i84 



NA TURE 



\yaii. 4, 1872 



tissues does not imply also the redevelopment of the insect. 

 That the tissues are all so redeveloped is undoubted, but they 

 are not all redeveloped at once. I h.Tve stated in my book again 

 and again that certain organs are redeveloped in a particular 

 manner, and «as never under the impression that the whole was 

 a case of alternate generation. I did not know the origin of the 

 imaginal discs in tliose days. 



With your permission I will add a few words in support of the 

 assertion '* that the pupa change is analogous to ordinary ecdysis, 

 of which it is a modification. " In ordinary ecdysis the muscles 

 undergo degeneration at their points of attachment to the cast 

 skin ; in metamorphosis this change is far more marked. In 

 ecdysis in Chloeon, for instance. Sir J. Lubbock (Linn. Soc. 

 Trans., vol. xxiv.) has shown that the wings and thorax are gr-adu- 

 ally developed through nine successive sheddings of the skin. 

 In the more remarkable metamorphosis of Lepidoptera they are 

 developed in two ecdyses, these two being called metamorphosis. 

 Prof. Owen believed, and the assertion is now widely known, 

 that the larva; of such insects as the Orthoptera, Neuroplera, &c.. 

 exist in the maggot form in the egg ; but the observations of 

 Mr. Newport on Meloe, and of Fritz Muller, of Weismann, and 

 many other.<, go far to prove that this is not so — that the maggot 

 form is intermediate, the half-developed embryo and the pupa 

 or perfect insect, being most alike. 



The subject is one of great interest, and therefore I trust 

 you will excuse this long trespass on your pages. 



99, Guillord Street BEiNjAMiN T. Lowne 



In Re Fungi 



Your sarcastic correspondent "F. L. S." is quite incompe- 

 tent to reply to my former letter. I did not call in question the 

 correctness of the determination of A'^aricits tarliliv^ini-ns^ but 

 merely drew attention 10 the absurdity of the statement that the 

 said determination was made from a mere " mass of mycelium," 

 and that such a statement should come from a journal specially 

 devoted to Botany. 



In the original report of the occurrence of Agaricits cartila- 

 ffi'/irtis (Joitriiiil of Botany, vol. iii. p. 28) special reference is there 

 made to the " many-headed pileus ; " now some of these 

 " pilei " (not the "mycelium," "F. L. S.,") were forwarded 

 to the Rev, M. J. Berkeley for examination, and from tlicsc 

 matciiah he (and not the writer of these lines) made out the 

 plant to be A. oaiiila;^iiiciis. Certainly I included the species 

 " without hesitation" in the list of Middlesex Fungi, because I 

 knew the plant relerred to had not been determined from a mere 

 "mass of mycelium," but that Mr. Berkeley had examined the 

 perfected parts. 



I fail to see why " F. L. S." is so anxious to "allay my 

 alarm as to the decay of Furgology in England," especially a^ I 

 have never expressed any "alarm" on that head. I do not 

 look upon the ytw/vm/ as such an infallible weaihercock as to 

 connect its wrong statement with a national breakdown in 

 Botany ; neither do I see how I have "missed the point" of its 

 paragraph. I am more inclined to think that I have hit it in a 

 friendly way, and ra' her hard too. W. G. S. 



Mr. Baily on Kiltorkan Fossils 



In your last number Mr. Baily is said to have brought forward 

 at a meeting of the Geological Society of Dublin " some strong 

 facts to prove that the Irish palaeontologists had not misled Prof. 

 Heer, as stated by Mr. Carruthers at a recent meeting of the 

 London Geological Socieiy. " 



At the meeting referred to. Prof Heer placed the Irish beds at 

 the base of the Carbonifrrous series, mainly because .S>7.5'(V/(rr/<r 

 / 'litJicintiuita, a coal measure plant, was found in them. 



