THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY,

INCLUDING

ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, ann GEOLOGY.

(BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE ‘ANNALS ’ COMBINED WITH LOUDON AND

CHARLESWORTH’S ‘MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. )

CONDUCTED BY

PRIDEAUX JOHN SELBY, Esa, F.LS.,

CHARLES C. BABINGTON, Ese., M.A., F.B.S., F.LS., F.G.S.,

JOHN EDWARD GRAY, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.LS., V.P.ZS. &c.,

AND

WILLIAM FRANCIS, Ph.D., F.LS,

VOL. X.—THIRD SERIBSApcorian ans

\ 242105

ey oe

fonal Musev™:

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS.

SOLD BY LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS j SIMPKIN, MARSHALL,

AND CO.; PIPER AND CO.; BAILLIERE, REGENT STREET, AND PARIS:

LIZARS, AND MACLACHLAN AND STEWART, EDINBURGH,

HODGES AND SMITH, DUBLIN: AND ASHER, BERLIN.

1862,

**Omnes res create sunt divine sapientie et potentiz testes, divitiz felicitatis

humane :—ex harum usu bonitas Creatoris; ex pulchritudine sapientia Domini;

€x ceconomia in conservatione, proportione, renovatione, potentia majestatis elucet.

Earum itaque indagatio ab hominibus sibi relictis semper zstimata; a veré eruditis

et sapientibus semper exculta; malé doctis et barbaris semper inimica fuit.”—

LINNZUs.

“ Quel que soit le principe de la vie animale, il ne faut qu’ouvrir les yeux pour voir

qu'elle est le chef-d’ceuvre de la Toute-puissance, et le but auquel se rapportent

toutes ses opérations.”—BRuCKNER, Théorie du Systeme Animal, Leyden, 1767.

ree see s+ « « » « » Lhe sylvan powers

Obey our summons ; from their deepest dells

The Dryads come, and throw their garlands wild

And odorous branches at our feet ; the Nymphs

That press with nimble step the mountain thyme

And purple heath-flower come not empty-handed,

But scatter round ten thousand forms minute

Of velvet moss or lichen, torn from rock

Or rifted oak or cavern deep: the Naiads too

Quit their loved native stream, from whose smooth face

They crop the lily, and each sedge and rush

That drinks the rippling tide: the frozen poles,

Where peril waits the bold adventurer’s tread,

The burning sands of Borneo and Cayenne,

All, all to us unlock their secret stores

And pay their cheerful tribute.

J. Taytor, Norwich, 1818.

FLAMMAM,

CONTENTS OF VOL. X.

[THIRD SERIES.]

NUMBER LV.

I. Description of some new Species of Entomostracous Crustacea.

Page

By bALED, M.D. WLS. (Plate ].) --css:eccccecsecsenenrnpecssgen oes }

II. On the Systematic Position of the Charybdede. By Fritz

WVRUINGETEE weletedces os csi sseesaasacciratt Uso sbi bene oseeacieeaneaes suena sms axe 6

III. On the Occurrence of a Species of Regalecus among the Rocks

at St. Andrews; with a few Notes on its Anatomy. By Rosert

Wa Lxer, Assistant-Curator of the St. Andrews Museum.......--...00 15

IV. Descriptions of new Species of Phytophagous Beetles. By

SUING ESAS onion deen eevee cs ce eW ede esaguaruannes eae dang ean ecle peesese= 17

V. Revision of the Natural Order Bignoniacee. By BERTHOLD

SSEUEENIPAUNENAU ELE) Soe Bie Mer Sistecar ae al aiarelslelaieiiere le:e'siiets soiele wets a'slelsletcleinetein tieteieisteit= 29

VI. On the Functions of the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. By

NM MA RRIGA Wij ules So naiesn ine sy cis civat ss anne’ deal msins naidvisees)p acelneinie'gs.s wae

VII. On the Rhizocephala, a new Group of Parasitic Crustacea.

By Dr. Frirz Mtuuer, of Desterro. (Plate IL.) .........ssesseeneeeeees 44

New Books :—Manual of British Botany, by Charles Cardale Babing-

ton, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., Professor of Botany in the University

of Cambridge. — British Conchology; or, an Account of the

Mollusea which now inhabit the British Isles and the surrounding

Seas, by John Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., F.G.S. &c. ....seceeeeeees 50—57

Proceedings of the Royal Society; Zoological Society ............ 57—76

On the Animal of Zonites excavatus, &c., by J. Gwyn Jeffreys ; On

the Occurrence of Gyrodactylus elegans in Shropshire, by the

Rev. W. Houghton ; Experiments on the Migratiens of the Ento-

zoa, by MM. Pouchet and Verrier; On the Early Stages of Mi-

iv CONTENTS.

Page

crodom mutabilis, by M. Elditt; On anew Species of Bird of the

Genus Lipaugus of Boié, by P.L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 76—80

NUMBER LVI.

VIII. On the Age of the New South Wales Coal- fields. By the

Rev. W. B. CLARKE, M.A., F.G.S. &e. weeeeeeeeees oe scene tee Penner 81

IX. On Entoniscus Porcellane, a new Parasitic Isopod Crustacean.

By Dr. Fritz Muuuer, of Desterro. (Plate IL. figs.8-16.) ......... 87

X. Notice of the Discovery, by the Barao do Castello de Paiva, of

the Fossil Helix coronula recent, and other new Land-Mollusea, in

Madea: “By RT. Lowk, MA: 2. scoscccacsecsamaaccsssanasyeveseress siecee) BOO

XI. Notice of a new Species of the Carabideous Genus Mormolyce.

By J. O. WESTWOOD, M.A. Ses. ssnenesassstnescscererecccerecasnceverssras 96

XII. Notes on Cambridge Geology. By Harry Srecey, F.G.S.,

Woodwardian Museum. I. Preliminary Notice of the Elsworth Rock

and associated Strata ....... Spuqpenodb gd aocssoes sag atess-coe ecHicoeseca-tsunecs 97

XIII. On the Functions of the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. By

11S Vas CU Gr Ot ae Seer ieengadichoorrer Dab dese adareasebonoco-1 Mancsda iedas. ses 111

XIV. Notice of a second Species of Paragorgia discovered in

Madeira by Mr. James Yate Johnson. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R,S.. 125

XV. A Revision of the History, Synonymy, and Geographical

Distribution of the recent Cranie and Orbicule. By Lovett

Rinmiviis (LIS; iG. sco coneks swat enetelstoadse bole soncncen cpeeeneaines acon neaee 126

XVI. On Ephedra. By Joun Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. ...... 133

New Books :—The British Ferns, by Sir W. J. Hooker; with Drawings

by W. Fitch.—Catalogue of a Collection of American Birds be-

longing to Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., See. Z.S.,

Editor of ‘The Ibis.’ Tlustrated by 20 Plates ............ 140—143

Proceedings of the Royal Society; Zoological Society ......... 144—157

Notice of a new Species of Cyclemys from the Lao Mountains, by

Dr. J. E. Gray; On the Transformation of Entozoa, by P. J.

Van Beneden; Description of a new Genus of Tree-frogs, from

Ecuador, by W. Peters; Discovery of Microscopic Organisms in

the Siliceous Nodules of the Paleozoic Rocks of New York 157—160

NUMBER LVII.

XVII. Notes on rare and little-known Fishes taken at Madeira.

By James YATE JOHNSON, Cor. Mem. Z.S..........cccsececoncacsenecees 161

CONTENTS. Vv

Page

XVIII. On the Mexican Species of Hydroport. By the Rey.

US ROEOn (SEAR MALY LUIS. veccsccecsacstvecstasuorsesdevecectee EE ERED 173

XIX. Descriptions of Indian and Burmese Species of the Genus

Prarivetz.. By W. EH. BENSON, sq. cosets tc.Seccossaviak dus cevstce even dE

XX. Notes on some Chinese Condiments obtained from the Xan-

thorylacee. By W. F. Dante.tu, M.D., F.L.S., Staff-Surgeon,

Army Medical Staff. (Plate V.) .........0000 Wetec cor See seeping aeiesswesenk 195

XXI. On some additional Species that are common to Carboniferous

and Permian Strata; with Remarks on the Recurrency of Carboni-

ferous Species. By James W. Kirxsy. (Plate IV.) .......... eves DOD

XXII. On Synapta digitata and its supposed Parasite. By A.

PVA Ul Maascnsncntat. «tasaasansecases Sdetsniet as'gaisiedelsntiaclWale'na de obacists Ensen asm anne en 216

XXIII. On the Discovery of Ancient Remains of Emys lutaria in

Norfolk. By ALrrep Newron, M.A., F.L.S. (Plates VI. & VII.) 224

Proceedings of the Zoological Society ........scsesscsescsseseeeeeee 228-239

On the Hyracotherian Character of the Lower Molars of the supposed

Macacus from the Eocene Sand of Kyson, Suffolk, by Prof.Owen ;

On a new British Mygale .......0...cessee paconnnsscmae ¥agiua ess tanseess 240

NUMBER LVIII.

XXIV. Contributions to the Natural History of the Infusoria. By

T.W. ENGELMANN. (Plate III.) .............+. daqasecd sidadearacnnss ean ust od

XXYV. Descriptions of a new Genus and some new Species of Naked

Mollusea. By Josaua ALDER and ALBANY Hancock, F.L.S. ... 261

XXVI. A Synopsis of the Species of Crocodiles. By Dr. J. E.

Gi AGES OCs) aa ceatsteenencs entoatioetuniad telgse's sorcinee Gar eecwas kein neces 265

XXVII. Notes on rare and little-known Fishes taken at Madeira.

By James YATE JoHNSON, Cor. Mem. Z.5. ..........0c00e neleruiretet aero 274

XXVIII. On Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera. By T. Ver-

NONGWOLLASTON,| MGA, FRiLiiSe coscdscsccseecerescocvnasees Weiss sees ceetacses 287

XXIX. On the Animal and Affinities of the Genus Alaba; with a

Review of the known Species, and Descriptions of some new Species.

Py EE RATA WES. OS RECs os UE ioe cot te duasececnegrsevdstectevedesstss 293

XXX. On an apparently undescribed Spider from Cochin China.

By Dr, Ausept GounTuer. (Plate VIII, fig. A.) ...s00...sessesrcescoers 299

XXXI. Some Remarks on the Genus Trachinus. By Dr. ALBERT

Conver, -(Llate WM tigss BC, D2). ts. csccvecsodvesoersseecdetaabies 301

vi CONTENTS.

New Book :—The Natural History of the Tineina, by H. T. Stainton,

assisted by Prof. Zeller, J. W. Douglas, and Prof. Frey. Vols. IV.

EOMVIDN cn) cea enaescaeevenmeneeese ccc sander anciseeneens@ccee ae tae eaee eee Eee

Page

XXXII. Note on the Discovery of an extremely minute Vertebrate

Lower Jaw in Mud dredged at St. Helena. By Dr. Wauuicu, F.L.S.

304

Proceedings of the Zoological Society ......s+++ Sanwneeneeecrsatire 308—319

Notice of a New Leopard from Japan, and Description of a New

“Wild Goat”? (Capricornus Swinhoei) from the Island of Formosa,

by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.; Death of Fishes in the Sea during

the Monsoon ...... Poe Spade! SSS 0H yarade nogU Satna AR sSemetnan ote

NUMBER LIX.

XXXIII. On the Pro-Embryos of the Chare. By M. PRINGSHEIM

XXXIV. Description of a new Species of Hydroporus, Clairv. By

the Rev. HamueT Cxiark, M.A., F.L.S.

He ser eee tere reeresoseses weores

XXXV. A Synopsis of the Species of Alligators. By Dr. J. E.

GR ARs HenRGS. eC, cece eaiciacon as «a eniscs aesnewamenalcae ech asy Mee REM se > ene eee eae :

XXXVI. On Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera. By T. Ver-

NON WiOHEAST ON, IMGA HeIS. Saacccccascies asec iceirecisactaacce nee eeerts

XXXVII. On a Species of Limopsis now living in the British Seas;

with Remarks on the Genus. By J. Gwyn Jerrreys, F.R.S.,

HUNG aSe gOGGs, crac csmpin onsdiejas sajaician bessnaneaeaaiiestent: mataemenme nes saech ee se areamenaeee

XXXVII. On some new Species of Scissurellide from*the Seas

of China and Japan. By ArTHUR ADAMS, F.L.S., &. ....csscseeeees

XXXIX. Descriptions of newly discovered Spiders captured in Rio

Janeiro by John Gray, Esq., and the Rev. Hamlet Clark. By Joun

SANG W AUD RIGS 2 «1 come tuigs ce scisistss's peseeee Seinieiclasjsteinietesieistae « eetancteepianinetta

XL. A Catalogue of the Zoophytes of South Devon and South

Cornwall. By the Rev. Tuomas Hincxs, BA. ...... eiieeteseneschotee

XLI. On the Unicorn of the Ancients. By the Rev. W. Hovucuron,

TRUE GSA ean Sener Gr era se Saue ti ance soc dencnageusasa scogasasborran ARE

New Books :—Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift (Journal of Natural History),

founded by Dr. H. Kroyer; edited by Prof. T. C. Schjodte at

Copenhagen. Third Series, 1861. [Kréyer, “ Contributions to

the History of Myside;” Meinert, “ Anatomy of the Larva

of Gastrus Equi; Didrichsen, “ Botanical Observations ;”

Schjédte, “ Danish Harpalini” and “ Larvee of Coleoptera,”’ &c.]

—The North-Atlantic Sea-bed; comprising a Diary of the Voyage

320

321

326

> oon

331

343

346

360

. 363

CONTENTS. vil

Page

on board H.M.S. Bulldog in 1860, and Observations on the Pre- :

sence of Animal Life, and the Formation and Nature of Organic

Deposits, at great Depths in the Ocean, by G. C. Wallich, M.D.,

F.LS., F.G.S. &c. (Part I.)—On the various Contrivances by

which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by Insects, and

on the good effects of Intercrossing, by Charles Darwin, M.A.,

oll) Gs I BRORSAGee RE BOce coe eC CRCOCRER EC dC CUCOED) Mee Eur SNe Sane 370—388

Proceedings of the Zoological Society ........csssssscssaseecsaecens 388—397

Notice of a New Species of Cynopterus from Morty Island; the King

Crab (Limulus Polyphemus) found on the English Coast; and

Notice of a new Species of Bosh-Buck (Cephalophus bicolor) from

Natal, by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e.; On the Larve of Hypo-

derma, by F. Brauer; On the Natural and Artificial Production

of Cork in the Cork-oak, by M. Casimir de Candolle...... 397 —400

NUMBER LX.

XLII. On the Phenomena of Motion in the Pseudopodia of the

Rhizopoda, and especially on the so-called Granular Movement and

the supposed Coalescence of the Pseudopodia. By Prof. Reicnrerr 401

XLII. Description of a singular Shell from Southern India, allied

to Tanalia; with Remarks on a Travancore Batissa, and on the

Himalayan Form Tricula. By W. H. BENSON, Esq. .........eceeesees 414

XLIV. On the Unicorn of the Ancients. By the Rev. W. Houcu-

TONG Vite Aue Rl se teniiaciaisiennt ces sbuiavwincle cadet aeemeabesersorsececcewesciessess 416

“XLY. On the Animal and Float of Janthina. By ARTHUR ADAMS,

Lill 9 CAGE Ga Gaoe: pecan an poe hb: God cacece sacnadeeacecaceanc Sead dtecnerseecseenee 417

_ XLVI. On the Animal and Affinities of Scalide, a genus of Mol-

lusea from Japan. By ArTHuR ADAMS, F.L.S. &e. ........seeeseeeee 420

XLVII. Descriptions of newly discovered Spiders captured in Rio

Janeiro. By JOHN BLACKWALL, FLAS. ....ccccsccscsscrcsscecssescccece 42]

XLVIII. Note on the supposed “ Discovery of an extremely minute

Vertebrate Lower Jaw in Mud dredged at St. Helena, by Dr. Wallich,

Pees osbwe. spENce BATH, FLR.S. BUS, Se: vsdscs.ce.ce cs. sunen 440

XLIX. On the supposed Vertebrate Lower Jaw, dredged in Mud

at et. Helena. By Dr. WALLICcH, F.L.S., F.G.S..” -.cc..cccecececnecene 44]

L. Descriptions of a few West-African Birds. By G.R. Gray ... 443

LI. Onthe Aquiferous and Oviducal System in the Lamellibranchiate

Mollusks. By Grorer RouuEston, Esq., M.D., F.L.S., Linacre

Professor of Anatomy; and C. Ropertson, Esq., Demonstrator of

Anatomy, Oxford .......... AS EERO OOCE SCORE COS DELCO COL TEEC AREER ECC RODIcaEnacr 446

vill CONTENTS.

Page

LII. On the Production of similar Gonozooids by Hydroid Polypes

belonging to different Genera. By the Rev. Toomas Hincxs, B.A.

(Pinte DN ics! 1Gr 21) ole cddccceevecscssceucdastet deers sevaemed at aesedtate 459

New Book :—Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow, M.A., by

the: Rey, lueonard Jemyns, MA, | ccscesade~ tapes taasecge Scnemecionpeciers 461

Proceedings of the Zoological Society ...csscccsssesscsceeeectscees 464—472

Remarks in reference to the Gracula pectoralis of Mr. Wallace, and

Note on the Otothrix Hodgsoni, by G. R. Gray; On the Gorilla,

by Thomas J. Moore; Note on Pleuronectes sinensis, Lacép., by

Dr. A. Giinther; Note on the Size of a Seal at the time of birth,

by Drad. Ey Gray; FORUS! Genie tea densscntececmaacaccenare 472—475

PLATES IN VOL. X.

PuaTte J. New Species of Entomostracous Crustacea.

II. Lernzodiscus Porcellanee.—Sacculina purpurea.—Entoniscus

Porcellanz.

III. Conjugation in the Infusoria.

IV. Carboniferous and Permian Fossils.

V. Xanthoxylum Danielli.

Vir f Fossil remains of Emys lutaria.

VIII. Cyphagogus Mouhotii—Pterygoid teeth of Trachinus draco.

IX. Gonozooids of Hydroid Polypes.—New British Zoophytes.

THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[THIRD SERIES.]

Srlauadeeanereshsecre per litora spargite muscum,

Naiades, et circdm vitreos considite fontes :

Pollice virgineo teneros hic carpite flores :

Floribus et pictum, dive, replete canistrum.

At vos, o Nymphz Craterides, ite sub undas ;

Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco

Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas

Ferte, Dez pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo.”’

N. Parthenii Giannettasii Ecl,1.

No. 55. JULY 1862.

I.—Description of some new Species of Entomostracous Crustacea.

By W. Barrp, M.D., F.L.S.

[Plate I.]

IN one or two late Numbers of the ‘Annals and Magazine of

Natural History’ (Oct. 1859 and Sept. 1861), I have described

several new species of exotic Entomostraca bred in this country

from mud brought in a dry state from the neighbourhood of

Jerusalem, which was placed in pure water and left to stand a

certain time during the warm weather of spring and summer.

The number of species amounted to six; and it was interesting

to observe the great number of individuals of two or three of the

species amongst these, that successively made their appearance

as the warmth of the weather increased. Since then I have had

another opportunity afforded me of observing the extraordinary

power the ova of these animals possess in resisting the action of

long-continued drought. Sulzer and several other authors assert

that the adults themselves possess this power also, and maintain

the opinion that, after being completely dried up for a length of

time, they revive when placed in water. I am not prepared to

deny this in toto, especially when they are in their native haunts,

deeply immersed in the soft mud ; but the experiments of Straus

and Jurine upon individuals exposed to artificial exsiccation go

to prove the contrary of Sulzer’s statement. That the ova of

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist, Ser. 3. Vol. x. 1

2 Dr. W. Baird on new Entomostracous Crustacea.

many Entomostraca, however, possess this faculty in a great

degree there can be no doubt. In the beginning of the spring

of this year I had a small quantity of dry mud from South

Africa supplied to me by Mr. Henry Woodward of the British

Museum, This mud had been given to him by Mr. W.S. M.

d’Urban, who received it from Dr. Rubidge as taken by him

from the bed of a dried-up “vley” (or large pond) near Port

Elizabeth, Cape Colony, in August 1861.

In the month of January 1862 it was placed in some pure

spring-water, care having been taken to see that it contained no

animal or vegetable matter. In April, as the weather became

somewhat warm, a number of ,small Entomostracous Crustacea

made their appearance. These were all young animals, evidently

bred from the ova contained in the mud. Numerous specimens

of the carapaces of two or three species were found lodged in

the mud; but no-adults-revived-from-their exsiccated state.

One of these dried carapaces was that of a Phyllopodous Crus-

tacean, a species of Hstheria, which ] have described in a paper

read before the Zoological Society this year, and which I have

named Estheria Rubidget. No young of this species have as yet

made their appearance ; and only one species of the Branchio-

poda has showed itself. This is a species of Daphnia, closely

resembling in almost every particular the Daphnia longispina of

Miller (=D. pulex, var..a of the ‘ British Entomostraca’). This

Daphnia would appear to be, along with the D. Atkinsoni from

Jerusalem (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3. vol. iv. p. 281, pl. 5.

fig. 2) and D. Newporti from India (Proe. Zool. Soc. 1860, p.446),

the representative in those countries of our common European

Daphnia pulex. Two species of Lophyropodous Crustaceans

have shown themselves also. One of these, not quite satisfac-

torily made out, is a species of Cypris somewhat resembling the

English species C.itristriata. The other, which has arrived at a

state of maturity, is a very distinct species; and of this I sub-

join a figure and description. .

Legion LOPHYROPODA.

Order OSTRACODA. Family Cypridide.

Genus Canpona.

Candona d’ Urbani, Baird. PI. I. figs. 1, la, 6.

Carapace elongately oval, flattened at both extremities, nar-

rower posteriorly than anteriorly. The central portion of the

carapace is much swollen, and has a slight indentation at about

one-third from the anterior extremity, indicated by a slightly

raised knob or protuberance on the side near the dorsal margin.

Externally the surface of the carapace is hispid with short strong

Dr. W. Baird on new Entomostracous Crustacea. 3

setee, and variously marked with dark-green streaks, and, when

examined by the lens, appears entirely covered with punctations.

The ventral margin is slightly concave or sinuated in the centre,

while the dorsal margin is nearly straight for half its length,

then slopes down at each extremity, the anterior of which is

rounded, and the posterior somewhat acuminate. The valves

of the carapace unite closely in the centre of the ventral margin,

but are slightly gaping at both extremities. Internally the

centre of the valve is of a dull colour, while the two extremities

are shining and smooth, and there is a slight duplicature of the

shell at the edge. The spot marked externally by the slight

protuberance near the anterior margin is internally represented

by a depression. The lucid spots on the carapace are small and

indistinct.

Length 3 lines ; breadth 14 line.

Hab. Freshwater ponds, Cape Colony.

> This is about the largest species belonging to the family

Cypridide that I have yet seen. A number of dead valves were

found in the mud, but only two or three living specimens made

their appearance. One, which must have been bred from a dried

ovum, made its appearance at the end of April. At first small,

it gradually grew to what I suppose, from the size of the dead

specimens in the mud, to be its full growth, about the middle

of May. It is the specimen figured. Its habits were rather

peculiar. It generally kept close to the bottom of the vessel in

which it was preserved, either walking upon the mud or, when

the weather was cold, digging under the surface or creeping

under the little lumps of earth that remained unincorporated.

When it rose to the surface of the water, it was by walking up

along the side of the vessel, descending afterwards, as it were,

by its own gravitation.

A few other species of Ostracodous Entomostraca from other

habitats have occurred to me, figures and descriptions of which

I here subjoin.

1. Cypris unispinosa, Baird. Plate I. figs. 2, 2 a, d.

Carapace elongately oval, a little narrower anteriorly than

posteriorly. The carapace is moderately tumid, the most pro-

minent portion being near the anterior extremity. Ventral

margin nearly straight, slightly sinuated or concave ; the dorsal

margin is nearly straight for about half its length, then slopes

down to each extremity. Externally the carapace appears to be

smooth, until examined by a tolerably high power, when it is

seen to be minutely punctate, and it is marked by several dark-

ereen streaks and lines. The right valve is peculiarly marked

by being at its posterior extremity prolonged into ie sharp

4 Dr. W. Baird on new Entomostracous Crustacea.

spine, while the left valve is rounded and free from any such

prolongation. The valves are nearly equal in breadth, and do

uot overlap each other at their ventral margin, but appear to fit

into a slight groove, which, when viewed from the interior, may

be seen to run all round the ventral margin and the edges of

both extremities. The sete on the pediform antennee are five i in

number, long, and finely plumose.

Length 2 lines; breadth 1 line.

_ Hab. Sandwich Islands; W. Newcomb, Esq. Jamaica; HE.

Chitty, Esq.

2. Cypris Texasiensis, Baird. PI. I. figs. 3, 3a.

Carapace of an ovoid shape, narrowed and somewhat flattened

anteriorly, considerably swollen and tumid posteriorly, and of a

dull uniform white colour, with the exception of the margin of

the anterior extremity, which is of a dark hue. Ventral margin

nearly straight, or only slightly sinuated, but distinctly marked

with a notch near the anterior extremity, somewhat resembling

that of a Cypridina. Dorsal margin rounded, as well as both

extremities. The two valves fit closely to each other. The sur-

face of the carapace is quite smooth and shining or only slightly

punctate, the punctations being only visible when under a high

power. Lucid spots placed near the middle of the valve.

Length 13 line; breadth at broadest part 1 line.

Hab. Texas; Mr. Cuming.

As only the empty carapace remains, I was unable to distin-

guish whether this species belongs truly to the genus Cypris or

Candona.

3. Cypris Chittyensis, Baird. PI. I. figs. 4, 4a, d.

Carapace elongately elliptical, narrow, and of a uniform green

colour, marked here and there with streaks of a darker green

hue. The ventral margin is sinuated in the centre ; the dorsal

margin and the two extremities, which are both of equal size,

are rounded. External surface of carapace quite smooth and

shining. The edges of the valves, especially internally, are

strongly sulcated, and at either extremity there is, on the inside

of the shell, a kind of shelf which is also strongly striated. The

posterior shelf appears the larger of the two. Pediform antenne

each furnished with a bundle of-about four or five setze, which are

of exactly the same length as the antenna, but are not plumose.

The caudal filaments are of a peculiar form ; ; they are of mo-

derate length, flattened, and differing from each other in some

respects. One of them is strongly ‘serrated or toothed on its

outer edge, while the other (which is somewhat narrower) is

simple, or is without the strong teeth or serrations which cha-

Dr. W. Baird on new Entomostracous Crustacea. - 5

racterize the first described. Each of them give out, as usual,

two short appendages or fingers at its extremity, both of which

are strongly serrated.

Length 1 line; breadth } line. ;

Hab. Yallah’s Hill, Jamaica; Ti. Chitty, Esq.

4. Cypris Verreauxii, Baird. Plate I. figs. 5, 5 a,

Carapace oval, elliptic, of a green colour, with darker patches

and streaks of the same hue. Ventral margin slightly sinuated

about the middle of its length; dorsal margin rounded. Extre-

mities nearly equal in size, and rounded. Surface of valves

smooth and shining. Internally the valves are furnished with

a shelf at each extremity, which, as well as the edgés of the

valves themselves, are simply striated. The setz of the pediform

antenne are short, and not plumose. Caudal filaments alike,

both finely serrated on the edges, and sending off two short

appendages, which are rounded and sharp-pointed, and very

finely serrated. This species is considerably like the preceding,

but is broader and shorter; the edges of the shelf internally are

merely striated, while those of Chittyensis are strongly sulcate.

The setee of the pediform antenne and the caudal filaments

differ also considerably.

Length ? line; breadth nearly } line.

Hab. Chili; M. Verreaux.

5. Cypris Yallahensis, Baird. PI. I. figs. 6-6,

Carapace rotundately ovoid, much swollen, narrower ante-

riorly, of a green colour. Ventral margin slightly sinuate at

about the middle of its length. Dorsal margin rounded ; greatest

height at about its middle. LHxtremities rounded, Externally

the surface of the carapace is hispid and strongly punctate.

Length about ¢ line; breadth about the same.

Hab, Yallah’s Hill, Jamaica; E. Chitty, Esq.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE I,

Fig. 1. Candona d’Urbani, on its side, magnified 8 diameters: 1a, the

same, seen from underneath, magnified 8 diameters, with natural

size annexed; 1 @, internal view, magnified 8 diameters.

Fig. 2. Cypris unispinosa, on its side, magnified 8 diameters; 2a, the

same, seen from underneath, magnified 8 diameters, with natural

size annexed; 20, internal view, magnified 8 diameters.

Fig. 3. Cypris Texasiensis, on its side, magnified 8 diameters, with natural

size annexed; 3a, the same, seen from underneath, magnified

8 diameters.

Fig. 4. Cypris Chittyensis, on its side, magnified 20 diameters ; 4 a, the

same, seen from underneath, magnified 20 diameters, with natural

size annexed; 4, internal view, magnified 20 diameters.

& M,F. Miller on the Systematic Position of the Charybdeide.

Fig. 5. Cypris Verreauxii, on its side, magnified 20 diameters; 5 a, the

same, seen from underneath, magnified 20 diameters.

Fig. 6. Cypris Yallahensis, on its side, magnified 40 diameters ; 6 a, the

same, seen from underneath, magnified 40 diameters, with natural

size annexed,

IIl.—On the Systematic. Position of the Charybdeidee.

By Fritz MULLER*.

EscHscHoutz’s section of the Discophore phanerocarpe formed

a well-defined group of closely allied animals, united by a great

number of common characters :—the disk a shallow and smooth

segment of a sphere, but capable of being more strongly arched

during natation, with a notched margin, in the notches of which,

always to the number of eight, are the marginal corpuscles with

crystals insoluble in acids; round the mouth four arms, and

alternating with these, in peculiar pits, the sexual organs, form-

ing bowed bands folded lke frills; the stomachal filaments m

the same place, and so forth. The mouth, indeed, was sometimes

freely open (Meduside) and sometimes closed, and, instead of it,

numerous orifices on the arms (Rhizostomide) ; but this pecu-

liarity of the Riizostomide, important as it certainly is for their

mode of obtaining nourishment, did not disturb the morpho-

logical unity of the group, as it is derived without difficulty from

the ordinary form of mouth+. Some subsequently diseovered

somewhat anomalous forms of Meduside likewise did not pre-

judice the unity of the general picture, which they only served

to completet.

* Translated from Wiegmann’s ‘Archiv,’ 1861, by W.S. Dallas, F.L.S,

+ Gegenbaur (Zeitschr. fiir wiss. Zool. viii. p. 210, note) declares the

polystomism of the Rhizostomide to be a paradox not reconcilable with

the general plan of the Meduse, and even doubts the fact. The fact is

easily ascertained, and has lately been repeatedly proved, even by myself.

Its explanation also seems to me to be pretty easy. A temporary poly-

stomism, if it may be so called, may be easily seen in Hydroid Meduse,

where the margins of a much-folded four-lobed oral fringe lie upon each

other here and there.. Thus also the polystomism of the Rhizostomide will

result from the growing together of the membranous laminz which sur-

round the arms of the Phanerocarpe. When the orifices of the arms

have the form of long slits, often continued into strap-like tentacles, as in

a Cephea of the South-Brazilian coast, scarcely any doubt can remain as

to this mode of production. It seems more difficult to explain the perfora-

tion of the peduncle of the arms, or its “‘ origin with four roots,” as occurs

in the same Cephea, and, according to Forskal, in C. octostyla.

{ Such as Nausithoé, Koll., with its eight extremely simple sexual glands,

and Trichoplea, nu. g., with marginal corpuscles in deep niches on the under

surface, two inches from the undivided margin of the disk, which measures

two spans in diameter. Amongst the older, less accurately-known species,

Medusa persea, Forsk. (Rhizostoma, Eschsch.), is certainly to be placed with

the “ Acraspeda,” notwithstanding its undivided margin and large velum.

M. F. Miller on the Systematic Position of the Charybdeide. 7

’ It is otherwise, however, with the family of the Charybdeide,

which Gegenbaur arranged with his Acraspeda, the Phanero-

carpe of Eschscholtz. Charybdea marsupialis, Péron, and still

more Zamoya haplonema and T. quadrumana, described by me,

are opposed most decidedly in almost all the essential features

of their structure to the above general picture: a bell with

deeply furrowed sides and a broad velum, scarcely capable of any

alteration of form; the marginal corpuscles four in number,

distant from the margin, im deep niches of the outer surface of

the bell; along oral funnel, after the fashion of Thaumantias ;

sexual organs in the form of broad membranous lamine in the

wide:lateral pouches of the stomach, and therefore remote from

the stomachal: filaments; tentacles upon peculiar clavate or

hand-like processes ; a distinctly marked nervous system, &c.

2 In its external form (and this only is known) the Charybdea

periphylla, Péron, is almost still more strikingly in contrast to.

the ordmary Medusa ; it’ is, as it were, a Tamoya quadrumana

with hand-like appendages increased to sixteen in number, and

deprived of their tentacles. ae

It appears, therefore, scarcely possible to imagine transition-.

forms between the Charybdeide, on the one side, and the Medu-

side and Rhizostomide, on the other, or even to derive the two.

groups from a common fundamental form containing essentially

anything more than the general features of all Hydromeduse.

The intuitively clear picture of Eschscholtz’s Phanerocarpe

would fade into a shadow by the reception of the Charybdeide,

and at any rate their union would be perfectly unnatural. ;

And yet, if we will retain the usual bipartition of the Disco-,

phorous Acalephs, in which the systems of Forbes, Liitken, and,

Gegenbaur .have altered nothing but the names*, and which

even recurs (in respect of the Medusoid forms) when the Disco-:

phore, and rightly, are no longer recognized as. a systematic,

unity, as in the Acalephe and Hydroida of RK. Leuckart, the

Charybdeide can only find a place among the higher Medusa,

with which they have in common at least the stomachal filaments

and the insoluble contents of the marginal corpuscles. It can-

not be disputed that they are still further removed from the

Medusoid brood of the Hydroida.

On a former occasion, in describing the Tamoye, I already

thought of a preferable tripartition of the Discophore, and anti-

* Not the foundation, or principle of division, as Gegenbaur will have it.

Eschscholtz by no means regards the “ germ-cushions ” as either the sole

or most important character of the Phanerocarpz : he placed, like Gegen-

baur, the emargination of the margin in the first rank, and was very well

acquainted with “ the soft, membranous, annular lobe on the margin of the

disk,” as the common character of his Cryptocarpz. wi a

8 M.F, Miller on the Systematic Position of the Charybdeide.

cipated that this would derive support from the developmental

history. Still earlier, although information of the fact did not

penetrate to the place of my exile until subsequently, R. Leuckart,

following the same idea, had formed the section of Ceratostera,

but soon gave it up again; for his supposition has, as is well

known, proved to be quite destitute of foundation. Krohn saw

Pelagia noctiluca reproduce without change of brood, whilst

Busch traced the brood of Chrysaora, which is scarcely separable

generically from Pelagia, up to the polype-form. Among the

Hydroida, it has been shown by Gegenbaur that Trachynema

ciliatum, and by myself that Geryonia (Liriope) catharinensis,

are probably developed directly from the egg; whilst, on the

contrary, the supposition of the direct evolution of the #ginida,

founded solely upon the ciliary coat of the young of Aginopsis,

has lost its support by the discovery of ciliated brood in the

stomach of Cunina Kollikert.

Nevertheless, my formerly imagined grouping of the Disco-

phore has become more and more plausible with every new in-

vestigation. It appears to me that in this case, as in so many

others, the unfettered intuition of the older observers has hit

the right course in uniting with Charybdea marsupialis and peri-

phylla the Charybdea bitentaculata, which is now usually placed,

under the name of ginopsis mediterranea, J. Miull., or 4. bi-

tentaculata, Koll.*, in the family ginide, at the end of

the Cryptocarpe. Not that I would support the union of Cha-

rybdea and Afginopsis in the same genus, or even, after the ex-

ample of Liitken, in the same family ; but I am of opinion that

the families Charybdeide and Aiginide, Gybr., are to be united

to form a group of the Hydromeduse equivalent to the Siphono-

phora, Hydroida, and Acalephe (in Leuckart’s sense). To group

together the most highly organized of all known Hydromeduse,

and perhaps of all Coelenterata, the Tamoya quadrumana, and

the ginide, which apparently represent the lowest step in the

series of Hydromeduse, and some of which, such as Eurystoma,

Koll., only digest by the cavity of the lower surface, which is

partially closed by the velum +, certainly long appeared to me to be

rather a doubtful course. Since I have been able to examine care-

fully a species extremely similar to this Zurystoma both in form

* The difference of colouring can hardly be accepted as a specific di-

stinction in a group of animals in which, as in the Acalephze (Rhizostoma,

Chrysaora, &c.) and Hydroida (Corymorpha), the greatest variability of

coloration within the species may almost be regarded as the rule.

T I did not think I might doubt this representation of Kélliker’s (which

is probably erroneous) upon Gegenbaur’s authority alone, as in other Me-

duse I had not always found his statements perfectly well founded,—still

Las on account of any d-priori notions respecting “a general plan of the

eduse.

M. F. Miiller on the Systematic Position of the Charybdeide. 9

and in the development of the brood budding in the stomach, and

since I have again obtained Eschscholtz’s admirable ‘ System der

Akalephen,’ this hesitation has disappeared ; and I now regard

my view as sufficiently well founded to venture to submit it to

the judgment of zoologists.

The incompatibility of the Charybdeide with the Acalephe

of Leuckart has already been spoken of. Cunina, A¢ginopsis,

and their allies stand in a precisely similar position towards the

other Cryptocarpz or Hydroid Medusz. The disk of the latter,

although very variable in form, is still always entire at the mar-

gin, and either smooth, as in the other Acalephs, or furnished

with slightly projecting ridges running from the middle of the

back; they have always radiating vessels and an annular canal,

and the former, except when very numerous, in a fixed number;

the marginal vesicles, when present, are always roundish and

sessile ; the marginal filaments, although very variable in struc-

ture, always occupy the immediate vicinity of the annular vessel.

Lastly, in the structure of the sexual organs, the Hydroid

Medusee approach the Acalephze (Leuckt.) or Phanerocarpe ;

for, although their forms are exceedingly numerous, the extremes

are united by a tolerably close series of intermediate forms (from

the astomatous sexual clubs of the Medusz of Corymorpha to

the densely appressed ramifications along the radiating vessels

of Olindias*), they still always occupy the external wall of the

gastrovascular system, and empty their products externally. On

the other hand, the disk of Cunina and its allies is frequently, if

not always, notched at the margin+, and, as in the Charybdeide,

* Olindias, nov. gen. Habitus of Thaumantias mediterranea, Ggh. ;

four radiating vessels, and numerous (more than 100) retrograde vessels ;

at the margin extremely extensible filaments and slightly moveable tenta-

cles, both hollow and of indefinite number ; at the base of the tentacles are

the marginal vesicles in pairs; the sexual organs are arborescently ramified

along the radiating vessels. It is probable that the filaments (Fangfiden)

on the radiating vessels of Melicertum are nothing but sexual organs, and

this the rather, as even in the structure of the marginal filaments Olindias

approaches most closely to Melicertum. As a transitional structure from

the stomachal to the peripheral sexual organs, I may cite, not to refer to

undescribed forms, Lizzia Kollikeri, in which, according to Gegenbaur’s

observation, confirmed by me on a nearly allied species, the sexual gland

lying on the stomach is traversed by a branch of the radiating vessel.

t+ Gegenbaur is of opinion that the possession of a velum presupposes

an entire margin of the body, and for this reason, apparently, he denies,

in opposition to Eschscholtz and Kolliker and in contradiction to himself,

the notching of the margin in the 4/ginide; for in Agineta flavescens he

shows the gelatinous substance continuing itself in considerable thickness

upon the stomachal sacs; in the intervals, therefore, there are gaps or

notches of the gelatinous substance, z.e. “the body,” over which only

membrane is stretched; as in the ginide, which are destitute of an

annular vessel, only the cessation of the gelatinous substance can indicate

10 M. F. Miller on the Systematic Position of the Charybdeide.

traversed by deeper or shallower furrows, extending’a greater or

less distance upon the dorsal surface; the stomach has broad

lateral sacs, often in variable number, no radiating vessel or an-

aular canal; the marginal vesicles are usually pedunculate ; the

tentacles, never exceeding the number of the stomachal sacs, are.

always situated on the back, often springing very far from the

margin; they are, moreover, ‘characterized : sometimes by a pecu-

liar rigidity,:and sometimes by “a mobility not observed im

gther Medusee”’ (Eschscholtz*). The sexual materials of Cunina

are formed:im the interior of the lateral sacs, and, indeed, in:

their lateral angles, from which their place of formation extends’

in the form of a horse-shoe from one sac to another.

From all this, the alliance of Cunina, Afginopsis, &e. with the

Hydroida is equally loose and forced, and as little effected by.

any transitions as that of the Charybdeide with the Acalephe..

If, therefore, the separation of these two families from their pre-

sent alliances is not subject to any serious doubt, neither does

any such appear to present itself against their union. It is true

that a wide gap exists between Cunina and Tamoya, but not

wider than between the Medusoid of Corymorpha, without ten-

tacles, eyes, or mouth, and Olindias, or between Nausithoé and.

Cephea—a gap like that between the young brood and the ma-

ture animal, over which fancy readily finds a gradual passage by

intermediate steps, and not a wall of separation set up by incom-.

patible characters. From the shallow furrows in the flat, slightly

notched disks, often (according to Gegenbaur) of a cartilaginous

hardness, of many Cunine,. the intermediate form of gina

citrea leads to Charybdea marsupialis, and to the complex bells

of the Tamoye, whilst, even in both the extreme genera, the

combination of a velum with a disk not entire at the margins,

observed neither in Hydroida nor in Acalephie, occurs as a com-

mon character. From the flatly stretched stomachal membrane

the boundary between body and velum. As in the 4/ginide the muscular

membrane of the lower surface is continued over a notched margin, the

marginal membrane may, in like manner, be wanting in disks with entire

margins, even in Hydroid Medusz; at least, 1 am unable to detect any

trace of it in a small Campanularia-bud, Tintinnabulum resupinatum, u.s.,

which always swims with the disk reversed.

_* This is the case in gina sulfurea, as it is called in Eschsch. System

p- 9, or Aig. citrea, at p. 113. The second Eschscholtzian species, Agina

rosea, is probably to be separated from this, and referred to Cunina, as,

according to Eschscholtz’s figure (tab. x. fig. 3 a), it appears more natural

to ascribe to the stomach six lateral sacs excavated opposite to the origin

of the tentacles, than twelve such organs. If, with Gegenbaur, we charac-

terize the Avginide by “rigid tentacles,” the choice of the name after that

of a species distinguished from all other Medusz by the exact opposite

caunot be described as particularly happy. i

M, F: Miiller on thé Systematic Position of the Charybdeide.. 11

of Cunina, with its simple proteiform mouth, closely repeated in:

Atgineta, Polyxenia, and Aiginopsis bitentaculata, the four arms,

on the mouth of Aiginopsis Laurentii, Brdt., lead to the struc-

ture of the stomach in Charybdea and Tamoya. In the same

way the form of the sexual organs of Tamoya may be deduced

without constraint from those of Cunina; but neither the one

nor the other can be referred to the fundamental form’ deve-

loped in Hydroida and Acalephe. If Tamoya quadrumana has

an entire series of perfectly new parts not even indicated in Cu-

nina, such as a well-developed nervous system, there is nothing

remarkable in this; some of them, such as the eight finger-like

processes in the base of the bell and the Po: glands, are

totally wanting even in 7. haplonema.

The formation of the marginal eorgunelea 1S certencily essen-

tially different ; but we still know nothing about their develop-

ment in Char, ybdea and Tamoya, or of their structure in the

intermediate forms Aigina citrea and Aiginopsis Laurentii; and,

again, their difference is not more considerable than between

the eye-spots and marginal vesicles of the Hydroida,

The formation of the tentacles also is perfectly anomalous,

but nevertheless by their dorsal origin they contrast equally with

the marginal filaments of the Hydroida and Acalephe. The

tentacles of Cunina are rigid, those of Tamoya contractile ; but

those of the. young brood of Cunina are also contractile. The

tentacles of Cunzna are solid, those of Tamoya hollow ; but hol-

low and solid tentacles are exhibited by otherwise very nearly

allied genera, such as the various Campanularia-buds* ; nay, both

forms occur simultaneously or successively in the same animal

(Liriope). In this, therefore, no ground for the union of our

two families can be sought ; but that which especially speaks in

favour of it is that at present it is not possible to draw a marked

boundary-line between the two, and to refer the median forms

. * For the Campanularia-buds with solid and but slightly moveable

tentacles, exactly like those of Campanularia itself, I propose to retain

Dalyell’s name Tintinnabulum ; it appears that they are always born with

a greater number of tentacles. Here belongs also Hucope polystyla, Ggb.

What Gegenbaur describes and figures in this species as roundish inflations

of the annular vessel, directed into the substance of the disk, may be the

thickened roots of the tentacles, judging from the nearly allied Tintinna-

bulum resupinatum, n.sp. The Campanularia-buds with hollow filaments

dilated at the base and very contractile, of which, when set free, they have

only four and the first traces of four more (Hucope, Ggb., excl. E. poly-

styla), have, in my opinion, a title to the name of Thaumantias; for it

appears to me scarcely doubtful that it is to these, and not to T. mediter-

ranea, Ggb., that the two Eschscholtzian species of Thawmantias belong ;

and for them, therefore, in a division of the genus, the old name should

be retained, :

12 M. F. Miller on the Systematic Position of the Charybdeide.

to one or the other. Amongst these are A’gina citrea, which

approaches the higher forms in the four arms and the great

mobility of the tentacles, and ginopsis Laurentii, which allies

itself to them by the four arms at the mouth. So also Charybdea

periphylla, Péron, which resembles Tamoya quadrumana in the

form of the marginal appendages, but departs from the other

Charybdeide in the multiplicity of its tentacles.

I would consequently arrange the Charybdeide in the follow-

ing manner in the system of the Hydromedusz :—

HYDROMEDUSZ.

1, SrpHonorHora, including the free sexual animals (Chryso-

mitra).

2. Hyprorpa.

a. Tubularine, together with the Hydroid Meduse without

organs of sense or with eye-spots.

b. Sertularine, with the Hydroid Medusze with marginal vesi-

cles*.

In respect of the development, there are in this group—

a. Polypes without free sexual animals.

(3. Polypes with free sexual animals.

y. Free sexual animals without polypes (Trachynema,

Liriope).

3. AcaALerpHa, R. Leuckt. (Discophore phanerocarpe, Esch.).

a. Monostomatous (Meduside, Esch.).

b. Polystomatous (Rhizostomide, Esch.).

4, Heino (Agine, Liitk.).

a. Lower: Cunina (with Agina rosea, Esch.), Aigineta, Po-

lyxenia, Aiginopsis bitentaculata.

b. Higher: Charybdeide. A:ginopsis Laurentii?, Aigina (ci=

trea), Charybdea (marsupialis), Tamoya, Periphyila (C,

periphylla, Pér.).

* Gegenbaur was the first, as far as I know, who pointed out the im-

portance of the ocelli and marginal vesicles in the Hydroid Medusz, and

laid some stress upon the difference of the marginal filaments ; and, indeed,

the families of “‘ Craspedota” established by him, from being more natural

and depending less upon the exclusive application of one character, con-

trast very advantageously with those of Forbes, and even of Liitken, and

may serve aS a more convenient starting-point for further systematic at-

tempts. To future workers I would especially recommend a careful con-

sideration of the marginal filaments, by which, apparently, amongst other

things, the Geryonide and Thaumantiade of Gegenbaur might be more

sharply defined.

Mr. R. Walker on a Species of Regalecus. 13

III.—On the Occurrence of a Species of Regalecus among the

Rocks at St. Andrews; with a few Notes on its Anatomy.

By Rosrerr Waker, Assistant-Curator of the St. Andrews

Museum.

In the month of April last, my attention was called by Mr. J.

Howie to a fish cast ashore among the west rocks at St. Andrews.

This fish proved, after examination, to be a species of Regalecus,

very likely Banksii ; but, as it was rather too imperfect for exact

specific identification, I propose giving the following description,

which may assist zoologists in arriving at that determination :—

The fish was perfectly fresh, but much mutilated. The head

was entirely destroyed, and a considerable portion of the posterior

end of the body was wanting: as it was, it measured from what

appeared to be the coracoid (7. e. immediately behind the gills) to

the broken end 7 feet 2 inches; 9 inches deep at the coracoid ;

12 inches a little before the anus; and 8} at the broken end.

The body was very much compressed, and was of a sword-blade-

like shape, the greatest thickness being somewhat below the

middle of the depth, where it was 24 inches thick. From this

it gradually tapered away to the dorsal and ventral margins, the

dorsal edge being considerably the thinnest of the two, scarcely

amounting to }inch. There was a dorsal fin extending the

whole length, and consisting of 167 rays, which were much

broken, as was also their connecting membrane. The longest of

these rays measured 23 inches in length. There was no anal

fin. On the right side the pectoral and ventral fins were lost.

On the left side the pectoral consisted of eleven broken rays,

the longest about 1 inch in length; and the ventral, of a

spine about # inch in length, and } inch in thickness. The

skin was completely covered by what appeared to be bony tuber-

cles, the largest of which were arranged in four pretty distinct

longitudinal belts, which, from their size, gave to the sur-

face of the body a somewhat ridged-like appearance. These

belts or ridges varied from 12 to ? inch in breadth, and the

spaces between them were occupied by smaller tubercles. None

of these tubercles were regularly arranged, but seemed to be

placed without any regard to individual connexion or relation to

each other. Between some parts of the tubercles there was a

beautiful silvery-looking lustre, which was very easily taken off,

adhering to the fingers or to any object that came in contact

with it. There were a few faint dark streaks on the anterior

part of the body, proceeding from the dorsal margin and extend-

ing obliquely downwards and backwards, but not appearing to

cross the lateral line. The lateral line at the coracoid was about

one-third from the dorsal edge ; thence it descended obliquely

14 Mr. R. Walker on the Anatomy of Regalecus.

till about. halfway between it.and.the anus. It-then proceeded

pretty straight, but still converging towards the ventral edge as

it extended outwards. to the posterior end; at the anus it was

21 inches from the margin. The anus was 4 feet 6 inches from

the coracoid. The viscera were not particularly examined ; this

is the-less to be regretted, as the viscera of Regalecus have been

already clearly described by Messrs. Haneock and Embleton*.

But, on cutting open the fish, the czcal prolongation of the sto-

inach was observed to pass behind the anus for the whole length

of the portion preserved, and had evidently extended a consideré

able way beyond.

This specimen of Régilenis like the others that have tbe

found on the British shores, was very tender, and could have

been easily broken to pieces ; so niuch so that, on attempting to

draw it out of the pool of water in which it lay, with a common

crab-hook, which is quite thick and blunt at the point, the hook

went right through it. In fact, the use of the hook had to be

dispensed with, in order to preserve entire as much as possible

of the fish.

The internal structure was not further examined at this time.

The following description was drawn up from a piece of the fish

commencing about 6 inches behind the vent, and extending to

20 inches in front of it, and after it had lain eight months in

spirits.

The vertebral saliavan was enclosed by a strong fibrous cheat

or membrane, two branches of which proceeded from the upper

side of es column to form the neural canal; they were at first

about {45 inch apart, approximating as they ‘ascended, till they

finally coalesced about 4 inch above the vertebral column. From

this point a single membrane passed vertically up the middle of

the body, and enveloped the lower ends of the interneural spines.

From this central membrane there were three septa or bands

sent outwards on each side, till they became confluent with the

corium or inner skin. From the middle of each side of the

vertebral column there was another of these aponeurotic septa

sent outwards till they jomed the skin, and formed a strong

connecting-band between it and the vertebral column.

The hemal canal was formed by two membranes joedemind

from the lower side of the vertebral column, and passing down-.

wards about # inch, when they coalesced. There was a slight

swelling of the membrane at the coalescence, from which a band

or septum was sent out on each side to join the skin, and an-

other passed vertically downwards for a short distance, when it

enlarged considerably immediately above the abdominal cavity.

Pron. this enlargement two bands were sent outwards, one on

* Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vol. iv. p. 7 et seq.

Mr. R. Walker on the Anatomy of Regalecus. TS

‘each side, to join.the skin; other two proceeded downwards,

-and formed the lining of the abdommal cavity, at the lower edge

of which they again coalesced; enlarged, ‘and extended down to

the ventral margin. The septa or bands connecting the lining

membrane of the abdominal: cavity and the corium were very

numerous, from a little below its commencement down to the

ventral edge of the fish.

The vertebral column appeared to be only a stage in advance

of the primitive notochord, and presented no’appearance exter-

nally of being segmented, but looked like a continuous flexible

column, without any. prominence or depression to indicate where

the segments were. The only inequality visible was a slight

depression on the sides between the neural and hemal arches.

‘The column had a somewhat hexagonal appearance externally,

which was partly caused by its enveloping-membrane thickening

along the middle of each side, where it proceeded outwards.

‘When the column was bent from side to side, the joints were

apparent ; and when cut open, there was a slight depression ob-

served at the joints, which was caused by the cartilage of each

segment or vertebra not quite meeting that of the next.

The centra of the vertebrae were composed of what to the un-

aided eye appeared to be simple cartilage, and were entirely de-

void of ossification ; they measured on an average about 13 inch

in length, and had the appearance of gradually shortening,

the centra of the posterior end being slightly shorter than those

of the anterior. Each centrum was hollowed out internally at

both ends into a conical or hourglass-shaped cavity. The apices

of the cavities were separated from each — in the middle of

the centra by a layer of cartilage about 4; ich in thickness,

through which there was a small ee. virtually connect-

ing them together. The vertebral centra were } inch in dia

meter, their ‘contiguous cup-margins being very “thin, scarcely

amounting to ;4 inch. The cavities of the centra of the verte-

bral column were round internally, and were filled with a gela-

tinous-looking substance of sufficient consistency to retain its

conical shape at both ends after beg removed. This substance

had been the base of the primitive embryonic chorda dorsalis,

around which the cartilage had afterwards been developed.

In its latter condition it consisted of alternate swellings and

contractions corresponding to the imternal shape of the column ;

in this form it had extended, in all probability, the whole length

of the body. The neurapophyses consisted of narrow pieces of

cartilaginous-looking laminz developed in the walls of the mem-

brane which formed the neural canal. At their lower ends they

were firmly anchylosed to the middle of the centrum of each of

the vertebre; at their upper ends they coalesced at the same

16 Mr. R. Walker on the Anatomy of Regalecus.

point as the membrane, and in this way they formed a series of

rudimentary neural arches. The neural spines were about

34 inches long, and consisted, as well as the arches, of what

appeared to be the hardest cartilage in the fish; they were con-

fluent and perhaps connate with the neurapophyses, from which

they extended up to a little beyond the commencement of the

interneural spines. These neural spines were slender, flexible,

and not easily recognized in the central membranous partition

already referred to, in the walls of which they were developed,

and remained imbedded. The interneural spines commenced

about 44 inches below the dorsal margin. They were at first

small, thread-like, and quite hid in the envelopmg membrane,

but gradually enlarged as they approached the dorsal margin,

where they were about 3 inch across. ‘These spines began to

expand on both sides, before and behind, about half an inch from

their upper extremities. This expansion went on increasing till

each spine was half an inch in breadth, when the enlarged or

projecting portion joined that of the spine next to it, before

and behind, and thus formed a continuous cartilaginous and

strengthening ridge extending along the dorsal margin. The

lateral projections of the interneural spines did not extend quite

to the upper edge, but sloped away a little from the middle of

the upper ends of the spines downwards on both sides, which

formed a series of notches extending along the upper edge; each

notch corresponded to, and was placed immediately above, the

junction of each pair of spines. In these notches or cavities

oval-shaped pieces of cartilage were placed, and held by liga-

ments, which allowed them a free motion principally from side

to side ; to these cartilages the bifurcated fin-rays were attached.

There was a small disk-like addition on each side of the lower

ends of these double rays, which was in contact with, and firmly

held by ligaments to, the lateral surfaces of the oviform carti-

lages. The dorsal fin-rays were bifurcated for a considerable

part of their length ; it is very likely that they were confluent at

the points, but of this I am not certain, as none of them were

entire. For upwards of two inches of their length, however,

they appeared to have had only a membranous connexion.

he parapophyses existed as cartilaginous lamine developed in

the membranous walls of the hemal canal, anchylosed at their

upper ends to the middle of the lower sides of the vertebral

centra, and coalescing at the lower ends about three-eighths of

an inch below the vertebral column ; in this way they formed a

series of contracted hzemal arches, which contained the aorta

and the vena cava. ‘There were thread-like hemal spines con-

fluent with and proceeding downwards from the parapophyses, till

they were finally lost in the walls of the membrane a little above

Mr. J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles. 17

the abdominal cavity. From what was observed, it appears that

these spines grew longer as the cecal cavity grew less, towards

the distal end of the fish.

The Regalecus appears to be rather a rare fish everywhere,

its first recorded occurrence in Britain being in the ‘ Annual

cimens have been observed, all on the north-east coast. Its first

recorded occurrence in Scotland was of a specimen stranded at

the village of Crovie, in Banffshire, in 1844. Another was

stranded in the Bay of Cromarty in 1852. The St. Andrews

fish, in 1861, makes the third time it has been noticed on the

Scottish coast.

IV.— Descriptions of new Species of Phytophagous Beetles.

By Josrru 8. Baty.

Genus Lema, Fab.

Lema frontalis.

L. anguste oblonga, subcylindrica, nitida, testacea, pectore antice

abdomineque piceis ; capite (fronte excepto) nigro ; antennis sub-

filiformibus, articulo ultimo basi fulvo-albo; thorace transverso,

subcylindrico, lateribus medio modice constrictis, dorso ante basin

transversim sulcato, hie illic fortiter punctato, medio utrinque

unifoveolato ; elytris viridi-cyaneis, basi vix elevatis, infra basin

transversim depressis, sat profunde striato-punctatis, interspatiis

leevibus, remote punctatis, ad apicem subelevatis ; tibiis extrorsum

tarsisque fuscis.

Long. 2-23 lin.

Hab. Lizard Islands, Northern Australia.

Narrowly oblong, subcylindrical, nitidous, testaceous ; ante-

rior part of breast and the abdomen piceous; elytra cyaneous ;

apical half of tibia, together with the tarsi, nigro-piceous. Head

black, with the exception of a large oblong rufous patch on the

forehead ; face triangular, its lower portion slightly produced ;

epistome separated from the face by a deep groove, from the

apex of which an oblique sulcation runs upwards on either side

along the edge of the orbits ; upper portion of face coarsely punc-

tured, bilobed ; antennz moderately robust, subfiliform, basal half

of apical joint obscure white. Thorax transverse, sides mode-

rately constricted in the middle, the upper surface deeply im-

pressed in front of the base with a transverse sulcation, which

extends at either end into the lateral constriction, its middle im-

pressed with a single deep fovea; surface of disk coarsely punc-

tured on the sides in front and down the middle, the latter

part impressed on either side by a large deep fovea. Scutellum

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x.

18 Mr.J.8. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles.

longitudinally grooved, its apex obtuse. Elytra much broader

than the thorax, oblong, parallel in front, their apex rounded ;

upper surface transversely depressed below the basilar space, the

latter not elevated ; each elytron furnished with nine rows of deep

coarse punctures, which become, however, finer and less deeply im-

pressed towards the apex; interspaces nearly plane in front, in-

distinctly wrinkled transversely below the basilar space, thickened.

and subcostate towards the apex of the elytron. Legs pale tes-

taceous ; tarsi, apical half of four anterior tibiz, together with

the extreme apex of the hinder pair, nigro-fuscous; hinder

thighs slightly thickened.

Lema Bowringit.

L. elongata, subcylindrica, nitida, subtus nigro-cyanea, argenteo

pubescens ; capite thoraceque rufo-testaceis, illo pone oculos valde

constricto; oculis antennisque subfusiformibus nigris, harum arti-

culis ultimis duobus sordide albis, hoc cylindrico lateribus vix

pone medium valde constrictis, ante basin tranversim sulcato,

sub lente remote punctato; scutello nigro; elytris lete czeruleis,

parallelis, basi obsolete elevatis, punctato-striatis, interspatiis

antice planis, disco exteriore indistincte transversim corrugatis, ad

apicem subcostatis.

Var. A. capite thoraceque leete czeruleis, vertice obscure rufo.

Long. 23-3 lin.

Hab. Pulo-Penang.

Elongate, subcylindrical, nitidous, bluish black beneath, and

sparingly clothed with adpressed silvery pubescence ; head and

thorax rufo-testaceous; elytra deep metallic blue. Head con-

stricted behind the eyes; face triangular, epistome separated

from the face by a deep, acutely-angled groove; from its apex

two others run obliquely upwards, one on either side, along the

edge of the orbit ; inner portion of the latter stained with black;

labrum piceous; general surface of head minutely and distantly

punctured, front impressed with a single distinct fovea: antennze

subfusiform, moderately robust, black, their two terminal joints

dusky white, basal joints incrassate, ovate; second short, sub-

moniliform ; third and fourth each longer than the first, equal,

obconic; four basal joints nitidous, the rest opake. Thorax

subcylindrical, slightly longer than broad; sides broadly and

deeply constricted immediately behind their middle, narrowed

at the extreme apex, thickened before their apex; upper surface

impressed in front of the base by a deep suleation, which is ex-

tended at either end into the lateral constriction ; on the centre

of the disk are five or six longitudinal rows of fine subremote

punctures, visible only with a lens. Scutellum semiovate, ob-

tuse. Elytra much broader than the thorax, parallel, their ba-

Mr. J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles. 19

silar portion indistinctly elevated ; each elytron impressed with

ten rows of deep distinct punctures, the outer row sulcate ; inter-

spaces plane in front, subcostate towards the apex, each im-

pressed with a row of fine punctures; outer half of external

disk obsoletely wrinkled transversely ; hinder thighs ampullate,

much shorter than the abdomen, moderately imcrassate.

Var. A. In this variety the head and thorax (with the excep-

tion of an obscure patch on the vertex of the former) are con-

colorous with the elytra.

Genus Coxasposoma, Laporte.

Colasposoma Downesii.

C. anguste oblongum, convexum, metallico-viride ; labro, antennis

(his extrorsum nigris) pedibusque rufo-fulvis, genibus viridi-eeneis,

tarsis fuscis ; capite thoraceque fortiter subcrebre punctatis ; ely-

tris oblongis, subcrebre punctatis, lateribus transversim elevato-

reticulatis, intra marginem exteriorem longitudinaliter excavatis,

leete cupreis, utroque viridi-zeneo limbato.

Long. 3 lin.

Hab. Judia.

Narrowly oblong, convex. Head and thorax deeply, but not

coarsely, punctured ; antennz slender, filiform, two-thirds the

length of the body, their basal third rufo-fulvous, the rest black.

Thorax more than twice as broad as long, sides rounded, ro-

tundate-angustate in front. Elytra oblong, their sides parallel,

more coarsely punctured than the thorax, scarcely broader than

the latter; disk transversely impressed below the basilar space.

Genus Euryorg, Dalm.

Huryope monstrosa.

E. late subquadrato-oblonga, valde convexa, subgibbosa, sub-

nitida, picea; antennis pedibusque pallidioribus; thorace trans-

verso, crebre punctato, dorso subrugoso, utrinque excavato ;

elytris thorace latioribus, subquadratis, apice obtuse rotundatis,

tuberculis magnis elevatis hic illic inter se confluentibus nitide

rufo-piceis instructis, interspatiis subremote punctatis.

Long. 4—5 lin.

Hab. Port Natal.

Broadly subquadrate-oblong, convex. Head broad, somewhat

closely punctured ; epistome transverse, excavated on either side,

not distinctly separated from the face, the latter impressed on

its upper portion by a broad transverse groove. Thorax twice

as broad as long, its surface irregular, deeply excavated on

either side; lateral border rounded, narrowly margined, nar-

rowed behind the middle, all the angles produced. LElytra

20 Mr.J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles.

gibbous behind the middle, thence obliquely deflexed to their

apex.

Genus Curysometra, Linn.

Chrysomela eximia.

C. elongata, convexa, nitida, czeruleo-zenea, abdominis segmentorum

marginibus pedibusque leete eeneis, supra viridi-znea; antennis

extrorsum, plaga frontali, thoracis basi utrinque ampliata vittaque

centrali, scutello elytrorumque sutura vittaque discoidali lete

purpureis; thorace irregulariter punctato, lateribus incrassatis,

intra marginem longitudinaliter excavatis, profunde varioloso-

punctatis ; elytris sat fortiter subcrebre punctatis, punctis in striis

confusis dispositis, interspatiis aciculatis, irregulariter elevatis, ad

apicem subverrucosis.

Var. A. supra cupro-zenea, signaturis viridi-zeneis.

Long. 5-6 lin.

Hab. Mantchuria; collected by Mr. Bowring.

Elongate, convex, nitidous; body beneath metallic blue, with

a greenish tinge; apical border of the abdominal segments, to-

gether with the legs, brassy ; body above brassy-green. Head

nearly perpendicular ; face broad, distinctly punctured ; epistome

slightly depressed, separated from the face by an angular groove,

from the apex of which an ill-defined longitudinal grooved line

extends upwards on the face; the surface of the latter on either

side this groove is irregularly excavated; vertex with a large

purple patch ; antenn scarcely half the length of the body,

their outer half purple, and covered with a short adpressed fus-

cous pubescence. Thorax twice as broad as long; sides mode-

rately ampliate-rotundate, nearly straight and obsoletely sinuate

at their base; apical margin broadly excavated; upper surface

moderately convex, irregularly punctured; sides thickened, lon-

gitudinally excavated within, surface of excavated portion covered

with large irregularly confluent variolose punctures; a longitu-

dinal vitta down the middle of the disk, and a broad basal fascia,

dilated at either end, but abbreviated just before reaching the

lateral border, bright purple. Scutellum semiovate, obtuse,

bright purple, its surface covered with irregular depressions.

Elytra narrowly oblong, slightly broader than the thorax, nearly

five times its length; sides subparallel; apex rounded ; surface

somewhat closely covered with coarse, irregular, deeply impressed

punctures, arranged for the most part in irregular longitudinal

strie ; general surface of the elytra irregularly thickened, acicu-

late, subverrucose towards the apex; a sutural line and a broad

vitta on the disk, abbreviated at the base, bright purple.

This splendid species is very closely allied to our Ch. fulgida,

Stephens ; it is, however, nearly twice the size, and proportionately

Mr. J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles. 21

longer than that insect: it also differs in the form of the

adeagus.

Chrysomela Wallacet.

C. mas oblonga, parallela, fam. ovata, postice ampliata, convexa,

cuprea, nitida, subtus obscurior, purpureo tincta; antennis dimidio

corporis longioribus, nigris, articulis basalibus subtus piceis; tho-

race modice convexo, disco tenuiter punctato, lateribus rotundatis

incrassatis, intra marginem longitudinaliter excavatis et ibi pro-

funde varioloso-punctatis ; elytriy maris parallelis, fem. postice

ampliatis, valde convexis, subcrebre tenuiter punctatis, punctis in

striis confusis irregulariter dispositis.

Long. 33-5 lin.

Hab. Mantchuria.

Oblong and parallel in the male, ovate and enlarged towards

the posterior extremity in the female, convex, shining cupreous,

more obscure beneath, with a purple tinge. Head punctured ;

epistome depressed, bounded above by an acutely-angled grooved

line, either end of which is suddenly rounded, and from its apex a

faint longitudinal groove runs upwards to the vertex; antennz

rather slender, nearly filiform, rather longer in the male than half

the body. Thorax twice as broad as long ; apex broadly excavated;

sides straight and nearly parallel, rounded and narrowed before

the middle ; upper surface moderately convex ; disk subremotely

but distinctly punctured ; sides thickened, longitudinally exca-

vated immediately within the thickened portion, the excavation

itself being broad and deep on its hinder half, shallower and less

distinct in front, its surface covered with subremote punctures,

larger and deeper than those of the disk. Hlytra much more

closely and coarsely punctured than the thorax, the punctures

arranged in numerous irregular ill-defined rows. The sides of

the thorax vary somewhat in form in different individuals ; rarely

(in the male) they are rotundate-ampliate from the base; in the

female they are always less straight behind the middle than in

the other sex.

Chrysomela Krishnu.

C. anguste oblongo-ovata, convexa, cuprea, nitida; thorace modice

convexo, disco fere impunctato, lateribus rotundatis, a medio ad

basin angustatis, valde incrassatis, intus foveolatis, hic illic punctis

magnis sparse impressis; elytris ovatis, postice subattenuatis,

profunde gemellato-striatis, punctis purpureo-cupreis magnis in-

eequidistanter et remote positis in striis, strils nonnullis ponemedium

omnino deletis. j

Long. 4 lin.

Hab. India.

Narrowly oblong -ovate, convex, bright cupreous. Head

22 Mr.J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles.

nearly impunctate ; clypeus depressed, separated from the face

by an angular grooved line, from the apex of which a longitu-

dinal groove runs upwards to the vertex; antenne rather longer

than the head and thorax, moderately robust. Thorax twice

as broad as long; sides moderately rounded, narrowed from

the middle to the base; disk moderately convex, nearly impunc-

tate, a few minute punctures being visible only under a lens ;

sides thickened, bounded within by an irregular longitudinal

fovea, on which, and also for a short space on the outer surface

of the disk, are to be seen a few deep punctures congregated in

irregular rows and patches. Scutellum semiovate, obtuse.

Elytra scarcely broader at the base than the thorax, oval, some-

what narrowed towards their apex, the latter subacutely rounded;

surface of each elytron with about five double rows of large

coppery-purple, deep, circular impressions, placed remotely and

at unequal distances in each row, but rather more crowded at

the base, more distant on the hinder half of the disk, the fourth

double row from the suture being there entirely obsolete ; inter-

spaces smooth, impunctate.

Chrysomela Grutii.

C. oblongo-ovata, convexa, nitido-cuprea ; antennis nigris, ore tarsis-

que obscure virido-seneis; thorace sparse hic illic fortiter punc-

tato, lateribus paulo incrassatis, intra marginem leniter longitudi-

naliter excavatis et ibi profunde varioloso-punctatis, punctis con-

fluentibus ; elytris profunde et subremote punctatis, punctis sat

magnis, ad latera et pone medium in striis gemellatis dispositis.

Long. 33 lin.

Hab. Rangoon.

Oblong-ovate, convex, shining cupreous; antenne black ;

mouth beneath and tarsi obscure metallic green. Head remotely

punctured ; epistome and lower portion of face depressed, the

former separated from the latter by an angular groove, from the

upper edge of which three grooved lines run upwards on the

face—viz. one from the apex, extending to the vertex, and one

on either side, short, and running obliquely outwards towards

the eye. Thorax twice as broad as long; apex concavely exca-

vated; sides slightly rounded and narrowed, more quickly

rounded before the middle, above moderately convex; disk

somewhat sparingly impressed with coarse, deep, irregularly

congregated punctures, sides slightly thickened on the outer

margin, longitudinally excavated within, the excavated portion

covered with large, deeply impressed, confluent, variolose punc-

tures. Elytra ovate, impressed with numerous subremote,

large, deeply impressed punctures, confused on the anterior two-

thirds of the disk, arranged on the posterior third of each elytron

Mr. J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles. 23

in about four double longitudinal rows, the outer one extending

the whole length of the elytron, just within its lateral border ;

interspaces smooth.

Chrysomela Bonvouloirii.

C. anguste oblonga, modice convexa, nitida, cuprea, pedibus obscure

eneis ; antennis nigris ; thoracis disco remote punctato, lateribus

paulo incrassatis profunde subvarioloso-punctatis ; elytris fortiter

striato-punctatis, striis nonnullis pone medium obsoletis.

Var. A. obscure zenea.

Long. 33 lin.

Hab. India; collected by Mr. Bretingham.

Narrowly oblong, moderately convex, bright cupreous, niti-

dous; legs obscure neous. Head punctured; epistome de-

pressed, separated from the face by an angular line; antennz

half the length of the body, black. Thorax two and a half times

as broad as long; sides rotundate-angustate from base to apex,

rather more quickly narrowed in front ; anterior margin broadly

concave ; upper surface smooth, distinctly but sparingly punc-

tured on the disk, the punctures being irregularly crowded ;

sides thickened on the lateral border, a narrow band along this

latter being entirely free from punctures, a longitudinal space

immediately within, however, is covered with numerous large

deeply impressed subvariolose punctures, which extend also a

short distance along the base of the thorax, Scutellum semi-

ovate, smooth and impunctate. Elytra slightly broader than

the thorax, their sides subparallel, the apex rounded ; surface

of each elytron covered with rows of deeply impressed punctures ;

on the posterior half of the surface, many of the rows are obso-

lete, causing the remaining rows to appear gemellate ; inter-

spaces remotely punctate; outer half of anterior disk indi-

stinctly wrinkled transversely.

This species varies somewhat in the amount and also in the

depth of the punctation of its surface.

Chrysomela Stevensit.

C, anguste oblonga, modice convexa, nitida, leete cuprea; capite.

scutello pedibusque obscure zeneis ; antennis nigris ; thoracis disec

hic illic fortiter punctato, lateribus extus incrassatis, intus obsolete

longitudinaliter depressis, rude varioloso-punctatis, fere rugosis ;

elytris rude punctato-striatis, striis irregulariter dispositis.

Long. 42 lin.

Hab. Rangoon.

Narrowly oblong, moderately convex, bright cupreous, niti-

dous; head, scutellum, and legs obscure xneous. Head irre-

gularly but not closely punctured; clypeus nearly occupied by

24 Mr.J.8. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles.

a narrowly ovate transverse depression ; face with a longitudinal

groove running down the middle; antennz half the length of

the body, black. Thorax more than twice as broad as long;

sides nearly straight and parallel, subsinuate behind their middle,

rounded and narrowed in front, anterior angles subacute, poste-

rior acute ; surface slightly convex, impressed here and there

with deep punctures, congregated in irregular rows; sides

thickened at their outer edge, broadly but obsoletely excavated

within, their surface covered with large, irregular, deeply-im-

pressed, conflueut punctures. Scutellum semiovate, subacute.

Elytra broader than the thorax, subovate; surface covered with

numerous irregular rows of deeply-impressed punctures ; inter-

spaces somewhat irregular, indistinctly wrinkled transversely on

the anterior half of the outer disk.

This species is more coarsely and closely punctured than C.

Bonvouloirui ; the rows of punctures on the elytra are more nu-

merous, and the general surface of the latter is irregular.

Genus Ausrratica, Chevr.

Australica erudita.

A. oblongo-ovata, convexa, flavo-fulva, nitida; vertice, antennis ex-

trorsum, thoracis vittis duabus brevibus, infra apicem positis,

fasciaque basali, utrinque abbreviata, medio sinuata, scutello pe-

dibusque (femoribus anticis quatuor basi subtus exceptis) nigris ;

elytris punctato-striatis, nigro signatis ; pectore nigro-piceo.

Long. 3 lin.

Hab. Dawson’s River, Australia.

Oblong-ovate, convex, shining flavo-fulvous; the outer two-

thirds of the antennz, the vertex, two short subapical vittz and

a narrow basal fascia on the thorax, the scutellum and legs (the

basal half of the under surface of the four anterior thighs ex-

cepted) black. Head broad and flat, minutely punctured; epi-

stome scarcely distinct from the face; antennz slender. Thorax

three times as broad as long; sides rounded and narrowed from

their base to their apex ; upper surface convex, finely punctured,

sides obsoletely excavated ; lateral margin rather more coarsely

punctured. LElytra broadly oblong, scarcely broader than the

base of the thorax, each elytron impressed with ten rows of

punctures, the first ‘short ; interspaces. very minutely punctured ;

the suture, a curved line which, commencing at the base on the

humeral callus, runs obliquely downwards and inwards to the

lower edge of the basilar space, where it abruptly terminates at a

short distance from the suture, a narrow wedge-shaped patch on

the outer disk below the shoulder, placed parallel to the curved

line, and three longitudinal’vittz on the hinder disk, the first

commencing at the outer edge of the oblique line just before its

Mr. J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles. 25

apex, running parallel to the suture, and terminating long be-

fore reaching the apex of the elytron, the other two commencing

about the middle of the outer disk, connected at their base by

an obliquely transverse line, the inner one extending nearly to the

sutural angle, the outer one short, black. Breast nigro-piceous.

Australica (Stethomela) gibbosa.

A. subquadrata, apice subangulata, dorso valde convexa, gibbosa,

nitido-cuprea; thorace hic illic punctis magnis rotundatis viridi-

metallicis profunde impresso ; elytris postice declivibus, utrinque

apicem versus ad latus longitudinaliter excavatis, punctis mag-

nis rotundatis remotis viridi-metallicis in seriebus decem in-

zequidistanter positis profunde impressis; antennis pallide flavis,

articulis intermediis fuscis.

Long. 43-53 lin.

Hab. Dawson’s River, Richmond River.

Subquadrate, subangulate at the apex of the elytra, very con-

vex, gibbous, shining cupreous. Head broad, flat ; face divided

down the middle by a longitudinal groove, which extends nearly

to the anterior margin of the epistome; the latter transverse,

short, separated from the face by a nearly horizontal grooved line ;

antenne rather more than half the length of the body, slender,

filiform, pale yellow; intermediate joints fuscous. Thorax more

than twice as broad as long; apex concavely excavated; sides

nearly straight and parallel behind, rounded and narrowed in

front ; upper surface smooth, impressed here and there with

irregularly congregated, large, round, deep, obscure metallic-

green punctures. LElytra scarcely broader than the thorax at

their base, slightly narrowed behind, conjointly angled at their

apex, very convex, somewhat abruptly deflexed behind the mid-

dle; each elytron on its outer side covered with a broad but

shallow depression, which extends from just before the com-

mencement of the posterior third of the elytron, and reaches to

immediately within the sutural border, leaving the apical por-

- tion of the suture itself elevated, and forming with its fellow a

distinct ridge; on the surface of each elytron are ten rows of

remote impressions similar to those on the thorax; they are

rather larger and more deeply impressed, and are placed at un-

equal distances on each row; on the extreme outer border is a

single row of smaller and more crowded punctures, concolorous

with the disk; interspaces subremotely covered with faintly-

impressed reticulations.

Genus PLAaciopERA, Redt.

Plagiodera Triment.

P. ovato-rotundata, modice convexa, nitida, late cupreo-zenea; an-

26 Mr.J.8. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles.

tennis fulvis, extrorsum nigris; thorace medio longitudinaliter

canaliculato; elytris irregulariter subseriatim punctatis, viridi-

eeneis, cupreo vix micantibus, marginibus basali et suturali limbo-

que submarginali leete cupreis ; abdominis limbo fulvo maculato.

Var. A. obscure cerulea aut nigro-cerulea; elytris viridibus,

marginibus concoloribus.

Long. 3-4 lin.

Hab, Cape of Good Hope; collected by Mr. Trimen.

Ovate-rotundate, moderately convex, nitidous, bright cupreo-

eeneous ; antenne moderately subincrassate, fulvous, their outer

half black. Thorax narrowed from base to apex; sides nearly

straight, suddenly narrowed and rounded at the apex; surface

of disk slightly irregular, sides indistinctly thickened, impressed

here and there with a few deep scattered punctures; central

portion of disk impressed with a short longitudinal groove.

Elytra with their outer margin moderately dilated, its surface

irregular, somewhat thickened; bright metallic green, with a

slight cupreous reflexion, an ill-defined line on the sutural and

basal margins, and a submarginal stripe on the outer border,

bright cupreous. Sides of abdomen marked with a row of ful-

vous spots.

Var. A. Body obscure metallic blue or bluish black ; elytra

metallic green, the cupreous markings obsolete.

Plagiodera viridivittata.

P. subrotundata, modice convexa, nitida, obscure viridi-zenea ; an-

tennis nigris ; thorace hic illic leviter excavato, irregulariter punc-

tato, punctis ad latera profundius impressis ; elytris irregulariter

punctatis, punctis prope suturam subseriatim dispositis, cupreis,

utriusque margine laterali, linea suturali yittisque duabus, plus mi-

nusve distinctis, metallico-viridibus.

Long. 4—43 lin.

Hab, Port Natal.

Very closely allied to the last species, rather larger, more

rotundate ; sides of elytra obsoletely angled; thorax more deeply

pitted, and more coarsely punctured; longitudinal groove on

disk obsolete, sides less straight, rather more distinctly rounded;

antennz entirely black ; abdomen without the marginal spots,

Plagiodera cinctipennis.

P. rotundata, convexa, fulva aut pallide rufo-fulva, nitida ; elytris

punctatis, punctis subseriatim dispositis, obscure zeneo-cupreis,

fulvo marginatis; antennis extrorsum nigris.

Long. 23 lin.

Hab. India; collected by Mr. Bretingham.

Rotundate, moderately convex, nitidous ; antennz short, sub-

Mr. J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles, 27

incrassate, their outer half black. Thorax rounded on the sides,

narrowed in front. Elytra distinctly punctured, the puncturing

varying in depth in different individuals, indistinctly arranged

in irregular rows.

Genus Gontocrrena, Redt.

Gonioctena scutellaris.

G. oblonga, modice convexa, fulva, nitida, pectore pedibusque (fe-

moribus quatuor anticis basi exceptis) nigro-piceis; antennis ex-

trorsum scutelloque nigris; elytris regulariter punctato-striatis.

Long. 3 lin.

Hab. Northern China.

Oblong, convex. Head coarsely punctured; epistome de-

pressed, separated from the face by an angular groove, from the

apex of which a short, ill-defined, longitudinal depression runs

upwards on the face; antenne scarcely longer than the head

and thorax, their outer two-thirds black. Thorax more than

twice as broad as long; sides angustate-rotundate from base

to apex; disk distinctly but finely punctured, sides coarsely

punctate. Scutellum nearly semirotundate, shining black. Ely-

tra scarcely broader than the base of the thorax, sides below the

shoulders slightly excavated ;-each elytron impressed with eleven

regular rows of punctures, the first short; interspaces plane,

minutely but not closely punctured. Body beneath deeply

punctured ; abdomen obscure fulvous, its puncturing subremote,

Gonioctena thoracica.

G. oblonga, convexa, nigra, nitida, thorace facieque inferiore obscure

tufis ; antennarum basi fulva; elytris regulariter punctato-striatis.

Long. 23 lin.

Hab. Northern China.

Very similar to the preceding, but (with the exception of the

entire thorax above, together with its sides beneath, the lower

portion of the face, and the base of the antennz) entirely black.

Head less coarsely punctured; the longitudinal depression on

the face is wanting, but replaced by two indistinct grooves,

which run one on either side obliquely upwards from the apex

of the epistome; antenne thicker towards their apex than in

G. scutellaris.

Gonioctena eneipennis.

G. oblonga, convexa, testacea, nitida; elytris viridi-metallicis, punc-

tato-striatis, punctis in striis ad latera minus regulariter dispositis;

antennis flavis; scutello nigro.

Long. 23 lin,

Hab. Northern China.

28 Mr.J.S. Baly on new Species of Phytophagous Beetles.

Oblong, convex, shining testaceous; elytra bright metallic

green, punctate-striate, the punctures less regularly placed on

the striz on the outer disk than in the foregoing species; face

somewhat broader, slightly swollen, irregularly punctured; epi-

stome separated from the face by a nearly semicircular groove,

the middle of which is slightly produced upwards and angular.

Gonioctena rubripennis.

G. oblonga, convexa, nigra, nitida; elytris punctato-striatis, sordide

rufo-fulvis ; antennis basi fulvis.

Long. 23-3 lin.

Hab. Japan.

Oblong, convex, shining black ; elytra obscure rufo-fulvous.

Thorax at the base more than twice as broad as long; sides

narrowly margined, rotundate-angustate, all the angles acute ;

above convex, sparingly covered with fine punctures on the disk;

sides coarsely and more closely punctured, their outer edge, just

within the lateral border, slightly thickened. Scutellum semi-

ovate. LElytra scarcely broader than the base of the thorax ;

sides subparallel ; apex regularly rounded; above convex, trans-

versely depressed on the disk below the humeral callus; each

elytron impressed with eleven regular rows of distinct punctures,

the first abbreviated, interspace between the tenth and eleventh

rows slightly thickened, the others flat, subremotely covered with

fine but distinct punctures; under surface of body coarsely

punctured.

Gontoctena nigro-plagata.

G. oblonga, convexa, fulva, nitida; elytris punctato-striatis ; scutello

elytrorumque puncto apicali plagisque octo, 4 vix infra basin, 4

pone medium, transversim positis, nigris.

Var. A. elytrorum maculis inter se confluentibus, facie inferiore

piceo tincta.

Long. 3-33 lin.

Hab. Japan.

Oblong, convex. Thorax more than twice as broad as long,

sides rotundate-angustate, very narrowly margined, posterior

angles acute, the anterior subacute ; above convex ; sides coarsely

punctured, a narrow space just within the outer border thickened,

impunctate ; disk remotely punctured ; medial line near the base

impressed with a short longitudinal groove. Elytra similar in

form and sculpture to the preceding species, the punctures being,

however, rather coarser and somewhat less regularly placed on

the striz; each elytron marked with a small spot at the sutural

angle and four large patches on the disk, shining black ; these

latter, which vary in shape, are placed in two transverse rows,

Dr. B. Seemann on the Bignoniacez. 29

viz. one immediately below the base and extending nearly to the

middle, the other just below the middle; the two outer spots

are generally elongate, and sometimes form a submarginal vitta,

interrupted in its middle.

V.—Revision of the Natural Order Bignoniacee.

By BrerrHoip SEEeMANN, Pu.D., F.L.S.

Brrore proceeding to publish the results of my examination of

Bignoniacez, I shall give a list of all the genera I hold to be

true members of the order. They will have to be grouped very

differently when the whole of them shall have been subjected to

closer investigation, and a number of new ones added. The two

tribes Eubignoniee and Catalpez, founded upon important

carpological characters, must stand, and a third one (Jacarandez)

be added to them.

I. Eubignoniee, having a marginicidal fruit, and a septum

placed parallel with the direction of the valves of the capsule.

II. Catalpee, having a loculicidal fruit, and a septum placed

contrary to the direction of the valves of the capsule.

III. Jacarandee, having a marginicidal fruit, and a septum

placed contrary to the direction of the valves of the capsule.

From the subjoined it will be seen that all c7rrhose Bigno-

niaceze are confined to America, and that, with only one excep-

tion (Dolichandra), they are Enbignoniee; again, that, with

the exception of two Asiatic genera (Millingtonia and Calos-

anthes) all the erect Bignoniaceze belong to Catalpeze and Jaca-

randez.

Synopsis generum Bignoniacearum.

Tribus I. EvsBigNoniE&.

Capsula marginicida, septum valvis parallelum.— Frutices

scandentes cirrhosi Americani, rarissime arbores Asiaticze.

Divisio I. Monostictides.

Semina ad quodque septi latus uniserialia.

* Frutices scandentes cirrhosi American.

Bignonia, Tournef. Amer. trop.

Pachyptera, Mart. Amer. trop.

Fridericia, Mart. Amer. trop.

Cydista, Miers (Barteria, Seem., non Hook. fil.). Amer. trop.

et subtrop.

Cuspidaria, DeCand. Amer. trop.

Macfadyena, DeCand. (Spathodea, sp. auct.). Amer. trop.

Lundia, DeCand. Amer. trop.

Mansoa, DeCand. Amer. trop.

30 Dr. B. Seemann on the Bignoniacee.

Arrabidea, DeCand. Amey. trop.

Adenocalymna, Mart. Amer. trop.

Haplolophium, Endl. (Aplolophium, Cham.). Amer. trop.

Pyrostegia, Presl. Amer. trop.

**® Arybores Asiaticz.

Millingtonia, Linn. Ind. or.

Calosanthes, Linn. Ind. or.

Divisio II. Pleostictides.

Semina ad quodque septi latus serie duplici, triplici, vel

quadruplici disposita.—Frutices scandentes Americani.

Distictis, DeCand. Amer. trop.

Amphilophium, Kth. Amer. trop.

Pithecoctenium, Mart. Amer. trop.

Anemopegma, Mart. Amer. trop.

Callichlamys, Mig. Amer. trop.

Tribus II. Cara.prm.

Capsula loculicida, septum valvis oppositum.—F rutices stantes

vel arbores Gerontogzee vel Americe, rarius frutices scandentes

cirrhosi, radicantes vel volubiles, rarissime herbe.

Divisio 1. Monostictides.

Semina ad quodque septi latus uniserialia.

* Frutices stantes,

Craterotecoma, Mart. Amer. trop.

Stenolobium, D. Don. Amer. trop.

Tecomella, Seem. Ind. orient. (Tecoma undulata, Don).

Tecomaria, Fenzl. Amer. trop.

Chilopsis, D. Don. Amer. trop.

Rhigozum, Burch (Catophractes, D.Don). Afric. trop.

** Arbores.

Rademachera, Zoll. Ind. orient.

Spathodea, Beauv. Afric. trop.

Stereospermum, Cham. (Dipterosperma, Hassk.). Afric. et Asia

trop.

Tecoma, Juss. (Tabebuia, Gomez). Amer. trop.

Catalpa, Scop. Asia et Amer. trop. et subtrop.

Divisio II. Pleostictides.

Semina ad quodque septi latus serie duplici, triplici, vel

quadruplici disposita.

* Frutices cirrhosi, radicantes v. volubiles.

Dolichandra, Cham. Amer. trop.

Dr. B. Seemann on the Bignoniacee. 31

Campsidium, Seem. et Reisseck. Chile.

Campsis, Lour. Asia trop. et subtrop., neenon Amer. subtrop.

Pandorea, Endl., Seem. Australasia et Asia trop.

** Arbores.

Delostoma, D. Don (Codazzia, Karsnt. et Trian.). Amer. trop.

Cybistax, Mart. (Yangua, Spruce). Amer. trop.

Zeyhera, Mart. Amer. trop.

Sparattosperma, Mart. Amer. trop.

Payanelia, DeCand. Amer. trop.

*** Herbee.

Argylia, D. Don (Oxymitus, Presl). Amer. subtrop.

Tribus III. JAcARANDER.,

Capsula marginicida, septum valvis oppositum.—Arbores

. Gerontogzeze vel Americane.

Jacaranda, Juss. (Pteropodium, Meisn.). Amer, trop.

Dolichandrone, Fenzl, Seem. Ind. or. et Austral. (Spathodee

sp. auct.).

Astianthus, D. Don. Amer. trop. (Genera 43.)

Heterophragma, DeCand. Ind. or.

Genera incerte sedis.

Monttea, Clos. Chile.

Reyesia, Clos. Chile.

Oxycladus, Miers. Chile.

I shall not follow any particular order in communicating my

investigation, but publish the results as the complete materials

come to hand.

1. Astrantuus, D. Don.

Char. gen. emend.—Calyzx tubulosus, ecostatus, limbo 5-dentato

zequali. Corolla infundibuliformis, basi tubulosa, limbo bilabiato,

labio inf. 3-, sup. 2-lobo. Stamina 4, didynama, cum rudimento

quinti. Anthere parallele, nude. Stigma bilobum. Capsula sili-

quosa, echinulata, 2-locularis, marginicida, septo crasso spongioso

valvis contrario. Semina in quavis septi fascie pluriseriata, minuta,

compressa, alata, ala completa subovali, corpore cordato.—Arbor

30-ped. Mexicana et Guatemalensis, habitu Salicis; ramis glabris ;

foliis teris vel superioribus sparsis, elongato-linearibus, integerri-

mis, coriaceis (8-14 poll. long., 2-3 lin. lat.) ; racemis terminalibus

seepe dichotome paniculatis, floribus flavis—D. Don in Edinb. Phil.

Journ. vol. ix. p. 262 (1823); G. Don, Gen. Syst. iv. p. 228; De

Cand. Prodr. ix. p.177. Species unica:

Astianthus longifolius, D. Don in Edinb. Phil, Journ. vol. ix. p. 262

32 Dr. B. Seemann on the Bignoniacee.

(1823); G. Don, Gen. Syst. p. 228; DeCand. Prodr. ix. p.177;

Bonplandia, t. 13.

Bignonia viminalis, Kunth in Humb. et Bonpl. Nov. Gen. Amer,

vol. iii. p. 132; DeCand. Prodr. ix. p. 144.

Tecoma saligna, Lindl. Herb.

Nomen vernaculum Mexicanum, “‘ Aguejote,”’ teste Gregg.

Geogr. Distribution. —On the slopes of the mountains of

Western Mexico, between Mescala and Estola (Humboldt and

Bonpland! in Herb. Berol.); between Vera Cruz and Oaxaca

(Galeotti! n.1017), near Jalapa (Galeotti! n. 20) ; at Aguacatlan,

near Tepic (Gregg! n. 946) ; in Guatemala (Skinner! im Herb.

Lindl. et Hook.) ; always growing on the banks of rivers, and

replacing our willows in those regions.

In Dr. Lindley’s Herbarium there are specimens of Astianthus

collected by Skmner in Guatemala, the value of which consists

in their having both flowers and ripe fruit. The position of the

genus, so long doubtful, is by means of these easily cleared up.

Instead of belonging to the Eubignoniez, Astianthus must be

placed near Dolichandrone, amongst Jacarandex. It has no-

thing to do with Catalpa, as was supposed, neither agreeing

with it in fruit nor flower, and four of the stamens being fertile,

The seeds are not, as D. Don had described them, “ villis nu-

merosis papposa.” Don must probably have described the seeds

of another Bignoniacea as belonging to Astzanthus, perhaps

those of Chilopsis, a Mexican genus very much resembling As-

tianthus in habit, and growing also on the banks of rivers, but

having purple instead of yellow flowers. Don and DeCandolle

describe the corolla of Astianthus as “rubro-purpurea ;” but all

those who have seen the plant wild, as yellow.

I have identified Bignonia viminalis of Kunth with Astianthus

longifolius: the authentic specimens of Humboldt and Bonpland

leave no doubt on that pot. The genus consists only of one

species, and differs from its alles in its spiny fruit, regular

calyx, and parallel anthers. Its seeds are the smallest of any

Bignoniacea known to me.

2. Campsrpium, Reiss. et Seem. (gen. nov.).

Char. gen.— Calyx campanulatus, ecostatus ; limbo 5-dentato,

eequali. Corolla tubulosa, leviter curvata; limbo 5-lobo, lobis

subeequalibus. Stamina 4, didynama, cum rudimento quinti.

Anthere parallele, nude. Stigma bilobum. Capsula teretiuscula,

leevis, loculicida. Septum valvis contrarium. Semina.........

Frutex ecirrhosus scandens, Chilensis et Chiloénsis, glaberrimus ;

ramis angulatis ; foliis oppositis 4—7-jugis cum impari, petiolo alato,

foliolis ovato-oblongis vel ellipticis, utrinque obtusis vel acutis, seepe

mucronatis, margine dentatis vel subintegerrimis, supra leete viridi-

M. L. Garreau on the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 338

bus, subtus pallidioribus; racemis terminalibus simplicibus, 4- 9-floris,

pedicellis elongatis bibracteolatis, bracteolis linearibus acutis, petiolis

pedunculis calycibusque purpurascentibus, corollis aurantiacis, intus

versus basin filamentisque villosis, ovario glabro. Species unica :

Campsidium Chilense, Reiss. et Seem. MSS. in Herb. Vindob. ;

Seem. in Bonplandia, vol. x. p. 147, t. 11.

Tecoma Guarume, Hook. in Bot. Mag. t. 4896, in adnot. (non

DeCand.).

Nomen vernaculum Chiloénse “ Pilpil Boqui,”’ teste Bridges.

Geographical Distribution. — Chiloé (Bridges! W. Lobb !

n. 474, King !); Island of Huafo, lat. 44° S. (Eights! in Herb.

Hook.) ; Arique, near Valdivia (Lechler! Plant. Chil. n. 671).

This beautiful plant seems to be rather common between lati-

tudes 40° and 44° S., and climbs over trees with a height of

40-50 feet. Nevertheless it is not mentioned in Gay’s ‘ Flora

of Chile, and was thought identical with Tecoma? Guarume

(Bignonia alata, Pav.) by Sir William Hooker. The authentic

specimens of Bignonza alata in the Berlin Herbarium prove, how-

ever, to be identical with Tecomaria fulva, Seem. (Tecoma fulva,

DeCand.); and the plant to which Sir W. J. Hooker alludes is

the type of an entirely new genus, allied in habit to Campsis,

Lour., but differing from that genus in the shape of the corolla

and parallel, not divaricate, anthers. Campsidium has, however,

no rooting branches, climber though it be, nor is it winding

hke Pandorea, nor furnished with tendrils like most climbing

species peculiar to America.

VI.—On the Functions of the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants.

By M. L. Garreav *,

THE numerous researches prosecuted of late years respecting

the organic elements of plants, whilst on the one hand adding to

our acquaintance with the structure, composition, and relations

of their tissues, have, on the other, suggested to several botanists

various theories regarding their evolution and their functions.

But the physiology of plants being, like that of animals, insepa-

rably dependent upon the knowledge of their organs, and this

knowledge being far from thoroughly understood, the conse-

quence is that every fresh discovery in their organization is fol-

lowed by a new interpretation of some question or other in their

physiological mechanism.

The cell, regarded by most botanists as the primitive element

of vegetable organization, is represented as a nearly independent

* Translated by Dr. Arlidge, from the ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles,’

tome xii. 1860, p. 189.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 3

34 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

organism, formed by a closed membrane, capable of self-increase,

of self-multiplication, and of absorbing and transmitting by en-

dosmosis fluid materials destined to nourish it. This definition,

though true in all its details when an examination is conducted

by the aid of too feeble or of too strong magnifying powers, or

when experiments are conducted on dead tissue, cannot be

entirely sustamed when the investigation 1s pursued by appro-

priate amplifying powers, and when the still living organization

is submitted to observation ; for, under such circumstances, it

becomes possible to demonstrate that the vegetable cell is not so

simple in its structure as has been presumed, nor so independent

as supposed when it enters into the composition of a tissue. But

notwithstanding that the cell is everywhere, whether isolated or

aggregated with others, essentially the same in its organization,

it 1s necessary, in order to its minute examination, to employ

those portions of plants in which an active process of- vegetation

is proceeding,—where intra-cellular secretions are absent, and

the cellulose and encrusting matters have not as yet so thickened

the tissues as to impede the thorough examination of the cell-

cavity.

If a slice of vegetable tissue be taken, so thin as to consist of

not more than two superposed rows of cells (conditions readily

realized in hairs, in the tissue of spongioles, in the lamina of

fleshy leaves, in young epidermis, in the pith, in the parenchyma

of young petioles, in various fruits, &c.), and if this be exammed

in a moist state, at a temperature of from 20° to 25° Centigrade,

the microscope quickly reveals a small conglomerate mass in each

cell, often granular in aspect, and attached to some part of its

inner wall. Such is.the little body designated by Robert Brown

as the nucleus, and which he regarded, as did also Schleiden and

Hugo Mohl, as a structure existing prior to the formation of the

cell-wall. It was moreover looked upon by these naturalists,

together with Schultz, Slack, and Meyen, as constituted by the

more or less intimate aggregation of nitrogenous granules.

However, this little organ is not entirely formed by the reunion

of agglomerated granules, and one might be easily led into error

in making researches for its elucidation if it was assumed that it

was always to be met with under the aspect above mentioned ;

for in the majority of the simple hairs of herbaceous plants, in

epidermis, and in nearly all young tissues, it occurs under the

form of an opaline globule, variable dimensions, and refracting

light much in the same way as fatty matters. F urther, under

an irregular form, it frequently presents itself in the sub-epider-

mic cells of leaves, infiltrated with chlorophyl, and with some

granules in its middle. Again, in young cells, and in pollen in

course of growth, it appears formed of flakes loosely coalesced into

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 35

irregular spheres; whilst in the cells of young specimens of Chara,

of Hydrocharis morsus-rane, of Stratiotes alotdes, Caulinia fragilis,

and Sagittaria sagittifolia, in the hairs of young shoots of Borago

officinalis, in the epidermis of the petioles of young specimens of

Arum, &e., it is represented only by some viscous flakes having

no determinate figure. The nucleus, therefore, being essentially

a variable organ, has not failed to give birth to the most divergent

opinions relative to its nature, origin, and functions; and we

should not materially err in asserting that there are not two

botanists who entirely concur in respect to its composition or to

the part it is intended to play in the economy of the cell. Yet,

though this body is susceptible of assuming different aspects, the

one under which it usually presents itself is that of a spheroid,

in the form of a globule of mucus, having at its centre a collec-

tion of semi-transparent granules endowed with sufficient soft-

ness to make them adhere feebly together. Now, the presence

of this granular matter in the centre is suggestive of the existence

of a membranous pellicle about the periphery or surface; and

some researches which I have made on this point prove to my

mind that this supposition is well founded. Thus, to demon-

strate the fact in the epidermis of Tradescantia virginica, it is only

necessary to treat the slice of tissue under observation with a

drop of liquid ammonia, which causes the disappearance of the

internal collection of granules, and renders visible a membranous

disk, which is no other than the collapsed sac within which the

granules were contained. However, this soft pellicle is so very

transparent, and of such tenuity, that it is oftentimes very diffi-

cult to distinguish its outline with clearness, particularly if, as

very often happens, it lies in contact with the wall of the

cell.

If, in place of employing the epidermis (which, by the way,

need always be very transparent), choice be made of parts richer

in water, such as the young root-fibres, the spongioles, the stem

of young fleshy plants, the petals, &c., the study of this organ is

facilitated ; for, under these circumstances, the granular heap is

less abundant, and the little membraniform hyaline sac which

envelopes it is more perceptible, whilst at the same time the pre-

sence of liquid within the sac, apparently of rather stronger re-

fracting-power than the fluid in the cell-cavity, may be detected

on submitting the preparation to the action of a dilute acid or of

alcohol of 86°; the little sac may be seen to contract and shrivel,

to force out a portion of the liquid it contains, and to become

reduced to one-third or one-fourth of its original dimensions. If

the preparation be now moistened with a little liquid ammonia

of 12°, the small sac regains its primitive form, though at the

same time it acquires a somewhat larger volume than before,

36 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

and is less transparent. This change is the consequence either

of the action of the reagents upon it, or of the nature of the

contained liquid being modified by them. If the flowers of the

Tradescantia virginica be selected for observation at the moment

when they begin to wither, and when the colouring-matter

is diffused within the cavities of the cells, the nucleus may be

still more precisely studied in respect to its form and its chemi-

cal characteristics. The constituent matter of the nucleus being

readily penetrated by the colouring-material, and still more

strongly impregnated by it than the surrounding cellulose wall

of the cell, it happens that, on moistening the preparation with

very dilute hydrochloric acid, the nuclear matter acquires an

intense red colour, and is thrown into folds, but presently re-

appears under the eye of the observer with a green tint and of a

larger size when the acid reagent is saturated by ammonia or by

some other soluble base employed in slight excess. Lastly, on

following the appearances along the borders of the film of tissue,

and on using slight pressure by the glass covering it, some of

these small bodies may be detached and forced out through the

ruptured cells, when it becomes evident that they scarcely differ in

form or in their nature from mucous globules. It may be added

that, if the small body be carefully examimed whilst still under the

influence of the acid, its centre will be found to be composed of

granules strongly condensed into a little mass of a deeper red

colour than the softer wall enclosing it, and to which it is fixed

by only a single point. From these facts it is at once evident

that the nucleus is not a simple collection of particles adhermg

together, as Brown, Slack, Schultz, and others supposed it to be,

but that it possesses a cavity limited by an albuminoid, soft and

membranous material, containing granules and a fluid, and that

its membrane and granules may be condensed in different degrees

by the addition of an acid.

When similar observations are followed out respecting this

particular state of the nucleus in tissues whose cells are of suffi-

cient diameter, and their walls transparent enough to permit a

just idea of the structure in question to be obtained, then without

the help of reagents the above-named facts may be established

in the case of most plants, and in all their transparent and actually

living parts. But it is a simpler plan, where it is wished only to

display the presence of the nucleus, to use a weak solution of

iodine in iodide of potassium, which soon tints it of a pale yellow

and afterwards of a brown colour. Nevertheless, it is worth

noting that this reagent does not act in all plants, or indeed in

all parts of a plant, with the same intensity, and that the colour

it produces has to be waited for a longer or shorter time, and

seems to be influenced by the degree of elaboration of the cellular

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 37

liquid and by the abundance of nitrogenous granules contained

within the membraniform envelope.

Hitherto the nucleus has been referred to as a nearly spherical

globule ; however, this form is not always that which it presents,

although it is the most widely met with when the liquid it con-

tains completely fills it, which happens in those portions of plants

which are gorged with a large quantity of water; but when its

cavity is less full, or when it is in motion, it has sometimes a

wrinkled appearance (as in Hrodium moschatum), and at others a

wrinkled and tuberculated appearance at once (Salvia Sclarea),

and is very irregular in its outline.

With regard to the dimensions the nucleus may attain, there

is great variety ; but in general it bears a pretty direct relation

to the size of the cells when these have attained their complete

growth, or a little before that period. Thus it is that the nucleus

is found highly developed in the Liliaceze, Commelinez, the

Orchidaceze, Cactacez, Crassulacee, Aroidee, in most Cheno-

podieze and Solanez, and in the fleshy parts of all plants, such as

the fruit of Rosacee, Rhamnez, Ampelide, Grossulariacez, &c.,

which generally exhibit cells of large volume. On the other

hand, it is small in most Graminez, Apocynex, Amentaceze, and

Jasminez, whose cells are commonly small in size.

The volume of the nucleus, compared with that of the cell,

when young, is proportionally very great, as may be seen in

the epidermis of the unexpanded flower of Helleborus niger, or in

the young merithalli, spongioles, leaves, flowers, and pollen in

course of growth; for in such examples the dimensions of the

nucleus are so considerable that it sometimes occupies one-fourth

of the whole of the cell-cavity. But when the cell has attained

its full development, it is adherent to it, and occupies a far

smaller proportional space within it than heretofore, being then

reduced to one-tenth, one-fifteenth part, or even less of its cavity.

However, though the nucleus itself does not keep pace with the

growth of the cell, we shall find that, in the subsequent modifica-

tions it soon undergoes, it will, by means of appendages given off

from it, acquire an equal increase with the cell, and a degree of

development proportionate to the extent of its walls.

When examined relative to its consistence, the nucleus is found

to be soft and extensible ; sometimes, when distended by its con-

tained liquid, it is ruptured in the attempt to detach by a sudden

pull the small lamina of tissue to be submitted to examination.

Its surface may be smooth, tuberculated, or wrinkled—varieties

of appearance of which we shall presently recognize the cause.

Lastly, it is not unusual to see it bordered by little vesicles ; but

these by degrees decrease in size under the eye of the observer,

and ultimately merge into it.

38 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

The positions it occupies in the cavity of the cell are equally

variable ; but its most common place is in the centre of the cell,

or adherent to some part of its wall. In the latter case, when

the cell is elongated, it is seen to be almost always placed equi-

distant from the two extremities; however, it happens in cells

which enter into the structure of hairs, that the nucleus is often

seen attached to the septa between them, as in Tradescantia vir-

ginica and Chelidonium mas.

The constancy of this organ in cells in progress of growth led

Schleiden to see in it the explanation of an important fact in the

physiology of plants; and it was m making an attempt to sub-

stantiate this conviction that I was prompted to investigate its

different forms, some of its properties, and its relations with the

walls of the cell. After having submitted anew to the most

attentive and minute observation the majority of the tissues that

I had already examined, and which had presented me with cells

at once sufficiently developed and transparent, I have been able

to satisfy myself that the membranous sac of the nucleus whose

characters have been detailed above frequently gives off filaments

of the greatest softness, and often anastomosing one with another.

Many of their slender extremities hkewise proceed to coalesce

with the layer of nitrogenous material that lines the interior of

the cell-wall. In this structural condition I perceived that I

had to deal with an important modification of the nucleus, which,

instead of being applied directly to the cell-wall, occupied the

centre of its cavity, suspended there by the medium of the viscous

processes extended from its periphery as just described. Slack

and Meyen long since suspected the relations of these filaments

(or, as they called them, currents) with the nucleus. Schultz

and Hugo Mohl still more distinctly appreciated this relation ;

but none of these naturalists would seem to have studied the

subject under the most favourable conditions, otherwise they

could not have failed to recognize the fact I shall proceed to

establish, viz., that these processes are capable in many cells of

serving the office of contractile canals for the transmission or cir-

culation of a granular fluid.

On examining, by the aid of a good instrument with a magni-

fying power of from 3800 to 400 diameters, according to the

dimensions of the cells, and at a temperature of 25° to 30° Centi-

grade, a slice of tissue the cells of which presents filamentous

nuclei (such as those of the full-grown epidermis of the leaves

of the Tradescantia virginica, the hairs of Salvia Sclarea, of Cheli-

donium, and of Hrodium moschatum, procured during the summer

or autumn), the observer will not fail to recognize the presence of

granules streaming in a transparent fluid through a series of

canals formed by an extensible membranous matter, continuous

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 39

with that of the nucleus, though of greater transparency. To

view this structure better, the rays of light should fall on the

object in a direction parallel to their course, whether it be ordi-

nary daylight or artificial light. It will further appear that the

diameter of these canals is often greatly reduced, and that the

fluid circulating through them carries along with it only trans-

parent granules of very great tenuity. Now, the existence of

such canals within the cell-cavity has always been regarded by

the majority of botanists as improbable ; and taking this opinion

in connexion with the minuteness of the phenomenon itself, it is

easily conceivable that the structures just recorded have escaped

the researches of micrographers. However, when the investigator

has been made acquainted with these phenomena, it is not diffi-

cult to demonstrate them, and this even in cells of medium

dimensions, provided they are sufficiently transparent and ex-

amined with adequate care and patience. To this end, it is

enough to moisten the preparation without soaking it with water,

to carefully avoid the presence of air which may adhere to the

surface, and after covering it with the glass cover, to examine it

assiduously and under those conditions with regard to tempera-

ture above pointed out. Should the canals not show themselves,

gentle compression may be exercised on the preparation, and then

the examination be renewed; for by this process the canals are

separated and made to stand out from the cell-wall, in the centre

of its cavity, where they display themselves and their anastomoses.

It is much preferable to make out the existence of these canals

without the aid of reagents; but they may be made more evident

by the addition of a solution of iodine in iodide of potassium,

which gives them a clear yellow or a reddish-brown colour, as it

does to the nucleus. But this reagent, though preferable to

alcohol or to the aqueous solution of iodine, does not afford a

faithful image of the phenomenon, for it slightly contracts the

component matter of the canals and deforms it. Besides, before

the manifestation of the colour, there is greater or less delay,

according to the condition of the fluid in circulation. It 1s

therefore most important, when it is wished to make a critical

examination, to abstain from the employment of this reagent,

and, indeed, of any other; for, as we shall very soon discover,

their vital movements, which such reagents destroy, are the most

important of all their properties, and to be studied with the

greatest advantage.

The canals existing in a cell derived from elsewhere than the

hairs of plants may have various origins; but I shall first point

out the characters of such as are in connexion with the nucleus,

distinguishing those peculiarities in which they differ from the

last-named organ. These canals, being constituted by the mem-

40 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

branous matter of the nucleus, arise from the periphery of this

organ, and present the greatest variety in size; but from the

vital activity in them, and their consequent variability, it is diffi-

cult to determine their individual dimensions. Thus, there are

some whose diameter is for the moment equal in width to half

that of the nucleus, whilst others do not reach the twentieth or

thirtieth part of the diameter of that organ. Their number varies

equally with their dimensions: at one time a dozen may be seen

in the epidermic cells of Tradescantia virginica, from six to eight

inthe epidermis of the flowers of Lupinus albus, of Helleborus niger,

and of Lilium album, in the leaves of Crassula, in the epidermis

and cellular network under the epidermis of the leaves of Aspho-

delus luteus, in the hairs of the young merithalli of Lamium

and of Geraniums, &c. Lastly, a certain number always escape

observation, inasmuch as they cannot be all brought at once

within the focus of the lens, and because during the time of ex-

amination changes take place among them, both in respect to their

relations and dimensions, and create an obstacle to the definite

distinction of one from another.

Ordinarily these canals radiate from the nucleus towards the

periphery to reach the inner wall of the cell. In this course,

some decrease in calibre but slightly, others traverse the

distance with uniform width, and almost all frequently anasto-

mose together, either directly or by the medium of lateral offsets

they may give off. By this arrangement a network is produced

which varies in character in each cell, and is at one time sus-

pended within the cavity of the cell, at another partially

attached to the cell-wall. It also happens that at those points

where the canals anastomose there is an enlargement, which in

its appearance resembles a nucleus additional to the true one,

or, in other words, it becomes a centre to and from which a cer-

tain number of currents converge or diverge. Before following

these canals to their distribution on the cell-walls, we will recall

some of their principal physical and chemical characters. They

present themselves under the aspect of thin extensile filaments of

very great transparency; their component matter has the ap-

pearance of a viscid mucus, and seems not to differ, except by

its greater consistence, from that which constitutes the small

floating flocculi which are observed in circulating or rotatory

motion in the young cells of Nitella flextlis and of Chara, in the

cells of the hairs of Hydrocharis morsus-rane, and in those of the

petiole of Sagittaria sagittifolia, &c. The observer unskilled in

the investigation of these canals experiences some difficulty m

discovering them, by reason of their great transparency, and

especially when they are sought for in tissues much loaded

with water, where their refracting power differs little from that

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 41

of the surrounding fluid. Alcohol of 86°, by acting upon them,

slightly diminishes their transparency, and at the same time

contracts them as it does also animal matter. If its application

be continued, it is no unusual occurrence to see some of them,

that are greatly distended, rupture and collapse, and retreat

thereupon towards the nucleus, or, if the rupture takes place

near the nucleus itself (which is a rare occurrence), towards the

cell-wall.

Hydrochloric acid causes an equal contraction of them, and

at the same time diminishes their limpidity. The nitrate of the

binoxide of mercury contracts them in the same way, and imparts

to them the same rosy hue that it produces with all other albu-

minoid matters. Liquid ammonia and the other soluble bases,

when diluted, produce a contrary effect, causing them to swell

up, and tending to dissolve them. From these characters it is

evident that in chemical composition these canals resemble albu-

men, as well as the nucleus itself; indeed, it would be difficult to

conceive it to be otherwise, even were no reagents employed.

This might be deemed the proper place to consider the inter-

nal causes which incessantly modify the appearance and relations

of these canals ; however, to avoid repetition, it seems preferable

to defer these matters to the second part of this paper.

Hitherto only that portion of the nuclear apparatus which lies

freely in the cell-cavity has received attention in the foregoing

remarks ; we will now proceed to follow its connexion with the

cell-walls; and in order more correctly to delineate these rela-

tions, it is important to recall some facts concerning the cell-wall

itself. As early as the year 1836, M. Girou de Buzareingues had

regarded the cell-wall, apart from the thickenings of its external

membrane, as composed of two distinct tunics, one within the

other. Subsequently Harting investigated this subject, and

especially studied the action of some chemical agents on the

membrane which circumscribes the cell-cavity, as well as on the

other two lamine which, according to that observer, are de-

posited on its external surface. From these experiments he

satisfied himself, as we moreover had done by our own researches,

that the internal membrane, which he named the ptychode,

behaves with iodine, alcohol, and acids precisely in the same

manner as the nucleus. Hugo Mohl also entered on this same

inquiry with his customary skill; and his researches went to

prove that this internal membrane, which he called ‘ primordial,”

is to be met with in all cells that are not too old or thickened by

deposits of encrusting matters. Lastly, Harting, in 1846,

showed that the internal membrane adheres only feebly to the

external wall of the cell. At the period (1845) when I directed

my attention to this internal membranous layer, I was in igno-

42 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

rance of a portion of the labours which had been devoted to it ;

and it was in the course of my investigation of the nucleus and

the intracellular canals that I was led to the discovery of this

lamina of the cell in all growing as well as in mature cells

when these latter are not too largely coated by encrusting

deposits.

This lining-membrane of the cell, beg immediately in con-

tact with the external wall, cannot be distinguished whilst pre-

serving its normal relations, and requires the action of reagents

to display it. The solution of iodine in iodide of potassium

colours it more or less deeply. yellow, as it does the nucleus and

its processes. In the same manner it is coloured red by the

acid nitrate of mercury, and is contracted by the action of acids

and of alcohol, indicating in these reactions its similarity in che-

mical composition to the nucleus and the canals diverging from

it. When it has been detached from the external lamina of the

cell by means of alcohol, it presents itself under the form of a

delicate flexuose sac, of extreme tenuity, and without appreciable

structure. However, the same appearances are not met with

when the examination is conducted without recourse to reagents,

as it may be in the cells of the transparent hairs of Lamium, where

the lining-membrane undergoes spontaneous detachment at

some points of its periphery, if the hairs are allowed to wither a

little. In cells so treated, the relations of this inner membrane

being only slightly modified, and its vitality not being destroyed,

it becomes a more easy task to prosecute its study, and the ob-

server may very soon and easily convince himself that it is hol-

lowed out by minute canals permeating its substance, the most

capacious of which outspread themselves upon its internal aspect,

whilst the most slender constitute a close network of anasto-

mosing tubercles within its thickness. Nevertheless it is not

necessary, in the case of the cells of the plant mentioned, to wait

for the partial detachment of this lamina; for the observer, when

apprised of the existence of this structure, may satisfy himself

of its characters whilst the membrane still retains its normal

position.

When the primordial membrane is partially detached from

the cell-wall, a very careful examination of the little spaces left

between it and the external wall, where the separation is least

wide, will reveal the presence of certain very slender filaments

implanted in this outer wall; and upon slightly removing this

same wall a little out of the focus of the instrument, these fila-

ments may be perceived to form salient lines more illuminated

than the rest of the cell-wall—a phenomenon which could not

present itself if these filaments were situated in the detached

portion of the primordial membrane itself. If I am not in error

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 43

on this matter, this last fact affords an explanation of the origin

of the materials of the cuticle, which, from its composition, can

scarcely be derived from the celiulose wall upon which it is

placed. However, if this opinion be admissible—and I grant it

amounts only to a hypothesis—still there are facts to prove the

permeation of the cellulose cell-wall by the tubular processes

derived from the nucleus. Moreover, as these processes do form

an anastomotic network in the primordial membrane, it seems

fair to suppose that portions of them may penetrate to the

under surface of the cuticle, or very nearly to it, and that the

detachment of the primordial utricle from the cell-wall is the

consequence of the rupture of some of the meshes of this net-

work.

It has just been stated that the canals which usually radiate

from the nucleus to the cell-wall break up into still smaller

channels in the primordial membrane; this, however, is not

always the case, for some of them, and often the most capacious,

instead of stopping short at this lamina, penetrate it here and

there to anastomose with other similar canals emanating from

the nuclei of adjoming cells. This fact may be demonstrated

by fixing, with great care, a delicate slice of the epidermis of the

flower of Tradescantia virginica on a glass slide, allowing it to

become half dried, so as to secure its adhesion, and then brush-

ing it with a camel-hair pencil dipped in dilute solution of am-

monia, which effects the removal of the cuticle. This done, a

viscous network is displayed, which establishes a communication

between all the cells of the epidermis, and mainly resembles the

regular reticulations of some laticiferous vessels. In making

these experiments, it frequently happens that a portion of this

network gets removed with the cuticle: this circumstance seems

to confirm the notion advanced, that the processes of the nucleus

are prolonged as far as the cuticle; for if it were otherwise, it is

not readily conceivable why these meshes should be removed

with it from the soft-walled layer of subjacent cells.

The communication of the processes of adjoming cells through

their walls has a physiological importance; for it explains how it

is that the animal living matter which composes them is distri-

buted in the different parts of the same plant, and becomes dis-

lodged, as the cells advance in age, in its passage elsewhere, and

principally to the periphery, to constitute young cells, where it is

known this matter abounds.

(To be continued. |

4A. Dr. F. Miiller on the Rhizocephala,

VII.— On the Rhizocephala, a new Group of Parasitic Crustacea.

By Dr. Fritz Mixxer, of Desterro*.

[Plate II.]

Ratuke’s ‘ Beitraige zur Fauna Norwegens’ close with the de-

scription of two animals, Peltogaster Paguri and P. Carcini, which,

even on reading the admirable memoir, appeared to me to be the

most remarkable of the whole collection, and have since claimed

one of the first places im the series of animals which I desired to

investigate for myself. For this investigation an opportunity

was recently afforded me by the discovery of two nearly allied

species; its results were partly so surprising and out of the

circle of our ordinary ideas, that, in communicating them, it is

really a comfort to me to know of the existence of the two allied

forms on the European coasts, and to be able to refer other na-

turalists to these in order to test my statements.

The head of these apparent worms, which is inserted into the

body of the host, emits roots like those of plants—hollow tubes

which, being much ramified, cling round its intestines; and

their brood holds a middle place between that of the Lene

and Cirripedes. They therefore constitute a new section of pa-

rasitic Crustacea, to which I give the name of Rhizocephala from

the above peculiarity. It is to be expected that in these Rhizo-

cephala a rich mine of new forms will be opened up, as each of

the two Crabs which I have hitherto been able to examine in

large numbers nourishes a species. Unfortunately I am desti-

tute of all means of determining these animals; but they will be

easily recognized by future visitors to our coast without any de-

tailed description. Almost under every stone they will find a

blackish-green, smooth-clawed, and uncommonly nimble Porcel-

lana, and scarcely less abundantly, a small Pagurus, which seeks

shelter almost exclusively in the shells of a Cerithium.

The parasite of the Porcellana may be called Lerneodiscus

Porcellane ; and that of the Hermit Crab, Sacculina purpurea. I

shall describe first the two sexually mature animals, and then

their larvee.

Lerneodiscus Porcellane (figs. 1-8) occurs pretty commonly,

usually single, rarely two together, attached to one of the ante-

rior segments of the tail of its host, and often completely fills

the space between the tail and the sternum. It has the form of

a fleshy and pale-yellowish flesh-coloured disk, which may be

upwards of 10 millims. in breadth by a little less in length. In

front and behind, the disk is deeply sinuous, and on each side

divided into from five to seven lobes, the usually enlarged ex-

* Translated by W.S. Dallas, F.L.S., from Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1862.

a new Group of Parasitic Crustacea. 45

tremities of which are also frequently sinuous. On the dorsal

surface of the disk, which is turned towards the tail of the Por-

cellana, there are often smaller prominences, similar to the above

lobes, near the margin. On the ventral surface, which is turned

towards the sternum of the Porcellana, the eye is first struck by

the ovary (Pl. II. fig. 2, 6), which occupies nearly the whole sur-

face up to the origin of the marginal lobes, but has posteriorly

a broad and shallow sinus, and anteriorly a narrow emargination

dividing it halfway down, and dilated into a clavate form at the

posterior end.

Below the ovary (nearer the ventral surface) and near the

anterior margin of the disk, there lie two very considerable

roundish or reniform glands (fig. 2,c), of that peculiar translu-

cent appearance that so frequently characterizes the testes of the

lower animals; their efferent ducts, which are at first narrow,

but afterwards dilated, very thin-walled and difficult to trace,

run backwards on their inner side. I suppose that they open at

the hinder margin of the ovary in the brood-chamber, which

will have to be mentioned immediately. Likewise under the

ovary, and corresponding therewith in its outlines, but fillmg up

the anterior notch, there stretches a cavity with delicate walls,

containing a reddish transparent fluid : that it is a single cavity

is evident when it contracts; in the extended state, one might

be misled into assuming the presence of a network of tubes

passing between the separate groups of eggs, issuing from a

vesicle situated in the anterior notch of the ovary, the colour of

the thin stratum of fluid over the more prominent eggs becom-

ing almost imperceptible, and distinct only in the furrows between

them.

In the posterior sinus of the disk there is a considerable orifice,

surrounded by a notched margin (fig. 2, a), through which water

is seen to flow in and out with an alternate extension and con-

traction of the body. It leads to a wide brood-chamber, the

extent of which is most easily ascertained when it is inflated

by means of a fine-pointed glass tube : it is then seen to occupy

the whole dorsal surface, except the anterior notch of the ovary,

and to extend into the marginal lobes, which are merely diverti-

cula of it. The brood-chamber is usually found fully distended

with eggs, which adhere especially to its outer wall, and are all

of the same age. When they approach maturity, the margin of

the disk appears more transparent, and finally the marginal

lobes and back are covered with black points, from the eyes of

the young brood, which swims out simultaneously. Two days

after the swarming, I again found in one animal fresh ova, mn

course of complete segmentation in the brood-chamber. The

water flowing into the brood-chamber serves, in my opinion,

46 Dr. F. Muller on the Rhizocephala,

only for the respiration of the eggs, which must pretty com-

pletely stop its access to the body of the mother. In many

other Crustacea, also, the attachment of the eggs to the body of

the mother may be necessary for the development of the brood,

less on account of the protection thus afforded them than on

that of the constant change of water; even nearly mature eggs

of Crabs and Prawns separated by me from the body of the

mother have always come to nothing, whilst the females kept in

confinement have hatched with certainty.

In the anterior sinus of the disk is an arched chitinous shield

(fig. 2.s) with concentric striz, between which brownish-coloured

particles are usually deposited. From its middle there springs

a short neck, which pierces through the skin of the Porcellana.

Within, it is surrounded by a strong chitinous ring, 0°2 to 0°3

mill. in diameter, which is continued into a serrated crown, di-

lated above, possessing a golden lustre. This crown is variously

developed according to the age of the animal (A, figs. 2,3). It

is produced by the chitinization of the skin of the head. Single

small chitinous lamelle (fig. 3, 0) are met with sometimes above

the crown, beyond which the soft skin of the head extends but

little. From the upper surface of the head, on which I found

no trace of mouth, eyes, or antenne, there issue numerous tubes

(fig. 3, w), as much as 0°15 mill. in diameter, part of which,

especially the outer ones, terminate czecally at a very short di-

stance, whilst the others, ramifying repeatedly, advance towards

the intestine of the Porcellana, embrace this for a long distance,

even into the thorax, and at last terminate in blind loops.

Not unfrequently cords, more than 0°5 mill. im thickness, formed

by the twining together of numerous separate tubes, are seen

taking their course towards the intestine of the Porcellana.

These roots, as they may be called from both their appearance

and function, contain, in their delicate membrane, numerous

fat-globules, which are distinguishable, by their much smaller

and at the same time uniform size, from the fatty particles in

the tail of the Crab.

That the roots are united through the neck with the large

receptacle of fluid beneath the ovary is proved very simply and

certainly by a circumstance which | was unable to explain before

their discovery :—When the head of the parasite 1s removed from

the body of its host, and sometimes even when the tail of the

Porcellana is torn away from the thorax, an instantaneous and

very striking pallescence of the Lerneodiscus takes place im con-

sequence of the evacuation of the reddish fluid. Whether the

cavity for the nutritive fluid, which can hardly be called the

digestive cavity, commencing in blind roots, also terminates

cecally, I must still leave undecided, although a narrow process

a new Group of Parasitic Crustacea. 47

often seen behind the orifice of the brood-chamber makes me

think an aperture in this place not improbable.

I looked for males of Lerneodiscus the more zealously as

Rathke observed in the brood-chamber of Peltogaster Paguri a

small Crustacean, his Liriope pygmea, but hitherto without any

result. In the fluid obtained from the above-mentioned large

glands I have, on the contrary, seen motile particles, the exact

form of which my microscope is not capable of showing. From

their mode of moving, I scarcely hesitate to regard the fluid as

semen.

Sacculina purpurea (PI. II. figs. 4&5), the parasite of our

small Hermit Crab, appears to be no less plentiful than the

Lerneodiscus. After my attention had once been directed to it,

I could obtain from the shells collected during a single ebb-tide

thirty or more Pagurt with the parasite attached to them. The

parasite adheres, in the form of a thick, slightly bowed cushion,

of a purple-red colour, which was observed more than 6 millims.

in length and half that thickness, to the base of the soft abdomen,

and on its left and more convex side; its somewhat thicker pos-

terior extremity, with the orifice of the brood-chamber, is turned

towards the head of its host, and therefore towards the mouth

of the shell. The point of adhesion is on the concave side of

the cushion, rather nearer-to the posterior extremity ; from

above, the extremities appear to be rounded-off in a spherical

form.

The parasite is just as much obliquely twisted as its host. If

we regard the concave surface, by which the animal adheres, as

the lower one, and determine the posterior extremity by the

presence of the aperture of the brood-chamber, then, of the two

sides, which are distinguished beneath by the intestine and

ovary, and on the back by a shallow furrow, the left is most

developed posteriorly, and the right anteriorly. In front the

difference is inconsiderable ; but posteriorly it is so great, that

the orifice of the brood-chamber is completely displaced towards

the right angle of the posterior margin. This orifice forms a

small longitudinal fissure, and exhibits the same currents of

water as in Lerneodiscus. On the left side, the posterior margin

runs out into a more or less distinct acute angle. The intestine

and the ovary which lies over it form a rather narrow stripe,

diminishing anteriorly and posteriorly, which extends from the

point of attachment forward nearly to the anterior margin, and

backward to the orifice of the brood-chamber. The whole re-

mainder of the cushion is brood-chamber. The approaching

maturity of the eggs is betrayed by a paler and more translucent

coloration.

The concentrically grooved shield at the point of attachment

48 Dr. F, Miiller on the Rhizocephala,

is but slightly developed; the golden crown in the interior of

the host (fig. 6, 4) differs from that of Lernzodiscus in that single

broad branches issue from the ring, the wide ramifications of

which gradually pass into the thinner skin of the head, whilst

Lerneodiscus has acute and distinctly circumscribed teeth. The

roots shooting from the head extend backwards upon the left

side of the Pagurus, and form, between the hepatic tubes, a

dense tuft of tubes springing from a few principal stems. From

this tuft the hepatic tubes passing through it may easily be ex-

tracted, and it may thus be completely isolated (fig. 4 B, w).

The colour of the tuft of roots is dark grass-green: it shines

distinctly through the thin wall of the body of the Pagurus.

The larvee of the two parasites have so many points of agree-

ment, that I describe only that of Lerneodiscus, and shall merely

call attention to the differences presented by that of Sacculina.

The larva of Lerneodiscus (fig. 6) is 0°2 millim. in length,

0:12 millim. in breadth anteriorly, and diminishes at first

slightly, but in the last third more rapidly. At the posterior

extremity it bears two short points. The slightly arched ante-

rior margin runs out on each side into a short horn, somewhat

bent backwards at the apex. The back is covered by a carapace

which extends beyond the body in front and at the sides by

0:04 to 0:05 millim. ; posteriorly it scarcely covers the origin of

the two points, and also conceals only the base of the horns of

the frontal margin.

On the lower surface there is, at a short distance from the an-

terior margin, a large, somewhat transverse eye, usually slightly

emarginate in front, from which a strong nerve may be traced

backwards, but which appears to be destitute of a refractive

body. I cannot see the bristles at the sides of the eye to which

Max Schultze has called attention in the young Cirripedia.

The point of origin of the three pairs of feet is situated nearly

in the middle between the median line and the lateral margin ;

the foremost originates close behind the eye, the hindermost at

the end of the second fifth of the length. The foremost has a

thick cylindrical basal jomt, and a short terminal joint with two

long bristles; the second bears upon a thick basal joint a long

outer (and anterior) branch with five, and a shorter inner one

with three, long bristles ; the third pair of feet is considerably

shorter and weaker than the second ; its outer branch bears four,

and its inner one two, long bristles. The longer branches are

annulated, but not distinctly jointed.

Between the feet of the middle pair there springs a triangular

rostrum, with its apex directed backward. The wide intestinal

canal, which advances forward a little beyond the rostrum, is

still, during the first days, densely filled with brown yelk. Be-

anew Group of Parasitic Crustacea. 49

hind the last pair of feet, a slight constriction of the body is

sometimes to be seen. .

The larva of the Sacculina differs in having a much larger

carapace extending far beyond the frontal horns and terminal

points, in the want of the eye, in the more oval form of the body,

and in its straight frontal horns, directed obliquely forwards.

I also found in it the bristles near the anterior margin, which

are wanting in Lerneodiscus, and behind the last pair of feet

on each side of the intestine an accumulation of brown opake

granules (urine ?), of which also I can find nothing in Lerneo-

discus.

From the descriptions just given, the following peculiarities

may be indicated as characteristic of the Rhizocephala, which

hold an intermediate position between the Siphonostoma and

Cirripedia :—

CrustacEA RHIZOCEPHALA.

Larva with three pairs of natatory feet, of which the two

posterior are biramose, with lateral frontal horns, two points at

the extremity of the abdomen, and a membranous carapace.

Mature animal soft-skinned, inarticulate, destitute of eyes,

antenne, feet, and mouth (?). Head immersed in the host,

hardened at the base into a chitinous coronet, taking up nourish-

ment by means of rootlike czcal processes. Hermaphrodites

with motile spermatozoids (?), without ovisacs (like the Cirri-

pedia), and with a wide brood-chamber open posteriorly.

GENERA.

1. Peltogaster, Rathke*.

2. Sacculina. Body unsymmetrical, sausage-shaped; head in

the middle of the ventral surface. Larva eyeless, with two

frontal bristles.

3. Lerneodiscus. Body symmetrical, disciform; head at the

anterior margin of the disk. Larva with an eye, without

frontal bristles.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE II.

Fig. 1. Lerne@odiscus attached to the tail of the Porcellana; slightly

magnified.

Fig. 2. A smaller specimen from the ventral surface, magnified 15 diame-

ters: a, aperture of the brood-chamber; 6, ovary; ¢, testes (?) ;

* After the lapse of more than fifteen years, the details of Rathke’s

descriptions have escaped me too thoroughly to permit my characterizing

this genus, or even deciding whether Sacculina should not be united

with it.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 4

50 Bibliographical Notices.

s, chitinous shield; k, crown. The soft part of the head is

wanting. ‘

Fig. 3. The portion of the Lerneodiscus which is situated within the Por-

cellana, magnified 25 diameters: 5, chitinous lamelle ; k, crown ;

w, roots.

Fig. 4. Sacculina purpurea, magnified 3 times: A, from below; 8, from

the right side; a, 6, k, as im fig. 2.

Fig. 5. The portion of the Sacculina situated within the Pagurus, magnified

15 diameters: k, crown; w, roots.

Fig. 6. Earliest larval state of Lerneodiscus, from beneath, magnified

180 diameters.

Fig. 7. Earliest larval state of Sacculina, from above, magnified 180 dia-

meters.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Manual of British Botany. By Cuaries CaRDALE BanincTon,

M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c., &c., Professor of Botany in the Uni-

versity of Cambridge. Fifth Edition, with many additions and

corrections. London: Van Voorst, 1862.

Te ‘Manual of British Botany’ continues to maintain a steadily

progressive character. Every page of the new edition bears witness

to the industry and care of its author, and to his endeavour to keep

pace with the advance of botany on the European continent. The

Synopsis of Orders has been altogether remodelled, and is now

arranged on the analytical or dichotomous plan so much used by

French botanists. The descriptions of several of the more difficult

genera and species have been re-written. Many improvements have

also been made in defining the places of growth and range of the

plants; and we meet with a welcome addition in the form of a glos-

sary of botanical terms, which, like the accents now placed over the

Latin names, will no doubt be found very serviceable.

Professor Babington thus announces his botanical creed :—‘“‘ An

attempt has recently been made greatly to reduce the number of our

native species. The results seem to be so totally opposed to the

teaching of the plants themselves, and the evidence adduced in their

favour is so seldom more than a statement of opinion, that they can-

not safely be adopted. Also, it has been laid down as a rule by some

botanists that no plant can be a species whose distinctive characters

are not as manifest in a herbarium as when alive. We are told that

our business as descriptive botanists is not ‘to determine what is a

species,’ but simply to describe plants so that they may be easily

recognized from the dry specimen. The author cannot agree to this

rule. Although he, in common with other naturalists, is unable to

define what is a species, he believes that species exist, and that they

may often be easily distinguished amongst living plants, even when

separated with difficulty from their allies when dried specimens only

are examined. He also thinks that it is our duty as botanists to

study the living plants whenever it is possible to do so, and to de-

' scribe from them—to write for the use of field- rather than cabinet-

Bibliographical Notices. 51

naturalists, for the advancement of a knowledge of the plants rather

than for the convenience of the possessors of herbaria—also that the .

differences which we are able to describe as distinguishing plants

being taken from their more minute organs, is not a proof that they

constitute only a single species. It seems to be our business to de-

cide upon the probable distinctness of plants before we attempt to

define them; to make the species afford the character, not the cha-

racter form the species”? (preface, pp. ill. iv). That our author is

no servile follower of the school of Messrs. Jordan and Boreau is

sufficiently proved by a remark which occurs a few pages further on,

where the writings of these eminent botanists are recommended as

*‘valuable for the study of varieties, for many of their species can

claim no higher rank ;”” and this is coupled with the useful caution

that “it is necessary to warn students against the very common

error of supposing that they have found one of the plants described

in a foreign flora, when in reality they have only gathered a variety

of some well-known British plant. The risk of falling into such

errors renders it necessary to consult such works as those of Messrs.

Jordan and Boreau with great caution, lest we should be misled by

descriptions, most accurate indeed, but rather those of individuals

than species. Amongst plants so closely allied as are many of those

called species in some continental works, it is scarcely possible to

arrive at a certain conclusion without the inspection of authentic

specimens”’ (preface, p. vii.). The moderate views thus taken by

Professor Babington in the matter of species are further illustrated

by the changes which have been introduced into the ‘ Manual’ itself,

where, if, on the one hand, we find a certain number of plants pro-

moted to the rank of species, on the other we find some, which in

former editions appeared as such, reduced to mere varieties.

Much attention has evidently been given to the subject of intro-

duced plants; and we are glad to see the marks of naturalization

more freely used than in any former edition. As in the ‘ Flora of

Cambridgeshire,’ three signs are employed for the different degrees

of “certainly,” ‘‘ probably,’ and “‘ possibly”’ introduced. A few of

the agricultural weeds (e.g. Ranunculus arvensis, Fumaria micrantha,

Chrysanthemum segetum, and all the species of the genus Papaver)

are marked as possibly introduced ; but we observe that most of the

so-called “colonists”’ are still allowed to pass as native.

