) 
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4 
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Botany and Zoology. 439 
Gulf, and 625 from Panama, of which 218 are already known to be 
common to the two—eighty-nine being common to the Gulf and South 
America and twenty-three to the Gallapagos, which islands have ver 
little in common with South America, more with Panama, and some little 
with the Indo-Pacific province. The Proboscidifera were found much 
more local than the rest of the Gasteropods, and these than the Bivalves, 
the spawn of which latter are borne through wide ranges by the currents. 
The Fauna of Upper California, as shown by the collections of Mr. Nut- 
tall and the United States Exploring Expedition, are quite distinct from 
those of the Gulf; scarcely a score of species, and those in very limited 
numbers, are found in common. Very little is accurately known of the 
Fauna of the Peninsula. The shells on the Gulf side are, however, 
mainly Panamic, on the Pacific side, Californian. Scarcely a single spe- 
cies is common to West America and Polynesia, while not a few appear 
identical with West Indian forms, especially in the Gulf. Several forms 
reappear on the Gambia coast. A very few reach Britain, chiefly nest- 
10. On the Vital Powers of the Spongiadee ; by Mr. Bowerzgank, (Proc. 
pe Brit. Assoc.; August, 1856 ; Ath., No.1505.)—The greater portion of these 
observations were made on a new species of sponge, of a deep orange 
color, that abounds on the rocks in the vicinity of Tenby between high 
and low water marks, and which he has named Hymeniacidon caruncula, 
He found that while in a state of repose oscula could rarely be seen in 
the open state, but immediately after being placed in fresh sea-water these 
organs were very shortly fully expanded, and streams of water were 
ejected from them with considerable force; this action continued for a 
longer or shorter period at the will of the i its termination 
tenewal by a supply of fresh cold sea-water, and especially 1 poured on 
to the sponge with some degree of force. The action of the oscula were 
hot simultaneous in all parts of the same specimen, and it frequently oc- 
cavity, furnished abundantly with membranes covered with a coat of sar- 
‘Similar in every respect to the muc 
