170 0EIC4TNAL AETICLES. 



31. I observe tliat tlic Rev. M. Lowe in his excellent Manual 

 " Flora of Madeira" (pp. 249, 251), states it as his opinion that the 

 leaves figured by Prof. Heer in his Memoir on the Fossil Plants of 

 S. Jorge (Zurich, 1855), p. 28, t. ii. fig. 1, 2, under the name Corylus 

 australis, are impressions of terminal leaflets of Hub us discolor : Fig. 

 3 appears to be a leaflet of JR. gi'andifolius, and Heer's " JJlmu% 

 Saherosa, Moench,'''' t. i. f. 24, he regards as the impression of a 

 lateral leaflet of the same species. Tab. ii. f. 3, Corylus australis 

 and f. 28, Psoralea dentata, Dec. ? Mr. Lowe thinks most probably 

 are also Buhi. 



XVII. — On the Anatomy of the Short Sun-fisii (Ortiika- 

 ooRiscus mola). By John Clelaud, M.D., Demonstrator of 

 Anatomy, University of Glasgow. 



[Read at the Meeting of the British Association at Manchester, September 1861."| 



The singular external configuration of the Short Sun-fish naturally 

 leads one to expect that the internal structure will present great 

 deviation fron the ordinary arrangements of parts in fishes ; and 

 such an expectation is more than fulfilled on dissection, by the 

 disclosure of peculiarities which extend to every system in the 

 economy. 



It is now a number of years since Professor Goodsir read a 

 communication to the Wernerian Society on the anatomy of this 

 curious fish ; * and since then he has, at various times, had speci- 

 mens dissected under his superintendance, preparations of parts 

 preserved, and notes and di-awings taken. I had the good fortune, 

 while a demonstrator in his rooms, to make one of these dissections 

 in 1860, and on that occasion had the opportunity of examining 

 particularly the skeleton in the recent condition, the muscles and 

 the viscera. In prepai'ing the following description, drawn princi- 

 pally from that dissection, I have been indebted to Professor 

 Goodsir for placing at my disposal a series of notes on the 

 arrangement of the muscles, taken by Mr. Tm*ner, ou a former 

 occasion, as well as a number of drawings. 



External Measurements. 



The specimen dissected in ISGO measured 38 inches, from the 

 mouth to the tip of the tail. Of this distance, 7 inches belonged 

 to the caudal fin, and 12 wore in front of the pectoral ; so that 

 the trunk, behind the shoulder girdle, was only 19 inches long ; 



* Read in 1840, and pul)lishcd in the Edinburgli New Philosophical Journal, 

 Vol. 30, p. 188. 



