ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 315 



Incertse Sedis. 



New Species of Cephalodiscus.* — E. Ray Lankester describes C. 

 nigrescent sp. n., dredged by the ' Discovery,' in 100 fathoms, near 

 Victoria Land, in the Antarctic Ocean. The colony is massive, the test 

 nearly transparent, somewhat opalescent, and with a slight yellowish- 

 brown tint. A beautiful photograph of a portion of the colony is given. 

 The polypides are deeply pigmented and appear black to the naked eye. 

 The pigmented cells are superficial, and are in reality brownish-yellow 

 cells with one or two black spots of small size. This new species is 

 clearly marked off from C. dodecalophus by the massiveness of the colony, 

 the blackness and the large size of the polypides (three times as long as 

 those of C. dodecalophus), and by the restriction of the polypides and 

 their buds to separate tubes. 



Reptant Eleid Polyzoa.t — W. D. Lang contributes some interesting 

 facts regarding the family Eleidae, which can only be enumerated here. 

 He describes a means of determining by zocecial characters the reptant 

 " species " within the group, discusses the validity'of the " genera " form- 

 ing it, the occurrence in England of one of the " genera," Semimultelea, 

 hitherto unrecorded from Britain, and considers the phenomenon of local 

 groups of zooecia having characters differing from those of the rest of 

 the zoarium. 



Old Age in Brachiopods.J — H. W. Shimer summarises the principal 

 characters which accompany old age in Brachiopods. Senility is first 

 shown at the cardinal angles, and thence it spreads progressively to 

 the anterior portion of the shell. Hence it is at the cardinal angles 

 that we look for the first expressions of old age — as a change in the 

 angle of curvature, lamellose growth lines, flattening of ribs, and develop- 

 ment of a groove at the junction of the valves. When these characters 

 do not appear simultaneously on the shell, they appear in a definite 

 order — viz. (1) flattening of ribs ; (2) lamellose development of con- 

 centric growth lines ; (3) change in the angle of curvature ; (4) formation 

 of a groove at the junction of the valves ; and (5) flattening of sinus and 

 fold. Originating thus at the cardinal angles, these gerontic features 

 are pushed farther and farther forward until in paragerontism they are 

 present on the most anterior portion of the shell. 



Rotifera. 



Bdelloid Rotifera of the Forth Area.§ — James Murray enumerates 

 53 species of Bdelloids obtained from moss gathered on hill-top and in 

 peat-bog, on trees, walls, and rocks, by road-sides, and in streams, also a 

 few from samples of Lemna and other pond weed, and some seaweeds. 

 One new species, Gallidina microcephala, is figured and described, as well 

 as a variety of Philodina brevipes. The author's method of obtaining the 



* Proc. Roy. Soc, series B, lxxvi. (1905) No. B 511, pp. 400-2 (1 pi.). 

 |t Geol. Mag., No. 500 (1906) pp. 60-9 (12 figs.). 

 J Amer. Nat., xl. (1906) pp. 95-121 (30 figs.). 

 § Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, xvi. (No. 5) pp. 215-229 (1 pi.). 



