119 



fr From the Society 



a 



a 



» 



a 



Purchased. 



a 



" Transactions of the Brighton and Sussex 



Natural History Society " 

 " Transactions of the Hampstead Natural ) 

 History Society " ... ... ... J 



"American Monthly Microscopical Journal"... In Exchange. 

 " Proceedings of the Koyal Society of New -i 



South Wales" j 



" Proceedings of the Canadian Institute " 

 " Science Gossip" 

 " Science Monthly " 



" The American Naturalist " ... 



"Annals of Natural History*'... 



" Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science" 



" Challenger Reports " (new volume) ... ... ,, 



The thanks of the meeting were voted to the donors. 



The Secretary read a letter from Mr. T. B. Rossiter, of Canterbury, with 

 reference to a number of specimens of Steplianoceros which he had that 

 day forwarded for distribution amongst the members. 



The President said that there were four tubes sent containing a large 

 number of specimens, which would no doubt be appreciated by the members. 

 The Secretary said there was one other donation to which special atten- 

 tion should be called, and that was a collection of 300 slides contained in 

 twelve boxes, and presented by Mr. E. M. Nelson. They consisted of a set 

 of Van Heurck's type slides of diatomaceae, which for purposes of com- 

 parison would be of great value. 



The President proposed that a special vote of thanks should be given to 

 both these gentlemen for their donations ; and he thought that a very 

 special vote of thanks should be given to the gentleman who had presented 

 this very valuable series of slides. These were type specimens, and would 

 assist the members in naming and identifying slides. 



Special votes of thanks were then put to the meeting and carried unani- 

 mously. 



Mr. A. D. Michael described and figured on the black board a specimen of 

 an Ascidian found at the Land's End. 



The President said he had never chanced to come across it in the tadpole 

 state, but he was perfectly familiar with the form mentioned. He took a 

 very early interest in this class, because he had the opportunity of study- 

 ing them just after the publication of Milne Edwards' book had directed 

 attention to them, and that book seemed to be the starting point. He was 

 about that time staying at Tenby, and found there nearly every species 

 described by Milne Edwards. He was sorry to say, however, that on visit- 

 ing Tenby about two years ago he found the whole of this fauna was gone, 

 the place having been so entirely altered during the interval. The new 

 interest which the ascidians had at the present time arose from the fact that 

 there was just now a very strong leaning towards the belief that they were 

 the root stock of the vertebrate animals, especially as modern embryology 

 was found to entirely confirm this view. Those who had studied* Mr. 



