NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. xlix 



trunk, are pinnate, parallel-ribbed, and circinate in vernation. 

 The flowers are always dioecious, the plants being therefore 

 either male or female. 



In Cycas the female flower consists of a rosette of foliage- 

 leaves, the separate carpels being much smaller than the ordinary 

 foliage-leaves, but essentially of the same structure. 



The male and female flowers of the other genera of Cycadacece 

 — Macrozainia, Zainia, and Ceratozamia — resemble fir-cones. In 

 this species the stamen terminates in two curved points ; and on 

 the under surface are a number of pollen-sacs, very much like 

 the sori of ferns. They dehisce longitudinally, and in all respects 

 resemble more the sporangia of ferns than the pollen-sacs of 

 phanerogams. The embryo of Ceratozamia has only one 

 cotyledon, while Cycas and Macrozamia have two, and Zainia 

 has three. 



The arrangement of the reproductive organs over the leaf-like 

 carpels and antheriferous scales in the Cycadacai, as well as the 

 circinate vernation of their leaves, shows their affinity with the 

 ferns. They are, however, more closely allied to the conifers, 

 but are easily distinguished by the peculiar form of the branch- 

 system on which the latter depend for their beauty, but which 

 in the Cycadacem is wholly suppressed. They are distributed 

 over Asia, Africa, and South America. The chief value of these 

 plants is as sources of a kind of arrow-root or sago, consisting 

 of the starch washed from the internal parenchyma of the 

 trunks, or obtained from the mealy albumen of the seeds. 



Mr. D. Gregorson, F.E.I.S., exhibited specimens of the Gulf- 

 weed, Sargassum vulgatuin, L., collected by a lady in the 

 course of a voyage between Gibraltar and New York, in June 

 last. 



Mr. James J. F. X. King exhibited some additions to the 

 entomological collections prepared for the Kelvingrove Museum, 

 also nuclei for collections of Micro-Lepidoptera and Psocidce. 



Mr. King also showed specimens of Eupoicilia 3Iussehliana, 

 Tr., a moth which is new to the Scottish Fauna, and is very rare 

 in England, having only occurred in the counties of Pembroke 

 and Devon ; also specimens of Bactra furfurana, Haw., of 

 which about twenty-five were taken by him at Loch Awe last 

 summer. 



Mr. David Robertson, F.L.S., F.G.S., sent for exhibition a 

 specimen of Ophiura albida, one of the star-fishes, having an 

 abnormal division of one of the rays. In the course of some 

 descriptive notes, Mr. Robertson stated that with few excep- 

 tions the star-fishes have the power of reproducing their lost 

 rays ; and sometimes, where the new bud begins at the broken 

 part, two rays come out instead of one. In such cases, how- 

 ever, one of the new rays is generally stronger than the other, 



