335 
NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
Virgularia mirabilis— The following letter has been received from 
Mr. W. P. Marshall :—I return you herewith the Hddystone speci- 
men of Virgularia mirabilis that you lent to my late son and 
myself when we were at the Plymouth Biological Station, and am 
very sorry that the investigation we were engaged upon was not 
sufficiently worked out before his death for the report to be given 
upon this specimen. 
The point under consideration was the development of the 
polyps in the early stages of growth of the colony, on which valu- 
able information was given by this EHddystone specimen, which led 
us to a further examination of the younger specimens that had 
been obtained in the Oban dredging by the Birmingham Natural 
History Society. 
The general result was as follows. In the adult specimens there 
are in the most matured portion— 
8 polyps per leaf (or group). 
74 polyps per inch pitch of leaves (or 73 leaves in each inch 
length of specimen). 
In the Eddystone specimen there are— 
3 polyps per leaf in the lower portion. 
ales *5 in greater portion of length. 
16" = ;; per inch pitch at the lower end. 
10 Gy re 5 at the upper end. 
And the appearance of the specimen suggests that it is at the stage 
when the fourth polyp begins forming. 
In the Oban young specimens there are— 
; polyps per leaf throughout in 3 specimens. 
- 4 specimens, 
These pee ae aceely, with the Eddystone specimen in the 
number of polyps per leaf, but there is a wide difference as re- 
gards the pitch of the leaves, namely (Oban specimens)— 
56 to 96 pitch with 3 polyps per leaf. 
Gita vo 3 55 
The adult Oban specimens have a Peter ria of about 48 at 
the lower end, and the pitch 16 at the lower end of the Eddystone 
young specimen is so exceptional as to suggest another species or 
variety. 
NEW SERIES.—VOL. III, NO. IV. 27 
