404 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— K. 



SECTION K.— BOTANY. 



(For references to the publication elsewhere of communications entered in the 

 following list of Transactions, see page 448.) 



Thursday, August 5. 



1. Presidential Address by Prof. F. 0. Bower, ¥. R. 8.^1860-1 894- 



19m. (See p. 231.) 



2. Dr. T. F. Chipp. — Some Dangers of Forest Destruction in the Tropics. 



3. Prof. D. H. Campbell. — The Nature of the Sex-organs of the Arche- 



goniates. 



1. This paper offers some suggestions as to the possible derivation of the sex-organs 

 of the Archegoniates. 



2. Hepaticse and Mosses have the antheridium and archegonium quite free, while 

 the Anthocerotes have these organs submersed and more nearly resemble in this 

 respect the lower Pteridophytes. 



3. The theory of the derivation of the Archegoniates from Green Algae with 

 plurilocular gametangia is probably the most plausible ; the comparison with the 

 gametangia of the Phseophyceae can hardly imply a real relationship. 



4. If the derivation of the sex-organs of the Archegoniates from plurilocular 

 gametangia is accepted, it may be questioned which type is more primitive, the free 

 or the submersed — or have these two types developed independently ? 



5. The nearest approach to the algal gametophyte is found in the Anthocerotes 

 and lower Pteridophytes. It may be that the gametophytea of the latter more nearly 

 resemble the ancestral algee than do any existing Bryophytes. 



6. Among the Anthocerotes, the solitary antheridium is probably a more primitive 

 condition than that in which the mother-cell divides into several antheridia. 



4. Prof. F. L. Stevens. — Tropical Fungi of the Western Hemisphere. 



It has been the author's good fortune to devote a considerable time to tropical 

 collecting ; five months in the Hawaiian Islands, some two years in Porto Rico, with 

 visits to other Caribbean Islands, Martinique, Mona, Trinidad ; some months in 

 Central America, Costa Rica, Panama, and British Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia, 

 Ecuador, Peru. A range in altitude from sea-level to 16,000 ft. including the head- 

 waters of the Amazon at an altitude of 1,500 ft. was covered. 



A very great diversity naturally is met. Of greatest interest, perhaps, are the 

 unusual forms, and especially the transition or bridging forms between genera or 

 families. 



Lantern slides illustrating several such transition forms pertaining to the following 

 groups are given : Meliolinse, HemisphaBriaceae, Trichopeltaceae, Dothideales, and the 

 genera Anisochora, PolystomeUopais, Anomothallus, YoshinageUa, Marasmius, 

 Shropshiria, Clypeodiplodina and Dothidina. The method of using aluminium driers 

 is outlined. 



5. Prof. F. E. Weiss, F.^^.S.— Unilateral Inheritance in Ranunculus 



auricomus. 



The Common Goldilocks (Ranunculus auricomus) occurs in two forms, one with 

 five large yellow petals, and the other apetalous, the sepals being green on the outside 

 but yellowish on the inside. The petaloid foi-m has radical leaves finely dissected, 

 like the leaves of a buttercup ; the apetalous form has leaves which are very little 

 divided. While these two varieties are very distinct, one finds plants occasionally 

 which appear to be of an intermediate type and possess a varying number of petals, 

 from one to five. It would appear as if these had been produced by natural crossing 

 of the two varieties. 



