432 Proceedings of the 



Wednesday, 2±th March 1855. — AVilltam Rhind, Esq., President, in 



the Chair. 



Dr Schlossrerger, Professor of Chemistry, University of Tubingen, 

 was elected a Foreign Member of the Society. 



The Donations to the Library were laid on the Table, and thanks voted 

 to the donors : — 



1. Tenth and Eleventh Annual Reports of Board of Regents. Years 

 1855 and 1856. 2. Publications of Learned Societies and Periodicals 

 in the Library of the Smithsonian Institution, Part. II. — From the 

 Smithsonian Institution, U.S.A. 3. Transactions of the Michigan 

 State Agricultural Society. — From the Society, per the Smithsonian 

 Institution, U.S.A. 



The communications read were as follows : — 



I. Remarks on Lutraria elliptica (Turton). By George Lawson, Ph.D. 



After alluding to the general distribution of this species of shell, which 

 occurs as a fossil in the Coralline crag, as well as on our coasts in the 

 present day, Dr Lawson mentioned that he had collected the animal in a 

 living state on the east coast of Forfarshire, near the mouth of the Tay, 

 where it is thrown up in immense quantities by strong easterly gales, 



II. (1.) On Monoecious Reproduction in Tubularia larnyx. By T. 

 Strethill Wright, M.D. (2.) Dr Wright exhibited, a specimen of 

 the Hydra tuba {Daly ell) throwing off Medusce. And also the Myro- 

 thela artica of Sars. 



(1.) The author described the polyp of this zoophyte. He stated that its 

 reproductive capsules were produced on branches arising from the buccal 

 papilla ; female capsules containing ova, and male capsules containing 

 spermatozoa, existing together on the same branches. The capsules were 

 each furnished with four short tentacles, which caused them to resemble 

 young polyps. T. larynx, like T, indivisa, was viviparous. 



(2.) Dr Wright exhibited to the Society the Hydra tuba of Sir J. Dal- 

 yell undergoing the process of change into medusas. The specimen brought 

 before the meeting was at least four years old, having been in captivity 

 for that length of time. Within the last week it had become elongated 

 into a fleshy cylinder, which was marked with thirteen transverse striae. 

 The intervals between the striae became lobed, and were gradually de- 

 veloped into a chain of medusae, packed together like a pile of saucers. 

 The upper medusae of the pile were already free and flapping about in the 

 water. Sars had traced the further development of these medusae into 



