Botany and Zoology. : 
of Cynips—the Cynips aciculata, hitherto regarded as a distinct species, 
all the individuals of which are females, Mr. Walsh appears to prove that 
the latter, although widely different in many characters, is only another 
orm of the C. spongifica, and, thence, that this species is dimorphous. 
The individuals produced in June live but 6 or 8 days; what place in 
nature, then, the author asks, is filled by the aciculata? In reply, he 
Suggests, from the analogy of Apis, Bombus, etc., that “the female 
- On the mineral secretions of Rhizopods and Sponges ; by G.C, 
Wanucu, (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., [3], xiii, 72.)—Mr. Wallich sustains 
sult of a sponge-growth within. He shows that the spicules of a sponge 
commence in vaccuoles in its sarcode-mass, and consist of successive 
their thickness, the Spines never being tubular. The same general fact 
; esieewed true of the Acanthometrina and Thalassicollide. In the 
tyochide, however, which are intermediate between the last and 
Sponges, the siliceous framework is tubular, and it is formed of two iso- 
Metical portions. The shells of @lobigerina among Rhizopods and of 
: Halionma amon Polvevstines are stated to have often their chambers 
“ choked up with 6 cs sponge-growth ; whilst the chambers of Glo- 
bigerina are at times filled with effete frustrules of a free-floating pelagic 
: Surface Diatom, namel 
y, Chetoceros. ‘ a 
Sey tendency to the growth of sponge tissue with its siliceous — 
Posen 8 ave some connection with the formation of Glauconite 
_ rial of the green sand) in Rhizopod shells.] 
