180 REV. M. J, BERKELEY. 
voir) numerous little therein pre-existent, non-nucleated 
globular, but plastic, bodies, which during progression 
assume a fusiform figure (“spindles ”’). 
Specific characters :— 
Very variable in dimensions, in an early stage endo- 
parasitic, that is, living within the tissues of aquatic plants ; 
general mass, with or without subdivision, becoming periodi- 
cally repeatedly encysted ; enveloping coat hyaline, glossy, 
of a pale, yellowish colour, when viewed at margin (or 
through its greatest thickness); remaining thus long 
dormant, and in that condition the “spindles ” globular ; 
pigment-granules yellowish-green or bright red, rounded, 
or irregularly shaped, very dense; now and again putting 
on the energetic condition, and forming a highly ramified, 
arborescent structure, the central mass then presenting 
numerous rounded pulsating vacuoles; the “ filamentary 
tracks”? extremely slender, quite hyaline, the “spindles” 
bluish in colour, homogeneous in appearance, plastic, their 
progression slow, gradual, gliding ; when in motion, about 
spo t0 gasp Of an inch in length and about half so broad. 
On the Tureap Buicut or TEA. 
By the Rev. M. J. Berxe ey, M.A., F.L.S. 
Tue tea plant, like every other subject of cultivation, is 
exposed to its own peculiar enemies within the animal and 
vegetable kingdom. ‘The leaves are often mottled with black 
spots, which were first supposed to be due to a minute fungus, 
but which have been ascertained to be caused by a little bug 
belonging to the division Capside. 
There is, however, another affection, which seems to be 
equally destructive, which is known under the name of thread 
blight, which is undoubtedly due to a fungus which, under 
the form of white, creeping, mycelioid threads, runs over every 
part of the plant, even extending to other shrubs in the 
neighbourhood. ‘I'he specimens before us of an Andrachne 
trifoliata as well as the tea plant, and other shrubs have been 
attacked, as, for example, seedling chestnuts. The fungus 
itself is white, consisting of creeping, more or less flattened 
bodies, solid within but externally clothed with flexuous 
threads in which, as far as we have ascertained, there are no 
joints (fig.1). There was not the slightest trace of fructifica- 
