42 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



are very varying and beautiful, and some of them are most lovely 

 microscopic objects. 



A word now as to the systematic position of the polyzoa. The more 

 we know of their homologies, the more reason there is to class them 

 with the lower class of mollusks — those called the brachiopoda. It is 

 suggested that we can join the brachiojDods and polyzoa, just as among 

 the tunicata we find isolated forms as clearly as possible connected 

 with forms as social and interdependent as are the polyzoa. I will 

 now say a word, for the benefit of those who know perhaps little about 

 the subject, as to the zoological position of these polyzoa. They seem 

 first to have been noticed by the celebrated Abbe Trembley, the same 

 who taught us about the little fresh-water hydra ; how it may be cut in 

 pieces and otherwise mutilated without any apparent harm, and how 

 each fragment grows for itself the parts which have been removed. In 

 investigating these undoubted polyps, he discovered some forms which 

 he called the jpohjpes a panache, or plumed polyps. Some years after, 

 Ellis took them up, and in his system they were still associated with 

 the ordinary polyps. In 1828, Milne Edwards, the French zoologist, 

 first pointed out their distinct homologies with the tunicata, and since 

 that time they have been put at the lowest part of the sub-kingdom 

 mollusca. But while general consent classes them with the moUusca, 

 some reasons seem to exist for classing them with the worms ; Dr. 

 Strethill Wright having discovered a fixed marine annelid, which had 

 a kind of horse-shoe plume at its free extremity ; still, when we take 

 the great resemblance of the adult polyzoa to the structures of the 

 brachiopoda and tunicata, we may be satisfied in our minds of the 

 wisdom of placing this class among the mollusks, at the bottom of the 

 list of the classes included in that sub-kingdom. 



Dr. Braithwaite observed that many of the specimens exhibited had 

 the tentacles expanded. He would be glad to know how this was 

 managed. 



Mr. Stewart said he had succeeded in keeping them out by adding 

 a few drops of the best French brandy to the water in which they were 

 living. They seemed to appreciate this beverage so higljly that they 

 were overcome by the liquor, and died with the plumes expanded. 

 They could then be mounted in the ordinary way. 



A vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to Dr. Ord for his in- 

 teresting paper. The President announced the first soiree of the club, 

 to be held at the Horns Assembly Eooms, Kennington, on Thursday 

 evening, November 30th ; also a paper for the next meeting, on 

 Tuesday, November 21st, by Mr. Jackson, " On the Barks of Trees." 



An Ordinary Meeting of this Club was held on Tuesday, Novem- 

 ber 21st, at Glo'ster Hall, Glo'ster Place, Brixton Eoad, Mr. Deane, 

 F.L.S., presided. 



Mr. Jackson, of the Kew Museum, read a paper " On the Barks of 

 Trees," of which the following is an abstract : — 



I propose to-night to say a few words upon the variable structures 

 and characters of a few of the most remarkable barks of foreign 

 trees. I would remind you that in exogenous structure, to the con- 



