PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 31 



Henslow demonstrated his theory by some ingeniously contrived 

 apparatus, rendering abstruse points easily comprehensible. 



November 20, 1879.— Prof. Allman, F.R.S., President, in the 

 chair. Messrs. Winslow Jones, of Exeter, and William Wickham, 

 of Alton, Hants, were elected Fellows of the Society.— Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, C.B., exhibited a specimen of, and read a paper on, the 

 discovery of a variety of the Cedar of Lebanon on the mountains 

 of Cyprus, with a letter thereupon from Sir Samuel Baker, F.R.S. 

 This tree differs from known forms of Cedras in the shortness of the 

 leaves and in the smallness of the female cones, &c. The name 

 C. Libani yar. brevifoUa seems therefore appropriate for this Cyprus 

 cedar. Sir S. Baker was informed by the monks of Trooditissa of 

 its existence, and they believed it to be the scriptural " Chittim- 

 wood." The trees are very scarce, and only grow in a secluded 

 spot ; the wood is of superior quality. Mr. E. M. Holmes exhibited 

 microscopic slides of rare British Lichens, Hepatic®, and Fresh- 

 water Algae. An alga, which had been found to choke the filter- 

 beds at Bradgate Reservoir, Leicester, was shown to be a form 

 apparently hitherto undescribed, and bearing resemblances to 

 Znoffkea, although the Rev. M. J. Berkeley had believed it to be the 

 Kehinella articulate of 'English Botany.' Mr. Holmes likewise 

 exhibited the leaves, flowers, and portion of the trunk of Andira 

 Araroba, the tree yielding Goa powder. This powder derived its 

 name from the Portuguese colony of Goa, in India, where it had 

 long been used as a remedy for obstinate cases of ringworm. Its 

 source for many years had been a mystery, and on account of the 

 drug yielding a large quantity of clirysophanic acid, it had been 

 supposed to be prepared from some lichen. Quite recently it had 

 been found that the dry cane came from Bahia, by way of Lisbon, 

 and was thence exported to the east. The secretion appears to 

 corrode and destroy the woody tissue, and ultimately itself becomes 

 deposited, filling the cavities of the heartwood.— Mr. H. Marshall 

 A\ ard read an important paper, « Contributions to our Knowledge 

 of the Embryo -sac of Phanerogams.' In this contribution the 

 following plants have been systematically examined, and the 

 various stages of the ovule delineated, viz., Butomus umbellatus, 

 Alisma Ptentago, Anemone japoiiica, Lupinus venusta, (Enothem 

 biennis,^ Pyrethrum bahaminata , Anthemis tinctoria, Lobelia syphilitica, 



and Verbaseum phlomoides. After describing the microscopical 

 sections, the author compares these with the accounts of Stras- 

 burger, Vesque, and Wanning, but his own researches lead him to 

 adopt a modified view of the cell division and development. He 

 advances the following :— The ovule, so far as its nucleus is 

 concerned, arises as a group of cells which divide and become 

 arranged in groups of sister cells symmetrically related to the 

 shape of the whole organ ; one cell group leads in growth, and, 

 fulfilling a speoial purpose, becomes the embryo-sac. Further 

 feeble division of this latter produces a watery cell with two 

 nuclei. Each nucleus again produces four nuclei by bipartite 

 division, followed by grouping, and a nucleus from the top -roup 

 moves towards the middle sap cavity. Each group of four cells is 



