ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 445 



New Cavernularid from Ceylon.* — J. J. Simpson describes an 

 interesting new type found by Professor W. A. Herdman in Ceylonese 

 waters. He names it Fusticularia herdmani g. et sp. n., and gives the 

 following diagnosis : a somewhat sponge-like Cavernularid, with a 

 flattened ovoid stock separated by a constriction from a comparatively 

 slender sterile trunk ; with dimorphic retractile polyps, the autozooids 

 not exceeding 1 mm in length, the much smaller siphonozooids 

 scattered irregularly among the autozooids ; with abundant densely 

 spiculate ccenenchyma, traversed by three longitudinal central canals 

 passing down into the trunk ; with smooth hyaline spicules bearing 

 peculiar digitiform terminal processes, and showing very characteristic 

 annulations, especially near the ends. 



Deep-Sea Alcyonaria from Indian Ocean.f — J. Arthur Thomson 

 and W. D. Henderson make a preliminary report on a collection of 

 deep-sea Alcyonarians dredged by R.I.M.S. ' Investigator ' in the Indian 

 Ocean. About 15 new forms are noted, e.g. Clavularia decipiens, grow- 

 ing on a silicious axis, which is probably a large sponge fibre ; 

 Sarcophytum fungiforms, a large mushroom-shaped colony ; several 

 species of Dasygorgia or Chrysogorgia ; Primnoisis alba ; Muricella 

 bengalensis ; and Scirpearella alba. 



Among the Pennatulacea there are new species of Protocaulon, 

 Protoptilum, and Stachyptilum, and what seems to be a new genus 

 (Juncoptilum) which is viviparous. 



Primitive Germ-Cells of Ctenophora.J — K. C. Schneider finds that 

 in Bero'd ovata the primitive germ-cells are large elements which originate 

 in the mesoderm, diffusely within the gelatinous substance, and especially 

 in the neighbourhood of the epithelium. They give origin to the 

 muscle-cells and to the connective-tissue cells, as well as to the genital 

 cells, and they may be called embryonic mesoderm-cells, and compared 

 to Sottas' " archaaocytes " in sponges. 



Protozoa. 



Dimorphism in the Nummulites.§ — J. J. Lister finds that when a 

 number of species of Nummulites are arranged in order of the sizes of 

 the megalospheres, this coincides with the order of the volumes of the 

 microsphere tests. In Potystomella crispa, the only member of the 

 Nummulitidge of which the details of the life-history are approximately 

 known, the only mode of origin of the megalospheric form which has 

 been observed is by an asexual process of reproduction, from a micro- 

 spheric parent. Hence it would appear that in this mode of reproduction 

 the size of the offspring is approximately proportional to the volume of 

 protoplasm of the parent. 



The microsphere probably arises as a zygote formed by the conjuga- 

 tion of the zoospores produced by the megalospheric individuals ; and 

 the size of the microsphere is found not to vary outside 15-20 fi in the 

 four species in which it has been measured. The two modes of repro- 

 duction are thus contrasted in the size of the offspring. 



* Ann. Nat. Hist., xv. (1905) pp. 361-5 (1 pi.). t Tom. cit., pp. 547-57. 



X Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., lxxvi. (1904) pp. 889-99 (1 pi.). 

 § Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc.xiii. (1905) pp. 92-3. 



