480 " ^' Miscellaneous. '^^^'^ 



He believes that so long as the Brazilians continue to strip the roots 

 of their beards, there will be in the market the so-called Lisbon 

 Sarsaparilla, and as long as the inhabitants of the Spanish Main 

 preserve these rootlets, there will be Jamaica Sarsaparilla; and further, 

 that as long as the climate and other physical conditions of Guate- 

 mala remain unchanged, we shall receive from thence Sarsaparilla 

 distinguished by its abundance of mealy matter. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



RUNCINA HANCOCKI. 



When in company with Mr. William Thompson, I observed 

 Runcina Hancocki in considerable abundance in the pools left be- 

 tween the rocks at low tide in Belmont Cove, Weymouth, but only 

 on the tufts of Hypnea purpurascens which were infested with Dia- 

 tomaceay which induces me to believe that they feed on these parasitic 

 plants. I brought several of them to London, and have since sent 

 Some to Mr. Alder, who verifies the determination. Messrs. Alder 

 and Hancock (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, xviii. 289. t. 4), when they 

 first described the animal, referred them to the genus Limapontia^ 

 ovAer Inferobranchiata. Mr. Edward Forbes (Brit. Moll. iii. 611. 

 t. CCC.) formed them into a genus, placed provisionally at the end of 

 the Eolididcey observing that in all probability it represented a distinct 

 family. 



The examination I have been able to bestow on the animal induces 

 me to agree with Mr. Forbes on this point, and I should be inclined 

 to arrange the Runcinidre in the order Pleurobranchiata, near JBullidiB 

 and Pleurobranchidce. It has the armed gizzard and gills of Aply- 

 siadcB. To the excellent description of Messrs. Alder and Hancock, I 

 may add, that the tongue-membrane is covered with three longitudinal 

 series of large transparent teeth, like some of the Bullidce. The 

 central tooth is broad, tranverse, with the upper edge reflexed, 

 notched in the middle, and with three unequal denticles on each side 

 of the middle line. The lateral teeth are rather large, versatile, conic, 

 arched, compressed, with an acute tip. The prehensile collar is 

 horny, large, rugose, with roundish tubercles. I am somewhat 

 inclined to consider the front part of the back, enclosing the eyes, 

 which are rather bent up on the sides and separated from the other 

 part of the back by a paler colour, as the frontal lobe of the BidlidfBy 

 which is united at this paler part to the true mantle, giving the ani- 

 mal the appearance of having a single oblong shield-like mantle. 

 The mantle is very hard and tough, but without any appearance of a 

 shell or spicula. — J. E. Gray. 



Note on the Coloration of the Waters of the Chinese Sea. 

 By M. Camille Dareste. 

 In this note M. Dareste informs us that the Trichodesmium ery- 

 thrcmm, described by Ehrenberg as the cause of the red colour assumed 

 by the Red Sea at certain periods, has been brought from the Chinese 

 sea, in a sample of water taken at a time when a great extent of the 

 ocean was coloured red and yellow. The coloration was not con- 



