428 Miscellaneous. 



The liquid is probably exclusively an agent in digestion ; it is alkaline, 

 and renders reddened litmus-paper slightly blue. 



The odorific apparatus, which has long been well known in the 

 adult Pentatomites, is a sac situated at the base of the abdomen, and 

 opening in the metathorax by two ostiola, at the level of the last 

 pair of legs. In the larvae and nymphse this organ does not exist, 

 and yet, like the perfect insects, they diffuse their peculiar odour. 

 In the young individuals, from their hatching to the period of their 

 last transformation, there are, in the upper part of the abdomen, below 

 the skin, two glands presenting the same characters as the inferior 

 gland of the adults. The presence of these organs is indicated upon 

 the arches of the dorsal region by two shields ; and each of these 

 shields presents two ostiola, through which the liquid is ejaculated. 

 — Comptes Rendus, September 3, 1866, pp. 433-436. 



Fossil Spider from the Coal-formation. By Dr. F. Rcemer. 



Dr. Rcemer has described and figured, in the * Jahrb. Min. of 

 Leonhard & Geinitz,' 1866, p. 136, a very perfect specimen of a 

 Spider from the Coal-formation of Upper Silesia. It is called the 

 Protolycosa anthracophila, a name that implies a near relation in 

 general habit to the modern Lycosa. The body is about an inch 

 long. Appended to this paper is a notice of a specimen of Arthro- 

 pleura armata, Jordan, from the Carboniferous beds of Zwickau, by 

 Dr. Geinitz. The specimen is sufficient to show that the animal was 

 a Crustacean ; it is evidently part of the carapace, and probably of 

 a Decapod. — Silliman's American Journal, July 1866. 



On the Course followed by a Fungous Mycelium in the living trunk 

 q/" Acacia dealbata. By G. Gasparrini. 



The author examined the trunk of a fine plant oi Acacia dealbata 

 which, when in full flower in the Botanic Garden at Naples, was broken 

 at the level of the soil by a slight gust of wind. The heart of the 

 wood, from the collar for 2\ decimetres upwards, was found to be 

 rotten and blackish, whilst the alburnum and bark were in good con- 

 dition. A microscopic examination showed in the altered part a 

 brownish, ramose, articulated mycelium. This mycelium was traced 

 up into the branches as far as about 5 metres above the soil. It 

 did not attack the medullary rays, or the pith, or the spiral fibres 

 surrounding it, or the fibrous cells, but only the dotted ducts. 



M. Gasparrini inquires how this mycelium could have introduced 

 itself into the trunk of the Acacia, He refers to the observations 

 made by him upon the radicles of various Liliacese, several of which, 

 having lost their spongioles, were open to foreign bodies of extreme 

 tenuity. 



He tkinks that the extremely minute filaments of the mycelium 

 occurring in the soil surrounding the Acacia might penetrate by the 

 opening of the fibrous filament of the centre of these radicles into 

 the interior of the bush, and thus ascend even to the summit of the 

 trunk.— ^ii^. Univ. 1866, Bull. Set. p. 168. 



