548 SUMMAKY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



may be intrepreted as stages in development, each individual repeating 

 the stages present in its immediate ancestor, and adding, in its distal 

 portion, new characters of its own, until the number of characters be- 

 comes too great for representation in the life-history of a single organism, 

 and certain characters, usually the earlier ones, are greatly abbreviated, 

 or are omitted from the ontogeny of highly modified descendants. Thus 

 interpreted, the arms of Crinoids furnish evidence from which the phylo- 

 genetic relations of different species and genera can be inferred. 



Coelentera. 



New British Gymnoblastic Hydroid.* — J. H. Robson describes a 

 new form, found 40 miles north-east of Shields in 45 fathoms, on an old 

 shell of Yolsella modiolus, and on stones in the tanks of the marine 

 laboratory at Cullercoats. It will probably require a new genus, but 

 the establishment of this will depend on an examination of the adult 

 medusoid. Only very young medusoids were observed. The charac- 

 teristics of the genus will probably be :— stem simple, unbranched, rooted 

 by a reticulate stolon, invested by a thin perisarc ; zooids entirely naked, 

 elongated, shaped much like a "ninepin," with a single verticil of 

 filiform tentacles around the base of a conical proboscis ; gonozooid a 

 free-swimming medusoid. There is an undeniable resemblance between 

 this probably new Hydroid and Gampanopsis dubia Stechow with a 

 medusoid of an {Octorchis) Eutima type, and also with a specimen 

 reared by Claus from an Octorchis medusoid. The author also gives a 

 catalogue,! brought up to date, of the* Hydrozoa of the north-east coast 

 of England. 



Philippine Alcyonarians4 — S. F. Light describes a number of 

 Philippine species of Gapnella, including C. phiUppinensis sp. n. and 

 several varieties, G. parva sp. n. and G. ramosa. The following diagnosis 

 of the genus is given. The colony is upright, tree-like or bushy ; the 

 non-retractile polyps are without a " Stiitzbundel," and are grouped 

 on lobes or scattered singly on branches and twigs ; they are thickly 

 covered with a coat, usually one spicule deep, of minute foliaceous clubs 

 or clubs and spindles ; this covering is continued onto the stem cortex 

 with some changes in the form of the spicules ; the canal walls contain 

 numerous spindles, clubs, or cross-shaped spicules ; the canals are 

 numerous and small, with fairly thick walls ; their cavities are some- 

 times very small or lacking in the centre of the stem, resulting in the 

 formation of an irregular. central axis. 



Protozoa. 



Function of Contractile Vacuoles.§ — W. Stempell refers to Hartog's 

 suggestion in 1888 that the contractile vacuole served as a regulator of 

 the osmotic pressure of the cell. The water which would otherwise 



* Rep. Dove Marine Lab. Cullercoats, iii. (1914) pp. 104-6 (2 pis.), 

 t Rep. Dove Marine Lab. Cullercoats, iii. (1914) pp. 87-103 (3 pis.). 

 X Philippine Journ. Sci., viii. (1913) pp. 435-53 (3 pis.). 

 § Zool. Jakrb. Abth. Allg. Zool., xxxiv. (1914) pp. 437-78 (5 figs.). 



