86 
REVIEWS. 
translator appear to be alike ignorant of the researches of Busk on the 
Cheilostomatous Polyzoa. A passing line or two is devoted to an account 
of the Avicularia; but not a word is said of the equally curious vibra- 
cular organs. A new genus (Besselia) has been founded by Ernian 
(vide Erman’s “ Archives of Bussian Science,” vol. xiv.) on Gorgonia 
paradoxa (JEsper), remarkable for that the usual deposit of calcareous 
earth in the polypary is in it replaced by silica, forming cells filled 
with an organic fluid. We believe this to be quite an unique example 
among the barked Corals. Among the Actinina the genus Actinia is 
very much in the same condition as when Linnaeus left it. The biblio¬ 
graphy records, it is true, large additions to the species, and reaches from 
1762 to 1835. But the last twenty years have not passed over without 
some labourers in this pleasant flower-garden, and Actinia has gradually 
developed into many new genera,—Anthea, Bunodes, Actinoloba, Sa- 
gartia, and others. We are informed that spontaneous fission does not 
occur naturally among the Actiniae. If we include Anthea, as Yan 
der Hoeven does, with Actinia, we are pretty sure it does. It would be 
tedious to write up the bibliography since 1836; but we may just allude 
to Dr. Johnston’s work, to the labours of Sir J. C. Dalyell, Grosse, Dana, 
and many others. 
We come next to the second class,—the Acalephae. At page 105 
our author appears to incline to the idea of Kolliker, in considering the 
marginal bodies in the Medusae to be auditory bodies. We are more 
willing to believe, with Ehrenberg, that they are eyes; and the researches 
of Gfegenbaur go to confirm this. In going from the higher to the lower 
forms, from the Medusidae to the Bhizostomidae, great differences are 
found in their structure, and within the limits of the several groups 
there is an evident progression from a lower to a higher type of organi¬ 
zation in this respect. The presence of a pigment spot in some of the 
higher forms makes it less surprising to find in some an evidently re¬ 
fracting lens, as in Nausithce albida ( Geg.) On this subject see Gegenbaur’s 
paper in Mueller’s •“ Archives” for 1856, p. 230. This paper being in 
the same volume as Lieberkuhn’s paper on the development of Spon- 
gilla, should not so easily have escaped the translator’s notice. In 
Wiegmann’s “ Archives,” vol. xxii., 1856-57, we have an important 
paper, by Leuckart, “ On the Medusae of the Sea of Nice,” a valuable 
contribution to their anatomy and natural history, and one by Gegen- 
baur, entitled, “ Studies of the Organization and Classification of the 
Ctenophora.” 
The next four classes, i. e., the Echinoderms, the Entozoa, theBotato- 
ria, and the Annulata, go to form the ‘‘ Annuloida.” The preface to vol. ii., 
so often quoted, cites the latest memoirs on the Echinoderms. To the 
memoirs on the Entozoa we may add one of Diesing, in the tenth vo¬ 
lume of the memoirs of the “ Imperial Vienna Academy of Science” 
(1855); two by Wedl in the “ Proceedings of the Vienna Academy” 
(1856) ; on the oral organs of the Nematodea; and on some new species 
of Nematodca; to the memoirs on the Dendrocoela among the Annulata, 
add that of Schultze, on the Land Planarise from Brazil, in the ‘ ‘ Trans- 
