells, or any communication with intercellular spaces 

 below them. In their structure and general arrangement they bear 

 a closer resemblance to certain modifications of hairs than to any 

 other epidermal organs ; and the author considers it not improbable 

 that they are the result of the same tendency of the epidermal tissue 

 under water as that which produces hairs when this tissue is ex- 

 posed to the influence of the atmosphere. 



The paper was accompanied by drawings of the stellate bodies, 

 with details of their structure and composition. 



Read also the commencement of a paper entitled " Observations 

 on the Botany of Texas." By WiUiam BoUaert, Esq., F.R.G.S. 

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



June 18. 



Robert Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



The President exhibited portions of trunks of Winter's Bark Trees 

 from the Straits of Magellan, cut down in 1826 by Captain P. P. 

 King, R.N., offering inscriptions made through the bark by a mid- 

 shipman who accompanied the Spanish expedition under Captain 

 Cordoba in 1786, and by one of the companions of Captain Bou- 

 gainville in 1767 ; the annual rings in the former case distinctly cor- 

 responding with the interval between 1786 and 1826. He also made 

 some observations on the structure of the woody vessels of the genus. 



Mr. Adam White, F.L.S., exhibited several elaborate drawings 

 by Mr. P. H. Gosse, A. L.S., representing various species of Rotifera 



