As the Scotia was engaged in marine research throughout the whole of its long voyage out and home, it was only to be expected that Antarctic specimens would form but a small fraction of the result. In like manner, as several of the halting-places, such as the Cape of Good Hope and the Falkland Islands, had been visited by many keen naturalists on earlier occasions, it was quite likely that species of the group with which this report is concerned would have been in numerous instances already observed. Accordingly, out of some fifty species here discriminated, only six claim to be new, and not more than ten can be regarded as Antarctic or sub-Antarctic in their place of capture. In the vast extension, however, which marine zoology has for some time past been receiving, some retardation in the stream of discovery may not be unwelcome to the systematist. Familiar forms which would otherwise amply repay a thorough reinvestigation are apt to be thrust on one side, when striking novelties are for ever appealing to be introduced. This expedition, like others before it, affords fair evidence that the Macrura are both abundant and varied in great depths of the ocean. But only too often the frailty of their fabric leaves them in a tantalisingly mutilated condition when they reach the surface.

Introduction. The following study of the oak galls mentioned by Theophrastus was undertaken at Sir D'Arey Thompson's suggestion some four years ago. The old Greek gives no full description of any of these galls, but he characterises them so clearly in a few words that it is possible to identify all, or well-nigh all, with certainty. Böhner tried to identify them in his History of Cecidiology, but he used a poor translation and overlooked now and then the small but essential details given by Theophrastus. A fresh attempt may lead to better results.

The highly specialised features of the Compositæ leave little room for doubt that the family is an advanced one, and it is not without significance that the vast majority of its species should be herbaceous plants; shrubby species are infrequent, while trees are of the rarest occurrence. The markedly herbaceous habit is further emphasised if attention is confined to the large and widespread genus Senecio, comprising over 2000 species, for, although they include plants of very diverse habit, few attain to tree dimensions, or possess a welldeveloped, perennial, woody trunk. Herbs or shrubs account for 99 per cent, of the species, the former greatly predominating. The remainder comprises a small group of about 20 species, which have assumed the arborescent habit.

A number of years ago I began to form and arrange in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh a collection of the hair of the head to illustrate the varieties in colour and character which exist in the Races of Men. In a classification of the races based on the colour and characters of the hair, anthropologists have usually adopted the suggestion made by Bory de St Vincent, and have divided them into two groups: Leiotrichi, with straight, smooth hair; and Ulotrichi, with woolly or frizzly hair. Each of these again is capable of subdivision.

In this memoir I intend especially to examine the Ulotrichi, which comprise two well-marked subdivisions. In one the hair is very short, and is arranged in small spiral tufts, the individual hairs in which are twisted on each other, a mat-like arrangement of compact spiral locks closely set together being the result. In the other the hair is moderately long, the locks are slender, curled or spirally twisted in a part of their length and terminate at the free end in a frizzly bush-like arrangement. Ulotrichous hair is found in various African races, in the aborigines of Tasmania, New Guinea, the Melanesian Islands in the Pacific, in the Negritos of the Malay Peninsula and of some of the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago. The Leiotrichi are Australians, Polynesians, Mongols, Malays, Indians, Arabs, Esquimaux and Europeans.

The relation of the leaf-trace to the vascular system of the stem in the Ferns has been exhaustively investigated during the past fifteen years by various workers, especially by Gwynne-Vaughan and Boodle in this country and by Jeffrey and his pupils in America. The interpretations of the numerous types of Fern stele and leaf-trace have caused much discussion. And the discovery of a wonderful series of fossil Ferns has not settled the discussion of the evolution of the Filicinean vascular system, but has carried the battle on to another field.

The fossils have recently yielded up the structure of their pinna-traces (Kidston, '08; Bertrand, '09; Gordon, '11). Simultaneously an attack has been made on the pinna-traces of living Ferns. Various pinna-traces were described in curious mathematical formulæ, but no comparisons were made of the different types, by Bertrand and Cornaille ('02) in their Étude sur quelques caractéristiques de la structure des Filicinées actuelles.

