244 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



almost continuous flat sheet ; leaves closely arranged around 

 the stem, also arcuate in a downward direction, ovate 

 lanceolate, longly and slenderly acuminate, acumen from 

 .3 to .6 mm. in length, concave almost tubular in upper 

 half including lower part of acumen, nerveless, margin plane, 

 slightly serrulate above or nearly entire throughout ; alar 

 group of cells of medium size, well defined, composed of 

 large separate oval or roundly oblong cells becoming yellow 

 then red, minutely granular, .01 3-. 02 mm. in longer 

 diameter ; general cells, in lower half or nearly so, long with 

 blunt extremities, cylindrical, slightly undulating, .035- 

 .055 by .004-5 rnm. ; in upper half, cells longer, generally 

 sharp-pointed, .O5-.O75 by .003-4 mm. No paraphyllia 

 seen. On the bark of several large trees chiefly Ash, near 

 Arisaig, August, 1904, etc. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Note on a Neck-bone of Balsena biseayensis from the Post- 

 Tertiary Clay of the Moray Firth Area. Last year while a drain 

 was being dug on a farm near Fort George, a large block of bone 

 was discovered by the workmen. It was under a foot or two of 

 moss and three feet of firm blue clay, about a mile from the present 

 seashore and not more than twenty or thirty feet above sea-level. 

 The bone was washed and cleaned and exhibited in the district for 

 a year before I saw it. Nobody could make out what animal, nor 

 even what part of an animal, the bone could have belonged to. 

 Dr. Lindsay, of Ardersier, wrote to me about it, and said it was 

 probably prehistoric, and in that I think he was right. I went to 

 see it, but owing to its rolled and worn condition I could not, at 

 first, make it out. I took it home with me and soon solved the 

 mystery. I compared it with the united cervical bones of some 

 cetaceans, and proved it to be the united seven cervicals of a whale, 

 with all the neural spines and arches, and the transverse processes 

 entirely worn away. It is the neck-bone of a Balczna, showing 

 articulations for the condyles of the skull distinctly, and from 

 prominences on the dorsal side seven vertebrae can be counted. 

 It measures twelve inches across the articulating surface now, but 

 may have been an inch or two more before it was worn. The whole 

 length of the seven united cervicals is only seven inches, and the 

 bodies of the vertebrae show very little trace of their union. It is one 

 compact block of bone. I have seen the neck-bone of Balana 

 mysticetits, which is much broader across the articulating surface than 



