lOi REPORT 1873. 



task which lies before him — uo mere pastime ou which he may enter with trivial 

 purpose, as though it were but the amusement of an hour ; it is a great and solemn 

 mission, to which he must devote himself with earnest mind and with loving heart, 

 remembering the noble words of Bacon :— 



" Knowledge is not a couch whereon to rest a searching and restless spirit ; nor 

 a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair 

 prospect ; nor a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon ; nor a fort or 

 commanding ground for strife and contention ; nor a shop for proiit and sale ; but 

 a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate." 



Botany. 

 On Parasitic Algce. By W. Archer. 



Gn a Tree-Aloe from Souih-East Africa. By T. Baines. 



On the Plants collected in Bermuda by Mr. H. N. Moseley. 

 By Professor Thiselton Dter, B.A. 



On the Crystals in the Testa and Pericarp of certain Plants*. 

 By Professor Gulliver, F.R.S. 



The author, remarking how much microscopists have of late been interested by 

 the diverse appearances on the surface of certain seeds, expresses his opinion that 

 the value of observations of this kind might be much increased if they were carried 

 a little deeper into the texture of the seed-coat and pericarp. In one or other of these 

 parts he finds short prismatic crystals, apparently of oxalate of lime, constantly present 

 in many plants, and as constantly absent from the same parts of other plants ; and, 

 as regards the frequent and true remark that such crystals occur in numberless plants, 

 he submits that this is no answer to the rational question as to the orders or species 

 which are or are not characterized by certain saline crystals in the testa or other 

 part of the plant. Illustrative drawings were exhibited of the crystals in Geranium 

 and Ribes ; and of the crystals in Ulmus and Compositne engravings had been pub- 

 lished in the ' Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,' July 1873, and 'Science 

 Gossip,' May 1873. In the present paper he describes the crystals in Tiliacese, Ace- 

 racese, Geraniacese, Grossulariacese, Composites, PrimulaceiB, and Dioscoreacese. 



The crystals occur regularlj' studded in plainly defined cells and, though, very 

 variable in size, have an average diameter of about -^-^-^^-^ of an inch, and in form 

 are square, oblong, lozenge-shaped, commonly belong to one or other of the pris- 

 matic systems, but often are merely granular or otherwise iiTegular like certain starch- 

 granules, though easily distinguishable therefrom by the iodine test. The author, 

 in conclusion, expressed the hope that both neophytes and experts would pay more 

 attention to this branch of phytotomy, especially as such observations, and the 

 minute structure of plants generally, have been and still are sadly neglected in 

 even the most comprehensive books of descriptive, botany and micrography. 



On the Mosses of the West Riding of Yorlcshire. By Charles P. Hobkirk, 

 President of Huddersjield Naturalists' Society\f. 



The list of West-Riding Mosses at the end of this paper, numbering nearly 300, 

 chiefly made up from the author's own observations and those of his friends, was 



* Printed in exfen.%0 with additions and a plate in the ' Monthly Microscopical Journal ' 

 for December 1873. 



t Published i>i e-vfenno in tlic 'Journal of Botany." Xew Series, vol. ii. p. .127 ef -^eq. 



I 