Into this error I said " Prof. Heer had been led chiefly by the 

 erroneous determinaiion of the Kiltoikan Lt'/>i,io(i,'iiiiivii by the 

 Irish pal.T'Ontologists." I will not burthen your columns with 

 the strange history of the nomenclature of this plant, as I shall 

 have an opportunity of doing this elsewhere ore long. The point 

 before us is this, that Mr. Baily alone has the credit of erroneously 

 determining the Kiltorkan plant to be the same ; s an already 

 described Carboniferous species. And the proof of this is easily 

 adduced. In 1864, Mr. Baily, in his "Explanation of Sheets 

 187, &c., of the Irish Survey," figures the fossil, and describes it 

 unhesitatingly as " SugtHiina l\7l/iiimia>ia, Stemb. sp." This 

 he repeated in a paper by the lamented Prof. Jukes in 1S66 



(JoKiii. Civ!. Sor. trolniht, i. pp. 123, 124), as well as in a paper 

 by himself read to the Natural History Society of Dublin in the 

 same year I'p. 2). Prof Heer acknowledged his obligations to 

 Mr. Bail)' for the Irish specimens he had examined. I have 

 examined specimens so distributed by Mr. Baily, and they were 

 named SiV^i-iuvia J'lltluiiiiiann. 



In the volume of the British Association Reports, published in 

 1S69, Mr. Baily says (p. 59) that the Sagcnaria is named by 

 .Schimper S. Bailyana. More recently (Nov. 1871), in his 

 "Figures of British Fossils" (p. 84), he names it Kiiorria 

 Bailyana. It is not much to the purpose to say that it is 

 neither a Knorria nor a Sagcnaria, or further that the specific 

 designation Bailyana must give place, wiih some dozen other 

 synonyms, to the original name given by Di". Haughton in 1855. 

 But it is to the purpose to notice that Sagrnaria Villlicimiana is 

 }!ot a Kiltorkan fossil, though said to be so by JNlr. Baily, and 

 that this error, now acknowledged by Mr. liaily himself, was the 

 main foundation of Prof Heer's argument. 



I am not a little curious to know what are the " strong facts " 

 which will overthrow a plain narrative that fully justifies my 

 statement, but at the same time compels me to make it mora 

 personal than the truth seemed to me to demand when I made it 

 some months ago. \ViLi,i.\.M Carruthers 



ZOOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE ECLIPSE 

 EXPEDITION 



A STEAMER is eminently unqualified for observations 

 -'"^ on marine zoology. Owing to the high rate of 

 speed, it is impossible to use a towing net with any 

 success, and to a zoologist it is perfectly tantalising to see 

 swarms of Medusa:^, &c., sail past the ship without being 

 able 10 obtain a single specimen. In Peninsular and 

 Orient.^1 ships the only practicable method is to keep the 

 tap of the baths constantly running through a fine gauze 

 net. In this way cjuantities of Entomostraca may be 

 obtained. Since we have been in the Red .Sea, the water 

 has been splendidly phosphorescent every night, the light 

 being most brilliant where the hot water from the con- 

 densers is shed out into the sea, the animals being pro- 

 bably killed by the heat, and emitting in the act one last 

 brilliant llash. If the water be turned on into one of the 

 baths at night, most gorgeous Hashes of light are obtained, 

 and the animals causing them may be caught in small 

 vessels and kept for examination. They are at present 

 alinost exclusively Entomostraca of the genera Cypris, 

 Cyclops, and Dap/mis. When the light is e.xamined 

 spectroscopically, it gives a spectrum in which only the 

 green and yellow are present, the red and blue being 

 sharply cut off. Several species of the Entomostraca 

 obtained contain a brilliant red pigment, which gives 

 unfortunately no absorption bands when exainined with 

 the micro-spectroscope. At Suez I obtained a number 

 of Echinodermata of the usual dark pi.rple tint, a 

 splendid Ccmattila in abundance, two species o( Echinus, 

 and one or two star-fishes. The colouring matter of these 

 animals is readily soluble in fresh water or alcohol, as is 

 that of the common British feather-star. Though its 

 colour is extremely intense, it gives no absorption bands, 

 but when a strong solution is used, the spectrum is re- 

 duced to a red band, all the rest of the light being ab- 

 sorbed. Apparently parasitic on a Irrge Aii Spala>io!/s, 

 were obtained a number of r<v/Planarians, about one-eighth 

 inch long, which gave the characteristic absorption bands 

 of haemoglobin with great intensity. The existence of 

 haemoglobin in Planarians is a fact of considerable interest, 

 and 1 believe quite new. On taking a boat excursion 

 round the shores, where I obtained abundance of large 

 Gasteropods and the Echinodermata mentioned above, 

 I was remarkably struck by the absence of Acti- 

 nias. Though I was out nearly the whole day, I did 

 not see a single specimen, nor indeed did I observe 

 any large Meduscc. This absence of these latter may 

 perhaps, however, have been due to the set of the 

 wind or tide. 



