go NATURAL SCIENCE. Aug., 



Dr. Herdman contributes to the Conchologist for June 24 an 

 interesting confirmatory note as to the views of Giard with respect 

 to the mimicry of the mollusc, Lamellaria perspicna. " The Mollusc," he 

 says, " was on a colony of Leptoclinwn macuhtum, in which it had 

 eaten a large hole. It lay in this cavity so as to be flush with the 

 general surface ; and its dorsal integument was not only whitish with 

 small darker marks which exactly reproduced the appearance of the 

 Leptoclimim surface with the ascidiozooids scattered over it, but there 

 were also two large elliptical clear marks which looked like the large 

 common cloacal apertures of the Ascidian colony." Professor 

 Herdman did not notice the Lamellaria until he had by accident partly 

 dislodged it in pricking the Leptoclimim from the stone. He points out 

 that in this case we have the curious result that the Leptoclinimi, while 

 itself protected by sharp spicules against certain enemies, is thus armed 

 to some extent for the benefit of the Lamellaria which preys upon its 

 vitals. 



We have received from Messrs. Hedley and Suter a copy of their 

 " Reference List of the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of New 

 Zealand " [Proc. Linn. Soc. N . S. Wales, ser. 2, vol. vii., 1893, pp. 

 613-665), which enumerates no less than 184 species, as against the 

 15 first recorded by Gray in 1843. This jubilee list is therefore 

 interesting in that it affords an index of the progress made in the 

 study of an important section of Antipodean Malacology within half- 

 a-century of its inception. The authors maintain that in proportion 

 as the New Zealand fauna becomes known does its insularity stand 

 out, and they enumerate no less than fourteen well-known molluscan 

 genera which have been erroneously imposed upon it, though whether, 

 as they say, Helix be one of them, very much depends upon whose 

 classification of a very difficult group be followed. 



Those interested in the microscopic details of the structure and 

 contents of the plant-cell will find matter to their taste in the 

 " Beitrage zur Morphologic u. Physiologic der Pflanzenzelle," edited 

 by Dr. Zimmermann, of which the first volume has recently appeared. 

 It includes, in 322 pages, fifteen separate communications, for twelve 

 of which the editor is himself responsible. Among the items dis- 

 cussed are the internal structure of leucoplasts, which are not always 

 homogeneous as hitherto supposed, but sometimes contain well-defined 

 spherical bodies or lencosomen. Another body so far unrecorded, the 

 granula, is found to be of widespread occurrence in the assimilating tissue 

 of plants. The proteid-crystalloids, their detection, distribution, and 

 properties, are dealt with in two of the longest papers, while the 

 chromatophores of variegated and chlorotic leaves respectively form 

 the subject of other two. As regards the last mentioned, the author 



