39 



petnally revolving and moving at different speeds across and about the 

 field of the microscope. They wind round and round and over and under 

 one another in graceful circles, yet never seem to impede each other, the 

 action of the cilia appearing always to keep them slightly apart. Many 

 of the specimens exhibited contain the germs of young volvocines sus- 

 pended in the jelly-like interior. These germs are also spherical, of a 

 deep green colour, and present the appearance of a mass of granules. 

 The germs can be seen in all stages of their growth, from the merest 

 rudiment to the young Volvox, about to burst from the parent sphere. 

 The number of young contained in each difi'ers considerably, varying from 

 four to sixteen in many hundreds of specimens examined ; by watching 

 for some time the actual bursting of the parent Volvox, and the extrusion 

 of the young — at once endowed with independent motion — may frequently 

 be seen. In conclusion, Mr. AUport stated that he had frequently en- 

 deavored to find some means of preserving the desmidiae as permanent 

 objects ; but the result fell so far short of the beauty of the fresh and 

 living specimens, so as to remind him of the barbarous custom, so common 

 in Tasmania, of cutting down our lovely fern trees, the growth of half a 

 century, to decorate streets, churches, and ball-rooms, where they become 

 monuments of faded wretchedness in the course of an hour. 



The special thanks of the meeting were accorded to Mr. Allport for his 

 very interesting exhibition of microscopic objects, and the business termi- 

 nated with the usual vote of thanks to the donors of presentations. 



