Svecokarelian migmatites in the Jussarö area of the southern Finnish archipelago comprise tonalitic gneiss, amphibolite, metagabbro, microgranite, the metamorphosed derivatives of sediments, including carbonates and graded argillites, together with later-emplaced potassic granite, and basic and acidic pegmatites. The rock assemblage shows evidence of repeated deformation; a succession of 15 sets of folds (and fold-related structures) is identified and documented. There are two sets of early intraf oliai isoclinal folds (Faa and Fab), isoclinal folds (Fbr), recumbent folds (Fx), upright open folds (Fy), tight upright folds (Fbb), two sets of asymmetrical folds (Fc and Fd), ‘scar’ folds (Fb1, Fcb Fd1), slip folds Fb, conjugate shear folds (Fe), angular folds (Fn), open warps (Fw) and tight ductile shears (Fds). From isotopie evidence reported elsewhere, the evolution of this crustal segment of the Svecokarelides is known to have spread over a period of approximately 200 m.y. from c. 1900 m.y. to c. 1700 m.y.

Hauy, and other mineralogists, observed the two colours which are visible in several varieties of fluor-spar. He regarded the two tints as complementary, and explained them, as he did every other analogous phenomenon, by a reference to the colours of thin plates. In describing a species of dichroism noticed by Dr Prout in the purpurates of ammonia and potash, Sir John Herschel ascribes the green reflected lights “to some peculiar conformation of the green surfaces producing what may be best termed a superficial colour, or one analogous to the colour of thin plates, and striated or dotted surfaces.” And he adds—“A remarkable example of such superficial colour, differing from the transmitted tints, is met with in the green fluor of Alston Moor, which, on its surfaces, whether natural or artificial, exhibits, in certain lights, a deep blue tint, not to be removed by any polishing.”

The genus Amphioxus was instituted by Mr Yarrell for the reception of a singular little animal which he received from Mr Couch. The characters of this genus, as given in the History of British Fishes, are, “Body compressed, the surface without scales, both ends pointed; a single dorsal fin extending the whole length of the back; no pectoral, ventral, anal, or caudal fins; mouth on the under part of the head, narrow, elongated, each lateral margin furnished with a row of slender filaments.”

Since the liver is an organ whose due activity is indispensable for the maintenance of health; since it is frequently the subject of disorder, and consequently receives a large share of attention from the physician, it is obviously of great importance that he should possess precise knowledge of the manner in which it is affected by medicinal agents.

While an endodermis in the leaf is a relatively rare occurrence amongst the Angiosperms, its presence has been noted as being fairly constant in a number of families; but it is only in the case of a few of these families that it has been treated in sufficient detail to indicate its representation generically. Mylius (8), in particular, has examined the foliar endodermis of the Myrtaceæ, the Onagraceæ, and the Rosaceæ; especially the latter family, in which he makes a comprehensive investigation of the genera Spiræa, Alchemilla, Fragaria, Potentilla, Rosa, Agrimonia, and Sanguisorba (Poterium) from this standpoint. An endodermis has also been recorded as present in the leaves of certain Monocotyledonous families of which the Bromeliaceæ, Orchidaceæ, and Gramineæ (tribe Festuceæ) are examples quoted by Haberlandt (4, p. 368 sqq.) from the work of Rimbach, Schwendener, and van Wisselingh.

The following Memoir contains the results of researches made during the last three years. My investigations were originally directed to British lichens only, but they have subsequently and gradually embraced lichens from all parts of the world. The majority of Scotch species examined were collected by myself while on botanical tours in various parts of Scotland during the last ten years. Lowland species were collected chiefly in the counties of Perth, Edinburgh, and Dumfries; but also in Forfar, Fife, and others of the midland counties. In order to study alpine species I made a special tour among the highest of our Scotch mountains in the summer of 1856. I then visited the Braemar Highlands, Ben Lawers, Ben Nevis, and the Coollin Hills, in Skye. I have likewise studied the lichens of Don, now in the possession of Mr M'Nab, of the Ptoyal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; the lichens collected by Maughan, M'Millan, and others, in the Herbarium of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh; those collected by the late Alexander Menzies, in the Menziesian Herbarium belonging to the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh; those collected by Borrer, Hooker, Carmichael, Gardiner, and others, in the magnificent Hookerian Herbarium at Kew; and I have also examined the valuable herbarium of the University of Edinburgh, under the care of Professor Balfour, and the herbarium of Dr Greville.

