Miscellaneous. 333 



5. "On Cheilostomatous Brj'ozoa from the Middle Lias." By 

 Edwin A. Walford, Esq., E.G.S. 



The Author describes some forms of Bryozoa from the spinatus- 

 zone of the Middle Lias near Banbury, some of which had previously 

 been classed with the Cyclostomata. The new material not only 

 shows the opercular aperture but the opercula in situ, together 

 with appendages and supra- oral ovicells characteristic of the Cheilo- 

 stomata. In addition he has also found giant ceils (cistern-cells) 

 of form quite dissimilar from the ordinary zooecia and probably 

 reproductive. He cites M. Jules Haime as having described in hia 

 magnificent monograph somewhat similar cells from the Inferior 

 Oolite ; and in the Oxfordshire Great Oolite Bryozoa Mr. Walford 

 has found cistern-cells like the Lias species on some colonies like 

 Diastojjorce. He contends that it is merely the acquisition of 

 very well-preserved material which is needed to show che necessity 

 of removal of many such species to the Cheilostomata. The name 

 Cistenioj)liora is suggested for the genus, of which several forms 

 are described. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

 On Hylrids or Mongrels ivith tivo Male Parents. 



Mr. Herbeet Spencer, in the ' Contemporary Review ' for March, 

 enters at some length into the evidence concerning the possible 

 influence of one male parent on the offspring of another male by 

 the same female. This question was discussed by Darwin, and the 

 best-authenticated instances are well known ; but, granting the 

 validity of the evidence, the explanation given — that the sexual 

 elements of the first male parent modified the somatic cells of the 

 female — is surely not sufficiently proven to admit of the phenomenon 

 being adduced as fatal to Weismann's hypothesis. 



Sir John Lubbock (Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xx. p. 133) has pub- 

 lished an instance among ants, in which it appears that the sperma- 

 tozoa retained their life and energy in the body of a female for no 

 less than thirteen years. Therefore it is possible to imagine that 

 the male elements of the first parent really fertilized the ovum, 

 giving rise to the supposed offspring of the second parent, although, 

 for various reasons which need not be entered upon, this seems 

 highly improbable. 



But it does not seem so improbable that they may have partly 

 fertilized it. Strasburger has shown that among plants the poUen 

 of a species very diverse from that which he attempted to fertilize 

 with it would frequently produce a certain amount of growth in the 

 ovum, resulting in an aborted embryo, which would never have been 

 noticed had not special attention been paid to the subject. Now it 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Sev. 6. Vol. xii. 25 



