ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 33<> 



General. 



Botany of Funafuti.* — J. H. Maiden gives a short account of the 

 botany of this island, based on collections made by Mrs. Edgeworth 

 David. The plants enumerated comprise 38 species of Dicotyledons, 

 12 Monocotyledons, 5 Vascular Cryptogams, and 1 Lichen, all more or 

 less widely distributed in the Pacific Islands as inhabitants of other 

 coral islands, or of the coastal tracts of the larger islands. As regards 

 the means by which the island was populated, the author enumerates 

 21 species which have floating seeds, 6 with succulent fruits which are 

 eaten by birds, and 3 the fruits of which form a burr. The seeds of 

 the grasses (4 in number), a Scirpus and Jussieua, may have been 

 brought on the feet of birds, or the roots of various introduced plants.. 

 The 4 ferns and Psilotum probably arrived as wind-borne spores. 

 Several plants have been purposely, and others, widely diffused weeds,, 

 probably accidentally introduced by man. 



West Australian Droseras.j — A. Morrison describes a new bulb- 

 forming Drosera (D. bulbigena) from West Australia, and discusses the 

 the formation of the bulb in this and other West Australian species. In 

 D. bulbigena the bulb, when enveloped in thick dark brown scales, is 

 developed from the enlarged extremity of the root-stock by a process of 

 budding from its lower surface. Where several bulbs arise, the process 

 has been repeated, each successive one being formed on the end of a. 

 prolongation of the axis from the base of the preceding bulb. 



Autophytography : A Process of Plant Fossilisation.J — C. H. 

 White discusses the process of plant fossilisation, whereby the plant 

 undergoing decomposition reproduces itself in outline on the rock sur- 

 face upon which it rests, or upon the matrix in which it is enclosed, 

 either by the precipitation of coloured mineral matter, or by the altera- 

 tion or removal of the colouring matter already in the rock. For such 

 plant pictures the author proposes the name " autophytograph," and 

 discusses their formation in certain individual cases. A black adherent 

 deposit, insoluble in water, but slowly attacked by mineral acids, probably 

 contains an oxide of iron. It is suggested that the plants may yield on 

 decomposition a precipitant of iron, which extracts iron from the sur- 

 rounding solutions, and deposits it in a manner analogous to one of the 

 artificial ink-making processes, and on exposure to air the precipitate is 

 changed to an oxide. Or the conditions of decay may be such that 

 ammonia is liberated in presence of iron in solution, precipitating the 

 iron on the rock, upon which the plant rests during decay. Another 

 case is described in which rootlets have in recent time affected a block 

 of sandstone, dissolving the iron pigment which stained the stone a 

 yellow brown, giving an autophytograph of lighter colour on a dark 

 background. 



Randolph, C. B. — The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-lore and Medicine. 



Proc.Amer. Acad. Arte and Sci., xl. (1905) pp. 488-537. 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales xxix. (1904) pp. 539-55tJ. 

 + Trans, and Proc. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, xxii. (1905) pp. 417-24. 

 X Amer. Journ. Sci., xix. (1905) pp. 231-6 (5 tiga. in text). 



