120 REPORT 1870. 



corals of tlie Pala30zoic epoch were as liiglily organized as those peopling the ex- 

 isting seas. As he had shown, a species generically the same existed at that remote 

 epoch, associated witli members closely allied to Alvciqjora, but presenting a higher 

 type of organization in their constant possession of tabnlre. In the genus Favosites 

 the author also recognized an immediate connecting-link between the hitherto 

 presumed distinct sections of the Tabulata and Perforata. 



The author exhibited diagi-ams illustrative of the structure of Favositipora 

 Dcshayesii, and also photogi'aphs of the original f-peciniens contained in the Paris 

 Museum, these latter having been prepared for him through the kind courtesy of 

 Professor Milne-Edwards. 



Koie on the AJJinitles of the Sjpongcs to the Corah. Bij "W. Saville Kekt. 

 On a StocJc-fonn of the Parasitic Flaiiuorm. By E. Ray Laxkestek. 



On Oligochcetous Worms. By E. Ray Lankesteb. 



Professor M. A. Lawson, M.A.^F.L.S., distributed specimens o^ liihes spicatum 

 (Ilobson) which he had found gi'owing in great abundance near Waterstein in 

 Skye, and pointed out that the fruit-stalks were by no means always erect. He 

 also drew attention to the excessively thick toraentum with which the leaves were 

 covered. 



On Abnormal Forms of Ferns. By E. J. Lowe, F.B.S., F.L.S., F.G.S. 



This is a continuation of a paper read at Dundee. Wild varieties under cultivation 

 are less permanent than if plants are raised from the spores of their abnormal fronds. 

 It is possible to divide and subdivide a single frond into endless varieties of form, 

 and to change the character of their reproductive organs. The fifty illustrations 

 exhibited tell their own tale, and they are the result of the following experi- 

 ments : — 



1st. Spores were sown from a normal frond, and every plant raised was normal. 



2nd. Spores were sown from a normal frond in the same seed from and in equnl 

 proportions with spores from an abnormal frond, and the result was that 90 per cent, 

 of the plants were abnormal. 



3rd. Spores were sown in separate pans from remarkably formed fronds, the 

 result being plants like the parent from which they were gathered. 



4th. Spores were sown from most singular-looking fronds, a dozen varieties 

 sown together, the result being a large number of remarkable varieties. 



5th. Spores were taken from a dozen of these most remarkable seedling forms, 

 and they were mixed together, the result being even more extraordinary. In this 

 experiment 4000 plants were raised, of which no two were precisely alike, and not 

 one was of the normal fonu. 



It has only been by mixing the spores of two or more varieties that the extraor- 

 dinary forms now exhibited have been obtained. It therefore seems to follow that 

 spores mixed together produce different varieties to those sown separately. 



Bcport on the Testaceous Molhisca ohtained during a Dredging-EArm'sion in the 

 Gidf of Suez during the months of February and March 1869. By 

 Egbert M'Andrew, F.R.S. 



The researches of the author occupied about six weeks, and extended throughout 

 the Gulf of Suez — from the city of that name at its head to the island of Jubal at 

 its entrance and Pas Mahommed, the point which separates it from the Gulf of 

 Akaba. He had the good fortune to enlist Mr. Edward Fielding as a companion, 

 and engaged the services of M. Susini as an assistant. The expedition was ac- 



