20 JOURNAL OF THE [January, 



fluctuations in the intensity of the light, but in photography you 

 will remark them quickly. The light from a kerosene lamp works 

 better." 



The President : " I have found that an incandescence lamp, 

 to work well, must have the carbon near the top of the globe ; 

 and that this part of the globe must be flat, so that it may be 

 brought near to the object, and may not produce diffraction rings ; 

 and that the bottom should be non-reflecting, since reflected light, 

 mingling with the direct rays, occasions indistinctness. White 

 light is certainly better than yellow light ; and I believe that if 

 a good rheostat can be had, by which the strength of the current 

 may be so regulated that the carbon can be brought to a white 

 heat and kept there without endangering either the carbon or 

 the globe, electrical illumination will come into use for micro- 

 scopical purposes everywhere, particularly in delicate work. The 

 rheostat made by Dr. Stein, which is described in Mr. Schultze's 

 communication, seems complete." 



Meeting of November 2ist, 1884. 



The President, Mr. C. Van Brunt, in the chair. 



Seventy-five persons present. 



Dr. N. L. Britton, as Committee on Phanerogamic Botany, 

 brought forward the subject of the fertilization of the ovule. His 

 views were in full accord with the current theory, which teaches 

 that the elastic inner coat of the pollen-grain, extending itself in 

 the form of a slender closed sac called the pollen-tube, and 

 carrying within itself at its extremity the fovillae of the pollen- 

 grain, descends into the loose tissue of the stigma and the style, 

 and thence into the interior of the ovary ; and that this tube 

 eventually enters the micropyle of an ovule, rests its point on 

 the embryo-sac, and in some way not fully explained, communi- 

 cates its contents to the germinal vesicle and fertilizes it. His 

 object was to combat, in the interest of science, the views of 

 Mr. J. Kruttschnitt, of New Orleans, who denies that the pollen- 

 tube itself penetrates to the embryo-sac, and suggests that its 

 contents are discharged among the tissues of the style and that 

 they pass thence to the ovary and the ovules. Dr. Britton forti- 

 fied his position by ample quotation from eminent authorities, and 



