482 Miscellaneous. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Reproduction of Frogs and Toads without the intermediate 

 stage of Tadpole. By the Rev. L. Jenyns. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — I have read with much interest the observations 

 of Mr. Lowe in your last April Number respecting the occasional 

 reproduction of Frogs and Toads vrithout the intermediate stage of 

 Tadpole. The facts he mentions call, perhaps, for some further in- 

 vestigation before the conclusions which he draws from them can be 

 considered fairly established. The subject, however, deserves atten- 

 tion ; and any other facts that can be adduced of a similar kind may 

 assist in throwing hght upon it. I would accordingly just mention 

 that, in my ' Observations in Nat. History ' (p. 203), I have re- 

 corded the circumstance of toads inhabiting the cellars at Bottisham 

 Hall, from which they can make no esca.pe, but where, nevertheless, 

 they may often be noticed in the spring in copuld, and where I have 

 also seen young toads, though I never noticed any spawn-deposits. 

 I have also alluded, in my ' Manual of British Vertebrate Animals ' 

 (p. 305), to the circumstance of specimens of the common Newt or 

 Eft being found on land, as Sheppard had previously remarked, " of 

 all sizes, from 1 to 4 inches in length, but never in any other than a 

 perfect state." Shaw too had noticed the same thing, and regarded 

 it as an argument in favour of this species being viviparous. I was 

 always very much at a loss to accoimt for the presence of these small 

 individuals in places where there was no water within a considerable 

 distance, particularly in one given spot, a damp out-building, where 

 they might constantly be found concealed under stones. My im- 

 pression at the time was that they must have been bred in the merest 

 puddles caused by rains, which soon drying up obliged them to ex- 

 change their native element as larvce for another, before they would 

 have ordinarily attained the perfect form ; and that this led to the 

 gills being cast prematurely to enable the animal to accommodate 

 itself to its new circumstances. But I think it more probable now, 

 after what Mr. Lowe has stated in the case of frogs and toads, that 

 these individuals may have been born on land in the state in which 

 they are found, and that in fact gills never existed, or disappeared 

 almost immediately after bii'th. 



I am, yours &c., 



L. Jenyns. 



Researches on the Fecundation and Formation of the Embryo in the 

 Hepaticce and Ferns. By H. Philibert. 



I. Hepaticee. — 1. In the Hepaticse as in the Mosses, the organ 

 called epigonium which envelopes the capsule almost mitil its arrival 

 at maturity is a true ovule, reduced to the nucleus, in which an em- 

 bryo is developed. 



