February 26th, 1 907.] PROCEEDINGS. xxv 



East Anglian counties. It has also been recorded from Lundy 

 Island and Devonshire. 



Mr. H. J. Woodall, described a curious case of the freezing 

 of water in a bottle during the recent cold weather. 



Mr. Henry Sidebottom read a paper entitled, " Report 

 on the Recent Foraminifera from the coast of the 

 Island of Delos (Grecian Archipelago) Part IV." 



Drawings of some of the more interesting species were exhibited, 

 and mounted specimens were shown under the microscope. 



Miss Madeline Carson, B.Sc, read a paper communicated 

 by Professor F. E. Weiss, D.Sc, F.LS., entitled, "The 

 Leaves of Passerina." 



The .Passerinse belong to the natural order Thymelaeaceae. 

 These plants inhabit the warm dry regions of Egypt, S. Africa, 

 and the Mediterranean. They are common on the sand hills 

 near the coast, and always live under conditions in which there 

 is a difficulty of obtaining water. In order to combat against 

 this, they are specially modified. The leaf surface is reduced, 

 often the leaves are imbricating. They are provided with a 

 very thick cuticle, have the edges inrolled, and the stomates 

 are found only on the inner surface. They are further protected 

 by a covering of hairs. 



The chief object of the study of these leaves was to discover 

 whether the epidermal cells contained mucilage or not. Van 

 Lieghem ('93) after an exhaustive study classified these plants 

 according to their anatomical structure. He bases his classifi- 

 cation partly upon the fact that some genera contain mucila- 

 ginous cells in the epidermis, while others do not. Among the 

 latter he includes all species of Passerina. Karl Supprian ('94) 

 in his "Beitrage zur Kenntniss den Thymeliaceae und Penciacese" 

 finds mucilage in the epidermal cells of Passerina ericoides, but 

 in no other species. 



In Passerina filiformis and in Passerina hirsuta, I found that 

 in many of the epidermal cells a portion was cut off from the 

 rest by a cellulose wall. The upper portion contained tannin 



