as a delicate filament to expand with the growth of the tree until it 

 had attained a diameter of eighteen inches or more and not dispense 

 with or in any way cioish the laminae or stratification above or below. 

 He believed that it was impossible for a tree, under any circumstances, 

 to fall where it had grown, and there remain in a comparatively sound 

 state, whilst a soil derived from the ordinary growth and decay of 

 vegetation accumulated over it. 



September 23RD. 

 MICROSCOPICAL MEETING.— " POND LIFE." 



The President, Mr. J. Dennan'T, in the absence of any paper on 

 the subject of the evening, " Pond Life," invited those present who had 

 brought objects of interest to give an account of them. 



Mr. T. W. WONFOR said he had purposed obtaining some 

 specimens from Lewes, but the weather had been so unfavourable that 

 he had not been able to do so. He had, however, procured from a 

 pond on the Furze Hill — which generally proved a fertile source of 

 supply — what proved, on microscopical examination, to be one of a 

 very interesting class of creatures, Infuscria, so-called from the forms 

 of life found in various infusions. All bifusoria were at one time sup- 

 posed to be animals, and Ehrenburg, the great German microscopist, 

 had taken a red spot which he called the " eye dot " as a mark of their 

 being so. Many had since been proved to be the early stages of 

 plants. This particular specimen was known by the name of eugletia, 

 and the " eye dot " was plainly to be seen. Its shape was cylindrical, 

 and the green nuclei might be observed circulating in its body. Its 

 form changed as it moved about, and one that he noticed appeared to 

 have absorbed some particle of some other animal for food. There 

 was not much doubt that it was a true though very low type of 

 an animal. The same pond furnished plenty of cyclops, larva; of 

 gnats, and many vegetable forms. 



Mr. T. Glaisyer stated that he had received from a friend an 

 object picked up from the surface of the sea, some 300 miles from 

 Singapore, which he had ascertained to be a portion of a vegetable 

 structure. 



