NOTES AND QUERIES. 237 
anxiously looked for than is the first primrose by the farmer, the immediate 
results being so important. The germs of these olive globules, if floating 
in the sea prior to the advent of rain, must be extremely minute, since 
they do not give a tinge to the water. Up to this point I could go no 
further for years, and could only watch the rain and the change. But last 
summer, while scanning the sea after some heavy showers, | noticed that 
close to land the water had turned to a deep green colour, caused by 
quantities of green globules much resembling the olive-coloured ones of 
spring. It then occurred to me they were nothing more than the spores 
of sea-weeds, the latter being really the seeds of green Algze (Chloruspermea). 
I believe then I am correct in saying that these myriads of olive globules 
which furnish such abundant food to the surface-feeding fishes, and which 
colour the sea in the manner described, are nothing more than the fully 
developed spores or seeds of the Melanospermea, or olive sea-weed. The 
number of spores thrown off in one season by a single full-grown plant 
must be prodigious. The last I observed was a Fucis serratus, and the 
figures representing them could not be less than two millions. What our 
scientific authorities have to say on the matter I do not know; the books 
I have on sea-weeds contain no allusion to rain-water playing any part 
in the development of the spores. But it now seems probable that there 
can be no fructification of the olive and green sea-weeds without the aid 
of genial showers in spring and summer.—Marvruias Dunn (Mevagissey). 
Ova of the Ling.—About the middle of April last a Ling, Molva 
vulgaris, was landed at Mevagissey with the spawn running freely from it. 
As the fish was only just dead, and good strong sea-water was at hand, 
I at once procured a pailful, and put in some of the spawn. It all floated 
on the surface of the water, each egg free and distinct from its fellow, 
without any appearance of any adhesive matter around them. On dipping 
some up into a hand-glass all the eggs looked bright and transparent, 
although when a quantity were driven together they had a grey tinge. On 
one side of every ova, just under the sac or egg-case, there was a minute 
speck of clear matter, and this was uppermost in all the ova when floating. 
As all the Gadidaz, to which family the Ling belongs, when in the act of 
spawning part with the oil in the liver, it would be interesting to know 
whether these bright globules in the eggs are composed of oil, one of its 
uses being to keep the matter floating on the surface of the sea. Later in 
the day I found a male Ling with the milt running free; this I also found 
floated on the surface of the water—Marrutas Dunn (Mevagissey). 
ECHINODERMATA. 
Method of Preserving the Colour of Starfishes.— The Starfish 
Gallery of the British Museum (Natural History) has received an addition 
which, though it is only of specimens of common British species, is of 
