358 Miscellaneous. 



clavate form ; the outer canal undergoes more profound modifications. 

 From its outer border a series of secondary caeca soon arises, and 

 these elongate and become subdivided, until the whole resembles a 

 double, hollow, palmated organ, with its trunks slightly flexuous. 

 The organization of this primitive liver appears to be very simple ; 

 the walls of its numerous tubes are delicate and transparent, and 

 formed of two layers analogous to those of the intestine, which they 

 also resemble in the faculty of contraction and dilatation. The liver 

 of the other Crustacean larvae, however different in arrangement, 

 has the same origin and organization ; it may be seen alternately 

 extremely dilated and much contracted. The larvae of Mysis and 

 Porcellana are particularly remarkable in this respect. 



The liver, consequently, is here a diverticulum appended to the 

 intestinal canal ; and at this period the communications between the 

 two organs are so wide, that the nutritive molecules poured by the 

 umbilical vesicle into the cavity of the intestine pass freely from the 

 latter into the future biliary ducts, and vice versd, as they are im- 

 pelled by the contractions of those organs. It is difficult to say 

 whether, at this point of organization, the liver furnishes any pro- 

 ducts of secretion to the intestine. If such products exist either in 

 the caeca of the gland or in the intestine, they are so scanty and 

 colourless as to be inappreciable. — Comptes Rendus, January 9, 

 1865, p. 74. 



Note on a new Case of Reproduction by Gemmation observed in an 

 Annelide of the Gulf of Sues. By M. L. Vaillant. 



The animal observed by the author belongs to the group of Sylli- 

 dians, but is not further determined. It is only a little more than 

 four millimetres in length, and presents eight segments, each having 

 a pair of cirri, furnished with eight or ten smooth setae upon two- 

 thirds of their length, and bristling with small verticillated spines in 

 their terminal third. In front, upon what was apparently the dor- 

 sal side, there was a process in the form of a rounded leaf, beneath 

 which was a bundle of tentacles and the buccal aperture. The little 

 animal was found in a cavity of a Sponge. 



The segment which bears the leaf-like process presents the most 

 important modifications. It is much broader than the rest of the 

 body, and forms a sort of cup or funnel, compressed from the ven- 

 tral to the dorsal surface, so as to represent two thick lips, of which 

 the lower is smooth and simple, whilst the upper one is covered 

 with an immense number of buds, placed very close together, and 

 inserted quincuncially. 



These buds have a very remarkable form, resembling that of soma 

 low forms of Annelides allied to Nemertes or Planaria. They have 

 a very contractile body, nearly equal in length to that of the parent 

 animal, flattened and obtuse at the free extremity, where they pre- 

 sent two or four small black oculiform points. They present only an 

 annulated integument and a few cell-nuclei in the more advanced 

 individuals. Towards the point of attachment, the body becomes 



