PEOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 57 



The researches of Professors Morris and Huxley, Mr. Carruthers, 

 and Dr. Dawson of Canada, pointed to the fact that the great bulk of 

 the bituminous coal consisted of sporangia and spores of plants allied 

 to our existing club-mosses, while thin sections of coal which he 

 would show at the Microscopical Meeting revealed the fact that the 

 chief elements in their composition were these said sjjores and spore- 

 cases, the latter about o^^rd of an inch in diameter, somewhat resem- 

 bKng bags or sacs, more or less flattened, and containing the former, 

 irregularly-rounded bodies about y^th of an inch in diameter. 



The processes by which coal was suj)posed to have been found 

 from vegetable matter, and many other interesting points, were dis- 

 cussed, and the paper illustrated by specimens and fossils from 

 diflSerent coal-fields. 



A vote of thanks was given to Mr. Wonfor. 



April 27th. — Microscopical Meeting. Mr. T. H. Hennah in the 

 chaii'. 



Mr. R. Glaisyer announced the receii^t of two slides, one a section 

 of the morel, for the cabinet, fi'om Mr. Wonfor. 



Mr. Hennah read a very interesting communication fi'om Dr. 

 Addison " On the Water Flea " {Baphnia jmlex), containing original 

 observations on the moulting of the carapace of the female and the 

 birth of young Daphnia fi-om agamic eggs, from which it would ajjpear 

 that the two acts are simultaneous. 



Mr. Marshall Hall exhibited a new pocket-lamp by Moginie, of 

 London, which ai^peared to be a very compact and portable ajiparatus. 



Mr. Wonfor exhibited a fresh specimen of the morel (Morchelia 

 esculenta) obtained near Brighton. 



The meeting then became a conversazione, when 



Mr. Marshall Hall exhibited S2)icules of the new sponge {PTiero- 

 nema Grayii), di-edged up by him off the coast of Spain. 



Mr. Sewell exhibited scalariform tissue of fern, sections of cocoa- 

 nut wood, whalebone, &c. 



Mr. Hennah, under one of Beck's new yV^h immersion lenses, 

 exhibited living diatoms. The performance of this lens was pro- 

 noimced perfect, the definition being very precise, while the distance 

 at which it worked was an ordinary live-box cover. The same objects 

 were also shown with a Gundlach's y^^^j which gave very good defi- 

 nition. 



Mr. Wonfor exhibited sections of the morel, showing the spores in 

 their receptacles ; sections of coal fossils, by Norman, of City Eoad, 

 London, in which leaves, roots, and stems of Lepidodendra, &c., were 

 well seen ; sections of coal made by Mr. Slade, and described in the 

 January part of the ' Quekett Club Journal,' and kindly lent for the 

 occasion ; and a series of sections of coal and lignite made by himself, 

 including Torbane hill, white coal of Tasmania, brown coal of 

 Bohemia, the Bradford Belter Bed, &c., in which not only woody fibre, 

 but also spores and sporangia, were distinctly made out ; these were 

 in illustration of his paper " On Coal," read at the last Ordinary 

 Meeting. 



In the course of the evening Mr. Wonfor illustrated the method 



