A preliminary account of an earlier investigation of this nature has been given in a previous paper (Redington and Priestley, 1925), and it is intended to record here the results of further work, with particular reference to questions of growth and development. The new data that are presented are the result of two series of experiments, which will be called Series B and C, whilst the earlier work will be referred to as Series A. A critical review of the relevant literature has recently been published (Redington, 1929), so reference will only be made to such work when it has a direct, positive, or negative bearing on the results recorded here.

The collection of fossil corals from British Somaliland described in the following paper was made by Mr R. A. Farquharson, M.A., M.Sc., F.G.S., Government Geologist, during his survey of the country in 1923–24.

The first known fossil coral from Somaliland was collected in 1894–95, and in 1898–99 a collection of Jurassic, Eocene, Oligocene, and Pleistocene corals was made by Mr and Mrs Lort-Phillips, Miss Cole, Mr Aylmer, Miss Gillet, and Captain Marshall, and described by Professor Gregory, F.R.S. In 1907 Mr T. W. Vaughan described some Pleistocene and Recent corals from French Somaliland. A further large collection of Jurassic, Oligocene, and Pleistocene corals was made by Mr B. K. N. Wyllie, B.Sc., and Dr W. R. Smellie, both geologists on the staff of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and described in 1925 by Professor Gregory.

In 1926 a quantitative examination of the fauna of the intertidal sands in the Cumbrae, Firth of Clyde, was begun, and the results proved so interesting that it was decided to extend the survey to other parts of the Scottish coast, the object being to study the variation in density and composition of the fauna, with special reference to the two groups of molluscs and polychætes, from place to place, and at various levels on the beach. During the past two years observations have been made in three widely separated areas, namely, on the Ayrshire coast and Firth of Clyde, on the southern shore of the Moray Firth, and on the east coast of Scotland and in the Firth of Forth. In all, twenty-five bays or stretches of coast have been visited, and over one hundred and fifty quantitative collections worked through.

Ectocarpus siliculosus was named by Dillwyn (5) in 1809 and described by him in the British Confervœ of that date. It was included by Harvey (9) in the Phycologia Britannica under the same name, but according to Hauck (10) in the Meeresalgen Deutschlands und Oesterreichs the specific name should be attributed to Kützing (21), though Hauck himself, following Kjellman (12), is of the opinion that the plant should be regarded as a variety of E. confervoides (Roth) Le Jol. If this view be correct, the plant should be E. confervoides (Roth) Le Jol var. siliculosus (Dillwyn); but in a paper entitled “Beiträge zur Kenntnis einiger Ectocarpus-Arten der Kieler Föhrde” Kuckuck (15) discusses the validity of the species siliculosus. He emphasises certain important features, notably the size and shape of plurilocular sporangia and the frequent presence of a vegetative filament as a prolongation of the sporangium, and considers them to be characteristics clearly distinguishing this plant from E. confervoides (Roth), from which such features are lacking. Batters (1) evidently agrees with Kuckuck in the integrity of the species, but attributes the naming of it to Kützing. The plant therefore appears in the Catalogue of the British Marine Algœ as E. siliculosus Kütz.

The importance of teeth in the classification of animals, from the days of Aristotle, Ray, Linnæus, Erxleben, Hunter, and their numerous successors, caused the occurrence of abnormalities to be frequently noted. Such, indeed, are found in many groups, e.g. in the Primates, Lemurs, Carnivores, Rodents, Ungulates, Sirenians, Edentates, and Marsupials. Whilst the main subject of this investigation was abnormal teeth in the rabbit, it was thought right to glance at the other groups of mammals, including various rodents besides the rabbit, so as to give greater breadth to the observations. Less attention, perhaps, was paid to the diminution or increase in the number of the teeth in the general groups than to their abnormality in structure or position.

The greater part of Kintyre is composed of metamorphic rocks. For the study of these rocks it is convenient to divide the peninsula into three separate areas as follows:—

A. Northern Kintyre.

B. The south-western corner of the peninsula.

C. A triangular area stretching from Campbeltown Loch southward (fig. 1).

A. With the exception of a few isolated patches of Palæozoic sandstones, conglomerates, and lavas, and igneous rocks of several ages, Northern Kintyre is composed of sedimentary schists and grits, metamorphic limestones, and schistose igneous rocks which, as a rule, are associated with the limestones.

