THE 



society's note-books. Ill 



English Tingis more resembles the American Tmgis ciliata 

 than the one described above. The open structure of the cephalo- 

 thorax appears to be very similar to the so-called " eyes " of 

 ixodes, but which in this case are certainly not organs of vision. 

 It would appear to be a provision of Nature for giving strength 

 and U^zhtiiess in structure. H. E. Freeman. 



'<b' 



Tingis.— Stephens, in his list of British insects, names no fewer 

 than 1 6 varieties. C. F. George. 



Palatial Tooth of Fish (Fossil) probably belongs to the Stro- 

 phodus, a genus of shark frequent in the oolites. The tooth is a 

 flat plate adapted for crushing the shells of molluscs, on which the 

 fish probably feed. It is made up of a great number of minute 

 toothlets, welded together into a flat plate, in the same way that a 

 horse's hoof may be considered to be made up of a number of 

 hairs. The multiple pulp-cavities are seen in cross-section, each 

 surrounded by an area of clear material, and sending off" a cluster 

 of branched, dental tubules larger than those of mammalian teeth, 

 and not, like them, pursuing a parallel wave-course. 



H. F. Parsons. 



Section of Screw Pine (PI. XII, Figs. 3 and 4). — As Mr. 



West has not figured this, I have tried to supply the deficiency. 

 The endogenous structure is very well seen, and I think that the 

 apparent increase and approximation of the woody bundles 

 towards the periphery {?iot seen in the drawing) is evidence of the 

 fact stated by Smith, p. 88, that these bundles, in the lower part 

 of their course, pass in curved lines outwards from the centre 

 towards the circumference of the stem. What is the colouring 

 matter with which so many of the cells are filled ? In the Intel- 

 lectual Observer for February, 1868, there is an article by John R. 

 Jackson, curator of the Museum, Kew Gardens, " On the 

 Fajidamis and its Allies," in which he points out that they 

 partake, on the one hand, somewhat of the habit of palms — viz., 

 in their foliage ; while they incline to exogens in their manner of 

 branching. They are natives of the tropical regions of the Old 

 World, occurring but rarely in America. Some of them are 

 furnished with numerous aerial roots, as seen in Fig. 4 in the 

 Plate (from Smith, p. 61). 



The following is Mr. Jackson's account of Pandatms odoratis- 

 simis, which I take to be synonymous with odourous. He says: — 

 " It is a plant some twelve or more feet in height, with spreading, 

 irregular branches and closely-imbricated leaves, arranged in three 

 spiral rows round the ends of the branches. It grows in the 



