MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. Ill 



Mr. Hiern, with the assistance of several other Botanists 

 present at the Biological Station at the end of September, 

 compiled a list of Manx plants which will appear shortly 

 in the " Journal of Botany." 



Dr. C. H. Hurst reports as follows in regard to some 

 specimens of Nymphon dredged from the " Turbot hole," 

 near Puffin Island : — 



" There were 14 specimens : — 



1 was a typical N. gracile. 

 3 were spiny N. gracile. 



2 ,, N. gracile, but with flat ocular tubercle. 



2 ,, N. gracile, but with the tarsus of N. brevitarse. 



3 ,, young, and doubtfully N. gracile. 



3 ,, recorded as N. rubrum — but none were red. 



" The average species-monger would make six species 

 of those 14 specimens out of one ''hole." In spite- 

 of the decision of Sars that N. gracile and N. "rub- 

 rum" (which is not red) are distinct, I do not believe 

 they are. T} r pical specimens of both were found as well 

 as some specimens possessing some characters of N. 

 brevitarse : but there were also found, in the same hole, 

 other forms which bridge over the gap between the sup- 

 posed species. The differences between the most extreme 

 forms were less than those between individuals of Bombus 

 terrestris (workers) found in a single nest and far less 

 than the differences between Araschnia {Vanessa) prorsa 

 and A. levana, which are now known to be a single 

 species. The species (N. gracile-rubrum-brevitarse) may 

 be a polymorphic species, but I believe it is one species 

 and not three." 



Mr. James Hornell has supplied the following notes as 

 being supplementary to his lieport on the Polychretous 

 Annelids of the L.M.B.C. District published in vol. iii. of 

 the " Fauna" (and Trans. LYpool Biol. Soc, vol. v., p. 2:23). 



