ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
401 
seem to indicate a primitive population which has been maintained in 
an isolated condition by climatic and geographic changes. There is 
every reason to believe that the elevated parts of the Larapintine area 
have been land surfaces from precretaceous times, and that climatic 
extremes have prevailed since that period. Like the truly endemic 
plants, the land snails live on the southern escarpments of the elevated 
land, or in the deeply shadowed gorges of the same, and occur in more 
restricted areas, sometimes as one colony only, or, if in more than one, 
are usually widely separated from one another. 
Mr. 0. Hedley * * * § has a note on the anatomical characters ? of some of 
the Mollusca collected during this expedition. Viewing the fields of 
anatomy and phylogeny from the standpoint to which Pilsbry’s study 
has lately advanced science, the facts now detailed show that between 
some Australian snails whose dentition and shells are much alike, a line 
of cleavage is indicated by the reproductive system, while the same 
feature knits together species hitherto separated by the systematists. 
a. Cephalopoda. 
Beaks of Cephalopods.f — Sig. F. Neri has investigated the minute 
structure of the beaks of Cephalopods, and found that they consist of 
fibrous cuticular laminae. He has inquired into their chemical composi- 
tion, and with the help of his friends, Dr. G. Catani and Prof. F. Sestini, 
has shown that the substance is not chitin, but rather allied to keratin. 
The upper part is also encrusted with carbonate and sulphate of lime. 
y. Gastropoda. 
New Classification of Muricidae.J — Mr. F. C. Baker has published 
a preliminary outline of a new classification of the Muricidac. This 
classification, he says, is modern and original. He divides the family 
into three sub-families, and gives diagnoses of them and of their genera, 
for the details of which we must refer the student to the original. 
Brachiopoda. 
Deep-Sea Brachiopoda.§ — Mr. W. H. Dali has some remarks on the 
Brachiopoda collected at the Hawaiian Islands and elsewhere in the 
Pacific. For these, as for the Mollusca already noted, the chief value of 
the paper lies in the anatomical details which it provides. 
Bryozoa. 
Development of Lichenopora verrucaria.|) — Mr. S. F. Harmer re- 
minds the student that, when describing certain very remarkable pheno- 
mena in the development of Crisia , he ventured to suggest that embryonic 
fission would he found to be characteristic of the whole group of Cyclosto- 
matous Polyzoa. A chance discovery of large numbers of colonies of 
* Tom. cit., pp. 220-6 (16 figs.). 
t Atti Soc. Tosc. Sci. Nat., x. (1896) pp. 56-65, 118-20. 
X Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., ii. (1895) pp. 169-89. 
§ Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., xvii. (1895) pp. 713-29. 
U Proc. Roy. Soc., lix. (1896) pp. 73 and 4 ; also Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xxxix 
(1896) pp. 71-144 (4 pis.). 
