No. 448.] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE. 



agree with the Annelids in structure and innervation of the muscles 

 and in dorso-ventral mesenteries bounded by epithelia. They differ 

 from Annelids in entire absence of true metamerism, in the absence 

 of a prestomial ganglion, in absence of seton and appendages and in 

 structure of genitalia. The group cannot be regarded as degenerate 

 Annelids (Vejdorvsky) or as modified Nematods, but must be con- 

 sidered as an- isolated group (Funacher, von Siebold, Villot) until 

 more details concerning the development are known. The per- 

 tinence of the peculiar genus Nedoruma to the group is at least 

 questionable. 



North Atlantic Invertebrata. — Several papers in the ist Hefts of 

 the Bergcns Museums Aarhog for 1903 have an interest to students 

 of the Invertebrata of our northeastern coast. Emily Amesen 

 catalogues the Sponges of the Norwegian coast, the present paper 

 containing the Halichondrina. R. C. Punnett enumerates, the 

 Nemertini of Norway in which thirty-four species are recognized, 

 of which twelve are supposed to be new. Edward T. Browne reports 

 upon a collection of nineteen species of Medusae, mostly from the 

 fiords around Bergen, four of them being new and eleven others 

 not previously catalogued from Norway. Among the interesting 

 points brought out is the fact that the peculiar sucking cups described 

 by Haeckel in Ftychogastria polaris {Pectyllis ardica Haeckel) are only 

 the stumps of broken off tentacles. Only four species of Leptome- 

 dusae are enumerated in the collection. All three papers are well 

 illustrated. 



BOTANY. 



The Desert Botanical Laboratory.* — Of the occurrences of 

 recent date interesting to the botanists of this and other countries, 

 one of great importance is the establishment, by the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion, of a laboratory at which desert plants can be studied in their 

 native habitat. Messrs. Coville and MacDougal were asked to consti- 

 tute themselves a committee of inquiry, to determine the most suitable 

 place where such a laboratory might be located. We have before us 

 ' Coville, F. V. and MacDougal, D. T. Desert Botanical Laboratory of the 

 Carnegie Institution, pp. 1-58, PI. I-XXIX, fig. in text 1-4. Publication No. 6, 



