NEW ZEALAND STUDIES 331 



show that the phenomenon of Mendelian segregation evidently 

 takes place. 



Collections of fossil plants were made from several localities 

 in the South Island of New Zealand, with a view to settling 

 the geological age of the so-called ' glossopteris beds ' of Mt. 

 Potts. From this material Dr. E. A. Newell Arber * has been 

 able to show that the oldest known plant-bearing beds in New 

 Zealand are of Rhaeto- Jurassic age. 



One volume of the Reports will be devoted to a description 

 of these fossil flora, together with the fossil plants found by 

 the Polar Party and others in the Antarctic. 



An account of some undescribed collections of New Zealand 

 Tertiary and Mesozoic marine invertebrates is to be included in 

 the Expedition Reports. 



THE ANTARCTIC 



During the three summer voyages to the Antarctic a series 

 of qualitative and quantitative plankton samples were taken be- 

 tween New Zealand and McMurdo Sound, and also in different 

 parts of the quadrant visited by the ship. 



The number of plankton samples obtained was 135. These 

 comprise 27 collected during the first year, 48 the second year, 

 and 60 the third year. 



Also 96 samples of sea-water were obtained. 



The increase in the relative size of the plankton catches as 

 we left the warm seas around New Zealand and entered the 

 cold waters of the far south was very marked. This increase 

 was especially noticeable in the case of the diatoms. These 

 minute plants became so numerous as to choke the meshes of the 

 net after it had been fishing only five minutes. In the middle of 

 pack ice the diatoms were much less numerous. This may have 

 been due to the ice floes shutting out the sunlight or to an altera- 

 tion in the salinity of the sea caused by the melting of the ice. 



Some fifty samples of the muds and oozes from the bottom 

 of the sea between New Zealand and the Antarctic were collected. 

 A rough examination of some of these showed them to consist 

 of the skeletons of diatoms and other inhabitants of the surface 



* Arber, Proc. Roy, Soc., B. vol. 86, 1913; Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., vol. rvii. pt. i. 



