Annales des Sciences Naturelles. 413 
ganismes inferieurs." He begins with a defence of the accuracy of his former, 
and a detail of some new observations, which confirm the opinion he entertains, 
that there is no such complex digestive apparatus in those infusory animalcules, 
as EHRENBERG has described, the presumed stomachs and intestines being 
merely irregular, empty spaces (vacuolesj produced by the penetration of the 
nutritive matters, or by partial dissolutions (diffluencej of the homogeneous 
body. He then proceeds to describe some new forms of Infusoria which, like 
the Rhizopodes, shoot out from a fixed portion of the body a certain number 
of long contractile filaments of extreme tenuity, that are subservient to loco- 
motion. He next discusses the nature of the tail-like filament with which 
many infusory animalcules are furnished, and which, he says, is an organ of lo- 
comotion, and not a proboscis, as EHRENBERG was induced to conclude from 
some observations he had made on the Peridiniees and Cryptomonadines. Du- 
JARDIN admits, that, as it is homogeneous like the body, and deprived of an epi- 
thelium, it may be capable of absorbing from its surface nutritive matters, but 
that it has not the character or use of a proboscis, he is certain The conti- 
nuation of HITCHCOCK'S " Description d'empreintes de pieds d 1 Oiseaux dans le 
Gres rouge du Massachusets." Analyse des travaux anatomiques, physiologi- 
ques et zoologiques presentes a I'Academie des Sciences pendant les mois de Mars 
et d'Avril 1836. One or two of the notices in this section will be found among 
our zoological intelligence ; we can only specify here JACQUEMIN'S letters on 
the respiration of birds ; and on the order of the disposition of the feathers on 
the body of a bird ; DUVERNOY on the tongue of the Cameleon ; GEOFFROY 
SAINT- HILAIRE on the " embryo of Syra," viz. a fetus which was vomited by 
a child of the town of Syra, in 1834, and which has been discussed with an in- 
terest which the singularity of the occurrence may well excuse : as a fact, it 
cannot be registered in science, since many doubts hang over the real nature of 
the substance vomited Memoir e sur lafamille des Beroides, par R. P. LES- 
SON. In his preliminary paragraphs, the author collects together what has been 
ascertained relative to the structure and physiology of this interesting family, 
and then proceeds to divide it into tribes and genera, characterized with neat- 
ness and precision. Under each genus, the species are indicated, and shortly 
described in the usual manner of systematists. The attempt here made to il- 
lustrate the Beroidece is unquestionably an able one, but our knowledge of the 
species is evidently too limited as yet, to allow us to regard any classification, 
as other than a convenient table for future study. The author has overlooked 
Professor Grant's Essay on the Nervous System of Beroe pileus, and on the 
structure of its cilia, in the Trans, of the Zool. Soc. Vol. i. p. 9. 
II. Botany. 
Memoire sur les Myrsinees, les Sapotees et les embryons paralleles au plan de 
I'ombilic, par AUGUSTS DE SAINT-HILAIRE Memoire sur la distribution et de 
mouvement des fluides dans les plantes, par M. CH. GIROU de BUZAREINGUES. 
A very important contribution to vegetable physiology. Observations sur lea 
Saxifraga stellaris et Clusii, par P. DUCHARTRE, who seems to have proved that 
the two species are merely variations of the same plant Notice sur quelques 
Cryptogames novvelles des environs de Bahia (Bresil), par J. E. DUBY. 
