The Teast Plant 231 



where a new-formed crater had done great damage by bury- 

 ing the vegetation under volcanic dust, some of which he 

 exhibited. It consisted of small fragments of felspar and 

 of a basic glass (tachylite), but not of scoria. The first 

 outbreak corresponded very closely with the New Zealand 

 eruption of June loth, and the principal one with the 

 Charleston earthquake on Aug. 3ist. 



1887. Jan. 13th, 357th meeting. Mr. Thiselton-Dyer 

 stated that the yeast plant of Guinness' Brewery, Dublin, 

 had been found to differ from similar organisms in other 

 breweries. Differences also had been observed between the 

 yeast at the surface and that at the bottom. The yeast 

 plant in a first-class brewery appeared gradually to attain 

 a permanent form ; probably through one variety, under 

 specially favourable circumstances, gradually overpowering 

 the others. 



Feb. loth, 358th meeting. Dr. Giinther exhibited a 

 series of plates, prepared for a forthcoming volume in the 

 Challenger Expedition series, 1 to illustrate the deep-sea 

 fishes. All of them, with one exception, belonged to known 

 types, living near the surface (such, for example, as the 

 shark, cod, eel, and sea-devil), but specialized and modified 

 to adapt them to their altered conditions of life. Probably 

 all is darkness at greater depths than 100 fathoms. The 

 modification takes place along two lines. In one the eye 

 is very large, with a space beneath it filled with a slimy 

 substance, supposed to be capable of emitting light, so that 

 the fish may be said to carry its own lantern. In the other 

 case the eye is aborted, and the fish blind. Then the 

 light-emitting organs are dispersed in various ways about 

 the body. For instance, in Lophius, the lantern is at the end 

 of the ' fishing rod/ its supposed function being to attract 

 smaller creatures, which are snapped up, the jaws generally 

 having a wide gape. One or two of the illustrations showed 

 eel-like fishes which had swallowed, whole, other fishes much 

 thicker than themselves, so that the stomach was hugely 

 distended. 



1 Reports of Challenger Expedition (Zoology, vol. xxii.). 



