Notes and Memoranda. 471 



apparently 400 or 500 yards~above the ground, first blue, then red, and emitted 

 numerous sparks. The same body appears to have been seen at Peckham, Bath, 

 etc. Cosmos states that a few minutes before six this bolide passed over Havre 

 with astonishing rapidity from N. to S., leaving a luminous track behind it. It 

 was also seen at Bolbec, Ivetot, and Rouen ; observers at the latter place fancying 

 it fell by the Church of St. Vivien. At Strasburg it was seen about five minutes 

 to five. 



Pseudopodia OP the Rhizopoda. — The Annals of Natural History, ISTo. 

 60, contains a translation of Professor Reich ert's observations on the pseudopodia 

 of Miliola and Rotalia, which he obtained alive at Trieste. He states that the 

 pseudopodia, when fully extended, measure six or eight times the diameter af the 

 oody, and terminate in filaments so fine that " a perceptible thickening scarcely 

 appears when two or three filaments come together, and apparently pass into one, 

 or when the magnifying power of the instrument is raised from 450 to 700 

 diameters." He denies the fact of the so-called movement of granules in these 

 organs, and explains it by a " contraction wave formed by a loop advancing along 

 the filament, produced in consequence of contractile movements of the substance 

 invisible to us." He denies that the pseudopodia coalesce or amalgamate on 

 touching each other, although they readily adhere, and ascribes the appearance 

 of a "sarcode net" to apparent anastamoses arising from adhesion. 



The Animal and Ploat op Ianthina. — Mr. A. Adams, writing in Annals 

 of Natural History, describes the beautiful Ianthina, or ocean snail, as quite 

 blind, and having the large horny mandibles, and the rounded extremity of the 

 tongue, furnished with sharp, curved, slender teeth. It chiefly feeds on Physalia 

 Porpitee and Velellse. The Ianthina is remarkable for floating shell downwards 

 in the water, and Mr. Adams tells us that the anterior part of the foot forms a 

 " shallow cup which embraces the smooth anterior rounded end of the float. 

 When the animal wishes to bring its head to the surface of the water, this part of 

 the foot is made to glide over the back of the float. Thus the animal can raise 

 and lower itself at pleasure by means of its own float." The flouts are formed 

 of a mucous film containing air, and when cut with scissors the animal descended 

 to the bottom of the vessel in which it was confined, and did not make a new one. 



The Supposed Minute Vertebrate. — Mr. Spence Bate points out the 

 probability of the supposed minute jaw found by Dr. Wallich in St. Helena 

 mud being the last joint of the leg of a small crustacean, and Dr. Wallich sends a 

 fresh letter to the Annals of Natural History, giving reasons for thinking it — as 

 Mr. Busk conjectures — a valve of a pedicellaria from an echinus. 



Mr. Hincks on the Medusa op Hxdroid Polyps. — The Rev. Thomas 

 Hincks gives two drawings, with descriptions, in the Annals of Natural History, 

 showing that the medusa, or " gonozoid" as he prefers to call it, "of the Stauridia 

 producta, is identical with that of the Coryne eximia, a member of a distinct 

 genus." The reader who is not acquainted with the curious modes of reproduction 

 and development belonging to these creatures, is referred to our article on the 

 " Origin and Transformation of Animals" (September No., p. 95). 



De Candolle on Species. — In an article on the Cupuliferce in the Biblio- 

 iheque Universel, M. Alphonse de Candolle observes, " hereditariness is an attri- 

 bute of races as well as of species, to cite an evident example, the Jewish people 

 have a certain hereditary configuration, which they preserve under all climates 

 and influences of nutrition, without any one pretending that they constitute a 

 species. Non-hereditariness may overthrow a pretended species, but hereditari- 

 ness, even when it appears to be indefinite, does not prove the existence of a 

 species." 



Secchi on the 2nd Comet op 1862. — In a letter to M. Elie de Beaumont, M. 

 Secchi gives an interesting account of this comet, which may be taken in con- 

 junction with that already furnished to our readers by Mr. Webb and Mrs. Ward. 

 He says the opposite directions taken by the sheaf-like streams of luminous matter, 

 indicated two fixed centres of eruption. " The tail was simple until the two reversed 

 jets were well developed, so that no doubt could remain that it was really these 



