February 8, 19 12] 



NATURE 



505 



Advantage is taken of this report to summarise our know- 

 ledge of this group in Ireland. Some 65 species in all are 

 on record from the country, but about six of these are 

 regarded as probably erroneously recorded. — Carleton Rea 

 and Sir H. C. Hawley : Fungi (Clare Island Survey). 

 Previous to the present survey only two species of fungi 

 were on record for the county of Mayo. Some 750 species 

 are now recorded, of which nearly 300 are new to the 

 Irish flora. One new genus of Hyphomycetae — Candelo- 

 spora, Hawley — and one new Agaric — Hygrophorus 

 squatnulosus, Rea — are described. On Clare Island itself 

 a list of 284 species of fungi was compiled. — A. W. 

 Stelfox : Land and fresh-water Mollusca (Clare Island 

 Survey). This group was closely studied not only on Clare 

 Island, but along the whole coast of Mayo, and on the 

 adjoining islands of Inishtusk, Caher, and Inishbofin, and 

 analyses of the faunas of the different parts of the area 

 are made. In the whole district 90 species of Mollusca 

 were found. Of these, 58 occur on Clare Island, two of 

 which are looked on as owing their introduction to man. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, January 8. — Dr. John Home, F. R.S., vice- 

 president, in the chair.— Dr. Kidston and Prof. Gwynne 

 Vau^han : The Carboniferous flora of Berwickshire. 

 Part i. Stenomyelon tuedianum, Kidst. The description 

 was founded on a specimen found by the late Mr. Mathe- 

 son, Jedburgh, in 1859, and additional material found in 

 the original locality in 1901. Briefly put, it is as 

 follows :— stem monostelic, primary xylem without xylene 

 parenchyma, divided more or less distinctly into three lobes 

 by as many radiating and interrupted bands of paren- 

 chyma ; primary tracheal porose on all walls, the proto- 

 xylems of the leaf traces decurrent as exarch strands on 

 the extremities of the lobes ; secondary thickening occurs, 

 secondary tracheae with porous pith on radial walls only ; 

 medullary rays numerous ; stele closely invested by a zone 

 of sclerotic periderm ; leaf traces depart successively from 

 the extremities of the lobes and repeatedly divide in the 

 cortex ; leaf-trace protoxylems become immersed ; the 

 outer cortex of the " Spargonum " type. The stem 

 possesses so many features peculiar to itself that in the 

 present state of our knowledge it is unsafe to speculate 

 as to its relationship to the other members of the Cycado- 

 filiccs. It is perhaps best to let it remain among that 

 nebulous group in which it has already provisionally been 

 placed by Dr. Scott. At the same time, it should be noted 

 that the absence of independent meristeles in the cortex 

 of the stem separates it widely from Sutcliffia insignis, 

 Scott, with which one might be tempted to compare it. — 

 Dr. F. J. Cole : A monograph on the general morphology 

 of the myxinoid fishes, based on a study of Myxine. 

 Part iv. On some peculiarities of the afferent and 

 efl'erent branchial arteries of Myxine. These peculiar 

 structures are called vascular papillae, and have been found 

 in some cases to be the means by which blood is passed 

 direct from the arteries into the surrounding " lymphatic " 

 peribranchial sinuses. Such blood re-enters the blood 

 stream via the superior jugular veins. The so-called 

 lymphatic spaces of Myxine contain normally red blood, 

 and therefore must be excluded from the lymphatic system 

 sensu stricto. They are, however, not situated directly in 

 the course of the blood stream, but partake of. the nature 

 of both systems. The Myxinoids are in the act of acquir- 

 ing a definite lymphatic system. — Prof. Sutherland 

 Simpson : The effect of changing the daily routine on 

 the diurnal rhythm in body temperature. Experiments 

 were made on the daily variation in body temperature 

 during travel across the American continent and across the 

 Atlantic Ocean. It was found that the body quickly 

 adjusted itself to the new conditions, so that the diurnal 

 rhythm depended entirely on the daily routine. — Prof. 

 David Hepburn : The Scottish National Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition. Observations on the Weddell seal. Part ii. 

