lO PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



There is evidence to show that the reactions described in this 

 paper are not due to the chlorophyll pigments only, but that other 

 substances are present, associated especially with the carotin and 

 xanthophyll upon which the activity of the chlorophyll partly 

 depends. 



Dr. S. B. Schryver (visitor), Mr. Neilson Jones, and Dr. J. P. 

 Young contributed further remarks, and the author replied. 



March 4th, 1915. 



Prof. E. B. PouLTON, F.R.S., President, in the Chair, 



The Minutes of the General Meeting of the 18th February, 1915, 

 were read and confirmed. 



The Rev. Thomas Albert Jefferies was proposed as a Fellow. 



Prof. Maurice Caullery (Paris); Prof. Charles Henri Marie 

 Flahault (Montpellier) ; and Prof. Jacques Loeb (Chicago), were 

 proposed as Foreign Members. 



The reading of a paper on the Lichens of Soutl) Lancashire, by 

 Messrs. J. A. Whelbox, F.L.S., and W. G. Travis, was postponed 

 to the following Meeting. 



Mr. A. W. Hill, M.A., F.L.S., exhibited specimens of the 

 Cucurbitaceoiis genus Marah, with its remarkable germination. 

 He stated that the genus Marali includes some eleven species 

 practically conKned to tlie Pacific watershed of the W. States of 

 X. America and the islands of Lower California. The genus is 

 distinguished from EcJimocystis and other genera with similar floral 

 characters by its enormous tuberous root, associated with which 

 is the peculiar mode of germination of the seeds. The petioles are 

 fused to form a tube, and on germination this tube grows out, 

 carrying plumule and radicle some distance into the ground, the 

 cotyledons remaining hypogeal. The plumule finally bursts 

 through the petiolar tube, and grows up into the air with sharply 

 bent over tip. The petiolar tube is covered with hairs which 

 appear to function as root-hairs. In M, fabaceus the tube is very 

 sliort, but in the other species examined, including the classic case 

 of Megarrliiza cctlifornica (probably Marali macrocarpus), described 

 by Asa Gray and Charles Darwin, the petiolar tube may be as 

 much as 6 inches long. In M. hor'ridus, the seeds of which species 

 were sent to Kew by Mr. F. R. S. Balfour, of Dawvck, the petiolar 

 tube not only splits into two halves but the petioles further split 

 into three strands, each containing a vascular bundle, and each 



