Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON. Linnean Society, March 4.—E. Heron-Allen: The iconography of a myth. The legend that the stalked barnacle, Lepas anatifera, upon trees overhanging the water, or upon rotten timber, and, at maturity, produces a goose or duck, permeates scientific literature from the eleventh to the seventeenth centuries, and since the invention of printing has been fancifully illustrated. The myth appears to have passed current in the Near East in 1000 B.C., and is illustrated upon Mykenæn pots.—C. J. Stubble-field: Notes on the development of the trilobite, Shumardia pusilla (Sars). A large number of complete specimens have been collected, ranging in length from 0.24 mm. in the earliest or ‘Protaspid Period’ to 4.91 mm. in the latest or ‘Holaspid Period.’ The six thoracic segments are released one by one from dorsal fusion in the posterior shield or ‘transitory pygidium.’ S pusilla offers new evidence in favour of the hypothesis, advanced by Beecher in 1896, that the growing point of the new segments in trilobites was in front of the most posterior or anal segment.— H. Graham Cannon: On the post-embryonic development of the fairy shrimp (.Chirocephahis diaphanus). The development of Chirocephalus diaphanus is essentially similar to that of Estheria. Cœlomic sacs are formed as in the latter, but do not attain any considerable size owing to the precocious development of the pericardial cavity. The method of heart-formation differs in different parts of the body. The development of the maxillary gland shows no essential differences from that of Estheria. The antennal gland shows very clearly, between end sac and duct, a sphincter consisting of three cells connected directly to the cuticle. The musculature is more complex than that of Estheria, there being a series of ‘connective muscles’ between the dorsal and ventral longitudinal muscles. The dorso-ventral muscles, the proctodseal dilators, and probably the stomodæal dilators are of ectodermal origin.—H. W. Pugsley: Further notes on Fumaria and Rupicapnos. The material, largely the fruit of recent French botanical expeditions into parts of Morocco hitherto unexplored, has yielded some new species both of Fumaria and Rupicapnos. New forms were also discovered in Algeria during a visit to that country in 1922.