Although a few papers have been published a number of years ago on the genus Ephedra, the authors have treated the subject mainly from a systematic standpoint. Thus, while the characters of the floral organs have been carefully examined and described, the structure and character of the vegetative organs have only received passing reference. It is proposed in the following notes to undertake the study of the histology of the vegetative organs, and thereafter to ascertain how far this knowledge applies to the determination of species. The following notes deal with the histology of the primary stem.

As Carnegie Research Scholar in Geology under Professor James Geikie, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., at Edinburgh University, I have entered upon a systematic examination of fossil plants from Pettycur, Fife. Though many plants have been described from this locality, nothing systematic, as far as I know, has ever before been attempted. The main objects of this research are to endeavour to connect the various strobili obtained at the locality in question with the stems on which they were borne; to describe any new species met with, and to give some account of the mode of occurrence of the material in which the plants are enclosed. Some of these objects have already been attained, but others will require further study to decide.

The glaciation of East Lothian has already been dealt with separately by Professor John Young, who, when attached to the Geological Survey, treated this subject in the memoir of the district published in 1866. His account of the phenomena, striæ, boulder clay, dry valleys, etc., is concise and clear, but he does not enter deeply into a discussion of causes. A guarded reference to submersion to account for the presence of an erratic boulder of carboniferous sandstone at a height of 1500 feet above sea-level shows in fact that he had not arrived at a full conception of the possibilities involved in glaciation by land ice. He was, however, quite definite in ascribing many important erosion effects in the district to the work of an “ice-stream.” In this as in most other points he had been forstalled by Sir Archibald Geikie, who had already described the immediately adjoining area to the south.

In the first part of the present series of communications I have given a general discussion of the apparatus and methods of observation employed in the investigation of the seiches of Loch Earn, and have also mentioned some of the errors to which seiche observations are liable, and how they may be avoided or corrected. It may be useful to enumerate here certain of these errors, omitting for the most part those that arise from the construction of the instruments, and can be eliminated by proper design and by preliminary tests.

During 1904 and 1905 the author investigated the plant remains of the peat deposits in certain areas of the Southern Uplands and the Highlands. The present paper deals with similar work over large peat-covered areas in the E. and N. W. Highlands, Shetland Islands, and the Outer Hebrides.

Perhaps the most interesting feature found in the course of the work is the evidence of constant change in the character of the vegetation which has successively covered the peat areas of Scotland. Many areas in different parts of the country have been examined in order to ascertain if this succession can be accounted for by local changes in physical conditions, or whether it represents stages in a long cycle of secular changes in climate, and consequent plant migrations.

While the first part of this paper was in course of preparation a search was made through various palæobotanical publications in the hope of meeting with records of Osmundaceous fossils that had hitherto escaped recognition as such. In so doing our attention was at once attracted by the descriptions and figures given by Eichwald in his Lethæa Rossica of some very fine fossils which were held by him to represent the stems of arborescent ferns. Those in which we were particularly interested were Chelepteris gracilis, Eichwald, Sphallopteris Schlechtendalii, Eichwald, Bathypteris rhomboidea, Eichwald, sp., and Anomorrhæa Fischeri, Eichwald. The figures and descriptions of these plants were quite inadequate for the determination of their true affinities; but it must be remembered that at the time when these descriptions were written by Eichwald many structural characters which are now regarded as of paramount importance in determining affinities were not recognised as such, even by botanists. To enable us if possible to clear up these difficulties, we wrote to Mons. Michel Zalessky, geologist on the staff of the Comité géologique, St Petersburg, asking if the types of these specimens were known to be in existence, and if any preparations had been made from them suitable for microscopical examination.

In all vertebrates, as the embryo develops at one pole of the egg, it sinks inwards till it becomes completely enclosed in a hood or sac filled with fluid, the amnion. When the sac or true amnion has completely closed over the embryo, it becomes separated from the outer layer, which remains in contact with the covering of the egg as the false or chorionic amnion.

