1885.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETV. 109 



MISCELLANEA. 



The Working Session of the American Society of 

 MiCROSCOPiSTS. — In the course of years of practice, every 

 thoughtful microscopist discovers methods of manipulation, 

 ways of observation, and principles of interpretation, which 

 differ in some respects from such as have, through books and 

 journals, become familiar to all. A meeting at which these 

 discoveries can be made known, their value tested, and their 

 benefit appropriated, can but tend to promote the science of 

 microscopy and thus assure with greater certainty the correct- 

 ness of the results attained in all departments of microscopical 

 research. The American Society of Microscopists did wisely 

 in organizing a meeting of this character. The Working Session, 

 both at Chicago and at Rochester, proved an exceedingly useful 

 feature of the Annual Meeting. Mr. C. M. Vorce, to whom the 

 direction of the Working Session of the convention to be held 

 at Cleveland next August, has been assigned, has prepared an 

 excellent schedule of work. His task is onerous, commen- 

 surately with its importance, and his success must depend, not 

 less on his own acknowledged zeal and ability, than on the prompt 

 and cordial cooperation of experienced microscopists. Every 

 Microscopical Society in the land ought to be represented in 

 this work. 



The Algo-Fungal-Lichen Hypothesis. — Hypothesis helps 

 investigation, provided it be not followed blindly. Some 

 hypotheses are so romantic, they affect so strongly the fancy of 

 their propounder and his followers, as to warp observation and 

 occasion erroneous deductions. Partly of this character, it 

 seems probable, is Schwendener's theory of the morphology and 

 physiology of lichens. At a recent meeting of the New-York 

 Microscopical Society, Dr. Britton invited attention to the Rev. 

 J. M. Crombie's criticism of this theory in Vol. xxi.. No. 135, of 

 the Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany). Schwendener's 

 theory is, ' that the lichen is not a distinct plant, but a colony 

 consisting of hundreds and thousands of individuals, of which, 

 however, only one acts as master, while the others, in perpetual 

 captivity, provide nourishment for themselves and their master ; 

 that this master is a fungus of the order Ascomycetes, and that 

 its slaves ' — the organisms upon which it is parasitic — ' are green 



