88 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb.. 



the Cambridge Philosophical Society on November 14. Mr. H. B. 

 Brady had already described specimens of Ovhitolites, showing the 

 margin of the disc crowded with young shells, and Mr. Lister was 

 able to extend his observations by studying the soft parts of speci- 

 mens collected on the Tonga reefs. It now appears that the repro- 

 duction of Ovbitolites takes place by the formation of spores. Each 

 spore contains a nucleus lying in its " primordial chamber." After 

 several rings of chamberlets have been added, a stage is reached at 

 which the nucleus appears to be represented by numbers of irregular, 

 darkly staining masses scattered through the protoplasm of the 

 central part of the disc. In the later stages numbers of oval nuclei 

 are found in the protoplasm, often arranged in pairs, and in favourable 

 preparations they may be seen to be undergoing division. 



We are glad to notice that the New Zealand Government is 

 actively engaged in preventing the total extinction of the rarer plants 

 •and animals of the colony. Acting on the advice of Mr. Henry 

 Wright, the Government has arranged for the purchase of Little 

 Barrier or Hauturu Island, near Auckland, which will be kept as a 

 national preserve. This island measures 4f miles in length by 3^^ 

 miles in breadth, and rises in the centre to an elevation of 2,000 ft. 

 It is generally rugged, but there is comparatively flat land at the 

 northern and southern extremities. Even now its flora and fauna is 

 particularly rich and varied, and no more suitable area could have 

 been secured. 



Bulletin de UHerhier Boissier is the title of a new publication in 

 the interests of Systematic Botany, issued under the direction of M. 

 Eugene Autran, Curator of the Boissier Herbarium at Geneva. The 

 bulletin is to contain original articles, notes, &c., will appear 

 irregularly, and form each year an octavo volume, of about 400 pages, 

 with plates. The first part contains a paper, with two plates, on the 

 genera Achatocaypus and Bosia, and their place in the natural system, 

 by M. Schinz and the editor ; also an enumeration of the plants 

 contained in Fascicle V. of " Plantae Postiana;," by the collector him- 

 self, including a description of the new species. The specimens were 

 gathered for the most part in the mountain chains of Amanus and 

 Kurd Dagh, in the north-west corner of Syria. The chain of Amanus 

 is well wooded, and the flora consequently differs considerably from 

 that of the almost bare mountains of Lebanon and Palestine. The 

 whole occupies thirty-two pages. 



The severe frost of the early part of last month gave unusual 

 opportunities for the study of river-ice on the Thames. In the upper 

 part of the tidal waters, where there is no salt, though the rise and 

 fall of the tide is still considerable, the " ice-foot," or ledge along the 



