264 NOTES AND COMMENTS [apkil 



The vascular system of the stem consists of three (or locally four) 

 steles, anastomosing and dividing at long intervals. Each stele is made 

 up of a central mass of primary tracheids and conjunctive parenchyma, 

 enclosed by a band of secondary wood and phloem, exhibiting the 

 characteristic structure of recent cycad stems. The stem of Medullosa 

 anglica is best described as a polystelic Hdcrangium, The leaf-stalks 

 have the structure of the well-known Mycloxylon petioles, which are 

 frequently met with in the calcareous nodules of the Coal-Measures. 

 The course of the leaf-traces is peculiar, and differs from that in any 

 known cycadean plants. The roots, not hitherto known in Medullosa, 

 were triarch in structure, and developed a fairly broad zone of secondary 

 wood and phloem. 



Without attempting to enumerate the many facts of interest 

 brought out in Dr. Scott's able paper, we may conclude by quoting the 

 author's opinion that while Mcdidlosa combines in a striking manner 

 the characters of ferns and cycads, it should not be regarded as having 

 lain " very near the direct line of descent of the latter group." 



What constitutes Publication ? 



This is always a vexed question. Those who contend that simple 

 distribution by an author is equivalent to publication should note 

 the remarks of Mrs. A. F. Kenyon in the Victorian Naturalist for 

 December 1898, vol. xv. p. 99. This lady printed a List of 

 Victorian Marine Mollusca, and posted a copy to various concholo- 

 gists, including Professor E. Tate, who criticised its misprints in 

 the journal mentioned. Mrs. Kenyon now says : " As the list was 

 not published at the expense of any society, or offered for sale, I 

 fail to see what right your correspondent had to review, it having 

 been sent to him as an act of courtesy." Why on earth any one 

 should go to the expense of printing matter of this kind " for private 

 circulation only " we never could imagine. All the same we agree 

 with Mrs. Kenyon that her list was not published, and should not have 

 been referred to in public print, whether favourably or unfavourably. 



The Discoverer of Kitchen -Middens. 



In a well-reasoned paper, Dr. William Sorensen of Copenhagen asks 

 and answers the question, " Who was the discoverer of the refuse heaps 

 or ' kitchen-middens ' of the Stone Age ? " The designation which has 

 had so great a vogue is no doubt due to the celebrated and versatile 

 Johannes Japetus Smith Steenstrup, and he has not uncommonly been 

 credited, not only with having invented the telling name, but also with 



