£1010 : REPORT— 1896, 7 
fossil-botanists ; but we may hope that the subject, now that its importance is 
beginning to be appreciated, will be taken up by a new generation of enthusiastic 
investigators. 
CoNncLuUsIon. 
To my mind there is a wonderful fascination in the records of the far-distant 
past in which our own origin, like that of our distant cousins the plants, lies 
hidden. If any fact is brought home to us by the investigations of modern 
biology, it is the conviction that all life is one: that, as Nigeli said, the distance 
from man to the lowest bacterium is less than the distance from the lowest bac- 
terium to non-living matter. 
In all studies which bear on the origin and past history of living things there 
is an element of human interest— 
‘ Hence, in a season of calm weather, 
Though inland far we be, 
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea 
Which brought us hither,’ 
The problems of descent, though strictly speaking they may often prove insoluble, 
will never lose their attraction for the scientifically guided imagination. 
The following Report and Papers were read :-—— 
1. Report on Methods of Preparing Vegetable Specimens for Museums. 
See Reports, p. 684. 
2. On some Species of the Chytridiaceous Genus Urophlyctis. 
By P. Macnus, Professor of Botany in the University of Berlin. 
The author maintains the genus Urophilyctis, established by J. Schroeter, in 
opposition to the opinion cf Alfred Fischer. He describes the development of the 
species Urophlyctis Kriegeriana, occurring in Carwm carvi, established by him 
some years ago, and shows that its spores are formed by the conjugation of two 
cells, arising from different filaments, and that the development of the fungus 
takes place within a single cell of the host, namely, the central cell of the gall 
produced by it, which is of limited growth. The author proves that the fungus 
observed by Trabut in Algiers, which causes large swellings on beetroots, also 
belongs to this genus Urophlyctis. It was described by Trabat and also by 
Saccardo and Mattirolo as one of the Ustilaginese, Gtdomyces leproides (Trab.). 
The author proves that its spores are likewise formed by the conjugation of two 
cells, arising from different filaments, exactly as in Urophlyctis. While these 
observers state that the fungus developes in individual cells of the tumours caused 
by it, the author shows that the cells containing the fungus are connected with 
one another by canals of variable length and width, and that hence the cells con- 
taining the fungus are only outgrowths and branches of one and the same cell. 
The species only differs from Urophlyctis Kriegeriana in the unlimited growth of the 
eae which corresponds to the continued ramification of the cell attacked by the 
fungus. 
Finally, the author deals with the development of the gall of Urophlyctis 
pulposa, which difiers from that of the species already described. 
3. A Parasitic Disease of Pellia epiphylla. 
By W. G. P. Evuts, WA., Cambridge. 
A disease extending over a pan of Pedlia epiphylia at the University Botanic 
Garden, Cambridge, during May and June, 1896, was found to be caused by a 
— 
