notice at the time than consigning them to a pill-box, with the name of the locality and the conditions under which they were found, till an opportunity might occur for closer inspection and arrangement.

The first shell is the little bivalve Pisidium fontinale, var. Henslowana, taken in the Glasgow and Paisley canal. It is the Pisidium Henslowana of Shepard. It was first discovered by Prof. Henslow in the River Cam, near Cambridge, and occurs in many of the northern, eastern, and south-western counties of England, as well as in South Wales and in Cork, but it has not hitherto been discovered in Scotland. It is not an uncommon thing for such small shells to be overlooked by being mistaken for closely allied species, but in this case the most cursory inspection would discover the remarkable little elevated plate on each valve near the umbo, which at once distinguishes it from all its congeners.

The second shell is Planorbis complanatus; it is found moderately common in Lochend Loch, Edinburgh. Jeffreys says: "It inhabits marshes, ponds, canals, ditches, and standing water everywhere in England, Wales, and Ireland, but I am not aware of any Scotch locality."

This shell is readily distinguished from its nearest ally Planorbis carinatus, by the keel being placed below instead of in, or towards the middle of, the periphery. It is somewhat singular that while this shell is so plentiful all over England, Wales, and Ireland, the small patch of water near Edinburgh, known as Lochend Loch, is its only known locality in Scotland. There is another remarkable circumstance connected with this loch. Some few years ago Mr James Bennie of the Geological Survey of Scotland sent me some mud from it, for the purpose of examination for Ostracoda. Amongst others, a few valves were found of a species, Goniocypris mitra, which Prof. G. S. Brady and I discovered in the fens of Norfolk, which are rather of a brackish character, and we could detect it nowhere else, leading us to think that the species was peculiar to that flat district; we were therefore surprised to find it in this distant isolated fresh-water loch. Further search was made for living examples, but although dead valves were common, the living animal was not met with. The same may be said of of Planorbis complanatus, which probably arises from the fact that the loch is being filled up through the emptying of the town

refuse into it. I fear that before this time all that lived in that once pure water may be poisoned by, or buried under the debris of, the streets.

I find that lochs and ponds in the neighbourhood of towns are in general more rich in mollusca, ostracoda, and other microzoa, than those in more secluded localities, where water-fowl, which feed greedily on molluscs and other aquatic animals, congregate in greater abundance.

However, this suburban immunity of aquatic animals is only partial, for what they gain in one way they may lose in another. Where relieved from the presence of water-fowl, they may be attacked by the deleterious products of sewage, but even when so exposed, it is astonishing how some animals survive and thrive abundantly, while others of the same class succumb. This explains in a great measure why some species often prevail and are differently associated in different localities. At the Glasgow terminus of the Paisley Canal in Eglinton Street, where the water is strongly charged with the sewage from neighbouring factories, the little ostracod Cypris compressa, swarms in the most filthy mud at the bottom, and is plump and sleek as if quite at home, while scarcely any of its usual associates are to be found. The same may be said of the estuary of the Clyde. Over the muddy flats near Langbank,* the small invertebrate fauna is unusually sparse, with the exception of one or two forms, which are in great abundance.

Of the third shell I have to bring before you, Helix villosa, four living specimens were taken on the flat ground or moors near Cardiff, by Mrs Robertson.

As I was not able to refer them to any British species, they were submitted to Mr Jeffreys, who pronounced them to be Helix villosa (Draparnaud), and has recorded the species in Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., Jan. 1877, as an addition to the British mollusca. H. villosa inhabits Germany, France, and Switzerland, and it often occurs at a considerable height above the level of the Mr Jeffreys refers to H. alpestris, a British variety of H. arbustorum, as having similar habits. It is met with on the Swiss Alps, in the region of perpetual snow, as well as in the

sea.

* Transactions of the Geol. Soc. of Glasgow, Vol. V., Part I., p. 112.

marshes and on the banks of English rivers, being an example of the great elasticity such animals seem to possess in accommodating themselves to different conditions of habitat and temperature.

Since writing the above notes I have learned that Planorbis complanatus has been before recorded as occurring in Scotland by Mr William Haddin in his paper on the Distribution of the Helicidae,* but what adds to the interest is that his specimens, which he names P. marginatus, were also taken in Lochend Loch, which appears still, so far as known, to be its only Scottish habitat.

III.-Notes on an adherent form of Productus.
By Mr JOHN YOUNG, F.G.S.

