1918 - 19 .] 
Meetings of the Society. 
255 
SEVENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 
Monday , June 2, 1919. 
Dr John Horne, F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 
The Makdougall- Brisbane Prize for the Biennial Period 1916-1918 was presented to Professor A. 
Anstruther Lawson (in absentia ) for his memoirs on the Prothalli of Tmesipteris Tannensis and 
of Psilotum, published in the Transactions of the Society, together with previous papers on 
Cytology and on the Gametophytes of various Gymnosperms. 
The grounds for the award of the Makdougall-Brisbane Prize to Professor A. Anstruther Lawson 
are to be found in his researches in three distinct lines. He first found his footing as an investi- 
gator in Cytology, and his results found publication in the Botanical Gazette and Annals of Botany, 
and later on the Royal Society of Edinburgh published two Memoirs on the behaviour of the 
Nucleus in division. There may be differences of opinion as to the ultimate verdict on the con- 
clusions therein contained ; but the exactitude of his methods, and the beauty of his preparations 
and his drawings entitle him to a statement of his views ; a position which the Society has accepted 
by giving publicity to these works. A second line of inquiry has been upon the Gametophytes of 
some of the less common Gymnosperms. In six Memoirs, which are now extensively quoted in 
special treatises, he has traced the development and structure of the male and female prothallus 
in as many genera. They thus take their place as substantive contributions to learning. The 
third line of investigation has been taken up since Professor Lawson was appointed to the Chair in 
Sydney. It relates to the Psilotacece, native in New South Wales. He discovered the Gameto- 
phytes of both Psilotum and Tmesipteris. The detailed description of these, with extensive 
illustration, is now embodied in our Transactions. The Society will await with interest further 
results relating to the embryogeny of both. By such work the last remaining gap in knowledge of 
the Gametopliyte generation in the Pteridophyta has been filled in owing to the activity of Professor 
Lawson, and other investigators at the Antipodes. The communication of these Memoirs to this 
Society is a singularly happy event, since they interweave so closely with the work of Dr Kidston 
and Professor Lang upon the plants of the Lower Devonian Period. Together these contributions 
are growing into a body of new knowledge of which any scientific society might be justly proud. 
The following Communications were read : — 
1. Obituary Notice of Sir James Russell. By Dr T. R. Ronaldson. Proc., vol. xxxix, 
pp. 243-248. 
2. On the Presence of Formic Acid in the Stinging Hairs of the Nettle. By Dr Leonard 
Dobbin. Proc., vol. xxxix, pp. 137-142. 
3. X-Ray Optics. Parti. By Dr R. A. Hountoun. Proc., vol. xl. 
4. On Pulsations of the Vertical Component of Terrestrial Magnetic Force. By Dr A. 
Cimchton Mitch ull. ( With Lantern Illustrations.) 
5. Exhibition of Samples of Encysted Wood, presented by Colonel R. A. Marr, Norfolk, 
Virginia, U.S.A. 
Mr W. W. Smith signed the Roll, and was duly admitted a Fellow of the Society. 
