546 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Ccelentera. 
Peculiar Phenomena of Growth and Reproduction in Campanu- 
laria.* * * § — Prof. A. Giard finds that the stolons of Campanularia ( Agastra ) 
caliculata alter their mode of growth and become long coiled branched 
threads without hydranths when they are made to grow on the free edge 
of a seaweed in moving water, instead of being allowed to spread over the 
surface of their support. Though it usually produces fixed medusoid- 
like gonothecae, it may liberate free medusoids ; but as these have no 
manubrium or food-canal, they are very imperfect. A similar fact was 
observed by Agassiz in Syncoryne mirabilis. Giard calls the first abnor- 
mality “ rhizomanie ” and the second “ allogonie.” 
Sarcostyles of Plumularidse.f — Mr. C. C. Nutting uses the word 
nematophore for the receptacle, and the word sarcostyle for the modified 
liydranth within each. Development, minute structure, and transition 
forms, make it certain that the sarcostyles aro morphologically members 
of the colony. They are of use in defence, in the prehension of food, in 
removing refuse and decomposing organic matter, and in holding to- 
gether adjacent corbula (“ fruit-receptacle ”) leaves until the edges 
unite. 
Law of Budding in Physophora4 — Prof. C. Chun maintained in a 
former paper that each swimming-bell in the series is younger than its 
distal neighbour and older than its proximal neighbour, and that in the 
biserial arrangement the buds diverge alternately to right and left. This 
was criticised by K. C. Schneider, who maintained that the stem was 
twisted through 180 ° between each two swimming-bells, and that the 
arrangement was a right-handed spiral. Chun entirely denies any spiral 
twisting of the stem of Physophora , which is really quite straight. 
There is spiral twisting in Forslcalia and in Apolemia, but not in Physo - 
phora , where the final grouping of the swimming-bells depends upon 
their original grouping as they are constricted off from the budding 
zone. 
New Zealand Actiniaria.§ — Mr. H. Farquhar describes a number of 
new species, and erects a new genus Halcampactis, which by its strange 
combination of characters forms a link between the two families Sagar- 
tidse and Halcampidse. He calls attention to apparent distinctness of 
the northern and southern littoral marine faunae. 
Larva of Edwardsia claparedii.|| — Sig. F. S. Monticelli describes 
the minute structure of a larval Actinian found attached to the test of 
JBolina liydatina Chun. It appears to be almost certainly the larva of 
Edwardsia claparedii Panceri, and to be the same as that which Mark 
found associated with another Ctenophore — Mnemiopsis leidyi. 
Irregularities in Number of Directive Mesenteries in Hexac- 
tinise.^F — Prof. J. PI. M‘Murrich describes the great variety observed in 
seven specimens of Sagartia spongicola Yerr. The plan was hexamerous 
* CR. Soc. Biol., x. (1898) pp. 17-20. See Zool. Centralbl., v. (1898) pp. 396-7. 
f Amer. Nat., xxxii. pp. 223-30. 
% Zool. Anzeig., xxi. (1898) pp. 321-7 (2 figs.). 
§ Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), xxvi. (1898) pp. 527-36 (1 pi.). 
|| MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, xiii. (1898) pp. 325-40 (1 pi.). 
H Zool. Bull., i. (1897) pp. 115-22 (figs.). See Zool. Centralbl., v. (1898) p. 504. 
