Proceedings 67 
MEETING held at Reigate, Jan. 29th, 1904. 
Present—19. 
Mr. C. E. Salmon F.L.S., exhibited specimens of all the 
British Cotton-grasses, Z7iophorum, including £. alpinum 
from Forfarshire,where it is now extinct, and made remarks 
on the various species. 
Mr. G. W. Butler, B.A., F.Z.S., exhibited eggs and larvee 
of Teleostean Fishes, and read a paper thereon, 
The Ze/eostean group of fishes (with bony skeleton) con- 
tains the great majority of existing fish. So far as fish are 
concerned we are living in the age of Teleosts, and though 
the ancient Elasmobranch stock (the Sharks, Dogfish, and 
Skates whose skeleton is mainly cartilaginous) is still well 
represented, the other groups of living fish are mostly, so 
to speak, but small twigs of the Life-tree that project here 
and there at the present surface, to represent large branches 
that are found buried in the rocks of past ages. 
In most cases the eggs of Teleosts are so small, and 
contain so little food, that the fish has to hatch and learn 
to find food for itself, when quite immature and unlike its 
parents, just as the young insect or frog has to do; and in 
such cases the fish, when first hatched, are called Zarve. 
_ The exhibit included (1) the Eggs and Larve of many 
species in spirit, and larve as micro-slides, and enlarged 
diagrams and camera-sketches of these small objects (x. 40) 
—an exhibit essentially similar to one which I have already 
described in the S.E. Naturalist, vol. 10, 1905, pp. xxvi.- 
Xxvill.—and (2) the living eggs and larve of three species 
of Marine Teleosts, sent in jars of sea-water from the 
Marine Biological Association’s Laboratory at Plymouth. 
One of these was Cottus bubalis, a shore fish which has 
non-floating eggs, that adhere in clumps; but the other 
two were species that have small transparent floating eggs, 
one-twenty-fourth and one-thirtieth inch in diameter res- 
pectively. In some of these latter eggs, placed under the 
microscope after the paper had been read, the beating of 
the heart, and the movements of the body, of the trans- 
parent little fish were seen, within the tiny egg. 
