Though the conspicuous volcanic phenomena of the Fifeshire coast-line have for long attracted the attention of petrologists, the igneous geology of the interior has not been studied in any detail. The petrological sections of the relative Geological Survey Memoirs, together with Geikie's Ancient Volcanoes, describe numerous inland vents and intrusions, while a large number of the doleritic sills has recently been made the subject of a most interesting paper by Mr D. Balsillie, but a belt of country stretching from St Andrews to Loch Leven proved to be practically virgin ground from the point of view of the igneous geologist. It is the intrusions of this area, together with a few pyroclastic deposits, which form the subject of the present communication. Only rocks which have hitherto been undescribed are treated petrologically, though in the case of several better known intrusions alterations of the published maps have been found necessary.

Recent work has directed much attention to the subject of feeding mechanisms and digestive enzymes in the Invertebrates.

The groups worked on previously have been chiefly the Mollusca and the Crustacea, and it was felt that a study of the Polychætes in this connection would be of considerable interest in itself, as well as for comparative purposes. An examination of the literature showed that the amount of detailed work on the Polychætes from the physiological point of view was extremely small, and, in the case of the digestive processes, out of date. A study of the feeding mechanisms and physiology of digestion in Polychaetes has therefore been begun, choosing a filter-feeding form as a starting point, so that a direct comparison can be made with such Molluscs as Mya arenaria and Ostrea edulis, which feed on similar material.

A preliminary account of an earlier investigation of this nature has been given in a previous paper (Redington and Priestley, 1925), and it is intended to record here the results of further work, with particular reference to questions of growth and development. The new data that are presented are the result of two series of experiments, which will be called Series B and C, whilst the earlier work will be referred to as Series A. A critical review of the relevant literature has recently been published (Redington, 1929), so reference will only be made to such work when it has a direct, positive, or negative bearing on the results recorded here.

In recent papers published in the Proceedings and Transactions of the Society the importance of Size as a factor determining the morphology of the vascular system of Pteridophytes has been discussed (2, 3, 29). The purpose of this memoir is to submit data concerning the vascular system of roots, and to determine to what extent Size may have acted as a causal factor in influencing the morphology of these structures. It has been pointed out that the most useful material for these causal studies is to be found where there is only primary vascular tissue, free from complexities such, for example, as the formation of secondary wood. In the case of leafy shoots the vascular system is often profoundly influenced by the insertion of the appendages, especially where the latter are of the megaphyllous type. In many of these instances the resulting vascular structure is due to a complex of so many interacting factors that the specific effect of any one is very difficult to determine. To understand the influence of any one factor in particular we must turn, as Professor Lang has pointed out, to the study of favourable cases (19). These are to be found where the structure is of primary nature, unaffected by the activity of secondary meristems, and where the organ in question is influenced as little as possible by the insertion of appendages.

Sediments of Carboniferous age occur in Kintyre in the district between the high ground of Southern Kintyre and the ridge of Northern Kintyre. The low ground stretching from Machrihanish to near Campbeltown is known as the Laggan of Kintyre. The Laggan runs in a series of terraces from the Atlantic to within a mile of Campbeltown, where the terraces give place to higher rounded knolls rising to a general height of 200 feet, and separated from each other by the highest raised beach. The chief platform in this plain is formed by the Machrihanish Water and its tributaries, the Backs and Chiscan Waters, and on both sides of this platform are the three terraces separating the 25-foot, 50-foot, and 100-foot raised beaches from each other and from the alluvial plain of the rivers. The 100-foot beach runs a considerable distance up the valleys leading to the higher ground to the north and south of the Laggan. To the extreme west, 3½ miles of sand dunes, higher than the plain behind them, give slight protection to the greatest stretch of cultivated land in Kintyre. Near the centre of the plain is a circular peat moss known as the Durry Moss.

The collection of fossil corals from British Somaliland described in the following paper was made by Mr R. A. Farquharson, M.A., M.Sc., F.G.S., Government Geologist, during his survey of the country in 1923–24.

The first known fossil coral from Somaliland was collected in 1894–95, and in 1898–99 a collection of Jurassic, Eocene, Oligocene, and Pleistocene corals was made by Mr and Mrs Lort-Phillips, Miss Cole, Mr Aylmer, Miss Gillet, and Captain Marshall, and described by Professor Gregory, F.R.S. In 1907 Mr T. W. Vaughan described some Pleistocene and Recent corals from French Somaliland. A further large collection of Jurassic, Oligocene, and Pleistocene corals was made by Mr B. K. N. Wyllie, B.Sc., and Dr W. R. Smellie, both geologists on the staff of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and described in 1925 by Professor Gregory.

