TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 687 



7. Observations on the Larvce of Palinuras vulgaris. 

 Bt/ J. T. Cunningham, M.A. 



On July 9 and IG of the present year I obtained a large number of the 

 Phyllosoma larvae of Palmurus vulgaris. Previously, in the summer of 1889, 

 the eggs of this species were hatched in the tanks of the Plymouth Laboratory of 

 the Marine Biological Association, and I preserved a number of the newly hatched 

 larvae. The latter are 3'1 mm. in length from the front of the cephalon to the end 

 of the abdomen. The largest of these taken in the sea are 7 mm. in length. I 

 find that the first maxilliped is not absent altogether at any of the stages I have 

 obtained ; it is represented in the newly hatched larvae as a small but distinct 

 conical process, and does not increase or decrease in any way up to the oldest stage 

 I have obtained. In the Phyllosoma of 7 mm. the antennae are more developed, 

 the fourth and fifth ambulator}^ appendages, present at hatching as minute processes, 

 have developed considerably, the fourth being already biramous. Richter's state- 

 ment therefore ('Zeitsch. f. wiss. Zoologie,' 1873) that the first maxilliped is 

 entirely absent in Palinurus phyllosoma in the earliest stages is not true in the 

 case of P. vulgaris. I find also that stages of Phyllosoma figured and described by 

 Claus (ibid. 1863) from 3'5 mm. to 21 mm. in length, are certainly larvae of 

 P. vulgaris, although this identification seems never to have been definitely 

 made before. 



8. Distribution of Crystallogobius Nilssonii, Oill. 

 By J. T. Cunningham, M.A. 



I obtained this species in large numbers on July 9 of the present year when 

 trawling with a small beam-trawl about two miles north of the Eddystone, in 

 about twenty-seven fathoms of water. Day mentions only one specimen found in 

 British waters, namely, one taken by Thos. Edward in a rock-pool at Banff". This 

 specimen was a male. The species is distinguished by having only two rays in 

 the anterior dorsal fin in the male, tliis fin and the pelvic fins being rudimentary 

 in the female. The fish is quite transparent when alive, and scaleless ; the mature 

 male is about 4 cm. in length, the female smaller. There is a good paper on the 

 species by R. Collett, of Ohristiania, in ' Proc. Zool. Soc' for 1878. It is there 

 stated tliat the fish is fairly common in the Ohristiania Fjord, thirty specimens 

 having been taken there. A few specimens have been taken near Bergen, at 

 Christiausuud, and also in Bohuslan, in Sweden. I took in a single haul about 

 100 specimens, more than all those that had been taken in Norway and Sweden 

 since 1843, when the species was first discovered. All my specimens were adult 

 or nearly so, which agrees with Oollett's conclusion that the fish is an annual, 

 dying after breeding. Mr. E. W. L. Holt also took many specimens of the same 

 species in Ballinskelligs Bay, thirty fathoms, on August 21, 1890. The shrimp 

 trawl used by me was lined inside with mosquito netting, on purpose to retain 

 small animals. Probably the species is fairly abundant between twenty and thirty 

 fathoms, on smooth sandy ground, all along the British and Irish coasts. 



MOiYBAY, AUGUST 21. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Facts regarding Prothalli and the Propagation of Ferns. 

 By E. J. Lowe, F.E.8., F.L.S. 



Occasionally in a batch of seedling ferns there will occur several plants of some 

 strangely marked variety identical in their characters and growing so closely to- 

 gether that it is difficult to separate them. I have long suspected these were pro- 

 duced on the same prothallus ; indeed this seemed evident in four instances of 



