PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 317 
considerable abundance. In his microscopical investigation of 
this species Mr. Hancock has succeeded in making out, more 
completely than has been hitherto done, some important points 
in the anatomy and development of this curious genus, the first 
account of whose habits and properties, when given by Trembly, 
appeared to the world like a romance. Mr. Hancock’s investi- 
gations have been principally directed to its second or oviparous 
mode of reproduction, the process of which he has satisfactorily 
ascertained. He has been equally successful in making out the 
character and mode of operation of the stinging apparatus with 
which this little animal is supplied. This consists of minute 
bodies embedded in the tentacles having a poison bag surmounted 
by a tribarbed dart, which is capable of being ejected upon its 
prey. 
To complete the list in the zoological department, I may men- 
tion that three species of polype-like animalcules, apparently new, 
and uniting the Jnfusoria with the Campanularian zoophytes 
more nearly than any yet known, were met with by myself during 
the summer ; two of them, marine, on the shore at Whitburn, and 
one from the freshwater of Crag Lake. 
In Botany little novelty has turned up. The only plants new 
to the counties are Ulex nanus, discovered by Mr. Daniel Oliver, 
junior, near Staward Peel, and Myriophyllum alterniflorum, lately 
found in Crag Lough by Mr. John Thompson. Potamogeton 
rufescens, gathered by Mr. Storey in the same lake, may probably 
be also considered new to our Flora. Some additional habitats 
for the rarer plants will be found in the account of the field 
meetings. 
Mr. Tate’s researches on the polished and scratched surfaces of 
rocks, viewed in connection with the boulder formation, shew that 
geology has not been entirely neglected, The indications of im- 
portant changes in our planet afforded by these surface deposits, 
and the marks of violent action they have left, involve some of 
the most curious problems in geology. They have until now been 
little studied in our neighbourhood, but the communication read 
at our last meeting, and ashort paper on a similar subject in the 
