154 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Fre. 
a small tubercle, so as to give an appearance somewhat similar toa 
small acorn before it is ripe, and while still in its cup. Each of 
these spherical bodies sends a vessel into each of the spheres that 
surrounds it; so that the fossil resembles a kind of net-work. The 
usual size of the spheres is rather less than a peppercorn, and the 
vessels are as fine as hairs. No name has hitherto been given to this 
fossil. 
At the same meeting a specimen of an unknown fungus from 
Virginia, sent to the Society by Dr. Mitchell, was exhibited. It 
was very heavy, white, roundish, had a starchy smell, and when 
burned gave out ‘no animal odour. It was probably some tuber 
rather than a fungus. 
At the same meeting the remainder of Mr. Beechino’s paper on 
the British junci was read. 
On Tuesday, Dec. 17, a paper by Dr. Arnold was read, giving 
a description of a remarkable voleanic mountain in the island of 
Java. Dr. Arnold paid a visit to this mountain, and drew up his 
description of it on the spot. It is called by the natives Tankuban- 
prau. The road to it is very difficult, being through an almost 
impenetrable jungle. The crater has nearly the form of a truncated 
cone inverted. ‘The sides are about 500 feet high, and in many 
places nearly perpendicular. There is a small lake at the bottom 
filled with water, having the taste of a solution of sulphuric acids 
This water was boiling in several parts of the lake. But its tem- 
perature at the edge, taken by Dr. Horsfield, was 112°. It was 
surrounded by a soft mud, apparently a mixture of sulphur and 
clay. Dr. Arnold is of opinion that it occasionally emits flames, for 
the trees round its edge had the appearance of being scorched. On 
the west side of this crater, and merely separated from it by a thin 
diaphragm of rocks, is another crater, rather larger than the other, 
and having at its bottom a lake of cold water. From this cireum- 
stance Dr. Arnold concludes that the two craters, though so neat 
each other, had not any connexion. 
On Tuesday, Jan. 21, a paper by Sir James Edward Smith was 
read, on the Genus of Plants called Tofieldia. He described six 
species of this genus, the first five of which had hitherto been con 
founded together by botanists under the Linnean name anthericum 
caliculatum. 'These he called 
Tofieldia palustris, a native of Seotland, 
alpina, a native of Switzerland, 
stenopetala, 
cernua. 
