4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Mr. C. T. DRrERY exhibited some ferns growing in a bottle 

 presumably airtight, on silver sand, which during a period of four 

 years had nearly filled the jar. The question he propounded 

 was, How did this vegetative growth procure the needful carbon 

 dioxide ? , 



Mr. G-. P. Mudge (visitor). Dr. Eendle, and Dr. Drabble engaged 

 in a short discussion on the point raised. 



The Eev. John Gerard, S.J., showed a series of lantern-slides : 

 (a) illustrating Tew stems natural!}' inarched, from Stonyhurst, 

 Lancashire ; and (b) Wistaria stems, one of which having been 

 twined round a pillar " clock- wise " fashion, had ceased to put 

 forth fresh shoots, though still living. The other, having twined 

 itself " counter-clockwise," had flowered freely. Dr. Eendle, 

 Mr. J. C. Shenstone, and the President joined in the discussion 

 which followed. 



Miss A. L. Smith showed under the microscope and by lantern- 

 slides, Myxococcus pyriformis or M. ruhescens (?), a British member 

 of the MyxobacteriaceES, which had also been found near Berlin. 



The Eev. T. E. E. Steering exhibited specimens of an Alcyo- 

 narian evidently belonging to the suborder Pennatulaeea, and not 

 improbably to the widely distributed species Cavernularia olesa, 

 Milne-Edwards & Haime, in Kolliker's family Cavernulariidse. 

 They had been sent from Borneo some years ago by Charles Hose, 

 Esq., D.Sc, at that time the Eesident in the Baram district, 

 Saraw-ak. The suggested identification was founded on Professor 

 S. J. Hickson's discussion of the species in Gilchrist's ' Marine 

 Investigations,' vol. i. p. 92, pi. 3 (1902), and on inspection of a 

 specimen in the British Museum under the care of Professor 

 Jeifrey Bell. Mr. Stebbing pointed out that the genus Cavernu- 

 laria was established in 1850 by Milne-Edwards & Haime (British 

 Eossil Corals, part i. p. Ixxxiv), and should not be credited to 

 Valenciennes who only gave the name in manuscript on a museum 

 label. A similar remark applies to the species C. ohesa. The 

 largest of the specimens is about three and a half inches or 87 mm. 

 in length. AVheu received in England, and for months afterwards, 

 they had the appearance of slender, almost smooth, light-brown 

 sausages, besprinkled, except for a still smoother fifth or sixth of 

 their length, with small black dots. The chief motive for bringing 

 them under the notice of the Society lay in the circumstance that, 

 Avhen again examined after a further long interval, during all 

 which time they had been in a preservative medium, the speci- 

 mens displayed for the most part an entirely different aspect. 

 The surface had become in many parts conspicuously squamose, 

 and from many of the black dots polyps were now more or less 

 expansively protruded. It looked as if by their powder of with- 

 drawal into the common fleshy polypidom, these creatures were 



