clxvili Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
behind the root- ep. is developed as a special mucilage-secreting layer, 
and that root-hairs are not aa _ - part is much older, and are 
confin parts near ie e surface and. This peculiar cugetinges 
secreting layer has been pss oie yeaa ‘tom only one or two grasses 
which belong to the desert of North Africa, and which are in no way 
allied to Spinifex. The existence of the m mucilage and the arrangement 
of the sear points to the species being properly a xerophyte, and is 
relative the question whether the strand-formation of the tropics 
should ee Separdad as halophytic at all. 
An oecologically regressive vegetation on the Tinnevelly 
P. F. Fyson. 
coast.—By 
An account is =_— of the vegetation of the promontory which juts 
out setiaetews! the north end of the island ~a Ceylon. The predominant 
tree is Acac * plan nifrons, W. & A., which is a feature of inland dry 
country. This occurs not only as forest oe wi shade below, 
h dense 
but in two other forms of dwarfing, with strongly epinastic shoots and 
branches 
Six di eevee meets are noted, and it is shown that these repre- 
sent a mixture of regressive inland fore on n, with a progressive 
ensstvhenraasions, and this is  fita in with current belief that the sea has 
encroached on what was a complete sokeatiens between Ceylon and the 
mainland. 
The occurrence = bance noted of a _— association of sa Naiadaceae 
plant, Cymodocea revenge Trim., on the submerged co shelf which 
bounds the north onitpe f the protoontory, while two i species grow 
amongst the algae of the south side. 
The flora of the Indian desert.—By E. BuarreEr. 
The paper gives a qeoseel aspect of the flora of Jodhpur and Jaisal- 
It does not enter into ecological details, as these will be dealt t with 
¥ umer 
n 
umbers of their respective genera and spe he prevalent orders are 
mpa th t redominant in som er botanical regi 
study of the sine cas on of the desert flora shows th Il marked 
elements: A western (comprising African, Oriental, and Mediterranean 
species), an eastern (Indo-Malayan), and, fin Se a — general element 
(incuding those species which are neither eastern nor western exclusively). 
Of endemic elements 17 new species are mentio ry 
Morphology of some species of Pteries and Adiantum.— 
Mir 
1. The following ferns were examined :— 
Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, A. Caudat A, Edgewarthi, A. lunw- 
latum, pte! longifolia, P. cretica, P. Dera. P. ensiformis Var. Vic- 
toria uadriaurita 
2. In Bo to obtain the skeleton of a fern it should be boiled in 
caustic aia dissolved in water. 
n one of these was found a solenostele and in the rest simple 
forms of dietebelaln: 
In some the strands going to nove traces and side branches 
‘matas each Prams in pkey and in. ben sae some other 
poi = roca heory that ‘‘ frond is a Paeailed-a 
eaten other than leaf-gaps a pa 
ee 
é The ai simplest type of leaf trace is one with two cab protoxy- 
lem groups. 