Forty-six years ago James Geikie published the third edition of his book, The Great Ice Age, where he expressed the view that there were five main cold periods, separated by four warmer, within the Pleistocene. Despite the enormous research by glaciologists undertaken since Geikie's time no one has yet disproved this fundamental concept; indeed, research, though perhaps casting out some of the evidence used by Geikie, has only supported his hypothesis. Yet the works of this great geologist are neglected and apparently scorned, for the terminology which he set up in plain English to indicate his five glacial periods, determined by a very wide survey, has been discarded in favour of a Continental nomenclature having only a local significance. In this work I follow Geikie in naming glacial periods, first, second, third, etc., for this has a world-wide application. It is from the writings of this master, and also those of Professor J. E. Marr of Cambridge, that I gathered the general ideas expressed here in Part I, (a), (b), and (c).

In a recent paper (Gordon, 1938) reasons were given for the belief that semi-arid conditions prevailed during Lower Carboniferous times in the neighbourhood of North Berwick, East Lothian. The evidence was opposed, in a measure, to that advanced by Mr George Barrow in the East Lothian Memoir (1910) to substantiate the same position. He had relied on the absence of fossils as part proof; but, in point of fact, fossil plants have been obtained in abundance from the actual bedded ashes of Oxroad Bay that he considered (a) to be unfossiliferous, and (b) to have been formed in a manner similar to beds on the Springbok Flats of the Transvaal. The plants that have now been obtained showed xerophytic features, and, consequently, a semi-arid climate was proved on positive evidence. Other positive evidence of a lithological character was also presented in confirmation (Gordon, 1938, pp. 352, 353).

The pharmacological action of tetra-ethyl-ammonium chloride has been investigated to a limited extent by Tillie, Santesson and Koraen, Tappeiner, Boehm, and Höber and Waldenberg, in the course of other researches. Tillie, and Santesson and Koraen, describe its action on frogs; Tappeiner merely states that it has no paralysing effect on the respiration of the rabbit; Boehm, and Höber and Waldenberg, refer only to its effect on the isolated frog's muscle. The descriptions of the action of the iodide, which has been investigated by Jordan, Brunton and Cash, Rothberger, Jacobj and Hagenberg, and Barger and Dale, in the course of other work, are also somewhat meagre. Brunton and Cash, and Jacobj and Hagenberg, describe its action on frogs, and Brunton and Cash its action on rabbits; but Jordan merely says that it produces on frogs a curare-like action but no muscarin effect, and Barger and Dale only state that it has no sympathomimetic action. The investigation of Rothberger was limited to its antagonistic action towards curarin.

In a recent publication on the cyclic variations of the vascular architecture of the uterus of the guinea-pig (1940) we recorded that antimesometric hyperæmia is a regular and essential characteristic of the uterine changes which occur during heat, and commented on its significance as a factor influencing antimesometric implantation in this animal.

The specimens described in this paper were collected by Dr J. H. Harvey Pirie, B.Sc, M.B., geologist to the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, during a short visit paid to Gough Island on the homeward voyage of the Scotia from the Antarctic seas in 1904. The island is not often visited, and the only previous account of the rocks is by Professor L. V. Pirsson, who described a series of beach pebbles collected by the captain of a whaling vessel. Among those Professor Pirsson noted two varieties of basalt, trachytic tuffs, and a trachytic obsidian carrying olivine, and shown by chemical analysis to be of phonolitoid type.

With the exception of a small fragment of limestone, the rocks in the Scotia collection are all igneous. They were obtained in the neighbourhood of the usual landing-place, the mouth of a small glen on the eastward side of the island. They include soda trachytes, trachydolerites, basalts, an essexite, and tuffs.

Chironomid larvæ for a long time have been known to inhabit the brackish pools around the coast, but there are few published records of their life-histories and habits, and in many cases they cannot be correlated with their imagines. This applies equally to the fresh-water types.

The greater part of the systematic work on the Chironomidæ deals with the imagines, and much confusion exists regarding the nomenclature of species, which most authorities admit cannot be rectified until the early stages have been recorded.

