QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 281 
as from their extreme transparency the cellular tissue and the 
spiral vessels are distinctly displayed, without any dissection 
or other preparation than being placed in a drop of water. 
Messrs. Parker, Jones, and Brady, conclude their essay 
on the “ Nomenclature of the Foraminifera” in the same 
number (July). There is also a paper “ On the Presence 
of certain Secreting Organs in Nematoidea” by Alexander 
Macalister, of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, 
which is of particular interest as appearing at the same 
time as the valuable paper of Mr. Charlton Bastian on the 
Nematoids, which we shall notice below. Four series of 
glandular organs have been already described in different 
Nematoids, and Mr. Macalister now describes an apparatus 
which is entitled to rank as a fifth kind of secreting organ, 
separate in function from any of those at present known. 
Those already recognised are—Ilst, the salivary ceca of 
Gnathostoma and Strongylus ; 2nd, the glandular walls of the 
fesophagus of Ascaris, described by Cloquet; 3rd, the intes- 
tinal ezca common in many species; and 4th and last, omit- 
ting the reproductive glands, the curious tubular organ 
described by Siebold in the Strongylus auricularis and others, 
opening near the middle of the body on the ventral aspect. 
To these four it is proposed by the author to add a group of 
organs which he has discovered in the Ascaris dactyluris, Rud, 
a small white entozoon, infesting in enormous quantities the 
large intestines of Testudo greca. The glands are four ovate 
or pyriform bodies, attached to the inferior portion of the 
intestine, just at the point where there is a constriction which 
separates a dilated portion from a small narrow rectum. The 
bodies are evidently glandular; but Mr. Macalister is at a 
loss to find their homologues in other invertebrates, and con- 
jectures that they may form a renal apparatus. Be this as it 
may, in the aquatic larva of a dipterous insect, the Corethra 
plumicornis, are to be found four long cecal tubes, of 
glandular structure, in an exactly similar position, attached to 
the wall of the intestine and opening into it. These also may 
not improbably be renal organs; and we would just draw 
attention to the similarity existing between these bodies (at 
present imperfectly described) and those discovered by Mr. 
Macalister. 
Professor Gulliver, whose continued observations on raphides 
we have chronicled above, has also some interesting notes on 
the pollen-grains of various species of Ranunculus. His 
observations are thus stated :—R. auricomus, pollen-grains 
round and smooth, and ——th of an inch in diameter: R. 
acris, pollen-grains round and smooth, and ,4,th of an inch 
