I'unillScrS'] PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 171 



localities. A cordial vote of thanks to Dr. Braithwaite was then 

 I)asse(i for his paper, and after an announcement of the subjects of 

 papers for the meetings in February and March, the proceedings 

 terminated with a conversazione, at which some interesting objects were 

 exhibited under microscopes, and much attention was attracted by 

 the collection of Mosses and Ferns illustrative of the paper of the 

 evening. 



Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 



Ordinary meeting, February 8th, 1870. J. P. Joiile, LL.D., 

 F.E.S., &c., President, in the chair. — The following interesting 

 botanical paj^er was the only Microscopical communication : — 



" On the Natural Eopes used in packing Cotton Bales in the 

 Brazils," by Charles Bailey, Esq. 



Most of the cotton bales which reach this country from the Brazils 

 are corded with long stems of climbing plants, which grow in the 

 greatest profusion in the forests bordering on the cotton districts. In 

 their fresh state these stems are exceedingly pliant and of remarkable 

 strength, so that they serve admirably for cordage pm-poses. but by 

 the time that the cotton reaches the mills of Lancashire they become 

 dry and rigid, and as no further use can be made of them, they are 

 burned for firewood. Being very long, they are very troublesome to 

 put on the boiler fires, and most millowners are glad to get rid of 

 thera. 



These objects are invested with singular interest when examined 

 in regard to their structure, for although the external form of many 

 of them is extremely ciu'ious, their chief interest centres in theii- 

 remarkable internal organization. Although they reach this country 

 in immense quantities, they are not often to be met with in our 

 museums or colleges ; it may be questioned whether any one of oui* 

 public institutions possesses a comj)lete collection of these stems ; 

 certainly the names of the plants which produce them are for the most 

 jjart unknown. 



My attention was first directed to them by Mr. Eobert Holland, 

 of Mobberley, in a paper which he read on the 7th December last, to 

 the " Manchester Scientific Students' Association," on " Some peculiar 

 forms of Exogenous Stems," and to this gentleman, to Mr. Eandall 

 Alcock, of Bury, to Mr. Alderman Thompson, of Blackburn, to Mr. 

 Eichard Thompson, of Padiham, to Mr. Spencer, of Manchester, and 

 to Mr. GriflSths, of Liverpool, I am indebted for an abundant supply 

 of these ropes. 



It is not so much my object on this occasion to give a detailed 

 account of the many forms met with, as to give some general descrip- 

 tion of them, classifying them for the most part under the natural 

 orders to which they probably belong ; but I may preface these notes 

 with a short summary of the little which has already been written 

 concerning them. 



One of the earliest to minutely study this class of plants was 

 Charles Gaudichaud, a botanist who visited Chili, Peru, and the Brazils 



