Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 



67 



they presented the appearance of a white cottony or flocculent mat- 

 ter attached to the animal. Under the microscope it presented two 

 distinct structures, which were severally cellular and non-cellular. 

 The former consisted of long tubes divided into elongated cells by 

 distinct partitions. At the proximal end of several of these cells was 

 a transparent vesicle about *01 of a millimetre in diameter, which 

 the author considered to be a nucleus. Some of the cells were filled 

 with a granular matter ; others however were empty, the granules 

 having escaped through a rupture of the tube or of the cellular walls. 

 Besides these there were long filaments about "06 of a millimetre in 

 diameter, which apparently sprung from the sides of the cellular 

 tubes. They were uniform in size throughout their whole length, 

 and were formed of an external delicate diaphanous sheath, and an 

 internal more solid transparent matter. This vegetable structure 

 sprung from a finely granular amorphous mass. Fungi of a similar 

 kind were also found in the lungs of a man who died of pulmonary 

 consumption, and from whose lungs they were also copiously dis- 

 charged in the expectoration during life. The vegetable structure 

 in this instance consisted of tubes, jointed at regular intervals, and 

 giving off branches generally dichotomous. They varied in diameter 

 from '01 to *02 of a millimetre, and appeared to spring without any 

 root from an amorphous, soft, finely granular mass. They gave off 

 at their extremities numerous oval, round or oblong corpuscles, ar- 

 ranged in bead-like rows, which were considered reproductive spo- 

 rules. The same appearances were found in the soft cheesy matter 

 lining some of the tubercular cavities after death. The author had 

 likewise an opportunity of examining the my coder matous vegeta- 

 tions which constitute in man that disease of the skin named Porrigo 

 Lupinosa, and gave a particular account of them as seen under the 

 microscope. He also supplied a bibliographical account of all that 

 had been previously done in this obscure and interesting subject, 

 and concluded by remarking, 1st. That these vegetations are not the 

 cause, but the result of disease in animals ; 2nd. That they grow 

 upon the inorganic matters effused into the different textures, which 

 are probably of an albuminous or tubercular nature ; 3rd. That they 

 only occur in animals or in parts of animals, previously weakened 

 by circumstances inducing imperfect nourishment ; and 4th. That 

 the indications for treatment are, 1st, to invigorate the system, and 

 2nd, to apply locally, if possible, such applications as tend to destroy 

 vegetable life. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



December 9, 1 84 1 .—Professor Balfour (of Glasgow), and subse- 

 quently Professor Graham, in the Chair. 

 Communications were read — 



1. On the groups Triandrce and Fragiles "of the genus Salix, by 

 the Rev. J. E. Leefe, Audley End, Essex. 



" Whoever would study the willows with success, must see them 

 growing at different seasons of the year ; for fragments gathered 

 at one season only serve to perplex and confuse the botanist. An- 



F 2 



