862 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



interest. Similar means may be applied to the deposits left by- 

 streams of fresb water after any considerable increase in tbeir 

 height. 



It is also possible to obtain a large number of minnte species by 

 carefully removing the mossy earth which is so frequently found near 

 running water; when the water has been washed away and the mass 

 carefully dried, a number of specimens will almost certainly be 

 found. The author reminds his i-eaders that siJccimcns of distant 

 fresh-water MoUusca can by this means be as easily obtained as can 

 those marine specimens which are to be found in the bottom of bays 

 or sea-washed shores. 



Molluscoida. 



Recent Species of Heteropora.* — Mr. Geo. Busk, referring to 

 Mr. Waters's paper j on Heteropora pelliculata (from Japan), and H. 

 cervicornis (from Adelaide), says that the occurrence of these two 

 forms, belonging to a genus of which we had previously no species 

 more recent than the Crag, and extending back to the Cretaceous 

 period, is of particular interest, and he is induced therefore to 

 indicate the existence of what may probably be a third species of 

 the genus — one from New Zealand, which in most respects appears 

 to bear a very strong resemblance to the Japanese form, if not 

 specifically the same ; there are one or two points in which they do 

 not quite agree. 



In the absence of more complete acquaintance with Mr. Waters's 

 form, Mr. Busk provisionally designates the species, 



Heteropora neozelanica, n. sp. ? Zoarium erect, comj)osed of short 

 divergent branches, springing from a short thick stem, and soon 

 dividing once or twice dichotomously, and terminating in blunt rounded 

 extremities. The diameter of the primary branches is about • 2 inch, 

 and of the terminal ones about • 1 to 'IS inch. The surface presents 

 orifices of two kinds, though scarcely distinguishable in size. The 

 larger ones in the older parts of the growth, have a slightly raised 

 peristome and are quite circular ; the others (cancelli) disposed more 

 or less regularly round these, generally to the number of seven or 

 eight, are more or less angular, and the border of the opening is never 

 raised. 



In the perfect state the surface, as in most Polyzoa, is covered with 

 a thin chitinous pellicle, by which the cellular openings are more or 

 less closed. This epithecal coat does not seem to become calcified or 

 thickened, as in H. pelliculata, but always retains a delicate membra- 

 naceous character, and it is easily removed by caustic soda. Nor has 

 he been able consequently to perceive the minute openings in the 

 covering of the cancellar orifices described by Mr. Waters. 



In sections the walls of the zooecia and of the intermediate barren 

 tubes or cancelli are perforated, as figured by Mr. Waters, by numerous 

 infundibular pores, by which, as it would seem, facilities exist for the 

 permeation of fluids throughout the entire zoarium. These pores and 



* ' Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.),' xiv. (1879) p. 724. 

 t This Journal, ante, p. 390. 