The Polychæte family Scalibregmidæ comprises seven genera, the limits and interrelationships of which are, however, still imperfectly known. The present paper results from a detailed study of one of these genera, a new species of which is described, chiefly from a specimen collected in Scotia Bay, South Orkneys, and entrusted to me for examination by Dr W. S. Bruce.

Description of the Specimen Collected in Scotia Bay, South Orkneys.: This specimen, the only Scalibregmid found by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, was dredged on a stony bottom in ten fathoms at Station 325, in Scotia Bay, South Orkneys (lat. 60° 43′ 42″ S.; long. 44° 38′ 33″ W.), in August 1903.

The worm, which is yellowish brown in colour (in alcohol), is 19 mm. long. The anterior portion is broad; the maximum breadth, 3 mm., is reached about the level of the 10th segment; from this region the worm tapers gradually to the anal segment. The dorsal surface of the worm is strongly convex; the ventral surface is flattened, and there is a well-marked depression which extends along the mid-ventral line from the 2nd chætiferous segment almost to the anus.

This study was begun in 1936 primarily as an attempt to work out the life-history of the Salmon gill-maggot Salmincola salmonea (L.), a common and widespread copepod parasite of the Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar). At that time the adult female stage only was known, although this had been reported in Scotland as early as 1766 on a kelt salmon and had been included by Linnæus among his Vermes. It was not, however, until 1939, after three years of field work, that a complete series of the stages in the life-history of the parasite had been collected and the story began to take shape. During this time not only were parasites collected, but a quantity of statistical and observational data was accumulated bearing both on the parasite. and its host. Much of this referred to conditions in the estuary, a part of the common background of the two animals which was soon recognised to be a critical region for both. Consequently special attention was given to parasitised fish from this region, and this led to a widening of the scope of the investigation to include a consideration of the habitats and interrelations of gill-maggot and fish, indicated by the term “ecology” in the title.

The sponges in the following report were collected in the North and South Atlantic during the Scotia's voyages to and from the Antarctic regions in the years 1902–1904.

All the sponges in the collection were obtained off the south-west coast of Cape Colony, with the exception of five well-known species which were taken off St Helena, the Cape Verde Islands, and the Princesse Alice Bank. Only one specimen was dredged in deep water, namely, in 350 fathoms off the Princesse Alice Bank, while the remainder were taken between tide-marks to a depth of 30 fathoms.

The collection contains thirty-five species, of which fifteen are described as new.

To complete the list of sponges obtained by the Scotia in Atlantic waters, mention may be made here of one species which is not contained in this report. This species, Cladorhiza thomsoni, dredged in deep water between Gough Island and the Cape of Good Hope, has been described by Professor Topsent (24 and 25). It was taken at Station 468, 39° 48′ S., 2° 33′ E., depth 2770 fathoms.

The five species above referred to, Leucandra crambessa, Aphrocallistes beatrix, Tethya lyncurium, Chondrosia plebeja and Chondrosia reniformis, call for no special remark. They have all been previously obtained in, or fairly near, the areas for which they are here recorded.

During the last few years the distribution of the macrofauna, and to a less extent the microfauna, of the intertidal soils of the shores of Britain has received considerable attention and the principle that the species show a zonation with maximum densities at certain levels is now well established. The extensive studies of Elmhirst (1931) and of Stephen (1928, 1929, and 1930) on the fauna of the sandy and muddy areas of numerous Scottish bays has laid the foundation for much further work in this area. Pirrie, Bruce, and Moore (1932) have described the zonation of the fauna in the intertidal sand of Port Erin bay. Alexander, Southgate, and Bassindale (1935) refer to the fauna of the sand at the mouth of the River Tees, but mainly from the point of view of comparison with the fauna of the estuary. Crawford (1937 a and b)gives notes on the distribution and habits of certain intertidal species in sandy bays and estuaries in west England and south Wales. Rees (1939) has surveyed in outline, as part of a study of the interstitial sand copepods, the macrofauna of some sandy bays in north Donegal. Spooner and Moore (1940) have given a detailed description of the zonation of the species in the estuarine muds of the Tamar. A part from the above, reference must be made to two intensive studies on the soil fauna of the eastern shores of the North Sea, namely, that of Thamdrup (1935) on Danish shores and of Wohlenberg (1937) on certain bays on the island of Sylt. A general discussion of the ecological problems of sand, mud, and algal environments is given by Eemane (1933), based on the macrofauna and microfauna of Kiel bay. He reaches the conclusion, based on the number of species which occur in each environment, that the macrofauna of sand is comparatively poor compared with mud.