Among the specimens from the Yorkshire Coal Field which have been collected by Mr W. Hemingway, Barnsley, and submitted to me for examination at various times, are the remains of several cones which are referable to the genus Sigillariostrobus, Schimper.

Notwithstanding the great frequency of the genus Sigillaria in the Coal Measures, and especially in the Middle Coal Measures, examples of their fructification are very rare. This is the more remarkable, as specimens of Sigillaria, showing cone scars, though not common, are occasionally met with. Possibly, however, the apparent rarity of Sigillarian cones is due, in part, to our inability at present to distinguish them in all cases from cones generally placed under the name of Lepidostrobus, which latter genus there is every reason to believe comprises cones that belong to several genera of Lycopods.

On the basis of Graham's (1949) work, the stomach of the neogastropods is currently regarded as a secondarily simplified structure exhibiting loss of the cæcum, abbreviation of the major typhlosole and intestinal groove, anterior migration of the opening of the œsophagus, loss of the sorting areas, and in the muricids, of the gastric shield. The present investigations, however, reveal that the stomachs of, at any rate, some neogastropods are less simplified than has been realized. There are well developed typhlosoles, an intestinal groove, gastric shield, and sorting areas resembling those of primitive gastropods.

The obligations of Experimental Physics to the labours of Lord Bacon, have been largely acknowledged by the generality of those who have treated of the History of Modern Science; insomuch, that the title of Father of experimental Philosophy has been oftener conferred upon him than upon any other of its benefactors. There are some, however, who seem to think, that there is no good ground for honouring him with this title, either on account of the merits or the effects of his writings. They do not indeed deny, that his views as to the proper objects and method of philosophizing were extensive and just; but they contend, that he had no peculiar merit in having stated these views; that all that he taught was virtually and more effectually taught by the discoveries of some of his contemporaries; and that, in fact, there are no traces of his agency to be found in the discoveries that followed.

Hangzhou Bay is a typical funnel-shaped high turbid estuary along a mesotidal coast of the East China Sea. In this paper, field studies are undertaken in an attempt to better understand tide-induced fine sediment transport processes in the Bay. Field observations were made mainly of current velocities (speeds and directions) and suspended sediment concentrations at six different relative depths and two stations in September 1992. Results show that (1) high near-bed suspended sediment concentrations varied from 1·81 to 4·00 kg m−3 during the spring tide and from 1·04 to 8·00 kg m−3 during the neap tide; (2) tide-induced near-bed fine sediment resuspension processes are indicated by several periodic suspended sediment concentration peaks; and (3) a hysteresis effect, or suspension-lag, occurs in suspended sediment concentration and resuspension events. Tide-induced fine sediment processes are mainly responsible for very high concentration suspensions of fine sediments in Hangzhou Bay. The occurrence of the suspension-lag phenomenon is likely to be common in other similar muddy tidal environments.

Sand waves are well known indicators of a mobile seabed. What do we expect of these features in terms of migration rates and seabed scour? We discuss these effects on seabed structures, both for the Oil and Gas and the Windfarm Industries, and consider how these impact on turbines and buried cables. Two case studies are presented. The first concerns a windfarm with a five-year gap between the planning survey and a subsequent cable route and environmental assessment survey. This revealed large-scale movements of sand waves, with the displacement of an isolated feature of 155 m in five years. Secondly, another windfarm development involved a re-survey, again over a five-year period, but after the turbines had been installed. This showed movements of sand waves of ∼50 m in five years. Observations of the scour effects on the turbines are discussed. Both sites revealed the presence of barchans. Whilst these have been extensively studied on land, there are few examples of how they behave in the marine environment. The two case studies presented show that mass transport is potentially much greater than expected and that this has implications for choosing turbine locations, the effect of scour, and the impact these sediment movements are likely to have on power cables.

