866 KEPORT— 1897. 



an angle varying with the condition of the stomata. If they are widely open the 

 angle will be 30° or 40° to a horizontal line ; if the stomata are closed the reading 

 will be zero on both surfaces of the leaf. With this instrument a number of well- 

 known facts in the physiology of the stomata can be easily demonstrated. The 

 author is engaged in a general investigation of the behaviour of the stomata under 

 varying conditions. 



4. Notes on Lilcea. By Professor Campbell. 



5. Lecture on Fossil Plants. By A. C. Seward, M.A. 



6. On the Existence of Motile Antherozoids in the Dictyolacem. 

 By J. L. Williams. 



TUESDAY, AUGUST 2\. 



A joint discussion with Section I on the Chemistry and Structure of the Cell 

 was introduced by the reading of the follovnng Papers : — 



(1) The Bationale of Chemical Synthesis. 

 By Professor R. Meldola, F.R.S. 



(2) On the Existence of an Alcohol-producing Enzyme in Yeast. 

 By Professor J. R. Green, F.R.S. 



(3) The Origin and Significance of Intracellular Structures. 

 By Professor A. B. Macallum, Ph.D. 



The following Papers were then read : — 



1. Further Observations on the Insemination of Ferns, and specially on 

 the Production of an Athyrioid Asplenium Trichomanes. By E. J. 

 Lowe, F.R.S. 



At the meeting of the British Association at Cardiff in 1891 the author used 

 the term multiple parentage. Since then a biological committee of the Royal 

 Society has been formed, and the term insemination has been used in the case of 

 animals. As a member of that committee the author uses the term insemination 

 of plants in preference to that of multiple parentage. 



The author records experiments in these insemination of Asplenium Tricho- 

 manes with Asplenium marinum and Athyriumflixfoemina. 



In the hybrid Trichomanes the length of the frond is six inches, of which the 

 lower half is hipinnate and two inches wide, the upper half being pinnate, with 

 long narrow pinnae. Some of the fronds are pinnate from the base to the apex, 

 and these have very long pinnae, especially near the base, some being as much as 

 three-quarters of an inch in length. 



Although copiously fertile and giving promise of a crop of seedlings, it has 

 yet to be proved whether it may not be similar to the hybrid between Aspidium 

 aculeatum and Aspidium angulare, whose spores looked equally promising, though 

 practically sterile, for the sowings of many thousand spores (persevered in for a 



