γ' 344, 21. Arist. De Gen. et Corr. 1. 8. 325 25, ὁμολογήσας δὲ ταῦτα μὲν τοῖς φαινομένοις, τοῖς δὲ τὸ ἓν κατασκευάζουσιν ὡς οὐκ ἂν κίνησιν οὖσαν ἄνευ κενοῦ, τό τε κενὸν μὴ ὂν καὶ τοῦ ὄντος οὐθὲν μὴ ὄν φησιν εἶναι. τὸ γὰρ κυρίως ὂν παμπλῆρες ὄν.

I cannot understand how scholars have been so long content to retain this text, which yields no sense and so clearly suggests the true reading. With it we must compare other passages in which the same matter is under consideration. Arist. Met. 1. 4. 985b 4 (V2 343, 44), Λεύκιππος δὲ καὶ ὁ ἑταῖρος αὐτοῦ Δημόκριτος στοιχεῖα μὲν τὸ πλῆρες καὶ τὸ κενὸν εἶναί φασι, λέγοντες τὸ μὲν ὂν τὸ δὲ μὴ ὄν, τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν πλῆρες καὶ στερεὸν τὸ ὄν, τὸ δὲ κενὸν καὶ μανὸν τὸ μὴ ὂν (διὰ καὶ οὐθὲν μᾶλλον τὸ ὄν τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἶναί φασιν, ὅτε οὐδὲ τὸ κενὸν <ἔλαττον Diels> τοῦ σώματος), αἴτια δὲ τῶν ὄντων ταῦτα ὡς ὕλην. Whether Diels was right in proposing to insert ἔλαττον we shall have presently to inquire. Simpl. Phys. 28, 11 (V2 345, 5), ἔτι δὲ οὐδὲν μᾶλλον τὸ ὂν ἢ τὸ μὴ ὂν ὑπάρχειν, καὶ αἴτια ὁμοίως εἶναι τοῖς γινομένοις ἄμφω. τὴν μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἀτόμων οὐσίαν ναστὴν καὶ πλήρη ὑποθέμενος ὃν ἔλεγεν εἶναι καὶ ἐν τῷ κενῷ φέρεσθαι, ὅπερ μὴ ὂν ἐκάλει καὶ οὐκ ἔλαττον τοῦ ὄντος εἶναί φησι. We are familiar with the pun which Democritus employed to enforce this point of doctrine, fr. 156 (V2 413, 11), μὴ μᾶλλον τὸ δὲν ἢ τὸ μηδὲν εἶναι. It seems to me obvious that in the passage under consideration μὴ ὄν is a corruption by itacism for μενόν. Indeed, I am inclined to think that the pun τό τε κενὸν μὴ ὂν καὶ τοῦ ὄντος οὐθὲν μεῖον derives from the same fertile brain as μὴ μᾶλλον τὸ δὲν ἢ τὸ μηδέν, and that we have thus found another fragment of Democritus partially converted into the Attic dialect. If this be conceded, it seems more probable that we should supply μείον than ἔλαττον (with Diels in Met. 985 9. Aristotle used the word, Eth. Nic. 5. 1. 11295 8, δοκεῖ καὶ τὸ μεῖον κακὸν ἀγαθόν πως είναι, where the true reading, corrupted in the MSS., had to be recovered from the commentaries and versions. Cp. Aeschyl. Ρ. V. 508, ὡς ἐγὼ | εὔελπίς εἰμι τῶνδέ σ' ἐκ δεσμῶν ἔτι λυθέντα μηδὲν μεῖον ἰσχύσειν Διός; Xenoph. Ages. 6. 3, τρόπαια μὴν ̓Αγεσιλάου οὐχ ὅσα ἐστήσατο ἀλλ ̓ ὅσα ἐστρατεύσατο δίκαιον νομίζειν. μεῖον μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν ἐκράτει κτλ.; Herondas 3, 59, ἕξει γὰρ οὐδὲν μεῖον; ibid. 15, 2, ὃς δ ̓ ἔχει μεῖον ὁ τούτου τι.

MIDDLETOWN, CONN.,
FEB. 25, 1913.

Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

VOL. XLVIII. No. 20. MAY, 1913.

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOÖLOGY AT HARVARD COLLEGE.- No. 236.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE GORGONIAN CORAL PSEUDOPLEXAURA CRASSA WRIGHT AND STUDER.

BY WAYLAND M. CHESTER.

THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOÖLOGY AT HARVARD COLLEGE. No. 236.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE GORGONIAN CORAL
PSEUDOPLEXAURA CRASSA WRIGHT
AND STUDER.1

BY WAYLAND M. CHESTER.

Presented by E. L. Mark, March 12, 1913. Received April 5, 1913.

genus, Pseudoplexaura. The new genus is characterized by them as follows: "axis horny, with a central calcareous portion, the outer layer of coenenchyme is soft and when dry friable; the inner layer contains a number of light purple or violet coloured irregularly stellate spicules or spindles with few rays." It is to be distinguished from Plexaura, in addition, by the following features, among others: colony feebly branched, older portions of horny axis solid, younger portions with calcareous particles in the center; polyps placed close together in an irregular spiral, completely retractile tentacles without spicules or having a circlet of them at their base; spicules mostly spiny spindles, with numerous pink stellate forms and a few club-shaped with attenuated foliaceous expansions.

The important characters of the colony are: the relative smallness of the spicules; spicules in the outer cortex, and irregularly stellate forms in the inner cortex; the massing of the latter to such an extent as to make the inner cortex firmer when dried, while the outer is friable; the absence of spicules in the tentacles and polyps; the sluggish but complete retraction of the polyps within the cortex; and the smooth cortex surface without projecting calyces in the contracted or dried colony. The polyps are numerous. When they are completely expanded the tentacles of adjacent polyps overlap, and the coenenchyme is hidden. Each tentacle has ten to twelve pairs of pinnae.

Of the three groups of alcyonarian corals,- Alcyonacea, Pennatulacea and Gorgonacea,- only representatives of the first and second have had their minute structure studied recently; the Gorgonacea, to which Pseudoplexaura belongs, have received little attention except from von Koch (87) in his very important but early comparative study. Studies on the Alcyonacea have been relatively numerous. Von Koch ('82) described briefly the structure of Clavularia and other alcyonacean forms. Bourne ('95) described Heliopora coerulea and later made a very complete study of the origin and structure of its skeleton ('99). Ashworth ('99) studied the minute structure of Xenia Hicksonii Ash. and Heteroxenia elizabethae Köll. He found gland cells in the stomodaeum and correlated their presence there with the absence of the ventral and lateral mesenterial filaments. Hickson ('95) has given a detailed account of the cell structure of Alcyonium digitatum, and Pratt (:05) has described the digesting and mesogloea cells in several members of the Alcyonidae. She found a relatively large number of granular gland cells in the stomodaeum of feeding colonies and very few or none in starved ones.

She