71 



pointed that 3 or 4 glutinous sticky rings are situate immediately underneath 

 the nodes on the flowering stalks. Ants climbing are arrested and die in 

 numbers at the sticky zones. In Norway he had observed 95 percent of the 

 plants with dead Ants thereon ; and he submits — whether the zones are a 

 protection to the flowers? the Ants noxious? or their dead bodies serve as 

 nutriment to the plant? — Dr. Cob bold exhibited diseased roots of 

 Stephanotus which he had received from Dr. Masters. They swarmed with 

 myriads of nematode worms and were also covered with minute Acari. He 

 referred the worms to the genus Leptodera and stated that thirty years back 

 he discovered similar parasites in the shrivelled leaves of Gloxinia. — Prof. 

 Ow e n read a paper on the Homology of the Conario-hypophysial Tract, or 

 the socalled Pineal and Pituitary glands. He propounds the view that it is 

 the modified homologue of the mouth and gullet of Invertebrates ; that the 

 suboesophageal-ganglia or ganglionic masses or neural cords constitute the 

 centres whence are derived and caudally continued the homologues of the 

 Vertebrate Myelon. — Sir John Lubbock gave an account of some re- 

 searches of his to determine in how far certain of the Lower Animals have 

 an appreciation of the sense of colour. In experiments made by M. Paul 

 Bert on Daphnia a small fresh water crustacean some years ago, he concluded 

 their limits of vision are the same as ours and generalized the same for 

 all animals. Sir John has already shown that Ants do perceive the ultra 

 violet rays. With regard to Daphnia he arrives at a difi'erent conclusion from 

 Paul Bert and proves experimentally that this crustacean is sensitive to ultra 

 violet rays which are invisible to our eyes. — Mr. MacLachlan communi- 

 cated a paper : On the Neuroptera of Madeira and the Canary Islands. He 

 gave a tabular statement of the species found in the islands indicating those 

 known also to exist in Europe. 37 species had been found in Madeira, 31 in 

 the Canaries, '16 being common to both. The paper concluded with a de- 

 tailed account of the species including descriptions of several new ones. 



15. December, 1881. — Prof. T. S. Cobbold exhibited a large 

 guinea- worm [Dracunculus] taken from a pony and forwarded by Vet. Surg. 

 Frederick Smith from Madras. Only one previous instance of the occurrence 

 of this parasite in the horse has been mentioned, and its authenticity was 

 doubted by Fedschenko and other helminthologists. — Prof. P. Martin 

 Duncan read a communication on the Morphology of the Test of the Temno- 

 pleuridae. The Temnopleuridae a sub family of the Oligopores, are remark- 

 able for their suturai grooves and depressions at the angles of the plates. 

 The author examined the grooves and depressions or pits in Salmacis sulcata 

 Agass., and found that these last are continued into the test as flask shaped 

 cavities sometimes continuous at their bases which are close to the inside of 

 the test, but do not perforate. This is the case in the median vertical sutures 

 of the interradium and ambulacrum. Between the poriferous plates of the 

 ambulacra are numerous pits in vertical series which are the ends of cylin- 

 ders closed and often curved within. Altogether the undermining is consi- 

 derable. The grooves over the suturai margins are losses to the thickness of 

 the test. The edges of the contiguous plates are sutured together by a mul- 

 titude of knobs and sockets, Y300 of an inch in diameter, visible with a hand 

 lens. In the vertical sutures there is an alternate development of knobs and 

 sockets on each plate corresponding to a similar development on the opposed 



