Minutes of Proceedings, v 



Ordinary Monthly Meeting. 



Wednesday, November 28, 1906. 

 Dr. J. C. Beattie, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. R. M. LiGHTFOOT was duly nominated as Ordinary Member 

 by Dr. L. Peringuey and Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist. 



Dr. G. Beare, Messrs. C. K. Brain, T. J. Hannon, and Professor 

 Ogg were elected Ordinary Members of the Society. 



Dr. Gilchrist exhibited living specimens of Phoronis and 

 Balanoglossus from the Marine Laboratory at St. James. The 

 Phoronis represented a new species of this genus ; a second species 

 had also been found in False Bay, probably representing a new 

 genus. The Balanoglossus (Ptychodera), like the Phoronis, had been 

 found for the first time in South Africa, and completes the South 

 African representatives of the three orders of the Hemichorda, 

 Cephalodiscus having been found some time previously. Some of 

 the peculiarities of the mode of life of these animals were demonstrated 

 on the living specimens. 



Dr. Marloth read some '* Notes on the Morphology and Biology 

 of Hydnora africana, Thunb." The genus Hydnora comprises 

 several species (about seven), which are confined to the African 

 continent. They are all parasites which grow on the roots of 

 different shrubs and trees. The species which formed the subject 

 of his notes, viz., Hydnora africana^ used the common milkbush of 

 the karroo and karroid regions of the interior, viz., Euphorbia 

 mauritanica, as its host. It is in the structure of the flower that he 

 had observed some organ which had hitherto escaped the attention 

 of botanists. Each of the three segments of the perianth bears a 

 large snow-white body on its inner side, while the remainder of the 

 inner surface of the flower is of a bright flesh colour. These three 

 white bodies are not mentioned in any existing description of 

 Hydnora, and this is probably due to the following facts. While 

 the entire plant is highly impregnated with tannin, this white 

 substance is like a spongy pudding, in appearance not only, but also 

 in taste, containing fat and albuminous matter. This evidently acts 

 as an attraction to carnivorous insects ; in fact, he had found a 

 number of such beetles, viz., Dermestes vulpinus in some of the 

 flowers, feeding on these white corpuscles ; in some of the flowers 

 the white bodies had been eaten out completely. These beetles can- 

 not leave the flowers until the fringe and the bristles on the lobes of 

 the perianth begin to shrivel, and they must consequently crawl over 



