146 MisceUaneous. 



and vigorously defending their stores. 6. Long-tongued ; being 

 able to get honey from many flowers which defy most bees. 



And so far intelligent bee-masters have been partially successful ; 

 indeed, there is every reason to expect that the honey-bee of the 

 future will be as different from, and as much more valuable than, 

 " the little busy bee " of the past as an English shorthorn excels an 

 Irish brindled cow. 



It is to be hoped that before the modern bee-breeders have oblite- 

 rated the old distinct varieties those who have the opportunities will 

 make careful coloured drawings, measurements of queens, drones, 

 and workers, and further observations of all their peculiarities. It 

 will be too late to attend to this branch of natural history when 

 Apis americamt, as we are told the new and improved bee of the 

 " good time coming " is to be called, has taken possession of the 

 hives of the world. — Proc. Belfast Nat. Field Club, ser. 2, vol. ii. 

 pt. 6, p. 451. 



On the Organization of Chffitopterus. By M. Joyetjx-Laffuie. 



Ghmtopterus is one of the commonest Annelids on the coast of 

 Calvados, where it lives abundantly below the level of the lowest 

 tides ; but considerable quantities are thrown up by the waves 

 during strong gales, and it may be obtained by the dredge. The 

 specimens observed by the author are referred by him to Ghceto- 

 pterus Valencinii, Quatref., notwithstanding some differences, and 

 especially the number of segments in the inferior region, which was 

 30-35, instead of 15 as described. 



On the median posterior * line of the superior region there is a 

 furrow running from the posterior margin of the buccal funnel to 

 the base of the two dorsal rami of the first pair of feet of the middle 

 region. Here it bifurcates, and is continued in the form of two 

 deep grooves situated in the thickness of the two great wing-like 

 rami. These grooves traverse the rami from the base to the extre- 

 mity, and are lined with an epithelium with long vibratile cilia. 



The Climtopterus in its tube presents its two great rami bent 

 upwards and backwards, with the two extremities in contact in the 

 median line. The extremities of the two grooves are also in contact, 

 so that there is a passage from one to the other, and their function 

 is to guide to the buccal funnel the alimentary particles conveyed 

 by the current which traverses the tube, and is caused by the palet- 

 tiform rami of the three last segments of the region. This is easily 

 determined by the addition of some coloured powder, when the 

 particles are seen to collect in the grooves into small masses, which 

 pass towards the buccal furrow. The author compares this func- 

 tion of the grooves to that of the endostyle of the Ascidia. 



The segmental organs are remarkably developed in Chcetopterus. 



* The animal is supposed to be placed mouth upwards. 



