53 



tained by the latter, he finds that in the bark of the bamboo and the 

 epidermis of straw the silica incrusting these tissues is not crystal- 

 lized, but, on the contrary, exhibits, both before and after incinera- 

 tion, the most beautiful and elaborate organization, consisting of an 

 arranged series of cells and tubes, and differing in its character in 

 different species of the same tribe, and in different parts of the same 

 plant. 



The observations of Mr. Golding Bird, contained in the 14th 

 number of the Magazine of Natural History, New Series, are then 

 referred to ; and the author states in confirmation, that, by employ- 

 ing caustic potash, the siliceous columns may be removed from the 

 leaf of a stalk of wheat, while the spiral vessels and ducts, which 

 form the principal ribs of the leaf, as well as the apparently metallic 

 cups which are arranged on its surface, remain undisturbed. He 

 proposes, therefore, to substitute, in the description of vegetable 

 tissues, the term skeleton, instead of that of bases, whether saline or 

 siliceous, of those tissues. 



March 15, 1838. 

 FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V.P. and Treas.,in the Chair. 



Captain Thomas Best Jervis, E.I.C.S., and Travers Twiss, Esq., 

 were elected Fellows of the Society. 



The reading of a paper, entitled, " Experimental Researches in 

 Electricity," Thirteenth Series, by Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., &c., was commenced. 



March 22, 1838. 

 FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V.P. and Treas.,in the Chair. 



A paper was read, entitled, " Description of a new Tide- Gauge, 

 constructed by T. G. Bunt, and erected on the Eastern bank of the 

 River Avon, in front of the Hotwell House, Bristol, in 1837." 

 Communicated by the Rev. William Whewell, M.A., F.R.S. 



The principal parts of the machine here described, are an eight- 

 day clock, which turns a vertical cylinder, revolving once in twenty- 

 four hours ; a wheel, to which an alternate motion is communicated 

 by a float rising and falling with the tide, and connected by a wire 

 with the wheel which is kept constantly strained by a counterpoise; 

 and a small drum on the same axis with the wheel, which by a sus- 

 pending wire communicates one 18th of the vertical motion of the 

 float to a bar carrying a pencil which marks a curve on the cylinder, 

 or on a sheet of paper wrapped round it, exhibiting the rise and fall 

 of the tide at each moment of time. The details of the mechanism, 

 illustrated by drawings, occupy the whole of this paper. 



A paper was also read, entitled, " On the Regar or Black Cotton 

 Soil of India," by Capt. Newbold, Aide-de-Camp to Brigadier-Ge- 



