happens that the area of leaf in square inches is to the diameter of the stem in inches as 1000 in the case of the horse chestnut; from this the ratio rises until in the hornbeam it becomes. Bearing in mind the results we have already obtained, we see that the comparison should have been between relative leaf-areas and cube - capacities of stem, but it is impossible to supply even the lengths of the stems measured for this table. If, however, we assume that all the stems were equal in length, we could square the diameters and thus get a correct comparison. Knowing that the lengths vary greatly, we yet come much nearer accuracy by this method, and it is surprising that so many different species should admit comparison at all. The following table will prove interesting.

1

1

Now, comparing the ratios, we have: horse chestnut 3333 and hornbeam The intermediate plants on the table also fall in line.

3888.

Figure 4 gives the comparison of these two tables graphically. Such scales have been adopted for the ordinates as will cause all the curves to coincide on the ordinate for the horse chestnut; if the ratio were constant the curves would then coincide throughout. The line of diameters of stems hopelessly fails in this, but the line of areas of stems, or, in other words, the line of the squares of the diameters faithfully follows the line of leaf-areas. Such discrepancies as still exist are largely due to the absence of correction for length. The author intends, by careful measurement, to reconstruct this table free of the residual error.

The question of compound leaves differs somewhat from that of leaf and stem. It may suffice for the time to state that in the compound leaf of the ash the diameters of the central stalk between the attachments of the leaflets are such that their squares bear an approximately constant ratio to the sum of the areas of the leaflets beyond them. The diameter under the first leaflet is somewhat larger than this rule would give, and the diameter at or near the attachment to the stem somewhat smaller. In a variety of leaves of widely different appearance this feature was constant.

When, however, an abnormal leaf, which is equally pinnate, is taken, that is in which there is no terminal leaflet, the ratio between leaflet-area and diameter squared is very close indeed. The explanation of this is probably simple, but awaits a few confirmatory measurements of other compound leaves. Figures 5 and 5a show graphically the average results from three unequally pinnate ash leaves and the average from two equally pinnate.

The whole question can be carried into great detail, involving even the diameters of the vascular bundles in the leaves themselves, but it then becomes fit reading for specialists only, and the author is content if he has succeeded in directing attention to the broad principles which govern the relation of leaf to stem. So far as he is aware the facts are new to botany. Every care has been taken with the necessary measurements, and the formulæ have been allowed to construct themselves on a calculating machine, theories being subsequently adapted to the figures.

FIGS. V. AND V.A.

THE PILCHARD "CONSTITUTIONS" IN THE WHITE BOOK OF THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION, 23 & 26 ELIZ.

BY R. HANSFORD WORTH.

(Read at Great Torrington, August, 1899.)

IN a footnote to his "Rise of Plymouth as a Naval Port," printed in last year's Transactions, the Rev. J. Erskine Risk challenges the accuracy, if not the good faith, of the late Mr. R. N. Worth in the matter of an entry on 18v. of the White Book of the Plymouth Corporation.

The entry commences, "xiij tie die Octobris, Anno xxiij tio, Elizabethe Regne Anglis, etc. By the meere assents and agreements of Sr ffraunces Drake, Knighte, Maior, and the moste parte of the xij. and xxiiij ti in the Guildhalde assemblede, it was agreede and concludede upon that if anie person or persons inhabiting wthin this burghe, doe make or save an quantitie of pilchards," and goes on to provide that if any such persons shall be suspected of selling or promising to deliver pilchards before they were saved, or of having received money beforehand from any non-inhabitant to make the same, they shall be called before the Mayor and questioned on oath, and if guilty not allowed to make any pilchards that year.

Here is a plain "order in Council" by consent and agreement of the Mayor, the twelve and twenty-four.

The words " By the meere assents and agreements," down to and including "it was agreede and concludede," are the wellknown equivalent of "Resolved in common assembly in the Guildhall of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council."

The author of the "Rise of Plymouth as a Naval Port" was, however, in urgent need of an agreement between Sir Francis Drake of the one part and the Plymouth Corporation of the other part, and apparently not being familiar with the forms of the time seized on this entry.