ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSC'OFY, ETC. 589 



state in one specimen of SpheerecJiinus granularis; in these cases the 

 larvae were slow in developing. 



More important, however, is the fact that the eggs of Arbacia 

 pustulosa, Strongylocentrolus lividus, and Sphserechinus granulans, some- 

 times illustrate parthenogenetic development. This fact, the author 

 says, disqualifies these animals from being used as subjects of experiments 

 like those of Loeb.* 



In a later paper,f Viguier indicates that although he has not been 

 able to find out with what percentages, &c, Loeb worked, he finds that 

 magnesium chloride inhibits rather than favours development. 



Ccelentera. 



Families of Stichodactylinae.J — Oskar Carlgren points out that these 

 Actiniaria have hitherto been classified according to external characters 

 only, and in consequence the current classification is artificial. After 

 studying most of the genera, he suggests the following arrangement: — 

 The family Discosomidue should be taken as including the following 

 genera, Discosoma, Isaura, Orinia, Ricordea, Actinotryx, and Bhodactis, 

 and is defined as including Stichodactylinae without basilar muscles, 

 without a sphincter, or with only slightly developed sphincter without 

 gullet grooves or ciliated bands, with smooth body-wall without suckers 

 or appendages, and with slightly developed longitudinal muscles in the 

 mesenteries. The stinging-cells are chiefly present in the endoderm, the 

 tip of the tentacles is not globular, and more than one tentacle at times 

 arises from each exoccele. In the new family Stoichactidte the following 

 genera are included, Madianthus, Helianthopsis, Antheopsis, and Stoich- 

 aciis. The definition of the family is as follows : — Stichodactylinaa with 

 basilar muscles and distinct though not very well developed sphincter, 

 a fossa, gullet-grooves, and ciliated bands, body-wall smooth or with 

 suckers, longitudinal muscles of the mesenteries well developed, sting- 

 ing-cells chiefly in ectoderm, tentacles unbranched or only partially 

 branched, not placed on special armlike prolongations of the month-disc, 

 one tentacle only on each exoccele, no distinction between marginal and 

 disc tentacles. A separate family, the Heteranthidae, is erected for the 

 genus Heteranthus, which differs from the foregoing genera only in the 

 structure and position of the tentacles. Finally the author's obser- 

 vations confirm Andres' view of the close relation between Aureliania 

 and Actinoporus, which are included in the family Aurelianidaa, defined 

 as follows : — StichodactylinaB with basilar muscles, a very strong 

 sphincter, a distinct fossa, at least one gullet-groove, and ciliated bands. 

 The body- wall is elongated and without suckers, and the longitudinal 

 muscles of the mesenteries are very strongly developed. The stinging- 

 cells occur chiefly in the ectoderm, and those of the tentacles are 

 almost all thin-walled, and with distinct spiral threads. The tentacle 

 arrangement is various, and there are two or more tentacles on each 

 exoccele. 



Cubomedusse of Jamaica.§ — Dr. E. W. Berger has continued the 

 late Dr. Conant's work on this subject, and publishes a paper on their 



* Cf. this Journal, 1899, p. 492. t Comptes Kendus, cxxxi. (1900) pp. 118-21. 



J Ofvers. k. Vefens. Ak. Forhandl.. lvii. (1900) pp. 277-87. 



§ Mem. Biol. Lab. Johns Hopkins Univ., iv. (1900) pp. 1-84 (3 pis.). 



