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PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
situated two additional eyes. Several parts of the paper were of a nature to 
throw suspicion on the good faith of the narrator. 
The Rev. L. Jenyns thought, that if the paper could be authenticated, the 
communication was an important one. The occurrence of four eyes had never 
before, to his knowledge, been observed in any members of the vertebrate division 
of the animal kingdom.—-The Rev. F. W. Hope stated that, in vertebrate animals, 
especially the Insecta , it was not uncommon to meet with more than one pair of 
eyes; and, in some instances, the aggregated eyes of insects were divided into 
two compartments by a transverse membrane, which gave the appearance of two 
pairs of aggregated eyes. He thought the term Tessarophthalmoid should not be 
applied to this family, as the term, or an analogous one, was already used in the 
animal kingdom for a genus in Insecta. —Mr. J. E. Gray inquired, whether Mr. 
W. H. Clarke was present; as, from its nature, he feared, that either there 
were no grounds for the present communication, or that the statements had been 
made on the authority of others, and insufficiently examined. He thought the 
latter might be the case, and that reports might have been given of the above 
nature, from the existence of Anableps , whose eyes are divided by a transverse 
membrane into two compartments.—Dr. Richardson agreed with Mr. Gray, 
and thought the present paper might be founded on misstatements with regard to 
Anableps. Agassiz had a fish in his descriptions very much like the present 
drawing: and by adding a hump, with two eyes at the back of its head, he 
thought the two would not then differ much. There were other suspicious cir¬ 
cumstances about this paper. This fish was stated to have a great number of 
names, which were, in fact, common words, picked up by sailors in the various 
countries they visited. Dr. Richardson then explained many of the terms. 
The existence of four optic nerves was unknown amongst Vertebrata , and the 
alternate opening and shutting of the eyes, seemed to him to be a motion 
unnecessary to aquatic animals.—The chairman, Sir W. Jardine, had seen so 
many anomalies in the kingdom of Nature in his lifetime, that he was quite 
disposed to give the present paper consideration: at any rate, he should insti¬ 
tute inquiries after Mr. Clarke, and the meeting would probably resume the 
subject. 
Mr. C. C. Babington, of Cambridge, read a paper “ On the Botany of the 
Channel Islands.” He mentioned having discovered the following eight plants in 
addition to those recorded by him at the last meeting of the Association. (See 
Naturalist , Vol. II., p. 428) :— 'Ranunculus ophioglossifolius ; Orchis laxiflora /> 
Linaria pelisseriana ; Myriophyllum alterniflorum ; Polygala oxyptera ; Ononis 
reclinata; Potamogeton plantagineus; Carex junctata. He said that twenty 
species existed in the islands which had not as yet been noticed in England, and 
announced his intention of publishing an outline of the Flora of these islands. 
