Miscellaneous. goo 
5. “On Cheilostomatous Bryozoa from the Middle Lias.” By 
Edwin A. Walford, Esq., F.G.S. 
The Author describes some forms of Bryozoa from the spinatus- 
zone of the Middle Lias near Banbury, some of which had previously 
been classed with the Cyclostomata. The new material not only 
shows the opercular aperture but the opercula in situ, together 
with appendages and supra-oral ovicells characteristic of the Cheilo- 
stomata. In addition he has also found giant cells (cistern-cells) 
of form quite dissimilar from the ordinary zocecia and probably 
reproductive. He cites M. Jules Haime as having described in his 
magnificent monograph somewhat similar cells from the Inferior 
Oolite ; and in the Oxfordshire Great Oolite Bryozoa Mr. Walford 
has found cistern-cells like the Lias species on some colonies like 
Diastopore. He contends that it is merely the acquisition of 
. very well-preserved material which is needed to show the necessity 
of removal of many such species to the Cheilostomata. The name 
Cisternophora is suggested for the genus, of which several forms 
are described. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
On Hybrids or Mongrels with two Male Parents. 
Mr. Herrzerr Srencur, in the ‘Contemporary Review’ for March, 
enters at some length into the evidence concerning the possible 
influence of one male parent on the offspring of another male by 
the same female. ‘his question was discussed by Darwin, and the 
best-authenticated instances are well known; but, granting the 
validity of the evidence, the explanation given—that the sexual 
elements of the first male parent modified the somatic cells of the 
female—is surely not sufficiently proven to admit of the phenomenon 
being adduced as fatal to Weismann’s hypothesis, 
Sir John Lubbock (Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xx. p. 133) has pub- 
lished an instance among ants, in which it appears that the sperma- 
tozoa retained their life and energy in the body of a female for no 
less than thirteen years. Therefore it is possible to imagine that 
the male elements of the first parent really fertilized the ovum, 
giving rise to the supposed offspring of the second parent, although, 
for various reasons which need not be entered upon, this seems 
highly improbable. 
But it does not seem so improbable that they may have partly 
fertilized it. Strasburger has shown that among plants the pollen 
of a species very diverse from that which he attempted to fertilize 
with it would frequently produce a certain amount of growth in the 
ovum, resulting in an aborted embryo, which would never have been 
noticed had not special attention been paid to the subject. Now it 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. xii. 25 
