134 
Agnes Robertson. 
a lecture delivered before Section K of the British Association at 
the Belfast Meeting in 1902. These topics will be dealt with in 
greater detail in a future memoir. A further contribution to our 
knowledge of the plant was made by Mrs. A. G. Tansley (Miss Edith 
Chick), who published an account of the structure of the seedlings 
in the New Phytologist for May 1902 (Vol. II. p. 83). The young 
plants shewed some strikingly primitive characters; centripetal 
wood was found in the cotyledons, which were lobed and adhered 
together like those of Ginkgo and the Cycads. 
A preliminary investigation of the development of the ovules 
had been carried out by Professor Oliver and Mrs. Tansley, 1 and at 
the beginning of this year the material collected in 1902 was 
handed to me in order that the work might be continued. I should 
like to take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness to 
Professor Oliver for his help and encouragement. A number of 
hand sections had been cut by Mrs. Tansley and these have proved 
of great value for comparison with my own preparations. Unfor¬ 
tunately the material had not been fixed with a view to cytological 
work, and the preservation was not good enough to make it possible 
to work out the history of the reproductive organs except in the 
early stages where penetration of the fixing fluid is comparatively 
easy; the present paper thus only deals with the development up 
to the point of the formation of pollen-grains and embryo-sac. 
I hope to collect the more important later stages on the spot this 
summer, and so to carry on the subject further. I have been able 
to supplement the early stages to some extent by material fixed this 
year. Flemming’s weak solution, followed by Safranin—Gentian- 
Violet—Orange-G, has proved satisfactory, and Juel’s fixative 2 (2 
grammes zinc chloride, 2 cc. glacial acetic acid, 100 cc. 40-50% 
alcohol) used with Heidenhaim’s Haematoxylin has also given some 
good results. After embedding in paraffin—generally of 52° 
melting point—the sections were cut to various thicknesses with 
the microtome, 10/a being usually found most suitable. 
II.— The Sta.minate Cones. 
The tree of Torreya calif arnica at Orton Longueville bears 
both staminate cones and ovules. Mr. Harding has kindly given 
me the following account of their distribution. “ The ovules and 
staminate flowers are not confined to one side of the tree, but for 
1 F. W. Oliver and E. Chick. On the Morphology of the Seed and 
Seedling of Torreya. British Assoc. Report 1902, p. 814. 
1 H. O. Juel. Ueber der Pollenschlauch von Cupressus. Flora, 
1904. 
