The Presidenfs Address. 
98 
they still present phenomena whose full significance is not 
yet understood^ and await for their explanation further 
observation and reflection. 
The last paper read at our meetings^ and not yet published 
in our Transactions^, was one by Mr. Druce, On the Repro- 
ductive Process in the Confer voidese.''^ In this paper Mr. 
Druce shows that there is yet much more to be done in making- 
out the true reproductive process in Confervoidese. He 
agrees with previous authors in the conviction that the 
process of conjugation in this family is not necessarily indi- 
cative of a union of germ-cells and sperm-cells ; and certainly 
in most cases of conjugation this fact has not been made out. 
It is not at all inconsistent with our present knowledge of the 
ordinary function of vegetative reproduction by the multipli- 
cation of similar cells, which I have elsewhere ventured to 
call ^'^ homogenesis/^"^' that it should assume the forms and 
external phenomena of true generation (heterogenesis) . We 
see this occurring in the fact that seeds which have originated 
quite independent of the influence of the sperm-cell occur in 
many of the higher forms of plants, and that ova and vivi- 
parous spores, as in the case of the bees and aphides, are 
produced under the same circumstances. It is, then, an in- 
teresting field for the microscopist, to study those lower 
forms of vegetable life in order to ascertain what phenomena 
are connected with the vegetative cell multiplication or 
homogenetic development, and what are the forms in which 
the phenomena of heterogenesis are presented to us. 
These are the principal subjects which have been presented 
for microscopic inquiry during the year. In addition to 
these papers, we have had two on improvements in the struc- 
ture of the microscope. One of these was by Mr. Richard 
Beck, On the Universal Screw.^^ Although Mr. Beckys 
paper pointed out some defects in the working of the plan 
for obtaining a universal screw, by which the object-glasses of 
different makers might be used by the same body, as carried 
out by a committee of our Society, it is very gratifying for 
us to know that, generally speaking, our plan has been most 
successful, and that microscopists, both in this country and 
America, recognise the suggestions of the Society as a great 
boon. The other paper on the instrument was by Mr. James 
Smith, who, in his description of a section and mounting 
instrument, with other contributions which he has made to 
the Society, has displayed considerable skill in the invention 
* Preface to translation of Kiichenmeistcr on ' Animal and Vegetable 
Parasites.' 
