HX:yEAX SOCIETY OP LOXlX^y. 



5 



The follow ing jiapers were read : — 



1. " On Protoplasmic Coanectiotis in the Lichens.'" By Dr, J. 

 H. Salter. (Communicated by Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.L.S.) 



2. " On Foraminifera collected round the Funafuti Atoll from 

 Shallow and ]\roderately Deep Water." By Frederick Chapman 

 A.L.S. ' * ^ 



December lUth, 1901. 

 Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 

 The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



Prof. G. B. IIoAVES exhibited a marine organism received from 

 Dr. Gilchrist, of South Africa. It measures 15 cm. in length, and 

 is structureless and transparent, in section four-sided, with its 

 angles prolonged and each intervening area concave. A central 

 tubular cavity is present, and at one end a deep constriction, 

 which may be due to wave-action or other artificial causes. Ideas 

 of a Ctenophoran, the cast-off test of a Tunicate of the Distoma 

 type, of a Myxicolid worm-tube, an egg-capsule, and others which 

 had occurred, had all been discarded ; and after having submitted 

 the object to a dozen trained experts, he put it forward in the 

 hope of obtaining a clue to its significance and zoological position. 



In commenting upon this exhibit, the President said he believed 

 the occasion was probably the first in the history of the Society 

 when an object had been laid upon the table to which no one 

 present could give a name. 



Prof. Howes also exhibited a mounted specimen of the Giant 

 Arguluis (A. scHtiformis) from a Japanese Teirodon, which he had 

 received from Prof. D'Arcy Thompson. The creature measured 

 3 cm. in length, and his attention was first drawn to it on a recent 

 visit to the Berlin Museum, where to the best of his recollection 

 there is a larger example, and where the species is being fully 

 worked out. 



The Eev. T. R. R. Stebbing, in commenting on the exhibit, 

 made some remarks on the species A. giganteus, and observed that 

 in the kindred genus Dolojjs there is a species {D. longicauda) 

 which about equals in size the specimen exhibited. He showed a 

 specimen of the giant Ostracod received from Dr. Gilchrist, which 

 he had named Crosso/Jwnis africanus, the animal being almost as 

 large as a cherry. 



Mr, J. E. S. MooHE exhibited the entire specimen and a micro- 

 scopic preparation, with drawings, of a new Polyzoon, encrusting 

 the shell of Paramelania, dredged on the West coast of Lake 

 Tanganyika, at a depth of 25 fathoms. He showed it to be 

 typically gymnolieraatous, and to present characters most nearly 

 suggestive of the marine genus Arachnidium. 