The following is a summary of the principal alterations made

since the fourth edition :—

In the genus Thalictrum, T. caleareum (Jord.) is added as a va-

riety of T. minus (L.) ; T. saxatile of former editions now appears

as T. Kochii (Fries), while a new species is added under the name of

T. saxatile (Schleich.). Papaver Lecoqii (Lamot.) is accepted as a

species distinct from P. dubium (L.). Instead of Fumaria capreo-

lata, we have now three species, viz. F. pallidiflora (Jord.) [to

which F. Borai (Jord.) is joined as a variety], F. confusa (Jord.),

and F. muralis (Sond.). Barbarea intermedia is new to the British

list, but is marked as possibly introduced. Under Viola sylvatica

(Fries) are described two forms—a. V. Reichenbachiana (Bor.), and

52 Bibliographical Notices.

B. V. Riviniana (Reich.), with the intimation that they are probably

distinct species. Moehringia trinervis has been transferred to the

genus Arenaria ; Arenaria leptoclados (Guss.) takes its place as a

species. The name Hypericum anglicum (Bert.) is still preferred to

H. elatum (Ait.); but the plant is enclosed in brackets, as having

very slender claims to be accounted British. Ulew strictus (Mackay)

is reduced to a variety of U. europeus (Linn.). Lotus tenuis (Smith),

which appeared as a species in the ‘Flora of Cambridgeshire,’ is

once more joined to Lotus corniculatus (L.). Lathyrus tuberosus (L.)

is added, with the brand of a possibly foreign origin. The genus

Rubus has been thoroughly revised, and the number of species raised

from forty to forty-five. Dryas depressa (Bab.) is reduced to a

variety of D. octopetala (L.). Lepigonum now includes four species

by the addition of L. rupestre (Kindb.) and L. neglectum (Kindb.).

Sedum purpureum (Tausch) is now called 8. Fabaria (Koch). Ga-

lium parisiense (L.) changes to G. anglicum (Huds.). Galium elon-

gatum (Presl) is now included under G. palustre (L.). Centaurea

nigrescens of former editions is reduced to a variety of C. nigra, under

the name of C. decipiens (Thuill.). Centaurea paniculata (L.) adds

another plant to those peculiar to the Channel Isles. Two Hieracia

have changed name: H. cerinthoides is now called H. anglicum

(Fries), and H. sfelligerum becomes H. floccosum (Backh.). Cicendia

Candollei (Griseb.) is now C. pusilla (Griseb.). Lycitum barbarum

(L.) and Veronica peregrina (L.) are added to the list of naturalized

plants. Ajuga alpina is removed, with the remark that the plant

figured in ‘ English Batany’ seems to be a slight variety of A. reptans

(L.). Polygonum laxum of former editions becomes P. nodosum

(Pers.). Callitriche peduneulata (DC.) changes to C. hamulata

(Kiitz.) ; C. stagnalis (Scop.) is allowed as British, but only in the

form of a variety. Parietaria erecta of former editions is now con-

sidered a form of P. diffusa, the true P. erecta of Koch not having

occurred in Britain. Gladiolus illyricus (Koch) is added, and ap-

pears as a true native of Hampshire. Luzula Borreri (Bromf.) is

just noticed, as an abortive state of L. pilosa(L.). The plant men-

tioned as Potamogeton gracilis (Fries) is now referred to P. pusillus

(L.); P. sparganiifolius (Laest.) takes its place as certainly iden-

tical with Fries’s plant from Lapland. Carex ericetorum is new.

Poa polynoda (Parnell) is united to P. compressa (L.). Festuca

ambigua (Le Gall) is admitted. Triticum pungens (Pers.) is another

addition to the Grasses. Triticum laxum (Fries) is changed to 7.

acutum (DC.).

Equisetum Telmateia (Ehr.) becomes F. maximum (Lam.). Allo-

sorus crispus (Bernh.) is now called Cryptogramme crispa (R. Br.).

Woodsia hyperborea (R. Br.) takes rank as a species distinct from

W. ilvensis (R. Br.). The genus Pseudathyrium (Newm.) is now

merged in Polypodium. Lastrea remota (Moore) is admitted as a

variety of L. spinulosa (Presl). Athyrium fontanum is now placed

in the genus Asplenium. Asplenium acutum (Bory) is reduced to a

variety of Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum (L.). Isoétes echinospora

(Dur.) is new; Lsoétes Hystrix (Dur.) is also new.

Bibliographical Notices. 53

The chief alterations and amendments which appear in this edition

of the ‘Manual’ will be gathered from what has been already said,

and from a study of the preceding analysis. It only remains for us

to observe that there is no other work of the kind in which so great

pains have been taken to bring the nomenclature of our English

plants into conformity with that adopted on the Continent; and it

will be seen that not a few of the changes which appear in the edi-

tion now before us have been introduced with this aim. We must

also remark that in no other English book can we find the same care

bestowed on the discrimination of closely allied species and varieties ;

and, whatever be thought of the respective value of the different

forms, no one can doubt the importance of a careful and discrimi-

nating study of varieties, inasmuch as it is only by this means that

we can hope to attain to a more exact knowledge of species.

It is by a careful and judicious attention to matters such as these

that Professor Babington’s ‘ Manual’ has become identified with the

progress of British botany; and we have no hesitation in saying

that the present edition is in every respect calculated to sustain the

high reputation in which its author is so deservedly held.

British Conchology; or, an Account of the Mollusca which now

inhabit the British Isles and the surrounding Seas. Volume I.

Land and Freshwater Shells. By Joun Gwyn JEFYREYS,

F.R.S., F.G.S. &c.

Nine years have elapsed since the publication of Forbes and Han-

ley’s ‘History of British Mollusca’—a period brief indeed in the

history of a science, but long enough to have added many species of

Mollusca to our fauna, and of these no sufficient description has as

yet been given. The elaborate treatise to which reference has just

been made will probably remain for some time the chief illustrated

work upon the subject. The high price, however, at which it was

necessarily published unfortunately placed it beyond the reach of very

many, who have thus been hitherto debarred from following up the

study of British Conchology ; while its bulk has stood in the way of

its utility, and the student has felt the want of a portable volume

which should be his companion at the sea-side. The aim of the

author whose Manual we are about to review is to supply this want,

as well as to bring the history of the Mollusca up to our present state

of knowledge, and no one has equal facilities for undertaking and satis-

factorily performing the task. Possessed of an unrivalled and well-

nigh perfect collection of British shells, and having, moreover, a first-

rate conchological library, Mr. Jeffreys has those materials at his own

command which previous writers have been compelled to glean from

various sources, or search for through the cabinets of many widely

scattered collectors. Moreover, he has had upwards of thirty years’

close study of his subject, and is thus thoroughly master of it, as is

evidenced in the easy flowing style which characterizes that portion

of his work which is now before us.

The volume is divided into two parts,—the first consisting of an

54 Bibliographical Notices.

Introduction, the second containing a descriptive account of the

British Land and Freshwater Mollusca.

The Introduction, comprised in six chapters, furnishes much valu-

able information condensed into a small compass. It has evidently

been drawn up with much care; and the history, habits, structure,

and economy of the Mollusca are well handled. The following ex-

tracts will give our readers a fair idea of the contents. On hybridism

we find the following information :—

“Although many surmises have from time to time been hazarded

as to the production of abnormal forms of Mollusca by means of an

unnatural union between individuals of different species, the only

direct experiments or observations that appear to have been published

on the subject have been made by French naturalists. M. Gassies, in

his descriptive Catalogue of the Land and Freshwater Mollusca found

near Agen, mentioned several cases of what he calls ‘ accouplements

adultérins,’ which he had observed between individuals of Helix

virgata and Helix Pisana, as well as between those species and Buli-

mus decollatus. M. Gassies enclosed the snails, during a thunder-

storm, in a vessel covered with metallic gauze; and he believed that

the electricity with which the air was then charged induced the un-

natural union. Great care appears to have been taken to prevent

any error in the result, by selecting individuals which had not been

previously fertilized, and keeping them, after fecundation, separate

from any others. The product of these unions was as follows: the

young of H. Pisana had perfectly white shells, their mother having

the usual coloured bands; and the young of H. virgata had shells

of a darker colour than that of their mother. In the other case, the

product of the Helices which had been coupled with the Bulimus

was various. Many had shells which were almost scalariform ; the

shells of others were pyramidal ; but the greater part of them had

shells exactly like that of their mother. The product of the Budimus

did not differ from their maternal form. M. Gassies had also ob-

served the product of a union between Helix nemoralis and H. hor-

tensis, in which the colour of the lips of their shells in each case

varied indifferently from brown or rose-colour to milk-white. Prof.

Lecoq and M. Miergue have celebrated the voluntary nuptials be-

tween individuals of Helix nemoralis and H. aspersa, as well as

between Pupa cinerea and Clausilia papillaris; but these unions

do not appear to have been blessed with any offspring.”

To these instances of hybridism we may add that we have seen

some hybrids which had been bred between Helix Pomatia and H.

aspersa by an English conchologist.

Few subjects have greater interest than the wonderful provision

which nature makes for the reproduction of lost members among the

lower divisions of the animal kingdom. The following account is

given of instances of this phenomenon as evidenced among the

Mollusca: “Some Mollusca which had been accidentally deprived

of their feet, tentacles, eyes, and even their entire heads, have been

known to reproduce them. Nearly a century ago, the experiment of

decapitating unfortunate slugs and snails was conducted on a whole-

Bibliographical Notices. 55

sale scale on the Continent, and every philosopher was anxious to cut

off ahead. Even the great Voltaire followed the universal fashion ;

and his experiences were published in the ‘ Questions sur I’ Encyclo-

pédie.’ In these he mentions having operated on twenty brown

slugs and a dozen snails; and he afterwards records with great pride

and satisfaction ‘mes Limaces’ and ‘mes Escargots’ showing their

budding heads and horns, and doing as well as might be expected

under the circumstances.’’ Accident some years ago enabled us to

verify the observations of Voltaire, Miller, and others upon this sub-

ject. Unaware at that time of the wonderful tenacity of life in the

Helices, and being desirous of examining the jaws of H. aspersa, we

suddenly decapitated a snail, while crawling, with a single stroke of

a penknife. We believed, in doing this, that we had adopted a plan

of killing the snail which would result in instantaneous death, while

the mode of death was also best suited to our immediate purpose.

The shell containing the carcase was thrown from the open window

into the garden, while the head was dissected, and the jaws extracted

and mounted. Nothing more was thought of the matter until, about

six weeks subsequently, we lighted, while gardening, upon the iden-

tical snail-shell, which was easily recognizable in consequence of a

repair, and to our astonishment noticed a thin filmy epiphragm closing

the mouth of the shell. The mollusk was still alive ; and on tempt-

ing it out by immersion in tepid water, the headless trunk was pro-

truded from the shell. The poor animal’s neck was healed over, and

we found that we had been unintentionally guilty of a barbarous act

of mutilation. We were, however, of course extremely interested in

the result, and the snail was carefully kept for future observation.

It lived for a year and two or three months. During this time it

was occasionally dipped in milk, with the hope that nourishment

might thus be imbibed through the pores of the skin. Under this

stimulus, the snail would protrude its poor guillotined remains from

the shell; there were, however, but faint signs of reproduction.

The last time it was seen alive, the head was represented by a knob-

formed projection, on which two minute tubercular eminences repre-

sented the upper antenne.

The author gives a brief analysis of the various solutions which

have been offered of the much-vexed question of the means by which

the burrowing Mollusca penetrate stone, wood, cork, and other sub-

stances, and then proceeds to propound a new theory—new, that is,

to modern times,—which we give to our readers without comment.

«‘T profess myself to be a follower of Sellius,”’ a Dutch philo-

sopher who wrote a learned treatise on the Ship-worm about a hun-

dred and thirty years ago; ‘and I am convinced that the sole in-

strument of perforation, by the Mollusca, of stone, wood, and other

substances is in every case their foot, or muscular disk, which is

closely applied to the concave end of the hole, and is constantly

supplied with moisture through the glandular tissues of the body.

The strength of this organ may be easily tested by any one who tries

to remove a limpet from its native rock, after having touched it, and

thus given it notice of his intention. By this simple yet gradual

56 Bibliographical Notices.

process, the fibres of wood or grains of sandstone may easily be de-

tached or disintegrated, time and patience being allowed for the

operation. When it is considered that the hole made by an adult

Pholas or Saxicava is only a few inches deep, and that an aged Pa-

tella scarcely penetrates a quarter of an inch into a limestone-rock,

there can scarcely be a question that these mollusks have abundance

of time to effect their purpose. It is said that even the hardest

marble is not proof against the softest impressions, and that the big

toe of St. Peter’s statue in the Vatican has been nearly worn away

by the lips of fair devotees. The osculatory process is not unlike

that of suction.”

In the second portion of the work a uniform plan has been adopted.

The animal is first described, then the shell and its varieties; and

these descriptions are followed by a commentary upon the range,

habits, and nomenclature of the species in question. The different

parts of the animal and shell are also invariably characterized in the

same order—a methodical plan which has great advantages, and

which ought always to be adopted in descriptive works on natural

history.

Mr. Jeffreys’s computation of the number of our inland Mollusca

is almost the same as that of Messrs. Forbes and Hanley, the former

enumerating 121, and the latter 122 species. There is, however,

considerable diversity as to the means by which these numbers are

arrived at. The author of ‘ British Conchology’ has struck out of

the list the following Mollusca, as being either merely varietal forms

or erroneously recorded species :—Pisidium obtusale, Pfeiffer ; Pi-

sidium cinereum, Alder ; Pisidiwm Henslowianum, Sheppard ; Arion

flavus, Miller; Limax brunneus, Draparnaud; Limax tenellus,

Miller; Helix aperta, Born; and Limneus Burnetti, Alder: and,

on the other hand, he has given admission to the following :—

Spherium ovale, Férussac; Pisidium roseum, Scholtz, separated

from Pisidium pulchellum, Jenyns ; Anodonta anatina, Linneus,

separated from Anodonta cygnea, Linneeus; Succinea elegans, Risso,

separated from Succinea putris, Linneeus; Helix concinna, Jeffreys,

separated from Helix hispida, Linneus; Vertigo Moulinsiana,

Dupuy, now first recorded as a British species, having been taken by

Mr. Jeffreys in the west of Ireland; and Vertigo alpestris, Alder,

separated from Vertigo pygmea, Draparnaud. We are unable to

acquiesce in many of these changes, though in the majority of in-

stances the decision which the author has arrived at appears to be

fully justified. But Mr. Jeffreys is not content with species; in

this work he introduces to British conchologists no less than one

hundred and eighty-four named varieties. It has always appeared

to us that the use of names as applied to varieties is most undesirable,

and therefore should only be adopted in cases where the forms are

so strongly marked as either to have already been characterized as

species by previous describers, or at least to be possessed of features

so greatly at variance with the type that the description of the nor-

mal form would of itself be insufficient for their identification.

Names, for instance, have been given, we think, rightly by Mr. Dar-

Royal Society. 57

win to distinguish the widely different forms of the variable species

of Cirripedia; and in the case of British Mollusca, they may be

retained with advantage in such genera as Pisidium, Anodonta,

Littorina, &c.; but there is surely much reason to question the ad-

visability of introducing varietal nomenclature on slight deviations of

form and colour, in the wholesale manner which we find in this

volume. For instance, there are distinguishing titles given to no

less than five modifications of the well-known Cochlicopa (Zua) lu-

brica. These varieties are characterized as follows :—

Var. 1. hyalina. Shell greenish-white.

Var. 2. lubricoides, Fér. Shell smaller and more slender.

Var. 3. viridula. Shell shaped like the last variety, but greenish-

white.

Var. 4. fusca. Shell smaller and thinner, reddish-brown.

Var. 5. ovata. Shell much smaller, and oval; spire shorter.”

The views of the author are at variance with those of previous

writers upon the subject of geographical distribution. It is his opi-

nion that the provinces as constituted by Milne-Rdwards, Woodward,

and Forbes are all too limited in area, and that the fauna of Europe

should be divided into two provinces only—North European and

South European. The division between these provinces he would

mark by a “line drawn in the meridian of Bordeaux, which may be

assumed as an arbitrary point of demarcation between the two ex-

tremes of climate in Europe,” and which roughly defines the limits

of the growth of the olive in France. A table at the conclusion of

the volume shows the distribution of the British land and freshwater

shells in these two provinces, their presence or absence in a fossil

state in the Upper Tertiary formations, and their extra-EKuropean

range. The illustrations consist of nine plates, which contain figures

of the animal and shell of each genus described.

In conclusion, we cordially recommend this work to conchologists,

and look forward to its completion, believing that the portion which

relates to the marine species is yet more required than that which is

now before us, and that its publication will give a healthy stimulus

to the study of the British Mollusca.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ROYAL SOCIETY.

March 27, 1862.—Major-General Sabine, President, in the Chair.

“‘ Theoretical Considerations on the Conditions under which the

Drift Deposits containing the Remains of Extinct Mammalia and

Flint-implements were accumulated ; and on their Geological Age.”’

By Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S.

In his former paper on the subject of the Flint-implements*, the

author postponed the consideration of the theoretical questions, to.

* See Annals, ser. 3. vol. iv. p. 230, for abstract ; Phil. Trans. 1860, p. 277, for

the entire memoir.

58 Royal Society :—

allow time for a fuller investigation of the physical phenomena. The

points then sought to be established were,—the artificial make of

the specimens,—their position in undisturbed ground,—and their

contemporaneity with the extinct animals. The points fur present

consideration relate to the structural and physical phenomena, and

to various theoretical questions.

In the present paper the author proceeds to show that the flint-

implements are found along the line of existing river-plains at heights

varying from 20 to 100 feet above the rivers, and that the beds of

sand and gravel in which they are imbedded can be divided into

two more or less distinct series, one continuous along the bottom of

the valleys and rising but little above the river-level, and to which he

proposes to apply the term ‘‘ Low-level Gravels,” and the other in

detached masses on the heights flanking the valleys, and at 50 to

200 feet above the rivers, and which he designates as the “ High-

level Gravels*.’ Both gravels consist of débris derived from

rocks in the valleys through which the present rivers or their tribu-

taries flow, aud they both occasionally contain organic remains;

both are, in fact, related to former plains and present valleys.

This structure is then shown to apply to the Waveney, where

there is a terrace of gravel on both sides of the valley at a level of

about 40 feet above the river, and to which position, but to a more

lacustrine condition, the Hoxne deposit belongs. Sections are given

of this valley, and also of the valleys of the Lark at Icklingham and

of the Ouse at Bedford, showing the constancy of this structure.

In the valley of the Thames the phenomena are more complicated

and are reserved for future consideration, notice bemg merely taken

of the implements found at Herne Bay and Whitstable.

Owing to the absence of marine newer and post-pliocene beds in

the North of France, these gravels are better exhibited and more

distinct, being free from rock-fragments and boulders foreign to

their own origin and area. Hence it has arisen that this part of the

geological series has been more investigated in France than in

England. In the admirable review of the Quaternary formations by

M. d’Archiac, two general conclusions are set forth. With the first

of these the author perfectly agrees. It is that each large hydro-

graphical basin, although the boundaries may not be marked by any

important elevation, has its own exclusive drifé, and that in no case

is there a mixture of the transported materials of the separate basins.

The author, however, dissents from the opinion that these drifts,

containing the remains of large extinct mammalia, have in any way

depended on or resulted from any general cataclysm destroying these

creatures nearly simultaneously over wide continents and entombing

their remains in the sand, gravel, and shingle of the valleys and

in the earth of the caverns; neither can he consider the excava-

tion of the valleys to be anterior to the spread of the drift-gravels.

* At the reading of this paper, the author used the terms ‘‘ Terrace Gravels”

and “ Valley Gravels ;”’ but he thinks it better to revert, with limitations, to terms

which he suggested some years since, but has not hitherto defined.

Mr. J. Prestwich on the Drift Deposits. 59

On the contrary, he refers the phenomena to long-continued river-

action.

An account is then given of the valley of the Somme, and it is stated

that the relation between the high- and low-level gravels, which

could not be proved with respect to St. Acheul and St. Roch, has

been made clearly apparent at Montiers near Amiens, by the opening

of a new ballast-pit on the side of the railway, some 50 feet above

the level of the old gravel-pits in the valley just below, and in which

latter jlint-implements were first found by the author in the spring

of last year. In the upper ballast-pit a considerable number of land

and freshwater shells and some mammalian bones have been found,

but as yet no flint-implements. This deposit, as also the now well-

known flint-implement-bearing beds of St. Acheul, are considered to

belong to the high-level gravels, whilst the gravel of St. Roch and

that of the old Montiers pits are placed with the low-level gravels.

Both sets of gravels are also developed in the neighbourhood of

Abbeville, and both there contain flint-implements ; Moulin Quignon

belonging to the higher level, and Menchecourt and Mautort (village)

to the lower level.

In the course of last year M. Gosse discovered flint-implements in

association with the remains of the Mammoth in some gravel-pits

near the well of Grenelle at Paris. This bed belongs to the low-level

gravel. The same gravel is also worked to the S.E. of Paris at the

Gare d’Ivry, where, as at Montiers, it abuts against the hill-side.

On the hill above, and 115 feet higher, there occurs at Gentilly a

deposit of sand and gravel, with land and freshwater shells and mam-

malian remains, precisely like that at St. Acheul. At Charonne, on

the opposite side of the valley and distant 4 miles, a similar deposit,

corresponding in its height above the river, in its collection of fresh-

water shells, and in its mineral contents, is met with. No flint-

implements have yet been found in these beds, but in every other

respect they agree with the gravel of St. Acheul. These deposits,

which have been described by M. Duval and M. Charles d’ Orbigny,

contain the same débris as the present Seine valley, and amongst it

fragments of granite derived from the hills of the Morvan, at a

distance of 120 miles from Paris.

It is then shown, by reference to the works of M. Leymerie, M.

Cornuel and other geologists, that the valleys of the Seine and of its

tributaries above Paris are occasionally flanked by heights capped

with gravel containing at places remains of the Elephant, Deer,

Horse, &c. In some instances these gravels rise to a height of 190

feet above the river, but the general height is from 60 to 150 feet.

Sometimes they expand to a breadth of 4 to 5 miles, but they more

usually form narrow belts. Various other French authors are then

quoted, to show that the same structure prevails in the valleys of

the Oise (where one instance of a flint-implement is recorded by M.

de Verneuil), of the Marne, the Aire, the Aube, and their numerous

tributaries; and in each instance it is shown that the materials,

both of the high- and low-level gravels, are derived strictly from the

district through which the valley passes; that only the Seine valley

60 Royal Society :—

contains granite from the Morvan, the Oise

slate-rock débris from the Ardennes, the Marne

nothing older than oolitic débris, whilst the

Thérain and the Somme valleys contain nothing

but débris of the chalk and tertiary strata.

The same rule applies to the English area; but

the fact is not so apparent, owing to various

conflicting elements pomted out by the author,

who shows, by a map of the two countries,

how great are the range and spread of these

beds, and how large a proportion of our drift-

gravels are of fluviatile origin.

The High-level Gravels.—From the facts re-

corded by the several mdependent observers

abroad, and from his own observations in this

country, the author arrives at a generai proposi-

tion illustrated by the accompanying diagram,

which shows,—1. D, a major valley or plain of

denudation anterior to the excavation of the river-

valley. 2. e, anon-fossiliferous drift on the slope

and base of D. 3. C, the river-valley. 4. d, the

high- and c, the low-level gravels. 5. a, recent

alluvium. 6. A, the present river-channel.

The high-level gravels (d) appear on both sides

of the valley, and their connexion before the ex-

cavation of C is pointed out. This is one of the

points insisted upon by the author; the two

having been generally considered as contempo-

raneous, or even sometimes the higher-level de-

posits as newer than those of the lower level. It

is to be observed that the phenomena here re-

ferred to relate to broad valleys, and not merely

to river-channels.

The loess is not shown in the diagram, other-

wise the section represents the condition of the

case on the supposition that all the parts are

complete. But this rarely happens. Some low-

level gravel is constant, but the high-level gravels

are only occasionally preserved. Sections are

then given to explain the cause of their absence

—such as where the valley C being wider than

the original bed of the old river which deposited

the gravel d, the latter has been necessarily alto-

gether removed.

That the formation of the higher gravels can

be owing to the action of the present rivers is

clearly impossible under existing conditions ; for

not only are they far above the level reached

by the rivers at the highest floods, but also

the sectional area of the valleys, compared to

WLEEZEZEZELE_EE

Mr. J. Prestwich on the Drift Deposits. 61

that of the present rivers, is so vast, that in no possible way,

except by the sea, could they now be filled with water. Sec-

tions are given of the valleys of the Waveney, Ouse, Somme, and

Seine, showing a disproportion between the rivers at their highest

floods and the old valleys, on the average, about 1: 500; and it is

shown, with respect te the great flood of the Seine in 1658, when the

waters at Paris rose to a height of 29 feet, that it would require a

flood of at least one hundred times that magnitude to fill (with the

water even in a state of rest) the valley of the Seine to the level of

the high-level gravels of Gentilly and Charonne.

That the isolated beds of high-level gravels must at one time have

been connected in length and breadth is evident from the circum-

stance of these detached parts having certain characters in common,

and from the fact that if the deep valleys which they overhang, and

the transverse valleys which they pass over, had then existed, they

would have presented insuperable barriers to the deposition of the

gravels at levels so much higher.

That the transport of this drift could have been caused by the

bursting of lakes, by the sudden melting of the glaciers and snow of

mountain-chains, or by the transient passage of a body of water over

the land is not possible, because the spread of the débris would have

been more general, would have held its course more irrespective of

the existing watersheds, and would have shown an amount of wear

in proportion to the distance travelled ; whereas in each basin the

débris is local, however low the watershed. None of the slate and

oolitic débris of the Oise valley traverses into the valley of the

Somme, notwithstanding the watershed between them is only six

miles broad and eighty feet high.

There are two ways in which the author conceives the spread of

the débris in the various directions and distinct areas could have

been effected ; the one by the rise of the land from beneath the sea,

and the other by the action of rivers on a larger scale than the

present ones. As the later tertiary deposits show the existence of

seas or of lakes over the districts in question, it follows as a necessary

consequence that when the land rose from beneath them, a mass of

débris, in quantity and length of transport proportionate to the

greater or lesser rate of elevation, must have been spread over the

bottom of the channels along which the water flowed off. Nearly

associated with the high-level gravels there are remnants of another

drift which may have had this older and independent origm. This

mode of formation could not, however, be applied to the valley gravels,

as they contain freshwater shells such as live in rivers, with land

shells and mammalian remains, proving the existence of a dry land.

The author concludes that the high-level gravels are the result

of river-action which took place at a period before the excavation of

the present river-valleys. With regard to the mode of formation of

these gravels, he remarks on the materials being often transported

a considerable distance,—the frequent presence of large blocks or

boulders of the harder rocks,—the presence of a certain proportion

of angular débris,—and the commonly confused bedding and con-

62 Royal Society :—

tortions. He shows this to exist in England and in France, and

supports the case by quotations from various French authors. It

is then shown that in the valley of the Somme these phenomena

are most marked and decisive,—large blocks of sandstone, some

weighing four to five tons, and derived from tertiary strata twenty to

forty miles above Amiens, being found in the St. Acheul gravels,

and the beds being much contorted. These contortiuns do not depend

on any pressure exercised by the blocks, but result from some dis-

turbing power applied and removed. To illustrate this point refer-

ence is made to two sections in his former paper (Phil. Trans. for

1860, p. 299).

The author conceives that the only adequate cause to produce many

of these effects is river-ice, the transporting power of which is well

known, whilst he quotes the observations of travellers in Northern

America to prove the power of such ice to pile-up the shore

shingle in great conical heaps. That the old pleistocene rivers were

also larger and more rapid than the existing rivers is evident from

the great quantity of débris, the prevalence of gravels, the coarseness

of the sands, and the general absence of mud-sediments. Another

agent of considerable power is referred to, viz. ground-ice, but is re-

served for consideration further on.

The Fauna of the High-level Gravels—The organic remains are

considered with reference especially to the climatal conditions of the

period ; and it is regretted that, owing to the scarcity of fossils

except at a few places, and to the want of specific information with

regard to the mammalian remains and the levels, the evidence on

many points is unavoidably incomplete. The best-determined group

is that of the Mollusca, in examining which the valuable assistance

of Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys is acknowledged. The author gives a Table

showing the group of land and freshwater shells inhabiting, in

England and France, the area now described, from which comes out

the striking result, that out of 109 living species 43 are found in

the deposits of the high-level gravel period. There is a scarcity

of Unionideze and Paludinidee, whereas Limneeidee and Helicide are

very common. In many places shells are scarce or altogether want-

ing; but this is common in all rivers subject to floods or bringing

down much shingle. All the species are of existing forms, and all,

with four exceptions, inhabit the same districts as formerly. Their

range is then reviewed, and it is shown that though a considerable

proportion of them are found in the South of France, a still larger

proportion exist in Scandinavia, and that as many as thirty-five out

of the forty-three species are met with. in Finland, including the

common forms, such as Succinea putris, S. Pfeifferi, Helix hispida,

H. nemoralis, H. pulchella, Pupa muscorum, Limneus pereger, L. pa-

lustris, L. truncatula, Planorbis corneus, P. vortex, P. marginatus,

P. albus, P. spirorbis, Bythinia tentaculata, Valvata piscinalis, Pisi-

dium amnicum, &c. From these and other facts it is concluded that,

while there is nothing in the Mollusca to necessitate a climate different

from that of the present day, there is nothing to require restriction

to an identical climate, while at the same time the tendency of deve-

Mr. J. Prestwich on the Drift Deposits. 63

lopment of the group is rather in a northern than in a southern

direction.

The several genera and species of Mammalia are then considered,

the principal being Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Bi-

son priscus, with several species of Lquus, Bos, Cervus, whilst the

Reindeer is found in deposits of the same period; and an opinion is

expressed that the evidence with respect to the climatal conditions

furnished by the Mammalia, although slight, is more definite than

that obtained from the Mollusca, and tends to show the probability

of the climate at the period of the high-level gravel having been

colder than that of these latitudes at the present day. The flora is

scanty and of little avail. It is then remarked that if we had to

depend only upon the organic remains for decisive evidence of the

nature of the climate of the period under inquiry, we should at

present fail to arrive at any safe and exact conclusion. If, however,

these indications are taken in conjunction with the physical features,

the conjoint evidence has weight and more preciseness; and the author

concludes, from a review of all the facts, that there must have been

a mean winter cold of not less than 20°, and possibly as low as 10°,

or from 19° to 29° below the mean winter temperature (39°) of this

part of Europe. The cave evidence would have helped this question.

The Flint-Implements.—These works of man are first discovered

in beds of the high-level gravel period. The most ordinary shapes

are the large spear-head form, either with a sharp point or a flat

rounded one, and with the butt end sometimes blunt, and at other

times chipped to an edge. With regard to the manner in which

they came to be imbedded in the gravel, it can only be surmised

from their condition, from our present experience, and by considering

the uses to which they could possibly have been applied.

These conditions are then reviewed, and it is shown that the flint-

implements rarely or never show indications of atmospheric weather-

ing; that they are rarely worn, but are usually sharp and angular,

like some of the large unworn flints which have been attributed to

transport by ice; also that they are most common where the evi-

dence of ice-action is the greatest, as at St. Acheul and Moulin

Quignon. ‘The climate of the period having been severe, it is essen-

tial to keep in mind the usages of tribes under like conditions at the

present day. The mode of life of the Chipweyan Indians and the

Esquimaux is then considered; and it is shown that a hatchet, an

ice-chisel, a file and knives, of stone or metal, are all the instruments

they need or use. It is further shown that when in winter the

usually abundant supplies of Reindeer fail, these people resort com-

monly to fishing in the frozen rivers, and then use their ice-chisels

for making holes in the ice. These implements are also in daily use

for keeping open the water-holes. Analogous facts are quoted from

Wrangel respecting Siberia. The author suggests therefore that

some of the mysterious flint-implements (such as fig. 5, pl. 12, Phil.

Trans. 1860) of St. Acheul may have been used as ice-chisels. Rea-

sons are then assigned for their presence chiefly at particular spots ;

and reference is nade to other forms of flint-implements, all of Which

64: Royal Society :—

admit of explanation, except those of a flat ovoid shape, common at

Abbeville, which are unlike any instrument in use amongst any exist-

ing uncivilized tribes.

Notwithstanding the probable severity of the climate, it was one by

no means unsuited to the existence of man, whilst the character of

the contemporaneous animal life of the period was perfectly fitted for

his support and sustenance. .

A difficulty has been raised because hitherto no human bones

have been found in these gravels; but when it is considered how

scanty is the population in northern latitudes, and how dispropor-

tionately numerous are the great herds of Deer, Oxen, and other

animals (fossil remains of which are yet comparatively rare), this

fact, taken in conjunction with the foresight of man, indicates

how small are the chances of finding his remains. Nevertheless

in other deposits probably of the age of these gravels, such as

some of the caves near Liége described by Schmerling, the scattered

bones of man have been found in association with a like mammalian

fauna.

The Low-level Gravels.—Connected with this subject is the exca-

vation of the valleys, and the duration of that operation. The

author mentions how he hesitated to assign at first a much higher

antiquity to the higher gravels than to the lower gravels, or rather,

admitting a difference of age, to decide whether the excavation of the

valleys might not have been effected by some more powerful agency

acting through a short interval of time, and by so much contracting

the period by whicb the St. Acheul deposit preceded that of St.

Roch ; but after repeated visits to Amiens, and looking at the ques-

tion from every point of view, he finds himself unable to discover a

sufficient explanation in the direction first sought, and obliged to

adopt, in part, views differing materially in some points from those

he at first thought to be the more probable. The low-level gravels

have been frequently described, and the author confines himself

chiefly to pointing out the difference between them and the high-

level gravels. The climate at the one period has been described as

one of considerable severity ; but there is evidence to show that in

some part of the pliocene period, previous to that time, the cold

was still more severe. At the period referred to the greater part of

England was under the sea, whereas Switzerland and the greater

part of France had emerged at an earlier or a miocene period, and

there is no sufficient proof of their having been subsequently sub-

merged. This was the period of the wonderful extension of the old

European glaciers, which descended in the Swiss Alps, the Jura,

and the Vosges to within 1200 or 1000 feet of the sea-level, the

existing glaciers standing at 3400 to 3500 feet. M. Leblanc has cal-

culated that such a difference of level might be accounted for by a

reduction in the mean annual temperature of 123° Fahr.; but the

author questions this, as the gradients of the glacier beds were much

less after they had emerged from the mountain-passes. The growth

of the old glaciers is rather the result of the great cold than a mea-

sure of it. Still it can be conceived that their growth would be

Mr. J. Prestwich on the Drift Deposits. 65

checked when the temperature had risen from the extreme cold to a

point 123° below the present mean annual temperature. This would

reduce the mean annual temperature here to 373°,—that of Moscow

and Quebec, with which the climate at the higher gravel period has

been before compared, being respectively 40° and 41°,—and would

agree with what has been considered the probable mean winter

temperature of that period, viz. one between 10° and 20°.

Taking this as the starting-point, the effect of such conditions with

reference to the quantity of ice and snow stored up during this period

of cold, and to its effect on the river-discharges for many years after-

wards during the period of the valley gravels, has to be considered.

The melting of the winter snow would necessarily cause spring floods.

Another cause of floods is the fall of rain whilst the ground is still

frozen. These causes, combined possibly with a larger rainfall, must

have afforded to the old rivers, either permanently or, at all events,

during spring-time, a volume of water far exceeding any present sup-

ply, and given them more of a torrential character. Instances are

quoted from Sir R. Murchison’s ‘ Russia’ and Wrangel’s ‘ Siberia,’

and others, to show how this is still the case every spring in northern

countries, causing a rise in the rivers of from !0 to 40 feet, and

inundating the adjacent valleys.

Other forces, however, besides an increase in the water-power,

seem required to account for the excavation of the great valleys; and

the author thinks that cold and ground-ice have performed a very

important part in the operation. In support of this view, he adduces

. the opinion of Arago and the observations of M. Leclercq and Col.

Jackson, both of whom show how constantly this ice is formed in

cold climates in rivers with stony and gravelly bottoms, such as the

old post-pleiocene rivers must have been. Amongst other obser-

vations given are those of M. Weitz, who states that in the north

of Siberia the formation of ground-ice can be seen in the rivers at a

depth of 14 feet and more, and that in “rising from the bottom

the masses of ice bring up with them sand and stones, and let them

down at places far distant from whence they came;’’ and he coneludes

‘that not only does the current occasion a change in the bed of the

river by its erosion of the looser soil, which it carries from one place

to deposit in another, but that the ice, which forms at the bottom

of rapid rivers in very cold countries, tends also to effect a change in

the beds of those rivers.”

Another agent would co-operate with the last; this is the freezing

of the ground and the rending of rocks by frost. Taking extreme

cases, Crantz shows to how great an extent this operates in Green-

land; Dr. Sutherland gives some still more striking instances on the

shores of Barrow Strait, and Sir J. Richardson on the Mackenzie

River. Even in our country, the disintegration produced during one

severe winter on a fresh vertical section of chalk is very striking.

A remarkable instance is quoted from Sir R. Murchison’s ‘ Russia,’

of a long terrace of angular blocks of limestone broken up and left

by the winter-ice 30 feet above the summer level of the Dwina

near Archangel.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. x. 5

66 Royai Society :—

With all these combined operations, the author still doubts whether,

without an uplifting of the land, the effects in question could have

been produced ; and he shows that the coasts of this part of England

and France are fringed here and there by a raised beach, which he

correlates with the low-level gravel of Abbeville, whilst the high-level

gravel of St. Acheul is correlated with beds occupying on the coast

a level higher by 50 to 100 feet, marking the difference of level

between the two periods. The effect of this slow elevation would

be to increase the velocity and erosive power of the rivers. This

action, with the other agencies before alluded to, operating upon the

successive portions of the substrata, has gradually worn even those

deep and long valleys through which so many of the rivers of these

districts flow. According to variability in the rate of elevation, to

intervals of repose, or to deflections in the current and velocity of

the river, there may exist intermediate levels or terraces of gravel, and

variations in the inclination of the slopes, which may add much to

the complexity of the problem.

The Fauna of the Low-level Gravel.—Of the forty-three species

of Mollusca found in the higher gravels, thirty-four occur also in the

low levels, together with seven others, making a total of forty-one

species. Added to these, there are eight marine species found at Men-

checourt, with the Cyrena fluminalis of the Nile and of Grays. With

this one exception, they are all common living species of England

and France. As with the former group, there is nothing to give a

definite clue to the character of the climate of the period. The

general absence of southern forms, and the preponderance of such

as have a wide northern range, may, however, be noticed. With

regard to the Mammalia, the number of determined species is small,

and the general argument follows nearly the same line as that re-

lating to the Mammalia of the higher gravels. As with the Mol-

Insea, most of the species are common to the two series, whence it

is inferred that there was no great or sudden break, and that the

change both of conditions and of climate was transitional. There is

one genus only, viz. the Hippopotamus, about which some diffi-

culty has been felt with reference to the condition of climate. Four

tusk teeth of this creature have been found at St. Roch, and in this

country its remains are found associated with those of the Reindeer.

Without pretending to explain the difficulty, the author does not see

why, if the other large Pachyderms were fitted, as they are now

known to have been, by warm covering and special adaptation to

inhabit cold climates, this extinct species of Hippopotamus should

not also have been so adapted.

The physical phenomena point to an increased volume of water in

the rivers, and want those marked indications of ice-action seen in the

high-level gravels. Still, boulders of considerable size were trans-

ported. From this fact, and the general balance of evidence furnished

by the fauna, and also from the contraction of the excavation as the

valleys became deeper, the author infers a gradual amelioration in

the temperature, ending in the present climatal conditions.

Flint-implements.—The author observes that flint-implements are

Mr. J. Prestwich on the Drift Deposits. 67

nowhere so abundant in the low- as they are in the high-level gravels.

The pointed lance-shaped form with blunt butts of the latter is

almost wanting in the former, whereas the ovoid disks of Menche-

court are rare at St. Acheul; again, flakes or flint-knives are com-

mon in the low-level gravels and rare in the higher beds. Of the

twenty-four specimens found in the low-level gravel at Paris, twenty-

two are mere flint-flakes. The author is disposed to attach some

value and significance to this difference of form, and observes that,

admitting the climate to have become less severe during the low-

level gravel period, it would follow that the necessity of having the

strong ice-chisels would have diminished. In all these cases we are of

course much limited to conjectures, seeking to make them in accord-

ance with what we know of life under like conditions, and guided by

the probabilities of the concurring circumstances. The mode of

distribution of the flint-implements at the two periods certainly

seems to afford some grounds for believing that the difference of form

may arise from difference in the pursuits and occupations of the pri-

mitive tribes by whom they were used—pursuits necessarily and

primarily influenced by the climate and life of the period.

Concluding Remarks.—The question of time is then entered upon,

and it is shown that the flint-implements must be carried back

through the periods of the low- and of the high-level gravels, and

that they must be considered to be antecedent to the excavation of

many of our great river-valleys. All these phenomena indicate

periods of long and great changes. The author only slightly touches

upon the formation of the Joess, which he concludes to be the result

of temporary floods ; and he remarks that, so far as the question of

the antiquity of the fluviatile gravels is concerned, little value need

be attached to the additional element presented by this covering of

loam and brick-earth. This deposit is sueceeded by the alluvial

beds of the valleys connected more immediately with our own times,

With regard to a measure of time, the author does not consider that

either the excavation of the valleys or the life evidence of the periods

furnish available data; nor does he admit the formation of the

channel between England and France in the calculation ; and he gives

reasons to show that this channel is of older date than generally as-

sumed, and that the separation existed at the time of the high-level

gravels, and had attained somewhat of its present dimensions at the

time of the newer gravels. Most of the land and freshwater shells

and the Mammalia had crossed over at a period anterior to this ;

and, as even now at the Island of Saghaleen in lat. 52° N., the

narrow strait freezing during the winter would admit of the passage

of large land animals and man during the cold periods following the

more extreme glacial conditions.

The author, however, suggests two new modes by which he con-

ceives that eventually some approximate and more exact estimate

may be made both of the age of the high-level gravels and of the

lapse of time since the extreme glacial period, and embracing there-

fore the several periods under consideration. At present the evidence

is only sufficient to indicate the possibilities of the problem, but it

68 Royal Society.

will need many years of careful observation before sufficient data can

be obtained for accurate calculation.

Ist. With the high-level gravels there are connected a number of

sand and gravel pipes, perforating the underlying chalk to the depths

generally of from 5 to 50 feet, and from 1 to 10 feet wide, or more.

As these are caused by the slow action of carbonic acid in the water

gradually percolating through the overlying porous beds, dissolving

the chalk or other calcareous strata, and gradually letting down the

superincumbent drift, it is evident that, if the rate of solution and

removal can be determined, one element for the calculation of a cer-

tain period will be obtained. In this, various meteorological questions

will have to be considered.

2nd. In conducting observations on the temperature of deep mines,

wells, &c., certain discrepancies in the increment of heat at increas-

ing depths and at different places have been noticed. No explana-

tion of these anomalies has been offered. The author suggests that

they may arise from disturbing causes originating with a former

period of intense cold. At Yakutsk, where the ground is now frozen

to a depth of 382 feet, the permanent line of 53° Fahr. would, taking

at an average an increase of 1° for every 60 feet, be found at a depth

of 1642 feet. If, from some geological change, the mean tempera-

ture of Yakutsk were raised to that of our own climate, this line of

53° would undergo a vertical displacement of 1550 feet. The time

required for its uniform re-adjustment over a large area would depend

upon various conditions, the chief one being the conductivity of the

different strata. The question, therefore, arises, whether traces of

perturbation in the temperature of the outer part of the earth’s crust

in these latitudes, resulting from the action of the extreme cold of the

glacial period, may not yet exist, and, if so, whether they may not

admit of exact determination with reference to the time elapsed since

the removal of the disturbing cause.

In conclusion, the author thinks that in the present state of the

inquiry it would be premature to attempt to fix even approximately

the lapse of time attaching to the flint-implements. It is obvious,

however, that our present chronology with respect to the first appear-

ance of Man must be very greatly extended ; but, like a mountain-

chain in the distance, its vast magnitude is felt before an exact

measurement of its height and size can be taken.

Attention is then directed to the remarkable uninterrupted succes-

sion of life from the pleistocene period under review to the present

time—a succession so large and important, that it is not possible to

imagine the occurrence of any intervening catastrophe of such a

nature as to destroy the life of the period over this part of Europe at

any recent geological period. ‘There are difficulties in the problem,

especially the disappearance of the larger animals; but the remark-

able and convincing feature in the case is the transmission to our

time of so large a proportion of the small and delicate land and

freshwater shells, which even now follow almost precisely the same

law in their distribution as they did at these latest geological periods.

Looking at the special nature of the glacial period, and seeing its

Zoological Society. 69

exceptional character, the author feels strongly impressed with the

belief that its effect has possibly been to give increased rigidity and

immobility to the flexible crust of the earth, and to produce a state

of equilibrium which might otherwise have been of long and slow

attainment, whereby it has been rendered fit and suitable for the

habitation and pursuits of civilized man*.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

February 11, 1862.—Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair.

DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEw SPECIES OF SPOGGODES AND OF

A New Atuiep Genus (MorCHELLANA) IN THE COLLECTION

or THE British Museum. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S.,

WoP-ZS., PLCS. Eve:

The genus Spoggodes was established by Lesson on a coral that

was described by Esper under the name of dleyonium floridum. It

is characterized by the whole of its substance being membranous,

very loosely cellular within, and covered externally with a layer of

fusiform spicula which are most abundant round the cells.

M. Milne-Edwards, in his ‘Coralliaires,’ only describes a single

species.

The species of the genus .in the British Museum may be divided

into two groups or subgenera.

I. The polypes crowded together at the end of the branchlet, and

the groups more or less surrounded by larger spicula of the

branchlet. Spoggodes.

1. SPOGGODES FLORIDA.

The coral pale purplish-red (in spirits); stem thick, much

branched, strengthened with very slender elongate purple spicules ;

the branchlets short, clustered at the end of the branches, and form-

ing convex heads or cells ; cells fringed with the very slender elon-

gated spicules, and furnished with white, only partially contracted

polypes.

Aleyonium floridum, Esper, Pflanz. iii. 49, Alcy. t. 16, dry.

Xinia purpurea, Lamk. Hist. A. s. V. ii. 401, from Esper.

Neptea florida, Blainv. Man. Act. 523, from Esper.

Spoggodes celosia, Lesson, Ill. Zool. t. 21; M.-Edwards, Coral-

hatress is 129; t. Bl. f. 1.

Spoggodea celosia, Dana, Zoophytes, 626, t. 59. f. 4.

Hab. Australia; Sharks’ Bay (Mr. Rayner) ; Philippine Islands

(H. Cuming, Esq.).

* In this and his former paper the author has used the term “ pleistocene M

in the sense of post-pleiocene, including also some beds placed in the newer

pleiocene.

70 Zoological Society :—

2. SPOGGODES SPINOSA.

The coral whitish, forming roundish spinose masses ; the stem

thick, slightly branched, with very numerous short branchlets ; the

spicules white, very unequal, some large and thick ; the terminal

branchlet furnished, on the inner upper edge, with curved (in spirits)

partly retracted purple polypes, which are surmounted and protected

by the large opake-white spicules of the branchlets.

Hab. New Guinea.

This species is easily distinguished by the large size and opake-

white colour of the spicula and the purple colour of the polypes.

II. The polypes isolated in the prominent isolated spiculose sub-

cylindrical cells, scattered on the sides, or forming tips of the

branchlets. Spoggodia.

3. SpogGopEs un1coLor. (Woodcut, figs. 1, 2.)

The coral uniform pale yellowish (in spirits) ; the spicules very

slender, whitish yellow; stem erect; branches scattered in all di-

rections, spreading, tapering, with few short tapering branchlets ;

cells distinct, distant, spreading, subcylindrical, sometimes very

slightly contracted at the base; mouth surrounded by five or six

unequal prominent spicules, the one on the outer side of the cell

being generally the longest ; polypes retractile.

Hab. Bellona Reefs, in 17 fathoms (Rayner).

4. Spoceopes pivaricaTa. (Woodcut, figs. 3, 4.)

Coral pale whitish (in spirits); stem thick, slightly branched, with

very numerous crowded ramuli forming roundish lobes ; the ramuli

divided at the top into three or five diverging cylindrical cells; the

cells of the several branchlets forming a sort of roundish-topped

cyme ; polypes contracted (in spirits), rose-coloured.

Hab. New Guinea (Capt. Sir Edward Belcher, R.N., C.B.).

5, SPOGGODES RAMULOSA. (Woodcut, figs. 5, 6.)

The coral dark brown-red (in spirits); stem thick, much branched,

strengthened by slender, elongated-fusiform, dark-brown-red spicules ;

the branchlets numerous, elongate, slender, much branched, with the

cells scattered on their sides; cells distant, subcylindrical, and

fringed on the edge with unequally prominent spicules, the outer

spicules being generally the longest and most prominent ; the polypes

pale yellowish, being generally nearly contracted into the cells, rarely

prominent.

Hab. Bellona Reefs, at 17 fathoms.

Some of the polypes on the lower part of the branchlets seem to

be somewhat crowded. ‘This species is easily known from S. florida

and S. wnicolor by the general colour of the coral and by the slender-

ness and length of the branchlets. It agrees with the former in the

coral and spicules being red, and the polypes being more or less pro-

minent and of a different colour from the coral, and with the latter

Dr. J. E. Gray on new Species of Spoggodes. 71

in the form of the cell; but the cells are very differently disposed,

and of a slender, attenuated form.

We have in the British Museum a new form of tlie ‘“ Alcyoniens

armés” of M. Milne-Edwards (Coralliaires, vol. i. p. 127), which, in

my idea, form a family that may be called Nepthyade.

This coral differs from the three genera of this family mentioned

72 Zoological Society :—

by Milne-Edwards, in the lower part or stem being coriaceous and

destitute of any spicules, and in the upper part being spiculose, and

furnished with short clusters of polype-cells, giving it much the ap-

pearance of the Fungi called Morchella and Helvella.

MoRCHELLANA.

The coral subclavate, coriaceous, subcalcareous, and loosely cellular

within ; the stem subeylindrical, elongate, hard, coriaceous, and mi-

nutely granular on the surface.

Dr. J. E. Gray on some Claviform Pennatulide. 73

The head formed of numerous, irregularly dispersed, short-lobed

prominences, which are covered at the end with diverging conical

prominent polype-cells,—the lobes and cells being strengthened with

superficial fusiform spicules, slightly covered with the skin of the

coral ; the polypes entirely retractile.

The whole substance of the coral is loosely cellular, and the lobes

of the head are brittle and easily broken off when in spirits. The

base of the stem is furnished with some large tubular fibres, which

seem to act as roots to attach it to rocks.

The spicules on the edge of the polype-cells are rugulose or spi-

nulose.

MOoRCHELLANA SPINULOSA. (Woodcut, p, 72.)

Hab. Indian Ocean.

Notes ON SOME SPECIMENS OF CLAVIFORM PENNATULIDE

(VERETILLEZ) IN THE COLLECTION oF THE BrirtisH

Museum. By Dr. Joun Epwarp Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S.,

F.L.S., &c.

Since my paper, entitled “ Revision of the Family Pennatulide,

with description of some New Species in the British Museum,”

was printed in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’

for January 1860, we have received several specimens of club-shaped

Sea-Pens (Veretillee) which further illustrate the species of this

roup.

3 Batenace Milne-Edwards, in the first volume of his ‘ Coralliaires,’

published in 1857, divides the Claviform Pennatule into three genera,

thus—

1, Liruarta, with a distinct, well-developed, quadrangular central

stony axis.

2. VERETILLUM, with a rudimentary hard central axis.

3. CAVERNULARIA, without any hard central axis, but with four

large longitudinal central cells.

Dr. Herklots, in his ‘‘ Monograph of the Pennatulida,”’ in the

‘ Bijdragen tot die Dierkunde’ for 1858, divides them into four

genera, adding the genus Sarcobelemnon to the above list. The

species of Lituaria and Sarcobelemnon are found in the Indian and

Australian Oceans, and those of Veretillum and Cavernularia are con-

fined to the Mediterranean.

The Veretillee in the British Museum appear to belong to only

two genera, viz.—

1. VeretTiLttuM. The club with a short thick base, with four

more or less large longitudinal cells in the centre.

2. Lirvaria. The club with an elongated base, and with a strong,

subquadrangular, central, more or less stony axis.

The former group seems to be synonymous with the genera Vere-

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 6

74 Zoological Society :—

tillum and Cavernularia of Milne-Edwards and Sarcobelemnon of Her-

klots. I call the first genus by the name Veretillum, because I find

that the specimen of Pennatula Cynomorium which we have in the

British Museum does not appear to have any rudiment of an axis,

and has the four large longitudinal cavities in the centre of the coral

which are described as characteristic of Cavernularia and Sarcobe-

lemnon. Can the septa between these cells have been considered as

the rudimentary axis?

VERETILLUM.

The pen club-shaped, with a short, thick, fleshy base ; the upper

part of the club short and thick, or more or less tapering, covered

with close longitudinal rows of polypes ; the interspaces between the

polypes marked with very close, opake, imbedded granules; the

opening of the polype-cells, when contracted, transverse ; the middle

of the coral furnished with four quadrangular tubes, and without any

hard central axis.

1. VERETILLUM CyNOMORIUM.

Veretillum Cynomorium, Pallas, Spic. Zool. t. 13. f. 1-4.

We have a single specimen of this species in the British Museum,

which I believe is the specimen described by Ellis, on the Sea-Pens,

as Cynomorium (Phil. Trans. 1765, vol. lili. 434, t. 13. f. 3); for

it has the label on it, written by my late uncle who died in 1806,

like the label on the specimen of Stren which was presented by

Ellis. It certainly has no appearance of any hard central axis, un-

less the rather hard septa between the central cells may be considered

as an axis; if they are, then the same kind of axis is found in each

of the other species which I have referred to this genus.

2. VERETILLUM AUSTRALASIA.

Sarcobelemnon Australasia, Gray, Ann. and Mag. N. H. 1860, v.

24 Al tL

The polypes far apart.

Hab. Australia; Port Essington (J. B. Jukes, Esq.).

This specimen chiefly differs from the ’. Cantori@ in the substance

of the coral being harder, and in the cells of the polypes being fur-

ther apart and more scattered, not appearing to be placed in such

regular and close longitudinal rows. ‘The specimen seems to have

been placed in very strong spirits when first collected, as almost all

the polypes are retracted, and the base of the club is wrinkled, as

if strongly contracted, and the cavities in the axis are smaller; but

all this may have been produced by the sudden and great contraction

of the animal at the time it was preserved.

3. VERETILLUM CANTORIZ.

Cells of polypes close together, in regular longitudinal series.

Hab. Penang (Dr. Cantor).

We have a large series of specimens of this species from Penang,

Dr. J. E. Gray on some Claviform Pennatulide. 75

where, I am told, they are collected for food. They differ exceed-

ingly from each other ; and if they are all of the same species, as I

suspect is the case, it shows how difficult it is to give a character

that shall define the species of the genus. Some are short, thick,

oblong, rounded at each end, varying from 2} to 3 inches long, with

a short thick base to the club of about half an inch long. In most

of the specimens of this form, the polypes are retracted ; but in one,

some of them are expanded.

In the second group the club is much larger, varying from 3 to

7 or 8 inches long, and is attenuated upwards. The base of the

elub is short and thick, as in the former group of specimens. The

polypes are generally expanded; they are much more slender and

more elongate than the polypes of Lituaria australis.

Probably the Jength and tapering form of these specimens may be

dependent on their having been placed originally in weaker spirits.

The size of the cavities or tubes in the specimens also differ; they

are largest in the short broad specimens, but very distinct in all.

I am therefore inclined to believe that there are only two distinct

genera of the Claviform Sea-Pens.

LITuUARIA.

The pen elongate, the upper part slender, tapering, with close

longitudinal rows of polypes; the interspace between the polypes

covered with close longitudinal rows of distinct circular pores; the

opening of the polype-cells, when contracted, longitudinal; the lower

part elongate, subcylindrical, smooth; the axis hard, stony, distinct,

well developed, quadrangular.

The lower part of the coral, which is destitute of polypes, is elon-

gate, often one-third and rarely nearly half as long as the upper

polype-bearing portion of the club; the length of the stem, as

compared with the club, appears to differ, within certain limits, in

different specimens of the same species from the same locality, but

it is always larger and more slender than the same part in the genus

Veretillum.

The specimens of this genus in the British Museum appear to

separate themselves into two very distinct groups, which may repre-

sent so many species, or may only depend on the manner in which

the specimens have been preserved, or even on the strength of the

spirit in which they were at first immersed.

In four specimeng, from Penang, collected by Dr. Cantor, which

are slender and whité; all the polypes are entirely contracted, leaving

a compressed slit over the cell, except in one of the small specimens, in

which a few of the polypes are partly exserted ; they are pale brown.

In one of the specimens the fleshy part of the base is thickened, and

has contracted so much that the hard axis is exserted nearly an

inch beyond the base. In this specimen the base of the club is much

shorter and thicker than in the others. From this specimen I am

led to believe that the length and slenderness of the club in the

genus, when in spirit, is preserved by the rigidity of the internal axis,

These specimens are probably the Lituaria phalloides of Milne-

6%*

76 Miscellaneous.

Edwards (Coralliaires, vol. i. 217), founded on the Pennatula phal-

loides of Pallas (Mise. Zool. t. 13. f. 5, 6, 7, 8).

The second group of specimens were collected by Mr. Rayner in

Sharks’ Bay, Australia. They are three in number; they are softer

and less contracted than the preceding; the pores on the surface are

more distinct, and are furnished with more or less dark polypes,

which are all expanded. The polypes in one specimen (which

is in the most perfect condition) are all entirely of uniform black-

brown colour. In one of the other specimens (also in good con-

dition) the polypes are pale brown, with a broad black lower ring

at the upper part of the tubular body, near the base of the arms.

In the other specimen (which is imperfect) the polypes are all pale

brown, like the coral.

In all the three specimens the polypes at the lower half of the

club are further apart than they are at the tip; this is especially the

case in the specimen which has the dark ring on the polypes,

in which the polypes in the lower part of the club are very far apart

and few in number, and appear as if placed in longitudinal lines,

I should propose to call this species provisionally Lituaria australis.

MISCELLANEOUS.

On the Animal of Zonites excavatus, §e.

To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural Mstory.

GENTLEMEN,—In the first volume of my work on ‘ British Concho-

logy,’ which contains an account of the Land and Freshwater Mol-

lusca, Zonites excavatus is one of the very few species of which I

could only give a meagre and unsatisfactory description of the animal.

I am now fortunately enabled to supply this deficiency, having last

week found and observed live specimens of the species in question

near Tunbridge Wells; and this new locality will also be interesting

to those who study the distribution of the British Mollusca.

Body slender, greyish white, with three or four raised lines along

the neck: mantle closely covered with milk-white specks : tentacles

diverging; upper pair rather long and cylindrical, coarsely granu-

lated ; lower pair short: foot thick, obtusely rounded in front, and

gradually narrowing behind to an angular or keeled point. The

slime is rather copious and iridescent.

In the same spot were Zonites alliarius, Z. nitidulus, Z. purus,

Z. radiatulus, Z. fulous, and Helix rotundata.

The pulsations of Z. alliarius varied within the space of ten mi-

nutes, having from 48 to 56 beats per minute.

I am, Gentlemen,

Yours faithfully,

J. GwyN JEFFREYS.

25 Devonshire Place, Portland Place,

June 4, 1862,

Miscellaneous. 77

On the Occurrence of Gyrodactylus elegans in Shropshire.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

GenTLEMEN,—I have to record another locality for the occurrence

of this singular and highly interesting parasite, which, though first

discovered by Nordmann, some years ago, has only recently (January

1860) been known to oceur in this country, having been found on

Sticklebacks in the Hampstead ponds by Mr. Bradley (Journal of

the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1860, vol. v. p. 209).

Dr. Spencer Cobbold has also recorded the occurrence of Gyro-

dactylus in great numbers in the Serpentine. With these two

exceptions, I am not aware of any other recorded localities for the

Gyrodactylus.

I first observed this parasite in May last, on the pectoral fins and

the tail of some young Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus leiurus), which I

had hatched from a nest of ova brought home from a ditch on the

Eyton moors. On close examination of the father-fish, I discovered

that he was literally covered all over the surface of the body with

Gyrodactyli; there must have been two or three hundred of these

creatures infesting him. I found, on the death of the fish, that his

gills were likewise full of them. I subsequently examined freshly

captured specimens from another ditch which abounded with Gas-

terosteus leiurus and contained also a few specimens of the much

more uncommon G. pungitius, and found Gyrodactyli on most of

them, only in moderate numbers.

When once the eye has become acquainted with these minute

parasites on the fin of a fish, their detection by means of a lens is

an easy matter. All the specimens I examined were of the same

species. I suspect that careful observation will determine the

Gyrodactyli to be not uncommon parasites upon various freshwater

fish.

I remain yours truly,

W. Hovenron.

Preston Rectory, Wellington, Shropshire,

June 6, 1862.

Experiments on the Migrations of the Entozoa.

By MM. Povcuet and VERRIER.

One of the authors, in a work published in 1859, gave a careful -

exposé of the doctrines of the naturalists who have studied the meta-

morphoses of the Entozoa and their peregrinations, in Germany and

Belgium. The result of such an investigation, they say, is to raise

great doubts upon these points; and they quote the opinion of M.

Davaine, ‘“‘that the question still waits for a sound criticism and

fresh investigations.”

A naturalist asserts that he has succeeded nine different times in

78 Miscellaneous.

producing Tapeworms in the intestines of the Dog, by administering

Cenuri. The authors have had as much success as this experiment-

alist ; indeed, their success has been too great, for they sometimes

obtained more than they had sown.

After briefly describing the supposed relation between the Cenurus

cerebralis of the Sheep and the Tenia serrata of the Dog, and the

cycle of development by which this is considered to be set up, the

authors proceed to discuss the difficulties in the way of these

views.

Cenurus cerebralis, according to Siebold, Van Beneden, and others,

is the larva of Tenia serrata. On the contrary, this Tenia serrata

is produced by Cysticercus pisiformis, according to Kiichenmeister,

Van Beneden, Baillet, and Siebold himself, or by Cysticercus cellu-

lose and C. tenuicollis, according to other statements of Siebold.

This produces a great embarrassment.

Referring to the general view that the Tenie found in the intes-

tines of the Carnivora are due to Cystic worms inhabiting their prey,

the authors inquire how the Sheep, which never devours animal

food, sometimes has its intestines so filled with T’enie as to be abso-

lutely obstructed. This was the case in an epidemic occurring in

1852 amongst the sheep in the environs of Rouen.

Amongst the causes tending to produce uncertainty in the results

of experiments are the natural frequency of the animals which are

said to be communicated, and the practice of some experimentalists

of administering worms at several times: the unsuccessful experi-

ments also should be noted ; but of these frequently no account has

been taken.

With the view of rendering their experiments exact, the authors

counted the number of heads or Scoleces administered each time,

and always ascertained that they were completely developed and

alive.

In a dog which had swallowed Cenuri sixteen days before, the

authors found Teenie of only 2 millimetres in length, whilst others

measured 20 millimetres. In the same time an experimentalist ob-

tained Tenie which had reached a length of 80 millimetres. In

another case, when the experiment had lasted twenty-three days,

they found in the same dog Tenie of 4 millimetres in length, and

others which had reached the length of 60 centimetres. It is im-

possible that the sccleces implanted on the same vesicle, and all of

the same age, should have produced Teenie presenting such a differ-

ence of size as this; but the authors remark that, had they adopted

the plan of administering the worms several times, such an experi-

ment would have appeared a positive demonstration.

They administered to a dog sixty scoleces of Cenurus; nm eleven

days its intestine contained thirty-six Tenia. In another case, sixty

scoleces were given, and in eleven days fifty-one 7'’enie were found.

But in a third case, in which the dog also received sixty scoleces,

seventy-eight T@nie were discovered in its intestine at the end of

sixteen days. Another case gave results calculated to raise still

Miscellaneous. 79

greater doubts. One hundred scoleces of Conurus were given to a

young dog taken from its mother and carefully isolated. Twenty

days afterwards its intestine contained 237 Tenia, the size of which

varied from 4 to 60 millimetres. Other experiments afforded abso-

lutely negative results.

The authors also made experiments as to the production of the

Cenurus in the Sheep by the administration of proglottides of Tenia

serrata. To each of two young sheep they administered ten seg-

ments of Tenia serrata, all containing a number of perfectly mature

eggs, in which the embryo, furnished with its hooks, could be distin-

guished. These sheep never presented any of the phenomena of

staggers, which are stated to occur from the fifteenth to the twentieth

day after administration. Not to be in too great a hurry, they were

kept for fonr months. Then, although they appeared perfectly

healthy, they were killed in order to allow the examination of the

brains: no trace of Cenurus could be detected. From this, and

considering the doubts arising when the assertions of experimentalists

are attentively examined, the authors do not hesitate to affirm that

the progeny of the Tenia of the Dog never arrives at the brain of

the Sheep.

Whilst denying the necessary transmission of the Entozoa as

described by most modern zoologists, the authors recur to the old

notion that the Cystic worms are produced from germs of Tenie

which have found their way into places not fitted for them.—Comptes

Rendus, May 5, 1862, p. 958.

On the Early Stages of Microdon mutabilis.

By M. Exopirt.

An enigmatical animal, which appears to be a Mollusk, and yet,

on closer examination, exhibits many characters foreign to the Mol-

lusea, and presents few points for comparison with other animals,

was known to some of the older zoologists, such as Aldrovandus,

but was first described and figured by Von Heyden in 1823. At

p- 1247 of the ‘Isis’ for that year is Von Heyden’s memoir “ Ueber

ein sonderbar gestaltetes Thierchen,’’ which he found in 1818 at a

considerable elevation on the Hoche Mountain, under the moist bark

of an oak-stump standing near water. Only one example could be

found. Von Heyden thought that it was not a larva, but rather a

Mollusk which would prove a new and very remarkable genus. In

the following year Spix described, before the Academy of Sciences in

Munich, a new genus of terrestrial Mollusca to which he gave the

name of Seutelligera Amerlandia, because he found it at Amerland,

on the Stahrenberg Lake, in the interior of old rotten oak- and pine-

stumps still rooted in the ground, always in company with the Her-

cules and Red Ants (‘ Hesperus,’ No. 295). In 1825, Von Heyden

called attention, in the ‘Isis,’ to the great resemblance between the

animals described by Spix and himself, but expresses his opinion

80 Miscellaneous.

that their characters are those of two nearly allied but distinct ge-

nera. For his animal he proposes the name of Parmula cocciformis.

In 1832, Schlotthauber discovered the animal described by Spix in

the neighbourhood of Gottingen, and, following its development,

found it to be the larva of Microdon mutabilis. In 1839 he coni-

municated to the Meeting of Naturalists in Pyrmont a full descrip-

tion of the metamorphoses of this species, which he proposed pub-

lishing ; but it seems never to have been printed.

The author, in 1844, met with bodies resembling coffee-beans,

with a reticulated surface, on the inside of the bark of oak-stumps

in the Neuhauser Forest, from which he obtained specimens of Micro-

don mutabilis. He afterwards found single pupe in similar stumps

inhabited by ants, and finally, also a larva, which, however, soon

died. M. Sauter has also met with these larvee; and Dr. Hensche,

whilst residing at Kreuth, found amongst earth-dwelling ants three

Mollusk-like animals, which he preserved in spirits, and which

turned out to be larvee of Microdon.

As the Microdon mutabilis is a British species, it hight interest

some of our entomologists to look out for the singular larva here

referred to, as the nature of its metamorphosis, and especially

its relation to the ants with which it seems to be always associated,

appear to be by no means cleared up.—Schriften der Konigl. phys.

okon. Gesellschaft cu Konigsberg, 1862, Sitzungsberichte, p. 9.

On a New Species of Bird of the Genus Lipaugus of Bove.

By P. L. Scuater, M.A., Pu.D., F.R.S.

LIPpAUGUS SUBALARIS.

Viridescenti-olivaceus, dorso imo, ventre et cauda cinerascentio-

ribus, cauda fere tota cinerea; erisso albicante; pilei semt-

cristati plumis interne nigris : gutturis et pectoris plumarum

scapis conspicue flavicanti-albis : plumis axillaribus et sub-

alaribus lete citrino-flavis : alis fusco-nigricantibus, extus dorso

concoloribus : rostro et pedibus nigris.

Hab. In rep. Aiquatoriana, ad ripas fl. Napo.

This Lipaugus will be easily recognized by the beautiful bright

yellow colour of the axillaries and under wing-coverts and the slightly

crested head, the feathers of which are black underneath. In struc-

ture it appears to be a member of the group dulia: the outer and

middle toes being completely united to the end of the second pha-

lange, and the form otherwise resembling that of Lipaugus hypo-

pyrrhus. The single example in the collection of the British Mu-

seum, acquired in 1857, is labelled “‘ Rio Napo.’’—Proc. Zool. Soc.

May 28, 1861.

THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[THIRD SERIES. ]

No. 56. AUGUST 1862.

VIII.—On the Age of the New South Wales Coal-Fields.

By the Rev. W. B. Cuarxe, M.A., F.G.S. &c.

To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

GENTLEMEN,

In the February Number of the ‘ Annals’ (No. 50) you have

printed a communication from Professor M‘Coy of Melbourne,

in which, under the head of the “‘ Upper Paleozoic” and “ Meso-

zoic” Periods, he introduces some remarks reflecting upon the

differences of opinion existing between himself and me respecting

the position of the Coal-beds of New South Wales, and marking

by ztalics, not only in the text, but in the notes, certain expres-

sions which appear to me as unjust to himself as they are also

to me.

When the paper, from which the portion is republished, first

came out, I replied in the postcript of a “ Review of Recent Geo-

logical Discoveries in Australasia” (a copy of which I herewith

forward to you), read before the Philosophical Society of New

South Wales in November 1861, to the italicized passages in

Professor M‘Coy’s essay of which I complained ; and in the body

of my paper I made reference to the state of the question as to

the evidence obtained. You will, probably, be willing to do me

the justice of allowing the readers of Mr. M‘Coy’s remarks to

know what may be said on the other side. But I hope you will

also allow me to add in this communication a brief reply to the

notes in pp. 142, 143, 144, which I had not seen till I read them

in your Journal.

The existence of the differences of opinion between Mr. M‘Coy

and some geologists at home, as well as here, is too well known

to make necessary any further recapitulation of them than may

be found in my publication above mentioned.

Mr. M‘Coy, in 1847, maintained that our New South Wales

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. ff

82 Rev. W. B. Clarke on the Age of

coal was “Oolitic,” and as recently as August 18, 1857, he stated

before the Select Committee of the Melbourne Parliament that

the coal in Victoria, which he considers the same as that in New

South Wales, is “really to be compared to those thin Oolitic coal-

fields on the Yorkshire coast.” There can be no mistake as to

this being the position he assigned to our Coal-beds Jess than

five years ago.

To this I was all along opposed; and, from circumstances in

the experience of numerous other geologists (among them Jukes,

Stutchbury, Dana, &c.), as well as my own, in common with

them, I held the opinion, right or wrong, that our New South

Wales coal is not “oolitic,’ but very much older, lyimg as it

does over an enormous area in immediate juxtaposition with and

succession to beds which Mr. M‘Coy and other geologists in

England have regarded as “ Paleeozoic” and Lower Carboniferous.

All Mr. M‘Coy’s knowledge of the fossiliferous evidence on

this question, previously to his arrival in Victoria, was derived

from the examination of collections I had sent to England.

Since his arrival, his attention has been directed to the palzon-

tological evidence collected in Victoria; but he has never yet set

foot on the New South Wales territory, and consequently knows

nothing whatever, by observation, of the position of the Coal-

beds of this colony. I admit, nevertheless, it is possible he may

be right in his views, and that all observers in New South Wales

have been wrong. But when he quotes, in his note at p. 142,

evidence from Victoria, and puts in italics the assertion that

“no such sectional evidence has been found by Mr. Selwyn, the

Government Geologist [of Victoria], in his careful surveys of the

coal-bearing sections of Victoria and Tasmama,” it must be borne

in mind that this assertion is without any weight as concerns

Victoria, because Mr. Selwyn himself has stated in print, in the

same ‘Catalogue of the Victorian Exhibition, 1861,” in which

Mr. M‘Coy’s original paper appears, that “the only fossils that

have been found” in the Upper Paleozoic rocks of Victoria are

a Cyclopteris and Lepidodendron, and even the position of these

is assigned as “ only provisional ;” “they may,” he says, “ be

Lower Mesozoic.” How, then, can “sectional evidence” from

Victoria be used in argument, seeing that there no zoological

fossils to compare with those of New South Wales? As to

Tasmania, Mr. Gould agrees with me rather than with Mr,

Selwyn.

I have published a list of beds at Stony Creek, near Maitland,

in which the Paleozoic fossils are found over and below and

around a set of coal-beds having the same general dip and dis-

arrangements as the supposed older beds; and in the Coal-beds

occur the plants which Mr. M‘Coy, up to 1857, considered the

the New South Wales Coal-Fields. 83

equivalents of those in the cliffs near Scarborough. In Mr.

M‘Coy’s note he rejects this list, because a section of the

neighbourhood for twelve miles or more had been exhibited to

show the position of the Coal-beds, and this was not drawn on

equal scales, and because a fault occurs at Bed No. 5, as any one

could see from the fact of the dip mentioned at the head of the

list. But this fault, which cuts through all the beds alike, could

not put younger beds under older.

Mr. M‘Coy thinks I have relied solely on this section; but

there are many other localities in New South Wales which speak

as mysteriously as Stony Creek, though no particular notice of

them has been as yet taken in discussions. There does not ap-

pear to me anything more anomalous in finding an intercalation

or a colony of so-called Jurassic plants in so-called Lower Car-

boniferous beds, than in finding the Carboniferous fauna amidst

the Belemnite-beds of Savoie. But I am quite ready to give up

Stony Creek on sufficient proof that its evidence is not trust-

worthy.

A kind of charge against my honesty is alleged in the note

at p. 143. This demands an explanation. In 1849 I requested

the late Admiral P. P. King to take with him to England some

additional New South Wales fossils. Among them was a sup-

posed Lepidodendron, found by my late friend Leichhardt about

seventy-five miles from the coal-beds of Mount Wingan, and

only a short distance from another locality where the supposed

Jurassic fauna exists. Mr. M‘Coy rejected this, not solely be-

cause it did not come from the Gilossopteris-beds, but (though

he says nothing about it in his paper) because, as I did not find

it myself, it was not admissible in evidence, and because it was

probably a European specimen, being like L. tetragonum of the

English coal-fields! It is clear, therefore, that, in 1849, Prof.

M‘Coy did not believe in the existence of any Upper Palzozoic

plants in New South Wales.

Since that time, Mr. Stutchbury and myself collected such

Lepidodendra abundantly, as may be seen by reference to our

Geological. Reports. One was figured by Mr. Stutchbury in

1858. In 1835, Sir T. L. Mitchell discovered one. In 1852

I found, in the same beds at Goonoogoonoo with the Lepidoden-

dron, a Knorria and a Syringodendron, which Mr.M‘Coy himself

saw and recognized at Melbourne in 1860; and in 1855 I ex-

hibited at Paris a Sigillaria, not formed from ‘ misconceptions of

portions of ordinary Mesozoic forms,” as is hinted in the note at

p. 148, but acknowledged to be genuine articles of the New

South Wales flora, though certainly the late Professor E. Forbes

doubted the Leichhardt specimen to be a Lepidodendron* ; and

* Lectures on Gold, Lect. 2. p. 53. Ah

84. Rey. W. B. Clarke on the Age of

since that, Mr. Salter has pointed out to me, in a letter, that

mee are essential differences between this plant and ordinary

orms.

Whether, therefore, we are all right or all wrong, the sono-

rous periods in which Professor M‘Coy introduces his Gipps

Land Lepidodendron as the mate of the “only characteristic

Paleozoic Carboniferous genus,” and “of the same species as

the only Paleozoic coal-plant ever collected in New South Wales,”

‘found by the lamented Leichhardt near the borders of Queens-

land,” hundreds of miles from the beds containing the (as I be-

lieve) Mesozoic plants, weigh but little with those who know (as

Mr. M‘Coy himself must know) that the actual position of the

Lepidodendra-beds is as much in the dark as the antiquity of the

Glossopteris-beds.

These beds are not actually identical. And I have never said

they were*; but I have held the opinion that they are both

parts of a descending Carboniferous formation; and I know,

from actual observation, that if the Glossopteris-beds lie imme-

diately over the Lower Carboniferous fauna in the Illawarra and

on the Hunter, so the Lepidodendron- and Syringodendron-beds

lie over the Paleozoic Carboniferous fauna of the Peel River, for

which Mr. Odernheimer’s memoir in the ‘Quarterly Journal of

the Geol. Soc.’ may be taken in evidence without consulting my

own Reports. At this moment, Mr. M‘Coy does not know with

any precision what stratigraphical relationship exists between the

beds with Lepidodendra and those with Glossopteris ; nor does

he know, from observation or geological sections, how far they

are apart. A Lepidodendron has been reported to me from the

Glossopteris-beds of Newcastle by the inspector of coal-fields ;

and from the same locality a Palgozoic fish, named by Agassiz

and figured by Dana, was taken in a bed of shale filled with all

the distinguishing plants of Professor M‘Coy’s Oolitic flora.

The discovery of a Secondary formation in Queensland during

* J have already affirmed the contrary. Neither in the list I gave of

supposed genera in 1847, and of which some are held not to be verified,

nor in the subsequent remarks upon it, is there any statement to show

that they all came from the same beds. On the contrary, the localities

mentioned are numerous and ranging over a very extensive area. It would

be uncandid in the highest degree not to admit that there may have been

misconceptions of genera in that list, made at a time when no reference

could be had to collections for comparison. But Lepidodendra are men-

tioned from localities where they have since been verified. The ‘‘Uloden-

dron from Pine Ridge, Wellington,” also agrees in geological position with

Lepidodendra from numerous other localities. There are but jive members

out of the twenty that can justly be excluded. It must also be remem-

bered that at that time I was single-handed, without a fellow-worker, and

with no acknowledged palzontologist to appeal to. Moreover, greater mis-

takes than any alluded to have been made by paleontologists of eminence.

the New South Wales Coal-Fields. 85

the present year, under my auspices, and by a friend of mine,

the particulars of which I have given in p. 27, ‘ Recent Geolo-

gical Discoveries,’ &c., has not helped us out of our dilemma.

Mr. M‘Coy sees in it a total overthrow of my positions, and

states that the Wollumbilla fossils “ ave the marine equivalents

of exactly the same age as that he assigns to the plant-beds, 1. e.

Lower Mesozoic, not older than the base of the Trias, and not

younger than the lower part of the great Oolite.”

In these fossils the Professor detected “numerous Lower

Oolite, Liassic, and Triassic forms, and among them a distinct

species of the Muschelkalk genus Myophoria, &c.” Now, if

they are “the marine equivalents of exactly the same age” as

the Scarborough Oolites, which was Mr. M‘Coy’s plant-horizon

in 1857, how came the Liassic and Triassic, and especially the

Muschelkalk species there? This apparent paradox is adroitly

veiled under the word Mesozoic, which word has gradually

crept into the discussion, and took precedence in 1860. “ Meso-

zoic”’ everywhere supplants “Oolitic” in Professor M‘Coy’s

present essay, and he speaks of his having held the same views

respecting the “ Mesozoic” plants in contradistinction to the

Paleozoic fauna fourteen years ago, though, ten years after, he

maintained the supremacy of the “‘ Yorkshire Oolite.”

It is, notwithstanding this convenient merging of the Scar-

borough horizon in Mesozoic indistinctness, perfectly clear that

if I have adopted “a new view” (p. 144, note), so has Professor

M‘Coy; and as he is happy in knowing that I have done so, I

am equally happy at finding that he is getting below the Oolite

into a region where, perhaps, our views will meet after all.

Judging from my own examinations, and from the admission

of Mr. Selwyn, I do not believe there is at present any evidence

on which can be founded a thorough comparison in Victoria

with facts patent in New South Wales.

In chap. xiv. of my ‘ Researches in the Southern Gold Fields

of New South Wales,’ I have stated as distinctly as I could the

natural divisions in the series comprising the beds above, with,

and below the coal-seams of that colony ; and in the ‘ Quarterly

Journal of the Geol. Soc.’ vol. xvii. p. 858, &c., I have repeated

that arrangement, specifying only the plants determmed by

M‘Coy, Morris, and Dana in each division.

Now, according to my view, the Victoria Coal-beds belong to

the upper and perhaps second division of the New South Wales

series. In Gipps Land I know, from my own researches, that

there do exist limestone-beds with fossils of Paleozoic age, pro-

bably upper ; and it is in another part of that large region that

Mr. M‘Coy’s Lepidodendron was found! But under the Victoria

Coal-beds no such deposits have been found by the geologists of

86 Rev. W. B. Clarke on the New South Wales Coal-Fields.

that colony as occur in New South Wales, in the Illawarra, or

about Maitland on the Hunter River. And from what I per-

sonally know, I believe the Gipps Land Upper Paleozoic Fauna

is lower in the series than the beds just alluded to. Mr. Dana

considered those Hunter-River beds to be either Carboniferous

or Permian. If so, the beds above, including the coal-seam,

may range from Permian to Triassic, or even higher. That is

what I am willing now to admit, and, further, that it is possible

the Wollumbilla rocks may be ‘the equivalents of the Wiana-

matta, or upper, division of the New South Wales Carboniferous

series.

But this at present is a matter of conjecture. Acknowledging

the value of that discovery, and rejoicing to have been able to

assist in it, I repeat that, at the present time, we do not know

whether it bears or not on the actual subject of the controversy.

No paleontologist has yet compared the Queensland Carboni-

ferous flora with that of New South Wales or Victoria; and we

have yet to learn the accuracy of the information which I have

collected and am now collecting by the aid of observers on the

Maranoa and Fitzroy Downs, all of which, however, tends to

show that the Wollumbilla “ Lower Mesozoic fossils” come

from a higher horizon than the Urosthenes- and Glossopteris-beds

of Mulubimba.

Professor M‘Coy states that I requested him to “ determine

the geological epoch to which the Wollumbilla fossils belong.”

T have never, in the recent controversy respecting the Coal-fields,

done otherwise than request his determinations of fossils, think-

ing it due to him to lay all fresh information before him, and

being willing to defer in paleontological questions to his judg-

ment. But I retain to myself the right of forming an opinion

as to the structure of a country with which I am familiar, and

which he has never seen.

It is under this consideration that I now demur to the admis-

sion of inferences from the paleontology of distinct and widely

separated districts without regard to the order or succession of

deposits.

In conclusion, I think that I do not act otherwise than con-

sistently in considering the question still an open question ; and

though much has been done to reconcile apparent differences,

much more remains to be done before any dogmatic opinions

ought to be proclaimed.

I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

W. B. Crarke.

St. Leonard’s, New South Wales,

April 26, 1862,

Dr. F. Miller on a new Parasitic Isopod Crustacean. 87

IX.—On Entoniscus Porcellane, a new Parasitic Isopod Crusta-

cean. By Dr. Fritz Misuumr, of Desterro*.

[Plate II. figs. 8-16. ]

THE genus Bopyrus has hitherto passed as the extreme member

of the series of Isopod Crustacea, stunted in development by a

parasitic existence. Much further removed from the mode of

life and structure of the free Isopods, and from its own youthful

form, is a parasite of the same Porcellana round the intestine

of which Lerneodiscus twines its roots, and in the branchial

cavity of which, it may be remarked, in passing, a Bopyrus not

unfrequently takes up its abode.

The female of this parasite lies in a thin-walled sac between

the liver, intestine, and heart of the host ; its head has lost both

eyes and antenne, and taken the stomach up into itself; the

thorax has become an irregular inarticulate sac beset with enor-

mous brood-lamine ; the long, vermiform, and extremely mobile

abdomen has sword-shaped legs ; and, swelling out above it in a

globular form, as if in a hernial sac, the heart lies at the base of

its first segment !

As the first-known internally parasitic Isopod, I have given

the animal the name of Hntoniscus Porcellane.

The female (P1.II. fig. 8) attains a length of from 10 to15 milli-

metres. The head forms a whitish, soft, roundish mass, about

1 millim. in length and 1°5 millim. broad. Above, it is divided

somewhat like a brain, by a shallow longitudinal furrow, into

two convex halves, between which a short rounded lobe springs

before and behind. A little before the middle of the rather flat

under surface, the mouth is seen, in the form of a minute longi-

tudinal fissure; and around this are various lines, probably indica-

tions of oral organs which were more distinct at an earlier period.

The resemblance of the head to a brain is further heightened by

irregular furrows which pass through it, giving it the appearance

of convolutions. If the outer skin be torn to pieces, these are

found to be due to numerous conical ceca, to the fatty contents

of which the head is indebted for its white colour, and which

may correspond with the cca described as the liver on the an-

terior part of the intestine of Bopyrus. Antenne and eyes are

not to be found in mature females; in a younger specimen I

once saw a pair of short thick processes above the single lower

lobe, which were probably remains of antenne.

Bending upwards, the head forms an obtuse angle with the

thorax, and is capable only of an inconsiderable vertical movement.

The long, sacciform, inarticulate thorax appears to be quite shape-

* Translated from Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1862, by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S.

88 Dr. F. Miller on Entoniscus Porcellane,

less; it is almost entirely filled by the liver and ovaries, which

immediately strike the eye by their vivid coloration, the former

being of a splendid deep orange-colour, and the latter reddish

violet. The liver consists of two tubes, about 0:2 to 0°3 millim.

in width, placed close together on the ventral surface, which

commence cecally at the posterior extremity of the thorax, and

extend to the head. The ovaries occupy the back, upon which

they project in irregular eminences, leaving anteriorly as much

free space as the liver does behind. Feet I have generally entirely

missed finding, even in young females, which, from their less-

developed brood-plates, are more easily examined for them.

Sometimes, however, and, indeed, not in very young specimens,

I found one or two, in the form of short, pointed, conical points,

curved backwards and beset with small scattered bristles. The

brood-plates, on the other hand, are developed into enormous,

much-folded, lobate and slit membranous lobes. When I could

count them distinctly (for frequently they appear as a single,

large, almost inextricable laminar frill), I found six pairs! They

are permeated by narrow arborescent ducts, into which the

biliary secretion from the ruptured liver may sometimes be

driven by the pressure of the glass cover, and contain extremely

numerous, densely aggregated, fatty globules.

If we are astonished, even in Bopyrus, at the quantity of eggs

which accumulates under its broad shield-like thorax, this is

still more surprising in Entoniscus: the eggs form irregularly

ageregated masses, often equal in width to the length of the

thorax, which they sometimes far exceed both before and behind,

so that not unfrequently the whole body is completely concealed

in them. And whilst Bopyrus, like other Isopods, allows each

brood to become perfectly developed and to escape before laying

new eggs, Hntoniscus accumulates a whole series of consecutive

broods about it simultaneously; so that the material for the

whole developmental history might be obtained from the brood-

leaves of the same animal.

The thorax is followed by a much thinner and extremely mo-

bile six-jomted abdomen, of very variable length, sometimes

much shorter than, sometimes more than half as long again as,

the thorax. These differences in its length arise chiefly from

the first two segments, which are produced into long cylinders.

In an animal 14 millim. in length, I find the length of the first

abdominal segment 2°3; of the second, 2; of the third, 1:2;

of the fourth, 0°32; of the fifth, 0°25; and of the sixth, 0°38

millim. The thickness of the first segment was 0°25, and that

of the last 0:2 millim. The first five segments each bear a pair

of inarticulate, sword-shaped feet, without any bristles, near their

posterior extremity ; those of the'third pair are the longest, and

a new Parasitic Isopod Crustacean. 89

reach to the extremity of the penultimate segment. The feet

can not only be raised and depressed, but also extended laterally.

The last segment of the abdomen is truncated at the apex above,

and has on its lower surface a V-shaped notch reaching to its

middle. On the ventral surface of the first and second abdomi-

nal segments, and less developed on that of the third, there is

on each side a very prominent contractile fold of skin; its

strongly undulated margin contains a vessel-like cavity, which

is continued into the margin of the corresponding foot.

At the base of the first abdominal segment its dorsal surface

bears a hernioid diverticulum, of about 0°5 mill. in length and

the same in height; in this is the heart, which pulsates rather

sluggishly.

Although in the structure of the female the ceca at the com-

mencement of the alimentary canal, the two hepatic tubes, and

the heart situated at the base of the abdomen scarcely remind

one of Bopyrus, the affinity to that Isopod shows itself unmis-

takeably in the males (Pl. II. fig. 9), which, as in Bopyrus, are

the almost constant companions of the female, but are much more

diminutive, and therefore may easily be overlooked amongst the

immense masses of the eggs. In general there is only one of

them; in a single instance I saw two walking about upon the

body of the same female.

The male is about 0°8 millim. in length, or scarcely 3-4

times the length of the newly hatched young; in the middle of

the thorax the breadth attains nearly 3 of the length; and from

this point the body diminishes slightly in front, and greatly be-

hind. The thorax is distinctly separated into seven, and the

abdomen into six segments; but the boundary between the head

and the first thoracic segment is indicated only by a deep lateral

constriction. The head is trapezoid in form, with rounded

angles; its height is about equal to the shorter of the parallel

sides, and to the half of the longer posterior one. It bears a

pair of short, inarticulate, flat, quadrangular antennz; by the

mner side they spring from the lower surface of the head, the

anterior side coincides with the frontal margin, the posterior is

nearly parallel to this, and the outer side runs obliquely back-

wards and outwards. On the anterior obtuse angle, there stands

a group of short bristles, curved inwards. The eyes are often

wanting ; when present, they are moved backwards from the

head nearly to the posterior margin of the first thoracic segment,

which coalesces with it. The triangular rostrum originates at the

hinder limit of the head; its apex lies between the origin of the

antenne.

The six anterior thoracic segments bear near the margins feet

reduced to nearly sessile, inarticulate, roundish lumps, with

90 Dr. F. Miller on Entoniscus Porcellane,

which, however, the animal moves pretty quickly from ‘place to

place. The seventh segment has no feet, but bears on each side

at the posterior margin a wart-like process, and on this the

genital orifice.

The abdomen, which is much diminished posteriorly, bas no

appendages, as in the males of two other Bopyride found here ;

the last segment is distinguished from the rest by its greater

length, and is beset with minute spines at the extremity.

Of internal organs, the most striking are two wide, brownish,

contractile hepatic tubes, which commence cecally in the first

or second abdominal segment, and extend to the second thoracic

segment. Between these runs the intestine. Above the intes-

tine and liver is situated on each side a wide tubular testis,

which extends forward from the genital orifice already mentioned,

through three or four segments, and usually has an external

lateral diverticulum in each. ‘The heart is seen pulsating close

behind the liver.

The larvee (Pl. II. fig. 10) are as like those of Bopyrus as the

males. The flat oniscoid body is about 0-2 millim. in length,

and half that width; the greatest breadth is at the second and

third thoracic segments, from which the body narrows posteriorly

to 0:04 and anteriorly to 0:06 millim., the width of the nearly

straight frontal margin. Of the length, about + is occupied by the

head, the remainder is taken up in equal parts by the thorax

and abdomen, each of which is distinctly divided into six seg-

ments. The head bears above, near the hinder angles, two

roundish, black eye-spots, apparently without refractive bodies,

and beneath, two short, thick, biarticulate anterior antenne, of

which only the terminal bristles project beyond the margin of

the head, and two longer posterior antenne, which spring just

under the eyes, and peaeh to the base of the abdomen; these

are six-jointed ; the penultimate joint and the last setiform one

are the longest. In the mouth, which is situated near the

hinder margin of the head, I could only distinguish two jaws.

Close to the anterior margin of the head a roundish spot, emar-

ginate in front, and composed of pale round granules, is seen;

it reminded me of the spot which is observed in the head of

many Amphipoda (very distinctly in the Gammarus ambulans of

the Pomeranian peat-bogs, and also in Leptocheirus pilosus,

Zadd.).

The five anterior segments of the thorax bear similar feet,

originating near their margins; in these may be distinguished

two long cylindrical basal joints, a short third joimt, a thickened,

ovate palm, of the length of the first basal jomt, and a slightly

curved powerful claw, which is fully half as long as the palm.

In the sixth pair of feet, which does not originate so near the

a new Parasitic Isopod Crustacean. 91

margin, only three joints can be distinguished, namely, a cylin-

drical basal joint, a minute second, and an elliptical terminal

joint, the latter 0-04 millim. in length, and half that breadth.

This pair of feet is usually applied close to the body, with the

basal joint turned inwards, and the terminal jot backwards.

The abdomen bears, first of all, four pairs of natatory feet

with a crescentiform basal joint, which is attached nearly by the

middle of the convex side in such a manner that one horn, which

is a little the shorter, is directed inwards and somewhat back-

wards, and the other forwards and outwards. The distance be-

tween the horns is 0°03 millim. The outer horn bears a lancet-

shaped terminal joint, which fits exactly into the emargination

of the crescent, and bears at its obliquely cut-off extremity three

bristles of about twice the length of the joint. Sometimes this

terminal joint is distinctly smaller on the fourth pair than on

the three preceding ones ; but usually they are all alike. On the

inner horn of the three anterior basal joints there is a single

bristle ; sometimes I found all these bristles of equal length,

rather longer than those of the terminal joint; but more fre-

quently the second and third perceptibly shorter, and the last

only one-third of the length of the first. The fifth abdominal

segment bears a narrow and short appendage, without any bris-

tles (fig. 15), which is cleft into a longer interior and a shorter

exterior point. Lastly, at the sides of the last abdominal seg-

ment, there are appendages of considerable size, with a thick

basal joint and two slender biarticulate terminal branches, of

which the outer is slightly the longer. The last, spiniform joint

of this branch is straight ; a shorter spine occurs externally at

the apex of the basal joint and of the first joint of the branch.

The little animals do not creep with much activity, but swim

very rapidly. Their dorsal natation, combmed with the long

bristles of the swimming-feet and the forked appearance of the

tail, owing to the lateral appendages, gives them a distant re-

semblance to Cyclops.

The female of Entoniscus is so placed in the interior of the

Porcellana that its head lies concealed amongst the ceca of the

liver ; it then passes backwards and beneath the heart to the

extremity of the cephalothorax, the brood-leaves even reaching

sometimes pretty far into the abdomen. The entire animal,

including even the head and mouth, is rather closely embraced

by a membranous sac, which is continued posteriorly into a

narrow efferent canal, and may be traced as far as the suture,

between the sternum and the free segment, which, in the Por-

cellane, bears the rudimentary fifth pair of feet. This envelop-

ing sac is probably produced by the young Entoniscus, in its

passage into the interior of the Porcellana, not breaking through

92 Dr. F. Miller on Entoniscus Porcellane.

the soft membrane of this articulation, but carrying it in before

it. Thus, regarding this as residing in an inversion of the external

skin of its host, it might be called an external parasite, like

Bopyrus and other Isopods, although it buries itself between the

liver, intestine, and heart, and is entwined by the convolutions

of the seminal ducts.

Not unfrequently there are two, and I once found even three,

Entonisci in the same Porcellana.

Safely enclosed in the enveloping sac, the male of Entoniscus

does not require the sharp-clawed clinging feet of the male of

Bopyrus; and the female has a sufficient security for the con-

jugal fidelity of her mate in his club-feet, which render it im-

possible for him to make an excursion into the open sea.

With regard to the occurrence of this parasite, I have yet

one circumstance deserving of notice to mention, namely, that

Lerneodiscus and Entoniscus frequently occur on the same Por-

cellana. Having noticed this relation, and knowing well how

deceptive estimates of comparative numbers are without actual

counting, I kept a record of the parasites of 1000 Porcellane

examined between the 4th of July and the Ist of August. For-

tunately this investigation was facilitated by the circumstance

that Entoniscus also is recognizable from without, as, when the

tail is strongly bent back, the liver, or the ovaries, or the eggs

between the brood-leaves, or even the black eye-spots of the

young brood shimmer through the articulation behind the

sternum. Lerneodiscus occurred in 84, and Entoniscus in 49, of

these 1000 Porcellane ; hence we ought to find the two parasites

together in 49 x 84 in a million, or 4 in a thousand, whilst they

did occur together 21 times*, and therefore five times more

frequently than the frequency of each individual species would

lead one to expect. The explanation of this frequent common

occurrence, I believe, may be that Lerneodiscus prevents a close

approximation of the tail and sternum, and thus facilitates the

access of the young Entoniscus to the ventral surface of the

Porcellana.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE II. figs. 8-16.

‘ig. 8. Entoniscus Porcellane, female, after the removal of the eggs from

the brood-leaves, magnified 15 diameters: e, ovary; h, heart;

l, liver.

Fig. 9. Male: a, magnified 15 diameters; 6, magnified 90 diameters ;

h, testes ; /, liver; a, eyes.

* In this neither the younger Entonisci not recognizable from without,

which afterwards occurred in Porcellané bearing Lerne@odiscus, nor the

Porcellane harbouring Entoniscus and bearing only the golden coronet of

cast Lernéodisci, were counted.

Rey. R. T. Lowe on some Land-Mollusca of Madeira. 98

Fig. 10. Larva taken from the brood-leaves of the female, magnified

180 diameters.

Fig. 11. Foot of the male.

Figs. 12-16. Feet of the larva: 12, from the last thoracic segment ;

13, from the first; 14, from the third; 15, from the fifth; and

16, from the last abdominal segment.

X.—WNotice of the Discovery, by the Bardo do Castello de Paiva,

of the Fossil Helix coronula recent, and of other new Land-

Mollusca, in Madeira. By R. T. Lown, M.A.

TEN or twelve years ago I showed the proportion between the

apparently extinct or yet undiscovered recent shells of Canigal,

and those of the same deposit which had been then found living

in Madeira, to be as 10 to 35 or 88, 7. e. as 1 to 83 or 34,—

a. e. very nearly 29 or 27 per cent. (See Prim. Faune et Flore

Mad. ed. 2. App. p. xiv.) However, even this per-centage had

been plainly on the wane—reduced directly by the discovery, in

1855 and several following years, at three or four points along

the north coast of Madeira, by Mr. Wollaston and myself, of

living Helix tiarella, Webb, and affected, doubtless, indirectly

by that of H. spherula, Lowe, y major, found alive in Porto

Santo by myself, and of the peculiarly Porto-Santan fossil, H.

Lowei, Fér., living at a considerable depth below the surface in

the Ilheo de Cima, off the east end of Porto Santo, by SJ. M.

Moniz. To these two latter facts, indicative of the probability

of still further actual diminution of the ratio between the extinct

and still existing shells of Canical, I may add my own discovery

in Madeira proper, two years ago, of a living species (H. delphi-

nuloides, Lowe) so nearly allied to the very abundant and cha-

racteristic Canigal fossil H. delphinula, that the occurrence of

that remarkable species itself recent in Madeira may be some-

what confidently looked for.

I am now authorized by my excellent and zealous friend, the

Bardo do Castello de Paiva, to announce some late discoveries

of his, still further tending in the same direction. One of these

is that of a living Helia (H. galeata, Paiva, MSS.) so remarkable

in form and aspect that my first impression was a ready acqui-

escence in the Baron’s proposal to bestow on it, as an entirely

new species, the very appropriate name of H. galeata, referring

appositely to its peculiar helmet-like or beehive shape. A close

comparison, however, of his shells with numerous examples of

the Canical fossil “ Helix calva, Lowe (var. fere major),” Prim.

ed. 2. App. p. xiii., has since led me to believe it to be rather a

singularly convex extreme form of that variety, differing, indeed,

remarkably from the usual aspect of the shell in question in its

94 Rev. R.T. Lowe on the Discovery of Helix coronula recent.

peculiar globosely conoidal shape, elevated cupola or dome-like

spire, flattened volutions, and distinct fine superficial spiral lines

(like those of the common normal recent var. a), but passing so

gradually into the flatter normal forms of 8 major, through cer-

tain intermediately convex examples of the latter, that, consider-

ing also the width of varietal range exhibited already under H.

calva, I cannot venture to go further than regard it as consti-

tuting at most a third var., y. galeata, of that species.

Several examples of this fine and interesting shell were found,

late in the spring of 1861, by a man employed in collecting for

the Baron along the new Levada da Fajaéa dos Vinhaticos, in the

Ribeiro do Fayal, towards or near the place where I discovered,

two years ago, H. delphinuloides (Ann. Nat. Hist. July 1860).

2. The discovery of two recent living examples, in Madeira

proper, of H.coronula, Lowe (a shell only hitherto known as a fossil

of the South Deserta, or Bugio) is a second and still more im-

portant addition, by the Baron’s persevering industry, to the

existing Molluscan Fauna of Madeira. They were found, two

or three months ago, along the south coast of the island, to the

east of Funchal, “on declivities above the sea between the

Garajio or Canicgo and S* Cruz,” unwittingly, by a collector

employed by the Baron de Paiva, who himself happily detected

them amidst a miscellaneous heap of various other living Ma-

deiran submaritime Pneumonobranchiates, consisting chiefly (as

I myself observed) of Achatina tornatellina B, Helix bifrons, H.

polymorpha «, Cyclostoma Moniziana, &c., such as occur usually

along the south coast of Madeira to the eastward. One of the

examples is considerably more convex than the other, which is

also frequently the case in the South Desertan fossils, and is

pale chalky white, like H. tiarella, Webb ; whilst the other is of

a brownish flesh-colour, like H. delphinuloides usually. The

sculpture altogether, and especially the spiral grooves and can-

cellations underneath, are in both examples less distinct than in

the fossil shells from the Bugio; but they are both more deci-

dedly bicarinated than the latter. The animals were almost

colourless or pale subpellucid whitish ash, tinged with very pale

ochraceous or raw sienna, strikingly different from the peculiarly

dark or blackish animals of H. tiarella. These two most rare

and interesting shells have been generously added by their

fortunate discoverer to my own collection.

On revision, therefore, of the list in my Appendix above quoted

of the Canigal fossils, the only absolute corrections will be the

insertion of H. trarella, Webb, in the right-hand column of re-

cent homologues at p. xi., reading, moreover, H. arcinellaa & B

for H. fausta B. minor and y. minima, and Achatina Cylichna for

A. truncata (a name preoccupied by Gmelin) in the left-hand

Rev. R. T. Lowe on a new Species of Helix. 95

column at p. xiv., and adding Cyclostoma flavescens, Lowe, to

both columns.

Thus the apparently extinct or yet undiscovered living shells

of Canical will now stand to the recent of the same deposit in

the diminished ratio of 9 to 86 or 39, i.e. of 1 to 4 or 44,

2. e. 25 per cent. exactly, or 23+ very nearly.

But if the fossil shells of the entire Madeiran group, consist-

ing of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the three Desertas, be regarded

as one whole, it is evident, from the facts above mentioned, that

the proportion between the apparently extinct and recent shells

in these deposits, considered jointly, will be much more con-

siderably reduced than it appears in the above corrected list

confined to Madeira proper. For thus, in fact, there will remain

no characteristic or conspicuous fossil shell undiscovered recent,

except H. delphinula, which, however, may itself be reasonably

expected to reward, with the few other minuter species, the close

researches of some future naturalist.

3. Helix tetrica, Paiva.

T. supra nigricans vel latissime nigro fasciata, depresso-discoidea, sub-

planata, carinata, solida, undique confertissime granulis distinctis-

simis albidis prominentibus grosse scobinata ; carina acuta, expres-

siuscula, vix limbata, subsupera; spira convexo-depressa, subpla-

nata, pulvinata, se. anfractui ult. antice tumidulo superimposita ;

anfractibus convexiusculis, penultimo antice subdepresso, sutura

distincta ; umbil. maximo, aperto, patulo, spirali, } diam. maj.

latitudine eequante.

Diam. maj. 13-15, min. 11-12, alt. 7-8 mill; anfr. 7-8.

Hab. in ins. Deserta Australi in preeruptis excelsis maritimis “inter

lichenes.”

A fine and certainly new species of the H. polymorpha tribe,

very distinct from H. senilis @*, to which, when sent to me

last year by the Bardo de Paiva, I at first referred it, by reason

of its large wide open umbilicus and much coarser granulations.

In both these points, with the addition of its flattened discoidal

shape, it is also quite distinct from H. polymorpha or H., pulvi-

nata. A few examples were found by a man collecting for the

Baron “on the S. Deserta, or Bugio, amongst lichens on the sea-

cliffs,” in the spring of 1861. The colouring is precisely that

of H. polymorpha, var. B. nigricans, subyar. 1 or 3,—viz. dark

coffee-brown above, relieved only in two of the four specimens

before me by a pale line along the keel and suture. Beneath,

* Lowe, Syn. Diagn. in Ann. and Mag. ser. 2. vol. ix. p. 116; and Catal.

Moll. Mad. in Proc. Zool. Soc. (1854), part xxii. p. 189. Supposing, how-

ever, H. senilis, Morelet, in Journ. de Conch. (1851) ii. 353, to be a good

species, H, senilis, Lowe, must be changed into H. salebrosa.

96 Mr. J.O. Westwood on a new Species of Mormolyce.

all of them are pale, with two broad dark-brown bands, the

upper of which is subdivided into two or three in two of the

examples.

4, A Physa, which in degree of ventricosity is intermediate

between P. acuta, Drap. t. 11. f. 10, 11, and the more elongated

or slender common Canarian shell so called by Webb, has been

also given to me by the Baron de Paiva, as found in the Rib.

dos Soccorridos and that of Gongcalo Ayres, near Funchal. It

closely resembles “ the rare long-spired var.” of P. fontinalis(L.),

Forbes and Hanl. iv. 142, t. 122. f. 10.

Lea Rectory, June 25, 1862.

XI.—Notice of a new Species of the Carabideous Genus Mormo-

lyce. By J. O. Westwoop, M.A. &e.

Tue confirmation of genera, established upon unique species,

and often even upon single specimens, by the discovery of addi-

tional members of the group, is always satisfactory, and, in the

case of very extreme types of form, highly interesting with re-

ference to the question of the development of particular organs

or portions of organs, as well as to that of the modification of

form resulting from geographical distribution or other analogous

causes.

The genus Mormolyce, founded by Hagenbach upon one of

the most remarkable types of Carabideous insects, has long been

known only by a single representative, M. phyllodes, a native of

Java. Its relations have, as may easily be conceived, been the

subject of much discussion, the genus having been placed im the

great division Truncatipennes, as well as in that of the Tho-

racici. Instead of the compact, robust form which is typical of the

Carabide, we have an attenuated structure, with slender limbs,

indicating great weakness of locomotive powers, united to a

slightly developed oral structure, proving the insect to be desti-

tute of those predaceous habits which are so eminently charac-

teristic of the family as to have earned for them the sectional

name of Adephaga. We must suppose a Carabus or Harpalus

to have been both drawn out longitudinally and flattened out

laterally, so that the elytra present great flattened dilatations

extending beyond the body in the form of two rounded spatul,

—the whole represented best by a piece of the thin kind of

gingerbread known by the name of “jumbles.”

Although originally known as a native of Java, specimens of

M. phyllodes have been received from Malacca; and with the

latter there has been found associated a considerable number of

individuals of a distinct species, of which the following diagnosis

Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology. 97

will indicate the chief distinctions from the previously known

species.

M. Hagenbachi.

M. capite postice in collum longissimum subcylindricum attenuato ;

prothorace elongato-hexagono, angulis anticis porrectis conicis ;

lateribus spinis tribus zeque distantibus armatis (spatio inter spinam

posticam et basin fere dimidium prothoracis sequante); elytris

foliaceo-dilatatis, angulo basali in lobum transversum antice trun-

catum porrecto, dilatatione magis cordiformi, latitudine maxima

ante medium posita; antennarum articulo secundo longitudine

latitudinem ejus duplo superante ; scutelli apice rotundato.

Long. corp. unc. 23, ad apicem elytrorum unc. 3¢; capitis lin. 9 ;

prothoracis lin. 75; elytrorum ad apicem suture lin. 14; lat.

elytrorum ante medium lin. 17.

Habitat Malaccam in insula Sumatra.

The fact of this species being found in the same locality with

M. phyllodes forbids our regarding it as a geographical variety ;

whilst the specific characters given above equally militate against

its being a local modification, such, for instance, as occurs in

many species of Carabi or Harpalide, respecting which so much

discussion has recently taken place amongst Continental ento-

mologists.

The specific name given above was suggested by Mr. Adam

White, in honour of the original founder of the genus.

XII.— Notes on Cambridge Geology.

By Harry Sezxey, F.G.S., Woodwardian Museum.

I. Preliminary Notice of the Elsworth Rock and associated

Strata*,

One of the last labours in England of Mr. Lucas Barrett was

the production of a geological map of the country around Cam-

bridge. Of the Lower Secondary deposits, he therein coloured

the Kimmeridge Clay, Upper Calcareous Grit, and Oxford Clay.

The chief novelty in this was the introduction of the Calcareous

Grit ; for Professor Sedgwick, many years before, when riding

in the neighbourhood of Conington, had somewhere seen a

drab-coloured deposit, which, without dismounting, he very na-

* Communicated by the Author, having been read at the Meeting of the

British Association at Manchester, Sept. 1861. This paper was to have

been incorporated with one on the Strata of England between the Portland

and Great Oolites, an intention reluctantly postponed. It will be followed

by four papers which were to have been other chapters in the scheme :—

1. On the Kimmeridge Clay; 2. On the Tetworth Clay and Coral Rag;

3. On the Rocks of the Oxford Clay; and 4. On the Oxford Clay.

Ann. & Mag. N. Mist. Ser.3. Vol. x. 8

98 Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology :—

turally supposed to be an outlier of the Shanklin Sands ; and so

it continued to be regarded until Mr. Barrett discovered that it

was really a member of the Oolitic series. On what grounds it

was determined to be the particular rock mentioned, or Calca-

reous Grit at all, 1 am not aware, unless, indeed, it were from

Dr. Wright’s speculation that Lower Calcareous Grit had a pro-

bable existence in this district ; nor have I learnt why the clay

above was mapped as Kimmeridge Clay. Some fossils were

collected and placed in the Woodwardian Museum. So remark-

able was the assemblage, and in some respects so unlike what

would have been anticipated, that, after a careful examination of

the specimens, I could not but suspect that, in the haste with

which the north-west corner had been mapped, something must

have been wrongly interpreted. Accordingly, at the first oppor-

tunity, I established myself in the village of Elsworth, and pro-

ceeded to investigate the nature and relations of the rock on

which it stands.

Elsworth is four miles and a half due south of St. Ives—the

well-known locality for Oxford Clay,—nearly the same distance

due north of Bourn, and about eight miles W.N.W. of Cam-

bridge. The country about is, on a small scale, quite hill and

valley, the village of Elsworth itself being built in a rather deep

hollow. The hills are mostly of boulder clay, while the valleys

produced by its denudation often expose the stratified beds be-

neath. A brook runs through the village, and ultimately finds

its way into the Ouse.

As the streamlet flows between the principal rows of houses,

its banks were naturally the first places examined ; and here and

there along them was seen peeping out a reddish-brown calca-

reous rock, highly charged with iron-shot: oolitic particles, and

very hard, but readily separating by cracks into small pieces. It

extends throughout the length of the village, and at its southern

end dips under a hill of dark-blue stratified clay ; to the north

it is denuded: this is the nearest approach to a section to be

seen. I wished, however, to see the rock where it had not been

weathered, as also to obtain fossils from the clay above ; and so

the Rev. H. Dobson, the rector, kindly granted permission to

sink the necessary pits through the rock. The first attempt was

a failure ; for, though a very promising site was selected within

four yards of an exposure by the roadside, it was found, after a

large excavation had been made, that the whole deposit was

bouldered away. The next trial was more successful; and, sin-

gularly, though in the immediate vicinity of the other, there was

no trace whatever of the drift clay. We sunk through six feet

and a half of a dark-blue laminated clay, which here and there

contained a layer, of chocolate- or ferruginous colour, abounding

On the Elsworth Rock and associated Strata. 99

in minute crystals of selenite and sulphate of barytes, and became

extremely hard as we descended. very now and then, speci-

mens were met with of the Ammonites vertebralis, in which the

body-chamber was filled with calcareous matter, and the rest of

the shell pressed flat, forming what well-diggers call “ shapes ;”

some specimens were also found of the Gryphea dilatata. From

these fossils I was inclined to regard the deposit above the rock

as Oxford Clay instead of Kimmeridge—a conclusion afterwards

in some degree confirmed by the abundance in which the latter

fossil occurred in another section. Indeed, the fossils from the

clay immediately above were scarcely to be distinguished from

those in the clay below. And so, instead of Upper Calcareous

Grit, the phenomenon presented appeared to be that of a lime-

stone dividing two beds of Oxford Clay.

Continuing the digging, the rock was reached; and here,

where protected, its appearance is very different from the wea-

thered aspect seen by the brook-side. It is a dark-blue homo-

geneous limestone, which I can compare to nothing but the un-

septarious cement-stones of the clays. The oolitic grains were

abundant, and as deeply ferruginous as though they had been

exposed to the air; while scattered irregularly about, branching

and interlacing, were masses of undecomposed iron pyrites. A

rock of undivided structure, such as that described, will be easily

understood to be difficult to work ; and I cannot convey a better

idea of its hardness than by stating that, during the ten hours

during which two men continued thumping away at it, they

succeeded in breaking a five-foot iron crowbar, the iron of one

pickaxe, and the handle of another, and did not get up a quarter

of a hundred-weight of fragments; and yet it is so easily de-

composed by the weather as to be utterly useless for road-

mending, building, or any economic purpose.

Before the deposition of the superimposed clay, the rock ap-

pears to have been much denuded, and consequently its thick-

ness is very variable. It is commonly about 3 or 4 feet, though

in some places not less than 7 feet. The clay immediately above

it is of a reddish brown, and, judging from its contents, appears

to be coloured by the rubbing up of the rock below. But 7 feet

must not be supposed to be the total thickness of the deposit ;

for on the top of it is a clay of about 5 feet in thickness, and

then an upper rock of 18 inches, which forms the surface, and

above which, at the places where exhibited, there is very little

clay. This middle clay is of a brown-black, and is nowhere well

exposed; where best seen, it contained numerous specimens of

a small variety of Ostrea Marshit. The rock above it has all the

outer characters of that below, being equally rusty and quite as

oolitic—except, however, at one point, where, getting a section

100 Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology :—

in a ditch, it was found to be yellowish white, more sandy, and

almost free from oolitic particles. The fossils here were few, but,

under the slightly altered conditions, differed a little from those

met with in other places. In general they are very similar to

those of the inferior deposit, though including some forms which,

so far as yet explored, have served to distinguish it.

This thickness of about 14 feet appears here to form the en-

tire mass of this peculiar rock. And yet, in tracing the brook

to the south, I found in its bed three successive layers of a hard

whitish-grey rock, of 6 or 8 inches in thickness, occurring in

the clay at heights above the rock of Elsworth of about 7, 15,

and 20 feet. However, these only contain a few Gryphea dila-

tata, and resemble more than anything else layers of hard, dark

Lower Chalk. There is nothing to suggest any connexion with

the Inferior beds ; but it is just possible that they represent the

extreme limits of strata which may elsewhere thicken and unite

with them. The dip to the south seems to be about one foot in

two hundred.

Having become thus far familiar with the exhibition of the

rock about Elsworth, I endeavoured to discover whether it were

merely local, or a regular stratum which might serve as a boun-

dary between great thicknesses of clay.

From the great accumulation of the clay, sinking for water

here is scarcely more profitable than sinking for coal would be ;

and therefore in the smail neighbouring villages there are few

deep wells. However, some have been attempted. One of these

was at a point rather more than three miles 8S.S.W. of Elsworth,

and sunk to the depth of 150 feet. They dug through 84 feet

of a hard dark-blue clay, from which many Ammonites were

obtained ; but, as the well was made thirty-six years ago, these

are not now to be heard of. Below this they came upon 14 feet

of alternate bands of stone and sand (the stone was full of

small shells), and an extremely hard grey-blue rock, which they

had to get up with chisels and blacksmith’s hammers, working

for six months before they got through it.

The dip of the Elsworth rock has already been given as one

foot in two hundred, and the distance of this digging from

Elsworth as about 16,000 feet ; therefore, if the rock extended

continuously, and preserved the same angle of dip, it ought to

be found, at this distance, at a depth of 80 feet ; and so, when

a rock is found there, at that depth, of a thickness, hardness,

and appearance identical with that of Elsworth, I must urge

that the evidence approaches the conclusion that in both places

the rock is one and the same. In Papworth Everard, a village

a mile and a half to the west of Elsworth, a rock was met with

in a well-sinking at a depth of 7 feet, but not pierced. Papworth

On the Elsworth Rock and associated Strata. 101

is on higher ground, but the rock at Elsworth dips to the east ;

hence this stratum will probably be a band some depth under-

neath it. ,

Northwards from Elsworth to St. Ives, the country is perfectly

flat, and occupied at the surface almost continuously by gravel,

the rock having disappeared, probably by denudation. But, on

approaching St. Ives from the south, a ridge of high land is

seen flanking the town on the west; and on carefully exploring

a brick-yard at the base of it, I found abundant remains of a

rock which an old brickmaker told me once extended con-

tinuously all over the pit to a thickness of 3 feet, quite at the

surface, and sometimes parted into two beds by an intervening

layer of clay.

Where visible, the rock here is much weathered, but is the

same kind of reddish-brown deposit, full of oolitic grains, which

occurs at Elsworth. It has long been mistaken for drift, and, as

such, is alluded to in the ‘ Oolitic Echinodermata ;’ but, though

quite at the surface, thin, and often overlain by boulder-clay,

there cannot be the least doubt that it is a solid rock of Secondary

age accumulated on the clay below. Passing a little to the east,

I learned that, in another brick-pit there, a rock had formerly

existed, but was now all removed at the surface, having dipped

down into the clay to thé east of the pit. And still further to

the east, at the point where the roads branch to Needingworth

and Somersham, it appeared that, in another brick-yard, they

sometimes, when digging, came down upon a floor of hard stone,

which they have never attempted to get through. To one going

over the ground, the conclusion is irresistible that the rocks men-

tioned at all these pits are one deposit dipping down to the east;

but whether this rock is an extension of that of Elsworth, or

another bed inferior or superior to it, 1s a very complex question,

difficult to answer.

Rather more than two miles N.N.E. of the last-mentioned pit,

and three miles from the pit exposing the rock at St. Ives, is the

Bluntisham cutting of the Hastern Counties Railway. This is a

piece of high land, which has been cut through to a depth of

about 40 feet, and yet the base of the cutting is so elevated that

the line descends towards St. Ives at an incline of one foot in

less than two hundred ; so that the rails here cannot be less than

50 feet higher than they are two miles to the south. Now, in

this cutting, just below the surface, is found a rock, of a grey-

blue colour and unknown thickness, which was so hard that it

had to be blasted in laying the railway drain. I have a frag-

ment, containing iron-shot oolitic grains and shells, quite resem-

bling the rock of Elsworth. It extended continuously for dis-

tances of about 100 feet, when, as I was informed, short inter-

102 Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology :—

vening spaces occurred, in which it was so soft that “ one could

put his arm in and move it about,’’—a circumstance probably

indicating a water-bearing stratum at no great depth beneath.

The question here arises, Is this calcareous band identical

with that of St. Ives, above which it would seem to be at least

30 feet? If this is assumed, it is clear that as the Elsworth

rock dips south, it cannot be identical with the stratum at St.

Ives, which also would dip south, and therefore be at a very

great depth beneath it. Another conclusion from this assump-

tion would be, that the fossils in the clay at Bluntisham should

be identical with those of the clay above the rock near St. Ives ;

while we should expect a considerable difference between the

fossils of the St. Ives limestone and that of Elsworth. But

neither of these conditions is met with.

Although the clay at Bluntisham is capped with boulder clay,

and the fossils of both, which were collected for me, are mixed

together, and are therefore to be appealed to with great caution,

I think it can yet be said with confidence that they mdicate a

zone above that of St. Ives; while, after some hours’ work in the

St. Ives rock, I only obtained, in nineteen, three species not pre-

viously met with at Elsworth. This must be conclusive that the

Bluntisham rock is superior to that of St. Ives, while it strongly

suggests that the latter is not far removed from the zone of the

Elsworth limestone. The few fossils from the clay above the

rock at the latter place are such that there can be no doubt that

the rock beneath is not inferior to that of St. Ives: it may be su-

perior or on the same parallel ; while the alternatives with respect

to the Bluntisham bed are that it should either be continuous

with or inferior to it. Thus, then, we shall have the point of up-

heaving force greatest either between Elsworth and St. Ives, or

at some unknown place further north. If the latter condition

obtained, the St. Ives rock would be inclined to the horizon; and

as the bed at Bluntisham is in elevation apparently only 30 feet

above it, it would, even if the angle of inclination were less than

that of the Elsworth bed would lead us to expect, become, when

it reached Bluntisham, either coincident with the deposit there

or many feet above it. Moreover, the Elsworth rock would be

100 feet above that of St. Ives. The fossils, however, as has

already been seen, indicate conclusions very different; and so the

supposition may safely be dismissed. The point of least resist-

ance in the upheaval, then, was between Elsworth and St. Ives ;

and therefore the rock, which rises to the surface at Elsworth,

must dip down again somewhere to the north in the St. Ives

neighbourhood. Hence the question stands thus: Is the Blun-

tisham rock (or are both it and the St. Ives beds) a continuation

of those at Elsworth? If the supposition be adopted that the

On the Elsworth Rock and associated Strata. 103

two northern bands represent the Elsworth beds, it will be seen

that the apparently thick stratum of Bluntisham becomes very

thin at Elsworth, being represented by the layers mentioned in

the bed of the brook, and that they have ceased to exist at

Bourn. The only fact bearing against this view is, that, so far

as known, the fossils from the clay above the rock at Elsworth

are not identical with those from the clay near Needingworth,

but very different. If the other view is taken, the St. Ives rock

will be an inferior band separated by a considerable thickness of

clay from that above. Now, if the upheaving force met with

anything like the same amount of resistance to the north which

it did to the south, it will be clear that as Bluntisham is 3 miles

north, and Elsworth about five miles south, of St. Ives, there

ought to be an anticlinal outcrop of the St. Ives rock in the

neighbourhood of Fenstanton, that is, two miles south of its

St. Ives outcrop, where it should dip south into the clay, so as

to pass under the rock of Elsworth. However, as Bluntisham

is on high ground, it will be necessary to allow a further exten-

sion of a mile or two north, to balance its height. And so it is

highly probable that the pressure from below was greatest very

little to the south of St. Ives. Now, in the village of Coning-

ton, a mile and a half north of Elsworth, and three miles and a

half south of the pit showing the rock at St. Ives, a well was

sunk to a depth of 250 feet; and herein, after digging for 100

feet, a rock was pierced 5 feet in thickness. It has already been

shown that the rock will dip south. If we suppose this incline

to be the same as between Elsworth and Bourn, when the rock

reached St. Ives, it would only be 18 feet below the surface ;

and as no rock is found there at that depth, and as the angle of

the incline may be expected to increase as the plane inclined

approaches nearer the central action of the inclining force, and

also as some allowance must be made for possible difference of

heights at the places mentioned, the evidence will be perfectly

conclusive that this deep-seated rock of Conington is really the

“old red rock” of St. Ives brick-yards, and, therefore, that the

Elsworth rock, 130 feet above it, is essentially identical with the

limestone at Bluntisham. And this explains the discrepancies

between the fossils from the clay above the rock at St. Ives and

those met with in the clay at Bluntisham, while the character-

istic fossils of the Elsworth clay are, so far as is yet known, iden-

tical with those of the latter place. At present I have no fur-

ther evidence of the extension, in a longitudinal direction, of the

Elsworth rock, which has thus been traced for a distance of

eleven miles, with every circumstance to indicate that it extends

far both to the north and to the south of these limits.

It will, however, be readily seen that this argument is not

104. - Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology :-—

necessarily infallible; the facts on which it is founded are too

few for it to claim to be more than an induetive guess. Indeed,

seeing that it is built fundamentally on the assumption that the

rocks at Elsworth and Bourn are the same, it might be quite

wrong, All the facts certainly appear to be in its favour; but

it must not be forgotten that simplest explanations are often

truest ; and in this case, if we suppose the country flatter than

the preceding argument required it to be, the deep-seated rock

at Bourn (80 feet) would be continuous with the deep-seated

rock at Conington (100 feet) ; and therefore the rock at St. Ives

would be the Elsworth rock, and the band at Bluntisham pro-

bably identical with those in the bed of the Elsworth brook.

Nothing but its simplicity is known in support of this hypo-

thesis, which is only mentioned here as a contingency which has

not been overlooked. ven should it be ultimately proved true,

the result would in no way affect the principal object of this

paper, except in giving the arguments greater weight, by show-

ing that the Elsworth rock is really lower in the Oxford Clay

than it is now supposed to be. Meanwhile I adopt the explana-

tion previously given as the true one.

It has already been seen that the St. Ives rock dips to the

east; therefore the Elsworth beds also will dip in the same di-

rection, and hence the clay to the east will be above the latter

deposit.

Two miles eastward of Elsworth is Boxworth*; and here the

land rises so that one can see over the Elsworth valley and the

country north and north-east of it. Now, on the easterly slope

of this hill is a brick-yard ; and here also is a rock, about a foot

and a half thick. The workmen call it “ flint,’ a name I have

also found given in the surrounding district to the septarious

concretions of the clays. It is dark blue, very hard, and divided

ito layers, much as is the Elsworth rock. The only specimen

of it | saw was a slab from the upper part, about six inches in

thickness, which consisted of two layers—an upper dark-blue one,

with a few small shells scattered about in it, and a lower pale-

brown layer composed almost entirely of shells, chiefly univalves.

From the rock I only succeeded in obtaining, in a determinable

condition, Ammonites biplex, part of another Ammonite, appa-

rently alternans, Pecten lens, and a new species of Pecten, also

found at Elsworth, Alaria bispinosa, and Cerithium muricatum.

In the clay beneath I found a single specimen of Ostrea del-

toidea, another of Gryphea dilatata, and two or three of an Oyster

nearly resembling O. leviuscula, hereafter to be described as O.

discoidea. This same Oyster occurs somewhat sparingly, with

* Pronounced Els'er and Box'er, Papworth is sounded Parper.

On the Elsworth Rock and associated Strata. 105

the Gryphea dilatata, in the clay at Elsworth, and also sparingly,

with the Ostrea deltoidea, in the clay to the north-east, at Wil-

Ingham. Thus the Boxworth rock is a stratum above the

Elsworth rock, just as the St. Ives bed is beneath it.

It was seen that the Elsworth beds dipped to the south ; and

consequently the clay in that direction will also be above them.

Seven miles south of Elsworth is Gamlingay; and here, in a

brick-yard near the bogs, I heard of a rock about a foot and a

half thick, seven feet below the level of the pit. From the clay

above were obtained single specimens of. Ostrea deltoidea, Gry-

phea dilatata, and Ammonites bipler. Also, in a brick-yard at

the top of Tetworth Hill, the Ostrea and Gryphea were found

abundantly in unexpected combination with Serpula tetragona

and portions of Ammonites Achilles, which occurs at Bluntisham

and in the bed of the Elsworth brook; and beneath was a floor

of rock, covered with water at the time I was there; the rock

was said to be white, and 18 inches thick. Between these two

pits there is another; but during my short stay I failed to get

any characteristic fossils, except two or three Gryphee dilatate ;

from this circumstance, and as it is in a hollow, it is probable

that the rocks at Tetworth and Gamlingay bogs are the same,

and that this is the clay beneath, but at present it is impossible

to say so with certainty. - Supposing it should be so, I should

be still less mclined to express an opinion as to whether this

Tetworth rock is the same as that of Boxworth; though, so far

as the evidence goes, the natural conclusion would be that it is

the same. They are clearly deposits in very nearly the same

position, and are mutually inclined ; so that, had they extended

continuously, and been different beds, there ought to be a second

rock in the vicinity of Boxworth; but, as this has not been met

with, the probabilities are strong, taken in conjunction with the

other circumstances, that the outcrops are both of the same

stratum. Above this I know of no other stone bands for a long

way up; but there is another one beneath the lowest yet men-

tioned.

Six miles west by south of Elsworth is St. Neots ; and a little

to the south of the latter place, near Hynesbury, in laying the

plates of the Great Northern Railway, a rock was cut down to.

The uppermost band, of about 8 inches, was removed: it held

beneath a large quantity of water, which produced the singular

effect of giving all the workmen who drank of it the ague. Be-

low this bed of stone was another of clay, and then another of

the rock; but whether there were any further alternations was

not determined. ‘The rock is described as having the aspect of

Cornbrash. In the well at Conington, 150 feet below the St.

Ives rock, another rock was reached, but not pierced, a small

106 Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology :—

supply of very salt water being obtained : it is just possible that

this rock may be that of St. Neots. There can be no doubt

that it holds a place at least that depth below the rock of St. Ives ;

for the prevailing fossils at St. Neots (Ammonites spinosus,

Duncani, and athletus), which occur almost to the exclusion of

other forms, will, with Ammonites coronatus, dicate a bed much

lower than that of St. Ives, which has Ammonites cordatus,

Lamberti, Eugenii, &c., as most common. A considerable thick-

ness of strata is probably represented by this change of life in

time. Therefore, notwithstanding the circumstance that Prof.

Buckman has given the Ammonites Duncani and athletus (St.

Neots fossils) as occurring in the same highest bed of clay with

Ammonites Marie and Goliathus (St. Ives fossils), it will be readily

granted that the St. Neots rock is lower than that of St. Ives ;

and this being so, it cannot but happen that it dips to the east,

passing under Elsworth ; and therefore, if persistent, it ought to

occur that the St. Ives rock, by a synclinal, should again crop

out somewhere S.W. of St. Ives, while both it and the Elsworth

rock should occur between Tetworth and St. Neots. Though I

have gone over the whole of this country with some minuteness,

it must be reserved for a future paper to say whether they are

to be seen or not. But the whole of Huntingdonshire is much

obscured by gravel ; so that, in the absence of brick-yard evidence

or wells, the chances of detecting them would be slight.

Such, then, so far as is yet observed, is the succession of clays

and stone bands in the east of Huntingdonshire ; but, from

observations made in Bedfordshire, there appears to be a great

thickness of clay beneath the lowest zone here seen ; and there-

fore it would be premature to conclude that the St. Neots rock

is identical with the Kelloway rock, which may yet be found

lower down. This being so, the Elsworth and other rocks can-

not but be regarded as strata high up in the Oxford Clay, and

probably of similar importance with that occurring near its

supposed base—conclusions which, it will presently be seen, are

also indicated by the fossils.

Facts of no less interest than the succession of rocks are pre-

sented by the succession of the clay, which by them is separated

into well-marked subdivisions, each distinguished by a peculiar

assemblage of fossils. But not only do the organic remains

‘differ, but as the series of strata is ascended a gradual transition

is observed from those forms characterizing lower beds to those

occurring higher up, until at last some of the peculiar fossils of

the Kimmeridge Clay are found blended with those of the Oxford

Clay; and further on, the true Kimmeridge Clay itself is met

with, as at Cottenham. In the absence of the Coral Rag, this

eveat succession has the appearance of one deposit, admitting,

On the Elsworth Rock and associated Strata. 107

however, of subdivision mto the parts characterized by Gryphea

dilatata, by this species and Ostrea deltoidea associated, and by

the latter fossil and Exogyra virgula.

In this country there is nothing to indicate that the middle

group should rather be added either to the upper or the lower

of these beds. In the South of England, Mr. Pease Pratt added

it to the Oxford Clay—a conclusion in which he has been fol-

lowed by the gentlemen of the Geological Survey. But if it is

contended that at Upware, midway between Cambridge and Ely,

the Coral Rag occurs beneath the Kimmeridge Clay, it must also

be confessed that we are ignorant of what fossils may occur at

the base of the clay there, while, on the other hand, the Elsworth

rock clearly separates the clay above from the Gryphea-dilatata

clay below; so that, did the Elsworth rock attain the thickness

of the Coral Rag, there could not be a question about the claim

of the middle clay to be considered distinct and intermediate

between the Kimmeridge and Oxford Clays. Nor, as it is, can

there be any doubt about it, seeing that duration in time is not

represented by thickness of deposit, but by change in life ; and

in this respect the paleontological evidence is conclusive. The

fact, too, of the existence of an isolated reef of Coral Rag will

be evidence that other deposits must have been made around it.

It is therefore proposed to distinguish the stratum as the Tet-

worth Clay.

The fossils from Bluntisham, which it must be remembered

are from the lowest part of the clay, are Gryphea dilatata abun-

dantly, Ostrea deltoidea rarely, Ammonites alternans, biplex, ser-

ratus (which is erroneously given in Morris’s Catalogues as from

the Oxford Clay of Huntingdonshire), and an Ammonite figured

by D’Orbigny as the female of Duncani, but which is neither

that species nor spinosus, which latter form has, in the adult

state, the characters of its youth, only more developed, while this

bears to it much the same resemblance that Callovicensis has to

A, Duncani; and Belemnites excentricus. To these may be added,

from Elsworth, Alaria bispinosa, Lima pectiniformis, Pecten lens,

and Ostrea discoidea.

Of course it is certain that the agencies depositing strata have

ever acted without intermission ; and therefore it is that all rocks

can only over a limited surface preserve the same lithological

characters. Clays being the most persistent of strata, because

the most flocculent and therefore widest spread, are less likely

to thin out than limestones; and yet it singularly happens that

the Tetworth Clay has only been noticed in a few places, and

never in company with the Coral Rag, which appears to have a

much greater extension. The explanation would appear to be

this :—The deposition of the Coral Rag and its associated grits

108 Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology :—

must have occupied a long period of time: this has usually been

regarded as equivalent to the ages required for the change of

the fauna of the Oxford Clay to that of the Kimmeridge ; it

must at least have occupied a large part of that period ; and its

absence as a representative of time would be indicated by a cor-

responding break in life. Now, in the country between Elsworth

and Cottenham, where the Coral Rag does not occur, it has been

seen that there is no break in life: hence there cannot be a great

break in time ; and so the Coral Rag must be present as a period,

although it has ceased to exist as a calcareous formation. The

clay, then, must represent it ; and hence the Tetworth Clay will

be regarded as the argillaceous contemporary of the Oxford

Oolite ; and therefore it results that the Elsworth rock is directly

underneath the Coral Rag, on the one hand, and above the Oxford

Clay, on the other; so that the only remaining question about

its position is to determine whether it is rather to be classed

with the Oxford Clay or with the Lower Calcareous Grit. And

this is a problem of some difficulty, since there is no calcareous

grit in this district for comparison.

If the Tetworth Clay were replaced by Coral Rag, the Elsworth

rock would then be a calcareous bed at the base of it, and appa-

rently forming part of it ; but it would also be an Oolitic stratum

at the top of the Oxford Clay, and zdentical in lithological struc-

ture with similar beds occurring lower down, from which, as

already remarked, its species differ but little. In estimating

the weight of the fossils as influencing the question, it must not

be forgotten that many species are peculiar to clay, and others

to limestone; so that, as the gap between the Oxford Clay and

Calcareous Grit cannot be very great, there will almost neces-

sarily be many forms in common between the Elsworth rock and

the Grit above, which would not occur in the Clay below, while

the same cause would prevent the Oxford-Clay fossils hving on

into the rock above.

The species of the rock are numerous. A good proportion of

the forms are peculiar. The following list will serve as indi-

cating the general character :—

Ammonites vertebralis. Ammonites Herici.

biplex. canaliculatus.

perarmatus. — Goliathus, var.

It is to be noticed that all these species occur in the Oxford

Clay of France, while only two of them have yet been published

from the Calcareous Grit. Besides them, there are two new forms,

and the Ammonites Riippellii of Minster from Solenhofen, which

species must not be confounded with the Corallian Ammonites

Riippellensis of D’Orbigny, being nearly related to the A. biplez.

On the Elsworth Rock and associated Strata. 109

The Belemnites are hastatus and tornatilis, both of which occur

in the Oxford Clay below, but neither, so far as I have collected,

in superior beds. The hastatus is an inflated variety.

The Gasteropoda are Pleurotomaria reticulata, a fossil of the

Calcareous Grit and Kimmeridge Clay in England and of the

Oxford Clay in France, being identical with the Pleurotomaria

Miinstert of D’Orbigny ; Pleutomaria amphicelia, a new and pe-

culiar species resembling the Inferior-Oolite P. ornata ; Littorina

perornata, a new form intermediate between the Inferior-Oolite

L. ornata and the Corallian muricata (I believe that it occurs in

the Coral Rag, Calcareous Grit, &c.); a new species of Littorina,

a new Cerithium, and a Phasianella.

The bivalves are extremely numerous, and the new species

many. A few only need be given now. Among the new spe-

cies are Avicula pterosphena and Gryphea elongata. Among the

known species are Pecten fibrosus (including vagans); Terebratula

ornithocephala, T. perovalis, and T. spheroidalis ; Pecten lens and

Pecten vimineus; Gryphea dilatata; Lima pectiniformis ; Avi-

cula expansa, A. ovalis, and A. elliptica; Trigonia costata, and a

slight variation of Dr. Lycett’s variety decorata of Trigonia cla-

vellata; Astarte ovata, A. lurida, Opis Phillipsii, and a variety

of Myacites recurva. Although most of these species occur in the

Coral Rag and Calcareous Grit, I think, when the circumstances

already pointed out are remembered, and also that many Coral-

Rag forms range down to the Cornbrash, the fossils will be re-

garded as far more closely linked to the beds below than to the

equivalents of strata above. When one remembers the super-

position, I see no ground whatever on which the conclusion need

be disputed ; and therefore the Elsworth rock will be placed as

about the highest zone of the Oxfordian series.

There are, then, in this district at least three well-marked

rocks dividing the Oxford Clay, to the different zones of which

it will be necessary to apply distinctive epithets when the whole

succession shall be satisfactorily elucidated. It would be beyond

the object of this paper to add anything further on either the

rocks or clay zones; but as it has already been mentioned that

the Upper Elsworth rock differs somewhat in fossils from the

lower bed, it may be remarked that the circumstances which

most attract attention are the presence in the upper band of

numerous masses of Serpule, a difference in the Brachyurous

Crustacea, in the spines of Cidarvs, in the enormous size of Gry-

phea dilatata (some being 11 inches long), the absence of Gry-

phea elongata, the presence of plates of a Star-fish, the greater

abundance of Littorina perornata and of Pleurotomaria reticulata,

species of Perna, many Ostree gregaria.

