SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 27 



(holosaprophytes). Hitherto very few experiments, he said, had beeu made 

 on hemisaprophytes, and hence our acquaintance with them was largely 

 speculative. The remarks which he had now to offer referred almost entirely 

 to holosaprophytes, or at least to plants with very little trace of chlorophyll. 

 Alter an interesting discussion, in which Sir D. Brandis, Mr. H. N. Ridley, 

 and others took part, the meeting adjourned to Jan. 17th. 



Zoological Society of London. 



November 20th, 1894.— Sir W. H. Flower, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. 



The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of October, and called special 

 attention to a pair of Somali Ostriches, Struthio molybdophanes, from 

 Somaliland, purchased Oct. 26th. This was the first pair of the blue- 

 skinned form of Ostrich, which inhabits Eastern Africa, that had reached 

 the Society's Gardens. 



On behalf of Dr. C. Kerbert, Director of the Zoological Gardens, 

 Amsterdam, a photograph was exhibited of a Sumatran Goat-Antelope* 

 Nemorhadus sumatrensis, living in those Gardens. 



Mr. R. Lydekker exhibited and made remarks on a model and a 

 photograph of a bird's egg from Patagonia, supposed to be the egg of an 

 undescribed species of Ratite bird. 



Mr. VV. B. Tegetmeier exhibited and made remarks on the felted covering 

 of a long-haired Angora Rabbit, which had shed its entire coat in one piece. 



The President exhibited a specimen of a Hairy Armadillo, Tatusia 

 pilosa, obtained by J. Kalinowski in the Maraynioc district of Central Peru. 



Mr. F. G. Parsons read a paper on the anatomy of Atherura africana, 

 compared with that of other Porcupines. In addition to the points mentioned 

 by Drs. Gray and Gunther as differences between the skulls of A. africana 

 and A.macrura, the arrangement of the fronto-nasal suture, the positiou of 

 the maxillomalar suture, and the frequent presence of an os anti-epilepticum 

 were noticed. The presence of intercentra was also drawn attention to. 

 The muscles in the main bore out the remarks already published by the 

 author in his paper on " The Myology of the Sciuromorphine and Hystri- 

 comorphine Rodents." The liver agreed with that of Hystrix cristata and 

 H.javanica in having the left central lobe divided into two. There was no 

 gall-bladder. The lungs were specially remarkable for being divided up into 

 a large number of lobes, there being 34 lobes on the left side and over 

 40 on the right. 



A communication from Mr. J. T. Cunningham treated of the significance 

 of diagnostic characters in the Pleuronectidce. In this paper the specific 

 and generic characters of the so-called Top-knot (Zeugopterus) were first 



