219 



A^jril 1, 1863. 

 The President in the chair. 



The President read a letter from Mr. G. A. Peabody, 

 dated Cotuit Port, Cape Cod, March 20th, 1863, from 

 whicli the following extract is taken : — 



I send you a vial containing apparently mature spawn, pressed with- 

 out force from a speckled trout, taken yesterday from a pond near 

 here, without inlet or outlet. It is the third female noticed in this 

 condition ; another had very small immature spawn, such as one would 

 expect to see at this season of the year. One male, upon pressure, 

 gave out what looked like milt, but not very abundantly, and as one 

 would expect to see at the end of the breeding season. There is no 

 reason to suppose that the trout were bred in this pond, as many had 

 been put into it the last few years, under the imj^ression that there 

 were none there. It seems to me a very extraordinary thing finding 

 spawn in trout at this time of the year in this condition, as October is 

 the proper month, and I have never heard of any such case as the 

 present. 



Mr. A. Agassiz gave the following communication : — 

 The family of Berenicicke of Eschscholtz, as adopted by Prof Agassiz 

 in his Tabular View of the known Hydroids, in the fourth volume of 

 his Contributions, contains two very distinct families. Prof. Agassiz 

 had been induced, from the figures of Berenix and Cuvieria, to unite 

 with them the genera Willia and Proboscidactyla^ which have ramifying 

 chymiferous tubes. During the summer of 1862, I found at Nahant, 

 quite commonly in August and September, a striking Jellyfish, which 

 had not been observed before, and which settles the relations of the 

 Berenicidce. They have nothing in connection with the Williadce 

 of Forbes, but belong nearer to the ^quoridce; they have all the 

 characters of Medusa, coming from Campanularians, wliile the 

 Williadce belong to the Tubularians. The genus to which I al- 

 lude resembles Tiaropsis in having like it large compound eyes, from 

 three to six, between each two chymiferous tubes. There are in addi- 

 tion numerous club-shaped tentacular cirri, resembling those of Laodi- 

 cea, wliile the flatness of the disc, the general appearance of the 

 chymiferous tubes, and of the digestive cavity, remind us of Stomo- 

 bracJiium and JEquorea. The digestive cavity sends off four large 

 chymiferous tubes, from each of which radiate from three to four 

 chymiferous tubes which reach the circumference. Young speci- 

 mens have only four simple chymiferous tubes. In older specimens 

 there is one additional tube on each side of the primary one, and 



