40 Report, Sfc. 



scopic character of storaata existing equally on both sides of the 

 leaf that the Australian forests owe their want of lustre. 



Again in mosses, fungi, seaweed, or lichen, they are not found, 

 nor as it is said, on Monotropa hypopitys, the pine bird's nest, nor 

 Cuscuta Europea, the greater Dodder, both be it observed parasitical 

 plants. In trees and shrubs they are small, and especially so on 

 such as have coriaceous leaves and acid or aromatic juice. On 

 the calyx they can generally be seen, often on the corolla, very 

 rarely indeed on the style or any part of the stamens. Whether 

 this has any connection with the natural order remains to be decided. 

 In the Nepenthes, commonly known as the Chinese pitcher plant, 

 the cuticle within the pitcher, besides having stomata, is pierced 

 by a lai'ge number of holes which are filled with a thick brown 

 substance or disk of small cellular tissue, which is connected with 

 the parenchyma of the pitcher. 



Some plants, as the Nevium oleander, have, to act probably in 

 the same way as stomata, actual cavities in the cuticle, filled or 

 protected in a curious manner by hairs. 



Another distinction might be founded on the number of stomata 

 in plants, which have been observed lo vary considerably in the 

 diffierent families as well as in the different parts of a plant. For 

 instance, in common sorrel, according to Thomson, on the lower 

 side of the leaf the stomata are about 20,000 on a square inch, 

 while in the Egyptian plant, Solauum sanctum, on the same space, 

 they amount to nearly 450,000. 



Since, as it has been remarked above, the stomata on mono- 

 cotyledonous plants are larger and more numerous than on dicoty- 

 ledons, it is to them that we must look es])ecially in order to work 

 out this theory, and as this class is represented in the greatest 

 number in the tropical regions, we must wait till further botanical 

 research has been made there, for the complete perfection, which 

 is much to be desired, of Mr. Brown's idea, now generally con- 

 sidered to be correct. 



May 19 th, 1866. 



The Twelfth meeting of the Society was held at the Rev. B. F. 

 Westcott's house. 



H. N. Abbot, A. G. Murray, and VV. Toynbee were elected 

 members of the Society. 



