The Meeting of the British Association. 177 
of the “ Cycadean type ” which shew numerous variations in the 
arrangement of their vascular supply. An attempt was made to 
indicate the probable course of evolution of these seeds, which is 
thought to be largely determined by the necessities of water-supply. 
Cytology was represented only by two papers read by Mr. 
Harold Wager, one giving an account of his admirable work on the 
Nucleus of the Cyanophyceae, and the other relating to the 
Function of the Nucleolus. In the former he summed up the points 
in which the “central body ” of the Cyanophyceous cell resembles 
the nucleus of an ordinary plant cell. From this it appears that 
the former may very fairly be called a nucleus, though Mr. Wager 
hesitated to do so. It is, of course, a nucleus of very primitive type 
which has not acquired some of the distinctive characters of the 
ordinary nucleus. Mr. Wager’s view of the function of the 
nucleolus is that it feeds the chromatin. He has obtained 
preparations shewing the nucleolus in actual organic connexion with 
the chromatin network. He does not, however, deny that it may 
also help to form the achromatic spindle, as is held by Stasburger 
and his school. 
Mr. Lloyd Praeger, the well-known authority on the distribution 
of Irish Plants and author of the recently published “ Irish 
Topographical Botany,” read a paper on “The Composition of the 
Flora of the North-East of Ireland,” in which he gave an excellent 
account of the occurrence of the various geographically determined 
“types” of Irish plants in Counties Down and Antrim. The paper 
was illustrated by Mr. Praeger’s excellent distributional maps. 
Excursions. 
On Friday, Mr McKim, the curator of the Botanic Park, 
shewed several members of the section round the “Fernery” where 
tree-ferns and bananas with numerous other tropical plants are 
arranged with great taste and growing with quite exceptional 
luxuriance. On the testimony of more than one botanist, familiar 
with the vegetation of the moist equatorial region, the scene was 
“ more tropical than the tropics.” 
Several botanists went to Newcastle, Co. Down, with the 
regular Association Saturday Excursion, but instead of following 
out the rest of the programme, on arriving at the station they drove 
straight to Castlewellan, an introduction having been obtained to 
Lord Annesley, who very kindly took the party round his garden. 
The very line collection of trees and shrubs was much admired. 
Several Conifers, such as Fitzroyci patagonica , Dacrydium, etc., 