These distinctions may be but local, but in this locality they

110 Mr. H. Seeley on Cambridge Geology.

will be found constant. In the lower bed are some shell-less

Annelides.

It ought to have been previously mentioned, that at Over*, a

few miles east of St. Ives, and west of the Kimmeridge Clay, the

Belemnites excentricus and some other fossils have been met with,

identical with those of Bluntisham ; and therefore it might be ex-

pected that the Elsworth rock should crop out near Holiwell, which

is an intermediate point between Over and St. Ives. Now, im the

collection of Mr. James Carter of Cambridge is a series of fossils,

collected for him twenty years since, which he believes came

from Holiwell. The series contains Ammonites Herici and many

Elsworth fossils, as also some few new forms and several which

Elsworth has not produced and probably does not contain, such

as Dysaster bicordatus and Holectypus hemisphericus, these two

species being very abundant. The lithological character of the bed

is quite the same as that of the Elsworth rock. I do not insist

upon a necessary identity ; for the locality is not given with that

certainty which such an assumption ought to require ; and the pits

being now abandoned and filled in, verification will be impos-

sible. The fact must go for what it is worth, and, judging from

circumstances in the country to the north-east, where there are

other outcrops of rock, it will not be worthless. It may indicate

an interesting synclinal between St. Ives and Over, which is

probably a consequence of a vast downthrow fault known to

exist far to the east.

W. E.

St. Neots. Papworth. Elsworth. Boxworth.

a, Boxworth rock; 8, Elsworth rock ; y,?St. Ives rock; 6, St. Neot’s rock; A, Oxford Clay.

Ss.

Conington.

-Bluntisham.

“~~~ Tetworth.

~---Gransden.

St. Ives.

P -~~ Waresley.

@ ——-Caxton.

—~---------- Elsworth.

A Y A Y

T, Tetworth Clay; G, Shanklin Sands; B, Boulder Clay; F, Flint gravel.

Thus it has been endeavoured to illustrate a succession which

will hereafter be elaborated at more appropriate length.

* Pronounced Uv'er.

M. L. Garreau on the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 111

XIII.—On the Functions of the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants.

By M. L. Garrzav.

[Concluded from p. 43. ]

Il. Of the Circulation.

The intracellular circulation observed by Corti, and since

studied by Treviranus, Amici, Robert Brown, Schultz, Raspail,

Meyen, Slack, Pouchet, Dutrochet, Schleiden, Steinheil, Bec-

querel, Dujardin, Schacht, Trécul, Hugo Mohl, &c., in a small

number of plants, has been hitherto generally regarded as a

simple motion of rotation, and as peculiar to certain plants. But,

from the constant presence of living nitrogenous material in

cells in course of growth, the modifications in form that it

undergoes, and the vital movements with which it is endowed,

and which we shall presently point out in detail, I hope to show

that we have not always to deal with a simple act of rotation,

and that this movement is as general as the cell. All plants,

and their parts, in which the nucleus and its appendages are

readily discoverable, are suitable for the study of the vermicular

movements of the intracellular circulation; and it is sufficient

to select for examination a hair or a thin slice of tissue, in the

conditions before indicated, to demonstrate this beautiful pheno-

menon. One plant in which it displays itself under the greatest

variety of form is the Salvia sclarea. This vigorous labiate plant

has its surface everywhere covered over, and particularly its young

merithalli, with large hairs, beautifully transparent, and formed

by two or three superimposed cells, the septa between them

being also perfectly translucent. Ifa small slice of the hairy

epidermis of this plant be examined under water, the canals

through which the circulation is carried on are perceived at

once in the hairs fringing the section ; and on following atten-

tively their course from the periphery, or from any other point,

towards the central nucleus, the granules which stream through

them may be noticed making their way to the nucleus, whilst

some of them are driven against the lateral and opposite por-

tions of the canals in which they circulate. The rapidity of

these currents is augmented by heat, and varies in each canal:

it is almost inappreciable at 10° Cent., but considerable at 25°

to 30°; the granules in one stream sometimes traverse the

half of the long diameter of a canal in a few seconds, whilst

those in others occupy some minutes in accomplishing the

same distance. Again, in some canals the circulation becomes

arrested for a moment, and sometimes this stoppage is instan-

taneous. All these centripetal currents are equally distinguish-

able both through the anastomosing canals and through those that

112 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

do not anastomose ; and, during their continuance, these canals

are some of them stretched like rigid threads across the cell-cavity,

whilst others are slack and more bulky.

On my first observation of these currents, I speculated on the

causes of the movements ; but I might have probably ended with

the simple recognition of the fact of their existence, had not the

cause itself been unfolded to my observation, viz., the power of

contraction. On seeing this strange phenomenon, which I

looked upon for a long time with that restless curiosity which

astonishing and entirely unexpected circumstances produce in

the mind, I was disposed to attribute it to some illusion ; but at

length I was perforce obliged to yield to evidence obtained by ob-

servations repeated 500 times during a period of ten years, upon

the Salvia named and on very many other plants, and all of which

have led to the same results. The contractions of the canals

usually proceed progressively, in such a manner that the granular

fluid is propelled gradually onwards—a dilatation larger or

smaller appearing in advance of the contracted portion, and pre-

ceding it, until the granules reach the nucleus, where their

course is arrested until they coalesce with it. In their progress

towards the nucleus, these dilatations are frequently retarded in

their course by the spots where anastomosing canals meet ; and

they do not reach the nucleus until after they have proceeded

upwards, downwards, or laterally, according to the disposition of

the anastomosing parts. Whilst these contractions continue,

the canal, contracted behind and much dilated in front, seems to

outstretch itself, and to be thrown into undulations or folds,

which are most numerous near the nucleus. It might be sup-

posed at first that, as is seen in most of the membranous pro-

cesses of the hairs of the pumpkin or gourd, and in those of

still very young cells, the membraniform, soft, very extensible

material is a viscid matter which has an inherent motion towards

the nucleus; but if we observe a canal having a direction

parallel to the axis of the cell, and bearimg an anastomotic

branch perpendicular to it, the latter is gradually pushed to-

wards the nucleus, forming a more and more acute angle; and

when the contraction is past, as relaxation slowly succeeds, it is

seen to resume more or less closely its original relations, and

form anew a right angle to the canal it communicates with.

Nevertheless, in citing this example, it is not my intention

to assert that the canals have a permanent fixed position; for

this is not in accordance with fact, since we know that the

organic matter they are composed of is susceptible of movement

and of displacement. The distinguished observer Meyen seems

to have obtained the first perception of a portion of the move-

ments which take place in the living matter of cells; but his

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 113

conclusions testify to his having made observations under un-

favourable conditions; for he assumed them all to result from

the currents of the intracellular mucilaginous matter which

successively coalesced and separated from each other. But there

is no question that this naturalist would have given a better

description of them if he had persevered in the examination of

what he saw, varying the subject and the conditions of observa-

tion ; for he then might have convinced himself that most of

these currents take place in actually contractile canals, through

which the numerous granules circulate with a greater rapidity

than the centripetal movements of the soft matter which consti-

tutes them—a fact which could not take place if they were

transported with this matter ; moreover, he would have likewise

witnessed the minute granules circulate in tense and com-

pletely motionless canals, the contents of which received their

impulse from contractions remote from the communicating

canals. Hugo Mob! has certainly seen some of the facts that

Ihave remarked; for he recognized the existence of minute

canals in the intracellular animal matter which he calls the

protoplasm ; and Slack, whilst denying the existence of canals in

certain cells, remarks on the subject of the circulation in the

cells of Hydrocharis morsus-rane, “The small globules follow

the larger; and occasionally one of the green globules crosses

the cell in a current of still more minute particles, forcibly tra-

versing a canal which can scarcely admit them.” The canals

which are formed in the animal azotized material of a cell do not

always contract themselves gradually ; it is not uncommon to see

several of them at a time, by a brusque movement, drive forward

the granular fluid that they contain. Under such circumstances

these canals insensibly enlarge ; and whilst the fluid that is to be

propelled by their contraction flows through them, they may

often be seen to change their relative position, and to undulate

like imperfectly stretched cords until they acquire an increased

rigidity and an enlarged capacity; then they become out-

stretched, assume a dull-white hue, and contract once or oftener

in succession. After these contractions have occurred, the

partially emptied canals, more elongated than formerly, occa-

sionally reunite in a bundle, fixed on one hand to the extremity

of the cell, and on the other hand to the nucleus—a bundle

which then simulates a mucilaginous-like axis without distinction

of parts. However, if the observation be pursued, after half-an-

hour or sometimes more, according to conditions which I have

found it impossible to appreciate distinctly, these same canals

fill themselves afresh and resume their contractility. Such is the

mechanism by the aid of which the granular fluid contained

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x.

114 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

within the living azotized material flows from the periphery

towards the nucleus.

There likewise exists a centrifugal movement, which goes on

by a series of slower contractions, also less marked, and of vari-

able rapidity in different canals. The nucleus itself contracts ;

but its contractions are slow and gradual, and its movements are

only appreciable through its changes in relative position and

volume ; for when these contractions take place, it is seen to

diminish almost insensibly in magnitude, and to assume a dull-

white tint, undergoing at the same moment an inconsiderable

amount of displacement. At the least, this organ, suspended

like the canals and the viscous currents in the cell-cavity, suffers

displacements to a much less limited extent than is generally

imagined: this depends on causes inherent in the contractile and

extensile properties of the nucleus and its appendages. I have

not as yet succeeded in determining whether the granular fluid

can return from the centre to the periphery through the whole

of the canals that it has traversed to reach the nucleus; but we

may convince ourselves that, among the parallel canals through

which the circulation proceeds, it is in some of them centripetal,

in others centrifugal. But as the canals are all in connexion

with the nucleus, we must assume that this organ is capable of

effecting partial contractions, as the canals themselves can do;

for otherwise, if its whole mass were acted upon at the same

moment, it would not be conceivable how centripetal and centri-

fugal currents should proceed simultaneously.

The fluid in circulation is ordinarily limpid ; however, in plants

having a white latex, such as Campanula pyramidalis, Sonchus

oleraceus, &c., it has a certain degree of opacity ; and in Cheli-

donium majus, yellowish granules are interspersed within it.

Consequently it may at least be supposed, if it be not admis-

sible as a legitimate conclusion, that the matters contained in the

laticiferous vessels derive their source from the granules of the

nutrient fluid within the cell-cavity. The granules carried for-

ward in the currents are of two sorts: one, tolerably numerous

and nearly spherical, congregates in the nucleus in much greater

abundance than in the canals ; the other occurs in molecules of

extreme tenuity and less regular in outline, which seem to be

slightly more dense than the fluid in which they float ; for im

Tradescantia virginica and Erodium moschatum, plants in which

they are readily discernible, they are more aggregated at the

lower part of the canals than at their centre.

The nutritive fluid not only moves through the canals which

float freely within the cell-cavity, but also in those which con-

stitute a network in the primordial membrane, and in those of

less size which are obliquely distributed on its internal surface.

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 115

To detect this portion of the circulation, considerable patience and

-care are required, The canals in which it goes forward are, by

artificial light, more transparent than the membrane they per-

meate; and in tracing their course little dilatations may be

observed to slowly form and presently vanish ; in these we have

the counterparts, on a minuter scale, of those dilatations seen to

arise during the contractions of the free canals stretched across

the cell-cavity.

Lastly, to sum up this list of facts, if a still fresh hair be

selected, having however the primordial membrane of its cell de-

tached to a very limited extent from its cellulose wall, the same

movements are discernible in the unbroken filaments connecting

those two lamine of the cell ; only, owing to the extreme tenuity

of these filaments, the saccular dilatations are very minute, though

always visible bya magnifying power of 300 or 400 diameters. The

whole of the movements going forward within the intracellular

nitrogenous material are arrested when the cells are immersed for

a few minutes in an aqueous solution of sulphate of strychnine,

containing one part of the salt in 200 parts of water. The acetate of

morphine, of the same degree of dilution, produces similar effects,

though not in less than double the time taken by the strychnine.

The transparent hairs of Erodium moschatum, from the young

merithalli, are well suited for making these observations on. The

same may be said of the hairs of Chelidonium majus, Glaucium

glaucum, of the cellular tissue of the epidermis of Sedum, and of

that of the petiole of Dipsacus fullonum and of Arum, &e.,

except that in the last-named examples it is less easy to study

the phenomenon, because their vital movements are more obscure,

and their cellular walls less transparent.

The movements that take place in the nitrogenous matter of

cells are not limited in their effects to the circulation of the gra-

nules contained in the canals and nucleus, but produce also an —

incessant fluctuation in the aqueous fluid which surrounds them

and fills the cells, and so cause a movement of rotation of the same

character (though less marked, it is true) as that observed in the

cells of Chara, Nitella, Hydrocharis morsus-rane, of Stratiotes

aloides, &e. Still it is very visible, the liquid having numerous

small molecules suspended in it, if attentively observed ; and its

course may be detected in the hairs of Labiate, &c. Thus there

are two sets of distinct movements within the interior of cells,—

one spontaneous, due to the contractility of the living material

itself; the other passive, dependent on displacement of the sur-

rounding liquid.

In the exposition just made of the mode of existence of the

living matter of cells, of its proper movements, and of those it

impresses on the fluid surrounding it, our se a have

116 -M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

been restricted to only that portion of it which enters inte the

formation of the nucleus and of the canals and contractile fila-

ments ; however, in many plants, and among others in the epi-

dermic cells of young Arums, in the hairs of Umbelliferee and of

Boraginacez, in the epidermic cells of the leaves of Scolopen-

drium officinarum vel undulatum, the azotized or living material

loses the characters detailed, and is represented only by filaments

which emerge from a semifluid mass and stretch themselves

towards the primordial membrane, exhibiting changes of position

very slowly, and impressing some movement on the fluid bathing

them. It is a fact that most physiologists who have interested

themselves in the rotary movement which occurs in the cells of

Chara attribute it to other causes; but in our opinion there is only

one true explanation of it, as pointed out by Schleiden, Hassall,

and Hugo Mohl, who have rightly perceived its mechanism, and

attributed it to the dense fluid which occupies the inner wall of

the cell-cavity. Dutrochet and Donné have inspected its cause

in the nearly mature merithalli of plants,—the first-named in the

course of attempts to suspend its course by means of poisonous

agents, and the second in recognizing the spontaneous move-

ments of detached and vermiform fragments of the primordial

membrane. Nevertheless these naturalists seem to assign an

influence to the green globules which they do not possess; for

these chlorophyl-granules are scarcely apparent in the very young

ramifications of Nitella flevilis, and are entirely absent in the

cortical cells of the rhizomes of Chara. Nevertheless the circu-

Jation is very much more active in those parts than in merithalli

of greater maturity, wherein the green globules more abound.

They, in fact, contain a nitrogenous plastic material, filled with

excessively minute molecules, which creeps along the wall of the

tube, and impresses upon the aqueous liquid in contact with it,

and loaded with globules, a similar movement. What proves

that such is the cause of the motion in young cells is, that

though this nitrogenous matter be more dense than the fluid

with which it is bathed, it raises itself and moves along the tube

contrary to the action of gravity, and advances with incompa-

rably greater velocity than that of the fluid which accompanies

it in its course. In proportion as the merithalli are developed,

this matter gets fixed to the primordial membrane, in the forma-

tion of which, indeed, it takes part, and which, though adherent

to the cell-wall, propels onward the enclosed liquid of the cell,

not, as has been suspected, by the aid of vibratile cilia, but by

tolerably rapid undulations similar to those produced on the sur-

face of water ruffled by a gentle breeze.

If, instead of limiting the examination of the vital movements

of the nitrogenous matter in the interior of the cells of phanero-

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 117

gamous plants and of some Characez, we extend it to Crypto-

gamia generally, both vascular and cellular, it will be found that

this vital act, whilst the subject of various metamorphoses, pre-

sents itself in individual organisms of determinate form, which

have for a long time been confounded with Infusoria.

The antherozoids of Chara, Nitella, of Ferns, Mosses, Equi-

setacee, Hepaticeze, &c., have been well studied, and described in

relation to their development, forms, and vital endowments, by

Thuret, Nageli, Suminski, Pringsheim, Derbés and Solier, and

others. Let us examine and discover whether the spontaneity of

movement with which these organisms are endowed be open to

question, and whether their origin in the metamorphosis or de-

velopment of the living proteme matters of the cells be still a

debatable point. For ourselves, we have examined them in

several Chare, in Nitella flexilis, in Marchantia polymorpha, &c.;

and both the contractility and spontaneity of their movement

have appeared so decided that we have no hesitation in saying,

with all deference to those naturalists who deny them these pro-

perties, that their observations must have been made at inoppor-

tune seasons.

The zoospores of Vaucheria clavata, mistaken by Nees von

Esenbeck for Infusoria, have been examined with respect to their

origin by Meyen, whilst Unger and Thuret have presented an

accurate history of their organization. Likewise the sporozoids

of different Fucaceze have been studied by Decaisne and Thuret,

particularly by the latter observer, who has investigated with the

greatest care both their organization and their vital endowments,

in a large number of species. Now, on contemplating these loco-

motive organisms we shall perceive that, if the living nitrogenous

materials seen in movement within the cells of phanerogamous

plants have not the determinate form of Infusoria, like that of

the animalcular beings of antheridia and zoospores, there exists

nevertheless between the two the signs of a common parentage.

And it is a striking circumstance that the actually living and

moving zoospores proceed, so soon as fixed by one end, to

change their shape and to develope cells; but aithough dead so

far as concerns our view, by reason of the screen which conceals

them from our research, still their substance carries on a latent

mode of life, and elaborates a plant which in course of time resus-

citates the motile organisms. Is not this circle of life sufficiently

remarkable to attract the highest attention of micrographers and

physiologists ? for does it not seem to reveal to us the true nature

of plants? It is true that the differences between the Algze and

the immense majority of other plants are very wide; still we

must not seek after the affinities between them in accessory

118 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

functions, but in the movements and principal functions of their

nitrogenous matters.

These movements are visible in all plants in process of growth,

but exert no marked action upon their cell-walls, because these

last are too resistant. However, in Oscillarie (some of which

are elongated in the form of worms, whilst others are coiled in

spirals) we meet with novel conditions of existence, by the

operation of which the living matter of those plants, without

any perceptible change of nature, subsists without the presence

of that cuticle or epiderm which limits their motions. Suppose,

for example, an Oscillaria to be enveloped in a more resistant

cellulose coat, and we shall realize to our minds the presence

of all the organic elements of a ligneous fibre. Or suppose,

again, a similar covering imposed upon Ameba diffluens, and we

shall recognize in it all the elements of a parenchymatous cell.

Granting that the nitrogenous matters within the cells of plants

possess the property of motion and of reproduction like animals,

do they, let us next inquire, partake those other functions which

belong to the latter ?

The proteine matter of plants, which serves for the development

of that of animals, has hitherto not been completely separated

from the organic and inorganic elements with which it is asso-

ciated; but we have elsewhere shown that it tends to isolate

itself in seeds containing earthy and alkaline phosphates.

On analyzing the gluten obtained from cereals we discover the

same animal and mineral substances, very little modified, as are

found in our own tissues. If this same gluten be brought into

contact with a globule of yeast, it becomes entirely transformed

into a mass of globules resembling those of the fungus, which is

itself composed, with the exception of its scarcely visible enve-

loping lamina of cellulose, of the elements of gluten, and in the

same proportions.

On cautiously removing the endochrome of the merithalli of

Chara, the same chemical compounds, besides the fatty matters

and the traces of starch, are discoverable. And, indeed, the fact

seems well established that there is no difference between the com-

position of the living matter of plants and that of animals.

It is, notwithstanding, true that the proteine matters of plants

are constantly impregnated with cellulose, whilst those of animals

are only exceptionally so, as in the example of Tunicata and

Diselmis.

In the views we propound regarding the vital movements and

the chemical composition of the proteine material of plants, it is

not our intention to maintain that animals and plants are orga-

nized in the same manner, and have the same sensibility ; the

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 119

only principle we advance is that the living matter of plants and

animals has a similar chemical constitution, and that this mate-

rial in plants performs essential functions similar or analogous to

those of animals.

It has for a long time been the general belief that plants, re-

versing the rule prevailing in animals, respire carbonic-acid gas,

which they extract from the soil or withdraw from the atmosphere,

.and that whilst they assimilate its carbon they throw off its oxy-

gen—or that, in other words, a plant seems to respire by the

medium of an asphyxiating agent. However, when we consider

that the Fungi, the majority of Algz, the Orobanchez, the roots,

stems, flowers, the green fruits, &c. of all phanerogamic plants

constantly give off carbonic acid as a result of a process of com-

bustion between their carbon and the surrounding oxygen, we

must feel obliged to admit that plants respire like animals, and

that the final result of the respiratory act consists, equally in the

two, in the decarbonization of their fluids or of their tissues,

and in the production of heat.

M. Bérard, in a prize thesis of the Academy of Sciences, has

shown that green fruits, even the youngest, exspire, whether in

sunshine or in the shade, notable quantities of carbonic acid. I

have moreover proved, in a series of memoirs published in the

‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles,’ by means of numerous experi-

ments, that buds and the young shoots succeeding them, adult

leaves, &c. consume a portion of their carbon by the aid of the sur-

rounding oxygen, or of that which they form within their tissues;

and that this function, which diminishes in activity as the leaves

grow old, is more marked when it proceeds under the influence

of a higher temperature. These facts, confirmed as they are by

the most recent researches, establish clearly enough that plants

are endowed with a respiratory function like that of animals, ex-

tending over the day as well as the night. At the same time it

must be granted that their diurnal animal respiration is rendered

more or less obscure in its results, as it can be accomplished by

the aid of the oxygen derived from the decomposition of the car-

bonie acid it produces, and which it incessantly gives off within

the laminz of their tissue or in the atmosphere. It is very easy

to demonstrate this double interchange by placing a green plant

or the leaves of one in a limited amount of atmospheric air, and

in the presence of some solution of baryta, when the latter will be

soon covered with a pellicle of the carbonate of that earth ; where-

as if the experiment be performed under the same conditions,

omitting the baryta, no trace of the carbonic-acid gas will be

discoverable.

It is equally easy to establish the relation that subsists between

this act of animal respiration and the development of caloric from

120 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

it as a natural result. We may here recall some experiments

made by De Saussure, Dutrochet, and Adolphe Brogniart, as sup-

plementary to those which we can ourselves adduce in support

of the same truth. |

Dutrochet has demonstrated (‘Annales des Sciences Naturelles,’

1845, p. 5) that all parts of plants possess a degree of heat

superior to that of their surrounding medium, and that the

elevation of temperature noticed in the Arum, the Caladium, &c.,

is only a more marked manifestation of a phenomenon common

to all living beings. But this phenomenon itself is nothmg

more than a feeble reflex of a more material fact, viz., that of

the chemico-vital combustion of carbon by oxygen. Thus, in

the instance of plants as of animals, the respiratory act has for

its final appreciable result to carry off carbon and to raise their

temperature ; and these two effects are intimately correlated in

both sets of organisms ; for the researches of De Saussure show

that tubers, roots, ligneous stems, &c., give off only one-half of

their volume of carbonic acid in the twenty-four hours; whilst

those of Dutrochet have demonstrated that the heat belonging

to those parts is scarcely appreciable.

The former of these observers has remarked that in mone-

cious flowers the males consume more oxygen than the females ;

and the latter has noticed that their temperature is also more

elevated. The researches of Sennebier on the heat of Arum

maculatum, those of Schultz on Caladium pinnatifidum, those of

Goeppert on Arum dracunculus, of Brongniart, Vrolicke, and

Vriese on Colocasia odora, as well as those long ago made by

Lamarck, and our own on the spadix of Arum italicum, establish

most distinctly the cause of the phenomenon and its relations

with the oxygen and the carbon consumed. The following Table

of the heat of certain plants, and of the quantity of carbonic acid

expired by them during a certain time, represents the approxi-

mative results arrived at by Dutrochet and other observers :—

Name of plants. ev eED Observer. Medium Observer.

in 24 hours. Hane

(CRECNIPCAR: teneecaneescncecsaeess 0:50 Bérard. 0-06 Dutrochet.

Green (Pear S.cn-socsasseecoceer vce 0:70 Id. 0:06 Id.

Plum (Reine Claude) ......... 1:60 Id. 0:09 Id.

10 grs. of leaves of House-leek}) 0:20 Garreau. 0:03 Id.

Spathe of Arum maculatum...| 4:00 | De Saussure. | 0:22 Id.

Sadie Of(O:.s.-c-ceces ons tne er 38:00 Id. 4:60 Id.

SEAMENSIOL Os,.cc00cecsceccssnnes 135-00 Td. 7:00 Id.

iStuSTOMtlOsreuccecssssasesceecene 10:00 Id. 1:50 Id.

Flower of the Gourd ......... 7°60 Id. 0:50 De Saussure.

Boletus QUrEUS secseccsccoeececee 7:50 Id, 0°45 Dutrochet.

From these facts, derived from different sources, it is at once

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 121

evident that a well-marked relation subsists between the quantity

of carbon consumed and the elevation of temperature produced.

These results, it is true, are deficient in that degree of precision

that researches of this nature should possess ; for it is to be

regretted that De Saussure and Bérard have neglected to indi-

cate exactly, as Dutrochet has done, the mean temperature at

which the observations have been conducted. Notwithstanding

this omission, however, the relations pointed out are real.

The following Table, conveying the results of our own obser-

vations, moreover shows the relations subsisting between the

oxygen consumed and the degree of heat emanating from its

union with the carbon in the plant :—

Respiration of the spadix of Arwm italicum, at the temperature

of 20° Cent., and during the period of its sexual activity.

Volume of oxy-

Hestof spedix..| “neue | Soul tae cea

taken as the unit.

i ie econ

Ist hour i z aay 32 39 Wl

2nd hour { £ 30 ey 53 57 16-2

ard hour] § 3) | gf 78 73 21-4

4th hour § 3) at 8:3 100 28:5

Sth hour 1% 35 | fat 6-0 50 14-2

6th hour {5 Es iat 27 20 5-7

WIG To daacncsbancrnnncdoconunebossnenc 53 56'8

Oxygen consumed in the 6 hours

It may be objected that the production of carbonic acid

within the vegetable tissue, and that of the calorie which results

from it, are the consequences of a purely chemical action, and

not of a physiological process. But if we consider that the

researches of Théodore de Saussure, of Bérard, and of Dutrochet

have been made on living organs in process of growth, that

parts of plants when broken or bruised up cease to form car-

bonic acid, as the experiments of De Saussure, Frémy, and our-

selves demonstrate, and, lastly, that the death of the tissue, as

evidenced by the persistent loss of movement of the nitrogenous

living material, involves the cessation of the development of this

gas, the conclusion is inevitable that its formation is the conse-

quence of a vital act. What, in conclusion, along with the

causes just enumerated, convinces us that the animal respiration

122 M. L. Garreau on the Functions of

of plants has its seat in the living nitrogenous matter which is

seen in circulation within the cells is the relation which exists

between the quantity of this matter contained in a living organ

and that of the carbonic-acid gas exhaled,

The subjoined Table, taken from our first memoir on the

respiration of plants (‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles,’ 1851,

p. 5) appears to bear out this assertion :—

Acid exspired

Matters examined. Temperature.| 5, 04 hours. Obseryations-

White pith of Elder .................. 17 0:0 The yeast was

Wood of oak, in fine chips ......... 17 0-0 spread on unsized

Carmotigi sess reccccaces ss cones srenceres 17 08 paper, and suspend-

Fresh alburnum of Elder .....+...... 17 45 ed in the air of the

Do. do. of Horse-chestnut...... 18 5:0 apparatus.

Root-fibres of Groundsel ............ 17 55

do. of Mercurialis............ 17 7:0

TIDIGTUS GUPCUSI«\cncan<acagsecas*pnayt 18 75

Yeast, of the consistence of paste... 15 14:0

Yeast, washed with distilled water 18 20:0

According to these experiments (in which the volume of the

organ respiring is taken, for comparison sake, as the unit),

those portions of plants deprived of living azotized matter carry

on no respiratory act, whilst those which, like very slender

fibrils, alburnum, fungi, yeast, &c., are richly furnished with it,

fulfil that function the more actively in direct proportion with

the quantity secreted or deposited. It is worth remarking that

seeds and fruits, although rich in proteine matters, produce only

a minimum quantity of carbonic acid; but this at the same

time is explicable on account of those substances being coated

by dense envelopes, rendering them scarcely permeable by the

oxygen, and of their relative volume as compared with their very

small surface. These obstacles to their respiratory activity are,

however, indispensable to their normal development ; for other-

wise neither starch, nor oil (so necessary to the germination of the

young embryo), nor pectine, nor sugar, nor the ligneous deposits

of fruits could be produced, if the carbon, the essential element

in their formation, were consumed. A _ proof that this assertion

is true is furnished by the analyses of M. Boussingault, which

prove that fruits and seeds so placed as to facilitate the action of

oxygen, and thereby to stimulate and promote the vital move-

ments of the nitrogenous matter, carry on a respiratory function

and are deprived of a great part of their carbon without any loss

of their nitrogen.

The proteine material of plants exerts on the respiratory

pabulum laid up a similar action to that which animal substance

exercises on the same matter, and in such a manner that the

the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 123

more an organ is permeable to the air, and rich in nitrogenous

material, the less will be the quantity of starchy, oleaginous, and

saccharine products it accumulates. This circumstance may he

illustrated in the case of fibrils, young leaves, petals, stamens,

and the herbaceous stems of vegetables when forced to exuberant,

growth by manures. The contrary obtains in proportion as the

contact with oxygen is lessened, as may be seen in fruits, seeds,

and bulky roots, all which are structures in which we find those

starchy and cognate alimentary matters in greater or smaller

quantity, or artificially accumulated in still larger proportions

by preserving some portions of the plants from contact with the

air (e.g. potato and beetroot).

The action exercised by the proteine matter on the pabulum

for respiration, though at first having a contrary purpose, has

nevertheless, when of a certain intensity, the tendency to shorten

the duration of the organ in which it proceeds, or at least to

diminish its consistence. For example, young fibrils, petals,

. stamens, fungi, &c., rapidly wither ; and the stems of flax and of

our cereals, when their growth is too much forced by highly

nitrogenous or too abundant manure, become overturned and

laid on the ground from the insufficiency of those cellulose and

encrusting deposits to which under ordinary conditions they are

indebted for the powers of resistence to the influence of the rain

and wind.

The conclusions deducible from the facts set forward in this

memoir are, that the living azotized matter seen in motion

within the cells of plants unites in itself the principal attributes

of that which enters into the nature of animal life: it possesses

the like excitability, contractility, and elementary composition ;

its respiration, in all that concerns its more appreciable results,

differs in no way from that of animals. But whilst the proteme

matter of plants possesses in itself the composition and some of

the principal functions of that found in the superior animals, it

likewise possesses an assimilating force not met with except

among the lowest animals, whereby it brings inorganic matters

into connexion with its own proper substance and with that of

animals.

[ Observations.—The foregoing essay evinces much diligent

micro-chemical research, and furnishes a valuable contribution

to our knowledge of the internal economy of plant-cells. But,

whilst acknowledging thus much, we are not disposed to accept

the writer’s interpretation of much that he describes. The

marvellous internal arrangement of vessels, carrying on a circu-

lation of fluid, radiating from the nucleus and forming a net-

work in the primordial tunic communicating with a similar vas-

124 M.L. Garreau on the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants.

cular apparatus in surrounding cells, appears to us a creation of

the imagination misled by microscopical appearances—a resur-

rection of hypotheses of complicated organization in the economy

of the simplest organisms, such as modern research has demo-

lished in the case of the Infusoria. In many respects, indeed,

the descriptions of M. Garreau might pass for a réchauffé of

Schultze’s romantic hypothesis of an all-wide-pervading system

of laticiferous vessels throughout vegetable tissue.

Yet, though dissenting from M. Garreau’s interpretation of

appearances he met with, we readily admit his general accuracy

as an observer. We receive his account of cord-like processes

extending from the nucleus to the primordial utricle of the cell,

of their variability in dimensions and in their degree of tension,

and of the centrifugal and less active centripetal currents of

granules passing through them ; but we discover in all this no

evidence of vessels ministering to a circulation properly so-called.

On the other hand, we find a precise analogy to it in the internal

organization of the animals of the class Rhizopoda—the Ame- .

bez, Foraminifera, &c. In the thin filiform processes of the

Foraminifera we observe a streaming outwards of granules from

the central mass of sarcode, followed by a backward current to-

wards it, and at the same time a variability in the volume, ten-

sion, and direction of those processes. In these phenomena,

however, naturalists do not recognize the existence of a vascular

system, but see in them only the illustration of vital action, or

the results of the nutritive force, operating as an attracting

agent and establishing currents in the nutrient juices of the

organism.

We would apply these views in the interpretation of the struc-

tural arrangements seen by M.Garreau. The nucleus doubtless

represents the germinating and actively nutrient centre of the

cell—the formative material,—whilst the surrounding cell-wall is

the completed or formed matter, added to and advanced in

growth so long as the nucleus retains its formative energy and

power of assimilating new material from the organic matters

reaching it through the osmotic action of the cell-wall. As such

an active agent in nutrition, the nucleus operates as a central

force, whilst the process of growth of the cell-wall, or chiefly of

the primordial utricle, establishes nutritive currents which will

be directed towards it. Space compels us to curtail our remarks

on this physiological subject, which has been well worked out

by Dr. Beale in his recently published lectures, originally deli-

vered before the College of Physicians of London.

We will, however, venture an observation on the enveloping

wall of the nucleus, which M. Garreau appears to have demon-

strated, by asking, How far do those apparent membranes owe

Dr. J. E. Gray on a new Species of Paragorgia. 125

their origin to the mutual reaction of the simple organic material

and the surrounding fluid? Chemistry demonstrates how very

materially substances are affected by the chemical taking up of

water ; and there is good evidence to show that organized tissue

may be very greatly modified in its chemico-vital endowments by

contact with water and other fluids, and that the formation of a

pellicle or film around it is no proof of the histogenetic indepen-

dence of this film as a tunic. These inquiries are further sug-

gested by Auerbach’s researches, according to which a membrane

encloses and limits the whole simple substance or sarcode of the

Ameebez, although all the phenomena of variability, of adhesion,

and of confluence of their processes proclaim the contrary. In

reference to these researches we will finally ask, Do not the very

means resorted to in order to detect the existence of a limiting

membrane concur to produce a pellicle which may be mistaken

for the independent structure sought for ?—J. T. A.]

XIV.—WNotice of a second Species of Paragorgia discovered in

Madeira by Mr. James Yate Johnson. By Dr. J. E. Gray,

F.R.S.

Mr. James Yate Jounson, along with' a large and most in-

teresting collection of fish from Madeira, has sent to the British

Museum a very fine and large specimen of Paragorgia.

The species on which the genus is established is found on the

coast of Norway, and is the subject of an elaborate memoir,

illustrated by excellent figures, by Kolreuter, im the ‘ Novi

Commentarii Acad. Petrop.’ 1758 & 1759, p. 343, tab. 13, 14,

15 & 16.

It was first described and figured by Clusius (Exotic. p. 119),

who gives a good figure of the stem, and who received it from

Norway.

It is well described by Pontoppidan (Norges Natuurlige His-

torie, i. No. 12. fig. 5). He figures two varieties, one much

more slender than the other.

It is also well described and figured by Esper, Pflanzen-

thiere, iii. 10, t. 1 a, with yellow, and t. 1 & 1 4, with redder bark.

All these works describe the polypes as congregated in short,

roundish tuberculiform branches on the large, slightly branched

main stem.

The specimen from Madeira resembles the Norwegian speci-

mens in many characters, especially in the thickness and com-

pressed form of the main stem; but it differs from that species

in being studded with numerous slender, repeatedly-divided

branches, which are covered on the upper surface with numerous

126 Mr. L. Reeve on the recent Craniz.

close, rather prominent cells, which are more abundant on cer-

tain parts of the branches, and form roundish nodules.

This species may be named Paragorgia Johnsoni, after its

discoverer.

Hab. Madeira.

XV.—A Revision of the History, Synonymy, and Geographical

Distribution of the recent Craniz and Orbicule. By Lovey

_ Reeve, F.L.S., F.G.S.

1. Cranta, Retzius.

Tue shell of this Brachiopod was first known in a fossil state.

The calcifying functions of the animal are exercised chiefly by

the under lobe of the mantle, for the secretion of a thickened

adherent valve, unconnected by any hinge or ligament with the

upper valve; and, before the time of Linneus, it was named

Nummus, and sometimes Nummulus Brattenburgensis, “ Bratten-

burgh money.” Linnzus and Chemnitz still confounded recent

and fossil specimens together; and the separation of the valves

led naturalists, among whom were Miller and Montagu, to de-

scribe them as Limpets. A curious character in the adherent

valve of this genus, and which seems to have attracted the at-

tention of Linneus, is a similitude, in the configuration of the

internal muscular scars and protuberances, to a human face. A

little above the centre a raised callosity, termed the rostellum,

forms the nose, and the scars of the two posterior adductor

muscles of the animal give the resemblance of a pair of eyes,

while the anterior thickened rim serves for the outline of the

cheeks and chin. This fanciful representation suggested to

Linnzus the name Anomia craniolaris; and Crania was soon

afterwards proposed by Retzius to separately distinguish the

group.

Defrance described several fossil species of Crania. The first

special monograph of the genus which included the recent spe-

* cles was made, in 1828, by M. Honinghaus of Crefeld. Since

that period, the Cranie have been ably studied by Sowerby,

Deshayes, Davidson, and Suess; and, although little has been

added to our knowledge of the species, some interesting parti-

culars have been collected of their geographical and bathymetrical

distribution and their bearings on geological phenomena. The

revision which I propose to make of the synonymy will be indi-

cated in the following analysis of the species. Only four recent

species have been collected. C. anomala, of our own coast, the

best-known species of the genus, ranges from Spitzbergen, in

the north of Kurope, to Vigo Bay, in the south. Here it stops,

Mr. L. Reeve on the recent Cranix. 127

Prof. Suess has observed that C. anomala ranges over this area

closely, both in locality and depth of habitat, with Terebratulina

caput-serpentis. Wherever one species is found between Spitz-

bergen and Vigo, the other is found also; but C.anomala does not

pass with 7. caput-serpentis into the Mediterranean, nor to North

America; and he deduces some interesting conclusions from

this, in connexion with their fossil distribution, with the view of

showing the relations of their existence in time as well as in space.

Another species, which I refer to Poli’s Anomia turbinata, appears

in the Mediterranean, and it was dredged in the Aigean by Prof.

Forbes from depths varying between 50 and 150 fathoms. A

third species, C. rostrata, is recorded from West Africa; and a

species, which I have the pleasure of naming C. Swessii, has been

collected by Mr. Strange at Sydney, Hast Australia. No Crania

has as yet been found in the New World. C. radiosa, described

by Dr. Gould from Rio Janeiro, proves to be an Orbicula, which

genus is not uncommon in the waters of South and Central

America.

In Terebratula and Rhynchonella, it may be as well here to

mention, the natural position of the mollusk is to repose upon

its back ; the lower valve of the shell is the dorsal valve, and the

upper or ventral valve, from which anchorage is obtained, pro-

jects over one side, like-a beak, for lowering the tendons. In

Crania the position of the mollusk is reversed ; the ventral valve

is undermost, and, having no need, or even space, for a tendinous

anchor, the valve becomes agglutinated at once to the place of

attachment. It will be observed that in the genus Orbicula the

shell is not so closely adherent, and there is a tendinous muscle

of attachment passing through a fissure in a disk of the under

valve; and it has been conjectured that the same thing obtains

in a rudimentary form in Crania, in an early stage of its deve-

lopment. The arms or brachial appendages of Crania have no

internal apophysary skeleton for their support. They are folded

into a pair of spiral coils, which are directed towards the con-

cavity of the upper valve, and supported there by a central pro-

minence, termed the rostellum, rising up between them from the

lower valve. This valve, as with other adherent shells, varies

considerably in thickness in different individuals of the same

species, according to the nature of its place of attachment.

Synopsis of Species.

1. Crania anomala, Muller, Zool. Dan. vol. i. p. 14, pl. 5. figs. 1

toi.

Patella anomala, Miller.

Anomia craniolaris pars, Linnzeus,

Patella distorta, Montagu.

128 Mr. L. Reeve on the recent Cranizx.

Patella kermes, Humphreys.

Orbicula Norvegica, Lamarck.

Crania personata, Lamarck.

Crania Norvegica, Sowerby.

Criopus anomalus, Fleming.

Crania anomala, Lovén.

Hab. North Atlantic, from Spitzbergen to Vigo Bay.

The typical form of this species is orbicular, slightly trun-

cately squared on the posterior side, with the vertex produced

into a small and rather sharp hook, a little posterior to central.

On a flat surface, undisturbed in growth by any surrounding

obstacles, it is of the symmetrical form just described ; but where

numerous specimens encumber one another, they become dis-

torted, and, if attached in a declivitous position, acquire an

abrupt convexity. Professor Suess has observed that Crania

anomala ranges along the Atlantic seaboard between Spitzbergen

and Vigo Bay, in company always with Terebratulina eaput-

serpentis, but does not extend its range with that species to

North America or to the Mediterranean.

2. Crania turbinata, Poli, Test. Sicil. vol. ii. p. 189,"pl. 30.

Anomia turbinata, Poli.

Crania ringens, Honinghaus.

Hab. Mediterranean and Augean Seas (attached to stones and

coral, at depths of from 40 to 150 fathoms): E. Forbes.

Crania turbinata is a smaller and more conical species than

C. anomala, and the internal rostellum is less prominently deve-

loped. It is the only species inhabiting the Mediterranean. In

the Aigean Sea Professor E. Forbes collected living specimens

at depths varying between 40 and 90 fathoms; and dead speci-

mens were brought up with the dredge from the depth of 150

fathoms. Poli’s Mediterranean Anomza turbinata has been quoted

hitherto as a synonym of Miiller’s Patella anomala (C. anomala,

Lovén). The researches of recent naturalists on the geogra-

phical distribution of the northern species show that it does not

extend further south than Vigo Bay.

3. Crania rostrata, Honinghaus, Monog. p. 3, fig. 3a, b.

Hab. West Africa.

No fresh observation has been made on this species since the

publication, in 1846, of Mr. Sowerby’s monograph of the genus.

Its habitat, Mr. Cuming informs me, is not the Mediterranean,

as given by Mr. Sowerby, but West Africa.

4. Crania Suessii, mihi, Conch. Icon. pl. 1. fig. 2.

Hab. Sydney: Strange.

Of this interesting Australian Crania Mr. Cuming possesses

Mr, L. Reeve on the recent Orbicule. 129

five specimens, collected by Mr. Strange at Sydney. It comes

very near to the West-African species, which has been assigned

to C. rostrata of Honinghaus; but it is of a more convex and

roughly solid growth, and the difference of habitat leaves no

room for doubt on the subject. The internal posterior scars of

the lower valve are obliquely ovate and somewhat isolated, whilst

those of the upper valve are narrow and callosely raised. The

rostellum is large and prominent. Another character consists in

the presence of a delicate tinge of orange-red colour on the outer

surface, quite different from the red-stained colouring of the

European species.

The name of Professor Suess being especially entitled to a

place in the nomenclature of the Brachiopods, [ dedicate this

species to him, in testimony of my high sense of the originality

and value of his researches.

2. Orpicuta, Sowerby.

A genus with the name Ordicula was founded by Lamarck for

the reception of a northern Brachiopod, Patella anomala, Miller,

which proved to be Anomia craniolaris pars, Linnzus, and the

type of Retzius’s genus Crania. A Mediterranean Crania,

Anomia turbinata, Poli, was considered synonymous, but it has

just been shown to be distinct. On meeting with the first-dis-

covered specimen of the group under consideration, Lamarck

created a genus, Discina, for its reception; while Sowerby con-

founded it with the northern Crania, of which Lamarck had

made an Orbicula. Sowerby, Broderip, and Deshayes, out of

all this confusion, adopted Orbicula for the Brachiopods of

which we are treating; and it appears to me unnecessary to set

aside their decision.

The shell of Orbicula differs from that of Crania im the very

important particular of having the under valve thin and horny,

furnished with a disk, in which is a slit for the passage of a

pedicle of attachment. The disk is subcentral, more or less in-

clined to be posterior, and corresponds in position with the

vertex of the upper valve. In some species the vertex is poste-

rior, and the disk is also posterior; in others the vertex is a little

posterior to central, and the disk is also a little posterior to

central. That is the natural symmetrical growth of the shell on

a plane surface; but if the animal adheres to a declivitous sur-

face, the disk and vertex, which, on a plane surface, would be

subcentral, press more posteriorly ; and if the surface be hollow,

the under valve is more convex, and the vertex and disk more

central.

Seven species of Orbicula are now known. We have none in

the European seas. The original species, found among ballast

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 10

130 Mr. L. Reeve on the recent Orbicule.

on the roads (O. ostreoides), is supposed to be a native of the

shores of North or West Africa; and there is a small species

(O. stella) in the Hastern Seas. _ The rest are inhabitants of the

New World, where Crania is unknown. 0. stella has an ana-

logue in the West Indies in O. Antillarum, and an allied repre-

sentative, of more solid growth, in O. Cumingii, which ranges

along the western coast of America, from Peru to Guatemala,

and reaches to Mazatlan. The most striking type of the genus

is that represented by three species on the coast of Peru, but

not extending northward to Central America—P. lamellosa,

levis, and tenuis, of the last of which Mr. Cuming possesses

specimens, strange to say, from South Australia.

Synopsis of Species.

1. Orbicula ostreoides, Lamarck, Anim. sans Vert. 1819, vol. vi.

part 2. p. 237.

Discina ostreoides, Lamarck.

Orbicula Norvegica, Sowerby, in Linn. Trans. 1822 (not of Lamarck).

Orbicula striata, Sowerby, in Thes. Conch. 1846.

Crania radiosa, Gould.

Orbicula Evansii, Davidson.

Hab. North-west Africa? (in crevices of brown oxide of iron).

This species was originally named Discina ostreoides by La-

marck, from a specimen sent to him, in 1819, by Mr. James

Sowerby, father of Mr. G. B. Sowerby, sen., who described it

the following year, in a paper read before the Linnean Society

(but not published until 1822), as Orbicula Norvegica. He had

discovered it in abundance in the crevices of a quantity of ballast

stone (brown oxide of iron) used in the neighbourhood of Lam-

beth for mending the roads. Mr. Sowerby makes no mention

in his monograph, published twenty-four years later in his son’s

‘Thesaurus Conchyliorum,’ of having described this species as

O. Norvegica, but names it for the first time O. striata, although

he bears testimony to its being the species on which Lamarck

founded his genus Diseina.

I am of opinion that Mr. Davidson’s O. Evansii is a specimen

of O. ostreoides in which the vertex of the upper valve and corre-

sponding disk of the lower valve are more central than usual,

owing to the shell’s position of attachment in the hollow grooved

crevice of the iron-stone; and the lower valve is more convex for

the same reason. The type-specimen of O. Evansii is exactly

like distorted specimens of O. ostreoides jammed within the

crevices of the iron-stone. At first I fancied that the habitat

Bodegas, California, given by Mr. Davidson for O, Evansii, on

the authority of Mr. Cuming, might be a mistake; but it may

be remembered by those who have studied the phenomena of

Mr. L. Reeve on the recent Orbicule. 181

geographical distribution that the fauna of the West-African sea

north of Sierra Leone, whence O. ostreoides is supposed to have

come, is in part identical with the fauna of the seas of California

and the West Indies. Our British Phasianella pulla, which

ranges southward to West Africa, appears also in the West

Indies; and when preparing my monograph of Terebra in

‘Conch. Iconica,’ I had no hesitation in declaring that 7. varie-

gata, Africana, Hupei, intertincta, marginata, albocincta, Hindsit,

and subnodosa, described by various authors from the mouth of

the Gambia, Senegal, Mazatlan, and California, are all varieties,

and but slightly varying varieties, of one and the same species.

2. Orbicula stella, Gould, Exped., Shells, Proc. Bost. Soc. 1846 ;

Otia Conch. p. 120.

Discina stella, Gould.

Hab. China Seas ; Wilkes. Singapore and Philippine Islands ;

Cuming.

This species has a wide distribution in the Eastern seas. On

comparing authentic specimens received from Dr. Gould, col-

lected in the China Seas by Wilke’s Exploring Expedition, I find

them identical with specimens, attached to fragments of Pul-

lastra, Pinna, and Malleus, collected by Mr. Cuming at Singa-

pore and at the Philippine Islands. The sculpture varies in

strength. In young specimens, as stated by Dr. Gould, the

radiating strie are scarcely developed; in older specimens, that

have had to contend with irregularities in their place of attach-

ment, the sculpture has a minutely latticed character, like the

erain of a thimble. The under valve is thinly membranaceous,

or thicker, concave or convex, according to circumstances of

habitation ; and the position of the slit obviously varies with the

position of the vertex in the opposite valve. On a flat place of

attachment the shell is symmetrically orbicular, and the vertex

and subcumbent slit are nearly central; but when attached to

a sloping or declivitous substance, the vertex is pressed to one

side, and the slit of the under valve follows the same direction.

8. Orbicula Antillarum, D’Orbigny, Moll. Hist. Cuba, 1853,

p. 368, pl. 28. figs. 34-36.

Hab. Cuba, Martinique.

Mr. Cuming possesses specimens of O, Antillarum, both from

Cuba and Martinique, in all of which the vertex is inclined

posteriorly, while the shell is less cancellated than in the Eastern

O. stella; but the shells are wonderfully alike in their general

aspect,

10*

132 Mr. L. Reeve on the recent Orbicule.

4, Orbicula Cumingii, Broderip, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 124.

Orbicula Cumingii and strigata, Broderip.

Hab. Central America, dredged at Payta, St. Elena, Panama,

and Isle of Cafia, Guatemala, attached to the lower side of stones

in sandy mud at low water, and, in some instances, at depths of

from 6 to 18 fathoms: Cuming. Ecuador: D’Orbigny. Ma-

zatlan (attached to various shells): Carpenter, in Cat. Reigen

Collection.

Mr. Broderip’s O. strigata, which he did not describe along

with O. Cumingii in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’

but afterwards, when figuring the Orbicule in the ‘ Transactions,’

is a less-worn state of the species, in which there are rays and

bands of colour. The upper valve is calcareous and firm, of

quite a different type from the horny Orbicule of Chili and Peru.

The habitats Malacca and Philippine Islands, given with this

species by Mr. Sowerby, are erroneous. He probably mistook

specimens of O. stella for it.

5. Orbicula levis, Sowerby, Trans. Linn. Soc. 1822, vol. xii.

part 2. p. 468, pl. 26. fig. 1 a, b, ¢, d.

Hab. Concepcion, Chili (found attached to Mytili at the depth

of 6 fathoms): Cuming.

O. levis was first described by Mr. Sowerby in a paper read

before the Linnzean Society in 1820 (but not published till 1822)

from a specimen attached to a grey flint pebble nearly coated by

the root of an Isis, of which the habitat was not known. Twelve

years later, the species was found attached to Mytili dredged by

Mr. Cuming at Concepcion, Chili. It is a stout horny shell,

with the surface smooth and faintly malleated. The vertex,

which inclines much posteriorly, is conically raised, swollen, and

rather obtuse.

6. Orbicula tenuis, Sowerby, Thes. Conch. vol. i. p. 366, pl. 73.

fig. 4.

Hab. Chili: Cuming. South Australia.

Compared with the preceding species, O. tenuis is thinner,

rounder, and more depressed. The original group of specimens

was collected by Mr. Cuming on the coast of Chil; but he

possesses specimens of an Orbicula of a lighter and more glossy

substance, which is perfectly identical with this, from South

Australia.

7. Orbicula lamellosa, Broderip, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 124.

Hab. Iquiqui and Bay of Ancon, Peru: Cuming.

This very characteristic species, as related by Mr. Broderip,

Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra. 133

was found by Mr. Cuming in groups, the specimens being in

many instances piled in layers one over the other, on a sandy

bottom, at a depth ranging from 5 to 9 fathoms. At Ancon

they were found attached to dead shells, and also clinging to

the wreck of a Spanish vessel of about 300 tons, that went down

in the bay about ten years before. The sunken timbers (for the

sheathing was gone to decay) were covered with these shells,

much in the same way that beams on land are sometimes in-

fested with parasitic Fungi. At Iquiqui they were taken ad-

hering to a living Mytilus.

Figures of the type-specimens and groups of Crania and Or-

bicula will appear in the forthcoming thirteenth volume of the

*Conchologia Iconica,’ to be published in the course of a few

days.

XVI.—On Ephedra.

By Joun Minrs, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.

[Continued from vol. ix. p. 437.]

Ir has been the opinion of many botanists that the existence of

annularly dotted vessels in the wood of the Gnetacce affords

evidence of their close affinity with the Conifere ; but even if this

had been true, it would have claimed, on its own merit, a very

secondary importance, since we find such vessels also in the

Winteracee, Canellacee, Schizandracee, &e. Dr. Lindley says of

Gnetum that its wood “is composed of woody fibres and of annular

and reticulated vessels lying scattered sparingly among tubes of

woody fibre’*. He says also that its wood is zoneless. These

circumstances led that eminent botanist to conclude that the

Gnetacee are very distinct from the Conzfere, forming a link

between Taxinee and Piperacee: this, at least, was his opinion

in 1834, although other considerations induced him afterwards

to modify his view of the place of this small family in the sys-

tem. I have noticed, however, that the wood of Ephedra is

regularly zoned, as in other exogenous plants; for a trans-

verse section of a branch of Ephedra Andina which I possess

shows five distinct concentric rings, the intervals between the

medullary rays exhibiting numerous longitudinal hollow air-

cells. The branches of Gnetum, on becoming dry, separate

readily at the nodes by distinct articulations; but such separa-

tion rarely takes place im Hphedra. On the other hand, a lon-

gitudinal section of a new branch of the latter genus shows that

the central pith of one internode is not continuous with the pith

of the next internode, nor with that of their accessory branchlets;

* Bot. Reg. vol. . pl. 1086.

134 Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra.

for the ligneous fibres of the several internodes which enclose the

pith, and which constitute the wood, all converge to form a

sort of plexus or solid diaphragm across each node, much after

the manner of the stem of a Bambusa.

This pith is quite homogeneous, consisting of oblong, square,

parallel cells (hexagonal in their transverse section), with very

thin transparent walls, which are pitted with few, minute, opake

dots. The wood is hard, formed of fine, simple, indurated

fibrous tissue, closely compacted ; these longitudinal fibres, under

a powerful microscope, appear marked by dark glands lying

across them at irregular distances, which are either transversely

linear or oblong, thus giving them almost a scalariform appear-

ance, the walls themselves being pitted with minute and almost

invisible specks ; these are crossed by very numerous transverse

medullary rays of similar structure, which extend from the pith

to the bark. In the first two or three rows of the longitudinal

fibres or ducts next the pith, the markings are so very close

that they have much the appearance of uncoilable trachee ; but

I have nowhere been able to find any true spiral vessels. Inter-

spersed among the longitudinal woody fibres, are the many hol-

low air-tubes before mentioned, of three or four times their dia-

meter, which appear uninterrupted throughout the entire length

of the internode: their walls are extremely thin and translucent ;

and it is upon these only that we find the large cireular spots

(apparently fenestrations), which are well shown in Lindley’s

‘Introduction,’ pl. 2. fig. 7. It will hence be seen that there is

no analogy between this structure and that of the Conifere,

where the annular disks, which so conspicuously mark the Gym-

nospermous families, are always found upon the ligneous fibres

themselves, and not upon the air-passages, as in Ephedra. The

structure is equally different from that of the young branchlets

of Casuarina, where the pith crosses the nodes and is continuous

throughout the branches.

There is a peculiarity in the bark of Ephedra that may be

worth recording: it is filled with strong ligneous fibres, as in

Urticacea, which, being always united in bundles, give rise to

its finely striated surface; it is covered by a thick, tough epi-

dermis, of the texture of parchment, and which follows the si-

nuosities of the striatures. Upon the ridges of the striz a

number of prominent horny excrescences occur, which occasion

its scabridity ; and in the hollows between the ridges are seen a

number of black longitudinal specks, which appear almost hke

stomata that have become closed by a deposit.

Thus far it has been endeavoured to show that the order

Gnetacee is not allied to any of the Gymnospermous families,

with which it has been associated by most botanists. It will

Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra. 135

now be necessary to pass in review the points of analogy that

exist between it and other exogenous orders, in order to judge

of its true affinities.

Blume, when he founded the order, as before stated, suggested

the relationship of the Gnetacee with Casuarina, to which genus

it certainly offers many points of approximation. Casuarina

resembles Ephedra in the following particulars :—in the vaginant

sheaths that encircle the nodes of its branchlets, where they

occupy the place of leaves; in its spicated inflorescence, with

diclinous flowers; in the persistence of the involucral leaflets,

which afterwards enclose the fruits ; in its bifid perigonium, even

more deciduous than that of Kphedra, for it is carried away by

the stamen as it grows upward in the act of zstivation ; in its soli-

tary stamen, very analogous to that of Gnetum; in its one-celled

ovary, with an ascending ovule ; and in its indehiscent one-celled

fruit, with a single erect seed, containing an embryo imbedded

in albumen, with a superior radicle. Casuarina, however, differs

from both Gnetum and Ephedra in its straight, lofty, solid, woody

trunk ; in its ovary with two lengthened styles (being probably

formed normally of two combined carpels, one of which is always

abortive, and which contains two ovules); in its fruit, with a

samariform epicarp, a mesocarp replete with very numerous deli-

cate spiral vessels, and a solid testaceous endocarp ; and, finally,

in the development of its seed, the anomalous circumstances

attendant on which have been only imperfectly understood*.

* J. have examined the seeds of Casuarina equisetifolia many times,

always with the same result; and as my analysis shows a structure very

different from what is recorded of it, I will state the details. The descrip-

tion given by Endlicher of this structure (Gen. Plant. p. 271) is altogether

incorrect. It is well known that the fruits are contained in globular or

oblong strobiliform heads, each separate fruit being enclosed in a cell

formed of two coriaceous valves, which are the persistent involucels of the

spicated flowers, which valves stand right and left in regard to the axis.

Each fruit is fixed to the bottom of its enclosure by a small basal hilum :

it is somewhat. samariform, oblong and compressed ; the upper moiety

(being a portion of the extended epicarp) forms a thin membranaceous

wing ; the lower moiety is thickened and smooth, consisting of an inter-

mediate mesocarp filled with copious, white, spiral threads, and a testa-.

ceous, brittle, obpyriform endocarp, completely 1-celled and indehiscent,

and containing a single erect seed, which tapers to the apex. This seed

consists of two very delicate translucent membranaceous tunics: upon the

outer one (testa) is seen, imbedded in it, a thickened simple cord (raphe),

by one extremity of which the seed is attached to the bottom of the cell ;

this cord rises to near the middle of the tegument, when it becomes

suddenly recurved downward for a short distance, where it terminates in a

darkish areole (chalaza) ; before its recurvature it throws out a short lateral

branch or free thread, which serves as the medium of attachment of an

abortive ovule at a point a little above its base, where this also is recurved

upon its basal chalaza. The abortive ovule, tapering upwards, is nearly

half the length of the fertile seed to which it is thus attached ; it is deli-

136 Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra.

With the Myricacee, Ephedra agrees in many points of struc-

ture, the most prominent of which are, its diclinous flowers in

amentiform spikelets; its bract-like mvolucels; its two-lobed

perigonium ; its monadelphous stamens; its simple ovary, with

a single, erect, atropous ovule; its one-celled fruit, with a soli-

tary erect seed ; and its embryo with a superior radicle. Myrica

differs, however, in its habit; its alternate leaves; its peri-

gonium in the form of two hypogynous scales, which remain and

become agglutinated to the fruit; in its more distinct stamens,

with anthers bursting longitudinally ; in its two stigmata; and

in the want of albumen in the seed. Although these points

show a considerable interval in the positions of these two fami-

lies, it is still evident that a notable degree of approximation

exists between the Gnetacee and Myricacee.

The Gnetacea, in their jointed stems and floral structure, offer

many points of approach to the Chloranthacee, Piperacee, and

Saururacee; but the absence or depauperation of floral envelopes

in those families, and the presence of a vitellus or embryoniferous

process which surmounts the albumen, of which we find no trace

either in Gnetum or Ephedra, are features which well characterize

the above families as a peculiar group, having little connexion

with the Gnetacee.

Excepting their amentiform diclinous inflorescence, there is

nothing in the structure. of the Betulacee, Cupulifere, Arto-

carpee, and other consociate families, that offers any relation

with the Gnetacee.

In its aphyllous habit, its geniculated nodes, and vaginant

bracts in lieu of leaves, Ephedra presents some similitude to

Calligonum, Pterococcus, and Calliphysa, with which it accords

also in its tubular petaloid perigonium, seated in the axils of a

general involucre—thus approaching the structure of the Hrio-

gonee, and more particularly that of Chorizanthus vaginatus,

which has its stems furnished with opposite bracteiform leaflets

united into amembranaceous sheath, as in Ephedra. ‘he Poly-

cately membranaceous, darkish brown, without the trace of any embryo

withm it. Upon the outer integument of the fertile seed, the white cord

continues to ascend from the point of its fureature, and terminates in the

apical micropyle, which is much darkened. There is no trace of any albu-

men within the integuments ; and the contained embryo, which is not half

their length, floats loosely in the upper part of the vacant space, generally

with the radicle pointing to the micropyle, or at other times lying obliquely

across the vacant space. The cotyledons are oval, flattened, and foliaceous,

with a superior terete radicle of about half their length.

It will be seen that there is very little analogy in the whole of this sin-

gular structure to Ephedra; and although the orthotropous embryo lies

atropously in regard to the hilum, it is amphitropous in respect to the

chalaza.

Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra. 137

gonacee generally, indeed, agree with the Gnetacee in their often

polygamo-moncecious or dicecious flowers, in their calycinoid in-

volucres ; their petaloid perigonium; their stamens often mona-

delphous at the base; their usually one-celled ovary, with a

single erect ovule, which (as I have shown) becomes fertilized, in

the same manner as in the Gnetacee, by the direct influence of

the pollen through an aperture in the apex of the cell, without

the intervention of a placenta; and, finally, in their indehiscent

one-celled fruit, bearing a single erect albuminous seed, covered

by two regular integuments, and enclosing an embryo with a

superior radicle. However remarkable these analogies may be,

which are in many respects shared with the Nyctaginacea, it is

impossible to place the Gnetacee in a position near these families

and their allies; for the Oleracee of Endlicher form a most di-

stinct and natural group, well characterized by the peculiar fea-

ture of a curved embryo placed outside of a farinaceous albumen.

Although the relationship of the Gnetacee with the Urticacee

may not at first sight be apparent, still in many very essential

points an analogy exists, which is well deserving of attention.

The flowers in Urticacee are often diclinous, and in bracteated

spikelets. It has been shown (ante, vol. ix. 430) that their soli-

tary carpel, sometimes wanting a style, with sessile stigmata,

has a pervious opening in-the apex of its cell, through which the

solitary erect ovule is directly fecundated by the pollen, without

the intervention of any placenta. This erect ovule is always

atropous, with two distinct integuments ; and its embryo, with a

small superior radicle, is enclosed in fleshy albumen. In these

remarkable particulars 1 know of no other order that so nearly

approaches the Gnetacee. On the other hand, the Urticacee are

very different in habit—in their usually (but not always) alter-

nate leaves, in the form of their inflorescence, and in the struc-

ture of the male flowers ; in the latter respect, however, a degree of

analogy remains, for it generally happens in these, as in Ephedra,

that the lobes of the perigonium are opposite to those of the

involucels. We find also in the inner bark of Ephedra, strong

fibres almost as abundantly as in the Urticacee : another similar

development invariably occurs in that genus, in the vaginant

stipulary leaves that surround each branchlet, at the point of its

origin in the axils. There is some approach in the floral struc-

ture of the Gnetacee to that of the Urticacee; that is to say, it

is in both cases diclinous, the male flower in both families pre-

senting a gamophyllous perigonium seated generally in its own

involucel, or occasionally several perigonia within involucels

more or less confluent with each other. It is true that in Urti-

cacee the perigonium is often 4- or 5-partite, but it is sometimes

2- or 3-fid, with equal segments; the insertion of the stamens is

138 Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra.

invariably at the base of the tubular portion of the perigonium,

as in Ephedra, and often the filaments are monadelphously con-

joined at their base. In the tribe Forskohlee the involucels of

the flowers are combined into an annular cup, as in Gnetum ;

sometimes two involucels, united at the base, contain one or two

florets, and then the solitary stamen is fixed in the base of the

perigonial tube, without any vestige of an ovary, as in Gnetum.

I have stated these numerous points of coincidence in order to

show that, when we take into consideration the sum of their

characters respectively, a greater approximation will be found to

exist between these two families than has been imagined: in

the present imperfect state of our knowledge, their juxtaposition

in the system cannot be safely established; for the Gnetacee

require a more careful examination. Much additional informa-

tion may be expected from the promised description, by Dr.

Hooker, of the new and curious genus Welwitschia, which, I

have no doubt, will tend greatly to elucidate the question of the

true affinities of this family.

Meyer has classed the different species of Ephedra in two

sections,—the one, Plagiostoma, where the summit of the tubillus

is obliquely ligulated or unequally two-lobed ; the other, Disco-

stoma, where it is truncated or enlarged in the form of a disk,

the latter section comprising only two species, which are of

South-American origin, #. Tweediana and E. americana. On

referring to his drawing of the former species (Mem. Acad. St.

Petersb. tom. v. pl. 7. fig. 9), we find there a representation of

this tubillus, marked u, which shows no approach whatever to a

disciform shape; and in regard to the latter species, which Meyer

does not appear to have seen, Kunth describes its tubillus as he

conceived it to be, a “stylus subulatus exsertus, stigma simplex ;”

and Richard defines the same as “rectus, tubulosus, ostiolo

oblique sub-4-lobo.” In all the specimens of E. Tweediana that

I have seen, especially in those collected by myself, the tubillus

is straight, in no degree enlarged at the apex, and generally

lacerated ; but, when uninjured, I have found it shortly 2-fid,

with two small erect rounded lobes, differing in no respect from

what is observable in his section Plagiostoma. I therefore con-

sider that such a division of the genus, founded upon the cha-

racter assumed, is not maintainable.

I have expressed a doubt (ante, vol. ix. 426) of the truth of

the general belief that in Ephedra the flowers are dicecious, that

is to say, that the male and female flowers are always upon di-

stinct plants. I have stated the impression entertained by me

when in Chile, that both sexes exist on the same plant, if not in

the same spikelets: in support of this, my drawing of Ephedra

bracteata, made nearly forty years ago, showed fruits upon one

Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra. - 189

of the lower branchlets, while all the upper ones exhibited male

flowers only; but I was unwilling to place much reliance on

that cireumstance at this distance of time, as all my specimens

were lost. I have, however, lately noticed a confirmation of this

fact in a specimen, now existing in the Hookerian herbarium,

of the same species, where most of the ramifications have their

floral branchlets terminated by ripe fruits, while in a lower part

is another branchlet charged with a spikelet of male flowers.

Kunth also corroborates a similar occurrence in Ephedra ameri-

cana: in that species, he states that each axil produces a cluster

of four spikelets, three of which consist of male florets, while the

other contains two female flowers; for he adopted the view of

Richard in considering the pericarp of each achenium as the

indurated perigonium, and the enclosed seed with its tubillus as

the ovary surmounted by its style. It is still a matter of doubt

whether the two achenia generally associated in the apex of a

spikelet are produced from one or two florets. I am inclined to

think the latter, because it is more in analogy with the position

of the male florets. Meyer describes four species from Southern

Europe and Mauritania, where the fruit is constantly solitary in

each spikelet : this, perhaps, is merely the result of the abortion

of one of the florets.

Careful observations on the progressive growth of the plants,

made in their living state, are required to clear up these several

doubts, and to complete the history of Kphedra. 'The following

diagnosis of the genus is based wholly upon my own observations

of the South-American species here described.

Eruepra, Tournef.—Flores unisexuales ; sed dubitandum est, si

sexus singuli in diversis plantis, vel in diversis ramis, vel in

eadem spica orti sint: certissime fin axillis spicarum enati,

mox decidui, ? semper terminales et forsan in eadem spica

tardius oriundi.—Flores fin spica amentiformi imbricato-

involucrata plurimi ; znvolucellum singulum bracteiforme imo

cum opposito in vaginam brevem coalitum, ovatum, erectum ;

involucella hoe modo per paria nexa, decussatim imbricata et

4-faria, smgula 1-flora, Perigonium intra quodque involucel-

lum unicum, e basi ortum, petaloideum, coloratum, turbinato-

tubulosum, compressum, limbo 2-labiato, labiis (antico et

postico) rotundatis, zestivatione imbricatis, posteriore exteriore,

mox deciduum. Stamina monadelpha, cum perigonio deca-

dentia ; filamenta in columnam fistulosam compressam apice

dentatam aut breviter fissam perigonio equilongam vel lon-

giorem connata; anthere 3 ad 12, tubi dentibus vel filis bre-

vissimis crebriter basifixee, ovatee vel oblonge, erecte, 2-lobe,

2-locellatze (lobis sine connectivo collateraliter adnatis), poris

140. Bibliographical Notices.

2 apicalibus rarissime transversim connexis dehiscentes.

Pollen globosum, vel ellipticum, 8-suleatum. Ovarit vesti-

gium nullum.—Florum @ partes ignote. Achenia 2 distincta,

rarius solitaria, summo spice amentiformis (ei d similis) affixa,

involucellis omnino vel semi-inclusa, oblonga, subcompressa,

plano-convexa, collateralia, erecta. Pericarpiwm siccum, co-

riaceum, glaberrimum (mesocarpio fibrillifero), indehiscens,

apice glanduleforme pro tubilli transitu pervium, uniloculare.

Semen unicum, basi affixum, loculo paulo brevius, apice

acutum ; integumenta 2, simplicia, ab imo usque ad medium

coalita et membranacea, dehine superne libera et distincta

testa tegmine valde brevior, ore lato aperta; tegmen superne

opacius, crassius, sepe corrugatum, apice glandula carnosa

majuscula clausum; ¢ubillus e centro glandule productus,

erectus, elongatus, per foramen pericarpii prolatus, et sepe

longe exsertus, filiformis, teres, fistuloso-membranaceus, per-

sistens, apice irregulariter laceratus aut breviter 2-labiatus,

labiis aut brevibus concavis et subzequalibus, aut inconstanter

ineequalibus; Aalum cum chalaza basali confusum, substi-

pitatum ; raphe nulla; albumen oblongum, compressum, ob-

pyriforme, carnosulum, apice ad glandulam adherens, em-

bryone paulo longius; cotyledones oblong, compress, sub-

foliacese ; radicula teres, supera, hilo contraria, cotyledonibus

eequilonga vel dimidio brevior et earum sexta parte latitudinis.

Suffrutices cosmopolitani, e basi ramosissimi, erecti, humifusi vel

alte scandentes ; ramulis teneribus, sepius virgatis, oppositis,

ternis, aut fasciculatis, in azillis nodosis ; folia rudimentaria 2,

opposita, vel plura, primum in vaginam brevem amplexicaulem

apice 2-3—4-fissam coalita, demum sepe disjuncta ; flores parvt,

spicati; spice parvule, in axillis sessiles, solitarie, bine aut

plures glomerate, vel in ramulum brevem terminantes, mvolu-

cellis viridibus, perigonio sepius aurantiaco, columna staminali

viridescente, antheris dete flavis.

[To be continued. |

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

The British Ferns. By Sir W. J. Hooker; with Drawings by

W.Fitrcu. 8vo. London: Reeve, 1861.

A work on the British Ferns from the pen of our great botanical

chief, and illustrated by the pencil of one of our best floral draughts-

men, must attract general attention. We feel sure that a reference

to it will always supply some information, accurate in its facts and

correct in its delineation. Of course we must not expect too much :

the pen of the author cannot go beyond the knowledge which he

Bibliographical Notices. 141

possesses, nor the pencil of the artist convey information not afforded

by the specimen before him. Here, at any rate, what we do get is

perfectly trustworthy.

« The term Ferns is intended to be understood in the Linnzan

pane as including Filices, Equisetacee, Marsileacee, and Lycopo-

lace.

The plates are 66 in number, and to each of them a single leaf of

letter-press is devoted. This latter contains a specific character for

the species, a tolerably complete collection of references and syno-

nyms, and some account of the plant, especially of its range in foreign

countries; but no description. It does seem to us that a little less

detail in the geographical part of these remarks (seeing that the

author has given or is about to give them even more fully in his

valuable ‘Species Filicum’), and a tolerably complete description

from his experienced pen, would have rendered the book more ac-

ceptable to the class for which it is intended. The majority of the

collectors and cultivators of British Ferns would have been satisfied

with a general statement on the former of these subjects, but do

want the latter, and will be disappointed at not finding it. Also, an

occasional discussion of the specific distinctions, real or supposed,

between the allied plants would have added greatly to the value of

the work. Almost all persons except professed botanists will proba-

bly now use the book for its plates alone; and concerning these it is

not easy to use too strong terms of praise. They are incomparably

the best representations of-our ferns that have appeared. In some

few cases, where a frond was too large for complete representation

on the page, we should have liked to see a reduced drawing of it

appended, so as to convey to the inexperienced an idea of its general

aspect. For instance, Polypodium alpestre does not furnish to us a

clear idea of the appearance of that elegant plant ; also, a plate of the

remarkable form or species called P. flewile by some authors might

well have been given. It is true that a little scrap of P. flewile is

drawn on the plate, but that is far from conveying the information

required.

The two Woodsias are beautifully represented ; and these plates

fully confirm the now prevalent belief that there are really two spe-

cies in Britain. They represent finer specimens than we have ever

seen in this country—a fact that should be borne in mind by students,

who have to learn to appreciate their differences when gathered in

the very diminutive states in which we usually find them. It is then

often far from easy to distinguish them ; and we much wish that our

eminent author had stated the best mode of doing so with tolerable

certainty. Even the plates given by Sowerby in ‘ English Botany ’

and ‘The Ferns’ represent fronds which are larger than the usual

wild state of the plants.

We cannot help suspecting that the venation is incorrectly drawn

in the case of Nephrodium cristatum. Both Newman and Sowerby

give a much more complicated structure to it ; and, indeed, some au-

thors have laid considerable weight upon its being greatly branched,

142 Bibliographical Notices.

as a character to distinguish this plant from its near allies. The

Lastrea spinulosa, L. dilatata, and L. emula of authors are con-

sidered as one species, under the name of Nephrodium spinulosum.

It certainly seems to us that they form three well-marked species,

of which good plates are here given. A plate of L. dumetorum

seems unnecessarily introduced ; for it is surely nothing more than a

‘young state of L. spinulosa: it here figures as a variety, on an

equality in rank with the three above-named plants. Some remarks

upon L. uliginosa would have been acceptable; for it is one of the

most obscure of our plants, and the mature opinion of Sir W. Hooker

concerning it would have been highly valuable ; but it is passed over

almost without notice. Whilst combining these three well-marked

plants, as we think them, our author doubtfully separates, as a spe-

cies, the L. remota. If it is true that hybrids occur in Ferns, we

should be inclined to consider L. remota as one, having for its parents

L. spinulosa and L. Filix-mas. If our information is correct, very

few plants of it have been found.

Cystopteris alpina is another plant which might well have been

omitted ; for certainly it has no claim to be considered as a native

of this country.

Hymenophyllum Wilsoni is very properly kept separate from H,

Tunbridgense, and also from H. unilaterale. We are unable to under-

stand the difficulty which some persons seem to find in distinguish-

ing the H. Tunbridgense from H. Wilsoni. As our author most justly

remarks, ‘‘It is hardly possible to see the two kinds ...... growing

frequently on the same rock, in separate patches, yet maintaining

their respective characters, without being satisfied of their being

really different.”’

The figure of Isoétes lacustris is by far the best that we have seen.

It represents the larger spores in a highly satisfactory manner, and

so as to show the remarkable difference between them and the spores

of the I. echinospora, which latter plant we find recorded as a native

of Wales and Scotland in the new edition of Babington’s ‘ Manual.’

In all probability, Sir W. Hooker knew nothing of the existence of

I. echinospora in Britain ; for we believe that it was first announced by

M. J. Gay in the ‘ Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France,’ either

late in 1861 or at even a more recent date.

There is a beautiful plate of the Guernsey form of Isoétes Hystria,

under the name of I. Durigi. We have the authority of M. Durieu

for stating that the Guernsey plant is I. Hystriz. It has fewer of

the singular persistent woody leaf-bases (phyllopodes) than are found

on specimens from Algeria; but such is also the case with the J.

Hystriz of France. It is at once known by its comparatively smooth

(very slightly tubercled, “ trés-finement réticulés’’) macrospores—

the oophoridia of Hooker, These are well figured by Fitch, but are

erroneously described as ‘strongly granulated.” We possess au-

thentic specimens of these plants, and are quite convinced that J.

Hystrix is the correct name of that which grows in the Channel

Islands: but our opinion is of no consequence ; for M. Durieu is the

Bibliographical Notices. 143

very highest authority in this curious genus, and his determination,

even if it had not agreed with our own, would be conclusive.

And now we conclude our notice of this valuable addition to our

botanical literature, merely adding that, if any of the plates can be

selected as especially admirable, they are those of the Equiseta,

which it seems to us that it would be impossible to surpass.

We need scarcely add that we strongly recommend the book to

our readers.

Catalogue of a Collection of American Birds belonging to Puiiir

Lutuiry Sciater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Sec. Z.S., Editor of

‘The Ibis.’ Illustrated by 20 Plates. 8vo, pp. 338. London:

Tribner & Co. 1862.

Of late we have heard so much respecting the number of acres

which model museums of natural history are said to require for their

proper exhibition, that it may astonish some of our readers to learn

that one of the most extensive collections in existence, illustrating

the ornithology of the New World, is “arranged with the greatest

ease in ¢en small cabinets measuring about 2 feet 1 inch by 1 foot

6 inches, and 3 feet in height.’’ Such, however, is the case with that

of Dr. Sclater, who has just published, under the title above quoted, an

admirable list of his treasures, which will be found indispensable to

those who are interested in that branch of study. This collection

contains, we are told, about 4100 specimens, representing 2170 spe-

cies, and is consequently among the largest ever brought together

by any private person. The readers of these pages need not be told

that the energetic proprietor of this comprehensive half-score of

cabinets is one of the first ornithologists living; and the publication

which we now briefly notice is well calculated to increase his reputa-

tion.

A work of this character, if reviewed at all, ought to be taken

(as Napoleon defeated his antagonists) in detail ; we therefore abstain

from further comment, only observing that the synonymy of the

species, and what is of no less importance, their geographical distri-

bution, appears, as far as we are able to judge, to have been elaborated

with great care. We will, however, take this opportunity of en-

forcing the growing conviction among naturalists, that the practical

use of a zoological museum is commensurate with its adaptation for

real work, and, consequently, that its true value, from that point of

view, consists in its capability for being readily consulted. This

condition is only to be obtained by a series of unmounted skins,

such as that which forms the collection of the talented Secretary

of the Zoological Society of London, and the abundant wealth of

which this Catalogue is intended to reveal to the ornithological

public.

144 Royal Society :—

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ROYAL SOCIETY.

June 19, 1862.—Major-General Sabine, President, in the Chair.

* Anatomy and Physiology of the Spongiade.” Part III. By

J. Scott Bowerbank, LL.D., F.R.S.

This paper is the third part of the Anatomy and Physiology of the

Spongiade. The author, after pointing out the inefficiency, or rather

the non-existence of a definite arrangement of species of sponges,

proposes to establish a series of orders, suborders, and genera, the

distinguishing characters of which are to be founded on the structural

peculiarities of the various organs of the animals which have been

described in detail and named in the first and second parts of the

paper. The term Amorphozoa, proposed by De Blainville as a

designation of the class, is rejected, as all sponges cannot be considered

as shapeless, many genera and species exhibiting much constancy in

their forms, while that of Porifera, proposed by Dr. Grant, is adopted,

as the porous mode of imbibition of nutriment is universal in this

class of animals. The author also agrees with Dr. Grant in dividing

the class into three great orders, dependent on the nature of the

substances of which the skeletons are constructed. These three

great divisions are designated by Dr. Grant in the following order :—

Ist, Keratosa, having skeletons of horny structure, with few or no

siliceous spicula; 2nd, Leuconida, the skeletons composed of cal-

careous spicula; and 3rd, Chalinida, the skeletons constructed of

siliceous spicula. The author, for reasons stated in detail in the paper,

proposes to change the order of this arrangement, placing the cal-

careous sponges first, under the designation of Calcarea. The siliceous

sponges are placed second, and designated Silicea, while the first

order of Dr. Grant, Keratosa, is placed last. With these exceptions

of arrangement and designation, the orders are essentially those

established by Prof. Grant in his “Tabular View of the primary

divisions of the Animal Kingdom.”

The first of these orders (Calcarida) has hitherto been repre-

sented by the genus Grantia only; but as the genus as established

by Fleming contains sponges having very differently constructed

skeletons, the author has divided the whole of the species of calcareous

sponges that have been named and described into the four following

genera, Grantia, Leucolenia, Leuconia, and Leucogypsia, in accord-

ance with four distinct types of skeleton-structure which are found to

exist among the sponges originally arranged under the genus Grantia

of Fleming.

The second order, Silicea, is very much more extensive than that

of Calcarea, and, from the striking varieties it affords in the con-

struction of the skeletons, it allows of a subdivision into seven sub-

orders. The first of these consists of sponges having spiculo-radiate

skeletons, and contains thirteen genera, as follows :—Geodia, Pachy-

Dr. J. E. Bowerbank on the Spongiade. 145

matisma, Ecionemia, Alcyoncellum, Polymastia, Halyphysema,

Tethea, Halicnemia, Dictyocylindrus, Phakellia, Microciona, Hy-

meraphia, and Hymedesmia.

The second suborder consists of spiculo-membranous sponges ; it

consists of one genus, Hymeniacidon. The third has spiculo-reticulate

skeletons; it contains four genera, Halichondria, Hyalonema, Iso-

dictya, and Spongilla. The fourth suborder has spiculo-fibrous

skeletons ; it contains two genera, Desmacidon and Raphyrus. The

fifth suborder has compound reticulate skeletons; it has but one

genus, Diplodemia. The sixth suborder has solid siliceo-fibrous

skeletons; it contains one genus, Dactylocalyx. The seventh sub-

order has canaliculated siliceo-fibrous skeletons, and contains one

genus, Farrea.

The third order, Keratosa, is also divided into seven suborders.

The first, consisting of solid non-spiculate kerato-fibrous skeletons,

is represented by one genus, Spongia; the legitimate type of the

genus being the cup-shaped and finest Turkey sponges of commerce.

The second suborder has solid semi-spiculate kerato-fibrous skele-

tons; it contains at present but one genus, Halispongia; the types

of which are the coarse massive sponges of commerce from the West

Indian Islands. The third suborder has solid, entirely spiculated

kerato-fibrous skeletons; it has one genus, Chalina: the type of

this genus is one of the commonest of the British sponges, Halichon-

dria oculata of Johnston. The fourth suborder is characterized by

having simple fistulo-fibrous skeletons; it contains one genus,

Verongia. The fifth suborder contains sponges which have com-

pound fistulo-fibrous skeletons, and is represented by the genus

Auleskia. The sixth suborder consists of sponges having regular

semi-areno-fibrous skeletons, and is represented by the genus Stema-

tumenia. The seventh suborder has irregular and entirely areno-

fibrous skeletons ; it is represented by the genus Dysidea. The

whole of these genera (those previously established as well as the new

ones proposed by the author) have been characterized in accordance

with their anatomical structures.

The author concludes his paper with a dissertation on the discri-

mination of species, and a general review of those portions of the

organization that may be applied with advantage to their scientific

description,—the principal sources for this purpose being :—lst.

The spicula. 2nd. The oscula. 3rd. The pores. 4th. The dermal

membrane. 5th. The skeleton. 6th. The interstitial membranes.

7th. The intermarginal cavities. 8th. The interstitial canals and

cavities. 9th. The cloacal cavities. 10th. The sarcode; and 11th.

The ovyaria and gemmules. And, finally, directions for the examina-

tion and preservation are given, with a few examples of the mode of

specific description proposed by the author.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 1]

146 Zoological Society :—

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

February 11, 1862.—Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair.

Note on THE GiGantTic EARTH-worm (MEGASCOLEX CHRU-

LEUS) FROM CreyLon. By Sir James Emerson TENNENT,

KOC28., ViP-Z.8., ere:

[In 1853 the British Museum received, through Mr. Hugh Cuming,

two specimens of a large Earth-worm from Ceylon, which is evi-

dently the Megascolex ceruleus described by Dr. Templeton in the

‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society ’ for 1844, p. 89.

A few days ago Sir James Emerson Tennent kindly procured from

Ceylon, and sent to the British Museum, a specimen of the same

worm, and, in reply to my inquiries respecting the habits and verna-

cular name of the animal, sent to me the following letter, which,

with his permission, I lay before the Society—Joun Epwarp

Gray. British Museum, Feb. 11, 1862.]

“ Board of Trade, Feb. 10th, 1862.

** My pear Srr,—The large Annelid which I sent to the Mu-

seum a few days ago was recently forwarded to me by the Principal

Civil Officer in charge of the North-eastern Province of Ceylon; it

was obtained by him from the vicinity of Trincomalie.

“My attention had frequently been attracted, during my rides

through the forests in the north of Ceylon, by the heaps of earth in

the shape of ‘ castings’ thrown up and piled on the surface, often

to the height of 12 or 18 inches. These occurred in low and moist

ground, and chiefly in the beds of dried-up tanks shortly after they

had been deserted by the subsidence of the waters. The natives

assured me they were the products of huge earth-worms, which I

was told often grew to the length of 2 or 3 feet, with a proportionate

thickness.

“I made some efforts to obtain specimens, but, owing to the apathy

of the Singhalese and their indifference to anything illustrative of

animated nature, I could not succeed. One reason why I was my-

self less likely to come on these creatures during my rides was that

the traces I saw were fresh only at the early dawn, showing that the

worm worked chiefly during the night.

«Some months ago I wrote to Mr. Morris, the gentleman I allude

to, at Trincomalie, and by him I have been supplied with the speci-

men which I have sent to the Museum. It is cut into two parts,

together about 22 inches long.

«The vernacular name for them I do not know ; nor is it probable

that the Singhalese have given them any specific designation, other

than the general term equivalent to vermin, which they apply to the

whole tribe of minor reptiles and Annelids.

“The existence of these very large earth-worms appears to have

been known to some of the French naturalists; for in D’Orbigny’s

‘Dictionnaire d’ Histoire Naturelle’ I find he has noticed the Ceylon

species in the following terms, under the designation of Mega-

seolew :—‘On sait qu'il en existe d’assez grandes, et l’on en a rap-

Dr. J. E. Gray on two new Genera of Zoophites. 147

porté des parties chaudes de |’Amérique qui n’ont pas moins d’un

métre de longueur*. II en existe de semblables dans I’ Inde; et il a

été trouvé dans Vile de Ceylan une grande espéce de Ver de terre

dont on a proposé de faire un genre sous le nom de Megascolex.’—

D’ Orbigny, Dict. Univ. d Hist. Nat. vol. vii. p. 431.

* Faithfully yours,

“ Dr. J. E. Gray, F.RS., §e. ** J. EMERSON TENNENT.

*‘T expect another and, I hope, a larger specimen from another

district of Ceylon, which I shall be happy to submit to you on its

arrival.”

Description or Two New Genera or Zoopuytes (SOLE-

NOCAULON AND BELLONELLA) DISCOVERED ON THE NORTH

Coast or Austratia BY Mr. Rayner. By Dr. Joun

Epwarp Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., etc.

Among the numerous interesting animals collected by Mr. Rayner

during the voyage of H. M.S. ‘ Heraid’ is a new form of coral, nearly

allied to Gorgonia, and especially to the coral called Calogorgia by

M. Milne-Edwards, but very distinct from it. I therefore send a

description of it to the Society for publication in the ‘ Proceedings.’

SOLENOCAULON.

The coral coriaceous, tubular, circular, and simple below, com-

pressed, subquadrangular, tortuous, and more or less branched above,

the branches being similar in size and form to the main

stem. The main stem and branches furnished with

more or less elongate, subsolid, slender branchlets,

which are placed on the edge of the large holes in the

main stem and branches which communicate with the

main tube. These branchlets (and sometimes the

branches at the base of them) are furnished with large

cells for the polypes, which are placed in one (more fre-

quently in two) series on each side of the branchlets,

and sometimes the series are continued on the main stem

or branches at the bottom of the branchlets. The polype-cells are

rather large, circular, nearly superficial, and furnished with a cup

divided into eight conical connivent lobes, each lobe being formed of

some transverse spicules at the base and some obliquely- placed spi-

cules diverging from each lateral edge towards the top above.

1. SOLENOCAULON TORTUOSUM.

Hab. North Australia.

This genus seems to form a particular group of the dlcyonaires,

which may be called after this genus Solenocaulonide, characterized

by the tubular form of the axis, the tubes being formed of a thin

coriaceous substance. The smaller branches are subsolid and cel-

lular within, but they soon become hollow. It has been said that

the tubular form arises from the abortion of the epithelial tissue of

the centre of the axis. This may be true if we can regard the large

* A metre is 39-83, inches.

Tis

148 Zoological Society :—

lax cells in the interior of the young branchlet as epithelial tissue ;

but the inner surface of the tube of the axis is quite smooth and

simple, and the branchlets never become large like the main stem.

This coral cannot be considered as a solid stem becoming hollow,

as the last-formed (younger) parts at the end of the branches are in

the form of a foliaceous expansion, which gradually folds up toge-

ther on itself, coalesces, and forms a tube nearly of the same dia-

meter as the main stem. The large apertures which oceur in the

stem and base of the branches, and communicate with the central

cavity, are the parts of the expanded lamina which have not been

closed in when the other portions of the tube were formed.

The specimen described evidently grew in a nearly horizontal po-

sition ; for one side of the main stem and branches is entirely without

any cells, and the branchlets on the same side are fewer than on the

other, showing that this part was beneath, and not exposed to the

light. Ido not give this as the generic or specific character, as it

may be only incidental to the specimen—a fact that can only be

determined by the examination of a* larger number of examples.

Mr. Holdsworth has suggested that it may be the same as or allied to

Gorgonia trichostemma of Dana (Zoophytes, 665, t. 59. f. 3); but

Dana does not describe the main stem as tubular. But the coral is,

like many others in his work, so badly figured and described that it

is impossible to determine with any certainty what it is intended to

represent. Milne-Edwards seems to have been equally doubtful (see

Coralliaires, i. 154) as to its affinities.

The genus Cclogorgia of Milne-Edwards (Coralliaires, vol. i.

p- 191) should be placed in the same family. It is described as

arborescent, very branching, and with slender cylindrical branches

with scattered, subcylindrical, elongate polype-cells. Only one spe-

cies is known, viz. C. palmosa, from Zanzibar.

Among the specimens preserved in spirits in the same collection

there is also a new form of Alcyon, which seems to me to be a type

of a new genus allied to Xenia, but quite distinct from it both in the

form of the cells and in the polypes being completely retractile. It

has some characters in common with my genus Midalia, described

in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ 1835, p. 6, and

figured, Radiata, Pl. ILI. fig. 2, but differs from it in the surface of

the coral being minutely granular, and not spiculose.

BELLONELLA.

Coral cylindrical, formed of a number of subcylindrical tubes ag-

glutinated together and forming at the top a hemispherical head of

subeylindrical prominent cells, which are angular at the tip. The

outer surface of the coral is minutely granular. The polypes are

completely retractile; the base of their tubes is strengthened with

very minute spicula, placed in a longitudinal series parallel to each

other.

1. BELLONELLA GRANULATA. (Woodcut, opposite page. )

Hab. Bellona Reefs, 17 fathoms (7. M. Rayner, Esq.).

Dr. J. E. Gray on Bellonella. 149

150 Zoological Society :—

March 11, 1862.—Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair.

Mr. W. H. Flower, F.R.C.S., F.L.S., Conservator of the Museum

of the Royal College of Surgeons, read a memoir on the Brain of

the Javan Loris (Stenops Javanicus).

The subject of this communication was an adult female, which died

in the Zoological Society’s Gardens in January, 1862. In the exa-

mination of the brain every care had been taken to preserve the natural

configuration of the different portions of the organ; the drawing of

the upper surface had been made before its removal from the cranial

cavity, and the other drawings, descriptions, and measurements were

checked by comparison with a cast of the interior of the skull. The

value of the descriptions and figures of the brain of Stenops already

published had been much diminished by inattention to such precau-

tions ; and they had also had the disadvantage of being made before

the researches of Gratiolet had thrown light upon the arrangement

of the conyolutions on the cerebral hemispheres of the higher Qua-

drumana. A new description, which may serve as a standard: of

comparison in studying the cerebral anatomy of allied forms, seemed

therefore to be called for.

The following is an abstract of Mr. Flower’s remarks :—

** When seen zn situ, the two hemispheres present together an oval

figure, 1°3 inch in length, and 1:05 inch across the broadest part,

which is situated at the junction of the middle and posterior third of

the long axis. From this point the oval gradually narrows to rather

a sharp apex in front. There is no appearance of that want of

symmetry, both of size and form, in the two hemispheres, described

and figured by Vrolik. Projecting anteriorly to the extent of + inch

beyond the cerebral hemispheres are the olfactory lobes, of consider-

able vertical depth, but compressed laterally, and pointed in front.

Projecting posteriorly is a very narrow edge of the cerebellum, most

visible in the middle line, both on account of its own greater promi-

nence at this part, and because the widening out of the termination

of the great longitudinal fissure of the cerebrum allows more of its

upper surface to be seen. When seen from one side, the upper con-

tour of the brain forms a low, flattened arch, the greatest point of

elevation being a little way behind the centre. The anterior or

frontal lobe is much depressed, and excavated below to make room

for the orbital plates of the frontal bone. The temporal lobes, di-

stinctly marked off from the last by the Sylvian fissure, are full, and

make a considerable projection downwards and forwards. The occi-

pital lobes are short and of little vertical depth, being hollowed

below for the cerebellum, the greater part of which body they cover.

The sulci of the cerebral hemispheres, though few, are well marked

and tolerably symmetrical. A particular description of their arrange-

ment is given in the paper. The principal sulci correspond with

those which in the higher Quadrumana have been named Sylvian,

antero-temporal, palloeae marginal, calcarine, and dentate.

‘On the inferior surface of the brain, the olfactory lobes in their

anterior half are seen to be compressed, and of equal width almost

to their termination ; posteriorly they become flat, and widen out to

Mr. W. H. Flower on the Brain of the Javan Loris. 151

their attachment to the under surface of the anterior lobe. The

fissure of Sylvius divides them from the temporal lobe. The orbital

surface of the hemisphere, as seen on each side of the olfactory lobes,

is hollowed out, and presents a simple longitudinal sulcus. The

optic nerves are small for the size of the brain; behind them is a

prominent, round, whitish mass filling up the greater part of the

interpeduncular space, in which the corpora albicantia are not clearly

distinguished from the tuber cinereum. The crura cerebri are of

moderate size. The pons Varoliiis not much elevated ; it is distinctly

marked off in front, but very indefinitely separated from the medulla

behind. The last-named body is broad and flat anteriorly, the

median groove distinct, its other divisions but faintly indicated. The

nerves appear all to rise in the situations usual in this group of animals.

«The corpus callosum is 0°65 inch long, and covers half of the

anterior pair of the corpora quadrigemina. Of these bodies the an-

terior are the largest, they are flat and rounded in outline; the pos-

terior are small, but very prominent. The posterior part of the

fornix is very broad, covering the optic thalami, and forming a wide

lamina (corpus fimbriatum) descending into the middle corner of the

ventricle. The hippocampus major is of moderate size. With all

the care taken, it was not possible to ascertain satisfactorily the extent

to which the ventricular cavity passed into the posterior lobe; but

this is a circumstance of very little importance, and varies greatly

even in the same species of Quadrumana. On the other hand, it is

of considerable anatomical and physiological consequence that the

portion of grey matter homologous to that forming the so-termed

‘hippocampus minor’ of the human subject, only of proportions corre-

sponding to the greater relative depth of the calcarine sulcus, exists

in this brain, as m that of Lemur and Galago and all the true Apes.

* The brain of Stenops conforms closely with that of Lemur, both

in its general form and the disposition of its surface-markings. The

principal differences that were observed between them are described

in the paper; and then follows a comparison of the brains of these

two animals with those of the higher Quadrumana. As has been so

well shown by M. Gratiolet, in his beautifully illustrated memoir

upon this subject, a certain type both of general configuration and

of surface-markings pervades the brain of all the Primates, from

Man to the Marmoset. From this type M. Gratiolet excludes the

Strepsirrhine Quadrumana, placing them, with the Insectivora, in a

group of Mammalia whose cerebral organization he considers to be

quite distinct from that of the two first families of Quadrumana.

The author of the present paper finds reason to dissent from this

proposition, and upon cerebral characters alone would retain the

Lemurs in the position assigned to them by the majority of systematic

zoologists—admitting, however, that, while possessing certain very

important points of structure peculiar to the Primates, they are in

many respects, especially in the shortness of the posterior lobes, an

aberrant group, forming a transition towards the Cheiroptera, Car-

nivora, and other inferior Mammalia.”’

This paper will be published at full length in the Society’s

‘Transactions,’ and appropriately illustrated.

152 Zoological Society :—

March 25, 1862.—Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair.

NoTEs ON THE Form OF THE ComB (PECTEN) IN DIFFERENT

ANDRENID& AND APIDZ, AND ON THE ALAR HOOKS OF THE

SpecIES OF SPHECODES AND Hatictus. By Miss E. F.

STAVELEY*.

I have made a few notes in the hope of saving your time and eyes;

but I fear they are of very little value ; and, as you are aware, I know

so little of what has been already written on the subject, that my

notes, even if correct, may not be new. Besides this, my examina-

tion of the parts of the mouth has as yet been confined to about

twenty-six Bees of various species and the three sexes.

There are some peculiarities in the maxillee of the Bees which I

think might serve as generic or specific characters, and which I

believe have not yet been used for that purpose.

One is the presence of a row of strong, flat hairs or teeth, forming

a sort of comb, varying much in form and situation.

In all the Andrenide where I have found it, it forms a wavy line,

commencing near the base of the upper joint of the maxilla about

midway between the two margins, as in Andrena cingulata, 2

(figs. 1, 2).

* Communicated by Dr. J. E. Gray with the following letter :—

“T beg of you to lay the following observations, which Miss Staveley has

sent to me, before the Society. They indicate some characters which appear to

have hitherto been overlooked.

“ Dr. Selater, F.R.S., &e.” BGA 1d (Cres

Miss Staveley on the Form of the Pecten in Bees. 153

In some, as Andrena nitida, Q (figs. 3, 4), the direction of the

teeth is reversed in the course of the row. The row of hairs is

figured by Kirby in his work on ‘ British Bees,’ at t. 1. f. 4 e, and

called by him, in the explanation of the plates at page 226, “ sete

rigidiuscule ;”’ but I do not find any mention of them in any other

part of the work.

In the Apide it is invariably at the upper part of the lower joint

154 Zoological Society :—

of the maxilla (fig. 5), and, with one exception, is marginal. In

Panurgus (fig. 6, P. Banksianus, 2), the first genus of the Apide

(and of which Mr. Smith remarks that in habit it is precisely similar

to Andrena), the comb resembles that of the Andrenide in not

being marginal, while it agrees with that of the other Apide in

being near the top of the second joint. This series of spines is also

figured in Kirby, at.t. 10. f. lc, t. 11. f. 2, t. 12. f. 6c, andit. 13:

f. 3a; and in the chapter headed ‘Termini,’ at p. 94, is called the

“‘necten ;”’ but, though several forms of it are figured as above, I do

not find it mentioned in the description of the species.

I subjoin a list of the insects in which I have looked for it :—

Miss Staveley on the Form of the Pecten in Bees. 155

ANDRENIDZ.

Colletes Daviesana, g (teeth much the longest at the lower end). \ Cdinte:

Andrena cingulata, @, figs. 1, 2. Shan ‘eal

nitida, 2, figs. 3, 4 (comb reversed near the top). oratacheing

— Clarkella, 2 (comb reversed near the base).

, 6 (comb reversed).

Cilissa leporina, 2 (comb of four teeth).

, 6 (comb of three teeth).

Sphecodes subquadratus, ? .

Halictus leucozonius, 3.

—— morio, 9.

Dasypoda hirtipes.

near the base

of upper joint

of maxilla.

Comb not present.

APID&.

Panurgus Banksianus, 2, fig. 6. Comb not pie)

n feo

Bombus terrestris, 2.

— lucorum, 2.

»d-

=o.

Latreilliellus, $.

Apathus campestris, 2.

Apis mellifica, 3.

Euglossa cordata. }

Nomada furva, *.

Epeolus variegatus, ¢ x. |

Ceelioxys vectis, 2 x. ley not present.

Eucera longicornis, @ (fig. 7

Comb on upper part of

+ Comb marginal. second joint of maxilla.

Osmia rufa, 2.

Chelostoma florisomne, 2 ..

There is also an appendage to most of the maxillee (and when ab-

sent it may possibly have been torn off in dissection), which seems

too delicate to assist in the mechanical work for which the combs are

probably used. It is a small membranous lobe, covered more or less

thickly with long hairs, and situated on the lower joint of the maxilla,

on the opposite side to that of the palpus (see figs. 1, 3, 6).

In many of the maxille there are several projections or small

tubes (as 1 shall for convenience call them, having little doubt of

their tubular construction) generally tipped by a hair, and in ap-

pearance strongly resembling the small tubes which exude the mate-

rial of the web from the spinneret of a spider. They are in various

situations: sometimes at the apex of the maxilla; forming some-

times an irregular line nearly the whole length of the upper joint ;

sometimes in a cluster close above or below the maxillary palpus ;

sometimes in two clusters, one above and one below the palpus. I

would call your attention particularly to the straight tubes near the

apex of the maxilla of Epeolus variegatus 3 (fig. 7), and the flask-

shaped tubes near the palpus in Osmia rufa 2 (fig. 8) +.

* Parasites. I have as yet found no parasitic Bee with the comb.

+ After writing the above paragraph, it occurred to me that Dr. J. Braxton

Hicks, in a paper read before the Linnean Society (and printed in their Trans.

vol. xxiii. part 1, p. 139), had preceded me in the observation of these organs,

and I hesitated to send the notes for printing ; but, on examination of his paper,

I am inclined to think that the tubes which I have described in the maxille of the

Bees are not necessarily of the same nature as the organs observed by him in

156 Zoological Society :—

Is it possible that these tubes, which, as I have observed, are re-

markably similar in appearance to those in the spider’s spinneret,

5 oh,

# 8

\ 4 ”\

peed

\\ S

\\ \ =

\\ oh

\\ Ne

\\ a

\ aw

may be of the nature of salivary glands? It is easy to imagine the

use of such a provision in the management of the materials of the

nests and the storing of food, even if not also in the assistance of

digestion ; while it appears to me that there is analogy in favour of

such a supposition, the House-fly exuding from its mouth a drop of

moisture when feeding on sugar or other hard substance, while the

Gnat, with still another form of mouth, is supposed to inject a

poison into the wound inflicted by its proboscis.

I believe that somewhat similar tubes exist in the mandibles of

some of the Bees and Wasps.

The mandibles of some of the Apide have a transverse ridge of

strong hooked hairs (besides other hairs in various parts). In the

mandible of Apis mellifica §, they are very visible.

With the above objects I send specimens of the hind wings of

various Hymenopterous Insects, the observation of which has con-

firmed me in my former opinion as to their usefulness as distinctions ;.

but as I have arrived at no new results, not having had the means

as yet of representing more than a very limited number of genera, I

will only remark on one variation from the usual arrangement of the

distal hooks, which occurs in the genera Sphecodes and Halictus.

The distal hooks of the Bees are usually at regular or at regularly

diminishing intervals ; but in these two genera, one or two of those

various parts of insects, with the exception of those which he figures Tab. 18. R. a,

and which I have mentioned above as tubes “ in a cluster close above the maxil-

lary palpus.”

Miscellaneous. 157

in the middle of the row are separated from the rest by a space

double the size of that which is between the other hooks (figs. 9,

= ee

bey 3

10, 11); and if this is found to be the case in all the species, it is a

distinction easy to observe.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Notice of a new Species of Cyclemys from the Lao Mountains, in

Siam. By Dr. J. E. Gray.

Cyclemys Mouhotii.

Shell oblong, pale yellow; back flattened above, with a dark-

edged keel on each side; the vertebral plates continuously keeled,

and rather tubercular in front ; the margin strongly dentated ; nu-

chal shield distinct. Lao Mountains.

This species is most like Cyclemys platynota from Singapore, but

the back is much more’ decidedly flattened, the flattened part is

strongly keeled on each side, and the edge of the shell is strongly

toothed both before and behind. This is not merely an individual

variety ; for M. Mouhot has sent a considerable series, of different

ages, and they all agree in this respect, the younger animals being

more decidedly dentated on the margin and more acutely keeled on

the back.

I have named this species after the late M. Mouhot, who has dis-

covered and sent to England many new and most interesting animals

of different orders.

On the Transformation of Entozoa.

By P. J. Van BENEDEN.

The remarks of MM. Pouchet and Verrier, of which a short abstract

appeared in our last Number, have called forth from Professor Van

Beneden a letter, the chief points of which are as follow :—

He first states that MM. Pouchet and Verrier are in error in sup-

posing that he regarded Canurus cerebralis as the scolex of Tenia

serrata; he has described the Tape-worm produced by Cewnurus as

a distinct species, under the name of 7’. cenurus, and that produced

by the Cysticercus pisiformis of the Rabbit as Tenia serrata. He

ascribes the doubts of MM. Pouchet and Verrier to their having

failed to distinguish these two species of Tape-worms. He does not,

however, attempt to explain the main point dwelt upon by the French

158 Miscellaneous.

authors, namely, the presence in the intestines of the dogs of a much

larger number of Tape-worms than that of the heads of Cwnurus,

but expresses a hope that, by the continuation of their experiments,

those gentlemen themselves will be able to clear up the mystery.

Referring to the failure of MM. Pouchet and Verrier in producing

staggers in sheep by the administration of mature ova of Tenia ser-

rata, he shows that in experiments made simultaneously at Louvain,

Giessen, and Copenhagen, with ova obtained from a single dog which

had been fed with Cenuri, precisely the same phenomena were pro-

duced nearly after the same lapse of time. In all these cases the

young sheep were attacked by staggers about the fifteenth day,—the

only difference being that, at Copenhagen, only two out of three

sheep were affected. The failure of the French experimentalists is

ascribed by M. Van Beneden to their having administered ova of

Tenia serrata instead of those of 7. cwnurus.

M. Van Beneden also communicates to the Academy the results

of an experiment just completed by M. Leuckart.

For some years a second species of Tenia, the T. mediocanellata,

has been indicated in the human subject, but its mode of introduc-

tion and the characters of its Cysticercus were unknown. M. Leuc-

- kart has administered ova of Tenia mediocanellata to calves, and in

a short time found a development of Cysticerci, especially in the

muscles, so abundant as to cause a sort of leprosy. The Cysticercus,

while still in the cysts of the calf, presents all the distinctive charac-

ters of the adult Tenia. Thus Tape-worm is developed by the use

of veal and beef; but it is a distinct species, which has always been

confounded with Tenia solium. In the present state of science, it

may be asserted that Tenia solium is introduced into the human

body by pork; 7. mediocanellata by veal and beef; and the Bothrio-

cephalus, or Broad 'Tape-worm of the older writers (in Switzerland,

Poland, and Russia), by water*.

At the Meeting of the Academy of Sciences on the 16th of June,

MM. Pouchet and Verrier replied to Prof. Van Beneden’s remarks,

asserting that they have not committed the error ascribed to them

by hin, as, if his Tenia cenurus be really a distinct species, of which

they express great doubts, it was this that they administered to their

young sheep. They add that in a recent experiment, in which each

of two dogs received a hundred heads of Cenurus cerebralis, the

examination of the intestines two months after the administration

showed in one dog two specimens of Tenia cucumerina, 50 centi-

metres in length, and filled with ova, and in the other, two of 7’. ser-

rata, one 12 millimetres and the other 20 centimetres in length.—

Comptes Rendus, June 2 and 16, pp. 1157 and 1207.

* Dr. Koch, of St. Petersburg, has lately stated that the embryos of

Bothriocephalus latus are covered with vibratile cilia, and that, in the form

of Infusoria, they live free in the water. He adds this interesting remark,

that at Moscow, where spring-water is drunk, the Bothriocephalus is rare ;

whilst at St. Petersburg, Riga, and Dorpat, where river-water is used, it is

very common.

Miscellaneous. 159

Description of a new Genus of Tree-frogs, from Ecuador.

By W. PeTers.

PLECTROMANTIS, nov. gen.

Tongue elongated, posteriorly slightly emarginated and free. Palatal

teeth. Tympanum distinct. Orifices of the Eustachian tubes nearly

twice as large as the choane. A large elongated gland between the

angle of the mouth and the shoulder, and over the latter a larger

triangular one, less distinctly bounded above and behind. Fingers

free, rounded at the tip, without adhesive disks; the metacarpus of

the thumb and of the first finger armed each with a conical, pointed,

hard spine. Toes free, thin, with narrow membranous borders, and

with distinct, but small, broad adhesive disks at the apex; a flattened

elongated knob at the base of the metatarsus of the first toe, and a

smaller roundish one at that of the fifth. Transverse processes of

the sacral vertebra narrow.

This genus is therefore very nearly allied to Hylodes, and is di-

stinguished therefrom by the presence of parotids and the two re-

markable spines on the inner side of the hand.

Plectromantis Wagneri, nov. spec.

The present species has, at the first glance exactly the form of a

Rana temporaria with rather thin toes. The head is as broad as long,

with a somewhat prominent rounded snout. The nostrils are trans-

versely oval, and are rather more distant from each other than from

the apex of the snout, whilst their distance from the eyes is distinctly

greater. The diameter of the very distinct tympanum is equal to the

distance of the nostrils from each other, and amounts only to four-

sevenths of the largest diameter of the eyes. The eyes are very pro-

minent, and the inner transparent fold of the lower eyelid (the so-

called nictitating membrane) is greatly developed. The intermaxillary

and maxillary teeth are closely approximated, and have their points

directed a little inwards and backwards. The palatal teeth stand at

some distance behind the widely separated choanze, upon two curved

processes the convexity of which is anterior ; they occupy about half

the width of the palate. The skin of the body appears smooth, with

the exception of the somewhat wrinkled sides. The anterior ex-

tremity exceeds the muzzle by the entire hand. The first finger

extends beyond the second, which is a little shorter than the last,

but considerably shorter than the last but one. The spines on the

inside of the metacarpus are 14 millim. in length, and have the

appearance of pointed warts ; they are very hard, and appear to con-

sist of a bony process, covered with a horny coat. The toes increase

very considerably in length from the first to the fourth. The fourth

toe is nearly twice as long as the third (19 : 11) ; whilst the fifth is

intermediate between the second and third. The colour of the upper

surface of the body and extremities is dark brown, and exhibits a few

indistinct darker spots. The lower part of the sides of the body, the

belly, the inner and outer surfaces of the thighs, and also the inside

160 Miscellaneous.

of the leg, appear of a dingy white, with a more or less extended black

marbling.

Total length 0:058 m.; length of the head 0°023; length of the

anterior extremity to the tip of the last finger but one 0-033 ; length

of the hinder extremity to the tip of the fourth toe 0-095.

The single specimen of this species was discovered by Dr. Moritz

Wagner on the west side of the Andes in Ecuador, and is now in the

Zoological Museum of Munich.—Monatsber. der Akad. der Wiss.

zu Berlin, April 1862, p. 232.

Discovery of Microscopic Organisms in the Siliceous Nodules of the

Paleozoic Rocks of New York.

At Prof. Dana’s suggestion, Dr. M. C. White, well known for his

devotion to the microscope, has examined various specimens of the

hornstone nodules found in the Devonian and Silurian rocks of this

country, with a view to determine the presence of organisms analo-

gous to those well known to exist in the flints of the chalk. This

research has been rewarded by the discovery of abundant organisms

referable to the Desmidiez, besides a few Diatomacez, numerous spi-

cula of sponges, and also fragments of the dental apparatus of Gaste-

ropods. Among the Desmids, there is a large variety of forms of

Xanthidia supposed to be the sporangia of Desmids, besides an oc-

casional duplicated Desmid ; also, lines of cells, some of which appear

to be sparingly branched. The researches have been mostly confined

to the hornstone of the corniferous limestone; though extended also

to the hornstone from the Black-River limestone and that of the

sub-carboniferous limestone of Illinois, both of which contain some

organisms.

The hornstone-nodules from the Black-River limestone (as well as

the corniferous) have been since examined also by Mr. F. H. Bradley

with similar results.

These observations will be regarded with much interest by geolo-

gists as well as by microscopists. They carry back to a very early

epoch forms of life which have hitherto been looked upon as belong-

ing only to a much more recent era in the life of our planet.

The analogy of these hornstone-nodules to the flints of the Chalk

is obvious ; and the discoveries here announced may be regarded as

establishing their similarity in origin. The organisms figured so

closely resemble those of the flint that they might be taken for them ;

it is difficult in all cases to make out a difference of species.

The extreme abundance of the hornstone-nodules in our paleeozoic

limestones will render it easy to multiply observations in this new field

of research, which presents an interesting addition to the labours of

the microscopist. It will be remembered by those who undertake

such examinations that the use of turpentine renders the chips of

chert almost as transparent as glass.—S¢lliman’s Journal, May 1862,

p. 385.

THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[THIRD SERIES. ]

No. 57. SEPTEMBER 1862.

XVII.—WNotes on rare and little-known Fishes taken at Madeira.

By James Yate Jounson, Cor. Mem. Z.S.

No. I.

Order PHARYNGOGNATHI, Mill.

Fam. Cyclolabride.

Centrolabrus trutta, Lowe, sp.

THE genus Centrolabrus was proposed by Dr. A. Giinther, in his

«Synopsis of the Labroid Genera,” which appeared in the ‘Ann.

and Mag. Nat. Hist.’ for November 1861, for the reception of

those species of the genus Acantholabrus, C. & V., which have

their teeth in a single series instead of in a band. The species

shortly described by Mr. Lowe, in the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1833

(p. 143), under the name of Crenilabrus trutta, will fall into the

genus Centrolabrus; and it appears to me that the three species

described by M. Valenciennes in his ‘ Ichthyologie Canarienne’

(p. 64), under the names of Acantholabrus viridis, A. romeritus,

and A. romerus, not only belong to the present genus, but are

in reality merely varieties of the very species now under con-

sideration.

First, with respect to A. viridis: this fish was considered by

Valenciennes to be near the fish which Mr. Lowe originally called

Crenilabrus luscus, but which was afterwards shortly described

by him under the name of Acantholabrus imbricatus (Trans. Zool.

Soe. vol. iii. p. 11), a fish now ascertained by Dr. Giinther to be

identical with A. Palloni. With the latter species I am well

acquainted, having procured several specimens; and it is quite

distinct from the fish described and figured by Valenciennes

(pl. 17. fig. 4) under the name of A. viridis, in colouring, shape,

and fin-formula, and by the possession of rows uf imbricated

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 12

162 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

scales on the vertical fins. Now, certain fishes which I have

obtaihed agree so nearly both with Valenciennes’s description

and figure of A. viridis, and with Mr. Lowe’s description of

Crenilabrus trutta, that there can be no doubt that both these

naturalists referred to the same species, and that the fishes now

before me also belong to that species. Mr. Lowe’s specific name,

being the older, must be retained. I may remark, however, that

the vertical bands on the sides, spoken of by Mr. Lowe, are not

to be clearly made out on my specimens, although there possibly

are some slight indications of them; neither did I see more than

one spot on the anal fin, whereas he speaks of two or three ;

whilst I perceive five fuscous blotches on the dorsal fin, whereas

he found only four. But these differences are of little con-

sequence, since he met with a variety “ unicolor viridis subim-

maculata ;” and hence it is evident that the colouring is subject

to considerable variation. The fin-formula of A. viridis agrees

(with the trifling exception of 13 being substituted for 14 in the

number of the pectoral rays) both with Mr. Lowe’s account of

Crenilabrus trutta and with the rays observed on my specimens.

It also agrees with that observed in another Canarian fish, of

which Valenciennes made a new species under the name of

Acantholabrus romerus, saving that he assigns 15 rays to the

pectoral fin. The only ground, apparently, for separating the

fish from Crenilabrus trutta was that the four spots on the dorsal

fin and the two or three spots on the anal fin were not seen on

his fish—a difference of very little importance, if this were so in

the living fish. Since the French naturalist only saw stuffed

skins, the spots might have easily disappeared, if there origin-

ally. It may therefore be concluded, I think, that these two

Canarian fishes and Mr. Lowe’s Madeiran fish really belong to

the same species.

On referring to the description given by Valenciennes of a

supposed third Canarian species ( Acantholabrus romeritus), it will

be seen that the only differences pointed out between it and the

other two are in the tint, the number of the teeth, and im the

numbers of the spinous and soft rays of the dorsal and anal fins

(viz. 16 spinous and 9 soft rays in the former, in place of 17

and 8, and in the latter 4 spinous and 9 soft rays, in place of

5 and 8). The differences in the colouring and the dentition

are too trivial to deserve consideration ; and it may be strongly

suspected, considering the general close resemblance, that, in

regard to the fin-rays of the single specimen observed, one of

the dorsal and one of the anal spines had been abnormally con-

verted into soft rays.

A description of the species, drawn up from the three speci-

cimens that have been obtained by me (in January, February,

Fishes taken at Madeira. 163

and March), shall now be given. The synonymy, if my conclu-

sions are correct, will be — ;

Centrolabrus trutta (Lowe), Giinther.

Crenilabrus trutta, Lowe.

Acantholabrus viridis, Val.

Acantholabrus romeritus, Val.

Acantholabrus romerus, Val.

D. 16-17+8-9. A. 45+8-9. V.145. P. 13-15.

C. e+ heav. MiB. 5.

Back and head blackish brown; sides of the same colour,

dappled with bluish green, the middle portion of the scales being

brown with greenish margins, the green dapplings sometimes so

arranged as to form a reticulated pattern ; belly whitish, with a

greenish tinge, the middle of each scale being pale brown; a

dark spot at each side of the tail near the base of the caudal fin ;

the dorsal and anal fins bluish green, with red or orange spots,

and occasionally with some obscure fuscous blotches; pectoral

fins yellow, immaculate; caudal fin yellow, with red or orange

spots or streaks; a blue line under the eye; sometimes blue

lines across the opercular pieces, and occasionally small patches

of pale red in front of the eyes and on the under jaw.

Body oblong, compressed, clothed with rather small scales

having even margins. The height between the ventral fins and

the vent is about equal to the length of the head, and, compared

with the total length, as 1 to 34.

The /ateral line on the anterior part of the body follows the

curve of the back ; but there is a rapid descent under the end of

the dorsal fin, and it is then straight along the tail. The scales

of the lateral line are 35, and in the height of the body about

14 (4+10) may be counted.

The head between and in front of the eyes is scaleless, whilst

the opercle and preopercle are scaly, the former having its mem-

branous border emarginate above the base of the pectoral fin,

and the latter having its vertical edge set with fine teeth and its

horizontal edge serrate. The longer axis of the slightly oval eye

is contained about 52 times in the head. The iris is bright

green, surrounded by a ring of gold. The mouth is small,

furnished with fleshy lips and a protractile upper jaw. Hach

jaw is set with a single row of small canine ¢eeth, which are

larger in front than at the sides. In the upper jaw the number

varies from 7 to 10, and in the lower jaw from 12 to 19. The

palatines and vomer are unarmed.

The long dorsal fin rises out of a groove, and commences a

little in front of the pectoral fins. It is low in front, the spinous

portion being not so high as the soft-rayed portion. The com-

12*

164 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

parative lengths of the bases of the two divisions of the fin are

as 19 to 9. Each spine carries a short filament, and the last

spine is rather longer than its neighbours. The fin is truncate

behind, with the angle rounded off.

The pectoral fins are inserted close to the edge of the opercle;

they are rounded, and their length to the total length of the fish

is as 1 to 54. The ventral fins are in length rather more than

one-seventh of the total length of the fish, and are inserted con-

siderably behind the pectoral fins. The spine is rather more

than half as long as the first soft ray. There is a long scale-like

appendage between their roots. The vent is in front of the

middle of the fish by about one-thirteenth of the whole length.

The anal fin rises from a groove; it is about half as long as the

dorsal fin, and their terminations are opposite each other. The

spinous portion is lower than the rest ; and the spines gradually

increase in length backwards. The fin is truncate behind. The

tail is high and compressed ; its fin is truncate, with the angles

somewhat rounded off.

The following measurements are taken from a specimen which

had a total length of 62 inches, and a height of 2 inches.

inches.

Ebcadt Rutt e GO ue 2) Boe ES eee 14

Hye slonpersaxig tts! (00s Oe Eee ay

Months iwidéhest ees Lee a. aH ae —

Dorsalfin,; length jof base 2): - . facet 24

5 distance from: snout): <4... den emt fe 1;

bs height of soft-rayed part .......... =

Pectoral fins, distance from snout............ 14

55 BIN esi] REN Bs aoe eee Sete, SP a 11

3 See AWICLEIN OE ASC. cc. ieuskesic emis Mhckows ih

Ventral fins, distance from snout ............ 2,4,

3 oop WENOUM re te eicge shee ees Gere shee 1

Vent, distance of its vertical from snout ...... 375

Anal fin lensthom base ee he Pee eee 154

»» 99 height of soft-rayed portion ........ 4

Dail} heights Hr sa5 208% OR TAL Bee eee 4

Order ANACANTHINI, Mill.

Suborder THoractct.

Fam. Gadide.

Uraertvus, Costa, Fauna Neapol.

Body scaly, elongated subelliptical, and attenuated behind,

with two dorsal fins, one anal fin, and jugular fins of seven rays.

Caudal fin distinct. No barbel. Teeth of upper jaw in two

rows, of lower jaw in one row. Seven branchiostegal rays.

Fishes taken at Madeira. 165

Uraleptus Maraldi, Risso, sp.

int Dol] 2nd D. 60, A. 6d. Pied. Vo7. Cost. 20. u.

The body is subelliptical, compressed, elongated, much at-

tenuated behind, and covered with small cycloid scales. The

height compared with the total length is as 1 to 53. The un-

armed head is thick, broad, and flattened above, with a short,

obtuse, rounded snout; its length, compared with the total

length, is as 1 to 44. The large eye reaches to the profile of

the head, and is contained therein four times; it is distant

rather more than a diameter from the tip of the snout, and the

space between the eyes is equal to about one diameter and a

third. The opercular pieces are covered with scales. The upper

jaw is protractile, and the upper border of the mouth is formed

entirely of the premaxillary, which is armed with a row (12-16)

of small pointed teeth, distant from each other and curving in-

wards, behind which is an inner row of minute, sharp, closely-

set teeth. In front the inner row becomes double. The maxil-

lary is covered with colourless skin, and lies, when the mouth is

closed, under the integument behind. The mandible, which is

rather shorter than the upper jaw, carries a single row of (9-14)

conical, pointed, curving teeth, with minute sharp teeth inter-

calated between them. The palatine bones, the vomer, and the

tongue are unarmed. The mouth is white inside; the rictus

of moderate size.

There is no nuchal groove. The first dorsal fin is short, but

rather higher than the second, and commences a little behind

the root of the pectoral fins at the distance of about one-third of

the total length of the fish from the snout; it extends to the

second, which is long, is rather higher in front than behind, and

reaches almost to the caudal fin. The long anal fin commences

almost as far forward as the second dorsal, which it resembles in

shape, and ends opposite to its termination, both being angular

behind. The pectoral fins are long and pointed; they are not

fleshy, and their rays are slender. The slender ventral fins are

inserted in front of the pectoral fins; their second ray is elon-

gate, aud the first and third are also long. The caudal fin,

composed of delicate rays, is lanceolate, and is equal to about

one-ninth of the total length. The vent is far forward, being

situate in the first third of the total length.

The Jateral line commences a little above the opercle, and

follows the curve of the back for its anterior half; it then de-

scends rather rapidly, but is horizontal on the posterior third of

the body. There is no barbel on the chin.

The colour is a dark brownish grey, with a black throat and

pale-red pectoral fins ; the other fins are of a dark indigo hue.

Two examples of this fish have occurred, and these were taken

166 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

in the months of February and March. The smaller one was

71 inches in length, the larger 9 inches, and this had a height

at the first dorsal fin of 1% inch, its head measuring 2 inches

in length. The fishermen style the fish “ Rato,” 7. e. Rat, from

its slender tail-like hinder part.

It may be suspected that this fish is the Gadella gracilis of

Mr. Lowe (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 1. vol. xin. p. 399),

although in his short description he speaks of a single dorsal fin

and subscobinate teeth. I am indebted to Dr. Ginther for

referring me to the descriptions of Gadus Maraldi in Risso’s

‘Iehth. de Nice,’ 125, and Merlucius Maraldi in his ‘ Hist. Nat.de

VEur. Mér.’ iti. 220. The following figures represent in inches

the dimensions of the principal parts of the larger specimen :—

Mouth, depth = width at angle of jaws ...... oy

Biye-saiamtioveny 124 25 26 Ot RC ene eee 4

First dorsal, distance from snout ..,......... 3

Pallas, lenieth) Gi WRSERI2 20.0087. BE. Hele et fot

pers herebibiys trues yatta Bele He 8

Second dorsal, height in front .............. ie

Bectonals, lemgth (°. f.t5if cre «cya cee epee ame Saeee 1545

ae distance sfrom snont., ....0~ «44 siete 244

Wiettrals,temethy cyst a'r one. 3 clegs aoa ae 1i

Anal, distance behind vent"... 05:5). oe. aoe i

Be PMLGIP ME WOON G.. - 2 on eS sata pie eee as a

Cuda Tene Giineea ae ois ck eas eek a eet epee 1

Vent, distance from tip of mandible .......... 2,45

Haxtoporruyrus, Gunther, MS.

Body scaly; two dorsal, one anal, and seven-rayed ventral

fins; a barbel; scobinate bands of teeth in the jaws and on the

pharyngeal bones; scobinate teeth on the vomer; no teeth on

the palatine bones or on the tongue. Branchiostegal membrane

with seven rays.

The only species yet discovered of this genus was imperfectly

described and badly figured by Risso, in his ‘ Hist. Nat. de

VPEur. Mévid’’ (vol. i. p. 218, pl. 11. fig. 40), under the name of

Lota lepidion. From the true Lote, however, it may be distin-

guished by the possession of ventral fins with seven rays, and

by the larger scales. ‘Three specimens having been lately pro-

cured at Madeira, the following description of the species has

been drawn up from them.

Haloporphyrus lepidion, Giinther.

The fin-rays of the three examples were as follows :—

Tst 2. 2nd. D. _ P. Visi Be G

Acs Se oD 2) 7» 49 viz. or viii. + 16+ Vil. or VIII.

Be 4:5 6a 22 Ma

Oo odin HBO h 1%

3) 3)

Fishes taken at Madeira. 167

The fish is of a uniform dark brownish-grey colour, with fins

of a bluish black. The body is oblong, attenuated, and com-

pressed behind, the thickest part being under the second dorsal

fin, and the tail behind the dorsal fin low and thin. In general

appearance it closely resembles Mora mediterranea, Risso (which

has been of late years abundant in the market of Funchal, where

it bears the name of Abrotea do alto), but is at once distinguished

by the single anal fin. The head is scaly, thick, unarmed,

rounded in the neighbourhood of the eyes, and flat between

them; the mucous pores are numerous; the cheeks convex.

The snout is short and rounded. The nostrils are close to-

gether, and the posterior is the smaller; the anterior has an

elevated semitubular border on its hinder side. The eye is

round and of moderate size; it is contained about six times in

the head, is distant about 14 of its diameter from the snout ; it

is high up, and the distance between the two is about 14 of the

diameter.

The seven-rayed branchivstegal membrane is much exposed,

being left in great part unprotected by the gill-cover.

The rictus is wide and moderately deep. The lower portions

of the upper jaw, which is scaleless, are very protrusile; and

when the mouth is open, the orifice is nearly circular. The

lower jaw is furnished with a thick cartilaginous lip, and shuts

inside the upper jaw. ‘There is a barbel at the chin. The pre-

maxillary forms the upper border of the mouth; the maxillary

is broad below, and reaches back nearly to the vertical from the

middle of the eye. The ¢eeth are small, and form scobinate

bands in the premaxillary and mandibles, that in the former

being broader in front and narrowing backwards on each side,

whilst the band in the lower jaw is nearly of the same width

throughout. There is a small patch of similar teeth on the

vomer, but none on the palatines or tongue, which is broad,

thick, and pointed in front. The pharyngeals are armed with

scobinate teeth.

The first dorsal fin is short, having only four rays, of which

the first is much elongated, and is equal to one-third of the total

length of the fish. It commences over the pectoral fins, at a

distance from the snout nearly equal to one-fourth of the total

length of the fish. The long second dorsal fin is separated by only

a short interval from the first. Its rays project beyond the mem-

brane, and it falls in slightly between the two extremities, the

largest rays being in the anterior third. The posterior extre-

mity of the fin is angular, and the last three rays very short.

The highest part of the fin is about two-sevenths of the greatest

height of the fish.

The pointed pectoral fins are inserted in the upper half of the

168 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

height under the first dorsal. The first ray is not quite equal

to the total length of the fin, which is equal to about one-eighth

of the total length of the fish, and reaches back to the fifth ray

of the second dorsal. The fifth, sixth, and seventh rays are

longer than the rest, the last being by a trifle the longest.

The thoracic ventral fins are separated by a wide interval, and

have their first and second rays very long, the latter being to

the total length of the fish as 1 to 43 nearly.

The vent is a little in advance of the anal fin, which is about

two-thirds of the length of the second dorsal fin, and has its

highest part in front. The middle is depressed, the posterior

extremity angular, and it terminates a little in front of the end

of the second dorsal. Like that fin, it has the lower two-thirds

fleshy, and covered with small scales between the rays.

The caudal fin is truncate, and at the middle its length is

about one twenty-third of the total length of the fish.

The deciduous scales are small, and have the free border sim-

ple. The lateral line commences in advance of the first dorsal

fin, rising slightly with a gentle curve, to fall rapidly just behind

the vent, whence it is straight to the middle of the tail. The

scales of the lateral line are about 200; and there are about 85

rows of scales in the height, of which 15 are above the lateral

line.

__ On opening specimen A., the liver was found to be excessively

large, forming three lobes, two of which were 7 inches long and

between 2 and 3 inches across. The pyloric ceca were in two

bundles, eight on each side, and 34 inches in length. An air-

sac with a very thick coat, 4 inches long, lay under the back.

The cecal stomach had also a thick coat, and was 4 inches in

length. The intestine had two convolutions, and was 17 inches

long.

One of the three specimens was taken in the month of January,

the other two in March. Their dimensions in inches are given

in the following table :—

AL) Be MC:

Total lengths (Oi. htt Dhl ak ea ee ee oa aio ZAG

Height under commencement of 2nd dorsal.... 5 | 8 un

Dhickness, same place: .. 2)... 5.02.05 tae. 2 3

Length of head ......... 54 2 | Of

iBives,qlaimeter 4.2 toi ait ache obelcloe ’ apts oe 13

», distance from one to the other...... 1: ; 15%

Mouth, upper jaw, length..............5-+- 23

», Width from side to side when open .... 22

DanUE ae cso dacs oP E EE Ee ake ore Z|

Ist dorsal fin, distance from snout ........ 6 85

_ lenethvof lst ray) so. ee eee 83 | 102 74

B a 2nd vayeree pees ly

Fishes taken at Madeira. 169

; anes tC

Interval between the two dorsals ............ i 3

2nd dorsal fin, length of base .............. 132% | 21

ie eight in: Front) 4.5 4. +:~)o0/0p< 13 235

Pectorals, distance from snout .......... 6 8

- length need 3t 42 22

nA WIG OL DESO. ooh is Ads cine seta atest ans Th 2

NW entrals, lengthy Of Est FAY. yeni es ian cleo» « 4z .

», length of 2nd (longest) ray ........ 53 oa aa

im GUBtAMIEEAPOEG 8 ee ye ttn ers o' eres 12 13

pe Pee wleorGl Dases oct) sts Sd eae ae aa

Ventiodistance:from-snout.. 3. S000. 8.003255 41

Anal, distance from snout................-. 114 | 153

Pome leniGti, CLO HABE I fale g!aps's shel aid as "Wiahae: si o8 9 134

HCE HGR eerie CAS. «(3h Sai ind = 4 (Sakets Le ee

Caudal weneth-at middle. coc. wc ses rare 15

Tail, height behind 2nd dorsal.............. Z| 1

Fam. Macrouride.

Macrovrvs, Bloch.

Of this curious genus Mr. Lowe has given short diagnoses of

three species taken at Madeira, viz. M. atlanticus, M. levis, and

M. serratus. Specimens of only the first two have fallen in my

way ; and I will now describe them from my notes. Both are of

rare occurrence, but the first is taken more frequently than the

second. It appears to be the fish which is figured m the ‘ Fauna

Italica’ under the name of M. Mysticetus, and described in the

text under the name of M. celorynchus, although there are con-

siderable differences between the numbers of the rays in the

dorsal and anal fins as stated by Bonaparte (lst D. 9; 2nd D.

68; A. 83) and those given below.

Macrourus celorynchus, Risso, Ichth. Nice, p. 200 ;

Hist. Nat. i. 244.

M. atlanticus, Lowe, Trans. Zool. Soe. i. p. 15.

Ist D: 10. ° 2nd D. 98. A.110. P. 15-20. V. 7. M.B. 6+.

The head is thick and subcubical, the body compressed and

much attenuated behind, so that the tail with its fin terminates

in a point. The body is dark grey above, the belly paler grey ;

the anal, pectoral, and ventral fins black. It is clothed with

small scales that have a tessellated arrangement, and are rough

with numerous minute spines, but are without a keel. The head

compared with the total length is as 1 to 4; the height of the

* Risso assigns seven, Bonaparte five branchiostegal rays to M. ce-

lorynchus.

170 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

body to the length as 1 to 74. The head, between the eyes, is

concave; two crests with numerous small spines commence over

the middle of the eyes, and run backwards. The postero-supe-

rior orbit of the eye is spinous, and a spinous crest runs back-

wards from it. The rest of the head is covered with minute

villiform spines, except the space around each pair of nostrils,

which is naked. The large eye is contained about three times

its longer diameter in the head, about twelve times in the total

length, and is distant about one diameter from the tip of the

snout. The eyes are separated from each other by a space

about equal to their own shorter diameter. The projecting

snout is subcarinate both above and below, and it is sub-

trilobate at the tip. There runs backwards from it between

the eye and the mouth, almost to the posterior angle of the

subopercle, a keel or broad crest (bearmg a band of small

spines), that gives a remarkable appearance to the head. The

mouth is on the under side of the head, as in the case of the

Shark tribe. The upper border of the mouth is formed partly

by the premaxillary and partly by the maxillary; but only the

former is set with teeth. There is a villiform band of teeth in

each jaw, but none on the palate, vomer, or tongue. The upper

jaw is very protractile. The pharynx and the inside of the gill-

covers are black. The chin carries a short barbel.

The first dorsal fin has ten rays, and is a little posterior to

the vertical passing through the roots of the pectoral and ven-

tral fins. Its longest rays, when pressed to the back, reach to

the commencement of the second dorsal. It begins at a distance

from the snout equal to about one-fourth of the total length of

the fish, and its height is rather less than the height of the body

under it, but much greater than that of the second dorsal. The

first ray is not serrated; it is slightly longer, but not stronger,

than the next three rays. The last ray is about one-third of the

length of the first.

The second dorsal fin commences behind the commencement

of the anal fin, and is much lower than that fin. Both of them

unite with the caudal without a break. The space separating

the two dorsal fins is about one-third the length of the head.

The pointed pectoral fins are inserted near the border of the

opercle, and their length is about equal to half the length of the

head ; they reach backwards to the commencement of the anal

fin, but not quite so far as the commencement of the second

dorsal fin.

The ventral fins are placed under the roots of the pectoral

fins. The first ray is produced, and reaches back as far as the

vent, which is situated at a distance from the tip of the snout

equal to one-third of the total length of the fish. Between the

Fishes taken at Madeira. 171

ventral fins there is a depression, the middle part of which is

scaleless.

The anal fin commences under the space separating the two

dorsal fins, and is higher and more distinct than the second

dorsal; it is highest at the middle. There are about 82 rays in

it, counting all to the tip of the tail.

The Jateral line, in the anterior part of its course, is nearly

parallel with the outline of the back ; it descends a little under

the anterior part of the second dorsal, and is then straight along

the middle of the tail.

The following are the dimensions in inches of the two longest

specimens that have occurred :—

Total length ...... ii nail soba ta 10 134

Height under first dorsal............ 153) 1z

Thickness at pectorals .............. fo 1;

Ppa deulentin (, doce lela ee eon ales 245 | 35%

,, thickness behind eyes 15 12

Eye, longer diameter ......... ee ty 12

PE HDOLLCR MUISMICLED 21... o'er iain, ayeh- sr 6

Hirst dorsal, Rew 3.6 5, cos ott sites eet os dercgs 1,3

a distance from snout...... 23

Second dorsal, distance from snout.... 34 55

APE CHOCHIS; LORE GER 0.5 copane saxw'e pie mincttew.? 15 15

- distance from’ snout’........ 27% | - 333)

Ventrals, length of first ray.......... 15 145

Vent, distance from tip of mandible .. 158 | 39

Anal, distance from vent ............ fi

» height at imiddle.:). 01. .5...20)- : 4

Banrbel;; lenethy (es 36+) ates see SE 4

Macrourus levis, Lowe, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 1.

vol. xi. p. 400.

dep. Oe -2nde Di A.<&: C..00.. Ps Iban Vi Sc. MB,

The body is coloured a light grey, and has a sleek appearance,

from the smallness of the scales; those on the head and cheeks

are rougher. The head is rather less than one-sixth of the total

length of the body, the height of which (under the first dorsal)

is contained rather more than seven times in the length. The

body attenuates rapidly behind the first dorsal fin. The head is

subcubical, the snout short and blunt. On the vertex is a ridge

rising from depressions between the eyes, which are oval. The

cheeks are flat; the mouth is on the under side of the snout,

which projects one-fifth the length of the head beyond the

mouth. The upper border of the mouth is formed entirely of

the premaxillary. The ¢eeth are small and acute, forming two

rows in the upper jaw, those of the outer row being conical,

curved, and larger, but fewer and more irregularly disposed than

172 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on Fishes from Madeira.

those of the inner row. In the lower jaw there is but a single

row of teeth, and these are similar in form to the teeth in the

outer row above. The palatines, vomer, and tongue are un-

armed. The mouth is white within, and ue tongue is only free

near the tip. The chin carries a small barbel.

