42 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



The occurrence of what had been named the ' Brick-clay 

 Beds' overlying the true boulder clay were well known ; and 

 in these brick-clays various fossil remains had been found ; 

 their relation to the boulder-clay being probably, first the 

 beds containing boreal shells, and next those with shells 

 belonging to species still living in the neighbouring seas. 

 To this last and latest class they were inclined to consider 

 that the clay-beds with their recent fossils described by Mr 

 Peach, most probably will be found to belong. 



II. Observations on British Zoophytes. By T. Strethill Wright, M.D, 



(Plate I.) 



(1.) On a Supplementary Canal System in Stomobrachium octocostatum. 



Stomobrachium octocostatum (Forbes) is occasionally found 

 in the Firth of Forth, in the neighbourhood of Queensferry 

 and Gran ton. All the specimens of the animal which I have 

 taken have been females, and as Stomobrachium is one of 

 those medusae which feed and thrive well in captivity, I 

 have repeatedly endeavoured to obtain young zoophytes 

 from them in the hydroid stage of their existence, but 

 hitherto without success, as the development of the ova in the 

 ovarian bands invariably became arrested soon after the ani- 

 mals were removed from the sea. I have little doubt, how- 

 ever, that the hydroid phase of Stomobrachium will event- 

 ually be obtained, and that it will prove to be a Tubularian 

 polyp allied to Atractylis or Clavula, inasmuch as its medu- 

 soid form is destitute of otolithic sacs, organs which are 

 always absent in the medusoids of Tubularian zoophytes. 



Several years ago I accidentally noticed a single minute 

 yellowish polyp resembling Clavula, and having three rows 

 of filiform tentacles, attached to a stone in a large tank, in 

 which a specimen of Stomobrachium was confined with other 

 zoophytes, but I was unable to trace any connection be- 

 tween the polyp and the medusa, as the planuloid larvae of 

 the latter were not ripe for extrusion, and never became so, 

 although the medusa lived for many weeks.* 



* In observing the reproduction of a .naked-eyed Medusa, the greatest 

 care must be taken that the water used in the experiment is perfectly free from 

 the presence of planuloid larvse of other forms, which are frequently contained 



