1855.] Linnean Society. 361 



8 lbs. to the stone (meat weight) would give 480 lbs. The only 

 freshly killed Tunny 1 ever saw was at Palermo ; it was a good- sized 

 fish and was carried on the shoulders of two strong fishermen, the 

 one walking a few feet before the other. Pennant describes in his 

 ' Brit. Zool.' (edit. 1812), vol. iii. p. 362, one which was caught at 

 Inverary in 1769, as weighing 460 lbs. This then would probably 

 be somewhat less than the Tees fish ; and this is further shown by 

 the following fact — Pennant says the tail ' measured 2 feet 7 inches 

 between tip and tip ' of its crescent-form. 1 yesterday measured the 

 tail of the Tees fish, which gave 2 ft. 8^ inches from tip to tip, thus 

 having 1^ inch more in the width of the crescent-tail than Pennant's, 

 and consequently most likely it was the larger of the two. The 

 fisherman had well preserved the tail, and it presents a beautiful 

 specimen of a crescent, and very perfect, each half corresponding in 

 a very accurate manner with the other. It is covered with a thick, 

 nearly black skin, and quite smooth. 1 counted the caudal rays, and 

 at first I made nineteen on one side and eighteen on the other ; but 

 on re-counting them 1 am more satisfied that they are equal, i. e. 

 eighteen on each side or in each half. Between them I noticed most 

 distinctly ' a cartilaginous keel between the sides of the tail,' as 

 described by Cuvier in his generic characters of his genus Thynnus. 

 Moreover, the fisherman (who is a very sensible man and a good 

 bird-stufFer) on being shown Mr. Yarrell's figure of the Common 

 Tunny, immediately recognized it and pronounced it at once to be 

 the same fish." 



Read further, the Introductory part of a paper, entitled " New 

 ProteacecE of Australia." By Dr. C. F. Meisner. Communicated 

 by the Secretary, and intended for publication in Sir W. J. Hooker's 

 • Journal of Botany.' 



Read, in conclusion, an " Extract from a Memoir on the Origin 

 and Development of Vessels in Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledo- 

 nous Plants." By Dr. Francisco Freire Allemao of Rio de Janeiro, 

 translated and communicated by John Miers, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



Dr. Allemao states that in 1849 he commenced a series of micro- 

 scopical observations on several points of vegetable anatomy, and in 

 particular on the origin and development of vessels in the roots of 

 plants. In 1831 he read before the Vellozian Society of Rio de 

 Janeiro a memoir in which the most important facts obseiTed by him 

 were shortly stated, which memoir he revised and published in 1852, 

 as the third of his "Botanical Exercises," in the ' Trabalhos da So- 



