PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 191 



The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society : — 



Phineas S. Abraham, B.Sc. aucl B.A. 



A. de Sonza Guimaraens, Esq. 



Eobert King, Esq. 



Henry E. Symons, L.E.C.P. Loud., M.E.C.P., &c., and 



George Charles Wallich, M.D., an Hon. Fellow. 



Walter W. Eeeves, 



Assist.-Secrctary. 



Brighton and Susses Natural History Society. 



January 25th. — Microscopical Meeting. Mr. Hollis, President, 

 in the chair. 



Mr. E. Glaisyer announced the receipt from Mr. E. Beck, of 

 London, of a test-slide of Podura for the cabinet. 



Dr. Hallifax, who introduced the subject for the evening, " Para- 

 sitic Plants," remarked that a distinction must be drawn between 

 those which simply attached themselves to organized beings, and those 

 which lived at the expense of the plants and animals on or in which 

 they grew, for they were both external and internal. The ivy, 

 which attached itself by its suckers to a wall equally with a tree, and 

 did not live on the juices of the plant, was an epiphyte, whereas the 

 mistletoe, the best example of a true parasite, obtained its food at the 

 expense of the tree on which it grew, although the tree did not seem 

 to suffer. The mistletoe seeds, siirrounded by a viscous substance, 

 were, it is believed, carried by birds, became attached to the branches 

 or trunks of trees, and there germinated, sending their fibres thi'ough the 

 bark into the sap-wood, and they, continuing to grow at the same time 

 as the tree, penetrated deep into its substance, and received from the 

 plant its juices. With the exception of its not possessing true roots, 

 it differed in no respect from any other perfect plant, for it elaborated 

 the crude juices obtained from its host into woody fibre, &c., of a 

 different character from that of the tree in which it grew. Thin 

 sections, cut through both, showed that the cells lay side by side, 

 different in character and not coalescing. 



Of a more minute character were some of the fungi, for though 

 many grew on organisms they did not make their appearance until 

 decay and death had set in ; but some, like the j)otato fungus, not 

 only grew on the living plant, but completely destroyed it, pene- 

 trating into all parts of its substance. Other parasitic plants were 

 the orobanches ; but lichens simply attached themselves to plants for 

 support. 



Mr. Wonfor remarked that to the pseudo-parasites might be added 

 the bird's-nest orchis {Lisiera nidus-avis), which did not appear to grow 

 upon the roots of the beech, but only xmder beech-trees. He had 

 never been able to trace any attachment to the roots. The dodders 

 appeared to differ from some of the other parasites, for their seeds ger- 

 minated in the soil and then attached themselves to the plant on which 

 they grew, not only sending roots into the substance, but twisting and 

 twining round it like the ivy. Hence they had been called stranglers. 



Of fungi which grow on and at the expense of animals, he might 



