ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. ~)6d 



greyish-violet, much lighter than in the adult. Their structure is de- 

 scribed in detail. No priniordiumof genital organs was discovered. It 

 was not possible to make direct observations on the fertilization of the 

 ovum or on the way in which the young escape from the maternal body, 

 but the author suggests that a single ripe ovum is produced at the free 

 end of some of the genital tubes, and, after liberation into the body- 

 cavity, is fertilized by spermatozoa which may have penetrated through 

 the wall of the respiratory trees. The author refers to the view of 

 Clark, who suggested, in connexion with Chirodota rot if era, that a 

 temporary rupture of the body-wall might liberate the young ; and of 

 Becher, who indicated the abdominal pore, demonstrable in some species, 

 as the probable way of escape. 



Coelentera. 



Incubation in Actinia equina.* — Ch. J. Gravier reports that most 

 of the sea-anemones of this species, which he collected at San Thome in 

 the Gulf of Guinea, contained embryos and young forms at diverse stages. 

 In some there was a large incubatory cavity below the gullet, packed 

 with young. The largest, 12 mm. in diameter, had ninety-four mesen- 

 teries developed and had embryos inside it. This was also observed in 

 other cases. There was no trace of sex-cells, and it may be that the 

 embryos were of the same generation as the individuals that contained 

 them, having entered them perhaps in the planula stage. But it may 

 also be a case of asexual ptedogenesis. In Europe the incubation of 

 Actinia equina is not so prolonged as in the Tropics. A prolongation in 

 boreal forms (Rhodactinia and Actinostola) is also known. 



Study of Species of Edwardsia.f — Gilbert C. Bourne describes 

 Edivardsia mammiUata, E. rugosa, E. vermiformis, E. rakaiyse, and 

 E. ivilhyana, five new species collected by A. Willey in New Guinea. 

 He also gives an account of the order of succession of the micro- 

 mesenteries and tentacles In the Edwardsldfe, and in so doing brings 

 forward reasons for regarding the Edwardsiaria as a group distinct from 

 and of equal rank with the Zoanthinaria and the Dodecactiniaria. The 

 outstanding feature in the growth of the Edwardsidte is that, after the 

 eight-rayed stage is reached, the mesenteries continue to be formed in 

 couples of singles, and not in couples of pairs as in the Dodecactiniaria 

 and Zoanthinaria. In short, the mode of development characteristic of 

 the first four couples formed in the larvte of Zoanthe^e, Actinlans, and 

 Madreporaria is continued to the end in the Edwardsidte, which thus 

 retain a primitive mode of development and growth throughout their 

 existence. 



Note on Tumularia.+ — W.J.Robinson proposes the new name 

 Tumularia for the forms at present placed in the genus Stylaraea See- 



* Comptes Eendus, clxii. (1916) pp. 986-8. 



+ Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) xxxii. (1916) pp. 513-30 (1 pi. and 2 figs.). 



X Amer. Journ. Sci., xlii. (1916) pp. 162-4. 



