2o6 



NATURE 



[August iS, 1910 



have suggested, that "the ascidian fauna of the 

 far south is characterised by the abundance and the 

 large size of the individuals of a comparatively few 

 species." In the present collection we have a number 

 of gigantic forms, such as Siycla spectabilis, of 

 iS cm. 



Mr. T. V. Hodgson, who did so much hard work 

 in collecting from under the ice-sheet, reports on the 

 isopods, and has some very interesting discoveries to 

 relate. Thus seven species, out of the total of twenty- 

 five, have their eyes on enormous peduncles, which 

 rather takes the edge off the "sessile-eyed" character 

 of isopods ! Striking also is the sexual dimorphism 

 of one of the .-Xrcturidce, Antarcturus franklini, the 

 male and female of which appear on one of the plates 

 (remarkably fine pieces of work) as two species, and 

 not very like one another either. " It was only when 

 all the specimens of both sexes, or as it was then 

 thought to be, both species, cams to be overhauled 

 that the error was noticed." Prof. L. Joubin has made 



is covered with minute endodermal papillae, but 

 whether these have the same function as the gastric 

 filaments of the Scyphomedusee remains to be found 

 out. Very curious, too, is the new species of Sibogita, 

 with its stomach completely converted into a reproduc- 

 tive organ when the gonads are ripe. " The stomach 

 then ceases to function as stomach, and its cavity is 

 filled with endoderm. The gonads are apparently in 

 ectodermal pouches, which are embedded in the endo- 

 derm, and the pouches have openings to the exterior 

 for the discharge of their contents." But we must 

 pass from these exciting things to notice that the 

 volume ends with a report by Mr. O. V. Darbishire 

 on a collection of twenty-five species of lichens, of 

 which five are new. .'\s he says, they are " the out- 

 posts of plant life," occurring where no other plants 

 at all are met with; e.g., at a height of 5000 feet orr 

 the ridge of the Western Mountains. It is interesting 

 also to notice that of four species collected on Mount 

 Erebus at a height of 1500 feet, three are also .Arctic. 



illustrating method of dredging. The ice (which is supposed to be five or six feet in thickness 

 on. One man is shown hauling the dredge and another is paying out the spare line to lessen the ; 

 the ground. A few feet in front of the dredge a weight is seen, which serves to keep the dredge do\ 

 of its attaching cord, maintains it in the right position. From Vol. i.. Biology, of the Reports of the Bri 



and the bed of the sea are shown in 

 rain which tends to lift the dredge off 

 1, and at the same time, by the length 

 sh .\ntarctic Expedition, 1907-9. 



the best of a bad business in his report on the nemer- 

 teans, for by misadventure he had only the remains 

 of a collection to work with, which indeed only a 

 courageous enthusiast would have touched. 



Mr. Edward T. Browne has a finely executed and 

 beautifully illustrated memoir on the Hydromedusse 

 and Scyphomedusae of the Discovery and Southern 

 Cross expeditions, seventeen species in almost as 

 many genera. All are either new species or have been 

 recently described as new species from the .\ntarctic. 

 -Some of the general results are noteworthy : there 

 is no proof that a single species is common to Arctic 

 and Antarctic; there is definite evidence of relatively 

 primitive features in some Antarctic Medusje, corro- 

 borating the view that evolution lags in the cold ; it 

 is doubtful if there are any "deep sea" Medusae in 

 tlie usual sense of that term. Among the anatomical 

 results of interest is the discovery that the interior 

 of the stomach in the hydromedusan genus Koellikeria 

 NO. 2129, VOL. 84I 



(2) We turn from what is almost the last of one 

 series to the first of another — the reports on the scien- 

 tific investigations of the British .A.ntarctic Expedition, 

 1907-9, under Sir E. H. Shackleton. The editor, Mr. 

 James Murray, has lost no time in bringing out a 

 part of the " Biology," and what he has to tell is of 

 much interest. The collecting at Cape Royds (about 

 lat. 77° 32' S., long. 166° 12' E.) was done under great 

 difficulties. There was no vestige of life on the beach 

 itself, where an ice-foot persists most of the year. The 

 black lava inshore yieWed only a few tufts of moss 

 and some lichens. The small lakes had a sheet of 

 vegetation at the bottom, but it was hard work reach- 

 ing this through over fifteen feet of ice. Some labori- 

 ous collecting was done in the sea by hauling a dredge 

 between two holes cut in the ice. Traps were also 

 baited, which brought up amphipods, molluscs, and' 

 the like. 



The mean temperature, of a summer day at Cape 



