Miscellaneous. 77 



female, roll her like a ball upon the groui)d for a distance of several 

 metres, and continue this conduct, without rest or relaxation, for two 

 days, until the poor female, who had not been able to recover her 

 equilibrium for a moment, had at last evacuated all her ova. 



Being then obliged to suspend my observations, I returned a 

 fortnight afterwards, and, carefully examining the surface and the 

 edges of the basin, I had the satisfaction of discovering several 

 little embryos, which swam with considerable difficulty, and which 

 a more carefid examination enabled me to recognize as the young 

 fry of the telescope-fish. 



They had the same double caudal fin, and the samesinuosity of the 

 upper part of the back ; but the eyes were not yet very prominent. 



Having brought them to Paris and observed them carefully, they 

 furnished me with the following results. At its earliest age the 

 telescope-fish has the elongated form of most of our young fishes ; 

 the transparency of the body allows us to distinguish plainly the 

 air-bladder, lodged in the upper part of the body, and the intestine, 

 forming a right angle, of which the apex is opposite to the bladder. 

 So long as the embryo lives at the expense of the umbilical vesicle, 

 it swims easily and in a horizontal position ; but subsequently the 

 absorption of exterior aliment has for its result an abnormal and 

 irregular development, which, in nearly half the specimens, causes 

 a deviation from the normal position, and the animal holds itself 

 vertically, sometimes with the head upwards, but most frequently 

 with it downwards. The faulty position of the air-bladder and the 

 too slight development of the fins neutralize the infiuence of these 

 directive agents ; the want of equilibrium persists, the young animal 

 can no longer seek its nourishment, and it dies in two or three days. 

 I have scarcely been able to make them live for ten or twelve days 

 by mixing triturated animal matter with the water of my aquaria. 

 I have, however, no doubt that the rearing of the young fry which 

 remain will furnish me with some new facts. — Comjptes Rendus, 

 November 4, 1872, tome Ixxv. p. 1127. 



Additional Observations on Codiophyllum. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



More than one botanist has asked me for a specimen of Codio- 

 lihyllum (described in the ' Annals,' for August 1872), which they 

 wanted to examine microscopically and to unravel the filire. The 

 very expression shows that 1 have not sufficiently explained the 

 structure of this very curious plant ; but I believed that Mr. Ford's 

 excellent figure would exhibit it better than I could explain it in 

 words. The frond of this curious Alga is not formed of continuous 

 filires interlaced together, but of a number of oblong rings of a cylin- 

 drical tube, each gradually formed and all connected and anastomosed 

 together, so as to form an expanded frond : each ring is sej)arately 

 formed ; and when complete it st'uds from a part of its surface a tube 

 of the same form, size, and structure, which gradually lengthens, 

 after a time curves back, and unites itself to the ring from which it 

 sprung, thus forming another ring, and in time emitting a new ring 

 from its surface in the same manner. 



Mr. Ford has attempted to show this development in his figure. 



