88 REPORT—1846. 
ten years ago on her own estate ; and she exhibited specimens of raw and manufac- 
tured silk with full details. She began by planting various sorts of mulberry-trees, 
of which she finds the dwarf Philippine is by far the best, as producing more leaf, and 
(from the facility with which its cuttings are struck) more easily propagated than any 
other. Of the various races of the silk-worm, she finds that by procuring the eggs 
of the large Italian sort, of four changes, she obtains as great a proportion, and as 
good a quality of silk, as they do in Italy or France. The testimony of several emi- 
nent manufacturers in* London, Manchester and Coventry attests this; and Mrs, 
Whitby has had the satisfaction of presenting twenty yards of rich and brilliant da- 
mask, manufactured from silk grown at Newlands, to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 
who was graciously pleased to accept of this indication of a new source of riches in 
her dominions. 
After making every allowance for occasional unfavourable seasons, and labour, 
machinery, outlay of money, &c., it will be found that land laid out for furnishing 
food for this valuable caterpillar, will yield at least £20 per annum. 
The computation is briefly as follows :—one oz. of eggs produce 40,000 worms, 
which require 1400lbs. of leaves; deducting 25 per cent. for accidents, there will re- 
main 30,000 cocoons weighing 75 lbs., which at 10 Ibs. per ewt. of silk, will yield 
75 \bs, of the best raw silk (besides refuse), equal, at 23s. per lb., to 87. 12s. 6d. One 
acre of land bearing 1225 plants of six or eight years’ growth, yields 4900 lbs. of 
leaves, and will consequently feed 330z. of eggs, which at 8/. 12s. 6d. nett per oz. 
as above stated, yields 30/. 3s, 9d., and deducting 33 per cent. for labour, machinery, 
&c., 10/., there will remain a final profit per acre on 330z. of eggs, 201. 
On the Structure of Cristatella mucedo. By Prof. Attman, M.R.LA. 
In this beautiful little Bryozoon, added to the Irish Fauna by Prof. Allman, 
several interesting peculiarities of structure were detailed. Of these the author con- 
sidered one of the most important to be the detection of a small roundish body, 
situated at the upper end of the pharynx, and which he believed to be a nervous 
ganglion. The author also dwelt upon the existence of a delicate calyciform mem- 
brane which unites the bases of the tentaculz, and is of very general occurrence 
among the freshwater Bryozoa. This structure he considered peculiarly interesting, 
as it tended with other facts to homologize the tentacular system of the Bryozoa 
with the branchial sac of the true Ascidia. Several peculiarities in the digestive 
and muscular systems were also alluded to, the muscular fibre being shown to be 
obscurely striated, and to exhibit a tendency to break itself into discs. The ova in 
their young state are inclosed in a ciliated membrane, and the hooked spines with 
which, in their more mature condition, they are furnished, are developed within the 
ciliated investment, being of subsequent growth, but yet fully formed previously to 
the ova quitting the parent. The facts detailed in the present communication were 
assumed by the author as affording much additional evidence in favour of the mol- 
Juscan nature of the Bryozoa. 
Observations on the true Nature of the Tendril in the Cucumber. 
By T. Bert Sauter, MD., PLS. 
While it is now admitted that the tendril is a modification of some essential part 
of the plant, it is in most plants sufficiently obvious what organ is so altered, as for 
instance, the leaf or petiole in the leguminose plants, the peduncle in Passiflora, 
,and the primary axis of the plant in the vine; in this family it is not so obvious. 
In the monstrous state of a cucumber plant now shown, where all the parts appear 
in a more elementary form than in its natural state, we have this question satisfac- 
torily solved. While the female flower is resolved into an aggregation of thick 
adherent leaves, and the staminate flowers into an aggregation of leaves not adherent, 
we see the tendril as asimple slender leaf, and not abranch bearing any ageregation 
of leaves, as it would be were it any modification of a branch, or any part of the in- 
florescence. It would appear from this that the tendril in this genus and family 
represents the leaf, while the developed leaf next to it is the first leaf of a sessile 
axillary branch. 
