30 EAST KENT NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



fragiferum, Lactuca saligna, Artemesia maritima, Cynoglossum offi- 

 cinale, Carex vulpina, and Poa pratensis. This miscellaneous and 

 random collection affording a good opportunity for trials of the 

 value of the raphidian character, these were carefully made. The 

 result was that in no plant were any raphides found except in the 

 Epilohium, in which they were, as they regularly are in the order 

 to which it belongs, very plain and abundant. And thus in our 

 flora the diagnosis was maintained, as formerly shown, of Ona- 

 graceae — Calycifloral exogens abounding in raphides. Yet this 

 short diagnosis, so easily demonstrable and eminently natural, has 

 not yet found its place in our books of systematic botany. 



Auditory Capsule of IloUusca. — In the little bivalve Oyclas 

 cornea, so common in our ditches, the auditory vesicle and its 

 vibrating otolith are so very beautiful and easily found that it must 

 become a favorite microscopic object. Mr. FuUagar, after two 

 or three trials, by tearing asunder with needles portions near the 

 base of the creature's foot, succeeded perfectly in showing the 

 vesicle and its oscillating otolith, much to the admiration of the 

 meeting. Figures of the auditory vesicles of several molluscs are 

 given in the ' Journal of Anatomy,' vol. iv. 



August Ist, 1872.^ — Skeleton of Lmnna cornuhica. — The Hon. 

 Sec. gave a detailed account of the preparation and completion of 

 this remarkable skeleton at the College of Surgeons, of which full 

 reports have appeared in the ' Kentish Grazette,' August 6th, 

 ' Land and Water,' August 17th, 1872, and several other periodicals. 

 The skeleton is seven feet nine inches in length, and, owing to the 

 judicious preparation, has lost only four inches in drying. There 

 are no ribs. The vertebrae number 152, of which sixty belong to 

 the tail, and these last turn upwards along the superior border of 

 the caudal fin, while in some other Selachians, as Seyllium, the 

 caudal vertebrae end in a straight line with the trunk. The 

 claspers are bony, each composed of three pieces, the terminal piece 

 being, a curious spine, as if for intromission. 



Progression of Arachnids in opposition to gravity. — Eeferring to 

 observations at the meeting of July 6th, the walking of Ixodes 

 on the under and pohshed side of glass was shown to be due 

 to the effect of atmospheric pressure on the elastic pedal caruncles 

 of the creature, and that this is also the case with the great 

 Tiger Spider of Ceylon had been clearly proved by Dr. Davy, in 

 his ' Physiological Eesearches,' p. 336, 8vo, Lond., 1863. 



August 15th, 1872. — Ichneumonidce. — Mr. PuUagar exhibited 

 living specimens from his vivarium of these hymenopterous insects, 

 hatched out of the chrysalis of the Red Admiral butterfly, and 

 read a paper on their habits and economy. 



Palate of the Gyprinoids. — This soft structure, so well known in 

 the Carps, has commonly been regarded as a gland analogous to the 

 pancreas. Mr. George Grulliver, having made preparations of this 

 so-called palate, by hardening it in chromic acid and then staining 

 fine sections with carmine, exhibited them under the microscope 

 at the meeting. The tissue of the part presented a large proper- 