The first dorsal fin is much higher than the second; it com-

mences at a distance from the snout equal to a little more than

the length of the head. It is highest in front, where its height

is about three-fourths of that of the body under it; but its

longest rays, when pressed to the body, do not nearly reach back

to the commencement of the second dorsal. The first spine is

not serrated.

The second dorsal fin unites, like the anal, with the caudal.

The pointed pectoral fins are inserted under the first dorsal

fin, and are about half as long as the head.

The short ventral fins have their roots under the roots of the

pectoral fins.

The vent is distant from the snout about one-fifth of the total

length, and the anal fin commences shortly behind it under the

root of the pectorals.

The Jateral line in the anterior part of the body follows the

curve of the back; it descends rather rapidly behind the tip of

the pectoral fin, and is straight along the middle of the body

and tail.

Differences in the dentition, the scales, the configuration of

the sides of the head, the position of the vent, and the structure

of the ventral fins, distinguish this species from the preceding

one; whilst both may be discriminated from M. serratus by the

simple, not serrated, first spine of the first dorsal fin.

The following measurements were taken from the single spe-

- eimen that has occurred, now in the British Museum :—

Motalwlene tc. scones wassyem ase os ere es 143

Height under first dorsal ............ EPR ee

Thickness of body near Sera, Resear ts i

Head, length .. See ee ane et ee

93 thickness behind eyes. PAL EE Baa ade A 1,3

Snout, distance from tip to mouth .......... =

Eye, longer axis. . Waa Wo hed SER AERTS keeles

Upper jawslensth: 3 esc ices eS ae 154

First dorsal, distance from snout ............ 258,

x Heights; ee 252 eee eae eRe 1545

Second dorsal, distance from snout .......... 4555

Pectorals, length ody oeagang rts ll aes

Vent, distance from tip of under j jaw ore, teeter 2555

Ventrals, distance from vent... .+...«2ess.o- 4

Barbel.... 6

Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori. 173

XVIII.—On the Mexican Species of Hydropori.

By the Rev. Hamier Crark, M.A., F.L.S.

A VERY interesting and valuable collection of Coleoptera, made

by M. Truqui during his residence of several years in Mexico,

has recently passed into the hands of my friend Mr. Alexander

Fry. The Dytiscide of this collection I have, by Mr. Fry’s

kindness, carefully examined. Some of the species of the group

are well known; but many others (and these especially the

smaller species) appear to be new to science. The genus Hydro-

porus especially (represented by sixteen species) presents no

form that I am able to recognize as already described by Say,

Melsheimer, or Leconte. Say’s descriptions are somewhat im-

perfect, and, in the absence of typical specimens, often insufli-

cient ; and I have been unable to examine the fifth volume of

the ‘Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York,’

in which many of Leconte’s species are described. With the

aid, however, of the admirable analysis of the Hydropori of the

States, drawn up by Dr. Leconte, and published in the ‘ Pro-

ceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences,’ April 1855, and

especially (in some cases) of type-specimens of interesting spe-

cies described by him, which that gentleman has added to my

cabinet, I have been able to satisfy myself of this, at least, that,

whatever may be the characterized species of Mexican Hydro-

port, none of them are to be found among the species which I

have been recently examining. I propose therefore in this paper

briefly to describe the new species from Mr. Fry’s cabinet and

my own, having first enumerated those Mexican species of this

genus that (so far as I know) are already determined. With the

aid of Dr. Leconte (by his interesting set of types from his cabi-

net, and also copies of valuable papers by him on North-American

Coleoptera), and by the kindness of M. Bonvouloir of Paris (who

has entrusted to me for comparison type-specimens of North-

American species named by M. Aubé), I believe that the list is

tolerably accurate. The prefix to each species of a letter and

figure indicates the subsection of the genus, as adopted in the

following paper, to which the species may be referred.

Species already described by authors :—

(A. 1.) H. punctatus, Say, Long’s Second Exped. Philad. 1824,

27k.

——., Aubé, Species Général, 1838, 471.

(A. 1.) H. cuspidatus, Germ. Faun. Ins. Eur. v. t. 4.

Hyphydrus notatus, Say (?).

(B. 2.) H. lacustris,.Melsh.; Say, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc.

1823, u. 103.

H. pulicarius, Aubé, Species Général, 1838, 495.

174 Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori.

(A. 3.) H. striatellus, Lec. Proc. Ac. N. Se. 1855, 295.

(A.3 a.) H. mizxtus, Lec. Proc. Ac. N. Se. vii. 296.

.) H. semirufus, Lec. Proc. Ac. N. Se. vii. 296.

i 3a.) H. vittatus, Lec. Proc. Ac. N. Se. vii. 296.

.) H. catascopium, Say, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 11. 103.

H. interruptus, Say, Trans. Am. Phil. Soe. iv. 445.

H. parallelus, Say, Acad. Nat. Scien. Phil. in. 153.

.) H. vilis, Lec. An. Lye. N. Hist. v.

H. concinnus, Lec. Proce. Acad. N. Se. vi. 297.

.) H. patruelis, Lee. ibid. vii. 298.

.) H. nubilus, Lee. ibid. vii. 298.

a H. discoideus, Lec. ibid. vii. 298.

) H. bifidus, Say, Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. iv, 444.

it nudatus, Say, 1b. iv. 444.

H. sericatus, Say, ib. iv. 445.

SEPEEPEEEE

9 G9 O29 69 O9 OO Oo 09

Ser eoows

Lec Yer Yc oe Na W pe We em)

Hyproporvs, Clairv.

A. Thorace haud striolato.

1. RorunDATI.

1. H. Portmanni, un. sp.

H. subcircularis, latus, depressus, leviter punctatus; thorace pene

triangulari, flavo-ferrugineo; elytris flavis, ad suturam nigris ;

antennis pedibusque flavis.

Long. corp. 14 lin., lat. —-1 lin.

Broad and depressed, glabrous, under a high power very

finely punctate, in colour ferruginous or flavo-ferruginous :

head broad, impunctate, black: thorax broadly transverse,

much narrower laterally than medially, the sides being very

short; the surface is anteriorly finely punctate, more distinctly

so towards the base; in colour flavo-ferruginous, the anterior

margin being more pale than the base; the form of the thorax

is remarkable—it is subtriangular, by reason of its deep scutel-

lary angle and its narrow sides: elytra broad, depressed, finely

punctate, more distinctly so than in #H. Bryanstonii ; ; In colour

flavous, faintly clouded with fusco-flavous, the sutural line being

distinctly black : abdomen and underside black : legs and antenne

pale flavous.

Nearly related to H. Bryanstoni ; in several distinct parti-

culars, however, it differs from it: it is larger in size; it is less

brightly glabrous, the coloration is more distinctly pale, and the

punctations on the elytra are more distinct. Allied to H. pus-

tulatus, Melsh., which is found in North America; it is a trifle

broader, not so convex, and more glabrous.

Mexico. In the cabinets of Mr. Fry and the Rev. Hamlet

Clark.

Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori. 175

2. H. Leconteiti, n. sp.

H. subovatus, rotundatus, punctatus, nigro-ferrugineus; capite

nigro ; thorace rufo-ferrugineo, antice et postice nigro marginato ;

elytris rufo-ferrugineis, obscure nigro-fuscatis ; antennis pedibus-

que rufo-flavis.

Long. corp. 14 lin., lat. 3—4 lin.

Perceptibly narrower than H. Portmanni, and somewhat more

convex; in the single dexample before me the surface is very

dull and opake: it is a question whether this is sexual, as in

many other species. The surface of the elytra, when viewed

under a high power, is sparingly and distinctly punctate ; other

very minute and frequent punctures give to the surface the

appearance of delicate granulation.

H, Leconte closely resembles a species (I believe unde-

scribed) which I have received from Florida, and which must

apparently be placed near H. farctus, Lec.

I name this species after Dr. Leconte of Philadelphia, who

has carefully studied the Hydrocantharide of North America,

and to whose excellent papers in the ‘ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences’

and in the ‘ Annals of the Lyceum of Nat. Hist, of New York ’

we are indebted for nearly all that is known of the many inter-

esting species of this vast continent.

Mexico; the exact- locality unrecorded. A single specimen,

taken by the late M. Truqui.

3. H. Bryanstoni, n. sp.

H. latus, subcircularis, depressus, subtiliter punctatus, glaber, rufo-

ferrugineus; thorace rufo-fusco; elytris utrimque ad suturam

breviter et tenuiter striatis.

Long. corp. | lin., lat. 4 lin.

Broad, subcircular, depressed, glabrous, finely punctate, rufo-

ferruginous: head broadly transverse: thorax broad, the sides

somewhat rounded and much constricted in front; the sur-

face is very finely punctate, in colour rufo-fuscous, the medial

disk being. always darker than the sides: elytra broad, sub-

depressed, finely punctate, glabrous ; near the suture is, on either

side, a short and indistinctly punctured stria; the surface is

ferruginous or rufo-ferruginous in colour: abdomen and under-

side black, the mesothorax being rufous: legs rufous: antenne

pale rufous.

This species varies but little in coloration, and apparently is

not rare. I have specimens before me, from Mr. Fry’s cabinet,

received from M.Truqui, and also from my own, which I ob-

tained through Mr. Stevens: all the examples manifest the same

ferruginous colour. It may be distinguished by its almost cir-

cular depressed form, its g/abrous surface, and the short and almost

176 Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori.

obsolete stria at the base of the elytra. At first sight the species

might be taken for large and dark specimens of H. convexus, Aubé

(found in the States) ; it is, however, an entirely separate species.

Tn the collections of the British Museum, Mr. Fry, and the

Rey. H. Clark. :

2. BREVITER OVATI.

4. H. Roffit, n. sp.

H. latus, robustus, impubescens, punctato-striatus, niger ; elytris ad

basin rufo notatis, ad apicem juxta marginem rufo maculatis, pedi-

bus fuscis.

Long. corp. 2 lin., lat. 1 lin.

Ovate, broad, robust, impubescent, punctate-striate, black,

the base and apex of the elytra being frequently rufo-maculate :

head broadly transverse ; when seen from the front, two distinct

depressions are apparent on either side near the inner surface of

the eyes; under a high power the surface is finely punctate,

the apex and line of the base being more or less distinctly

marked with rufous : thorax broadly transverse, the sides slightly

rounded and much constricted towards the front; the surface is

subglobose ; parallel to the anterior and also the posterior mar-

gin is a depressed line of punctures, those at the base being

more distinctly apparent: elytra broad, attenuate towards the

apex, subglobose, with three distinctly impressed rows of striz,

and a few single deep punctures near the line of the base be-

tween the first and second striz; the surface (when seen under

a high power) is very finely granulated, in colour black, the line

of the base being marked with rufous (in some examples this

basal marking is almost obsolete) ; towards the apex, near the

margins, are two or three well-defined red spots; the apex itself

also is distinctly marked with red : abdomen and underside black :

legs fuscous: antenne rufous, the apical joints being rufo-

fuscous.

Var. A. The elytra in colour entirely black ; in all examples,

however, there is an indication, however faint, of rufous colouring

at the apex.

Several examples before me of this species from M. Truqui’s

collection exhibit every shade of coloration, from the typical

pattern to the almost black variety.

In the cabinets of the British Museum, Mr. Fry, and the

Rev. Hamlet Clark.

5. H. decemsignatus, n. sp.

H. ovatus, ad apicem attenuatus, punctato-striatus, niger; elytris

flavo decemnotatis ; antennis testaceis ; pedibus fuscis.

Long. corp. 2 lin., lat. 1 lin.

Broadly ovate, compressed and attenuated towards the apex,

Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori. 177

punctate-striate, of a dull black colour: head broad, im-

punctate, with two insulated depressions, one on either side of

the inner margin of the eyes, in colour black, the basal line

and also the apex being obscurely tinged with rufous: thorax

broad, the lateral margin being much constricted towards the

front, and in a continuous line with the lateral margin of the

head ; the surface (under a high power) is obsoletely rugose ;

parallel with the anterior margin is a line of faintly impressed

punctures; in colour black, with a medial circular spot of suf-

fused rufous (in a second example there is a distinct trace of a

similar suffused rufous marking near the margin) : elytra broad,

attenuated towards the apex, with three lines of faintly impressed

punctures—one near the suture, another medial, and a third at

some distance from the lateral margin; the surface is of a dull

black colour, with five markings of flavous on each elytron—one

at the base, transverse and parallel to the margin (sometimes con-

tinued at the shoulders in a line parallel to the lateral margin) ;

the four others are smaller, of equal size, in form either sub-

circular or somewhat quadrate ; of these, two are near the lateral

margin, one is situate at the apex, and a fourth medially near

the suture: abdomen and underside fusco-rufous, sometimes

almost black : antenne testaceous: legs, the anterior rufo-testa-

ceous, the posterior fusco-rufous.

This species may be separated at once from all others by the

very distinct flavous markings on its elytra.

I know of only two examples of the species, both taken by

M. Truqui in Mexico: one in the collection of Mr. Fry; the

other, by that gentleman’s kindness, in my own.

3. OBLONGI.

6. H. Wardii, n. sp.

H., ovatus, elongatus, subdepressus, punctulatus; thorace flavo, ad

medium fusco; elytris leviter striatis, rufo-ferrugineis, ad basin et

suturam flavis; pedibus rufo-flavis ; antennis flavis.

Long. corp. 2 lin., lat. 1 lin.

Ovate, depressed, subelongate, finely punctate, rufo-fuscous :

head broad ; when viewed from above, a slight depression may

be traced near the inner margins of the eyes; the surface is

glabrous, finely punctate, and flavous, the line of the base and

of the inner margins of the eyes being black : thorax broadly

transverse, narrow, the anterior margin straight ; the sides are

somewhat constricted in front; the basal margin (medially)

broadly punctate; the surface, obsoletely punctate and with a

distinct line of deeper punctures parallel to the anterior margin,

is in colour flavous, with a medial suffused spot of fuscous, the

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. x. 13

178 Rey. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori.

basal line being also medially and broadly black : elytra attenuate

towards the apex, finely and thickly punctate, throughout gla-

brous; near the anterior margin, traces may be discerned of

three obsolete striz, which become evanescent before the middle;

in colour rufo-ferruginous, the line of suture, the anterior mar-

gin, and the lateral margins being more or less flavous; this

flavous coloration is most apparent near the shoulders, but varies

somewhat in degree: abdomen and underside black: legs rufo-

flavous : antenne flavous, the apical joints being medially suffused

with fuscous.

H. Wardii resembles in general appearance H. nubilus, Le-

conte, a species found in Kansas: it is more glabrous, less deeply

punctate; and in H. nubilus, Lec., there is no trace of punctate

striz on the elytra.

Mexico. In the collection of the Rev. Hamlet Clark.

7. H. Kingii, nu. sp.

HI. ovatus, subdepressus, punctulatus; thorace nigro, marginibus

flavis ; elytris rufo-fuscis ; pedibus antennisque rufo-testaceis.

Long. corp. 1} lin., lat. 3 lin.

Ovate, broad, subdepressed ; when seen under a high power,

finely and sparingly punctate; glabrous, darkly castaneous :

head broadly transverse, impunctate, black: thorax broadly

transverse, the sides rounded in form, the marginal line being

continuous with that of the sides of the elytra and also

of the head; the anterior margin is straight, the anterior

angles being subprominent; parallel to the anterior margin

is a row of minute punctures; the surface generally is impunc-

tate and glabrous, with faint traces near the base of obsolete

punctures; in colour black, the sides being suffused more or

less broadly with flavous: elytra sufficiently robust, towards the

apex subacuminated (but not so distinctly as in H. Wardi); the

surface is finely and somewhat sparingly punctate throughout,

with a single medial stria of closely-arranged minute punctures

on each elytron: abdomen and underside black : legs and antenne

rufo-testaceous.

A much smaller insect than H. Wardii, though similar to it

in form; not unlike H. suturalis, Leconte, but more parallel and

a trifle narrower.

Taken by M. Truqui in Mexico.

8. H. equinoctialis, n. sp.

H. oblongo-ovatus, subdepressus, confertissime subpunctatus, fusco-

niger ; capite levi, ad basin obsolete punctato, nigro, ad medium

suffuse rufo; thorace sat lato, subtiliter rugoso, lateribus haud

marginatis, cum elytrorum humeris angulum valde obtusum for-

mantibus, rufis, ad medium baseos nigro binotatis ; elytris 4-striatis,

Rey. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori. 179

confertissime punctatis, nigris vel fusco-nigris, ad humeros et

marginem testaceo notatis ; pedibus rufo-fuscis.

Long. corp. 2 lin., lat. 1 lin.

Oblong-oval, subattenuated towards the apex, subdepressed ;

when viewed under a high power, the surface is very thickly and

minutely punctate; elytra punctate-striate, im colour black or

fuscous black marked with rufous: head finely and thickly punc-

tate, black, the medial anterior disk being suffused with rufous :

thorax broadly transverse, in front distinctly excavated; the

sides are subconstricted and very narrowly marginate; the

basal line is broadly and distinctly angulated in the place of the

scutellum ; when viewed obliquely, a row of fine punctures is

discernible parallel to the anterior and also to the basal margins

(these lines of punctures in different examples vary somewhat in

breadth) ; in colour rufo-flavous, the anterior margin and also

two medial basal circular markings being black; the margina-

tion is also narrowly black: elytra sufficiently robust, subde-

pressed, and slightly acuminate; the shoulders are somewhat

rounded, thus forming a distinct angle with the line of the

margination of the thorax ; towards the apex the surface is very

finely and thickly punctate, with four rows of deeper and more

distinctly punctate strize (that near the line of margination being

sometimes more obsolete) ; the colour is dark fuscous, with an

irregular, short, longitudinal rufous marking at the base between

each stria, and other irregular longitudinal markings distributed

throughout the surface, more distinctly near the line of margina-

tion; in different examples these markings vary considerably in

number and degree of coloration: abdomen and underside black :

legs flavo-rufous ; antenne rufous, the apex being more or less

fuscous.

The three examples before me of this species present some

variation in the form and extent of the markings on the elytra.

It is a very distinct and handsome species.

San Angel and Cuernavaca, Mexico. In the collections of

Mr. Fry and the Rev. Hamlet Clark.

9. H. infaustus, nu. sp.

H. oblongo-ovalis, subparallelus, antice sat obtusus, confertissime et

obsolete punctatus, punctato-striatus, niger; capite brevi, inter

oculos undique late et obsolete depresso, punctatissimo, nigro, ad

medium prope basin transverse rufo notato; thorace transverso,

lato, ad latera tenuiter marginato, prope basin irregulariter trans-

verse depresso, punctatissimo, nigro, ad medium rufo notato ; ely-

tris sat productis, ad apicem subacuminatis, subtiliter punctatissi-

mis, punctato-striatis, nigris, ad latera obsolete rufo vel fusco

13*

180 Rey. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori.

notatis ; pedibus rufo-testaceis, femoribus posticis nigro suffusis ;

abdomine nigro.

Long. corp. 2 lin., lat. 1 lin.

Oval, somewhat produced, punctate-striate, black : head broad,

on either side in front is an obsolete depression; the surface

(under a high power) is very finely and thickly punctate, in co-

lour black ; near the line of the base a narrow transverse band

of flavous is well defined : thorax broadly transverse, the ante-

rior margin excavated; the sides subparallel and rounded in

front, very narrowly and evenly marginate ; the line of the base

is broadly angulated at the region of the scutellum ; the surface

is finely and thickly punctate and medially somewhat rugose,

with a row of minute punctures parallel to the anterior mar-

gin; near the base it is medially transversely depressed, in

colour fuscous black, with a post-medial marking (sometimes

almost obsolete, sometimes subcircular and suffused) of flavous :

elytra somewhat acuminated at the apex; the shoulders are

sufficiently prominent, thus forming an angle with the line of

the margination of the thorax; the surface is very finely punc-

tate, with six deep punctate striz (more obsolete near the mar-

gins and apex) of a dull black colour, three or four obsolete

markings of flavous being more or less distinct near the line of

margination : abdomen and underside black: legs flavous, the

apical joints being fuscous.

More deeply striated, narrower, and darker than H. equi-

noctialis, and unmarked on the elytra by longitudinal flavous

lines.

A single specimen, taken between Nopaluca and Vera Cruz

by M. Truqui.

10. H. infacetus, n. sp.

H. parallelus, punctatus, rufo-ferrugineus ; capite flavo, ad medium

rufo-fusco ; thorace rufo-flavo; elytris rufo-ferrugineis, ad basin

flavo lineatis, sutura fusca; pedibus antennisque rufo-flavis.

Long. corp. 14 lin., lat. # lin.

Parallel, subovate, thickly punctate, rufo-ferruginous : head

finely punctate, flavo-testaceous ; near the inner margin of the

eyes is a longitudinal suffused marking of rufo-fuscous: thorax

transverse, finely punctate, rufo-flavous : elytra subparallel, suf-

ficiently robust, the sides near the anterior angles forming an

obtuse angle with the sides of the thorax; the surface is thickly

punctate and rufo-ferruginous, the anterior margin and also the

longitudinal medial lines being flavous; these lines, three or

four in number, are more or less obsolete; the extreme apex is

Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori. 181

also flavous, and the sutural line narrowly fuscous : abdomen and

underside black : legs and antenne rufo-flavous.

H. infacetus approaches in general appearance and colour H.

Wardu: it differs, however, materially in form; it is broader

and more parallel, the punctures also are coarser, and its elytra

are marked with distinct flavous medial longitudinal lines. It

is smaller than H. Kingiz. From other species it differs by its

parallel form and distinct punctures on the surface of the elytra.

A single specimen, taken by M. Truqui in Mexico, has no

distinct locality affixed to it. In the collection of Mr. Fry.

B. Thorax striola utrinque basali.

a. In elytris continuata.

1. BREVITER OVATUS, SAT CONVEXUS.

ll. A. Fryii, n. sp.

H, breviter ovatus, ad apicem subattenuatus, punctatus, niger vel

ferrugineo-niger ; thorace fortiter punctato, undique ad latera

antice transverse flavo notato, linea basali attenuata, constricta,

elongata ; elytris maculis quatuor magnis, his ad humeros sub-

circularibus, illis apicem versus elongatulis.

Long. corp. 1 lin., lat. 3 lin.

A very pretty species, quite distinct in pattern from any de-

scribed as North-American species: it would probably range

under Section C. of Leconte’s Analytical Table of Hydropori of

the States (Proceedings of Academy of Natural Sciences, April

1855) ; im general pattern it resembles at first sight H. deco-

ratus, Gyll., and H. cuspidatus, Kunz., Aubé ; in form, size, and

also in pattern, it approaches H. pumilio, Dj., Aubé, but is much

less coarsely punctate ; it is remarkable for the fine thread-like

character of its thoracic longitudinal striz, which are not short

and broadly defined, but elongated and narrow, as if formed by

the scratch of a pin; there are no traces of striz on its elytra,

except in the scutellary region, where there is an abbreviated

row of indistinct punctures near the suture: the surface of the

elytra is sparingly covered with minute punctures: legs and an-

tenne fuscous.

My friend Mr. Alexander Fry has kindly placed at my dis-

posal the whole of the collection of Hydrocantharide made by

M. Truqui, for the purpose of examination and description. [

have pleasure in dedicating to him this very distinct and pretty

species.

Taken by M. Truqui in Mexico (locality unrecorded). In the

cabinets of Mr. Fry and the Rey. H. Clark.

182 Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori.

2. OBLONGI.

12. H. Magensis, n. sp.

#1. sat robustus, subpubescens ; thorace ad basin transverse depresso,

nigro, antice flavo; elytris punctato-striatis.

Long. corp. 12 lin,, lat. 3 lin.

Ovate, broad, sufficiently robust, very finely and sparingly

pubescent: head transverse, impunctate, glabrous; below the

inner margin of the eyes on either side is a minute fovea, and

parallel to the line of the base is a minute longitudinal depres-

sion; in colour black : thorax somewhat narrow, transverse; on

either side is a distinct, longitudinal, somewhat oblique fovea,

extending from the middle to the line of the base ; the surface

is thickly punctate ; when viewed obliquely, a transverse shallow

depression may be discerned near the middle, and also a minute

punctured fovea near to the anterior margin; in colour black,

the anterior margin and sides being distinctly suffused with

flavous: elytra broad, robust, very finely pubescent ; beneath

this pubescence are distinct punctures, and also a faintly punc-

tate stria; at the anterior margin, halfway between the suture

and the lateral angles, is a short depressed fovea, corresponding

in position with the fovea on the thorax; in colour a deep brown

black : abdomen and underside black: legs rufous: antenne rufo-

fuscous.

A single example of this species is in my collection, received

some years ago through Mr. S. Stevens. Locality “ Mexico.”

13. H. Charlotta, n. sp.

H. ovatus, subelongatus, punctatus, flavo-ferrugineus ; elytris rufo-

flavis, limeis obscuris tribus aut quatuor fuscis; antennis rufo-

testaceis.

Long. corp. 1 lin., lat. 3 lin.

Ovate, subparallel, punctate, glabrous, of a flavo-ferruginous

colour: head broad, im colour rufo-flavous: thorax broad; the

sides are somewhat rounded in form and constricted towards the

front; the anterior margin is straight; the surface is thickly

and obsoletely punctate; on either side of the middle, near

the line of the base, are two short and distinct foveze extending

halfway to the anterior margin ; the surface is glabrous, and in

colour flavo-ferruginous: elytra sufficiently broad, slightly con-

stricted in front, the margins near the base forming an oblique

angle with the line of the thorax; the surface is thickly and

obsoletely punctate ; near the basal line, immediately opposite

the thoracic fovea, is a short longitudinal depression, broader and

less distinetly defined than the fovea of the thorax ; in colour rufo-

Rev. H. Clark on the Mexican Species of Hydropori. 183

flavous, with three or four obscure fuscous lines extending from

the base nearly to the apex: abdomen and underside rufo-flavous :

legs and antenne rufo-testaceous.

H. Charlottii approaches in character to H. Magensis; it is

broader, the apex of the elytra is somewhat less attenuated, and

its coloration is entirely different. The species very closely

resembles a pale variety of H. nanus, Aubé (=H. affinis of Say),

examples of which I have received from Dr. Leconte. The

species before us is larger, a trifle more parallel in form, the

longitudinal markings on the elytra are less distinctly defined,

and the punctures on the elytra are less distinct.

Taken by M. Truqui in Mexico.

14. H. Emilianus, u. sp.

H. ovatus, impubescens, punctatus, rufo-ferrugineus ; capite flavo,

ad medium fusco suffuso; thoracis lateribus flavo suffusis ; elytris

punctatis ; antennis rufo-flavis.

Long. corp. # lin., lat. 2 lin.

Ovate, impubescent, thickly and finely punctate, rufo-ferrugi-

nous: ead transverse, impunctate, glabrous, in colour flavous,

the inner margins of the eyes near the base being suffused with

fuscous : thorax transverse, the sides subparallel and constricted

in front; the surface is elabrous and finely punctate, more di-

stinctly near the base; on either side of the middle, connected

with the line of the base, is a short, well-defined, longitudinal

fovea: elytra parallel, subattenuate near the apex, thickly but

obsoletely punctate; at the anterior margin (halfway between

the humeral angles and the suture) is a short longitudinal fovea,

corresponding in position to the thoracic fovea; the surface in

colour is rufo-ferruginous or fuscous, the sides being more or

less distinctly suffused with flavous: abdomen and underside dark

fuscous ; legs flavous; antenne rufo-flavous.

Closely allied to H. Magensis, from which, however, it may be

separated by its smaller size and its glabrous and impubescent

elytra, as well as by its coloration : it is somewhat smaller, more

ovate, and less parallel than H. nanus, Aubé, more nearly related

still to H. erythrostomus, Man., a northern species, found in

Russian America.

I have three examples of H. Emilianus before me, from Mr.

Fry’s and my own collections, all from Mexico, though doubt-

less taken in different localities. I can trace no tendency to

variation in the species.

15. H. adumbratus, u. sp.

H. oblongo-ovalis, punctatus, pubescens; capite fusco, interdum

antice rufo-fusco; thorace flavo, ad basin plus minus fusco; ely-

184 Mr. W H. Benson on Indian and Burmese

tris subtiliter punctatis, subpubescentibus, fuscis ; antennis pedi-

busque rufo-flavis.

Long. corp. + lin., lat. 2 lin.

This minute species varies somewhat in size and also in colour :

one example before me is of a deep-black colour, the thorax

being somewhat fuscous; this same example is perceptibly

smaller in size. In the absence of any series of specimens, [

can detect no necessarily permanent difference which would

constitute it a distinct species. H. adumbratus is less distinctly

punctured than H. Emilianus ; it is, moreover, easily recognized

by its manifest pubescence.

Three examples were taken by M. Truqui in Mexico. In the

cabinets of Mr. Fry and the Rev. Hamlet Clark.

b. Thoracis striola in elytris haud continuata.

16. H. apicatus, un. sp.

H. breviter ovatus, apice attenuatus, subrotundatus, modice depressus,

glaber, punctatus; capite flavo; thorace ad basin subtilissime

punctato, rufo-flavo aut flavo; elytris crebre punctatis, rufo-

ferrugineis ; pedibus antennisque flavis.

Long. 2-4 lin., lat. 2 lin.

This pretty minute species resembles in size and coloration

H. convexus, Aubé (= Desmopachria nitida, Bab., Trans. Ent. Soc.

Lond. iii. p. 16), of Brazil: it is, however, an entirely different

species ; the basal strize of the thorax place it in a different sec-

tion of the genus; it is more acuminated at the apex, and not so

globose ; the punctation of the elytra is much more distinct than

in H. convexus. In form it approaches H. granarius of Aubé.

A single example has been kindly communicated to me by

M. Deyrolle of Paris, received by him from “ Teapa,” Mexico.

XIX.—Descriptions of Indian and Burmese Species of the Genus

Unio, Retz. By W. H. Benson, Esq.

Havine collected specimens of the genus Unio in Bengal, Bahar,

the Doab, Oude, Rohilkhund, Bundelkhund, and other parts of

the Gangetic region, from Calcutta to Delhi and the base of the

Himalayan range, and having received others from correspondents

who have kindly transmitted the productions of tracts which I

had no opportunity of visiting during the years of my residence

in India, I have procured a series of the species, inhabiting the

waters of that country, which no other collector is likely to have

had opportunities for obtaining.

Considering the mode in which the species of this difficult

genus approach each other in their variations, I undertake the

Species of the Genus Unio. 185

task of describing the following shells with diffidence, although

confident that my observations will help to increase our know-

ledge of the genus, even if one or two forms should eventually

be decided to be varieties. I have not quite exhausted my store

of novelties, and am, moreover, inclined to believe that some of

the shells which I still regard as varieties would be pronounced

to be distinct species by some writers who have studied the

genus more extensively.

The remarks published by Lamarck on the subject are worthy

of note. He says: “Ce qui se montre dans tous les genres ou

nos collections se sont bien enrichies, savoir, que les espéces se

nuancent et se fondent les unes dans les autres, dans le cours

de leurs variations, se fait ici encore plus fortement remarquer

qwailleurs, et confirme ce que j’ai dit de l’espéce dans ma ‘ Philo-

sophie Zoologique’ et autres ouvrages; aussi la détermination

des espéces du genre Mulette est-elle trés-difficile.”

I add some notes on species already published, and which

have fallen under my observation.

1. Unio Jenkinsianus, B., n. sp.

U. testa transverse elongata, subacuminato-ovata, valde inzequilaterali,

tumida, crassa, antice brevi rotundata,' postice elongata, minime

alata, superne sensim descendente, demum angusta, obtusa; mar-

gine basali antice convexiusculo, postice subrecto ; ligamento brevi ;

disco valde tumido, transverse plicato; epidermide picea, versus

marginem ventralem olivacea ; umbonibus leviter convexis, decor-

ticatis, apicibus obtusis; dentibus arcuatim sitis, crassiusculis,

erosis, cardinalibus elongatiusculis, valvee sinistree subsimplicibus,

dextrze duplicibus laminatis, lateralibus remotis subelongatis, valve

sinistree duplicibus, lamina interna demum incrassata: margarita

violaceo-albida, iridescente.

Long. 52, lat. 94, diam. 38 mill.

Habitat in fluvio Assamensi Berhampooter dicto.

The anterior cicatrices are widely separated, the posterior

confluent, and in the right valve a distinct cicatrix is placed in

the angle formed by the confluent portions. The dorsal cicatrices

are situated between the shallow cavity of the beaks and the

cardinal tooth. The subapical lobe of the cardinal tooth in the

right valve is obsolete, the other somewhat thickened, oblique,

and erect. In the left valve the cardinal tooth is double and

oblique, the internal portion being thickened. The lateral teeth

are oblique, erose, and rather short, especially the double one in

the left valve, in which the lower lamina is very thick, especially

towards the extremity. The ligamental slope is flattened, not

alate as in U. marginalis, and the ligament is very short when

compared with that of the different varieties of the latter species.

The very tumid form, the sloping posterior end, the absence

186 Mr. W. H. Benson on Indian and Burmese

of a wing, the short ligament, and the nature and position of the

teeth, all concur in warranting the separation of this shell from

U. marginalis, a small variety of which was sent to me from the

Berhampooter River by Major Rowlatt.

I am indebted to Colonel Jenkins for the species here de-

scribed, as well as for the types of the Assamese forms U. invo-

lutus, U. Corbis, U. Radula, and U. Scobina, figured in Sylvanus

Hanley’s Supplement to Wood’s Index. U. Scobina was sub-

sequently published by Lea as U. fluctiger, without knowledge

of its habitat.

2. Unio pachysoma, B., un. sp.

U. testa transverse ovato-elongata, ineequilaterali, tenuiuscula, valde

tumida, antice brevi rotundata, postice breviter alata, demum

modice acuminata, margine ventrali subrecto, postice ascendente ;

disco leeviusculo, polito, transverse striatulo, postice dense striato ;

epidermide viridi, fasciis nonnullis luteis radiisque obscuris ornata,

postice ceerulescenti-viridi ; umbonibus prominentibus versus apices

contiguos minute radiato-costatis, carina umbonali prominente ob-

tusa, linea secunda radiata interjacente; dentibus cardinalibus

duplicibus, laminatis, lateralibus modice elongatis, valvze sinistree

solum duplicibus : margarita pallide purpurea, interdum salmonis

colore tincta.

Long. 23, lat. 44, diam. 21 mill.

Habitat in fluvio Berhampooter Assamensi.

Anterior cicatrices distinct, posterior confluent, dorsal ones

under the cardinal teeth. The inner lamina of the latter in the

left valve sometimes obsolete.

This is an inflated form of the c@ruleus type, quite devoid of

radiate ruge on the slopes, and with an excavated posterior

slope. The colour of the nacre is peculiar. I am indebted for

the type to Colonel Jenkins.

A shell taken at Calcutta by Mr. W. Theobald, with a more

elongate-cylindrical form, an olive-green epidermis, and a salmon-

coloured nacre, and which I was at first disposed to consider to

be a variety of U. caruleus, seems to be a distorted variety of

this species. A shallow shell, allied to the ordinary type of

U. ceruleus, was sent to me from Assam by Major Rowlatt in

abundance.

3. Unio Theca, B., n. sp.

U. testa transverse oblongo-ovata, valde inzequilaterali, tenui, com-

pressa, antice et postice rotundata, superne subtusque convexius-

cula, margine ventrali medio recto ; disco subplanato, leeviusculo,

lineis transversalibus subrugosis versus margines notato ; epider-

mide pallide stramineo-lutea ; umbonibus planatis, decorticatis,

versus apices tenues prominulos concentrice sulcatis, postice lineis

duabus radiantibus tenuibus subelevatis munitis ; ligamento lon-

Species of the Genus Unio. 187

giorie; dentibus cardinalibus laminatis, tenuibus, brevibus, utriusque

valvee duplicibus, valvee dextree prope marginem anteriorem sitis,

obliquis ; sinistree lobo subapicali transverso, anteriore obliquo, la-

teralibus elongatis, vix curvatis, valvee dextree simplicibus, sinistree

duplicibus: margarita lutea, versus marginem ventralem albida.

Long. 20, lat. 40, diam. 10 mill.

Habitat in fluvio Cane, prope Banda, Bundelkhund.

Interior of shell transversely subplicate ; cavity of beaks shal-

low. Anterior cicatrices separate, posterior confluent, apical

ones in the cavity of the beaks. Some slight ruge are visible

on the posterior slope at right angles to the striz of growth.

This shell, of which I found a single specimen, belongs to the

Corrianus type of Unio marginalis, and is remarkable for its

elongate-ovate non-rhomboidal form. Unio marginalis, although

so abundant in other parts of the north-west, and occurring also

in the upper part of the river Jumna, near Delhi, never was

captured by me, in the branch of that river where I discovered

this species, before 1830, and it has not appeared in any other

collection made in the Gangetic region. The shell is somewhat

wider posteriorly than anteriorly. The pale opake straw-colour

of the unpolished epidermis is also a peculiar feature, not ob-

servable in any other Northern Indian species.

As in U. bilineatus, Lea, which occurs everywhere with U.

marginals, and which appears to me to be the young of that

species, varying according to its varieties, the double umbonal

line, apparent occasionally in adult specimens of U. marginalis,

is conspicuous.

4. Unio macilentus, B., nu. sp.

U. testa transverse rhomboideo-subovata, valde inzequilaterali, tenui-

uscula, compressiuscula, antice rotundata, postice alata, recta, tum

descendente, demum obtusa, margine ventrali convexiusculo ; disco

striato, medio radiato-rugoso, versus marginem transverse plicato;

epidermide fuscata, versus marginem ventralem viridescente ; um-

bonibus convexiusculis undato-sulcatis, decorticatis, ferrugineis,

apice prominulo ; ligamento elongato; linea umbonali convexius-

cula; ala planiuscula, radiato-sulcata; dentibus cardinalibus bre-

vibus, subverticalibus, duplicibus, erosis, lateralibus longiusculis

rectis, valvee sinistree duplicibus: margarita versus marginem iri-

descente, versus apicem colore salmonis tincta.

Long. 24, lat. 42, diam. 15 mill.

Habitat im rivulo Choia Nuddy dicto, non procul a Bijnore, provinciz

Rohilkhund.

Anterior cicatrices separate, posterior confluent, apical in a

row in the angle at the base of the cardinal tooth, the inner

lobe of which in the right and the outer in the left valve are erect.

I took a single specimen of this shell in a hurried search at

188 Mr. W. H. Benson on Indian and Burmese

the locality indicated. Although belonging to the favidens type

with reference to its teeth, it approaches that of c@ruleus in

other respects. A delicate specimen which I got in the Gungun

River, near Moradabad, appears to be a younger variety. Its next

nearest Indian relation is a similarly radiate-sulcate compressed

shell, taken by Dr. Bacon in Purneah and the Mahanuddy River,

far to the eastward; but that form is narrower, has a shorter

wing, is truncate posteriorly, and has the cardinal teeth (when

not obsolete) more oblique, and the lateral teeth curved, ap-

proaching the Borneo species Unio plicatulus, Lea.

5. Unio favidens, B.

U. testa transverse ovata, ineequilaterali, crassa, subtumida, antice

rotundata, postice subalata, declivi, angulata, demum obtusa, mar-

gine ventrali convexiusculo ; disco ineequaliter sulcato; epidermide

olivaceo-fusca, versus marginem ventralem luteo-olivacea, postice

viridi parce fasciata; umbonibus tumidis, prominentibus, decorti-

catis, sulcis radiatis angulato-flexuosis indutis; lunula impressa,

elliptica, decorticata ; ligamento elongato ; carina umbonali leevi-

uscula, linea unica vix elevata notata; dentibus cardinalibus

crassis, fortiter radiato-rugosis, lateralibus obliquis, elongatiusculis,

valvee dextree duplicibus, sinistree subtriplicibus : margarita pallide

lutea, iridescente.

Long. 45, lat. 66, diam. 30 mill.

Habitat in fluvio Gange superiore.

The anterior and posterior cicatrices are distinct, the apical

ones disposed on the under side of the cardinal tooth.

This fine shell, the type of the species, was taken by me in

the Ganges at Bhitoura, between Cawnpore and Allahabad, in

1824, and the outline of it was figured in plate 7. fig. 1 of the

1st volume of ‘Gleanings in Science’ for 1829, from a private

lithographic copy made in 1826, by Mr. Wood, from my rough

sketch. The Bhitoura specimens were the largest which I cap-

tured during many years’ residence in the country.

The following are the chief varieties of U. favidens. Some of

them may possibly be regarded as separate species.

1. var. marcens. Banded with olive and green; nacre salmon-

coloured ; beaks nearly smooth, eroded; sulci obsolete,

lunule narrow.

Long. 44, lat. 66, diam. 27 mill.

From the Berhampooter River, Assam. Colonel Jenkins.

2. var. trigona. Shell with a piceous epidermis, more oblique ;

beaks and nacre as in type; lunule broad. It shows an in-

clination to verge towards U. triembolus.

Long. 44, lat. 67, diam. 27 mill.

From Nujeebabad, in the north-west of Rohilkhund.

Species of the Genus Unio. 189

3. var. Delte. Epidermis olive-green and yellow, rayed; nacre

salmon-coloured ; rugze on umbones very distinct, some also

on the upper part of the umbonal hinder slope; lunule

somewhat broader than in the type ; cardinal teeth narrower.

Long. 34, lat. 47, diam. 24 mill.

I took a single specimen in the River Jellinghy, in 1831, in

the upper part of the Gangetic Delta, Bengal.

4. var. Chrysis. Longer and less broad in proportion ; epidermis

a beautiful green, banded more or less with yellow ; umbonal

rugz very strong and extended; cardinal teeth mostly nar-

rower than in the type; nacre salmon-tinted.

Long. 27, lat. 35, diam. 16 mill.

River Dojora at Kareily Ghat, near Bareilly. Single valves

are long. 33, lat. 43 mill.

5. var. viridula. Form of type, but more compressed; colour

as in the last; cardinal teeth broad; nacre bluish white ;

umbonal rugze as in 4.

Long. 27, lat. 40, diam. 17 mill.

Standing water, or “ jheel,” between Humeerpore and Someer-

pore, Bundelkhund.

6. var. densa. More solid and tumid; epidermis yellow-brown,

eroded ; lunule as in type; shell more oblique.

Long. 33, lat. 47, diam. 24 mill. .

Ganges River, above Chunar, between Allahabad and Benares.

Great confusion appears to exist with reference to the true

Unio corrugatus. Lamarck describes it, including U. rugosa,

Gm., as “ovato-rhombea, tenw,” and the full-grown shell as

“rounded rhomboid.” Lea, in the third edition of his Synopsis,

includes U. corrugata, rugosa, and spuria, Lk., as synonyms, and

nodosa, with a mark of doubt. He also adds the solid U.

favidens, Bens., with the very distinct and thick Tenasserim

species U. Tavoyensis, Gould ; but in vol. vii., in his remarks on

U. Nagporensis, he alludes to U. favidens as a distinct species.

A form allied to my var. Delte was supposed by Mr. Hanley to

be the real type; and a Ceylon shell is also referred to it in

Sir E. Tennent’s List.

The winged young of U. favidens, 17 mill. in breadth, is thin

and ovate-rhomboid ; and the very young shell, which is more

transverse, is angularly corrugate over the whole surface. The

former approaches the figure of Mya spuria as copied by Wood.

A thin, compressed, rhomboid-ovate Unio, with radiate-sulcate

beaks, found by Dr. Day on the Malabar coast, comes near La-

marck’s description of his var. rugosa. It may possibly be the

190 Mr. W. H. Benson on Indian and Burmese

Malabar Mya radiata, Ch. (not the American shell described by

Lamarck and others), as there are traces of obsolete radiate striz

over the whole disk. It is 21 mill. long, 30 broad, and 12 mill.

in diameter, and in form approaches the figure of Mya radiata

in Wood’s Index.

6. Unio Smaragdites, B., nu. sp.

U. testa transverse ovato-rhomboidea, ineequilaterali, crassiuscula,

tumida, antice rotundata, postice alata, recta, tum valde declivi,

demum subangulata, margine ventrali convexo ; disco levigato,

polito, vix striatulo, sub epidermide pulchre viridi tenuissima ob-

scure radiata albo, margine lutescente ; umbonibus prominentibus,

apicibus approximatis, subdecorticatis, margaritaceis, breviter et

minute radiato-sulcatis ; lunula angusta, elongata, transverse ru-

gata; ligamento subelongato ; carina umbonali prominente obtusi-

uscula, areola versus apicem depressiuscula, viridi obscure radiata ;

dentibus cardinalibus duplicibus, subangustis, rugosis, lateralibus

curvatis elongatiusculis, valvee dextree simplicibus, sinistree dupli-

cibus, nonnunquam subtriplicibus: margarita albida, nonnunquam

luteo tincta.

Long 31, lat. 42, diam. 20 mill.

Habitat in fluvio Berhampooter, regionis Assamensis.

Remarkable for the smoothness of the beautiful green epi-

dermis, which is very thin, and, when rubbed off, exhibits a

plain white colour, not nacreous, underneath. The anterior

cicatrices are confluent, the posterior nearly distinct, the apical

ones situated under the cardinal teeth. Cavity of beaks very

deep ; a few ruge cross the striz on the posterior slope. In

general characters it approaches most nearly to the Jellinghy

variety (Delte) of U. favidens, which has a more tumid ovate form,

a regular, sulcate, olivaceous surface, longer and distinctly angu-

late-flexuous umbonal furrows, and a broad lunule.

I received this shell from Colonel Jenkins.

7. Unto triembolus, B., n. sp.

U. testa oblique rhomboidali, subtrigona, transversa, ineequilaterali,

crassa, antice brevi rotundata, postice subalata, descendente, de-

mum angulata, obtusa, margine ventrali convexo ; disco transverse

plicato et striato, piceo-nigrescente ; umbone tumido, gibboso,

versus apices remotos obtusos decorticatos iridescentes radiato-

sulcato, carina umbonali obtusa ; dentibus cardinalibus crassissimis,

corrugatis, lateralibus obliquis, valva dextree duplicibus, sinistree

triplicibus : margarita albida vel colore salmonis tincta.

Long. 47, lat. 57, diam. 27 mill.

oe 45, ” 62, » 27 ”

” 44, ” 63, ” 30 2”

Habitat in flumine Ramgunga, prope Moradabad.

Smaller varieties of the more trigonal as well as of the oblique

Species of the Genus Unio. PoE

elongated form were taken by me in the River Goomty. I got

a handsome variety of the first, with a green and olive epidermis,

in the River Dojora, near Bareilly ; and from the Gungut River,

near Monghyr, in Bahar, a shell which may possibly be a gib-

bous variety of the second.

The anterior and posterior cicatrices are distinct, the latter

particularly so ; the apical cicatrices are indistinct on the inner

side of the cardinal tooth ; cavity of the beaks very deep and

angular. In affinity the species appears to be connected on one

side with the variety ¢rigona of U. favidens, and, on the other,

with U. Rajahensis, Lea.

The green Dojora variety is remarkable for the great develop-

ment of the teeth. The lateral ones are disposed to be treble in

the right as well as in the left valve; and several parallel plicz

intervene between them and the exaggerated cardinal teeth in a

perfect specimen with the following dimensions :—

Lat. 50, long. 37, diam. 23 mill.

8. Unio plagiosoma, B., nu. sp.

U. testa transverse trigono-ovata, ineequilaterali, crassiuscula, tumidi-

uscula, antice rotundata, postice subconvexe declivi, demum obtusa,

margine ventrali convexiusculo ; disco obsolete plicato, epidermide

luteo-olivacea vel olivaceo-fusca ; umbonibus convexis, prominenti-

bus, decorticatis, angulatim flexuoso-sulcatis, apicibus prominenti-

bus subremotis ; ligamento brevi; carma umbonali obtusa ; lunula

elliptica ; dentibus cardinalibus crassiusculis, radiatim eroso-

sulcatis, lateralibus subelevatis, modice elongatis, obliquis, valvee

sinistree duplicibus, dextrze simplicibus : margarita colore salmonis

tincta.

Long. 26, lat. 39, diam. 18 mill.

2” 22, 29 32, ” 15 ”

Habitat in flumine Cane, prope Banda, Bundelkhund.

The anterior cicatrices, as well as the posterior, are subcon-

fluent, the apical ones situated on the under side of the cardinal

teeth. The nacre is very iridescent posteriorly. A dark raised

line borders the inner side of the umbonal slope, which exhibits

a few rugz at the upper part.

9. Unio levirostris, B., un. sp.

U. testa transverse oblonga, subovata, valde inzequilaterali, crassi-

uscula, medio subtumida, antice superne breviter angulata, deinde

rotundata, postice superne sensim convexe descendente, demum

rotundata, margine ventrali convexiusculo ; disco leeviusculo, con-

centrice leviter striato ; epidermide olivaceo-viridi, fusco fasciata ;

umbonibus convexis, decorticatis, obsolete radiato-sulcatis, apicibus

prominentibus, approximatis; lunula impressa, elliptica ; ligamento

elongato ; dentibus cardinalibus brevibus, crassiusculis, eroso-

192 Mr. W. H. Benson on Indian and Burmese

sulcatis, lateralibus subobliquis, elongatiusculis, rectis, utriusque

valvee duplicibus: margarita colore salmonis vix tincta.

Long. 28, lat. 50, diam. 20 mill.

Habitat in rivulis et stagnis prope Chunar.

This species was found by Capt. T. Hutton in tanks and

streams near the Fort of Chunar, above Benares, and was noted

as Unio No.19, without name or description, im a paper contained

in the fourth volume of the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of

Calcutta.’

It has two indistinctly raised dark rays on the posterior slope.

The gradually compressed form of the hinder edge of the shell

contrasts strongly with the inflated form of the central portion.

Anterior and posterior cicatrices confluent, apical ones under

the cardinal tooth. It belongs to the favidens type of Indian

species, and is connected with the more oblique forms by the

following species, U. Pinaz, which is its representative in the

more northerly and westerly tracts of the Gangetic region.

10. Unio Pinaz, B., n. sp.

U. testa transverse oblonga, suboblique ovata, valde inzequilaterali,

crassa, subinflata, antice rotundata, postice superne sensim de-

scendente, demum obtusa, margine ventrali convexiusculo, postice

vix emarginato; disco leviusculo, concentrice leviter striatulo,

antice obsolete radiato-striato, versus marginem ventralem et pos-

teriorem plicato ; epidermide olivaceo-fusca ; umbonibus convexis,

decorticatis, obsolete radiato-sulcatis, apicibus prominentibus ob-

tusis, remotiusculis ; lunula elongato-elliptica; ligamento_brevi ;

dentibus cardinalibus crassioribus, radiatim eroso-sulcatis, laterali-

bus obliquis, utriusque valvee duplicibus, subflexuosis : margarita

albida, iridescente.

Long. 30, lat. 48, diam. 21 mill.

Habitat in rivulo Gungun, prope Moradabad, Rohilkhund.

Anterior cicatrices subconfluent, posterior entirely so, apical

ones under the cardinal tooth ; cavity of the beaks very deep.

11. Unio Leioma, B., n. sp.

U. testa transverse oblonga, valde inzequilaterali, tenuiuscula, tumidi-

uscula, antice angustiore, rotundata, postice superne elevatiore

convexiuscula, demum subverticaliter truncata, margine ventrali

recto; disco transverse multisulcato; epidermide cinerascenti-

olivacea; umbonibus convexiusculis, decorticatis, erosis, apicibus

remotis; dentibus cardinalibus brevibus, laminatis, duplicibus,

lateralibus rectis breviusculis, valvee sinistree solum duplicibus :

margarita lactea, vix aurantiaco tincta.

Long. 23, lat. 50, diam. 17 mill.

Habitat in regione Dekhan? prope Bombay.

The subapical tooth of the left valve is lengthened and in-

Species of the Genus Unio. 193

clined to be obsolete, the outer one is short, thin, and promi-

nent ; those of the right valve are divaricate, the outer one thin,

and the inner thicker, erose, and prominent at the end. The

anterior cicatrices are distinct, the posterior confluent, the apical

ones run under the inner cardinal tooth. The cavity of the

beaks is shallow. There are slight indications of ruge on the

posterior slope. The valves are open posteriorly. The elevated

portion of the posterior slope is broad and flattened. It has

considerable resemblance in form to U. navigioliformis, Lea, but

is more perpendicularly truncate posteriorly, has very different

teeth, and the lateral ones are shorter in comparison. It differs

altogether from U. Shurtleffianus, Lea, from the Dekhan, in its

very transverse form, the position of the beaks, and the colour

of the epidermis.

This pod-shaped species is very distinct from all the shells of

the ceruleus type, both in form and surface. I mislaid my note

of its habitat; but, from various circumstances, I have reason

to believe that it was sent to me by Dr. Jerdon from the

Dekhan.

12. Unio crispisulcatus, B., n. sp.

U. testa transverse subovata, subineequilaterali, antice rotundata,

postice superne descendente, leviter angulata, demum obtuse an-

gulata, crassiuscula, compressiuscula ; disco convexiusculo, minu-

tissime radiatim rugoso-costulato, costulis nonnullis acute divari-

catis, posterioribus latioribus; umbonibus prominentibus, con-

tiguis, apicibus acutiusculis; epidermide luteo-olivacea, postice

fuscata, hic illic nonnunquam viridescente ; dentibus cardinalibus

utriusque valvee duplicibus, lamellatis, lateralibus obliquis, modice

elongatis, valvee sinistree duplicibus: margarita czeruleo-albida,

iridescente.

Long. 28, lat. 45, diam. 16 mill.

Habitat in rivulo Bangong, prope Thyet-Myo, regionis Burmanice.

Collegit W. Theobald.

The anterior cicatrices are distinct, the posterior confluent,

the apical ones above the moderate angular cavity, and running

under the cardinal tooth.

The delicate sculpture over the whole disk of this shell is

peculiar. In form it does not approach any Gangetic type.

13. Unio Pugio, B., n. sp.

U. testa transverse elongato-triangulari, linguzeformi, valde ineequi-

laterali, compressiuscula, crassa, antice brevissima, subito descen-

dente rotundata, postice sensim angustiore, cuneiformi, demum

acuminata, margine dorsali recto, ventrali convexiusculo, postice

ascendente ; umbonibus late planatis, levibus, prominentibus,

carina umbonali subito obtuse angulata, area interjacente versus

cardinem descendente ; disco subplanulato, leeviusculo, substriato ;

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. x. 14

194 Mr.W.H.Benson on Indian and Burmese Species of Unio.

dente cardinali (valvee dextree) brevi, crassa, prominente, radiato-

sulcata, laterali elongata, subduplicata, intus crenulata: margarita

albida, iridescente.

Long. 21, lat. 42, diam. 16 mill.

Habitat in regione Ava.

The anterior cicatrices are distinct, the larger deeply excavated

under the cardiaal tooth, the smaller punctiform, posterior ones

confluent. Cavity of the beaks very shallow. Dorsal cicatrix

under the cardinal tooth. The cardinal ligament is lengthened.

The single right valve sent for examination by Mr. Theobald is

decorticate and worn.

The Chinese lengthened lanceolate Unio Grayanus, Lea, and

the Siamese U. sagittarius, Lea, are allies of this shell in regard

to form; but the thick prominent cardinal tooth, and the ex-

ceedingly short anterior portion of the shell suddenly deflected

from the beak, are sufficient characters for the recognition of the

species, independently of other differences. It is also more

narrow at the posterior end than U. sagittarius. The angle of

the umbonal slope, with the area intermediate between the slope

and the hinge, and descending to the latter, are also peculiar

features.

The only allied species which exhibits a similarly short ante-

rior portion of the shell is U. truncatus, Swains., in which, how-

ever, it forms an intermediate sinus, instead of descending sud-

denly and directly as in U. Pugio. There is also something in

the general form connecting the two shells; but Swainson’s

species is tumid, not flattened, has a more prominent umbo, and

is not so narrow posteriorly, while the peculiar angle and cardinal

descent of the umbonal slope afford additional characters for

separating U. Pugio from the rare shell, of unknown locality, in

Mrs. Mawe’s cabinet.

The habitat of Unio Nuttallanus, Lea, is merely announced

as Indian by the author. I received specimens from Major

Rowlatt from Assam, where, with the thin, tumid, and peculiarly

formed U. involutus, nobis, it represents the thin and compressed

Gangetic species, U. olivarius, Lea, some specimens of which, from

the rivers Jumna and Dojora, approach it in the more angular

form of the posterior end. The epidermis varies from a fine

green to olive, and the salmon-colour of the nacre is occasionally

very rich. The beaks exhibit slight nodules in rayed lines ; and

coloured rays are also visible on the epidermis. It attains the

following dimensions :—long. 25, lat. 40, diam. 18 mill.

My largest specimens of a variety of Unio olivarius, Lea,

taken in the River Ramgunga, above Moradabad, are 50 mill.

in breadth by 28 in length, and 16 in diameter. It is widely

distributed in the Gangetic region, and is most abundant in the

Dr. W. F. Daniell on some Chinese Condiments. 195

Rohilkhund streams,—the Ramgunga, Dojora, and Gurrah. It

prefers sand-banks to mud, and is frequent in pools left by the

falling waters. I have taken it also in the Jumna, Ganges,

Bhaghiratty, and Goomty. It varies in colour from pale green

to bluish green and olive.

The Assam species Unio Corbis, nobis, attains the size here

recorded. With the exception of one small specimen, my exam.

ples are odd valves.

Long. 21, lat. 32, diam. 18 mill.

Another distinct species, of which I have a single valve, re-

ceived from Major Rowlatt, inhabits Assam.

Unio bilineatus, Lea, I consider, as stated above, to be the very

young of U. marginalis, Lk. Wherever the numerous varieties

of the latter shell are found, from Delhi and Rohilkhund to

Calcutta, the bilineatus form accompanies it, gradually altering,

as the shell increases in size, into the regular type. The most

beautiful variety of Unio marginalis, with a thicker shell and

teeth, and with a fine salmon-coloured nacre, occurs in the

Ramgunga, near Moradabad. At Calcutta, the species varies

considerably in form, even in the same water. A salmon-nacred

shell, sent by Dr. Day from Cochin, on the Malabar coast, appa-

rently identical with the Chinese U. consobrinus, Lea, has the

same form of young. In fact, the young of several species of

Unio, of the favidens and ceruleus types, are disposed to be

straight-hinged, as well as that of Gould’s U. Tavoyensis, which

closely approaches the young Siamese shell described by Lea as

U. Nucleus.

PS. U. crispisulcatus—The sculpture is very like that of

Mya rugosa, as figured by Chemnitz, t. 170. f. 1649; but the

form of the posterior portion of the shell differs from that of the

Coromandel species. The cardinal teeth are altogether different

from those of the figure of “rugosa” in the ‘ Encyclopédie,’

pl. 248. f. 6.

Cheltenham, Aug. 7, 1862.

XX.—WNotes on some Chinese Condiments obtained from the Xan-

thoxylaceer. By W.!.Danrexz, M.D., F.L.S., Staff-Surgeon,

Army Medical Staff, &c.

[Plate V.]

I. Chinese or Japanese Pepper (Xanthoxylum piperitum, DC.).

Amone other articles of food vended in the grocers’ shops of the

various provinces of the Chinese empire, may be enumerated

collections of small dried fruits, consisting of dehiscent capsules

14*

196 Dr. W. F. Daniell on some Chinese Condiments

or carpels of a plant belonging to the natural order Xanthoxy-

lacee. These fruits are employed as a condiment not only by

the inhabitants of the Japan islands, but also by those of China.

In consequence of their exportation from the sea-ports of the

former, they have received the designation of Japan pepper ;

but, so far as their predominant use extends, they may

with equal propriety merit the corresponding term of Chinese

pepper. The name by which it is known throughout the latter

country is that of Hwa-Tseaou. With reference to the source

of this product, we have hitherto possessed but scanty mforma-

tion. Mr. D. Hanbury has recently stated that the supply of

the Chinese shops was exclusively derived from the Xanthoxylum

alatum, Roxb.* This statement, however, does not appear to be

correct ; on the contrary, so far as my researches reach, it is the

produce of quite a different species, viz. X. piperitum, DC.

(Fagara piperita, Linn.). During the recent war in Northern

China, this plant was frequently observed under cultivation along

the line of march from the mouth of the Peiho to Hang-chow.

Isolated trees might be noticed growing on the native farms or

clearances on the banks of the river, from Taku to Tien-tsin. It

was also found under culture in several of the gardens in the

villages of Sinho, Taku, &e., in the vicinity and in the court-

yards of a few of the yamuns in Tien-tsin, and in one or two of

those in the town of Peitang. The general habit of this species

is that of a bushy tree of moderate growth, about 15-20 feet in

height, with compact, flexuose, prickly branches, flowering in

June and July, and densely covered, when the fruit ripens in

October, with numerous corymbose expansions of deep-red ber-

ries. In this latter condition it presents a very ornate aspect,

and can readily be distinguished in this respect from the cir-

cumjacent shrubs, bearing in the distance a close resemblance

to the Crategus oxyacantha, or Hawthorn-tree of Europe. In

October and November, the people in the suburbs of Tien-tsin

were engaged in gathering the ripe capsules for winter use ; and

with the view, therefore, of ascertaining whether they were iden-

tical with the dried article exhibited for sale in the local markets,

I was induced to take the fruit-bearing branches to different

shopkeepers of the towns, who without hesitation pronounced

them to be the same. Upon comparison, no difference could be

detected either in quality or flavour. That this species is known

in other parts of China may be inferred from the circumstance

of several of the Coolie corps from the southern provinces, at-

tached to the expeditionary force, collecting the fruit for their

daily meals, whenever an opportunity offered. From its wide

distribution, it is probable that several varieties of this product

* Pharmaceutical Journal, ser. 2. vol. ii. p. 553.

obtained from the Xanthoxylacee. 197

may exist, one of which (marked by broader leaflets, a panicled

inflorescence, and few, if any, spines) was sometimes brought for

sale to the markets of the southern Taku Fort. I was informed

that the imhabitants in the maritime and other districts of

Petchili often plucked the immature fruit both for use and com-

merce.

Although the Xanthoxylacez are to be met with more or less

abundant throughout the tract of country that embraced the

seat of war, I nevertheless failed to discover the X. alatum, which,

if it had constituted the ordinary source of the condiment of the

population of Northern China, would have been placed under

cultivation: such, apparently, is not the fact. This pepper, in-

dependently of its consumption as a spice, has been supposed

to possess certain medicinal properties, and to act as an antidote

against poisons. It is, however, never retailed in the drug-shops

as a medicine, but only in those depdts where various kinds of

food are submitted for purchase. Taking into consideration the

preceding data, I can only arrive at the conclusion that the

mercantile article denominated Chinese pepper, exported from

various provincial sea-ports, is in a great proportion procured

from the X. piperitum, DC.

II. Anise Pepper (Xanthoxylum Mantchuricum, Benn.).

Scattered among the oak (Quercus Mongolica, Fisch.; Q.

obovata, Bge.), mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), and other

trees that fringed the outskirts of the Tuns, or native hamlets,

in the neighbourhood of Taku-shan (a small village on the

eastern side of Talie-whan, in Mantchuria) were a number of

arborescent shrubs or young trees, whose corymbose inflores-

cence, imparipinnate foliage, and widely-spreading branches

rendered them somewhat conspicuous objects in the botanical

features of the locality. They afforded the usual characteristics

of the Xanthoxylacez, and, from dried specimens of the plants

submitted to the consideration of Mr, Bennett, have been deter-

mined by him to be a new species, which will be subsequently

described in this paper under the name of X. Mantchuricum.

This production may be distinguished from the preceding spe-

cies by the more erect and tapering trunk (10-20 feet in height),

divergent branches, expanded leaves, narrow and smaller pinne

with fewer spines, the peculiar deep-pink hue of the pedicels

and entire peduncle, but more especially by the remark-

able anise-like flavour of the capsules. The plant flowers in

May and June; and the fruits, which crown the summit in ter-

minal corymbs, are at first green, but gradually change into a

deep-red colour towards the end of September, when they attain

maturity. The carpels, as they ripen, dehisce and display a

198 Dr. W. F. Daniell on some Chinese Condiments

solitary, black, shining and slightly compressed seed, the sin-

gular appearance of a large number of which, when exposed at

the same period, soon attracts the attention of the botanist.

When dried, the carpels are one-third less in size, round or

oval, wrinkled, pellucido-punctulate, and not roughly tuber-

culated as are those of the X. piperitum. The pericarp, however,

in its unripe state, is studded with minute tubercular promi-

nences, filled with an oleaginous secretion, that exudes on the

slightest pressure, and to such a degree as to saturate the folds

of paper in which the specimens were kept for preservation.

The fruit, when eaten in its mature condition, is endowed with

a pleasant sweetish taste and anise-like aromatic flavour, which,

however, is dissipated to a great extent either by the process of

exsiccation or by transmission to a colder climate. In aroma

and other analogous qualities, it is much inferior to the seed-

follicles of the Pa-kioh, or Star Anise tree (Illicium anisatum).

By the inhabitants of the districts to which it is indigenous the

fruit is apparently valued for its carminative and stomachic vir-

tues ; and although it enters into the composition of several of

their dishes, it is also frequently administered as a remedial

agent, under the form of a tea or infusion, for the relief of

various visceral diseases.

III. Star or Bitter Pepper (Xanthoxylum (Oxyactis) Danielli,

Benn.).

This species was discovered on a small promontory to the

northward of the village of Taku-shan, adjoining a small joss-

house or temple near its extremity. It in general assumed the

character of a moderate-sized bushy tree, from 10-20 feet in

height, except on the verge of the cliffs, where it became of

more stunted growth, dwindling into low brush-like shrubs.

The majority of the larger plants flourished on the borders of a

field of Sesamum (S. orientale), where they had evidently been

reared for some specific purpose. An essential difference in the

peculiar disposition of the fruit, and the more luxuriant develop-

ment of the foliage, was observed when placed in comparison

with the preceding species. The imparipinnate leaves were also

of larger growth, being from 1-1} inch in breadth, and 2-3

inches in length, ovate, obtusely acuminate, and almost smooth.

The branches were destitute of spines and less tortuous. The

flowering occurred in June and July, in numerous corymbose

panicles. The fruit consisted of a variable number of oblong or

elongated capsules, arranged in stellate groups on a series of

terminal panicles, which were at first of a deep green, but im-

perceptibly altermg into a dusky-red colour as they advanced

towards maturity, in September and October. The carpels are

obtained from the Xanthoxylacez. 199

8-10 lines long, and about 1-2 broad, dehiscing longitudinally

into separate portions, and exposing to view two small, black,

shining seeds. The epicarp was completely dotted over with

tubercular receptacles or vesicles, contaming a straw-coloured

oil, or oleo-resin, which copiously oozed forth on any abrasion

of its surface. The capsules have a peculiar aromatic odour,

with a pungent bitter flavour and warm burning taste, that sub-

sequently imparts to the palate a sensation of coolness when the

air has been drawn into the mouth.

Although informed by the natives that these carpels were em-

ployed as a condiment, and also for certain medicinal and other

economic uses, I was unable to obtain any precise statement

illustrating their mode of appliance. That this and the anise-

pepper are of some utility, may be inferred from the care taken

in the preservation of the trees; for, owing to the great dearth

of fuel, no brushwood of any kind is permitted to grow throngh-

out the country, the inhabitants being reduced to the necessity

of burning dried grass and the stalks of Zea, Panicum, and other

Cerealia, to cook their food.

I am indebted for the specific distinctions and following

botanical details to Mr. Bennett of the British Museum, who,

with unvarying kindness, has embodied the whole in a concise

descriptive account contained in the appended letter. He re-

marks, with reference to the application of the term Xanthoxy-

lum to these Chinese species, that he so spells “the name in

conformity with its etymology and with the practice of Smith,

Sprengel, Martius, and Bentham, and in spite of the authority

of Linnzus, Kunth, and DeCandolle, in favour of Zanthoxylon.

“ Your specimen from Tien-tsin agrees perfectly with Fagara

piperita of Linnzus, which is entirely founded upon the ‘Teo

and Tansjo’ of Kempfer, to whose figure your specimen bears

the most striking resemblance. This figure and the description

which accompanies it, together with the very accurate character

and description given by Siebold and Zuccarini in the ‘ Abhand-

lungen der Mathem.-Physikalischer Classe der K. Bayerischen

Akademie,’ iv. p. 137, leave no room for any addition. We

have in the herbarium of the British Museum a miserable spe-

cimen from Kempfer himself, and a tolerable one from Thun-

berg, which entirely confirm the identification, I have some

doubt with respect to your specimen from the Taku Fort, on

account of the total want of prickles, the larger size of the leaf-

lets, and the more ample and almost panicled inflorescence ; but

as it agrees in all other points, [am disposed to consider it only

as a variety.

“You ask me whether this plant is the true source of the

Japanese pepper ; and of this I imagine there can be no doubt,

200 Dr. W. F. Daniell on some Chinese Condiments

the authority of Kempfer, Thunberg, and Siebold being deci-

sive on this pomt. But you mention Xanthoxylum alatum as

having been so regarded. I know of no Asiatic species so called,

with the exception of Roxburgh’s (Flor. Ind. iii. p. 768), which

appears in DeCandolle’s ‘Prodromus’ under the name of X.

acanthopodium, and differs very widely indeed from the Chinese

and Japanese species by its strongly winged and strongly armed

petioles, and by its very short and sessile axillary cymes. Its

seeds (or, more probably, its capsules), as we learn from Rox-

burgh, are used medicinally ; but this is doubtless the case with

many of the species, on account of their peculiar taste and odour.

The true Japanese pepper, however, must be that which is found

in Japan, and which was originally described by Kempfer, and

adopted from him by Linneus*.

“Your Mantchurian specimen from Talie-whan is certainly

distinct, and differs, I think, from all the species hitherto known.

I characterize it as follows :—

“ Xanthoxylum Mantchuricum.

‘«« ¥. aculeis sparsis v. infrapetiolaribus rectis conicis armatum, foliis

sparsis imparipinnatis 5—9-foliolatis, foliolo terminali sessili, om-

nibus oblongo-lanceolatis utrinque attenuatis subsessilibus crenato-

dentatis superne punctulis elevatis piliferis scaberulis caeterum

glaberrimis, in crenarum axillis nec alibi in lamina pellucido-punc-

tatis, corymbis terminalibus, coccis 1-3 punctulato-rugosis.

“The differences between this species and X. piperitum are

obvious from the character: they mainly consist in the narrower

form of the leaflets, the slight scabrities of their upper surface,

which I have not noticed in any other species, the entire ab-

sence of pellucid glands, except in the axils of the marginal

crenatures, and the surface of the cocci, which, instead of being

rudely glanduloso-tubercular, as in X. piperitum, are merely

pellucido-punctulate and wrmkled. The common petioles, which

are angular, are from 2 to 4 inches in length, and the leaflets

from 8 to 10 lines long by 3 or 4 wide. This species I had at

* «Since I wrote to you on this subject, I have looked over Mr. Hanbury’s

paper in the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal’ for the present year (1861), and find

that he speaks of the fruits of two species of Xanthoxylum as sold in the

Chinese markets, the one the produce of X. piperitum, L., the other XY.

alatum, Roxb. The fruits of both species are remarkably similar in cha-

racter; but I have not seen any specimens of the plant from China which

can be positively identified as X.alatum. I have little or rather no doubt,

however, of the identity of X. alatum, Roxb., and X. acanthopodium, DC.

The specimens distributed by Dr. Wallich under the name of X. alatum,

Roxb., agree in every particular with DeCandolle’s character of X.

acanthopodium; and the fragment preserved in the Indian herbarium of

the Linnean Society, from Dr. Roxburgh’s own collection, cannot be distin-

guished from them.”

obtained from the Xanthoxylacee. 201

first, as you are aware, considered as identical with Fagara Avi-

cenne, Lam.; and, as far as the description of that plant goes,

I see little to distinguish them, except the generally smaller

number of leaflets and the little asperities of their surface ; but

as Mr. Bentham has, in his ‘Flora of Hongkong,’ identified

Lamarck’s plant with a totally different species, to which La-

marck’s description is at least equally applicable, I adopt his

determination without hesitation, and describe your plant as

new. I may add to the synonyms of X. Avicenna, DC. and

Benth., the X. clava Herculis, Lour. nec Linn., as proved by

Loureiro’s specimen in the herbarium of the British Museum.

“ Your other Xanthozylum from Talie-whan is one of the finest

and most remarkable species of the genus. Many botanists, I

doubt not, would regard it as constituting a new and very distinct

genus; but, taking into account the numerous transitional mo-

difications of structure and the consequent phalanx of merely

conventional genera that have already been formed at the ex-

pense of this extensive and polymorphous group, I cannot but

agree with those who prefer to unite them all, or nearly all,

under one generic name. I regard your plant, however, as

offerimg sufficient characters to constitute a well-marked sub-

genus, and [ am disposed to consider in the same light Huodia

and Boymia (whether kept separate or combined), inasmuch as

approximations to a valvate zstivation of the petals and super-

posed ovules are to be found in species having alternate as well

as opposite leaves. If opposite leaves and superposed ovules

were alone to be regarded, your plant would belong to the same

division with EHuodia (Boymia included); but as far as I am

acquainted with the fruit of the other species, it differs from

them remarkably in the form and arrangement of the cocci. I

proceed, therefore, to give its characters as a subgenus, premising

that I have seen only specimens with ripe fruit :—

“Gen. XANTHOXYLUM.

“ Subgen. Ozxyactis, Benn.

“‘Cocci 5 (rarius 4), stellatim dispositi, in valvulas 2 apice acumi-

natas dehiscentes, ideoque eequaliter 10-(8-) radiati. Semina 2,

perfecta, superposita.

« X. (Oxyactis) Damelli. Pl. V. fig. 1.

« X. inerme, foliis oppositis imparipinnatis 5—9-foliolatis, foliolo

terminali longius- reliquis brevipetiolulatis, omnibus basi rotun-

datis ovatis obtuse acuminatis superne glabris inferne in nervis

margineque puberulis obscure crenulatis nisi in crenularum axillis

impunctatis, corymbis (fructiferis) folio brevioribus terminalibus

divaricatim ramosis.

“The common petioles are from 3 to 6 inches long, rounded,

202 Mr. J. W. Kirkby on some additional Species

and perfectly smooth ; the leaflets from 2 to 3 inches long, and

an inch or more in breadth, rounded or slightly cordate at the

base, the lower ones in pairs supported on petiolules of 2 to 3

lines long, while the terminal one has a petiolule of an inch in

length ; and the terminal corymb expands almost into a panicle.

The combined fruit, after dehiscence, measures fully half an inch

across. In some respects the plant appears to approach Euodia

meliefolia, Benth.= Megabotrya meliefolia, Hance = Boymia gla-

brifolia, Champ., but differs widely in the character of the fruit,

im the crenulate margin of the leaflets, and in the pubescence of

their nerves, none of which characters are indicated in the several

descriptions of the plant of Southern China. A northern plant,

Phellodendron Amurense, Rupr. in ‘ Bull. Acad. St. Petersb.’ and

in ‘Maxim. Prim. Flor. Amur.’ p. 73, t. 4, also bears consider-

able resemblance in its habit, in the size and composition of the

leaves, and in the form of the leaflets, but, if the fruit be cor-

rectly figured, is very different indeed.”

EXPLANATION OF PLATE V.

Fig. 1. Xanthoxylum (Oxyactis) Danielli; leaf and inflorescence, two-

thirds of the natural size.

Fig. 2. Separate carpella, of the natural size.

Fig. 3. Seeds, of the natural size.

XXI.—On some additional Species that are common to Carboni-

ferous and Permian Strata; with Remarks on the Recurrency

of Carboniferous Species. By James W. Kirksy.

[Plate IV.]

In a former paper, where I noticed the occurrence of a Permian

Lingula in the Durham Coal-measures, a list was given of such

species as were then known to be common to the Carboniferous

and Permian life-groups*. Since the publication of that paper,

Mr. Davidson has shown that some additional Brachiopods may

be placed on the list of Carboniferous recurrents+; and the

present communication is chiefly made for the sake of identify-

ing three forms of Entomostraca and Polyzoa belonging to the

Carboniferous series with species that have hitherto been con-

sidered exclusively Permian, and thus to still further increase

the list of these recurrent forms.

The Carboniferous fossils were sent to me, along with others,

by Messrs. H. W. Crosskey and J. Young, of Glasgow, from the

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xvi. p. 415.

t+ Mon. Brit. Carbon. Brach. (Paleont. Soc.), pp. 265-268, pl. 54.

common to Carboniferous and Permian Strata. 203

marine shales and limestones of that district. The Permian

fossils with which they have been compared are from the Mag-

nesian Limestone of Durham. ‘Two of the species are Ento-

mostraca of the subgenus Bairdia; the other is a Polyzoan of

the genus Fenestella.

1. Cythere (Bairdia) plebeia, Reuss, 1854.

Permian specimens, PI. IV. figs. 7,8, 10; Carboniferous speci-

mens, PI. IV. figs. 5, 6, 9.

Type-specimens of B. plebeia are moderately inflated, have a

subdeltoid carapace, a lenticular lateral contour, and smooth

surface. The posterior extremity is more or less acute and ros-

trated ; the anterior extremity is much deeper and rounded. It

is a species, however, that possesses considerable latitude of

form, nine varieties having already been described by Mr. T. R.

Jones and myself *.

The Carboniferous Entomostraca which are identified with

this species agree in all the above characters, as well as in others

of minor importance. This, I think, will be evident from the

figures given of specimens from both formations.

The Carboniferous specimens, which do not seem to have

been hitherto noticed, occur in dark-grey shale at Craigenglen,

Campsie.

2. Cythere (Bairdia) Schaurothiana, Kirkby, 1858.

Permian specimens, Pl. IV. figs. 3, 4, 12; Carboniferous speci-

mens, Pl. IV. figs. 1, 2, 11.

B. Schaurothiana is a larger Entomostracan than the pre-

ceding species. It is somewhat elongate and almost subhexa-

gonal in outline; the posterior extremity is angulate, and not

much produced, its upper half being formed by an abrupt de-

scent of the dorsal margin; the anterior extremity is broad,

rounded, and at times subangulate above; the lateral contour is

more or less lenticular, and the surface is smooth.

The Carboniferous specimens which I place with this species

are generally of larger size and more robust than Permian ex-

amples ; and in some specimens the ventral margin anteriorly

becomes more prominent than I have ever seen it in Schauro-

thiana, but this is probably concomitant with an increase of

development. In all essential particulars they agree with the

characters of the species to which they are referred, there being,

so far as I can observe, no point of specific difference between

* Trans. Tynes. Nat. Field Club. vol. iv. pp. 141-146 and 161, 162.

204 Mr. J. W. Kirkby on some additional Species

them. And it should be mentioned that this is not my opinion

only, but that of Mr. T. Rupert Jones, to whom I submitted for

examination specimens of both the present species and the

preceding, each of which he referred to the Permian species

named.

3. Fenestella retiformis, Schlotheim, 1816-17.

Syn. Fenestella plebeia, M‘Coy, 1844.

Permian specimens, Pl. IV. figs. 13, 16,17; Carboniferous

specimens, Pl. IV. figs. 14, 15, 18.

Amorg other Polyzoa that I have received from my Glasgow

friends are numerous specimens of a Fenestella, labelled F. ple-

beia, which so closely resembles F, retiformis of the Permian

rocks that I have no doubt as to both being the same species.

The specimens are from Beith, and occur, in a more or less frag-

mentary state, on the weathered surfaces of a hard dark-grey

limestone. Generally speaking, they are less robust than well-

developed Permian examples; and many of them have scarcely

so many cells to the fenestrule as have normal specimens of the

latter. But some specimens have precisely the same number of

cells, which is about three to the fenestrule, or, rather, eleven to

the four fenestrules. Prof. M‘Coy having described the species

from specimens possessing “four or five cells to the fenestrule,”

this would seem to be a variable character, and one that cannot

be subjected to very exact comparison. In both Permian and

Carboniferous specimens the ribs or interstices have the same

relative strength compared with the dissepiments, and they

branch in the same way, and are connected by similar dissepi-

ments, which thus give to the fenestrules identity of form.

Both have the reverse or uncelluliferous face covered with mo-

derately coarse longitudinal striz ; and the cellule-apertures are

more or less circular in each. All the Carboniferous specimens

I have seen are somewhat worn, and do not show the raised

margins of the cellule-apertures, which well-preserved Permian

examples often retain, as represented in fig. 17: when worn

specimens of both are compared, no difference is to be observed

in this feature.

It is just possible that the Beith specimens may be erroneously

identified with Fenestella plebeia of M‘Coy; for the figures of

that species in his ‘Syn. Char. Carboniferous Fossils of Ireland’

certainly do not agree so closely with specimens of F. retiformis

as they. But, however this may be, there would scarcely seem

any doubt of F. retiformis being specifically undistinguishable

from the Beith specimens.

common to Carboniferous and Permian Strata.

205

List of Species occurring in Carboniferous and Permian Strata in

Britain.

Carboniferous Name.

1. Gyracanthus formosus, Agassiz.

2. Terebratula sacculus, Martin,

1809. Figured in Davidson’s Mo-

nograph of Carboniferous Brachio-

poda, pl. 54.

3. Spirifera Urii, Fleming, 1828.

Figured in Day. Mon. Carb. Brach.

pl. 54.

4. Spiriferina octiplicata, J. de C.

Sow. 1827. Figured in Mon. Carb.

Brach. pl. 54.

5. Camarophoria crumena, Martin,

1809. Figured in Mon. Carb. Brach.

pl. 54.

6. Camarophoria rhomboidea,

Phillips, 1836. Figured in Mon.

Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

7. Athyris Royssii, L’Eveillé,

1835. Figured in Mon. Carb. Brach.

pl. 54.

8. Discina nitida, Phillips, 1836.

Figured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

9. Lingula mytiloides, Sow. 1812.

Figured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

10. Fenestella plebera, M‘Coy,

1844. Figured in plate accompany-

ing present paper.

ll. Cythere elongata, Miinster,

1830. Jahrbuch f. Min. p. 65.

12. Cythere inornata, M‘Coy, 1844.

Figured in Syn. Char. Carb. Foss.

pl. 23.

13. Cythere (Bairdia) gracilis,

M‘Coy, 1#44. Figured in Syn.

Char. Carb. Foss. pl. 23.

14. Cythere (Bairdia) plebeia,

Reuss (Kirkby). Figured in the

plate accompanying present paper.

15. Cythere (Bairdia) Schauro-

thiana, Kirkby. Figured in the

plate accompanying present paper.

16. Pinites Brandlingi, Lindley.

17. Trigonocarpum Neggerathi,

Brong.

18. Sigillaria reniformis, Brong.

19. Calamites inequalis(?), Lindl.

20. approximatus, Brong.

Permian Name.

G. formosus, Ag., King, in Mon.

Perm. Foss. England, p. 221; Howse,

Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vol. xix. p. 33.

T. elongata, var. suffilata, Schloth.

1816. Figured in Davidson’s Mono-

graph of Carboniferous Brachiopoda,

lL. 54.

; S. Clannyana, King, 1848. Fi-

gured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

S. cristata, Schloth. 1816. Fi-

gured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

C. Schlothetmi, Von Buch, 1834.

Figured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

C. globulina, Phillips, 1834. Fi-

gured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

A. pectinifera, J. de C. Sowerby,

1840. Figured in Mon. Carb. Brach.

pl. 54.

D. Konincki, Geinitz, 1848. Fi-

gured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

L. Credneri, Geinitz, 1848. Fi-

gured in Mon. Carb. Brach. pl. 54.

L. retiformis, Schloth. 1816-17.

Figured in the plate accompanying

present paper.

C. elongata, Minster (Jones). Fi-

gured in Mon. Perm. Foss. pl. 18;

and Trans. Tyne. Field Club, vol. iv.

ALG

C. inornata, M‘Coy (Jones). Fi-

gured in Mon. Perm. Foss. pl. 18;

Trans. Tyne. Field Club, vol. iv. pl.11.

C. (Bairdia) gracilis, M‘Coy

(Jones). Figured in Mon. Perm.

Foss. pl. 18; and Trans. Tyne. Field

Club, vol. iv. pl. 11.

C. (Bairdia) plebeia, Reuss. Fi-

gured in the plate accompanying

present paper.

C. (Bairdia) Schaurothiana, Kirk-

by. Figured in the plate accompa-

nying present paper.

For the occurrence of these spe-

cies in the Rothliegende, see Howse

on the Permian Fossils of North-

umberland and Durham, in Annals

Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vol. xix. p. 38.

206 Mr. J. W. Kirkby on some additional Species

Though palzontologists have long been aware of strong re-

semblances existing between Carboniferous and Permian fossils,

it is only of late years that the extent and value of such resem-

blances have been made the subject of careful inquiry. Among

those who have wrought at this subject, there is perhaps no one

who has produced greater results than Mr. Thomas Davidson.

Most of the Brachiopods of the preceding list have been shown

to be both Carboniferous and Permian by his investigation.

And this authority is of the greatest value on the subject, and

will be held conclusive by most paleontologists. I have, how-

ever, been able to examine and compare specimens of most of

the species myself, and thus in some degree to corroborate the

conclusions of this distinguished investigator. For an account

of Mr. Davidson’s researches, I must refer the reader to his

valuable ‘ Monograph of Carboniferous Brachiopoda, and to a

paper on “Scottish Carboniferous Brachiopoda” in the ‘ Geo-

logist.’ But I would more particularly direct attention to

plate 54 of the Monograph, in which Carboniferous and Per-

mian individuals of each of the Brachiopods identified are figured

side by side, for the sake of comparison. The other species of

the list have been determined by Mr. T. Rupert Jones, Mr. R.

Howse, Prof. King, and myself. And it should not be forgotten

that this list is the result of a very partial investigation of Per-

mian and Carboniferous species. The Brachiopoda have cer-

tainly been pretty well examined, but this is the only class that

has. In other classes much remains to be done ; so it is possible

that future research may still further increase the number of

Carboniferous recurrent species, even in Britain. Had those

species which foreign authors consider to be common to Car-

boniferous and Permian strata been included, the list would

have received important additions. Dr. Geinitz, for example,

states that some of the plants of the Saxon Rothliegende are

identical with Coal-measure species*, as might, indeed, have

been suspected from the intimate relation that exists between

the flora of these rocks in Britain. M.Gceppert even asserts

that there are fourteen Permian plants referable to Carboniferous

speciest. The interblending of Carboniferous and Permian

forms in North America would also seem to be considerable ;

and American paleontologists have already pointed out cases

of recurrency among the species of these formations. Accord-

ing to Dr. F. B. Shumard, Producta semireticulata, Martin, and

Spirifera camerata, Morton, so well known as Carboniferous

fossils, occur in the Permian rocks of the Gaudalupe Mountains

* See Dr. Geinitz on the Coal Formation of Saxony, as noticed in Jour.

Geol. Soc. vol. xiii. p. exxvill.

+ Schlesische Gesellsch., Naturwiss. Sektion, 1858.

common to Carboniferous and Permian Strata. 207

of Texas and New Mexico*. And it has lately been shown by

Dr. Prout that the Permian Polyzoan, Polypora biarmica, Key-

serling, is a Carboniferous species in the western states of the

same continent+. And there is little doubt, when the Permian

and Carboniferous species of this region become better known,

that other examples of recurrency will come to light. The ge-

neric relations of these life-groups are certainly more intimate

in America than in Europe, as is evident from the occurrence

there of Orthocerus, Bellerophon, and Phillipsiat as Permian

types; and it will be somewhat remarkable if their specitic rela-

tions are not found to be as close.

It is by such inquiries as the present that paleontologists will

ultimately be able to speak with more precision than they can

now on the amount of relationship that exists between the life-

groups of formations, and to arrive at juster estimates of the

relative value they possess as expressions of periods of geological

time. And though there is no reason to assume that we are in

a position to speak precisely in the present instance, it must yet

be evident that the relations that exist between the Carboniferous

and Permian fossils are most intimate—more so, apparently,

than usually obtain in the fossils of distinct systems of strata;

for this intercommunity of species is accompanied, as paleeonto-

logists are well aware, hy a more than usual intercommunity of

genera, most of the common types of Permian strata being Car-

boniferous genera as well as Permian. This close alliance of

life-groups, viewed in conjunction with other evidence, caused

me, in a former paper, to question the propriety of our consider-

ing the Permian series of rocks a distinct system. It was there

pointed out that its importance as a stratigraphical group is

much less than that of other palzeozoic systems of strata; and

that its life-phenomena, viewed either numerically in respect to

species, or generically in regard to the introduction of new types,

were of less consequence than those of systems, whether palzo-

zoic or of later age§. Recent investigations have strengthened

this opinion. To use the term “system” in speaking of the

Permian group of rocks would seem to imply similarity of value

with other groups, such as the Silurian and Carboniferous, to

which the term more appropriately applies. It would apparently

indicate that it was of about equal importance in geological

classification, in the history of past life, and as the expression of

an interval of time, as either of the later groups, which I think

few geologists will be inclined to grant. It therefore seems

* Trans. Acad. Science of St. Louis, vol. i. pp. 389, 391.

+ Ibid. p. 440.

t Ibid. pp. 388, 399, 400.

{ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xvi. pp. 417, 419.

208 Mr. J. W. Kirkby on the Recurrency

more in harmony with sound classification to employ a term

indicative of less magnitude than “system ” in speaking of the

Permian strata. This some geologists already do, and, among

others, Sir Roderick Murchison, who, in his later contributions

to science, refers to the Permian strata as a group rather than a

system*. But I would further observe that, in adopting a divi-

sional term less likely to lead to wrong impressions in respect

to the importance of the Permian group of rocks, it does not

follow that the group should lose its distinctive appellation by

being considered but a formation or subformation of the Car-

boniferous system. I do not advocate this in the least, being

satisfied that it would tend to confuse rather than improve

geological classification ; for, notwithstanding its close paleeonto-

logical relations with the last-named system, it would be useless

denying that its fossils are sufficiently peculiar to warrant the

employment of the special designation of Permian.

In a paper on Carboniferous recurrent species lately published

in the ‘ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal’ (vol. xiv. pp. 87—_

45, & vol. xv. pp. 251-253), Professor Wiliam King objects to

some of the identifications of the Brachiopods of the preceding

list. Has objections are chiefly confined to the identification of

Spirifera Uru with Sp. Clannyana, King, though other species

are made the subject of remarks. Considering the position that

Prof. King holds as an authority on species, it will perhaps be

well to notice the grounds of his objections, though I shall do

so somewhat briefly.

Spirifera Urii and Sp. Clannyana.—In respect to these shells,

Prof. King maintains that they are distinct species, and that

neither the one nor the other was common to Carboniferous and

Permian faunz. In support of these opinions, he says that

“ Uri differs from Clannyana in being a wider shell; it has an

umbone more incurved ; the area of the small valve not so deep ;

the small valve flatter, and more excavated, as it were, towards

the posterio-lateral angles; the spines decidedly less numerous,

and the median sulcus more pronounced in both valves.” With-

out disputing the existence of these peculiarities in some exam-

ples of Sp. Urii, I must still remark that in others, which I have

examined myself, there are no such differences to be observed.

In these specimens there exist an agreement of general form,

relative length and width, convexity and sulcation of valves,

size and shape of area, incurvation of umbone, and spinosity of

surface, with well-preserved individuals of Sp. Clannyana, that

could scarcely have occurred had they been distinct species. In

fact, there is no character, that I can see, on which to separate

* Siluria, 3rd ed., and “ On the Inapplicability of the Term Dyas,” &c.

Philosophical Magazine, S. 4. vol. xxi. p. 65.

of Carboniferous Species. 209

them; and if they are to be kept apart, it will certainly be upon

other than paleontological grounds. But figures form better

evidence than assertions either way; and I would refer to Mr.

Davidson’s representations of both Carboniferous and Permian

specimens, given in his Monograph of Carboniferous Brachio-

poda, pl. 54, and ask if it is possible to do otherwise than agree

with that gentleman in identifying these two forms as one

species.

It must be acknowledged that it is not difficult to procure

specimens of Sp. Urii that show considerable differences when

compared with others of Clannyana; for this species is no ex-

ception to others in possessing considerable individual differen-

tiation. And it would seem to be with some of the most aber-

rant of these that Prof. King has instituted his comparison.

The existence of such differences, however, can scarcely be of

much value, when they are wanting in other individuals allowed

to belong to the same species. At least, if the contrary is held,

in the face of a knowledge of their exceptional character, it

would certainly be more in harmony with the evidence to divide

the Carboniferous specimens into two species than to separate

them from those occurring in the Permian rocks.

One difficulty which, until a recent period, had to be con-

tended with in comparing Carboniferous with Permian examples

of this shell was the imperfect condition in which most of the

latter occurred, nearly all being in the state of casts. Under

such circumstances it was not, perhaps, surprising that some

doubt should exist among palontologists on the propriety of

identifying the two forms; but this difficulty is now removed

by the acquisition of testiferous Permian examples, one of which

Mr. Davidson has figured in the plate previously mentioned.

It may also be observed that there is generally a difference in

the size of the Permian and Carboniferous examples—those of

Clannyana being almost invariably smaller than specimens of

Urii. And though few paleontologists will be inclined to at-

tach much value to this as a specific character, it should yet be

pointed out that it is a peculiarity shared by many other Per-

mian shells when they are compared with those of Carboniferous

rocks. Permian Mollusca, as a rule, never attain the propor-

tions of Carboniferous, so far, at least, as those of British strata

are concerned.

Camarophoria crumena and C. Schlotheimi.—Though Prof.

King disputes the identity of these shells, he admits the Per-

mian species to be recurrent from the Carboniferous Limestone.

The point of difference, therefore, between him and Mr. David-

son is merely whether the Carboniferous shell, which the latter

has compared with C. Schlotheimi, is correctly identified with

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 15

210 Mr. J. W. Kirkby on the Recurrency

Martin’s figures of his Anomites crumena in ‘ Petrif. Derbiensia.’

Mr. Davidson appears, in my opinion, to be right in the identi-

fication and, hence, in proposing that the name Schlotheimi

should be abandoned for the older one crumena; for there is 10

character of importance in Martin’s figures to distinguish them

from the shell compared, nor is there, moreover, any other Car-

boniferous shell which can be considered to represent Martin’s

species.

Camarophoria globulina and C. rhomboidea.—Prof. King agrees,

“ with some reservation,” in considering these shells to belong

to one species. And the existence of Lingula Credneri* in the

Coal-measures of Durham is also allowed, with “some slight

reservation.” As to Spiriferina cristata bemg the same as Sp.

octiplicata, no definite opinion is expressed by the Professor.

The tendency of his remarks seems to indicate a belief in their

identity.

Terebratula elongata, var. sufflata, and T. sacculus.—After a

careful study of Prof. King’s remarks on the first of these shells

in regard to its existence durimg the Carboniferous epoch, I

must confess myself still in some doubt as to what opinion he

actually holds on the question. For instance, in the commence-

ment of his remarks, he restates au opinion, expressed in the

Monograph of Permian Fossils (Paleont. Soc.), to the following

effect, that “ sufflata appears to be identical with a shell found

in the Mountain Limestone of Bolland.” A little further on, it

is said, quoting from the same work, that 7. sufflata “ undoubt-

edly lived in the Carboniferous epoch ;” but towards the conclu-

sion of the paper it is stated, in a foot-note, that “I am more

inclined to regard the ‘ Bolland shell’ noticed in a previous page

* The supposed occurrence of this shell in the Lower Red Sandstone at

Ferry Hill has led Prof. King to name that deposit ‘‘ Lingula Sandstone”

(Synoptical Table of British Rock Groups, 2nd edit.). Without inquiring

whether there is the least occasion to alter a well-established subdivisional

name, I would object to the adoption of the term ‘‘ Lingula Sandstone ”

for a deposit in which the occurrence of Lingule is extremely doubtful.

The only ground that exists for proposing this name at all is the fact of

Prof. Johnson of Durham having told Prof. King that he had met with a

Lingula in the above-named locality. But neither Prof. King nor any

other paleontologist has ever seen a single example of this shell from the

Lower Red Sandstone. And, with all deference to Prof. Johnson’s scien-

tific reputation, I see no improbability of his observation being at fault on

a subject he had not investigated, when it is entirely opposed to the expe-

rience of all palzeontologists who have pursued researches in the same dis-

trict. But, granting that in one isolated stance this shell has occurred

at Ferry Hill, is the sandstone to be specialized by the name of “ Lingula”’

in consequence? A Lingula-Sandstone with no Lingule in it, nor even

with a specimen to show that can be said to have been found in it! Such

a misnomer should never be adopted. Nor is it any credit to geological

nomenclature that it should ever have been proposed.

of Carboniferous Species. alt

as a variety of Dielasma (Terebratula) sacculus, aud simulating

D. suffiata, than as belonging to that species.” Now, what is

Prof. King’s opinion on this question? Is it that 7. sufflata is

identical with the Boliand shell, and so recurrent from Carboni-

ferous strata? or that it is a distinct species, and merely simu-

lated in form by the Bolland shell? Both these opinions are

given in the same paper; it is therefore impossible to see which

expresses the views of its author. The former is, of course, that

which I feel satisfied to be the correct one.

It would thus appear, in respect to the identification of the

Permian and Carboniferous Brachiopods just noticed, that Prof.

King in three cases is of the same opinion as Mr. Davidson and

myself, or, at least, that he allows three of the species to have

had a Carboniferous and Permian existence, and that in two

cases he has no decided opinion, while in one he disputes the

identification. But notwithstanding that he only in one instance

clearly differs from us in respect to the recurrency of the spe-

cies, he occupies the conclusion of his paper in arguing against

the method or “ plan” of determining species that has been fol-

lowed in identifying these Carboniferous and Permian fossils.

Prof. King seems to consider that our views of species are too

comprehensive, and that in some instances we include two or

more distinct forms in one specific group. And in support of

this opinion, he refers to the evidence to be derived from the

study of recent shells, many of which, he asserts, would have

had their specific identity ignored had they been determined on

this plan as paleeozoic fossils.

I am not aware myself of there being anything novel about

the method on which these species have been determined, it

having long been used by naturalists; and it, moreover, seems

to be the only one that it is possible to use, on the commonly

received opinion of the individuality of species. For the sake

of precision, however, I will briefly state what our method of

determining species is; and in doing so I speak for Mr. David-

son as well as myself, our views on this subject bemg the

same.

By species we understand groups of individuals characterized

in common by peculiar features. These features or characters

are considered to be persistent, and special to the groups they

distinguish. Characters which are not persistent, but which are

subject to essential modification, are looked upon as only of in-

dividual value. The great difficulty of paleontologists, as well

as of other naturalists, is to distinguish in all cases between

these two kinds of features or characters; for the latter kind

often approach the former in apparent value; and it must be

allowed that it is not always an easy matter to decide whether a

212 Mr. J. W. Kirkby on the Recurrency

character is of specific or individual worth. The principle, how-

ever, which we follow, in common with most naturalists, is to -

consider all features of individual value that graduate into other

features, and all features of specific value that are not subject to

such modification, but which stand out as marked characters in

all comparisons with other forms. On this method the identi-

fications of the preceding list have been made. Whenever a

comparison of a Carboniferous with a Permian form showed that

the supposed special characters of one passed, by gradual modi-

fication, into those of the other, and that there were no charac-

ters of the persistent type but such as were common to both

forms, we have thought ourselves warranted in referring them

to one species.

Further, we do not consider want of contemporaneity in

fossils compared to be of any importance in determinations of

species. Time is not, in our opinion, a circumstance that has

anything to do with ‘such decisions. And should two indivi-

duals present resemblances which we would consider specific in

individuals of the same formation, we attach to them the same

value, though they belong to separate formations. In both

cases we grant equal importance to similar resemblances and

differences. We are aware that this is not the principle that all

paleontologists follow,—at least, that there are still a few who

argue that want of contemporaneity is an element in determining

species: and Prof. King, I suppose, adopts this method ; for he

refers to it in support of his opinion of Spirifera Clann, yana being

distinct from Sp. Urit. But we hold, with most palzontologists,

that fossil species must be determined on natural-history merits

alone, and not in any degree upon differences in their strati-

graphical occurrence or geological age. The fact of specimens

belonging to different formations ought to be put aside, and the

decision arrived at on the same grounds as it is when the speci-

mens are from a single stratum. Palzontologists who rely on

this circumstance in distinguishing species rather remind me of

those students of entomology who must first know the country

of an insect before they venture to say what it is. The former

would, moreover, appear to forget that systems and formations

of strata are determined to be such by their species being gene-

rally distinct from those of other groups. No geologist would

consider a series of strata a system or formation, if its fossils

were not in the main peculiar. To contend, therefore, that fos-

sils are different because they occur in different formations is to

argue in a circle. The formation is first proved to be a forma-

tion because its species are principally distinct; and then the

species are proved to be distinct because they occur in a different

formation !

of Carboniferous Species. 213

Such is our method of determining species. And we are not

inclined to allow Prof. King’s charge of it being too dogmatic,

nor yet that it is unsuggestive of philosophical conclusions. If

naturalists and paleontologists carry out this method in their

determinations of species, we shall perhaps ultimately know

what is true and what is false philosophy in respect to them ;

for it will evidently tend to establish one of two things,—either

that species with persistent characters do really exist, according

to the old and more generally received opinion ; or that there is,

literally speaking, no such thing as persistent character, and

hence no species except in the Darwinian or Lamarckian sense.

And it is, perhaps, just as much in harmony with the spirit of

true philosophy to search after truth thus inductively as it is to

adopt hasty assumptions as to what truth is when the means of

proving it are wanting.

It is further objected that our method involves a cumbrous

nomenclature, and that it is wanting in “geologico-chronological”’

precision. It is asked if “ Sparifera Uri, var. Clannyana, is not

a cumbrous name?” I might ask, in return, what nomenclature

has to do with the question. It is not concerned in the deter-

mination of species; at least, it should not be. I believe the

general custom is for naturalists to make names for the species

rather than species for the names, though there may be occa-

sional exceptions ; and the use of the varietal term Clannyana in

addition to the specific name is optional, though the Permian

specimens of this species scarcely seem to require so much im-

portance. In respect to the want of “ geologico-chronological ”

precision, I would also inquire if it is the object of nomenclature

to express the chronological history of a species? When a shell

occurs in two formations, it must of necessity be named alike in

both. To signify, by the use of one term, that the shell is

essentially the same on each horizon, is the first thing to be

considered. Other considerations are of secondary importance.

In concluding his remarks, Prof. King draws the attention of

palzontologists to the defective state of their knowledge of spe-

cies compared with that which naturalists acquire of the recent

forms. This, I think, no one will dispute. The acquaintance

which the paleontologist can attain of species is at the best im-

perfect. He can have no direct knowledge of the softer parts of

the animal: all anatomical details are lost to him; and, as Prof.

King remarks, there are other characters which are generally

beyond the pale of his investigation. But, without denying this

in the least, there would still appear to be no reason for sup-

posing that paleontologists have not materials enough left for

the discrimination of species. It rarely happens that all the

characters of a species are required in order to determine it ; and

214 Mr. J. W. Kirkby on the Recurrency

differentiation of essential anatomical details, and of the more

fragile characters, is usually accompanied by differences in those

characters which survive fossilization. It is very rarely indeed

that a shell is only known to be distinct on account of some

anatomical peculiarity. I am therefore not disposed to think, as

Prof. King seems to fear, that paleontologists will often arrive

at erroneous conclusions in respect to species from their inability

to employ all the means that are at the disposal of naturalists.

And this opinion is borne out by what we know of such species

as occur both fossil and recent. Take those of the Crag, for

instance, or of any later Tertiary deposit, and it will be found

that absence of colour, epidermis, opalescence, and of all anato-

mical details has not seriously interfered with their being pro-

perly discriminated. There seems, in my opinion, more reason

to fear the creation of too many species by paleontologists than

that any considerable number will be overlooked by them; for

it should be remembered that there is a tendency in fossilization

to produce differences where none exist, as well as to obliterate

others that really characterize species. Fossils of one species

preserved as casts, or in a semi-testiferous state, or with the

shell in good condition, present very different appearances, and

repeatedly lead to false determinations. And the fragmentary

state in which some fossils occur, their being viewed in different

aspects, and the various alterations effected by pressure and other

causes, all tend to the adoption of species that have no real

existence.

However, Prof. King, to illustrate his own views in respect to

the influence that fossilization would have on recent shells, re-

marks that ‘nearly every British species of Mactra and Lito-

rina, if occurring as fossils in palzeozoic rocks, would have had

their independent creation ignored, and have been respectively

named Mactra multiformis and Litorina variabilis” on our me-

thod of determining species. Now, though these genera contain

certain British species which could never have been confounded

even as palzeozoic fossils, Prof. King is assuredly aware that they

are two of the most difficult groups of British shells, and that

several of their reputed species are acknowledged to be mere

varieties by most naturalists. Had they, therefore, occurred in

palzozoic or any other rocks, the careful paleontologist would

certainly have put many of their forms together, just, in fact, as

the judicious conchologist does now. Thus the argument which

Prof. King wishes to derive from these examples is rendered in-

valid by this fact; for it is certainly not to be expected that

paleontologists would be able to see specific differences after

fossililization, where naturalists for the most part denied their

existence before that process.

of Carboniferous Species. 215

And the difficulty with which paleontologists have to contend

from what Prof. King calls simulating forms is, I think, over-

stated. It is said by this authority that many existing shells

have a tendency to simulate the distinctive features of other

allied species; and, in support of this assertion, twelve British

shells are mentioned, which Prof. King is satisfied would have

been reduced to half the number had they occurred as palzeozoic

fossils. It may be observed, in the first place, that such shells

as simulate the distinctive characters of others can be but ques-

tionable species at the best; and the conchologist would not,

perhaps, be far wrong were he to anticipate the paleontologist

by putting them together. This, in fact, has already been done

in respect to some of the shells that Prof. King quotes, by most

British naturalists. Astarte Danmoniensis and <A. Scotica, for

instance, are usually considered to be identical; and there are

few conchologists who admit Mya Uddevallensis to be distinct

from M. truncata—an opinion which Prof. King himself held

some time ago, as appears by his paper published in ‘Ann.

Nat. Hist.’ ser. 1. vol. xix. It is not to be denied, however,

that several of the shells mentioned are good species; but, as

most of them occur as Tertiary fossils, and have already been

identified as distinct species*, they would not appear to run

much risk of being confounded with others, even should they

ultimately attain an age as great in comparison as palozoic

fossils at present.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV.

Fig. 1. Cythere (Bairdia) Schaurothiana, Kirkby. Carboniferous speci-

men, left valve. Craigenglen, Campsie.

Fig. 2. The same. Carboniferous specimen. Right valve. Craigenglen.

Fig. 1l. The same. Carboniferous specimen. Lateral contour of left

valve. Craigenglen.

Figs. 3,4, 12. The same. Permian specimens, showing same aspects as

before. Tunstall Hill.

Figs. 5, 6, 9. Cythere (Bairdia) plebeia, Reuss. Carboniferous specimens,

showing left valve and lateral contour of same. Craigenglen,

Campsie.

Figs. 7, 8, 10. The same. Permian specimens, showing same aspects as

last. Tunstall Hill.

[All the Entomostraca magnified 25 times. |

Fig. 13. Fenestella retiformis, Schloth. Permian. Non-celluliferous face ;

magnified 6 times. Tunstall Hill.

* Lutraria oblonga and L. elliptica, for mstance, occur together as

fossils in the newer Tertiary beds of Sussex (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.

vol. xiii. p.51). In the same deposit Solen siliqua has been detected (ibid.

p- 53); Hep in another Tertiary bed Solen ensis occurs (ib. vol. xiv. p. 328).

Mya truncata and M. Uddevallensis also both occur in a fossil state

(Woodward’s ‘ Mollusca,’ p. 357, and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xui.

p. 53).

216 M. A. Baur on Synapta digitata

Fig. 16. The same. Permian. Celluliferous face, worn; magnified 12

times. Tunstall Hill.

Fig. 17. The same. Permian. Celluliferous face, unabraded ; magnified

12 times. Tunstall Hill. ;

Fig. 15. The same (Fenestella plebeia, M‘Coy). Carboniferous. Non-cellu-

liferous face; magnified 6 times. Beith.

Figs. 14, 18. The same. Carboniferous. Celluliferous face, worn; mag-

nified 12 times. Beith.

[Carboniferous specimens marked C ; Permian specimens marked P. |

XXII.—On Synapta digitata and its supposed Parasite.

By A. Baur*.

I. The attachment of the Molluskigerous Sac to the head of

the Synapta.

Tue point the elucidation of which is of most importance

with regard to the relation of the sac-producing Mollusca to the

Holothurid is the case, once seen by J. Miller, in which three

molluskigerous sacs were attached within the head of the Synapta.

J. Miiller remained in doubt as to the meaning of this attach-

ment, the mode of adhesion, and the nature of the outer extremity

of the sac; he considered further observations upon the con-

stancy or inconstancy of the attachment to the head to be

necessaryT.

Captures of Synapta digitata, continued durmg three months,

furnished me repeatedly with molluskigerous sacs thus attached.

It was also possible to examine more closely the mode of attach-

ment, and to settle by observation the question whether it was

constant or inconstant, whether it was accidental or connected

with the origin of the molluskigerous sac, or perhaps with the

immigration of the molluskigerous parasite. .

While among 100-200 individuals of Synapta digitata it is

not easy to find more than one infested by a molluskigerous sac,

or now and then by several, there were three out of 120-130

Synapte containing molluskigerous sacs, in which the sae,

besides being attached as usual to the intestinal vessel, at the

same time turned its ordinarily free and posteriorly directed end

towards the head of the Synapta, and was attached there like-

wise. In all the three cases the sac attached to the head was

of the same nature ; it differed, also, in no essential poimt from

the others, which in other individuals extended freely backward

into the body-cavity of the Synapta. None of the three mollus-

* Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from the Monatsbericht der Akad.

der Wiss. zu Berlin, April 1862, p. 187.

+ J. Miiller, ‘‘ Ueber Synapta digitata und iiber die Erzeugung von

Schnecken in Holothurien,” p. 15. (See ‘ Annals,’ February 1852, p. 106.)

and its supposed Parasite. 217

kigerous sacs were smaller, but they were rather amongst the

largest observed ; they were all sexually mature, and contained

either ready-formed mollusks or ova in course of development

into mollusks. None of the three cases furnished any support

for the supposed possibility that the sacs attached to the head

of the Synapta might be an earlier stage.

The connexion of the extremity of the sac with the head of

the Synapta, when it exists, is very intimate. The terminal

portion of the molluskigerous sac, when forcibly pulled, is torn

before the adhesion will yield. This firmness is not due to any

coalescence ; its cause is mechanical, and depends upon an inter-

lockmg. The terminal portion of the molluskigerous tube was

in all three cases wrapped together into the form of a coil—as it

were, stuffed into a space enlarged by stretching, and held firmly

there by a narrow constricting portion. After the careful

separation of the constricting parts in the head of the Synapta,

the end of the sac could be completely unfolded and prepared

in an uninjured state, with the exception of the loss by stripping

off of the outermost layer of cells. The point of attachment

always corresponds externally to a spot of the circumference of

the oral or cephalic disk, where it borders on the base of the

tentacles. The point of attachment is not constant upon this

circumference; it is sometimes on one side and sometimes on

the other of the median line indicated by the mesentery and

sexual orifice. In two of the observed cases a yellow swelling,

caused by the more intensely coloured molluskigerous sac shining

through it, could be detected even from the outside in the still

uninjured and living head of the Synapta within the circle of

tentacles. The body-wall of the Synapta was, however, not

perforated ; the end of the sac was not bare, but was always

distinctly covered, at least, by the outermost reddish layer of the

body-wall (epidermis and dermis of Quatrefages). In one case

the most careful examination showed that internally the coil-

hike end of the molluskigerous sac had filled and considerably

distended the base of two neighbouring tentacular cavities.

These remained distinctly enlarged even after the separation

and removal of the coil. In the two other cases the end of the

sac had not occupied the cavity of the water-vascular system at

its entrance into the tentacles, but the space close by, between

the buccal disk, calcareous ring, and cesophagus, and therefore

between the canals passing from the annular canal to the

tentacles.

The condition described, especially in the first case, in which

the entrance into two tentacles was evidently forcibly dilated,

admits only of one explanation. The adhesion of the sac to the

head: can be effected only in the following way :—whilst it usually

218 M. A. Baur on Synapta digitata

extends backward in the body-cavity of the Synapta, in this

case it turns forward towards the head, its extremity is forced, at

any spot offering the least resistance, between the parts there

existing, and under certain circumstances into the canals, where

it is firmly held, like a portion of intestine wedged into a diver-

ticulum of the ventral cavity: such a spot is presented by the

tentacular cavities, if we leave out of consideration the delicate

and but slightly resistant walls of the aquiferous vessels, by

which the tentacular cavities are separated from the body-cavity

of the Synapta.

When disquieted or irritated, the Synapta, or each fragment

having a head, endeavours to break itself to pieces. Before this

is effected at any definite spot, the worm-like body performs

powerful alternate contractions and extensions. The pressure

exerted by the muscular body-wall upon its contents is so strong

that, at the moment when the wall bursts, the fluid of the body-

cavity often spirts out in a stream. At the same time it

frequently happens that with the first rupture of the body-wall

the intestine, together with the genital tubes, is forcibly driven

out laterally. In the same way the molluskigerous sac, with its

free end turned towards the head, may be firmly held by a con-

striction in the neighbourhood of the calcareous ring, where a

rupture never takes place. The attenuation which, according to

J. Miller, the sac exhibits towards its extremity is explained

by the dragging and stretching necessarily accompanying this

process.

As appears from the nature of the Synapta, as well as from

that of the extremity of the sac, the mode of attachment is purely

mechanical ; it does not consist in an organic connexion of the

sac with the head of the Synapta. In the effectuation of the

cephalic attachment the molluskigerous sac is purely passive :

the effective cause is the pressure exerted by the contractile wall

of the body of the Synapta upon its contents, and consequently

also upon the molluskigerous sac.

The cephalic adhesion is, finally, inconstant, and purely acci-

dental, because it is to be ascribed to an accidental vital mani-

festation, or perhaps more correctly to a phenomenon of the

agony of the Synapta—a convulsive contraction of the body,

perhaps produced only by capture or by violent injury.

The notion that we are to regard the molluskigerous sac,

when attached to the head of the Synapta, as not organically

united, but perhaps as a parasite breaking through the body-wall

of the Synapta either in immigration or emigration, and the

adhesion itself as a transitory act of the molluskigerous sac

which, for this reason, so rarely comes under observation, is got

rid of by what has been said above. But still there is one cir-

and its supposed Parasite. 219

cumstance to be considered, which has been referred to this

very point.

In one case described by J. Miiller, which, among the rare

cases of cephalic attachment of the molluskigerous sac, was itself

a rare exceptional case, imasmuch as three sacs were present in

one Synapta, and all three of them were attached to the head,

one of the sacs, and this the smallest and shortest, although

otherwise not different, and still uninjured, had the extremity

usually affixed to the intestinal vessel free in the cavity ot the

body. J. Muller was inclined to attach much importance to

this circumstance in the interpretation of the sacs as parasitic

creatures. The mode in which this might happen has been

elucidated by the anonymous reporter in the ‘ Annals of Natural

History,’ January and February 1852, by reference to the pene-

tration of the Cercariz into the skins of the Mollusca. J. Miiller

himself has left it uncertain whether this third sac, with a reversed

attachment (that is to say, attached by the usually free ex-

tremity, and free at that which is usually attached), was still very

young and undeveloped, or whether its development and genera-

tion were completed, and itself in course of retrograde metamor-

phosis,— whether it would attain its position on the intestine

only by further growth, or whether the union had previously

occurred at the ordinary place, but been dissolved by the gradual

reduction of the sac. The reporter in the ‘Annals of Natural

History’ regarded it as an ascertained fact, from J. Miiller’s ob-

servation, that the sac is at first attached only to the body-wall

of the Synapta (at the head), and subsequently to the intestinal

vessel.

The behaviour of the molluskigerous sacs as they occur in the

cavity of the body of the Synapta, especially when the cephalic

attachment is left out of the question, forbids our connect-

ing this circumstance with evolution, whether progressive or

retrograde, or with the immigration of the molluskigerous sac

It is quite an ordinary phenomenon to find in the cavity of the

Synapta perfectly free, floating molluskigerous sacs, which have

evidently been torn from the intestinal vessel only by the cap-

ture and the violent movements of the Synapta accompanying

it. But if a molluskigerous sac be completely attached to the

head, the freedom of the other extremity is still less remarkable.

As it may be proved from the cephalic attachment itself that in

this case a force has been exerted upon it which pressed it

against the head of the Synapta, and even wedged it into that

part, it is not to be wondered at if the same pressure which, in

the case of J. Miiller, drove these sacs towards the head, should

have separated one of them from its position on the intestinal

vessel. Nor is it surprising that this should apply to the

220 M.A. Baur on Synapta digitata

smallest specimen—to that whose length is less than the distance

of the ordinary point of attachment on the intestine from the head

of the Synapta, as may be seen from the figure (tab.2. fig.3) given

by J. Miiller. Therefore, as the abnormal attachment to the

head is nothing but a mechanical and accidental engagement of

one end of the sac, so the simultaneous absence of the normal

adhesion in the one case observed by J. Miiller is merely a me-

chanical separation of the other end from the intestinal vessel,

referable to the same accidental cause. Neither the one nor the

other stands in any nearer relation to the growth, development,

or vital history of the molluskigerous sac.

II. On the adhesion of the Molluskigerous Sac to the Intestine.

In the natural state we are never to imagine the molluskigerous

sac in the Synapta otherwise than as attached by one end, in

the manner described and figured by J. Miiller, to the intestinal

vessel opposite to the mesentery, with the other end extending

freely backwards in the cavity of the body along the intestinal

canal of the Synapta. If the sac be quite free, it has been acci-

dentally separated ; if it be attached by the free end to the head,

it has been accidentally engaged there.

The natural adhesion of the molluskigerous sac is effected in

this way : the button-like extremity, probably the buccal portion

of the molluskigerous sac, projects into the lumen of the intes-

tial vessel through a slit in the wall of the latter, and is firmly

held therein, exactly like a button in its button-hole. Behind

the knob the wall of the vessel clasps the sac so closely, that a

forcible separation is not possible without tearing away the

button, or enlarging the slit, so that the sac may easily appear

to have become organically united with the intestinal vessel.

There is, however, no evidence of such a union; on the con-

trary, the simple engagement of the button is perfectly sufficient

to explain the firmness of the connexion between the sac and

the intestinal vessel.

The mode of attachment of the molluskigerous sac to the in-

testinal vessel is, therefore, like its adhesion to the head, purely

mechanical, and depends no more than the latter upon an orga-

nic union. It is not, however, like this, accidental ; on the con-

trary, this attachment is constant for the occurrence of every un-

injured sac in the uninjured Synapta, and, which is the most

remarkable, constant with regard to the spot on the intestinal

vessel, although this extends, with the same diameter, and the

same properties, and in the same position, along the whole intes-

tine of the Synapta, from the stomach to the anus.

How this attachment is effected, that is to say, how the mol-

luskigerous sac buttons itself into the intestinal vessel of the

and its supposed Parasite. 221

Synapta, is the next question with which we have to deal. It

cannot take place by the molluskigerous sac remaining passive,

as in the cephalic attachment. The attachment to the intestinal

vessel must, on the contrary, be an act in the life of the molluski-

gerous sac, an act, however, which is still entirely withdrawn

from our inspection.

With regard to the development and early vital history of the

molluskigerous sac, its occurrence in the full-grown Synapta

furnishes no other information than is to be found in the obser-

vations of J. Miiller. In the full-grown Synapta, the molluski-

gerous sac is never found, at any period of the year, otherwise

than in the sexually mature and molluskigerous state, and at-

tached in the manner above described.

III. The young forms of Synapta digitata, Mill.

Quatrefages, in his observations upon Synapta Duvernea (An-

nales des Sciences Nat. 2 sér. 1842, p. 73), has pomted out

that, much as these Holothuriz might be observed on the shores

of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, they are yet never

met with otherwise than in a perfectly developed and sexually

mature state, and not less than 6 inches in length. This ap-

plies also to Synapta digitata. The non-appearance of smaller

specimens is explained by Quatrefages upon the well-founded sup-

position that these vermiform Echinoderms, in passing through

a metamorphosis, will have a larval form, which, no doubt, will

be quite different from that which they afterwards assume.

Among the numerous forms of swimming larve of Echino-

derms discovered by J. Miiller, are some whose metamorphosis

could be traced into animals which, from their general anatomi-

eal characters, are Holothurie. These are the Auricularie re-

markable for their singular form and compared to a rococo

coat-of-arms (Abhandl. der Akad. der Wiss. 1848, p. 98; 1849,

p- 35; and 1850, p. 37). Of these larve J. Miller has made

known two different and apparently widely distributed forms ;

both were first observed at Marseilles in spring, then at Nice in

August and September, and lastly at Trieste, one only in the

spring, and the other late in the summer. Their external distinc-

tions are, that one bears in the middle of the posterior extremity

of the body a calcareous gland running out into radiate teeth—in

fact, a calcareous star, and also, in the lobes into which the body

of the larva is prolonged all round, a garniture of clear, pale-red

spherules, not composed of lime ; the other larva is.destitute of

these spherules, and has in the two lobes of the posterior end of

the body which contains the anus, besides an inconstant cal-

careous sphere, a variable number of very regular calcareous

wheels. The young Holothurie(still swimming by means of bands

222 M. A. Baur on Synapta digitata

of cilia) into which these larve are transformed coincide most

in their anatomical structure with the footless and abranchiate

section to which the genera Chirodota and Synapta belong. They

retain, in the skin at the posterior extremity of the body, the

peculiar calcareous structures of the larva.

For the more precise determination of one of these larval

forms, and the corresponding young Holothurid, with the globules

and the calcareous star, J. Miiller possessed no data (loc. cit.

1849, p. 55). In the other, the occurrence of the calcareous

wheels still at the posterior extremity of the young Holothurid

could not but lead to a supposition that it belonged to the

genus Chirodota (ibid. p. 49), because this genus has calcareous

wheels in the skin, silat the nearly allied and anatomically

accordant genus Synapta has little anchors inserted into a per-

forated calcareous plate.

Grube has described two Holothurids of the genus Chirodota

from the Mediterranean — Chirodota Chiaji and C. pinnata

(‘ Actinien, Echinodermen und Wiirmer des adriat. und Mittel-

meers,’ 1840). It has, however, been found that these two, from

their zoological characters, namely, the calcareous armature, are

not Chirodote, but Synapte, and that Chirodota Chiaji, Gr. (Holo-

thuria digitata, Mont.), and Chirodota pinnata, Gr. (Holothuria

inherens, O. F. Mill.), must receive the generic name of Synapta

(Miller, Archiv, 1850, pp. 115, 135, 186). One of them is

Miiller’s Synapta digitata, and the other Synapta inherens, the

latter again being probably identical with Synapta Duvernea of

Quatrefages.

As no true Chirodota, no Holothurid with calcareous wheels,

is yet known from the Mediterranean, there were two possibilities

in regard to the origin of the Auricularia with calcareous wheels.

Hither it belonged to a true Chirodota peculiar to the Mediter-

ranean, but still unobserved ; or the calcareous wheels in the skin

of the larva and young Holothurid could only be transitory

structures, and other calcareous structures must subsequently

make their appearance in them (Abh. der Akad. der Wiss. 1849,

p. 50). The former was the less probable, because, from the

abundance of the Auricularia with calcareous wheels, it could

scarcely be supposed to belong toa still unknown and there-

fore certainly rare Holothurid; but in the latter case the abun-

dant and widely distributed Synapte must be taken into con-

sideration. The decision of the question depended on tracing

the young Holothurids produced from the larvee with calcareous

wheels (which, in the latest stage seen by J. Miller, still moved

by swimming with their bands “of cilia) in their further growth

and changes, but especially with respect to the appearance of

calcareous structures in other parts of the skin.

and its supposed Parasite. 223

Krohn has succeeded in keeping alive young Holothurids

with calcareous wheels, taken in spring at Messina, until they

lost the rows of cilia and crept in a perfectly worm-like manner,

“like Synapte”? (Muller’s Archiv, 1853, p. 319). In one

individual, moreover, Krohn saw the number of the still simple

tentacles, which is originally five, increase to eight by the

simultaneous growth of three new ones. In the discovery of

this later stage, Krohn also thought he found a support for the

opinion of J. Miiller already referred to, namely, that the small

Holothuria and Auricularia with calcareous wheels belong to the

genus Chirodota | Synapta ?—Ep.].

Synapta digitata, as it occurs in the Bay of Muggia, near Trieste,

reproduces in the spring (Leydig, in Miiller’s Archiv, 1852,

pp- 507, 516), and, as I ascertained, only once in the year. I

have observed that the appearance in great numbers of the Auri-

cularia with calcareous wheels in the Bay of Muggia, where

Synapta digitata lives in abundance on the sea-bottom, coincides

exactly with the time at which the distended genital sacs of the

Synapta contain mature ova with a germinal spot, and zoospermia,

and that shortly afterwards they are all found empty.

I have also succeeded in tracing the development of the larvze,

pup, and young Holothurids (which are at first easily caught,

but afterwards captured’ with gradually increasing difficulty) up

to the point at which they live, in the form of small transparent

worms of about 8 mill. in length, in the fine mud of the sea-

bottom, and have gradually acquired all the anatomical and

zoological characters of Synapta digitata. In the last observed

and furthest advanced animals the number of tentacles, by a

further pushing out of four new ones, had become twelve, the

number occurring in the mature Synapta. The originally

simple, conical tentacles had acquired the specific form of those of

Synapta digitata; they terminated in five little feelers, arranged

like fingers, of which the middle one was short and curved out-

wards. They had the suckers on the inside of the base, and

performed movements from without inwards, accompanied by

alternate extension and retraction. The skin, which was at first

unarmed, had become beset all over with peculiar calcareous

structures ; these were little anchors, each attached moveably, by

means of a knob, to a perforated calcareous plate. At the same

time, however, the calcareous wheels present in the larva were

still retained at the posterior extremity of the body; but their

number had not increased.

From this it appears that the Auricularia with calcareous wheels

is the larva of Synapta digitata, Miill., and that the Synapta has

a young stage in which it has already attained its definitive form,

and possesses the anchors in its skin, but still bears the wheels of

the larva at its posterior extremity near the anus.

224 Mr. A. Newton on the Discovery of

The methods by which I succeeded in rendering the young

Synapte accessible to observation, the details of the develop-

mental processes, so far as they have not already been observed

by J. Miiller, and the anatomical characters of Synapta digitata

(visible with remarkable facility in the little transparent creatures,

which are perfect from mouth to anus) shall be described in detail.

At the same time reasons will be given why the unveiling the

vital history of the molluskigerous sac is rendered probable by

the discovery of these young Synapte. The difficulties which

set bounds to the further prosecution of this course lie in the fact

that it was not possible to capture Synapta digitata in the young

state described in the same quantity as the full-grown animals,

which is the first condition for the observation of the molluski-

gerous sac, on account of its great rarity.

Together with Synapta digitata, the somewhat smaller Synapta

inherens (probably S. Duvernea, Quatref.), distinguished by its

more strongly adhesive skin and plumosely branched tentacles,

occurs in smaller numbers near Trieste, in the Bay of Muggia.

I had the opportunity of observing the brood of this species

also, mixed with that of S. digitata, up to the point at which it

likewise had the anchors in its skin and acquired the full

number and specific form of its tentacles. The young Holo-

thurids of this species are only distinguished by having no

calcareous wheels or globules in the posterior extremity, but,

instead of them, a group of irregularly angular calcareous pieces.

From the Auricularia of Synapta digitata that of S. inherens pro-

bably does not differ at all, except in this condition of the calca-

reous structure. The latter would, therefore, not be recognized

at the time when only larvee, without any young Holothurids,

occurred.

XXIII.—On the Discovery of Ancient Remains of Emys lutaria

in Norfolk. By AuFrep Newton, M.A., F.L.S.

[Plates VI. & VII. ]

On the 31st of March last, in the course of a communication to

the Philosophical Society of the University of Cambridge, I had

the pleasure to announce a fact in British archeontology, which,

as far as I am aware, is hitherto unrecorded ; and as that paper

will not be published in a form likely to bring it under the

especial notice of naturalists, I propose to give a short account

here of what I venture to think may be regarded as a discovery

not altogether unimportant.

In the early part of this year, while examining a considerable

collection of ancient remains in the possession of Mr. Birch, of

Ancient Remains of Emys lutaria in Norfolk. 225

Wretham Hall, near Thetford, I recognized, to my surprise, some

specimens far more interesting than any I had hoped to meet

with; and these, by that gentleman’s kindness, I was enabled

to exhibit at the meeting of the Society above named. They

consist of a few bones of the limbs and a good part of the outer

skeleton of two individuals of the European freshwater Tortoise

Emys lutaria of Merrem (Testudo europea of Bojanus, Cistudo

europea of Duméril and Bibron), a species whose existence at

any time in the British Islands had never before been suspected *.

They were found, as testified by a label attached to them in

Mr. Birch’s handwriting, so long ago as June 1836, in a peat-

bog by the side of a spring-pit at Hast Wretham, about 7 feet

below.the surface and beneath some fifteen hundred laminations

of a species of Hypnum, which, I understand from Mr. Birch,

was pronounced by Sir William Hooker to be H. filicinumt.

I communicated these facts forthwith to Professor Owen and

Professor Bell, as being respectively the highest authorities on

fossil and recent British reptiles, and subsequently submitted

the remains to the first-named gentleman, who kindly deter-

mined the species for me, thereby confirming the view I had

taken of it. In these days the geographical range of this little

Tortoise is somewhat remarkable. I am not aware of any indi-

cations of its existence in Holland, Belgium, or Northern France.

In the North-west of Germany it is unknown; but it occurs in

Baden, Wiirtembergt, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and

Silesia, whence it seems to extend in a north-western direction

through Eastern Prussia, as far as Rostock. At the present

time, it is not recognized as an inhabitant of either Denmark

or Sweden; but its remains have been found in both countries

under circumstances similar to those of the Norfolk ones I have

just recorded, as may be seen from the following abstract of the

statements of Professors Dalman, Nilsson, and Steenstrup.

In the Transactions of the Stockholm Academy (K. Vetensk.

Acad. Hand]. 1820, pp. 286-293, tabb. vi. and vu.) Professor

Dalman gives an account of some Tortoise-bones found in

digging the Gotha canal, near Norsholm, im the province of

(Estergothland. They seem to have been about 15 feet below

the surface, in peat-earth, over which a layer of gravel had been

* I believe that as yet no trace of any of the Testudinata has been ob-

tained in England from a formation later than that of the London Clay—

certainly not from any post-Tertiary deposit.

+ Sir Charles Bunbury has been good enough to refer me to a commu-

nication of his in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London

for 1856 (vol. xii. p. 355), in which he describes a similar layer of moss

found at West Wretham, and there identifies the species as H. fluitans.

t See G. v. Jager, in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1861, xxxiv. p. 190.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 16

226 Mr. A. Newton on the Discovery of

superimposed, and to have been the remains of two individuals,

which the writer declares to have belonged to Emys europea of

Oken, as distinguished from LE. lutaria, though, I believe, the

best authorities now consider these two supposed species to be

identical. He also adds, in a note, that a third and entire ske-

leton, dug up a long time before in making a deep ditch near

Regnaholm, in the same province, had been brought to his

notice by Major Gyllenkrook since his communication to the

Academy. In a later volume of the same Transactions (1839,

pp- 194-211, tabb. im. & iv.) Professor Nilsson notices a similar

discovery made at two places in Skane, one specimen having

been found in 1839 near Grafve, in the pastorate of Bragarp, at

a depth of 8 feet, in peat, and another disinterred the following

year, near Fuglie, in the pastorate of Hvallinge. He gives a

minute description of the former example, detailing some points

of difference observable between it and recent specimens of

Emys lutaria, Bp., which differences he there considers sufficient

to warrant his designating the fossil as E. /utaria, “var. borealis.”

In 1842, this veteran naturalist, in his ‘ Skandinavisk Herpeto-

logi’ (p. 11, note), mentions that, more than twenty years pre-

viously, he had received from a student a living example of L.

lutaria, captured in the district of Falsterbo, the extreme south

point of Sweden, which, at the time, he thought could only have

been an imported animal, accidentally escaped, and so neglected

to make further inquiries respecting it. He likewise states

(p. 10, note) that, shortly before the publication of his work, he

had obtained, from Medic. Candid. Fornander, fragments of a

fossil Tortoise found in a moss in Giland. This he identifies

with the existing Hmys lutaria, and appears content to let his

own “ borealis” sink into obscurity, as if doubtful of its validity

even as a variety.

Fourteen years ago, Professor Steenstrup announced to the

Copenhagen Scientific Association (Overs. over det Vidensk.

Selsk. Forhandl. 1848, p. 74) the discovery of the dorsal portion

of the skeleton of a Water-Tortoise in a turf-moss at Overdraaby,

near Jegerspris, in Zealand (Sjcelland), and, in doing so, referred

to Professor Nilsson’s statements just quoted. Some years

later, he communicated to the same Association (1855, p. 1) the

fact that the sternum and vertebre of another individual had

been found in a similar formation at Egholm, not far from the

locality last mentioned; and soon after, the same illustrious

zoologist gave an account (1855, p. 384) of the remains of a

third, but smaller and younger, example, which had since been

obtained at that spot.

I regret that it is beyond my power to furnish a full and de-

tailed description of the specimens whose discovery I now record.

Ancient Remains of Kmys lutaria in Norfolk. 227

I can only make a few observations upon them; and these, I may

add, have been chiefly brought to my notice by my kind friend

Dr. Albert Giinther.

Of the limbal remains of the two individuals*, I have now

before me sixteen bones or fragments of bones, consisting, when

fitted together, of one right humerus, one right and one left sca-

pula, one right and part of one left clavicle, two right and two

left femora, one entire pelvis, with ¢wo portions of another, and

one right and two left tibie. From these bones it is plain that

the two individuals differed slightly in size.

Of the vertebral remains in the larger specimen, thirty-six

out of the sixty-three bones, or more than half, remain. To

specify them, I shall adopt the system of notation employed by

Bojanus in his beautiful Monograph of this speciest. The me-

dian or vertebral row of the dorsal bones is the most deficient,

only three out of the ten, namely, v, 1x, and x, being left. It

is very unfortunate that the sixth, seventh, and eighth are lost,

as they appear to vary much in different individuals, and I

cannot conjecture what shape they may have had here. Of

the twenty-four marginal bones, nine are forthcoming; these

luckily include xt and xxirr, the nuchal and caudal scutes.

The others which have been preserved are xV, XVI, XVII, XVIII,

XXVIII, XxIx, and part of xxx1v. The costal bones on the right

side all remain, with the exception of the first false rib, xxxv;

on the left side, four of the ten are missing, namely, XLV. XLVI,

XLViI, and u1. The processes of the tenth false rib on either side,

XLIv and Liv, remain attached to xx111 and L111 respectively.

The sternal bones of this (the larger) specimen are in a singu-

larly perfect state, the posterior process of the left hinge alone

being somewhat damaged. Thus it will be seen that the por-

tions present are such that the size of the specimen can be

pretty correctly ascertained ; and accordingly I give the follow-

ing dimensions, which, I am confident, approach the truth very

nearly :—

Entire length of carapace, in a straight line, 7 inches.

Ditto, following the curve . d9 HL Beis

Entire breadth of carapace, in a straight line, 5°5_,,

Ditto, followmg the curve. . . . . . 86 ,,

Greatest length of plastron . . . . . 75 ,,

Greatest breadth of ditto . . . . . . 44 ,,

* T ought to say that I was not aware that the bones were those of two

individuals, until the fact was mentioned to me by Prof. Owen, though,

in justice to myself, I may add that I despatched them to him immediately

on their being entrusted to my care.

+ ‘Anatome Testudinis Europe,’ &c. fol. Vilne et Lipsiz, 1819-21.

16*

228 Zoological Society :—

In the smaller specimen, nine dorsal bones only remain : these

I believe to be xIvV, XXVII, XXVIII, XXX, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XLIX,

LI, and 11; but I am not very certain that my identification of

them is correct. Of the sternum, more than one-half has been

preserved, the missing bones being Lv, Lv1, LvII, part of Lv11,

and 11x; but the cardinal processes are much less perfect than

in the larger example. The greatest breadth of the sternum is

4°25 inches ; the length from the transverse articular suture to

the posterior extremity is 4 inches, while in the larger example

it is 4°25 inches.

For the rest I must refer the student to the plates (Pls. VI. &

VII.) accompanying this brief and incomplete notice, which will

give a far better idea of the relics of these ancient Britons than

anything I can say about them.

Elveden, June 30, 1862.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

February 11, 1862.—Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair.

CoNTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE BriTISH CHARRS.

By Dr. ALBERT GUNTHER.

The production of the following paper has been induced by two

specimens of the so-called Freshwater Herring of Lough Melvin in

Ireland, which were procured by Joshua Walker, Esq., and sub-

mitted to my examination. The differences from the allied Conti-

nental species were so striking, that, from the first moment, I could

scarcely doubt that I had a species before me which I had never seen

before. In the first place it appeared necessary to compare it with

specimens from other localities of Great Britaim—with the true British

Charr ; but, although the period of the year (November and Decem-

ber) appeared to be the most favourable for the capture of those

fishes, as they approach the shores to spawn, afterwards returning

to the deepest parts of the lakes, I have been only partly successful

in obtaining more specimens, and [ particularly regret not having

been able to examine specimens from Scotland, either ina fresh state

or preserved in spirits*. I have obtained, however, materials suffi-

cient for the determination of the Charrs of three localities, by the

kind assistance of the gentlemen who will be mentioned hereafter.

