1883. } Zoology. 667 
also criticizes (¢bid, pp. 466-9) Hagen’s paper on “ The color and 
pattern of insects.”——Dr. Edward Hoffer (iid, pp. 412-421) 
gives some interesting facts as to the nest-building of humble- 
bees. We regret to see that with the change of political power 
in California there has been a change in the officers of the Hor- 
ticultural Commission that does not seem to be an advantage. 
Bitter complaint is made. for instance, of the removal of Mr. 
Matthew Cooke, who has been indefatigable in his labors on 
the commission. ome vine cuttings from Madeira were 
recently held in New York in the belief that they were affected 
by Phylloxera. Specimens were sent by Collector Robertson to 
the State Department and finally submitted to us for examination 
and suggestion. We advised their immediate forwarding, as 
there were no grounds for their detention. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Tue Emspryonic TENTACULAR KNOBS OF CERTAIN Puyso- 
out other resemblances in the larvæ in which these structures are 
found. The result was that an interesting likeness between the 
Single (“embryonic”) nectocalyx of Monophyes and the “ primi- 
tive scale” of Agalma was found. The following reasons led me 
to regard these last-mentioned organs as homologous. Both are 
formed in the same way, both are embryonic and are lost in sub- 
sequent development. We have in the “primitive scale” of 
galma an indication of the point in the development of the 
Siphonophora, where the separation of the Physophore from the 
Calycophore, or where the separation of both groups, from a 
stem form,” took place. The embryonic bell of Monophyes is 
an organ of motion; the primitive scale of the young Agalma, 
although homologous to a bell, has lost the function of motion, 
is an organ of flotation, while in Agalmopsis (Halistemma) 
the embryonic bell is not even represented. The only structure 
in thelarva of Agalmopsis (Halistemma), which shows the relation 
this genus to the Calycophore is an embryonic tentacular 
Knob, like that of the larva of Agalma, which is thought to be 
The ees to the tentacular appendage of the Calycophores. 
iS statement of a possible genetic relationship between these 
