Scientific Serials

Abstract

The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. xxvi. part 3, April 1886, contains a memoir on the leeches of Japan, by Dr. C. O. Whitman (plates 17 to 21). A short abstractor this important memoir has been given in our Biological Notes.—Contributions to the embryology of the Nemertea, by Prof. A. A. W. Hubrecht (plate 22). No. I is an account of the development of Lineus obscurus, Barr. These investigations, already published in the Dutch language, are fully detailed in this paper, and the plate gives the details of the principal results, combined into fifteen diagrammatic tracings. In one section the earliest developmental stages and the derivatives of the primary epiblast; in a second the hypoblast before the. shedding of the primary larval integuments; and in a third the mesoblast, are treated of.—On the early development of Julus terrestris, by F. G. Heathcote, M.A. (plates 23 and 24). This is the first part of an essay on a subject not treated of by British naturalists since the days of Newport. It treats of the segmentation of the o ovum, which shows a remarkable resemblance to that found in Amphipods by Uljanin. The formation of the blastoderm is such as is generally found in tracheate development. The cells, which at the conclusion of the blastoderm formation remain within the yolk, represent the endoderm. The mode of formation of the mesoderm almost exactly resembles that described by Balfour for spiders. In a future paper the author intends describing the further developmental stages of the embryo.—William A. Haswell, M.A., on the structure of the so called glandular ventricle (Drüsenmagen) of Syllis (plate 25). This organ, is in reality a well-developed muscular gizzard, and contains no glands in its walls. The muscular elements of the organ present an embryonic character containing as they do a polynucleated. core.—Arthur B. Lee, on Carney's cell researches (plate 26). While Carney's conceptions of the cell body do not materially differ from received views, the author of this paper thinks that sufficient attention has not been given to his labours on the question.—Prof. E. Ray Lankester, the Pleomorphism of the Schizophyta. A reminder of the simple fact that ten years ago Prof. Lankester called attention to the pleomorphism of the Schizophyta in a paper in this Journal, which attracted the deep attention of all those botanists who had taken any interest in the subject.