198 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



the life problem, which caused a good deal of discussion, in which 

 nearly all present took part. 



5th January, 1877. 

 Mr. J. Harvie, Vice-President, in the chair. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



By Mr. R, H. Paterson. — Three states of the alga, called the 

 Irish Moss, Chondrus crispus, from Innellan. One from deep water, 

 where the plants were long and very delicate ; one from shallow 

 water, where the fronds were very broad and coarse ; and one, from 

 rocks about mid-tide. This latter is the ordinary state of the alga. 

 The dried plant, when mixed with milk and boiled, forms admirable 

 food for infants. He also exhibited a number of fungi, mosses, and 

 liverworts, from the hills about Innellan, some of them being rare. 



By Mr. James Allan. — A number of specimens of fungi and 

 products derived from Cryptogams in illustration of his paper on 

 Economic Cryptogamy. 



PAPER READ. 



"On Economic Cryptogamy," by Mr, James Allan. In this 

 paper he treated of the uses of Cryptogams in nature, and of 

 the products derived from them in commerce. He noticed the fact 

 that diatoms secreted silica, and have probably been the first cause 

 of the great beds of silica frequently found ; as foramenifera have 

 perhaps been of lime. He stated that the great beds of nitrate of 

 soda in South America, nitrate of potass in India, and muriate 

 of potass in Germany, have probably been derived from algae. He 

 also noticed the quantities of soil laid down by lichens decaying, 

 forming a suitable pabulum for higher races of plants, the uses of 

 fungi as scavengers, the beds of soil and peat formed by mosses, 

 and the small effect ferns have had in moulding the world into its 

 present shape, although the spores may sometimes form the inflammable 

 part of coal. He described the inflammable clay of the Island of 

 Reunion, which had been found to consist altogether of the spores of 

 ferns. He then noticed the products useful to man derived from crypto- 

 gams, and exhibited specimens of potasses, iodine, bromine, kelp, crotal, 



