174 General Notes. 
be Nymphzas, and our Nympheas hitherto are hereafter to be 
known as Castalias. In the January Gardener’s Monthly the 
suggestion is made that certain species of Cactus may become of 
value as fodder plants for domestic animals. The January 
Torrey Bulletin contains Studies in Typhacez, by Thomas Morong; 
New and Little-known Grasses, by F. L. Scribner, and New West- 
ern Grasses, by George Vasey, besides other articles of interest. 
Professor James suggests the name Anthophyta for Phanerogamia 
—a very good name too. The January Botanical Gazette con- 
tains a portrait of Dr. W. Pfeffer, of the Botanical Institute at 
Tiibingen, with a sketch of the institute, illustrated with a plan 
and views. The index to Vol. XII., which accompanies this num- 
ber, is a model among indexes. Certainly no reader of the last 
year’s volume of the Gazette can complain, in Carlylean phrase, of 
its “ indexlessness.” 
ZOOLOGY. 
FUNCTIONS oF INVERTEBRATE Orocysts.—Professor Yves 
Delage has been performing some experiments with a view of as- 
certaining the functions of the so-called ears of invertebrates. His 
results (Archives de Zool. gén. et Expérim. v. 1886) go to show 
that besides auditory capacities, they possess regulative faculties. 
When the octocysts were destroyed, the animal could not regulate 
its movements. This he shows is not due to the injury to the 
nerve, because the extirpation of the eyes did not produce disorder 
in the movements. His experiments were mostly upon Crustacea 
and Cephalopods: 
Parasitic Rorrrers.—The marine rotifers which are parasitic 
upon the curious Crustacean, Nebalia, are grouped in a amily 
Seisonide and the species of these found in the Bay of Naples 
have recently been studied by Dr. L. Plate. He adds to the two 
genera before included (Seison and Saccobdella) a third, Paraseison, 
with four new species. In these the trochal discs have been re- 
duced and may be represented by a few sensory sete ; the intestine 
terminates cecally in either six; the reproductive glands are at the 
sides of or above the intestine ; the tail has no sucking disk, but on 
the rounded extremity open the glands which serve to attach the 
ectoparasite to its host. The paper may be found in vol. vii. of 
the Naples Mittheilungen. 
MEDITERRANEAN SYNAPTIDZ.—Dr. R. Simon contributes to 
the Naples Mittheilungen (vii. p. 272, 1887) an account of the 
Mediterranean Synaptide, embracing the species digitata, 
