PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 229 



attached to stones or floating bodies, and while some prefer sluggish 

 or stationary waters, others are found in swift rivulets and clear 

 lakes. They generally shun the direct rays of light, and with one 

 exception (the Cristatella), are incapable of locomotion. The 

 remainder of the paper consisted of a minute description of the 

 typical form and internal organization of these animals, and a de- 

 tailed account of the genera and species, and was illustrated by 

 a number of photographs enlarged and sho^vn by the lime-light 

 lantern. 



April 21th, 1861. 

 Dr. Camplin in the Chair. 



Mr. Slade read a paper on the Confervse, in which, after refer- 

 ring to these plants as the tangled masses of bright green threads, 

 so common in aquaria and other collections of fresh water, he 

 mentioned that their name is derived from Conferruminare, to con- 

 solidate, and that the ancients considered them useful in healing 

 fractured limbs. The filaments are of indefinite length and un- 

 symmetrically branched. Under the microscope they are seen to 

 consist of long cells, containing numerous green granules and some 

 colourless larger ones. The number of species is very considerable. 

 Henfrey forming two natural orders out of the genus, and Lindley 

 numbering sixty-six genera, and 368 species of Confervse. The 

 diagnosis of the class is as follows : — Plants with a filamentous, 

 membranous, gelatiuous or pulverulent thallus growing in fresh or 

 salt water, or on moist substances, of green or more rarely (often 

 temporarily) red colour, reproduced by zoospores discharged from 

 the ordinary cells of the thallus, or from spores formed in these 

 cells after impregnation; by combination of the contents of two 

 cells, either by conjugation or by the transference of spermatozoids 

 into the parent cell of the spore — the spores passing through a 

 stage of rest before germination. The motion of the zoospores 

 was then more particularly adverted to, and an interesting de- 

 scription by Agardh of the germination of a Conferva, as seen by 

 him, quoted. Mr. Slade then entered on a detailed account of the 

 various points of structure, indicated by the general description of 

 these plants previously given, and concluded with some remarks 

 on the allied forms of gory dew (^Palmella cruenta) and red snow. 



The paper was illustrated by numerous diagrams, and after a 

 discussion which turned principally on the question wli ether the 

 same germ could become one of the algse, a lichen or a fungus, 

 according as it might fall upon water, air, or decaying organic 

 matter, as held by some naturalists, — the class adjourned for the 

 summer recess. 



The Beadeord Miceoscopical Society. 



The monthy meeting of this Society was held April 4th, at the 

 Infirmary, E. H.Meade, Esq., F.R.C.S., President, in the chair. 



