Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON. Linnean Society, March 18.—J. L. Sager: Phyllody of the corolla in Primula vulgaris Huds. The specimens come from a plant growing in a garden in Exeter, all flowers of which show this monstrosity. The petals are like the foliage leaves in all respects except size. The revolute venation characteristic of the leaf shows well in these petals. Calyx, stamens, and pistil appear normal. Mr. Samuel E. Steer found this plant growing in a disused burial-ground at Lympstone, South Devon, in March 1925. He transferred it to his garden, where it has increased in size, and is now bearing about twelve flowers, all abnormal.—R. T. Gunther: An account of the early manuscript herbal of Apuleius Barbarus, which has been stated to have been written in A.D. iioo and illustrated in the monastery of Bury St. Edmunds; it may therefore be the oldest-known English botanical work.—G. P. Farran: Biscayan plankton collected oduring a cruise of H.M.S. Research, 1900. (Pt. XIV.) The Copepoda. The Copepoda collected in deep water off the Bay of Biscay were mainly taken in numerous horizontal hauls with open tow-nets by day and night down to 100 fathoms, and by vertical hauls with closing nets by day down to 2000 fathoms. The horizontal hauls show a marked difference between day and night distribution, the population above 100 fathoms being approximately doubled by night by the upward migration, in large numbers, Chiefly of Metridia lucens, Pleuromamma robusta, and Pleuromamma gracilis. In the vertical hauls the maximum number of species was found between 500 and 700 fathoms, and of specimens between 150 and 250 fathoms. The average number of specimens per 100 fathoms vertical haul between 1500 and 2000 fathoms was only 4–6, and not all of them alive, as against 781 specimens between 150 and 250 fathoms. Helena Bandulska: On the cuticles of some fossil and recent Lauraceae. The possibility is demonstrated of interpreting certain elements of the floras of the past by a comparative study of their cuticles with those of recent forms. By this means the Lauraceae have been found to be the most abundant fossils with cuticle preserved in the Bournemouth Eocene; many have lanceolate leaves with pinnate venation and strong midrib. Three species of Aniba and various species of Neolitsea, Litsea, and Lindera have been discovered. The physiological characters of the fossil Lamaceous cuticles described are such as at the present time are associated with the need for controlling transpiration, and may be of assistance in the interpretation of the nature of the flora and the climate of Middle Eocene time.