The present part of this memoir contains descriptions of four additional specimens of Osmundites which have been obtained from various sources.

We are indebted to Dr G. Nathorst for the material of Osmundites spetsbergensis, Nathorst MS., which was first collected by Dr G. Nordenskiöld on the Spitzbergen Expedition of 1890 at Nordenskiöldsberg, and subsequently by Dr B. Högbom in 1910 at Van-Mijensberg, Spitzbergen.

Our thanks are also due to Dr A. Rothpletz, Director of the Geologisch-palaeontologische Staatssammlung, München, for kindly placing in our hands the type specimen of Osmundites Carnieri, Schuster, for investigation and redescription.

In view of the differences observed in the pharmacological action of tetra-methyl- and tetra-ethyl-ammonium chlorides, it seemed of interest to investigate the actions of the methyl-ethyl-ammonium compounds. The chlorides of these compounds—namely, tri-methyl-ethyl-ammonium chloride, di-methyl-di-ethyl-ammonium chloride, methyl-tri-ethyl-ammonium chloride—were kindly prepared for me by Dr J. E. Mackenzie, who has published the mode of preparation and the analysis of them.

The only references I have found to the pharmacological action of the members of this series are brief statements by Tappeiner and Boehm. Tappeiner says that tri-ethyl-methyl-ammonium chloride, unlike tetra-methyl-ammonium chloride, does not produce temporary paralysis of the respiration; Boehm that tri-methyl-ethyl-ammonium chloride, like tetra-methyl-ammonium chloride, causes contracture of an isolated frog's muscle when a solution is applied to it.

This section under the above designation was first established by Pax in Engler's Bot. Jahrb., x, 205 (1889). The species chosen as representative of the section was P. nivalis Pall. This species with its numerous and widespread immediate allies affords an admirable centre for an exposition of the members of the section. The original definition of the sectionis still reasonably adequate, but its clarity was somewhat obscured by the admission of several species which indubitably belong elsewhere. Of the nine components quoted by Pax, five must be removed—P. sikkimensis and P. secundiflora, as well as the American P. Rusbyi and its two associates. In his Monograph (1) published in 1905 Pax made certain additions and corrections. The number of species indicated as within the section was increased to 15. He removed P. Rusbyi to what is now Candelabra, but P. Cusickiana and P. angustifolia were retained; so also were P. sikkimensis and P. secundiflora. On good grounds were included P. pumila, P. Aitchisonii, and P. eximia, but dubiously P. pulchella and P. Prattii. Correctly in our opinion came in P. Maximowiczii and its two allies P. szechuanica and P. tangutica.

Elsewhere two of the present authors (Davies and Francis, 1941) have expressed theopinion that a specialised cardiac conducting system, consisting of nodal and Purkinje fibres, is a newly evolved one in birds and mammals. The general morphology and topography of this system in the heart of the bird (Davies, 1930 a, 1930 b) is similar to that in the heart of the eutherian mammal, and we have postulated (Davies and Francis, 1941) that the system has undergone parallel evolution in these two classes of homoiothermal vertebrates in response to functional requirements, and that in particular its presence can be correlated with the rapidity of the heart-rate in proportion to its size. On the other hand, Keith and Flack (1907), Keith and Mackenzie (1910), and Mackenzie (1913) maintain that the sinu-atrial node, atrio-ventricular node, and atrio-ventricular bundle of the mammalian heart are remnants of more extensive tissues of similar structure in the hearts of lower vertebrates. They trace the evolution of the conducting system of the mammalian heart from a simpler and more definite form which they described in the fish, and state that as one ascends the animal scale the concentration and reduction of nodal tissue becomes more marked.