Dr G. S. Carter, on his expedition to the Gran Chaco of South America in the year 1926–27, collected a fairly complete series of the developmental and adult stages of Callichthys. Several species were represented among the adults obtained, but the developmental stages are almost entirely those of Callichthys (now called Hoplosternum) littoralis. Callichthys belongs to a small subfamily of freshwater fishes belonging to the group Siluridæ. The fish was first described under the name of Callichthys littoralis by Hancock (10). He gives a brief description of the external form and tells how the fish make a regular nest of leaves in which they lay the eggs, and which the male and female both guard most carefully.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, attempts have been made recently to bring Œnotheran cytology into lino with the parasynaptic theory of meiosis. Boedijn (2, 3) has described a peculiar conjugation of the chromosomes which he identifies as parasynaptic; Kihara (23) prefers to suppose the “doppelketten” origin of chromosome rings, such as he has found in Rumex; while Darlington (7) has put forward an extension of Belling's (1) hypothesis of segmental interchange.

The author recalls the various opinions which have been expressed as to the relationships of Blanckenhorn's genus Dictyoconus to other foraminiferal types. He shows how Dictyoconus has been affiliated to the genera Lituola, Lituonella, and Coskinolina by such authorities as Messrs Schlumberger, Douvillé, and Schubert in the past; but has since been dissociated from them by Professor Cushman in his recent monograph on the Foraminifera. The author then discusses the grounds for this dissociation, which seem to him to be inadequate; and he describes his discovery, in certain Lower Eocene beds of Northern Baluchistan, India, of numerous specimens of Didyoconus, Coskinolina, and Lituonella, mixed indiscriminately together within the same narrow limestone bands, and deceptively similar in external appearance. He describes the differences between these genera—differences which are confined to the peripheral portion of the test—and shows how sections of the three Indian forms reveal the closest agreement in their internal characters as a whole; their generic characters alone affording the means of distinguishing between them. He therefore regards these Indian forms as affording clear evidence of the close affiliation of these three genera. These Indian forms, which are the first representatives of their respective genera to be found so far east, are very similar to such western forms as Dictyoconus egyptiensis (Chapman), Coskinolina liburnica Stache, and Lituonella roberti Schlumberger and Douvillé; but they have individual peculiarities of their own, and so are described by the author as three new species.

The Leaf-spot Disease of Red Clover, which, as the name implies, confines its attacks to the leaves, is caused by the fungus Pseudopeziza Trifolii (Biv-Bern.), Fckl., (1), (7). It is responsible for the appearance, in early stages of disease, of small purplish spots, which later become brownish-yellow or black in colour. These spots ultimately bear the fruiting discs or apothecia which are found abundantly on both living and dead leaves. The disease was very prevalent, and caused considerable damage to the hay crops at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, Aberystwyth, in 1923 and 1925. Williams (11), in his extensive studies of the clover plants at this Station, observed that in these years certain varieties were much more susceptible to the disease than others. He states that in the majority of the early varieties, which were more seriously damaged than the later, most of the lower cauline leaves were completely killed off and were shed before the crops were cut. He adds that there does not appear to bo any marked difference between the various late varieties as regards their susceptibility to this disease. The writer, from his own observations of these crops in the field, was struck by the marked frequency with which the apothecial discs occurred in clusters of from three to five in number, and accompanied, though not so frequently, by a similar cluster on the opposite side of the leaf.

In a previous paper (4) the quantitative distribution of the molluscs and polychætes in certain intertidal muds and sands on the Scottish Coast was discussed, but there still remained several other types of shore such as (a) a river mud-flat, (b) grounds at the heads of sea lochs on the West Coast, and (c) the more exposed shores of the Western Islands, where conditions might possibly differ greatly from those already considered, with corresponding changes in the fauna. Since the publication of the first paper quantitative samples have been collected in each of these areas. Taking the survey as a whole, collections have now been made on such widely different parts of the coast that the peculiarities of the distribution of the above two groups can be stated with a fair degree of accuracy. The present paper is divided into two sections, the first dealing with the additional observations, the second with the survey as a whole.