4^^ 2 Miscellan eous. 



that this is the case also in Sahnacina Dysteri and the Spirorhes. 

 In these different animals the excreted cor[)iisclcs have the vahie of 

 rudimentary cells having an atavic signification, and cannot properly 

 be called polar corpuscles. This name, on the contrary, applies to 

 the non-cellular materials, which, being rejected by the viteHus, 

 serve for the formation of the accessory organs of the ovum ; for 

 example, the shell or the vitelline membrane. Such are the hyaline 

 vesicles of the o\*um of Rhizostoma Cuvieri. — ComiAcs lieadus, 

 March 19, 1877, p. 564. 



Vertigo Moulinsknia, Dupuy. 



This interesting and local little land-shell has been lately disco- 

 vered by Mr. Henry Groves, while botanizing, in a small marsh 

 between Winchester and Southampton. See ' British iloUusca,' i. 

 p. 256, and v. (Suppl.) p. 160. Mr. Groves's specimens are rather 

 more swollen or barrel-shaped than mine fit'om the west of Ireland ; 

 and they agree exactly with some Danish specimens, for which I 

 am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Morch, as well as with the 

 descriptions and figures of Dupuy and Moqmn-Tandon. Kiister 

 and Kreglinger called it V. Charpentieri, after a MS. name given 

 by Shuttleworth. Heyneman described it as V. ventrosa, and 

 \Vesterlund as Pupa Lilljehorgi. Dupuy 's name (Moidinsiana) 

 dates from 1849, and has priority. — J . Gwyx jEFFEErs. 



Sponges Dredged vp on hoard if. M.S. ' Porcupine ' iu 1869-70, 

 Returned. By H. J. Cakter, F.li.S. &c. 



By reference to my communication on Sponges dredged up on 

 board H.M.S. 'Porcupine' in 1869-70 ('Annals,' 1876, vol. xviii. 

 p. 226), it wiU be observed that they were then in my possession ; 

 and being the property of the !Xation, I have now to add what I 

 have done with them, which wiU be told by the following letter : — 



(Copy). 

 " ' The Cottage,' Buclleigh-Salterton, Devon. 

 24tli March, 1877. 



" My Deae Thomson, — I have this day foi^warded to the address 

 you gave me in your letter of the 14th inst., viz. ' 1 Park Place, 

 Edinburgh' (carriag'e unpaid, as they came to me), three boxes con- 

 taining all the Sponge-specimens (both wet and dry), dredged up 

 on board H.M.S. ' Porcupine' in 1869-70, which you sent in 1872, 

 excepting about as much as would fill a hen's egg, which has been 

 chiefly used in their examination. 



"I took the boxes (also addressed ' To Scotland via Midland 

 Eailway ') to the office of the Bristol and Exeter line in Queen Street, 

 Exeter, myself, and saw the clerk write ' ^'an Piail ' on each of 

 them, stating that they would reach their dt stination on Monday 

 next, which I trust may be the case — and safely, too, as, to insure 

 this, all reasonable care has been taken in pac-kiug and addressing 

 them both outside and in. 



