1118 General Notes. 
leaves, and the third upon the fruit. The work will be a most 
valuable one, and it is to be hoped that it will be continued to com- 
pletion. Every botanical department ought to afford this set, as 
the price ($5 per volume) is very reasonable. The volumes are put 
up in book form, so that they may be placed upon ordinary library 
shelves.—Charles E. Bessey. 
ZOOLOGY. 
THE CONTRACTILE VACUOLE.—The dispute regarding the na- 
ture of the contractile vacuole in the protozoa is not atan end. Dr. 
De Bruyne records (Bulletin Roy. Acad. Sci. Belg. LVT., 1888), his 
belief that it does not communicate with the exterior, and that it is 
not ssed of excretury functions. Prolonged study tends to show 
that the contained fluid is not expelled from the protozoan, but that 
it is forced to other parts, to again return to form the vacuole. He 
would rather regard it as of respiratory and circulatory functions 
and thinks that the contained fluid may possibly have nutrient pro- 
perties. 
© An ENDOPARASITE or AMPHIURA.—Dr. Fewkes records (Proce. 
Boston Soc’y. Nat. Hist., XXIV ., p. 31, 1888) the existence of a Cope- 
pod Crustacean parasitic in the brood cavity of the common Brit- 
tle Star, Amphiura squamata, at Newport,R. I. In the specimens af- 
fected the ovary had degenerated into an amorphous mass and that 
the cavity contained either the adult Copepod or eggs containing the 
young in all stages of development. Fewkes also records the exist- 
ence of this parasite in another place (Bulletin, M. ©. Z, XIIL., 1887) 
but does not give it a description or a name. Comparison should 
be made with Cancerilla tubulata which is described by A. Giard 
(Comptes Rendus, 1887, p. 1189) as parasitic wpon the same brittle 
star at Fécamp. There the young attach themselves to the ends of 
the anus and approach the disc as they grow older. 
| THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MyrtapopA.—So far as I am 
aware, no naturalist has questioned the naturalness and homage- 
 neity of the group of Myriapoda. To me it seems that this unity is 
oe rather than real ; that the Chilopods and Chilognaths are 
gg together on account of superficial resemblances, rather than 
__ from community of descent, upon which all true classification must ; 
~ be:based, and that those features which they have in common are at : 
_ the same time possessed by all the other air-breathing arthropods: 
