150 EEPOET— 1888. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor W. C. Williamson 

 and Mr. W. Cash, appointed for the purpose of investigating 

 the Flora of the Carboniferous Rocks of Lancashire and West 

 Yorkshire. {Drawn up by Professor W. C. Williamson.) 



As I tad occasion to report to the Association at Manchester last year, 

 much labour has now to be expended in order to reap a very small 

 harvest. Our many years of persevering research have well-nigh ex- 

 hausted the supply of the more conspicuous facts connected with the 

 organisation of the Carboniferous vegetation. At the same time there is 

 still much respecting which more information is needed, and the work of 

 the past year has not been devoid of some important observations. 



One of the most curious structural and physiological facts revealed 

 by the study of the exogenous Carboniferous Cryptogams relates to the 

 development of their conspicuous piths. This is especially the case 

 amongst the arborescent Lycopodiaceoe. I have from time to time 

 called attention to some curious facts bearing upon this matter. I have 

 shown that in tlie young twigs of some of these plants the central 

 vascular bundle, corresponding to what the late Professor De Bary would 

 designate as the ' leaf-trace ' in contradistinction to a Cauline one, is 

 composed of a number of scalariform vessels, as is the case with the twigs 

 of many of the living Lycopodiacece. But unlike these living represen- 

 tatives of the group, there lurked in the centre of each of these palaeozoic 

 bundles, an invisible germ or germs of a parenchymatous tissue which 

 developed as the plant grew, and ultimately expanded into a conspicuous, 

 persistent pith of large dimensions ; not only so, but portions of this 

 medullary tissue assumed the functions of a Cambium by developing 

 additions to the vascular ring by which it was surrounded. Botanists 

 Avill at once recognise the differences between this mode of development 

 of a medulla and what occurs amongst ordinary living Exogens. 



Some of my most important results obtained during the past year 

 consist of new facts relating to this curious physiological and morpho- 

 logical feature of the Palaeozoic Flora ; explanations which I previously 

 advanced hypothetically now assume the appearance of unquestionable 

 truths. Hence I believe I am now in a position to publish what I hope 

 to do with little delay, viz., a fairly complete history of the anomalous 

 development of these palaeozoic medullary organs. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor Eay Lankester, 

 Mr. P. L. ScLATER, Professor M. Foster, Mr. A. Sedgwick, 

 Professor A. M. Marshall, Professor A. C. Haddon, Professor 

 Moseley, and Mr. Percy Sladen {Secretary), appointed for the 

 purpose of arranging for the occupation of a Table at the 

 Zoological Station at Naples. 



Your Committee have to report several notable advances in the scope of the 



Zoological Station, which give promise of important results in the future. 



The past year has been marked by the opening of the pliysiological 



laboratory, which occupies a new and handsome building adjacent to. 