Having had the privilege of examining the type specimens of Turrilepas scotica, Etheridge jun., and T. Peachi, Etheridge jun. and Nicholson, in Mrs Gray's collection, and in addition to them a large number of examples of the genus recently collected by Mrs Gray from the Girvan area, as well as many specimens in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, from several horizons in the Haverfordwest district and from the Dufton Shales near Melmerby and from Bala beds of other localities, some important new features have been recognised in these curious fossils which help to throw light on their structure and relations.

This is a report upon the Medusæ collected by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition during the voyage of the Scotia in the years 1902, 1903, and 1904, under the leadership of Dr W. S. Bruce, to whom I am indebted for the opportunity of examining the specimens.

The collection is a small one containing twelve species, but five more species would have probably been added if only the specimens had been in a recognisable condition. Some of the specimens are in excellent condition, and these were mostly taken at the surface, but others are very much damaged. Unfortunately, the damaged specimens are just the ones wanted in good condition, as they mostly come from the Antarctic region and from the stations where the nets were sent down to a great depth. The damage is done in the nets, and other collections which have passed through my hands tell the same tale. It is the rubbing together of the sides of the net that tears the medusæ to pieces. All deep-sea nets should be so constructed that the sides of the nets cannot come together, and also provided with a large can at the end.

In this paper my object is, primarily, to investigate the properties of a certain operative symbol which appears to be of great utility in discussing q-functions. The first part of the paper will consist of an investigation into the various forms of

and the nature of the inverse operations symbolised by Δ−n. With certain restrictions as to continuity, etc., φ(x) will denote an arbitrary function of x.

In the year 1903 Mr Macconochie made an interesting collection of fossil fish-remains from beds of Lower Carboniferous age exposed on the seashore near Gullane, in East Lothian, which were submitted to me for determination by the Director of the Geological Survey. Accordingly, I prepared a preliminary account of these remains, which was published in the Summary of Progress for the year above mentioned.

La collection d'Astéries, d'Ophiures et d'Échinides, dont M. le Dr. William S. Bruce a bien voulu me confier l'étude, comprend surtout les échantillons recueillis par l'Expédition de la Scotia lors de son séjour dans l'Antarctique et quelques autres provenant des îles Falkland, du banc de Burdwood et de l'île Gough, ou de dragages effectués entre le 46° et le 51° lat. S. M. Bruce y a joint quelques spécimens capturés pendant le voyage de retour de la Scotia, au Cap, à Sainte-Hélène, à l'Ascension et à Saint-Vincent.

The marine Mollusca obtained during the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of s.s. Scotia are particularly interesting, not merely on account of certain benthal forms having been for the first time brought to light from unusual depths, but also as demonstrating an extended geographical range for certain meridional species already known; while the occurrence of sundry British and North European individuals in the Falkland Islands—perhaps brought there adventitiously—is, to some extent, a new feature in the fauna. Regarding the deep-sea species just alluded to, the dredging of a second example of the hitherto unique Guivillea alabastrina, Watson, from a station not far from the original Challenger locality, is very noteworthy; while we may at the same time signalise a Columbarium, Cuspidaria, Chrysodomus, and Dentalium, from 1775, 2645, 1775, and 1410 fathoms respectively.

One of the most striking features of the famous Neanderthal cranium consists in the strong projection which is exhibited in the glabellar and the supraorbital or eyebrow regions of the frontal bone. This character is rendered all the more important from the fact that all the specimens which have been collected since the Neanderthal cranium was discovered (1857), and which have been shown to belong to the same remote geological period, possess the same, or at least very much the same, remarkable prominence in the eyebrow region. These specimens are not very numerous, but, inasmuch as they represent the earliest remains of man with which we are acquainted, they possess a very special interest. In addition to the Neanderthal cranium, the group includes the two Spy crania, the Gibraltar skull, and the recently discovered Krapina remains. The Krapina remains are in a very fragmentary condition, but they apparently consist of portions of the skeletons of ten individuals, and the frontal bones all present the character in question.

