December 1899] FRESH FACTS 441 



the evidence of a curved rostrum and an impression of the pro-ostracum ; a few 

 of the septal lamellae are preserved. The author regards it as belonging to the 

 Sepiadae and as a link between the belemnites and cuttlefish, and he compares 

 it with Belosepia, The latter, however, is a Tertiary form, and no true Sepia is 

 known from Mesozoic rocks. This fact, while increasing the interest of the 

 discovery, leads us to ask for more evidence. 



Autogamy in Primulaceae. A Field Naturalist, M.A. Camb. "The 

 Primrose and Darwinism," London Quarterly Review, clxxxiv. October 1899, 

 pp. 209-235. This very interesting and circumstantial indictment of Darwin's 

 conclusions in regard to cross-fertilisation in primroses occurs in a place where 

 it may be overlooked by many botanists. After relating his observations and 

 stating his criticisms, the unknown author says : " It is not possible from the 

 above considerations in reference to the method of Darwin's experiments, and 

 especially also from the above case of the primrose, to avoid the conclusion that 

 Darwin has not established his theory that cross-fertilisation is necessary to the 

 full fertility of flowers. On the contrary, we are of opinion that the primrose 

 gives strong confirmatory evidence to Axell's view, that under natural and equal 

 conditions self-fertilisation of flowers is both the legitimate fertilisation and the 

 most productive." 



Elimination in Sparrows. Hermon C. Bumpus. "The elimination 

 of the unfit as illustrated by the introduced sparrow, Passer domesticus," a 

 fourth contribution to the study of variation. Eleventh Lecture in Biol. 

 Lectures at Wood's Holl in 1898. Boston, 1899, pp. 209-226. After a severe 

 storm a number of English sparrows were brought to the anatomical laboratory 

 of Brown University. Seventy-two revived ; sixty-four perished ; and the 

 author has made a careful comparison of the eliminated and the surviving. He 

 has reached three conclusions : — (1) That the birds which perished were elimin- 

 ated because of deficiency in certain structural characters possessed by the 

 survivors ; (2) the process of selective elimination is most severe with extremely 

 variable individuals, no matter in what direction the variations may occur ; 

 (3) disregard of structural qualifications finally produces a throng of degenerates, 

 whose destruction will follow the arrival of adversity. 



Another Enigma. Bichard Heymons. " Ueber blaschenformige Organe 

 bei den Gespenstheuschrecken. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss cler Eingeweide- 

 nervensystems bei den Insecten," Sitzber. Preuss. Ahxd. Berlin, 1899, pp. 563- 

 575, 2 figs. In the head of a European stick-insect, Bacillus rossii, there lie 

 near the gullet, and associated with the pharyngeal ganglion, two little vesicles 

 of ectodermic origin which are very puzzling. They are neither ganglionic nor 

 glandular, and contain a central chitinous spherule surrounded by several 

 concentric chitinous lamellae. Perhaps they are comparable to the " corpora 

 allata " which occur in a number of other insects, but they are not the same 

 in detail, and besides we do not know what the " corpora allata " are. Heymons 

 tried by experiment to find out something about their function, but the result 

 was inconclusive. He leaves their nature an enigma, except that he suggests 

 that they may have something to do with the visceral nervous system. 



New Pelagic Nemertean. W. McM. Woodworth. "Preliminary 

 account of Planktonemertes agassizii, a new pelagic Nemertean," Bull. Mus. 

 Comp. Zool. Harvard, xxxv. 1899, pp. 1-4, 1 pi. This new form, like the 

 only other known genus, the "Challenger" Pelagonemertes, was taken in the 

 Pacific Ocean from considerable depths. In its leaf-like body, hyaline structure, 

 rhynchocoelom as long as the body, unarmed proboscis, dendrocoelous gut, 

 and absence of cephalic grooves or organs of special sense, it resembles Pelago- 

 nemertes ; but its distinctive features are : a common external opening for 

 mouth and proboscis, supraoesophageal ganglia smaller than the suboesophageal, 

 the presence of a median dorsal vessel, and the large number of lateral diverti- 

 cula of the intestine. 



