336 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
plasm. They consist of elongated parallel elements ( “ Linen ”) united by 
a specific cement substance. Lateral twigs are absent. Cells or parts 
of cells or non-nucleated elements form supporting elements, which 
consist of cemented “ Linen ” with a parallel or more complex disposi- 
tion. Nervous cells have not a characteristic framework ; stimuli are 
believed to be transmitted by the interfilar substance. Glandular cells 
are characterized by the abundant presence of homogeneous substances 
between the “ Linen.” Stinging-cells are secretory cells in which a 
sudden emptying of secretion occurs through an apparatus formed from 
the framework. In indifferent cells the protoplasm is homogeneous. 
The indifferent cell represents a primitive condition ; it consists of 
a “ Linar ” framework — the mobile element — and of granula. Besides 
and between these lie the secretions, &c., of the granula. The granula 
consists of Zoa (“ einfachste Lebenswesen ”), and the “ Linen ” are Zoa 
united in rows. In muscle the “ Linen ” are elongated, isolated, and 
arranged in parallel rows, and the granula forms a cementing mass. In 
elastic structures the secretion of the granula makes contraction of the 
“ Linen ” impossible. In nerve-cells the granula forms a specialized 
interfilar substance. In glandular cells the framework is unimportant, 
the granula is actively secretory. In stinging-cells the granula has an 
intense activity, and the contractile outer wall of the capsule involves a 
complex arrangement of “ Linen.” 
Structure of Anemonia sulcata Penn.* * * § — Sig. Cazurro y Buix has 
made an anatomical and a histological study of this sea-anemone. As 
far as we have been able to judge, his results are almost wholly confir- 
matory of those of the Hertwigs and others. The very rough woodcuts 
seem hardly worthy accompaniments of the author’s careful study. 
New Species of Madrepora.j — Mr. G. Brook gives diagnoses of 
forty new species of the genus Madrepora preliminary to the publication 
of his catalogue of species in the collection of the British Museum, 
which is to be published shortly. Many of the forms are from the Great 
Barrier Beef or from the Macclesfield Bank. 
New Species of Drymonema4 — Dr. G. Antipa describes Drymonema 
Cordelio sp. n. found by Prof. Haeckel in the Gulf of Smyrna. The 
genus, it will be remembered, belongs to the Cyaneidse. In this species 
the umbrella is a flat disc ; the velarium is very broad, with 144 marginal 
lobes and notches ; there are 8 rhopalia in deep notches of the sub- 
umbrella about a fifth of the radius from the margin ; 4 per-radial oval 
fringes, each with two “ Zipfel” times as long as a radius, lie con- 
nected in the interradial spaces ; there are 8 subradial thick oral knobs ; 
there are 144 marginal pockets (128 tentacular and 16 ocular) ; the 
tentacles are very long and numerous on the median zone of the sub- 
umbrella ; the gonads are horse-shoe-shaped and hang down. 
Medusa of Lake Tanganyika. § — Mr. B. T. Gunther gives a prelimi- 
nary account of the freshwater Medusa from this lake, specimens of 
* Anal. Soc. Espafi. Hist. Nat., xxi. (1893) pp. 306-79 (28 figs.). 
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., x. (1892) pp. 451-65. 
X Jenaische Zeitschr. f. Naturwiss., xxvii. (1893) pp. 337-43 (1 pi.). 
§ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xi. (1893) pp. 269-75 (2 pis.). 
