236 



sents a very different structure from any of the Forarainifera hitherto 

 described, but they support the conclusion at which the author 

 arrived in a preceding memoir, viz., that the soft animal has the 

 power of extending itself far beyond the limits of any individual seg- 

 ment, and is thus enabled to secrete calcareous matter in other situa- 

 tions than the mere investing parietes of its own cell. It is only in 

 this way that we can explain the production of the dome-like covering 

 which encloses the central umbilical cavities and their ramifying ca- 

 nals. But if it should be ultimately proved that the soft tissues have 

 occupied all these irregular cavities, we shall then have a form of 

 organization which, from its great variability of contour, will approach 

 more closely to the sponges than any hitherto described. 



The author concludes by stating that although these details may 

 appear to be tediously minute, yet it must be remembered that until 

 we are accurately familiar with all the leading types of structure ex- 

 isting in this interesting group of organisms, we cannot be in a condi- 

 tion to arrive at final conclusions respecting their nature and zoological 

 position. — J. IV. 



Account of a Privileged Locality near Torquay, in Devonshire. 

 By Edwin Lees, Esq., F.L.S. 



Botanists have scarcely paid sufficient attention to those " privi- 

 leged localities," as they have been not unaptly termed, or secluded 

 natural botanic gardens, where either some very local plant almost 

 exclusively flourishes, or a number of plants are located together in 

 friendly community, which may not be so met with elsewhere for 

 many miles round. Plants found in such places may be generally 

 taken as " certainly wild " there, without any doubt, and the flowers 

 thus in community may be all esteemed as truly indigenous. Indeed, 

 such spots appear to be the relics of the original vegetable aspect of 

 the districts where they occur, and they seem to suggest that from 

 such centres of plantation, if not creation, vegetation took its first 

 migrations ; though some plants, sluggish and unenterpvizing, have 

 scarcely progressed from the spots where they were originally placed. 



Such favoured habitats are peculiarly grateful to the wandering bo- 

 tanist to find, and it is extremely useful to notice them, as thus, in a 

 comparatively narrow space, numerous remarkable species are localized 

 together, which to find, even separately, might rccjuirc the pacing of 