 The paper gave an account of the genito-urinary organs 

 of a young I.cptonychotes uieddcUi, captured and embalmed 

 by the naturalist of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition. A 

 detailed account was given of the following special 

 points :— the adaptation of the pelvic organs to the groat 

 obliquitv of the osseous pelvis ; the allantoidal shape of 

 the urinary bladder, which pxtondod n« fnr forwards as 



the umbilicus ; the presence of prostatic glandular tissue, 

 as revealed by the microscope ; the' presence of a cylindrical 

 piece of developing bone common to both corpora cavernosa 

 penis ; the absence of a scrotum, and the lodgment of 

 each testis in a subcutaneous recess showing no surface 

 bulging ; the absence of vesiculae seminales ; the presence 

 of a bilateral retractor penis muscle composed of unstriped 

 muscle fibres, probably representing the tunics dartos of 

 the absent scrotum. 



GOTTINGEN. 



Royal Society of Sciences. — The Ncuhrichlen (physico- 

 mathcmatical section), parts iv. and v. for 191 1, contain 

 the following memoirs communicated to the society : — 



June 17. — K. Wegener: The r6\c of direct radiation in 

 the temperature-period of the air at low and middle alti- 

 tudes of the troposphere. — A. Bestelmeyer : The path of 

 the kathode rays proceeding from a Wehnelt kathode in a 

 homogeneous magnetic field. 



July I. — E. Landau : The partition of numbers com- 

 pounded of V prime factors. — K. Far*terlin» : Formuke 

 for the computation of the optical constants of a metallic 

 film of given thickness from the polarisation conditions of 

 the reflected and transmitted light. 



July 29. — H. Bohr: The behaviour of the zeta function 

 iis) in the half-plane <r>i. — C. Runse : Graphical solu- 

 tion of the boundary conditions of the equation 



—P. Bachmann : Materials for a scientific biography of 

 Gauss : (i) on Gauss's work in the theory of numbers. 



September 14.— 'I h. v. KArmAn : The mechanism of 

 the resistance experienced by a moving body in a liquid. 



October 13.— R- Fricke : The transformations of auto- 

 morphic functions (dedicated to Richard Dedekind on his 

 eightieth birthday). 



October 28.— G. Tammann : Equations of condition in 

 a region of small volume.— R. Wedekind : Contributions 

 to the knowledge of the Upper Devonian series at the 

 northern margin of the slate ridge (Schiefergebirge) on 

 the right bank of the Rhine. . v . , . a- 



The Business Communications (part u.) include a dis- 

 course on " Metamorphic Processes in the Crystalline 

 Slates," by O. MUffse, and congratulatory addresses to 

 Prof. Waldoyer, and to the Universities of Breslau, 

 Christiania, and St. Andrews. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



The Practical Science of Billiards and its " Pointer." 

 By Colonel C M. Western. Pp. iv+153. (London: 

 Simpkin and Co., Ltd.) 35. 6d. net. ., , .. c • ., » 



The University of Missouri Studies. Vol. 11. Science 

 Series —The Flora of Boulder, Colorado, and Vicinity. 

 By Prof. F. P. Daniels. Pp. xiii + 3". (University of 

 Missouri.) 1.50 dollars. ^ ^ ., xm \r n onrf 



A Shorter Geometry. By C. Godfrey, M.V.O.. and 

 A. W. Siddons. Pp. xxii + 301. (Cambridge University 



''Toi Afrfct Zoology. B.v Prof J. J>- /• Gilchri^- 

 Pp. xi4-323. (Cape Town: T. Maskew Miller.) 10s. 6d. 



"'^Fortschritte der Naturwisscnschaftlichen Forschung. 

 Edited' by Prof. E. Abderhalden. Vierter Band. Pp. 29> 

 (iiorlin & Wicn : Urban & Schwarrenborg.) 15 "^"""ks. 



Tho Arctic Prairies. A Canoe-journey of jooo Miles 

 in Search of the Caribou; being the Account of a Voyage 

 to the Region North of Aylmer Lake. By E. Thompson 

 SVton. Pp. xvi + 4>5- (London: Constable and Co.. 



'^Practical ^AnthmHogy. By T. F„ Smurthwaite. Pp. 

 40 + 2 charts. (London: Watts and Co.) ". 6d. net. 



A School Chemistry. By F. R. L. ^Vilson and 0. \V 

 Ilidley n>- xxii-f 572 + diagram. (Oxford: Clarendon 



''"S^L^Li^'lM the Insect^ WoHd. % J;, "^J«»>-• 



Translated by H. Miall. Pp. vm + 3a7- (London. 1. 



Fisher Unwin.) los. Od. net. . .^ . n 



Hmv Other People Live. By H. CUvc Barnard. Pp. 

 64. (London : A. and C. Black.) is. 6d. 



NO. 2206, VOL. 88] 



