194 REPORT—1850. 
Mr. Peach. It exceeds all our other British species in size, and is nearly allied to 
E. sphera. 
The researches of Duben and Koren on the shores of Norway have now made us 
fully acquainted with the distribution of Echinoderms to the north of Britain. The 
works of Mediterranean naturalists, and the author’s own researches, have afforded 
ample information respecting the southernmost European species. There remained 
to connect the Mediterranean and Celtic provinces, by an examination of the Lusi- 
tanian coast. Valuable materials towards filling up the gap have been procured by 
Mr. McAndrew, during his recent cruize on the Spanish and Portuguese shores, and 
submitted to the author for examination. 
On comparison of all the materials thus brought together, it would appear that the 
species of the genus Echinus, inhabiting the European seas, indicate four principal 
types of distribution—Ist. an arctic, to which Mehinus elegans appears to belong ; 
2nd. a boreal, of which E. Norvegicus and L. neglectus are members ; 3rd. a Celtic, 
of which #. sphera and E. miliaris are the characteristic forms; 4th. a Lusitanian, 
of which Z. esculentus, ΕἸ. lividus and ΕἸ. melo are members, and to which also the 
little Mediterranean E. monilis belongs. Εἰ. Flemingii is probably a member of this 
southern type. 
On the Anatomy of Doris. By ALtBANy Hancock and Dr. EMBLETON. 
The paper, which was illustrated by numerous drawings, contained a description 
of the different internal organs, and embraced several new points, namely,— 
Some hitherto unnoticed modifications of the digestive organs. 
A full account of the complicated organs of reproduction, and their varieties : 
these organs have long been matter of dispute. 
A notice of an additional heart, having a portal character and driving along its 
artery, whose branches form a network with the hepatic twigs of the aorta, venous 
blood; thus a mixed current is sent to the liver for the secretion of the bile. 
A description of a renal organ, on the walls of which the network of aortic and 
portal vessels is spread out before they reach the liver. 
A new version of the course of the circulation of the blood in these mollusks, 
showing that the blood which is returned from the liver-mass, 7. 6. liver, renal organ 
and ovarium, is the only portion of that fluid that traverses the branchie before 
reaching the heart, the rest being returned from the other viscera and the skin 
directly to the auricle, and there mixed with that which has passed through the 
branchie. 
Lastly, an account of a true sympathetic nervous system in Doris and other 
mollusks, cousisting of plexuses of nerves and ganglia on all the viscera, a system 
quite analogous to that of the higheranimals. Thus it appeared that the esophageal 
circle of ganglia corresponds to the cerebro-spinal nervous system of the Vertebrata; 
the individual ganglia of the mollusk were then compared to their counterparts in 
the vertebrate cerebro-spinal axis so as to bring out their true signification. 
From the whole paper it was evident that the mollusca are much more highly 
organized than has been supposed, and that as regards the organs of vegetative life 
at least, much more richly endowed than the Articuiata have yet been shown to be. 
On an Acarus and a Vibrio that attack Grasses. By James Harpy. 
Our indigenous grasses occasionally become diseased by the attacks of small ani- 
mals, and the author described some that had not hitherto been observed. In the 
beginning of July his attention was directed to Holcus lanatus (meadow soft grass), 
in which many of the panicles were blighted. The causes of this were two :—in the 
one case the base of the shoot was either dissevered from the stem, or was becoming 
putrescent where in contiguity with it ; and occasionally channels were eroded in the 
enveloping integuments, which were sometimes strewed with hard granules, appa- 
rently excrementitious. These were produced by an active yellow maggot, which 
the author suspected belonged to a Chlorops. In the second set of examples the 
panicles were quite soft and debilitated, and the branchlets were matted together by 
some action that had entirely exhausted them. On aclose inspection, several small 
