Miscellaneous. All 



of great difficulty, became in later years the ruling interest of his 

 life, and to them he devoted the whole of his time and thoughts. 

 If, in the opinion of some botanists, he unduly multiplied generic 

 and specific definitions, and if his generalizations have not in all 

 cases met with universal acceptance, none can deny the importance 

 of the facts he adduced, or the minuteness and laborious accuracy 

 of his original investigations. He was, to the last, an opponent of 

 the theory of evolution. 



In June 1879 he was compelled by failing health to desist from 

 active work. From this period he became more infirm, and after a 

 gradual decay, borne with never failing patience, expired on the 17th 

 October, 1879, in the ninety-first year of his age. In private life 

 he was esteemed by all who knew him. 



The whole of his extensive herbarium has been bequeathed by 

 him to the British Museum. 



Nicholson's ' Manual of Palaeontology.' 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — I am very sorry to find that my esteemed friend 

 Prof. H. Alleyne Nicholson has, in the new edition of his ' Manual 

 of Palaeontology ' (vol. ii. p. 138, footnote), committed the mistake 

 of quoting my authority for elevating the Platysomid fishes to 

 the " rank of a distinct division of Ganoids." No such proposition 

 occurs in my unpublished paper to which he refers, which was 

 written to follow up the views which I expressed in my account 

 of the structure of the Pakeoniscidae (Pakeontogr. Soc. 1877) as 

 to the abolition of the suborder " Lepidopleuridae," necessitated by 

 the demonstration of the fact that the Platysomidae are not really 

 allied to the Pycnodontidae, but are, on the other hand, so closely 

 linked to the Palaeoniscidae by ties of structure, that wherever we 

 place the one family, thither the other must follow. 



My paper on the " Structure and Affinities of the Platysomidae " 

 was read before the Boyal Society of Edinburgh on May 5 of this 

 year, and will, in a few weeks, appear in the forthcoming fasciculus 

 of that Society's ' Transactions.' Prof. Nicholson's mistake as to my 

 views is obviously due to his having had only a very hurried glance 

 over my proof-sheets, and that only on a single occasion. 



I am, &c, 



Edinburgh, Nov. 12, 1879. R. H. Tkaqt/air. 



On the Organization and Classification of the Orthonectida. 

 By M. A. Giakd. 



In a former communication * I indicated the existence of a 

 new class of animals which present permanently the usually tran- 

 sitory form called planula by embryogenists. New investigations 

 enable me now to complete the history of these animals and to 

 settle the place which they should occupy in the subkingdom 



* 'Comptes Rendus,' October 29, 1877, p. 812 ; translated in Ann. & 

 Mag. Nat. Hist, ser. 5, vol. i. p. 181. 



