945 



Microscopical Society of London. 



January 26, 1853. — George Jackson, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Stellate Bodies in the Cells of Fresh-water Alga. 



A paper by the Rev. Wm. Smith, ' On the Stellate Bodies occur- 

 ring in the Cells of Fresh-water Algae,' was read. 



After referring to the papers by Mr. Shadbolt, ' On the Sporangia 

 of some of the Filamentous Fresh-water Algae,' published in the third 

 volume of the ' Transactions of the Microscopical Society,' the author 

 stated that the stellate bodies which form the subject of this paper are 

 not, in his opinion, the result of conjugation, as supposed by Mr. 

 Shadbolt, but of some disease affecting the cells in which they are 

 found, being, in fact, bodies of a parasitic, or perhaps of a fungoid, 

 growth, consequent upon the degeneration of the cell-contents. To 

 these star-like bodies he proposes to give the name of Asteridia, and 

 adduced various facts which he considered as confirmatory of the opi- 

 nion he had brought forward, of these bodies being examples of a 

 singular and far from common monstrosity, produced by a peculiar 

 disease affecting that curious and interesting class of plants. 



Fungus, 8gc., in a living Oak Tree. 



A paper by Professor Quekett, ' On the Presence of a Fungus, and 

 of Masses of Crystalline Matter, in the Interior of a living Oak Tree,' 

 was read. 



Mr. Quekett stated that while dining with a pic-nic party in Marl- 

 borough Forest, in the immediate vicinity of the ' King Oak,' a large 

 limb of a neighbouring oak fell with a loud crash. On investigating 

 the fractured portion, which was nearly three feet in diameter, the 

 centre was seen to be covered with a white filamentous mass, studded 

 here and there with numerous crystals. When examined microsco- 

 pically, the white mass was found to be made up entirely of the fibres 

 of a minute fungus, many spores of which were adherent to the fibres. 

 The crystals were mostly of a tabular form, and were ultimately con- 

 nected with the fungus, their composition being probably some salt 

 of lime. No indications of decay were to be observed on the outside 

 of the branch, nor any external wound whereby the spores could 

 have gained access to the interior. All the parts of the wood in the 

 neighbourhood of the fungus were rather softer than usual, and the 

 woody fibres having been displaced by the growth of the filaments, 