The main object of tho present paper is the consideration of the structure of the Central and S.W. Highlands as shown up by the metamorphic condition of the beds. This metamorphic condition has boon studied over the length and breadth of the country, mapped and deduced from very many outcrops in all districts. Sometimes it was possible to superpose the the details respecting the metamorphism upon the 1-inch maps of the Geological Survey, but in many other cases the areas were mapped upon the 6-inch scale. Naturally this work has taken a long time, for it has necessitated the collection of many thousands of specimens, and nearly 3000 rocks have been sliced and examined, since it is not always possible to define the limits of a metamorphic zone with precision by field work alone, and many rock types were encountered that rendered a more careful study advisable than was possible from the mere examination of a hand specimen.

The area examined in the course of this investigation comprises parts of Perthshire and Forfarshire fringing the Grampians and Strathmore from Stenton on the Tay, 2½ miles east of Dunkeld, to Auchnacree, a mile north-east of Noran Water, an easterly tributary of the South Esk. It is represented on a scale of 1 inch to a mile on Sheets 48, 56, and 57 of the Ordnance Survey of Scotland. The field mapping of over 130 square miles was carried out on a scale of 6 inches to a mile, and the results are embodied in the appended map on a scale of 1 inch to a mile.

In 1926 a quantitative examination of the fauna of the intertidal sands in the Cumbrae, Firth of Clyde, was begun, and the results proved so interesting that it was decided to extend the survey to other parts of the Scottish coast, the object being to study the variation in density and composition of the fauna, with special reference to the two groups of molluscs and polychætes, from place to place, and at various levels on the beach. During the past two years observations have been made in three widely separated areas, namely, on the Ayrshire coast and Firth of Clyde, on the southern shore of the Moray Firth, and on the east coast of Scotland and in the Firth of Forth. In all, twenty-five bays or stretches of coast have been visited, and over one hundred and fifty quantitative collections worked through.

The following report deals with the systematics and distribution of molluscs collected in and around certain lakes in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. For the sake of completeness some records published by Baker (2) are also included. The investigations of which this forms a part were made under the direction of Professor Charles H. O'Donoghue at the request of the Biological Board of Canada, and I desire to thank him for his encouragement and help throughout.

Ectocarpus siliculosus was named by Dillwyn (5) in 1809 and described by him in the British Confervœ of that date. It was included by Harvey (9) in the Phycologia Britannica under the same name, but according to Hauck (10) in the Meeresalgen Deutschlands und Oesterreichs the specific name should be attributed to Kützing (21), though Hauck himself, following Kjellman (12), is of the opinion that the plant should be regarded as a variety of E. confervoides (Roth) Le Jol. If this view be correct, the plant should be E. confervoides (Roth) Le Jol var. siliculosus (Dillwyn); but in a paper entitled “Beiträge zur Kenntnis einiger Ectocarpus-Arten der Kieler Föhrde” Kuckuck (15) discusses the validity of the species siliculosus. He emphasises certain important features, notably the size and shape of plurilocular sporangia and the frequent presence of a vegetative filament as a prolongation of the sporangium, and considers them to be characteristics clearly distinguishing this plant from E. confervoides (Roth), from which such features are lacking. Batters (1) evidently agrees with Kuckuck in the integrity of the species, but attributes the naming of it to Kützing. The plant therefore appears in the Catalogue of the British Marine Algœ as E. siliculosus Kütz.

Before continuing the description of the alimentary tract, there are two general questions which must first be discussed very shortly. So far we have only dealt with the first two parts, the buccal cavity and the pharynx, and the latter name has such a well-defined significance that it is easy to state the boundaries of that part of the canal to which it should be applied, and therefore to fix the limits of the part in front. Unfortunately there seems to be no sort of unanimity with regard to the exact application of the names of the parts which follow, so that it is not easy to be sure to what parts the names should properly be applied, and it is extremely difficult to make comparisons between different forms without repeating a large part of the work already done by other observers. To take a concrete case: the part to which the name “œsophagus” has been applied has been limited, by different workers, by the extent of the stratified epithelium, by the extent of the striated muscle, by the absence of a serosa, by the absence of glands, and even by the relative diameter of the tube. Needless to say, these various boundaries do not coincide (in many cases some of them do not exist), and hence the difficulty of unravelling the descriptions in the literature of the subject is very great. So in what follows the names used will be defined, and I hope the nomenclature suggested will be such as to be acceptable and of scientific utility throughout the Chordata.

In the following pages two separate subjects are considered which are connected only by their relation to the same animals. The first concerns the feeding mechanisms and habits of the Lophogastridæ, but unfortunately no living animals could be examined.

As a result of some work on the feeding mechanisms of the Malacostraca (Cannon and Manton, 1927, in the press, etc.) it was concluded that in the Syncarida, Peracarida, and Eucarida a primary filter-feeding habit exists. This has been modified or given up entirely in the higher forms of each division in favour of feeding on larger masses of food. In the adult Hemimysis, Anaspides, and Nyctiphanes the filter-feeding mechanisms are essentially similar. The maxilla forms a combined suction pump and filter and draws a current of water through a filtering comb of setæ borne on its proximal endite. This comb is scraped by the basal part of the first trunk limb, which transfers the collected food forwards on to the proximal endite of the maxillule by which it is pushed into the mouth.

