148 NATURAL SCIENCE. March. 



common sage, where a similar result is attained by a different mechani- 

 cal contrivance. As many of our readers will remember, half of each 

 of the two anthers is barren and forms the short arm of a lever, the 

 other half being borne at the end of the longer arm. In its search for 

 honey the insect butts against the short arm, thereby bringing the 

 long arm down on its back, and carrying off some of the pollen. 



The Teaching of Marine Biology. 



The greater facilities which have recently been offered to 

 students of biology by the Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine 

 Biological Association, have met with such success that it is proposed 

 to hold a vacation course in marine biology during the Easter 

 vacation, in other words, between March 23 and April 24. The 

 course, which will be conducted by Mr. Walter Garstang, who was 

 formerly a naturalist to the association, will be supplementary to the 

 ordinary laboratory courses . of our teaching institutions. Students 

 will be given all the requisite facilities, will be allowed to make 

 collecting excursions on the shore and from the laboratory boats, will 

 have all their material and reagents supplied them, and will have the 

 advantage of daily demonstrations and constant assistance from a 

 practised marine naturalist. The director of the laboratory is fitting 

 up a special room for this purpose, and we are informed that a fair 

 number of students have already intimated their intention of joining. 

 This is hardly to be wondered at, since the fee is not more than that 

 at which a table at this laboratory is let for the purpose of research 

 only, namely, £^ per month. It should be pointed out that this 

 vacation course, which it is hoped will attract numerous students 

 from our universities, is purely voluntary and carried on by private 

 effort. We venture to repeat the hope which we have more than 

 once expressed, namely, that the great universities of our country 

 may come to understand that such a course should be an essential 

 element in the education of every student of zoology, and that they 

 will without much delay institute a similar vacation course upon their 

 own account, and insist on its being attended by all who apply to 

 them for a degree in that subject. 



The Association of Species. 



The ninth Annual Report of the Liverpool Marine Biological 

 Committee, drawn up by Professor W. A. Herdman, has just been 

 sent to us. As is usual with these reports, it is full of a large number 

 of interesting observations. One of the subjects to which the Com- 

 mittee has recently paid special attention is the association of 

 numbers of individuals of different species and genera occurring at 

 various localities on the sea-iloor. Several complete lists of different 

 hauls are published, and from them various conclusions are deduced. 



