214 FRESH FACTS [SEPTEMBER 
Facts oF INHERITANCE. WutLiAM Bateson and Miss D. F. M. Perrz. 
‘‘Notes on the inheritance of variation in the corolla of Veronica buxbaumii,” 
Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. x. 1899, pp. 78-92, 1 pl. Abnormal flowers are of 
common occurrence in this species, and certain symmetrical forms of variation 
are especially frequent. Flowers taken at random on heavy clay arable land 
near Cambridge showed about 6 per cent with 3 petals, and about 1 per cent 
with two petals, and so on. The experiments described in this paper were 
undertaken to test whether there is any difference between offspring raised from 
abnormal flowers, and the offspring of normal flowers borne by the same plant. 
The evidence, though scanty, goes on the whole to show that there is, at all 
events in the case investigated, no well-marked difference between the offspring 
of normal and abnormal flowers. 
A PatHotocican Prckon. Micuaret F.Guyer. ‘Ovarian structure in an 
abnormal pigeon,” Sedence, ix. 1899, pp. 876-877. In a bird which was a 
hybrid between a Vienna white (Columba alba) and a common ring-dove (Turtur 
risorius), the ovary showed a large number of double eggs, that is, two or more 
eggs within a common follicle. Most of the larger eggs showed vacuoles 
appearing in connection with the substance of the sphere or yolk-nucleus ; the 
nuclei in many cases seemed degenerating ; mitotic division of the nucleus was 
never observed ; many of the eggs, especially the larger ones, were undergoing 
absorption by means of phagocytes which were the transformed follicle cells. 
The doubling of the eggs seemed to be due in most of the smaller ones to 
division of the primordial egg cell and in the larger ones to fusion of contiguous 
cells. It is not determined that such abnormalities are connected with 
hybridisation. 
Sex in Beeries. Gri~Bert J. ARRow. ‘On sexual dimorphism in beetles 
of the family Rutelidae,” Zvrans. Entomol. Soc. London, 1899, pp. 255-269. The 
recorded examples of sexual dimorphism among beetles, other than those which 
consist in differences of development of various parts, such as the legs, antennae, 
or mandibles, are at present very few; but this is partly due to the mistake of 
referring males and females to separate species. In the heterogeneous assem- 
blage slumped in the genus Anoma/a there is colour dimorphism in species 
from all parts of the world. The distinction consists not in any fundamental 
difference, but in the degree of development of the colouring matter, the male 
(except in two exceptional Mexican species) exhibiting a greater exuberance than 
the female, or the superposition of a darker hue. In Anomala imperialis, 
discussed in this paper, there is another apparent exception, the colours of the 
two sexes appearing to be unrelated. But experiment shows that the metallic 
purple colour characteristic of the male of this species is transformed by exposure 
to sunlight into a green like that of the female, so that here also the male form 
is obtained by an addition to that characteristic of the female. 
Tue AGE OF THE Manx States. H. Bouron. ‘The Palaeontology of the 
Manx Slates of the Isle of Man,” Manchester Memoirs, xliii. May 4, 1899, 
No. 1, pp. 15, 1 pl. In this paper (also issued as ‘‘ Notes from the Manchester 
Museum, No. 5”) are described specimens of Dictyonema sociale and Dendro- 
graptus jfleruosus, found by the writer in small splintery masses of these slates. 
These indicate that “the stratigraphical position of the slates will be found 
ultimately to be either amongst the uppermost beds of the Cambrian system, 
or in the Arenig Series.” This conclusion does not conflict with the evidence 
of the worm castings referred to Palaeochorda and Chondritis, or the doubtful 
Asaphus also discovered by Mr. Bolton, or the yet more doubtful Lingulella, 
figured by E. W. Binney in 1877. The author is to be congratulated on the 
light, little though it be, that he has been able to throw on this particularly 
obscure problem. 
