32 



removed ; its frauiing was entirely decayed, and beneath it was found 

 a root-like portion of the fungus descending nearly perpendicularly 

 to the depth of sixteen inches. In the aisle the seats were not 

 affected, and it was presumed that they had not been reached by the 

 fungus ; but on taking up the paving-stones of that aisle, it was 

 found to have approached within a foot of the reading-desk, growing 

 from the seats of the opposite side of the aisle in the form of a serai- 

 circle increasing gradually on all sides. 



Mr. Holdsworth is convinced that one plant, beginning near the 

 south door, was the cause of all the mischief; when, however, the 

 whole of the paving of the aisles was removed, other plants were 

 found spreading in a fine film under it in a circular form, and six or 

 eight inches in diameter ; and these, when carefully taken up, were 

 seen to have a stem in the centre running two inches or more into 

 the ground, and usually attached to a bit of decayed wood. Thus 

 the habit of the plant appears to be to travel on through grooves or 

 under pavements, and in other concealed places, where it can find 

 wood on which to feed, and which it renders dry and of a character 

 as if destroyed by fire. Mr. Holdsworth exhibited dried specimens 

 of the fungus in various states, which he has presented to the British 

 Museum. 



Notice of a peculiar Structure of the Cells on the surface of Calli- 

 triche verna. By E. Lankester, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



The peculiar cells described by Dr. Lankester were found by him, 

 in the summer of 1849, on the stems of a specimen of Callitriche 

 verna preserved in a glass vessel with other water plants. They 

 project from the surface of the plants, are of a stellate form, and 

 consist of a central cell surrounded by six or eight others. They are 

 easily detached from the epidermal tissue, and may thus readily be 

 procured for microscopic examination. They vary in size as well as 

 frequency, and are not confined to the stem, but occur also on the 

 leaves; and Dr. Lankester is inclined to believe that they are most 

 abundant in the younger states of the plant. In the first stages of 

 their growth they are to be distinguished from the surrounding cells 

 only by their peculiar arrangement ; but as the development proceeds, 

 the epidermal (including these stellate) cells contain a smaller propor- 

 tion of chlorophyll than those under and above them on either side 

 of the leaf, and become gradually freer from cell-contents, until at 



