192 Miscellaneous. 
much alike. The female occupies the centre, and seems really but 
a prolongation of the main stem, on the top o which is an articula- 
tion from which the ovarium springs. The capsula readily falls 
from this articulation when mature. From the base of the female 
see the correspondence of plan in these diffe rent parts; and I think 
that nothing but the Qi bae position in the direct line of axial 
vigour made the central flow emale on 
Cases occasionally occur in pun a tolesbly strong head of 
wholly male flowers will develop the t eiie axis into a pedicel 
are well worth looking for, as they show so clearly the dividing line 
between the forces which govern the male or female sex.—Proc. 
Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1870, p. 14 
Fossil Sponge-spicules. 
We hear that Mr. Wm. Vicary, of Exeter, well known for his 
successful researches into the Silurian and Devonian fossil fauna 
found in the pebbles of Budleigh-Salterton, has discovered in the 
eene of the hills of Haldon and Blackdown re 
Devonshire, a number of beautiful sponge-spicules belonging to 
Dr. J. E Gray's Corallispongia, in part (Dr. W. Thomson's order 
** Vitrea" and Dr. O. Schmidt’s Hexactinellide), also to the enam. 
and Geodide. Mr. Parfitt, of Exeter, has described and illustrated 
them in a paper on the subject which he is about to read before the 
Devon Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and 
Art, at their annual meeting, to be held at Devonport on the 26th of 
J uly and following days 
icules appear to be in the remains of an arenaceous sponge, 
Morel. mixed up with the grains of quartz of which it was 
otherwise composed, thus representing the other kinds of sponges 
whieh existed in the locality then, just as the spiculo-arenaceous 
sponges of the present day bear indications of what other sponges 
exist in the localities where they now grow respectively. 
On the Zoological Affinities of the Sponges. 
m. S. Kent forwards us a letter to the effect that he has 
glanced through Mr. Lankester’s criticism on his paper respecting 
on the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and having had a pressure of 
work of higher importance to soos to, he has not had leisure to 
reply to Mr. Lankester's communication in the present number o 
this Journal. He looks forward, however, with much pleasure to 
answering it in our next. 
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