488 
NATURE 
[DECEMBER 25, 1913. 
mens bear marks of the use of iron saws or other 
metal implements. 
The shells of the sacred Indian chank or conch 
(Turbinella pyrum, Linn.) are principally found in 
the Gulf of Manaar, whence, to the number of about 
two millions, they are annually exported to Calcutta. 
At present the industry of bangle-cutting is confined 
almost entirely to Bengal, but Mr. Hornell shows 
that in former times it was widely spread over the 
greater part of India, relics of bangle-workshops 
being discovered from Tinnevelly in the extreme south 
to Kathiawar, and Gujarat in the north-west, through 
a long chain of factories located in the Deccan. The 
causes of this transfer of the manufacture are some- 
what obscure, but Mr. Hornell largely attributes it 
to the upheaval resulting from the Mahomedan con- 
quest of southern India. 
Mr. Hornell describes the condition of the industry 
as flourishing. While there is an increasing demand 
for gold ornaments, the Swadeshi movement in 
favour of Indian-made goods has greatly stimulated 
the trade. He gives full details, with photographs, 
of the methods employed in the manufacture, and his 
discussion of the religious and social influences which 
encourage the use of this form of ornament not only 
in Bengal, but as far north as Tibet, from Ladakh 
in the west to the Kham country on the east, make 
this excellent account of a curious industry more 
than ordinarily instructive. 
BOTANY AT THE BRITISH 
ASSOCIATION. 
ee Birmingham meeting of the British Associa- 
tion was, from the point of view of the Botanical 
Section, as from others, highly successful. There was 
a very large attendance of botanists, particularly of 
the younger ones. The meeting of the section this 
year was noteworthy in being presided over by Miss 
Ethel Sargant, the first woman president of any sec- 
tion of the association. It is scarcely necessary to 
state that the section suffered in no way as a result 
of the innovation. The president’s address having 
been previously reported in full in these columns, it 
is unnecessary here to attempt to summarise it. It 
dealt with the progress of vegetable embryology in 
recent years, the subject being treated from the 
morphological side. The great difficulty in all such 
work, as the president herself pointed out, is to dis- 
tinguish between adaptive characters of comparatively 
recent origin and the characters inherited from re- 
mote ancestors. However, the study has already 
thrown much light on embryological problems, and is 
likely to throw more as time goes on. 
Fossil Botany, 
Dr. D. H. Scott contributed an important paper on 
some fossii plants from Devonian strata. The 
specimens described were collected by Prof. C. R. 
Eastman near Junction City, Boyle County, Ken- 
tucky, from the nodule-bearing layer at the base of 
the Waverley shale, in the lower part of Upper Devo- 
nian strata. They are thus (at present), among the 
oldest known land-plants showing internal structure. 
The communication was made in the joint names of 
Prof. E. C. Jeffrey, of Harvard, and Dr. Scott. The 
following fossil-plants were described :—(1) Calamo- 
pitys americana (sp. nov.), Jeffrey and Scott. This 
has mixed pith, containing tracheides, and paired leaf- 
trace bundles in the wood. (2) Kalymma petioles. 
This no doubt belongs to a species of Calamopitys. 
(3) Calamopteris Hippocrepis (sp. nov.), Jeffrey and 
Scott. This is a petiole of the Kalymma group, but 
with the bundles arranged in a horse-shoe form, and 
NO. 2304, VOL. 92] 
' tissue. 
largely fused. These three fossils are members of 
the group Pteridospermez. (4) Archaeopitys East- 
manu (gen. et sp. nov.), Jeffrey*and Scott. This is a 
stem with dense secondary wood and numerous small 
mesarch strands of xylem scattered in the pith. It 
is probably a member of the group Cordaitales. (5) 
Periastron perforatum (sp. nov.), Jeffrey and Scott. 
This is a curious petiole with a median row of separate 
vascular bundles and large lacune in the ground 
It is allied to P. reticulatum, Unger; but it is 
not known whether it is a pteridosperm or a fern. 
(6) Stereopteris annularis (gen. et sp. noy.), Jeffrey 
and Scott. This is probably a _ fern, with 
a petiole possessing a single large vascular bundle, 
with solid wood, external protoxylem, and cortex 
differentiated into several distinct zones. (7) Lepi- 
dostrobus devonicus (sp. nov.), Jeffrey and Scott.. 
This has an axis of an ordinary Lepidostrobus type.: 
The sporangia have the usual columnar wall, and the) 
spores are in tetrads. It is the oldest known fructi-, 
fication with structure of any plant. The most re- 
markable matter concerning these very ancient land-: 
plants is their high structural organisation. ! 
Mr. H. H. Thomas followed with an account of a. 
new type of Ginkgoalian leaf, found in the Jurassic 
plant-bed at Cayton Bay, near Scarborough. The 
leaves are beautifully preserved, linear or oblanceolate 
in outline, with rounded or slightly bifurcated apices,) 
short petioles, and dichotomising venation. The form 
of the stomata and subsidiary cells is very like that 
of other Ginkgoalian leaves, while they possess the 
secretory tracts between the veins as seen in the 
modern form. The epidermal cells possess very char-| 
acteristic papilla. The leaves form the type of a new: 
genus, Eretmophyllum, with two species, the second 
one occurring at Whitby. The specimens provide a 
further illustration of the importance of the Ginkgoales: 
in the Mesozoic vegetation. 
Dr. Ethel de Fraine described a new species of 
Medullosa from the Lower Coal Measures. 
Anatomy. 
Dr. M. J. le Goc gave an account of the transition 
of centrifugal xylem to centripetal xylem at the base 
of the petiole of Cycads. The centrifugal system at 
the base is in great part a secondary growth, and the 
centripetal system a primary structure; both are con- 
sequently independent morphologically, The two 
kinds of xylem overlap at their ends, and are connected 
for a physiological function. Their reduced extremi- 
ties point to a time when possibly they ran parallel 
throughout their entire length. 
Mr. R. C. Davie spoke on the pinna-trace in the 
Filicales. The ‘‘marginal’” type of vascular supply 
in the Filicales occurs generally in leaf-traces which 
have no hooks at their ends; the ‘“extramarginal” 
type appears regularly in connection with leaf-traces 
possessing incurved hooks. Variations from these 
types were described. 
Histology. 
Miss M. Hume gave the results of her researches on 
the histology of the leptoids in the moss Polytrichum. 
These leptoids do not deserve the name of sieve-tubes. 
Their contents differ from those of the other lining 
cells in never including starch-grains or large drops of 
oil; but each leptoid has a nucleus. They are rich in 
connecting protoplasmic threads. The conducting 
function of the leptoids seems to be confined to albu- 
minous materials, and not to be concerned with carbo- 
hydrates. ‘ 
Physiology. 
Last year, at Dundee, Prof. W. B. Bottomley 
directed attention to the effect of soluble humates on 
plant growth. This year he further maintained that 
