72 
QuEKETT on Fungus. 
Note. — Since the above was read before the Society, I have 
met with a brief notice of the Stellate Bodies, to which this 
paper refers, in a communication from Mr. G. H. K. Thwaites 
to the ' Annals of Natural History,' vol. xvii. p. 262, and 
dated March 19, 1846. It is satisfactory to find that the 
observations and conclusions of this eminent algologist coin- 
cide, as far as they extend, with mine. Mr. Thwaites asks 
whether the stellate bodies in the cells of Mesocarpus scalaris 
may not be an abnormal growth of the nucleus, or perhaps an 
internal parasite ; describes them as formed from a small 
spherical cell, containing an oily-looking fluid ; and states, as 
I have done, that they are not developed, in the manner of 
spores, at the expense of the endochrome of the cells which 
contain them. — W. S. 
On the Presence of a Fungus and of Masses of Crystalline 
Matter in the Interior of a living Oak Tree. By John 
QuEKETT, Resident Conservator of the Museum and Pro- 
fessor of Histology to the Royal College of Surgeons of 
England. (Read January 26, 1853.) 
In the month of August of the past year 1 formed one of a 
pic-nic party to visit the well known King Oak, in Marl- 
borough forest. The day was stormy at intervals, but there 
was little or no wind. Whilst we were all assembled 
under a large ornamental shed, erected for the convenience 
of visitors to this much-frequented spot, a sudden loud snap- 
ping noise was heard, which was followed by a still louder 
crash of broken timber. This we found was not occasioned 
(as we first imagined) by the fall of a lofty oak, but, as it 
subsequently turned out, of only a large limb. Our fears at 
the moment were greatly excited lest this fall might have 
been occasioned by one of the junior members of our party 
swinging on the limb, but it appeared that he had climbed 
into the interior of the King Oak, and, looking out of a hole, 
was the nearest spectator of the accident ; his attention 
having been directed to it by the noise of the snapping of 
wood, and the crash produced by the fracture of the branches 
of numerous trees in the neighbourhood, upon which the limb 
in question fell. 
As soon as our fears were allayed by knowing that our 
young friend was safe, some of the more venturesome of the 
party, myself amongst the rest, sallied forth to see what had 
happened. We found that the King Oak was uninjured, but 
that a tree about fifty yards from it, and of very large size. 
