JONES ON SPIRAL VESSELS IN EVERNIA FRUNASTltf. 177 



common with certain true denizens of the animal kingdom than is ordi- 

 narily the case in the vegetable cell — (so far as we can at present see) 

 the former, viewed retrospectively, have had an origin different from 

 the animal which they may simulate, and, viewed prospectively, have 

 before them a different destiny. 



Whether I may eventually be right or wrong in the opinions in this 

 paper ventured to be put forward (and in regard to which it were folly 

 otherwise to aver than that I am not so wedded to them, as to be un- 

 prepared to relinquish them on sufficiently cogent evidence on the other 

 side, though as yet I feel compelled to hold a present belief in their 

 soundness), or whether such opinions may accord with those of others — 

 the fact will still remain the same, that the membraneless primordial 

 cells of the vegetable Stephanosphaera temporarily became amoeboid, and 

 crawled about as quasi-rhizopods ; nor will that fact per se have lost its 

 interest, I trust, on account of my tedious and awkward method of 

 handling it. I add this, then, as another example of such a phenomenon 

 to those already recorded in Volvox, Moss-radicles and Rhizidium, as 

 one more humble contribution to the as yet indeed but comparatively 

 slender stock of facts gleaned from the vegetable side of the organic 

 world which bear on the question which I have ventured to discuss, and 

 from which, when by degrees hereafter enlarged and strengthened, it is 

 to be hoped that ultimately the Truth, as regards that question, may be 

 evolved. 



The following gentlemen were elected Corresponding Members of 

 the Society :— William Harte, Esq., C. E., F. R. G. S. I., Donegal ; 

 Alfred Gahan, Esq., C. E., Omagh; Captain J. C. Ingham, Athlone; and 

 Rev. Michael B. Cox, Glenties, Co. Donegal. 



The meeting then adjourned till June. 



FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1864. 



Robert J. Montgomery, Esq., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the preceding General Meeting, having been read, 

 were confirmed. 



The following paper was then read : — 



On the Occurrence of Spiral Vessels in the Thallus of Evernia 

 prtjnastri (Ach. ; Linn. sp.). By Admiral T. Jones, E. L. S., 

 F. G. S. 



Whilst examining the Thallus of Evernia prunastri, gathered at Cur- 

 raghmore, my object being to ascertain whether certain dark spots on 

 it were parasitic, fungoid, or of insect origin, I was surprised to find 

 bundles of spiral vessels. The portion under examination on the table 

 of the microscope was necessarily very minute. I satisfied myself that 



