1869.] Zoology. 155 



specimens from Mr. Edward Parfitt, of Exeter. It appears that 

 its occurrence in England had been recorded some years since by 

 the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Houghton 

 ^<ay that this ground-fluke is a true Planaria. Those, however, 

 who have studied the Tui'bellarian worms will know that the genus 

 Planaria must have a very much more restricted character, and 

 rannot be made conveniently to include this form, for which the 

 genus Geoplana is usually adopted. In South America and Ceylon 

 there are other forms of land-flukes of larger size and very brilliant 

 colour. The English species difiers considerably from these, but its 

 anatomical details are not known. It is almost impossible to dis- 

 sect specimens, and they are not sufliciently transparent for the 

 microscope. The ground-flukes, however, undoubtedly belong to 

 that section of the short aproctous TurbeUaria, in which the in- 

 testine is arborescent. 



American Pohjzoa. — Mr. Alpheus Hyatt has pubhshed, in the 

 Proceedings of the ' Essex Institute ' of Salem, Mass., a very detailed 

 and valuable accoimt of the fresh- water Polyzoa (Phylactolaemata) of 

 that part of the North American continent. A large portion of the 

 work is occupied with anatomical descriptions, which are illustrated 

 in plates executed on a black ground ; a style which appears to be 

 a favoui'ite one in the States, but which we think is very inferior 

 to a well-shaded dra^vdng of the ordinary description. Here is a 

 statement which we assuredly cannot accept, " It therefore becomes 

 necessary to alter the commonly received nomeuclatm'e, and to 

 denominate the attached end of a Polyzoon the anterior, the free 

 end the posterior, the anal side the dorsal, and the opposite or so- 

 called haemal side the ventral." It is not at all " necessary " to 

 use the objectionable terms " anterior," " dorsal," and their converse, 

 and they certainly can have no strict meaning, but only a conven- 

 tional one. The term " Saccata " is proposed for the MoUusca, and 

 has been endorsed by ^fr. E. S. Morse in a paper on the classifi- 

 cation of those animals. Saccata is not by any means an appro- 

 priate term ; for the Infusoria, the Coelenterata, and many worms 

 are quite as distinctly sack-like as the mollusca, in fact, all animals 

 are sacks. The foUowmg genera are described : Fredericella with 

 three species, PlumateJla with four species, Pedinatella with one 

 species, Cristaiella with one species. Many details of interest and 

 importance are given in the anatomical descriptions of the genera ; 

 and the whole work is executed with very great care and methodical 

 treatment. 



The Glass-roioe Sponge. — This interesting organism has, we 

 think, at last come to the climax of its celebrity, and will soon sink 

 into more or less of obscurity, for its secret has been discovered. 

 Professor Loven was right in supposing, from the study of a sponge 



