1107 



Utricular Structure of the Endochrome in a Species of Conferva. 



A paper by Prof, Allman, ' On the Utricular Structure of the Endo- 

 chrome in a Species of Conferva,' was read. 



The plant which constituted the subject of the communication, is 

 closely allied to Conferva Linum, and the author showed that the deep 

 green endochrome, when liberated from the cell, is seen to possess a 

 very definite utricular structure. Each utricle is filled with homo- 

 geneous green matter, which surrounds one or more peculiarly formed 

 starch granules. In many instances, urticles were met with of a large 

 size, and filled with a brood of secondary urticles, each containing ho- 

 mogeneous green contents, surrounding a nucleus-like starch granule. 



A long discussion followed the reading of this paper — which ulti- 

 mately turned upon the distinctions existing between the animal and 

 the vegetable kingdoms. 



Dr. Redfern dwelt on the importance of recognizing the function 

 of cell contents, as well as of cell-walls. Physiologists were too prone 

 to recognize the cell- wall, to the exclusion of what it contained. 



Dr. Walker- Am ott stated that he had recently heard that starch had 

 been found in the Medusae. If this were the case, the existence of starch 

 could be no longer claimed as characteristic of the vegetable kingdom. 



Prof Allman agreed with Dr. Lankester that the best expression to 

 be found for animal and vegetable life at present was, the general fact 

 of vegetable tissue giving off oxygen gas, and absorbing carbonic 

 acid, whilst animal tissue absorbed oxygen and gave off carbonic acid. 



Diatomace(B found in the Vicinity of Hull. 



Mr. J. D. Sollitt read a paper, prepared by himself, in conjunction 

 with Mr. R. Harrison, ' On the Diatomaceae found in the Vicinity of 

 Hull,' showing that the freshwater and marine Diatomaceae were 

 exceedingly numerous in this locality ; the beauty of the varied forms 

 of which were such as to delight the microscopist, and, at the same 

 time, some of them are highly useful as forming that class of test 

 objects for microscopes which are the best calculated of all others for 

 determining the excellence and powers of object glasses. As test 

 objects they were first discovered by the Hull microscopists, — and 

 have now been adopted as such by all the microscopists not only in 

 this but in all other countries. Mr. Harrison and Mr. Sollitt disco- 

 vered the markings on those delicate siliceous coverings as early as 

 1841. It was shown that the markings on those shells were so fine 

 as to range between 34,000 to 130,000 to the inch ; the Plurosigma 



