1899] BREVIS ESSE LABORO, OBSCURUS FIO 87 
The preceding remarks were prompted by a paper entitled “A 
Hunt for a Name,” contributed by T. S. Hall to the Victorian Naturalist 
for May, 1899. The difficulties to which we have alluded are of 
course magnified in outlying parts of the world, where fellow-workers 
are few. In trying to name a coral, Mr. Hall found himself referred 
by the reporter of the Challenger to “ Plesiastraea urvillei, Milne- 
Edwards and Haine, Cor. IL, p. 490.” On this “almost meaningless 
reference ” Mr. Hall remarks: “When one knows the country it is 
easy for him to find his way about, but to the stranger it is not easy, 
and he needs the finger-posts which the other never heeds. ‘Cor. II.’ 
is good enough for the specialist, but is a meaningless ‘blaze’ for the 
‘new chum.” Weare glad that Mr. Hall refused to regard “ Cor. IT.” 
as a Biblical reference, and that he eventually discovered “ Histoire 
Naturelle des Coralliaires”; but what language would he have used 
had the Challenger reporter followed the custom of his kind, and con- 
tented himself with “ P. urvillei, E. & H., Cor. II.” ? 
The Parietal Eye. 
THE parietal eye and adjacent organs of the New Zealand Tuatera 
(Sphenodon) form the subject of an important paper by Mr. A. Dendy 
in the May issue of the Quart. Journ. Micr. Soc. It has already been 
shown that in the adult of this reptile this eye is better preserved than 
in other animals; and the author now demonstrates that its develop- 
ment has undergone less modification than in other reptiles. The first 
indication of its appearance is seen at a stage (K) comparable with a 
two-day-old chick, when a “ primary parietal vesicle” buds on the roof 
of the fore-brain slightly to the left of the median line. At stage V 
the eye forms a hollow vesicle in front and slightly to the left of its 
so-called “stalk ”—the “parietal stalk,’ which is a finger-shaped 
diverticulum of the root of the fore-brain, practically in the middle 
line. The eye is almost or completely separated from the stalk, which 
contains a prolongation of the cavity of the brain. The “ paraphysis” 
likewise makes its appearance at this stage, as a backwardly-directed 
outgrowth of the roof of the fore-brain. 
At stage O the parietal eye and stalk are conspicuous externally ; 
while at stage & (the one immediately before hatching) the eye, which 
is now apparently median, is seen as a white spot with a black border, 
the latter representing the pigmented margin of the retina and the 
former the lens. In the adult (stage 8) the eye, though very highly 
organised, is no longer recognisable externally ; but in recently hatched 
individuals it is stated to be still visible as a dark spot through the 
translucent skin covering the parietal foramen. 
After discussing the structure of the eye and its nerve, and the 
