10 EAST KENT NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



February ^th. — Mr. Harvey displayed some Rotifers ; and 

 Mr. Fullagar some young of Paludina vivipara, bred in his aqua- 

 rium. Miss Croasdill sent some specimens of Velella collected at 

 Tenby, and a discourse was given on the structure and economy 

 of the ciass of Acalephes. 



Fehruary 22nd. — Mr. Fullagar exhibited the Crystal Prisms of 

 Quillaia bark, showing their large size, and how, in their shafts 

 and tips being prismatic or angular, they differ from Eaphides. 

 These last have rounded shafts, and occur loosely together in 

 bundles, and may thus be easily known from crystal prisms ; 

 which prisms proved to be excellent for experiments with polarised 

 light, while true raphides are not so. It was observed that the 

 order Iridacese abounds in crystal prisms ; and that the well- 

 known Iris Germanica, so common in our cottage gardens, is 

 a good plant, always at hand, in which to examine them. 



March Sth. — Col. Horsley and Mr. Bell displayed some Di- 

 atoms ; and Mr. Down some of the Canterbury mosses, with 

 dissections of the sporangium and peristome of Hypnum confertum. 

 Mr. Fullagar showed several specimens of freshwater Polyps, 

 some of which were bred in his aquarium, as he believed, from 

 eggs deposited there by the parents during the preceding autumn. 



March 22nd. — Col. Horsley gave demonstrations, from prepa- 

 rations made extemporaneously, of the characters of the Crystal 

 Prisms of Guaiacum, and of the Sphaeraphides of the prickly pear 

 {Opuntia) ; "whereupon the Hon. Sec. observed that these prisms 

 are good tests of the genuineness of the oflS.cinal barks of Quillaia 

 and Guaiacum, and that though the crystal prisms are abundant in 

 many British Endogens, and in various exotic Exogens, including 

 trees and shrubs, these crystals had not yet been found in our 

 native Dicotyledons. And, indeed, while in foreign exogenous 

 trees and shrubs true Eaphides are not uncommon, they have 

 not at present been demonstrated in any British trees. 



April IWi. — Mr. Bell, Mr. Fullagar, and Mr. Down, displayed 

 some lively specimens of Volvox and Closterium, and some very 

 fine onesj of Sphcerosira. The circulation of the sap, and the 

 multiplication by binary subdivision, were well shown in Closterium 

 lunula. 



April 27th. — The Eev. C. W.Bewsher exhibited a fine specimen, 

 bigger than a bucket, of ' Neptune's Cup,' like that originally 

 described by Hardwick, in the ' Trans. Lin. Soc.,' as a Sponge 

 allied to Cliona. The present example came from the Mauritius. 

 The character of its siliceous spicules was shown under various 

 microscopic powers. Hydra viridis and IT. fusca, now very 

 abundant about Canterbury, were shown by Mr. Fullagar and 

 Mr. Bell, when the process of multiplication by budding was well 

 seen. 



May 11th. — Mr. Gulliver exhibited specimens of Planer's 

 Lamprey, now very abundant in the Stour Eiver, at Canterbury, 

 and gave demonstrations of several points of the anatomy, not 

 yet recognised in the systematic books, concerning the Petromy- 



