424 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS— K. 



anatomy, however, has appeared to be different : in most specimens the 

 vascular bundles are not preserved, but the markings at the node suggested 

 that the bundles were twice as numerous as the leaves instead of being 

 equally numerous. Preparations of Equisetum have been made by bacterial 

 rotting followed by compression which show features at the node agreeing 

 with those of the fossils, thus suggesting the explanation of their peculiari- 

 ties and removing what seemed an important point of disagreement. It is 

 further suggested that in the Equisetales the water-conducting system is 

 double, consisting of a carinal canal supplemented by more or less developed 

 metaxylem. In the Calamites the xylem is well developed and in the 

 compressed fossil forms a ridge, while in Equisetum it is a vestige playing 

 a small part in conduction, and when rotted and crushed experimentally or 

 when fossilised becoming unrecognisable. This would account for the 

 ' pith cast ' of Equisetites being smooth, that of a Calamite being striated. 



Dr. T. Johnson. — Dulichium spathaceum Pers. from Corker Hill, Glasgow 

 (12.30). 



As a possible help in dating a human skull of uncertain age unearthed at 

 Corker Hill, Glasgow, I undertook the separation and examination of the 

 fruits, seeds and other plant material present in the turf in which the skull 

 was embedded. I was so fortunate as to enlist the aid of Mrs. Clement 

 Reid, who found, in the collection made, the fruit of Dulichium spathaceum 

 Pers., a sedge hitherto unknown from the British Isles but recorded from 

 the ' Interglacial ' beds of Denmark and North Germany, as well as from 

 Renver in 1908 by Mr. and Mrs. Clement Reid. This sedge, owing to a 

 change from the oceanic to the continental type of climate, disappeared 

 from Europe but still lives on the Atlantic side of North America. Cladium 

 jamaicense Crantz (C. mariscus Br.) and Salix aurita L. with Interglacial 

 records were also found. The cold, wet habitat is further indicated by the 

 subarctic Sphagnum Austini Sull., and by (a tubular artifact of) oak-wood 

 with rings, half the normal width. Liastrcea Thelypteris Bory, the marsh 

 fern, occurred. Pteris aquilina was plentiful (and may have provided bedding 

 and thatching for dwellings, supported by the roughly pointed birch stakes 

 found). 



Some thirty different species of seeds of no special interest were isolated. 

 Charcoal and vivianite were common. Sedge and skull are not necessarily 

 contemporaneous . 



Afternoon. 

 Exhibits : — 



Prof. Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, G.B.E., and Mrs. Q. E. Broad- 

 head.— The development of the long perithecial neck in Ceratostomella 

 fimbriata. 



Prof. B. Nemec. — Gold and other rare elements in plants. 



Dr. C. E. Foister, Mr. I. W. Tervet, and Mrs. N. L. Alcock, O.B.E.— 

 Rot in stored potatoes. 



Mr. H. D. Gordon. — Mycorrhiza in Rhododendrons. 



In nature the roots of rhododendrons regularly contain an endophytic 

 fungus, similar in appearance to the endophytes recorded in Calluna, 



