312 PBOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



hernioid protrusions of the walls of adjacent cells through the 

 finally pervious pores of the ducts. 



Mr. Thiselton Dyer wished, lastly, to show Exobasidiuvt 

 vaecinii, Wor., a plant which he believed be had first announced 

 as British (' Journal of Bot.,' vol. ix, p. 328). It was according 

 to Woronin a true Hymenomycetal fungus, and had been carefully 

 worked out by him in the ' Berichte u. d. Verb. d. naturh. Ges. zu 

 Preiburg im Breisgau,' vol. iv, pp. 397 — 416, tt. v — vii. The 

 preparation having been made from dried specimens was not very 

 satisfactory or altogether accordant with Woronin's figures. The 

 question indeed suggested itself whether similar external 

 characters in this plant did not conceal a polymorphism of 

 ultimate structure. 



15th Fehruarij, 1872. 



Dr. Moore showed some examples of a globose green " unicel- 

 lular " alga; the cells were large, but showed themselves of 

 various sizes, and there was evidence that a process of internal 

 " breaking-up " of the contents took place, assuming a somewhat 

 radiate arrangement and then probably set free. The water around 

 abounded with zoospores, very much resembling in the appearance 

 and characteristics of their contents the component portions of the 

 contents of the globose cells, and the conclusion was very strongly 

 suggested that they were phases of one and the same thing. 

 The zoospores finally germinated, though none had presented 

 themselves forming filaments of as yet more than two or three 

 minute joints, these very closely resembling those of a minute 

 short-jointed filament occurring in the same water ; viewed in 

 this light each of the large globose cells (forming, indeed, a 

 pretty object) would be probably more correctly regarded as a 

 " sporangium " than as an independent alga. Dr. Moore hoped 

 still further to have an opportunity to watch this growth, which 

 periodically presented itself in the tanks at the Botanic 

 Garden. 



Eev. E. O'Meara exhibited a new Mastogloia (which he proposed 

 to call Mastogloia bitiotafa), and of which a full description would 

 shortly appear. 



!Mr. Keit showed the fungus Speira tondoides (Corda), obtained 

 in the botanic garden, occurring on Coccoloba macrophylla ; it 

 was afterwards found on a decaying Pitcher plant, Nepenthes 

 Hooheri, in close proximity to the Coccoloba. This fungus ordi- 

 narily grows on the oak ; this appears the first record in this 

 country. 



Mr. Crowe exhibited examples of some water taken up near 

 the Cape of Good Hope, which at the time was remarkable for its 

 red colour and mucous consistence. The water now appeared to 

 be pervaded by multitudes of empty skin-like, somewhat shrivelled, 

 and colourless coats, as if they had been once round in figure ; 

 and the question became of what were these the remains, and if 

 to this organism the red colour, when fresh, was due ? The pre- 



