98 



" notes of admiration " without the dots ! ! !). To see these clearly 

 with 2500 has been considered the ne plus ultra of microscopical 

 triumphs, and it is consequently with no little dif&dence that the 

 writer ventures to traverse the belief of twenty-five years. The 

 object of this paper is to show that definition can be further im- 

 proved under the use of high powers, and if he should succeed in 

 accomplishing this, the leisure of some years will not have been 

 spent in vain. 



A paper was also read by Mr. S. Mclntyre, on "The Scales of 

 certain Insects of the Order Thysanura." 



A discussion ensued, in which Mr. J. Beck, Mr. Browning, Mr. 

 Hogg, Mr. Slack, and the President, took part. They all stated 

 their opinion that Dr. Pigott was in error with regard to his 

 observations. 



Decemler 8th. — The President in the chair. — A paper was read 

 by Professor Eymer Jones on " Deep Sea Soundings in the 

 neighbourhood of Sandalwood Island." The paper gave an 

 account of the microscopic examination of the contents of a phial 

 given to the author by Lieutenant Eoss, R.N., grandson of Mr. J, 

 Ross. The matter was obtained from the bed of the sea at a 

 depth of 1080 fathoms. It contained the spicula of twelve genera 

 of Sponges, and of a large number of species of Foraminifera, 

 PolijcystincB and Diatomacece, many of which the author believed 

 to be new. 



The following papers were taken as read — on the " Stylet region 

 of the Ommatoplaean Proboscis," by Dr. Mcintosh, and on 

 " Organisms in Mineral Infusions," by C. Staniland Wake, Esq. 



Beighton and Sussex Natural History Society. 



Decemher 9th. — ^The President, Mr. T. H. Hennah, in the chair. 

 — A paper was read by Mr. C. P. Smith on the Gemma? of Mosses. 

 In flowering plants the seed is an embryo plant provided with 

 stem, root, and leaves, only requiring developing to produce a 

 perfect plant. In mosses the spore is but a simple cell, without 

 any germ or embryo, which gives rise to an intermediate state, so 

 that mosses are plants of two or rather alternating generations. 

 In addition to this mode of generation there is another by means 

 of gemmae or sprouts, which have been defined as loose granular 

 bodies, capable of becoming plants. In all known British mosses 

 none of the Pleurocarpie, or side-fruiting, have been found pro- 

 ducing gemmsB, whose situation varies in difterent mosses ; thus 

 in Tortula papillus, which grows on trees in Sussex and elsewhere, 

 the gemmae are found in the upper part of the inside of the leaf; 

 the fruit of this moss is unknown, except in Australia ; Didy- 

 modon gemmascens, having the nerve excurrent, has the tip covered 

 with gemmre. Tetraphis jjellucida produces them in pedicellate 

 clusters at the ends of separate stems. In Webera annotina they 



