47^^ A COLLECTING TRIP TO FRENCH HOEK. 



\ 



E. capensis, Tiinb. 



Mountain slopes above tihe village, 1,500 ft. 

 E. calyciiia^ Sm. 



Forming tufts in sandy places at side of road leading up to 

 French Hoek Pass, 1,500 ft. 

 E. aphylla^ Schrad. 



Mountain slopes 1.500 ft. 

 BrisophyUiim capcnse, Trin. 



Mountains behind Kriel's Farm, 1.500 ft. 

 Briaa minor, Linn. 



Mountain slopes above the village, 1,500 ft. 

 Ecstiica scahra, Vahl. 



Summit of mountains north of Kriel's Farm, 2,300 ft. 



Division of Botany, 



Department of Agriculture. 

 Pretoria. 



TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. 



Royal Society of South Africa. — Wednesda}-, August 21st: 

 Prof. J. D. F. Gilchrist. M.A., D.Sc. Ph.D., F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., 

 President, in tin' chair. — " On the velocities of two distinct grouf^s 

 of secondary corpusciilar rays produced by a homof^eneous 

 Rontgen radiation, and their absorption. co-efUcients in gases'': L. Simon 

 The absorption co-efficients in gase.s of the secondary corpuscular rays 

 were found l)y calculation from the pressure at which fhe cathode ionisa- 

 tion falls to half its maximum value. They are probably too higli for the 

 fastest corpuscles produced. The log- cathode ionisation curves could be 

 analysed into two distinct portions when the particles emerge from a very 

 thin screen, giving two absorption co-efficients in a gas, their ratio being 

 i: 4.76. — "On a nen' Heard of the genus Latastia, from Southern Rhode- 

 sia " : G. A. Boulenger. — '' On Rana ornatissima and Rana ruddi " : 

 G. A. Boulenger. — " " On a Nematode of fozvls having, a tcrnirte as an 

 intermediate host ": Sir A. Theiler. Some time ago a farmer forwarded 

 a species of termites infected with a nematode. Since they were larvse, it 

 was concluded that they represented a stage in the life cycle of a nema- 

 tode, whicli Iiad its habitat in a host that would consume termites. Fowls 

 are particularly fond of them. It was decided to feed infected teiniitcs 

 as well as the larvae extracted from them. Eggs were hatched in an 

 incubator, and the chickens reared under conditions excluding accidental 

 infection. Infected termites were found on red soil in the neighbourhooil 

 of a Kaffir kraal. A series of experiments was carried out. and in every 

 instance an imago was so obtained in the small intestines of the fowls. 

 The imago was identified. as a Filaria. and the name Filaria gallinarum 

 was proposed. The infected termite is known as the hoatkappcr, and 

 was identified l)y Fuller as Hodoterjiies Pretoricnsis. — " N'ote on recurrents 

 resolvable into a sequence of odd integers ": Sir T. Muir. " Meliolaster : 

 a new genus of the Microthyriacece" : Dr. Ethel M. Doidgo. A fungus, 

 occurring on Piper capensis, was described, which comliincs certain 

 characters of the genera Meliola and Asterina. 



