498 
Bibliographical Notices . 
The first six chapters, constituting Parti., require little comment, 
being a semipopular account of the classification of flat-fishes, the 
history of the genus Solea , and a description of the species with 
synonymy. It would have been an acquisition to have figured Solea 
Greenii . In Part II. the osseous system and the fibrous and muscular 
tissues are elaborately described, and a somewhat detailed account 
given of the oblique muscles, their attachments and connexion with 
the distortion of the eye and orbit. The description of the viscera 
and vascular system is mainly valuable in connexion with the un- 
ravelling of the mystery which has more or less shrouded the males 
and the male organs. It was the exceeding smallness of the ripe 
testes that had puzzled the non-scientific observer, and even some 
who could not be included in this class. The life-like half-figures 
of the male and female by Miss Willis, together with the descriptions 
of Mr. Cunningham, will be of much service to future workers. An 
account of the nervous system, the skin and its parts follows, com- 
parisons of the scales of various species of soles being made by aid 
of figures. The sense-organs on the under surface of the snout are 
shown not to differ from those of the dermal tube of the lateral 
line. 
The sixth chapter of Part II. contains the embryology of the sole. 
When this was written the author had not seen the ovum immedi- 
ately after its escape from the ovary, but from a postscript on p. 135 
he had been more successful this year (1890). Other naturalists, 
however, had previously seen it at this stage, and agree that it corre- 
sponds with the condition of such forms as the cod in regard to the 
protoplasm. He calls the zona radiata the vitelline membrane, but 
does not refer to his former view that it is an extra-vitelline product. 
The particles of oil which form a kind of ring in the sole’s egg are 
occasionally somewhat more distinct than shown by the author, and 
vary a little in size, as described in a previous publication, viz. from 
•0015 to *0004 inch. He does not now hold the view that oil- 
globules occur in the perivitelline space. Moreover he now 
locates the oil-globules beneath the trunk of the embryo sole. He 
prefers the term “ segmental cavity ” to Prof. Ed. E. Prince’s less 
ambiguous term 44 germinal cavity.” The pigment of the larval sole 
immediately after hatching appears to differ materially in Scotland 
(vide Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. vol. xxxv. pi. xvii. fig. 13, Feb. 1890), 
since it is not truly yellow, but dull stone-grey or dull yellowish 
white, and this afterwards changes into the ochreous hue so charac- 
teristic of the post-larval sole (vide 4 Report of the Scotch Fishery 
Board,’ July 1889, pi. iii. fig. 9). 
The author did not succeed in keeping the larvae alive more than 
a few hours until this spring (May 1890), and then only till the 
yolk 44 was almost absorbed.” Elsewhere experience differs, and 
the sole has been found to be one of the hardiest larvae under treat- 
ment. He has also overlooked the late larval stage referred to at 
the end of the previous paragraph ; but he has made an interesting 
addition in securing a young sole | inch loug from Mevagissey, 
showing most of the features of the adult. 
