The new species is similar to Astrangia conferta Verrill (Conn. Acad. Sci. Trans. Vol. 1, p. 530). That species, however, is .20" in diameter and has no more than twenty-four septa and reproduces by budding.

Astrangia oaxacensis n. sp.

Plate III, Fig. 2

Compound, encrusting. Corallites cylindrical .12" in diameter and .16" to .25" high; separated by irregular intervals which average about their diameter. Calice .10" to .12" deep. Outer walls very thin and often faintly costate. Basal disc often shows tendency to expand. Coenenchyma thin and irregular. Reproduction by budding and eggs.

Septa: 33 to 37, extensively granulated; usually free but often adjacent ones are joined by union of opposite granulations, usually about flush with the wall or slightly projecting. The inner edge is deeply serrate. They are perforated throughout except near the periphery or attached edges in contrast to A. browni in which the perforations are confined to the distal ends of the septa (Pl. I, Fig. 2). In other respects the septa of the two species are identical. The extensive perforations of the septa reduce them to trabeculae towards the center or in the region of the columella.

The surfaces of the septa are well covered with oval granulations or synaptaculae. Most of these are in irregular rows and are so closely spaced that they form many irregular ridges which have a general upward and outward direction.

The union of the trabeculae and of the synaptaculae of adjacent septa produce the very spongy spurious columella.

The perforations are arranged in an irregular rhombic plan so that the general result is that the columella has the appearance of a number of rods that rise from the base diagonally towards the center. These rods that form the columella are knobbed.

Some of the adult corallites and many of the immature ones have a collar-like band which covers the upper edge of the septa (Pl. III, Fig. 2, a). In some specimens thickenings of similar parts of the septa lower in the calice form a ring. This is sporadic in appearance and may represent a pathologic condition.

Locality: Five miles west of Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, Mexico. Remarks: This species occurs in crevices of rocks that are exposed to the full force of the waves. It has not been observed below medium high tide.

This species is similar to A. pederseni Verrill (Conn. Acad. Sci. Trans., Vol. 1, p. 529) but differs from that form in having a deeper calice and a shorter corallite.

FIG. 1.-Pocillopora palmata Palmer n. sp. Detail of Cotype, Pl. II, Fig. 2. X 6. d, Dissepiments. v, Verrucae. Note papillate surface and development of the two vertical septa.

FIG. 2.-Astrangia oaxacensis Palmer n. sp. Holotype X 5. Palmer Collection.

Recent. a, Inner collar.

less common in adult ones.

Pocillo pora palmata n. sp.

Plate II, Figs. 2 and 3

Plate III, Fig. 1

This coral differs from all other described species by its decided habit of developing in one plane thus producing a flat palmate colony and not the hemispherical heads of rounded branches commonly seen in other Pocillopora. The larger specimens figured is 6" by 5" and " to 3" thick.

The verrucae are low and ascending and form low papillae in place of the small branchlets of other Pocillopora. They contain three to seven corallites.

There are six septa. In practically all the corallites of the Recent specimen and in a majority of the Pleistocene specimens the two opposite vertical septa are abnormally developed. These join and form a conspicuous partition. (Plate III, Fig. 1).

Locality: Living in Puerto Angel harbor and Pleistocene near Escondido Bay, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Remarks: No living colonies are known. However, it probably lives in shallow water since fragments found along the strand-line are not beach worn.

This species is rare in the Recent but abundant in the Pleistocene.

SUBSTANCES REGULATING THE PASSAGE OF MATERIAL INTO AND OUT OF PLANT CELLS: THE LIPOIDS

By D. T. MACDOUGAL

Carnegie Institution of Washington

(Read December 2, 1927)

THE earliest contributions as to importance of these oil and ether-soluble substances in the activities of plant cells may be taken to have been those of E. Overton in 1890-1895 in which he framed the so-called mosaic theory of the boundary layer of protoplasm, in which oil-soluble phosphatides (phospholipins) were taken to alternate with proteins in an arrangement allowing the passage of both water and oil-soluble substances. The structure proposed is one now known to be impossible in the behavior of colloids, and during the following twenty years interest swung away to be concentrated on the proteins, in attempts at solution of the problems of permeability. The present occasion does not warrant a balanced or extended historical résumé. My purpose is to outline recent advances, and to note the phases of activity of the lipoids which may and must be taken into account in any consideration of the entrance of nutritive materials into plants and in the transference of metabolic products between cells.

Notable contributions on the subject were made in the first decade of the century. The findings of Pascucci as to the presence of lecithin, cholesterol and cerebrosides with proteins in the blood, the conclusions of Palladin and his associates as to the part played by lipins in respiration of plants are to be noted. It was also within this period (the first decade of the 20th century) that physiologists made observations as to the

1 Overton, C., "Osmotische Eigenschaften Vierteljahrschrift. d. naturf. Gesell. Zurich," 40, 1, 1895. Also "Allgemeine Osmotische Eigenschaften d. Zelle," 44, 110, 1899.

2 Palladin, W., und E. Stanewitsch, “Die Abhängigkeit der Pflanzenaturung von den Lipoiden," Biochem. Ztschrift, 26, 351, 1910.