380 Transactions. — Botany. 



An Australian timber, said to be swamp-gum, was used in 

 the construction of a barge for the sugar-refinery at Auckland. 

 Captain Broun sent to the Agriculture Department a portion 

 of the timber from this barge riddled by the larvse of a beetle. 

 Starch is abundant in both rays and parenchyma. 



American axe-handles, ash, in the museum of the Agriculture 

 Department, part of a shipment attacked by larvse of beetles, 

 contain starch in rays and xylem parenchyma. 



Chip pill-boxes in the same museum, part of a worm-eaten 

 shipment, show much starch in the tissues. They are of 

 coniferous wood. 



Maire frequently contains starch. I have not seen worm- 

 eaten specimens, but am informed that this timber is frequently 

 attacked. The same remarks apply to tawa. 



These instances, though insufficient to' prove that it is usually 

 for starch, and when not for starch for glucose, that the larvae 

 of beetles attack timber, are, it seems to me, sufficient to justify 

 greater care in the selection of timber. No timber should be 

 accepted for use in a sheltered position if starch is found in it, 

 or if, in the absence of starch, it contains much glucose ; and 

 examination for the detection of these substances should not 

 be confined to the surface of the timber or to the outer parts of 

 the tree. 



Art. XLL — Revised List of New Zealand Seaweeds. 

 By E. M. Laing, B.Sc. 



[Head brfore the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 2nd November, 1904.] 



Appendix I. 



I intend from time to time, as opportunity offers, adding to my 

 list of New Zealand seaweeds, in order to keep it as far as pos- 

 sible up to date. I shall not amend the original list except 

 where it is obviously wrong. The appendices, therefore, will 

 include only such species as have been found since the original 

 list was published, or such old species as have been found by 

 the early voyagers and rejected by Agardh, but rediscovered 

 and identified by later investigators. Most of the species in 

 this paper have Keen identified by Major Reinbold, of Itzehoe, 

 and I b i iiri in thank him for his unfailing kindness to me. 



Subclass CHLOROPHYCE.E. 

 390. Ostreobium reineckei, Horn. (" Flora of the Samoan Is- 

 lands." by Reinecke, in Engler's Bot. Jahrbuch, 1896.) 



This is the first shell-perforating alga to he recorded from 

 New Zealand. No doubt others will be found when looked for. 



