240 



on the outside with hairs of considerable length. The cup resembles 

 some of the smaller species of patella, and its mouth is perfectly 

 smooth and round. Several of the cups are frequently attached to one 

 another by the edges, and always so that their mouths form a plane, 

 by which it would appear they have been attached to the leaves. 

 The hairs, when examined under the niicroscope, were found to con- 

 sist of uniform tubes, with a granular structure, and indistinct traces 

 of transverse stride ; they are coloured uniformly blue by iodine. 

 The cups are made up of a confused mass of closely-compacted cells 

 resembling starch globules, and coloured blue by iodine. 



The ta°ste of Lerp is distinctly saccharine, but this is confined 

 entirely to the hair, the cup having merely a mucilaginous taste. 

 The chemical examination shewed it to consist of an uncrystallisable 

 sugar similar in its character to that found in fruits, of starch, 

 gum, inulin, and cellulose, the absolute identity of the latter two of 

 which was determined by ultimate analysis. There were also found 

 minute traces of resinous matter and nitrogen, and MS per cent of 

 ash. The following is the result of its quantitative analysis : — 



Water, 



Sugar with a little resinous matter, 



Gum, 



Starch, 



Inulin, 



Cellulosa, 



Ash, 



1504 

 49-06 

 5-77 

 4-29 

 13-80 

 1204 



100-00 

 1-13 



The author, in concluding his paper, remarked that all the species 

 of manna before observed consisted of soluble substances, and were 

 considered to be produced by the puncture of an insect, which caused 

 the exudation of their constituents in the fluid form, and that they 

 crradually dried up upon the surface of the leaf, but that the exist- 

 ence in Lerp of the insoluble cellulose and starch, and the sparingly- 

 soluble inulin, seemed scarcely compatible with such an explanation 

 of its origin. 