We have already referred in the second part of this series to the opinions held by various authors as to the systematic position of the genera Thamnopteris, Bathypteris and Anomorrhœa, and have given in detail the reasons that have induced us to adopt these names for the specimens included in these genera (cf. Part II., p. 213). It is therefore unnecessary for us to deal any further with the historical aspect of the matter in the present communication, and we will at once proceed to the description of the structure of the Fern stems in question.

In spite of its remote situation, the Old Red Sandstone of Shetland attracted a considerable amount of attention from geologists during the last century. It is exposed in excellent coast sections, which often yield very beautiful cliff scenery; and, in addition to being the most northerly of the stratified rocks of Great Britain, it includes a rich succession of volcanic and intrusive rocks which are of great interest and variety. The axis or backbone of the Shetland archipelago consists of gneiss, mica schist, slate, and limestone, with epidiorites, serpentine, and talc schists. On each side of this there is an area of Old Red Sandstone; that on the east extending from Sumburgh Head, in the extreme south, to Rovey Head, a little north of Lerwick, and comprising also the islands of Bressay, Noss, and Mousa. On the west side of Shetland the Old Red Sandstone Series is much altered, probably by the heat of the granite and other intrusive rocks, so that they often have the appearance of quartzite, and were for a long time regarded as belonging to the metamorphic series. In 1879, however, Peach and Horne (28) showed that, in places, they contained fossil plants which indicated that they belonged to the Old Red Sandstone formation.

I am greatly indebted to Dr W. S. Bruce, the able leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, for the opportunity to describe the Scotia collections as regards the Pycnogonida and the Isopoda. We are now concerned with the Pycnogonida, and I regret that there has been so much delay before the production of the report. The collection is a large one, and extremely interesting—totally different from that made by the Discovery in the same region, but on the opposite side of the world. If smaller in the number of species brought home, in number of individuals it far exceeds that collection. Its principal interest lies in problems of distribution.

The first and second parts of this work (7, 8), on the skeleton and muscles respectively, were published in the Transactions of the Society for 1905 and 1907. The third part would naturally have related to the viscera, and this, in fact, is in active preparation, but it is first necessary to amplify the description of the skeleton. Figs. 1 and 2 in my first part were based on dissections, which were executed very carefully, and the results checked by the examination of serial sections. It is, however, peculiarly difficult, and especially so in Myxine, to preserve the natural relations of the parts, and these drawings therefore exhibit the defects incidental to the method by which they were prepared. I mean by this, not that they are inaccurate, but that the interrelationships of the parts could not be faithfully represented. Quite apart from this, however, it became necessary to re-draw these figures.

In June 1906 there was published an account of the Rotifers collected in the Scottish lochs up to that date (7). Many Rotifers had been observed during the survey of the lakes which are not referred to in that paper, as they were not collected actually in lakes. It is with the object of recording these species, and especially of giving an account of some interesting forms previously unknown or imperfectly known, that this supplementary paper is written. These Rotifers were, almost without exception, collected from moss, and, as is always the case in these circumstances, the Bdelloida greatly preponderated over the other orders.

Little has hitherto been known about the animal remains of the Old Red Sandstone of Shetland. In 1858 Sir Roderick Murchison mentioned the occurrence, in flaggy beds in the environs of Lerwick, of “the same little Crustacean (the Estheria) which occurs at Thurso and Kirkwall.” Heddle in 1878 refers to the occurrence of fish-remains in the rocks of the same region in the following terms:—“Specimens of small fishes, apparently acanthoides, were shown the writer; these were imbedded in a brown fine-grained muddy sandstone; they were stated to occur in a quarry north of Gardie in Bressay.” Again, in the same year, Sir A. Geikie, in his well-known paper on the “Old Red Sandstone of Western Europe,” states that Dr HEDDLE “informs me that he was shown some ichthyolites (Coccosteus, etc.) in Bressay, which he was assured had been found among the flagstones of that island.” Unfortunately it does not appear that any description of these specimens has ever been published, nor, so far as I am aware, is their present whereabouts known.