Our knowledge of the representatives of the Charr on the Continent

is chiefly due to Heckel, Nilsson, and Rapp, in whose descriptions

due attention has been paid to those characters by which the species

may be distinguished ; and for a comparison of the British Charrs

with those of the Continent I have had to rely chiefly on them.

My materials were the following :—

* Dried and stuffed specimens of Charr are of little or no use.

Dr. A. Giinther on the British Charrs. 229

a. Freshwater Herring of Lough Melvin.

Two fresh specimens, mature males ; by the kindness of J. Walker,

Esq.

One specimen (dried skin) in the British Museum.

b. Welsh Charr, or Torgoch.

Nearly twenty specimens from Llanberris, all mature males ; re-

ceived by the kindness of S. P. W. Ellis, Esq., Chief Constable of

Carnarvonshire, and G. Ellis, Esq.

Four young specimens from the lake Coss-y-gedawl, transferred

with Mr. Yarrell’s collection to the British Museum (Salmo salve-

linus, Jenyns).

c. Charr of the Lake of Windermere.

Two mature males, procured by the kindness of Sir J. Richardson.

For further comparison I had the “ Rothel”’ of the Lake of Con-

stance, the “Ombre chevalier” of the Lake of Geneva, four speci-

mens of a Charr from Iceland, and twelve without known locality.

Before we enter into a historical account of our knowledge of the

British Charrs, we must consider the question, what fishes have been

originally intended by the Linnzean denominations of Salmo umdla,

Salmo salvelinus, and Salmo alpinus—names by which the British

Charrs have been designated by various authors.

The original descriptions themselves are too short and too general

to give anything like specific distinctions ; but fortunately we see

that question settled, once and for ever, by the very names of the

fishes and by the localities from which the typical specimens had

been procured. J. Heckel has made inquiries into this subject with

regard to the Salmo salvelinus of South Germany*, and the follow-

ing is the result :—

a. Salmo salvelinus, L. Linneeus has founded this species on the

tenth species of Salmo in Artedi’s ‘ Genera,’ or on the eleventh in his

‘Synonymy’; and Artedi had derived the whole of his knowledge of

this fish from Willughby, who (p. 195) gives a description of the

*‘Salvelin”’ from a specimen captured near the Austrian town of

Linz. Therefore there cannot be the slightest doubt that the Lin-

nzean denomination is intended for the South-German fish, which, up

to the present day, is called Sé/bling at various localities.

The best account of the Salbling has been given by Heckel, who

says that they are found in several lakes of South Germany, Tyrol,

and Switzerland. First (/.c.) he distinguished three species accord-

ing to the different arrangement of the small teeth on the vomer ;

afterwards}, having convinced himself that this character is subject

to some variation, he reunited those three forms, stating at the same

time that those fishes from different localities of Central Europe

considerably differ in their forms. And it is not at all improbable

that there are really several species confounded by him, but differing

* Reisebericht, p. 89, in Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, 1851, July.

+ Siisswasserf. Oestr. p. 280.

230 Zoological Society :—

and distinguishable by other, more constant, characters than by that

of the arrangement of the vomerine teeth. Be this as it may, it suf-

fices for our purpose that Heckel distinguishes those fishes of Central

Europe by the considerable breadth of the interorbital space, which

is twice the diameter of the eye. The figure*, also (which is rather

indifferent), represents a remarkably small eye ; the pectoral fin oc-

cupies only one-half of the distance of its root from that of the ven-

trals; and when we compare the British specimens, we find that their

head is much narrower, their eye much larger, and their pectoral

fins much longer than in the fishes described by Heckel, and conse-

quently that none of them can be identical with the South-German

Salbling or with the Salmo salvelinus of Linnzeus.

b. Salmo umbla, L. Linneeus has founded this species on the

ninth species of Salmo in Artedi’s ‘Genera,’ or on the seventh in his

‘Synonymy,’ the latter ichthyologist following Rondelet, who de-

scribed the ‘Salmo Lemani lacus, seu Umblat,”’ or the ‘‘ Ombre

(chevalier)”’ of the Lakes of Geneva and Neuchatel. Jurinet and

Agassiz § have given figures of this fish. Far superior to them is that

published by Rapp ||, who has identified the ‘‘ Rothel”’ of the Lake

of Constance with the Salmo umbla, L.

This species never assumes the red colours of the S. salvelinus, or

of the Charrs of Windermere and of Wales. It could be compared

in this respect only with the “Freshwater Herring” of Lough Melvin,

from which it is readily distinguished by its much larger teeth, by

its wide mouth, the maxillary extending to behind the orbit, by its

much more elongate body, and by the proportions of its fins. Salmo

umbla of Linneeus differs from the British Charrs (as far as we treat

of them in this paper) in nearly every one of the external characters,

and agrees with the Irish species only in its plainer coloration and

in the size of its scales.

c. Salmo alpinus, L. Linneeus, on his tour through Lapland,

discovered in the mountain-lakes of that country a species of Charr,

which he described in the ‘ Fauna Suecica,’ p. 117, no. 310, and

which he named S. alpinus in the ‘Systema Nature.’ He adopts

the opinion of Artedi in referring the British Charr (which he knew

from Willughby’s description) as a synonym to this S. alpinus.

Even the few details which are given in his and Nilsson’s descriptions

do not admit of an identification of those species. Linnzeus says that

the length of the head of the typical specimen was 13 inch, and the

distance from (the front margin of) the dorsal to the adipose fin

3 inches: in the British Charrs the head is much longer. He found

the length of the head equal to that of the base of the dorsal fin: in

British Charrs the base of that fin is much shorter. Nilsson de-

scribes the S. alpinus, L., as a distinct variety of S. salvelinus, di-

stinguished by short fins; but S. salvelinus, Nilss., has shorter fins

than any of the British Charrs.

* Siusswasserf. fig. 155. tT Rondel. ii. p. 160.

} Poiss. du lac Léman, pl. 5.

§ Poiss. d’eau douce, pls. 10 & 11 (but not pl. 9).

|| Bodensee-Fische, p. 32. taf. 5.

Dr. A. Giinther on the British Charrs. 231

We are, therefore, not justified in admitting one of those Linnzean

denominations for the British species which will be described in this

paper. This view being in contradiction with that of all former

writers, I think it necessary to give a historical review of what has

been done on the subject. Not a love of starting novel views, much

less an ill feeling towards any of the previous inquirers, but the plain

necessity of supporting the truth of my opinion forces me to show

where observations have been imperfect, or where they do not agree

with nature. Conscious of the imperfectness of my own labour, I

should not be wise to provoke just retribution by unfair severity

towards others.

1685. WritiueHesy is the first who with the practised eye of an

ichthyologist examined the Charrs of England and Wales, devoting

a separate article to their description*. He recognizes their affinity

to the Salbling (S. salvelinus), and lets the descriptions of the Ger-

man and British fishes follow one another; but the ‘‘ Torgoch”’ of

Wales and the ‘“ Red Charre of Winander-mere’’ appear to him to

be the same species, with which he unites even the ‘‘ Reutele’”’ or

Rothel of South Germany—a fish which, however, appears to have

been known to him rather by name or by recollection than by actual

examination and by comparison with the British fish.

At a time when naturalists were only beginning to advance be-

yond the individual specimen to the conception of classification, and

‘to form the ideas of species and genera, it was creditable enough to

note the British Charrs on the whole as different from the Salbling,

and, at the same time, to indicate their affinity.

Willughby mentions the Gilt Charr besides the Red Charr, also

from the lakes of Westmoreland, considering it identical with Sal-

viani’s Carpione from the Lago di Gardat. In the description of

the latter he says (p.197), “In palato quinque dentium areole,” whilst

he expressly and correctly mentions that the middle of the palate is

toothless in the Salbling as well as in the Red Charr. Therefore

the Gilt Charr, as it is understood by Willughby, cannot be a true

Charr without teeth along the middle of the vomer (Sa/mo sensu

stricto) ; but it isa species of Salar or Fario, with five series of teeth

along the roof of the mouth, viz. two along the maxillaries, two along

the palatines, and one along the vomer.

We shall see that Pennant and Yarrell mention the Gilt Charr (of

which I have not seen an example) as a variety of the common

Charr; but what Pennant says about its habits and propagation

tends to show that Willughby was perfectly right in referring it to

(or near to) a very different species.

1738. The confusion commences with Artrept and Linnzvus,

who, without knowing the British fish, refer Willughby’s Red Charre

to the Salmo alpinus from Lapland.

1755. FarRINnGTON, ina letter printed in the ‘Philosophical Trans-

actions ’ of that year, gives some notes about the general appearance

* Will. Hist. Pisce. p. 196.

+ See Heckel, Reisebericht, p. 98 (Salmo carpio, L.; Fario carpio, Heck.).

232 Zoological Society :—

and the habits of the Torgoch. He very truly remarks that the fish

is ‘‘ slimy, nearly allied to the eel and the tench.” From the speci-

mens which I have examined I cannot confirm his observation that

“the male is not adorned with the beautiful red hue of the female ;”

“yet,” he continues, “‘ he is finely shaded and marbled upon the back

and sides with black streaks.”’ ‘“‘The Turgoch makes its appearance

at the shores of the Llanberris lakes about the winter solstice; the

whole number annually taken in the two pools of Llanberris does not

amount to a hundred dozen.”

1776. Pennant knows that the Charr occurs not only in England

and Wales, but also in Scotland, whilst he had not received any evi-

dence of its existence in Ireland. He first mentions the fact, which is

repeated in all other works, that the Charrs of the Lake of Llanber-

ris were entirely destroyed by noxious waters flowing from copper-

mines in the neighbourhood*. He has examined the Red or Case-

Charr and the Gilt Charr, but considers both as the same species,

although the former spawns about Michaelmas, ascending the river

Brathay, whilst the spawning-season of the latter extends from the

month of January to that of March, the fishes remaining in the

sandy parts of the lake. If this Gilt Charr (Pennant’s) is identical

with that of Willughby, and if the observations of both these natu-

ralists really refer to the Gilt Charr of the present day, it is clear

that it is not a variety of the common Charr, but a species widely

different from it. ’

1802. The knowledge of those fishes is considerably advanced by

Donovan, who well perceives the differences between the Torgoch

and Charr, but is unable to fix the distinctive characters in specific

terms, resorting for the purpose of diagnosis to the differences in

colour, which in his figures are much exaggerated and untrue. In

his description, he is quite right in directing particular attention to

the slender form of the Torgoch ; and he might have added another

important character which is indicated in the figures, namely, that

whilst in the Charr the root of the pectoral is quite free, and not

overlapped by a prolonged suboperculum, the latter is produced

backwards and downwards in the Torgoch. The physiognomy of

the fishes has lost much by representing the eye too small; whilst

the differences in the structure of the nostrils apparently have been

noticed by him. He employs for the Charr the Limnezean name of S.

alpinus (pl. 61), and for the Torgoch that of S. salvelinus (pl. 112).

* This fact is doubted by Mr. S. P. W. Ellis, who writes, in answer to my inquiry

on this subject, “‘ Llanberris Lake is three and a quarter or four miles long; the

width varies, the greatest width being about three-fourths of a mile; the greatest

depth is said to be 40 fathoms. The quantity of water coming from copper-works

is not more than one-tenth part of the whole volume, and this portion flows about

five miles before falling into the lake, and, besides, passes through a mountain

lake after having left the mine. Below this mountain-pool the water is not poi-

sonous to fish. The quantity of water from copper-mines has decreased in this

valley, owing to the stoppage of works. I cannot think there ever were mines

worked to any such extent as seriously to injure fishes. The chief works are

slate-quarries.” J. Petherick, Esq., who has a thorough knowledge of these

mines, a part of which are worked by himself, is also of the same opinion.

Dr. A. Gunther on the British Charrs. 233

1807. Turron follows Donovan, and evidently has examined the

Torgoch, as he gives the correct number of the dorsal rays, viz.

thirteen. The statements of the different authors, especially of the

earlier, with regard to the fin-rays, can be used only with great cau-

tion,—first, because they had only partly recognized the value of that

character ; and secondly, because they counted them in different

ways, frequently omitting the small rays in front of the fins.

1812. The first definite notice of the occurrence of a Charr-like fish

in Ireland appears to be due to Dusourpt1e£v, who, in his ‘ History

of the County of Antrim’ (vol. i. p. 119), in a list of the fishes of

Lough Neagh, enumerates the Whiting, which by a friend of the

author, Mr. Templeton, is declared to be the S. alpinus. A rough

drawing is added. As the description does not give any specific

characters, we are left in doubt about the correctness of the determi-

nation. It is probable that the Whiting of Lough Neagh is now

extinct.

Thompson* says that, when visiting Lough Neagh in 1834, he

was assured by the fishermen that they had not known of any of those

Whitings being taken in that lake for at least ten years previously.

This is confirmed by R. Patterson, Esq., of Belfast, in a letter ad-

dressed to me, in which he states that the Charr ‘‘ has been believed

to be extinct in that lake for more than thirty years.” Therefore

the question whether the Whiting of Lough Neagh was identical with

one of the other species, or whether it was a distinct species, will re-

main unsolved. Surely, if any group of fishes requires particular care

in collecting and preserving its representatives at different localities,

it is that of the Charrs, which, confined to very limited localities, and

extremely susceptible to the changes of their element, are exposed to

the danger of easy destruction : the Torgoch of Llanberris disappears

for a series of years, (as it is said) in consequence of the poisonous

fluids carried down from the copper-mines of the neighbourhood ;

the Charr of Lough Neagh becomes extinct, from reasons unknown.

We are afraid there are other similar instances, but unrecorded in

natural history.

1834. AGassiz, engaged in the examination of some of the Conti-

nental Salmonide, and having compared them with those in Great

Britain, declared, at the meeting of the British Association of that

year, that the Charrs of England and Ireland, the Ombre chevalier

of the Lake of Geneva, ma all the different Charr-like fishes of

Sweden, Switzerland, and all the southern parts of Germany were

one and the same species—or that S. wmbla, L., S. salvelinus, L., S.

alpinus, L., and S. salmarinus, L., were merely synonymous.

Heckel already has shown, with regard to the Swiss representatives

of Agassiz’s S. umblat, that two very different species are comprised

in it, different in the size of the scales, in the shape of the body, in

the coloration, and, according to Rapp’s researches, in the number of

* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1841, vi. p. 448.

+ Report of the Fourth Meeting of the British Association, at Edinburgh, p. 622.

t Reisebericht, p. 91.

234 Zoological Society :—

the vertebree—or that the S. wmbla, figured by Agassiz, ‘ Poiss. d’eau

douce,’ pls. 10 & 11, is the true S. wmbla of Linnzeus, from the Lake

of Neuchatel, but that the S. wméla, Agassiz, pl. 9, is identical with

S. salvelinus, L., from the Lake of Zurich.

Nor can I arrive at the same conclusion as M. Agassiz with

regard to the British Charrs known to me. It is much to be re-

gretted that in that paper neither the localities are mentioned whence

the specimens examined were obtained, nor that the opinion started

was supported by a comparative description ; and we cannot assume

that M. Agassiz’s opinion referred to Scotch specimens only (which

I had no opportunity of examining), as he speaks of the Charr of

England and Ireland. M. Agassiz opposes those naturalists who,

for distinction of the species, have especially attached themselves to

the form of the head and to the arrangement of the colours, and says

that the characters ought to be found in the structure of the head,

in the opercular bones, in the surface of the cranium, and in its pro-

portions relative to the whole body, and that the shape of the body

also is important for the distinction of the species. When we add

the size of the teeth and of the scales, characters as constant and

excellent as any of those named, every one who peruses the descrip-

tions terminating this paper will satisfy himself that our three Bri-

tish species have been distinguished from one another and from those

of the Continent by those very characters which have been recom-

mended by M. Agassiz. Ichthyology has been so much advanced

within the last thirty years that it would be hardly fair to take the

same view of a paper written in 1834 as if it were of a recent date ;

and I make these lengthened remarks only because there may still

be some who, having adopted M. Agassiz’s former views, will be in-

clined to adhere to them.

When M. Agassiz denounces the form of the head and the arrange-

ment of the colours as too variable to supply precise characters, I

can only partly agree with him. With regard to the former, it is

only the snout which varies in its form according to age, sex, and

season ; but, according to my experience, this variation is subject to

certain laws: if a male of a certain age has a hooked prominent lower

jaw at a certain time of the year, all the males of that species, of the

same age and at the same season, are provided with a hooked man-

dible; and this character may be well used as a specific distinction

from another species without such a hook. Differences in the shade

of colours are of no value for distinction of species. Sharply defined

markings, as cross-bands or large spots, may be dependent on age, and

peculiar to the young state of all the species of a whole group (dark

cross-bands in the genus Salmo equivalent to the white streaks in

the genus Sus, to the white spots in the genus Cervus, to the dark

spots in the young Lion, to the light dots in Muscicapa, Rubecula,

&e.); yet two species may differ, and really differ, in the develop-

ment of those colours, and then they become a precise and valuable

character, which is nearly always joined with another. By the co-

lours alone, fresh specimens of S. salvelinus and S. umbla, of S. Grayz

and S. Willughbit, may be always distinguished.

Dr. A. Giinther on the British Charrs. 235

Agassiz’s view was adopted by Sir W. JArpiInE*, who, however,

prefers to adopt another Linnean name, S. alpinus. He ascertained

its occurrence in most of the lochs of the north-west of Sutherland-

shire.

1835. JEnyNnst adopts only a part of the view advocated by Agassiz,

distinguishing a S. wmbla and aS. salvelinus. With regard to the

former it is not stated whence the specimens had been obtained which

served as types for the description. ‘‘The elongated form, the gill-

cover produced behind into a rounded lobe, the axillary scale nearly

half as long as the ventrals, the fourteen dorsal rays,” are characters

which tend to show that a species was examined different from that

of the Lake of Windermere, and closely approaching the Llanberris

Torgoch, although I should not venture to identify it with the latter.

Mr. Jenyns describes his second species as the Torgoch, and calls

it S. salvelinus. If unfortunately the specimens from which this se-

cond description was taken had been lost, everybody, like Parnell,

would have been at a loss to reconcile it with any of the Charrs known.

‘“‘The dorsal fin is exactly in the middle of the entire length; the

body is not so much elongated in proportion to its depth ; posterior

portion of the dorsal very little less elevated than the anterior,” &c.

Such are the characters attributed to the Torgoch ; but they are not

in accordance with the typical specimens, which are still preserved

and now in the British Museum. They, indeed, are identical with

the Llanberris species, the proper characters of which may be found

in the detailed description subjoined to this paper.

1838. If PaRNELL’s description{ has been taken from a Scotch

specimen, it is the only one which has been drawn up of the so-

called Northern Charr ; but much is detracted from its value when

we consider that the author preserved his specimens as flat skins;

therefore his statement, that the height of the body of a specimen

153 inches long was equal to the length of the head, and one-sixth

of the total, does not express a peculiarity of the Northern Charr,

but this elongate form of the body was probably caused by the mode

of preservation. Parnell’s other observations on the Charr are bor-

rowed from other authors, who had made their observations chiefly

on English and Welsh specimens.

1840. The view of Agassiz was essentially supported by the late

W.Txompson of Belfast, who, having had opportunity of examining

the Charrs of Windermere, Loch Grannoch, Lough Melvin, and of

nine other lakes in Scotland and Ireland, came to the conclusion

that they are but one species—one, however, that is subject to extra-

ordinary variety §.

But Mr. Thompson has not brought forward any other proof for

this assertion than the other assertion, that the differences presented

by the Charr from various localities are very manifold. The following

appeared to him the most striking differences :—

* Report of the Fourth Meeting of the British Association, at Edinburgh, p. 614.

+ Man. Hist. Vertebr. pp. 427, 428.

{ Fishes of the Firth of Forth, p. 148 (S. wmdia).

§ Ann, & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1840, vi. p. 439.

236 Zoological Society :—

1. Inspecimens from Loch Grannoch the male fish has the colours

of S. salvelinus, Donov.; the female those of S. alpinus, Donoy.

The male has a much larger head and larger fins than the female.

Number of ova, 500.

_ 2. In specimens from Lough Melvin both sexes are coloured

alike ; nor can they be distinguished from each other by the size of

the fins. Number of ova, 959.

The differences observed in the Charrs from the other localities

are not pointed out. Certainly, if Mr. Thompson had really seen

those in the size of the scales and of the teeth, he would have men-

tioned them, and probably arrived at a different conclusion ; but

having found that some authors before him distinguished the species

by the coloration as the chief character, and having satisfied him-

self that there is a great difference in this respect between the two

sexes in the Loch-Grannoch fish, he did not make any further di-

stinction between the other differences he was aware of, between ac-

cidental differences of individuals, between those of the two sexes,

and, finally, between those of the fishes from various localities, but,

considering all of them as equivalent, he was lost in a maze, out of

which there was no other escape than to cut the Gordian knot by

declaring those fishes to be varieties of one and the same species.

We will not enter into a fruitless investigation as to the possibility

of the differences which we observe in those fishes being induced

by the physical peculiarities of the localities imdicated by Mr.

Thompson. We will take and examine them as they are, and as

they will be, as long as zoologists of the present species of man exist,

provided that human interference does not put a premature termi-

nation to the whole tribe. We find, then, that there are other con-

stant differences in the Charrs from various localities, besides those

of individuals, age, or sex—which, derived from different parts, form

an assemblage of characters affording easy specific distinctions*.

If the difference were confined to a single character, to a slight mo-

dification of one organ only, I should not consider it sufficient to

establish a separate species on it ; if the difference consisted merely

in the presence or absence of white margins of some of the fins, or

if the fishes of one locality had only one fin-ray more, or one of the

fins rather more elongate, than their representatives in another locality,

one might call this a local variety. But if such a character is found

always combined with a second, or with more, so that from the one

an inference may be drawn as to the presence of the other, we are

certainly obliged to make a specific distinction.

Thus, although we cannot agree with Mr. Thompson that the

Windermere, the Welsh, and the Lough- Melvin Charrs are identical,

we nevertheless consider his paper as highly important to our

knowledge of the geographical distribution of the Charrs in Great

Britain.

1. A Charr is found in Loch Grannoch, Kirkcudbrightshire,

which makes its appearance only during ten days, never before

* Haller, in ‘ Correspondence of Linnzus,’ ed. by Sir J. E. Smith, ii. p. 267.

Dr. A. Gunther on the British Charrs. 237

about the 13th of October*. The sexes are distinct from each other

in colour, and in the size of the head and of the fins (in the number

of the vertebree, the male having 60, the female 62-63?) ; number of

ova, 482. Beside a detailed description of the colours, the account

does not contain anything from which we could determine the species.

2. Of other localities in Scotland, Loch Inch and Loch Corr are

mentioned. They appear to be inhabited by a species identical with,

or similar to, S. Willughbii; at all events by one very different

from the ‘“‘ Haddy”’ of Loch Killin in Invernesshire. The latter is

very interesting, inasmuch it appears to be closely allied to the

Freshwater Herring of Lough Melvin. They are only caught when

spawning, about the 26th of September.

3. The freshwater Herring of Lough Melvin appears to be con-

fined to that locality.

4. Lough Dan (county Wicklow, Ireland) is inhabited by a Charr

* presenting some of the characters both of the northern and Welsh

Charr.” Specimens were caught in summer with the fly.

5. Other localities in Ireland are—L. Kindun, L. Gartan, L. Derg,

Lake of Luggela, Loughnabrak, and L. Corrib. The Charrs from

those localities have a deep-red belly, and appear to approach S.

Willughbii or S. cambricus.

6. The following localities in Ireland are named on the authority

of other writers:—L. Esk (co. Donegal); Cummeloughs, in the

mountains of Cummeragh; Lake of Inchigeelagh (co. Cork), and

one or two other small lakes in this neighbourhood; L. Neagh? ;

a lake near Dunfanaghy (co. Donegal); L. Eaghish (co. Monaghan).

1841. YarReELL, in the first edition of his work, distinguished,

according to the view of Donovan, a S. wmbla and a S. salvelinus,

adopting afterwards the opinion of Agassiz and Thompson. His

account is composed of the observations of the different writers men-

tioned. As new localities, are mentioned Keswick, Crummock

Water, Coniston Water, Loch of Moy, Loch Inch, &c. The Gilt

Charr is mentioned as a variety of the Red Charr.

I conclude this paper with the descriptions t of three species, which

certainly are not the only ones by which Great Britain and Ireland

are inhabited. I look forward with great hopes for the assistance

kindly promised by various friends of natural history, trusting that

with their help I shall finally be enabled to make up a complete

series of specimens from all the localities which are inhabited by

* Objections have been made to my occasionally calling the Charr “in season

during some of the winter months.” The different species of Charrs appear to

be “in season” at very different parts of the year—the freshwater Herring in

November, the Torgoch towards the end of the year, the Charr of Windermere

in May and August. Considering that those fishes are nearly secure from the per-

secutions of man during the rest of the year, they ought to be allowed to be taken

when, once a year, they approach the shores in large shoals to spawn, at least in

those localities where such a control might be kept over their capture that all

danger of their becoming scarce would be avoided. Carnivorous fishes inhabit-

ing a certain confined locality, like the Charrs, increase in number only to a cer-

tain degree; when their food becomes scarcer, they feed on their own progeny.

tT See p. 233.

t We insert here merely an abstract of the more detailed descriptions which

are given in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.

238 Zoological Soctety.

this obscure and therefore so interesting group of Salmonide, and to

give a more satisfactory account of them after having compared them

with their congeners of the Continent.

Satmo WILLUGHBII.

(The Charr of Windermere.)

_ Body compressed, slightly elevated, its greatest depth being one-

fourth of the distance of the snout from the end of the middle caudal

rays; the length of the head is a little more than one-half of the

distance of the snout and of the vertical from the origin of the dorsal.

Head compressed ; interorbital space convex, its width being less than

twice the diameter of the eye. Jaws of the male of equal length

anteriorly ; teeth of moderate strength, four im each intermaxillary,

twenty in the maxillary. Length of the pectoral less than that of

the head, much more than one-half of the distance between its root

and that of the ventral. Dorsal rays twelve. 165 transverse series

of scales above the lateral line. Sides with red dots; belly red;

pectoral, ventral, and anal with white margins.

Through the kindness of F. T. Buckland, Esq., I have received

four specimens of a closely allied species from Iceland. They are

from 19 to 15 inches long, and were imported in large quantity by

Mr. Hogarth : having been prepared like smoked Salmon, they are not

in a state fit for an accurate examination, although in their external

characters (even in the colours) they are pretty well preserved.

The vertebral column, gills, and intestines had been removed from

the fishes before they were smoked. Now those fishes agree exter-

nally very well with the Charr of Windermere; and I should not

hesitate to consider them as one species, but for a statement made

by Valenciennes, according to which the vertebral column of that

northern species is composed of sixty-seven vertebre*. Having

laid bare the spine on one side of the Windermere specimen, which

I have described and figured, I have found only fifty-nine vertebrae

—a number stated also by Yarrell. A difference of eight vertebrae

will not be found within the limits of one species of Salmo; but it

is a question whether the skeleton in the Paris Museum really is

that of an Iceland Charr+, Valenciennes having comprised under

the name of Salmo alpinus “ plusieurs Truites rapportées de Norvége

par Noél de la Moriniére, ou de Suéde et d’ Islande par M. Gaimard,”’

without adding whether the skeleton referred to belongs to a Scan-

dinavian or Iceland specimen.

Faber (‘ Fische Islands,’ p. 168) also mentions the Iceland Charr

under the name of Salmo alpinus, a name which cannot be applied

to the specimens brought by Mr. Hogarth, for the same reasons as

stated above. The description given by him is valueless with regard

to specific distinction; and as he unites a true (freshwater) Charr

with another fish regularly entering the sea, it is probable that he

has confounded two species.

* Cuv. et Val. xxi. p. 250.

+ Salmo umbla (Lake of Constance) has sixty-five vertebra (Rapp, Bodensee-

fische, p. 33).

Dr. A. Giinther on the British Charrs. 239

SALMO CAMBRICUS.

(The Torgoch of Llanberris.)

Body slightly compressed and elongate, its greatest depth being

one-fifth, or two-ninths, of the distance of the snout from the root

of the caudal fin; the length of the head is considerably more than

one-half of the distance of the snout from the vertical from the

origin of the dorsal. Head rather depressed, interorbital space flat,

its width being less than twice the diameter of the eye. Male with

the lower jaw longest; teeth of moderate strength,—six in each in-

termaxillary, twenty in each maxillary. Length of the pectoral less

than that of the head, much more than one-half of the distance

between its root and that of the ventral. Dorsal rays thirteen

(fourteen). 170 transverse series of scales above the lateral line.

Sides with numerous red dots, belly red; pectoral, ventral, and

anal with white margins.

SaLmo GRavI.

(The Freshwater Herring of Lough Melvin.)

Body compressed, slightly elevated, its greatest depth being one-

fourth of the distance of the snout from the end of the middle caudal

rays; the length of the head is scarcely more than one-half of the

distance of the snout from the vertical from the origin of the dorsal.

Head compressed; interorbital space convex, its width being less

than twice the diameter of the eye. Jaws of the male of equal length

anteriorly ; teeth very small, four in each intermaxillary, sixteen in

the maxillary. Length of the pectoral equal to, or rather more than,

that of the head, terminating at no great distance from the ventral.

Dorsal rays thirteen or fourteen. 125 transverse series of scales above

the lateral line. Sides with scattered light-orange-coloured dots ; belly

uniform silvery whitish, or with a light-reddish shade ; fins blackish.

The typical specimens were taken in the beginning of November,

evidently with a net; the state of their sexual organs shows that

the spawning commences at that time of the year. It must be very

difficult to catch the fishes after the middle of November, partly be-

cause they retire into the deeper parts of the lake, and partly because

the attempts to set nets are frustrated by the stormy weather of the

season. Repeated endeavours to obtain more specimens, made by the

Earl of Enniskillen, proved to be. unsuccessful. In a letter from

Mr. J. Walker, this gentleman mentions that he saw one taken with

a fly in the month of August.

The Earl of Enniskillen mentions, in a letter directed to Mr.

Thompson, that the ‘‘ Freshwater Herring”’ is plentiful in the middle

of November. ‘‘The people are now taking them in cartloads.

The flesh of such as I send is white and soft, and different from

what that of Charr is in any other lough.” Mr. Thompson* saw

the female ; and, according to him, it is externally not different from

the male. The ovaria contained 959 ova in a specimen 11 inches in

length, each being two lines in diameter.

Number of vertebrze sixty, as ascertained by Thompson in a male

and a female fish, and by myself in two males.

* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1841, vi. p. 443.

240

MISCELLANEOUS.

On the Hyracotherian Character of the Lower Molars of the sup-

posed Macacus from the Kocene Sand of Kyson, Suffolk.

To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

GENTLEMEN,—The fossil teeth from the Eocene sand at Kyson,

referred by me to a species of Macacus*, are most probably the

lower molars of a species of Hyracotherium (H. cuniculus). The

great difference of shape between the upper and lower molars of

Pliolophus, and the pattern according to which the lower molars are

differentiated in that Hyracotherioid animal, led me to suspect that

the degree of difference between the upper molars of Pliolophus and

those of Hyracotherium might be attended with a corresponding de-

gree of difference in the lower molars of the two genera, and that such

degree might render the lower molars of Hyracotherium as much

like the lower molars of Macacus as the detached two molars are

which were first discovered by Mr. Colchester, and described by me.

In the collection of the late Mr. Acton were a series of both upper

and lower molars from the Kyson deposits, the upper ones of the

Hyracotherium type, and the lower ones analogous in their modifi-

cations to those in Pliolophus, but more resembling the type of Ma-

cacus, and the same in character as the original molars which I

referred, in the volume of the ‘Annals’ before cited, to Macacus.

I am, Gentlemen, yours faithfully,

RicHarD OwEN,

A New British Mygale.

To the Editor of the ‘ Brighton Gazette.’

Sir,—May I record in your columns the discovery of a Mygale new

to the British fauna? The Atypus Sulzeri, recorded by Dr. Leach,

has hitherto been the only representative of the Mygalide in the

British fauna; and the new species is the Dysdera erythrina of

Latreille.

I took it, on the 19th of July last, from a steep, sunny clay-bank,

ill-famed for adders, near Brighton. It is a male, and is still alive

and active. I took it in a lump of crumbling clay containing the

tube and an egg-bag, the mouth of which is stopped with the corslet

of a spider of the same species. The falces act horizontally ; the

eyes are six, placed upon a tubercle, and arranged horse-shoe fashion,

with the opening in front. ‘This Mygale climbs up the side of the

bottle when he pleases, and rests, back downwards, for hours, on the

linen rag covering the mouth of it; and Dysdera erythrina is evi-

dently a Mygale built for crawling and struggling through the small

cracks and crevices of loose and dry clay-banks, and for seizing and

killing his prey with fangs acting horizontally —Joun Rospertson.

“On Thursday evening,” says the ‘ Brighton Herald’ of August

16, 1862, “Mr. Robertson exhibited to the members of this Society

[the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society] a living male

specimen of Dysdera erythrina, a new species of Mygale.”’

* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 1. vol. iv. p. 191 (1840).

THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[THIRD SERIES. ]

No. 58. OCTOBER 1862.

XXIV.— Contributions to the Natural History of the Infusoria.

By T. W. Encetmann*.

[Plate III. ]

Tue author commences by noticing the rapid progress made,

during the last ten years, in respect of our acquaintance with

the structure of the Infusoria, and, in particular, the establish-

ment of the fact of sexual reproduction among them. He had the

advantage of pursuing his researches under the eye of Prof. Stein,

and procured the subjects for them in the neighbourhood of

Leipzig.

Stein and Balbiani have both shown that among the Infusoria

there is an act of conjugation, and a sexual reproduction con-

sequent thereupon. For instance, they proved that during the

conjugation of two individuals, spermatozoa were developed in

the substance of the nucleolus, and that in all probability these

organisms penetrated the nucleus and gave rise to the formation

of germinal corpuscles and embryos. These observations were

made on the Paramecium aurelia and P. Bursaria ; and Engel-

mann is able to confirm their general accuracy. In two conju-

gated individuals of Paramecium Bursaria he observed the nu-

cleolus to be much enlarged, and to constitute two capsules, each

filled with rod-like corpuscles ; but, though he followed up his

examination of such conjugated forms until their separation, and

even subsequently, he failed to remark the development of em-

bryonic corpuscles. In one instance, conjugation was extended

to three individuals of Paramecium Bursaria, in two of which the

nucleus was much extended and band-like, whilst in the third it

retained its usual oval form. ‘This triple conjugation he wit-

* Abstract, by Dr. Arlidge, from the ‘ Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche

Zoologie,’ vol. xi. part 4 (1861).

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. Ly

242 T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

nessed in only one other animalcule, viz. in Vorticella convallaria.

Claparéde records the fact in V. microstoma.

Engelmann confirms John Miiller’s discovery of spermatozoa

in Paramecium aurelia, the nucleus being more or less enlarged

and filled with them. When pressed out, they exhibit no in-

dependent power of motion. They are not, as usually repre-

sented, thin rods equally pointed at both extremities, but have a

more bulky anterior and a thinner posterior extremity of greater

transparency. Their maximum length is 0-008 of a millimetre.

Among specimens of conjugated Paramecia, some, evidently only

recently united, possessed a nucleus of the usual oval form ; 3 an

others it was more or less spherical, and presented constrictions

at different portions of its surface; whilst in others, again, it

consisted of a coil of longer or shorter band-like segments.

Among such examples of conjugated forms, he also met with

single beings which contained, instead of a nucleus, from two to

four larger oval or round bodies, and a number of similar but

smaller ones. What had become of the nucleolus in these beings,

Engelmann was unable to surmise, nor could he, notwith-

standing his best efforts, discover the large seminal capsules

recently described by Balbiani. Lastly, individuals were met

with having embryonic globules, mostly lying in the posterior

half of the animals; and frequently acinetiform embryos were

seen to detach themselves from these globules and make their

way to the surface through a special wide canal in the parent

animalcule.

Engelmann observed conjugation, besides, in Paramecium

ambiguum, a new species, found in the lake at Hisleben, having

the figure of P. Bursaria, but colourless like P. aurelia, and

having a longer bundle of cilia at the posterior extremity.

Instances of conjugation were also encountered in Paramecium

Colpoda (Colpidium, Stein), in several species of Trichoda, Cycli-

dium glaucoma, Cinetochilum margaritaceum, Coleps hirtus, in a

small Prorodon, in Nassula aurea, Lacrymaria elegans (new spe-

cies), and in Amphileptus fasciola. With the exception of the

conjugated individuals of the species last named, the union took

place at the fore part of the body; so that where the mouth oc-

cupied that position, as in Coleps, Proredon, and Lacrymaria, the

oral apertures were in apposition.

In the case of Amphileptus, the animals were united through-

out their length, with the exception of the distal ends of their

long necks and the contracted posterior extremities. No more

advanced phases of development were met with among the con-

jugated individuals ; but, in company with those of Amphileptus

fasciola, unusually broad specimens were encountered at times,

which possessed four nuclear bodies instead of the usual two

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 243

spherical nuclei. In such instances Engelmann surmises that

the act of conjugation has occurred; and he also finds parallel

examples in Oxytrichina. The process of conjugation he further

noticed partially on one occasion in Vorticella Convallaria, in V.

microstoma, and in Urocentrum Turbo.

Stein has figured Chilodon cucullulus in conjugation, and En-

gelmann has witnessed several stages of the process. Among

specimens of this animalcule, he met with some having the dor-

sum of one individual united with the ventral surface of another,

and, again, other specimens with the ventral surfaces in apposi-

tion and the oral openings closely conjoined. He confirms the

existence of rod-like corpuscles in the nucleus of this species,

and remarks on some examples where the nucleus had become

spherical and contained such corpuscles scattered irregularly

within it, and resembling in figure those of Paramecium aurelia,

but only one-half their length.

Stein observed conjugation in Aspidisca lynceus and A. cos-

tata; to these Engelmann adds A. turrita, and states that he has

met with examples where the right border of the ventral aspect

of one animalcule has overlain the left border of the dorsum of

the other. He questions whether this position represents a later

stage of development, since, at the first, the left side of the right

animalcule is opposed tothe right border of the dorsum of the

left animalcule, as is seen likewise in Oxytrichina(PI.IIT. figs.4—6).

The nucleolus of Aspidiscina, previously overlooked by observers,

is stated by Engelmann to be of comparatively large size, and al-

ways placed, as in Huplotes, more or less close to the middle of the

left side of the body, and in intimate contiguity with the horse-

shoe-shaped nucleus. This last sometimes presents, at no great

distance from each of its two extremities, a transverse fissure-like

cavity, such as Stein has figured in Huplotes and Oxytrichina.

Conjugation was noticed by Ehrenberg in Euplotes, but mis-

taken by him for longitudinal fission. Stein and Balbiani have

since studied the process in this genus, arriving at the conclusion

that it is an act of sexual reproduction. Commonly the two in-

dividuals are united along the left of their ventral aspect (fig. 1) ;

the nucleus is horseshoe-shaped, the nucleolus distinct from it,

and eventually divided into two progressively receding segments.

The conjugation is limited to the portion of the body anterior to

the peristome. Among such conjugated ordinary specimens are

others which present a newly-formed adoral fringe of cilia on the

posterior half of the ventral surface, and an entirely new system

of ventral cilia (fig. 2). These new cilia progressively enlarge in

length and width, and become closely set, whilst the old cilia

so far disappear that, when conjugation is at an end, only 3—4

of the anterior and a few of the posterior are extant. At the

24.4. T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

same time two curved longitudinal folds make their appearance,

extending backwards or inwards from the newly formed wreath

of adoral cilia, constituting the boundary of a new peristome,

which proceeds to develope as the old one progressively vanishes

along with its surrounding cilia (Pl. II. figs. 2,3). Even after

the separation of two of these peculiarly conjugated animalcules,

many of the characteristics of the usual forms of Huplotes Charon

are deficient, one of the most remarkable of which is the absence

of a mouth; for the adoral cilia end at the middle of the area of

the peristome, and the two folds indicating this structure coalesce

so as to constitute a rib-like elevation ending at the base of the

fifth posterior cilium. Moreover the ventral surface is traversed

by a distinct fold, not seen or very slightly developed in animals

of the ordinary type. The most striking variation, however, in

the new being is witnessed in the nucleus, which divides into

two portions either before or simultaneously with the commence-

ment of the formation of the new ciliary appendages in the con-

jugated animals. One segment is anterior, and much larger

than the other, and occupies the whole anterior third of the

ventral cavity, whilst the other, globular in figure, is thrust

backwards and to the left side. The nucleolus undergoes fission

yet earlier, and one section of it continues in apposition with

each portion of the nucleus. After the separation of the animals

a pale discoid body is noticed near the posterior extremity and

on the left side, which gradually advances more forward and to

the centre, and acquires an increased diameter and transparency,

until at length it forms a perfectly clear, somewhat compressed

spherical body, filling ofttimes two-thirds of the whole interior

of the animalcule, and occupied by an extremely fine, granular,

homogeneous substance (fig. 3). Beside or behind this body,

a considerable portion of the original nucleus is noticeable, toge-

ther with a constantly fluctuating number of larger and smaller,

strongly refracting (fat?) corpuscles. Two or three days, or

thereabouts, after the separation of the two individuals, they are

found to have re-assumed the customary form and structure of

the species, including the peristome, mouth, and the original

horseshoe-shaped nucleus.

The question suggests itself, What is the origin of the large

transparent globule in the interior, and what purpose does it

serve? To this question Engelmann is at present unable to give

a decisive answer. He is in doubt whether this corpuscle origi-

nates from the posterior half of the nucleus after its fission, or

whether it takes its rise prior to the detachment of the conju-

gated animals, as an independent formation from the nucleus.

The latter assumption derives support from the circumstance

that, in two conjugated individuals on the point of separating,

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 245

there existed, besides the two detached halves of the nucleus, a

clear, delicate, and sharply defined globular body in the posterior

half of each animal. Nevertheless Engelmann did not see this

structure in a large number of other specimens at the same stage

of conjugation.

In the course of the further development of the bodies in

question, they break up, after attaining their maximum disten-

tion, into several (mostly from two to three) spherical segments

of nearly equal or of different dimensions. The further history

of these corpuscles is unknown, though the idea may be hazarded

that they are concerned in the formation of germinal corpuscles.

But whether these last, when formed, are further developed into

embryos within the parent begs is questionable ; on the other

hand, Engelmann traced the re-assumption by a conjugated pair

of the ordinary characters of Huplotes Charon without seeing any

embryonic development take place. But, further, it is possible

that the germinal corpuscles of Huplotes may not, as in Vorti-

cellina, attain their maturity within the parent, but may do so

externally to it. In this opinion Balbiani seems to concur.

Engelmann has observed two entirely different forms of con-

Jugation in Stylonychia pustulata and in S. histrio. In one

variety, two originally independent individuals so completely

coalesce that in the end the resultant being is undistinguishable

from any ordinary example of the species. In the other form,

the conjugation is limited in its results to the formation of anew

ciliary apparatus on the anterior portions of the conjoined ani-

mals, which gradually replaces the old one; after this is accom-

plished, separation takes place. This latter form has been

already noticed in the case of Euplotes.

The act of conjugation in Stylonychia pustulata (PI. IIL. fig. 4)

commences by the adhesion of the two animals by their adoral

wreaths and strong frontal uncini, so that the left anterior ex-

tremity of one is overlapped by the right of the other. Soon a

band of union, composed of the substance of the body, unites the

two, and gradually increases in width, the bristles and uncini,

together with the adoral cilia, disappearing in the meantime in

the case of the left individual. Within a short time, the bodies

of the two beings have so coalesced that they have an anterior

extremity in common, and a divided body posteriorly ; but even

this latter indication of their original duality gradually vanishes,

until at length the two have become as one being, undistinguish-

able from an ordinary species of Stylonychia pustulata, except

perhaps that it is commonly broader. In this process the four

nuclei have also coalesced into two. This act of complete

coalescence is accomplished in from twelve to fourteen hours.

On watching the subsequent history of the compound being, it

246 T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

is found to commence division after from six to ten hours’

union ; and this unloosing is at length completed, the resultant

individuals differing in no perceptible features from the ordinary

specimens of the species; and, as far as Engelmann could make

out, all this marvellous process stood in no relation whatever

with sexual reproduction.

The second variety of conjugation has already been described

by Stein in Stylonychia pustulata and S. histrio. In a not un-

common form of this partial conjugation, the two individuals

are found united only by their anterior extremities, and a repro-

duction of the ciliary apparatus of the ventral surface is seen to

proceed (PI. III. fig.5). This continues to extend itself, and

the adoral wreath of cilia especially stretches forward, whilst the

old adoral and frontal cilia become absorbed (fig. 6). The act of

fission extends from behind forwards, until the separation is com-

plete (fig. 7). All this is effected in such a way that the mdivi-

dual on the right side retains the residue of the old frontal region

with its three largest bristles and the remnants of the old adoral

ciliary wreath; but these original parts themselves vanish in

another fifteen minutes. The nucleus has in the meantime un-

dergone various changes, and generally appears broken up into

several spherical segments. The beings resulting from these

metamorphoses resemble those of Huplotes Charon in being de-

stitute of a mouth and peristome, and in giving origin to those

peculiar corpuscles, having a large transparent central body,

which are always found in company with the conjugated forms

of Stylonychia pustulata. Engelmann followed up the observa-

tion of some such specimens, and found that, after a while, they

resumed the characters of the species, and proceeded to undergo

fission, or else, as in the case of some, they underwent the pecu-

liar process of encysting.

Stylonychia histrio exhibits, in all essential particulars, the

same two forms of conjugation.

Once, among various examples of Stylonychia histrio in conju-

gation, Engelmann met with an animaleule of the same species,

which exhibited, in the place of the nucleus, three large, clear,

discoid bodies, of which one possessed a central granular and

circular nucleus (PI. III. fig. 8). After rather more than an

hour, two of these bodies began to coalesce, so that, three

hours afterwards, the interior of the animal presented one much

larger discoid body, and behind this a smaller one; but, twenty

minutes later, this last also first adhered and then ultimately

united with the other, so that in the end the individual presented

a single large spherical body having a granular central nucleus.

The further history of this animalcule could not be traced, as it

was lost to observation by death.

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 247

To Stein’s account of the conjugation of Stylonychia Mytilus

Engelmann adds that in one instance two individuals were co-

herent by their posterior extremities, and that the two varieties

of conjugation noticed in the other species above described

occur likewise in this one.

The embryonic development observed by Stein also fell under

the notice of Engelmann. In 1859 he found specimens con-

taining embryonic corpuscles; but it was not until the autumn

of 1861 that he met with examples which illustrated a further

phase in their history. These latter were individuals of medium

size, and mostly contained but one large embryonic globule,

placed between the two nuclei, close behind the angle of the oral

aperture. Placed over it, on the ventral aspect of the animal,

there always existed an elliptic or rounded opening, of variable

size, which was the outlet for the escape of the mature ovum.

On one occasion only was an elongated and rounded dorsal

aperture found, in addition to the abdominal foramen just named,

and serving, like it, for the escape of the embryos. The act of

birth was several times witnessed: sometimes the embryonic

globules escaped as such, at others they developed tentacles and

assumed the acinetiform figure as usually described. The sub-

sequent history of the embryos is unknown to Engelmann;

however, he does not believe in their immediate transition to the

ordinary form of Stylonychia; for the smallest examples of the

species are more than ten times the length of the largest embryos,

and he is therefore disposed to accede to Stein’s view, that an

“alternation of generation” takes place.

Engelmann protests strongly against the doctrine recently

promulgated by Balbiani, that the acinetiform beings seen to

emerge from the interior of various Infusoria, and generally held

to be their embryos, are nothing less than parasitic Acinetz

(Spherophrya of Claparéde), which have previously made their

way into them. If this were the case, it would be difficult to

explain why the Acineta should always penetrate Stylonychia

Mytilus, for example, at the same spot; for the oviduct is con-

stant in position, and the integument of the animalcule of con-

siderable firmness, particularly at the part perforated. Balbiani

indeed figures a Stylonychia Mytilus with three dorsal apertures ;

but such a specimen Engelmann has never encountered, in more

than a hundred individuals examined by him containing em-

bryonic corpuscles. Is it likely that a parasite should always

penetrate at one spot in Stylonychia Mytilus, whilst in other

Infusoria, as, for example, in Paramecium aurelia and Urostyla

grandis, which have several oviducts, it should pierce at several

points? Why, again, should the supposed parasite bore its way

into some species, whilst in others, even those closely allied (as

248 T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

Stylonychia histrio), it should never be known to enter? It is

moreover very doubtful if such beings as the acinetiform em-

bryos of Stylonychia or of Paramecium are so organized as to be

able to penetrate their bodies from without. Their structure,

indeed, teaches to the contrary; for their soft, weak tentacula

are not calculated to penetrate the resistant cuticle of Stylonychia

or the thick wall of Paramecium with its contained acicular

bodies (trichocysts or thread-cells of Allman), and to hollow out

a wide canal such as we meet with in those Infusoria. On the

other hand, there are direct observations opposed to this hypo-

thesis. Thus, Engelmann recounts several instances in which

small Acinetee have affixed themselves to Infusoria and with-

drawn their contents by the agency of their tentacula, but have

in no degree bored through their integuments. Again, the

uniformity always met with in the structure and contents of the

embryonic globules is remarkable. In these particulars they

exactly resemble those of Vorticellina, the non-parasitic character

of which is unquestioned. On the contrary, the substance of

the smallest Acinete is dissimilar; for this, instead of bemg

clear, homogeneous, and destitute of granules, is highly granular,

cloudy, and occupied or discoloured with absorbed nutritive

material. Lastly, the circumstance is to be noted that the

animalcules with which such acinetiform beings are connected,

are actuaily at the time concerned in the development of germs ;

and the rule is, as Stein pointed out, that acinetiform embryos

are found in most or in all the examples of a species existing in

the same fluid—a fact which also holds good with respect to the

phenomenon of conjugation. If due weight be allowed to these

various considerations, the opinion that the acinetiform beings

in question are really extraneous parasitic Acinete cannot with

propriety be maintained.

Stein was the first to collect facts relative to the development

of the embryonic corpuscles of Stylonychia Mytilus, by showing

the conditions and changes of the nuclei and of the nucleoli.

Among numerous examples of individual animalcules containing

several embryonic corpuscles, only a few presented the two nor-

mal nuclei, with either no nucleolus at all, or a single one. In

by far the greater number, the nuclei were replaced by three or

four, rarely six, oval or sometimes round bodies, and from two to

four nucleoli of larger size than in the ordinary specimens of the

species (PI. III. fig. 9). Sometimes three or four nuclear bodies

were present but no nucleolus. The nature of two of these

spherical or oval bodies having the widest dimensions is in all

probability that of nuclei, whilst the rest may be considered

embryonic corpuscles. These last do not seem always to origi-

nate in the same fashion: thus, in some cases, the nucleus is

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 249

seen to break up into several segments, of which two retain the

nuclear character, whilst the rest become perfectly homogeneous

and exhibit no nuclei in their interior. Jn other examples a few

nuclear-looking structures take their rise within the substance

of the nucleus, at the enlarged end of the elongated and some-

times ramified nucleus. According to Engelmann’s observations,

the germinal corpuscle arises by a constriction of a portion of

the enlarged nucleus, which proceeds to complete separation,

and contains within itself a nuclear particle ; for he has never

been able to discover such a body lying within a special cavity

of the nucleus. Moreover those spherical corpuscles which

differ from germinal bodies only by the absence of nuclei within

them, and which appear to originate by repeated fission of the

origmal nucleus, eventually become germinal and embryonic

corpuscles. Lastly, these embryonic bodies undergo repeated

fission, and are ultimately transformed into embryos.

A very remarkable phenomenon was noted by Engelmann in

very many specimens of Stylonychia Mytilus containing embryonic

corpuscles, viz. that, in addition to these bodies, there were also

present in them several (often as many as four) examples of the

beautiful cysts of Podophrya fia, which have been described by

Weisse under the name of Orcula. Among other specimens of

the same animalcule the same observer also met with some which,

instead of two nuclei, possessed two large clear spherical bodies.

In one of these animals, each globule presented a nucleus with

an irregular outline, giving off from its periphery several delicate

processes like those of Amewbe and other Rhizopods. Three

hours later, these nuclei had acquired a clustered outline, and

had evidently broken up into a multitude of sharply defined,

rounded particles, still retained in relation with the periphery of

the enclosing corpuscle by fine filiform processes. Seven hours

afterwards this specimen was unfortunately destroyed by the

evaporation of the water around it.

In some other Oxytrichina, Engelmann finds similar condi-

tions of conjugation as in the Stylonychie quoted, and among

others in Pleurotricha lanceolate. Another phenomenon noticed

by him in the animalcule just named is that of encystmg. The

resulting cysts are precisely like those of Stylonychia Mytilus in

appearance, but of much greater size. Conjugation was also

investigated by him in Oxytricha pellionella, in O. ferruginea,

and in O. parallela—the last-named a new species.

To sum up the foregoing observations :—Two forms of con-

jugation occur in the class of Infusoria, but only one of these

appears to be connected with the process of reproduction. The

first form consists in the complete coalescence of two previously

distinct individuals into one being. Though hitherto noticed

250 T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

only in some of the Oxytrichina, its occurrence is rendered pro-

bable, by Claparede’s researches, in Vorticella microstoma, Car-

chesium polypinum, Epistylis brevipes, and in several Acinetina.

All that can be predicated with certainty respecting this variety

of conjugation is, that it has no direct relation to the process of

reproduction, but appears analogous to the coalescence observed

between individuals of the class of Rhizopods, particularly those

of the genus Actinophrys.

The second form of conjugation proceeds by means of a union

of a portion of the bodies only of two individuals, as a rule, of

their anterior parts, in the region of the mouth; it persists

several days, and then the animalcules once more separate.

When separation has occurred, the two beings are found changed

in various ways, both externally and internally, from their ori-

ginal characters, although, after the lapse of some days more,

those primitive features are resumed. This statement holds

good, at least, with respect to the Oxytrichina and Euplotina.

But in the case of the Paramecia and Colpidia, and other holo-

trichous Infusoria, whose organization differs widely from that

of the other two families named, the recently conjugated indi-

viduals differ very little or scarcely in any perceptible degree in

external characters from the normal form. The purpose served

by this second mode of conjugation, as particularly illustrated in

the Paramecia, stands in immediate relation with the process of

sexual reproduction. Another conclusion arrived at from the

study of the conjugation process is, that in no species of Infu-

soria do longitudinal and transverse fission occur together, but

every species multiplies either by one form or by the other

alone.

It will not be uninteresting to append some observations re-

specting the nucleolus. Siebold seems to have been the first to

notice this organ, in Parumecium Bursaria. The researches of

Stein and Balbiani, however, have so added to the number of

instances of its occurrence, that from thirty to forty may be

enumerated. To these Engelmann is able to add a dozen other

examples in other species. In Glaucoma scintillans the nucleolus

occurs as a small round corpuscle lodged in a hemispherical

cavity in the round nucleus. In Frontaria leucas three nucleoli

of tolerable size may be brought into view, particularly after the

application of water or acetic acid, adherent to the oval elongated

nucleus. In Trachelophyllum apiculatum two comparatively large

nucleoli are lodged, one in a hollow at each extremity of each of

the two oval nuclei. Conchophthirus anodonte (P1. 111. fig.15) and

C. curtus have one or two nucleoli lying close to or upon their oval

nucleus. A nucleolus also occurs in Aspidisca lynceus, A. turrita,

and A. costata. Vorticella Convallaria and Episiylis flavicans

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 251

likewise possess a tolerably large nucleolus, usually situated on

the concave side of their elongated nucleus. In several new

forms described by Engelmann this same organ is found, viz., in

Drepanostoma striatum, Chasmatostoma reniforme, Lacrymaria

elegans ; some new Oxytrichina, as Pleurotrocha setifera, Gastro-

styla Steinii, Uroleptus fragilis, Oxytricha strenua, and O. paral-

lela. With less certainty he refers to a nucleolus in Opercularia

coarctata, Zoothamnium Aselli, Urocentrum Turbo, and in some

other well-known Infusoria. On the other hand, he has con-

vinced himself of its presence in all the Oxytrichina known

to him, -in Huplotes, in Chilodon cucullulus, Nassula aurea,

Prorodon teres, Lacrymaria olor, Panophrys flava (= Bursaria

flava, Ehr.), Colpidium, Stein (= Paramecium colpoda), Balantidium

entozoon, Paramecium Bursaria, and P. aurelia, Entodinium

bursa and E. caudatum, Carchestum polypinum and Epistylis di-

gitalts. All Engelmann’s attempts to find a nucleolus in Epi-

stylis plicatilis have failed; and he is unable to confirm the

existence of one in Blepharisma lateritia, although Balbiani has

described it. Nevertheless in one specimen of the species last

named he noticed a large sac, placed in front of the nucleus,

filled with rigid, motionless, acicular bodies resembling, both

before and after the addition of acetic acid, the spermatozoa of

Paramecium aurelia. -He found also other specimens of the

same animalcule in which the nucleus was broken up into five

or six spherical segments, of homogeneous consistence—an ap-

pearance Stein has also noted and figured.

In one and the same species, among several of the Infusoria,

the nucleoli vary in number. A remarkable instance of this fact

occurs in Stylonychia Mytilus, in which from two to four nucleoli

are present. In Urostyla Weissei from two to eight occur; and

Stylonychia histrio has at one time two, at another four nucleoli.

The purpose of the slit-like openings in the nucleus, as ob-

served by Stein in Oxytrichina and in Aspidisca, is not determined.

One supposition is, that they may serve an important end in

sexual reproduction by giving passage to the spermatozoa. They

are usually arranged quite symmetrically, and are approximated

towards each other, or placed at opposite extremities of the nu-

cleus. Anomalies, however, occur at times.

Engelmann remarks on a slit-like aperture in the area of the

peristome of Onychodromus, lying obliquely across the direction

of the anterior nucleus, and recalls, in connexion with this ob-

servation, the presence of a crescentic line described by Stein

and Balbiani as dividing the peristome of Stylonychia Mytilus

into an anterior and a posterior segment. Balbiani has further

remarked the like structure in Trachelius ovum, and imagines

that these slits may be structurally connected with the repro-

252 T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

ductive organs—an opinion Engelmann considers not improba-

ble, although he is unable to adduce any facts in confirmation

OL it:

Engelmann, moreover, has been able to follow out the re-

searches of Stein, Claparéde, and Lachmann relative to the his-

tory of development in various hypotrichous and _peritrichous

Infusoria. In Epistylis plicatilis he met with those buds from

the base, noticed by Stein, and called by Claparéde Urnule

(PI. III. fig. 10), remarkable for their acinetiform development.

They spring from the Epistylis at its junction with the pedicle,

exhibit a rigid and more dwarfed outline than do the-ordinary

gemme, which, on the contrary, elongate themselves, and take

on the ordinary characters of their parent. Engelmann witnessed

the transverse division of these Urnule, but was unable to detect

their further development in this species of Hpistylis.

The same kind of organism is produced from the Epistylis

crassicollis. The rounded, sharply defined body of the Urnula is

enclosed in an oval, firm, and colourless sheath (PI. III. fig. 10)

having a tapering posterior extremity, and terminated anteriorly

by a triangular aperture of moderate dimensions, through which

the animalcule protrudes a single moveable tentacle, or, rarely,

two such organs. In the interior of the animal a granular nu-

cleus and one or more contractile vesicles are discernible. A

transverse constriction followed by fission proceeds, and the an-

terior uniformly ciliated segment quits the sheath. The Urnula

has a very close resemblance to Acineta mystacina, differmg from

it in no other respect than in the figure of its sheath and in

its primitive position. Claparéde assumed it to be a member of

the family Rhizopoda, especially as he observed its tentacles

ramify. This circumstance is not deemed by Engelmann of

sufficient moment to induce its transfer to such a wholly different

class of animals from that with which in all other respects it

seems related. For, he asks, what Rhizopod has a sheath like

Urnula, or what Rhizopods can employ their pseudopodia as

sucking-tubules ? or which of them, again, can multiply them-

selves by means of ciliated fission-products, as the Urnula can

do? But in all these peculiarities the Urnula coincides with the

true Acinetz ; whereas, if it were considered one of the Rhizo-

poda, it would be difficult to determine the boundary-line be-

tween this class and that of the Infusoria (Ciliata). The amphi-

leptoid cysts, first described by Claparéde and afterwards by

Stem and Udekem in various Vorticellina, were seen by Engel-

mann also in Hpistylis plicatilis. The Amphileptus underwent

fission within the cyst before leaving it.

Similar Urnulz and amphileptoid cysts were encountered in

Epistylis crassicollis. In E. flavicans, which has a distinct oval

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 253

nucleus, the preliminary stage in the formation of germinal cor-

puscles was observed taking place in the nucleus, and ending in

the production either of a very large number of small ones

closely packed and having a central vesicle, or else of a smaller

number imbedded within the substance of the nucleus. At the

same time, one, or, seldom, several elongated sharply outlined

bodies, having clear vesicles internally, were visible in the nu-

cleus ; and these after a while broke up into many smaller seg-

ments. Within other nuclei one or more extended, sharply

defined, homogeneous masses, of firmer consistence than the

nuclei themselves, were detected, but no spherical corpuscles.

The somewhat reniform corpuscles remarked by Claparéde

scattered in pairs through the parenchyma of Epistylis flavicans

appear to be peculiar to this animalcule. They strongly refract

light, and vary much in number, sometimes are absent alto-

gether. Their purpose is obscure.

In Carchesium polypinum Engelmann observed the origin of

germs and embryonic corpuscles several times in May and Oc-

tober 1860. Usually only one globular germ appeared at a time,

close under the integument of the anterior portion of the body,

distinguishable by its clear homogeneous substance and its very

large central nucleus. At one point in its periphery a hollow

space, slowly changeable in its dimensions (a contractile vesicle),

was also perceptible. The nucleus of the parent animal was

always present unchanged in appearance.

In June 1860, Engelmann met with a specimen of Carchesium

polypinum having a thick bud-like outgrowth from near its stem,

gently tapering in front, with a circular opening at its apex. In

its interior were several rather large, strongly refracting corpus-

cles, of an oval figure, not dissimilar to germinal corpuscles. In

course of time this process collapsed, and hung like a flabby sae

from the Carchestum. Steim has recorded a similar formation in

Vorticella nebulifera.

But it was in the Carchesium Aselli, a new species discovered

by himself, that Engelmann was enabled more fully to explore

the phenomena of embryonic development. On the Ist of April,

1860, he met with a full-grown dead specimen of this species,

containing a large spherical homogeneous body, 0:042 milli-

métre in diameter, possessing a round nucleus of considerable

magnitude. Contiguous to it lay the smaller, curved, horse-

shoe-shaped nucleus of the animalcule. On the following day,

he saw eight examples, each containing one such embryonic

globule, which lay close beneath the peristome. A slowly con-

tractile vesicle existed on the surface of each ; and, by the addi-

tion of acetic acid, an opake distinctly defined nucleus was brought

into view. The nucleus of the parent being could not in all

254: T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

cases be distinguished. In company with these forms were

others, belonging evidently to a later phase of development.

Thus the large circular nucleus of the embryonic body was sub-

divided into two oval segments, which, on the addition of acetic

acid, were seen to be enclosed within the common transparent

capsule of the embryonic corpuscle (PI. IIT. fig. 12). One or

two similar oval bodies are sometimes found in addition within

the parenchyma of the animalcule ; and occasionally the nucleus

of the Carchesium is not discoverable. It also at times happens

that an outgrowth or protuberance appears on the surface of the

animalcule, either about its middle or at its anterior part ; but

these conical tapering swellings exhibit no distinct aperture,

though possibly one may eventually make its appearance. In

these prominences an embryonic corpuscle was several times

seen ; nevertheless it is doubtful whether the embryos make

their exit through them, for Engelmann observed their escape

through a fissure near the peristome (fig. 11). The escaped

embryo is oval, very small, and furnished with two zones of long

cilia in front, by means of which it swims about in an impetuous

manner. Internally it presents a contractile space and a rounded

nucleus (fig. 11a). From these observations Engelmann concludes

it to be probable that one or several embryos are derived from the

nucleus of the original embryonic corpuscle, which advance in

growth at the expense of the matter contained within the cor-

puscle, and after a time effect their escape through its surround-

ing wall, and lastly through the coats of the parent animal by

means of a special foramen. This mterpretation comeides with

the observations recorded by Claparéde respecting the formation

of embryos in the Epistyls plicatils.

Engelmann has met with but few examples to illustrate the

development of embryonic corpuscles from the nucleus of the

parent animal. In one instance where there was a large em-

bryonic body, the reduced nucleus presented several nuclear

structures. In another animal which had no such large cor-

puscle, the nucleus was likewise reduced in size, and in contact

with it were six small spherical corpuscles having a central

vesicle. In a third example, along with a large embryonic body

there were five rounded corpuscles, each with a central vesicle,

apparently derived from a breaking-up of the nucleus, but dif-

fering materially in size among themselves. These were probably

produced after the first embryonic corpuscle had developed its

embryo, and a series of such corpuscles were prepared for suc-

cessive elaboration into embryos.

In the production of embryonic corpuscles another pheno-

menon is presented in the case of Carchesium Aselli, correspond-

ing with that seen by Stein in Vorétcella nebulifera. This con-

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 255

sists in the outgrowth of more or fewer large convex processes

from the body of animals found in company with others bearing

the embryonic corpuscles. These protuberances are mostly

situated on the posterior half of the body, and contain a con-

siderable number of small spherical refracting corpuscles, similar,

Indeed, to others collected in large numbers within the paren-

chyma of the parent animalcule. They are evidently the pro-

ducts of a fission-process in the nucleus, some very slight rem-

nants of which are only now and then perceptible. In one

mstance these same corpuscles were noticed, though no out-

growths existed. The purpose of such products is still a ques-

tion. Stein has supposed them to be connected with the origin

of the fertilizmg elements.

In Carchesium Aselli Engelmann further observed that pecu-

liar condition in which the disk of the peristome assumes a

spherical figure and projects from the strongly contracted ani-

maleule (PI. III. fig. 13) very much like a yet adherent embryo,

but from which it is distinguished by its want of a nucleus and

its absence of independent locomotion. If torn from the animal,

it-does not lose its cilia for some time, though it never swims

far with them, but settles down to the bottom of the water, and

soon lies motionless there.

The small corpuscles derived from a breaking-up of the nu-

cleus have been seen also in Zoothamnium affine. The processes

containing them are of very large size, and either of an elliptic

elongated figure or conical and thick, surrounded by a short

tubular-looking process, having a distinct aperture at its summit

(fig. 14). The corpuscles themselves varied in size, but never

exceeded 0-005 mill.

The extrusion of embryonic corpuscles was noticed in Vorti-

cella Convallaria. Usually, as in Carchesium polypinum, only one

such corpuscle, of considerable size, having an opake nucleus,

was present.

The development of germinal corpuscles in Didinium nasutum

(Stein) is interesting. This remarkable animalcule ordinarily

presents a horseshoe-shaped nucleus, but no nucleolus ; but in

October 1860, Engelmann encountered very many specimens in

which the nucleus enclosed numerous small spherical corpuscles

having a central vesicle in their interior. Among these were

several (four to six) considerably larger globular bodies, contain-

ing each a distinct nucleus. In other individuals the nucleus

was seen divided into several more or less globular segments,

lying close together, furnished severally with a nucleus, though

still enclosed within the membrane of the parent nucleus.

These structures assuredly represent the early phases in the

formation of germinal and embryonic bodies. During the trans-

256 T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

verse fission of Didinium, the nucleus becomes much elongated,

and then appears striped longitudinally ; but on the completion

of fission the longitudinal striz disappear.

In the group of Acinetina, development by internally produced

embryos has been demonstrated by Stem and Claparéde in

almost all the species known. Engelmann remarks that he has .

seen the embryos of <Acineta opercularie, A. quadripartita, A.

Astaci, and A. infusionum. In the last-named species and in

A. quadripartita, Fngelmann further observed the reverting of

the ciliated embryos to Acinete ; and he remarks that the em-

bryos of Acinetz known to him are distinguished from those of

ciliated Infusoria (e. g. Stylonychia Mytilus, Paramecium aurelia,

Lipistylis plicatilis, &c.) by the remarkable circumstance that

their entire body is not, as in those of the latter animalcules,

devoid of granules, and transparent, but filled with the same

nutritive materials as occur in the parent beings. For example,

the embryos of Acineta quadripartita and of A. infusionum are

so filled with the fat-globules and other nutritive matters derived

from the parent animals, that it is difficult to discover their

nucleus and contractile sac. Indeed, this single circumstance

renders it highly improbable that the entire Acineta-embryo can

be derived solely from the substance of the parent nucleus.

This last is certainly frequently seen broken up into numerous

coarse granules, but only a small portion at most of the fre-

quently extremely large and opake embryo can be derived from

them; on the contrary, it is much more probable that only

their nuclear portion arises from the nucleus of their parent,

the rest of their large body being derived directly from the con-

tents of the parent Acineta. Stein, in fact, has heretofore inti-

mated the same. Thus in Acineta infusionum he describes the

nucleus as giving off from its middle, at right angles to itself, a

process, of a bud-like form, which presently becomes surrounded

by a clearer ring of tissue derived from the substance of the

parent beng. Engelmann observed precisely the same thing

take place in a large specimen of Acineta quadripartita.

The origin of the offspring of Acinetina by sexual reproduc-

tion is highly improbable, and has no support from observation.

It is probably an act of internal gemmation. It is only in

Acineta mystacina, Urnula epistylidis, and Podophrya fixa that

the production of these internal germs has been unnoticed; and

as far as our knowledge at present extends, these three species

multiply only by simple fission. But even in other Acinetina the

internal production of germs is not an act of embryonic repro-

duction, but simply one of fission.

A second variety of reproduction, however, does occur among

the Acinetina, as first noticed by Claparéde in Acineta quadripartita

T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria. 257

and A. cucullulus. This consists in the breaking-up of the nu-

cleus into several spheroidal segments, from which a still larger

number of small ciliated germs derive their origin, distinguish-

able in no respect from the embryos of Epistylis plicatilis.

Claparéde represents this offspring so derived as similar to the

usual form of Acineta-germs: but with this view Engelmann

cannot agree; for he maintains that both the mode of origin

and the nature of the mature germs so derived differ altogether

from those of the usual offspring of Acinete. Thus it is a cir-

cumstance of much weight that these little Acineta-embryos

derive their substance entirely from the nucleus, and receive no

addition from the parenchyma of the parent animalcule. Again,

they exhibit this peculiarity in their formation in common

with the embryos of ciliated Infusoria, as, for instance, with

those of Vorticellina; and if their external resemblance to these

latter be also considered, we must admit the existence of a

remarkable similarity between the embryonic development of

Ciliata and that form of the reproduction of Acinete by these

remarkable little germs. This being granted, it has an import-

ant bearing upon Stein’s celebrated hypothesis of Acinetiform

development of Infusoria. ‘To show, for example, that the little

Acineta-products in question are true embryos developed by a

sexual reproductive act, is to overturn the Acineta-theory. On

the other hand, if, as is possible, and as the completely similar

organization of the little offspring of Acineta quadripartita to the

embryos of Epistylis plicatilis intimates, this method of develop-

ment has a special character, and is concerned in a transforma-

tion of the Acinete back again into ciliated Infusoria, then the

Acineta-theory becomes established. Future researches must

decide this difficult problem.

As an appendix to his general remarks on the organization

and reproduction of Infusoria, Engelmann appends a systematic

history of several new genera and species he has discovered.

The new genera named and described are Chasmatostoma, Micro-

thorax, Drepanostoma, Gastrostyla, and Astylozoon; and the new

species of previously described genera are Lacrymaria elegans,

Conchophthirus (P1. LI. fig.15) curtus, Pleurotricha setifera, Uro-

leptus mobilis, U.agilis, Oxytricha strenua, O. parallela, Carchesium

Aselli, and Epistylis nympharum.

The new genera are thus severally characterized :—

Cuasmatostoma. PI. III. fig. 16.

Figure constant, reniform, somewhat compressed, uniformly

ciliated. A small oval oral aperture, having an undulating

membrane affixed within it, occupies the middle of the flat

yentral surface.

Ann, & Mag. N, Hist, Ser. 3, Vol. x. 18

258: T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

Chasmatostoma reniforme (PI. III. fig. 16)

has probably been often confounded with Colpoda cucullulus

and similar Ciliata. Anteriorly the reniform body rather tapers,

but posteriorly it is obtusely rounded-off. A short cesophagus

extends inwards and to the right side from the oval mouth,

which is further furnished along its right side within its margin

with an actively undulating fine membrane. Sometimes a second

smaller membrane of the same kind is imperfectly seen on the

left side. ‘ The nucleus is circular, placed in the median line in

the posterior half of the body, and having a clearly defined

round nucleolus occupying a hollow on its surface. The con-

tractile vesicle is situated at the posterior extremity, and in its

contraction acquires a stellate figure. It swims actively, mostly

in a circuitous direction, by means of its uniform cilia, usually

with its ventral surface downwards. Fission not observed.

Size 0:06 millimétre.

Microruorax. PI. III. figs. 17, 18, 19.

Body loricated, compressed, oval, widely rounded posteriorly,

uniformly ciliated. Mouth placed within the concavity of a

rounded peristome situated in the left half of the body, and

close to the posterior extremity. Nucleus and contractile sac

single.

M. pusillus. Pl. IU. fig. 17.

One of the smallest holotrichous Infusoria. It often occurs

in large numbers together and in company with small Chilodons,

with Cyclidium glaucoma, Cinetochilum margaritaceum, and Pleu-

rochilidium strigilatum, and it is most closely allied to the two

last-named animalcules. The left border of the rigid body is

straight, whilst the right is convex. The peristome-depression

_ is on the right side, and has an active valvular membrane within

it. The right margin of the body is much thickened ; and along

the ventral aspect are two furrows, commencing from the ante-

rior extremity, on the left side, and traceable to the middle of

the body. The dorsal surface is not striated, but bears cilia.

The round nucleus is central; the contractile vesicle near to and

above the peristome, on its right side. Individuals colourless,

their largest dimensions only 0:032 mill. Movements active ;

swims on the ventral aspect.

M. sulcatus. PI. ILI. figs. 18,19.

Much larger than the preceding, but of the same form. Along

the dorsum are three deep longitudinal furrows ; and the ventral

sulci extend to the hinder border. The contractile vesicle is on

the left side, and immediately above the peristome. Swius

actively, on its ventral aspect. Size 0:057 mill..

T. W: Engelmann on the Infusoria. 259

DreraANOSTOMA.

Figure of body constant, but flexible, elongated, tapering

gently in front and behind; ventral aspect flat, dorsal convex ;

the whole undersurface traversed by longitudinal striz, with

cilia of uniform length. The dorsum is smooth, but bears along

each margin a row of bristly cilia. Mouth placed beneath a

crescentic horny band not far from the anterior extremity, and

close to the left margin of the body. Nuclei two, each with a

nucleolus; no sharply circumscribed contractile space.

D. striatum,

the only species yet determined, is allied on the one side with

hypotrichous Ciliata, such as Chilodon, and, on the other, with

holotrichous Amphilepti. On account of the cilia being limited

to the ventral surface, it must be placed among the hypotrichous

Infusoria. The anal outlet is on the dorsal surface, not far from

the posterior extremity. The body is from 4 to 5 times as long

as broad, and somewhat pointed at its two ends. Fission not

observed. Size from 0°185 to 0°25 mill.

GASTROSTYLA.

Figure constant ; body loricated, elliptic, contracted anteriorly,

and more or less obtusely rounded posteriorly. Five or six

strong unciform sete are situated on the anterior extremity, and

a row of bristly cilia stretches obliquely across the ventral sur-

face as far as the four or five strong cilia about the anal orifice,

beyond which only a few extend to the posterior border. The

two rows of marginal cilia increase in dimensions posteriorly,

and overlap no sete at the posterior extremity. Nuclei four.

G. Steinii

was noticed in January 1860, and belongs to the larger forms

of Oxytrichina. It is two and a half times as long as broad.

The frontal region is surmounted by a semilunar labium. The

peristome is small in diameter; on its inner margin a strong

undulating membrane is attached. The oblique row of sete,

stretching from the first adoral cilia in a gently curved line to

the five or six strong cilia about the anal outlet, is a charac- .

teristic feature of the genus. Three stout uncinate sete are

inserted on the frontal region, and anteriorly to the oblique row

of cilia are two other such sete, and behind the angle of the

mouth from one to three powerful cilia. A remarkable feature

in this species, as in Onychodromus, is the existence of four

nuclei, each with its nucleolus, situated in a line one behind the

other. Movements rapid, not long in one direction. Fission

proceeds as in Stylonychia Mytilus. The four nuclei coalesce

18*

260 T. W. Engelmann on the Infusoria.

into one large body, which by and by breaks up into eight seg-

ments, from each of which four germs proceed. The segments

so subdividing generally present about their centre a fissure-like

fold, recalling what happens in the nucleus of Aspidisca, Lu-

plotes, and Oxytrichina under like circumstances. On the water

around the Gastrostyla drying up, the animal readily encysts

itself, the cysts resembling those of Stylonychia Mytilus, but

rather more indented on their surface.

In company with Gastrostyla and Cyclidium glaucoma, some

small cireular Acinefe were sometimes met with, resembling the

embryos of Stylonychia Mytilus, and not improbably embryos of

the Gastrostyle itself. This, however, is uncertain, as specimens

of this animalcule were discovered with embryonic corpuscles.

Size 0°15 to 0°32 mill.

Astytozoon. PI. III. fig. 20.

Body contractile, unstalked, campanulate, with an acutely

pointed posterior extremity having a curve backwards. Surface

smooth. Rotary organ extrusile, furnished with a spiral ciliary

wreath. Peristome swollen, thickened. Posterior extremity

terminated by one or two long locomotive sete. Nucleus short,

reniform.

A, fallax, PI. III. fig. 20.

The only species known. At first sight, it looks like a de-

tached Vorticella microstoma, but differs from it by its curved

posterior pointed extremity, its rotary organ becoming wider

behind obliquely, its small reniform nucleus, and its terminal

locomotive setee, whereby it can execute movements not effected

by any detached Vorticelle. It is frequently encysted. Size

Ol mill. Size of cysts 0:038 to 0:05 mill.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE III.

Fig. 1. Euplotes Charon, in process of conjugation.

Fig. 2. The same animalcule at a later stage of conjugation: the new

system of cilia is further developed, and the two beings are in

course of separation.

Fig. 3. The globular vesicle developed internally has attained about its

maximum growth.

Fig. 4. Stylonychia pustulata, in conjugation. The anterior extremities of

the two animals connected by an intermediate band.

5. The same, in conjugation according to a second variety of that

process. The two beings, united most of their length, have

begun the development of a new scries of cilia.

Fig. 6. The same animaleules two hours later.

‘ig. 7. One of the animalcules after the termination of conjugation and

separation, twenty minutes after the stage shown in fig. 6.

Fig.

Messrs. Alder and Hancock on new Mollusca, 261

Fig. 8. Stylonychia histrio, a peculiar phase of; the three globular ve si~

cles subsequently coulesced into one large one, containing nu-

merous granules.

Fig. 9. Stylonychia Mytilus, showing the formation of embryos and the

development of germinal globules.

Fig.10. Urnula Epistylidis, growing on the stem of Epistylis plicatilis.

Fig. 11. Carchesium Aselli, with a large embryonic vesicle: a, a detached

embryo.

Fig. 12. Desennment of embryos within embryonic vesicles in the same

animalcule.

Fig. 13. Carchesium Aselli strongly contracted, and with its ciliary disk

elongated and circumscribed by a constriction, making it resemble

an independent germ in course of growth.

Fig. 14. Zoothamnium affine. The nucleus has broken up into numerous

minute globular corpuscles, collected within an outgrowth from

its side, terminated by an aperture.

Fig. 15. Conchophthirus Anodonte (Stein).

Fig. 16. Chasmatostoma reniforme.

Fig. 17. Microthorazx pusillus, ventral aspect.

‘ig. 18. Microthorax sulcatus, ventral aspect,

Fig. 19. The same, dorsal aspect.

Fig. 20. Astylozoon fallaw.

XXV.—Descriptions of a new Genus and some new Species of

Naked Mollusca. By Josnua Auprr and AtBany Hancock,

FE.LS.

Tue following species of Nudibranchiate Mollusca have recently

come under our notice, mostly through the kindness of our

friends, to whom our thanks are due for the liberal manner in

which they have communicated to us all specimens met with in

this department of natural history that were likely to prove new

or interesting.

Family Doridide.

Doris testudinaria, Risso.

Doris testudinaria, Risso, Hist. Nat. de Europe Merid. vol. iv. p. 33, f.15 ;

Philippi, Enum. Moll. Sic. vol. u. p. 78.

Body ovate or broadly elliptical, convex. Cloak large, of a

chestnut-colour, with indistinct pale-yellowish blotches towards

the sides, covered with smallish unequal tubercles, interspersed

with a few larger ones, with minute pale lines radiating from

them. Dorsal tentacles stout, yellowish, with fifteen to seven-

teen lamine, divided in front by a groove: oral tentacles linear.

Branchial plumes eight, tripinnate, forming an incomplete circle,

open behind, retractile within a large cavity. Underside of the

cloak orange- or lemon-coloured, spotted with reddish brown ;

262 Messrs. J. Alder and A. Hancock on a new Genus

the foot orange, grooved in front, with the upper lamina notched

in the centre.

Length 14 to 2 inches.

A specimen of this fine Doris was got by Messrs. R. 8. Brady

and G. Hodge, under a stone between tide-marks, on the Island

of Herm, in June last. It is known as a Mediterranean species,

but its range further north had not been before ascertained.

The resemblance between D. testudinaria and our D. planata

suggests the question whether the latter may not be the young

of the present species. The very depressed form, however, of

D. planata, its much smaller branchial plumes, their conspicuous

dark-brown markings, and the presence of a central plume,

which is not the case in D. testudinaria, induce us to consider

them distinct. The character of the tongue is similar in each,

Doris Loveni.

Doris muricata, Lovén, Index Moll. Scand. p. 5. no. 18.

Body ovate, rather convex, yellowish white. Cloak with very

large, rather distant, clavate tubercles, larger and more numerous

towards the sides, mterspersed with smaller ones. Tentacles

robust, yellowish, placed considerably apart. Branchial plumes

eleven, pinnate, set in a small incomplete circle or ellipse. Veil

large, undulated. Foot broad and ample.

Length half an inch; breadth 0°35 inch.

A single specimen of this species was found by the Rev.A.M.

Norman among stones between tide-marks, on the south side of

Bantry Bay, in the autumn of 1858, It is remarkable for the

enormous size of its tubercles, which, though soft and having a

puffed appearance, contain each a bundle of spicula. That this

is the Doris muricata, a, of Professor Lovén we are able to state

with confidence, that distinguished naturalist having kindly sent

us a specimen. We think, however, that the D. muricata of our

Monograph is probably the true D. muricata of Miiller, as the

tubercles come nearer in character to those represented in his

figure; and the former may perhaps be the var. 8 of Lovén,

though it does not in all respects correspond with his descrip=

tion. The two varieties described by Professor Lovén are clearly

distinct species, differing not only in the size of the tubercles as

well as of the animal, but also in the character of the tongue,

which, in the present species (the typical form of Lovén) has

numerous small lateral plates or spines, similar to those of D,

proxima, in addition to a large and rather slender falcate spine

on each side. In D. muricata, var. 8. Lov., there is a very

broad-based falcate spine and an obtuse small one only on each

side, the large spine having very minute lateral denticulations.

There is also a rectangular central plate.

. and some new Species of Naked Mollusca. 263

Family Polyceride.

CRIMORA, Nov. gen.

Body l\imaciform. Cloak nearly obsolete, forming a veil with

branched appendages over the head, and a papillated ridge on

the sides of the back. Dorsal tentacles laminated, retractile

within sheaths: oral tentacles tubercular. Branchie plumose,

non-retractile, placed about two-thirds down the centre of the

back. Tail short, without a fin-like crest.

Tongue.—Lateral spines twenty-six or twenty-seven on each

side, of three kinds: the first next the centre large, hooked, bi-

cuspid ; the next five or six short, obtuse, and supported on

subquadrilateral plates ; the remainder very long, slender, curved

and minutely denticulated on the inner margin. No central

spine.

This genus comes very near to Plocamophorus of Riippell,

agreeing with it in having a branched veil in front, but differing

in the absence of the large fin-like tail, and somewhat in the

character of the lateral appendages, which in Plocamophorus are

fewer, larger, and a little branched or papillated. It has also

considerable relationship with Thecacera, in which genus, how-

ever, the veil is either absent or very imperfectly developed, and

there are no oral tentacles. The members of this family, though

bearing great general resemblance, are so variable in details

that it is difficult to avoid raising each species to the rank of a

genus. We have been rather reluctant, in the present instance,

to add another to the number ; but the species above described

will not come into any of the known genera as at present under-

stood; and the peculiar character of the tongue strengthens its

title to generic rank. This organ differs from that of any of the

allied genera in having very numerous, slender, denticulated,

lateral spines, as in the Trochide.

Crimora papillata, n. sp.

Body ovate-oblong, swelling a little in the centre and tapering

to a blunt point posteriorly ; white, with the processes tipped

with yellow. Dorsal tentacles subclavate, pale yellow, retractile

within short sheaths: oral tentacles short, tubercular. Veil bi-

lobed, each lobe furnished with five more or less branched ap-

pendages, leaving a small vacant space in the centre. A slight

pallial ridge runs along each side of the back, bearing numerous

small filamentous papillz tipped with yellow, terminating behin

in a bifid process of no great size: an indistinct ridge runs

down the centre of the tail, also bearing yellow-tipped papille,

the anterior one of which is larger than the rest, and bifid ;

similar small papille are disposed over the body, forming a line

264, Messrs. Alder and Hancock on new Mollusca.

on the centre of the back, and one or two imperfect rows at the

sides. Branchial plumes three, tripinnate, tipped with yellow.

Foot narrow, produced a little at the sides in front.

Length (in spirit) 56, inch.

This interesting addition to our fauna was dredged among

Zostera, in a few fathoms water, in Moulin Huet Bay, Guernsey,

by Mr. Norman, in July 1859.

Family Eolidide.

Doto cuspidata, un. sp.

Body nearly linear, slender, smooth, white or yellowish, spotted

on the back with pink or purple, the spots forming two lines of

curves between the branchial processes, bending towards each,

and extending from the tentacles to near the tail. Tentacles

filiform, slender, tapering a little upwards ; the sheaths trumpet-

shaped, with scalloped margins, extending into a point in front.

Veil entire, arched in front, and produced into obtuse recurved

points at the sides. There is a raised portion of the surface in

front of each tentacle, as in D. fragilis. Branchie six pairs,

rather distant ; the first pair placed not far behind the tentacles,

the last pair very small. They are ovate-conical, with four

whorls of strongly pointed conical tubercles, and a terminal one

at the apex; apices without spots. oot narrow, a little ex-

panded in front, and tapering to a point at the tail.

Length (in spirit) a quarter of an inch.

Dredged in deep water on the outer Haaf, Shetland, by

J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., and Edward Waller , Esq., in the summer

of 1861.

This new species of Do¢o is somewhat intermediate in character

between D. fragilis and D. coronata, but approaching more

nearly to the latter, from which it differs in the conical form of

the branchial processes and their more pointed tubercles, as well

as in the absence of the dark spots at their apices. The tenta-

cular sheaths, too, have scalloped margins, and the veil is more

arched than in D. coronata.

Family Limapontiade.

Limapontia depressa, n. Sp.

Body oblong-ovate, depressed, swelling behind the centre and

terminating in a blunt point posteriorly, but varying much

according to the degree of expansion or contraction ; black, with

minute yellowish-white spots or freckles, not always present, and

very inconspicuous. Head rounded in front, and slightly angu-

lated at the sides ; the lateral crests less elevated than in L. nigra,

with the eyes situated near the centre of a white oblong area at

Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles. 265

the side of each. Anus placed in a depression at the posterior

extremity of the body. Fvot yellowish white, linear, and squared

in front.

Length upwards of a quarter of an inch.

A few individuals of this species were obtained, last October,

in brackish-water pools at the mouth of Hylton Dene, near

Sunderland, associated with Alderia modesta, on a Conferva

(Vaucheria submarina ?).

The same animal, apparently, was taken by Mr. Muggridge

and Mr. C. Spence Bate, in Loughor Marsh, South Wales, in

1849, similarly associated, and was figured by the latter gentle-

man in the Report of the Swansea Literary and Scientific Society

for 1850, where it is named Limapontia nigra. It is, however,

readily distinguished from that species by its greater size, more

depressed form, and wider: lateral expansion, by the backward

position of the anus, and the more branched hepatic organ, be-

sides other minor characters. Mr. Spence Bate’s specimens

seem to have been nearly twice the length of ours.

This species comes very near to the Fasciola capitata of Miller,

perhaps more so than the Limapontia nigra, which has been

referred to that species by Professor Lovén; but as Miller had

not observed the characters by which these two species are more

especially distinguished from each other (namely, the position

of the anus and the branching of the liver), we think it better

to consider our animal as new than to revive an old name that

may prove to be erroneous.

XXVI.—A Synopsis of the Species of Crocodiles.

By Dr. J. HE. Gray, F.R.S. &c.

Tue distinction of the species of Crocodiles has hitherto been

one of the difficult problems in systematic zoology ; and there-

fore I believe that it may be of some slight use to lay before the

readers of the ‘Annals’ the result of my examination of the very

large collection of Crocodiles, of all ages and from various locali-

ties, which are contained in the British Museum. Knowing the

difficulty that surrounds the subject, I have made great exertions

to obtain specimens from different countries ; and the examina-

tion of these specimens has shown that the characters of the

species, when allowance is made for the changes that take place

in the growth of the animal, are quite as permanent as in any

other group of Reptiles.

One of the difficulties in distinguishing the species of Croco-

diles arises from the changes that take place in the form of the

head during growth. When the Crocodile is just hatched, the

266 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles.

face is very short; it elongates as the animal grows, at first

very gradually, and, at length, assumes the typical form of the

species when the animal has reached about one-fourth or one-

third of its natural size. The head continues to increase in

firmness and strength ; and when the animal has attained nearly

its adult size, the bones of the head become thickened, the face

becomes broader and higher, and the general form of the head

is considerably altered. Thus the half-grown specimens give the

most characteristic form of the species.

I have noticed that there is considerable variation in the width

of the face in specimens from different localities, but which

appear in other respects to belong to the same species. Some

naturalists might be inclined to regard them as distinct species ;

but in our series, large as it is, we have not sufficient materials to

decide the question with any confidence. Perhaps, if the skulls

of specimens from each locality could be compared, other cha-

racters might be found; but this must he left for my successors

in this field of research.

I may remark that the observation of MM. Duméril and

Bibron (Erp. Gén. 25 & 47), that Crocodiles are not found in

Australia, and that the American Crocodiles are confined to the

islands of that continent, is no longer consistent with fact ; in-

deed, long before the publication of their work, various travellers

had recorded the occurrence of Crocodiles on the north coast

of Australia; and we have received specimens of the skull of

Oopholis porosus from thence.

The genera here proposed have the following geographical

distribution :—

Asia and Northern Australia: Oopholis and Bombifrons.

Africa: Crocodilus, Halcrosia, and Mecistops.

Tropical America: Palinia, Molinia.

The skulls of Crocodiles may be arranged thus :—

1. Nasal bone produced, and separating the nostril into two

parts. Halcrosia.

2. Nasal bone produced, and dividing the edges of the nostril,

Oopholis, Crocodilus, Molinia (americana), Bombifrons, Palinia.

_ 3, Nasal bone not reaching the nostril. Molinia (intermedia),

Mecistops.

The large front teeth of the Gavials fit into a notch in the

front of the upper jaw, and the canines into a notch also. In the

Crocodiles the canines fit into a notch, as in the Gayials, but the

large front teeth fit into a pit or perforation in the front of the

upper jaw ; and in the Alligators both the canines and large front

teeth fit into pits or perforations in the edge of the upper jaw. .

Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles. 267.

_ The intermaxillary bone in Bombifrons and Palinia is short

and truncated behind. In Halcrosia it is rather produced be-

hind, the straight sides converging to a point. In all the

other genera it is produced behind, with the hinder edge con-

verging on the sides and truncated at the ends.

_ The palatal bone in all the genera is truncated or rounded in

front, except in Mecistops, where it is narrow, short, and acute

in front.

The dorsal scales present considerable variations in different

specimens from the same locality; but, allowing for such yaria-

tions, the genera may be arranged thus :—

~ 1. The dorsal scales nearly uniformly keeled, in four or six

longitudinal series ; the outer series ovate-elongate, Oopholis.

2. The dorsal scales nearly uniformly keeled, quadrilateral, as

broad as long. Crocodilus, Palinia, Molinia, and Mecistops.

3. The dorsal scales quadrilateral, as broad as long; the ver-

tebral series scarcely keeled, the lateral series irregular and

keeled. Halcrosia and Molinia.

The eyelid of the genus Halcrosia is thickened, with three

hard bony plates, as in some of the Alligators, with which it also

agrees in the external form of the head and the disposition of the

nuchal shield, In all the other genera they are thin and mem-

branaceous.

The Crocodiles (Crocodilide) may be thus divided :—

I. The nape with a rhombic disk formed of six plates, which is well separated

from the dorsal shields, Normal Crocodiles.

A. Nuchal scutella none. Dorsal scales in four or six longitudinal series ;

the outer series ovate-elongate. Toes webbed. Legs fringed. The

intermaxillary bone produced, truncated, and converging on the sides,

Estuarine or brackish-water Crocodiles,

1. Oornotts.

Face oblong; orbits with an elongated, longitudinal, more or

less sinuous ridge in front. Nuchal shields none, or rudimentary.

Cervical disk rhombic, of six shields. Dorsal shields uniformly

keeled, in four or six longitudinal series ; the vertebral series

with straight internal edges, the outer ovate-elongate. Legs

acutely fringed. Toes broadly webbed. Intermaxillary bone

produced and truncated behind the suture, sloping backwards

and converging, and then transverse or sinuous.

a, The dorsal scales in six longitudinal series ; the vertebral ones elongated

like the others.

1. Oopholis porosus.

Crocodilus porosus, Schn. Amph, 159; Gray, Cat. Brit. Mus. 58.

C. oopholis, Schn. Amph,

268 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles.

Crocodilus biporcatus, Cuvier, Oss. Foss.v.65,t.1.f.4, 18, 19 (young skulls),

t.2.f.8; Miiller and Schlegel, Verh. t. 3. f. 6 (middle-aged skull).

Champse fissipes, Wagler, Amph. t. 17.

aaah. biporcatus raninus, Miller and Schlegel, Verh. t. 3. f. 7 (aged

Skull).

Hab. Asia and Australia. India, Bengal and Pinang (Hard-

wicke); China (Lindsay) ; Trincomalee ; Borneo (Belcher); North

Australia (Ince, Elsey) ; 'Tenasserim coast (Packman).

The Museum specimens vary in length from 18 to 52 inches;

but the skull shows that it grows to a very large size. We have

one skull 29 inches long; another, which is 26 inches long, is

said, by the gentleman who sent it from India, to have been

taken from an animal 33 feet long.

Cuvier figures the skulls of young and half-grown specimens.

S. Muller and Schlegel figure two skulls, one under the name of

C. biporcatus (f. 6), and the other C. biporcatus raninus (f. 7) : the

latter seems to be from an adult or aged animal; the former

(f. 6) from a full-grown one, before the skull is thickened and

spread out. Another specimen figured, as C. biporcatus rani-

nus (f. 8) appears to be from a specimen of Crocodilus Siamensis.

It certainly is not an Oopholis, from the form of the dorsal scales

and the presence of the nuchal ones.

b. The dorsal scales in four series; the vertebral series broader than long,

the outer series elongate-ovate.

2. Oopholis Pondicherianus.

Hab. Pondichery, 1851.

The specimen of this species in the British Museum is small,

and only just hatched, but it is quite distinct from all the others.

The vertebral series of shields are nearly twice as broad as the

vertebral shields in O. porosus; the others are also rather wider

in comparison ; all the dorsal scales are more keeled, and the

keels on the scales on the side of the base of the tail are higher

and more prominent. The black spots are larger and further

apart.

"The specimen was purchased of M. Parzudaki of Paris, it

having formed part of a collection which he received from the

French Museum.

B. Nuchal plates four, or rarely two or five, in a cross series. The dorsal

plates as broad as long, in four or six series. Fluviatile or River Croco-

diles.

a. The intermaxillary bones truncated behind, with a nearly straight pre-

maxillary suture. Face broad, oblong.

To discover the form of the premaxillary suture in the preserved

specimens, it is only necessary to elevate the skin of the front

of the palate, and lay the bones bare.

Dr.J.E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles. 269

* Toes webbed. Legs distinctly fringed. Asiatic Crocodiles.

2. BomMBIFRONS.

The premaxillary suture straight, or rather convex forwards.

The face oblong; forehead with nodules in front of the orbits.

The cervical disk formed of six shields. Nuchal plates four, in

a curved line. Dorsal shields oblong, rather elongate, all keeled,

in six longitudinal series, and with two short lateral series of

keeled scales. The legs fringed with a series of triangular

elongated scales. ‘Toes webbed.

1. Bombifrons trigonops.

Crocodilus bombifrons, Gray, Cat. B.M. 59, 1844 (adult).

C. biporcatus, Cautley, Asiat. Research. xix. t. 3. f. 1 & 3 (not Cuvier).

C. trigonops, Gray, Cat. B.M. 62, 1844 (young).

C. palustris, Gray, Cat. B.M. (young).

C. palustris (part.), Dum. & Bib. Erp. Gén. i.

C. biporcatus raninus, Miller & Schlegel, Verhand. t. 3. f. fe

C. marginatus, Falconer, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1846, xvii. 361, t. 7

(skull).

The intermaxillary short, nearly semicircular.

Hab. India, Ganges (Dr. Sayer); Madras (Jerdon) ; Ceylon

(Kelaart).

The smallest specimen in the British Museum is 19 inches,

and the largest nearly 10 feet long; but we have skulls showing

that it grows to a much larger size.

There may be two species included in the above, as in one

of the heads (that from Ceylon) the intermaxillaries appear to be

longer and narrower than in the others. I have not sufficient

materials to satisfy myself as to the distinction of this species

and the permanence of the forms.

This species has been generally confounded with Oopholis

biporcatus and C. palustris.

The face of the younger specimen is rugulose and depressed,

with a deep pit on the sides over the eighth and ninth teeth ;

there are two arched ridges on each side behind the nostril,

and some rugosities in front of the orbits. In the older skull

the face is very convex and rounded, rugose, with some more or

less distinct rugosities in front of the orbits, but not the distinct

longitudinal ridge so characteristic of Oopholis porosus.

2. Bombifrons Siamensis.

Crocodilus Siamensis, Schn. Amph. 157; Gray, Syn. 60, & Cat. B.M. 63

(monstrosity).

C. galeatus, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. vy. 52, t.1.f.1; Dum, & Bib, Erp. Gén, ii.

113 (monstrosity).

C. palustris, Lesson, Bélanger, Voy. 305?

270 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles.

Crocodilus vulgaris (part.), Gray, Syn. 58; Dum. & Bib. Erp. Gén. ii. 108 ;

Miller & Schlegel, Verh. t. 3. f.9 (head ?).

The face depressed, elongate, nearly smooth, with a slight

nodule in front of the orbits. Intermaxillaries rather elongate,

half-oblong.

Hab. Siam, Cambogia (M. Mouhot).

We have a well-preserved half-grown specimen of this species

in the British Museum. It differs from all the specimens of

Bombifrons trigonops in the Collection in the face being much

longer, and not so tubercular and pitted.

As the head agrees with the figure of the head from whi

Schneider named his species, I have retained it; and I have little

doubt that the two keels which are present in that specimen are

either an individual peculiarity, or perhaps a character that deve-

loped itself as the animal approached old age.

** The legs with an indented fringe of short narrow scales. Toes short,

nearly free. American Crocodiles.

On LALINGA.

The premaxillary suture straight (see Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iii.

72, t.3. f.1,5). The face oblong; forehead very convex, with

a ridge in front of each orbit, converging in front and forming

a lozenge-shaped space. Nuchal plates two or four, unequal.

Cervical disk rhombic, of six large shields. Dorsal shields

large, broad, in six series; the vertebral series nearly smooth,

the lateral one strongly keeled.

1. Palinia rhombifer.

Crocodilus rhombifer, Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. t. 3. f. 1-5 (skull); Sagra, Cuba,

t.4; Dum. & Bib. Erp. Gén. iii. 97.

C: (Palinia) rhombifer, Gray, Cat. B.M.

The upper surface of the fore-arms and thighs covered with

convex keeled scales ; the outer edge of the legs and feet with

a series of very elongated scales, forming only a slight fringe ;

the toes short, scarcely webbed.

In the British Museum there is a nearly adult stuffed specimen,

received from M. Ramon de la Sagra, and two young specimens

sent from Cuba by Mr. W.S. Macleay. The young specimens

(in spirit) are pale brown, with small dots on the head, and a

dark spot on the middle of many of the dorsal scales. Tail sub-

tessellated, with square brown spots.

C. planirostris, Graves (C. Gravesit, Bory), is only described

from an old specimen, in a very bad state, in the Museum of

‘Bordeaux. The description and figure agree with those of P.

rhombifer in almost every respect, except that the hind toes are

Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles. 271.

said to be webbed. It was supposed to come from Congo; but

that is very doubtful.

2. Palinia? Moreletii. )

Crocodilus Moreletii, Dum. Arch. du Mus. vi. 255, t. 20; Cat. Rept.28.n.5*,

Dorsal scales keeled, nearly square; scales of the sides and

limbs smooth, without tubercles.

Hab. Yucatan, Lac Flores (MZ. Morelet).

This species is from a specimen in the Museum of Paris,

which is very badly figured and indistinctly described in the

memoir above cited.

There are two young specimens of Crocodiles, in spirit, weiths

out habitats, in the British Museum, which are peculiar m the

large size of the nuchal shield, the strength of the keels of the

dorsal shields, and the large keeled scales of the fore-arms and

thighs, in which they agree with Palinia rhombifer ; but there is

so much difference between the two, and between them both and

the specimens of that species from Cuba, that I think they must

be left in doubt, for further elucidation. There are also two

small stuffed specimens in the Collection (purchased in shops,

and without any locality attached), which are peculiar in having

six series of uniform, squarish, very strongly keeled dorsal

scales: they are very unlike any other specimen in the Collec-

tion, and may be new; but I do not like to describe them in the

present imperfect state of our knowledge.

b. The intermaxillary bone elongate, produced and truncated behind; the

suture sloping backwards and converging, and then transverse or sinuous,

Toes webbed. Legs with a fringe of elongated triangular scales,

4. CRocopiLus.

Face oblong, depressed, without any ridge in front of the

orbits. Nuchal shields four, in an arched series. Cervical disk

rhombic, of six shields. Dorsal shields quadrilateral, as broad

as long; the vertebral series rather the widest and most keeled.

Crocodilus vulgaris.

Le Crocodile de Nile, Daud. Rept. ii. 267.

Crocodilus vulgaris, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 42, t. 1. f. 5 & 12, t. 2. f.7.

C. Chamses, Bory, Dict. Class. H. N. v. 105,

C.. lacunosus, Geoff. Croc. d’Hgypte, | 167.

C. suchus, Geoff. Ann. Mus. x. 82, t. 5. f. 2, 3, 4.

C. marginatus, Geoff. Croc. d’Egypte, 165; Gray, Cat. Rept. B.M. 61.

Hab. Africa. North Africa, Egypt; West Africa, Senegal,

Gaboon ; South Africa, Cape of Good Hope; Central Africa

(Baikie).

Our largest specimen is nearly 15 feet long.

The specimens from Egypt, West Africa, and the Cape show

272 Dr.J.E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles.

some slight differences ; and perhaps a complete series of the

perfect specimens and skulls, of different ages, from each locality

might prove them to be distinct; but, unfortunately, I have not

such a series at my command, all the specimens from the Cape

and West Africa being either in the adult or very young state.

5, Motinta.

Face elongate ; forehead swollen, convex, especially in the

adult; orbits without any anterior ridge. Nuchal shields two

or four, small. Cervical disk rhombic, of six shields. The

legs fringed with a series of triangular elongate scales. Toes

webbed. Scales of the fore-arm and thigh thin, smooth.

* Face slender. Dorsal shields irregular ; the central series small, keeled ;

lateral scattered, strongly keeled. Nasal bones produced to the nostrils.

Molinia.

1. Molinia americana.

Crocodilus americanus (Plumieri), Schn. Amph. 167; Gray, Cat. B. M. 60.

C. acutus, Geoff. Ann. Mus. ii. 53, t.57. f. 1; Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v.t. 1. f.3

& 14, t.2.f.5; Gray, Syn. 60; Dum. & Bib. Erp. Gén. iii. 120.

Hab. Tropical America. Cuba (W. S. Macleay) ; West Ecua-

dor (Fraser) ; Nicaragua (Richardson) ; West coast of America

(Belcher) ; St. Domingo (Cuvier).

Our specimens vary in length from 19 to 103 inches; and the

skulls show that they grow to a larger size.

Var. with two additional small cervical scutella behind the

others.

C. americanus, var. c, Gray, Cat. Rept. B.M.

C. acutus, var., A. Dum. Cat. Rept. BS; Arch. du Mus. vi. 256.

Hab. West coast of America (Belcher) ; Mexico (Warwick).

*® Face very slender. Dorsal shields nearly uniform. Nasal bones not

produced quite to the nostrils. 'Temsacus.

2. M., intermedia.

Crocodilus intermedius, Graves, Ann. Sci. Phys. ii. 248; Gray, Syn. 59.

C. Journei, Bory, Dict. C.H.N.y. 111; Dum, & Bib. E. G. iii. 129; Hus-

ley, Proc. Linn. Soe. iii. 11.

Croc. de Journie, A. Dum. Arch. du Mus. x. t. 14. f. 3 (head).

Dorsal shields in six rows, all Jlightly and nearly equally

elevated; the keels of the two vertebral series rather larger than

the others, quadrilateral, rather broader than long; the lateral

ones oval, with five or six large shields forming an “interrupted

line on the sides.

Hab. America.

We have a young specimen, in spirits, sent by Mr. Brandt of

Hamburg, as Crocodilus acutus, and an adult skull received

from Paris, as Crocodile de ’ Orénoque.

Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Crocodiles. 273

II. Nape with a broad ridge, strongly keeled on each side, and nearly con-

tinuous with the dorsal shield, formed of two or three pairs of keeled

shields. Legs fringed. Toes webbed. Abnormal Crocodiles.

* Face broad ; nasal bone produced into the nostril. Alligatorian Crocodiles.

6. Haxcrosta.

The premaxillary suture transverse, rather convex backwards.

Nasal bones produced beyond the intermaxillary, and forming a

bony septum between the nostrils. The face oblong, broad,

without any ridge in front of the orbit. Eyelid with two bony

plates. Nuchal plates four, in a cross row, strongly keeled. Cer-

vical plates three or four pairs, forming a ridge on each side,

the hinder one smaller. Dorsal scales in four series; the central

broad, slightly keeled, the outer narrow, distinctly keeled: sides

with large convex scales.

Halcrosia frontata (Black African Crocodile).

Krokodile noir de Niger, Adanson, MSS., Mus. Paris; see Cuvier, Oss.

Foss. iii. 41.

Crocodilus palpebrosus, var. 2, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iii. 41, t. 2. f. 6 (part.).

C. trigonatus, part., Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iii. 65.

2C. biscutatus, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iii. 53, 65 (jun.).

2C. bisulcatus, Bory, Dict. Class. H. N. v. 108 (a misprint ?).

C. frontatus, A. Murray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862.

Hab. West Africa. Senegal (Adanson); Gaboon ; Old Calabar.

The Crocodilus biscutatus (Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 53, 65, t. 2.

f. 6, nuchal plates), from a young specimen labelled “Gavial de

Sénégal” by Adanson, is probably a young specimen of this

species ; but Adanson’s name would appear to apply to Mecistops.

There is a specimen nearly 4 feet long in the Liverpool Mu-

seum ; indeed, this seems to be the most common Crocodile of

the West-African rivers.

Cuvier evidently confounded this species with the Alligator

palpebrosus of South America; and it is still confounded with

that species by the French naturalists, for we have a skeleton

lately sent from the French Museum under that name,

** Face very long, slender ; nasal not reaching to the nostril. Gavialian

Crocodiles.

7. Mecistops.

Face subcylindrical, .scarcely dilated in the middle; orbits

simple. Nuchal shields numerous, small, in two cross series.

Cervical disk narrow, containing two or three pairs of shields.

Dorsal shields small, all keeled, in six longitudinal series, lateral

one narrowest. Intermaxillary produéed behind, and embracing

the front end of the nasal,

This genus has some resemblance to the Gavials; but the

“Ann. § Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. x. 19

274 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

structure of the skull and the position of the teeth are those of

a true Crocodile.

Mecistops cataphractus.

Crocodilus cataphractus, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. t. 5. f. 1,2; Dum. & Bib.

EK. G. iii. 126 (younger) (copied A. Dum. Arch. du Mus. x. t. 14. f. 2];

Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834, 110.

C. leptorhynchus, Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1835, 129; A. Dum. Arch. du

Mus. v. 252 & i. 171. t.14.f. 1.

M. cataphractus, Gray, Cat. B.M. 58.

M. Bennettii, Gray, Cat. B.M. 57.

Hab. West and Central Africa. Fernando Po (Bennett) ;

Gaboon ; Lagos; Central Africa (Bazkie).

I think there can be no doubt that the Crocodilus cataphractus,

figured by Cuvier from a specimen in the College of Surgeons,

and the C. leptorhynchus of Bennett are one species, the differ-

ence in the length of the beak (in the figure) and in the form of

the nuchal disk being derived from the state and age of the

specimen.

XX VII.—WNotes on rare and little-known Fishes taken at Madeira.

By James Yatr Jounson, Cor. Mem. Z. 8.

No. Il.

Order ANACANTHINI, Mill.

Suborder THoractct.

Fam. Gadide.

Phycis blennoides, Bl., Schn.

Blennius gadoides, Risso.

Ist D.9, 2nd D.58.. P.17. V.1..° A. 58.) Comm tSirme

M.B.7. Scales of lat. line about 100.

Body elongate-oblong, much compressed behind, of a brown-

ish-grey colour ; the belly pale grey, marbled with dirty white.

The head is depressed, unarmed, and, compared with the total

length, is as 1 to 43. Gill-openings large; the gill-covers,

which are black inside, are small, and leave much of the branchio-

stegal membrane exposed. The scaly cheeks are slightly convex,

and the skin covers and conceals the preopercle. The opercle

is without a notch, and it terminates behind in a rounded pro-

jection. The snout is short, rounded, and covered with small

scales; there are also scales on the mandible, but none on the

thick cartilaginous lip. There is no coloured skin on the maxil-

lary, which fits under the skin behind, and forms no part of the

border of the mouth. It reaches back to the verticai from the

middle of the eye. The mouth, when open, is nearly circular.

Fishes taken at Madeira. 275

The under jaw is shorter than, and closes inside the upper.

The premaxillary and mandible are set with small teeth in scobi-

nate bands which have no larger teeth outside. The band in the

upper jaw narrows backwards, but is much broader in front than

the band of the lower jaw. There is a chevron-shaped patch of

small teeth on the vomer, and also small teeth on the pharyn-

geals, but none on the palatines. The tongue is white, like the

whole interior of the mouth; it is broad, with a slight projec-

tion in front. The chin carries a barbel of moderate length.

There are no scales on the membrane between the mandible and

the branchiostegal membrane. The eye is round and moderately

large, being contained about five times in the head. It forms

no part of the profile, and is distant from the tip of the snout

about 12 of its diameter. There is a space equal to a diameter

between the eyes. The nostrils are small, and the anterior one

has a skinny appendage at its hinder border.

The vertical fins are fleshy and scaly ; none of them have white

edges. The first dorsal fin, which commences in the first third

of the total length, is triangular, and has a short base. The

elongate third ray is setiform above, and is nearly twice as long

as the fourth, the next in length. The order of the length of

the rays is 3, 4, 2=5, 6, 1, 7, 8,9. The second dorsal fin is

separated by a short space from the first, than which it is less

high. It is long, being more than half the total length of the

fish, and its middle portion is lower than the rest. It extends

nearly to the caudal fin, and its posterior extremity is truncate.

The pointed pectoral fins are inserted above the middle of the

height, in the first fourth of the total length in front of the first

dorsal. The fourth and fifth rays are nearly equal, and longer

than the rest.

The forking ventral ray is very long, reaching back much

beyond the commencement of the anal fin, and being equal to

about one-third of the total length of the fish. About the mid-

dle there is a knot or dilatation forming a kind of elbow.

The vent, surrounded by a ring of black, is placed in the first

half of the total length. The anal fin commences not far distant

from it, under the eleventh or twelfth ray of the second dorsal

fin. Its length is considerably more than one-third of the total

length. It is not so high as the second dorsal fin, but has pre-

cisely the same shape, with its truncate termination a little

nearer the caudal fin, which is also truncate.

The Jateral line is a somewhat undulating groove which rises

a little under the first dorsal fin; it then falls gently until there

is a rapid descent over the commencement of the anal fin, which

continues to the ninth or tenth ray of the anal fin; thenceforth

it is straight. The scales of this line are about 100 in number,

19%

276 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

In the height of the fish, at the anterior dorsal fin, 7+28=35

scales were counted.

Only a single specimen of this fish has been obtained by me

at Madeira, where two other species have been taken, viz. P.

mediterraneus and P. Yarrellii, as well as a specimen of the sub-

genus Lemonema. M. Valenciennes has described and figured

in his ‘ Canarian Ichthyology’ (p. 78, pl. 14. fig. 2) another spe-

eies of Phycis, under the name of P. limbatus. From P. Yarrellit

and P. limbatus it is distinguishable by the presence of teeth on

the vomer, by the elongation of the third ray of the first dorsal

fin, by the ventrals being much longer than the head, and by

the uniform coloration of the vertical fins, which in the two

fishes referred to have white edges. From P. mediterraneus

(which has its first dorsal fin no higher than the second) it may

be diseriminated by the elongation of the third ray of the first

dorsal fin, by the smaller eye (contained five times in place of

three times in the head), and by the ventrals being much longer

than the head. From Lemonema (Phycis) robustum, recently de-

scribed by me in a paper read before the Zoological Society, it is to

be known by the chevron-shaped (not rounded) patch of vomerine

teeth, by the elongation of the third im place of the first ray of

the first dorsal fin, by the larger number of rays in that fin

(nine in place of five), and by the vertical fins being fleshy and

scaly. From Phycis blennoides, Risso (Hist. Nat. de PEur. Mér.

vol. ii. p. 222), I considered it distinct on account of the elonga-

' tion of the third (not the first) ray of the first dorsal, and by the

larger number of rays in the second dorsal fin, Risso stating that

the Mediterranean fish has but thirty-six rays in that fin. But

Dr. Ginther assures me that there are mistakes in Risso’s descrip-

tion, and that the present fish is really identical, not only with

the Phycis blennoides of Schneider (Bl. Schn. p. 56) and of Risso,

but with the Phycis furcatus of Fleming and Yarrell.

The specimen, which was taken in the month of April, and is

now in the British Museum, has the following dimensions in

inches :—

Motallength $osac ap. ote Apts solos cule ew eereaeres 294

Flesehtyunder lst) dorsal ooh: 2) Aw amin tle nee 62

(Rhickness behind) pectorals 2..).\c ee as 31

end Wenpthy ) ii ae wis Rica ecru s eiets aos Mera 62

py) SUMICKATESS VELOW BVO (nt hceonie Dilation 42

Nye, diameter: is cee eean eee eae 1S

Mouth, width from side to side when open .... 33

» width of band of teeth in front ...... pany

Dea a 3 o's 3 7 EERE LL A ee dae 15

Ist dorsal, distance from snout .............. 84

5 lenoth of base taih desi eee ee 2

Fishes taken at Madeira. ah f

1st dorsal, length of third ray ............ “ec

43)

= fs fourth TAY ih. tastes es < 2525

2nd dorsal, distance from snout ..........%- 88

a lent of basen s'*> seh ct terete case 153

Ss height towards front ............ 15

Pectorals, distance from snout .............. 7t

pind PREMISES Gapot occ insets stare a tek se arn ORSON 43

5 WHC UUG DASE: wepcdxe icicle tt Crapo oe 5

Ventrals; length on right side’ ...2.).2.52.4.. 105

2 * Jett. sides t a oeht Ail aes fee 84

Vent, distance of its vertical from snout ...... 13

Anal distance from vent 3). 608! e as Ne ovate 3

Soe) ETRE Gt DASE OSL toa eb aa See 11z

Tail, height behind second dorsal ............ ly

Caudal, length at middle. >... 22. soe. eae. 3y

“7 as SIGER AG ceo iagheaceeerer see aa 45},

Order MALACOPTERYGII.

Suborder APODES.

Saccopharynx ampullaceus, Harwood, sp.

The curious fish which I am about to describe was taken in the

month of March, off the coast of Madeira, but under what cir-

cumstances I could not learn. The man from whom I obtained

it stated that he had a fish with two heads, two mouths, four

eyes, and a tail growing out of the middle of the back, which

had astonished the whole market; and the fishermen one and

all declared they had never met with anything like it before.

At first sight it really did appear to be the monster described ;

but a short examination brought to light the fact that one fish

had been swallowed by another, and that the features of the

former were seen through the thin extensible skin of the latter.

On extracting the fish that had been swallowed, it proved to be

a Gadoid *, and to have a diameter several times exceeding that

of its enemy, whose stomach it had distended to an unnatural

and painful degree.

As to the fish whose voracity had brought it to an untimely

end, it was immediately pointed out to me by Dr. Gunther,

when I showed him a sketch of the head, that it is closely related

to a fish described at some length by Dr. Harwood, in a memoir

printed in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions, in the year 1827,

under the name of Qphiognathus ampullaceus. That eminent

ichthyologist also informed me that a member of the same genus

had been previously described by Dr. S. L. Mitchill, in the

Annals of the Lyceum of New York’ for 1824, under the name

* This Gadoid is the type of a new genus, and has been described by

Dr. Giinther under the name of Halargyreus Johnsonii.

278 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

of Saccopharynx flagellum. On referring to these descriptions,

I am led to think that, although the three fishes fall into the

same genus, the Madeiran fish is specifically distinct from that

forming the subject of Dr. Mitchill’s memoir, but is perhaps

specifically identical with Dr. Harwood’s fish. I will first de-

scribe the specimen obtained at Madeira (which now forms part

of the rich collection in the British Museum), and then make

some remarks on the relationship of the three.

The Madeiran fish is 32 inches in length. It has a thin, soft,

scaleless skin, which is jet-black. From its narrow elongated

form, and from the absence of ventral fins, it would be referred,

at the first glance, to the Eels ; but from that tribe it is distinetly

separated by the structure of its singular jaws. The upper Jaw

is apparently composed of the maxillary or premaxillary—bones

which are invariably wanting in the tribe of true Eels. The

bones of both jaws are slender and curved; those of the under

jaw meet at an acute angle in front, and they are armed with a

single row of small, sharp, delicate teeth, similar to those of the

upper jaw, but rather more numerous. There are no teeth on

the palatine bones or elsewhere in the mouth.

The gape is of enormous extent ; and the animal had the power

of throwing down the lower jaw until it was almost in a line with

the upper, the two being subequal, and 24 inches in length.

There is no tongue in the mouth, nor are there any branchio-

stegal rays. A conical snout projects nearly four-tenths of an

inch beyond the upper lip; and the small oval eye, which is co-

vered with skin, is placed on the head not far from the base of

the snout. In front of each eye is a single small nostril, which

does not issue in a tube.

The gill-openings are small slits, seven-tenths of an inch in

length, on the underside of the body, placed only one-sixth of

an inch apart, and at a distance of about 32 inches from the tip

of the snout. What is very remarkable about these apertures

is that, within the lips of each, the opposite sides are connected

by three narrow cutaneous bands—two near the anterior end of

the aperture, and one near the posterior end.

The minute pectoral fins are placed immediately behind the

gill-openings, but a little above them. ach is about one-fifth

of an inch in length, and has about thirty-two delicate rays. In

reference to the pectoral fins of the fish described by Dr. Har-

wood, he mentions that they were principally composed of an

adipose disk terminated and nearly surrounded by the rayed

portion of the fin. In my fish I do not see anything of this

kind; but that may be owing to the specimen being young.

A low dorsal fin, having extremely slender rays, commences

in front of the vent, and at a dist«. e of about 73 inches from

Fishes taken at Madeira, 279

the tip of the snout. There is no trace of ventrals. The vent

is about 84 inches distant from the snout; and behind it begins

a low anal, which, though it may be traced for a considerable

distance, stops, like the dorsal, short of the end of the tail.

The hinder part of the body tapers off gradually ; and the fin-

less tail is characterized by extreme tenuity, being reduced to

the thinness of a thread. ‘Two bluish-white, parallel, closely

approximated lines begin at the distance of rather more than an

inch from the tip of the snout, and are traceable for a consider-

able space along the back, one at each side of the dorsal fin.

Dr. Mitchill speaks not only of a whitish line extending on each

side of the dorsal fin of his fish, but of a similar stripe at each

side of the anal fin.

No lateral line is visible. The vertebre are without ribs, and

all the bones are weak.

And now as to the relationship of these three fishes. Whilst

it is pretty certain that all three are members of the same genus,

and whilst there is scarcely ground for holding that Dr. Har-

wood’s fish and the Madeiran fish are specifically distinct (for

their differences may be due only to their different ages), yet

there is one part of Dr. Mitchill’s description which makes it

difficult to suppose that his fish was identical in species with

mine. He says that it had filiform processes or exerescences

about an inch in length, and about fifty in number, depending

on each side of the back, all the way from the head to the tail.

In my fish there is no trace of such processes. Hence I venture

to conclude that if Dr. Mitchill’s fish retains the name of Sacco-

pharynx flagellum, Dr. Harwood’s and mine ought to be desig-

nated Saccopharynx ampullaceus.

I will only remark that Dr. Mitchill proposed the name

Saccopharynx in substitution for Shaw’s Stylephorus, supposing

the two fishes thus designated to belong to the same genus.

But modern ichthyologists cannot admit this to be the case ; for

{to say nothing of other points) the structure of the mouth is

totally different, as may be at once seen by an inspection of

Shaw’s unique specimen, now preserved in the Museum of the

College of Surgeons.

Suborder ABDOMINALES.

Fam. Scopelide.

Gonostoma denudata, Buon. Faun. Ital. (with a fig.).

Gasteropelecus acanthurus, Cocco.

The genus Gonostoma was indicated by Rafinesque, and defined

by Buonaparte, as having an elongated body entirely covered

with large caducous uniform, scales ; uniserial teeth in both jaws;

pectoral fins inserted loy. -.own; the first dorsal fin rather far

280 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

back, 7. e. behind the ventral and over the anal fin. A single

specimen of the genus has been taken at Madeira.

isteD515:; 2nd D, radmuentary.5 A 20. Pll: V.S.

Coa? 16. av. EBs:

The back and belly are black, the sides silvery grey, and there

are two rows of small silvery spots extending at each side from

the head to the tail, near the lower edge of the body. The skin

is delicate, and the large scales easily removed. Their edges are

even, and their surfaces concentrically striated.

The body is oblong and compressed ; the highest part is at

the nape, from which place it attenuates backwards. The sides

of the body, when the skin is removed, are seen to be marked

with furrows diverging from the lateral line.

The head is high, compressed, and unarmed ; the cheeks flat ;

the vertex marked with low ridges. The round eye is contained

about seven times in the head; it is distant about one diameter

from the snout, and it is so high up that its border forms part

of the profile. The rictus is large, extending downwards with

an oblique curve much beyond the ~ye. The under jaw shuts

inside the upper, except anteriorly, where the upper jaw reverses

its curve. The mouth is black inside. Its upper border is formed

entirely by the premaxillary, which is thin and dilated down-

wards, the slender maxillary lying behind. The denéztion is

curious. In both jaws there is a single row of delicate, acicular,

nearly straight teeth, with four or five very small teeth, of similar

shape, in the intervals between two larger ones. Of the larger

teeth, in the specimen there are twenty-nine in the upper, and

twenty-one in the lower jaw. There is a row of teeth on the

palatines, a few teeth on the vomer, and a row along the middle

of the fleshless tongue—all very minute. The opercular pieces

are delicate, smooth, and with entire margins. There are two

low crests on the opercle, starting from the same point, one

vertical and the other oblique; the posterior margin of the

opercle is nearly vertical.

The triangular first dorsal fin is placed far back over the anal

fin, and both are sprinkled with minute black dots. The first

two rays are very short and unbranched, the third ray is the

longest ; the posterior rays are very delicate. The second dorsal

fin possesses rays, but is very minute.

The pectoral fins are oblong, and inserted very low down near

the angle of the subopercle. The ventral fins are rather shorter

than the pectoral fins, and-are placed close together a little in

advance of the first dorsal. The anal fin commences under the

commencement of the first dorsal, but extends beyond it; it is

high in front, but the first two rays are short, the third being

Fishes taken at Madeira. — 281

the longest in the fin, from which it falls rapidly backwards.

The caudal fin is forked. On the under edge of the tail there

are five short glassy spines, which curve backwards.

The vent is placed at the middle of the total length.

The single specimen obtained, though measuring 5,8, inches

in length, was extracted from the stomach of a malacopterygian

fish, having a length of only 34/5 inches, whose black skin, —

frightfully distended, entirely covered it! It was doubled up,

and a good deal injured. So many of the scales had been re-

moved, that those of the lateral line could not be counted.

It is to be observed, with reference to the description of Gono-

stoma denudata given in the ‘ Fauna Italica,’ that ten rays are

assigned to the branchiostegal membrane, whereas I certainly

found thirteen; that the fifth, sixth, and seventh rays of the

first dorsal fin are said to be the longest, whereas in my fish the

longest rays were the third, fourth, and fifth; and that, whilst

the two agree in the number of the rays of the first dorsal fin,

there were in my fish eleven in place of the ten rays in the pec-

toral fin, eight in place of six rays in the ventral fins, and

twenty-nine in place of thirty rays in the anal fin.

The fish was taken in the month of March, and is now in

the British Museum. The following are the dimensions of the

principal parts :— .

inches

Matallenethy oi: csisie, dca bot oAlelact >. Spat 5 lobe 5385

TCIAH GAG MAPS 8 ft ci oats, to apt bs epee 35

PTCHUCICHE DIE ssee Los ye ce nus + era eer 1+

ve diameter sissies tit kyec vee sy

Mouth; width at back 290%). ofa ee a5

Fu vlensth of upperjaw 2. fe eo oe 1

Woneestitectine ts 92 ON eue tt) PS EME ae

Ist dorsal, distance from snout.......... 2.5,

os lensth of hase! 4.55 $52.8 05780 in

en length, of third ray 5) 54.22. ty

2nd dorsal, distance from snout ........ 4

Pectorals, distance from snout .......... 1-3

zr Peri pt Titel ioe he cain ea crane a

Ventrals, distance from snout .......... 235

oe HOW UHi SS oe iy ee, ae SO Pe is

iunalelensthrot base: s.5 5... Geos nes: . 154

sparucnsth of third ray’... hee sos: s oT

Scopelus Bonapartii, Val. H. N. Poiss. xxii. 449.

Lampanyctus Bonapartii, Fauna Ital.

Ist D. 14, 2nd D. rudimentary. P.14, V.7. <A. 18.

C, 111. or tv.104-9. 111. ortv. M.B.8.

Black, the large scales reflecting purplish blue and silvery

282 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

white; the fins white. There is a row of small silver spots at

each side of the belly, with about four oblique rows of two or

three similar spots ascending to the lateral line.

The head, compared with the length, is as 1 to 4; and the

height compared with the length is as 1 to 7 nearly.

The head is somewhat compressed; it has a thin bony crest

on the snout, terminating abruptly between the eyes, which are

large and round. They are contained three times in the head,

and are situate less than a diameter from the snout. The

upper side of the orbit takes part in the outline of the head.

At the antero-superior part of the orbit there is a short spine,

which projects forwards. The opercular pieces are scaly, but

unarmed; the opercle has an emargination above the base of

the pectoral fin. The mouth is of large dimensions, and ex-

tends much beyond the eyes. Both jaws are set with minute

teeth in narrow villiform bands ; and there are three longitudinal

rows on the tongue, separated by grooves. The upper border

of the mouth is formed by the dentiferous premaxillary. The

palatine bones are armed with teeth, but not the vomer. The

entopterygoids carry a broad patch of minute teeth. The inside

of the mouth and the gill-covers are deep black. The branchio-

stegal membrane has three silver blotches at each side.

The first dorsal fin is short, high, and placed at the middle of

the back. The first two rays are short. The second dorsal fin

is rudimentary. The pectoral fins are inserted rather below the

middle of the height, and are narrow, pointed, and long, reach-

ing back nearly to ‘the end of the first dorsal fin, and a little

beyond the vent. The abdominal venéral fins are inserted under

the anterior part of the first dorsal, and are about as long as the

pectoral fins. The vent is placed a little before the middle of

the fish, and the ana/ fin commences just behind it. The caudal

fin is deeply forked and tipped with black.

On the under edge of the tail there are four short stout spines,

which are hooked and directed backwards; on the under edge

are three similar spines*.

The lateral line is straight, and there are about thirty-four

scales upon it.

This description has been drawn up from an individual taken

in the month of November. It appears to belong to the Medi-

terranean species which has been described by Valenciennes

under the name of Scopelus Bonaparti, to which, however, he

assigned a fin-formula slightly differmg from that of my fish,

viz. Fst, D513. A.15..,.C. 25. P13. V: 3. lm thepeaaas

Italica’ it is suggested that S. (Lampanyctus) Bonaparti and

* Valenciennes describes the tail of S. Bonapartii as having three spines

above and four below.

Fishes taken at Madeira. 283

S. Crocodilus, Val., may be the same species, but the fin-formula

assigned to the latter (Ist D. 20. A.18) hardly admits of this

supposition. It is not impossible, however, that the fish shortly

described by Mr. Lowe, under the name of Scopelus maderensis

(Trans. Zool. Soc. i. p.14) may have been an example of S.

Bonapartui. The fin-rays were thus counted by him: Ist D. 13.

A.14. C.15. P.13. V.8; but he is silent as to the spines

on the tail, and the spine above the eye. .

The example above described, now in the British Museum,

yielded the following measurements :—

inches,

PBetal Temata.) oashs infos atch vei so Sek ate sieve

Height over base of pectorals .......... ve

12 er eerie aah Akan rent gi aceon Gr bam 4 a

put Gis; 62) Ft. as hee Pe. ee he 35)

” Width behindss.5'6. sesnea ct. cee 4

1st dorsal, distance from snout .......... 155

nf lenpth- olsbase yee ek sents eee zo

Pectorals, distance from snout .......... qi

9 length Siete) sue! ol'al cliailetaltoirel atte clrel lets le

Ventrals, distance from snout .......... 1,5

as Pemetilagns « odit teectsty Und eet aes qo

Vent, distance from snout... ....si505 03 135

WNaial;. Tene thiof base iy. 5/0041. cet ale ta wy

Paralepis coregonoides, Risso, Hist. Nat. ii. 472.

Ist D. 14. 2nd. D. adipose. P.16. V.8o0r9. A... C.18.

M.B. 7.

Elongate, compressed, of a brown cotee® ; the scales minute,

eycloid. The height of the body compared with the total length

is as 1 to 103. The head is large, being nearly one-fourth of

the total length. The large oval eye is distant two diameters

from the tip of the snout, and is contained about four times in

the head, which is channeled between the eyes, and has two ridges

converging forwards. It is unarmed, and the opercular pieces

are toothless. The opercle and the scapulary bones are concen-

trically striate. The lower jaw is rather longer than the upper,

and the mouth is slightly oblique. All the teeth are uniserial

and minute; those at the sides of the premaxillary, which

forms the upper border of the mouth, are alternately acute and

rounded, with a cutting edge. In the lower jaw there is a single

series of sharp, conical, curved teeth, larger at the sides than

those of the upper jaw ; and the palatines are armed with similar

teeth. The tongue is spoon-shaped, and its margin carries a few

small acute teeth.

The short and moderately high first dorsal fin is placed behind

284. Mr. J. Y. Johnson on rare and little-known

the middle of the body. The second dorsal fin is rudimentary,

and placed over against the anal fin, the rays of which, being

damaged in the specimen, cannot be given with certainty.

The obliquely truncate pectoral fins are inserted a little behind

the edge of the opercle, and their length is less than half that

of the head.

The abdominal ventral fins are placed underneath the first

dorsal fin ; they are not quite half as long as the pectoral fins.

The anal fin'is higher in front ; its base is about half as long

as the head, and it is situate rather more than its own length

behind the ventral fins. The caudal fin is emarginate.

Only a single ‘specimen of this fish has occurred, and it has

been sent to the British Museum. M. Valenciennes has regis-

tered Paralepis sphyrenoides, Risso (Hist. Nat. 11. 473) as having

been taken at the Canaries; but the distinctness of that species

from P. coregonvides, Risso, is doubtful. Bonaparte thought that

they were forms of the same species ; but, if distinct, he would

define them thus :—

P. coregonoides, corpore extenso ; maxilla breviore quam man-

dibula ; pinna dorsali ventralibus oppositis ; anali radiis 22.

1?D. 10. 2" D6; rad. P.18. V. 1/8. A. 2/20 Gai

P. sphyrenoides, corpore subextenso ; maxillis equalibus ; pinna

dorsali ventralibus post-posita; anali radus 30.

12D: 10., 283? rad. P. 9. V. VS. “Al S0C: 1a:

In my specimen the anal fin is damaged, and the number of

rays cannot be ascertained; in other respects it seems nearer

the form named P. coregonoides than the other supposed species.

The Mediterranean fish is said not to exceed 5 inches in length.

The followmg measurements were taken from the fish which

afforded materials for the foregoing description :—

inehes

Total length ..... ade bc ach tex SSNs atetenele SNe

Height behind pectorals é oe Mieke

Thickness ....... Lrayshs Bin aps vectecd tye Hee ee 4

GRO ee asec cites tie eRe itelets ates, orton te lee

Bive cloner axis, Sosce.ss castce a sae os eee eee a

First dorsal, distance from snout ............ Ay

< length of base: 0.) Wes ei remmcis en arty

Pectorals, length Lhd Ms. duwrs/ais lta urge: o) hie Sey spon Ne eae

af ines from snout . ANON, Ss Gio tenes

iWemtrals, Jenoth 4! igh vc iu cisnoee kes ahcietenere © in

Amoiensth Of base: 7:5 -c/esc1s, «ise, sini oaes ents Seat

-eastance from ventrals).!s. satanic

Fishes taken at Madeira. 285

Fam. Alepocephalide, Val.

Alepocephalus rostratus, Risso, Hist. Nat. i. p. 449, f. 27;

C. & V. xix. p. 465, pl. 554.

DD: 16-18.) Po TOSn1 iV os AG 9-22:

C. viz. or 1x. 10+11. vir. or 1x. M.B. 6-7.

Compressed, elongate, the outlines of the back and belly

nearly parallel for a considerable space and hardly beginning to

approximate before the posterior portions of the dorsal and anal

fins. The belly is ecarimate. The body is covered with large

cycloid scales inserted in a very delicate brown skin. The

scales are easily displaced, and the skin upon them has a

purplish-blue or violet colour. ‘lhe largest scales measure

eight-tenths of an inch by five-tenths. All the fins are bluish

black.

The head is compressed, unarmed, flat above, and covered with

a soft, muciferous, scaleless skin, of a dark-indigo colour. A

clear, colourless, gelatinous matter, containing dark spots, lies

under this skin upon the bones. A strip of smooth scaleless

skin advances upon the body from the head as far as the com-

mencement of the lateral line. The large, nearly round eyes

are lateral, but placed high up, a diameter apart. Lach is con-

tained nearly five times in the head, and is at the distance of a

diameter from the snout, and two-thirds of a diameter from the

nearest part of the jaw. The pupil reflects a pale-indigo colour.

Below the eye the skin is marked with a few radiating ridges.

In front of each eye is a pair of nostrils, the hinder one being

larger. On stripping away the skin from the opercular pieces,

two oblique ridges are seen on the opercle, which project at the

margin as flexible spines; on the preopercle there is a vertical

ridge. The snout is broad, rounded, and projecting, with a

depression in the profile between its tip and the eyes. The

gill-openings are large. The throat and mouth are nearly black

within ; tongue thick and smooth; the chin is without append-

ages, but has a large bony boss. The gape is wide, but the cleft

does not reach beyond the vertical of the anterior margin of

the eye.

The jaws are of equal length ; the upper border of the mouth

is formed partly of the premaxillary and partly of the maxillary;

but the former alone carries the uniserial teeth, which are very

small, conical, acute, and slightly curved. The teeth of the

lower jaw are similar, but in front a few are rather larger.

There is also a row of similarly shaped teeth on the palatine

bones, but the vomer is unarmed. The branchiostegal rays in

286 Mr. J. Y. Johnson on Fishes from Madeira.

one specimen were six in number, in others seven. The mem-

brane is very large.

The single short dorsal fin is placed far behind, over against the

anal fin; its base is scaly. The first three or four rays are short ;

the longest rays are about equal to the diameter of the eye.

The oval pectoral fins have their bases covered with scales ;

their length is not quite twice the diameter of the eye, and they

are inserted at a distance of about one-half of that diameter

behind the edge of the opercle.

The ventral fins are shorter than the pectoral fins, and are

placed about the middle of the body minus the caudal fin. The

first ray is unbranched.

The anal fin has a base longer tnan the dorsal fin; five or six

of its rays seem to be unbranched.

The forked caudal fin has a scaly base, and its lobes are of

equal length.

The lateral line inclines gently from the vertical of the pectoral

fin, and its course to the tail is uninterrupted. From fifty-two

to sixty scales have been counted.

