Proceedings of the British Association. 103 



The President observed, that he considered the results obtained 

 by this Committee as exceedingly unsatisfactory, as seeds placed 

 in different circumstances manifestly differed in the powers of their 

 vitality. 



Dr. Lankester stated, that absolute certainty, with regard 

 to the period which plants would retain their vitality, could not 

 be obtained ; but by a large number of experiments, in which every 

 fact was accurately noted, principles of considerable importance 

 might be deduced. Thus it would be interesting to know what rela- 

 tion the presence or absence of albumen had upon the vitality 

 of seeds, as well as the relation of the chemical compounds, which re- 

 cent chemists had developed in many of them ; and it was only by 

 labours like those of this Committee, that it could be effected. 



Mr. Francis Jennings, of Cork, presented to the Association 

 a copy of a portion of a work publishing by the Cuvierian Society, 

 and which is intended to comprehend a complete Flora and Fauna 

 of the county of Cork. 



Dr. Allaman read a paper ' On a new genus of Arachnidae,' found 

 parasitical in the posterior nares of the seal {Halychcerus gryphus.) 



Mr. Peach read a paper ' On the Marine Zoology of the Coast of 

 Cornwall.' — He first made some remarks on the habits and structure 

 of the species of Blenny. He next drew attention to what he sup- 

 posed to be a new species of Holothuria, and which from the cir- 

 cumstance of its having twenty tentacula belonged to the species 

 typical of the genus. Although provided with twenty tentacula, 

 it had but four rows of suckers. He then made some remarks 

 on the Nereis tubicola, which he had observed floating on the water. 

 He described the ova of the Doris, and confirmed the observations of 

 of Messrs. Alder and Hancock relative to the larvae condition of these 

 nudibranchs. He exhibited a specimen of the Cyprcea monetas, or 

 money cowrey, which he stated to have been dredged up in a living 

 state on the coast of Cornwall, and which he hoped would be now 

 placed in the British Fauna. 



Prof. E. Forbes expressed his great satisfaction at the discovery 

 of a typical species of Holothuria on the British coast, which he had 

 in his work stated, he believed, to exist, from the circumstance of ty- 

 pical species having been found in the seas of Holland and Denmark. 



