222 



HA RD WICKE' S SC lENCE - G OS SIP. 



Professor Duncan, of King's College, London. But 

 I have before me a beautiful specimen from the Hair- 

 myres shale of Scotland, and this compensates, to 

 some extent, the want of the paper. The genus and 

 species is called Actmostofiia fenestratum, Young & 

 Young, and has only been found, so far as I am yet 

 aware, in Scotland, at Hairmyres and High Blantyre. 

 I can easily account for its having escaped so long the 

 keen eyes of Scottish palaeontologists. The fragments 

 are so minute as to be, in ordinary specimens, only 

 observable in all its beauty under a one-inch power. 

 When the character of the genus and species is once 

 kno\Mi, it is easy then to pick out specimens from the 

 shale with an ordinary hand-glass. 



I will not venture on the generic description of this 

 Polyzoon, but simply direct the attention of the 

 reader to the article in question ; but the authors are 

 perfectly justified in removing the former from the 

 genus Fenestella, and erecting for it a new genus. 

 The cells are somewhat corallaceous in character, 

 and the cell-mouth is protected by star-like spines, 

 similar in some respects to the starry-mouth of some 

 species of Forarnini/era, Polymorphina , and Pejuro- 

 plis. The same cell-aperture is also seen in another 

 of Messrs. Young's new species, described in the 

 same journal, called Glauconoine stellipora. This, 

 too, will fonn a new genus under the title oiAcantho- 

 fora, Young & Young, and very justly so, because 

 the cell-aperture is a character of itself, unlike any of 

 the characters found in ordinary species of Glauconome. 

 Acanthopora stellipora nobis. Young & Young. 

 "Stems nearly cylindrical, branching irregularly, 

 bearing two rows of alternate cells, with prominent 

 circular orifices, over which eight radial denticles 

 converge, as in Actinostoma, a smaller orifice being 

 placed at one end of the cell on the side of the 

 prominence, and separated from the larger aperture 

 by an interval, which never exceeds the diameter of 

 the larger cell. The stem is ornamented with a 

 sinuous mesial ridge, and sinuous ridges likewise pass 

 from cell to cell. All these ridges are finely tubercu- 

 lated, or, more correctly, beaded. 



The non-poriferous face is traversed by longitudinal 

 parallel ridges, which are also finely tuberculated. 

 Occasionally a larger cell occurs in the angles of the 

 branches ; but the small size of the fragments hitherto 

 obtained, showing the poriferous face, renders it 

 impossible to say whether they are of frequent oc- 

 currence. They are possibly ovi-cells."* 



There are varieties in the mode of branching of 

 several specimens sufficient to distinguish them by 

 a varietal term ; but the general characters are the 

 same in all the specimens, all of which may be 

 characterized by the adjectives delicate and beautiful. 

 The localities of the genus are the limestone shales 

 at Hairmyres, where it is pretty abundant, Rob- 



• " Proceedings of the Nat. Hist. Soc. , Glasgow. 

 Young, M.D., and Mr. J. Young, F.G.S. 



Prof. J. 



royston, Gare, and Boghead. I have not yet detected 

 the merest fragment in any of my English material. 



To those friends and well-wishers who have kindly 

 favoured me with advice, information, and material, 

 I again tender my thanks. I would be glad, how- 

 ever, if students fresh at the work of discovery 

 among the limestone Polyzoa would communicate 

 results from their different localities. 



{To be continued.) • 



NOTES FROM THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



THE intense scientific vigour which has charac- 

 terized the meetings of the British Association 

 for twelve years past has at length given way to a 

 short reaction. The Plymouth meeting this year has 

 not been a success, either in point of numbers at- 

 tending (a secondary consideration) or in the quality, " 

 importance, or character of the papers read or the 

 addresses given. Perhaps the short pause in the 

 long-continued high pressure of years will be advan- 

 tageous in the future. All work and no play makes 

 even the scientific "Jack " but a dull boy. 



The inaugural address of the President, Professor 

 Allen Thomson, was chiefly remarkable for the bold 

 and decisive declaration he made in favour of the 

 doctrine of Evolution, declaring, as he did, that no 

 student of embryology could understand his subject 

 except in the lights afforded by this inodern doctrine. 

 On the other hand, the President of the Biological 

 Section, Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, the celebrated concho- 

 logist, avowed it as his opinion that the long-con- 

 tinued characters of deep-sea niollusca were not in 

 favour of Darwinism. It is more than probable, 

 however, that equally good naturalists would argue 

 quite the contrary, and decide that the reason why 

 deep-sea mollusca did not alter their specific cha- 

 racters was because their surroundings had not 

 altered ; for, according to the doctrine of evolution, 

 varietal modifications are simply the result of respon- 

 sive adaptations to any changes which take place in 

 the environment. If there are no changes in the one, 

 there are none required in the other. One set thus 

 becomes more or less of an index to the rate of 

 intensity of the other. Dr. Jeffreys was almost by 

 himself in defending the old lights, for most of the 

 zoological and botanical papers read were based on 

 the new philosophy, or were expositions of it. 

 Notably among these were the addresses of Mr. F. 

 Galton, to the department of Anthropology, and that 

 of Professor McAlister to the department of Anatomy 

 and Physiology. The address of the President of 

 the Geological Section, Mr. \V. Pengelly, F.R.S., 

 turned almost entirely upon the geological history 

 and antiquity of caverns in general and those of 

 Kent's Hole and Brixham Cave in particular. Mr. 

 Pengelly showed his reasons for believing that man 

 had made his appearance in England before the 

 hj'ffina (although the latter is a notorious cave- 



