[2 J tuf: vIClonIA^' XAXUEALiftT 



(Amaderia Javaiiicns i ; Masters Gr. and H. Hill, Lepidoptera 

 recently collected at Windsor ; Gr. Coghiil, coleoptera from 

 Plenty liiver ; F. G. A. Barnard, hymenoptera and coleoptera, 

 including Schizorheria Phillipsi, recently collected from off the 

 prickly flowering box now in flower (Bursaria spiiiosa) ; and 

 J. E. Prince, Mantis religiosa or praying Mantis. 



After a pleasant conversazione, during which it was mentioned 

 that the list of subscribers to the club's new journal, '* The 

 Victorian Xaturalist," was rapidly increasing, the meeting 

 separated. 



ON SOME RECENT MICROSCOPICAL WORK ON 

 YEGETAL TISSUES. 



By the Editoe. 



An impetus has been given to the more careful .study of vegetal 

 tissues by Mr. Walter Gardiner's paper, published last year. He 

 accounts for the unity of life in the cells of the same plant by 

 maintaining that the protoplasm is actually continuous from cell 

 to cell through miiuite ap; rtures in the cellulose walls. He says 

 that by the use of certain reagents he was able to make out the 

 continuity clearly in the cushions of Mimosa and other sensitive 

 plants. His observations have been questioned, notably on the 

 other side of the Atlantic. The question is still an open one, 

 and attracting much attention in England at the present time. 

 An honoured member of the F. N. C. — Dr. Ralph, the President 

 of the Microscopical Society — following up Mr. Gardiner's ex- 

 periments, has arrived at some curious results, of which we 

 propose to give a short account. 



In a paper read before the Eoyal Society of Victoria in May, 

 Dr. Ralph announced his discovery of Bacteria in living cells of 

 Vallisneria and Anacharis. The plants were healthy, and the 

 only «^xceptional circumstances to which they were exposed, 

 seemed to be a high temperature, 100°E. at times, and the 

 flood of light on all sides through the glass vessel in w^hich 

 they were grown. That these were not the cause of the 

 presence of the Bacteria may be surmised from Dr. Ralph's more 

 recent detection of these organisms in Camellia, Vinca major. 

 Arum aethiopicum and Erythrina. The Bacteria were in all cases 



