112 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Banunculus acris must be a variant of the Dorset " Eam's Clas " 

 (or claws) applied more appropriately to B. repens ; "Floatweed" 

 for Tussilago must we think be a misrendering of Clote-weed — 

 the plant is called Clot or Clote in East Norfolk ; " Wee Gweedie " 

 for Euphorbia Peplus is analogous to the Scotch "Little Good'' 

 —in Aberdeenshire " Little Gweedie " — for E. Helioscopia, and 

 was probably introduced by a Scottish farmer. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on February 6th, 1913, 

 Miss Bancroft read a paper, of which the following is an abstract : — 

 The structure of Bhexoxylon africanum, a fossil stem described by 

 Dr. A. W. Rogers as probably coming from the Karroo rocks of 

 Cape Colony, indicates affinities with the Medulloseas of later 

 Palaeozoic age. The vascular system consists of an inner ring 

 of elliptical steles, each composed of a large inversely orientated 

 part from which traces may separate, and a small normal part. 

 The "partial pith " of each stele is much reduced. Externally is 

 a series of " partial steles," having normally orientated elements 

 only. The lateral margins of the partial steles are often much 

 broken by the separation of traces. The protoxylem elements 

 are situated at the inner margins of the xylem-masses ; the 

 metaxylem elements typically possess biseriate bordered pits. 

 The medullary rays are uniseriate throughout. Scattered irregu- 

 larly throughout the parenchymatous ground tissue are vascular 

 strands, bands of periderm and sclerotic nests. The outer layers 

 of the stem are absent. The name Bhexoxylon is suggested as 

 being descriptive of the broken-up nature of the xylem. The new 

 genus is included in the Medulloseae, although it differs from the 

 typical members of the family in the " coniferous " texture of the 

 wood with its uniseriate medullary rays and Araucarian type of 

 pitting. 



The foolish and mischievous outrages by which certain women 

 are damaging what we believe to be an excellent cause have 

 included an attack upon the orchid-houses at Kew. It may not 

 be generally known that the intention of the attack was philan- 

 thropic ; this we learn from a speech by Mrs. Pankhurst, the 

 "militant" leader, as reported in the Morning Post of Feb. 11. 

 " There were people," she said, " who said it was wrong to 

 destroy in a single night choice flowers which had taken years to 

 reach that pitch of perfection, but how many lives were sacrificed 

 in collecting the plants from the swamps where they grew, and 

 what a useless sacrifice that was as compared with the great 

 benefits which they hoped would come out of the destruction of 

 these orchids at Kew ? Was it not necessary for women to do 

 these things in order to call attention to the horrors that people 

 had to suffer in the production of these beautiful flowers?" 

 Are we to infer from this that the mulier fortis and her followers 

 had made themselves acquainted with the history of the species 

 damaged, and confined themselves to attacks upon swamp- 

 loving species ? 