The Steel Mountain terrane of the southern Long Range Mountains forms a fault-bounded massif of (meta)plutonic rocks including the Disappointment Hill complex (DHC), a sequence of granulite-facies lithologies containing charnockite emplaced at 1498 Ma (U-Pb, zircon). Quartzofeldspathic gneiss of the DHC contains garnet + biotite + orthopyroxene ± cordierite assemblages indicative of metamorphic P–T conditions of ca 750°C and 400 MPa. The relatively high thermal gradient (ca 70°C km−1) inferred for the DHC is attributed to a magmatic heat source.

On grounds of lithology, age and metamorphic grade, the DHC correlates to granulites of the Long Range Inlier (LRI) exposed farther north. Both complexes occur in blocks thrust westward over Taconic allochthons capped by ophiolite nappes. The block containing the DHC, however, preserves younger cover rocks, suggesting that it originated at a higher structural level than the LRI. This model is supported by lower pressure estimates for the DHC relative to the LRI (400 MPa vs 500–800 MPa). The DHC forms a link between Grenvillian rocks of the northern Long Range of Newfoundland and those of Cape Breton Island. The structural position of these massifs suggests that their emplacement was a post-Taconic event.

New cranial material of the ‘rhynchodipterid’ lungfish Soederberghia groenlandica from Upper Devonian (Famennian) strata in East Greenland is described. Previously unknown structures identified here include components of the hyoid arch (ceratohyal, hypohyal) and the lower jaw (prearticular, dentary). Earlier interpretations of the cheek and mandible of Soederberghia are reconsidered in the light of new fossil specimens. Some of the difficulties in assessing the homologies between cheek bones in Soederberghia and those of other lungfishes stem from confusion over the arrangement in Rhynchodipterus, and a revised interpretation of this genus is proposed. The single infraorbital bar found in Soederberghia probably originates, in part, from an expanded bone 10 (quadratojugal) of the kind found in Griphognathus. Hypotheses that posit ‘rhynchodipterid’ polyphyly seem unlikely in light of a set of derived cranial characters that define a coherent radiation of long-snouted, denticle-bearing lungfishes known from the Late Devonian. The hypothesis presented here places ‘rhynchodipterids’ as a paraphyletic grade with respect to fleurantiids. Rhynchodipterus, Soederberghia, and fleurantiids form a clade to the exclusion of the species of Griphognathus. G. minutidens is the sister taxon to this apical group, while G. sculpta and G. whitei are more remote from it.

Though first described so long ago as 1842, the remarkable fossil fish named by Germar Dorypterus hoffmanni has never become well known among palæontologists. This fact, due no doubt to its extreme rarity, is exemplified in the figures of the fish which appear from time to time in text-books: there is a decided tendency for the more recent figures to show less resemblance to Dorypterus than the earlier ones. The present paper is an attempt to make the structure of this interesting fish better known. It gives the results of a study of the four known English specimens, and, as far as possible, it embodies these results in a new restoration which, it is hoped, will help towards making future illustrations of Dorypterus rather less misleading than those now current.

Detached petioles and their branches are described under the name Lyginorachis arberi sp. nov. In their anatomy they resemble the petioles of Rhetinangium arberi Gordon, a presumed Pteridosperm. Two specimens show preparation for dichotomy. Others are interpreted as rachides probably formed by dichotomy of petioles. In cross section such rachides show the presence of pinna-traces arising alternately and marginally from the V-shaped vascular bundle. The pinna bundles are also V-shaped but have only three corrugations in section. Cylindrical pinnules are borne on the pinnæ.

L. kidstoni sp. nov. is a smaller petiole with a less corrugated and C-shaped vascular bundle. Both species are associated with seeds of Genomosperma.

In the writings of comparative anatomists, considerable difference of opinion is expressed respecting the position and relations of the thyroid gland in the Cetacea, and some authorities even have asserted that it does not exist in these Mammalia.

John Hunter states that he has examined several porpoises, balænæ, and other cetacea, yet “could not observe anything like a thyroid gland.”

