Miscellanies. ' 367 



13. Collection of Saurian Remains^ made ly Mr. HawTcins. 



This unparalleled collection has been purchased for the British mu- 

 seum, on the appraisement of Prof, Buckland and Dr. Mantell, for 

 £1400 sterling. We are much gratified to learn that so splendid 

 an addition — unique among fossils — lias been secured to the British 

 National Museum. 



14. Some olservations on a disease affecting the leaves of the 

 vine, and on a new species of Mucedinea, by J. E, Duby. Read 

 before the Society de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, 

 2d October, 1834; and taken from the Memoirs of this Socie- 

 ty, T. vii. Part i. (Bibliotheque Universelle des Sciences, kc. 

 Fevrier, 1835. p. 128. Svo. Geneva.)— It is certainly remark- 

 able with what astonishing rapidity the vines along the Lake have 

 this year been deprived of their leaves, although the fogs and rains, 

 their usual enemies, have been quite unfrequenl. On an attentive 

 esammation of these leaves, I observe on their inferior surface a 

 greenish ferruginous down, and in so great abundance as to cover 

 one s clothes on coming in contact with them. Examined with a 

 lens, it presents the appearance of a w^oolly felt with a silvery ex- 

 tremity to the fibres, and it is soon recognized as a fungus of the 



fapriily Mucedineffi. 



It first appears here and there on the inferior surface of the leaf in 

 small lufts of a deep green color, which by degrees extend them- 

 selves, till shortly they cover it entirely. These tufts proceed from 

 the parenchyma, and are composed of numerous straight jointed 

 filaments interlacing one another* Immersion in water alters much 

 the appearance of the plant. When dry, the joints appear twisted, 

 are contracted in some parts, and dilated in others. In water, they 

 immediately inflate themselves, become cylindrical, and exliibit 2-5 

 transverse striae, which appear to be septae or partitions. Each fila- 

 nient is composed of 1-T of these joints, quite unequal in size, and 

 HI the number of their stride. Almost immediately on its immersion 

 m water the joints separate from one another, and arrange themselves 

 side by side. 



These characters prove the plant to belong to the family Mu- 



6 



) 



the filaments are wholly or in part moniliform, the joints separating 

 themselves to become the stock of a new filament, and sometimes 



