Forest Trees. 123 



which belong to the ordinary Hber; neither were there any of 

 the joints and rings which belong to the woody tissue. At 

 first I concluded that it must be made up entirely of lactici- 

 ferous tissue. But its position could not be reconciled with 

 this idea, although it corresponds somewhat in character with 

 that tissue. There is an absence of junctions and of regularity 

 of arrangement. I conclude from its microscopical appearance 

 that it is the mycelium of iiierulius lacryinans, or the fungus 

 which produces dry rot, which has permeated the tissue in 

 the lines which separate each year's growth, and that it has 

 originated the decay which is commencing in the interior 

 of the tree, and that that which is so similar to paper is 

 entirely devoid of the properties which belong to that 

 material. It is curious to find that it has penetrated so 

 completely into the heart of the wood and explains somewhat 

 how decay extends in our timber trees, and by what means 

 they become touchwood. This specimen had extended some 

 fourteen feet from the ground, and next year the tree would 

 probably have died. It appears to me that the unaccountable 

 death of forest trees may in some instances be explained by 

 the effect of the fungus upon the living tissues of the plant as 

 is shewn in the specimen which I now produce. 



28. — Note on the Occurrence of Achatina acicula 



ON Park Hill, Croydon. 



By Kenneth McKean, Esq. 



\_Read lytJi December, 1881.] 



On the 4th December, 1881, I visited the new railway works, 

 and there met Mr. Flower, who, in taking measurements of 

 the strata in the cutting on the south side of the hill, remarked 

 the great depth of the worm borings as shown on the face of 

 the cutting. While I was engaged in flaking away the sand 

 to trace one of the worm borings down as far as possible, I 

 came upon two Achatinae close together inside the tube. One 

 was living, the other dead. We measured the place, and 

 found it was twenty-six inches below the surface. I subse- 

 quently found five others (dead) that day, all within worm 

 borings, and all about two feet from the surface. The speci- 

 men taken alive was hybernating, and had secreted an 

 epiphragm exceedingly thin and glistening. Being desirous 

 of noting more particularly the position this mollusc takes 

 underground, I paid another visit to Park Hill on December 

 nth, and as the works had progressed slightly during the 

 week a fresh surface in the cutting was exposed. I found a 



