72 Proceedings of the 



graved from a beautiful drawing by Mr Weisse, artist, Queen 

 Street, show the animal in different stages of expansion and 

 contraction. The lithographer has given too purple a tinge to 

 the tentacles, otherwise the plate is very characteristic. 



(2.) Actinia bellis var. fusca. — Disk and tentacles of a uniform 



brown. 



Actinia bellis, which is not described by Johnson as a 

 native of Scotland, was found in great numbers in the rock- 

 pools below South Corrigills. The common variety, with a 

 variegated disk, described by Gaertner,Hassall,and Couch, was 

 the more abundant ; but a very beautiful one also occurred, 

 the disk and tentacles of which were a pure unmixed brown of 

 various shades. The body was white, pure pink, or pink 

 marked with spots or crossing lines of white. This variety 

 was very constant, and showed no disposition to diverge into 

 the common one. In some of the pools these Actinias were as- 

 sembled in large masses, and so closely packed together that their 

 disks only were visible, and they were at first mistaken for a 

 thick growth of algse. They were never found intermingled with 

 the other variety. In captivity both varieties proved very proli- 

 fic ; the young of the brown Actinia could be readily distin- 

 guished from the others by their dark disks, and by the brown 

 lines with which their bodies were striated. These lines cor- 

 respond to the internal longitudinal septa, and disappear with 

 the increasing age of the animal. 



Wednesday, 26th March. William H. Lowe, M.D., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Rev. Zerub. Baillie, of the United Presbyterian Calabar Mission, 

 was duly elected a Member of the Society. 



The following Communications were read : — 



I. On Zoological Classification. By Professor Macdonald, 

 St Andrews. 



Professor Macdonald submitted to the consideration of the Society the 

 system of classification he had for some time prepared, which, he con- 

 sidered, possessed advantages over any of those now in use. 



