70 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



B. seiriolanum, Gib. Poly ides rotundus, Grev. 



Compsothamnion gracilli- Schmitziella endophlcea, 



mum, Schmitz. Born, et Batt. 



CaUitham7iio7i tetragonum, Lithophylhmi lenorinandi, 



var. brachiatum, J. Ag. Bosan. 



Halymenia ligulata, C. Ag. Chylocladia ovalis, Hook. 



Hildenhrandtia prototypiis, Melobesia confervoides, 



var. rosea, Kiitz. Kiitz. 



In Professor Herdman's Third Eeport on the Marine 

 Biological Station on Puffin Island,* reference is made to 

 the presence in the sea of vast numbers of " gelatinous 

 spherical bodies containing minute spicules." The occur- 

 ance of these bodies in countless myriads renders the 

 water "foul," and the phenomon has been observed not 

 only at Puffin Island by members of the L.M.B. Com- 

 mittee, but also at Sheerness by Mr. Shrubsole, at St. 

 Andrew's by Professor Mcintosh, and by the naturalists 

 at the Plymouth Station. I have tried to obtain some of 

 this material on several visits to Puffin Island, but hither- 

 to without success. Mr. I. C. Thompson has, however, 

 kindly given me a bottle containing the organisms in 

 question, and this material I handed on to Mr. A. W. 

 Bennett, P.L.S., who is a well known authority on the 

 lower forms of algal life. I am glad to be able to incor- 

 porate the following notes which he has kindly sent me. 



" The sample sent to me by Mr. Harvey Gibson, from 

 the Menai Straits, contains various diatoms in an inter- 

 esting condition, but in a very fragmentary state. They 

 belong mostly to the families Melosirese and Biddulphiese, 

 and are most nearly allied, as far as I am able to deter- 

 mine, to Melosira numviuloides Kiitz. and Biddiilphia 

 aurita, Breb. {Odontella aurita, Ag.) The siliceous coating 



* Liveri)ool ]^in], Soe. , vol. iv,, )>. 40, 



