256 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE 



mirrors made of stainless steel, and a pampUet on pliotomicro- 

 graphy issued by a firm of photographic plate makers. The 

 mirrors, one plane and the other concave, give beautiful 

 images, and seem likely to be very satisfactory if it is possible 

 to prevent the surfaces from becoming tarnished or damaged 

 during use. 



Mr. J. T. Holder exhibited a series of lantern slides made from 

 his own preparations showing the structure of the cornea. These 

 were followed by several photographs taken by reflected light of 

 the heads of various insects and a spider. 



Dr. Rendle exhibited the inflorescence of an arum lily having a 

 second spathe or bract above the normal one. This second bract 

 was beginning to split, apparently indicating an attempt to form 

 a third spathe. 



The President then called upon Canon Bullock- Webster to give 

 his address on the Charophyta. These plants, said the Canon, 

 belong to a singularly unknown department of botany. It has been 

 found impossible to include them in any of the four great divisions 

 of the vegetable kingdom, and this small family of obscure and 

 lowly plants has accordingly been raised to the dignity of a 

 distinct division. The group is divided into two families, Nitelleae 

 and Chareae, which are distinguished the one from the other 

 by the coronula, a small group of cells which crowns the oogonium. 

 In Nitelleae the coronula is double-tiered, consisting of five cells, 

 each one having another cell growing from its distal extremity. 

 The coronula of Chareae consists of five single cells. The family 

 Nitelleae is divided into two genera, Nitella and Tolypella, there 

 being ten and four British species of each respectively. The 

 Chareae are divided into four genera, Chara, Nitellopsis, Lychno- 

 thamnus, and Lamprothamnus. There are sixteen British species 

 of Chara, one of the second, and one of the fourth, the third genus 

 being unrepresented. The total number of British Charophyta 

 is at present thirty-two, and of European species fifty-four. The 

 total number of species probably does not exceed two hundred, 

 and the last three genera are very rare. The commonest Nitella 

 in England is N. opaca ; it is dioecious, and has simple bifurcated 

 branches. Charophytes may always be distinguished by their 

 reproductive organs consisting of antheridium and oogonium. 

 The fruit consists of an oospore surrounded by a gelatinous 

 transparent envelope of five cells, which form a series of spirals 



