364 REPORT— 1892. 



large collections of material for further work. He has sent to the 

 Committee a report, which is appended : — 



The Committee, having at present before them no application for use 

 of the laboratory, do not propose to ask for a grant this year. Bat as 

 the Committee are informed that an application will be made, they request 

 that they be reappointed, with Professor Fai-mer as secretary. 



APPENDIX I. 



Beport hy Professor J. Bretland Farmer. 



In December 1890 I left England for Ceylon, having received from 

 the Grant Committee of the British Association the sum of 50Z., to be 

 expended in apparatus and fittings for the laboratory at Peradeniya. 

 The chief pieces of apparatus consisted of a ^-plate camera by Watson, a 

 large Zeiss dissecting microscope and lenses, and a large and sensitive 

 balance. In addition to these I further took a small supply of glass 

 apparatus and chemical I'eagents. 



On my arrival at Peradeniya in January 1 891 I proceeded to make 

 arrangements for storing the apparatus, &c., which I had brought, and 

 also to make a catalogue of the existing apparatus and fittings at present 

 available in the laboratory. 



Through the kindness of the Director of the Gardens I was enabled to 

 fit up a spare room as a photographic dark room. 



For the guidance of those who may in future visit the laboratory 

 with the intention of working there, I would suggest that it will 

 probably be necessary to take out such glass apparatus and bottles as 

 they may require, since, owing to the action of the climate, articles made 

 of ordinary glass soon become corroded, appearing as if they had been 

 exposed to the action of hydrofluoric acid. 



During my visit to Ceylon I made the laboratory my working head- 

 quarters, sorting and preserving my collections thei'e in the intervals 

 between various expeditions. I paid especial attention to the Hepaticse, 

 and for the purpose of securing as many as possible of these plants I 

 travelled over a considerable part of the country, especially the hilly 

 districts. I hope shortly to be able to publish some of my observations 

 on the material thus gathered, which includes, besides some probably new 

 species, several little known and interesting forms. 



I also obtained a quantity of material for working out the de- 

 velopment and structure of several species of the genus Christisonia, 

 which occurs as a parasite on the Strobilanths and various species of 

 Bamboo. 



I was fortunate enough, after repeated search, to obtain prothallia 

 and embryos of Anglopteris evecta, and thus to study the development of 

 at least one member of a group of ferns concerning whose embryology 

 we possess at present no information. These results are in course of 

 publication in the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society,' and m extenso in the 

 ' Annals of Botany.' 



Besides the abovementioned instances I collected a considerable 

 quantity of material of a varied kind, some of which has been already 

 worked out in the Peradeniya Laboratory. Amongst this material I may 

 mention a Podostemon, which appears to be a new form, and one of some 

 interest. 



