Microscopical Society. 3407 



Certificates in favour of L. S. Beale, Esq., 12, Wilton Place; Dr. Hamilton, 

 Grafton Street, Bond Street; and Charles C. Smith, Esq., Bury St. Edmunds, were 

 read, and ordered to be suspended in the meeting-room. 



William King, Esq., and Henry Perigal, Jun., Esq., were balloted for and duly 

 elected Members of the Society. 



Messrs. H. H. White and H. Dean were appointed Auditors of the Treasurer's 

 accounts for the past year. 



A paper by the Secretary, John Quekett, Esq., ' On the Structure of Raphides,' 

 was read. The author commenced by stating, that inorganic substances were formed 

 in plants under two circumstances : first, in crystals, as in the case of phosphate and 

 oxalate of lime; second, as a portion of the tissue, as in the case of silica in the bark 

 of equisetaceous and gramineous plants. The crystals were stellate, or single, from 

 the ^jth to the ^th of an inch in diameter. Single crystals of oxalate of lime were 

 octohedral ; those of phosphate of lime were acicular. Numerous plants were referred 

 to in which raphides were found, as in many species of Cactus, the lime, rhubarb, elm, 

 apple, onion, and other plants. The author exhibited drawings of artificial raphides 

 which had been prepared in the tissue of rice-paper, by the late Mr. Edwin Quekett, 

 by immersing the cells first in lime water, and afterwards in oxalic acid. In conclu- 

 sion, the author gave a detailed account of some stellate raphides, which he had 

 found in great abundance in a species of Cactus. On dissolving up the inorganic 

 matter of these crystals by means of hydrochloric acid, he was surprised to find that an 

 organic base was left perfectly similar in form to that of the crystal which had been 

 dissolved. From this fact Mr. Quekett inferred that all these crystals were deposited 

 with organic nature. He referred to the structure of calculi in the human and animal 

 body, which, he stated, were always deposited upon or with an organic base, as proof 

 that this law was general, and that the deposition of inorganic salts in the tissues of 

 plants and animals was always connected with the growth of organic matter. 



A paper by the Rev. J. Thornton, ' On the Pupa of an Insect bearing considerable 

 resemblance to an Aphis,' was read. A few meetings since, specimens and a drawing 

 of the exuviae of an insect whose head, body and legs, were beautifully fringed with 

 leaf-like appendages, were exhibited to the Society. Since that time the author has 

 continued his researches, and the object of the present communication was to show 

 that he considered he had discovered the insect to which these exuviae belong. His 

 reasons for inferring that the insect now described is the one produced from the exuviae 

 before mentioned, are founded — first, on the habitat, the exuviae, pupa and imago, 

 having been found on the same leaf of Acer campestre ; second, on the colour and 

 texture ; third, on the general form and aspect ; and, fourth, on the similarity of the 

 details of the antennae and other peculiarities, among which the change of the leaf- 

 like appendages in the pupa to corresponding bristles on the perfect insect were men- 

 tioned, leading, in his opinion, to the inference, that the Phillophorus testudinatus, as 

 he proposed to call it, is the pupa of an undescribed species of Aphis, forming a new 

 species if not a new genus. — /. W. 