On dissection, the peritoneal lining was found to be fuscous,

the coats of the cecal stomach very thick, the pancreatic ceca

from twenty-four to twenty-six in number. The intestinal tube

was long and much convoluted, and the rectum had a spiral

valve of seven or eight whorls. The gall-bladder was attached

to the small lobe of the liver. The liver was not large, and was

found lying on the left side of the stomach. There was no air-

bladder. The ova formed a long yellowish mass, extending

nearly the whole length of the abdominal cavity. The muscle

of the body was white and firm. In several parts of the abdo-

minal cavity, entozoa of different species were discovered, of one

of which (a Tetrarhynchus) Dr. Baird has given a description in

the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1862, p. 115.

The systematic position of this fish amongst Malacopterygians

has been much debated. By Duméril it was placed in his family

of Opisthoptéres, between Galaxias and Stomias, near Esox and

Belone. Valenciennes has considered it the type of a peculiar

family. Risso first described it from Mediterranean specimens.

During the last two or three years several examples, varying in

length from 23 to 274 inches, have occurred at Madeira, where

it is known to the fishermen under the name of “ Trista-linda.”

They were taken in the months of January, February, and

March.

The following measurements were taken from the largest

example :—

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera, 287

inches.

PEMNEMIELERY cola sc oe oes eee rages ss 274

Height behind pectorals .............. 6

MIE KTIOSS 04, Goer ce coe okie G aeee er nce tee 2

Rend t 3.5.2). Pu PUN SS ee Pe etter 7

LE Oe CU OR clan iri tr So aie Pica b i

Vader. jawplengihsicotacckiok | atheist 2

Hinder nostril, length 4 inch; width .... 4

Dorsal lencthvoty bases s.c). 554 ssi eta = 3

- as DOUG ESE FAY in wi1-m -ebpauny 14

Pectorals lene hie 2 di sig. 0 ibl bie) «bee 23

i distance from tip of under jaw... 7%

WW elirals Glen Oth) xt we Acre cand ere nies ee 24

o distance from tip of under jaw .. 125

Amal terest hGE DASG cs es sos ag ee es 4

;, distance from roots of ventrals .... 5

In a specimen 23 inches long :—

Gallbladder, idiametet,p.s:: sc/2 viitin se) oei 5)

Layer, length, of larger lobe p60 p.c0 aan 2555

»» width soievtt | abt awelectesien 14

Scomuci, Lemet bi 3 8. teckel) a+ 005 uy ayo ee

i WIGUI So tes gon a keene Ae cee 13

XXVIII.—On Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera.

By T. Vernon Wo taston, M.A., F.L.S.

Fam. Carabide.

Genus Trecuus.

Clairville, Ent. Helv. 1. 23 (1806).

1, Trechus minyops, n. sp.

T. angustulo-oblongus, rufo-ferrugineus, nitidus ; capite ovali, pos-

tice subcrasso, i. e. pone oculos (minutissimos, valde demissos)

vix contracto, sulcis frontalibus sat profundis, curvatis; protho-

race subquadrato postice vix latiore, angulis anticis subporrectis

acutiusculis, posticis rectis, canaliculato, utrinque ad basin profunde

impresso; elytris sat profunde subpunctato-striatis, interstitio

tertio punctis duobus impresso ; antennis rufo-testaceis, brevibus,

apicem versus moniliformibus ; pedibus testaceis.

Long. corp. lin, 14.

Habitat in montibus Maderz, duobus speciminibus ad S. Antonio

da Serra a Dom. Moniz detectis.

T. narrowish-oblong, being widest in the middle and about

equally (though very slightly) narrowed before and behind,

reddish-ferruginous, and shining (but not highly polished).

Head oval, and with the eyes extremely small, and so completely

sunken that they do not project at all beyond the curvature of

288 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.

the head—a fact which causes the neck to seem thick and un-

constricted ; with the two frontal sulci deep and much curved.

Prothorax quadr ate, though, af anything, perhaps a trifle wider

behind than before ; with “the anterior angles slightly porrected

and rather acute, but with the posterior ones right angles; di-

stinctly channeled down the disk, and impressed on either side

at the base with a deep unpunctured fovea. Elytra rather convex

and somewhat deeply striated, the strize being scarcely, or at all

events most obscurely, punctured ; with two very large and deep

impressions on the third interstice of each. Antenne rather

short and rufo-testaceous, with the subapical joints rounded and

moniliform. Legs testaceous.

In the more acute ultimate articulation of its maxillary palpi,

which is extremely long and with its terminal half almost acicu-

lated, as well as in its excessively minute eyes (which, being also

completely sunken or depressed, give the head a remarkably oval

and posteriorly-unconstricted appearance) and the rather short

and moniliform subapical joints of its (abbreviated) antenne,

the single specimen from which the above diagnosis has been

compiled might almost be regarded as generically distinct from

the other Trechi which have hitherto been detected in these

islands. Nevertheless it cannot be a Trechicus (to which I am

informed by Dr. Schaum the Trechus fimicola of the ‘ Ins. Mad.’

should be referred); for it has the flexuose frontal furrows and

the ordinary recurved first elytral stria (emptying itself, as usual,

into the fifth), which do not appear to obtain in that group;

and I am compelled therefore to cite it as a Trechus. But, as

the example now before me is unfortunately a female, I am un-

able to state whether the anterior male feet present anything pe-

culiar in their mode of dilatation, whilst the fact of the specimen

being unique prevents me from dissecting it in order to observe

the exact structure of its lower lip; so that, until further mate-

rial is obtained, I would desire to assign it to this genus merely

provisionally.

Assuming it, however, to be a true Trechus, it may at once be

known by its somewhat narrow oblong outline and pale rufo-

ferruginous hue, by its extremely diminutive eyes and square

prothorax, and by its rather short and submoniliform antenne.

In general facies, indeed, it has a good deal in common with the

T. quadricollis (hitherto unique); but its much smaller bulk

and different antennze and eyes will easily separate it from that

insect.

It is to Senhor Moniz that we are indebted for the discovery

of the 7’. minyops,—two specimens, one of which he has kindly

presented to the collection of the British Museum, having been

taken by him at S. Antonio da Serra,

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 289

Fam. Colydiade.

Genus TaRPHIUs.

(Germar) Erichs., Nat. der Ins. Deutschl. iii. 256 (1848).

2. Tarphius angustulus, n. sp.

7. angustus, rufo-piceus (vel piceo-ferrugineus), fere calvus (oculo

fortissime armato minute et parce fulvo-cinereo pubescens) ; pro-

thorace elongato, postice gradatim et leviter angustiore, ad latera

oblique subrecto, granulis maximis depressis obsito ; elytris paral-

lelis, minus sculpturatis, nec nodosis nec carinatis, concoloribus ;

antennis pedibusque vix clarioribus.

Long. corp. lin. 1.

Habitat in montibus Madere australis, in castanetis supra urbem

Funchalensem a Dom. Moniz repertus.

T. small and narrow, rufo-piceous or piceo-ferruginous, al-

most free from scales and setz, though, under a high magnifying

power, sparingly studded with an exceedingly short cinereous or

fulvo-cinereous pubescence. Prothorax elongate, being widest

anteriorly (where it is rather broader than the elytra), but gra-

dually and regularly (but not very greatly) narrowed behind ;

with the front angles much porrected and acute, and therefore

with the emargination deep; broadly flattened at the sides,

especially in front, but: convex on the disk, and with an im-

pressed transverse line just before the extreme base; beset with

excessively large and depressed granules. Elytra with the sides

quite parallel ; very lightly sculptured (particularly behind), and

altogether free from both nodules and ridges; also concolorous,

there being no indication of paler blotches. Antenne and legs

of a slightly clearer hue.

This is one of the most distinct of all the TarpAw which have

yet been detected,—its small size (for it is scarcely, if at all, larger

than the 7. Lowe?) and narrow outline, combined with its rufo-

ferruginous hue, its elongate prothorax (which is obliquely

straight at the sides, and regularly narrowed posteriorly), its

very lightly sculptured, parallel, concolorous elytra, and its

almost total freedom (except under a high magnifying power)

from pubescence or setz giving it a character which it is im-

possible to mistake. In spite of its diminutive bulk and com-

paratively unroughened surface, I am inclined to think that it

has perhaps a greater affinity with the 7. parallelus than with

any other species hitherto described.

The 7. angustulus is also due to the researches of Senhor

Moniz, who lately discovered three or four examples of it in

the chestnut-woods at the Mount, above Funchal; one of which

he has presented to the British Museum collection. This addi-

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. x. 20

290 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.

tion to the fauna is extremely interesting, since it raises the

species of Tarphius which have now been brought to light in the

Madeiran archipelago alone to no less a number than twenty.

So that, with the nine Canarian ones and the 7. gibbulus from

Sicily, there are exactly thirty Tarphi now on record !

Fam. Cryptophagide.

Genus LEucoHIMATIUM.

Rosenhaur, Die Thiere Andalus. 179 (1856).

3. Leucohimatium elongatum.

L. fuscc-ferrugineum, albido pubescens; capite prothoraceque sat

parce punctatis, hoc subquadrato postice paulo angustiore, angulis

anticis oblique incrassatis, ad latera minutissime crenulato, basi

utrinque foveola obscura punctiformi notato; elytris subtiliter

striato-punctatis, interstitiis uniseriatim punctulatis.

Long. corp. lin. 14.

Habitat supra urbem Funchalensem ; specimina duo nuper detexit

Dom. Anderson.

Paramecosoma elongata, Erichs., Nat. der Ins. Deutschl. in. 371 (1848).

Leucohimatium angustum, Rosenh., Die Thiere Andal. 179 (1856).

L. narrow, parallel, brownish-ferruginous, and clothed (though

not very densely) with a white, robust, decumbent pile. Head

and prothorax punctured: the datter subquadrate and a little

narrowed posteriorly, with the anterior angles obliquely incras-

sated, with the sides very minutely crenulated, and with a small

punctiform impression on either side behind, at the extreme

base. Hlytra finely striate-punctate; the interstices with a

series of very minute punctules down each. Limbs scarcely

paler than the rest of the surface.

Two examples of this insect, which is found sparingly through-

out southern (and even central) Europe, and which I have

myself captured in the island of Palma of the Canarian group,

were detected, during the spring of the present year, by Mr. F.

A. Anderson, who found them in a grassy spot by the side of a

small footpath which leads into the S* Luzia ravine below the

church of San Roque. One of these specimens Mr. Anderson

has kindly presented to the collection of the British Museum.

Fam. Lathridiade.

Genus MerorHtTHALMUS.

Wollaston, Ins. Mad. 192. tab. iv. f. 4 (1854).

4. Metophthalmus sculpturatus, n. sp.

M. subovalis, rufo-ferrugineus ; capite prothoraceque inzequalibus,

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 291

illo in fronte obsolete binodoso necnon utrinque costato ; elytris

paulo obscurioribus, valde profunde seriatim punctatis, punctis

maximis, interstitiis alternis paulo elevatis, irregulariter subundu-

latis ; antennis brevibus pedibusque paulo clarioribus.

Long. corp. lin. 3-2.

Habitat in montibus Madere ; sub cortice Platani laxo supra urbem

Funchalensem Dom. Bewicke sat copiose reperit.

M. oval, rufo-ferruginous, with the elytra a shade darker.

Head with two very obscure elongate nodules inathe centre of

its forehead, and with two raised cost (as in the M. asperatus)

on either side, arising from the imner and outer margins of the

eye (which they consequently enclose) and continued forwards,

gradually approximating until they reach the insertion of the

antenne, where they joi. Prothorax very uneven, as in the

M. asperatus, but a little less developed than is the case in that

insect. Hlytra very deeply seriate-punctate, the punctures,

especially those towards the suture, being enormous, and _ so

closely packed together that the interstices (the alternate ones

of which are slightly raised) appear irregular or minutely undu-

lated. Antenne and legs, the former of which are short, rufo-

testaceous.

In its 10-articulated antennee this little Metophthalmus agrees

almost exactly with the M. asperatus, except that they are alto-

gether rather shorter—caused by the joints between the minute

conical third one and the club being (as in the MW. exiguus) more

abbreviated or moniliform, and the first jomt of the clava itself

being rather less developed. In the construction of its eyes and

feet, and in the singular position of the former, no less than in

the serrated margins of its head, prothorax, and elytra, it is

identical with that insect. Its main differences lie in its smaller

size and more elliptic outline, in its more ferruginous hue, in its

less apparent inner frontal cost (or elongated nodules), and in

its very much larger elytral punctures, which are so enormous

and closely packed together as to cause the slightly raised alter-

nate interstices to appear less straightened and costate, or more

undulated and irregular. From the M. exiguus it may imme-

diately be known by (iter alia) its larger size and relatively

broader outline, and by the darker colour and immensely larger

punctures of its elytra.

It is to Mr. Bewicke that we are indebted for this interesting

addition to the fauna, several specimens of it having been cap-

tured by him from beneath the dead bark of Plane-trees in the

grounds of the Palheiro, on the mountains to the eastward of

Funchal. Mr. Bewicke has presented me with types; and he

has also placed others in the British Museum, as well as in the

collection at Oxford.

20%

292 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.

Fam. Histeride.

Genus Eurriptvs.

Wollaston, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ser. 3.1. 157 (1862).

The addition of the present genus to our Catalogue, through

the recent researches of Mr. Bewicke, is a most important one,

as supplying another link of union between Madeira and the

Canaries, and. that, too, in a most significant manner—through

their Euphorbian faune. The little insect for the reception of

which I lately established the group, I believe to be universal, in

decayed Euphorbia-stems, throughout the Canarian archipelago,

though hitherto I happen to have met with it in only five out of

the seven islands ; and it is interesting therefore to find it, under

precisely similar circumstances, at Madeira also. After com-

piling its generic diagnosis, in my paper above alluded to, I

stated that “amongst the forty-four groups of the Histeride so

elaborately enunciated in De Marseul’s Monograph, there is

certainly nothing which approaches the present one in its most

distinctive features. Indeed, its 6-jomted funiculus would of

itself suffice to characterize it ; for the only known form in which

this particular number of joints (or, in fact, less than seven) pre-

vails, in that portion of the antennz, is Monoplius (of which

hitherto but a single exponent has been detected), from the Cape

of Good Hope—an insect widely different from Kutriptus in the

other details of its structure. Its various peculiarities will be

easily gathered from the diaguosis ; nevertheless I may just add

that its two most anomalous ones (apart from its funiculus) are

the formation of its inner maxillary lobe and of its anterior tibia,

the former of which is curiously uncinated at its apex (the outer

margin being thickened into a narrow rim, which merges into

an obtusely curved hook at the tip), whilst the latter has its

inner apical angle produced into a long and acute spine, which,

being outwardly directed, gives that portion of the leg a very

singular appearance.”

5. Eutriptus putricola.

E. cylindrico-oblongus, subconvexus, aterrimus, politissimus ; capite

prothoraceque minutissime et obsolete punctulatis ; elytro utroque

striis duabus obscuris humeralibus obliquis, duabus sublateralibus

integris, quatuor levioribus discalibus interruptis remote punctatis

plus minus obsoletis et una suturali antice evanescenti notato ;

antennis testaceis, ad basin pedibusque piceis.

Long. corp. lin. 1-1}.

Habitat Maderam, rarissimus; in ramis Euphorbiarum emortuis

Mr. A. Adams on the Genus Alaba. 293

ad Portum Novum crescentium a Dom. Bewicke nuperrime re-

pertus.

Eutriptus putricola, Woll., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (3rd series) i. 159,

pl. 7. f. 7 (1862).

E. cylindrical-oblong, deep black, and exceedingly shining.

Head and prothoraz most minutely and obsoletely punctulated :

the former with the forehead depressed and the frontal line en-

tire; the datter very narrowly margined at the sides, with the

prosternal lines almost parallel, or very slightly approximating at

about their middle point. Meso- and meta-sterna impunctate ;

the former deeply excavated anteriorly, and with the line within

its front and lateral margins continuous. Elytra each with two

very obscure oblique humeral striz ; with two sublateral ones,

deeper and almost entire; with four much lighter, remotely

punctured, and more or less abbreviated ones on the disk; and

with a deeper sutural one, evanescent anteriorly at about a third

of the distance from the scutellum. Antenne testaceous; their

scape and the legs piceous: the last with their anterior tibie

curved and dilated, with three small anguliform teeth along their

outer edge, and with their inner apical angle produced into an

elongate, curved, outwardly directed spine.

Four examples of this insect were captured by Mr. Bewicke

from out of the rotten branches of Euphorbias, which he obtained

from Porto Novo, a few miles to the eastward of Funchal, during

June of the present year. Although locally abundant at the

Canaries in similar situations, there is no reason to suspect that

it is anything but exceedingly rare in Madeira; for in a letter

received lately from Mr. Bewicke, he states,—‘I had a man’s

load (a sackful) of Euphorbia-stems from Porto Novo, and al-

though the very first stick I examined produced me four speci-

mens of this new member of the Histeride, the whole sack

contained no more.” Two of these Mr. Bewicke sent me for

inspection, one of which he has presented to the collection of

the British Museum, and the other to the Madeiran cabinet at

Oxford.

[To be continued. |

XXIX.—On the Animal and Affinities of the Genus Alaba, with

a Review of the known Species, and Descriptions of some new

Species. By Anruur Apams,.F.L.S., &c.

Tus group of Laminarian Mollusca, which seems to represent

the pelagian genus Litiopa, was first recognized by my brother

and myself in our ‘Genera of Recent Mollusca” We then

considered it a subgenus of Cerithiopsis; but having had an

opportunity in Japan of observing the living animal, I find it

294 Mr. A. Adams on the Genus Alaba,

most nearly resembles Litiopa. Dr. P. P. Carpenter, who also

perceived the existence of the group, named it Tudberia, indi-

cating its relatiouship with Litzopa.

In MM. Eydoux and Souleyet’s figure of Litzopa melanostoma

in the ‘ Voyage of the Bonite,’ the side of the foot is represented

as bearing four tentacular filaments, which induced Dr. Gray, in

his ‘Guide,’ to establish the subfamily Litiopinz in the family

Planaxide. In Alaba picta, A. Ad., the animal is semipellucid

white, delicately reticulated with red-brown lines. The tentacles

are filiform, obtuse at the tips, ringed with red-brown, and

flecked with opake white. The right tentacle is considerably

longer than the left. The eyes are on flattened lobes at the

outer bases of the tentacles. The foot is narrow, auriculate on

each side in front, the auricles being linear and recurved. The

operculigerous lobe is furnished with four long tentacular fila-

ments, the anterior two of which, when the animal is crawling

or swimming, are extended on each side, and the posterior two,

a little diverging, are directed backwards. This species lives in

two-fathoms-water sandy mud, in which grows a profusion of

Zostera. It is rather common between Tatiyama and the islet

named Takano-Sima, on the west coast of Niphon.

The head, when the animal is in motion, is concealed by the

shell, and the eyes are visible through the transparent edge.

The creature spins, with great rapidity, a pellucid thread from

a viscous secretion emitted from a gland near the end of the

tail, and swims, shell downwards, at the surface of the water.

When fatigued, it suspends itself, apex downwards, by means

of the glutimous thread, which is attached to the surface of the

water.

Thus we find that Alaba picta agrees in its habits with the

account given by Sander Rang of his genus Litiopa, from which

genus indeed, as Dr. P. P. Carpenter has remarked, Alaba differs

in the “ want of Achatinoid truncation of the base.”

I find the species very naturally arrange themselves ito three

subgeneric groups :—1. Alaba, s. str., or the Litiopoid forms ;

2. Diala, or the Cinguloid forms; and, 3, Styliferina, or the

Styliferoid forms.

Genus AuaBa, H. & A. Ad.

Testa Litiopoidea, ovato-conica seu elongata, subdiaphana; anfractibus

plicatis seu varicosis, vertice submamillato. Apertura ovata, labio

seepe vix truncato.

1. Alaba tervaricosa, C. B. Ad.

Cingula tervaricosa, C. B. Ad.

Hab. West Indies.

with a,Review of the known Species.

2. Alaba melanura, C. B. Ad.

Cingula melanura, C. B. Ad.; Cing. preusta, Récluz.

Hab. West Indies.

3. Alaba puncto-striata, Gould.

Otia Conch., p. 144.

Hab. Loo-Choo Islands.

4, Alaba supralirata, Cpr.

Cat. Mazat. Moll. p. 366.

Hab. Mazatlan.

5. Alaba violacea, Cpr.

Cat. Maz. Moll. p. 367.

Hab, Mazatlan.

6. Alaba terebralis, Cpr.

Cat. Maz. Moll. p. 367.

Hab. Mazatlan.

7. Alaba alabastrites, Cpr.

Cat. Maz. Moll. p. 368.

Hab. Mazatlan.

8: Alaba conica, Cpr.

Cat. Maz. Moll. p. 368.

Hab. Mazatlan.

9. Alaba scalata, Cpr.

Cat. Maz. Moll. p. 368.

Hab. Mazatlan.

10. Alaba mutans, Cpr.

Cat. Maz. Moll. 369.

Hab. Mazatlan.

11. Alaba picta, A. Ad.

Diala picta, A. Ad., Annals, 1861. |

Hab, Takano-Sima.

12. Alaba leucosticta, A. Ad.

Diala leucosticta, A. Ad., Annals, 1861.

Hab. Tabu-Sima.

18. Alaba cornea, A. Ad.

Diala cornea, A. Ad., Annals, 1861.

Hab. Awa-Sima; Takano-Sima.

296 Mr. A. Adams on new Species of Alaba.

14. Alaba vibex, A. Ad.

A, testa ovato-conica, tenui, semipellucida, lutescente, albivaricosa,

lineis rufis articulatis concinne picta ; anfractibus 6, convexis, trans-

versim sulcatis, varicibus validis, lacteis, irregularibus instructis ;

apertura ovata; labio arcuato, antice subtruncato; labro margine

acuto.

Hab. Sharks’ Bay, Australia.

This, for the genus, is a large and showy species, with con-

spicuous white varices, and with the whorls very prettily marked

with interrupted or dotted red-brown lines.

15. Alaba pulchra, A. Ad.

A, testa ovato-conica, tenui, semiopaca, sordide alba, maculis, punctis,

flammulis longitudinalibus lineisque rufis transversis ornata; an-

fractibus 7, planis, subimbricatis, ad suturas plicato-nodosis ; aper-

tura ovata; labio tenui, arcuato, non truncato; labro simplici, acuto.

Hab. Port Adelaide. T. Angas, Esq.

A handsomely-painted species, with the whorls nodose pli-

cate at the sutures.

16. Alaba Blanfordi, A. Ad.

A, testa acuminato-conica, tenui, cornea, rufo obsolete strigosa; an-

fractibus 6, transversim sulcatis, longitudinaliter valde plicatis,

suturis impressis, anfractu ultimo ad peripheriam subangulato ;

apertura ovata, antice producta ; labio rufo tincto, vix tortuoso.

Hab, Siam. W. T. Blanford, Esq.

A small sulcate species, with plicate whorls.

7. Alaba monile, A. Ad.

A. testa elongato-conica, alba, maculis rubris, in serie moniliformi

dispositis, in medio anfractuum ornata; anfractibus 6, planis, im-

bricatis, longitudinaliter nodoso-plicatis ; apertura ovata ; labio re-

gulariter arcuato; labro margine in medio obsolete angulato.

Hab. Port Lincoln. W. Metcalfe, Esq.

A very pretty white species, ornamented with a necklace-like

row of red spots in the middle of the whorls.

18. Alaba zebrina, A. Ad.

A. testa ovato-conica, tenui, imperforata, alba, lineis undulatis longi-

tudinalibus rufescentibus ornata ; anfractibus 63, planis, transver-

sim valde et regulariter sulcatis, interdum longitudinaliter obsolete

varicosis, suturis impressis, serie econ instructis ; apertura

ovata, antice subproducta ; labio flexuoso ; labro margine simplici,

acuto.

Hab. Tsu-Sima.

This species was also obtained by Mr. Cuming in the Philip-

Mr. A. Adams on new Species of Alaba. 297

pines. It is very prettily marked with undulating red-brown

longitudinal stripes.

19. Alaba pagodula, A. Ad.

A, testa elato-conica, tenui, alba, lineis transversis rufis interruptis, in

medio anfractuum dispositis, et flammulis longitudinalibus un-

dulatis, ad suturas, ornata ; anfractibus planis, imbricatis, in medio

nodoso-plicatis, superne et inferne leevibus ; apertura ovata, antice

producta et subacuminata ; labio simplici, arcuato.

Hab. St. Vincent’s Gulf. T. Angas, Esq.

This is a very charming species, shaped like a little pagoda,

and adorned with red-brown markings. The whorls are encircled

in the middle with a series of plicate nodules.

20. Alaba imbricata, A. Ad.

A, testa elato-conica, subturrita, semiopaca, alba, hic et illic sparsim

rufo tincta; anfractibus 7, planatis, imbricatis, longitudinaliter

plicatis, plicis variciformibus, distantibus, transversim sulcatis ;

apertura subcirculari; labio tenui, arcuato ; labro vix effuso, mar-

gine subincrassato.

Hab. O-Sima.

A very pretty species, with plicate imbricate whorls.

21. Alaba felina, A. Ad.

A. testa ovato-conica, solida, diaphana, flammulis rufescentibus obli-

quis longitudinalibus picta; anfractibus 5, planis, leevibus ; apertura

subquadrata ; labio rectiusculo ; labro intus subincrassato.

Hab. Takano-Sima.

A solid, diaphanous species, with tiger-like, reddish stripes on

the whorls.

22. Alaba lucida, A. Ad.

A. testa elato-conica, subturrita, solidula, diaphana; anfractibus 6},

planiusculis, subimbricatis, leevissimis, basi spiraliter striata ; aper-

tura ovata, antice producta et effusa ; labro margine subincrassato.

Hab. Takano-Sima.

A solid, somewhat turreted, pellucid species.

23. Alaba inflata, A. Ad.

A. testa ovato-conica, cornea, tenui, subdiaphana, apice violaceo ; an-

fractibus 44, planiusculis, transversim tenuissime striatis, anfractu

ultimo magno, inflato; apertura ovata, antice subangulata; labio

arcuato; labro margine tenui.

Hab. O-Sima.

A thin, ventricose, horn-coloured, ovately conical species.

298 Mr. A. Adams on new Species of Alaba.

24. Alaba subangulata, A. Ad.

A. testa ovato-conica, tenui, viridula, lineis transversis rufescentibus

interruptis, et maculis rufescentibus irregularibus, ad suturas, or-

nata; anfractibus planiusculis, transversim crebre sulcatis, ultimo

ad peripheriam subangulato; apertura quadrato-circulari, antice

producta et effusa; labio tenui, recto; labro margine, in medio,

obtusim angulato.

Hab. Tsu-Sima; 16 fathoms.

A thin species, with subangular periphery, most nearly re-

sembling A. picta.

Subgenus Diara, A. Ad.

Testa Cinguloidea, vitrea, subopaca, transversim striata vel sulcata ;

anfractibus non varicosis, vertice subacuto. Apertura ovata; labio

antice non truncato.

1. Diala varia, A. Ad.

Annals, 1861.

Hab. Awa-Sima; Takano-Sima; Tanabe.

2. Diala suturalis, A. Ad.

Monoptygma suturalis, A. Ad., Sow. Thesaur. Mon. Monopt. pl. 172.

figs. 31, 33.

Hab. Philippines; Port Adelaide.

3. Diala sulcifera, A. Ad.

D. testa ovato-conica, alba, rufa aut fusca, interdum variegata ; an-

fractibus 5, convexis, transversim sulcatis, sulcis impressis, regu-

laribus, suturis profundis ; apertura oblonga; labio arcuato, seepe

rufo tincto; labro margine crenulato.

Hab. O-Sima; Tanabe.

This is a smaller and more ovate species than D. varia, with

the whorls transversely deeply sulcate. -It cccurs in the Lami-

narian zone, in the society of D. varia.

4. Diala rufilabris, A. Ad.

D. testa elato-conoidali, spira attenuata, leevi, solida, polita, straminea,

peritremate aurantiaco ; anfractibus 73, planis, simplicibus, ultimo

ad peripheriam obtusim angulato ; labio incrassato ; labro margine

subincrassato.

Hab. Port Lincoln. Coll. Cuming.

A simple, conical, straw-coloured species, with an orange-

coloured peritreme.

5. Diala lauta, A. Ad.

D. testa elevatim conica, albida, lineis rufis interruptis transversis

ornata ; anfractibus 7, planis, transversim sulcatis, suturis exaratis,

Dr. A. Giinther on an apparently new Species of Spider. 299

anfractu ultimo ad peripheriam subangulato, basi convexo valde

concentrice suleato ; apertura ovata; labio arcuato, simplici.

Hab. Port Adelaide.

This species is not uncommon in shell-sand from Australia.

Subgenus Styzirerina, A. Ad.

Testa Styliferoidea, diaphana, turrito-conica; anfractibus leevibus,

conyexis ; vertice mucronato. Apertura subquadrata ; labio recto.

I first made known this form of Alaba in the ‘ Annals’ for

1860, where it is considered to belong to Styliferide; the

nucleus, however, shows it to be a subgenus of Alaba.

1. Styliferina orthochila, A. Ad.

Annals, 1860.

2. Stylifera goniochila, A. Ad.

S. testa ovato-turrita, tenui, vitrea, pellucida, maculis lacteis, in serie

unica dispositis, in medio anfractuum ornata; anfractibus 9, con-

vexis, Suturis marginatis, anfractu ultimo rotundato ; apertura sub-

quadrata ; labio recto, antice in angulum desinente.

Hab. Mino-Sima; Tanabe; O-Sima.

I have improved my original description, having obtained

better specimens.

3. Styliferina lepida, A. Ad.

S. testa tenui, lactea, semiopaca, polita, nitida ; anfractibus convexis,

suturis impressis, anfractu ultimo ad peripheriam rotundato ; aper-

tura suborbiculari, antice integra ; labio arcuato.

Hab. Yobuko.

A small, polished, white species with an elevated spire.

XXX.—On an apparently undescribed Spider from Cochin China.

By Dr. ALBERT GUNTHER.

[Plate VIII. fig. A ]

Cyphagogus Mouhotu. (Plate VIII. fig. A.)

CEPHALOTHORAX subovate, covered with fine, short, dense hairs,

with a transverse groove between cephalic and thoracic portion,

and with a deep impression in the middle of the upper surface

of the latter.

Eyes eight, unequal in size, disposed thus «.::. ; the four

middle occupy a slight protuberance in front of the cephalotho-

rax, whilst the lateral are the smallest and situated on the side

of its anterior part.

Falces articulated vertically, rather compressed, with a non-

denticulated claw of moderate size at their extremity; the claw

300 Dr. A. Giinther on an apparently new Species of Spider.

is received in a sheath at the lower end of the falces, the edges of

the sheath being provided with some horny spines of unequal size.

Maxillz flat ; the outer margins of both together form a card-like

figure ; their lower extremity is hairy ; sternal lip between the

maxillz, elongate-elliptical. Sternum ovate, covered with rather

coarse hairs. Palpi of moderate length; the terminal joint is

rather longer than the two preceding together, and armed with

‘a minute non-pectinated claw.

Legs rather robust, tapering, very unequal in length, the two

anterior being nearly equally long, but much longer than the

two posterior; the fourth is longer than the third; each is

armed with a pair of minute claws.

Abdomen club-shaped, anteriorly produced into a very long,

thin, cylindrical process, which is twice bent, so that its basal

half is leaning backwards on the back of the abdomen, whilst its

terminal half is directed upwards and forwards, terminating in

a slight cuneiform swelling; this singular appendage is covered

with a leathery, fine hairy skin, like the lower parts of the

abdomen. The cephalothorax being united with the abdomen

at no great distance from the spinners, the anterior portion of

the abdomen, with its appendage, is situated vertically above the

thorax. The abdomen is nearly smooth above, and covered with

very fine hairs below ; it terminates in an obtuse point directed

upwards.

Six spinners in a quadrangular group immediately before the

vent; the anterior and posterior pair are of moderate size; the third

pair is very short, and situated between the posterior spinners.

Two branchial opercula; tracheal opercula absent.

Dimensions. lines.

Leneth of eephalothorax 9. .- 2.23. ey) ee 4

», abdomen to the first bend of the appendage ...... 12

a appendage from its first bend ...............--. 10

a falees i. ade he ke ee dal bo Gia. has 2 ee li

% (LC eeaeane tenor ocrabie) DEBePyC cao a So 5 0. - 4}

) )fermmunal joint, Of Palpusi js. ae ee 12

vs Ting se Sl ne ld ed ai pearing 32 Vachon 16

ie Recon dere. {init diaced Osu pe ost phe wo Saeee eee 164

55 Gian ey tees fajehe pac. ye erste Sept es ae NSS ey Corea

e Ponntntles Hs Blbed a ita « ope cchan eae atye es args eee 104

Colour brownish yellow; extremities of the legs and of abdo-

minal appendage and sternum blackish brown ; upper parts of the

abdomen yellow ; two black bands round the femur of the first leg.

A single female specimen of this spider was obtained by the

late M. Mouhot in the Lao Mountains of Cochin China. Its

form is so extraordinary, that we have not hesitated to refer it to

a new genus, Cyphagoyus.

Dr. A. Giinther on the Genus Trachinus. 301

XXXI.—Some Remarks on the Genus Trachinus.

By Dr. ALBert GUNTHER.

[Plate VIII. figs. B, C, D.]

Tue different species of Weevers (Zrachinus) have lately been

re-examined by Dr. P. v. Bleeker *, who, having paid attention

to several characters not mentioned in the works of previous

writers, considers them as important enough to split that Lin--

nean genus into three. The characters on which the new divi-

sions are founded are the following :—

. Armature of the head.

More or less oblique direction of the cleft of the mouth.

. More or less scaly covering of the cheek.

Smooth or ciliated edge of the lips.

Presence or absence of pterygoid teeth.

. A single or double lateral line.

Whilst the three former of those characters have been used

by other ichthyologists for distinction of the species, M. Bleeker

has the merit of having added the three latter: attaching, how-

ever, a generic value to them, he distinguishes three genera,

characterized as follows :—

C2 OT G9 0

1. Trachinus.

Caput vertice granulis scabrum. Orbita antice spinis armata. Max-

illa superior usque ante oculum adscendens. Squame genis ses-

siles multiseriatee. Labia simplicia, nec fimbriata nec papillata.

Dentes pterygoidei. Oculi obliqui, subverticales. Praeoperculum

aculeatum. Linea lateralis simplex.

The following species are referred to this division: 7. ar-

matus, L., T. araneus, C. & V., T. armatus, Schl., T. (?) cor-

nutus, Guich.

2. Pseudotrachinus.

Caput vertice granulis e centris radiantibus scabrum. Orbita antice

spinis armata. Maxilla superior non usque ante oculum ad-

scendens. Spinze suborbitales sursum spectantes. Squamee genis

sessiles multiseriatee. Labia simplicia, nec fimbriata nec papillata.

Dentes pterygoidei nulli. Oculi obliqui, subverticales. Preeoper-

culum non aculeatum. Linea lateralis simplex.

This division is founded on 7. radiatus, C. & V., and on

Pseudotrachinus pardalis, Blky.

3. Echuchthys.

Caput vertice non granosum. Orbita ubique levis. Maxilla supe-

rior usque ante oculum adscendens. Spine suborbitales nullee.

Squamee genis parvee, deciduze. Labia papillata vel fimbriata.

* Ann. Science. Nat. Paris, 1861, p. 375

302 Dr. A. Gunther on the Genus Peichints

Dentes pterygoidei nulli. Oculi obliqui, subhorizontales. Pree-

operculum aculeatum. Linea lateralis duplex.

T. vipera, C. & V.

It is not my intention to question for a moment the merits

of a division by which, at all events, the determination of

those six or seven species is facilitated; but I shall be satisfied

with directing attention to the following points which occurred

to me during the arrangement of the specimens of Trachinus

which have been added to the British Museum Collection in

the course of the two last years.

1. Trachinus araneus was known to me only from the dried

skin of a half-grown specimen. The British Museum has lately

received a fine large specimen from Cannes (South of France).

This species has no pterygoid teeth; the maxillary extends

upwards to before the orbit; the cheeks are entirely naked ;

and the preoperculum is provided with the same feeble spines

which are observed in the common Weever (7. draco). There-

fore this species cannot be referred to Trachinus, Blkr., from

which it differs in two characters, nor to Pseudotrachinus, Blky. ;

and unless the diagnoses of those two genera are essentially

altered, we shall have to propose a fourth genus for this Weever.

2. The presence of a second (lower) lateral line, attributed

to the genus Echiichthys, will require further confirmation.

Dr. Bleeker says distinctly that it is not a simple “ dépression

intermusculaire.” If we understand by lateral line a canal in

the integuments of the body, which is the continuation of the

muciferous channels of the head, opening by equidistant pores, I

may say that such a second lateral line is not present in Tra-

chinus vipera.. It appeared to me to be a depressed line, pro-

duced by the insertion of a long, thin, flat muscle, the fibres

of which descend obliquely forwards to the base of the anal

fin; its function is to depress the rays of the anal fin. The

line does not extend forward on to the trunk. I could not

detect any pores, although I have examined British and Dutch

specimens, the latter being sent by Dr. v. Bleeker to the

British Museum.

3. In the second volume of the ‘Catalogue of Fishes’

(p. 234), I have described a Weever from the West Coast of

Africa, which differed from the European 7. draco in the

stronger armature of the head, and in the less elongated body.

Notwithstanding, I preferred ‘describing it as a variety, seeing

that some specimens from the Canary Islands also showed a

stronger armature of the head than is usually found in spe-

cimens from Northern Europe, although their body is elongate

as inthe true 7. draco. Dr. Bleeker has recognized this African

Weever in two other specimens in the Leyden Museum, where

Dr. A. Giinther on the Genus Trachinus. 303

they had been named 7’. armatus, Schleg. He does not hesitate

.to consider it as a species constantly differing from T. draco in the

ray-like arrahgement of the granules on the crown of the head,

and in having the interorbital space more concave, the orbital

spines stronger, and the bands of pterygoid teeth broader.

Those observations, as regards T. armatus, are fully contirmed

by an examination of the specimen in the British Museum,

which, probably, originates from the same source as those in

the Leyden Museum. But if we attach (in this case) specific

value to the characters mentioned, I am afraid that the species

T. draco will share a fate similar to that of the genus Trachinus.

The following are my observations on specimens from different

localities :—

a. A specimen from the coast of Guinea, 7 inches long (T.

armatus).—The height of the body is contained 54 times in the

total length. The granules on the crown of the head radiate from

centres ; imterorbital space very narrow and concave ; spines

before the orbit strong. L. lat. 75. Band of pterygoid teeth

8 mill. long, and 12 mill. broad. (Pl. VIII. fig. B.)

b. A specimen from the island of Gomera, 94 inches long.—

The height of the body is contained 64 times in the total length.

The granules on the crown of the head radiate from centres ;

interorbital space not very narrow, and moderately concave ;

spines before the orbit rather strong. L. lat. 85. Band of

pterygoid teeth 103 mill. long, and 14 mill. broad. (PI. VIII.

fig. C.) (A specimen from Lanzarote possesses the same cha-

racters.)

c. A specimen from Cannes, 8 inches long.—The height of the

body is contained 63 times in the total length. The granules on

the head are not arranged in rays; mterorbital space not very

narrow, and moderately concave ; spines before the orbit rather

feeble. L. lat. 85. Band of pterygoid teeth 83 mill. long,

and 14 mill broad.

d. A specimen from Bahuslin (Sweden), 11" long. The height

of the body is 4th of the total length. The granules on the

head are not arranged in rays; interorbital space not very

narrow, and but little concave ; spines before the orbit short

and obtuse. L. lat. 85. Band of pterygoid teeth 114 mill.

long, and 1 mill. broad. (PI. VIII. fig. D.)

Thus we see that the characters on which 7. armatus is founded

are subject to not inconsiderable variation ; but it differs from

all the specimens, even from those from the Canary Islands, in

having a shorter body and tail. I was in hopes of finding a cor-

responding decrease in the number of the caudal vertebre, which

at once would have settled the question of its specific distinct-

ness, inasmuch as in those families of fishes which have the tail

304 Dr. G. C. Wallich on a minute Vertebrate Jaw.

elongate, and the caudal portion of the vertebral column com-

posed of more than fourteen vertebrae, the number of caudal

vertebre is less in the species with the shorter tail. Tra-

chinus draco, T. araneus, and T. vipera have respectively 30-381,

29, and 25 caudal vertebre, according to the length of their tail.

Cottus scorpius and C. bubalis, the different species of Solea, &c.,

are examples of the same kind. But in 7. armatus the short-

ness of the body is not accompanied with, or produced by, a

smaller number of vertebre: it has forty-one vertebre, thirty

of which belong to the caudal portion; or, in other words, it

completely agrees in this respect with 7. draco.

XXXII.—Note on the Discovery of an extremely minute Vertebrate

Lower Jaw in Mud dredged at St. Helena. By Dr. Watuicu,

F.L.S.

To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

GENTLEMEN,

I beg herewith to enclose a sketch of the jaw of a vertebrate

animal, detected by me, a few days ago, in a slide containing a

specimen of muddy deposit dredged up at St. Helena, in 1857,

in 80 fathoms water, and mounted by me in Canada balsam a

the time it was obtained. ; .

en,

ZED

LLZI XX DAANNADAAN A BA

Fee = oe eed

A AANA

DIOL.

ANA

The jaw and teeth are fully developed and perfect, there being

nothing in the aspect of either to indicate their having formed

portions of a creature in a foetal condition.

The extreme length is ;45 inch; so that, assuming the body

to have been five times as long as the jaw, we have here evidence

of the existence of a vertebrate animal measuring only ,4, inch in

length—a size considerably below that of many of the organisms

usually regarded as microscopic.

I have not had time hitherto to enter into a detailed examina-

tion of this most interesting specimen, but shall do myself the

pleasure of communicating further particulars regarding it at an

early opportunity.

I remain, Gentlemen,

Your most obedient Servant,

17 Campden Hill Road, Kensington. G. C. Watuicu.

Sept. 21, 1862.

305

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.

The Natural History of the Tineina. By H.T. Starnton; as-

sisted by Prof. ZeLLER, J. W. DoucGuas, and Prof. Frey. 8vo,

Vols. IV. to VII. London, Van Voorst, 1859-1862.

As several years have elapsed since we announced the appearance

of the first volume of this important entomological work, and de-

scribed its general characters, it may perhaps not be amiss to refresh

our readers’ memories upon these points. Mr. Stainton’s object in

the ‘Natural History of the Tineina’ is not only to describe the

insects of that group and to unravel their synonymy, neither of which

are very easy tasks, but also to furnish a full account of their natural

history. With this view the species of each genus are brought

together as much as possible, in face of the difficulty of always

ascertaining the entire history of the allied species; the appearance

of each species in its different states, its habits, and mode of life are

described in detail; the times of its making its appearance, both in

the larval and in the perfect form, are indicated; its geographical

distribution in this country and on the Continent is given; and,

finally, its synonymy is fully discussed. In the general remarks on

each genus of which the species are noticed, we find the structural

characters of the insects in their different stages, followed by a ge-

neral view of the habits of the species of the genus, their number

and distribution. In each genus the author gives a list, often in a

tabular form, of all the known species, together with a classified

catalogue of the food-plants of all their known larve, appending to

each plant the names of the species which feed upon it. The generic

details are closed by a literary history of the genus, showing the

gradual progress of our knowledge of the species and their habits.

So much for the general plan of the work, which is executed with a

degree of conscientious care and an evident striving after perfection

such as are unfortunately rare in the productions of our English

entomologists. Its value to the student of the Lepidoptera is greatly

increased by the beautiful plates with which it is illustrated: each

of these contains figures of the larvee and perfect insects of three

species, accompanied by representations of the leaves of the plants as

eaten by the larvee, and of the cases in which some of them dwell

and undergo their transformations, The earlier plates were drawn

and lithographed by the late Mr. W. Wing, whose early and lamented.

death deprived entomologists of one of their most talented artists ;

the subsequent illustrations have been drawn and engraved with equal

accuracy and elegance by Mr. E. W. Robinson, and in the way of

entomological figures they leave little or nothing to be desired.

There is one curious feature in the book, to which we adverted at

some length on its first appearance, namely, that the text (which, we

may observe, is given gratuitously, the work being published at the,

cost of the plates) is in four languages—English, French, German,

and Latin. Without entering into the question whether the useful-

ness of such a book as this is increased by this multiplication of its

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x.

306 Bibliographical Notice.

tongues, we shall only remark that the present arrangement in four

parallel columns on each two pages is decidedly inconvenient, and

reiterate the hope, expressed by us in a former notice, that, on the

commencement of the second series of ten volumes, Mr. Stainton will

adopt the system of printing the part in each language separately.

It is certainly an inconvenience in a work of reference to have only

half a page of reading on two pages of print.

In his first three volumes Mr. Stainton treated exclusively of leaf-

mining species— Moths whose caterpillars live between the two

surfaces of leaves, eating the parenchyma and leaving channels or

mines, the aspect of which on the surface of the leaf is often very

characteristic of the species forming them. In the last-published

volume we have mining species again, some belonging to the genus

Nepticula, already treated of in the first volume, and others to the

smaller genus Bucculatrix, of which more than half the species are

here illustrated and described. The habits of the species of Buccu-

latrix are very similar to those of the Nepticule, but the larvee differ

in one or two remarkable particulars: the larvee of Bucculatrix

possess the six true legs on the thoracic segments, whilst those of

Nepticula are destitute of these; and while the latter remain withia

the mine until they are full-grown, and then go down into the ground

to undergo their change into the pupa state, the larve of Buceulatriz

quit the mine when nearly mature, and, after moulting, become ex-

ternal feeders. The larva, whilst engaged in its mining operations,

is smooth, but its skin becomes rough after quitting the mine; and,

in order to undergo its moult comfortably on first venturing into the

open air, it spins a flat silken covering, to which Mr. Staimton gives

the name of a cocoonet, beneath which the larva lies in a doubled

position. When full-fed, the larva goes down to the stem of the

plant on which it has been feeding, or even to the ground or the

leaves of herbage, where it spins a curious ribbed cocoon in some

convenient corner, and there undergoes its further changes.

The fourth and fifth volumes are devoted to the history of forty-

eight Moths of the extensive genus Coleophora, which includes,

according to Mr. Stainton, no less than 126 described species, all

natives of Furope. The larve of these Moths feed upon plants be-

longing to a great number of natural orders, but chiefly Dicotyledo-

nous, only one being found upon a Coniferous plant (the Larch),

and five upon different species of rushes and grasses. The larve,

while young, mine the leaves of the plants on which they feed, or dwell

in the interior of their seeds ; but, after the lapse of a short time, they

emerge from this concealment, and form a small case, sometimes of

silk, but usually of fragments of the leaves of plants, within which

they conceal their soft bodies, only protruding the head and anterior

segments for the purpose of walking about and feeding. The name

of the genus refers to this habit of the larva, of dwelling in a sheath-

like case; and many of these habitations are very singular in their

appearance. When the case becomes too small, the larva makes

itself a new one, generally by mining out the parenchyma of a leaf,

and uniting the free edges of the membranes with silk. The change

Bibliographical Notice, 307

to the pupa state also takes place within the case, and the pupa lies

concealed therein until the perfect insect is ready to emerge.

The subject-matter of the sixth volume is furnished by the exten-

sive genus Depressaria, which includes eighty described species,

mostly natives of Europe. Of these the transformations of fifty-two

are known, and the volume under consideration gives the natural

history of twenty-four, or nearly half the known species. Their

food-plants belong chiefly to the natural orders Umbelliferee and

Compositz, which nourish no fewer than forty out of the fifty-two

species. The larvee usually feed upon the leaves of plants, the edges

of which they turn down so as to form a sort of tubular habitation ;

but some dwell amongst the umbels of the Umbelliferee, and often

draw together the peduncles of the flowers with silken threads so as

greatly to distort the growth of the plant. The perfect insects,

which are amongst the largest and least brilliant of our Tineina, are

produced at the end of the summer or in the autumn, and most of

them hybernate in the perfect state, concealing themselves in the

quiet corners of out-houses and sheltered palings, or creeping up

amongst the straws of thatch.

In noticing the first volume of this book, we calculated that, for the

British Tineina alone, the natural history of all the species could not

be given in less than twenty-five volumes, the production of which

cannot be looked upon otherwise than as an undertaking requiring

a considerable amount of courage. Mr. Stainton, however, goes

boldly forward, undeterred even by the rapid increase in the number

of known species of the great group to the elucidation of which he

has devoted himself with so much zeal, although, if matters go on

as they have lately been doing, he may look forward to requiring

forty or fifty volumes for the due illustration of his subject. From

his “further observations on the genus Nepéicula,” contained in the

newly published seventh volume, it appears that this genus, of which

only 33 species were known at the time of the publication of the first

volume (in 1855), now numbers at least 74 well-established species ;

and although this is doubtless an extreme case, still the great atten-

tion which has of late been paid, both in this country and on the

Continent, to the Microlepidoptera, has certainly added many species

to other genera. In the face of such a rapid increase still going on,

it is almost too much to hope for the continuance of the life and

energies of any one man long enough to allow him to bring together

the whole mass of progressive observations on the natural history of

this interesting group of Moths, in the comprehensive manner dis-

played in the work before us; but our author may have at least

this consolation, that the design of his work is so good and so well

carried out, that, let him stop where he will, it must always be a

most valuable contribution to entomological literature, and a worthy

monument of his zeal for the advancement of his favourite science.

21*

308 Zoological Society :—

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

March 25, 1862.—Dr.J.E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair.

The Secretary announced that Dr. G. Bennett, F.Z.S., had shipped

a living Kagu (Rhinochetus jubatus) for the Society, from Sydney,

on the 16th of January previous, and read the following extracts from

a letter just received from that gentleman relating to the habits of

this remarkable bird :—

«Of the two Kagus brought from New Caledonia alive, one died

on the 4th of January, 1862, and on dissection proved to be a female.

It was larger than the one now sent to England alive ; and when that

one dies (as the plumage and crest are similar, and both appeared

to be fully grown, the only distinction being size) it would be inter-

esting to ascertain the sex. The Kagu is a very interesting bird,

readily domesticated. It is amusing to see them politely bowing

their heads one to the other, elevating their crests at the same time,

and then finish by coquetting about. They climb up the wires in

front of their place of confinement just as the Red-billed Porphyrios.

They often leap, aided by the wings, upon the stumps or low branches

of trees; but they invariably roost on the ground, in an erect posi-

tion, with the head buried between the shoulders or under the wing,

and in confinement never seek any elevated position for roosting.

In New Caledonia they are usually seen about the sea-coast, by the

side of rivers; and although im some parts of the island they are

very numerous, yet about the settlement of Port du France they are

seldom seen more than from two to four together at the same time.

When disturbed they only fly to the height of a few feet, and escape

into the thick brushwood. They are eaten by the natives. A lady

just returned from New Caledonia informs me that a pair have been

kept tame at Port du France for nearly three years, and are well-

known roamers of the streets of that settlement. When a dog ap-

proaches them, they elevate their crests and flap their wings to drive

it away. They are usually to be seen about those places where the men

are digging, approaching them fearlessly for the sake of procuring

worms or grubs that are turned up from the ground by the hoe or

spade. The same lady describes a noise they make in their wild

state, when concealed among the reeds or bushes, as resembling that

of a young puppy crying for its mother.”

The following extract was read from a letter addressed by Colonel

Abbott to George O. Wray, Esq., and communicated by the latter

gentleman to the Secretary :—

“In March 1858, as near as I can recollect, near the village of

Pur-Buddah, distant 14 mile from the town of Akyab in Arracan,

two Sepoys of the Arracan Local Battalion captured under a rock a

large female Boa, some 12 feet in length, and abstracted with her a

Dr. P. L. Sclater on-new Species of Birds from Bogota. 309

nest of eggs forty-eight in number. Both Snake and eggs were pre-

sented to me by a friend, who knew that I was interested in such

things. My object now was to secure this prize, and see what would

result from the detention. Unfortunately I was taken seriously ill, and

neglected to keep notes on the subject, and all I now state is from

recollection. ‘The Python was in my possession for upwards of two

months and a half, and was constantly coiled around her eggs, re-

fusing food in various forms, living and dead, viz., fowls, rats, and

frogs. I then quitted Arracan on sick-leave and came to Calcutta,

bringing the Snake and eggs with me, and made them over to Dr.

Pearson (since dead) and Dr. Evans. The Snake was in my posses-

sion, as I said before, about ten weeks in the province and ten days

(more or less) in Calcutta, and nearly a week on the voyage up to

Calcutta, as we went to Chittagong: this will bring the eggs and

Snake to be known to me three months; and the eggs were still not

hatched. .

“ On visiting the Museum and finding the eggs in the condition

T sent them in, curiosity led us to detach an egg from the mass ; and

looking at it carefully it was supposed to be bad, as it exhibited

marks of green mildew and soil, and there was no motion in it. We

then determined to open it with a knife, and to our surprise we ex-

tracted a fully formed live young one, active and strong, which would,

I have no doubt, have lived had it been allowed. I left Calcutta

shortly after this, and do not know what became of the Boa and re-

maining eggs; but, should further information be required, I would

suggest that application be made to Mr. Blyth, if still in Calcutta,

or to the Curator of the Asiatic Museum of Calcutta.”’

The following papers were read :—

CHARACTERS OF NINE New Species or BIRDS RECEIVED IN

COLLECTIONS FROM Bogota. By P. L. Scuater, M.A.,

Pu.D., F.R.S., SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY.

I have lately had an opportunity of examining several large col-

lections of bird-skins from Bogota, containing altogether some three

or four thousand individuals. The greater number of the species

to which these belong are now well known in Europe, from their

repeated importation in Bogotan collections; but I have found a

few, principally among the less known groups, which appear to

have been altogether overlooked or hitherto not collected. I beg

leave to submit to the Society the following descriptions of these

species.

Fam. TuURDID.

1. TURDUS EPHIPPIALIS.

Supra cinereus, alis extus, nisi in primariorum parte terminali, et

interscapulio rufescente indutis : subtus pallide cinereus: gut-

ture albo, maculis triangularibus fuscis striato: ventre imo et

erisso albis: tectricibus subalaribus et remigum parte interna

310 Zoological Society :-—

pallide castaneis : rostro plumbeo: tomiis pallescentibus: pedt-

bus fuscis.

Long. tota 8°5, alee 4°7, caudee 4:2 poll. Angl. et re

Hab. In Nov. Granada int.

Mus. P. L. S.

Obs. Affinis Turdo albiventri ex Cayenna, et ptilosi fere simili,

sed interscapulio et alis extus rufescentibus, et subalaribus castaneis

facile dignoscendus.

I may remark that I have now received from the Berlm Museum

a Thrush marked Turdus amaurochalinus,—a species with which I

was not acquainted when I prepared my Synopsis of the American

Thrushes, already printed in the Society’s ‘ Proceedings.”* This

bird is certainly undistinguishable from what I consider to be Turdus

albiventris of Spix, of which I have examples from Cayenne, Brazil,

Bolivia, and Ecuador. My Turdus ignobilis of the highlands of New

Granada is barely separable from the same species. On the other

hand, there can be no question about the distinctness of the present

Bogotan species, looking to its rufous interscapulium and wing-

edgings, and dark, almost chestnut-brown under wing-coverts.

Fam. VIREONID&.

2. HyLoPHILUS FERRUGINEIFRONS.

Olivaceus: alis nigricanti-fuscis, extus olivaceis: cauda oliva-

cescenti-fusca: pileo brunnescente tincto, fronte ferruginolento :

subtus dilutior, gutture et ventre medio albicantioribus : rostro

plumbeo, tomiis pallescentibus, pedibus fuscis.

Long. tota 4:0, alee 2°1, caudee 1°5.

Hab. In Nov. Granada int.

Mus. Pos.

Obs. Affinis Hylophilo ochraceicipiti mihi ex Mexico, sed colore

supero olivaceo rostroque robustiore differt. Remex primus, prout

semper in hoc genere, spurius, dimidio brevior quam secundus :

quartus, quintus et sextus fere eequales et longissimi.

I have tried in vain to reconcile this bird with Lafresnaye’s H.

flavipes (Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 342). It is certainly not his Hylo-

philus semibrunneus (1. c. p. 341), as I have seen specimens of the

latter in the British Museum.

Fam. TANAGRIDE,

3. CHLOROSPINGUS OLEAGINEUS.

Olivaceus fere unicolor, fronte et regione oculari et corpore subtus

flavicanti-olivaceis: alis nigricanti-fuscis, extus brunnescente-

olivaceo limbatis : cauda brunnea unicolore: rostro nigricantt-

brunneo : pedibus fuscis.

Long. tota 5°5, alee 3°25, caudee 3°5.

Hab. In Nov. Granada int.

Mus. P.L.S.

¥* See P. Z. S. 1859, p. 321.

Dr. P. L. Sclater on new Species of Birds from Bogota. 311

Obs. Affinis C. superciliari et C. rubrirostri et eadem forma, sed

colore fere unicolore notabilis.

Fam. DENDROCOLAPTIDZ.

4, PHILYDOR PANERYTHRUS.

Murino-rufescens : alis extus et cauda tota rufis, illarum pogoniis

interne nigricantibus: subtus lete fulvo-rufus: rostro albi-

cante, hujus basi, cum pedibus, plumbea.

Long. tota 7°5, alee 3-9, caude 3°6.

Hab. In Nov. Granada int.

Mus. P. L. S.

This bird is allied in form to Philydor rufus (Vieill.) of Brazil

(P. ruficollis, Spix, Av. Bras. i. p. 74, pl. 75), though the rectrices

are not quite so sharply pointed. It may be distinguished by its

more uniformly rufous coloration, and the complete absence of the

cinereous head. I have a single Bogotan specimen, the only indivi-

dual I have met with of this species.

Fam. TYRANNIDZ.

5. LEPTOPOGON ERYTHROBPS.

Olivaceus, pileo cinereo, loris, oculorum ambitu et corpore subtus

ad medium pectus fulvide rufis : ventre flavicante: alis nigri-

canti-fuscis, tectricum apicibus fulvo terminatis ; remigibus om-

nibus extus olivacescenti-fulvo marginatis: campterio alart,

subalaribus et remigum marginibus inferis clare ochracescenti-

rufis: cauda ochracescenti-cinerea, marginibus angustis externe

olivacescentibus : rostro obscure fusco ; pedibus corylinis.

Long. tota 5:0, alee 2°7, caudze 274.

Hab. In Nov. Granada int.

Mus. P.L.S.

This is a well-marked species, easily recognizable by its bright-

rufous face and breast. In structure it agrees well with Leptopogon

superciliaris, the type of the section, the bill being rather shorter,

but precisely of the same form. The fourth quill is longest, slightly

exceeding the third and fifth, which are equal. The first is rather

shorter than the eighth, ninth, and tenth.

6. LEPTOPOGON PCECILOTIS.

Supra olivaceus, pileo plumbescente, loris albescentibus ; plumis

auricularibus ad basin flavicantibus, inde distincte nigris :

subtus flavo-virens ; alis nigricanti-fuscis, tectricibus omnibus

macula terminali ochracea preditis, remigibus olivaceo margi-

natis: cauda fuscescente, extus olivaceo anguste marginata:

rostro superiore nigro, inferiore omnino flavo: pedibus pallide

corylinis.

Long. tota 4°5, ale 2°3, caudee 2°0.

Hab. In Noy. Granada int.

LOT igad Wigs

This species is closely allied to Leptopogon superciliaris (or at

312. ~—*-—* Loological Society :—

least to the Ecuadorian species which I identify with Tschudi’s

wretched figure), but is smaller in size, of a brighter and uniform

greenish yellow below, and has the lower mandible wholly yellow,

and feet pale. In L, superciliaris the lower mandible is black, like

the upper. I have two similar specimens of Bogotan origin, and @

third (imperfect) from Venezuela, which may also belong to the same

species, though it wants the conspicuous ochraceous tippings of the

wing-coverts.

7. MyI1oBrIus BELLUS.

Obscure olivaceus, pilei subcristati plumis interne rubro-igneis ;

alis nigris late ochraceo bifasciatis, harum remigibus eodem

colore limbatis : cauda fuscescenti-cinerea : subtus flavus ; pec-

tore fulvo tincto: rostro superiore nigro, inferiore flavo : pedi-

bus plumbeis.

Long. tota 4°2, alee 2°3, caudee 2:0.

Hab. In Noy. Granada int.

Mus: PE. . 8.

This species of Myiobius is closely allied to the M. pulcher of

Ecuador (P. Z. S. 1860, p. 464), and must be placed next to that

species in the order in which I have arranged the genus (/. ¢.). It

is, however, easily distinguishable by its larger size and larger wings,

though nearly alike in coloration.

8. EMPIDOCHANES PQ@CILURUS.

Fuscescenti-griseus, pileo obscuriore ; loris fuscescentibus ; alis et

cauda nigricanti-fuscis, ilarum tectricum apicibus et secunda-

riorum marginibus externis albescentibus : subtus pallide ochra-

ceus, lateraliter cinerascens ; subalaribus, remigum et rectricum

(nist duarum mediarum) marginibus internis latis et crisso rufis,

Jere rubiginosis : rostro et pedibus nigris.

Long. tota 5:5, alee 2°8, caudee 2°3.

Hab. In Nov. Granada int.

Mus. P. L.S.

This Tyrant-bird, of which I have a single specimen, is readily

distinguishable by its parti-coloured tail. The inner webs of all,

except the medial pair, are broadly margined with clear rufous. This

colour increases towards the base, and gradually occupies the whole

of the vane. The outer tail-feather is also narrowly margined with

the same colour. The under wing-coverts and inner margins of the

quills are likewise similarly coloured. The fourth primary is rather

longer than the third, which slightly exceeds the fifth, and longest ;

the second is slightly shorter than the third, the first being of about

the same length as the eighth and ninth.

This bird has much the general appearance of an Hmpidonaz,

thongh abnormal in colouring. I place it for the present as a second

species of the allied southern genus Empidochanes, of which the type

is Muscicapa oliva, Bodd. (Pl. Enl. 574. fig. 2). This generic term

I propose to use in the place of Myiophobus of Cabanis and Heine,

Dr. P. L. Sclater on new Tyrant-Birds from Ecuador. 313

as the latter name was previously given by Reichenbach to Myiobius

nevius*, for which and its allies I venture to employ it.

Fam. Psirracip&.

9. UROCHROMA STICTOPTERA.

Psittaceo-viridis: alis extus nigris, macula in mediis tectricibus

roseo-rubra ; remigum marginibus externis et secundariis dorso

proximis viridibus: caude rectricibus intus paululum aure-

scentibus : rostro pallido : pedibus fuscis.

Long. tota 6°0, alee 5:0, caudee 2°5.

fab. In Nov. Granada int.

Obs. This parrot appears to belong to the group called Urochroma

by Prince Bonaparte, but is quite different from any known member

of that section. The tail is nearly square at its termination, the

two medial rectrices being slightly acuminated, the others rounded,

but presenting the appearance of being rather worn.

On Two New Species or TYRANT-BIRDS FROM EcuaApor. By

P. L. Scuater, M.A., Pa.D., F.R.S., SECRETARY TO THE

Society.

I am indebted to Mr. Gould’s kindness for two specimens of Ty-

rant-birds from a collection recently received by him from the high-

lands of Ecuador. They are of nearly allied species, but stand best

in the two neighbouring sections of Ochtheca and Mecocerculus.

By the latter name I propose to replace Myiarchus (Bp., nec Cab.),

using it as a generic title*for Fluvicola leucophrys, Lafr. et D’Orb.,

and its allies.

1. OCHTHGCA CITRINIFRONS.

Obscure cinerea, dorso postico rufescente : fronte distincte citrino-

flavo: superciliis elongatis, albescentibus ; alis caudaque nigri-

cantibus, illarum marginibus externis rufescentibus : subtus om-

nino pallide cinereus: rostro et pedibus nigris.

Long. tota 4°75, alee 2°5, caudee 2°25.

Hab. In rep. Aiquator.

Mus. P: i. 8:

Obs. Affinis Ochthece albidiemati, Lafr., sed fronte citrino facile

dignoscenda.

2. MECOCERCULUS GRATIOSUS.

Rufescenti-olivaceus, pileo fusco; fronte distincto et superciliis

elongatis aureis: alis fusco-nigris, tectricum utriusque et se-

cundariorum marginibus externis rufescentibus : cauda fusco-

nigra: subtus olivaceus, ventre medio flavo: rostro et pedibus

nigris.

Long. tota 4:5, alee 2°5, caudee 2°2.

Hab. In rep. Aiquator.

Mus. P. 1.5.

Obs. Affinis Mecocerculo diademati, sed rostro breviore, alis paulo

brevioribus, et harum tectricibus rufescenti-bifasciatis distinguendus.

* See P. Z. 8. 1860, p. 466.

314. Zoological Society :—

DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEw SPECIES OF ENTOZOA.

By W. Barrp, M.D., F.L.S., ere.

1. ASCARIS UNDULOSO-STRIATA, Baird.

Head naked, with well-marked, roundish labial lobes. Body of a

white colour, with a well-defined line running longitudinally through

its whole length ; smooth, but finely wavedly striated longitudinally,

instead of transversely. The greatest diameter is at the anterior extre-

mity, the body tapering gradually towards the tail, and terminating

in a finely subulate point. In the female this point is long, and

gradually becomes very fine; in the male the body, posteriorly to

the opening from which issue the male organs or spicula, suddenly

contracts and tapers quickly to a very sharp subulate point. The

body shows no transverse strize, the only visible ones being longitu-

dinal and finely waved.

Length of female 53 lines, male 43 lines.

Hab. Intestines of the King-Vulture (Sarcorhamphus papa).

(Mus. Brit.)

2. ScLEROSTOMA MUCRONATUM, Baird.

Body semicylindrical, of a brownish colour; thickest in the mid-

dle, attenuating towards each extremity, but more so at the anterior

extremity. Integument strongly striated, or almost plicated. Head

continuous with body. Male ? Female with the vulva situated

about one-third from the posterior extremity, and marked with a

strong tubercle. The tail is armed at its extremity with a strong,

sharp spine, which is slightly incurved,

Length of female 4 lines; greatest breadth about 3 line.

Males of this species have not been observed.

Hab. Intestines of the Palluma (Phrymaturus palluma) from

Chili. (Mus. Brit.)

3. PENTASTOMA TERETIUSCULUM, Baird.

Head rounded and truncated. Body cylindrical, of a red colour,

considerably more attenuated posteriorly. Tail shortly bilobed.

Greatest width of body about 4 or 5 lines below the head; it then

eradually attenuates till it reaches the posterior extremity. Integu-

ment annulosely ringed ; rings about one-third of a line in width.

Length 2 inches 5 lines ; breadth 3 lines.

The only specimen taken is a female.

Hab. Taken from the mouth of an Australian Snake (Hoploce-

phalus superbus) which died lately in the Zoological Society’s Gar-

dens, Regent’s Park. (Mus. Brit.)

For the three above-described species I am indebted to Mr. Edward

Gerrard, of the British Museum.

4. TETRARHYNCHUS MINUTO-STRIATUS, Baird.

Head of a white colour, solid and smooth. Neck much narrower

than head, nearly of the same dimensions throughout its whole

Jength, and minutely and finely striated. Bothria ear-shaped, rather

broader at upper than lower part ; open above, adnate below, with

Mr. J. Gould on new Species of Birds. 315

callous, raised edges. Proboscides short and club-shaped. Body a

minute papilla.

Length of head 2 lines; breadth 1} line. Length of neck from

1 inch to 13 lines; breadth 1 line.

Hab. Taken from a species of Brama, off Madeira. (Mus. Brit.)

5. TETRARHYNCHUS BREVIS, Baird.

The animal is of a white colour, and is very short and thick.

The head is large and broad, and the bothria are ear-shaped, rounded,

and very much thickened on the edges. The neck is very short.

The proboscides cylindrical and of considerable length.

Length of whole animal 3 lines; head nearly 2 lines; neck 1 line.

Hab. Taken from a species of marine Eel at Madeira. (Mus. Brit.)

6. TETRARHYNCHUS QUADRIPAPILLOSUS, Baird.

Head of considerable size ; bothria large, rotundate-oval. Neck

long, slender, terminating in an enlarged body enclosed in a sheath,

which gives off at its lower part four papille disposed in such a

manner as to interlock with each other and form a terminating coni-

cal point.

Length of whole animal about 3% lines.

Hab. Taken from the liver of Alepocephalus, sp., at Madeira.

(Mus. Brit.)

For these three species.of Tetrarhynchus I am indebted to J. Yate

Johnson, Esq., C. M. Z.S

7. BoTHRIOCEPHALUS (T'ETRABOTHRIUM) JUNCEUS, Baird.

Bothria four, attached to the head by their face, large and some-

what auriculiform. Head elliptical. Neck slender ; first segments

very fine, gradually becoming broader, but in no part exceeding half

a line in breadth. Apertures of genital organs unilateral.

Length upwards of 44 inches; breadth of neck ;},th of a line;

broadest segments about 4 a line.

Hab. Intestines of the King-Vulture (Sarcorhamphus papa).

(Mus. Brit.).

For this species I am indebted to Mr. E. Gerrard.

April 8th, 1862.—Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair.

Mr. Gould exhibited to the Meeting and described two new spe-

cies of Humming-Birds, which he had recently received from Ecuador ;

a new Fregilus from the Himalayas, which had hitherto been re-

garded as identical with the European bird of that form ; and a spe-

cies of Prion, which appears to constitute an additional member of

that peculiar genus of oceanic birds.

The Humming-Birds were named, respectively, Heliothrix longi-

rostris and Aphantochroa hyposticta ; the Fregilus, F. himalayanus ;

and the Prion, P. magnirostris ; and were thus described :—

316 | Loological Society :—

HELIOTHRIX LONGIROSTRIS, Gould.

Male: upper surface and wing-coverts brilliant green; wings

dark purplish brown; four middle tail-feathers bluish black, the re-

mainder pure white ; lores, line under the eye, and ear-coverts velvety

black, terminating in a small tuft of violet-blue feathers; below the

black line a stripe or moustache of glittering green; chin, throat,

and under surface snow-white; bill black; legs and feet fleshy

brown.

Total length 5} inches; bill 15; wing 27; tail 21.

Hab. Ecuador.

Remark.—I have been for years receiving from Ecuador examples

of what I believed to be females of a new species of Heliothrix; but

now in 1862 I have received an adult male, which convinces me that

my opinion was correct, and I have therefore described it under the

above appellation. In comparison with the other species of the genus,

I find it to be most nearly allied to H. auritus, being similarly co-

loured to that bird; it is, however, of larger size, has a considerably

longer bill, and in my specimen, which is doubtless adult, the crown

is devoid of the glittering hue seen in H. auritus; at the same time,

it is somewhat brighter than the back.

APHANTOCHROA HypostTicTa, Gould.

All the upper surface, wing-, and tail-coverts deep green; wings

purplish brown ; tail dull purplish green, deepening into blackish

brown at the tip, the two outer feathers on each side very slightly

fringed with white at the tip; feathers of the throat, breast, and

centre of the abdomen dull white at the base, with a spot of dull

green near the tip, giving those parts a spotted appearance; re-

mainder of the under surface dull green ; under tail-coverts dull green

at the base, deepening into black near the end, and fringed with

grey; tarsi and thighs rather thickly clothed with white feathers ;

bill black, except at the base of the under mandible, which appears

to have been flesh-colour.

Total length 43 inches ; bill 1,8;; wing 22; tail 11.

Hab. Ecuador.

Remark.—I have several specimens of this bird, all similarly co-

loured ; and I believe the specimen from which the above description

was taken to be fully adult. It differs from 4. cirrhochloris in its

spotted breast, in its shorter tail, and its rather more lengthened and

curved bill. I received the examples I possess from Quito, but I

believe they were collected near the waters of the Upper Napo.

FREGILUS HIMALAYANUS, Gould.

Plumage of the head and the whole of the body, both above and

beneath, deep glossy black ; wings and tail black, glossed with purple

and green; bill and feet coral-red; nails black.

Hab. The Himalayas.

Remark.—This fine Chough differs so greatly in point of size from

the species killed in this country that I have no hesitation in de-

Mr. J. Y. Johnson on Alepisaurus ferox. 317

scribing it as distinct; and that ornithologists may more clearly

perceive the great difference alluded to, I annex an accurate admea-

surement of male examples from India and Europe.

Fregilus himalayanus. Fregilus graculus.

Inches. Inches.

Total length ...... 153 Total length ...... 14

BITS Creech Segoe Bill 2.03 ee ate 1z

Wing 122 AV imees 278 aaah) 103

Pane, Sclvg oe. 63 Tail. 52

DRE SRO saps oll Le’) os 21 Tarsitichie Sears. 18

I may add that specimens from Italy and from Wales are precisely

alike in all their admeasurements.

PRION MAGNIROsSTRIS, Gould.

Head, all the upper surface and sides of the chest blue-grey ;

lesser wing-coverts and the edge of the shoulder brown; the remainder

of the wing blue-grey, deepening into slate-grey at the tips of the

inner primaries; the outer primaries slaty black, fading into white

on the inner edge; scapularies deepening into slate-grey near the

end, and tipped with pale grey ; tail very light grey, the centre fea-

thers tipped with blackish-brown ; chin, throat, centre of the breast,

abdomen, and under surface of the wing creamy white; a faint wash

of blue on the lower part of the flanks and the under tail- coverts ;

bill blue, deepening into black on the sides of the nostrils, at the tip

and along the side of the lower mandible; irides brown, legs beau-

tiful light blue.

Total length 11 inches; bill, base to tip 2, breadth at base +3;

wing 8; tail 43; tarsi 13.

Hab. Unknown.

Remark.—As the name I have assigned to it implies, this species

differs from every other member of the genus in the extraordinary

size of its bill. In form and colouring it is precisely similar to the

other Priozes, all of which are remarkably alike in these respects—

not so, however, in their bills, which consequently present the best

specific characters.

REMARKS ON A SPECIMEN OF ALEPISAURUS FEROX RECENTLY

OBTAINED AT Maperra. By JAmMes YATE JOHNSON, Corr.

Mem. Z.S.

Having lately procured a specimen of this rare and interesting fish

(which I have had the pleasure of presenting to the British Museum),

I beg leave to lay before the Society the result of my observations

upon it when in a fresh state. The remarks I shall make will be

for the most part supplementary to Mr. KE. T. Bennett’s long de-

scription of another specimen from this locality, ee in the first

volume of the ‘Transactions of the Zoological Society *;’ but I hope

2S will be found to have some bearing upon the question of the

* See Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. i. p. 395.

318 Zoological Society :—

ichthyological position of the genus, which has been placed in no.

fewer than four families by different naturalists. Myr. Lowe, who

founded the genus on the present species, placed it in Cuvier’s family

of Tenioides. M. Valenciennes referred the genus to the Salmonide.

Sir John Richardson, in his article on Ichthyology in the ‘ Encyclo-

peedia Britannica,’ assigned it, on page 213, to the Sphyrenide,

and on page 248 to the Scopelide. Lastly, that able ichthyologist,

Dr. Giinther, asserts that its natural affinity is decidedly Siluroid

(Cat. Acanth. Fishes in Brit. Mus. ii. p. 353). A consideration of

Mr. Bennett’s description and of the additional points about to be

mentioned, some of which appear to have been hitherto overlooked,

will lead, I think, to the conclusion that the position assigned to this

fish by Dr. Gunther is the true one.

The Specimen lately obtained is 53} inches long, the head mea-

suring 7 8 inches. The height of the body in front of the pectoral

fin is 4¢ mches. The branchiostegal membrane is supported by

seven rays, which number may probably be taken as the normal one,

as it agrees with one of Mr. Lowe’s specimens, the other of which

had six rays in that membrane. The fish has no barbels, in which

negative character it resembles the genus Batrachocephalus, a mem-

ber of the Stluride. The large eye (14 inch in diameter) is sur-

rounded by an adipose skin, which, on the posterior side, intrudes as

a transparent veil upon the eye, covering it to the extent of one-

third.

The subopercle of which Mr. Bennett spoke appears to be the

interopercle, which has been extraordinarily developed at the ex-

pense of the subopercle, the latter being wanting. Both this and

the opercle (which measures 2 inches across) are remarkable for their

paper-like tenuity and the high radiating striatures on their surfaces.

The hinder portion of the preopercle forms a strong bony ridge, also

striated. The coracoid is very broad at its middle, where it is seulp-

tured with radiating strize like the clavicle. The suprascapular and

the narrow scapular are longitudinally striated. The strize on all the

bones are strong.

The remarkably high first dorsal fin has forty-one rays, and the

deeply-forked caudal fin nineteen rays, whilst the second dorsal is

adipose—in these respects agreeing with Mr. Bennett’s description ;

but the pectoral fin has fourteen in place of fifteen rays, the ventral

fin ten in place of nine rays, and the anal fin sixteen in place of

seventeen rays. The first ray of the pectoral fin in the fish examined

by Mr. Bennett was the longest. In this specimen the fifth and

sixth rays are the longest (being 74 inches long), and they are rather

more than twice the length of the ‘str ongly-serrated first ray, which

is superior in length only to the three last. The first dorsal fin

(the base of which is 32 inches long) arises out of a groove, each

margin of which consists of a loose fold of adipose skin. The first

ray is jointed above, and is strongly serrate along its free edge, like

the first rays of the pectorals and ventrals. The first fifteen or six-

teen rays appear to be simple, the others sparingly branched ; but

the only perfect ray in my specimen is the fourth, and that is

Mr. J. Y. Johnson on Alepisaurus ferox. 319

12 inches long. The first ray of the ventral fin, though simple and

strong below, is jointed above and ends in a weak point. The first

two rays of the ana fin are short, the succeeding four long, and the

remaining rays short. The anterior part of this fin is fleshy, and at

the base of this part there is a groove on each side. The length of

the base of the whole fin, compared with the total length of the fish,

is as 1 to 114, instead of as 1 to 10 in Mr. Bennett’s example. The

caudal fin measures 71 inches in length, and the tips of the lobes

are 9 inches asunder.

Along the middle of each side on the posterior half of the body

there is a low adipose keel of a black colour; and this marks the

course, at this part, of the lateral line, which is unarmed throughout.

The fish is covered with a thin smooth skin, and is entirely destitute

of scales.

As to the dentition, there are at each side of the mandible, be-

ginning at the posterior end, ten teeth of moderate size, directed

backwards, and flattened, triangular, and pointed. Then come three

long-pointed teeth, which decrease in length forwards; then five

subulate teeth, having before them two long teeth on one side of the

mandible, on the other only one; lastly, at the tip, one acicular tooth.

The weak slender premaxillary is set with a single row of small sharp

triangular teeth, about eighty-five on each side. The palatine bones

are set posteriorly with a row of larger teeth, which, being flat, sharp,

and triangular, resemble the teeth of asaw. They are directed back-

wards, and correspond in size and shape with the opposite teeth of

the mandible. At the anterior part of each palatine bone is a row

of seven or eight long formidable teeth, the hinder ones being larger;

they are flattened, dagger-like, and are directed backwards. Behind

these on one side are two long teeth, but only one such tooth on the

other. The vomer is toothless.

With reference to the figure accompanying Mr. Bennett’s descrip-

tion, it may be remarked that the nostrils are wrongly indicated,

being much posterior to the place at which they are represented to

be. They are really situated a little nearer the eyes than the snout.

The two orifices of each pair, being small and close together, may have

been overlooked; and a couple of slight depressions with a bony

tubercle, in advance of their true position, have been apparently mis-

taken for them. Neither does the colouring of the figure well agree

with my specimen, which, when fresh from the water, had a dark-

bluish-grey back, with sides and belly of a silvery grey, reflecting a

brassy lustre in certain directions of the light. The dorsal, pectoral,

and caudal fins were a deep black ; the ventral and anal fins a silvery

grey. The indigo-blue spots in pairs near the lateral line in the

figure seem to occupy the places of colourless mucous pores, which

were observed in my specimen at irregular intervals near that line.

From this fish were obtained two species of Entozoa, viz. some

large specimens of a Distoma, and several examples of a Tzenioid

worm, measuring altogether some feet in length,

320

MISCELLANEOUS.

Notice of a New Leopard from Japan.

By Dr.-J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.

Mr. Keilish has kindly brought me for examination the skin of a

Leopard which he has received from Japan; it is well tanned, and

marked on the inside with the red impressions of two Japanese seals.

Leopardus Japanensis.

Fulvous, paler beneath. Back and limbs ornamented with ovate

or roundish, unequal-sized black spots; the spots on the shoulders,

back, and sides converted into a ring by a single central spot of the

same colour as the fur; spot on the back of the legs large, oblong,

and transverse. Head with small, regularly disposed black spots ;

nape with four series of narrow elongated black spots, the outer

ones sometimes confluent into lines, and with a series of large black

spots on each side of the back of the neck. Tail elongate, spotted,

paler, and with four black rings at the tip. Had. Japan.

The skin at first sight seems much like that of a fine-coloured

Hunting Leopard; but it is at once distinguished from that animal

by the larger size and brown centre of the black spots, and from

all the varieties of the Leopard by the linear spots on the nape and

the spots on the back not being formed of smaller spots.

The skin is 4 feet 6 inches, and the tail 2 feet 10 inches long.

Notice of a New ‘‘ Wild Goat” (Capricornus Swinhoei) from the

Island of Formosa. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e.

Mr. Swinhoe having kindly shown me some Mammalia from the

Island of Formosa, I have the pleasure of sending the description

of a new Goat-Antelope.

Capricornus Swinhoet.

Fur harsh and crisp. Brown: a narrow streak down the back of

the neck, a spot on the knee, and the front of the four legs below the

knee black ; the hind legs bay ; the sides of the chin pale yellowish ;

under side of the neck yellow-bay, separated from the upper part of the

neck by a ridge of longer hairs. Ears long, brown, pale internally.

Hab. Formosa, on the central ridge of the Snowy Mountains.

This species is very distinct from Capricornus crispa of Japan,

which has a white face. The skull has a deep and wide concavity

in front of the orbits, and a keeled ridge on the cheek. The horns

are short and conical.

Death of Fishes in the Sea during the Monsoon.

In a letter to Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir William Denison, the

Governor of Madras, observes that, in steaming between Mangalore

and Cananore on the west coast of India, he found that for some

time after the south-west monsoon the sea was offensive with dead

fish, killed by the great mass of fresh water poured into the sea

during the season of the monsoon.—Proc. Geol. Soc. June 18, 1862.

THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[THIRD SERIES. ]

No. 59. NOVEMBER 1862.

XXXIII.—On the Pro-Embryos of the Charee.

By M. Prinesuem*,

Ir is generally supposed by the numerous observers of the

germination of the Chare, that their spores produce the plants

immediately in germination.

This assertion is expressed most distinctly by Bischoff in his

monographic treatise on the Chare. After some brief remarks

upon the direction of the germinating plant, dependent on the

accidental position of the spore, Bischoff sayst, “In any case,

however, it is clear that in the Chare an immediate development

of the germ-plant from the spore takes place, without any trace

of a primitive germinal structure, such as occurs in the other

Cryptogamia of the higher orders ; and even by this the position

of these plants upon the boundaries of the two primary divisions

of the vegetable kingdom is attested.”

Certainly every one who has observed germinating Chare will

admit that this assertion is perfectly in accordance with the first

and direct impression which germinating Chare produce upon

the observer, and has evidently misled all the more recent

observers of the germination; for they differ in nothing from

Bischoff in their conception of the structure produced from the

spore.

Nevertheless this conception is false; and it is certain that

the germinating spore does not directly give origin to the young

plant, but that in the Chare, as in the higher Cryptogamia, a

pro-embryo is first formed in the germination, and upon this

the first branches of the plant are subsequently formed by a

normal process of gemmation. The proof of this assertion de-

* Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from the Monatsbericht der Akad.

der Wiss. zu Berlin, April 1862, p. 225.

+ G. W. Bischoff, ‘Die Cryptogamischen Gewiichse,’ 1828, p. 10.

Ann. § Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 22

322 M. Pringsheim on the Pro-Embryos of the Chare.

pends upon the history of the growth of the shoots of Chara,

for the complete representation of which we are indebted to

Alex. Braun*. It likewise requires a thorough examination of

the formation and structure of the lateral shoots given off from

the nodes and leaf-axils of the Chare.

I suppose the general structure of the Chare to be well known;

and with regard to the history of the development of their branches

I merely call attention here to the fact that every branch and

every bud (or branch-rudiment) of the Chare, as in the Cormo-

phyta generally, terminates in a vegetative cone, from which

the formation of the whole of the morphological segments (inter-

nodes, nodes, and leaves) issues directly or indirectly; and I

may add, further, that the vegetative cone of the Chare is formed,

not by a complex cellular body, but of a single cell, which is

therefore the vegetative cell. I further refer to the fact that the

cortication of the joints of the stem and leaves depends upon the

neighbouring nodes, the cortical segments descending from the

upper nodes coalescing with those ascending from the lower

nodes to form a coherent cortical coat.

It is well known that in the Chare, as in leafy plants in

general, branches issue from the leaf-axils at the nodes, which

equally increase the stock and repeat the growth of the parent

branch.

In Chara fragilis, to which species the following statements

refer, only a single lateral branch usually issues from the younger

nodes: this, as Al. Braun has shown, stands in the axil of the

oldest leaf of the whorl. It differs from its parent shoot only

in that the complete cortication of its first (lowest) jot takes

place entirely from the upper node, its basilar node forming no

ascending cortical segment.

In older nodes of this plant which have survived the winter,

we find, on the contrary, a greater number of shoots rising from

one whorl of leaves, and now uo longer exclusively from the

axil of the oldest leaf.

These later-produced lateral shoots appear at the same time

more or less abnormally altered, and a closer examination shows

that two kinds of structures, of very different morphological

value, occur amongst them.

Some of them are distinguished from the quite normally

barked shoot, produced at a much earlier period in the axil of

the oldest leaf, by an entire absence or a deficient development

of the bark on their lower parts. This alteration usually affects

only-the lowest joint and the leaves of the first whorl, but here

and there also the following jomts and whorls.

* “Ueber die Richtungsverhiltnisse der Saftstrome in den Zellen der

Characeen,” Monatsber. der Berliner Akad, der Wiss. 1852 & 1853.

-M. Pringsheim on the Pro-Embryos of the Chare. 323

~ To distinguish them from others, I will call these shoots

“‘naked-footed twigs.” The manifold phenomena called forth

by the various degrees of development of the bark on the lower

joints of these naked-footed twigs I pass over here entirely ; but,

on the contrary, I indicate particularly that even these shoots, in

their development, and especially in the formation of their mor-

phological members from the vegetative cell always present at

their apex, follow the general law of development of the shoots

of Chara.

The second kind of twig-like structures, which occur with

the naked-footed twigs on the older nodes which have passed

through the winter, must strike the observer, even from their

external appearance, by the far greater deviation of their lower

parts from the normal structure of the shoots of Chare. It is

to these structures, under the name of “ progerms of the twigs”

(Zweigvorkeime), that I wish here in the first place to call

attention.

Whilst every twig issuing from a node commences with a

distinct joint, appearing green from the well-known chlorophyll-

rows of the Chare, which bears immediately above it the first

normal node furnished with leaves, the progerms of the twigs

commence with a perfectly colourless shorter or longer joint, in

which the chlorophyll-rows are always wanting. This is followed

by an extremely imperfectly developed and always /eafless node,

the place of which is even frequently occupied by a single cell,

elongated into the form of a joint. Upon this, again, there fol-

lows a more or less elongated but always naked joint, which, in

its appearance already presents a greater resemblance to the

stem-joints of the Chare; and this joint apparently bears the

first circle of leaves.

But this also is remarkable for a disproportionate development

of the parts, which is never seen on any other whorl of leaves :

amongst the leaves apparently belonging to it one is constantly

distinguished by its excessive growth, far exceeding any inequa-

lities amongst the leaves of a whorl, that may occur now and

then in normal whorls.

It is only from hence that the twig becomes perfectly normal,

that is to say, the following joints, nodes, and leaves are exactly

like the first joints, nodes, and leaves of a normal naked-footed

or barked lateral twig ; so that it evidently appears as if the true

twig originates as a lateral shoot in the axil of the above-men-

tioned excessively developed leaf of the first whorl.

And this view is in fact fully confirmed by the developmental

history, which at the same time furnishes an unexpected expla-

nation of the nature of the excessively developed pseudo-leaf.

Thus it shows that this does not belong as a leaf to the first

- 22%

524 M. Pringsheim on the Pro-Embryos of the Cnare.

circle of leaves, but that it is the apex of a distinct structure

following a peculiar mode of growth, and that it is only under

this leaf-Jike apex, and at a later period, that the first normal

bud is produced and developed into a normal barked or naked-

footed twig, which is only distinguished from other twigs of

Chara by its basal node producing a few leaves which remain in

a rudimentary state of development.

Now, it is from these little leaves coinciding in a circle with

the end of that independent organ to which I give the name of

*‘progerm of the twig” that it appears as if the twig above this

whorl was the direct continuation of the joints below it.

The recognition of this gets rid of all the contradictions and

abnormal appearances which strike us in the lower joints and

the first whorls of these twigs so long as we start from the false

assumption that the structure which I indicate as the apex of

the progerm of the twig is the excessively developed oldest leaf

of the first whorl; for neither the development of this pro-

germinal apex, nor the form of its terminal cell, nor, lastly, the

directions of the currents in its cells agree with the normal

condition of the parts of a leaf.

The full significance of this progerm of the twig only becomes

evident, however, by the eomparative examination of the germi-

nating plant.

The considerable deviations from the normal structure of the

joints and nodes which are observed in the first joints and nodes

of germinating Chare are most simply explained by the same

processes of formation which I have shown to occur im the pro-

germs of the twigs.

The germination of the spore also commences with the forma-

tion of an independent organ following a law of growth peculiar

to itself—a progerm, from the leafless nodes of which the leafy

twigs sprout forth.

The progerms formed by the spere resemble in every respect

the progerms of the twigs produced on the older nodes of plants

which have passed the winter. They reach from the spore to

the first whorl of leaves, and terminate here with the same ex-

cessively developed structure apparently belonging to the whorl,

which has been regarded sometimes, as by the older observers,

as the apex of the growing main stem, and sometimes, as by

more recent investigators, as the first, disproportionately deve-

loped leaf of the first whorl.

It is, however, as already stated, neither the one nor the

other, but the apex of a leafless provisional structure incapable

of further development ; and the leaflets in its vicinity, with which

it apparently coincides to form a whorl, are, as in the progerms

of the twigs, the rudimentary leaves of the basal node of the

M. Pringsheim on the Pro-Embryos of the Chare. 325

first normal shoot of the Chara formed at the base of the pro-

germinal apex. .

This proof of the occurrence of the progerm in the Chara fills

a sensible gap in the developmental history of those plants. The

existence of leafless provisional structures, from which the twigs

shoot forth, supports the conception, derived from the history

of the formation of the parts, that the twigs of Chara are leaty

shoots, and places the relationship of the Chare to the Mosses

in the clearest light.

To the form of the seminal filaments and of the rudiments of

the fruit, in which the Chare so strikingly approach the Mosses,

we may now add the similar mode of production of the leafy

twigs from buds originating on confervoid leafless progerms;

for the progerms of the Chare differ but little in their structure

from the confervoid progerms of the Mosses, as is proved by the

possible replacement of their few and defectively developed

nodes by simple cells elongated into the form of joimts. And

although the more simple and throughout almost confervoid

structure of the plant in the Chara, as also the node-formation

of their progerms, by which these externally resemble the leafy

twigs, renders the recognition of the progerms and their distinc-

tion from the leafy twigs very difficult, still it is never possible

to confound the progerms with leafy twigs, and no transition of

a progerm into a leafy twig ever occurs; so that the morpho-

logical separation of the leafless progerms and the leafy shoots

is just as sharply marked in the Chare as in the Mosses.

Lastly, the complete morphological equivalence of the progerms

in Chare and Mosses shows itself most decidedly through the

progerms of the twigs in the former ; for, among all leafy plants,

it is only on the stems and leaves of the Mosses that we find

organs analogous to the progerms of the twigs of Chare. These

are the well-known root-like prothallia which occur on the stems

and leaves of many Mosses, and which have been fully described

by W. P. Schimper in his anatomical and morphological investi-

gations on the Mosses*.

The Chare, therefore, in their general process of development

pass through similar stages to the Mosses.

They are leafy plants, without a main stem or main root, the

whole of their twigs, like those of the Mosses, being produced

as lateral shoots, either on other leafy twigs or on leafless pro-

germs.

* Compare the structures described by Schimper in his ‘ Recherches

anatomiques et morphologiques sur les Mousses’ (Strasburg, 1848), as

“vadicelles proembryonnaires sur les tiges”’ (p. 13), ‘ excroissances pro-

embryonnaires sur le limbe et Vextrémité de la nervure des feuilles ”

(p. 15), and “ radicelles proembryonnaires aux feuilles dctachées de la tige”

(p. 19).

826 Rev. H. Clark on a new Species of Hydroporus.

In the structure of their antheridia and the development of

their fruit they certainly present important deviations from the

Mosses, which do not permit their complete systematic union

with any group of Mosses; but, as in the form of the seminal

filaments, so also in the original foundation of the fruit, they

agree with the general formative process in the Mosses; for,

although the period and the place of impregnation in the Chare

are not yet demonstrated, it may nevertheless be asserted with

great probability, from well-known and not far-fetched analogies

(to which we may now add the formation of the progerms), that

in them also it is not the spore-cell which germinates into a

prothallium, but a mother-cell preceding this by several genera-

tions, that is fertilized. The Chare consequently stand evidently

as a peculiar group of the section of Moss-like plants amongst

the Cryptogamia.

Moreover, the unexpected occurrence of the progerm in the

Chare makes it appear to be a general law (to which, contrary

to the earlier views, the Chare are subject as well as Ferns and

Mosses) that in all leafy plants the spore never can be directly

the vegetative apex of the first leafy axis.

The further development of this preliminary communication

will appear, with the necessary bibliographical references and

figures, in the next part of my ‘ Jahrbuch fiir wissenschaftliche

Botanik,’ which is already in the press.

XXXIV.— Description of a new Species of Hydroporus, Clairv.

By the Rev. Hamier Crarg, M.A., F.LS.

Fam. Dytiscide.

Genus Hyprororus, Clairv.

H, tinctus, n. sp.

H. oblongo-ovalis, subparallelus, sat convexus, post medium paulo

latior, ad apicem modice et rotunde productus, crebre punctulatus,

leviter pubescens, subopacus, niger, obscure rufo notatus; capite

inter oculos undique late et distincte depresso, sparsim punctulato,

ad apicem rufo tincto ; thorace antice emarginato, lateribus leviter

rotundatis, basi sinuata ad medium (scutelli regione) angulata,

sparsim et fortiter punctato, antice juxta marginem transverse

punctato-striato, ad basin plus minus transverse depresso, ad baseos

angulos plus fortiter plerumque foveolato, nigro ; elytris thorace

latioribus, cum thoracis margine angulum obtusum formantibus,

post medium latioribus, leviter punctatis, sparsim pubescentibus,

nigris, fascia lata ineequali transversa apud humeros, vitta mar-

ginali (post medium in maculam triangularem dilatata) haud apicem

attingente, rufis vel rufo-fuscatis, hee macule aliquando obsolete

Dr. J. E, Gray on the Species of Alligators. 327°

sunt, aliquando omnino absunt; corpore subtus nigro; antennis

fueco- nigra pedibus fusco-nigris, tarsorum articulis anteriorum

atis.

Magnitudine variat ; long. corp. lin. 12-14, lat. 4.

A variable species, both in pattern and size; nevertheless the

four examples before me (none absolutely identical with the

three others) evidently represent a single species, which is abun-

dantly distinct from all others with which I am acquainted : its

elongated form, coupled with the greater breadth of the post-

medial elytra (especially as contrasted with the thorax), and the

distinct angle formed by the line of the margins of the elytra

and thorax separate it at once from all species found in Great

Britain. In our list the name will stand next to H. palustris, Linn.

Four examples of H. tinctus were detected among a mass of

Turner’s captures, by my friend Dr. Power: they were captured

certainly in the district of the New Forest.

XXXV.—A Synopsis of the Species of Alligators.

By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.

Havine had occasion to re-examine the large collection of Alli-

gators in the British Museum for the purpose of naming the

more recently received specimens, I am induced to lay before

the readers of the ‘Annals’ an abstract of the result of this

examination.

I may observe that Spix, in his work on Brazilian Lizards,

gives very good figures of these animals, with the colours well

marked; and Natterer, in his ‘ Beitrage’ on South-American

Alligators, gives very accurate and detailed figures of the head

and the neck-shield of the different species; and he has figured

some varieties or species very nearly allied to those here noticed,

which I have not seen.

The Alligators (Alligatoride) may be divided tnus :—

I. The ventral scutella like the dorsal ones, bony, and articulated together,

forming a shield. The eyelids with an internal bony plate. The cervical

scutella in pairs, forming an elongated shield. Nasal bone short. Tro-

pical America.

1. Jacarz. The orbits united by a bony cross ridge. yelids

partly fleshy, striated or rugose.

2. Carman, The orbits not united by a cross ridge. Eyelids

entirely bony, smooth.

Il. The ventral scutella thin, the dorsal scutella bony, not articulated

together. The eyelids fleshy, smooth. The cervical scutella in pairs, sepa-

rate. Nasal bone elongate, separating the nostrils. North America.

3. AtticaToR. The face broad, depressed.

828. Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Alligators.

1. JACARE.

Head moderately high, shelving on the sides. Orbits united

by a distinct bony cross ridge. LHyelids striated or rugose,

strengthened by a small internal bone. The cervical scutella

four or five pairs, forming a shicld ; the dorsal and ventral scu-

tella bony, articulated together, forming a dorsal and ventral

shield ; the gular and ventral scutella smooth.

A. Head elongate ; interorbital ridges strong. Dorsal scutella elongate,

keeled, keels of vertebral series highest ; lumbar scutella in six longitu-

dinal series. Nuchal scutella small, compressed. Eyelids striated, with

a rather large internal bone. Back black, yellow-varied. Melanosuchus.

1. Jacare nigra (Black Jacare).

Crocodilus sclerops, Schn. Amph. 162; Cuvier, Arch. Zool. Mlsite Qeitsete

Crocodilus Yakare, Daud. Rept. i. 414.

Alligator Sclerops, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. y. 35, t. 1. f. 7 & 16, t. 2.f. 3.

Caiman niger, Spix, Bras. t. 4 (good).

Champse niger, Natterer, Beitr. t. 21 (good).

Hab. Para; 18 fect long (Graham).

I think it better to adopt Spix’s name, as sclerops has been

used for all the species.

B. Head short ; orbits with diverging ribs in front to edge of jaws. Dorsal

scutella broad, slightly keeled, equal ; the lumbar scutella in four longi-

tudinal series. Nuchal scutella distinct, in two cross series. Eyelids

rugose, with a small internal bone. Back olive, brown-banded. Cyno-

suchus.

a. Head short, broad, depressed, with very distinct preorbital ridges to the

edge of thejaw. Cervical disk short, broad, formed of four bands of

scutella, Sides of jaws pale, with a serics of dark spots.

2. Jacare latirostris.

Crocodilus latirostris, Daud. Rept. ii. 417.

Caiman fissipes, Spix, Bras. t. 3 (good).

Champse fissipes, Wagner, Icon. t. 17 ; Natterer, Beitr. t. 22 (good).

Alligator sclerops, Pr. Max. Abbild. t.

A. cynocephalus, Dum. & Bibr. Erp. Gén. 86.

Hab. Brazils. Pernambuco (J. P. G. Smith).

The nose of the young specimen is as long as the width at

the eighth tooth.

b. Head elongate, longer than the width at the eighth tooth, with none or anly

indistinct evanescent ridges from the front of the orbit. Cervical disk

oblong, elongate, of five series of scutella,

* Face depressed, broad ; sides of the jaws with a series of large coloured

spots, as in the former section.

3. Jacare lungiscutata.

Dorsal scutella elongate, longer than broad, uniformly keeled,

in ten longitudinal series in the middle of the body; ventral

Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Alligators. 329

scutella elongate, in fourteen or sixteen longitudinal series.

Sides of the jaws pale, with five or six band- like : spots ; the inner

pair of the first and second series of cervical scutella large and

equal-sized.

Hab. Tropical America.

This is very like the following ; but the head is rather broader,

and the dorsal and ventral shields are much larger and more

numerous.

It is known from the young of Jacare nigra by its olive-colour,

the spots on the sides of the jaws, and the presence of the di-

stinct nuchal scutella.

4. Jacare ocellata.

Dorsal scutella broad, uniformly keeled, in eight longitudinal

series in the middle of the body ; ventral scutella in twelve lon-

gitudinal series, those of the hinder series smaller, longer, and

more numerous; the central pair of cervical scutella in the first

series smaller than those that follow.

Hab. Lake of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

** Face attenuated, rather high on the sides ; sides of the jaws one-coloured,

not spotted or banded.

5. Jacare punctulata.

Caiman (Jacaretinga) punctulatus, Spix, Bras. t. 2 (good).

Champsa sclerops, Natterer, Beitr. t. 22 (head, good).

Alligator punctulatus, Dum. & Bibr. Erp. Gén. 1. 91.

Back pale yellow, brown-banded ; the sides of the head yellow;

upper and lower jaws yellow, one-coloured, or minutely speckled ;

sides of the neck smooth, with flat scales. Nose rather high and

square.

Hab. Brazils (Spiz) ; Surinam ; Argentine Republic.

Var. Sides of the neck rugose, with prominent keeled scales.

Demerara.

Dr. Natterer figures two other species, under the names of

Champsa vallifrons (t.23) and Ch. punctulatus (t. 24), the latter

of which seems to differ from the former in the head being

narrower and more tapering. I have seen no specimens agree-

ing with these figures; but they look very like varieties of the

above. At the same time, some of our specimens appear to have

more attenuated snouts than others ; but when the callipers are

applied to the nose and to other parts of the head, the absolute

proportions of the parts are very nearly the same.

I may observe that, characteristic as are the figures of Dr.

Natterer’s paper, none of them exactly agree with our specimens

when measured. Perhaps this arises from their having been

drawn in perspective. -

In some specimens of this Jacare, the first and sometimes

330 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Alligators.

even the second cervical scutella have two keels, in others only

one; but this is no specific distinction, as it is not rare to find

species with two keels on one side of the neck, and only one on

the other.

2. CAIMAN.

_ Head high, flattened on the sides. Orbits without any ridges.

The eyelids smooth, strengthened with a large, single, internal

bony plate. The dorsal and ventral scutella bony, articulated

together, forming a dorsal and ventral shield; the gular and

lateral ventral shields keeled, the abdominal ones smooth; the

cervical scutella four or five pairs, with sometimes one or a pair

interposed between the second and third pairs.

A. Head shelving on the sides. Nuchal scutella five, in a single cross series ;

cervical scutella five pairs ; dorsal scutella highly keeled, irregular, in

six series; the lumbar scutella in two longitudinal series ; the gular

and two outer lateral series of ventral scutella keeled. The flat upper

disk at base of tail broad and strongly crested. Paleosuchus.

1. Caiman trigonatus, Gray, Cat. B. M. 66.

Crocodilus trigonatus, Schn. Amph, 161, ii. t. 1,2 (skull); Cuvier, Oss. Foss.

ty. 65.

C. palpebrosus, var. 2, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 40, t. 2. f. 1.

Champse trigonata, Natterer, Beitr. t. 26 (good).

Hab. Tropical America. St. Domingo (Cuvier).

Cuvier and Duméril and Bibron have confounded this species

with the Black Crocodile from West Africa; and we have even

received a skeleton of the latter animal from the Paris Museum,

under the name of Alligator palpebrosus, var.

B. Head flat and erect on the sides. Nuchal scutella many, in two cross

series ; cervical scutella three pairs ; dorsal scutella slightly keeled ; the

lumbar scutella in four longitudinal series ; the gular, the ventral, and

‘ lateral abdominal scutella keeled. The flat upper disk at the base of the

tail elongate. Aromosuchus.

2. Caiman palpebrosus, Gray, Cat. B. M. 67.

Crocodilus sclerops (male), Cuvier, Arch. Zool. ii. 168.

C. palpebrosus, var., Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 38, t. 1.f. 6 & 17, t. 2. f. 2.

Champsa palpebrosa, Natterer, Beitr. t. 27 (good).

Caiman (Jacaretinga) moscifer, Spix, Bras. t. 1.

Brown ; tail black, banded.

Hab. Tropical America.

Natterer figures the head of a species, under the name of C.

gibbiceps ; but I do not see in what respect it differs from the

above, except that the head is a little higher, which is, perhaps,

a sexual distinction.

‘ 3. ALLIGATOR.

Head depressed, broad, without any preorbital ridges. The

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 331,

eyelids smooth, fleshy. The dorsal scutella not articulated toge-

ther, in six longitudinal series ; the ventral scutella thin; the

gular and abdominal shields smooth; nuchal scutella one pair,

small; cervical scutella three pairs, hinder smallest.

Alligator Mississippiensis, Gray, Cat. B. M. 61.

Crocodilus Mississippiensis, Daud. Rept. ii. 418.

C. Lucius, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 32, t. 1. f.8, & 15 t. 2. f. 4.

C. Cuvieri, Leach, Zool. Mise. ii.102,t. .

Alligator Lucius, Dum. & Bibr. Erp. Gén. iii. 75, t. 25, 26.

Hab. North America. Carolina (Catesby).

There are two varieties (?); or, it may ke, one sex has the face

longer in proportion to the width than the other.

XXXVI.—On Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera.

By T. Vernon Wo tasrton, M.A., F.L.S.

[Continued from p. 293.]

Fam. Curculionide.

Genus Lixvus.

Fabricius, Syst. Eleuth. ii. 498 (1775).

6. Lizus anguinus ?, Linn.

L angusto-elongatus, subcylindricus, subnitidus, pube cinereo-albida

demissa minuta parce tectus et linea marginali nivea ornatus ;

rostro longiusculo, minute ineequaliter punctulato, postice sub-

carinato; prothorace minutissime punctulato necnon profunde et

remote varioloso, in disco linea albidiore utrinque ornato ; elytris

apice singulatim acuminatis sed vix dehiscentibus, sat profunde

striato-punctatis, obsolete albido lineatis.

Long. corp. lin. 6.

Habitat prope urbem Funchalensem, a Dom. Wolff nuper lectus.

Curculio anguinus?, Linn., Syst. Nat. i. ii. 610 (1767).

LZ rather smaller and narrower than the L. Cheiranthi, less

densely clothed with a minute ashy pubescence, but (like that

species) ornamented with a broad paler line along its sides; also

less opake. Rostrum rather longer and slenderer than that of

L. Cheiranthi; also a little more curved, subcarinated posteriorly,

very minutely punctulated, and with rather larger punctures in-

termixed. Prothorax much more deeply and remotely punc-

tured, the punctures (or varioles) being, on the disk, enormous

and subconfluent; the spaces between them very minutely

punctulated ; ornamented on either side of its disk with a broad

but indistinct paler line. lytra gradually a little narrowed

behind, and with the extreme apex of each more produced or

332 Mr.T.V. Wollaston on Adiditions to Madeiran Coleoptera.

acuminated, but scarecly divergent; somewhat deeply striate-

(or perhaps rather seriate-) punctate, and apparently ornamented

with a few indistinct paler lines. Legs robust; the tibial hook

rather less developed than in the L. Chetranthi. Antenne pices-

cent at their base.

The single specimen of Lixus from which the above deserip-

tion has been compiled was communicated two months ago by

Mr. Bewicke, who obtained it from the collection of a German

entomologist, Dr. Wolff, by whom it was captured, during the

past winter, near Funchal. Being, unfortunately, unique and

in a rubbed condition, it is next to impossible to decide for cer-

tam whether it be referable positively to the L. anguinus of

Mediterranean latitudes, though the generality of its characters

are so very similar, apparently, to those of that insect, that I

think it would scarcely be safe to treat it as distinct. At the

same time, however, I cannot but admit that in the almost

undwaricating apices of its elytra it does not quite accord with

types of the L. anguinus now before me, but agrees better with

the diagnosis of the L. anguiculus from Southern Europe. Never-

theless I think that its other features, particularly of coloration,

will hardly admit of its being identified with the latter.

From the L. Cheiranthi (the only Madeiran species with which

it could possibly be confounded) it is abundantly different, being

not merely (judging from the unique example) a little smaller

and relatively narrower, but also less densely clothed with mi-

nute cinereous pubescence, and moreover less evenly so, there

being evident traces of paler longitudinal lines, both on its

elytra (which are much more produced, separately, at their

apices) and on either side of the disk of its pronotum. Its

rostrum, too, is a little longer and slenderer, and subcarinated

posteriorly ; its prothoracic punctures are very much larger and

more remote (the central ones particularly being enormous and

subconfluent, so as to take the form of varioles) ; and its tibial

hooks are less developed.

In the event of its being an undescribed species (which, how-

ever, is scarcely likely), I would propose for it the trivial name

of Wolffit.

Genus LAPAROCERUS.

Schénherr, Gen. et Spec. Cure. uu. 530 (1834),

7. Laparocerus undulatus, n. sp.

L. subgracilis, niger, pube brevi demissa viridi-cinerea parce varie-

gatus sed pilis superadditis fere carens; capite vix sculpturato,

oculis ovalibus prominentibus, rostro longiusculo subgracili apicem

versus sensim dilatato; prothorace parce et profunde punctato,

obsolete carinato, in disco postico leviter bi-impresso ; elytris pro-

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 333

funde punctato-striatis, obsolete undulato-insequalibus ; antennis

ferrugineis, elongatis, gracillimis, articulo secundo tertio sensim

longiore.

Mas pedibus robustis; tibiis longissime pilosis, anticis ad

apicem valde et subito incurvis, posticis apicem versus facile dila-

tatis, intus pone medium usque ad apicem late emarginatis, angulo

interno angulato-exstante, externo rotundato valde setuloso ; tarsis

latis.

Fem. adhuc latet.

Long. corp. lin. 33.

Habitat in montibus Madere, a meipso olim captus.

L, rather narrow, elongate-ovate, black, sparingly variegated

with an exceedingly minute, decumbent, greenish-cinereous or

opaline pubescence, but almost free from additional erect hairs.

Head nearly unsculptured, with the rostrum, however, slightly

rugulose and also rather long and narrow, though perceptibly

widened at its apex ; eyes oval and prominent. Prothorax very

deeply and sparingly punctured, most obsoletely keeled, and

unequal or bifoveolated on its hinder disk. Elytra deeply punc-

tate-striate, and with the interstices rather undulated. Antenne

long, slender, and ferruginous; the scape nearly straight, very

slender at the base and very suddenly thickened at its apex,

where it is somewhat darker ; funiculus with the first joint ex-

tremely long, being perceptibly longer than the second.

Male with the legs thick and robust : the ¢ibie with extremely

long pile internally, and the anéerior pair greatly and suddenly

incurved at their apex; the hinder pair gradually dilated, but

scooped-out internally from a little beyond the middle to the

inner apical angle, which is anguliform and prominent; the

outer angle densely setose and slightly rounded or obtuse (not

being prominent) : the ¢arsz broad.

Female as yet undetected.

The excessively slender scape of this insect, which is suddenly

clubbed at its extreme tip (instead of being gradually thickened),

will immediately assign it to Laparocerus vather than to Adlantis;

whilst its comparatively clongate, anteriorly subdilated rostrum,

narrowish outline, and somewhat undulated interstices point to

the ZL. clavatus (which in my ‘Ins. Mad.’ I had regarded,

wrongly, as an aberrant Allantis) as its nearest ally. Specifically,

however, it is abundantly distinct from that insect, being not

merely larger and of a different colour (its legs being dark in-

stead of testaceous, and its pubescence more or less opal or

greenish-cinereous instead of golden-brown), but also having its

head and rostrum nearly unsculptured, its eyes a little larger,

more oval, and less prominent, its prothorax very much more

deeply and sparingly punctured, and more unequal (or bi-

334 Mr.T.V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.

impressed) on the hinder disk, and with the first joint of its

funiculus perceptibly longer than the second. Judging from the

single specimen now before me, its sexual characters are likewise

different from those of Z. clavatus ; for, although I cannot vouch

for the female, the male has its legs considerably more robust,

with the tibiz more pilose and the feet decidedly broader at their

base. Its posterior tibize, also, are not only wider but broadly

scooped-out internally from nearly the middle point. to the ter-

minal angle, which last is extremely prominent*.

The unique example (a male) from which the above descrip-

tion has been drawn out I detected lately amongst a quantity of

the Atlantis lamellipes which I had placed aside in a pill-box,

and which were captured by myself several years ago in the lofty

elevations of Madeira, principally at the Fanal.

Genus CaNopsis.

Bach, Kafer-Fauna, 268 (1854).

Genus Trachyphieo affinitate proximum et facie habituque ge-

nerali omnino similis, sed capiée supra et utrinque dense longitudi-

naliter striguloso; rostro breviore, scrobe brevi sursum curvato ;

oculis paulo magis prominulis: axtennis pone medium scrobis in-

sertis, longioribus, minus incrassatis (sc. scapo longiore graciliore

versus basin magis flexuoso, funiculi articulis inter se laxioribus,

1™° et 24° paulo longioribus, illo minus incrassato): ¢ibis simpli-

cibus (2. e. ad apicem externum haud spinosis) et tarsorum ungut-

culis magis approximatis (basi minus distantibus).

This genus (which is identical with Cataphorticus of Jacq.

Duval) is closely allied to Trachyphleus, with which, indeed,

until lately its members have been associated. It differs merely

in having the upper surface and sides of its head densely longi-

tudinally strigulose (a peculiarity of sculpture, however, which

is, of course, only perceptible when the scales are removed) ; in

its rostrum being shorter, with the lateral scrobs consequently

more abbreviated (and likewise more curved upwards), and with

the eyes a trifle more prominent ; in its antennz (which are im-

planted rather behind the middle of its short scrobs, and there-

fore nearer to either eye) being rather longer and less incrassated,

the funiculus-joints being /axer inter se, and the first and second

of them more perceptibly elongated (though the former is less

evidently thickened than is the case in Trachyphleus) ; in its

* In some respects it approaches nearer to the L. morio; but, apart

from numerous other characters, its much narrower and apically-subdilated

rostrum, in conjunction with its less globose, more uneven, and much more

deeply and sparingly punctured prothorax, its more coarsely punctured ely-

tral striz, and the totally different structure of its hinder male tibiz, will

at once distinguish it from that insect.

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 335

tibie being simple (or unarmed with additional spines) towards

their outer apex; and in its tarsal claws being set more closely

together.

8. Canopsis Waltoni, Schonh.

C. ovatus, niger, fusco-cinereo squamosus et setis rigidis longiusculis

dense obsitus ; capite postice longitudinaliter strigoso, rostro brevi;

oculis prominulis; prothorace densissime ruguloso-punctato; elytris

profunde striato-punctatis, punctis magnis ; antennis pedibusque

ferrugineis squamosis, illis versus basin scrobis (mox ante oculos)

insertis, his breviusculis, tibiis ad apicem simplicibus (haud spinu-

loso-terminatis).

Long. corp. lin. 13.

Habitat Maderam: in montibus supra urbem Funchalensem exem-

plar unicum sub lapide cepit Dom. Bewicke.

Trachyphleus Waltoni, Schonh., Gen. et Spec. Cure. vii. 115 (1843).

C. ovate, black, densely clothed with brownish-cinereous scales

and studded with long and erect setee. Head closely longitudi-

nally strigulose behind, with the eyes rounded and rather pro-

minent, and with the rostrum short; the last with the lateral

scrobs likewise short and curved upwards to the upper margin

of the eye, and with the antennz implanted into it near its base.

Prothoraz very densely punctured, the punctures being rather

small and more or less confluent. Elytra deeply striate-punc-

tate, the punctures being extremely large. Antenne and legs

ferruginous, but squamose: the former relatively longer and

slenderer than those of the Trachyphleus scaber, and with their

scape more flexuose at the base ; the /atter rather short, with the

tibize simple at their extreme apices—not being fringed with, or

terminated by, minute spinules.

A single specimen has lately been communicated by Mr. Be-

wicke (by whom it was captured at the Mount, above Funchal),

which appears to me to agree precisely with my British examples

of the C. Waltoni—possessing the longitudinal frontal strige,

the abbreviated rostrum, the enormous elytral punctures, and

the numerous other features which distinguish that insect ; and

I think it far from unlikely, therefore, that it may have been

imported accidentally into Madeira through the medium of the

English residents, who have long been in the habit of bringing

boxes of plants, at intervals, from our own country, in order to

replenish their gardens with the familiar forms of more northern

latitudes. And, indeed, so long as such is the case, it seems

impossible to foretell the amount of additions which may and

must accumulate to the fauna in the course of every few years,

though happily it is not difficult, when studied i situ, to draw

the line of demarcation, in at all events a general way, between

that portion of the Coleopterous population which is truly indi-

336 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera,

genous and that which owes its presence to chance agencies

from without. Whether introduced, however, or not (for it is,

of course, impossible to decide this point for certain on the evi-

dence afforded by a solitary individual), it is clear that the species

must be admitted into our Catalogue; for even if it be not

originally Madeiran, it has in all probability, at the least, become

naturalized in the island. The unique example described above

has been presented by Mr. Bewicke to the collection of the

British Museum,

In order to draw attention to its distinctions from the Trachy-

phleus scaber, to which, primd facie, it is of course a good deal

allied, I may just repeat that it not only wants the minute spines

which fringe the apices of the tibice in that insect, but that it is

likewise altogether smaller and has its setz denser and longer ;

that its rostrum is much more abbreviated and with the lateral

scrobs consequently shorter (being also curved upwards, to the

upper margin of the eye, instead of downwards to the middle of

it); that its eyes are more prominent and its antennz longer

and slenderer, with their scape more flexuose at the base, and

implanted towards the base of the scrobs instead of towards its

apex ; that its forehead, when denuded of its scales, will be seen

to be longitudinally strigulose ; that its prothorax is more regu-

larly and closely punctured ; and that its elytra have the punc-

tures of their striz very much larger.

Fam. Halticide.

Genus LonciTarsus.

Latreille, Fam. Nat. des Ins. 405 [script. Longitarse] (1825).

9. Longitarsus, n. sp.

Habitat Maderam, a Dom. Anderson detectus.

I merely record here the ewistence of a new and insignificant

Longitarsus, to be added to the list, because my friend M. E,

Allard, of Paris, who has paid such great attention to the Haltz-

cide, and to whom we are indebted for the best monograph of

the family which has yet been published, is desirous of including

it in a supplemental memoir which he is preparing. Although,

therefore, I drew out a careful description of it before sending it

to Paris, I nevertheless abstain from inserting it in this paper,

and will simply call attention to the fact that its discovery is due

to Mr. I’, A. Anderson, who brushed three or four specimens of

it (as Lam informed by Mr. Bewicke) from off grass immediately

outside the gate which leads into the grounds of the Palheiro,

on the mountains to the eastward of Funchal. One of these ex-

amples, which has been transmitted to me by Mr. Bewicke, has

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madziran Coleoptera. 337

been presented by Mr. Anderson to the collection of the British

Museum.

Although purposely omitting (for the reason above referred

to) its diagnosis, I may briefly state that, according to a com-

munication now before me from M. Allard, the species in ques-

tion is about “the same size and form as the L. obliteratus,

Rosenh., but is darker and more shining, with the punctation

of its prothorax and elytra much finer, and with its antennal

joints considerably shorter.’ M. Allard then adds: “It has

equally an analogy with the L. parvulus, Gyll.; but this last has

its shoulders wider and more prominent, and its punctures a

little too subtle and not disposed in rows at the base and towards

the suture of its elytra.”

Fam. Coccinellide.

Genus CoccINELLa.

Linneus, Syst. Nat. edit. 1 [seript. Coccionella] (1785).

10. Coccinella Andersoni, n. sp.

C. rotundato-ovalis, nitida, levissime punctulata ; capite rufescenti-

lurido, in fronte vix flavescentiore ; prothorace antice et ad latera

(rotundata) subpellucide marginato, apice truncato (angulis anticis

haud porrectis), luride subflavescenti-rufo, ad utrumque latus nec-

non in maculis duabus basalibus parvis dilute flavo ; elytris mar-

ginatis, margine circa humeros (valde rotundatos) versus scutellum

continuato sed longe ante seutellum abrupte terminato, luride

subflavescenti-rufis sed maculis maximis confluentibus dilute flavis

marmoratis ; antennis pedibusque infuscato-testaceis, illis tarsisque

ad apices paulo obscurioribus.

Long. corp. lin. 13.

Habitat Maderam: ad flores pinorem supra Funchal primus depre-

hensit Dom. Anderson, cujus in honorem nomen triviale proposui.

C. roundish-oval, shining (but not highly polished), and most

lightly and minutely punctulated. Head of a dull lurid yellowish

red, and a little more diluted (though scarcely spotted) on the

forehead. Prothorax much rounded at the sides, with its ex-

treme lateral and anterior edges subpellucid, truncated in front

(its anterior angles not being at all porrected) ; of a dull lurid

yellowish red, but with each side (except a small, ill-defined,

cloudy enclosed spot) broadly lurid yellow, and two obscure

nearly confluent patches of the same colour resting on the centre

of its extreme base. /ytra distinctly margined, the margin

being carried forward to about midway between the shoulders

(which are much rounded-off) and the seutellum, at which point

it terminates abruptly; of the same dull lurid yellowish ved as

the prothorax, but ornamented with equally dull lurid-yellow,

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser,3. Vol. x. 23

838 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.

immense, more or less confluent spots, of which two large ones

join each other at the extreme base (behind the scutellum), whilst

those immediately behind coalesce so as to form an oblique ante-

medial zigzag fascia, reaching from either shoulder to about the

middle of the suture; then follows a longitudinal patch on the

outer posterior disk, and then a larger one (near the suture)

behind it, both of which merge into a marginal one; after which

there is a small rounded spot at the apex itself. Antenne and legs

brownish-testaceous: the former rather slender, with their club

(which is a little darker) only slightly enlarged ; the /atter robust,

with the outer edge of their tibie and the apical joint of their

tarsi infuscated.

Referring to this interesting addition to the Madeiran fauna,

Mr. Bewicke has transmitted to me the following note :—“ Mr.

Anderson captured the first, from off a clump of Stone Pine

(Pinus pinea) to the south of S. Antonio church, about two miles

from Funchal. I think this was taken in May. A few days

afterwards I obtained four more—two from off the same trees

as Mr. Anderson’s, and two from off others of the same species

about half a mile distant—below S. Martinho. On a subsequent

day I met with four more, on trees in the same district ; and I

have recently found one in Mr. Grimes’s garden, on the Saltos

road, above Funchal. It is only on trees in flower that I have

hitherto observed them; but I failed in detecting any Aphides

on which they might feed.”

Fam. Helopide.

Genus Hertors.

Fabricius, Syst. Ent. 257 (1775).

11. Helops arboricola, n. sp.

H. subcylindrico-oblongus, ater, subopacus; capite prothoraceque

confertissime punctulatis (punctis subconfluentibus), hoc longius-

culo, utrinque versus basin plus minus valde sinuato, angulis pos-

ticis plus minus acutis ; elytris subparallelis, densissime et minute

granulatis (granulis versus suturam. obsoletis), crenato-striatis,

interstitiis tuberculis parvis remotis longitudinaliter obsitis; an-

tennis pedibusque elongatis.

Long. corp. lin. 7.

Habitat in intermediis Mader, sub cortice arborum laxo emortuo

a Dom. Bewicke captus.

Helops arboricola, Bewicke, in litt.

H, subcylindrical-oblong, black, and subopake. Head and

prothoraz most densely punctulated, the punctures being sub-

confluent and a little coarser on the former than on the latter ;

the latter rather elongate, with the anterior angles somewhat

Mr. T, V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 839°

porrected and acute, very finely margined both laterally and

behind, and more or less scooped-out (sometimes very deeply so)

on either side towards the basal angles, which are consequently

more or less prominent or acute. /ytra almost parallel at the

sides (at any rate in the males), most densely and minutely

granulated (the granules, however, being almost obsolete towards

the suture), crenate-striated, the interstices with a row of minute

tubercles down each, which are obsolete near the suture and in

front. Antenne and legs long; the former (especially towards

the extremity) and the ¢arsi of the latter somewhat fuscescent.

The present large Helops, the discovery of which is due to

Mr. Bewicke, is well distinguished from all the other Madeiran

species by its elongate parallel outline (at all events in the

male sex) ; by its most closely punctured head and prothorax,

the latter of which is relatively longer, and with the anterior

angles more porrected, than is the case in either H. Vuleanus or

H. confertus, and also more scooped-out on either side towards

the base, which causes the posterior angles to be more or less

prominent or acute ; and by its very densely and minutely gra-

nulated elytra, the interstices of which have a row of small but

well-defined tubercles down each (though both granules and

tubercles are nearly obsolete towards the suture, particularly in

front).

The H. arboricola is altogether narrower and more cylindric

than H. Vulcanus, and its prothorax is relatively longer and less

convex ; nevertheless in actual length it almost equals that in-

sect. Its habits, however, are quite different; for whilst H.

Vulcanus is a maritime species, occurring beneath stones and

in fissures of exposed rocks towards the coast, H. arboricola

is found (like H. confertus) under the bark of trees in sub-

sylvan spots of intermediate elevations. Under such circum-

stances a single specimen was captured, first, by Mr. Bewicke,

during the spring of 1861, high up in the Ribeira de 8. Luzia ;

and in April of the present year he again met with the species,

in another but very similar locality—in the Vasco Gil ravine,

Referring to this circumstance, in a letter lately received from

him, Mr. Bewicke remarks as follows :—“ I took one a short time

ago, in a tree, up the Vasco Gil ravine; Senhor Moniz and I

subsequently spent a day there and searched the whole vicinity,

but found nothing until we came to the original tree, where we

obtained three or four more. They were all of them beneath

bark, at a considerable height (about 10 or 12 feet) from the

ground. The H. confertus was very abundant in that tree, as

well as in most of the others; and it is perhaps worthy of note

that the tree was in a very similar position to the one (in the

Rib. de S. Luzia) in which I took the insect last year—namely,

23%

349 Mr. T.V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.

in an old river-bed, and at about the same elevation above the

sea.” One of these latter specimens, from the Vasco Gil ravine,

has been presented by Mr. Bewicke to the collection of the

British Museum, and another to the Madeiran cabinet at

Oxford.

Fam. Staphylinide.

Genus PLATYSTHETUS.

Mannerheim, Brachel. 46 (1831).

12. Platysthetus cornutus.

P. niger, nitidus ; capite subconvexo, punctato; prothorace elytris-

que distinctius alutaceis sed levius (sc. levissime) et parcius punc-

tulatis ; antennis subgracilibus ; tarsis testaceis.

Long. corp. lin. 13.

Habitat prope urbem Funchalensem, specimen unicum cepit Dom.

Anderson.

Oxytelus cornutus, Grav., Col. Micropt. 109 (1802).

Platysthetus cornutus, Erichs., Gen. et Spec. Staph. 782 (1839).

P, black and shining. WTead rather ccnyex, or at all events

with the forehead not excavated between the antenne, lightly

punctured, and with a fine but abbreviated channel in the centre

behind. Prothorax and elytra more coarsely alutaceous, but

with the punctules smaller, finer, and more remote than those

on the head, being, in fact, on the latter almost obsolete: the

former with a deep central channel; the /atter apparently undi-

luted in hue, being concolorous with the rest of the surface.

Antenne rather slender. Tibie somewhat piceous; tarsz testa-

ceous.

The single specimen from which the above description has

been compiled does not appear to differ sufficiently from the

common European P. cornutus (which I have taken plentifully

at the Canaries) to warrant its being treated as distinct. Never-

theless, since it is unfortunately a female one, I am unable to

say whether the clypeus of the male sex would afford any cha-

racter of specific signification. ‘True it is that its elytra are

concolorous with the rest of the surface (instead of being more

or less testaceous or diluted on the imner disk of each, as is

ordinarily the case), but Krichson expressly mentions that (as nm

examples he had examined from Syria) the elytra are sometimes

altogether black. Its other features seem to agree sufficiently well

with the corresponding ones of the P. cornutus, amongst which

its comparatively convex (or unexcavated) forehead, its rather

slender antenne, its alutaceous surface, and the fineness of its

punctation may be particularly noticed. The individual de-

scribed from was taken near Funchal by Mr. F. A. Anderson,

Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera, 341

who has kindly presented it to the collection of the British

Museum.

In my paper on “Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera”

published in the August number of the ‘Ann. of Nat. Hist.’

for last year, I stated that the species detected in the group up

to that date amounted to 646, Ihave therefore merely to re-

mark that the twelve here enumerated (four of which were first

detected by Mr. Bewicke, four by Mr. Anderson, two by Senhor

Moniz, one by Dr. Wolff, and one by myself) will raise the

number to 658.

The few following notes may be conveniently inserted here :—

1. Ptinella aptera (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3. viii. 101).—The

little insect (detected in Madeira by Mr. Bewicke) which I cited

in my last year’s paper of “Additions,” under the name of

“ Ptinella aptera, Guérin,”’ appears to be the ratisbonensis, Gillm.,

and not the aptera. The mistake arose through the Rev. A.

Matthews (who identified the species for me, whilst correcting

the nomenclature of the British Trichopterygide) having had a

wrong type communicated from Paris. It appears to him, how-

ever (and, I may add, to me also) to be coincident specitically

with the English examples with which he originally compared

it,—the only difference being that those examples are referable,

as he believes, to the P. ratisbonensis, instead of to the aptera.

Its synonymy, therefore, will stand thus :—

Trichopteryx ratisbonensis, Gillm., Sturm’s Deutsch]. Fauna, xvii. (1845).

Ptinella ratisbonensis, Matthews, Zoologist, 8058 (1862).

2. Saprinus metallicus (Ins. Mad. 217).—I find that this in-

sect, which I have taken abundantly from beneath rejectamenta

on the sea-beach of Porto Santo, is nof the metallicus of Herbst,

as [had imagined. From specimens which I sent to De Marscul

for comparison, four years ago, and which have but lately been

returned, the species appears to be referable to the apricarius of

Erichson—an insect which is recorded from Spain, Corsica,

Sicily, Algeria, and Egypt. Its synonymy will consequently

stand thus :—

Saprinus apricarius, Erichs., in Jahrb. 194 (1834).

—_ » De Mars., Mon. des Hist. 725. 158 (1855).

metallicus, Woll. [nec Herbst], Ins. Mad. 217 (1854).

— , Id., Cat. Mad. Col. 75 (1&57).

3. Enneadesmus barbatus (Ann. Nat. Hist. 8 ser. v. 359).—This

must be quoted as the Xylopertha barbata, since it appears that

the Xyloperthe have, after all, but nine joints to their antenne,

and not ten as has usually been supposed. Consequently Mul-

342 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madetran Coleoptera.

sant’s genus Hnneadesmus, which was separated from Xylopertha

solely on account of the former character, has to be suppressed.

4. Tychius albosquamosus (Ins. Mad. 345).—Having had occa-

sion lately to re-examine with greater care the unique specimen

of this insect which was captured on the Deserta Grande during

May of 1850, and to compare it with examples from the Cana-

ries, I believe that it is not a Tychius at all, but should be re-

ferred to the genus Smicronyx of Schonherr. It appears iden-

tical with a small Curculionid which I took, four years ago, in

the intermediate elevations of Teneriffe, and which must con-

sequently be quoted as the Smicronyx albosquamosus. Apart

from minuter distinctions, Smcronye may be known from Ty-

chius by its more sunken eyes, and by its claws being approxi-

mated at their base, whereas in the latter they are not only

distant, but are even furnished with a little intermediate appen-

dage. The species are, on the average, somewhat smaller and

less scaly than the Tychii; their prothorax is much more finely,

and not so thickly, punctured ; their elytral striz are less de-

cidedly crenulated, being often quite simple; and the spine at

the inner apex of their tibie is a trifle more developed, whilst

even the outer angle also is rather more prominent and spinu-

lose. The unique Desertan example, now in the British Museum,

being in exceedingly bad condition, from its having been taken

dead and mutilated, it is much to be hoped that fresh specimens

may ere long be brought to light, through the indefatigable

researches of Mr. Bewicke, whose success amongst the minute

Coleoptera of the Madeiran islands has been so remarkable.

5. Atlantis clavatus (Ins. Mad. 363).—For the reasons stated

above, under the Laparocerus undulatus, 1 believe that this insect

will be better referred to Laparocerus than to Aélantis. It

should therefore be cited as the Laparocerus clavatus.

6. Helops.—According to information which I have received

lately from Dr. Schaum, who has had occasion to examine criti-

cally certain types of the Heteromera in the collection of the late

Dr. Germar, the names of no less than three of the Madeiran

Helopes will, in right of priority, have to be changed, the species

having apparently been described by Ktister in 1850, 7. e. four

years previous to the publication of my ‘Ins. Mad.’ Assuming

therefore Dr. Schaum’s identification to be correct, for the A.

confertus, Woll., we must read asper, Kist.; for the H. Pluto,

Woll., gagatinus, Kiist.; and for the H. cinnamomeus, Woll.,

graniger, Kiist. It appears that “ the asper was described as a

Madeiran insect, but that the other two are stated erroneously

to come from Portugal.”

Mr. Jeffreys on a Species of Limopsis. 343

XXXVII.—On a Species of Limopsis, now living in the British

Seas; with Remarks on the Genus. By J. Gwyn Jerrreys,

F.R.S., F.G.8. &c.*

THE only result of any interest which accrued from my dredgings

this year in the northern seas of these islands was the discovery

of the Limopsis aurita of Sassi in a living state. Last year I

procured a few small single valves in the same spot; but, as I

had experienced so much difficulty in distinguishing fossil from

recent shells, I was not quite certain whether these valves might

not have come from a submarine pleistocene bed, notwithstand-

ing the freshness of their appearance, and the epidermis being

retained on some of them. However, all doubt was removed on

the present occasion. A specimen containing the animal was

dredged about twenty-two miles off the Island of Unst in Shet-

land, at a depth of 85 fathoms, in sandy gravel, together with a

tolerably large single valve in an equally recent state. My

friend Professor Allman was with me at the time, and has very

kindly made a drawing of the soft parts, which I have now the

pleasure of exhibiting.

As nothing could be seen of the animal, although it was con-

stantly and carefully supplied with sea-water for some time, I

had no alternative but to kill it by immersion in boiling water,

in order to examine it and the interior of the shell; and the

sketch made by Professor Allman and my notes were therefore

post mortem, and are not so complete or satisfactory as I could

wish.

The appearance of the Limopsis while living and in its native

element was extremely beautiful. The surface of the shell was

clothed with long and fine hairs, which projected far beyond the

edge of the valves, like a fringe of silken eyelashes. These hairs

form part of the epidermis, and are not contractile; and they

doubtless serve to protect or warn the feeble mollusk against

the insidious attacks of other animals. When the shell becomes

dry, the epidermidal hairs shrivel up, and to some extent lose

their former beauty.

The body is of a milk-white colour. The mantle is open in

every part except behind; it has no tubes or folds, and its edges

are thickened and furnished with papilliform glands. The gills

or branchie are disposed as in other members of the same family.

The foot is large in proportion to the rest of the body, and is

shaped like a tobacconist’s knife; it can in all probability form

a suboval disk at the central portion, as in Pectunculus. The

few and imperfect particulars here given serve, however, to show

* Communicated by the Author, having been read at the meeting of the

-British Association held at Cambridge in 1862. j

lod

O44 Mr. Jeffreys on a Species of Limopsis

that the animal of Limopsis is closely allied to that of Pectun-

culus in form; and the same remark applies to the shell in each

of these genera.

The shell of Limopsis differs from that of Pectunculus only in

the apparatus by which it is closed. In Pectunculus the hinge-

area or plate at the back of the shell is furnished with a strong

ligament which extends from one side to the other, and unites

the whole of the hinge; while in Limopsis there is no ligament

(properly so called), ‘but only a small cartilage which fits into a

triangular pit or depression placed just. under the beak in each

valve. The ligament and cartilage are in either case exterior to

and above the hinge-line, but are seated within the beaks. In

specimens of Limopsis of every age the teeth are continuous ;

but in Pectunculus they are interr upted | in the middle, and form

two distinct rows which obliquely diverge from the centre. But

this last character I do not regard as constant or of much

alue.

In each of these genera, specimens of the same species vary

greatly in being more or less oblique, and in the hinge-margin

occasionally projecting at each end to such an extent as to give

the shell an appearance of having ears, as 1s the case in many

other genera of the family of Ar cide.

Nucula has also a cartilage with a pit for its reception; but

in that genus these processes are internal, instead of external as

in Limopsis, and they are placed below instead of above the

hinge-line.

Lima bears no affinity to Limopsis, having only a single ad-

ductor muscle, and a different kind of hinge-fastening.

The history of the genus Limopsis is involved in some obscu-

rity, which is partly owing to the rarity of the work in which it

was originally described. According to the ‘ Lethaa geognos-

tica’ of Bronn (whose loss is so deeply felt and deplored by geo-

logists), Limopsis was Sepia as a new genus by Sassi, in the

‘Giornale Ligustrico’ for 1827; but the British Museum libr ary

does not contain any such “Serrbaldal and I have not been le

to obtain a sight of it in this country. Nyst, in his work on

Belgian fossils (1843), stated that he was ignorant of Sassi’s

publication or its date, although Bronn had given both these

patticulars twelve years before the above statement was made.

Nyst and Galeotti had in 1835 pe for the same genus the

name of Trigonocela. The late Prof. d’Orbigny, equally dis-

regarding the rule of priority in spenane nomenclature, pub-

lished, in the ‘ Paléontologie Francaise’ (1844), another name

(Pectunculina), which has been lately adopted by Dr. Chenu, who

makes Limopsis and Trigonocelia subgencra of D’Orbigny’s

genus, but upon what grounds it is almost impossible to ima-

now living in the British Seas. 545

gine. Dr. J. E. Gray gave another name (Limnopsis) to this

genus in 1840; but this may have originated in a lapsus

calamt.

