25 



cnor, by Rollett, in ' Strieker's Human and Comparative His- 

 tology,' that the nucleus of the pyrenaoma^a is " sometimes more or 

 less circular, as in the birds, or elliptical, as in the frog," 



June 5th, 1873. 



Lophius piscatorius. — Mr. Sibert Saunders exhibited and de- 

 scribed a specimen of this fish, about nine inches long, a female, 

 with the ovaries quite immature. It was taken at Whitstable, 

 where it is much less common than on some other parts of our 

 coast. The blood-discs were examined by Mr. Gulliver, and found 

 to be regularly oval, with the long diameter 1 -1895th, the shorter 

 diameter l-2666th, and the thickness l-8000th of an inch, these 

 being average sizes, and larger than is common in osseous fishes, 

 though rather smaller than in the Salmonidos, of which these 

 corpuscles are figured in the ' Proc. Zool. Soc.,' Nov. 19th, 1872. 



Economy of Freshwater Pohjps — On this subject Mr. Full agar 

 continued his observations, and illustrated them by living speci- 

 mens and drawings. He described the eggs of Hydra viridis as 

 dark brown in colour, somewliat tuberculated on the surface, 

 globular in shape, and about l-66th of an inch in diameter. These 

 were hatched in April, and while emerging from the ovum the 

 young hydra had two short tentacles, to which a third was added 

 about the seventh day, when the animal was free and able to 

 adhere by its sucker to the glass. Though H. vulgaris regularly 

 deposits its ova in the autumn, he has seen this species, in his 

 aquarium, produce eggs during March, which were hatched early 

 in May. He is preparing for publication descriptions and draw- 

 ings of his observations. 



Crystals on the Seed-coat of the Elm, and Character of the Epi- 

 dermis of the Tway -blade. — Preparations and drawings of these 

 were communicated by Mr. Gulliver. The substance of his obser- 

 vations thereon is given in his paper at page 290 of the number 

 for July, 1873, of the ' Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.* 



June ISih, 1873. 



Hairs of Deutzia and Crystals of Platino-cyanide of Magnesium, 

 — Colonel Horsley showed the effects of polarised Hght on these 

 hairs and crystals, and how weU these objects are adapted for this 

 purpose, when viewed either by transmitted light or on a dark 

 ground. 



Muscular Coat of the Poison-hag of the Wasp. — This was shown 

 by Mr. Gulliver, jun., to be formed, in the queens of Vespa vul- 

 garis, of transversely- striped fibres, a structure which appears to 

 be constant in this insect, since these striped fibres were plainly 

 seen in every one of those queens which he had examined during 

 the present year, although not at all in the same part of two 

 queens of the honey-bee, which he had examined in like manner a 

 little earlier in the same season ; but he considers that the point 