Meckel believed that he found, in a fœtal porpoise (D. phocœna), eight inches long, a thyroid gland. He describes it as half an inch broad, two lines thick and high, and of equal depth and thickness both on the middle and sides of the air-tube, in the same position as that in which the gland is found in other mammals. From this examination, however, of so young a fœtus, he does not feel disposed to affirm that, contrary to the opinion of Hunter, it exists in full grown cetacea. In a subsequent paper he mentions incidentally, that in the dolphins the gland is formed of two quite separate lobes. Cuvier states that he has found the gland very distinct in many dolphins and porpoises. In these animals it was divided into two parts, and suspended from the trachea opposite the upper border of the sternum, and some distance from the larynx. Carus describes the gland in the dolphin and porpoise as consisting of two parts, entirely separate from each other. It is difficult to say, however, from the text, whether he is giving the result of his own observations, or simply adopting those of Cuvier. Dr Martyn repeats the statement that the cetacea do not possess a thyroid, and he ascribes the supposed absence of the voice in these animals to the want of this glandular structure.

Icacinaceae Miers are a family of trees, shrubs, and lianas with a current pantropical distribution. The family is well known in the fossil record, especially from the Palaeogene of Europe and North America, with the modern genus Iodes being particularly well represented. Here, we describe five new species of Iodes based on fossil endocarps with horn-like protrusions from the late Palaeocene Rivecourt deposits (Oise, France). Moreover, we propose a new combination for Iodes israelii Soudry & Gregor, as Icacinicarytes israelii (Soudry & Gregor) Del Rio, Thomas & De Franceschi, because it lacks the diagnostic morphological and anatomical characters of the genus Iodes. The significance of papillae, which has been emphasised in the literature, is discussed in light of new data, and a more standardised system of terminology is proposed. Given that, among modern members of Iodes, horn-like protrusions are only known from Asian species; the fossils described here suggest an affinity between the late Palaeocene flora of Europe and the modern flora of Asia. Finally, this study represents the first detailed investigation of Icacinaceae from the Paris Basin, where palaeocarpology remains understudied.

It is natural to suppose that soon after it became known that injurious effects follow the introduction of certain substances into the system, attempts were made to remedy these effects, and also to discover counteragents, or antidotes, to the hurtful substances. The success attending these attempts must, of necessity, have been closely related to the existing state of knowledge regarding the actions of active substances. When the effects of poisons were referred to supernatural manifestations, it was chiefly charms and superstitious rites that were trusted to as protectives and remedies. At a somewhat more advanced period in the progress of human knowledge, vague notions of physiological laws and processes supplied the indications of curative treatment.

Soil moisture is a key factor affecting vegetation growth and survival in arid and semi-arid regions. Knowledge of deep soil moisture dynamics is very important for guiding vegetation restoration and for improving land management practices on the water-limited Loess Plateau. Temporal changes and vertical variations in deep soil moisture (at soil depths of 0–600cm) combined with soil moisture availability were monitored in situ under Caragana korshinskii shrubs of different ages (named CK-10a, CK-20a and CK-35a) in the Loess hilly region during the growing season of 2013. The soil moisture content (SMC) under C. korshinskii shrubs of different ages was highly consistent with the seasonal precipitation variations and generally decreased as follows: CK-10a>CK-20a>abandoned land>CK-35a. The SMC varied greatly over time during the growing season (P<0.01), decreasing from April to May and then slowly increasing with some fluctuation from June to October. The SMC drastically decreased with depth from 0–300cm and then gradually increased with some fluctuation from 300–600cm. A critical turning point and transition zone connecting the shallow and deep soil moisture occurred at 200–300cm. Therefore, the soil profile was divided into active, secondary active and relatively steady soil layers in terms of soil moisture. The SMC fluctuated at depths of 0–100cm and 300–400cm and was relatively stable in the deeper soil layers. The amount of available soil moisture gradually decreased as the forest stand age increased, especially at CK-35a, where most of the soil moisture was unavailable for plant use. In addition, our study indicates that a large-scale restoration strategy with pure shrubland or woodland may not be suitable for soil moisture recovery in arid environments.

There are several problems of great practical importance in electro-magnetic measurements, in which the value of a quantity has to be calculated by taking the sum of the logarithms of the distances of a system of parallel wires from a given point. The calculation is in some respects analogous to that in which we find the potential at a point due to a given system of equal particles, by adding the reciprocals of the distances of the particles from the given point. There is this difference, however, that whereas the reciprocal of a line is completely defined when we know the unit of length, the logarithm of a line has no meaning till we know not only the unit of length, but the modulus of the system logarithms.