144 . REPORT — 1876. 



Latldferous Canals hi Fruit of L\m.nochavii Pluraieri. 

 B_i/ Professor Alexander Dickson, 3LD. 



Ur. Dicksou sliowed tliat umisually large laticiferoiis canals could easily be 

 demonstrated sliining' through the epidermis of the flat surfaces by which the 

 numerous cai-pels are in opposition to each other. 



Oil tlie Occurrence in Ireland o/Nuphar intermedium, Ledeh, 

 By A. G. More, F.L.S., M.R.I.A. 



While staying with some friends at Orombyn, i)i West Meath, I noticed on the 

 borders of a sum 11 shallow lake, on peaty ground, some water-lily leaves which at 

 once drew attention from the small size of their leaves and especially with their 

 basal lobes standing apart or widely apart. My friend Mr. Preston Battersby, of 

 the Royal Artillery, most kindly instituted a close search, and succeeded at last in 

 finding one blossom, from which, together with the leaves, I have been enabled to 

 identify the plant as Nuphar infcnnediimi, Ledeb., var. [i. Sjieimerianum, of Hart- 

 man's 10th edition of the ' Haudbok i Skandinaviens Flora' (Stockholm, 1870), 

 vol. i. p. 86. _ 



Our plant is also, I presume, identical with Dr. Syme's so-called variety "/3. minor'' 

 of Nuphar luteum ; but the stigma of the single flower gathered has 15 rays. Still 

 the characters of the leaf bring it rather nearer to var. Siycunerianmn than the typical 

 form of Ledebour's N, intermedium. 



A. G. More, F.L.S., exhibited Zostera nana from Carnarvonshire. 



Professor W. R. M'N.vb, M.D., exhibited Choreocliolax polysiplwmix, Reinsch. 



Notes on the Structure of the Leaf in different Sj^ecies o/ Abies. 

 By Prof. W. R.'M'Jv^ab, M.D. 



On Circinnafe Vernation of Spheuopteris aflinis from the earliest stage to 

 comjjletion, and on the discover^/ o/ Staphvloptcris, a Genus neiv to British 

 Bodes. By C. W. Peach, A.L.S. 



The author stated that ho had found Spheuopteris affinis in black shale at West 

 Calder, near Edinburgh, in circinnate vernation from its earliest state to the com- 

 pletion of the plant, and thus had an opportunitj' of seeing this beautiful fern in 

 all its various stages of growth, showing the many variations it assumes and from 

 which, when so found, uo doubt several species have been made. 



It is rather plentiful at West Calder, Slateford, Burdie House, Burnt Island, and 

 other places around Edinljurgh ; he, however, had not found it in circinnate verna- 

 tion in any other locality than the first mentioned. 



He next exhibited and described specimens of Sfaphj/hpte7-is, also from West 

 Calder, and said the plant was a new genus to British rocks ; that he had met with 

 it first sparingly in 1n74, and in the present year in some abundance there, 

 especially in one slali. It is something like Stap)hijIopteris Wortheni of Leo 

 Lesquereux, figured in vol. iv. of the Geological Survey of Illinois, from "the shale 

 of the subconglomerate coal of Arkansas :" it, however, differed from that species, 

 first, in not showing like a star around a central point ; in having uo sporanges ; 

 and the flower-like parts instead of only " apparenthj restinej o«," are actually attached 

 in pairs, hanging in a drooping manner, to small branches. As well as the 

 one mentioned, he strongly suspected that he has another species from the same 

 locality. Several species have been found in the rocks of Arkansas ; all, however, 

 difi'er from the British one. 



The author expressed his obligations to Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., for first calling 



