278 



parasite in the same way that it may influence the host's 

 tissues 1 This view is ruled out of court by an examination 

 of the specimens exhibited, amongst which we find examples 

 in which the leaves of the mistletoe resemble (1) the leaves 

 of the host, (2) the phyllodes of the host, and (3) the 

 branchlets of the host. In other words, the hormone if 

 present would be modifying in some instances different struc- 

 tures in the parasite to those in the host. 



(3) The following, it is suggested, is the real explanation. 

 The successful establishment of the parasite is probably due to 

 its accommodating itself reasonably well to the normal sup- 

 plies of food and water available from the host. If it required,, 

 owing to greater evaporation, more water than the host was 

 capable of distributing, then the parasite would presumably 

 die out just as a plant in the earth succumbs in drought. The 

 water supply of the host will depend partly on the evaporation 

 from the leaves or leaf substitutes. If these are protected 

 from rapid loss (e.g., are glazed, terete, etc.), then the 

 mistletoe to survive must modify its leaves so as to let the 

 escape of water by their means be relatively equivalent to that 

 from a corresponding branch of the host. Otherwise, if the 

 loss be much greater, the available water travelling up the 

 host will be soon exhausted. Hence only those species of 

 Loranth can develop on particular hosts whose leaves function 

 similarly to the leaves or leaf substitutes of the host. 



John B. Cleland. 



Evening Meeting, April 14, 1921. 



Old Native Camps at Commodore Point, 

 Encounter Bay. 



The native camps referred to in these notes are at the 

 back of Commodore Point, in Sections 2311 and 2285. I 

 visited them in January, 1921, and this is intended to record 

 their condition at that date. 



Commodore Point is a granite outcrop backed by sand- 

 hills. ' In these there are masses of travertine which were 

 largely used by the natives for hearth-stones and, in the blown 

 sand, these masses of blackened travertine often stand out as 

 little hillocks. On digging into these, carbonized matter is 

 found mixed with remains of food materials. Although one 

 finds these ancient hearths scattered all through the sandhills 

 at the sides and back of the Point, the main camp is just 

 to the west of the Frenchman Rock. 



This camp is about 300 yards long and 100 yards wide. 

 The whole area is thickly covered with shells of Donax 

 ejndermia from the adjacent Middleton beach, and this cockle 



