21 



coutanimp: tliom being vovy largo. Cystoliths liavo one pcfuli- 

 arih-, tJioy are (luito mdiiforont to jiolarised light, all other plant 

 crystals give brilliant results with this illumination 



Rainfall at Milton Cliapcl for 

 1877. 



January 5-825 inches. 



February 1-5.34 „ 



March 2-711 



April 2-597 'I 



34,390 



The greatest heat registered in 

 the shade. 



June 4tli 86° Fah. 



July 31st 86° 



Aug. 19th and 20th 80° ,',' 



The greatest cold. 

 February 28th. .. . 25° Fah, 



March 9th 24° 



March 10th 21° 



October 17th .... 26° 

 December 10th . . 26° 



Fchruary 6th, 1878. 



Plant- Crgstals. —Vimavds of forty drawings of raphides and 

 other microscopic plant-crystals, systematicaUy arranged, with 

 observations tliereou, were submitted to the Society by Frofessor 

 l;ruUiver, i R.b. These drawings are intended to form two 

 plates in the forthcoming new edition of Frofessor Lionel 

 i3eales valuable book, entitled "How to work with the Micro- 

 scope. The Raphdes were shown detached and naked, next in 

 the ovule of a plant, then in special cells and in intercuUular 

 spaces devoid of any such ceU ; and lastly escaping from both 

 ends of their ceU, so as to present the forms called " biforines" 

 by French botanists ; and in a separate di-awing were shown 

 the rounded neecUe-like shape of the shafts and the pointed ends 

 ot the raphides.— The Sphar aphides were depicted either 

 smoothish, granular, or stellate on the surface ; sometimes sus- 

 pended by a stalk in a cell, so as to form the " cystoliths" or 

 crystal glands" of some phytotomists ; sometimes occupyino- 

 either the centre or corner of every ccU in a tissue of ceUs" 

 arranged together like tesselated or mosaic work.— No lesstliau 

 fourteen figures were drawn of Zong Crystal Prisms, which differ 

 from true raphides in being really prismatic and not cylindi-ical 

 and m occurring impacted, singly or only two or more soldered 

 together, in the plant-tissue.— The Short Prismatic Crgstals were 

 shown in the t.^sta or seed-skin of several plants ; in the leaves 

 calyces, and pods of Legumens ; in the leaf-stalks of the orango 