The first conchologist who pointed out the difference between

Limopsis and Pectunculus, although he retamed both in the old

Linnean genus Arca, was Brocchi, who, in his ‘ Conchiologia

Fossile Subapennina’ (1814, vol. ii. p. 485, tab. 11. f. 9), de-

scribed the species which I have now noticed as an inhabitant

of the British seas. His description and remarks are, as usual,

most excellent. This species (Z. aurita) is not uncommon in the

Coralline Crag at Gedgrave ; and Mr. Searles Wood suspected

that it may have lived on to the Red Crag period, as his cabinet

contained a specimen, but much water-worn, from that forma-

tion.

It is quite impossible to distinguish, as species, the recent shells

dredged in our own northern sea from those found in the Coral-

line Crag; and I believe other species of Limopsis are also de-

rived from Tertiary forms, but that they have not been hitherto

identified with them.

The recent species appear to be six in number, viz. :—

1. multistriata, Forskal; Red Sea.

2. Belcheri, Adams & Reeve. This is perhaps the Peclunculus

granulatus of Lamarck, an Kocene fossil from Grignon.

3. munita, Philippi; from the Sicilian and Calabrian Tertiaries.

Probably the same as two recent specimens in the British

Museum, the locality of which is unknown: or it may be a

variety of the next.

A. aurita, Brocchi (Trigonocelia sublavigata, Nyst); Shetland.

The single valve of a Limopsis, dredged by Mr. M‘Andrew

on the coast of Norway, and now in the British Museum,

appears to belong to a varicty of this species, and to differ

from the typical form only in the inside of the front margin

being notched—a character which is not uncommon in va-

rieties of Astarte sulcaia and A. triangularis. Prot. Sars,

in his Catalogue of 1857, regards this last specimen as be-

longing to Z. munita; while Danielssen, in his more recent

work published in 1859, refers it to the Pectunculus pyg-

meus of Philippi.

5. cancellata, Reeve; not uncommon on shells of a variety of

Phorus Indicus, but apparently fossil.

6. pellucida, Jeffreys ; dredged off Guernsey. A minute species ;

but, although quite distinct from the young of any other

species, it requires further investigation in regard to its true

position.

Although the particulars which I am enabled to give of the

346 Mr. A. Adams on new Species of Scissurellide

animal of Limopsis are confessedly meagre, I have been induced

to publish them in consequence of nothing being yet known on

the subject; and at any rate I hope this notice of another link

being supplied in the chain which connects the tertiary with the

recent fauna may not be uninteresting to naturalists.

XXXVITI.—On some new Species of Scissurellide fram the Seas

of China and Japan. By Arruur Apams, F.L.S. &c.

Tue genus Scissurella of D’Orbigny is distinguished from Ana-

tomus, H. & A. Adams, in being provided with a foramen instead

of a fissure. It is synonymous with Schismope of Jeffreys, and

Woodwardia of Crosse and Fischer. The new species of Scissu-

rella and Anatomus which I now describe, from the seas of China

and Japan, were dredged from deep water and from a bottom of

sandy mud and broken shells.

1. Scissurella carinata, A. Adams.

S. testa ovata, depressa; spira planiuscula; anfractibus 23, planis,

ultimo supra carimam striis radiantibus (ad suturas validioribus)

instructo, infra carinam cingulis elevatis transversis ornato, basi

lineis elevatis concentricis, interstitiis cancellatis instructo ; aper-

tura obliqua; labio recedente.

Hab. Okosiri; 35 fathoms. Seto-Uchi; 16 fathoms. Gotto;

71 fathoms.

This species and the others I have named Scissurella have a

foramen instead of a fissure, and would be called by some Schis-

mope or Woodwardia, both of which names I believe to be syno-

nyms of Scisswrella proper. S. carinata has a flattened spire

and three prominent keels on the last whorl below the carinate

periphery. It most nearly resembles S. d’Orbignyi; but there

are three keels besides the fissural carina.

2. Scissurella modesta, A. Adams.

S. testa ovata, depressa, stomatelliformi, anguste umbilicata ; spira

parva vix elata; anfractu ultimo supra carinam concentrice striato,

infra carinam longitudinaliter plicato, basi lirulis spiralibus or-

nato; apertura perobliqua, transversim ovata.

Hab. Tabu-Sima; 25 fathoms.

A small simple white species, without keels, striated above the

somewhat rounded periphery, and obsoletely plicate below.

3. Scissurella miranda, A. Adams.

“S. testa ovata, depressa, late umbilicata; spira planiuscula; anfractu

ultimo supra carinam subtilissime concentrice striato, infra cari-

. -nam plicis obliquis subnodosis longitudinalibus distantibus ornato,

from the Seas of China and Japan. 347

basi lineis concentricis instructo ; apertura perobliqua, transversim

ovata.

Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms.

In this small but very pretty species the last whorl is nodosely

plicate below the fissural keel.

Genus Anaromus, H. & A. Adams.

By common consent, the somewhat mythical Anatomus of

Denys de Montfort has been ignored. His name Anatomus,

however, a very significant and good one, may still be used for

those species of Scisswrel/a in which the margin of the outer lip

is fissured. Woodward has unnecessarily suggested the altera-

tion Anatoma, for the sake, possibly, of the femimine termination.

1. Anatomus japonicus, A. Adams.

A. testa trochiformi; spira conica; anfractibus 33, convexiusculis,

striis elevatis longitudinalibus et transversis confertis concinne

decussatis, striis longitudinalibus in basi flexuosis ; apertura sub-

circulari; labio in medio dilatato et reflexo.

Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms. Seto-Uchi. Gotto. O-Sima.

This is a large and extremely beautiful species, very like A. cris-

patus in sculpture. It also resembles A. conicus, D’Orbigny,

but it is more depressed, and, instead of being simply striate, it

is finely decussate ; the base of the shell, moreover, is anteriorly

produced and angulated. This species and Scissurella carinata

are met with in greater abundance than the other members of

the group, and both occur in deep water.

2. Anatomus lamellatus, A. Adams.

A. testa globoso-conoidea; spira conica; anfractibus 33, convexiusculis,

lamellis radiantibus, subdistantibus, interstitiis lmeis elevatis trans-

versis concinne cancellatis, lamellis in basi flexuosis ; apertura sub-

circulari ; labio in medio dilatato, angulato, et late reflexo.

Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms. Gotto; 71 fathoms. O-Sima;

26 fathoms.

In form this species is most like A. japonicus; but the upper

part of the whorls is adorned with fine curved radiating lamelle,

and the inner lip is broadly reflexed, and partly covers the

umbilicus.

3. Anatomus turbinatus, A. Adams.

A, testa turbiniformi; umbilico profundo, perspectivo ; spira elata ;

anfractibus 43, convexiusculis, lamellis confertis radiantibus (in

medio angulatis) et lineolis elevatis transversis instructis, basi liris

concentricis elevatis ornato.

Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms._

348 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

This species is elevately turbinate, with two conspicuous cari-

nate whorls and a deep perspective umbilicus. The fine lamellee

on the upper part of the whorls are bent or angulated in the

middle.

4. Anatomus concinnus, A. Adams.

A. testa ovata, depressiuscula; spira parva, vix elata, anguste et pro-

funde umbilicata ; anfractibus 23, convexis, strils elevatis radian-

tibus et concentricis coucinne decussatis ; apertura obliqua, sub-

orbiculari.

Hab. Rifunsiri; 85 fathoms.

Under the lens, this little species appears to be intermediate

in character between A. crispatus, Flem., and A. reticulatus, Phil.,

the decussation not being so fine as in the former, nor so coarse

as in the latter.

5, Anatomus mirificus, A. Adams.

A. testa ovata, depressa; spira plana, late et profunde umbilicata ;

anfractibus 23, planiusculis, lineis elevatis radiantibus et concen-

tricis regulariter et concinne clathratis, regione umbilicali sub-

leevi; apertura perobliqua; labio recedente.

Hab. Lo-shan-kow, Shantung.

In this large and very beautiful species the entire surface of

the whorls is regularly and delicately finely clathrate, and the

umbilicus is very wide and open.

6. Anatomus stamineus, A. Adams.

A, testa ovata, depressa ; spira plana; umbilico mediceri; anfractibus

24, planiusculis, lineis stamineis elevatis radiantibus (iafra carinam

validioribus) striisque concentricis elevatis late clathratis, regione

umbilicali lineis elevatis concentricis instructo ; apertura rotundato-

ovata; labio recedente.

Hab. Tsu-Sima; 25 fathoms.

This species 1s widely clathrate, with conspicuous thread-lke

radiating and concentric lines, the former of which assume on

the spire a lamellar character; the umbilicus is moderate.

XXXIX.—Descriptions of newly discovered Spiders captured in

Rio Janeiro by John Gray, lsq., and the Rev. Hamlet Clark.

By Joun Buackwatt, F.L.8.

A HIGHLY interesting collection of spiders made in Rio Janeiro,

chiefly among the Organ Mountains, by John Gray, Esq., and

the Rev. Hamlet Clark, carly in the year 1857, was, with great

liberality, presented to me by those gentlemen, to whom I avail

myself of this opportunity to express my obligation. From the

captured in Rio Janeiro. 349

specimens it contained, which were preserved in spirit, I have

selected the following species for description, under the impres-

sion that they will be found new to arachnologists.

Tribe Octonoculina.

Family Lycosrpz.

Genus Lycosa, Latr.

Lycosa inornata.

Length of the female 3ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ~;; breadth ~,; breadth of the abdomen 7; length of

a posterior leg *,; length of a leg of the third pair +4.

The cephalothorax is large, compressed before, rounded and

somewhat depressed on the sides, which are marked with furrows

converging towards a narrow longitudinal indentation in the

medial line; it is densely clothed with short hairs, and of a dark-

brown colour, with broad yellowish-grey margins, and a band of

the same hue extending along the middle, whose anterior part is

the broadest and comprises a dark-brown line directed backwards

from each posterior eye. The four small anterior eyes form a

straight transverse row near the frontal margin of the cephalo-

thorax, and the two intermediate ones are larger than the lateral

ones. The falces are powerful, conical, vertical, armed with

teeth on the inner surface, and of a brown-black colour, with

yellow-grey hairs in front. The maxille are enlarged at the

extremity, which is obliquely truncated on the inner side, and

are slightly curved towards the lip; the latter organ is short,

and broader in the middle than at the base or apex, which is

truncated and hollowed. These parts have a reddish-brown hue,

that of their extremities being yellowish brown. The sternum

is oval and hairy, with minute prominences on the sides oppo-

site to the legs, and is of a yellowish-brown colour. The legs

are robust, provided with haus and sessile spines, and of a

yellow-brown hue ; the fourth pair is the longest, then the first,

and the third pair is the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by

three claws; the two superior ones are curved and pectinated,

and the inferior one is small and inflected at its base ; the meta-

tarsi and tarsi are provided on the under side with hair-like

papille constituting a climbing apparatus. The palpi resemble

the legs in colour, and the digital joint, which is tinged with

brown, has a curved pectinated claw at its extremity. The ab-

domen is oviform, hairy, convex above, and projects over the

base of the cephalothorax ; the upper part is of a greyish-yellow

colour, and has a )rownish-black spot on each side of its ante-

rior extremity; a pale-brown band, obscurely bordered with

black, extends from the anterior part along the middle, nearly

350 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

half its length; it has an angular point on each side, and is bifid.

at its termination ; to this band succeed a few small, indistinct,

black, angular lines having their vertices directed forwards ; the

sides are spotted with brown, and the under part has a yellow-

erey hue; the sexual organs have a longitudinal septum in the

middle, and are of a red-brown colour.

Genus Srpuasus, Walck.

Sphasus luteus.

Length of the female 3,ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-.

thorax 515; breadth ;4,; breadth of the abdomen 5; length of

an anterior leg 3; length of a leg of the third pair 5%.

The eyes are seated on black spots on the anterior part of the

cephalothorax; the four posterior ones form a greatly curved,

transverse row, whose convexity is directed backwards, and the

other four describe a trapezoid whose shortest side is before ;

the posterior eyes of the trapezoid are the largest, and the ante-

rior ones much the smallest of the eight. The cephalothorax is

short, oval, glossy, convex, particularly in the posterior region,

with a very slight indentation in the medial line; it is of

a dull-yellow colour, with narrow black lateral margins, and

a black line extending from each eye of the anterior pair

to the frontal margin, which has a brownish-black spot on each

exterior angle; on each side of the posterior part there is a

brown spot; and obscure oblique lines of the same hue occur

on the sides. The falces are conical and vertical; and the

maxilla, which are straight, are obliquely truncated at the ex-

tremity on the outer side. The colour of these parts is dull

yellow, each falx having a black longitudinal line in front, which

lines appear like a prolongation of those on the frontal margin,

The lip is broader at the extremity than at the base, and has a

dark-brown hue. The sternum is heart-shaped, of a dull-yellow

colour, and has four short black streaks on each side. The legs

are slender, provided with long spines, and are of a pale-yellow

hue ; the metatarsi and tarsi have a tinge of brown; and a fine

longitudinal black line occurs on the under side of each femur,

being least conspicuous on the femora of the posterior legs; the.

first pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the third pair is

the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by three claws; the two

superior ones are curved and pectinated, and the inferior one is

small and inflected near its base. The palpi resemble the legs

in colour, are devoid of black marks, and have a curved, pecti-

nated claw at their extremity. The abdomen is oviform, convex

above, pointed at the spimners, and of a dull-yellow colour,

obscurely freckled with yellowish white, a band of a deeper shade

captured in Rio Janeiro. 351

extending along the middle of the upper part, which is broadest

in the posterior region ; the sides are marked with a few brownish-

black spots, and oblique confluent lines of the same hue occur

on their posterior half; a broad band, composed of brownish-

black spots, extends along the middle of the under part, and

terminates in an angle at the spimners, which have a pale-brown

hue; on the outer side of each branchial operculum there is a

short black streak ; and the colour of the sexual organs, which

are rather prominent, with a small triangular process whose

acute vertex is directed forwards, is brownish black.

Family Santicrpm.

Genus Satticus, Latr.

Salticus placidus.

Length of the female jth of an inch; length of the cephalo--

thorax 3; breadth ;,; breadth of the abdomen ;4; length of

a posterior leg 5”, ; length of a leg of the second pair 3.

The cephalothorax is large, glossy, somewhat quadrilateral,

sloping abruptly at the base, and projecting a little beyond the

falces in front ; it is of a brown-black colour, the cephalic region

being the brownest, and has a narrow band of white hairs on the

lateral margins. The minute intermediate eye of each lateral

row is nearly equidistant from the eyes constituting its extremi-

ties. The falces are small, conical, vertical, armed with a few

teeth on the inner surface, and are of a red-brown colour. The

maxille are straight, and enlarged and rounded at the extremity;

and the lip is oval. These organs are of a brown hue, the ex-

tremity of the former and the apex of the latter having a pale

yellow-brown tint. The sternum is oval, and of a brown-black

colour. The legs are moderately robust, and provided with

hairs and sessile spines, two parallel rows of the latter occurring

on the inferior surface of the tibize and metatarsi of the first and

second pairs; the fourth pair is the longest, then the first, and

the second pair is the shortest; each tarsus is terminated by

two curved, minutely pectinated claws, below which there is a

small scopula; they are of a very dark-brown colour, the meta-

tarsi and tarsi of all, and the coxz and base of the genual joint

of the third and fourth pairs, having a yellowish-brown hue.

The palpi are short ; the humeral joint has a dark-brown hue,

that of the cubital, radial, and digital joints being yellowish

white. The abdomen is oviform, pointed towards the spinners

(which are prominent), convex above, and projects over the base

of the cephalothorax ; it is sparingly clothed with hairs, and of

a brown-black colour; a white band, curved round the anterior

extremity, extends along each side more than half its length,

552 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

and a detached white spot occurs near its termination; near the

middle of the upper part there is a transverse white line, and

between it and the spinners a small white spot ; four indented

spots occur on the anterior half, forming a trapezoid whose

shortest side is before ; there is a large pale-yellow-brown band

in the middle of the under part, which tapers to its posterior

extremity, but does not extend to the spinners,

This spider was immature.

Salticus radians.

Length of the female 2ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 1; breadth 4; breadth of the abdomen 7,; length of an

anterior leg $; length of a leg of the second pair 7.

The minute eye of each lateral row is rather nearer to the an-

terior than to the posterior eye of the same row. The cephalo-

thorax is large, glossy, sparingly clothed with hairs, somewhat

quadrilateral, sloping abruptly at the base, and projecting a little

beyond the falces in front; it is of a dark-brown colour, with a

broad white band, consisting of short hairs, on the posterior half

of each lateral margin, and the cephalic region reflects bright

tints of green and gold. The falces are short, powerful, conical,

divergent at the extremity, armed with a few small teeth on the

inner surface, and reflect brilliant hues of gold and green, The

maxillee are straight, and enlarged and rounded at the extremity;

the lip and sternum are oval. These parts are of a dark-brown

colour, the sternum and the extremity of the maxille being the

palest. The legs are robust, and provided with hairs and a few

spines, the tibise of the anterior pair being densely covered with

the former on their inferior surface ; the first pair is the longest,

then the fourth, and the second pair is the shortest ; each tarsus

is terminated by two curved claws, below which there is a small

scopula; they are of a dark-brown hue, faintly tinged with red,

the tarsi being the reddest. The palpi resemble the legs in

colour, but are rather paler. The abdomen is oviform, poimted

towards the spinners (which are prominent), convex above, and

projects over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is thinly clothed

with longish hairs, and of a dark-brown colour, the under part

being the palest ; the upper part is covered with small adpressed

seale-like hairs, which reflect rich tints of green and gold; on

each side of the medial line there are three minute, parallel,

white spots, disposed longitudinally ; four larger ones occur on

each side, the posterior one, which is the longest, being directed

obliquely towards the spinners; and a few white hairs form a

small spot on the coccyx.

This Salticus was immature.

captured in Rio Janeiro. 353

Salticus proruptus.

Length of the female ird of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 53, ; Bue ; breadth of the abdomen 4; length of an

anterior leg 7, length of a leg of the third pair }.

The legs are robust, and provided with hairs and sessile spines,

two parallel rows of the latter occurring on the inferior surface

of the tibize and metatarsi of the first and second pairs ; the first

pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the third pair is the

shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two curved, minutely

pectinated claws, below which there is a small scopula; the co-

lour of the femora is brownish black, and that of the genual

joint and tibia of the first and second pairs dark reddish-brown;

the genual joint and tibia of the third and fourth pairs have a

brownish-red hue; the former is marked with dark reddish

brown at its extremity, particularly on the sides and inferior

surface, and the latter has a dark reddish-brown annulus at its

termination ; the metatarsi and tarsi of all the legs have a pale

brownish-red colour, and the former have a small reddish-brown

annulus at their extremity. The palpi, which are rather long,

have a pale brownish-red hue, and are without a claw at their

extremity. The cephalothorax is large, glossy, somewhat quadri-

lateral, sloping abruptly at the base, and projecting a little be-

yond the falces in front ; it is of a very dark brown colour, faintly

tinged with red, and the frontal margin is fringed with long

yellowish-white hairs. The minute mtermediate eye of each

lateral row is rather nearer to the anterior than to the posterior

eye of the same row. The falces are powerful, conical, and ver-

tical; the maxille are straight, and enlarged and rounded at the

extremity ; the lip is oval, and slightly hollowed at the apex ;

and the sternum is oval. These parts are of a dark reddish-

brown colour, the sternum and the extremity of the maxille

being much the palest. The abdomen is oviform, pointed to-

wards the spinners (which are prominent), moderately convex

above, and projects over the base of the cephalothorax; it is

thinly clothed with hairs, and of a dark brown colour, the sides

being rather the palest; on each side of the medial line of the

upper part there is a series of minute spots, consisting of white

hairs, disposed in pairs, those of the penultimate pair, which

are much the largest, bemg of an oblong-oval form, and inclined

towards each other,

Salticus delicatus.

Length of the Hele ths of an inch; length = the cephalo-

thorax {2 253; breadth TO, ; ‘breadth of the abdomen jy; length of

a leg of the third pair $; length of a leg of the second pair }.

The minute intermediate eye of each lateral row is nearly

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 24:

354 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

equidistant from the eyes constituting its extremities. The

cephalothorax is large, glossy, somewhat quadrilateral, elevated

in the cephalic region, and abruptly sloped at the base ; it is of

a dull yellow colour, faintly tinged with red, the region of the

eyes having a reddish-brown hue. The falces are small, conical,

and vertical; the maxille are straight, and enlarged and rounded

at the extremity; the lip is somewhat oval, but truncated and

slightly hollowed at the apex. These organs have a red-brown

hue, the extremity of the maxille being the palest. The legs

are robust, provided with hairs and sessile spines, two parallel

rows of the latter occurring on the inferior surface of the tibiz

and metatarsi of the first and second pairs; the third pair is the

longest, then the first, and the second pair is the shortest ; each

tarsus is terminated by two curved minutely pectinated claws,

immediately below which a small scopula is situated ; the palpi are

short, and without a claw at their extremity ; the sternum is oval

and glossy. These parts have a dull yellow hue, slightlytinged with

red. The abdomen is oviform, somewhat depressed and pointed

towards the spinners (which are prominent), convex at the ante-

rior extremity, and projects a little over the base of the cephalo-

thorax ; it is sparingly clothed with hairs, and is of a yellowish-

white colour, with an obscure, slightly curved, brownish-black

band, having its convexity directed forwards, situated near the

anterior extremity of the upper part ; on each side of the medial

line of the posterior half there is a series of brownish-black con-

fluent spots extending to the spinners, the superior pair of which

organs has a dark-brown and the inferior pair a red-brown hue;

on the under part there are two longitudinal, faint, brownish-

black bands which meet near the spinners; and the colour of the

sexual organs is dark red-brown.

Salticus cephalicus.

Length of the male ith of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 4; breadth 4,; breadth of the abdomen ;), ; length of

a leg of the third pair ;5,; length of a leg of the fourth pair 4.

The cephalothorax is large, glossy, somewhat quadrilateral,

very elevated in the cephalic region, and sloped abruptly at the

base; it is of a dull yellow colour, tinged with red; the region

of the eyes has a reddish-brown hue, and that of the frontal

margin, which is broad and nearly vertical, is blackish-brown.

The falces are long, prominent, subcylindrical, depressed and

indented at the extremity (which has a pointed process on the

outer and another on the inner side, near the articulation of the

fang), and are of a red-brown colour. The maxille are straight,

and enlarged at the extremity, which is produced on the outer

side; and the lip is oval. These parts have a brownish-yellow

captured in Rio Janeiro. 355

colour, tinged with red, the lip being the darkest. The sternum

is almost circular, and has a pale yellowish hue. The lateral

eyes are seated on black spots, the minute intermediate one of

each row being much nearer to the anterior than to the posterior

eye of the same row. The legs are moderately robust, provided

with hairs and sessile spines, two parallel rows of the latter

occurring on the inferior surface of the tibiz and metatarsi of

the first and second pairs; the third pair is the longest, then

the first, and the fourth pair is the shortest ; each tarsus is ter-

minated by two curved claws, immediately below which a small

scopula is situated; the base of the femur of the first, second,

and third pairs has a dull yellowish colour ; the extremity of the

joint and the tibia and base of the metatarsus of the same limbs

have a red-brown hue, and the hue of the extremity of the meta-

tarsus, with the tarsus, is yellowish-brown; the colour of the

posterior legs is pale dull yellow. The palpi are long, slender,

and of a yellowish-white hue, the digital jomt having a tinge of

brown; the cubital and radial joints are long and somewhat

clavate, and the latter, which is the shorter, has a large pointed

apophysis at its extremity, on the outer side; the digital joint is

subcylindrical, convex and hairy externally, compact at the ex-

tremity, but has a cavity near the base, on the under side, which

comprises the palpal organs; these organs are moderately deve-

loped, not very complicated in structure, with a curved, pointed,

black spine at their extremity, and are of a reddish-brown colour.

The abdomen is oviform, somewhat depressed and pointed to-

wards the spinners (which are prominent), convex at the anterior

extremity, and projects a little over the base of the cephalothorax;

it is sparingly clothed with hairs, and the upper part, which has

a black hue, comprises four minute white spots, disposed in a

rectangular figure whose transverse breadth is the greatest, and

in the medial line, between these spots and the spinners, there

is a larger white spot; these spots consist of short scale-like

hairs; the anterior extremity, contiguous to the cephalothorax,

the sides, and under part are of a yellowish-white colour, two

longitudinal brownish-black bands, which are united near the

spinners, occurring on the last ; the colour of the superior spin-

ners is dark brown, and that of the inferior pair yellowish-brown.

I have given to this spider the specific name of cephalicus

provisionally, as it may possibly be the male of Salticus delicatus,

though it differs from it in many marked particulars.

Salticus properus.

Length of the male th of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ;1,; breadth 7; ; breadth of the abdomen 1, ; length of

To? 123 5

an anterior leg }; length of a leg of the second pair ,.

24°

356 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

The legs are moderately robust, and provided with hairs and

sessile spines; the first pair is the longest, then the fourth, and

the second pair is the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two

curved, minutely pectinated claws, immediately below which

there is a small scopula; the anterior legs are of a dark brown

colour, slightly tinged with red, the metatarsus being the palest,

and the tarsus having a reddish-yellow hue; the colour of the

second, third, and fourth pairs is dull yellow, the genual joint,

tibia, and base of the metatarsus being tinged with red, and the

last joint has a small brown annulus at its extremity. The palpi

are short, and of a brown colour; the radial joint has a slender

pointed apophysis at its extremity, on the outer side; the digital

joint is of an oblong-oval form, convex and hairy externally,

concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are mode-

rately developed, not very complicated in “structure, rather pro-

minent at the base, and have a black, curved, filiform spine at

their extremity, whose point is directed towards the inner side ;

these organs are of a brown colour. The cephalothorax is large,

glossy, somewhat quadrilateral, sloping abruptly at the base and

projecting a little beyond the falces in front; it is of a very

dark brown colour, strongly tinged with red in the region of the

eyes. The minute intermediate eye of each lateral row is nearly

equidistant from the eyes constituting its extremities. The

falces are short, conical, and vertical; the maxille are straight,

and enlarged at the extremity, which is produced on the outer

side; the lip is short and oval; and the sternum is oval. These

parts are of a dark reddish-brown colour, the falces and lip being

the darkest, and the sternum much the palest. The abdomen is

oviform, pomted towards the spinners (which are prominent),

convex above, projecting over the base of the cephalothorax ; it

is thinly clothed with hairs, glossy, and the colour of the upper

part is brown; a pale, dull yellowish band curves round the

anterior extremity, and a broad slightly dentated band of the

same hue extends along the middle of the posterior part, and

terminates in a yellowish-white spot immediately above the

spinners; this band is crossed by several curved, light brown

bars, whose convexity is directed forwards, and on each side of

it there are two curved yellowish lines, whose convexity is in the

same direction; the sides and under part are of a dull yellow

colour, a broad, longitudinal, brown band occupying the middle

of the latter ; and the spinners, which have a dark brown hue,

are tipped with yellowish-white,

Salticus scitulus.

Length of the male ;5ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

captured in Rio Janeiro. 357

thorax 5, ; breadth $; breadth of the abdomen ,4,; length of an

anterior leg 3; length of a leg of the second pair 5%.

The cephalothorax is large, somewhat quadrilateral, sloping

gradually at the base, and projecting a little beyond the falces

in front ; it is densely covered with hairs, and is of a deep black

hue, with a broad longitudinal band immediately above each

lateral margin, and another extending along the middle, of a

yellow-white colour, the anterior extremity of the latter being

the palest ; there is a small brown-red spot above each eye of

the front row, and a larger one below each lateral eye of the

same row. The minute intermediate eye of each lateral row is

nearly equidistant from the eyes constituting its extremities.

The falces are conical, vertical, and have a long sharp tooth on

the inner surface ; the maxille are straight, and enlarged and

rounded at the extremity, and the lip is oval. These parts have

a dark brown hue, tinged with red, the extremity of the maxillz

being much the palest. The sternum is oval; the legs are

robust, and provided with hairs and sessile spines, two parallel

rows of the latter occurring on the inferior surface of the tibiz

and metatarsi of the first and second pairs ; the first pair is the

longest, then the fourth, and the second pair is the shortest ;

each tarsus is terminated by two curved pectinated claws, im-

mediately below which there is a small scopula. These parts

have a brownish-yellow hue; the legs are marked with a few

obscure, longitudinal, brown lines, and the first pair is the

darkest, particularly on the anterior side. The palpi are short,

strong, and resemble the legs in colour ; the radial jot projects

a large pointed apophysis from its extremity, on the outer side ;

the digital jot is oval, convex and hairy externally, concave

within, comprising the palpal organs, which are moderately de-

veloped, rather complex in structure, prominent at the base, and

have a curved, pointed, black spine at their extremity, which is

directed outwards; they are of a yellowish-brown colour, faintly

tinged with red. The abdomen is oviform, pointed towards the

spinners (which are prominent), convex above, projecting over the

base of the cephalothorax, and is densely covered with hairs ;

the upper part is of a brownish-black colour, with a broad

yellow-white band extending along the middle, which is crossed

by a brownish-yellow line at about one-third of its length from

the spinners ; the sides and under part are of a yellow-white

colour; an obscure brownish-black band extends along the

former, and in the middle of the latter there is a large dark

brown mark, which is bifid at the anterior and broader extremity ;

a small, triangular, yellow-white spot, whose vertex is directed

forwards, occurs near the base of each superior spinner.

308 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

Salticus festinus.

Length of the male 4th of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax }; breadth 7; breadth of the abdomen ,4,; length of

an anterior leg 8; length of a leg of the second pair +.

The legs are robust, and provided with hairs and sessile spines ;

the first pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the second pair

is the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two curved pecti-

nated claws, immediately below which a small scopula is situated ;

their colour is brownish-black, with the exception of the tarsi,

which have a reddish-brown hue, and a longitudinal line on the

upper surface of the femur, a spot near the middle of the tibia,

and another at the base of the metatarsus consisting of brilliant

white hairs. The palpi are short, strong, and resemble the legs

in colour, white hairs occurring on the upper surface of the

humeral joint at its extremity, and on the cubital jomt; the

radial joint is supplied with long black bristles on the under

side, and has a pointed apophysis at its extremity on the outer

side; the digital joint is subcylindrical, convex and hairy exter-

nally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are

highly developed, not very complicated in structure, protuberant

near the base, and are of a dark brown colour. The cephalo-

thorax is large, glossy, somewhat quadrilateral, sloping abruptly

at the base, and projecting a little beyond the falces in front ;

its colour is brownish-black, with a broad band on the posterior

half of the lateral margins, a spot in the medial line, at the

commencement of the posterior slope, another contiguous to the

minute intermediate eye of each lateral row, and a transverse

lme on the frontal margin consisting of brilliant white hairs.

The minute intermediate eye of each lateral row is nearly equi-

distant from the eyes constituting its extremities. The falces

are short, conical, and vertical; the maxille are straight, and

enlarged and rounded at the extremity ; the lip is oval; and the

sternum is oval, being rather broader at the posterior than at

the anterior part, and is clothed with whitish hairs. These parts

have a brown-black hue, the extremity of the maxille being the

palest. The abdomen is oviform, pointed towards the spinners

(which are prominent), convex above, projecting over the base of

the cephalothorax, and is densely covered with hairs; the upper

part is of an orange-red colour, with four brilliant white spots

disposed in a row in the medial line of the posterior half, the

two intermediate ones being much the smallest, and the anterior

one the largest ; a white band, curved round the anterior extre-

mity, extends along each side more than half its length, and a

detached white spot occurs near its termination; the sides,

captured in Rio Janeiro. 359

spinners, and under part are of a brownish-black colour, the last

having a pale yellowish-brown hue in the middle of the anterior

part, which is clothed with whitish hairs.

Salticus minaz.

Length of the female ird of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ¢; breadth 4; breadth of the abdomen 3; length of a

posterior leg 3; length of a leg of the second pair 3,.

The cephalothorax is large, glossy, sparingly clothed with

hairs, somewhat quadrilateral, and slopes abruptly at the base ;

it is of a dull yellow colour, the region of the eyes and a broad

longitudinal band on each side, which tapers to its posterior

extremity, having a dark red-brown hue; the colour of the

narrow lateral margins is dark brown, and the frontal margin is

fringed with long yellowish-white hairs. The minute inter-

mediate eye of each lateral row is nearly equidistant from the

eyes constituting its extremities. The falces are short, powerful,

conical, convex at the base, vertical, and armed with teeth on

the inner surface; the maxille are straight, and enlarged and

rounded at the extremity ; and the lip is short and oval. These

organs have a red-brown colour, the base of the falees and the

extremities of the maxillz and lip being the palest. The sternum

is oval; and the digital joint of the palpi, which is rather long

and well supplied with hairs, is without a claw at its extremity.

These parts have a pale dull yellowish hue. The legs are robust,

and provided with hairs and sessile spines, two parallel rows of

the latter occurrmg on the inferior surface of the tibize and

metatarsi of the first and second pairs; the fourth pair is the

longest, then the third, and the second pair is the shortest ;

each tarsus is terminated by two curved minutely pectinated

claws, immediately below which there is a small scopula; they

are of a dull yellow colour, obscurely marked with brown; a

smail dark brown annulus occurs at the extremity of each meta-

tarsus, and the tibic of the anterior pair have a dark brown hue,

except at the extremity. The abdomen is oviform, pointed to-

wards the spiners (which are prominent), somewhat depressed,

and projects over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is densely

covered with hairs, and is of a yellow-grey colour, a broad band

of a paler hue, whose lateral margins are somewhat sinuous and

obscurely bordered with black, extending along the middle of

the upper part ; near the middle of the band there is a black

mark in the form of a W, which is succeeded by faint, curved,

transverse bars of a yellow-brown colour ; they decrease in length

as they approach the spinners, and their convexity is directed

forwards ; the sides are thickly spotted with brown; and on the

under part there are three dark brown lines forming three sides

360 Rev. T. Hincks’s Catalogue of Zoophytes

of a quadrilateral figure, open in front, whose length consider-

ably exceeds its breadth ; the sexual organs are of a yellowish-

brown hue, passing into dark brown at the posterior part, and

have a longitudinal septum in the middle.

[To be continued. |

XL.—A Catalogue of the Zoophytes of South Devon and South

Cornwall. By the Rev. THomas Hincxs, B.A.

[Concluded from vol. ix. p. 475. ]

APPENDIX.

Classification.—In the Introduction to this Catalogue I have

adopted Prof. Huxley’s Systematic Arrangement of the Hydro-

zoa. I am now convinced, however, that the groups to which he

has assigned respectively the names Hydride, Corynide, and

Sertulariade are not entitled to ordinal rank, but should merely

be regarded as families. I therefore propose to classify the

Hydroid polypes, with Johnston, under one order, Hypro1pa,

and to distribute them into the following families :—1. Tubula-

riade (embracing both the Tubulariade and the Corynide of

Johnston) ; 2. Campanulariade ; 3. Sertulariade ; 4. Hydride.

ADDENDA.

Class HYDROZOA.

Order HYDROIDA. Fam. Tubulariade.

Evupenprivum, Ehrenberg.

1. HE. rameum, Pallas.

“On Pinna ingens, south of the Deadman Point” (Cowch).

2. E. capillare, Alder.

Additional habitat: near Polperro, Cornwall.

The specimens received from this locality bear female capsules,

which have not hitherto been noticed. They are ranged round

the lower portion of the body of the polype, and bear a general

resemblance to those of other species of Eudendrium.

Mr. Alder, in the Supplement to his Durham and Northum-

berland Catalogue, refers this species to the genus Dicoryne.

At present I feel doubtful as to its true position. There is much

difficulty in classifying the Tubulariadz; and the existing genera

will require thorough revision.

of South Devon and South Cornwall. 361

Fam. Sertulariade.

SertuLaria, Linn.

S. filicula, Ellis & Solander.

“On Fuci; rather rare. Talland Sand Bay, Polperro”

(Couch).

[Very abundant on the Yorkshire coast. ]

Fam. Campanulariade.

CAMPANULARIA, Lamarck.

C. integra, Macgillivray.

Syn. C. levis, Couch, Cornish Fauna, p. 42.

“On stones and shells from deep water, Polperro” (Couch).

[Ilfracombe ; Filey, Yorkshire. }

- Class ACTINOZOA.

Order ZOANTHARIA, Milne-Edwards (pars).

Fam. Ilyanthide.

Inyantuus, Forbes.

I, Mitchellii, Gosse.

“Two specimens obtained by a Torquay fisherman near the

Start” (HZ. W. H. Holdsworth).

MOLLUSCOIDA.

Class POLYZOA, J. V. Thompson.

Order INFUNDIBULATA, Gervais.

Suborder Cheilostomata, Busk. Fam. Membraniporide.

FiusrRrequa, Gray.

F’, hispida, Fabricius.

On sea-weeds between tide-marks, very common.

This species was accidentally omitted.

CoRRIGENDA.

Coryne ramosa, Ehrenberg.

This name must be cancelled, and C. vaginata substituted for

it. I find that the specimens to which I applied it belong to

the latter species. I have received a Coryne from Talland Sand

Bay, near Polperro, which I believe to be undescribed, but I am

unable to name it at present.

362 Rev. T. Hincks’s Catalogue of Zoophytes.

Pioumutaria, Lamarck.

I have referred, in the Introduction, to Prof. Forbes’s sugges-

tion for a dismemberment of this genus. Mr. Busk has divided

it into two very natural groups, for one of which he retains the

name Plumularia, assigning to the other that of Halicornaria.

They are distinguished by the position of the nematophores

(tubules of Johnston)—curious and probably offensive organs,

with which one section of the Sertulariade is furnished—and by

the character of the gonophores.

The following species, included in the Catalogue, belong to

Plumularia as now restricted :—eristata, tubulifera, pennatula,

and myriophyllum. The rest must be referred to Halicornaria,

with the exception of P. falcata, which should be united with

Sertularia.

Hoplangia durotriz, Gosse.

This species must be withdrawn from the Catalogue. I find

that the specimens which I referred to it are only a form of

Caryophyllia Smithii.

Caberea Hookeri, Fleming.

Mr. Alder has pointed out to me an error into which I have

fallen in my note on this species. I have assumed the Cellularia

Hookeri of Fleming to be identical with Johnston’s species of

the same name, and with Busk’s Caberea Hookeri. This, how-

ever, is not the case. Fleming’s C. Hookeri, which was described

from specimens sent from Torquay by Sir W. Hooker, is the

Crisia Boryt of Audouin—the Caberea Boryi of Busk’s Catalogue.

The species to which Dr. Johnston and Mr. Busk have given the

name Hookeri is really the Flustra setacea of the ‘ British Ani-

mals,’ which Fleming had previously described and figured in

the Mem. of the Wernerian Soc. (vol. i. p. 251) as F. Ellisii.

This poimt has been satisfactorily established by Mr. Alder.

According to the law of priority, therefore, Caberea Ellisit should

take its place as the name of this species instead of C. Hookeri.

This form seems to be strictly northern. Now that the syno-

nymy is explaimed, there is no ground whatever for supposing

that it has been met with in Devon.

Lepralia hastata, Hincks.

I have described and figured under this name what I supposed

at the time to be a new species. J am now convinced that it is

only a peculiar variety of the well-known L. linearis. The spe-

cies must be cancelled, but the form is remarkable enough to be

recorded as L. linearis, var. hastata.

In the Introduction to the Catalogue, it was stated that about

Rev. W. Haughton on the Unicorn of the Ancients. 363

230 species would be enumerated in it. This number has in-

creased to 242, of which 18 are new and 3 have not hitherto

been recorded as British; and the wealth of the district is, no

doubt, far from being exhausted. Indeed, I learn from my

friend Prof. Allman that he has lately discovered several new

Tubulariade in the neighbourhood of Torquay. I shall hope to

include these and any subsequent additions in a future Supple-

ment.

The following table shows the number of species under each

of the leading divisions :—

Piydroidar (6s cee One 77

pea { Pmeernariadis. 3 oie. 5 st. a 2

: CAD VN? CONTE Ss ee a te ae Pe 37

aeenqcoe { PRICY OMATIR, cies 2 Seats. one) » tuts 4

rr ee

Cheilostomata .. ..). «i702 ok 87

Crclostonaatas 3 56:. acceso ay 14

Holyzoa, {, Ctenostomata, sic). 644.2 25-3 1k

Pedicellineay 72. a cena ac. 3

TROPAODGA. ooo. cic pgs te Hen 1

— 122

242

XLI.—On the Unicorn of the Ancients.

By the Rev. W. Hauceuron, M.A., F.L.S.

Few subjects of zoological interest have from time to time given

rise to more discussion than that which relates to the question

as to what animal is denoted by the “‘ Unicorn” of the ancients*.

* See for instance the following papers, which the reader interested in

this question may consult, but which I have had no opportunity of seeing.

Bacci, ANp. Discorso dell’ Alicorno. Fiorenza, 1573.

BarRTHOLINUS, THomas. De Unicornu observationes nove. Patav. 1645.

BarTHOLINuS, Caspar. De Unicornu ejusque affinibus, &e. Hafn. 1628.

Bererus, F.C. Diss. de Monocerote. Resp. J. H. Homilius. Lips. 1667.

CaATELAN, LAMENT. Histoire de la Licorne. Monpell. 1624.

—— Von der Natur, Tugenden, Eigenschaften und Gebrauch des Einhorns ;

in franzos. Sprach beschrieben ; von G. Fabroiibersetzt. Frankf. a. M.,

1625.

Deusine, Ant. Diss. de Unicornu. Groning. 1659.

Documents Nouveaux sur Vewxistence de la Licorne, in Féruss. Bull. Se.

Nat. iv. 1825, p. 417.

FRENZEL, 8. F. Disquis. Naturalis de Unicornu. Resp. Christ. Vater.

Witteberg, 1675. :

LATERRADE, J.F. Notice en refutation de la non-existence de la Licorne,

364 Rev. W. Haughton on the Unicorn of the Ancienis.

Various reports have been given by travellers, that an animal

still exists in some parts of the world which bears a marked re-

semblance to the one-horned animal under consideration ; and

although scientific men have no hesitation in regarding the Uni-

corn as a fabulous animal, yet from time to time travellers write

home that they are on the track of the veritable creature itself ;

and I only read the other day that Dr. Baikie, the African tra-

veller, now in charge of the Niger Expedition, is in pursuit of

the animal, and thinks that he may be able to discover it in some

of the unexplored wastes of Central Africa! He learned from

two informants that they had seen the bones of such an animal,

and states that they accurately describe the long, straight, black

horn, and carefully distinguish between the one-horned Rhino-

ceros and the supposed Unicorn! Dr. Baikie gives a list of

native names by which this unknown animal is called in various

African dialects, and is quite disposed to believe that its non-

existence is by no means proved*.

What are the chances of our seeing a specimen of the Unicorn

brought home to this country, and forming the grand object of

attraction to all the world? Why should not a one-horned ani-

mal exist such as we see depicted on the royal arms? Father

Lobo, in his ‘ History of Abyssinia,’ actually describes the Uni-

corn as a beautiful Aorse ; and Barrow, in his ‘ Travels in Southern

Africa,’ gives the figure of a head of a Unicorn which he saw

drawn on the sides of a cavern, and appears to entertain no

doubt that such an animal exists. No traveller, however, has as

yet succeeded in obtaining a specimen; and I venture to affirm

very positively that the like result will attend Dr. Baikie’s search.

But let us take a brief survey of what the ancients have recorded

of the Unicorn, or, rather, Unicorns ; for there are at least three,

if not more, one-horned animals mentioned by them.

in Bull. Soc. Linn. de Bordeaux, i. 1826; Féruss. Bull. Se. Nat. x.

1827, p. 396.

LATERRADE, J. F. Sur la Licorne, in Actes de la Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, v.

1832, p. 115.

On the Unicorn. Transl. by Jos. Porter, in Silliman’s American Journ.

xxi. 1832, p. 123.

RevusseEr, G. Sur lexistence de la Licorne, in Millin, Mag. Encyel. iii. 5,

1797, p. 311.

Reitz, K.K. Neueste Nachricht vomEinhorn, m Lichtenberg-Voigt’s Mag.

Ba. x. St..3, 1797.

Sacus, P. Lpw. Monocerologia, seu de genuinis Unicornibus Diss. Raceb.

1676.

SToLBERGK, J. CHR. Evxercitatio de Unicornu. Resp. Chr. Sagittarius.

Lips. 1652.

VERSTER VAN WuLvernorst, A. H. Over den Eenhoorn, in Bijdragen tot

de Dierkunde, 1860.

* See the ‘ Athenaum’ for August 16, 1862.

Rev. W. Haughton on the Unicorn of the Ancients. 365

And first of all, there is the Unicorn of the Bible. Pages upon

pages have been written on this subject. Some have said it must

have been the Antelope (Orya leucoryx) of North Africa, Syria,

&c., that the horns, seen in profile, appear as one, and hence the

mistake of regarding it as a one-horned animal; others have no

hesitation in referring the Unicorn to the one-horned Rhinoceros

(R. unicornis) of Asia; this is the opinion generally entertained

at this day. Now, all attempts to discover a one-horned animal

that shall represent the Unicorn of our English Bible are beyond

the mark entirely, and for this simple reason: the so-called

Unicorn is no Unicorn at all ; the Hebrew word (R’ém) denotes a

two-horned animal, beyond a shadow of a doubt. The “ Unicorn ”

of our English Bible owes its origin to the Septuagint and Vul-

gate versions*. In the 17th verse of Deut. xxxii., which con-

tains a portion of Joseph’s blessing, it is said, “‘ His horns are

like the horns of a R’ém+.” Our translators, seeing the contra-

diction involved in the expression “horns of the Unicorn,” have

rendered the Hebrew singular noun as if it were a plural form

in the text, though they give the correct translation in the

margin. The two horns of the R’ém are “the ten thousands of

Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh,” and represent the

two tribes which sprang from one (viz. Joseph), just as two

horns spring from one head. The Unicorn of the Bible therefore

may be dismissed at once, as being a very unhappy translation

of the Hebrew two-horned R’ém, the animal denoted being,

there cannot be much doubt, some species of “ wild ox,” as ap-

pears pretty evident from a comparison of the different passages

where the word occurs in Holy Scripture. The R’ém was two-

horned ; it is almost always mentioned with bovine animals; it

is said to push with its horns; it must have been frequently seen

by the ancient Hebrews roaming on the hills of Palestine or in

the woods of the Jordan valley, as is evident from the numerous

allusions to it. It is true there is no wild ox at present known

to exist in Palestine ; but this is no reason why, in early times,

some mighty species, allied perhaps to the Urus which Cesar

saw in the Hercynian Forest, should not have existed in that

country. Lions were certainly not uncommon in Palestine and

Syria in Biblical times, as is clear from the numerous allusions

to them in Holy Writ ; and it is interesting to note, as an addi-

tional proof, that the late Dr. Roth discovered bones of the Lion

in gravel near the Jordan: it is therefore quite probable that

* Movoxepas in all the passages but one, where the Septuagint has a6poi.

The Vulgate has wnicornis, and sometimes rhinoceros.

+ That the R’ém possessed two horns was shown in 1737 by Schultens,

who, in his Commentary on the Book of Job (xxxix.), draws especial atten-

tion to the above passage in Deuteronomy.

366 Rev. W. Haughton on the Unicorn of the Ancients.

future investigations in Palestine may result in the discovery of

the bones of Bos primigenius or Bison priscus or some other once

formidable ox. All readers will remember the beautiful description

of the R’ém in the Book of Job; now let us compare with it the

account Cesar gives of the fierce Urus, which in his time frequented

the great Hercynian Forest :—‘“ These Uri are scarcely less than

elephants in size, but in their nature, colour, and form are bulls.

Great is their strength, and great their speed, nor do they spare

man or beast when once they have caught sight of him. The

hunters are most careful to kill those which they take in pit-

falls, while the young men exercise themselves by this sort of

hunting, and grow hardened by the toil; those of them who kill

most, receive great praise when they exhibit in public the horns as

trophies of their success. These Uri, however, even when they are

young, cannot be habituated to man and made tractable. The

size and shape of their horns are very different from those of our

oxen.”’* .

The indomitable nature ascribed to these wild Uri exactly agrees

with the description of the R’ém as given in chap. xxxix. of the

Book of Job; and the apparently implied contrast which is made

between the domestic ox and the wild Urus finds an analogue in

the above extract from Cesar. The same remark may be made

with respect to the great size and strength of the Scriptural

R’ém when contrasted with the domestic oxen of Palestine, the

ancient inhabitants of which land would naturally draw the

same comparison between their domestic cattle and the mighty

R’ém as Ceesar’s legions did between their cattle (Bos longifrons)

and the great Hercynian wild bulls (Bos primigenius), whose

bones are now occasionally found, together with those of the

elephant, hyzena, &c., in the Tertiary deposits of this country.

It is time, however, to turn our attention to the Unicorns

which are mentioned in the writings of the ancient Greeks and

Romans.

The earliest record of the existence of a one-horned quadruped

is to be found in Ctesias’s Treatise on India (‘Ivécxd), of which

we possess an abridgement in Photius and a much more complete

edition by Bahr. Ctesias lived in the time of Xenophon (circ.

B.C. 400), and resided for many years in Persia as physician at

the court of King Artaxerxes Mnemon. It was while he was

there that he collected materials for the above-named treatise,

which consists mainly of a description of the natural history of

the north-west part of India: it must be borne in mind that his

account of the natural history of that country was derived second-

hand, for Ctesias was never himself in India. He must there-

fore be understood simply to give the Persians’ own accounts

* Bell. Gall. vi. cap. 29.

Rev. W. Haughton on the Unicorn of the Ancients. 367

of their various animals, which were doubtless often mixed with

fable. Aristotle regarded Ctesias as a man utterly unworthy of

credit*—rather a harsh judgment, it is true, but probably not

very far from the mark. However, under the name of dvou

aypcot (wild asses) Ctesias describes his Unicorns. He says,

“‘ They are as large as horses, and even larger, with white bodies,

red heads, blue eyes, and have each on their foreheads a horn a

cubit and a half long, the base of which is white, the upper part

red, the middle part black. Drinking-cups are formed of these

horns; and those who drink out of them are said to be subject

neither to spasm nor epilepsy, nor to the effects of poison.

Other asses have no astragalus; but these have one, as well as

a gall-bladder. The astragalus I have seen myself: it is beau-

tifully formed, in shape like that of an ox, and very heavy and

red throughout. The animal is so swift that no horse can over-

take it, and so strong and fierce that it is with difficulty destroyed

by arrows and javelins. It begins its running slowly, but

gradually increases its speed ; it shows great attachment to its

young, which it defends against its pursuers, fighting with horn,

teeth, and heels. The flesh is so bitter that it is not eaten ; but

men set a high value on the horns and astragali.”

Aristotle + simply mentions this Unicorn under the name of

dvos tvdcxos (Indian Ass). “We have never seen,” he says,

‘a solidungulous animal with two horns; and there are only a

few solidungulous animals with one horn, such as the Indian Ass

and the Oryx (épv&). Of all animals with a solid hoof the In-

dian Ass alone possesses an astragalus.”

Pliny’s account of the Indian Ass is much the same as Aris-

totle’s. “It is the only solidungulous animal that has an astra-

galus : the Oryx is one-horned, but it is cloven-footed”t. Pliny,

it will be seen, here differs from Aristotle, who represents the

Oryx as solidungulous. Here, then, it is evident we have two

Unicorns—the solidungulous Indian Ass with an astragalus,

and the Oryx. But it appears there is still another one-horned

animal, viz. the Monoceros. ‘The Orseean Indians,” says the

Roman naturalist$, “hunt a very fierce animal, called the Mono-

ceros, which has the body of a horse, the head of a stag, the feet

of an elephant, and the tail of a wild boar; it utters a deep

lowing noise, and has a single horn, two cubits long, projecting

from the middle of its forehead. They say this animal cannot

be taken alive.”

fBlian ||, who lived long subsequently to any of the above-

named writers, mentions the évoe dypioe (the description of

* ovk dv a&tdmortos, Hist. An. viii. 27. § 3.

+ Hist. Anim. 11.2. § 8.

t N.H. xi. 46. § N.H. vin. 21. || Nat. An. xvi. 20.

368 Rev. W. Haughton on the Unicorn of the Ancients.

which is every word borrowed from Ctesias) and the Monoceros,

which he says the natives of the interior of India call Carca-

zonon*: it is the size of a full-grown horse, with a mane and

yellow woolly hair, of extreme swiftness, with feet like the ele-

phant and the tail of a wild boar; it has a black horn growing

between the eyebrows, which is not smooth, but with natural

conyolutions, and is very sharp at the point ; it emits loud dis-

cordant sounds; it lives peaceably with other animals, but quar-

rels with those of its own kind, the males even destroying the

females, excepting at the breeding-season, at which time the

animals are gregarious, but at other times they live in solitude

in barren tracts. The Monoceros is endued with great strength,

and is armed with an invincible horn.”

The whole of the accounts of these Unicorns are so evidently

deeply tinged with fable + that it is a matter of surprise how

any persons should ever have supposed it possible that such

animals might still be existing in unexplored countries. Major

Latter, however, some years ago, was very sanguine of being

able to find a veritable Unicorn in the interior of Tibet: he was

informed by a native, that he had frequently seen these animals,

which “were fierce and exceedingly wild, and seldom taken alive,

but frequently shot ;” and that they are frequently to be met

with on the borders of the great desert, about a mile from Lassa.

From a drawing which accompanied Major Latter’s communi-

cation, the presumed Unicorn was something like a horse, but

with cloven hoofs, a long curved(!) horn growing out of the

forehead, and a boar-shaped tail t.

Mr. Campbell’s § “discovery of the Unicorn in Africa” was

nothing more than that of some species of Rhinoceros, which he

identifies with the R’ém of the Hebrew Scriptures.

* There can be little doubt that the Rhinoceros unicornis is the animal

which forms the groundwork of nearly all that the ancients have written

on one-horned animals. The term which A‘lian tells us is used by the

natives of India to denote an animal with one horn, is almost identical with

that employed by the Arabs and Persians to signify a Rhinoceros. “ Vul-

gatissimum monocerotis nomen, nec solum apud Arabes sed et apud Persas,

Tartaros atque Indos receptum est Carcaudan vel, ut plerumque scribitur,

Carcaddan.”’—Bochart, Hierozoicon, ii. p. 318, ed. Rosenmiller. Car-

cadddn or Carcadén is the Arabic name for a Rhinoceros: see Freytag,

Lex. Arab. s. v., and Catafagos’s Arab. Dict.

+ Besides which, it must be remembered that not one of the Greek or

Roman writers ever pretended to have seen the animal; the whole founda~

tion rests on the account Ctesias received from the Persians. It is in vain,

therefore, to seek for the origin of the story in the supposition that the an-

cient Greeks and Romans mistook the horns of some antelope seen in pro-

file as if they were only one. The Unicorns, moreover, were supposed to

be Indian animals, while travellers are hoping to find them im Africa.

} Asiatic Journal, xi. p. 154. § Ib. xii. p. 36.

Rey. W. Haughton on the Unicorn of the Ancients. 869

The animal which Mr. Riippell was told by a native existed

in Africa, and which had a long straight horn growing from its

forehead (?), was also doubtless a Rhinoceros.

Under the head of “ Unicorns in Asia,” in the ‘ Asiatic Jour-

nal’ (vol. 11. new ser. 1830), a writer revives the opinion of the

existence of veritable Unicorns, such as were reporied to Major

Latter: the animal in question was of the deer kind, having a

single horn at the top of the head; it was known by the name

of Seru. The editor of the ‘Asiatic Journal’ makes the follow-

ing wise remark hereupon :—“ When we consider that cight

years have elapsed since Major Latter’s account was given, and

that, notwithstanding increased opportunities with Tibet, no fact

has since transpired which supplies a confirmation of. that ac-

count, excepting the obtaining a supposed horn of the supposed

Unicorn, we cannot participate in these renewed hopes.”

In vol. ii. p. 250 of the same Journal we read :—-“ Vertoman

gives the following account of two Unicorns in Arabia:—In

the other part of the temple of Mecca are parks or places en-

closed, where are seen two Unicorns, and these are shown to the.

people for a wonder; the one of them, which is much higher

than the other, is not much unlike a colt of two and a half

years old; in the forehead grows one horn, straight forward, of

the length of 3 cubits. The other is much younger, and like a

colt one year old. The horn of this is of the length of four

spans. The beast is of the colour of a horse, of a weasel-colour,

with a head hke a hart, but no long neck, a thin mane hanging

only on one side. The legs of both are thin and slender, like a

fawn or hind; the hoofs of the four feet are divided in two,

much like the feet of a goat; the outer part of the hind feet is

very full of hair. They seemed wild and fierce. They are sent

to the Sultan of Mecca from the King of Ethiopia ! ”

There are other reports as to the existence of real Unicorns,

such as those of Sparrmann, Lobo, Thenet (who asserted he had

hunted Unicorns with the King of Monomotopa), Garcias, and

others ; but where a veritable animal is meant by the term, that

animal is unquestionably some species of Rhinoceros ; for all

attempts to obtain a specimen of a quadruped with a single horn

on its forehead have failed, and the accounts of the existence of

such animals are very vague, and entirely unsupported by any-

thing approximating to satisfactory evidence.

The one-horned animal of which Ctesias speaks is in all pro-

bability the Rhinoceros unicornis, exaggerated accounts of which

would perhaps have been given him by the Persians, while his

own love of the marvellous added the remainder. From Ctesias’s

one single-horned animal, in process of time there came to be at

least three Unicorns, namely the dpvé, the dyos dypsos or ivdexds,

Ann. & Mag, N. Hist, Ser. 3, Vol, x, 25

Eat Bibliographical Notices.

and the povoxcepws, no living representatives of any of which

animals can be supposed to have any existence in nature*. Na-

turalists are, we believe, agreed upon the point that the so-called

Unicorn is a fabulous animal from beginning to end. It has

merely been my object in this paper to show how utterly ground-

less is the foundation on which the whole superstructure rests.

We cannot, therefore, participate in the slightest degree in the

hope that Dr. Baikie will be more successful than his prede-

cessors,

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift (Journal of Natural History), founded

by Dr. H. Kroyer; edited by Prof. T. C. ScusopTE at Copen-

hagen. Third Series, 1861. [Kroyer, Contributions to the His-

tory of Myside ; Meinert, Anatomy of the Larva of Gastrus Equi ;

Didrichsen, Botanical Observations ; Schjédte, Danish Harpalini,

and Larve of Coleoptera, &c. |

Tue ‘ Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift,’ or ‘Journal of Natural History,’

founded by Dr. Kroyer of Copenhagen, which, from 1837 to 1849,

formed one of the principal means of literary communication for

Danish naturalists, will be remembered by all those who occupy

themselves with the fauna and flora of the North. The editor com-

municated through this channel a great many of his numerous and

valuable contributions to,the natural history of Crustacea and Fishes;

but in 1849 he was forced by different circumstances to discontinue

the journal, six substantial volumes having at that time been published.

Travels and declining health afterwards prevented Dr. Kroyer from

resuming the publication, which has thus been interrupted for twelve

years. At present, however, Professor Schjidte, whose name as an

entomologist is also well known in England, has undertaken the task

of continuing the journal; and the first part of the third series

appeared a twelvemonth ago. ‘That it is an undertaking deserving

the attention of English naturalists will appear from a review of the

volume before us. It is a matter of course that the majority of the

papers will always be in Danish; but the affinity of this language to

the English is so great, that any person may easily acquire sufficient

Danish for consulting scientific treatises in that language. Besides,

the diagnoses and explanations of the plates are given in Latin; this

is, at least, the case in the first part of the work, on which we will

offer a few remarks.

It is headed by a paper from the pen of Dr. Kroyer, containing

descriptions of several species of Myside and similar Crustacea.

Dr. Kréyer was one of the naturalists who accompanied the great

expedition of ‘La Recherche’ to the Arctic regions, in 1838-1840,

* Pliny (N. H. viii. 21) says that “there are in India oxen with solid

hoofs and a single horn.” So here we have another kind of Unicorn.

Bibliographical Notices. 371

of which the results are embodied in Paul Gaimard’s ‘ Voyages de

la Commission du Nord en Scandinavie, Laponie,’ &c. ; but although

several plates have been published containing drawings and analyses

of the animals collected, no text has hitherto appeared. This defi-

ciency, the reasons of which Dr. Kroyer promises to explain on a

subsequent occasion, he now intends to remedy to some extent; and

the treatise before us must in some degree be looked upon as a

step in that direction. The descriptions, which in accuracy leave

nothing to be desired, are in Danish; but the very full diagnoses,

as well as the explanations of the plates, are in Latin. To these

we can therefore refer, contenting ourselves with a few general re-

marks.

In Milne-Edwards’s ‘ Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés’ only five

species of Myside are described, of which three belong to the northern

seas—viz. Mysis spinulosa, Leach, M. Chameleon, Thompson, and

M. vulgaris, Thompson. The number of northern species is, however,

much greater, as Dr. Kroyer enumerates seven Scandinavian species,

amongst which the M. spinulosa, Leach, is probably not included.

Three of these seven species are exclusively Arctic, viz. M. oculata,

Fabr., M. arctica, Kyr., and M. latitans, Kr. ; the others are found

along the shores of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, from Throndhjem

to the Sound. M. flecuosa, Miller, besides, penetrates as far into

the Baltic as Gotland. MM. inermis, Rathke, and M. cornuta, Kr.,

reach into the Arctic seas, but not into the Baltic, whilst M. vulgaris,

Thompson, is principally found in the fjords of Jutland and in the

Sound. The M. oculata was first described by Fabricius in his

‘Fauna Greenlandica,’ and afterwards by Leach, as M. Fabricii. It

is the commonest species in the Arctic seas, and the principal food

of whales and sea-birds at different seasons. To this species tab. 8.

fig. 2 a-r, in Gaimard’s ‘ Voyages,’ &c., has reference. M. latitans,

Kr., is a new species, found together with the M. oculata, which it

much resembles. The M. latitans, is, however, smaller and more

slender. M. arctica seems to be a rare and very remarkable form,

having the dorsal shield very large, covering all the joints of the

cephalothorax, and divided by a remarkable, deep transversal groove

into two parts ; the frontal rostrum is also unusually distinct, though

short. M. flexuosa, Miller (Prodromus Zoologiz Danie, 1776), is

the species of Mysis which has been earliest described with sufficient

distinctness to be recognized; and Miiller’s name must therefore

supersede the Thompsonian M. Chameleon. Dr. Kroyer leaves it

undecided whether Thompson’s M. Leachii and Leach’s M. spinulosa

also refer to this species. To M. flexuosa belong figs. 1, 2, & 3 on

tab. 9 in Gaimard’s work. On page 44 in the ‘ Tidsskrift,’ will be

found a table (in Latin) for the determination of the species of Mysis

mentioned in Dr. Kroyer’s paper.

The author next describes a new Cynthia from the Atlantic, which

he proposes to call enermis, and which is distinguished from C. armata,

M.-E., by the shortness of the frontal rostrum, and from C. Thomp-

sonii, M.-E., by a number of less conspicuous but not less significant

marks. Another species shows sufficient peculiarity of structure to

20%

372 Bibliographical Notices.

warrant the establishment of a new genus (Anchialus, Kr.), distinguish-

able from Mysis principally by the shape of the dorsal shield and by

the second pair of foot-jaws terminating in organs of prehension

formed by the last three joints: the only species is called typicus.

Then follow the descriptions of Promysis Galatee, Kr., from the In-

dian Sea, and of Dymas typus, Kr., a new genus belonging to Dana’s

subfamily Sceletine, and forming an intermediary link between

Mysis and Myto. Myto Gaimardi, Kr., was also discovered during

the voyage of ‘ La Recherche,’ and described in the second series of

the ‘ Tidsskrift,’ vol. i. pp. 470-476 ; a figure and analyses are found

in the ‘ Voyages,’ &c., tab. 7. fig. 1 a-g. Dr. Kroyer gives in the

present volume (p. 63) a Latin explanation of the said figure. The

other new genera and species are illustrated by two plates closely

filled with analytical drawings, with a Latin explanation, a table of

measurements being also appended. A continuation of these carcino-

logical contributions may be expected in the following parts of the

periodical.

The history of the larva of Gastrus Equi has been the subject of

several treatises by different authors, of which doubtless the most

remarkable is one by Schroeder van der Kolk, the celebrated Dutch

anatomist. The investigations on which this treatise was founded

were partly undertaken before 1830, when some of the drawings

were exhibited at a meeting of naturalists in Heidelberg ; but the

paper was not published till 1845. It was written in French, and

appears in the eleventh volume of the ‘ Nieuwe Verhandelingen der

eerste Klasse van het koninklijk-nederlandsche Institut.’ Never-

theless this remarkable paper seems to be very little known ; and in

the most current handbooks there is no mention of it, not even in

the author’s countryman. Van der Hoeven’s well-known ‘ Manual of

Zoology.’ This oblivion is highly undeserved; and the only cireum-

stance that perhaps in some degree may explain it is that, along with

his excellent account of the anatomy of the said larva, Schroeder van

der Kolk proposes certain theories concerning the use of the organs

he so ably describes which could not but seem suspicious to his con-

temporaries, and which also in part have turned out to be fallacious.

The volume of the Danish ‘ Tidsskrift’ which we are reviewing con-

tains, in a paper by Mr. Meinert, several valuable contributions to

our knowledge of this interesting animal, in the shape of a criticism

of Schroeder van der Kolk’s statements as to the organs of respira-

tion, digestion, and circulation.

The respiratory system consists, as is generally the case with the

larvee of dipterous insects, of a cavity near the posterior end of the

animal, from which several tracheze issue, two being larger than the

others, and reaching (one on either side) to the vicinity of the head.

Tn the larva of Gasirus Equi the anterior ends of these two long

tracheze are horny, and show a great number of perforations. They

are attached to the inner extremity of two short tubes, which corre-

spond to openings in the skin, and through which the trachese may

be cither brought to a level with the general surface of the body or

drawn back, and thus protected from injury. Schroeder van der

Bibliographical Notices. 873

Kolk has overlooked this remarkable structure, and supposes the

tracheze to end blindly, simply attached by their ends to the inner

surface of the skin. According to him, the air in the respiratory

organs is renewed through an opening in the middle of a horny plate

closing the great aériferous cavity, at the posterior extremity of the

body from behind. Schroeder van der Kolk even assumes the exist-

ence of a sphincter arcund this supposed opening. Mr. Meinert

shows that this is a mistake: in the place of the supposed perfora-

tion there is merely a pellucid spot, and an impression on the horny

plate, caused by the existence in young larvee of a small gland on

this spot, which is obliterated in the adult larvae. A communication

between the air enclosed in the aériferous chamber and the outer air,

through the horny plate closing it from behind, is possible only im so

far as it is permitted by the structure of the said plate itself, which

consists of a not very close texture of chitinous filaments, externally

covered by a firm but thin membrane. When this plate is viewed

from behind, it presents six slits of a curved shape, forming concen-

trical lines, three on each side of the pellucid point in the middle.

Each of these slits opens directly into a double row of vesicles con-

taining air. Schroeder van der Kolk supposed these slits to be closed

by a very thin membrane, the whole structure representing a kind of

trachea-gills; but Mr. Meinert has shown that they are perfectly

open, the air being detained in them by their margins being finely

denticulated. The number of these slits varies according to the age

of the larvee, ,

According to Schroeder van der Kolk, the alimentary tube is con-

nected with the adipose tissue in such a manner that the nutritious fluid

may directly flow from one into the other. Mr. Meinert shows that the

foremost set of connecting tubes, according to Schroeder van der Kolk,

are in reality mere ligaments, and that, as regards the second set of

such tubes assumed by Schroeder van der Kolk, this anatomist has

been misled by the circumstance that the longer pair of the Malpi-

ghian vessels, in the larva of Gasfrus Equi, as well as in many other

insects, presents a different structure in their anterior and their pos-

terior parts. Their extreme ends are, as usual, fixed to the posterior

parts of the intestine, but do not, as Schroeder van der Kolk thought,

open into it; and although the said vessels are fixed to the adipose

tissue at that point where their two different structures meet, there

is no communication between their cavity and the adipose vesicles.

With respect to the dorsal vessel, Schroeder van der Kolk has also fallen

into a serious mistake, namely, in considering certain lateral ligaments,

which keep the vessel in its place, as a kind of aortas. Although

Mr. Meinert has thus divested Schroeder van der Kolk’s treatise of

much that appeared as its most striking results, there is so much left

to admire in it that naturalists will not be justified in disregarding it

for the future, as has hitherto been the case.

The aim of Mr. Didrichsen’s paper, to which we would next direct

attention, is to correct certain mistakes concerning the nature of the

thorns in Berderis, Ribes, and Parkinsonia, which seem in a great

measure to pervade botanical literature; and also to free the great

374 Bibliographical Notices.

Linneeus from the imputation of having but imperfectly distinguished

between spina and aculeus. These errors have arisen from the cir-

cumstance that, in his ‘ Philosophia Botanica,’ page 50, Berberis is

mentioned, together with Rides, Rubus, and Rosa, as having aculei ;

and on page 110, Parkinsonia is instanced, with other leguminous

plants, as showing examples of aculei, although the thorns in these

plants must be considered as spine, according to Linnzus’s own de-

finition in page 50. The only mistake of Linnzeus is, according to

Mr. Didrichsen’s view, that Berberis has been mentioned (page 50)

amongst the examples of aculeus—a circumstance which is easily

explained when we remember that, when this part of the ‘ Philosophia

Botanica’ was written, Linnzeus was slowly recovering from a dan-

gerous illness, as he states himself in the preface, and, while confined

to his bed, dictated this immortal work to one of his friends, as fast

as the printer could put it in type. Both at an earlier time, in the

‘ Hortus Cliffortianus’ (1737), and afterwards, in the ‘Species Planta-

rum’ (ed. 2. p. 472, 1762), he described the thorns of Berderis as

spine. Whilst some over-zealous admirers of Linnzeus have tried to

defend the excusable, but undeniable, error committed in p. 50 in the

‘ Philosophia Botanica,’ others, misguided by a superficial similarity

between the thorns of Berberis and those of Ribes, have maintained

that the thorns of Rides had also been erroneously mentioned among

the examples of aculei. Others, again, have entirely discarded Lin-

neeus’s definitions, and attempted to find some new marks of distine-

tion between aculeus and spina, derived from their position, the

constancy of their occurrence, and their development during the

growth of the plant. Mr. Didrichsen fully concurs with those who

reserve the name of spine for such thorns as are only transformations

of the ordinary organs or parts of the plants, but describe as aculet

all thorns which are merely corticular appendages. But at the same

time he shows that Linnzeus’s definition in page 50 of the ‘ Philo-

sophia Botanica’ does in reality come to the same, and is the only

practically useful one. He shows that the difficulty which DeCan-

dolle thought to find in reference to the Monocotyledons does not

really exist, and that the investigations as to the development of

the thorns in Ribes Grossularia, by which some German authors

pretend to prove these to be spinee, are altogether unreliable. Nay,

Mr. Didrichsen even goes a step further. It is commonly supposed

that what are now called morphology or morphological points of view

were quite foreign to the mind of Linnzeus, and that he only took

what we should call a terminological view of questions like the one

before us. But Mr. Didrichsen maintains that this was not the case.

Linnzeus was the founder of botany as a science, and he was well

aware that the first thing necessary was to create a fixed terminology;

but it needs little explanation to show that for this purpose definitions

like those of spina and aculeus in p. 50 of the ‘ Philosophia Botanica’

were vastly preferable to definitions founded on morphological con-

siderations. Linnzus’s description of Berberis in the ‘ Species Planta-

rum’ (ed. 2. p. 470), in which he says, “ folia in spinas tripartitas

mutata,”’ as well as other passages, show that he knew quite well the

Bibliographical Notices. 375

morphological difference between spina and aculeus; and hisdescription

of Ribes Cynobasti (ibid. p. 292), in which these words occur—“ acu-

leus instar spine sub alis’’—shows that he was well aware that the

aculeus of the said plant might at a first glance be taken for a spina

on account of its place. 'That wide field of research which was

opened up by subsequent authors, urging the principles of morpho-

logy, was by no means hidden from Linnzeus’s master-mind ; but he

left others to do what he could not enter upon himself, if he wished

to accomplish the general regeneration of natural history—a purpose

so grand in itself that no scientific man has ever grappled with a

greater. That the morphological difference between aculeus and

spina was before the mind of Linnzeus when he wrote the definitions

in page 50 is, in the estimation of Mr. Didrichsen, confirmed by the

circumstance that the same matter is treated of once more in a later

chapter, but in a different manner. In this second place Linnzeus

seems really to have taken a purely terminological view of the matter,

describing different kinds of thorns only just as they appeared to the

eye. Here aculeus meant only a small, not very rigid thorn, what-

ever was its origin; and this fully explains the fact of Rodinia and

Parkinsonia being mentioned as instances, although Linnzeus else-

where acknowledged them to have spine. That aculeus does not

mean the same in pages 50 and 110 of the ‘ Philosophia Botanica,’

might have been concluded from the simple fact that he calls his

species of Parkinsonia ‘‘aculeata,’ although he describes it as

having spine. In naming the species, he took a purely termino-

logical external view ; but in describing it, he did not overlook the

morphological nature of its thorns. (It is by a mistake that Kunth

mentions this plant as P. spinosa, Linn.)

Prof. Schjédte’s paper on the Danish Harpalini has a double in-

terest, namely, partly on account of the information afforded on the

geographical distribution of certain species, and on the general cha-

racter of the Danish fauna, and partly on account of the systematical

observations by which it is headed. Of Harpalini, the Danish fauna

numbers no less than forty-six species, and presents the peculiarity

that, besides the species occurring in other countries under the same

latitudes, not a few species are found in Denmark which are charac-

teristic of far more southern parts of Europe. This is the case with

Anisodactylus signatus and nemorivagus ; Harpalus distinguendus,

Suscipalpis, honestus ; Stenolophus melanocephalus (=S. Skrimshi-

ranus), vespertinus, and elegans. None of these are found either

in Norway, Sweden, or North Germany. Diachromus germanus,

Ophonus punctatulus, and Stenolophus anglicus *, reach Denmark

through North Germany, but are not found north of the Baltic and

the Kattegat. On the other hand, Bradycellus coynatus (Greenland,

Norway, North of Sweden) is an instance of a very northerly species

which is still commonly found in Denmark, but not further to the

* Prof. Schjédte has adopted this name, which dates from 1766 (Voet,

i. 67, tab. 35. fig. 18),as the Linnean Carabus vaporariorum cannot possibly

be this species, and as Voet’s name is so much older than Schrank’s C.

teutonus, which some have adopted in this country.

376 Bibliographical Notices,

south; whilst H. ferrugineus is a species peculiar to the east of

Europe, which is still found, though very rarely, in Denmark and at

the Rhine, but not in England. In “ Moens klint,”’ aud the neigh-

bourhood of Silkeborg in Jutland, several species are found which

elsewhere are confined to mountains, although the said localities are

only 400-600 feet above the surface of the sea: amongst the Har-

palini, this is the case with Ophonus azureus and Harpalus serie-

punctatus.

The species having all been described before, new descriptions are

given only of a few. The characters, however, by which Prof.

Schjédte proposes to arrange them into groups are indicated (in

Latin) ; of the genera new and excellent descriptions are given, and

a synoptical table at p. 153. The Danish Harpalini belong to Aniso-

dactylus, Diachromus, Ophonus, Harpalus, Bradycellus, Acupalpus,

Stenolophus, and Balius, a new genus founded on Stenolophus con-

spectus and a very similar species from Bengal, distinguished by the

remarkable shape of the liguia*. Prof. Schjédte further proposes

the establishment of a new group within the limits of the Harpalini,

which he proposes to call Stenolophini, and characterizes by the

structure of the maxillee, of which the stipites are prolonged into a

remarkable tooth reaching beyond the first jomt of the maxillary

palpi. In this group Prof. Schjédte comprises a series of small

flarpalint ‘‘spread over the whele earth, and not less so in the

scientific systems.’ Besides Balius, Stenolophus, and Acupalpus, he

mentions Duptus, Batoscelis, and Agonoderus. Among these, Daptus

and Batoscelis are adapted for a manner of living similar to that of

the Scaritini; and many entomologists would probably place them

near this group on account of their thick heads, broad anterior tibize,

linear tarsi, &c. Prof. Schjédte, however, urges that these so-called

“biological”? characters do not indicate a real affinity between all the

Carabi which exhibit them, but only an analogous mode of life.

The structure of every animal is no doubt closely adapted to its

habits ; and in so far every peculiarity of structure, and the systematic

characters derived from it, might, in some sense of the word, be called

biological. But it is only to a small extent that we can indicate the

connexion between habits of life and structure ; and, as our knowledge

stands at present, every animal and every group of animals appear

to us as exhibiting the general feature of some type quite arbitrarily

devised by the Creator, and modified in some respects to serve cer-

tain purposes. The true conception of these types, of higher and

lower order, is the first condition of a natural system; but in this

respect great faults have been committed. One great cause of mis-

takes is that analogous modifications of the corresponding organs in ani-

mals really belonging to different though allied types, but living under

analogous external circumstances, have often been erroneously con-

sidered as the peculiar characteristics of a type—or, in other words,

analogies have been mistaken for affinities. Thus, in the case before

* What is called ligula in Carabi, Dytisci, and Gyrini, is, strictly speak-

ing, only the fulcrum ligule, the true ligula being represented by the

* paraglossie.”

Bibliographical Notices. 377

us, most Carabi adapted for digging in the ground undoubtedly be-

long to the same natural group—Scaritini ; but this is not the case

with all. Some genera also of other groups are adapted for this

manner of living by the shape of their heads, their prothorax, an-

tennze, and legs, without on that account separating themselves from

the group to which they naturally belong. Daptus and Batoscelis

amongst Stenolophini, Ditonus, Acinopus, and others amongst the

other Harpalini, are in this case. But then the whole set of cha-

racters which have reference to this manner of living cannot any

longer be considered as the exclusive mark of distinction of any par-

ticular group.

Prof. Schjédte’s paper is rich in hints towards a better systematic

arrangement of this numerous family than the present one, amongst

which we will ouly mention the peculiar structure of the mouth in

Amblystomus, Barysomus, and Cyclosomus, whose paraglossee, being

very broad, unite in front of the ligula.

In connexion with the preceding, a few words may not be out of

place with reference to Prof. Schjédte’s other contributions to the

history of the Caradi. Much valuable information on this subject

is to be found in his ‘ Denmark’s Eleutherata’ *, a work which is

much less known than it deserves to be. In the second volume of the

second series of the ‘ Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift,’ p. 346, there is an

interesting treatise on two new Caradi from Guinea,—IHiletus ver-

sutus, which forms the type of a separate group, and Ochyropus gigas,

which belongs to Scaritint, but is remarkable for its long legs and

vigorous feet. To the description of these species the author adds a

number of highly interesting remarks on the systematic value of

certain structural modifications of the thorax, of the position and

shape of the antennz, as well as of the different modifications to

which the neighbouring parts of the head are subject, corresponding

to the peculiarities of the antennee. In the ‘Proceedings of the Royal

Danish Society’ for 1855, he reverts to the subject; and the principal

results embodied in these papers may be shortly recapitulated in the

following manner.

In all Caradi the principal part of the epimera metathoracica is co-

vered by the elytra, and is therefore quite membranaceous ; but in very

many there is an appendix to the said pieces, which descends towards

the haunches, and is visible on the ventral surface. These appendices

coalesce more or less with the episterna metathoracica, and appear

to a superficial observer as belonging to them; hence Carabi pre-

senting this structure have formerly, both by Schjodte and others,

been described as having episterna metathoracica appendiculata,

although it ought to be epimera metathoracica appendiculata. It is

by comparison with other Coleoptera where the epimera are less

completely covered than in Carati, that Prof. Schjédte has learned

the real nature of these appendices. The existence or want of

these pieces is of great systematic value. In the family Carabini it

* Denmark’s Eleutherata, I. (Carabi, Dytisci, Gyrini), Copenhagen,

1840-42, 25 tables, with analytical drawings.

378. Bibliographical Notices.

may be advantageously combined with the shape of the tibiee ante-

riores. They are wanting in Cicindelini, Carabini, Elaphrini, Scari-

tini*, and in the more isolated genera Siagona and Enceladus. Of

these, Scaritini distinguish themselves from the others by having a

deep incision on the outer edge of the two anterior tibiee, of which

one of the terminal spines of the tibize is removed. All the others

have either no incision or only a small one, and both terminal spines

in their proper place. Hiletus, Schjédte, combines this last character

with the existence of appendices to the epimera metathoracica, whilst

all the other Carabi which have not been here mentioned combine

the existence of an incision in the two anterior tibiee, carrying one of

the terminal spines, with appendiculated epimera. Another point in

the structure of the thorax has perhaps in some respects been ob-

served, though not clearly expressed, by the American entomologist

Leconte, namely, the formation of the sockets of the second pair of legs.

Five pieces may participate in the formation of each of these sockets :

1, mesosternum; 2, metasternum ; 3, episternum mesothoracicum ;

4, epimerum mesothoracicum ; and 5, episternum metathoracicum, of

the corresponding side. There exist four combinations : the sockets

are formed (1) by mesosternum and metasternum alone; (2) by

mesosternum, metasternum, and episterna mesothoracica; (3) by

mesosternum, metasternum, aud epimera mesothoracica; (4) by me-

sosternum, metasternum, episterna, and epimera mesothoracica. In

the third and fourth cases a small continuation from the episterna

metathoracica sometimes takes part in the formation of the sockets.

These four combinations may be represented as in the subjoined

diagrams, the numbers indicating the pieces in the order they are

mentioned above ft.

1/3 1

I Ir

* In some Scaritini the epimera metathoracica present a linear impres-

sion near the margin, which may be, and has been, mistaken for a real

suture ; and the piece thus isolated has been mistaken for the appendices

of which we speak.

+ Proc. Royal Soc. of Copenhagen, 1855, p. 360. In this place, Prof.

Schjodte has communicated various observations, e. g. on the new Niphargus

aquilexz, and on Broscosoma and Miscodera, which he shows are so nearly

related that, instead of belonging to different groups of Carabi, as some

think, they are both true Harpalini, and would form only one genus if

there were not some difference in the*construction of the chin and in the

shape of the epimera mesothoracica, which are triangular in Miscodera and

linear in Broscosoma. It is in so far as Leconte has attended to the shape

of these pieces that he may be said to have been on the track of Prof.

Schjodte’s beautiful observation; but he has not penetrated the matter,

and Prof.Schjodte avails himself of the opportunity to show how unnatural

Bibliographical Notices. 379

For want of sufficient material, Prof. Schjédte has not carried out

through all the families the systematical results to which a proper

consideration of these characters would lead ; he only indicates that

the family of Carabi may thereby be divided into two natural divi-

sions, and that throughout the order Coleoptera they are valuable

as characters of families and groups. There can be no doubt that

by this discovery a very important step has been made towards the

better arrangement of the Coleoptera.

In the paper on Hiletus and Ochyporus (in the second series of

the ‘Tidsskrift,’ p. 376), Prof. Schjodte has drawn attention to

the differences exhibited by the Caradi as to the place of insertion

of the antennze and the corresponding modificatious in the surround-

ing parts. The following are the principal variations. I. The antennze

may be inserted in the sides of the forehead over the mandibles.

The basal joint (scapus) of the antennze is then generally very long,

and a little curved so as not to interfere with the eye when the an-

tennze are kept quite close to the body, which operation is also

facilitated by the socket of the second joint (pedicella) being turned

a little backwards. This is the case in Cicindelini, and forms a new

mark of distinction for this group, which has since also been observed

by Leconte. In Collyris and Euprosopus, each of the cheeks pre-

sents a sharp groove under the eye, for the reception of the third

joint of the antennze, which is shaped accordingly. In Manticora

the basal joint is unusually short, and there is a groove for it closely

behind the point of insertion of the antennz. II. In all other

Carabi the antennze are inserted in the cheeks, between the root of

the mandibles and the eye, almost every genus exhibiting a peculiar

arrangement. In some (as, for instance, in Anthia) the cheeks ex-

tend so far in all directions that there are no obstructions to the free

movements of the antennze, in which cases therefore no special mo-

difications of the surrounding parts are necessary. In other cases

(e. g. Mormolyce, Helluo, Galerita, Drypta) the cheeks are so long,

and at the same time so much extended to the sides, as to present

an anterior surface outside the mandibles, in which the antennze are

inserted. If so, there is sometimes a groove in the mandibles, in

order to facilitate the antennze being turned forward, whilst the op-

posite movement is often facilitated by a deep groove prolonging the

socket backwards. If the cheeks are short without great breadth,

similar grooves in the mandibles and in the cheeks, in infinite variation,

constantly occur. Finally, in those which are destined for digging

under ground (Scaritini, Acinopus, Broscus, &c.), or for living under

bark (Si/phomorpha), or other similar modes of existence (Hiletus),

the cheeks are short, but extend considerably downwards (owing to

Leconte’s classification often becomes because of his blind adherence to

the mere differences of shape exhibited by these pieces. Prof. Schjédte

further refutes his erroneous statement that Brachinini alone have seven

abdominal joints, but all other Caradi six; the seventh joint is found in

all Carabi, only in many it is retracted under the sixth (vide also Denm.

Eleutherata, 361, and Germar, Zeitschrift f. Entomologie, v. 476).

380 Bibliographical Notices.

the thickness of the head), the bases of the antenne are often pro-

tected by the prominent corners of the forehead, the antennze geni-

culated, and two foveze antennales provided. Taking all this into

consideration, Prof. Schjédte has, in the ‘ Proceedings of the Royal

Society of Copenhagen’ (Joc. eé¢.), proposed the following distribu-

tion of Carabi :—

I. EPIMERA MESOTHORACICA COXAS INFERIUS ATTINGENTIA,

A. Epimera metathoracica appendice exteriori nulla,

1. Antenne frontales.

1. Cicindelini.

2. Antenne pone mandibulas genis inserte.

a. Antenne scrobiculis haud recipiendi, basi detects.

2. Carabini (inclus. Elaphrini cum gen. Loricera, Latr., et Miga-

dops, Wath.).

6, Antennze scrobiculis recipiende, sapissime fracte.

* Antenne basi detectee. Tibia inermes (mentum concretum ;

epimera mesothoracica concreta).

3. Siagonini (Siagona, Enceladus).

** Antenne basi lamina frontali supertectee. Tibi antiew pal-

mate.

4. Scaritini.

B. Epimera metathoracica appendice exteriort iastructa.

a. Antenne basi lamina frontali supertectie, scrobiculis recipiende.

Tibi antice integre.

5. Hiletini (type Hiletus, Naturh. Tidsskr. J. c.).

b. Antenne basi detectee, scrobiculis haud recipiende. Tibi antice

emarginatze.

6. Ozznini (types Ozena, Myrtropomus, Mormolyce).

Il, EpIMERA MESOTHORACICA COXAS INFERIUS HAUD ATTIN-

GENTIA.

Tribus Caraborum ceterz.

It is to be hoped that Prof. Schjédte will find an opportunity for

carrying out in greater detail these new ideas, which certainly seem

to promise very useful systematic results.

To return to the volume before us: it should be noticed that it

contains four excellent plates illustrating a paper by the editor on

the metamorphoses of Coleoptera, with drawings and analyses of the

larvee of Gyrinus marinus, Hydroiis aterrimus, Hydrophilus cara-

boides, Hydrobius fuscipes, Philhydrus testaceus, and Berosus spi-

nosus. In the following part this treatise will be continued, and we

shall then have an opportunity for a few observations on it.

The North-Atlantic Sea-bed ; comprising a Diary of the Voyage on

board H.M.S. Bulldog, in 1860, and Observations on the Pre-

sence of Animal Life, and the Formation and Nature of Organic

Deposits, at great Depths in the Ocean. By G.C.Waxuicu, M.D.,

F.L.S., F.G.8. &. Part I. 4to. London: Van Voorst, 1862.

In, this work Dr. Wallich, who held the office of Naturalist to the

Expedition dispatched in 1860 to survey the proposed telegraphic

route between this country and America, gives us the results of his

investigations into the natural history of the portion of the sea-bed

Bibliographical Notices. 381

passed over by the ‘ Bulldog’ during her voyage of about four months.

The first section of the part now before us contains his journal of the

voyage, which comprises much interesting information, especially upon

the nature and mode of formation of the icebergs and ice-fields which

constitute at once the greatest wonder and the chief danger of those

northern seas in which his investigations were carried on. This

portion of Dr. Wallich’s book we shall, however, pass over, in order

to direct the reader’s attention more particularly to the remarkable

results detailed in the second section, which is devoted to, the consider-

ation of the “ Bathymetrical Limits of Animal Life in the Ocean.”

The interest attaching to this section of Dr. Wallich’s work arises

from the fact that, in some of his deep-sea soundings, the apparatus

employed brought up living animals from those abysses of the ocean

which, according to the almost universal opinion of naturalists, were

uninhabitable by any creatures, thus at once upsetting all our pre-

conceived notions as to the distribution and limits of animal life in

the sea. The first notice of Dr. Wallich’s remarkable observations

appeared in this Journal in December 1860 ; in the present work we

have a more detailed account of the mode of occurrence of the ani-

mals referred to, which can leave no doubt that the existence of

animal life at enormous depths is an actual fact.

The most striking of Dr. Wallich’s results was obtaimed in a

sounding at a depth of 1260 fathoms: it is to this that his short

paper already alluded to refers. The deposit brought up consisted of

Globigerine, many of them ina fresh condition, amongst which were

some small Serpuloid tubes, composed chiefly of the shells of small

Globigerine cemented together, from which Dr. Wallich justly con-

cludes that the inhabitants of these tubes live upon the sea-bed

among the Globigerine. But the most astonishing circumstance

was the oecurrence of numerous living Starfishes of a species (Ophio-

coma granulata) well known as an inhabitant of our coasts, adhering

to the sounding-line under such conditions as to prove that they also

must find a suitable dwelling-place in the profound abysses of the

ocean. The evidence of this fact is furnished partly by their position

on the line, and partly by the contents of the stomach of a specimen

opened by Dr. Wallich. To explain the former proof, our author

tells us that, after the regular operation of sounding had been per-

formed, the apparatus for bringing up a portion of the bottom was

lowered, and, m order to make sure of its reaching and dragging on

the bottom, about fifty fathoms of line were paid out in addition to

the quantity indicated by the previous sounding. It was only to this

fifty fathoms of line, which must have lain along the bottom of the

sea, that the Starfishes adhered; and as no fewer than thirteen of

them were brought up, it would appear that they must be tolerably

plentiful over the sea-bed at the point sounded. The contents of

the stomach proved that the Ophiocome feed upon the Globigerine,

furnishing additional evidence that the two forms were cohabitants

of the sea-bottom at this point.

Dr. Wallich refers to other instances in which he obtained living

animals, and indications of the existence of other forms, from depths

382 Bibliographical Notices.

greater than are usually supposed favourable to animal life: the

Globigerine, he states, aré obtained from the immense depth of

3000 fathoms, and from no less than 1913 fathoms the small Annelid-

tubes above referred to as fabricated of the shells of Globigerine

were brought up. He also cites analogous observations made by

various investigators, amongst others by Sir John Ross and Sir James

Clark Ross, the former of whom even obtained a Gorgon’s-head Star-

fish (Zuryale) adhering to his sounding-line at a depth of 800 fathoms,

whilst M. Torell, director of the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen,

is reported to have brought up from 1400 fathoms a “ Crustacean of

bright colours.” Dr. Wallich does not, however, refer to the exam-

ples adduced by Dr. A. Milne-Edwards in July 1861, before the

Se of Sciences of Paris (see Annals, Sept. 1861), of the occur-

nce of several species of Mollusca, Corals, Serpule, and Polyzoa,

found adhering to a submarine cable recovered from depths between

1000 and 1500 fathoms in the Mediterranean.

Having proved experimentally that animals do live at vast depths

in the ocean, our author reviews the grounds upon which the oppo-

site opinion, to which he gives the title of antibiotic, has been

founded. He discusses in detail the various questions connected with

the temperature and aération of the water, and the presence in it of

mineral and other substances necessary for the existence of the

animal forms which have been found in the deepest recesses of the

ocean, and, it appears to us, shows satisfactorily that the views hitherto

entertained upon these points are erroneous. The argument derived

from total absence of light at these great depths is disposed of by

reference to the well-known fact that the lower parts of the deep-sea

coral zone of Forbes, which are inhabited by numerous and often

brightly coloured animals are situated far below the depth (700 feet)

to which the smallest amount of light can penetrate. One main

reason which has been urged against the existence of any living

thing in the deep sea, namely, the enormous pressure which must

prevail towards the bottom, appears to offer no further difficulty.

Immense as this pressure must be, amounting to no less than 26401bs.

on the square inch at a depth of a mile, Dr. Wallich shows that, as

every part of the creatures living at the sea-bottom is ‘“ completely

pervious to fluids, either by its porosity or through endosmotic action,

the state of equilibrium remains undisturbed,” and thus these animals

will be enabled to adapt themselves to all circumstances of pressure.

There is one point, however, in connexion with the residence of

animals at great depths, in which Dr. Wallich seems to find some

difficulty, namely, the mode in which they can obtain their nourish-

ment. Vegetable substances, in the sea as on land, must be con-

sidered to form the basis of the nutrition of animals, either directly

or indirectly ; but the growth of plants is limited to those zones of the

sea-bed to which light can penetrate; and although the remains of

vegetable organisms have been brought up in abundance from great

depths, their condition seems to prove that their life was passed

nearer the surface of the ocean, and that they did not sink to the bot-

tom of the deep waters until after the cessation of their vitality. That

Bibliographical Notices. 883

the nutrition of the Starfishes and Annelides may be effected at the

expense of the Globigerine and other low forms of animals is shown

by the contents of the stomach of one of the Starfishes when brought

to the surface ; the question then is, in what manner are these lower

organisms nourished? In endeavouring to find a solution of this

problem, Dr. Wallich puts forward a hypothesis which we cannot

think to be at all admissible, namely, that as the organisms in

question possess the power of “ separating carbonate of lime or silica

from waters holding these substances in solution. . . . . they may also

apply the elements not needed for that purpose to the nutrition of

their soft parts, especially since the remaining elements are those

which, when united, constitute the proteine-compound of which their

soft parts are invariably composed.” In this Dr. Wallich thinks that

“no exceptional law is invoked ;”’ but it seems to us that, even if the

derivation of mineral elements, such as carbonate of lime and silica,

directly from the surrounding water be, as Dr. Wallich considers it,

an indisputable fact, it still furnishes us with no analogy to the fixa-

tion and combination of the organizable elements into a living body,

as the carbonate of lime and silica remain unchanged in their chemi-

cal condition ; whilst the analogy supposed to exist with plants is still

further from the truth. The very difficulty which this hypothesis

is proposed to get over arises from the fact, admitted by Dr. Wal-

lich, that plants, which we know to derive their nourishment from

inorganic matter, cannot effect the assimilation of the necessary ele-

ments without the stimulus of light; and yet we are to assume that

animals, none of which, as far as we know, are capable, under the

ordinary conditions of plant-life, of availing themselves of the sur-

rounding elements for the nutrition of their bodies, may yet do so

under the influence of a total absence of all recognizable stimulus,

It appears to us, that in this we have an invocation of a very excep-

tional law, and one which involves something very like a creation of

force. A statement made by Dr. Wallich, a few pages after the pro-

mulgation of the above theory, may perhaps serve partly to explain

the apparent anomaly. He says, “it is evident that there is an in-

timate association between the Globigerina-deposits and the Gulf-

stream ; for wherever we trace the one sweeping across the surface of

the ocean, we are almost sure to detect the other resting on the sea-

bed ; and when we fail to trace the one, we almost as surely fail to

detect the other.” This connexion between the Gulf-stream and the

deposits of Globigerine is ascribed by Dr. Wallich to the vast quan-

tities of carbonate of lime brought down into it by the great rivers of

the American continent. The abundant supply of this salt is con-

sidered to be so favourable to the growth of Foraminifera as to cause

their abundance along the course of the Gulf-stream. Admitting

the force of this argument, may not the influence of the Gulf-stream

depend also in part, perhaps chiefly, on the vast numbers of or-

ganisms which swarm in its genial waters, and which, sinking to the

bottom after death, may furnish the food necessary for the sustenance

and multiplication of the inhabitants of the abysses beneath them ?

Although constrained to dissent on this point from Dr. Wallich’s

384 Bibliographical Notices.

views, we nevertheless cordially welcome his work as a most im-

portant and interesting contribution to our knowledge of the physical

geography of the sea. The reader will find in it a most interesting

discussion of some of the most important questions connected with

the distribution of marine animals; and many of the statements

connecting these with the elucidation of facts in geology and physical

geography will be found exceedingly valuable. We look forward

with much impatience for the appearance of the second part, com-

pleting the work (which is announced to be published in December),

as it will contain the results of Dr. Wallich’s investigations into the

structure and life-history of the Rhizopodal Fauna of the deep sea ;

and from the care with which his researches have been carried on,

we have every reason to expect a highly valuable contribution towards

the history of those singular creatures. ‘This portion of his subject

is barely commenced in the part before us; but, from the few pages

here devoted to it, and the lettering of the beautiful plates appended

to the work, nearly all of which illustrate the Rhizopoda, it would

appear that Dr. Wallich’s researches have led him to important

systematic results.

On the various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids

are Fertilized by Insects, and on the good effects of Intercrossing.

By Cuarziis Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. London: John Murray.

12mo. 1862.

Among flowering plants there are few which excite our interest more

than the Orchids, whether we consider merely the singularities of

their external appearance, or the mysterious amalgamation of their

male and female organs in a single central column. The strange and

often grotesque forms of the flowers (simulating, as they frequently

do, certai members of the animal kingdom), the great -beauty of

some species, and the remarkable epiphytal habits of others are

quite sufficient to attract the attention of both the botanist and the

horticulturist to these plants; and when we add to this that the

above-mentioned amalgamation of the sexual organs of the flowers,

instead of facilitating impregnation, as might have been expected,

really seems to place obstacles in the way of the performance of this

function, the interest excited by these plants will reach its climax.

It is Mr. Darwin’s object in the present work to clear up the mystery

hanging over the process of impregnation in the Orchids, in order to

apply the results thus obtained to the support of certain opinions ad-

vanced in his book on the ‘ Origin of Species.’ In the practical part

of his task, the explanation of the mode of fertilization, 1t seems to us

that he is completely successful ; but whether the arguments deduced

therefrom on the general question be equally valid, is another

affair.

It has long been supposed by some botanists, amongst whom Mr.

Darwin cites Sprengel and Robert Brown, that in the fertilization of

Orchids insects play a not unimportant part; but, as remarked by

our author, from their assuming the pollen to be applied to the im-

Bibliographical Notices. 385

pregnation of the same flower, they have missed discovering the true

process. According to Mr. Darwin, the pollen of one flower is almost

invariably employed to fertilize the seeds of another; and the con-

trivances by which this end is attained in different Orchids appear to

us to be amongst the most remarkable presented by the vegetable

kingdom. We may select one of the simplest forms of the process,

namely that exhibited by Orchis mascula, as this will furnish a clue

to the phenomena presented throughout the group.

In this plant the top of the column is occupied by the single an-

ther, containing two pollinia or masses of pollen-grains, which are

produced beneath into small slender stalks, each terminating in a viscid

disk which is received into the back of the rostellum. ‘The latter,

which is the homologue of one of the stigmata, projects from the

front of the column in such a manner as partially to fill up the

orifice leading into the nectary, and on each side of it are the

true stigmatic surfaces of the remaining two stigmata. The viscid

disks of the pollinia are surrounded by a fluid which keeps them

constantly moist, being protected from atmospheric influences by the

rostellum. The action of this complex apparatus is explained, as

follows, by Mr. Darwin :—

** Let us suppose,” he says, ‘‘an insect to alight on the labellum,

which forms a good landing-place, and to push its head into the

chamber at the back of which lies the stigma, in order to reach with

its proboscis the end of the nectary..... Owing to the pouch-formed

rostellum projecting into the gangway of the nectary, it is scarcely

possible that any object ean be pushed into it without the rostellum

being touched. The exterior membrane of the rostellum then rup-

tures in the proper lines, and the lip or pouch is most easily de-

pressed. When this is effected, one or both of the viscid balls will

almost infallibly touch the intruding body. So viscid are these balls

that whatever they touch they firmly stick to. Moreover the viscid

matter has the peculiar chemical property of setting, like a cement,

hard and dry in a few minutes’ time. As the anther-cells are open

in front, when the insect withdraws its head, one pollinium, or both,

will be withdrawn, firmly cemented to the object, projecting up like

horns. The firmness of the attachment of the cement is very neces-

sary, as we shall immediately see; for if the pollinia were to fall

sideways or backwards, they could never fertilize the flower. From

the position in which the two pollinia lie in their cells, they diverge

a little when attached to any object. Now let us suppose our insect

to fly to another flower: .... by looking at the diagram, it will be

evident that the firmly attached pollinium will be simply pushed

against or into its old position, namely into its anther-cell. How,

then, can the flower be fertilized? ‘This is effected by a beautiful

contrivance : though the viscid surface remains immoveably affixed,

the apparently insignificant and minute disk of membrane to which

the caudicle adheres is endowed with a remarkable power of con-

traction, which causes the pollinium to sweep through about 90

degrees, always in one direction, viz. towards the apex of the pro-

boscis, in the course, on an average, of thirty seconds. Now, after

Ann. § Mag. N. Hist. Ser, 3. Vol. x, 26

386 Bibliographical Notices.

this movement and interval of time (which would allow the insect to

fly to another flower), it will be seen that if the pencil [or proboscis |

be inserted into the nectary, the thick end of the pollininm will

exactly strike the stigmatic surface.”

That things go on in the way just described was demonstrated

experimentally by Mr. Darwin by the simple expedient of thrusting

the point of a pencil or some similar object into the orifice of the

nectary, when one or both of the pollinia are certain to be removed,

and the subsequent change of position for enabling the pollen to

reach the viscid stigmatic surfaces of another flower may easily be

observed. The occurrence of the same phenomena by the inter-

vention of moths and other sucking insects is proved by the frequent

occurrence of pollinia adhering to their proboscides. Mr. Darwin

gives a list of twenty-three species of Lepidoptera on which pollinia

of Orchis pyramidalis have been met with; he figures the head of

a specimen of Acontia luctuosa with seven pairs of pollinia attached

to its proboscis, and mentions one of a Caradrina which bore no

fewer than eleven pairs of these pollen-masses.

As the general principle on which the fertilization of Orchids de-

pends is nearly the same throughout, although the different means

by which its effectuation is ensured present many beautiful and won-

derful contrivances, the extract above given may suffice for our pre-

sent purpose ; the reader will, however, find the details given by

Mr. Darwin on all points connected with the impregnation of these

plants most interesting. We may, however, trespass a little further

upon his time in order to advert to one case which, appears to us

particularly remarkable.

In Catasetum, one species of which is now eae to be the

male form belonging to a female plant placed by botanists in quite a

different genus, the two pollinia are affixed to a common, broad and

strong pedicle bearing at its lower end a single disk coated with

viscid matter. The latter, however, is so turned into the interior of

the column that-no insect can by any possibility get at it, and indeed

there seems to be nothing to induce even the most inquisitive insect

to push his proboscis into the vicinity of the disk. How, then, is it

to be set free? Mr. Darwin describes a pair of long, stiff and taper-

ing organs, which he calls antenne, projecting from the sides of the

columm close to the insertion of the pedicle of the pollinia; these

hang down over the pouch-like labellum, in such a position that an

insect moving about upon the latter can hardly fail to touch them.

The slight irritation thus caused appears to produce some singular

effect upon the tissues about the base of the pollinia: the membranes

retaining the common pedicle in its position are ruptured; the heavy

viscid disk is set free, and is drawn forth by the sudden extension of

the previously curved pedicle, which straightens itself with such

force as to jerk the pollinia out of their cells and project the whole

organ to a distance often of two or three feet, the disk with its viscid

coat being always carried foremost, ready to adhere to any object.

Mr. Darwin sums up, as follows, the phenomena presented by the

genus including Catasetum, Monachanthus, and Myanthus of bota-

Bibliographical Notices. 387

nists. He says, “We see a flower patiently waiting with its an-

tenn stretched forth in a well-adapted position, ready to give

notice whenever an insect puts its head into the cavity of the label-

lum. The female Monachanthus, not having pollinia to eject, is

destitute of antennee. In the male and hermaphrodite forms, namel

Catasetum tridentatum and Myanthus, the pollinia lie doubled up

like a spring, ready to be instantaneously shot forth when the an-

tennz are touched ; the disk end is always projected foremost, and

is coated with viscid: matter, which quickly sets hard, and firmly

affixes the hinged pedicel to the insect’s body. The insect flies from

flower to flower, till at last it visits a female or hermaphrodite plant ;

it then inserts one of the masses of pollen into the stigmatic cavity.

When the insect flies away, the elastic caudicle, made weak enough

to yield to the viscidity of the stigmatic surface, breaks, and leaves

behind the pollen-mass ; then the pollen-tubes slowly protrude, pene-

trate the stigmatic canal, and the act of fertilization is completed.

Who would have been bold enough,”’ he adds, ‘‘ to have surmised that

the propagation of a species should have depended on so complex, so

apparently artificial, and yet so admirable an arrangement ?”’

The consequence deduced by Mr. Darwin from the facts above

referred to is stated by him in the following words :—“ Considering

how precious the pollen of Orchids evidently is, and what care has

been bestowed on its organization and on the accessory parts,—con-

sidering that the anther always stands close behind or above the

stigma, self-fertilization would have been an incomparably safer pro-

cess than the transportal of the pollen from flower to flower. It is

an astonishing fact that self-fertilization should not have been an

habitual occurrence. It apparently demonstrates to us that there

must be something injurious in the process. Nature thus tells us,

in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors perpetual self-fer-

tilization.”

To this conclusion we may be permitted todemur. Even amongst

Orchids, according to Mr. Darwin, some species, the most striking

of which is the Bee-Orchis (Ophrys apifera), are organized for self-

fertilization ; and we do not see why the mere fact of the close juxta-

position of the sexual organs, coupled with the necessity for the im-

pregnation of one flower by the pollen of another (admitting this to

the fullest extent), should have more weight in proving that ‘‘ Nature

abhors self-fertilization”’ than the perfectly well-known fact that,

whilst the majority of plants bear hermaphrodite flowers, others are

moncecious and dicecious. It seems to us that, curious and interesting

as are the phenomena revealed to us by Mr. Darwin, they are far

from giving any support to the theory that self-impregnation is ab-

horrent to Nature, especially as there are many plants and animals

in which, as far as we are aware, “perpetual self-fertilization ’’ must

prevail.

Apart from this theory and that of “natural selection,’ which we

cannot think is much advanced by the present volume, we must

welcome this work of Mr. Darwin’s as a most important and inter-

esting addition to botanical literature. It contains the details of a

26%

388 Zoological Society :—

vast number of curious phenomena, observed most carefully, and

furnishes a most lucid exposition of the homologies of the singular

flowers of which it treats. The illustrations also are excellent.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

May 13, 1862.—John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair.

Notice or a New Species or Dotpnin (DELPuinus Cata-

LANIA), DISCOVERED IN Nortu AvustTraAuia By Mr. JOHN

Maccituivray. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., etc.

Mr. John Macgillivray has sent to Mr. Cuming, who has trans-

ferred them to the British Museum Collection, two skulls of a species

of Dolphin or Bottlenose, which he regards as probably new.

These skulls were accompanied by the following notes :—

“ DELPHINUS, 0.8.

* The larger of the two skulls belonged to an individual killed off

Cape Melville (within the Great Barrier Reefs), north-east coast of

Australia, Sept. 5, 1860. It was a female, 74 feet in length; and

from it were taken two foetuses, each 10 inches in length. The adult

was of a very light lead-colour above and on the sides, gradually

passing into the dirty leaden white of the lower parts, which were

covered (as also the flippers) with longitudinally elongated blotches

of dark lead-colour.

** The smaller of the two skulls represents another Porpoise of the

same species, harpooned off Cape Flattery, on the north-east coast

of Australia, Oct. 9, 1860. It was considerably smaller than the

first one, being only 62 feet in length. It was a female. The colour

was exactly lead-colour, fading into whitish on the lower parts be-

tween the anus and the snout. The sides were marked with small

oblong spots of the same colour as the back. Measurements when

recent :—

«Total length, snout to centre of tail, 6 feet 9 inches.

** Snout to base of dorsal, 3 feet ; length of anterior border of dorsal

13 inches; height of dorsal 8 inches; width of dorsal 12 inches ;

from posterior border of dorsal to tip of tail, 2 feet 8 inches.

« Swimming-paws (midway between snout and dorsal) 13 inches

long, and 53 inches broad ; from their base to end of snout, 13 inches.

‘Tail 22 inches across from tip to tip.

«‘ Anus 2 feet 2 inches in front of tail (centre of tip).

* Rye 3ths of an inch in diameter, situated 1} inch behind angle of

mouth, and 12 inches from tip of upper jaw.

«* Lower jaw projecting 1 inch beyond the upper.

“« This Porpoise was occasionally seen, in small droves of from three

to six, along the north-east coast of Australia, within the reefs. Two

other species also were seen, but we could not fasten.”

Dr. J. E. Gray on Delphinus Catalania. 389

The two skulls slightly differ in shape and size.

No. 1 is 17 inches long; the beak to the notch is 10 inches, and

the upper tooth-bone 84 inches long; the front lower teeth are worn

away and truncated, like the teeth of the common De/phinus tursio,

which was described as D. brunatus by Montague. There are

twenty-seven teeth on each side in the upper, and twenty-five teeth

on each side in the lower jaw.

No. 2 is 17 inches long; the beak 93, and the upper tooth-bone

8 inches long. The teeth twenty-four above (perhaps one on each

side is deficient, as the end of the jaw is very tender), twenty-three

or twenty-four below. The front lower teeth are slightly truncated ;

but this skull chiefly differs from No. 1 in being rather more convex

and rather narrower, especially in the hinder part, from the middle

of its length.

T have compared these skulls with those of the different species of

Bottlenoses (Tursio) in the British Muscum ; and they are perfectly

distinct from any of them. The species may be called Delphinus

Catalania. It is smaller in size, and has a much smaller brains

cavity than D. Cymodoce (Gray, Zool. Erebus & Terror, t. 19) and D.

Metis (Gray, Zool. Erebus & Terror, t. 18); and the beak is not so

tapering as in these species, and the teeth are rather more numerous.

It is equally distinct from Delphinus Eurynome (Gray, Zool. Erebus

& Terror, t. 17), believed to be from the North Sea.

It is not easy to point out the distinction of these species in words;

but there cannot be a doubt about them when they are compared ~

together.

* I may here observe that Delphinus Eutropia (Gray, Proc. Zool.

Soc. 1849, 1; Zool. Erebus & Terror, t. 34 ined.), which, in the

‘ Catalogue of Cetacea’ in the British Museum, I have placed in the

first section of Tursia, with D. tursio and the species above named,

should be formed into a section of itself, characterized by having a

very broad muzzle shelving on the sides, and the skull shelving down

over the orbits, and thirty-four or thirty-five slender teeth on each

side of each jaw. This section may be called Eurroria.

Notice or A WINGLEss Brirp, on Mono, AND A RAVEN FOUND

IN THE IsLAND oF Hawai By Mr. W. H. Pease. By Dr.

J. E. Gray, F.R.S., etc.

In a note lately received from Mr. W. H. Pease, dated Honolulu,

Nov. 20, 1861, he observes, ‘‘I noticed in a late number of the

‘ Annals of Natural History’ a description of a species of bird living

in our islands (which was figured many years since in Dixon’s

‘Voyage’), by Mr. Gould; he refers it to the genus ‘ Moho.’

living in the island of Hawaii, which the natives call ‘Moho,’ which

is now nearly extinct, having been killed off by the wild cats and

dogs within late years; I have seen but a single specimen. There

is also living there a species of Raven.”

390 : Zoological Society :—

Some Remarks on Aquita Desmursit (J. VERREAUX).

By J. H. Gurney, M.P., F.Z.S.*

M. Jules Verreaux, who first recognized this Eagle as a distinct

species, communicated his description of it to Dr. Hartlaub, by whom

the species was made known to ornithologists in his admirable work

on the Ornithology of West Africa.

My present object is to put on record some information as to this

interesting bird, with which M. Jules Verreaux has been so good as

to supply me, and also to give some indications of the changes of

plumage to which this species appears liable, and which I have had

the opportunity of examining in several examples which now form

part of the collection of the Norwich Museum.

It may, however, be well to premise a few general remarks with

reference to the geographical distribution of this Eagle, and to some

of the peculiarities by which it is distinguished.

Aquila Desmursii has hitherto only been found in Tropical Africa,

north of the Equator,—specimens having been obtained at Bissao

on the western coast, and also in Nubia and Abyssinia, and on the

banks of the White Nile.

It is a small species, intermediate in size between Aquila pennata

and Aguila nevia. From the former it is readily distinguishable by

the greater length of all its measurements ; from the latter (as also

from Aquila nevioides) it may, on the contrary, be distinguished by

sits less size and, as Dr. Hartlaub well remarks, “by the more deli-

cately shaped bill, and by the greater length of the tail” as com-

pared with that of the wings.

Another well-marked distinction, to which Dr. Hartlaub does not

allude, is to be found in the presence in Aquila Desmursii of a well-

defined, though small, occipital crest, consisting of from eight to

nine pointed feathers, the longest of which are fully an inch and a

half in length.

The colouring of this Eagle, described in Dr. Hartlaub’s work, is

that which characterizes what I believe to be the adult bird after it

has newly moulted and has acquired its fresh plumage. In this dress

the general colouring of Aquila Desmursii closely resembles that of

the adult of Aquila nevioides under similar conditions, being of a

rufous brown, varying in intensity in different portions of the same

feather.

Other specimens of Aguila Desmursit exhibit a plumage of an ex-

tremely dark and almost uniform chocolate-colour. These indivi-

duals I believe to be immature birds, in which the feathers have

been also newly acquired. In this stage they bear a considerable

general resemblance in point of colouring to the immature specimens

of Aquila pennata, though I have never met with an immature

Aquila pennata quite so dark as some specimens I have seen of

Aquila Desmursii. In Aquila Gesmursit, as also in Aquila nevioides,

* This paper will also be published in the Society’s ‘ Transactions,’ accompa-

nied by a plate.

Dr. W. Baird on new Species of Phyllopodous Crustacea. 3891

both adult and immature birds appear liable to have their plumage

exceedingly bleached by the action of the tropical sun; but it is

remarkable that the feathers composing the occipital crest in Aquila

Desmursii appear to retain their original tint, notwithstanding the

partial loss of colour from the above cause in the portions of the

plumage immediately adjacent. It should also be remarked that, in

some immature specimens, nearly the whole under surface is of a

very pale whitish brown—a variation from the ordinary darker co-

louring which cannot be accounted for by the effect of sun and

weather only.

In conclusion, I will add the remarks on this species communi-

cated to me by M. Jules Verreaux, which are as follows :—“ Ac-

cording to the notes of the collectors, the irides of the adult birds

are of a chestnut-brown tinged with yellow; whilst in the young

birds the yellow tint is absent, and the brown is deeper, with but

little tinge of chestnut. The natives (at Bissao) give the name of

‘Socolas’ to this species only, it being well known to, them as a very

courageous bird, attacking even the small Gazelles (Cephalophorus

Mazxwelli) which inhabit the same localities, and also preying on

various birds, and especially the Francolinus bicalcaratus.”

DESCRIPTIONS OF SEVEN New SPECIES OF PHYLLOPODOUS

CRUSTACEANS, BELONGING TO THE GENERA EsTHERIA AND

Limnetis. By W. Bairp, M.D., F.L.S.

1. EstuHertia Jonest, Baird.

Carapace of a comparatively hard, horny structure, and of a dark-

brown colour. Valves ventricose, rounded, ovate. Umbones pro-

minent, nearly central, but a little nearer the anterior extremity ; in-

volute and representing exactly those of a bivalve shell. Dorsal margin

short; ventral rounded. Anterior extremity swollen, rounded,

shorter than posterior extremity, which is somewhat compressed and

rounded. Ribs numerous and narrow. Those of the upper half of

carapace, from the umbo downwards, strongly developed, the edges

being raised and strongly beaded ; the interstices hollow, and more

sparsely dotted with rather small irregular-sized punctations. Ribs

of lower half of carapace, as far as the ventral margin, much smaller

than those of upper half, narrower, and much more numerous ; they

are punctate also; but the interstices are so very narrow that no

sculpture can be seen. Internally the surface is quite smooth, and

of a dark-purple colour.

Length of carapace, 6 lines; breadth at umbo, nearly 5 lines.

Hab. Brackish water, Island of Cuba (Dr. Dunker). Commu-

nicated by T. R. Jones, Esq. (Mus. Brit.)

2. EstoertA DunKeERr}, Baird.

Carapace-valves broadly ovate and somewhat elongate. Umbones

prominent, and placed at some distance (rather more than a third)

from anterior extremity. Dorsal margin short, rather sloping.

Ventral margin nearly straight, or only slightly rounded. Anterior

extremity swollen, very convex, and rounded. Posterior extremity

392 Zoological Society :—

elongate, more compressed, and not so rounded. The carapace is of

a uniform yellow horn-colour, thin, and translucent. Ribs numerous,

elevated, rather narrow, about twenty-seven in number, with the in-

terstices marked with shallow pits and extremely fine punctations.

This species approaches somewhat to &. brasiliensis, but differs

in the position of the umbones, those of Z. Dunkert being further

from the anterior extremity. The relative size of anterior and poste-

rior extremities differs also, the former in LZ. brasiliensis bemg much

broader than in the present species. It is a larger species also than

Lt. brasiliensis.

Length of carapace, 7 lines; breadth at umbo, 4 lines.

Hab. Zimapan, Mexico; in fresh water (Dr. Dunker). Com-

municated by T. R. Jones, Esq. (Mus. Brit.)

3: Esfurria Lortt, Baird. ~ “

Carapace of a very,light amber-colour, oval, rather swollen. Um-

bones very prominent, elongate, placed near the anterior extremity.

Dorsal margin slightly sloping. Ventral margin rounded. Anterior

extremity swollen, rounded, and broader than the posterior, which

is rather narrow, and somewhat compressed. ibs of carapace few,

broad ; interstices marked with coarse-looking, raised, flexuous lines.

This species resembles in form the LZ. ¢etracera as represented by

Krynicki, and found by him near Moscow and at Charkow, Russia.

Length of carapace, rather more than 4 lines; breadth at umbo,

5 lines.

~ Hab. Stagnant water on the banks of the Tigris, near Bagdad.

Collected, along with Z. dahalacensis, by the late W. R. Loftus,

Esq., in May 1855. (Mus. Brit.)

4. EsturrtaA RusipeGet, Baird.

Carapace-valves ovate. Dorsal margin long, straight. Umbones

small, placed near the anterior extremity. Ventral margin slightly

rounded, Anterior extremity rounded. Posterior extremity emar-

ginate at upper part, giving it somewhat the appearance of the shell

of an Avicula. Anterior extremity rather the larger. Ribs of cara-

pace not numerous, and wide apart, the surface in the interspaces

marked with coarse and flexuously disposed raised lines.

This species partakes of the characters of straight-dorsal-margined

species, . dahalacensis and EL. Macgillivrayi. From the last spe-

cies it differs in size, form of posterior extremity, and markings of

interspaces between the ribs, as well as their comparative size and

number, those of the present species being fewer and wider apart.

Length of carapace, about 34 lines; breadth at umbo, 2 hes.

Hab. A dried-up ‘vley” near Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony.

Collected by Dr. Rubidge, and communicated to Henry Woodward,

Esq., by W. 8S. M. D’Urban, Esq. (Mus. Brit.)

5. EstHertA MAcGciuuivrayl, Baird. 7”!

Carapace-valves ovate. Dorsal margin long, straight. Umbones

small, placed about 1 line from the anterior extremity. Ventral

Mr. G. Krefft on Furina textilis. 393

margin rounded. Anterior extremity rounded, as well as posterior,

both being of nearly equal size. Ribs of carapace numerous, narrow,

and finely punctate in the interstices.

In general outline this species resembles very much LZ’. dahala-

censis ; but the ribs are narrower, more numerous, and the surface of

the interstices is much more finely punctate.

Length of carapace, about 5 lines; breadth at umbo, 3 lines.

Hab. Brackish lake, Green Point, Cape of Good Hope (J.

Macgillivray). (Mus. Brit.)

6. Esrurrra CALDWELL, Baird.

Carapace-valves swollen, ovate, of a pale horn-colour. Umbones

large, prominent, and ferruginous-coloured, placed at about one-third

distance from the anterior extremity. Dorsal margin short, and nearly

straight. Anterior extremity rounded, short, a little broader than

posterior extremity, which is long and rounded. Ventral margin

rounded. Ribs of carapace numerous, rather'narrow. Interstices

roughly and strongly punctate.

Length of carapace, nearly 4 lines; breadth at umbo, rather more

than 2 lines.

Hab. Lake Winnipeg, N. America (W. Caldwell, Esq.). (Mus.

Brit.)

7. Limnetis Goutor, Baird.

Carapace nearly quite globular, ventricose, and of a light horn-

colour. Surface of valves smooth, not ribbed, aid covered entirely

with numerous very small hollow punctations exactly resembling

those on the top of a thimble. The point to which the adductor

muscles are attached is very marked, being slightly prominent and

very smooth and shining; and the branchial canals on the surface

of the valves are strongly exhibited.

This species resembles very much L. Wahlbergii of Lovén, fro

Port Natal. In addition, however, to the total difference of habitat,

this species differs from the one described by Lovén in size, being

double the dimensions of it. The animal, too, differs in some par-

ticulars; but as all the specimens I have examined are males, and

the one figured by Lovén is a female, I do not know how far these

differences may be merely sexual.

Diameter of carapace, about 1} line.

Hab. Fresh water at St. Ann’s, twenty miles from Montreal,

ay Collected by Charles Gould, Esq., June 1857. (Mus.

Brit.

Note on Furina Textiuis. By Gerarp Krerrr, AcTING

Curator Austr. Mus.

During my rambles in the neighbourhood of Sydney I have found

a number of small Snakes, varying in length from 8 to 12", and an-

swering to the description given by Duméril and Bibron of Furina

textilis. None of the specimens obtained have exceeded 16” in length ;

and I have been naturally anxious to procure the young of this spe-

394, Zoological Society :—

cies. During two years I was unsuccessful, and I began to think

at last that this Snake was only the immature form of some other

species, which supposition became a belief when some months ago

I found an egg containing as large a specimen of Furina textilis

as I had ever met with before. On further investigation I found

that the distinct bands and black spots of this Snake faded with the

growth of the individual, and apparently vanished altogether in old

specimens. As the egg and young in my possession are of a size

generally produced by Snakes from 3 to 4 feet in length, and as I

have a series of specimens in which the disappearance of the bands

and markings may be clearly traced, I do not hesitate to assert that

Pseudonaia textilis is only a young Snake. Inviting the scrutiny of

more able naturalists than myself to this fact, I beg to refer at the

same time to my collection forwarded to the International Exhi-

bition, specimens Nos. 66 and 40, which I believe to be identical.

I have since forwarded a full-grown adult Snake of this species to

Dr. Giinther, which I have stuffed, as in the dry specimens the re-

mains of the rings on the body may be better observed than when

preserved in spirits. I have been unable to find any description in

Duméril and Bibron of the large Furina of which I suppose the F’.

textilis to be the young; and, not being in possession of the British

Museum Catalogue, I do not know whether this Snake has been de-

scribed at all.

Nore on THE DEER oF Formosa. By P. L. Scuater, M.A.,

Pu.D., F.R.S., SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY.

In some remarks on the Japanese Deer received by the Society in

1860, which I made before the meeting of this Society in the month

of November of that year*, I gave some reasons for considering Cer-

vus sika of the ‘Fauna Japonica,’ Cervus pseudaxis of the French

naturalists, and Dr. Gray’s Rusa japonica as probably synonyms of

the same species. In a communication made to the Society in the

following year, Dr. Gray ultimately admits that his Rusa japonica is

probably the same as Cervus sika, ‘ though it differs so much from the

figure and description of that animal in the ‘ Fauna Japonica’ ;”’+ and

I believe there is now little doubt upon this point. Mr. Westerman,

the Director of the Gardens of the Zoological Society of Amsterdam,

to whom we parted with a pair of these Japanese Deer in 1861, has

informed me that he was previously well acquainted with the species,

and that it is certainly identical with the type of Cervus sika in the

Leyden Museum. Since the arrival of the first example of this Deer

(the pair presented to the Society by Mr. Wilks, July 21, 1860), we

have received several others. In September 1861, a female arrived

from our Corresponding Member, Mr. Blyth of Calcutta, being one

of the examples he has commented upon in the ‘Journal of the

Asiatic Society of Bengal’ (xxx. p. 90); and in June of the same

year we purchased a pair of these animals, the male of which was

subsequently parted with to Mr. Westerman. On the 31st of August,

* Ann, & Mag. ser. 3. vol. vii. p. 142. T Ibid. vol. viii. p. 341.

Dr. P. L. Sclater on the Deer of Formosa. 395

1861, the female presented by Mr. Wilks produced a male calf; and

there seems every probability of this Deer doing well in this country.

With regard, however, to the Formosan Deer (Cervus taévanus or

taiouanus), I was certainly wrong in supposing it to be the same as

the Japanese Cervus sika. Knowing nothing about it, except from

Mr. Blyth’s description, I supposed that he who created the species

was to be trusted when he destroyed it. I therefore put faith in

what Mr. Blyth wrote in a letter to me (dated July 4th, 1860), that

he was then “satisfied” that the Formosan and Japanese Deer were

of “one and the same species.’ It appears, however, from what Mr.

Swinhoe says (see P. Z. S. 1861, p. 235), that all the living Deer

sent to Mr. Blyth were of the Japanese species, and that Mr. Blyth

never had the Formosan species alive*. Mr. Blyth’s comparison,

therefore, was made between animals of the same species.

All doubt, however, as to the perfect distinctness of the Formosan

Deer from the Japanese Cervus sika is removed since we have re-

ceived the fine male of the Cervus taévanus, presented to us by our

Corresponding Member, Mr. Swinhoe, in December last. It will be

evident to any one who inspects this animal and compares it with

the adjoining specimen of Cervus sika, that, though probably nearly

allied to the latter and belonging to the same group of Deer, it is

quite distinct specifically. Its larger size and the deep-red colouring

of the posterior part of the neck are quite sufficient to distinguish

it. With the true form of the horns in Cervus taévanus we are not

yet acquainted, owing to our specimen having broken and worn down

his horns while in confinement.

But we have to thank Mr. Swinhoe (who is now Vice-Consul in

Formosa) for another and most valuable addition to our series of

Deer. On April 28th, a specimen of what I suppose Mr. Swinhoe

to mean by the “ Roe-Deer” + of Formosa arrived, and is now doing

well in our Menagerie. It turns out to be a species of the Rusine

group of Deer, quite distinct from any of the four species of this

* Mr. Blyth says, “ Mr. Sclater is wrong in identifying the Japanese and For-

mosan species” (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1861, p. 192, note); but he neglects to

add that my mistake arose from the incorrect information with which he himself

had furnished me.

t+ Mr. Swinhoe writes to me, ‘Four if not five Deer are on their way to you.

The buck (C. ¢taévanus) left me in high condition; and a lovely animal he was.

The doe of the same species sent was with young; and I have some apprehensions

about her. The two buck Roe-Deer will, I think, delight the Society, as they

must surely be new species. I did not know of their existence till my visit to

Taiwanfoo. They are known to the Chinese here as Cheeangs, and are procured

by them from the aborigines of the inner hills. The C. taévanus, which is pro-

cured from the same savages, is distinguished as the Lok or Stag; and the Cer-

vulus as the Kiung. I have seen nothing as yet of the Bear or the Mountain

Sheep, said to be found in Formosa ; but since my arrival here I have sent a fine

pair of Monkeys to my friend in Hong Kong for transmission to the Gardens.

They may turn out novelties, and I have no doubt you would like more; so I will

try and procure a few more. The Tortoises from Southern Formosa I take to be

peculiar, and I have accordingly forwarded you a few; I have also preserved some

in spirits.” [These Tortoises have arrived, and turn out to be Emys Bennettii,

Gray.—P. L. 8.]

396 Zoological Society.

section* we at present possess, and in all probability of a species

hitherto unknown, and for which I propose the temporary designa-

tion Cervus Swinhott. It would appear, therefore, that there are

four distinct species of Deer inhabiting the coasts of China and Japan,

concerning which we require much more information :—

1. Cervus sika, Temm. & Sieb. (Rusa japonica, Gray), from

Japan.

2. Cervus pseudaxis, Kyd. & Soul. (Gray, P. Z. 8. 1861, p. 236,

pl. xxvii.), from Northern China.

3. Cervus taévanus, Blyth (Journ. A. 8. B. xxix. p. 90), from

Formosa.

4. Cervus Swinhoii, sp. nov., from Formosa.

Our single male specimen of Swinhoe’s Deer stands about

2 feet 8 inches in height, and presents the general appearance of a

small Deer of the Sambur group (Rusa). ‘The head, neck, and fore

legs are greyish black, growing more rufescent on the back, and

passing on the rump and hind quarters into a deep chestnut. The

tail is rather long and very bushy, and composed of grizzly-blackish

hairs. The cede of the ‘thighs and belly beneath are fawn-colour,

passing on the inside of the legs into pale ochraceous. The animal

appears to be in about its second year. The present horns have

been injured whilst growing, and are much broken.

On A New Birp From THE IstE or MADAGASCAR.

By Dr. G. Hartuavs, For. Mems.

Tyxast, n.g. (Pycnonotine).

Char. Gen.—Rostrum satis robustum et elongatum, rectiusculum,

emarginatum, dimidio apicali compressum, basin versus dilata-

tum; culmine carinato, subarcuato ; naribus apertis, ovalibus ;

vlbrissis rictalibus nonnullis conspicuis, mollibus. Ale longi-

uscule, caude dimidium superantes ; remige prima subspuria,

quarta et quinta longissimis, subequalibus, tertia breviore, se-

cunda multo breviore. Cauda longa, equalis. Tarsi brevius-

culi; pedibus parvis ; digitis gracilibus, debilibus, interno vie

breviore ; unguibus debilibus.

Tyxias Epuarpt, sp.nov. Supra subolivascenti-plumbea ; capite

toto nigro, nitore chalybeo ; cauda dorso concolore ; scapis rec-

tricum supra nitide nigris, subtus albis; corpore subtus cum

subalaribus et subcaudalibus ochraceo; capitis nigredine cir-

cumscripte albido circumdata ; rostro nigro; pedibus fuscis.

Long. tot. circa 8"; rostr. a fr. 9", a rict. 113!"; al. 4" 5"; caud.

a bas. 3!" 4; tars. 92"; dig. med. c. ung. 9!"

We have named this interesting new form after its discoverer,

Mr. Edward Newton, a gentleman who has recently visited Mada-

* Cervus Duvaucelii et C. Aristotelis, ex Ind. cont.; C. rusa, ex Malacca; C.

moluccensis, ex ins. Moluce.

T TvAds, “ayis quedam ignota turdina.”

Miscellaneous. 897

gascar, and whose zealous efforts have very materially forwarded our

knowledge of the ornithology of the East-African Archipelago.

The genus Tylas is nearly allied to Hypsipetes, but differs in the

beak being decidedly stronger, broader, and more inflated; in the

longer wings, which in Hypsipetes do not reach to the middle of the

tail; in the tail being proportionally shorter; and in the rictal

bristles being much more developed. The under tail-coverts are very

long. The iris is yellow—a colour not found hitherto in the genus

Hypsipetes. The whole system of coloration is different from that

of the latter genus.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Notice of a new Species of Cynopterus from Morty Island.

By Dr. J. KE. Gray, F.R.S.

Tue British Museum has lately received from Mr. A. R. Wallace two

interesting specimens of a fruit-eating Bat from Morty Island, col-

lected in 1861, which appears not yet to have been registered in the

Catalogues. I therefore subjoin a short specific description of it.

It is easily known from all the other species by the extraordinary

length of its tail; indeed, it seems to form a section or subgenus

apart, that may be called Uronycteris.

Cynopterus (Uronycteris) albiventer.

Tail elongate and free, produced beyond the narrow interfemoral

membrane. Nostrils much produced, tubular, and far apart. Brown

above, with greyer base to the hairs. Face and throat only slightly

hairy, grey; side of the neck and breast yellow-brown ; side of the

body brown ; chest and middle of the belly white; the wing brown.

Hab. Morty Island.

The length of the fore-arm 2 inches; length of tail (dry) nearly

? inch.

i The wing-bone on the upper surface of the wings of both speci-

mens is marked with some irregular white spots ; these may be only

accidentally or even artificially produced in the process of preserva-

tion, or by carriage, as the spots on the two sides of the same wing

are unlike, and those of the two specimens dissimilar.

On the Larve of Hypoderma. By F. Braver.

In August 1860, the author communicated to the Zoological and

Botanical Society of Vienna some observations on the change of skin

in the larvee of Hypoderma. He now calls attention to the agree-

ment of his observations with those published by Leuckart on the

larvee of the Muscide, which is especially important, as the investi-

gations were quite independent of each other.

In the @stride change of skin was said to take place by Neuman

and Joly; but nejther of these authors had witnessed this pheno-

398 Miscellaneous.

menon, the occurrence of which they were led to suppose by observing

the difference between young and adult larvee of Gastrus.

The investigation of the cause of this change increases the interest

attaching to the observations. In a larva living in the same way

from its exclusion from the egg to its change to the pupa state, such

a cause can hardly be discovered ; but it is otherwise with the larvee

of the @stride, which must wander to the place where they can

attain maturity. In this respect the @strid@ are divisible into two

groups, the egg-laying and larviparous forms. To the former belong

Gastrus and Hypoderma ; to the latter, Cephalomyia and Cephe-

nomyia. In the former genera, the larva has to get into the

stomach or under the skin, as the eggs are deposited by the imago

upon hairs. In Cephalomyia and Cephenomyia the female injects the

maggots into the nose of the animal on which they are parasitic.

The greatest difference between the young and adult larvee occurs in

those which have the greatest migration to perform,—consequently

in the larvee of Gastrus and Hypoderma.

The author’s observations were made on numerous larvee of Hy-

poderma Diana, n.sp., from the skin of the Roe.

First stage (duration unknown, but probably very long, as the fly

appears only for a few days in May, and the larve are found in this

stage in the following February. The end of January and beginning

of February may be regarded as the period of transition to the second

stage).—In this stage the larva grows to a length of 63 lines, but

remains nearly cylindrical and scarcely 1 line in diameter. Anterior

extremity rounded off ; posterior extremity like the anterior, or the

last three segments attenuated into a tail, at the pleasure of the larva.

Buccal organs very small. Buccal orifice funnel-shaped; above it

projects a straight spike, which rests upon a transverse chitinous

piece concealed in the cesophagus, from which on each side a chiti-

nous arch proceeds backwards and terminates in a shovel-like plate,

as in almost all larvee of flies. The shovel-like plates are on each

side of the cesophagus, and their faces are vertical.

Close to the first-mentioned spike are two hooks (one on each

side); these are bent at right angles, and their free ends are directed

outwards and downwards. They can be moved so as to form a single

point with the median spike ; if then their points are bent outwards

and backwards, it is clear that the larva will push itself forward, and

readily bore into any object opposed to it. The anterior stigmata

are pretty large; they are on the sides of the upper part of the

second segment ; they are round, and bordered on the inner margin

by a semilunar chitinous band. Posterior stigmata forming two

small, irregular, porous, chitinous plates. Round the stigmata the

last segment bears numerous small, round chitinous plates, which give

it a punctured appearance. The larva has eleven segments, and ap-

pears naked; there are some microscopic spines only in the funnel-

shaped pit of the mouth and on the margin of the lower lip. 0-4

Second stage (duration very short, at the utmost one month.

This form appears from the end of January to the middle of February,

usually together with the first and third forms).—Larva at first

Miscellaneous. 899

shorter than in the first stage, but broader. It grows from 5 to 7 lines

long, and is easily recognized by the black spots on the lower surface,

which consist of dense groups of black spines. Above, the larva is

quite naked, with the exception of the first three segments. Mouth

forming a V-shaped pit ; its margins bordered laterally and. below

by rough, thick chitinous bands, which are firmly united below, and

internally spread out into the above-mentioned chitinous plates and

numerous filaments embracing the cesophagus. Spike and hooks

wanting. No anterior stigmata observed. Posterior stigmata reni-

from, forming a very coarsely cellular plate on each side. Form of

the larva very changeable; the posterior end is very often much

attenuated, like a tail.

Third stage (duration from February to April).—Mouth a funnel-

shaped pit with membranous margins ; in the pit a small horny ring,

immediately followed by the cesophagus, which directly afterwards

passes over a chitinous frame from which the chitinous shovel-like

plates issue. Above the buccal pit there are two horny rings, as

rudimentary antenne. Anterior stigmata very small, on the hinder

margin of the first segment. Posterior stigmata reniform, nearly

smooth, flat, radiately furrowed.

From this it follows that the young larvee can bore their way into

the skin, and subsequently undergo a retrograde metamorphosis of

their buccal organs. The author remarks upon the fact that thus

organs of so much importance as the parts of the mouth may lose

their significance in a systematic point of view. A more detailed

account of his observations is promised in a forthcoming monograph

of the Hstride.— Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1862, p. 210.

The King Crab (Limulus Polyphemus) found on the English Coast.

By Dr. J. K. Gray, F.R.S. &c.

The King Crab has lately been frequently imported into Liverpool,

and is shown alive at the Free Museum of that town, and also in the

Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park.

Mr. Walker, the Arctic traveller, lately took a living specimen with

him to Paris, with the idea of presenting it to the Jardin des Plantes;

but he failed in doing so through the absence of the Professors to

whom he had an introduction. Being tired of the charge of the

animal, and of providing it with fresh sea-water, &c., he threw it

overboard, between Boulogne and Dover, on his way back.

The animal must have been washed ashore at Dover; for I have

had more than one account of its having been found on that coast,

and one kind correspondent offered to secure it for the British Museum

at the price of five pounds. ,

It is as well that this should be recorded ; for otherwise it may at

some future day, when the circumstance of its having been thrown

into the water is forgotten, be placed in the fauna as a rare or occa-

sional visitor, instead of being artificially introduced.