The importance of teeth in the classification of animals, from the days of Aristotle, Ray, Linnæus, Erxleben, Hunter, and their numerous successors, caused the occurrence of abnormalities to be frequently noted. Such, indeed, are found in many groups, e.g. in the Primates, Lemurs, Carnivores, Rodents, Ungulates, Sirenians, Edentates, and Marsupials. Whilst the main subject of this investigation was abnormal teeth in the rabbit, it was thought right to glance at the other groups of mammals, including various rodents besides the rabbit, so as to give greater breadth to the observations. Less attention, perhaps, was paid to the diminution or increase in the number of the teeth in the general groups than to their abnormality in structure or position.

In a previous communication an account was given of the sedimentary series exposed along the eastern coast-line of the Shetlands from Rova Head to Sumburgh Head. Fossil evidence was adduced which enabled the position of these beds in the Old Red System to be fixed more definitely than had hitherto been the case; they were shown to be partly of Middle, partly of Upper Old Red Sandstone age, the base of the Rova Head Conglomerate being taken as the dividing line. Since the publication of that paper additional fossils have to be recorded. Examination of the numerous specimens of the Microbrachius from the fish-beds of Shetland fails to reveal any specific distinction between that form and Microbrachius dicki Traq. occurring in the John o' Groat's Sandstone Group, and the Eday Sandstones; it is therefore an important addition to the chain of evidence linking up the Shetland horizon with those of Orkney and the Mainland. An additional record of little stratigraphical value is that of Coccosteus (sp. indet.), a single plate of which was found by Professor W. H. Lang at a horizon slightly below the fish-bed at Shingly Geo, Dunrossness.

The greater part of Kintyre is composed of metamorphic rocks. For the study of these rocks it is convenient to divide the peninsula into three separate areas as follows:—

A. Northern Kintyre.

B. The south-western corner of the peninsula.

C. A triangular area stretching from Campbeltown Loch southward (fig. 1).

A. With the exception of a few isolated patches of Palæozoic sandstones, conglomerates, and lavas, and igneous rocks of several ages, Northern Kintyre is composed of sedimentary schists and grits, metamorphic limestones, and schistose igneous rocks which, as a rule, are associated with the limestones.

The stem of the various species of Piper is characterised by its anomalous vascular structure. Medullary bundles are present throughout the genus, and there is, in addition, a modified type of secondary thickening. During an investigation of these features my attention was called by Professor Montagu Drummond to certain endodermal characters which appeared to be of considerable interest and which suggested that a more extended investigation was desirable.

Reference to the literature showed that the few earlier investigators of the genus had concerned themselves mainly with the peculiarities of the vascular system. J. E. Weiss (18) made some general observations on the occurrence of the endodermis in the genus, but no mention of the genus is made in the comprehensive monographs by Kroemer (8) and by Mylius (10) on the endodermis, or in the writings of Van Wisselingh. It would appear therefore that no detailed investigation of the endodermis in the genus has been carried out, in the past.

The most serious gap in our knowledge of the anatomy of the British Actiniaria has been the almost complete absence of structural data referring to the genus Phellia. The present paper deals with all the British species belonging to this genus, and adds some notes on other forms.

I wish to make the following acknowledgments. I have received a grant from the Royal Society, which has rendered possible the work described. I am indebted to my wife for preparing serial sections of the species of Phellia, and for drawing text-figs. 2, 3, 5, and 8. I also wish to thank Miss E. M. Stephenson for text-figs. 1, 9, and 10. Text-figs. 1, 6, 7, 11, and 12 have been reproduced before in my Ray Society Monograph on the British Sea Anemones (and text-fig. 12 in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association also), but their repetition here is essential for the demonstration of the several points which they illustrate.

The mapping of sub-drift topography is an important problem in this country and one which, under suitable circumstances, lends itself readily to solution by the method of gravitational survey with the Eötvös Torsion Balance. It has been pointed out in previous papers that structures such as anticlines, synelines, faults, and dykes may be determined by a linear traverse with the balance transverse to the strike; but in the case of buried topographic features a network of observations with subsequent plotting of the gradients and isogams, i.e. lines of equal gravity, is necessary to determine even approximately the shape and dimensions of rock-masses underlying a thick covering of drift.

Dr G. S. Carter, on his expedition to the Gran Chaco of South America in the year 1926–27, collected a fairly complete series of the developmental and adult stages of Callichthys. Several species were represented among the adults obtained, but the developmental stages are almost entirely those of Callichthys (now called Hoplosternum) littoralis. Callichthys belongs to a small subfamily of freshwater fishes belonging to the group Siluridæ. The fish was first described under the name of Callichthys littoralis by Hancock (10). He gives a brief description of the external form and tells how the fish make a regular nest of leaves in which they lay the eggs, and which the male and female both guard most carefully.