656 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



sections of the whole organ occasionally present the appearance of 

 a glandular organ like the salivary glands ; it is these numerous 

 cavities, no doubt, vi^hich led Ludwig to describe the dorsal organ as 

 a plexus of blood-vessels. 



Ccelenterata. 



Australian Hydroid Zoophytes.* — Mr. W. M. Bale has compiled 

 a catalogue of the Australian hydroid zoophytes, with a view not 

 only of affording a guide to the collections in the Sydney Museum, 

 but of providing students of natural history with a compact account 

 of all that has been done in the description and illustration of the 

 Australian representatives of this group. A general introduction on 

 the morphology of the Hydroida is prefixed to the systematic portion 

 of the catalogue, which contains a large amount of new and valuable 

 matter, including descriptions of 23 new species : — Pennaria (1), 

 Campanularia (3), Lineolaria (1), Sertularia (7), Thuiaria (2), Plumu- 

 laria (4), Antennularia (1), Ealicornaria (4). 



Ccelenterates of the Southern Seas.f — Dr. E. von Lendenfeld, in 

 his fifth communication, deals with the Australian Hydromedusse ; 

 in his introduction he notes the great abundance of marine animals 

 in Port Jackson, and states that his investigations have been greatly 

 aided by the liberality of Mr. W. Mackay. The list of species 

 amounts to no less than two hundred and forty-one. 



In his sixth communication % the author deals with Neis cordigera 

 of Lesson, a Beroid which was first discovered in 1824 ; from Beroe 

 the species differs by having high lobes which project far above the 

 sensory poles, and by not having the vascular system of the gela- 

 tinous tissue of one-half of the body separated from that of the other. 

 In form, Neis is intermediate between Beroe and the Lobatae ; four of 

 the ctenophores are longer than the other four ; the sensory organ at 

 the aboral pole has no special peculiarities ; the generative products 

 appear to be confined to the parts of the vascular plexus which are 

 widely separated by the meridional canals, and in this point this 

 Australian species differs essentially from Beroe. 



Chromatology of Actim0e.§ — Dr. C. A. MacMunn finds that 

 Actinia mesemhryanthemum contains a colouring matter which can be 

 changed into hcemochromogen and hcematoporphyrin ; this is present in 

 other species, and from its characters it is provisionally named 

 actiniohcBmatin. It is not actiniochrome (a pigment found by 

 Prof. Moseley in the tentacles of Bunodes crassicornis), as its band 

 occurs nearer the violet than that of actiniochrome. Moreover, both 

 actiniochrome and actiniohsematin- can be extracted with glycerin, in 

 which the latter is convertible into haBmochromogen, but the former 

 remains unchanged. Actiniochrome is generally confined to the 



* Bale, W. M., 'Catalogue of the Australian Hydroid Zoophytes,' 8vo, 

 Bydney, 1884, 198 pp. (19 pis.). 



t Zeitschr. f. Wi8.s. Zool., xli. (1885) pp. 616-72. 



X Tom. cit., pp. 673-82 (1 pi.). 



§ Proc. Koy. Soc, xxxviii. (1885) pp. 85-7. See this Journal, ante, p. 464, 



