158 QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 
acquire fuller information, therefore, we shall assume that 
the perforation is due to chemical action. The genus Tere- 
bripora was established by A. d’Orbigny for two Bryozoans 
collected during his voyage to South America, one on the 
coast of Peru, the other at the Falkland Islands. D’Orbigny 
indicates that this genus differs from all others in its class by 
its cells hollowed out in the very substance of shells, their 
arrangement being identical with and their mode of produc- 
tion similar to those of Hippothoa. Since the publication 
just referred to no author has made mention of the Terebri- 
pore. The investigations undertaken by M. Fischer, upon 
the terebrant sponges in a fossil state, led him incidentally to 
ascertain how widely the Terebripore are diffused in the 
secondary and tertiary beds. He has detected four or five 
species in the former, and as many in the latter. Their pre- 
sence in the middle tertiary beds of Touraine and the Astésan 
led him to expect that this genus was, perhaps, not yet extinct 
in the European seas, when, in September, 1865, he collected 
in the harbour of Arcachon (Gironde) an oyster perforated by 
a colony of Terebriporee. The same species occurs in the Me- 
diterranean. From the examination of this specimen it is easy 
to rectify some incorrect statements made by d’Orbigny, who 
represented the apertures of the cells as round, whereas they 
are furnished with a notch of greater or less extent, a character 
of great importance in the classification of the Bryozoa. 
Besides Terebriporz, M. Fischer has found on the coasts of 
the Gironde a Bryozoan belonging to the same family and 
having the same habits, but differing in having its cells borne 
upon alternate axes. It leaves upon the shells elegant im- 
pressions resembling the ramifications of the Sertudarie. 
He proposes to name it Spathipora. The living Spathiporz 
are not numerous. There are only two living species known, 
one from the coasts of France and the Mediterranean, the 
other from the Pacific. 
The Terebripore and Spathipore constitute a very natural 
group, of which the species are probably very numerous. 
The interest which it presents is increased by the evidence of 
its existence during the whole series of secondary and ter- 
tiary deposits. M. Fischer arranges the family Terebriporide 
in the order of Cheilostomatous Bryozoa, side by side with 
the Hippothoide. The latter family is composed of the true 
Hippothoide (H. divaricata, Patagonica, &c.), and the new 
genus Cercaripora Fischer established for the reception of 
(tea truncata, ligulata, argillacea, &e. 
Annales des Sciences Naturelles, March, April.—‘“‘ Re- 
searches on the Vitality of the Tissues’’ is the title of an ela- 
