396 THE FLOUNDER FAMILY. 



in 1890. They were obtained abundantly at the surface of 

 certain bays from the 15th June to the 8th July. He also 

 found a nearly ripe female in Galway Bay on the 2nd June. 

 The same year (1890) they were procured in St Andrews Bay; 

 the earliest on the 4th May, and others in July, also at the 

 surface. Canu describes the same form at Boulogne-sur-mer. 

 Recently Ehrenbaum', who also found the eggs in June, gives 

 good figures and examples of the larval, post-larval and meta- 

 morphosing stages. In the eastern forms the oil-globules, 

 which are restricted to the vegetative hemisphere (Plate IV, 

 fig. 11), are larger than in the Irish specimens and the cortical 

 yolk-segments are small. The diameter is '775 to •835 mm., 

 according to Holt, and some are ovoid. Since the above date 

 thejr have been regularly procured in the tow-nets on the 

 eastern shores in or near sandy bays, and their hardihood 

 renders hatching easy. 



A closely allied egg (Plate IV, fig. 13), though with smaller 

 oil-globules, has occurred in St Andrews Bay during April and 

 May in the trawl-like bottom tow-net ; it is probably a variety 

 of the former. Its diameter is '762 mm. or slightly smaller 

 than the foregoing. The largest oil-globule is ■004 mm. At 

 first sight the capsule seems to be thick, but this appears to be 

 due to the presence of a space (perivitelline), which throws into 

 relief the wrinkles of the capsule and also the micropyle. The 

 fine lines and creases of the cap.sule slightly resemble those in 

 the lemon-dab, but they may have been due to immaturity or 

 contraction of the egg ; yet the two examples were precisely 

 alike. The oil-globules greatly exceed in number those of the 

 ordinary egg of the solenette — the figure showing all the oil- 

 globules present, that is, both the deep-seated as well as those 

 near the upper pole. Moreover in the centre inferiorly, and 

 therefore at the germinal pole, was a pale protoplasmic mass or 

 vesicle (?) considerably larger than any oil-globule, with a few 

 granules and an oil-globule at its edge, this of course being of 

 no particular moment as a special character. In the eggs of 

 April and May, besides the much greater number of small 



1 Oj). cit. p. B12, Taf. V, fig. 35 and Taf. VI, figs. 31—34, 1896. 



