much alike. The female occupies the centre, and seems really buta prolongation of the main stem, on the top of which is an articula-tion from which the ovarium springs. The capsula readily fallsfrom this articulation when mature. From the base of the femalecentral peduncle spring weaker peduncles, colourless, appearingindeed almost like filaments, articulated at about the same heightas the female, only above the point bearing a short filament andanther-the caducous part before referred to. No one can fail tosee the correspondence of plan in these different parts; and I thinkthat nothing but the favourable position in the direct line of axialvigour made the central flower a female one. Cases occasionally occur in which a tolerably strong head ofwholly male flowers will develop the central axis into a pedicelalmost as long and vigorous as those which bear female flowers. Butthe flow of vital force (if I am correct in using the term) notbeing quite suffcient, the final goal of natural perfection in thefemalo form was not reached. These cases do not occur often, butare well worth looking for, as they show so clearly the dividing linebetween the forces which govern the male or female sex.-Proc.Acad. Nat. &i. Fhilad. 1870, p. 14. Fossil Sponge-spicules. We hear that Mr. Wm. Vicary, of Exeter, well known for hissuccessful researches into the Silurian and Devonian fossil faunafound in the pebbles of Budleigh-Salterton, has discovered in theGreensand of the hills of Haldon and Blackdown respectively, inDevonshire, a number of beautiful sponge-spicules belonging toDr. J. E. Gray's Corallispongia, in part (Dr. W. Thomson's order"Vitrea" and Dr. O. Schmidt's Hexactinellidae), also to the Tethyadseand Geodidse. Mr. Parfitt, of Exeter, has described and illustratedthem in a paper on the subject which he is about to read before theDevon Association for the Advaneement of Science, Literature, andArt, at their annual meeting, to be held at Devonport on the 26th ofJuly and following days. The spicules appear to be in the remains of an arenaceous sponge,heterogeneously mixed up with the grains of quartz of which it wasotherwise composed, thus representing the other kinds of spongeswhich existed in the locality then, just as the spiculo-arenaceoussponges of the present day bear indications of what other spongesexist in the localities where they now grow respectively. On the Zoological Ajffnities of the Sponges. Mr. Wm. S. Kent forwards us a letter to the effect that he hasglanced through Mr. Lankester's criticism on his paper respectingProf. Hiekel's supposed relationship of the Sponges to the Corals.Mr. Kent having but recently returned from his dredging-expeditionon the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and having had a pressure ofwork of higher importance to attend to, he has not had leisure toreply to Mr. Lankester's communication in the present number ofthis Journal. He looks forward, however, with much pleasure toanswering it in our next.Miscellaneous.192
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