PROCEEDINGS. 3 



Dr. B. GiLPix read the following letter from Dr. Dawsox, Principal of 

 McGill College, Montreal:^ 



Note on a Species of Gemellaria from Sable Island. 



Among some specimens from the above locality collected by Mr. J. R. Willis, 

 and kindly sent to me by that gentleman, is a large tuft of a Gemellaria, -which I 

 regard as new. In Busk's Catalogue of the Polyzoa in the British Museum, only one 

 species is noticed, G. loriculata. Dr. Stimpson* has described a second from the Bay 

 of Fundy, under the name G. dumosa ; but Mr. Willis's specimen differs from both. 

 I have therefore prepared a detailed description of it, and desire to dedicate it to Mr. 

 Willis, its discoverer, as a testimony of my apprecidiicn of his services in the investi- 

 gation of the Marine Zoology of Nova Scotia. 



Gemellaria Willisii, S. N. 



General Appearance. — Ccenajcium branching in dense tufts from a stout stem 

 (attached to a sea-weed). Height of largest specimen, 2^ inches. Fibres flexible, 

 but somewhat brittle; membranous in texture, but effervescing strongly with an acid 

 and leaving a very delicate membranous skeleton. Colour brownish white or 

 light fawn. 



Microscopic Characters. — Pairs of cells seen in profile have at top and bottom a 

 breadth of about one-fifth their length. From the toj) they increase in width to the 

 base of the aperture, which is a little above the middle of the cells, where the breadth 

 is equal to about one-third of the length, decreasing regularly toward the base. 

 Single cells seen in front are broadest at the top, where the aperture occupies nearly 

 the whole breadth. Aperture oval-ovate, covered with a flat membrane having a semi- 

 circular slit at top. In branching, the highest pair of cells give off from their sides a 

 pair of branches, and usually also one or two stems from their upper ends. This 

 gives to the Coentecium a densely tufted character. 



The species differs from G. loriculata of Britain in its narrower and less inflated 

 cells and longer apertures, and in its more dense habit of growth, arising from the 

 mode of branching above indicated. It differs from G. dumosa of the Bay of Fundy, 

 in so far as can be ascertained from the short description of that species, in the form 

 of the aperture. 



In my collections from Nova Scotia I have only the following additional species of 

 Polyzoa, all of them found also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence : — 



Membrampora pilosa, Lepratia pertura, 



Lepratia armulosa, L. variolosa. 



L. trispinosa, 

 This very short list might no doubt be largely increased by a little attention to 

 the subject, and these curious and beautiful little organisms are well worthy of the 

 notice of collectors, especially of those who take an interest in microscopic objects. 



J. W. Dawsox. 



Capt. Hardy read a paper on Provincial Acclimatization. (See Trans- 

 actions.) 



Professor Lawsox read a paper entitled — " Notice of the Occurrence of 

 YiQ&thcr (Calluna vulgaris) at St. Ann's, Cape Breton Island. {See Traits- 

 actions.) 



In the after conversation it was stated by a gentleman present, that 

 native heather had been found on the Halifax peninsula, — [which however is 

 not sufficiently substantiated.] It is frequent in gardens as an exotic. Evi- 

 dence was adduced to prove that it had been known in Newfoundland for a 

 long period, and is generally supposed to be an indigenous plant. An 

 opinion seemed to prevail however, that the instances remarked upon, of its 

 being found in Massachusetts, Cape Breton, or on the Halifax peninsula, 



* Marine Invertebrata of Grand Manan . 



