1066 REPORT- -1898. 



§ Caprea yields by far the greatest number ; and second to it cornea the 

 § Fragiles. In dwarf willows they seem to be very rare, and in § Glaciales I 

 have only found one abnormal catkin. 



Secondly, we notice that, though the two-staminal willows yield most freely 

 these abnormalities, those in which the male flowers possess more than two 

 stamens sometimes show them. I can instance S. penta7idra and S. humboldtiana. 



That the male organs or the female organs are produced from the same rudi- 

 ments is extremely probable; and in the normal Salix we have an unisexual 

 flower, which cannot, as in most Phanerogams, be shown to have had an origin from 

 a hermaphrodite flower by abortion of one sex. In these abnormal willows, while 

 ■we readily follow the change of the two stamens of one of the Caprece or 

 Purpurea; into the two carpels, it is not so easj^ to say what happens when five or 

 more stamens have to be replaced by two carpels. 



Lastly, of the several theories thus far proposed to account for the occurrence 

 of the abnormalities, none is capable of wide application. 



Sometimes the abnormalities reappear year after year ; sometimes they prove 

 inconstant. Had we a fuller knowledge, some explanation, partial or complete, 

 might be forthcoming ; for frequently, both in their distribution in the catkin and 

 on the branch, the changes in sex show a tendency to arrangement. At times the 

 male is above the female ; at times the reverse is the case. Rarely there are three 

 or four belts of flowers on one catkin, male succeeding female, and female male, io 

 definite order. 



4. Aj)ogeotropic Roots o/Bowenia spectabilis (Hk.f,), 

 By H. H. W. Pearson, B.A., Cambridge. 



Apogeotropic roots arise from the upper part of the main root of Boioenia 

 spectabilis, and appear just above the surface of the soil. These roots are very 

 numerous on the old plants. Each root develops endogenously and branches above 

 in an exogenous manner. The internal structure of the root is, in the main, the same 

 as that of an ordinary lateral root. The external layer is composed of radially 

 elongated cells, with their free ends not in contact, thus giving to theroot a villous 

 appearance, which can be detected by the naked eye. This 'piliferous ' layer soon 

 becomes cut off by a layer of cork. 



Colonies of algse are found inhabiting a ring of intercellular spaces in the mid- 

 cortex. The alga is confined to a very definite zone. The portion of the cortex in 

 which it appears is in no way specialised, the cells which are crushed by its growth 

 being of the same size and form as those of the remainder of the cortex. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



■*o 



1. Preliminary Note on Changes in the Gland Cells o/Drosera produced 



by Various Food Materials. By Lily H. Huie. 



(Communicated by Gustav Maxn). 



The work is an extension of that previously undertaken by the authoress, an 

 account of which has abeady appeared in * Quart. Micro. Journ.,' vol. xxxix. 



In the experiments now described leaves were fed with Egg-albumin, Globulin, 

 Peptone, Fibrin, Milk, Nuclein, Nucleic acid, and Calcium phosphate, the histo- 

 logical changes in the gland cells being noted in each case. 



The results to be described were obtained with fixing fluids, widely difiering 

 in their chemical constitution. 



Egg-albumin : The basophil cytoplasm becomes pink, and is reduced in twenty 

 to thirty hours to a mere vestige. After two days it commences to recuperate, 



