ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 227 



author thinks there is evidence, though of a negative character, that 

 the nervous system has a mesodermal origin. 



The species examined were found to be protandric ; in B. javanum 

 there are on either side a number of testes lying behind one another, 

 and a vas deferens which lies internally to them ; after forming a seminal 

 vesicle it opens into a penis, which consists of a sheath, an antrum, and 

 an external genital orifice. The ovaries lie just behind the head, the 

 oviduct is long, and passes into the so-called uterus ; from the uterus 

 the ova pass into the same antrum as that in which the male duct opens. 

 Numerous yolk-glands are scattered in the mesenchym. The antrum is 

 a spacious cavity, and its epithelium consists of low cells carrying short 

 cilia. The ova of B. javanum are said to be laid in a cocoon, which is 

 probably formed in the antrum ; the shell appears to be a secretion of 

 the penial sheath, and the high glandular epithelium of that organ 

 supports this supj)osition. 



5. Incertse Sedis. 



New Rotifer.* — Mr. C. Eousselet describes, under the name of 

 Limnias cornuella, a new Rotifer which he found attached to the rootlets 

 of a plant (" Triance Bogotensis ") in one of the hot-house tanks in the 

 gardens of the Botanical Society in Regent's Park. Its tube looks very 

 much like a little horn, and is only about half the size of that of the two 

 other species of the genus ; it is not ringed quite as distinctly as that 

 of L. annulatus. Its most striking character is the possession of two 

 long ventral antennae, which are surmounted by tufts of long setsB. 



Echinodermata. 



Ludwig's Echinodermata-t — Prof. H. Ludwig has commenced a 

 second edition of the Echinodermata of Bronn's ' Klassen,' &c. The 

 author commences, without any preface, with the Holothurians, of which 

 there is a bibliography and a short introductory account. The descrip- 

 tion of the skin is begun, but the account of the spicules is not yet 

 completed. 



Comatulids of Kara Sea.:|: — In his report on the few species of 

 Comatulidee collected in the Kara Sea, Dr. P. H. Carpenter makes some 

 remarks on pentacrinoid larvas collected during the expedition, but, 

 brought up, unfortunately without any adult specimens accompanying 

 them. With the exception of the Pentacrinoids dredged by the ' Chal- 

 lenger ' near Ascension, those now under discussion are the largest and 

 most robust that the author has seen, and they are much more developed 

 than the ' Challenger ' specimens. It is possible, though not probable, 

 that we have here the larval forms of Antedon dentata, but Dr. Carpenter 

 is inclined to think that they are the young of A. eschrichti. The larger 

 larva had a length of 35 mm., which was about equally divided between 

 the head and stem ; the latter, which is singularly like that of BMzo- 

 crinus, has twenty-nine joints. Its centrodorsal bears fifteen cirri, the 

 longest of which has a length of 5 mm. The adult specimens were 

 examples of Antedon eschrichti, A. quadrata, and A. prolixa. 



* Joiirn. Quek. Micr. Club, iii. (1888) pp. 337-8 (1 pi.). 



t Bronn's Klassen u. Ordnungeu, ii. 3, bearbeitet von Dr. II. Ludwig, 1. Liof., 

 8vo, Leipzig and Heidelberg, 1889, pp, 1-48. 



% Bijdrageu tot de Dierkuude, xiv. (1887) pp. 41-9 (1 pi.). 



