414 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. W. N. Benson exhibited a specimen considered by Pro- 

 fessor Lawson to be a bundle of roots of a Pteridophyte with a 

 sphenophylloid structure, and microphotographs of the same. 

 The specimen has been rather imperfectly preserved in red jasper. 

 It came from the Lower Carboniferous rocks at Currabubula, 

 near Tamworth. Also, a specimen and section of a fern recog- 

 nised by Drs. Kidston and Gwynne-Vaughan as Osmundites. 

 The preservation is not sufficiently good to permit of specific 

 determination, but it resembles a form found in the Mesozoic (1) 

 of New Zealand. The specimen was found by the exhibitor on 

 a basalt-hill at Oakey Creek, near Toowoomba. 



Mr. A. A. Hamilton exhibited a series of specimens from the 

 National Herbarium, Sydney, com^vi^ing— Calendula officinalis 

 Linn.(Hort.), showing complicated prolification of the inflores- 

 cence accompanied by torsion. In the first stage, the peduncle 

 is laterally dilated, and shows bundling; the involucral bracts 

 have become irregular in radius and variable in size, the bases 

 of the larger bracts showing a degree of torsion; the ligulate 

 florets have increased in number at the expense of the tubular 

 ones, and the symmetry of the whorls is disturbed; an intrusion 

 of leafy bracts is seen in the centre of the tubular florets; attenu- 

 ation of the ligulse of the ray-florets is also to be noted. In the 

 second stage, the majority of the florets have developed ligulse, 

 the few tubular ones remaining being in a transitory state; the 

 stem under the flower is normal, the involucral bracts almost 

 regular, and the general symmetry of the flower is maintained. 

 In the third stage, a series of much reduced capitula, consisting 

 chiefly of ligulate florets, are to be noted within a common 

 involucre, of which the outer bracts are abnormal in size and 

 partly united; the stem exhibits bundling, and is thrice the 

 diameter of the normal stem ; the floral leaves are twisted ; 

 frondescent buds are seen to issue from the axis of the inflores- 

 cence between the involucral bracts and the florets, the number 

 of attenuated ligulate florets has increased, and they appear as a 

 fringe to the compound head of flowers. In the final stage, the 

 capitula within the involucral region are still further reduced, 



