April i^th, igo2.'\ Proceedings. xxxix 



hand, and pay over the remaining balance to the Treasurer of 

 the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, to be ex- 

 pended for natural history purposes. The Treasurer is also 

 hereby authorised to formally convey to the same Society, in the 

 name of the Section, the microscopes, cabinets of slides, books, 

 photographs, papers, and all other propeity belonging to the 

 Section at the date of its dissolution." 



Mr. Henry Hyde exhibited various preparations and speci- 

 mens dried in the usual way and then kept in an unusually dry 

 place ; thus the colour of Centaurea nigra was kept intact and 

 the stamens from catkins of Salix Caprea looked as if still 

 imbued with life. 



Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill exhibited Alitra zonata Marryat, 

 from the Mediterranean. This^ the most highly prized of all 

 the mollusca from the above locality, is specially interesting in 

 a two-fold way. First, being one of the two shells described 

 {Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. xii., 1818) by Captain F. Marryat, R.N., 

 the famous novelist ; and, secondly, because it is so rarely found, 

 though the distribution is wide. 



The specimen exhibited came from Villefranche, near Nice. 

 Of the twenty or so examples in Continental and British 

 collections, three are in the British Museum ; one, in that of the 

 Marquis de Monterosato, is the largest and finest known, being 

 four inches in longitude ; Mr. E. R. Sykes possesses a very fine 

 example ; also M. Dautzenberg, of Paris. Of late, Mr. Pallary 

 has been successful in dredging it from a good depth, say 400 

 fathoms. It has occurred at Algiers, off Oran, near Villefranche, 

 on the Sicilian coasts, and (it is believed) in the Adriatic also. 



The shell is of great specific gravity, many whorled, heavy, 

 mouth oblong, rather narrow, columella five-plaited, smooth, 

 covered with a thick shining epidermis, the upper part of the 

 whorls transversely banded. 



