3892 Microscopical Society. 



Mr. G. R. Waterhouse read a revision of the synonymy of the British species of the 

 genera Hydrochus and Ochthebius, founded upon an examination of the specimens in 

 the collection of the late Mr. J. F. Stephens, now in the British Museum ; the result 

 being that in the majority of instances the names given or adopted by Mr. Stephens, 

 and for which others had been substituted on the continent, would remain. 



Mr. Westwood hoped that advantage would be taken of the acquisition by the 

 Museum of Mr. Stephens's collections, and the facilities of investigation thereby af- 

 forded, to work up other genera or groups of our indigenous insects. He was con- 

 vinced that, as in the memoir just read by Mr. Waterhouse, one result would be the 

 vindication of Mr. Stephens's reputation from the aspersions which, he was sorry to 

 say, had recently been cast upon it abroad. 



Mr. Westwood read a memoir intituled " Descriptions of new Species of Coleo- 

 pterafrom China and Ceylon," illustrated by figures of the principal species. — J. W.D. 



Proceedings of the Microscopical Society. 



January 26, 1853.— George Jackson, Esq., President, in the chair. 



A paper by the Rev. Wm. Smith, "On the Stellate Bodies occurring in the Cells 

 of Fresh-water Alga?," was read. After referring to the papers by Mr. Shadbolt, " On 

 the Sporangia of some of the filamentous Fresh-water Algae," published in the 3rd 

 volume of the ■ Transactions of the Microscopical Society,' the author stated that the 

 stellate bodies which form the subject of this paper, are not, in his opinion, the result 

 of conjugation, as supposed by Mr. Shadbolt, but of some disease affecting the cells in 

 which they are found, being, in fact, bodies of a parasitic, or, perhaps, of a fungoid 

 growth, consequent upon the degeneration of the cell-contents. To these star-like 

 bodies he proposes to give the name of Asteridia, and adduced various facts which he 

 considered as confirmatory of the opinion he had brought forward, of these bodies be- 

 ing examples of a singular and far from common monstrosity, produced by a peculiar 

 disease affecting that curious and interesting class of plants. 



A paper by Professor Quekett, "On the presence of a Fungus, and of masses of 

 Crystalline Matter in the interior of a living Oak Tree,'' was also read. Mr. Quekett 

 stated that while dining with a pic-nic party in Marlborough Forest, in the immediate 

 vicinity of the King Oak, a large limb of a neighbouring oak fell with a loud crash. 

 On investigating the fractured portion, which was nearly 3 feet in diameter, the centre 

 was seen to be covered with a white filamentous mass, studded here and there with 

 numerous crystals. When examined microscopically, the white mass was found to be 

 made up entirely of the fibres of a minute fungus, many spores of which were adher- 

 ent to the fibres. The crystals were mostly of a tabular form, and were ultimately 

 connected with the fungus, their composition being probably some salt of lime. No 

 indications of decay were to be observed on the outside of the branch, nor any exter- 

 nal wound whereby the spores could have gained access to the interior. All the parts 

 of the wood in the neighbourhood of the fungus were rather softer than usual, and the 

 woody fibres having been displaced by the growth of the filaments, cavities were form- 

 ed, and in these the crystals were the most abundant. The occurrence of a fungus in 

 t'.ic heart of a living oak tree, the author believed had never yet been recorded, and its 



