110 JOURNAL OF THE [Octobcr, 



each with a colony from the same nest of Tennes columnar. 

 He had a bridge connecting them, and tlie inmates built a gal- 

 lery on it, and passed to and fro. He then took away the 

 bridge, and each colony raised up a vertical gallery, one iii 

 inches high, the other ']^ inches. A portion of a large nest of 

 Termes colunmai- is shown on the table, which is cylindrical. 



Slide No. 7 shows nests, galleries, queen-cells and one speci- 

 men of wood-tunneling by the Calotermes. The object of chief 

 interest is a bridge, on which are built two galleries by two dif- 

 ferent species, which he had in one jar. The nests were side 

 by side, without communication, and when they wished to cross 

 the bridge each built a covered gallery. 



It is hardly necessary to state that the beautiful slides of 

 sections of the queen Termites were prepared by Mr. Ludwig 

 Riederer, to whom I am much indebted for his invaluable 

 assistance in the study of the anatomy of the Termites. 



SPIRAL, OR ELLIPTICALLY WOUND TRACHEIDS, IN 



THE AXILLA OF SMALL DECAYED BRANCHES 



IN TREES. 



BY P. H. DUDLEY, C. E. 



{Read January i']fh, 1890.) 



The spiral, or elliptically wound tracheids. in the pieces of 

 Yellow Pine, Pinus falustris, Mill., and White Cedar, Chamce- 

 cyparis Sphceroidea, Spach, before you this evening, are evidences 

 of some of the wonderful phenomena, which trees possess during 

 growth, of preserving the integrity of their structures. 



I called your attention to these features last year, having 

 noticed them very frequently in the above woods. 



Continued work upon the decay of woods the past season 

 leads me to believe, that similarly wound tracheids or fibres will 

 be found in most species of wood grown in dense forests, 

 where, for want of light, the lower branches die, are attacked by 

 fungi, break off, and the stub is overgrown, the entire process 

 constituting a system of natural pruning and protection. The 

 more we study this process the more instructive and marvellous 

 it becomes. For the growing cells of the trunk promptly take 



