112 REPORT — 1860. 



KTiara, created beings — both Protophyta and Protozoa; and would also include 

 the Sponges or Amorphozoa of M. de Blainville, although Mr. J. Hogg thought 

 it better to substitute for the latter the name of Ainorphoctista, derived from 

 a/xop(f)os, formless, and ktkttii, creatures or organisms. 



Some having compared the Vegetable and Animal Kingdom's to two pyramids, 

 which diverge from each other as they ascend, but are placed on a common base, 

 the author conceived that that base might fairly represent the Primigenal King- 

 dom, which embraces the lower or primary organisms of both the former, but 

 which are of a doubtful nature, and can, in some instances, only be considered as 

 having become blended or mingled together. 



An accompanying diagram was exhibited, which represented the two pyramids 

 springing from the same base : one, coloured yellow, denoted the Vegetable King- 

 dom ; the other was tinged blue, and signified the Animal Kingdom ; whilst the 

 base, common to both, was coloured green, which was intended to show by the 

 union of the two former colours the blending of the two natures of the lower 

 created beings comprised in the fourth, or Primigenal Kingdom. These pyramids, 

 with their base, stood on a foundation tinged brown, thereby signifying the eai*th 

 and the Mineral Kingdom. 



On the Normal and Abnormal Variations from an assumed Type hi Plants. 



By M. T. Masters. 



The paper was illustrated by a large number of recent and dried forms of mon- 

 strous plants and parts of plants. 



In this paper there was an attempt to show that no definite limits could be 

 drawn between what are termed Variations and Monstrosities. Numerous instances 

 of extreme degrees of variation and of polymorphism in plants, apparently depend- 

 ent on external circumstances, were exhibited; among them two specimens of 

 Ficus stipularis, the one taken from a plant grown against a wall, the other from a plant 

 of the same species, and derived from the same original stock, but which had been 

 treated as a standard. The differences in habit, size, form and texture of the leaves 

 and other parts were such, that had the two specimens not been taken from the 

 9ame plant, it woidd have been difficult to believe that they could have belonged to 

 the same species. Allusion was made to the changes that naturally take place dining 

 the growth of some plants, and to the fact that a condition which is unnatural in 

 one plant is the common condition in another. So also irregularity of growth, as 

 it is the constant condition in some plants, and for many other reasons, cannot be 

 considered an abnormal variation. On the other hand, Peloria, or a return to typical 

 regularity, can hardly be considered abnormal. Again, certain changes which are 

 physiologically abnormal are not so morphologically. The paper concluded with a 

 review of the principal points of distinction between variations and malformations, 

 a review which showed that no arbitrary* line coidd be drawn between them. 



On the Structure of Fern Stems. By G. Ogilvie, 3I.D. 



The object of this communication was to determine the arrangement and rela- 

 tions of those tissues in Ferns commonly regarded as analogous to the vascular and 

 woody elements of the stems of the higher plants. 



In the case of the former the correspondence may be admitted without much 

 hesitation, from the close resemblance of the vascular bundles of ferns to those of 

 endogenous stems ; the fasciculi in both being imbedded separately in the general 

 parenchyma, and each surrounded by a layer of soft cambium tissue. The peculi- 

 arities of the Fern consist in the polygonal form and ladder-like or scalariform 

 markings of its elongated cells or vessels, and in the disposition of the fasciculi, so 

 as to form, by their anastomosis, the reticulated wall of a hollow cylinder, imbedded 

 in the general parenchyma of the stem — an arrangement which is rarely departed 

 from in our British ferns, though in Pteris aquilina we find in addition two broad 

 vascular bauds in the central part of the stem, and in Osmunda and HymenophyUum 

 we have the netted cylinder replaced by a central vascular cord, as in the Lycopo- 

 diaceaj. The correspondence of the hard tissues to the true stem-wood of the 

 higher plants is more open to objection, notwithstanding the occasional resemblance 

 in their minute structure, The so-called woody fibres of ferns are never, like those 



