xxviii Proceedings. [Afar 12th, igo8. 



Individuals of Chaetoceros are also often seen containing 

 a number of small rounded] spore-like bodies, formed by the 

 contraction of the protoplasm and its aggregation round the 

 chromatophores. The number of these bodies varies con- 

 siderably, but their size is remarkably constant, notwithstanding 

 the variation in][the height of the filaments in which they are 

 formed. 



It would appear rather probable that these spore-like bodies 

 are really gametes, but confirmatory evidence on this point is at 

 present lacking. 



Prof F. E. Weiss, D.Sc, F.R.S., described specimens of a 

 new type of Stigmaria, in which the medullary area contained 

 numerous small spiral tracheids, very much like the first formed 

 elements of the wood (protoxylem). These vessels were, how- 

 ever, disconnected from the primary wood and interspersed 

 with parenchymatous cells. They were narrower and longer 

 than the tracheids met with in the centre of the stem of Lepido- 

 dendron Selaginoides, and seemed from their structure to have 

 had a conducting function. 



In other respects the Stigmaria showed a typical structure. 

 It had the usual appendages or rootlets, and the secondary wood 

 seemed broken up by wide medullary rays. The woody cylinder 

 is comparatively slight and the mid-cortex hardly preserved at 

 all. The outer cortex is at a considerable distance from the 

 central axis. 



Miss Margaret A. Murray, F.S.A., Scot., read a paper, 

 communicated by Dr. W. E. Hoyle, F.R.S.E., entitled, 

 "On the Mummy of Khnumu Nekht in the Man- 

 chester Museum." The coftin and its contents were found 

 in a rock tomb at Rifeh, near Assiout, in Upper Egypt, and 

 date from the 12th Dynasty, or, roughly, about 2,500 B.C. The 

 name Khnumu Nekht, the writer said, meant the " Power of 

 the Creator." 



That this was a real mummy was shown by the fact that the 

 nails of the hands and feet had been carefully bound with 



