46 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
of the flowers of @nothera biennis, and probably exists for the 
purpose of attracting insect visitors.* Sowerby has recorded the 
fact that this species is visited by flies, and Mr. Boyd remarked 
that he had also found that flower-beetles (Jeligethes) and other 
small insects frequented the spermogonia, to which they had 
probably been attracted by the scent, as well as by the saccharine 
matter contained in the spermatial mass. Rathay reports having 
examined the wet foot-marks of flies which had flown to the 
window-pane after resting on the leaves of plants of Huphorbia 
amygdaloides affected with the spermogonia of Hndophyllum 
euphorbice, and he found that they contained spermatia of that 
fungus. The spermatia of various species of Uredinez have been 
found to germinate when placed in a solution of sugar or honey. 
From these facts, it may be inferred that they exercise a repro- 
ductive function. They have been supposed by many botanists 
to be fertilizing bodies, but Mr. Plowright is inclined to regard 
the balance of evidence as opposed to the view that they are 
sexual organs. The supposition that they are conidia is more 
plausible, but repeated experimental cultures have failed to demon- 
strate its accuracy. The precise function of the spermatia is 
therefore still involved in some doubt.} 
Professor Thomas King exhibited numerous specimens of 
flowering-plants from Buckinghamshire, including Clematis 
Vitalba, Linn., Onobrychis sativa, Lam., Bryonia dioica, Linn., 
Tamus communis, Linn., &e. 
Mr. R. D. Wilkie showed specimens of Carex limosa, Linn., 
recently gathered by him at Kilmalcolm, and stated that the 
plant had not been previously recorded for Renfrewshire. 
Messrs. James Mitchell and R. 8. Wishart, M.A., submitted 
a series of photographic views taken at recent excursions of the 
Society. 
Rev. A. S. Wilson, M.A., B.Sc., read a paper on ‘The 
Structure of Fossil Wood,” in which an interesting account was 
given of the various groups into which fossil trees have been 
* Plowright, ‘‘ Mimicry in Fungi,” Grevillea, vol. x., pp. 1-4. Mono- 
graph of the British Uredinee and Ustilaginee, p. 12. : 
+Rathay, Untersuchungen iiber die Spermogonien der Rostpilze. Wien, 1882. 
Plowright, Mon. Brit. Ured. & Ust., p. 11. 
+ See Plowright, /.c., pp. 9-20. 
