138 REPORTS OX THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Investigation of the Upper Atmosphere by Means of Kites in co-ojjera- 

 tion with a Committee of the Royal Meteorological Society. — Fifth 

 Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. W. N. Shaw (Chairman), 

 Mr. W. H. Dines (Secretary), Mr. D. Archibald, Mr. C. Vernon 

 Boys, Dr. A. Buchan, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, Dr. H. R. Mill, 

 Professor A. Schuster, and Dr. W. Watson. (Brawn up by 

 the Secretary.) 



Since the date of sending in the last report an investigation into the 

 conditions prevailing over the North Sea has been carried on by Mr. 

 G. C. Simpson, who kindly undertook the work at the request of the Joint 

 Committee. Mr. Simpson spent three weeks on the North Sea in the 

 mission ship ' Alexandra,' which was attached to the Red Cross Trawling 

 Fleet. The results he obtained have been published in the ' Quarterly 

 Journal of the R. Met. Soc.,' vol. xxxii., No. 137. 



Observations were also continued at Oxshott, on behalf of the Joint 

 Committee, down to the end of September 1905, and the results of these 

 observations, together with those previously obtained at Crinan and at 

 Oxshott, have been published in the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society,' 

 A, vol. Ixxvii. 1906. 



Since October 1, 1905, the work of obtaining systematic observations 

 has been undertaken by the Meteorological Office, whose station is at 

 present situated at Oxshott ; but Mr. Simpson is arranging a kite station 

 on the moors near Manchester, at which it is hoped that kite ascents can 

 be made on suitable days, and more particularly on the days appointed by 

 the International Committee. 



The Committee ask for reappointment, and for a grant of 25^. 



The Distribution of Priissic Acid in the Vegetable Kingdom. 

 By Maurits CIreshoff, Ph.D. 



[Ordered by the General Committee to be printed in cxtcnso.] 



The President of the Chemical Section has honoured me with an invitation 

 to give a paper on cyanogenesis, that very important phyto-chemical 

 problem in which I have taken an interest ever since I went to Buiten- 

 zorg, now eighteen years ago. I began my work on the distribution of 

 prussic acid among plants with Pangium edule. In recent years I have 

 had, owing to the pressure of othex* work, to relinquish investigation in 

 this direction, and I am now scarcely more than a spectator of the pro- 

 gress made from year to year. 



The following list shows concisely our present knowledge of the extent 

 to which prussic acid occurs in plants: — 



DICOTYL. POLYPETAL. Fam. 1—90. 



Fam. 1. Ranunculaceas. 



Aquilegia vulgaris (— , Jorissen 1884), A. chrysantha (n.B., Greshoflf 



1906). 

 Thalictrum aquilegifolium {A., v. Itallie 1905). 