Mr Young remarked that the recent discovery by Mr James Bennie, of the Geological Survey of Scotland, of a small adherent form of Productus was a point of considerable interest, when taken in connection with what are supposed to have been the uses of the long tubular spines which are fixed chiefly upon the auricular expansions of the ventral valves of many species of Producti. Various opinions have been given as to the uses of these spines, but that entertained by some Palaeontologists is, that they were used to moor the shells in the mud in which they lived, some species, such as Productus semireticulatus, having the spines as long as from four to six inches. In the interesting little form of Productus discovered by Mr Bennie, and which has been figured and described by Mr Robert Etheridge, jun., F.G.S., in the "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London," Vol. xxxii., p. 454, under the provisional name of Productus complectens, we have the interesting fact revealed, that here there is a small form of Productus in which the tubular spines are adherent to foreign bodies, such as the small stems of crinoids, which they have often circled or embraced while the crinoid was yet in the living state, the crinoid in some instances having afterwards completely enfolded the Productus. Specimens of this Productus, in various stages of envelopment by the crinoid, are figured by Mr Etheridge, the complete enfolding being indicated by a swelling on the stem of the crinoid. It has been conjectured

* Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glas., Vol. I., p. 247.

that this form of Productus may only be the young fry of some of our well known species, such as Productus longispinus, the shell becoming free after a certain stage of development. Mr Young said that he was, however, inclined to regard the adherent form as distinct. Mr Bennie's specimens were collected from Carboniferous limestone strata in the East of Scotland. In the West of Scotland this small adherent form has not yet been satisfactorily identified, but an example of an apparently much larger adherent form of Productus attached to a thick crinoid stem, has been found at Auchenmade limestone quarry, near Dalry, by Mr John Smith of Eglinton Iron Works. Unfortunately nothing but the adherent spines remain attached in this specimen. It was, therefore, with the view of calling the attention of the members to these adherent forms of Producti that Mr Young now brought the subject before the meeting, in the hope that other discoveries will show whether they are to be considered as distinct species or not.

IV.-Notes on the State of Vegetation in the Public Parks in January,

1877, and of the temperature and rainfall in 1876, as compared with the previous year. By Mr DUNCAN M'LELLAN, Superintendent of Parks.

Mr M'Lellan stated that in January 1876 there were found in flower at the various Public Parks of Glasgow, 17 species and 9 varieties of plants, while in the same month of 1877 there were only 8 species and 4 varieties; and that the difference might be accounted for by taking into account the great amount of rainfall during the last three months of 1876. Taking December as an example, there were only six days without rain, while during the corresponding month of 1875 there were 18 dry days. With excessive moisture, therefore, and a consequently low temperature, vegetation was almost at a standstill during January 1877, and a number of plants of delicate foliage suffered severely. Wet weather seems to retard vegetation to a greater extent than severe frost, the effects being longer felt. After a hard frost in December vegetation starts rapidly, but after a continued drenching the improvement is very slow. In the remarks submitted by Mr M'Lellan in September 1876, on the extremes of heat and cold during the spring and summer months, it was shown that the

weather on the whole had been favourable to flowers and trees. The first part of the year was rather backward, but with a brilliant summer and autumn there was a display of flowers in the Parks beyond expectation. In August and September last trees ripened their wood well, and they promise fair for this season. In January 1877 there were only 4 dry days, 9.39 inches of rain fell, the greatest amount in twenty-four hours being on

the 30th.

The register in the Queen's Park showed as the result for 1876, compared with 1875

Mr James B. Murdoch, Vice-President, in the chair. Mr H. B. Bailey, Newton, Mass., U.S., was elected a corresponding member.

SPECIMENS EXHIBITED.

Mr John Young, F.G.S., exhibited a specimen of the beautiful Glass-rope Sponge, Hyalonema Sieboldi, from the seas of Japan, recently presented to the Hunterian Museum by Mr J. P. Bisset. This sponge illustrates the fossil species, Hyalonema parallelum, found in the Carboniferous limestone strata near Dalry, Ayrshire, in having the stem made up of a twisted bundle of fine siliceous rods, and in the form of the siliceous spicula found in the body of the sponge. Mr Young stated that Dr Young and himself recently measured a bundle of the rods of Hyalonema parallelum, on a block of limestone at Trearne Quarry, near Beith, and found the length to be nearly 12 inches. The most interesting point which they had discovered in connection with these siliceous rods in the fossil species was, that many of the rods terminated with anchor-shaped processes.

The Rev. James E. Somerville, B.D., forwarded for exhibition a