4976 Tue ZooLocist—Juty, 1876. 
This is a bugbear with many Field Clubs: one valuable ex- 
ception we know of,—that of Liverpool,—where at each field 
meeting there is a judicious distribution of prizes of small value, 
say from half-a-crown to half-a-guinea or upwards: these are given 
in all subjects for the greatest number of species in any particular 
branch of Natural History collected and identified; again, other 
prizes are given at the end of each season for other work, such as 
monographs upon any especial group: only care should be taken 
not to allow any particular branch of Natural History to pre- 
dominate, as it has at Liverpool, where the Club has degenerated 
almost into a Botanical Society. If the Norwich Society judi- 
ciously expended some of the Treasurer’s balance of £21 in this 
manner we are sure an impetus would be given to the field 
meetings, which would be highly beneficial to the Society, not 
only in creating a greater taste for the gentle science of Biology, 
but also, from the addition of new members, financially. 
Amongst the papers read before the meetings of this Society is 
one by the Secretary on the Cetacea inhabiting, or occurring in, the 
British Seas. We agree with him when he speaks of “ the difficulty 
attending the study of the order, consequent upon the unwieldy 
size of many of the species, and the great rarity of others,” and we 
are sure that any observer who lives in an inland city, and makes 
the study of whales his forte, is equal to almost any undertaking. 
Mr. Southwell follows later in the year with another paper: this 
time he attacks the obscure and little-known order of Sirenia. It 
is a great pity that the ‘Transactions, although an important- 
looking stout octavo volume, were too crowded to admit of these 
valuable contributions in detail. 
In January Mr. Geldart read a valuable paper on sea-weeds :— 
«The principal points alluded to in this paper were: (1) The Dimorphism 
of the Fructification of the Rhodosperms or Floridex, and the analogy of 
this Dimorphism to that found in other higher orders of Cryptogams; and 
(2) The aggregate character of such Chlorosperms as Ulva. 
“The true spores and tetraspores of the Rhodosperms were described in 
four different genera—Plocamium, Nitophyllum, Ceramium, and Poly- 
siphonia, and it was explained that the object of the two-fold fructification 
was not at all understood, but that it was supposed that while in the case 
of the true spores the descent of the species was direct, in that of the tetra- 
spores there was an ‘alternation of generations,’ the germination of the 
tetraspores producing in the first instance a prothallus unlike either the 
