TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. DEPT, ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 601 



the term ' spermogoniuni ' is altogether unnecessary, the organ heing a true 

 antheridium. 



A. satisfactory terminology of the female reproductive organs presents greater 

 difficulties. The limits placed to the use of the term spore and its compounds 

 require the atandonment of ' oospore ' for the fertilised oosphere in its encysted 

 stage anterior to its segmentation into the embryo. The authors propose the 

 syllable sperm as the basis of the various terms applied to all those bodies which 

 are the immediate result of impregnation. It is believed that this will be found to 

 supply the basis of a symmetrical system of terminology which will go far to 

 redeem the confusion that at present meets the student at the outset of his- 

 researches. For the unfertilised female protoplasmic mass, it is proposed to retain 

 the term oosphere, and to establish from it a corresponding series of terms ending- 

 in sphei'e. The entire female organ before fertilisation, whether unicellular or 

 multicellular, is designated by a set of terms ending in gmiium. 



In the zygomycetes and zygophycese, the conjugated zygospheres, or contents of 

 the zygogonia, constitute a zygosperm ; in the oomycetes and oophycese the fer- 

 tilised oosphere, or contents of the oogonium, is an oosperm ; in the carpophycea& 

 the fertilised carposphere, or contents of the carpogonium, constitutes a carposperm. 

 In this last class the process is complicated, being effected by means of a special 

 female organ which may be called the trichogonium (in preference to ' trichogyne'). 

 The ultimate result of impregnation is the production of a mass of tissue known as 

 the cystocarp (or ' sporocarp '), within which are produced the germinating bodies 

 which must be designated carpospores, since they are not the direct results of 

 fertilisation. Any one of these bodies which remains in a dormant condition for 

 a time before germinating is a hypnosperm. In the cormophytes (characeae, musci- 

 neae, and vascular cryptogams) the fertilised archesphere, or contents of the arche- 

 gonium, is an archesperm. In the proposed system zygosperm will replace Stras- 

 burger's ' zygote,' and the ' gametes ' of the same writer Avill be zygospheres, his 

 ' zoogametes ' or ' planogametes ' being zoozygospheres. 



In the basidiomycetes, ascomycetes, and some other classes, it is proposed to- 

 substitute the term fructijication for ' receptacle,' for the entire non-sexual genera- 

 tion which bears the spores. 



A list is appended of the terms in more frequent use which are disused in the' 

 proposed system. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 27. 



The following Report and Papers were read : — 



1. Beport of the Committee for the investirjation of the Natural Historij 

 ■ of the Island of Socotra. — See Eeports, p. 212. 



2. On the French Deef-sea E,vploratio7i in the Bay of Biscay. Bij 

 J. GwYN Jeffreys, LL.D., F.E.S.—See Reports, p. 378. 



3. Further Hemarhs on the Mollusca of the Mediterranean. 

 By J. GwYN Jeffreys, LL.D., F.B.S. 



At the Bradford meeting of the Association in 1873, 1 made some remarks od 

 the AloUusca of the Mediterranean, and gave a list of those species which had not 

 yet been noticed, as Atlantic, being then 222 in numljer. Since that time many of 

 the species have been discovered in the Atlantic, or been ascertained to be varieties 

 of other well-known Atlantic species. This list will be found in pages 113 to 115 

 of the Report for 1873. I will now give a list of those Mediterranean species 



