1892-93-] Fibre Balls. 57 



needles of pines and larches, but they readily form about such 

 a nucleus as a rope-end. In size, they vary from about two 

 inches to eight or nine inches in diameter. 



3. Balls from the Mediterranean Sea. — These are formed of 

 fibres of the marine flowering- plant Posidonia Caulini, and 

 were found by Mrs Sprague on the sea-shore at Antibes, to 

 which she made excursions while staying in Mentone — first 

 in 1889, and again in April 1892. The above-mentioned 

 Naiad was growing there very freely in a shallow bay, and 

 specimens of the live plant were procured without difficulty. 

 The balls were lying in very large numbers in a bank, from 

 one to two feet high, consisting principally of fragments of the 

 above-mentioned plant thrown t up by the waves. This refuse 

 is said to be used as manure. The fibres forming the balls 

 are apparently woven together by the waves ; and the balls, 

 when dry, are of a light -brown colour, and tolerably firm. 

 They occasionally have a nucleus, but seem generally to have 

 none ; and they are of very various shapes and sizes, ranging 

 from the size of a marble to several inches across. They are 

 not so uniform in shape as the two foregoing kinds of balls, 

 some of them being oblate spheroids, but they appear to be 

 formed by similar causes. A few partly-formed balls were 

 seen rolling forwards and backwards at the bottom of the 

 water, as the gentle waves advanced and receded — there being 

 very little tide in the Mediterranean. 



4. An oval ball formed of zoophytes, from St Andrews. — 

 This was received from Professor MTntosh, of St Andrews 

 University, who says : " It is chiefly formed of Obelia, a rapid 

 grower. I have seen it covering an old felt hat, which ap- 

 peared as fresh as when worn by the owner. It covers the 

 ropes of salmon-nets, &c, when temporarily in the water, in 

 the same way." The ball is about 3^ inches long by 2| 

 broad. 



5. A ball of the hind called " Bezoar," from a coiv's stomach. — 

 The ball, which is almost 4 inches long by 3\ inches wide, 

 seems to be principally composed of the cow's hairs, which the 

 creature has swallowed after licking its hide. As far as can 

 be ascertained without cutting open the ball, these hairs ap- 

 pear to be in a manner glued together around some nucleus, 

 each fresh hair being laid on the surface of the ball, which 



