23 



the general public of Canterbury for purposes of 

 reference. The President and officers were re- 

 ■elected en bloc till the end of September next, as 

 the commencement of the Society's year has been 

 altered from January 1 to October 1. 



The President then called upon Mr. S. Saunders 

 to ^'ive his lecture entitled *' Glimpses of Beauty 

 in the Structure of Marine Orjfanisms." 



The lecturer began by remarking that probably 

 many who had seen the title of the lecture had 

 ■been inclined to ask *' Why speak of Glimpses of 

 Beauty?" "Surely," they might say, 'Beauty 

 is abundantly manifest throughout the natural 

 world ! To take only that branch of natural 

 history to be dealt with in this lecture — marine 

 lite ; how much beauty is to be found in a collec- 

 tion of shells, which must be readily discerned by 

 ■everyone who has eyes to see — beauty of form, 

 l>eauty of colour ! Or look at a collection of Alg* 

 and see the delicate beauty there displayed 1 '" 

 Yet, admitting all this, the point which it was 

 now desired to press on the attention of the 

 audience was, that there are hidden charms in the 

 structure of many organisms which are only 

 revealed to the student whomakes a close and care- 

 ful examination. Indeed, there are many objects 

 whose external appearance presents no special 

 attraction, whicli may yet possess a structure 

 formed on a pattern of great beauty, or in which 

 some deli.'Ate material reveals an unexpected 

 charm of ornament. The lecturer said he proposed 

 to deal only with the invertebrate classes, and, 

 commencing with some of the larger and better- 

 known creatures.toaskhisaudience to travel with 

 him down the scale of beings inhabiting the great 

 world of the sea, glancing at one here and there, 

 till we reach the confines of life in organisms too 

 minute to be examined by the human eye, unless 

 assisted by the instruments which science has 

 devised to help us in our search. 



Referring to shells of many of the Gastropoda, 

 which are among the most beautiful objects to be 

 found in collections, wheie the elegance of their 

 form and the brilliant colouring of many species at 

 once arrest the eye and excite a feeling of admira- 

 tion in the mind of even the superficial observer, 

 attention was directed to the exquisite lining of 

 the interior of the shell by a nacreous enamel of 

 absolute smoothness, as though highly polished ; 

 often tinted with delicate hues or exhibiting a 

 brilliant iridescent appearance ; sometimes of 

 unblemished whiteness. This perfect lining 

 throughout every portion of the interior of a shell 

 was well seen in a longitudinal section of Fusus 

 antiquus on the table, and in an abnormal form of 

 Bnccinum carinatum lined with the purest white 

 enamel. The iridescent hues were shewn in 

 H'diotis splendens. 



Passing to the Nudibranchiaia, in which the 

 shell i? either absent, or only exists in a rudi- 

 mentary form, it was explained that the breathing 

 organs form a prominent appendage to the body 

 of the animal, being arranged on the surface, often 

 in such a way as to produce the effect of a lovely 

 Hower ; at other times as a fringe of delicate tassels 

 on either side of the body or on the dorsal surface. 

 In many species the colour of the animal and of 

 the branchia? is very striking. The genus £"0^5 

 contains many examples of this beauty of colour. 



To illustrated the elsgance of the tuft of branch ia.' 

 an excellent picture of Doris John^toni was thrown 

 on the screen. 



As an illustration of a '* glimpse " of beauty in 

 the structure of an animal whose general appear- 

 ance is most unattractive — and even repulsive— 

 the sucking disks from the arms of a cuttle fish 

 (Cepludopoda) were shewn by the lecturer. Each 

 disk was seen to be an elegant cup-shaped body, 

 composed of muscular membrane, the stria* of 

 which, radiating Irom the central aperture to the 

 circumference, formed a pattern of beautiful 

 symmetry — and it was explained that at the 

 bottom of the central cavity is a piston capable 

 of being retracted immediately the circumference 

 of the disk is placed in contect with the suriaoe 

 of an object — thus producing a vacuum and focui- 

 ing the adhesion rf the sucker to the object 

 attacked. 



Attention was next directed to a pecular 

 characteristic of the Gastropod moUuscp, which 

 aifords a striking illustration of beauty in the 

 structure of the strange dental apparatus with 

 which these creatures are furnished. This organ 

 (sometimes called a "tongue" or "palate," but 

 more correctly described as & radulaor odontophore) 

 is a tube, the front of which is, as is were, slit up 

 and spread out within the proboscis-like mouth. 

 On the interior are innumerable rows of minute 

 spines or hooked teeth, the form and arrangement 

 of which varies greatly in different species. In 

 many Cii^es the teeth are siliceous and capable of 

 being used as a file or borinij instrument. By its 

 means the Dog Whelk {Pv.rpitra Lapillus) and 

 Whelk Tingle {Nassa reticvlata) perforate the 

 shell of the oyster or mus.=el, patiently drilling a 

 hole with absolute regularity and unifoimity until 

 the body of its victim is reached. In others, th*- 

 teeth may be of a horny rather than a siliceous 

 substance, and are only adapted for rasping some 

 softer material than shell or mowing down fine 

 growths of vegetation. The common Periwinkle, 

 thi_' Limpet and other vegetable feeders, are 

 furnished with an odontophore of this description. 

 Under examination by the polariscope many of 

 the odontophores are objects of great beauty, the 

 form andarrangement of the teeth being thus seen 

 to advantage. In addition to the typical species 

 above mentioned odontophores of Trochus zizy- 

 phinu^, Haliotis, Natica, Aplysia, and Cyclostonia 

 eU'jans were exhibited. 



The Class TuNicATA exhibits a variety of forms, 

 and some of the smallest are (as usual) the most 

 beautiful. They are invested with a tegument or 

 tunic which is not shell but is, in some species, thin 

 and as transparent as glass, in others thick and 

 opa<iue. To this class belong the Ascidians which 

 are regarded by some distingfuished naturalists 

 as " the nearest relations to the vertebrata, in 

 conse*|uence of the presence in the larval form of the 

 rod-like body (notochord) which disappears in the 

 mature animal, and in the vertebrata is replaced 

 by the spinal column." [Pascoe's '* Zoological 

 Classification," p. 172]. 



Clncelllna and Perophora are beautiful forms 

 of Tunicata. The latter especially affords an 

 opportunity of studying the living actions of the 

 Ascidians, its tunic being perfectly transparent. 

 The BotryUUlx again are compound animals, each 



