Ech i!?86?] ^oyal MicrosGopical Society. 44"9 
In May Mr. Eoberts and Mr. Slack called our attention to the 
growth of fungoid threads in dialysed solutions of pure silica and 
their artificial fossilization as the silica solidified. Fungoid bodies 
appear to be capable of growing in a variety of chemical solutions, 
which might have been expected to prove fatal to vegetable life, 
even of the humblest kind ; and this free growth in solutions of 
pure silica in distilled water suggests many curious questions of the 
relations in which that mineral stands to organic life. Even in 
solutions which are reckoned chemically pure, we may expect the 
presence of minute bodies floating in the air, and almost universally 
difiused. They may have afforded pabulum to the fungoid plants ; 
but it would still appear from the experiments that were detailed 
that silica, in its soluble colloid state, does minister to vegetable life 
in some way not yet explained. 
[The President then called attention to the leading facts in 
Dr. Thudichum's paper, given in our first number ; to Dr. Maddox's 
paper on " Fungiform Papillae," also in that number ; and observed 
respecting the latter : — ] 
The general bearing of the paper appears to me to be a con- 
firmation of the investigations on the Hyla by Dr. Beale ; and his 
views on the distribution of the nervous system are decidedly borne 
out by Dr. Maddox in his examination on the common frog as to 
the termination of the nerves, whether distributed upon the surface 
of the sarcolemma, or whether passing through this coat. Dr. 
Maddox quite agrees in this particular with Dr. Beale, and the 
nerves figured do not appear to him to penetrate the sheath of the 
muscular bundles. 
In November, Mr. Gorham brought under our notice new views 
on the composite structure of simple leaves, illustrated by a remark- 
ably beautiful series of tracings, or nature-printings, obtained by 
blackening the leaves with the fine lamp-black obtained from burn- 
ing camphor mixed with a minute portion of oil ; then laying them 
upon white paper, and gently rubbing them to ensure contact. By 
this means the venation is accurately displayed in a very perfect 
and artistic manner. 
[The President then gave an able abstract of Mr. Gorham's 
views, which may be here omitted, as the paper is printed in this 
number. He observed that although Mr. Gorham's researches were 
not in themselves microscopic, they could only be tested and worked 
out by microscopical investigations ; and he referred to the views of 
M. C. De Candolle in the following words : — ] 
M. Casimir De Candolle has recently represented the leaf as a 
branch in a state of arrested development in certain directions. His 
observations and figures will be found in the ^Archives des Sciences' 
for May, 1868, and in the ' Student ' for August. M. De CandoUe's 
descriptions and figures will greatly assist microscopists who propose 
