No. 395-] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 899 



ians. I believe, however, that the point of similarity emphasized by 

 Professor Herdman's proposal, viz., the compactness of the body, is 

 considerably less fundamental than some other characters that might 

 be selected, particularly that of the method of budding. Further- 

 more, the term " Holosomata " does not apply to these two families 

 any more than it does to Perophora, which genus the author does 

 not, of course, associate with the Botryllidae and Polystyelidae. 



I would not go so far as Garstang has in relying upon the char- 

 acter of the budding as a basis for classifying the compound ascid- 

 ians, but I believe that in the present state of our knowledge the 

 most natural grouping of them that can be made is into two sections. 

 One of these would include those in which the buds arise directly 

 from the body of the parent, and the other those in which the bud- 

 ding is from a stolon. The first section might well be called the 

 " Somatoblastica" and the second the " Rhizoblastica." These sec- 

 tions would correspond to Herdman's, with the exception that it 

 would remain for the present an open question as to which one 

 should contain the Didemnidae, the probabilities being, however, 

 that this family would ultimately find its place among the Somato- 

 blastica. 



Those who object to mongrel words will be likely to find fault with 

 " Pectosomata " on etymological grounds. 



At the close of the report the author has given a list of all the 

 species of Tunicata thus far known from Australian waters. This 

 list includes 187 species, distributed as follows among the three 

 divisions of the group : 



Larvacea i species 



Thaliacea. 7 species 



Ascidiacea 1 79 species 



The work is a very important contribution to the general zoological 

 knowledge of this group. Less can be said in favor of the volume 

 from the bookmaker's than from the naturalist's point of view, but it 

 will serve its purpose well, and that is the essential thing. 



WM. E. RITTER. 



The Coccidae of Mauritius. M. d'Emmerez de Charmoy has 

 recently published a very interesting account of the Coccidae of 

 Mauritius, in a pamphlet issued by the Socie'te Amicale Scientifique 

 of that island. As it is probable that this work will not fall into 

 many hands, it may be worth while to give a list of the species, 



D r 



