GLEANINGS EEPOKTS. 313 



Botanical Locality Recced Club. — The officers of this Club have 

 issued an appeal, asking the co-operation of Botanists in general, but 

 more especially of Bryologists, to aid in a scheme for investigating the 

 geographical distribution of Mosses in the British Isles. Mr. C. P. 

 Hobkirk, F.L.S., and Mr. H. Boswell, have consented to act as recorders. 

 The subscription is 5s. per annum. When thirty additional Botanists 

 have joined the Club, the funds will justify the issue of a report on 

 naosses. Names should be sent to Dr. H. F. Parsons, Goole ; or Mr. C. 

 P. Hobkirk, F.L.S., Huddersfield. We trust some of our readers may 

 be induced to join this useful Club. 



lUport.s of ^^otittics. 



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BIRMINGHAM NATUEAL HISTOEY AND MICROSCOPICAL 

 SOCIETY. — Biological Section. — August 13th. This meeting was devoted 

 principally to the exhibition by Mr. W. R. Hughes of the specimens taken 

 by members of the society during their recent excursion to Arran, and to 

 a summary of its general results. As a detailed report will be presented to the 

 society when the examination of these specimens is comijleted, it will suffice for 

 the pre.^ent to state that among them are numerous representatives of the 

 principal orders of marine animals, from Ehizopoda to Pisces, many of them of 

 very high interest. Mr. Hughes also showed on behalf of Mr. Simpson, of 

 Wylde Green, the egg of the common Tortoise, Testiido GrcEca, laid in that 

 gentleman's garden by a tortoise lately placed there, and being one of seven 

 which she deposited between eight a.m. and seven p.m., in boles about four 

 inches deep scooped out in the soil. It was nearly spherical, and of a pure white 

 colour; also, on behalf of Mr. C. J. Woodward, eggs of Cuttle-fish, Seina 

 ojnciitalis, from Bournemouth. The outer shell of one of these being removed, 

 the contained embryo forms a beautiful object when viewed in the microscope 

 by dark back-ground illumination. Mr. Short contributed specimens of the 

 flower of Agave Americana, from Sir E. Wallace's gardens, in Suffolk, (see 

 ante page 254.) A large number of botanical specimens were also exhibited by 

 Messrs. J. Bagnall, G. Caldwell, T. Butterfleld, and others. — Biological 

 Section. — September 10th. Mr. A. W. Wills showed on behalf of Mr. Wm. 

 Spencer a remarkable specimen of an oyster shell, bought by that gentleman as 

 apparently containing a pearl, but which on being split open was found 

 to enclose a small but perfect individual of the genus Pinnotheres pisuin, 

 a crab belonging to the decapodous short-tailed Crustacea. This animal 

 inhabits the shells of living bivalves, such as the common 

 mussel, cockle, oyster, &c. One species of this genus inhabits the 

 large Pinna of the Mediterranean, and was well known to the ancients, who 

 believed that a kind of " commensalism " existed between the two animals, the 

 crab warning the mollusc of approaching danger, and receiving house room and 

 shelter as a (^ui'rf pco quo. Mr. Spencer also contributed specimens in which a 

 small pebble and the operculum of a Turbo had respectively been covered with 

 the pearly secretion. In the course of the discussion which ensued, Mr. W. Graham 

 mentioned that the natives of the Chinese seas are m the habit of preparing small 

 leaden images of Buddha, which, being inserted between the mantle and the shell 

 of certain species of oyster, are covered with nacre and then sold as charms. The 

 thanks of the section were unanimously accorded to Mr. Spencer for his 

 interestnig contribution. — At the same meeting Mr. Bolton exhibited a small 

 submerged leaf of Bladder-wort, (Utricularia vulgaris,) with a crown animalcule 

 (Stephanoceros Eichhornii) attached to it, together with many specioiens of 

 Melicerta ringens, Limnias ceratophyUi, and (Ecistes crystallinus, a Philodina, 

 and a Brachionus. In addition to the preceding Rotifers, this little bit of weed, 

 although not exceeding a quarter of an inch square, was covered with numerous 

 attached specimens of Infusoria, including several species of Vorticella, 

 Carchesium pohjpinurn, three species of EpistyUs, Stentor MiiUeri, Cothurnia 

 iinherhis, Dendrosoina radians, and two other species of ^Jf/zifia. This was the 

 only piece of weed he had found time to examine under the microscope out of a 



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