4.00 Miscellaneous.

Notice of a new Species of Bosh-Buck (Cephalophus bicolor) from

Natal. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e.

Mr. W. Fosbrook has kindly presented to the British Museum a

beautiful small species of Bush-Bock, which was captured by John

Dunn, Esq., in the Umgozy Forest, between the river Umbelaus and

Umblatore, in the country of the Amazula. The natives have no

name for it, as faras Mr. Dunn could learn. It is a most peculiarly

marked species, and of very small size; when it died, the mamme

were found dilated with milk, showing that it was of adult age. The

hunters mistook it for a young animal, and fed it with milk, on which

it died.

Cephalophus bicolor.

Brown ; the rump, the whole of the hind legs, the chin, throat,

chest, belly, inner side of the fore legs, a broad ring over the front hoofs,

and a large spot occupying the front of the face and forehead pure

white. ‘The ears blackish, white within. The sides of the forehead

darkish brown. The crumen on the side of the face linear, well

marked. Horns none in the female sex.

Hab. Natal.

The smallest species of the genus, not weighing more than 3 lbs.

It is most like C. Whitfieldii, of the Gambia; but the brown is of a

different shade, and there is no white, which is so prominent in the

Natal animal.

On the Natural and Artificial Production of Cork in the Cork-oak.

By M. Casimir pr CANDOLLE.

This paper is interesting as being the first botanical publication of

the inheritor of this honoured name in the third generation of bota-

nists, and as an account of the formation and structure of cork in

the Cork-oak, both in the natural state and especially under the

operation which has to be practised in order to the production of

cork of any commercial value. The operation consists in the re-

moval from the trunk of the natural corky layer of the bark down

to the subjacent cellular envelope or green layer, which is done in

Algeria (where young DeCandolle’s observations were made) during

the summer or autumn. Shortly after this operation, 2 new corky

stratum begins to form in the green layer, at a variable distance

from its denuded surface. This grows by annual layers upon its

internal face, just as the original and worthless corky layer did; but

this is much finer and much more elastic, and is the commercial

article. When this valuable cork has attained sufficient thickness

(ordinarily after seven or eight years), it also is removed, with the

same result as before; 7. e. still another new corky stratum is formed

below; and so successive crops may be taken off the trunk every

seventh or eighth year for a long while, or even indefinitely.—Ab-

stract in Silliman’s Jourial for Sept. 1862 from the Mém. de la Soc.

de Phys. et d Hist. Nat, de Geneve, vol. xvi. 1860.

THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[THIRD SERIES. ]

No. 60. DECEMBER 1862.

XLII.—On the Phenomena of Motion in the Pseudopodia of the

Rhizopoda, and especially on the so-called Granular Movement

and the supposed Coalescence of the Pseudopodia. By Prof.

ReicHErt*.

[In the introductory portion of this paper, Prof. Reichert

endeavours to controvert what he calls the “‘ sarcode-theory,”

under which he sees a revival of the old notion of a living

primordial slime capable of being produced in some mysterious

manner independently of preexisting organisms. As we cannot

see that the idea of the nature of “ sarcode” generally entertained

involves any such opinions as to its origin, this part of the au-

thor’s paper has been omitted, and the translation commences

with his discussion of the motile phenomena presented by the

pseudopodia. |

Whilst Ehrenberg, in his investigations of living Polythalamia

from the North Sea, declares himself expressly against the

coalescence of the filaments emitted by them+, Schultze, in his

work ‘Ueber den Organismus der Polythalamien’ (Leipzig, 1854),

places himself entirely on Dujardin’s side; and to this view the

cell-membrane could not but fall a sacrifice afterwards. Accord-

ing to him, the body of the Polythalamia consists of a formless

substance, comparable, as to its consistence, with fluid wax,

containing globules imbedded in it here and there. The phe-

nomena of motion in the pseudopodia are described by this au-

thor essentially in accordance with Dujardin, but rather more

accurately, both with regard to their branching and coalescence

and in respect of the so-called granular movement in and upon

them. Of the granular movement Schultze speaks as follows :—

* Monatsbericht der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1862, p.406,

Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S.

+ Abhandl. der Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin, 1839, p. 106.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 27

402 Prof. Reichert on the Phenomena of Motion

“‘A distinction of membrane and contents does not exist in the

filaments (p. 17); observation is against an interior channeled

structure in which the larger globules are moved; but the

regular flowing to and fro of the contractile substance effects

the movement of the granules, and the latter, again, inform us of

the movements of contraction. The small granules moreover

move with the substance flowing out of the general mass of the

body into the filaments themselves ; the larger ones, on the con-

trary, appear as corpuscles moving on the filaments. The co-

alescence of two or more filaments, the passage of the granules

from one into the others united with it, must also remove all

doubts raised as to the nature of the substance of the body of

the Polythalamia being such as was assumed by Dujardin.”

Soon afterwards a parallel was set up between the supposed

granular movements in the pseudopodia of the Polythalamia

and the currents in the cells of plants, by Unger and Cohn, and

thus the bridge was made by which the theory of the proto-

plasinic mass was enabled to make good its entry into science.

According to J. Miiller, the granular movement in the Poly-

thalamia exactly resembles those in the extended filaments of the

Thalassicolle, Polycystina, and Acanthometre*. In his descrip-

tion of the phenomena of motion in the filaments of the Sphero-

zoa (p.7) there is an observation on elongated swellings passing

along these filaments like granules, to which I must hereafter

refer particularly.

During my residence at Trieste last year, my most ardent

desire to become more exactly acquainted, from personal obser-

vation, with the phenomena of motion in the pseudopodia of the

Polythalamia, which have led to such different views upon the

organization of animals, was fulfilled. The sea-mud with the

hving Polythalamia was procured from the basins which have

been shut off in the neighbourhood of Zaole for the manufacture

of sea-salt. In this there were a species of Miliola and one of

Rotalia which I did not more particularly determine. The ani-

mals were examined under magnifying powers of 300, 500, and

700 diameters.

The first impression made upon me by the phenomena of

motion in the pseudopodia was of such a nature as fully to sup-

port the descriptions of Dujardin and Max Schultze: it was as

if one had to do with a fluid substance readily changing its

configuration and course with a constant flow and return of

particles. But any one observing the astonishing spectacle,

which appears so wonderful from its opposition to evident facts

in the organization of animals, without reposing a blind con-

* Abhandl. der Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin, 1858, p. 2.

in the Pseudopodia of the Rhizopoda. 403

fidence in the correctness of the dogmas of the theory of primor-

dial slime, sarcode, or protoplasm, must admit, after some con-

sideration, that the picture of a fluid and flowing mass may also

very easily be produced in separated and not fluid, but solid or

semisolid (festweichen) masses whenever two conditions are ful-

filled :—1, when the surface of such bodies brings an alternate,

more or less regular play of elevations before us in such a man-

ner that we are led to conceive a motion like that of waves in

water ; and 2, when bodies really separate, but not distinguish-

able as such at their mutual points of contact, are constantly

changing their relative position, and under these circumstances

present themselves as a mass varying at pleasure in form and

limits, and possessing properties appertaining to fluid sub-

stances. From the point of view which I am convinced is to

be maintained, if not alone, still especially, in regard to or-

ganisms, the impression made by the phenomena of motion in

the pseudopodia becomes essentially different ; the lustre of the

dogmas respecting the sarcode-theory is very soon lost, and the

heresy then becomes clear and unmistakeable.

In order, however, to avoid being misled by the deceptive

image, it 1s necessary in this, as in other cases, to take up the

microscopic analysis of the individual filaments, and at first to

disregard as much as possible their proteus-like complicated

mass. According to my observations upon the nature of the

individual filaments, the following statements may be made :—

The pseudopodia, which, when fully extended, measure six or

eight times the greatest diameter of the body, form at their free

extremities (where they may with the greatest certainty be found

simple and single), extraordinarily fine filaments, even under the

highest powers of the microscope. To give some notion of their

fineness the observation will suffice, that a perceptible thicken-

ing scarcely appears when two or three filaments come together

and apparently fuse mto one, or when the magnifying power of

the instrument is raised from 450 to 700 diameters. For the

same reason nothing definite can be said as to whether they are,

as they appear to be, perfectly cylindrical or more or less flat-

tened. They appear to be everywhere of uniform thickness.

Apparent or real local thickenings occur in consequence of move-

ments of contraction, to which I must revert hereafter; I must

likewise defer the discussion of the question whether, besides

decidedly simple filaments, branched ones occur, issuing from

the former by movements of contraction. The individual ex-

tended filaments consist of an apparently colourless, transparent,

hyaline substance, which at the extreme ends, where they may

most readily be observed singly, possesses an index of refraction

differmg very little from that of the surrounding fluid (sea-

27%

404 Prof. Reichert on the Phenomena of Motion

water) ; it is only with the greatest effort and the most favour-

able light that the extreme ends of the filaments can be traced.

Where many pseudopodia lie together, the outlines become

sharper and at the same time darker, and, in the animals ex-

amined by me, a yellowish coloration makes its appearance. If

we leave out of consideration the apparent granules occurring in

the so-called granular movement, no globules or corpuscles of

measurable size were detected at any time or in any place in or

on the pseudopodia. Thicker bundles, engaged either in expan-

sion or contraction, have usually a finely granulated appearance.

It cannct, however, be ascertained by direct observation whether

this is produced by fine wrinklings and inequalities of the sur-

face, or by fine granules imbedded in the apparently hyaline

mass. In the lamelle and structures like swimming membranes

formed by the apparent coalescence of the filaments, a granular

habitus is also not unfrequently visible. These granules, how-

ever, belong either to the so-called granular movement, or it

still remains uncertain whether we have to do with a true

granule or with a portion of the filament only altered in its

form, and resembling a granule. As the granular marking is

always lost immediately when the filaments lie quietly in the

extended state, or the granular plates and lamelle again break

up into quiescent extended filaments, it must be inferred that

the granular marking is only apparent, and produced by altera-

tions of form in the hyaline filaments.

As regards the important question of the state of cohesion

and consistence of the substance of the pseudopodia, direct ex-

periments for the solution of this cannot be instituted. We are

therefore compelled to draw conclusions upon the above-men-

tioned physical property from the behaviour of the filaments

during active and passive movements, and during their approxi-

mation and separation. Here, in the first place, the fact must

be proved that, however the filaments may change their form,

bend, twist, apparently coalesce, and again separate, their ori-

ginal form is finally preserved under all civcumstances, and under-

goes no change. From this it follows that their substance can-

not be fluid. Moreover, if we will not blindly trust in the dogmas

of the various primordial-slime theories, adopt the erroneous

theory of the so-called granular movement, and accept the ap-

parent coalescence of the filaments as a real one without further

examination, we shall be compelled, in the presence of the facts

adduced, to declare the comparison with fluid wax or with a

mucus of similar consistence to be quite untenable. But, from

the behaviour of the filaments during changes of their form by

active and passive movements, it may with certainty be inferred

that their substance must be extraordinarily soft and flexible. I

in the Pseudopodia of the Rhizopoda. 405

may here indicate especially that the quiescent filaments allow

themselves to be readily curved into any form by others which

are moving, and then remain in this form until they are brought

out of it by their own movements or those of other filaments.

During the mutual displacements of the filaments, and the mu-

tual approximation thereby often produced, another remarkable

property shows itself,—namely, their ready adhesion to each

other. In consequence of this ready adhesion, it happens that

the filaments very commonly issue from the shell in larger or

smaller bundles, and only subsequently separate. It is also

frequently observed that a filament which has, in consequence

of its own movement, got under others and then become quies-

cent, clings to other moving filaments during their passage, and

is carried forward passively with them, not unfrequently like an

anastomosis between them.

Phenomena of active Movement in the individual Pseudopodia

of the Polythalamia.

To the phenomena of active movement in the pseudopodia of

the Polythalamia I refer—

1. The issuing of the filaments from the shell, their extension

and retraction.

If the filamentous pseudopodia, which are originally mor-

phologically simple,-could actually become converted into

branched forms, and the latter again revert to the original

form, this change of form must also have belonged to the

category of active movements ; but these changes of form, as

I shall afterwards prove, are either only apparent or not

capable of being established with certainty.

2. A tortuous or vermiform movement, usually somewhat slug-

gish, of the more or less extended filament, either throughout

its whole length or in some section of it.

3. The phenomenon described under the name of “ granular

movement.”

4, A mutual displacement of the filaments, often occurring im-

perceptibly, by their closer approximation or removal to a

greater distance, or also by their separation from a bundle in

the general radiary complex, under circumstances which do

not allow the detection of the active movements of other fila-

ments as co-operating causes. To the changes in the arrange-

ment and form of the total radiary complex of filaments I would

not refer more particularly. In these changes, both active

movements of the filaments and passive ones caused by their

ready adhesion to each other, participate ; and it is often quite

impossible to calculate exactly the part taken by each kind of

406 Prof. Reichert on the Phenomena of Motion

movement. Nevertheless other observers, especially J. Miiller,

have indicated the imperceptible mutual displacement of the

filaments as a phenomenon of active movement ; and the fact

must be admitted that such displacements of the filaments do

occur, in which neither the other active movements of the

filaments themselves nor any causes of motion in the sur-

rounding fluid are perceptible. It is exceedingly probable

that the causes lie in active movements which occur concealed

within the sheli at the base of the filaments.

It will be sufficient to indicate preliminarily that the pheno-

mena of movement referred to, and indeed, as will immediately

appear, also the so-called granular movement, are only to be

regarded as the visible effects of those changes in the substance

of the filaments which are produced by the so-called contrac-

tility. Of these changes in the material no trace can be detected

by the microscope either here, under apparently very favourable

circumstances, or in any other contractile substances; we find

ourselves rather only in a position to infer the existence of those

invisible movements which occur in the contractile substance

itself from the effects produced by them (which become an ex-

pression visible to us) in the change of form of contractile struc-

tures or in changes of the relative positions of the organs par-

ticipating in them. The supporters of the sarcode-theory have

certainly gone a step further by the manner in which they con-

ceived the granular movement. To them the apparent granule

is a portion of body-substance containing globules, which flows

out of the shell ito the extended filament, and again flows back,

thus elongating and shortening the filament, or causing the ap-

pearance of lamelle and islands in the radiary complex of fila-

ments by the local accumulation of sarecode. In sarcode, there-

fore, we should succeed in seeing what has hitherto been denied

to us in other contractile structures. Contraction would thus

consist in a movement of the mass of the contractile substance,

in a transfer of it from one place to another far distant, and the

changes of form in contractile structures occur as a consequence

of this. In this way it becomes intelligible how the notion

could arise of identifying the currents of fluid in cells with the

currents of contraction in the pseudopodia. As it may be de-

monstrated that the granular movement is not produced by the

flowing to and fro of portions of the body-substance of the

Polythalamia containing globules, I am saved the trouble of

entering more particularly into the further consequences of this

conception of the contractile movements of the supposed fluid

sarcode and its application to other contractile structures.

in the Pseudopodia of the Rhizopoda. 4.07

The so-called Granular Movement.

With regard to the appearances hitherto known under which

the granular movement occurs, I must here give the following

indications. Dujardin speaks only of an ebb and flow of body-

substance containing globules, in consequence of which the

filaments appear uneven and granular. Max Schultze, however,

represents the ebbing and flowing mass as advancing partly in,

but especially on, the filaments as an apparent granule which

contains the larger globules. J. Miiller mdicates that an inter-

nal granular movement, like that in the rays of Actinophrys,

does not occur in the pseudopodia—that here the granular

movement rather resembles a granule advancing on the surface

of the filament; and he adds the observation that mucous

globules and foreign bodies are also moved to and fro by the

granules. In his memoir (p. 7) we also find the following re-

markable passage :—‘‘ Not unfrequently the filaments are seen

to be thickened or swelled here and there, and this elongated

swelling (little knot) is seen to advance upon the rays like the

granules, which may be referred either to a progressive contrac-

tion or to elongation and shortening, but is perhaps connected

with the granular current.”” These words are only thrown out

doubtfully, and are not again referred to on other occasions

when the movements of the pseudopodia are spoken of; never-

theless they contain an observation which, by further investiga-

tion of the phenomena, must have led J. Miller to the same

conception of the granular movement as that which I have

arrived at by my investigations.

The animal in which I first observed the granular movements

exhibited them only on particular filaments, and there were

even moments in which the visible extended pseudopodia were

quite quiescent. The granular movement appeared to be, as

described by Max Schultze and J. Miiller, an apparent grain or

granule moving to and fro on the surface of the filament. I

must add, however, that the movement of the granule was not

uniform, but that it appeared to jump forward over the surface,

or, at least, showed a tremulous movement. But it struck me

as very remarkable that, notwithstanding numerous supposed

affluxes of granules, and although it is common enough to see

that the quiescent granule at the extremity of the filaments does

not return, not a single perceptible quiescent globule could be

detected in the entire field of vision, either in the surrounding

fluid or in or on the substance of the rays themselves. And yet

the sarcode-substance flowing out of the body to the rays should

contain globules, and the larger globules should not only effect

the protrusion of the flowing mass above the level of the fila-

408 Prof. Reichert on the Phenomena of Motion

ment, but also cause the optical expression of the granular

movement. Therefore body-substance with globules could not

have flowed to the rays: the fallacy was evident.

The question now was to trace accurately the apparent grain,

the true form of which could not be judged of during motion,

at the moment of its formation and disappearance. For this

there are plenty of opportunities. The shell certainly prevents

the observation of many granules ; we cannot say how the appa-

rent granules are produced and lose themselves there ; but we

cannot assert that they there flow out of or mto the substance

of the body of the animal. With some attention, however, it is

very soon discovered that both the centripetal and centrifugal

movement of the granule may commence and terminate at any

part of the extended filaments outside the shell. Here the fol-

lowing observations may be made during the appearance of the

granule, which has hitherto been considered only in motion. On

any spot of the hyaline extended filament, there appears sud-

denly an apparent thickening of fusiform outline, of somewhat

yellowish colour and dark contour; the apices of the spindle

lose themselves quite imperceptibly in the neighbouring parts

of the filament which have remained unaltered. Soon after-

wards it appears as if the spindle became shorter, but thicker

and darker in the middle, where it projects more beyond the

level of the filament ; finally, the extremities of the apparently

fusiform thickening disappear from the view, and the elevated

central part jumps along upon the surface of the filament in the

likeness of a granule. On the cessation of the movement, the

granule disappears in exactly the same manner, but in a reversed

order.

Any one who has traced the gradual production and cessation

of the granular movement will assuredly ¢ give up the notion of a

truly flowing substance in the pseudopodia—a notion which has

been derived from an erroneous transference of the phenomena

of contraction visible in the Amebe to the pseudopodia of the

Polythalamia. In these we have evidently extended contractile

organs of the Polythalamion, in which no cavity and no true

granule, either in or upon it, is to be detected ; and the pheno-

mena described in connexion with the granular movement there-

fore require that the latter, as already hinted at by J. Miiller,

should be interpreted as a phenomenon of contraction. Our

knowledge of visible phenomena of contraction is limited, as

already mentioned, to the changes of form occurring in the con-

tractile organs in consequence of invisible movements in the

contractile substance itself; and even in this respect the scanty

observations upon their structure and texture still leave much

to be desired. In the present case, only the contraction-wave

in the Pseudopodia of the Rhizopoda. 409

which occurs and advances upon the filiform contractile organ,

in the form either of a local thickening or of a local curvature

and loop-formation, can be referred to.

The first question is, whether the described microscopic ap-

pearances suit with the assumption that the contraction-wave is

caused by local thickening of the filament suddenly occurring

at any point and then advancing further: the apparent granule

in the so-called granular movement would then have to be re-

garded as the thickened point. From a deficiency of observa-

tions, nothing can be said as to whether the apparent fusiform

thickening of the filament must necessarily precede the forma-

tion of a knot-like or grain-like swelling and agrees with the

preliminary assumption in regard to the contraction-wave. But

it may be affirmed that an advancing knot-like thickening of the

filament could not produce the microscopic appearance actually

seen—as if a granule advanced by jerks upon the surface. Nor

could the microscopical picture be produced even if the local

swelling of the filament on all sides were of considerable eleva-

tion, forming, as in the case of Astasia flavicans observed by

Ehrenberg, a circular disk, through the central poimt of which

the unchanged portion of the filament seemed to pass; for,

during the progress of such a swelling, the microscopic appear-

ance would be as if a ring were drawn along the filament.

There is only one case in which, in my opinion, the contraction-

wave in the form of an advancing local thickening could corre-

spond with the microscopic appearances described: the thicken-

ing must occur on one side, and in the form of a clubbed pro-

cess or appendage of the pseudopodium ; the club-shaped end

would then, as it advanced along the pseudopodium, be espe-

cially visible and indeed as an apparent grain, seeming to move

along on the surface of the filament. No such contraction-form

has, however, hitherto been observed ; and its assumption seems

to me rather bold.

On the contrary, the granular movement seems to be easily

intelligible, and at the same time in perfect accordance with

other contraction-forms, both in its occurrence and disappear-

ance and in its progress, if we imagine that the contraction-wave

is formed by a loop advancing along the filament, produced in

consequence of contractile movements of the substance invisible

to us. With this supposition the microscopic appearances

during the production and, in reversed order, during the cessa-

tion of the granular movement especially correspond ; the loop,

when just rising, will be seen at first as an elongated swelling,

afterwards becoming thicker in the middle, and projecting be-

yond the level of the filament. The elevated loop will also, in

consequence of the refraction of the vertex of the curve, present

410 Prof. Reichert on the Phenomena of Motion

exactly the appearance of a granule, or roundish or oval corpus-

cle, lying upon the filament, as is very frequently the case in

transverse folds of smooth muscular fibres. Thus it is clear that

the loop, when in motion, must appear as a granule progressing

on the surface of the filament, and, lastly, that it must present

the microscopic image of a jerking granule, as it may be pre-

supposed that the loop, in its continual new formation and dis-

appearance, will not always retain the same elevation, and this

will cause the appearance of a vacillation of the vertex of the

curve or of the apparent granule.

On the apparent Amalgamation and Coalescence of the

Pseudopodia.

Of the phenomena which, it was supposed, justified the con-

clusion that two pseudopodia of the Polythalamia coalesced on

touching, the granular movement has already been discussed and

its validity disproved. The other evidence adduced may be

referred, lst, to the absence of visible lines of separation during

the immediate contact of two actually or apparently simple pseu-

dopodia ; and 2nd, to the variability of the configuration of the

entire extended radiating complex of filaments under appearances

which it was supposed were only possible by an actual coalescence

of the filaments. This must be seen, says Dujardin, to remove

all doubt that we have to do with a fluid substance, with a true

coalescence of the contractile organs.

In order to estimate correctly the value of this evidence and

obtain an unprejudiced notion of the changes of form in the

whole system of filaments, the behaviour of two (in most cases

only apparently) simple pseudopodia must be studied under

different circumstances. ‘Two such filaments lying beside each

other longitudinally, or crossing each from any cause, exhibit no

line of separation at their point of contact: this is what is

directly observed. Does it follow from this that the parts in

contact have coalesced ? Certainly not. Every microscopist is

aware that under certain circumstances two decidedly solid parts,

such as cells or fibres, may lie together so that the line of sepa-

ration is not perceived. Some time since, I observed innumerable

Amebe enclosed in an egg-membrane of Tichogonia. Some of

them, when flattened, came close together, and at this moment

all visible line of separation was wanting ; afterwards their bodies

became cylindrical, and then a line of separation made its appear-

ance at their point of contact. Is it at all remarkable that the

line of separation between two contiguous pseudopodia is not

seen, when their outlines are so faintly marked, and they possess

an index of refraction differing so little from that of water ?

The following observations may be made upon two filaments

in the Pseudopodia of the Rhizopoda. 411

applied to each other entirely or partially in the direction of

their length. The united filaments, except when very thick

bundles come together, do not appear thicker than the

separate ones; if one of the filaments be shorter than the

other, the point at which it terminates is not perceived. From

this it follows, as already observed, that we can never say with

certainty that any filament is simple. Further, the united fila-

ments, im consequence of active movement in one or both of

them, may separate again partly or entirely. By this means an

orifice may occur in the united filaments, which closes again ina

state of repose ; or only the apex of one filament separates from

the other, and the united, apparently simple, filament then

possesses a branch, and appears branched. My attention having

been attracted to this, I could not but ask myself the question,

whether the ramifications are not throughout only apparent.

From my investigations, this question must be answered in the

affirmative. I have met with no case of ramification which

could not have been explained in the most natural manner by

the protrusion of the extremities of filaments from an apparently

simple pseudopodium ; nay, the usually sudden shooting forth of

such branches is not in favour of their production being effected

by movements of contraction.

In two filaments crossing each other at an acute angle, an

appearance is observable upon which, asa proof of the coalescence

of the pseudopodia, great stress has been laid, especially by

Dujardin ; the angle is very frequently seen to be occupied by a

web-like structure. When the angle is very acute, and the ap-

pearance not much diffused, the suspicion that there is some

optical illusion cannot be altogether got rid of; in other cases

it is seen quite distinctly that the angle formed by the two fila-

ments is occupied by a hyaline or generally finely granular sub-

stance. The comparison with a swimming membrane is, however,

not quite suitable; for no filament is to be distinguished on the

margins or in the region of the apparently membranous struc-

ture. From the microscopic appearance, it might equally well

be said to be atriangular plate from the angles of which fila-

ments issue.

I will not deny that such a web-like structure may be pro-

duced by the overflow of the mass of two fluid filaments ap-

proaching each other at an acute angle. But in the present

case, taking into consideration our previous knowledge of the

morphological conditions of the organization of animals, in order

to show that they make their appearance by such a mode of pro-

duction it must first of all be proved that the filaments consist

of a fluid substance ; or, if the web-like plate itself is to serve as

evidence of the fluid consistence of the pseudopodia, it would

412 Prof. Reichert on the Phenomena of Motion

have to be shown that their production can be imagined only by

truly fluid substances, and not by means of semisolid filaments

of the nature described by me.

In vain we seek, in the works of Dujardin, Max Schultze, and

other adherents of the sarcode-theory, for any such scientific

treatment of the problem before them. The granular move-

ment is at once explained as the optical expression of the ebbing

and flowing body-substance ; there is no hesitation about infer-

ring from the uniting of the filaments into bundles, without lines

of separation, that they coalesce ; and when once the notion of

the slimy consistence of the sarcode was entertained, the forma-

tion of the apparently membranous plates only furnished a fresh

proof of the preconceived opinion. The confusion of the observers

is so great that it never seems to have been thought worth while

to notice the behaviour of the apparently membranous plates

during their disappearance, or the movements of tke pseudo-

podia, and thus to raise the question whether the appearances

here seen could be brought imto accordance with the view set

up. Thus, the plate supposed to be fluid and formed by a fresh

accession of body-substance disappears without a trace of re-

siduum on the separation of the united filaments; nay, further,

the two crossed filaments are seen to be pushed continually to

and fro, still retaming their original form, with as much facility

as if there existed no such membrane, i. e. a spot in their course

at which the filamentous structure ceases and in its place a fluid

plate is introduced.

On the other hand, in the apparently membranous plates, phe-

nomena are observed from which, according to the above state-

ments regarding the granular movement, we must necessarily

infer the presence of filaments in the plates, and consequently

the composition of the latter out of filaments. It is well known

that the granular movement is perceptible in the apparently

membranous plates. The apparent granules are seen to pass

from the proximal end of the filament in more or less curved

lines through the plates to the peripheral end of the same fila-

ment, or vice versd ; the granule is also seen to run in a straight

or curved line from one filament to the other. And it is further

observed that, during the separation of the two contiguous fila-

ments from the webs which as it were distort them, filaments

quite distinctly separate and become free. I remember one case

in which a filament even separated from the free margin of the

membrane, subsequently presented itself as a branch of one of

the filaments, and finally became perfectly free as a third fila-

ment. Hence we may, or rather must, conceive that the appa-

rently membranous webs and plates are produced in this way :

in the pseudopodia, or rather bundles of pseudopodia, which ap-

in the Pseudopodia of the Rhizopoda. 413

proach each other and cross at an acute angle, some of the fila-

ments are moved out of their place, and pushed together into

the angle so as to form an apparent plate. The extraordinary

flexibility of these filaments, and their great tendency to adhere

to each other, are properties which evidently assist in the forma-

tion of such membranes and plates.

It is evident that the conditions for the displacement of the

simple filaments contained in two approximated pseudopodia so

as apparently to form membranous plates are not limited to the

crossing of such pseudopodia under an acute angle: two bundles

of pseudopodia merely touching each other with the vertices of

their curves, and then again separating a little, will also give rise

to the appearance of seemingly membranous plates; and a case

has even occurred to me in which an apparently membranous

bridge-like union was formed at the spot where the separation

of two pseudopodia issuing from one bundle had not quite been

completed.

After these explanations, I believe there will not be the least

difficulty in the comprehension of the multifarious changes of

form in the whole radiary complex of pseudopodia, in which, by

local contraction in any section, however small, of each filament,

innumerable moving particles may be represented. When the

animal extends its pseudopodia, the more simple radiate arrange-

ment predominates ; soon afterwards the apparent ramifications

commence, and become constantly more numerous. The branches,

after issuing or being set free, easily reach neighbouring filaments,

apply themselves to these, and then appear as anastomoses. By

the multiplication of such apparent anastomoses, those reticulated

figures are produced which are known under the name of the

sarcode-net. At the same time, when the conditions are favour-

able, numerous membrane-like structures and bridge-like unions

between the filaments become visible. These are more widely

stretched the more numerous the filaments or the thicker the

bundles which touch each other at the part implicated, and, by

the imperceptible displacement of the finer filaments contained

in them, furnish a more abundant material for the formation of

the apparently membranous plates. The causes of the altera-

tions of form in the general radiary system of the pseudopodia

are to be sought chiefly in their movements, either active or

passive—i. e. produced by the ready adhesion of the filaments to

each other; by these are effected the displacements of the innu-

merable particles in the general radiary system, which are often

imperceptible, and limited to the very smallest space. Favour-

able conditions for the multiplicity of forms, and for their ready

and often imperceptible change, are also furnished by the extra-

ordinary number of the filaments and their ready flexibility.

414 Mr. W. H. Benson on a singular Shell from South India,

Finally, the appearance produced by these readily moveable

and extraordinarily flexible parts in the protean system of

filaments, as if a moving fluid substance assumed any form, or

spread and poured itself into any shape, is an illusion which is

set up especially by the circumstance that individual minute

parts which are readily displaceable throughout can never be

distinguished at their points of contact.

XLIII.—Description of a singular Shell from Southern India,

allied to Tanalia; with Remarks on a Travancore Batissa, and

on the Himalayan Form Tricula. By W. H. Benson, Esq.

Tanalia(?) Stomatodon, Bens., n. sp.

T. testa ovato-globosa, solida, leeviuscula (juniorum polita), striis

spiralibus obsoletis induta, olivaceo-nigrescente ; spira brevi erosa,

sutura impressa; anfractibus 3 superstitibus, superioribus con-

vexiusculis, ultimo convexo ; apertura ovato-acuta, albida, intus

demum angustiore, sinuata; peristomate integro, margine dextro

basalique acuto, columellari late calloso, infra latiore, subito intus

truncato, dente prominente crasso munito.

Axis 14, lat. 12 mill.

Habitat in aquis dulcibus montium prope Cottyam, regionis Travan-

coriz. Invenit D. Kohlhoff.

This very interesting shell was sent to me by pase Charles

Annesley Benson, at whose request the discoverer —=

had kindly searched the Travancore Hills behind

Trevandrum for land and freshwater shells. Among

the former was a specimen of Helix Basileus, Bens.,

larger than the type-specimen described in the — qanatiay?)

Annals of Natural History for February 1861. pare

The form now made known is a very distinct species of the

Paludomoid type; and should it prove to be a Tanalia, as sur-

mised by Mr. H. F. Blanford, who has carefully studied the

family, it will stand as the first of the genus which has occurred

out of Ceylon. Unfortunately, all the specimens were deficient

in the operculum, which, when examined, may possibly authorize

its transfer to a new genus, in which case the specific name may

fairly be employed to designate it. In my remarks on Clea

Annesleyi, from Quilon, in the Ann. Nat. Hist. for October

1860, I observed that, notwithstanding the basal emargination,

Clea, with reference to its unguiculate operculum, would proba.

bly be found to have nearer relations with the Cingalese genus

Tanalia than with Melania and its congeners. Stomatodon seems

partly to supply one of the absent links, inasmuch as its oper-

culum must necessarily be provided with a basal projection,

and on a Travancore Batissa and Himalayan Tricula. 415

while its construction is also likely to be unguiculate. There is

some resemblance in this shell to Nerztina, for which genus a

specimen might, on a cursory glance, be taken. The upper part

of the columellar callosity exhibits in some specimens a blackish-

brown tint, and a patch of the same colour may occasionally be

observed at the base, in the interior of the aperture, the throat of

which is tinged with violet and purple and presents a minutely

corrugate surface.

Since the publication of Corbicula Quilonica, Bens., in the

Ann. Nat. Hist. for October 1860, where it was described from

young specimens, I have received from Capt. C. A. Benson a

single large and solid example, found at the same place. It

belongs to Gray’s Batissa, a genus intermediate between Cordi-

cula and Cyrena. The shortness of the serrulate lateral teeth

was recorded in the Latin characters, and alluded to, as well as

their comparative brevity on the anterior side, in the subsequent

remarks as worthy of notice. The continent of India had not

previously furnished any examples of Batissa, of which some fine

species inhabit the Eastern Archipelago.

The following are the dimensions of the adult shell : —

Long. 21, lat. 34, diam. 15 mill.

In the original description of the young, the breadth was

by mistake stated as 10 instead of 8 mill., and the length as

8 mill. instead of 10.

I am informed that the conchological writer, M. Brot, has,

in his Catalogue of Melaniadz (a copy of which has not yet

come under my inspection), referred my minute Melaniadous

Tricula, from the Himalaya, to the genus Paludina. M. Brot

can scarcely have examined the subspiral operculum of the shell,

or consulted the original description published in M‘Clelland’s

‘Calcutta Journal of Natural History’ for 1842; otherwise he

would not have overlooked the differences presented by such an

operculum from the concentric laminations of that of Paludina,

the animal of which differs altogether from that of the mountain

form, which nearly approaches that of Melania; while the shell

of Tricula bears the same relation to Melania as that observable

in the Egyptian and Syrian Paludomus bulimoides, Olivier,

when compared with the more Eastern forms of the genus.

Tricula occurred at an altitude of 4000 feet. It may now possi-

bly inhabit the plains, as I placed living specimens in a pond at

Moradabad.

I add an extract from the paper in the Calcutta Journal :-—

“Subgenus Tricuna.

«Teste spira elongatiuscula ; apertura obliqua, ovata, integra, su-

416 Rev. W. Houghton on the Unicorn of the Ancients.

perne angulata ; peristomate continuo, subreflexo ; anfractu ulti-

mo subumbilicato.

“Animal Melanie simile, proboscide elongata, antice emarginata;

tentaculis filiformibus duobus oculos postice prope basin geren-

tibus ; pede mediocri ovato, antice subquadrato. Operculo

corneo subspirali.

“ T. montana.

«« T. testa olivacea, ovato-conica; anfractibus sex, rotundatis, suturis

impressis ; apertura intus albida; peristomate nigrescente; apice

obtuso, plerumque decollato.

“Hab. in rivo, apud lacum Kemaonensem Bhimtal dictum.

“This little shell I first found adhering to the prone surface

of a leaf of Potamogeton, in a clear and weedy stream running

through a marsh at the head of Bheemtal and supplying that

lake ; and subsequently Dr. Bacon and myself found it abun-

dantly on the stems of a water Iris which we drew up by the

roots from the bed of the stream for examination.”

I further remarked that it exhibited a tendency towards Pa-

ludina in form and in the continuity and incrassation of the

peristome.

Cheltenham, Nov. 12, 1862.

XLIV.—On the Unicorn of the Ancients.

By the Rev. W. Hoveuton, M.A., F.LS.

To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

GENTLEMEN,

I hasten to correct a serious error which I committed in my

paper ‘On the Unicorn of the Ancients,” published in the last

Number of your Magazine. I there stated (p. 369) that “the

animal which Mr. Ruppell was told by a native existed in Africa,

and which had a long straight horn growing from its forehead (?),

was doubtless a Rhinoceros.” I grounded this somewhat hasty

conclusion on a short paragraph that appeared in the twentieth

volume of the ‘ Asiatic Journal’ (July 1825), published the year

before Riippell’s ‘Atlas zu der Reise im nérdlichen Africa.’

I have since referred to this work, in which, at pt. i. p. 29,

Mr. Riippell has made some observations on the Unicorn, which,

under the name of Nidlekma, is known to the natives of Kordofan.

“The accounts which I obtained,” this traveller remarks (p. 30),

“from persons of the greatest respectability concerning the

Nillekma all perfectly agreed,—to wit, the animal’s hide was of

a reddish colour, its size that of a pony, its form slender like

the Antelope’s; the male had a long straight horn upon its

brow, which was wanting in the female. Some added that it

Mr, A. Adams on the Animal and Float of Yanthina. 417

has cloven hoofs, others said the hoof was entire. It inhabits,

according to report, the desert lying south of Kordofan, and is

remarkably swift.”

From this it is quite clear that this supposed animal is some-

thing very different from any species of Rhinoceros. I ought,

therefore, perhaps to modify my assertion when I boldly denied

the existence of any such animal, seeing that so distinguished a

naturalist as Edward Riippell was inclined to believe in it. But

even if future investigations should result in the discovery of

such an animal as that described above (which, to say the least,

is in the highest degree improbable), it is certain that it can

have nothing to do with the two-horned R’ém of the Bible, nor,

as it seems to me, with any of the one-horned animals mentioned

in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The au-

thority for the existence of the animal rests entirely upon the

assertions of natives, whose veracity is not often to be depended

upon. I remember being told by a traveller in Palestine that it

is perfectly useless to attempt to obtain reliable information from

the Arabs of that country. They will tell a traveller almost

anything that comes into their heads, no matter how improbable

it may be,—though in the question at issue it is but fair to state

that Mr. Riippell was perfectly satisfied with the accuracy of the

information he had received from his native servant on questions

relating to animals,

With regard to the zoological objection to the possibility of

the existence of an animal with a single horn on the middle

of the forehead (viz. that no horn can grow upon a suture),

Mr. Riippell replies by instancing the case of the Giraffe, the

male of which, he states, is possessed of a third horn, placed on

the very centre of the frontal suture. This fact, though denied

by Prof. Owen, was maintained by Cuvier, and has lately been

insisted upen by Dr. Cobbold.

I remain, Gentlemen,

Very truly yours,

Preston Rectory, Nov. 3, 1862. W. HouvcutTon.

XLV.—On the Animal and Float of lanthina.

By Artuur Apams, F.L.S. &e.

In the North Atlantic Ocean, about four hundred miles from the

Azores, I obtained a considerable number of lively Ianthinas ;

and I believe there are one or two points of interest in the his-

tory of this beautiful Mollusk which deserve mention, as they

seem to have escaped the notice of previous observers. I will

first of all consider the animal, and then the float by means of

which it is supported at the surface of the water.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x. 28

418 Mr. A. Adams on the Animal and Float of Tanthina.

The animal is entirely blind. I sought in vain for eyes, both

at the base and apex of the longer, external, pointed tentacle,

and likewise at the truncated apex of the inner and shorter ten-

tacular process. No trace of eyes was visible, although an acci- »

dental dark round spot of pigment may have been mistaken for

those organs.

The head is proboscidiform, and the muzzle is contractile only.

The muzzle is susceptible of considerable inflation; and the

apices of the large horny mandibles and the rounded extremity

of the tongue, armed with its formidable array of sharp, curved,

slender teeth, are observed protruding from the extremity when

the animal is engaged in exploring for food,

Although doubtless the chief food of the Janthina consists of

Physalia, Porpite, and Velella, which are usually seen floatmg

in its society, on the surface, in calm weather, yet an occasional

Barnacle does not seem to come amiss to the blind Snail of the

ocean. From the stomachs of several I extracted fragments of

the tufted feet of Lepas, and in one which I examined the Lepas-

remains occupied the entire length of the cesophagus.

On each side of the broad short tongue, or lingual membrane,

are two large horny jaws, which, when rempved, present an

elongate-quadrate form. They are convex externally, very thin,

and quite pellucid; the inner free edge is straight and slightly

thickened, the outer attached edge is membranaceous and

convex. The anterior lower angle is the pointed apex of the jaw,

from which proceed radiating striz and grooves, curving upwards

and outwards at the anterior upper angle, and becoming nearly

straight as they approach the straight inner margin.

The mantle, on the left side, has a distinct siphonal fold cor-

responding with the angle formed by the union of the mner and

outer lips of the shell. The bar-like gills are placed far back

under the arched cavity of the shell, in a diagonal direction,

and in none of my specimens do they exhibit the appearance of

an extruded tuft, as represented in some figures of the animal.

The sides of the foot are furnished with a lateral membrane

(without fringes, furbelows, or filaments) which, in lively indivi-

duals, is reflexed on the right side on the penultimate whorl of

the shell. Anteriorly, this membrane terminates in a simple

angular lobe, and posteriorly forms a truncate vertical margin.

The foot is narrow, elongated, rounded in front, tapering behind,

and not circular and contracted as shown in some figures taken

from animals in spirits. The under surface of the foot, like the

under surface of the shell, is of a deeper violet-colour than the

upper portions ; for these are the parts exposed to the hght, the

under surface both of animal and shell becoming the upper in

the usual position of the living animal. The animal always

Mr. A. Adams on the Animal and Float of Tanthina. 419

floats shell downwards, with the vesicular buoy above it directed

backwards. The anterior part of the foot is mobile, free, rounded,

and dilated, and the sides are usually folded inwards, forming a

shallow cup, which embraces the smooth anterior rounded end

of the float. When the animal wishes to bring its head to the

surface of the water, this part of the foot is made to glide over

the back of the float. Thus the animal can raise and lower itself

at pleasure by means of its own float.

The violet liquid which is ejected in considerable quantities

when the animal is irritated is at first equably diffused, but

shortly sinks to the bottom in the form of a deposit, leaving the

water pellucid. The bag or reservoir containing the colouring-

fluid is visible through the skin on the back of the neck, and

the fluid is poured direct into the branchial cavity, and makes

its escape from under the free edge of the mantle. My dyemg

operations with this purple fluid were not crowned with success,

the beautiful colour fading gradually away, leaving “ magenta”

and “mauve” yet possessors of the field.

The float is attached to the under surface of the caudal end of

the foot, where what appear to be the muciparous follicles give

it a striated appearance. In this species, which is J. violacea,

the float is quite colourless; but in J. evigua it is of a faint

pinkish tinge, and in that of I. globosa it is frequently of a pale

delicate lilac. In Recluzia Bensoni, A. Ad., which has a pale

yellow shell, the float is of a light straw-colour.

None of the floats of my specimens had ova affixed to them;

but the surface of many of the shells was studded with the

young of Lepades, which appeared to me to have been described

as a genus of Entomostracans, under the name of Evadne.

When the animal is weakly or dead, the float readily becomes

detached, for there is no organic connexion between it and the

foot. The mucous film of which it is composed appears to be

of the same nature as that glutinous fluid emitted by Litiopa

and Alaba, but which, in these genera, instead of forming vesi-

cles containing air, is spun out into filmy threads, which, how-

ever, are sufficiently buoyant to support the animals. The vesi-

cles are probably formed in the same manner as the frothy spume

of the little green Homopterous larva which is seen on bushes

in the spring, and which, in Hampshire, usually goes by the

name of ‘‘ Cuckoo-spit.” When a portion is cut off, the float

is enlarged at the end next the foot of the animal, and is not

regenerated at the excised part.

The float is often seen lacerated by the teeth of fishes ; and

hundreds of detached floats are observed in the water. With a

pair of sharp-pointed scissors I made incisions into the floats,

and allowed the air to escape, when the animals gradually

28%

420 Mr. A. Adams on the Animai and Ajjinities of Scaliola.

descended, and remained helpless at the bottom of the vessel :

the floats were not regenerated or renewed during the period

the animals remained alive. Crepitating portions, when sepa-

rated, continue buoyant until the vesicles of which they are

composed gradually collapse from the escape of the air with

which they are distended; and the floats, when pounded in a

mortar, are readily reduced to a mucus.

XLVI.—On the Animal and Affinities of Scaliola, a Genus of

Mollusca from Japan. By Axtuur Apams, F.L.S. &e.

In the ‘ Annals’ for 1860 (vol. vi. p. 120), I gave, under the name

of Scaliola, a short description of what I then believed to be a

new subgenus of Scala. Sinee then, however, I have discovered

the Mollusk in a living state, and have ascertained, from an

examination of the animal, that it is furnished with a rostri-

form head, as in Rissoide, and not with a retractile proboscis as

in Scalidee. In all the species I have met with mm Japan, its

curious habit of agglutinating grains of sand to the surface of

the shell is observable. In this peculiarity the genus resembles

Onustus and Xenophora ; a species of Helicina likewise exhibits

the same remarkable feature. In the original specimens from

which I took my first description the foreign particles were

worn off.

Genus Scaxioia, A. Adams.

An. capite proboseidiformi. Rostrum elongatum, cylindricum,

annulatum. ‘Tentacula filiformia. Oculi prominentes, nigri, ad

basin externam tentaculorum positi. Pes brevis, ovatus, postice

subacuminatus.

Operculum corneum, ovatum, subspirale ; nucleo subterminali.

Testa turrita, umbilicata seu rimata; anfractibus agglutinantibus,

arenaceis. Apertura plus minusve circularis, peritremate continuo ;

margine recto, acuto.

The species the animal of which I observed was S. bella, A. Ad.

It occurred in considerable numbers at Takano-Sima, a small

island near Tatiyama, on the coast of Niphon, im from two to

three fathoms, on a bottom of sandy mud. The rostrum is long,

large, annulate, bifid at the end, and of a pale yellow colour.

The tentacles are small and filiform, with large black eyes at

their outer bases. The head is elongated, with a dark median

linear mark on the upper surface. The foot is short, ovate,

semipellucid, with an opake white blotch on the side near the

operculum.

1. Scaliola bella, A. Adams.

S.testa pyramidato-turrita, late umbilicata, alba ; anfractibus arenaceis,

Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders. 421

_ conyexis, suturis canaliculatis; anfractu ultimo soluto; apertura

circulari.

Hab. Takano-Sima; 24 fathoms. Tabu-Sima; 25 fathoms.

) 2. Scaliola arenosa, A. Adams.

S. testa turrita, rimata; anfractibus convexis, arenosis, suturis pro-

fundis ; anfractu ultimo ad peritrema contiguo; apertura vix cir-

culari.

Hab. O-Sima; Tanabe; Simoda.

3. Scaliola glareosa, A. Adams.

S. testa graciliori, turrita, imperforata, alba; anfractibus convexis,

arenosis, suturis impressis; anfractu ultimo ad peritrema consoli-

dato; apertura ovata.

Hab. Tsu-Sima; Takano-Sima.

4. Scaliola gracilis, A. Adams.

S. testa turrita, gracili, alba, subarenosa ; anfractibus convexis, sub-

nudis, suturis profundis; anfractu ultimo vix soluto; apertura

subcirculari.

Hab. Gotto; 71 fathoms.

XLVII.—Descriptions of newly discovered Spiders captured in

Rio Janeiro by John Gray, Esq., and the Rev. Hamlet Clark.

By Joun Buackwatt, F.L.S.

[Continued from p. 360.]

Family THomisip&.

Genus Tuomrisus, Walck.

Thomisus gibbosus.

Length of the female ,4ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ;4,; breadth ;5; breadth of the abdomen 4; length of

an anterior leg 34; length of a leg of the third pair 4}.

The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the cephalo-

thorax in two transverse curved rows, forming a crescent; the

two anterior intermediate ones are the smallest ; the eyes of each

lateral pair are seated on tubercles, and the anterior ones are the

largest of the eight. The cephalothorax is short, broad, convex,

slightly compressed before, rounded on the sides, abruptly sloped

at the base and in front, where it 1s truncated; it is sparingly

clothed with hairs, and has a yellowish-brown hue, with dark

reddish-brown spots; the frontal margin, a transverse line be-

tween the two rows of eyes, and another situated behind the

posterior row, which is slightly angular with its vertex directed

4.22 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

backwards, have a yellowish-white tint; and a large, triangular,

reddish-brown spot, on a yellowish-white ground, occurs on each

side of the posterior slope. The falces are short, strong, conical,

and vertical ; the maxillee are convex near the base, obliquely

truncated at the extremity on the outer side, and slightly in-

clined towards the lip, which is triangular and pointed at the

apex ; and’ the sternum is heart-shaped. These parts are of a

yellowish-brown colour, the maxille and sternum being the

- palest. The legs are robust, provided with hairs and spines,

and are of a yellowish-brown hue, with red-brown and yellowish-

white spots; the first and second pairs, which are much longer

than the third and fourth, are equal in length, and the third

pair is the shortest; each tarsus is terminated by two curved

pectinated claws. The palpi are short, and resemble the legs in

colour. The abdomen is very gibbous on the upper part of the

posterior region, and is much broader there than at the anterior

extremity, which has the appearance of having been cut in a

direct line across ; it is of a yellowish-grey colour, with numerous

red-brown spots, and has several transverse red-brown and yel-

lowish-white sinuous lines on its gibbosity ; the under part is of

a yellowish-white hue, with minute brown spots, and a broad

dull yellow band extends along the middle; the colour of the

branchial opercula is yellowish-white, and that of the sexual

organs reddish-brown.

Genus Eripus, Walck.

Eripus spinipes.

Length of the female th of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ;4,; breadth ;1,; breadth of the abdomen }; length of

an anterior leg 7; length of a leg of the third pair 4.

The cephalothorax is compressed before, rounded on the sides,

abruptly sloped at the base, depressed, with two conical tuber-

cles in front, placed transversely ; it is provided with numerous

spines enlarged at the base, those on the sides being disposed

for the most part in oblique rows forming slight ridges con-

verging towards the centre, and those in the middle constituting

three longitudinal rows; three spines are situated between the

bases of the tubercles in front, and three others on the frontal

margin, the six being directed forwards ; it is of a reddish-brown

colour, the sides and a broad and somewhat raised band extend-

ing along the middle being much the darkest. The falces are

short, cuneiform, and vertical; the maxille are enlarged and

rounded at the extremity, and inclined towards the lip, which is

semicircular. These parts are of a reddish-brown colour, the

extremity of the maxillz and lip having a yellowish tinge. The

sternum is heart-shaped, thinly clothed with whitish hairs, and

captured in Rio Janeiro. 423

has a yellowish-white colour, with brown spots on the lateral

margins, opposite to the legs. The eyes are nearly equal in size,

and are disposed on and about the cephalic tubercles ; two are

situated in front below the tubercles, one in front of each tu-

bercle near its middle, one on the side, and another behind, at

the base of each; the two seated on the side of the tubercles are

rather the smallest of the eight. The first and second pairs of

legs are much longer and more powerful than the third and

fourth pairs; all are provided with numerous strong spines en-

larged at the base, those on the first and second pairs being

much the largest; the colour of the first and second pairs is

dark brown, tinged with red, with the exception of the tarsi and

the sides and under part of the base of the metatarsi, which

have a yellow-brown tint; the third and fourth pairs are of a

brownish-yellow hue, with a few dark brown spots on the under

side; each tarsus is terminated by two curved pectinated claws.

The palpi are short, and resemble the legs in colour. The abdo-

men is convex above, with whitish hairs and spines enlarged at

their base distributed over its surface ; the anterior part, con-

tiguous to the cephalothorax, has the appearance of having been

cut in a direct line across; and in the middle region, which is

broader than the extremities, three long, conical, pointed pro-

cesses or tubercles are situated in a transverse row, the inter-

mediate one being the largest ; it is of a dark brown colour, with

a yellowish tinge in the medial line and at the base of the inter-

mediate tubercle, and the point of each tubercle has a yellowish-

white hue; the colour of the anterior region of the sides and of

the under part is brownish-yellow ; the sexual organs have a

small process connected with their anterior margin which is

directed backwards, and are of a dark reddish-brown hue, that

of the branchial opercula and spinners being yellow-brown.

The collection of Brazilian spiders made by Messrs. Gray and

Clark contained, besides this new and very interesting Hripus,

two specimens of the Kripus heterogaster of Walckenaer, both of

which were females. The males of E. spinipes and E. hetero-

gaster, the only species of the genus at present known, have not

yet been discovered.

Genus Sparassus, Walck.

Sparassus sylvaticus.

Length of the male trd of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ¢; breadth +; breadth of the abdomen 3; length of an

anterior leg 2; length of a leg of the third pair 7

The eyes are seated on black spots, and are disposed on the

anterior part of the cephalothorax in two transverse rows ; the

two intermediate ones of the anterior row, which is straight and

424, Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

situated immediately above the frontal margin, are the largest of

the eight, and the posterior row, which is the longer, is slightly

curved, with its convexity directed backwards. The cephalo-

thorax is large, somewhat compressed before, greatly rounded

on the sides, sparingly clothed with hairs, convex, glossy, and

has a very slight longitudinal indentation in the medial line;

the faleces are short, subconical, vertical, and armed with a few

teeth on the inner surface; the maxille are straight, convex

near the base, and rounded at the extremity ; the lip is quadrate;

and the sternum is heart-shaped; the legs are robust, and pro-

vided with hairs and sessile spines, a row of the latter occurring

on each side of the under part of the tibize and metatarsi; the

first pair is the longest, then the second, and the third pair is

the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two curved minutely

pectinated claws, below which a small scopula is situated. These

parts are of a brownish-yellow colour, with the exception of the

sternum, which has a yellowish-white hue. The palpi resemble

the legs in colour, but the digital jomt has a dull brown spot

near its extremity, and several streaks of the same hue on its

convex surface ; the cubital and radial jomts are short, and the

latter projects from its extremity in front a red-brown crescent-

shaped apophysis, whose outer limb is the shorter; the digital

joint is of a curved oblong-oval figure, and is deeply emarginated

towards the extremity on the outer side; it is convex and hairy

externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs; these

organs are highly developed and complicated in structure, with

a large prominent spiral process, which extends beyond the

extremity of the joint, and has a long slender filament in con-

nexion with it, and a prominent spine near its base towards the

outer side; their colour is red-brown, tinged with yellow. The

abdomen is oviform, convex above, pointed at the spinners, and

clothed with short hairs; it is of a dull yellowish hue, with a

series of reddish-brown angular lines, whose vertices are directed

forwards, extending along the middle of the upper part, and

diminishing in extent as they approach the spinners; from the

extremities of the angular lines spots of the same colour extend

in oblique rows to the sides, and a few obscure spots of a similar

hue occur on the under part.

Sparassus maculatus.

Length of the female ;3,ths of an inch ; length of the cephalo-

thorax 4; breadth 1; breadth of the abdomen ,4,; length of a

107, ‘

leg of the second pair +1; length of a leg of the third pair $4.

The legs are long, and provided with hairs and fine sessile

spines; the second pair is the longest, then the first, and the

third pair is the shortest; each tarsus is terminated by two

captured in Rio Janeiro. 425

curved, minutely pectinated claws, below which a small scopula

is situated; and the palpi have a curved, slightly pectinated

claw at their extremity ; the cephalothorax is compressed before,

truncated in front, greatly rounded on the sides, convex, and

glossy, with a narrow longitudinal indentation in the medial

line; the falces are powerful, subconical, vertical, and armed

with teeth on the inner surface; the maxillz are short, straight,

convex near the base, and rounded at the extremity; and the

sternum is heart-shaped. These parts are of a pale yellowish

colour, the sternum beimg the palest. The hp is somewhat

quadrate, rather broader than long, and has a brownish-black

hue. The eyes are seated on black spots, and are disposed on

the anterior part of the cephalothorax in two transverse straight

rows; they are nearly equal in size, and those constitutmg the

anterior row, which is the shorter, are situated immediately

above the frontal margin. The abdomen is oviform, convex

above, thinly clothed with hairs, and of a dull yellow-brown

colour, with numerous minute yellowish-white spots, a broad

space occupying the entire medial line of the under part, and a

band extending from the anterior extremity of the upper part

nearly half its length, being devoid of spots; to this band suc-

ceeds a large oval space, comprising numerous yellowish-white

spots which extend about two-thirds of its length along the

middle, and two parallel reddish-brown spots near its extremity.

This Sparassus, though the specimen described was immature,

is a distinct and well-marked species.

Family Drassipm.

Genus Drassus, Walck.

Drassus insignis.

Length of the male 4 an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 3 +; breadth +; breadth of the abdomen ;%,; length of a

posterior leg 43 ; length of a leg of the third pair 3.

The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the cephalo-

thorax in two transverse curved rows having their convexity

directed backwards ; the posterior row is longer and more curved

than the anterior row, which is situated near the frontal margin ;

the eyes of each lateral pair are seated on a tubercle, but are

separated by a moderate space, and the four intermediate ones

nearly form a square, the two anterior ones being much the

largest of the eight. The cephalothorax is compressed before,

rounded on the sides, convex, with a narrow longitudinal in-

dentation in the medial line, and is densely clothed with short,

yellowish-grey hairs; it is of a reddish-brown colour, the ante-

rior part being much the darkest, and has narrow, brownish-

4.26 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

black lateral margins. The falces are powerful, conical, vertical,

and armed with teeth on the inner surface; the maxille are

strong, convex on the outer side, obliquely truncated at the ex-

tremity on the inner side, and curved towards the lip, which is

quadrate ; the sternum is heart-shaped and glossy, with small

prominences on the sides opposite to the legs. These parts have

a reddish-brown hue, the falces being the darkest, and the ster-

num much the palest. The legs are long, robust, provided with

hairs and sessile spines, and are of a yellowish-brown colour ;

the fourth pair is the longest, then the first, and the third pair

is the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two curved minutely

pectinated claws, below which there is a small scopula. The

palpi have a red-brown hue, the radial and digital jomts bemg

much the darkest ; the radial is larger than the cubital joint,

and projects three apophyses from its extremity on the outer

side; the superior one is slightly curved and pointed, the inter-

mediate one is large and crescent-shaped, and the inferior one

has a slender process near its termination, which is abruptly

curved and pointed at its extremity; the digital joint is of an

elongated-oval form, convex and hairy externally, concave within,

comprising the palpal organs, which are moderately developed,

not very complicated in structure, with a strong curved process

at their extremity, which has a small prominent pointed process

near its base, and are of a dark reddish-brown colour. The

abdomen is oviform, convex above, hairy, with a large dull

yellow band extending from its anterior extremity along the

middle of the upper part, more than a third of its length; a

large dark brown spot occurs in the middle of the posterior ex-

tremity of this band, which is the broadest and trifid, and on

each side of the intermediate prolongation, which is the narrowest

and most elongated, there is a series of dark brown spots ; these

spots converge, and become confluent above the spimners, where

they form short transverse bars; the sides are spotted and

streaked with dark brown, and the under part, spinners, and

branchial opercula have a pale yellowish-brown hue, the last

being the palest.

After the description of this species was made, an adult male

was received from Mr. Eyton Williams, who captured it in

Pernambuco.

Genus Crusrona, Latr.

Clubiona subflava.

Length of the female ;3,ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 1; breadth *,; breadth of the abdomen 4; length of an

anterior leg 3; length of a leg of the third pair ;%..

The cephalothorax is compressed before, rounded on the sides,

captured in Rio Janeiro. 427

depressed and truncated in front, sparingly clothed with short

hairs, convex, glossy, and has a slight longitudinal indentation

in the medial line; the falces are long, powerful, subconical,

vertical, and armed with a few small teeth on the inner surface ;

the maxille are straight, and enlarged and rounded at the ex-

tremity; the lip, which is longer than broad, is truncated and

somewhat hollowed at the apex; and the sternum is heart-

shaped, with small prominences on the sides, opposite to the

legs; the legs are long, slender, and provided with hairs; the

first pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the third pair is

the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two curved pectinated

claws, below which there is a small scopula; the palpi are mo-

derately long; the abdomen is oviform, somewhat pointed at

the spinners, convex above, and clothed with short hairs. This

spider is of a pale dull yellow colour, with the exception of the

falces, the maxillze, the lip, the sexual organs, and the extremity

of the palpi, which have a red-brown hue, the circular sexual

organs and the extremity of the falces being the darkest. The

eyes are disposed in two transverse rows on the anterior part of

the cephalothorax ; the four intermediate ones nearly form a

square, the two anterior ones, which are the largest of the eight

and are situated immediately above the frontal margin, being

somewhat nearer to each other than the posterior ones ; the eyes

of each lateral pair are seated obliquely on a tubercle, but are

not in contact. ;

Clubiona fasciata.

Length of the male ,5,ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 3, ; breadth +; breadth of the abdomen 1; length of

an anterior leg 33; length of a leg of the third pair 4.

The eyes are seated on black spots, and are disposed in two

transverse rows on the anterior part of the cephalothorax ; the

four intermediate ones form a trapezoid whose anterior side is

the shortest, the two eyes constituting it, which are situated

immediately above the frontal margin, being the smallest of the

eight. The cephalothorax is compressed before, rounded on the

sides, depressed and broadly truncated in front, sparingly clothed

with short hairs, convex, glossy, and has a narrow longitudinal

indentation in the medial line; the legs are long, slender, and

provided with hairs and fine sessile spines; the first pair is the

longest, the second and fourth pairs are equal in length, and the

third pair is the shortest; each tarsus is terminated by two

curved pectinated claws, below which there is a small scopula ;

the sternum is heart-shaped, and has small prominences on the

sides, opposite to the legs. These parts are of a pale dull yellow

colour, the cephalothorax, which has a very obscure longitudinal

brownish band on each side, being rather the darkest ; and the

428 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

sternum has minute brown spots on the lateral margins. The

falces are very long, very prominent, somewhat cylindrical, and

armed with a long fang, and an obtuse process resembling a

double tooth on the inner surface; the maxille are straight, and

enlarged and somewhat quadrate at the extremity; and the lip,

which is longer than broad, is truncated and hollowed at the

apex. These organs have a yellowish-brown hue. The palpi

are slender and of a yellowish-white colour, with the exception

of the digital jot, which has a yellowish-brown hue; the radial

is longer than the cubital jomt, and has a small, red-brown,

crescent-shaped apophysis at its extremity, on the outer side,

whose superior limb is the longer; the digital jot is of an

oblong-oval form, convex and hairy externally, concave within,

comprising the palpal organs, which are moderately developed,

not very complex in structure, and whose colour consists of

mixed shades of yellowish-brown. The abdomen is oviform,

somewhat pointed at the spinners, convex above, and is clothed

with hoary hairs; a broad, dentated, yellowish-grey band, which

is bordered laterally with pale brown, extends from the anterior

extremity of the upper part along the middle, diminishing im

breadth to its termination at the spmners; the sides and under

part are yellower than the medial band, and are without spot.

Clubiona affinis.

Length of the female ,*,ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ;),; breadth ;4, ; breadth of the abdomen ,1,; length of

a posterior leg 3; length of a leg of the third pair }.

The legs are long, provided with hairs and sessile spines, and

are of a yellowish-brown hue, with the exception of the anterior

ones, which are slender, devoid of spines, and have a yellowish-

white tint ; the fourth pair is the longest, then the second, and

the third pair is the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two

curved pectinated claws, below which a small scopula is situated.

The palpi resemble the legs in colour. The cephalothorax is

compressed before, rounded on the sides, truncated in front,

sparingly clothed with short hairs, convex, glossy, and has a

narrow longitudinal indentation in the medial line; it is of a

dull yellow colour, with a brown band extending along each side.

The eyes are seated on black spots, and are disposed in two

transverse rows on the anterior part of the cephalothorax; the

four intermediate ones form a trapezoid whose anterior side is

the shortest, the two eyes constituting it, which are situated

immediately above the frontal margin, being the smallest of the

eight. The falces are long, powerful, conical, rather prominent,

armed with a few small teeth on the inner surface, and are of a

red-brown colour. The maxille are straight, and enlarged and

- captured in Rio Janeiro. 429

rounded at the extremity; and the lip, which is longer than

broad, is truncated and hollowed at the apex. These organs

have a yellowish-brown hue. The sternum is oval, with small

prominences on the sides, opposite to the legs, and is of a pale

yellowish-white colour, with minute brown spots on the lateral

margins. The abdomen is oviform, convex above, and clothed

with hoary hairs; a broad pale grey band, minutely spotted

with dark brown, extends from the anterior extremity of the

upper part about two-thirds of its length along the middle; the

lateral margins of this band, and the space comprised between

its extremity and the spinners, have a dark brown hue; the sides

and under part are of a yellowish-grey colour, spotted with dark

brown, the spots on the latter being few in number, minute, and

obscure ; a dark brown longitudinal streak occurs on the upper

surface of the superior spimners, and the colour of the sexual

organs is reddish brown.

I have given the specific name affinis to this spider provision-

ally, as it appears to be very closely allied to Clubiona fasciata,

and may perhaps be the female of that species. It is true

that it differs from it remarkably in the relative length of its

legs ; but a careful examination of the anterior pair has induced

a suspicion that the antecedents of those limbs may have been

simultaneously detached at the coxee before the spider had arrived

at maturity. Now, if such were the case, it is evident, from

known physiological facts, that, on being reproduced, they must

be defective in development, though, as in the present instance,

they might be symmetrical in structure.

Family THERIpiipA.

Genus THERIpIon, Walck.

Theridion coniferum.

Length of the female 3yths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax +; ; breadth 5; breadth of the abdomen zs3 length of

an anterior leg 73; length of a leg of the third pair ¢.

The abdomen is ea oviform, with a ieee pointed,

conical protuberance near the middle of the upper part ; it is

sparingly clothed with hairs, of a yellowish-white colour, ob-

scurely marked with minute spots of a paler hue on the upper

part, and the sexual organs are prominent and of a red-brown

colour. The cephalothorax is short, broad, oval, convex, and

glossy, with an indentation in the medial line; it is of a yel-

lowish-white hue, with a faint orange-coloured band extending

along the middle. The falces are slender, conical, prominent,

and are terminated by a small, curved, red fang; the maxille

are obliquely truncated at the extremity, on the outer side, and

430 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

are inclined towards the lip, which is triangular and pointed at

the apex; and the sternum is heart-shaped. These parts, with

the palpi, which are slender and have a curved pectinated claw

at their extremity, are of a dull whitish hue. The eyes are dis-

posed on the anterior part of the cephalothorax in two transverse

rows, and are seated on black spots; the four intermediate ones

form a square, those of the anterior pair, which are the smallest

of the eight, being placed on a tubercle ; the eyes of each lateral

pair are also placed on a tubercle, and are nearly in contact.

The legs are long, slender, and provided with hairs ; the first

pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the third pair is the

shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by three claws, the two su-

perior ones are curved and pectinated, and the inferior one is

inflected near its base; their colour is dull yellowish-white, that

of the extremity of the tibize and metatarsi of the first, second,

and fourth pairs, and an obscure annulus on the tibiz of the

first pair, being orange-brown.

Family Epriripz.

Genus Eprirna, Walck.

Epeira lepida.

ae of the ale ith of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax —! 183 breadth 3, ; brenda of the audaren 1 163 length of

an anterior leg 7; length of a leg of the third pair ;%,.

The cephalothorax is compressed before, rounded on the sides,

convex, particularly in the posterior region, glossy, and has an

indentation in the medial line; the falces are powerful, conical,

vertical, and armed with a few teeth on the inner surface; the

maxille are short, strong, straight, and enlarged and rounded at

the extremity; the lip is semicircular, but somewhat pomted at

the apex; the sternum is heart-shaped, and is supplied with

long brownish hairs; the legs are long, and provided with hairs

and spines; the first pair is the longest, then the second, and

the third pair is the shortest; the tarsi are terminated by claws

of the usual number and structure; the palpi are slender, and

have a curved claw at their extremity. These parts have a

yellowish-red colour; the base of the lip has a brown hue, and

an oblong black spot occurs above each lateral margin of the

cephalothorax. The eyes are seated on black spots on the ante-

rior part of the cephalothorax ; the four intermediate ones nearly

form a square ; those of the anterior pair are placed on a promi-

nence, and are slightly nearer to each other than those of the

posterior pair, which are the largest of the eight; the eyes of

each lateral pair are seated obliquely on a small tubercle, and

are contiguous. The abdomen is oviform, rather broader at the

captured in Rio Janeiro. 431

posterior than at the anterior extremity, sparingly clothed with

short hairs, convex above, and projects over the base of the

cephalothorax: it is of a dull yellow colour, with numerous

white spots on the upper part, forming broad oblique bars on

each side of the medial line; above the spinners there are three

black spots, the intermediate one being much the largest; and

a minute white spot occurs on each side of the under part, near

its posterior extremity ; the sexual organs are rather prominent,

and of a brownish-yellow colour, tinged with red-brown.

Epetra elegans.

Length of the female 2ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 4; breadth 4; breadth of the abdomen 3; length of an

anterior leg +7; length of a leg of the third pair 3.

The eyes are seated on black spots on the anterior part of the

cephalothorax ; the four intermediate ones are placed on a pro-

minence, and nearly form a square, the two anterior ones, which

are rather wider apart than the posterior ones, being the largest

of the eight; the eyes of each lateral pair are seated obliquely

on a tubercle, and are near to each other, but not in contact.

The cephalothorax is compressed before, rounded on the sides,

somewhat pointed in front, moderately convex, with a large in-

dentation in the medial line; it is clothed with short hoary

hairs, and of a reddish-yellow colour, with a broad longitudinal

brown band on each side, and a narrower one of the same hue,

which extends from the eyes to the medial indentation. The

falces are powerful, conical, vertical, armed with teeth on the inner

surface, and of a reddish-yellow colour. The maxillee are short,

straight, and enlarged at the extremity; the lip is semicircular,

but somewhat pointed at the apex; and the sternum is heart-

shaped, with small eminences on the sides, opposite to the legs.

These parts have a dark brown hue, the maxille and lip having

a yellowish-brown tint at the extremity. The legs are long,

robust, provided with hairs and spines, and of a yellowish-red

colour, the extremity of the joints being the darkest ; the first

pair is the longest, then the second, and the third pair is the

shortest ; the tarsi are terminated by claws of the usual number

and structure. The palpi have a yellowish hue, tinged with red,

and have a curved pectinated claw at their extremity. The

abdomen is oviform, clothed with hairs, convex above, and

projects over the base of the cephalothorax; the upper part

is of a dull yellow colour, reticulated with fine pale brown

lines; a brown streak in front, whose posterior extremity is

pointed, is succeeded by a large leaf-like band, with sinuous

margins, that tapers to the spinners; the anterior part of the

band, which has a brown hue, and is freckled and spotted with

432 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

dull yellow, comprises four indented brown spots nearly forming

a square, the two posterior ones being separated by a rather

wider interval than the anterior ones; and the colour of the

posterior part of the band is brownish-black, intersected by

narrow, transverse, dull yellow bars ; the sides have a brownish-

yellow hue, and are marked with oblique brownish-black streaks; -

the middle of the under part is of a dark brown hue, bordered

laterally with dull yellow ; the sexual organs are well developed,

prominent, of a dark reddish-brown colour, and have a long,

slender, brownish-yellow process, directed backwards from their

anterior margin, which is curved at its base and recurved at its

extremity.

Epeira multiguttata.

Length of the female 4rd of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax 3,; breadth +; breadth of the abdomen +; length of an

anterior leg 11; length of a leg of the third pair ,%,.

The cephalothorax is compressed before, rounded in front and

on the sides, thinly clothed with hairs, convex, with a large in-

dentation in the medial line; the falces are powerful, conical,

convex in front near the base, vertical, and armed with teeth on

the inner surface; the maxille are short, straight, and enlarged

and rounded at the extremity ; the lip is semicircular, but some-

what pointed at the apex; the sternum is heart-shaped, with

small eminences on the sides, opposite to the legs; the legs are

robust, and provided with hairs and a few spines; the first pair

is the longest, then the second, and the third pair is the shortest ;

the tarsi are terminated by claws of the usual number and struc-

ture; the palpi are rather short, and have a curved pectinated

claw at their extremity. These parts are of a red colour, the

sternum being the palest; the maxillee and hp are tinged with

brown at the base and dull yellow at the extremity; on the

anterior part of the cephalothorax: there is a large triangular

black mark, whose base comprises the eyes, and whose vertex

extends to the medial indentation ; a black annulus occurs near

the middle, and another at the extremity of the tibia of the first

and second pairs of legs, the latter bemg the broader; and the

extremity of the tibia, metatarsus, and tarsus of the third and

fourth pairs, and that also of the digital joint of the palpi, are of

the same hue. The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the

cephalothorax, in two transverse rows; the four intermediate

ones nearly form a square, the two anterior ones, which are the

largest of the eight, and rather wider apart than the posterior

ones, being placed on a prominence; the eyes of each lateral

pair are seated obliquely on a tubercle, and are near to each

other, but not in contact. The abdomen has a short, broad,

oviform figure; it is sparingly clothed with hairs, very convex

captured in Rio Janeiro. 433

above, and projects greatly over the base of the cephalothorax ;

the upper part is soot-coloured, a broad space in the anterior

region having a brown hue; two pale yellow lines, whose bifid

extremities are widely divergent, meet in an angle in front, and

project within the angle a short streak of the same hue on each

side of the medial line ; to these streaks succeed two series of

spots disposed in pairs, and exterior to each of these series there

is a row of spots, the anterior one of which is the largest and

somewhat curved, having its convexity directed oulgwands.; sia

minute spot occurs near the extremity of the stronger branch of

the bifid termination of each frontal line, and a series of oblong

oblique spots extends along the upper part of each side; all the

spots have a pale yellow hue; the colour of the under part is

pale yellow, with the exception of a broad space in the middle,

which has a brownish-black hue; the sexual organs are pro-

minent, but not highly developed; connected with their ante-

rior margin there is a small brownish-yellow process, which is

curved backwards and recurved at its extremity; their colour is

reddish-brown, and that of the branchial opercula is brownish-

yellow.

Epeira fumida.

Length of the male ;%ths of an inch ; te of the cephalo-

thorax 4 ; canis ; breadth of the abdomens a. me of an

anterior leg /, ; length ‘ot a leg of the third pair +

The lees are long, provided with hairs and spines, eal have a

brownish-yellow hue, the femora and extremity of the joints

being the brownest ; the first pair is the longest, then the second,

and the third pair is the shortest; the tarsi are terminated by

claws of the usual number and structure. The palpi are short,

and resemble the legs in colour; the cubital joint has several

long bristles directed forwards from its extremity; the radial

joint has a large protuberance on its outer side, fringed with

hairs ; the digital joint is oval, with a process at its base, curved

outwards, whose obtuse extremity is glossy; it is convex and

hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs,

which are highly developed, protuberant, complex in structure,

with an obtuse prominent process at their base, having a pro-

jection near its base, on the inner side, whose dark extremity is

bifid; they are terminated by the dark- coloured points of several

strong processes, and their predominant colour is pale dull yel-

low faintly tinged with red-brown. The convex sides of the

digital joints are directed towards each other. The eyes are

seated on black spots on the anterior part of the cephalothorax ;

the four intermediate ones nearly form a square; the two ante-

rior ones are placed on a prominence, and are rather wider apart

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser, 3. Vol. x. 29

434 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

than the posterior ones, which are the largest of the eight; the

eyes of each lateral pair are seated obliquely on a tubercle, and

are near to each other, but not in contact. The cephalothorax

is compressed before, rounded on the sides, hairy, somewhat

glossy, convex, depressed in front and in the posterior region,

with a large indentation in the medial line; the falces are

powerful, conical, vertical, and armed with teeth on the inner

surface. These parts are of a yellowish-brown colour, faintly

tinged with red. The maxille are short, straight, and enlarged

and rounded at the extremity ; the lip is semicircular, but some-

what pointed at the apex; and the sternum is heart-shaped.

These parts are of a dark brown colour, the extremity of the

first two and the middle of the last having a dull yellow-brown

hue. The abdomen is subglobular, hairy, convex above, and

projects over the base of the “cephalothorax ; the upper part and

sides are of a greyish-brown colour, and a series of obscure,

transverse, soot-coloured bars, which have their extremities en-

larged, and decrease in length as they approach the spinners,

extends along the middle ; a curved line passes round its anterior

extremity and along the lower part of the sides ; two short streaks

in front converge to an angle in contact with the curved line,

and are succeeded by a small spot on each side of the medial

line; the line, streaks, and spots have a yellowish-white hue ;

the under part is of a brownish-black colour, with two minute

yellowish-white spots placed transversely near the middle, and

two others of the same hue are situated on each side of the

spinners, at their base; the colour of the branchial opercula is

brownish-yellow.

Epetra grammica.

Tenet of the soe ith of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax +53 —o qe: breadth of the abdomen 4 3; —— of

an anterior leg 54; length of a leg of the third pair 1.

The cephalothorax is "compressed before, rounded on the sides,

convex, thinly clothed with pale hairs, and has an indentation in

the medial line; the falces are long, conical, vertical, somewhat

divergent at the extremity, and armed with teeth on the inner

surface ; the maxille are short, straight, and enlarged and rounded

at the extremity; the lip is semicircular, but pointed at the apex;

the sternum is heart-shaped, with smal] eminences on the sides,

opposite to the legs; the legs are long, and provided with hairs

and spines; the first pair is the longest, then the second, and

the third pair is the shortest ; the tarsi are terminated by claws

of the usual number and structure; the palpi are slender, and

have a curved pectinated claw at their extremity. These parts

are of a yellowish-brown colour, the base of the lip and obscure

captured in Rio Janeiro. 435

spots on the lateral margins of the sternum having a brown hue.

The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the cephalothorax ;

the-four intermediate ones are placed on a prominence, and

nearly form a square, those of the anterior pair, which are the

largest of the eight, beg rather wider apart than those of the

posterior pair; the eyes of each lateral pair are in a horizontal

line, and separated by a conspicuous interval; the anterior one

is seated on a minute tubercle, and the posterior one is the

smallest. The abdomen is oviform, thinly clothed with short

fine hairs, convex above, projects over the base of the cephalo-

thorax, and is of a dull yellowish colour; a fine black sinuous

line originates in a large brown spot on each side of the anterior

extremity of the upper part ; and these lines, which converge to

the spinners, comprise in the anterior part of the space included

between them two other fine, black, slightly sinuous lines, which

somewhat abruptly converge to a point nearly equidistant from

the two extremities of the abdomen; on each side of the medial

line there is a row of minute brown indented spots, and a series of

obscure, brown, transverse, curved bars whose convexity is directed

forwards extends from the anterior region to the spinners ;_ the

under part has a pale brown hue tinged with yellow, the medial

line, which is much the darkest, having a pale yellow longitudinal

line on each side; and small spots of the same hue surround the

spinners; the sexual organs are moderately developed, promi-

nent, and of a yellowish-brown colour, the orifice, situated at

the base of an oval process connected with their anterior margin

and directed backwards, having a dark reddish-brown hue.

Epeira luteola.

Length of the male 4th of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ;,; breadth 4,; breadth of the abdomen ;4,; length of

an anterior leg 5’, ; length of a leg of the third pair }.

The eyes are seated on black spots on the anterior part of the

cephalothorax ; the four intermediate ones form a square, the

two posterior ones are rather the largest, and the anterior ones

are placed on a prominence; the eyes of each lateral pair are

seated obliquely on a tubercle, and the anterior ones are much the

smallest and lightest-coloured of the eight. The cephalothorax

is compressed before, rounded on the sides, moderately convex,

glossy, and has an indentation in the medial line; it is of a red-

brown colour, with a short yellowish line in the middle of the

cephalic region. The falces are small, conical, vertical, armed

with a few teeth on the inner surface, and have a brownish-yellow

hue. The maxille are straight, and enlarged at the extremity ;

and the lip is semicircular, but somewhat pointed at the apex.

These organs are of a yellowish-brown colour, being much the

29*

436 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

brownest at the base. The sternum is heart-shaped, with emi-

nences on the sides, opposite to the legs ; it is clothed with hairs,

and of a yellow-white hue, with dark brown spots on the margins.

The legs are long, provided with hairs and spines, and are of a

yellowish-brown colour, the metatarsi and tarsi being much the

palest ; the femora, genua, and tibiz are tinged with red, and

minutely spotted with black; the first pair is the longest, then

the second, and the third pair is the shortest; the tarsi are ter-

minated by claws of the usual number and structure. The palpi

are short, and have a pale dull yellow hue ; the cubital is smaller

than the radial joint, and projects a bristle in front; the radial

joint is protuberant on the inner and outer sides; the digital

joint is oval, with a process at its base curved outwards; it is

convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the

palpal organs, which are highly developed, protuberant, complex

in structure, with a trifid process near the middle, which projects

a fine point from its anterior side, and a strong, brownish-black,

curved spine at their extremity, whose prominent termination is

directed downwards; the colour of these organs is pale red-

brown. The convex sides of the digital joints are directed to-

wards each other. The abdomen is oviform, slightly prominent

on each side of its anterior extremity, sparigly clothed with

hairs, moderately convex above, and projects over the base of the

cephalothorax ; it is of a pale dull yellowish colour, with a row

of minute depressed brown spots on each side of the medial line

of the upper part, and two small, nearly contiguous, yellow spots

placed transversely above the spinners; the sides and under part

are marked with short black streaks and spots, the latter, which

is the darker, having a slightly curved yellowish-white band on

each side; and on the outer side of the base of each inferior

spinner there is a spot of the same hue.

Epeira tristis.

Length of the female ,5,ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ;1,; breadth ;4,; breadth of the abdomen 4; length of

an anterior leg 2,; length of a leg of the third pair 3.

The abdomen is of a somewhat depressed oviform figure, pro-

jecting a little beyond the spinners and greatly over the base of

the cephalothorax ; it is thinly clothed with hairs, and has a

large chocolate-brown oval band, whose slightly smuous margins

are bordered with yellowish-white, extending along the middle

of the upper part; the anterior extremity of this band tapers to

a point, and the posterior part comprises four longitudinal rows

of very minute, obscure yellowish-brown spots; the sides have a

yellowish-white hue, tinged with brown at the lower part, and

are marked with black and dark-brown streaks and _ blotches ;

captured in Rio Janeiro. 437

the under part has a brownish-black hue, and there is an oblong

white spot immediately behind the sexual organs; these organs

are moderately developed, with a longitudinal transversely stri-

ated septum in the middle, whose anterior extremity is directed

forwards, and whose posterior extremity is much the broadest ;

they are of a yellowish-brown colour, marked with dark brown

at their termination. The eyes are disposed on the anterior part

of the cephalothorax ; the four intermediate ones nearly form a

square, the two anterior ones, which are seated on a protuberance,

being slightly wider apart than the posterior ones; the eyes of

each lateral pair are placed horizontally on a minute tubercle ; they

are separated by a conspicuous interval, and the posterior ones

are the smallest of the eight. The cephalothorax is compressed

before, rounded in front and on the sides, convex, depressed be-

fore, abruptly so at the base, with a narrow indentation in the

medial line; it is clothed with hoary hairs, and of a yellowish-

brown colour, with narrow dark brown lateral margins, and a

dull yellow triangular spot at the posterior point of the cephalic

region. The falces are powerful, conical, vertical, and armed

with teeth on the inner surface ; the maxille are short, straight,

and enlarged at the extremity ; “and the lip is semicircular, but

somewhat pointed at the apex. These parts are of a dark brown

colour, the first at the base in front, and the last two at their

extremity, having a yellowish-brown hue. The sternum is heart-

shaped, with small eminences on the sides opposite to the legs ;

it is of a pale dull yellowish colour, with a dark brown band

extending along each side; these bands meet at its posterior

extremity, and have their inner margin strongly sinuous. The

legs are long, provided with hairs and a few spines, and are of a

yellowish-brown colour, with brown annuli, those at the extre-

mity of the femora of the first, second, and fourth pairs being

the broadest, and, with the genua, almost black ; the first pair

is the longest, then the second, and the third pair is the shortest ;

the tarsi are terminated by claws of the usual number and struc-

ture. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, and have a curved

pectinated claw at their extremity.

Epeira gracilipes.

es of the male gth of an inch; length of tus cephalo-

thorax +5 ; ae si “breadth of the abdomen Ts i, length of

an anterior leg $3; length of a leg of the third pair ;%.

The legs are very long , Slender, provided with ‘hairs and

spines, and of a pale reddish-brown colour, the femora and the

extremity of the tibiz of the anterior pair and the extremity

of the tibize of the second pair having a dark brown hue; the

438 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders

first pair is much the longest, then the second, and the third

pair is the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by claws of the

usual number and structure. The palpi are short, and of a dull

yellowish colour; a long slender bristle projects from the ex-

tremity of the cubital joint in front; the digital joit is oval,

convex and hairy externally, concave within, and with this con-

cavity the dark brown palpal organs are connected; they are

highly developed, prominent, not very complex in structure,

subglobose at the base, from which projects a long slender pro-

cess, directed obliquely downwards and outwards, whose pointed

extremity is curved. The convex sides of the digital jomts are

directed towards each other. The cephalothorax is compressed

before, rounded on the sides, thinly clothed with hairs, convex,

glossy, with a shallow indentation in the medial line, and is of

a dark brown colour, with a large reddish-brown triangular

mark, whose vertex is directed backwards, in the cephalic region.

The eyes are seated on black spots on the anterior part of the

cephalothorax; the four intermediate ones form a square, the

two anterior ones, which are placed on a prominence, being the

largest of the eight; the eyes of each lateral pair are seated

obliquely on a small tubercle, and are near to each other, but

not in contact. The falces are long, conical, vertical, and of a

brownish-red colour. The maxille are straight, and enlarged at

the extremity ; and the lip has a short, oval form. These organs

have a dark brown hue, the apex of the latter being tinged with

dull yellow. The sternum is heart-shaped, and of a dull brownish-

yellow colour, with dark brown lateral margins. The abdomen

has an oblong-oviform figure ; it is somewhat depressed, sparingly

clothed with short hairs, glossy, and projects over the base of

the cephalothorax ; the upper part is of a yellowish-brown co-

lour, with a dark brown band in the middle, which tapers to the

spinners, and is somewhat irregular in outline; the under part

has a dark brown hue, with an obscure pale yellow line extend-

ing from each branchial operculum to the spmners, and on each

side of those organs there are two minute spots of the same

colour.

Epeira mucronata.

Length of the male ;3,ths of aninch; length of the cephalo-

thorax ;!,; breadth ~,; breadth of the abdomen ;4; length of

an anterior leg 33; length of a leg of the third pair }.

The cephalothorax is compressed before, rounded on the sides,

convex, glossy, with a large indentation m the medial line; the

falees are conical, vertical, and armed with a few teeth on the

inner surface; the maxille are short, powerful, obliquely trun-

cated at the extremity, on the outer side, and inclined towards

captured in Rio Janeiro. 439

the lip, which is semicircular, but pointed at the apex; and the

sternum is heart-shaped. These parts have a pale dull yellow

hue, and the cephalothorax, which is rather the darkest, has a

black line extending from the medial indentation towards the

intermediate eyes, which gradually diminishes in breadth to its

anterior extremity. The eyes are seated on black spots on the

anterior part of the cephalothorax; the four intermediate ones

are placed on a prominence and nearly form a square, the two

posterior ones, which are the largest of the eight, being rather

wider apart than the two anterior ones; the eyes of each lateral

pair are the smallest ; they are seated on a minute tubercle, and

are almost in contact. The legs are slender, provided with hairs

and spines, and are of a brownish-yellow colour, the extremity

of the joints being much the darkest ; the first pair is the longest,

the second pair slightly surpasses the fourth, and the third pair

is the shortest; each tarsus is termmated by the usual number

of claws of the customary structure. The palpi are short, and

of a pale yellow colour, with the exception of the digital joint,

which has a yellowish-brown hue; the radial is stronger than

the cubital joint; a long bristle projects forwards from the ex-

tremity of the latter, and the former is prominent on the outer

side; the digital joint is oval, with an obtuse, glossy process at

its base, curved outwards; it is convex and hairy externally,

concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly

developed, prominent, complicated in structure, with several

projecting processes, and a prominent spine, originating near

the middle of the inner side, which curves across towards the

outer side, and then passes downwards towards the extremity ;

they are of a yellowish-brown colour, intermixed with dark reddish-

brown. The convex sides of the digital joints are directed to-

wards each other. The abdomen is subcylindrical, somewhat

convex underneath, and sparingly clothed with hairs ; from the

middle of the anterior extremity of the upper part a small acute

corneous spine is directed obliquely upwards and forwards, and

the posterior extremity, which is slightly elevated, projects be-

yond the spinners ; it is of a dull yellow colour, with three narrow

white bands extending from the anterior to the posterior extre-

mity of the upper part, a small cruciform black spot occurring

on the latter; the medial band is fusiform, and comprises a

longitudinal line of a dull yellow hue ; the colour of the spinners

is dark brown, and that of the branchial opercula yellowish-

brown.

(To be continued. }

440 On the supposed Discovery of a minute Vertebrate Jaw.

XLVIII.—Note on the supposed “ Discovery of an extremely

minute Vertebrate Lower Jaw in Mud dredged at St. Helena,

by Dr. Wallich, F.L.S.” By C. Spence Barz, F.R.S.,

F.L.S. &e.

No doubt every naturalist must have received with astonish-

ment Dr. Wallich’s recent announcement of his discovery of the

jaw of so minute a vertebrate animal as he records in the ‘ Annals’

for October last.

Iam sure he will not think that I am intrusively officious

im pointing out some conditions in the specimen that appear to

throw considerable doubt upon its being the jaw of any animal

at all.

I would premise that, upon the announcement of any new or

important circumstance, it is imcumbent that we should first

ascertain whether or not it be consistent with our present know-

ledge, before the discovery be accepted as a fact.

Assuming that Dr. Wallich’s figure in the ‘ Annals,’ as I have

no doubt, is correct, there are two features that seem to be in-

consistent with the idea of the specimen being the jaw of a

vertebrate animal: I allude to the circumstance of there being

no condyloid process, and the character of the teeth.

I believe that I am correct in asserting that we have not a

single instance of an animal having the marginal process of the

jaw developed into a serrature such as Dr. Wallich has figured.

In those reptiles where the teeth anchylose with the bone, the

teeth are yet implanted in alveoli of their own. In fish (of which

this cannot be a jaw), the dermal attachments of the teeth, when

removed, leave the jaw smooth.

The question will probably be put, If it be not the jaw of a

vertebrate animal, what is it? In reply, I would state that it

appears to me to be the dactylos or last joint of a leg of a small

Hyperine Crustacean, and that the circumstance which has misled

Dr. Wallich is that, the animal being near the period of moulting

its skin, the jomt exhibits, within, a second row of marginal

armature, which has been mistaken for a second ramus.

I have repeatedly seen specimens under such conditions as I

mention, which, though not agreeing in exact detail of serrature

with that figured in the ‘ Annals,’ may yet be sufficiently near

to identify the group to which the part belongs.

In the sketch below, I figure a leg of Phrosina longispina, as

well as one in which a drawing of the supposed jaw is sub-

stituted for that of the true dactylos, for comparison with

Dr. Wallich’s drawing.

The genus Phrosina is very abundant in the tropical and sub-

tropical Atlantic Ocean.

On the supposed Vertebrate Lower Jaw. 441

Of course, in making this statement, I do so with all re-

servation, since I know nothing of the specimen beyond what

has appeared in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ for October

last.

— bs

roe 9

: 1

PL ; J

YS ih

Fig. 1. Supposed vertebrate jaw ; reduced from the figure in the ‘ Annals,’

page 304.

Fig. 2. Dactylos of the fourth pair of pereiopoda of Phrosina longispina.

Fig. 3. Leg of ditto, with dactylos in situ, as it appears a short time pre-

viously to moulting.

- Fig. 4. Ditto, with fig. 1 inserted mstead of the true dactylos.

XLIX.—On the supposed Vertebrate Lower Jaw, dredged in Mud

at St. Helena. By Dr. Watticu, F.L.S., F.G.S.

To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

GENTLEMEN,

In the October Number of the ‘Annals’ you were good

enough to insert my notice regarding the supposed discovery, in

mud dredged at St. Helena, of a minute vertebrate lower jaw.

That notice was more hastily penned than it should or indeed

would have been, had I not been desirous of exhibiting the spe-

cimen at the then approaching meeting of the British Associa-

tion.

Although more than one distinguished naturalist coincided in

the opinion expressed by me as to its nature, there were others

who at once pronounced it to be no part of a vertebrate struc-

ture, but referred it, each in turn, to portions of the invertebrate

division very widely removed one from the other. My own im-

pression, entertained and expressed from the first, was that, if

not a vertebrate jaw, the object in question formed part of an

Kchinoderm, this supposition being based on a faint trace of

reticulated texture observable under a high power at the point

answering to the angle of the right ramus in the lateral view.

442 Dr. G.C. Wallich onthe supposed Vertebrate Lower Jaw.

In order to show how diverse were the opinions expressed,

I may mention that the specimen was pronounced to be—the

mandible of a fish, a portion of the lingual ribbon of Mitra, a

claw of a minute Crustacean, part of the manducatory appa-

ratus of Notommata or an allied species, and, lastly, a valve of

a Pedicellaria; some of the advocates of these conflicting judg-

ments still retaining their views unchanged.

To Mr. Busk is due the merit of pointing out the extremely

close analogy between the object in question and certain Pedi-

cellarie,—his intimate acquaintance with every kind of minute

organic structure leading him to regard its Pedicellarian origin

at all events as highly probable, if not certain.

On being made aware of Mr. Busk’s opinion, I immediately

examined the Pedicellarize of Hchinus lividus, of which I possess

a specimen obtained in the same locality, The valves, although

not identical, bear a sufficient resemblance, both in configuration

and detail, to satisfy me of the probable accuracy of Mr. Busk’s

view; at the same time I thmk it better to reserve my final

determination of the structure, pending still further inquiry and

comparison.

The communication on the subject by Mr. C. Spence Bate ~

(politely submitted to me, at his request, prior to its publication

in the present Number of the ‘Annals’) will show how far the

occurrence of pseudomorphs in the organic world should put us

on our guard against hasty generalisation founded on semblances

in figure alone.

In the case more immediately under notice, I was by no

means insensible to the facts that the appearance of minute

teeth along the greater portion of each ramus of the supposed jaw

might be due, in reality, to simple serrature of its margin, and

that the true texture of vertebrate bone was not visible in its

substance. But, on the other hand, it seemed unreasonable to

assume that absolute identity in structural detail should exist

between an object of such minute dimensions and the homolo-

gous parts of the larger animals to which it is allied. Or, even

assuming that the intimate structure must be identical in type,

we might fairly suppose that minute details, observable only

under the microscope in the larger orders, would become so in-

ordinately reduced in size in an organism already microscopic,

as to be invisible.

The figure accompanying my former note, although accurate

as a sketch, fails to convey the full extent of the resemblance to

a jaw, the projecting digitate-like processes in the region corre-

sponding to the articulation being too jagged, and the serrature

too saw-like.

Probably the true figure of the object, seen from above, is that

Mr. G. R. Gray on a few West-African Birds. 4.43

of an elongated spoon, as shown in the adjoining diagrammatic

woodcut, the serrature being present along the entire margin

except at the broader extremity, where it takes the form of the

digitations which, on a side view, constitute the most elevated

portion; and anteriorly, where it is interrupted by the four

large hollow teeth in the neighbourhood of the symphysis; the

intermediate mass, seen in profile in the original figure, being a

a triangular and somewhat irregular flattened ridge.

I remain, Gentlemen,

Your most obedient Servant,

G. C. Watticu.

L.— Descriptions of a few West-African Birds.

By G. R. Gray.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

GENTLEMEN, :

The following descriptions of a few birds, which appear new

to the fauna of West Africa, may interest some of your readers.

They were collected on the Cameroons Mountains, at an eleva-

tion of 7000 feet above the level of the sea. They were brought

to this country by Mrs. Isabel Burton, the estimable lady of

the distinguished traveller and Vice-Consul, Capt. Burton, and

kindly presented by her to the British Museum.

Pratincola salaz.

Pratincola salaz, Verr., Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1851, p. 307,

Cossypha Isabelle.

Head biack, with a shining white mark between the nostril

and the middle above the eye; back olivaceous-black ; wings

black, each feather margined with olivaceous ; beneath the bod

rufous-buff, deeper on the breast ; rump and outer tail-feathers

deep rufous, with the tips of the second, third, and fourth fea-

thers, and tip and outer margin of the first feather, black; the

four middle feathers black, with the outer margin of the fifth

near the base deep rufous.

Total length, 6"; wings, 2’ 11"; tarsi, 13”; bill from gape 9",

This bird is named in compliment to Mrs. Isabel Burton.

44.4, Mr. G. R. Gray on a few West-African Birds.

Zosterops (Spewrops) melanocephalus.

Mouse-colour, washed with olivaceous ; head sooty black, with

a spot on each side between the nostril and eye; mentum and

under wing-coverts white; beneath the body pale obscure grey,

tinged with olivaceous; quills and tail fuscous-black, the former

margined outwardly with grey. Bill and feet whitish horn-

colour.

Total length, 4" 9"; wings, 2" 5"; tarsi, 9/3 bill; irom

gape, 7”

Trichophorus tephrolemus.

Yellowish-olive ; head and throat slate-colour, darker on the

head; abdomen yellow; breast, sides, and under tail-coverts

olivaceous-yellow ; quills fuscous-black, with outer webs oliva-

ceous, the inner web margined near the base with buff; tail dull

olivaceous, the end of the outer feather slightly tipped with

yellow; bill black; feet plumbeous.

Total length, 7” 6”; wings, 3” 3”; tarsi, 10”; bill, from

gape, 10".

Closely allied to Trichophorus canicapillus, Hartl.; but the

throat is pale ash-colour.

Euplectes phonicomerus.

Black ; rump and wing-coverts pale clear yellow; under wing-

coverts pale rufous-white; thighs pale brown.

like E. wanthomelas; but the yellow on the rump and wings

is paler, and the thighs are pale brown instead of black.

Total length, 5” 3"; wings, 2” 10"; tarsi 11’; bill, from

gape, 73!",

Ligurnus* olivaceus, Hartl.

Coccothraustes olivaceus, Fras., Proc. Z. S. 1842, p. 144.

Adult male yellowish-olivaceous ; head and throat deep black;

sides and a narrow band round the neck, rump, and beneath the

body bright orange-yellow ; quills black, with the tertials and

larger wing-coverts margined outwardly with bright yellow, and

the quills inwardly with white ; tail olivaceous-green, with each

feather margined on the sides and tip with bright yellow ; bill

orange ; feet pale.

The female agrees with Mr. Fraser’s typical specimen, said

* Ligurnus rufobrunneus.

Rufous-brown, slightly darker along the shaft of each feather; wings

and tail dull brown, margined with rufous-brown ; beneath the body much

paler, varied in some places with darker; bill and feet horn-colour.

Length, 6”; wings, 3” 5’; tarsi, 9’”; bill, from gape, 7’”.

This bird has been many years in the collection of the British Museum.

It was brought to this country from Western Africa by Capt. (now Major-

General) Sabine, R.A., and was presented by him to that institution.

Mr. G. R. Gray on a few West. African Birds. 445

to have been obtained at Fernando Po, and which is now

deposited in the British Museum. It is figured im the ‘ Zoologica

Typica,’ pl. 47, by Mr. Fraser.

Young.—Dull olivaceous-green ; beneath the body dull oliva-

ceous-yellow ; bill and feet blackish lead-colour.

Strobilophaga Burtone.

Fuscous, varied with pale olivaceous on the sides of the plumes;

wing-coverts fuscous-black, tipped with white; quills and tail

fuscous-black, margined narrowly with yellow; abdomen obscure

white, spotted with fuscous-black down the shaft of some of the

feathers ; upper mandible horn-colour, lower mandible white ;

feet plumbeous.

Total length, 7” ; wings, 3" 6"; tarsi, 9”; bill, from gape, 8!"

The formation of this bird agrees in every respect with the

genus Pinicola or Strobilophaga. A species of this genus has

not hitherto been recorded as found in Africa.

To these may be added the

Cosmetornis Burtoni.

It is very similar to the Cosmetornis vexillarius (Gould),G. R.Gr.,

but differs in the white spot at the base of each quill being nar-

rower, while the white at the tip of the second, third, fourth,

and fifth quills is more prominent and slightly mottled with

rufous on the outer web ; the first quill longer than the second,

fuscous-black, and partly margined with rufous on the outer

webs ; the sixth feather is rather longer than the fifth, the seventh

rather longer than the latter; both are fuscous-black, slightly

mottled with pale rufous, having the bases of the inner webs

white; the eighth is much longer than the first quill, and fus-

cous-black, slightly mottled with pale rufous, the base of the

inner web white or pale rufous; the ninth feather (or, as it has

been termed, “ standard feather ”’) is the longest of all, measuring

more than 17in.; it is white at the base of both inner and outer

webs, but passing into pale rufous, or rufous-white mottled with

black, on the outer web, while the inner is only rufous-white

for its entire length from the basal white.

The specimen is in an imperfect state, and only sufficient to

afford the above description so as to distinguish it from the

previously known species. The British Museum is indebted to

the liberality of Capt. Burton, H.M. Vice-Consul, who has just

sent it with other zoological specimens, all marked as from

Fernando Po, and after whom I have the pleasure of naming

this interesting bird.

446 Dr. G. Rolleston and Mr. C. Robertson on the Aquiferous

LI. On the Aquiferous and Oviducal System in the Lamelli-

branchiate Mollusks. By Grorce Rouzeston, Esq., M.D.,

F.L.S., Linacre Professor of Anatomy; and C. Ropertson,

Esq., Demonstrator of Anatomy, Oxford*.

Very different explanations have been offered of the means by

which certain of the Lamellibranchiata are enabled to distend

their muscular foot until the fluid with which it is swollen up

causes it to appear all but transparent. These explanations, dif-

ferent as they are both in principle and in detail, admit yet of

being reduced under one or other of three heads. Hither they

postulate the existence of a system of tubes homologous with

the trachez of insects, and, like them, distinct from the animal’s

blood-vessels, as necessary for the explanation of the great

changes of volume observed to take place in the mollusk’s body;

or they suppose these alterations of size to be effected by the

agency of the blood-vascular system alone ; or, thirdly, they hold

the effect in question to be due to the joint working of these two

systems of tubes.

Agassiz} refers the great distention observable in the foot of

the Natica heros, of the Pyrula carica and canaliculata, and the

Acephalous Mactra solidissima, to water inhaled by orifices more

or less numerous, of less or greater calibre, in the muscular foot :

these orifices, and the tubes in connexion with them, he speaks

of as a water-vascular system, but he holds that they come into

more or less direct and constant communication with the true

blood-vascular system.

Theodor von Hessling {, who obtained the same result of in-

jecting fully the blood-vascular system, by throwing in fluid from

the glandular depression in the foot of the Unio margaritifera, as

Agassiz did by a similar procedure with the similar depression

in the foot of the Gasteropodous Pyrule, speaks of the system

(which on these grounds he holds to be continuous) as but one

system and that a blood-vascular system, with certain orifices

patent and communicating with the external medium in which

the animal hves. Von Hessling holds also that the distention

of the foot may be in part due to water inhaled through the

organ of Bojanus, and mingled thus with the blood, as we shall

presently describe.

M. Langer § holds that the organ of Bojanus is the route by

which the water, upon which the change of volume in the animal’s

body depends, passes into it, and that this water passes into the

blood-vessels, and not into any specialized water-vascular system.

* From the Philosophical Transactions, Part I. for 1862, p. 29.

+ Zeitschrift fiir wiss. Zoologie, Pt. 7. p. 176, 1855.

{ Perlmuscheln und ihre Perlen. Leipzic, 1859: p. 241.

§ Denkschriften d. Kaiserlich. Akad. Wiss. xii. p. 55, 1856.

and Oviducal System in the Lamellibranchiate Mollusks. 447

M. Lacaze-Duthiers has discovered and described* yet another

route than that of the organ of Bojanus, by which, in the Den-

talium and Pleurobranchus, water from without can find its way

into the interior of vessels carrying blood, and carrying it in

these instances towards the heart, and not towards the gills.

Gegenbaur+ differs from these authors merely in postulating

the existence of orifices of exit as well as of entrance for the

water; and these he holds to correspond with the puncta scat-

tered over the foot-surface, and visible in great abundance occa-

sionally along and near its free edge.

Von Rengarten t exactly reverses the functions thus supposed

to belong to the punctated foot-pores, and the passage through

the organ of Bojanus severally.

In a paper read by us§ before the Royal Society, February 3,

1859, we spoke of the water-vascular system as having its outlet

in close approximation to the external orifice of the organ of

Bojanus ; and its inlet we suggested might be indicated by the

position of the parasites which are not rarely to be seen studding

the foot-surface and marking out the presence of its numerous

pores. Gegenbaur, we observe ||, considers that the great lia-

bility of the foot to injury from the entrance of foreign bodies

into these pores is an argument for regarding them as exhalant

rather than inhalant orifices. (

Further iuvestigations, carried on by us subsequently to the

reading of that paper, showed us that our views as to the oviducal

system in the Lamellibranchiata were founded in error. An

exceedingly courteous notice of this mistake by M. Lacaze-Du-

thiers{ in the ‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society’ rendered an

earlier retractation of this part of our paper unnecessary. Our

views, on the other hand, as to the permeation of the bodies of

the Lamellibranchiata by a system of vessels distinct from those

in which the blood is contained remain much what they were.

Before stating our views, and the arguments by which we

would support them, we would say that the “ perivisceral cham-

ber”’ of the Brachiopoda, as described by Mr. Hancock** in a

paper in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions,’ which was published

subsequently to the reading of our paper already referred to,

holds much the same relation to the circulatory and reproductive

and other viscera, as the system which we have called “aqui-

ferous”’ in the Lamellibranchiata. As Mr. Hancock++ has

* Ann. des Sciences Naturelles, tom. xi. 1859, p. 255; Ann. Nat. List.

ser. 3. vol. v. p. 225.

+ Grundziige der vergleichenden Anatomie, p. 352, 1859.

{ Diss. Inaug. Dorpat, 1853, cit. Von Hessling, loc. cit. p. 236.

§ Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 3. vol. iv. p. 65. || Loe. cit. p. 352.

q Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 3. vol. v. p. 225.

** Philosophical Transactions for 1858. Read May 14, 1857.

+t Loc. cit, p. 844.

448 Dr. G. Rolleston and Mr. C. Robertson on the Aquiferous

himself pointed out the close correspondences of the two systems,

we will but remark upon one point of discrepancy between them.

In the Brachiopods the genitalia are packed into the main stems

of the arborescent perivisceral system, in the direct course of the

stream, if we may speak of it as a water-vascular system ; in the

Lamellibranchiata, or, at all events, in the family Unionide, the

ceca of the generative gland are appended laterally to the

divergent twigs of the principal branches of the water-vascular

tree ; they do not lie in the direct course of the current of the

aquiferous canals, and these canals, beyond and outside of them,

break up into a very delicate minutely divided system of capil-

lary tubes. What we shall attempt to prove is, that the orifices

on either side of the foot in the Unionide lead not only to the

generative gland, the products of which may be seen to issue

forth from them at the spawning-season, but also to a system of

tubes widely spread through the entire foot. We do not believe

that any direct communication subsists either between the blood-

vascular system and this system of tubes, or between either of

these systems and the punctated depressions and inlets along the

foot-edge. The blood-vessels seem to us to constitute a system

of tubes closed, save at one point and at one lacuna. That point

and that lacuna is the pericardial space—a cavity into which,

besides the blood of the animal, the water in which it lives also

finds its way. As the bivalve shell opens, it necessarily dilates this

lacuna, and water is thus drawn into it through the compound sac

known in the Acephala as the organ of Bojanus. The water then

gains access to the interior of the blood-vessels, as we shall proceed

to show, and is carried onward within them. From the blood-

vessels we suppose it to transude into the system of water-tubes

everywhere in apposition with them, and, under normal conditions,

to find its exit by these tubes, whilst under such abnormal cir-

cumstances as the sudden removal of the creature from the water,

the sudden contraction of the muscular foot, causing jets of

water to pour forth from the dilated semitransparent mass, may

unload the infiltrated organ in a yet more expeditious manner.

As to the way by which the water used by the mollusk for distend-

ing its foot comes into the body, we are at one with many other

writers upon this subject ; but we are not aware that our views

as to the method by which the animal disencumbers itself of the

ingested fluid are shared in by other authors.

Our arguments will be principally based upon the results of

experiments made in the way of injection. The animals we

operated upon were almost exclusively of the family Unionide ;

and, on account of the size of the specimens, as well as for other

reasons, we employed chiefly the species Anodon cygneus and

Unio margaritifera. In all our experiments we strove to repro-

duce, as nearly as possible, the conditions of the animal’s na-

and Oviducal System in the Lamellibranchiate Mollusks. 449

tural life : our injections were always performed under water, by

which and by other means as much support was given to the

animal’s body and its several parts as the water and the shell

gave to it during life. Means were always adopted for securing

that the animal died with its muscular system in a state of re-

laxation. We found the prussian blue injecting-fluid of Prof.

Beale’s * invention to possess many properties especially recom-

mending it for use in our experiments, but we employed several

other fluids as well.

Experiment 1.—If an Anodon or Unio (size is of little conse-

quence in this experiment, though large size is a convenience in

most) be removed from its shell without injuring the some-

what easily injured tissues which limit the secreting-structure

of the organ of Bojanus, and supported in water with its foot

downwards in such a manner as to put its pericardial laeuna,

and the parts in connexion with it, as nearly as possible into the

condition in which they may be supposed to be in in the shell

during life, and if an injection be then made into the pericardial

lacuna, the following results will be seen to take place. The so-

called ‘reddish-brown organ of Keber” (a plexus of vessels

rich in pigmentary deposit, continuous with other vessels not

so coloured in the mantle and elsewhere, and bounding the

pericardium on either side, and opening into it by several patent

orifices at its anterior end) will become filled with the injecting-

fluid first ; next the gill-vessels, and sometimes together with

them, yet not invariably, the systemic veins; and lastly the

external orifice of the organ of Bojanus will, on removing the

animal from its prone position, be seen pouring out the injec-

tion on either side of the animal’s foot.

Experiment 2.—A large Anodon was injected with a red

stiffening-injection from the central branchial vein, a vessel

readily injectible, lying as it does in the gill-cavity superiorly

between the two innermost laminz of the gills, in the angle

where they become continuous with each other posteriorly to

the posterior edge of the foot, with the following results :—The

auricle and ventricle were filled to distention, the reddish-brown

organ as well, and, besides the reddish-brown organ, the rest of

the mantle, up to within a quarter of inch of its free edge. No

fluid, however, had penetrated into the pericardial space. The

absence of penetration into the pericardium we have invariably

had to record in our numerous injections from the branchial

veins, even when the injection is noted as having been so en-

tirely successful as to have passed through the aorta in such

abundance as to inject in fine ramuscular divisions the edge of

the muscular foot.

Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. x,

450 Dr.G. Rolleston and Mr. C. Robertson on the Aquiferous

The former of these two experiments is so easy of perform-

ance, and yet proves so much, that we cannot but express our

surprise at nowhere finding any record of its having been made

by any of the different experimenters who have employed in-

jections as a method for investigating the economy of mollusks.

We have repeated it so frequently with the same results, as to

have become quite convinced that the pericardial lacuna com-

municates, on the one hand, with blood going gillward, and, on

the other, with the water in which the animal lies.

The uniformity with which our repetitions of Experiment 2

have led to the same negative result inclines us to doubt the

existence of any direct communication between the aquiferous

pericardial lacuna and the branchial veins properly so called.

We are the more disposed to accept this conclusion, as in no

mollusk whatever which is possessed of branchial vessels, except

the Pleurobranchus *, has the renal organ been shown to con-

duct the external water into the cavity of vessels homologous,

not with the afferent, but with the efferent + branchial vessels

of higher organisms.

Though Experiment 2 may seem to prove that the intravas-

cular blood does not set in any very free current outwards into

the pericardial space, especially when coupled with the observa-

tion that in multitudinous and varied injections of the different

systems of blood-vessels we have never succeeded j in filling the

pericardium from the blood-vessels, easy though it be, as in

Experiment 1, to make the injected fluid take the reverse direc-

tion, more direct evidence is yet needed in support of our view

of the organ of Bojanus as the channel for an inwardly-setting

current of water. The following considerations seem to us to

show conclusively that, though Experiment 1 shows that it is

possible for intrapericardial fluid to find its way outwards through

the renal organ, such is not the direction usually taken by the

fluid contained in the complex aquiferous system thus consti-

tuted.

1st. If we examine with the microscope the fluid contained in

the pericardial space, we shall find it to contain, besides the

morphological elements of blood, certain foreign bodies, such as

the Aspidogaster conchicola and infusoria. Now these creatures

must be supposed to have found their way inwards through the

organ of Bojanus.

* M. Lacaze-Duthiers, Ann. Nat. Hist., loc. cit.

+ Gegenbaur, Grundziige, p. 367.

{ M. Langer’s language (Denkschriften d. Akad. Wiss. loc. cit. p. 43),

in describing his success in such injections, is so qualified, “und sah, doch

nicht immer,” as to allow one, without discourtesy, to give less weight to

his views on this than on most other points.

and Oviducal System in the Lamellibranchiate Mollusks. 451

2ndly. The external orifice of the organ of Bojanus may be

seen in a living Anodon (and, from its lying exposed in the gill-

cavity, with yet greater ease in a Unio margaritifera) to execute

movements of alternate opening and shutting, similar in charac-

ter to those executed, as has been repeatedly noticed, by the

analogous organ in the Pteropoda. These movements are re-

peated as frequently as once in every ten seconds (or oftener) in

the Unio margaritifera; and they possess, there can be little

doubt, in these as in other mollusks, the power of filling with

water the cavities into which it leads.

ardly. The glandular portion of the compound organ of

Bojanus has its opening into the pericardium guarded by a

funnel-shaped projection which acts as a valve looking heart-

wards, and offers resistance consequently to fluid passing out-

wards from that lacuna.

4thly (Experiment 3). Fluid thrown in by the external orifice

of the organ of Bojanus, as it is either artificially, as in the

Anodon, or naturally, as in the Unio margaritifera, exposed in

the gill-cavity, finds its way even more easily to the pericar-

dium than fluid thrown, as already described, into the pericar-

dium finds its way into the gill-cavity by the reverse route.

This experiment is but an imitation of what we may suppose to

take place whensoever the animal by opening its valves dilates

its pericardial space. As an immediate consequence of this dila-

tation, water is ingested into the blood-vascular system, and is

forthwith applied to the purpose of distending the foot and pro-

truding it through the opening valves.

Up to this point our views are in accordance with those

adopted by several authors, though we are not aware that our

method of proof has been employed by any other observers, so

far as its detailed application is concerned.

We will now proceed to give our reasons for supposing that

another system of tubes comes in aid of the blood-vascular

system, and receives from it the fluid which that system has

been the means of taking up in the manner described. Our

arguments will go to show that water is transferred from the

blood-vessels in the foot of the freshwater mussel to another set

of vessels, the main stem of which has the additional function of

outlet to the generative gland. As, however, Von Hessling*

holds that the system of pores in the foot plays no inconsider-

able part in the work of supplying the distending foot with

water, acting in aid of, and in alliance with, the system of the

organ of Bojanus, and, with Agassiz and Von Rengarten, as

already cited, holds this office to be exclusively discharged by

this system of pores and inlets, we will begin by stating our

* Perlmuscheln und ihre Perlen, p. 238 ez seq.

30%

452 Dr. G. Rolleston and Mr. C. Robertson on the Aquiferous

reasons for demurring to these views, in which we ourselves at

one time participated. It will be necessary to give the details

of two sets of experiments, to show how we came to give up an

opinion which can plead such high authorities as those we have

cited for its defence.

Experiment 4.—A large Anodon, having died with its foot in

a semidistended state, was injected from the venous sinus which

receives the blood from the systemic veins and distributes it to

the renal-portal system, with the prussian-blue injection already

spoken of. The injection spread over the liver and over the

whole of the generative gland, and the exclusively muscular part

of the foot, spreading itself in especial richness along the free

edge. No pressure which we subjected the foot to, when thus

fully injected, caused any of the blue injection, easily and readily

though it runs, to issue forth. Subsequently to this, a stiffening

injection of red colour was thrown into the foot-mass froin the

oviducal outlets. This second injection spread itself very richly

over the ovary, over the liver, and into the muscular foot, along

the free edge of which it issued in small jets without any pressure

being applied.

We will disregard, for the moment, the bearing which this

experiment has upon the distinctness from the blood-vascular

system of the system of tubes in the muscular foot, to which the

stem opening (under the name of oviduct) into the mantle-cavity

leads, and we will relate the details of another set of experiments,

which led us to consider the phenomenon of the jets issuing

from the foot-edge as due, in spite of the frequency with which

we have seen it recur, to violence done, possibly unavoidably,

to the delicate limitary tissues of these aquiferous tubes.

Experiment 5.—A Unio margaritifera, which had died with

its foot quite relaxed, had the blue injecting-fluid introduced

into its aorta, its venous system, and through the oviducal ori-

fices, until the foot, from a state of perfect softness, became

tense and swollen up. On pressure, none of this triply-injected

blue fluid could be made to issue forth from the foot-edge ; but

small hernia-like projections of transparent membrane rose out like

bubbles all along the foot-edge. They contained at first a trans-

parent fluid, but after a little pressure they became filled with

the blue injection. The thinness and transparency of these little

sacs will account for the rarity of their appearance, and the

comparative frequency with which jets of injected fluid have

made themselves noticed in the region corresponding to the

eecal endings of tubes which these sacs must be held to repre-

sent. ‘The depressions and pores which do exist in the foot of

the Lamellibranchiate mollusk we believe to be glandular in

character, and destitute of any direct communication with the

and Oviducal System in the Lamellibranchiate Mollusks. 453

blood-vessels or other tubes in the animal’s body. Now the

Unio margaritifera stands in the same relation with reference to

these foot-pores to the Anodonta cygnea as the Byrula carica and

P. canaliculata do, according to Agassiz, to the Mactra; that is

to say, the foot of the Unio presents us with a gigantic pore, in

the shape of a glandular depression of as much as an inch in

length and two lines in diameter, whilst that of the Anodon is

pierced but by microscopic inlets. Von Hessling*, by whom

this organ has been very accurately described, believes that

injections can be made to pass, without rupture of any limitary

membrane, from its cavity into the blood-vessels ; and Agassiz

holds a similar view with reference to the nearly similar struc-

ture in the Pyrula. But in the Unio just spoken of as so fully

injected, as well as in several others similarly treated, though

the sides and walls of this glandular depression were very richly

injected, none of the injection could by pressure be made to

issue out into the water in which the animal was lying. We

should be inclined to consider this involution or glandular de-

pression in the foot of the Unio as homologous with the foot-

gland of the terrestrial Gasteropods ; and the communication

which has been held to exist between this Lamellibranchiate

organ and its vascular system we should not believe to be more

direct than that which subsists between the muciparous foot-

gland of the Limaz and its venous system.

It is not quite beside the purpose, to remark that the foot of

one of the Unionide, when thoroughly distended, has a smooth

bright appearance, so uniformly spread over the whole surface of

its semigelatinous mass as to suggest the idea of the depressions

having become everted and thus contributed to increase the size

of the infiltrated organism. Though this appearance may not

justify such an interpretation, yet it does seem quite inconsistent

with the existence of patent pores communicating with the

animal’s blood-vessels.

We have repeatedly observed that, if a freshwater mussel die

with its muscular foot in a state of contraction, no distention of

the foot takes place, either by leaving the animal to soak in

water till putrefaction sets in, or by artificial injection.

We will now proceed to state our reasons for holding the exist-

ence of a water-vascular system distinct from the blood-vessels

of the Lamellibranchiata. Siebold{ states one of the objections

urged against the existence of this system of vessels in the fol-

* Loc. cit. p.238. Von Hessling, however, does not mention the occur-

rence of calcareous concretions impacted in this gland’s duct. This we

have observed.

+ Siebold, Anatomy of Invertebrata, p. 255, note 6, American edition.

t Ibid. p. 213.

454 Dr. G. Rolleston and Mr. C. Robertson on the Aquiferous

lowing words :—‘ The existence in these animals of a double

system of lacunz having this interpretation is attended with

many difficulties. For then it must be admitted that one of

these systems contains only water and the other blood, and it is

difficult to understand how two kinds of wall-less canals can

traverse the body without passing into each other.” It is, how-

ever, demonstrable that in the Unionidz, at all events, an all

but perfectly closed system of blood-vessels exists. We have

again and again, with various injecting fluids, found that they

will pass from the aorta through a capillary system into a

systemic-venous system, from that into what may be called the

renal-portal system of the organ of Bojanus, and from that into

the branchie, without any extravasation, or the formation of

any lacuna anywhere. The pericardial space is, in the strictest

sense of the phrase, a blood-lacuna; but, as already detailed,

fluid cannot be made to pass into it from the blood-vessels,

though such communication must take place to a certain extent

during the life of the animal, and though the reverse direction

of current is one easily demonstrable by artificial means, and is

doubtless the ordinary one under normal conditions. There are

two venous sinuses, however, in the Unionide, receiving, one

after the other, the systemic-venous blood, and transmitting it

into the organ of Bojanus. The first of these* lies just within

the muscular foot, along its superior and posterior edge ; it sub-

tends the second, the only one mentioned by authors, and opens

into it by an orifice more or less perfectly guarded in different

species of Unionide. This second sinus lies between the two

opposed organs of Bojanus; and from it the systemic-venous

blood passes into the capillaries of the renal-portal system con-

tained in those organs. But neither of these sinuses at all

answers the character intended to be expressed by the term

lacuna ; they are homologous rather with the dilated great veins

of certain vertebrata than with the lacune which do exist

in certain molluscan families. There is the less occasion, how-

ever, to labour further at demonstrating the non-lacunar charac-

ter of the blood-vascular system of the Unionide, as Von Hes-

slingt, in his recent book on the Pearl Mussel, confirms in this

* Into this smus the ceca of the generative gland project somewhat

freely from amongst the trabecule which run across what we call the roof

of the muscular foot, from one side to the other; and it is here, we

believe, that in injections from the oviducal outlets extravasation so often

takes place into the blood-vessels.

+ Loe. cit. p. 219. Gegenbaur, in his ‘ Grundziige,’ p. 344, note, hints

at some doubt still remaining in his mind as to the distinctness of these

capillaries from the tissues they lie amongst. His work bears the same

date (1859) as Von Hessling’s; and we suppose both to have been pub-

lished subsequently to the reading of our paper, February 3, 1859. -

and Oviducal System in the Lamellibranchiate Mollusks. 455

point the views previously enunciated by Langer, adding to

them a description of the histological characters of the vessels

intervening between the arterial and venous systems in the Unio,

It may be considered as beyond a doubt that a system of tubes

all but entirely non-lacunar exists in these Lamellibranchiata,

earrying their blood from the heart through a systemic, a renal,

and a branchial system. No pressure that can in fairness be

applied will cause any extravasation of fluid thus injected. Such

pressure we have repeatedly applied to Anodons very fully

distended by injection; and though it be not rare for fluid

thrown in by the oviducal outlets to find its way out, as already

described, by orifices along the foot, we have never found this

to take place with the blood-vascular system.

In making use of the method of injections as a means for

showing the independence of the several vascular trees in the

Lamellibranchiate mollusks, we have sometimes injected the

animal from the oviducal orifice alone, sometimes we have

injected the same animal with a differently coloured fluid from

its venous or from its arterial system, or from both ; in a word,

our injections have been either single, double, or triple.

There is no difficulty in causing an injection to enter the body

of any large individual of the family Unionide from its oviducal

orifice ; it is especially easy, however, to effect this in the Unio

margaritifera, as the orifice is not in them, as in most species of

the family, covered by the inner lamina of the inner gill, but,

together with the orifice of the organ of Bojanus, lies exposed

and uncovered in the gill-cavity, and, besides this, is prolonged

out in such a manner as to render the introduction of the

syringe-pipe a very easy matter,

Experiment 6.—An injection thrown in by this orifice will

spread itself over the whole of the viscera contained within the

foot, not confining itself by any means to the ovary, but passing

on beyond the area occupied by it or the male generative gland,

into the exclusively muscular part of the foot, and distributing

itself with especial richness along its free edge. That an injec-

tion thrown in by this orifice should thus spread itself would go

some way towards showing that in the Lamellibranchiate, as in

the Brachiopod mollusk, the ducts through which the generative

products are extruded lead elsewhere as well as to the generative

gland, were it possible to be sure that no transference of the

injected fluid had taken place from tubes confessedly in con-

nexion with the generative gland to another system of vessels—

that, namely, which carries the blood. That such a transference

does not rarely take place in one part of the blood-vascular

system, we have already mentioned*; and hence arose the

| * Note, p. 454.

456 Dr. G. Rolleston and Mr. C, Robertson on the Aquiferous

necessity for double injections, im which the blood-vascular

system was (as has been and will again be described) injected

and fully distended throughout the entirety of its own ramifica-

tions, before any fluid was thrown into the oviducal orifices, and

by still mapping out a tree for itself showed the independence

of the system it led to. Single injections, however inferior to

double ones, still furnish us with strong arguments for the view

we are supporting. A freshwater mussel may have its whole

visceral mass perfectly injected, either from the blood-vessels or

from the oviducal system ; but when thus injected, a practised

eye has no difficulty in seeing ito which of the two systems the

injection has been thrown. The blood-vascular injection is seen

to be contained in coarser tubes, and to form a less close network

than the aquiferous, which, though confined within fine capil-

laries, gives, till closely inspected, an appearance almost of

uniform diffusion, on account of the closeness of the network it

forms.

Secondly, we wili give the details of two double injections.

Experiment 7.—A double injection from the venous system

and the oviducal in the same Anodon. A stiffening size injec-

tion of red colour was used for the oviducal or aquiferous system,

and the prussian-blue injection, a more easily running fluid, for

the venous system, with the following results. The red injection

occupies the area corresponding to the generative gland, with

coarse as well as with fine twigs, has imparted a faintish blush

to the regions occupied by the liver and stomach, but has filled

the interior of the exclusively muscular portion of the foot

with so close and fine a network as to give it at a distance a

uniform red appearance. ‘The blue injection occupies much of

the foot-mass in common with and interposed between the red,

its larger trunks holding the same position relatively to the

larger red trunks as the larger systemic ves do to the larger

generative ducts, but it has spread itself into the gills, which the

red fluid has not.

Experiment 8.—A similar one to the preceding, but that the

blood-vascular system was distended with the fluid used in

Experiment 7 for the aquiferous, and vice versd, The red fluid

was thrown in by the aorta, it filled a large artery running

parallel with the cap of the foot, it filled both labial tentacles,

and it set, as it stiffened, in bossy masses along the edge of the

foot, lastly it returned to the venous sinus and filled it and the

organ of Bojanus,—occupymg thus the entire systemic and

renal-portal vessels. The blue cold injection was thrown in by

the orifices through which the generative products are extruded ;

and we shall see that it, when thus thrown in, disclosed the

existence of a system of vessels distinct from those already so

and Oviducal System in the Lamellibranchiate Mollusks. 457

clearly marked out as coextensive with the systemic vessels. It

spread itself chiefly over the ovary, but formed a fine plexus

along the free edge of the foot beyond the artery described as

running parallel with the edge of the foot, and figured as doing

so by Langer*.

This experiment must be thought to go a considerable way

towards demonstrating the existence of a system of tubes distinct

from, however closely apposed to, the blood-vascular system,—

this system having been, in this experiment, filled with a rigid

mass, and filled with it most thoroughly, as the injection of the

organ of Bojanus proves, and yet allowing the trees injectible

from the aquiferous outlet to coexist side by side with it, even

though the fluid they contained was so much more easily dis-

placed than the stiffening size injection.

Thirdly, of triple injections.

The readiness with which injections pass from the arterial into

the venous system make the triple injections which we have

practised of less physiological value than at first sight might

appear to be the case ; and consequently we will content ourselves

with giving the details of one such injection.

Experiment 9.—A large Anodon was injected from the venous

sinus with a yellow stiffening injection; after this had been

done, a blue-coloured fluid, also with size for its basis, was

thrown into the aorta; .and thirdly, a red injection of the same

character was thrown in by the aquiferous opening. The blue

fluid thrown into the arterial system drove the yellow fluid be-

fore it out of the systemic veins almost entirely, but it did not

follow it into the renal-portal system of the organ of Bojanus ; this

organ and the gills remained richly injected with yellow, to the

exclusion of both the other colours; the red fluid, finally, which

was thrown in by the aquiferous opening, spread itself in couples

with the arterial blue over the entire visceral mass, filling alike

the areas of digestive and of reproductive organs, and spreading

itself with especial richness over the exclusively muscular part

of the foot, which it will be recollected is the part of the animal

most preeminently distended and distensible by both natural

and artificial means.

Lastly, in a large individual of the freshwater-mussel family

in which a stiffening or other injection has been thrown in by

the orifice through which the generative products are extruded,

a simple lens is sufficient to show that the tubes thus injected

have the generative ceca affixed to them laterally, and pass on

continuously into parts of the foot in which no generative cca

are lodged. It is most especially in that part of the muscular

foot into which no viscera are packed, and which forms a belt of

considerable width beyond and bounding the generative mass,

* Denkschriften der K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Bd. viii. Taf, i. fig. 1.

458 Aquiferous and Oviducal System in Lamellibranchiata. .

and yet free from any admixture of its constituent elements (as

the microscope will show), that we find the capillary network

(shown to be in connexion with the oviducal outlet whilst clear

of the terminal ceca) of the gland to attain its maximum deve-

lopment. Now this area is the area also of maximum disten-

tion in the distended foot. If in a Unio which has been in-

jected from the blood-vascular system and from the ovidueal,

both with differently-coloured injecting-fluids, a portion of the

injected tissue be taken from this area and placed under one of

the higher powers of the microscope, the fluid which has been

thrown in by the oviducal orifice will be seen to be contained in

tubes as well and sharply defined as those of the capillaries

which the other injected fluid will show to be in connexion with

the blood-vessels.

Whilst the analogy of the Echinodermata and many Annelids

does away with any @ priori improbability which may have

seemed to attach to the possession by these mollusks of the sys-

tem of tubes the existence of which we have been striving to de-

monstrate, the homology of the Brachiopoda furnishes us with

a strong @ priori presumption in favour of the correctness of

our view. On the other hand, we cannot forbear pointing out

the great improbability which must attach to a view which sup-

poses a fluid of such morphological and such chemical charac-

ters as is the blood of the freshwater mussel to be diluted as it

must be diluted on the hypothesis of the blood-vessels being the

agents by which the animal voluntarily distends itself often to

thrice its undistended bulk. How do the blood-corpuscles which

we may take from the interior of the animal’s heart behave when

thus mixed with water under the microscope *? But it is not

upon considerations such as these that we would lay most weight,

but upon the evidence which injections of the several systems

furnish to the unassisted eye, and upon the confirmation of that

evidence which microscopic inspection furnishes.

* “ Reagentien, wie ein Ueberschuss von Wasser, verdiinnte Essigsaure,

losen bei der ersteren Art (Blutkérperchen) den scheinbar festen Inhalt

auf, und lassen den Kern, wie die eingeschlossenen Kornchen, deutlich

hervortreten. Thre haufigen Formveranderungen, z. B. die “ spiessigen

hurschgeweihahnlichen Fortsatze,”’ welche sie treiben, hangen von unvermeid-

lichen Diffusionverhiltnissen ab, welchen sie bei der grossen Wassermenge

gegeniiber ihrer verhaltnissmassig germgen Anzahl ausgesetzt sind. Wah-

rend A. Ecker dieselben durch eine Bildung von Vacuolen, in Folge deren

Vergrosserung sie einreissen, zu erklaren sucht, halt Lieberkiihn diese

Zellenbildungen fiir Amében mit selbstindigen contractilen Bewegungen.

In innigem Zusammenhang mit diesen Erscheinungen steht das leichte Aus-

treten des Zelleninhalts, welcher bisweilen in hellen und hyalinen Tropfen

herumschwimmt, ja nicht selten geht ein Zerfallen desselben in zahlreiche

kleine Tropfehen noch innerhalb der Zellen vor sich, welche dadurch ein

maulbeerartiges Ansehen bekommen, ebenso vereinigen die ausgetretenen

‘Sarcodetropfen diese Korperchen zu den oben erwahnten Kliimpchen und

Flockchen,”’—Von Hessling, loc. cit. pp. 219, 220. ul

Rey. T. Hincks on the Production of Gonozooids. . 459

LII.—On the Production of similar Gonozooids by Hydroid

Polypes belonging to different Genera*. By the Rev, Tuomas

Hincks, B.A.

[Plate IX. figs. 1 & 2.]

In the course of the past summer I have had the opportunity of

studying at [lfracombe the reproduction of the Stauridia producta,

a small Tubularian Zoophyte, which abounds in rock-pools and

under ledges near the base of the Capstone. It was first cha-

racterized by Dr. Strethill Wright (Edinb. New Phil. Journ.,

N.S., for April 1858) ; but he did not observe the reproductive

bodies. It has been my good fortune to meet with one or two

polypes on which they were present in an advanced stage of

development, and I am thus enabled to complete the history of

the species.

My principal object, however, in this paper is to put on record

the remarkable fact that the gonozooid of the Stauridia producta

ts identical with that of the Coryne eximia (Al/man), a member of

a distinct genus.

Stauridia is nearly allied to Coryne, but is distinguished from

it by having tentacles dissimilar in character. The upper, which

are arranged in one or more whorls, are furnished with globular

tips, as in Coryne, while the lower, which form a single verticil,

are filiform. The former are armed with thread-cells, and en-

dowed with vigorous percussive power, and constitute offensive

and prehensile instruments ; the latter are rigid, and furnished

with palpocils, and seem to act as tactile organs only.

The S. producta is a small, creeping, unbranched form ; the

C. eximia is branched, and attains a considerable size. Yet of

the life-series of these two Hydroids, thus dissimilar in general

character, one term is identical. The free reproductive zooids

of each are, at the time of detachment, undistinguishable from

one another. A strictly analogous fact would be the production

of flower-buds absolutely identical by two plants of different

genera.

In his account of Coryne eximia (‘Annals’ for August 1859),

Prof. Allman has remarked on the similarity of its gonozooid to

that of another species of the same genus—the Coryne Sarsi of

Lovén+. He was unable to indicate any character which could

be “justly considered as pointing to a specific distinction be-

tween the two Medusz,” though he admits that ‘a more exact

comparison with the living animal” might probably result in

the detection of differences not then apparent. Dr. Wright,

* The substance of this paper was communicated to the Natural-History

Section of the British Association, at the late Cambridge Meeting.

+ The Syncoryna decipiens. of Dujardin, :

460 Rey. T. Hincks on the Production of similar Gonozooids

who has had the opportunity of observing the reproductive

zooids of these two species, informs me that one of them has

thread-cells on the umbrella, and the other not. He believes

that they are present on that of C. evimia; and this opinion is

confirmed by Mr. G. Hodge’s drawing (PI. IX. fig. 1). It may

perhaps be doubtful whether the zooid of C. Sarsi is always

destitute of them. They seem to be represented in Sars’s figure

of this species (Fauna Litt. Norvegiz, tab. 1. figs. 3,4). But,

at any rate, if there be a difference between the gonozooids of

these two species, it is of the slightest kind.

In the case of Stauridia producta and Coryne eaimia the iden-

tity is complete ; and it is the more remarkable as the polypes

are generically distinct.

The gonophores of the Stawridia are produced at the base of

the lower capitate tentacles. I have not observed more than

two ona polype; and of these one was in a much more advanced

stage of development than the other. They are pyriform at first,

very slightly pedunculate, and of a pinkish colour. The con-

tained zooid gradually assumes a hemispherical form as develop-

ment proceeds ; the marginal portion of the disk is folded in,

and the knotted arms he in the interior. After a while, the

investing sac of the gonophore appears to be ruptured by the

frequent contractions of the umbrella, and by the same move-

ments the involved portion of the disk bearing the tentacles is

slowly forced out. In the case which came under my observa-

tion, half the margin, with two tentacles, was first pushed out ;

after a few more violent spasms, the other half followed; and

almost immediately the little crystal bell, with its rose-coloured

manubrium and four rose-coloured tubercles, from which as

many beaded arms were pendent, liberated itself and moved

gracefully through the water. (Pl. IX. fig. 2.) The umbrella

is studded with thread-cells, which show as bright points against

a dark ground. From the centre is suspended a rose-coloured

manubrium with a simple mouth. Four radiating vessels pass

from the base of it to the marginal canal, and are continuous

with as many tentacles. The latter originate in four rose-

coloured tubercles, on one side of which is placed a dark reddish-

brown ocellus*. The arms are very extensile, and are set, along

their entire length, with knot-like clusters of thread-cells, and

terminate in a large group which forms a spherical bulb at the

tip. I have counted about three dozen of these clusters on a

single arm. There are no marginal bodies except the tentacles.

A comparison of this description (which is taken from the

* Dujardin describes the ocellus of Coryne Sarsii as “ black;” Sars,

however, calls it “‘ braun-rothen.”’ The colour in the Stauridia is so deep

that it might readily be mistaken for black.

by Hydroid Polypes belonging to different Genera. 461

Ilfracombe specimen of the Stawridia-zooid) with Prof. Allman’s

account of the Medusoid of his Coryne eximia will at once show

the perfect identity of the two forms.

Mr. George Hodge has kindly permitted me to make use of a

beautiful drawing of the latter from his own pencil (Plate IX.

fig. 1), and I have placed beside it a sketch of the former by

myself (fig. 2). The diversity in shape is probably due to a

difference in age. The specimen from which my figure was

taken was in an immature state*.

The Sarsia turricula of Prof. M‘Crady’s paper on “the Gym-

nophthalmata of Charleston Harbour” (Proc. of Elliott Soc. of

Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 138, pl. 8. figs. 6-8) appears to be identical

with the form which I have just described. His account, how-

ever, of the Coryne from which he supposed it to proceed does

not enable me to determine the species with certainty.

Throughout this paper I have employed the term Gonozooid

to designate the free reproductive body, instead of the more

usual term Medusoid. The latter seems to me objectionable, as

tending to perpetuate a false conception of the nature of the

sexual zooid. It helps to keep up the idea of a distinct and

absolute individuality in the latter, and to conceal its real signifi-

cance, as the mere equivalent of the flower-bud in the plant.

In the life-series of the Hydroid, the polype is the alimentary

zooid, and the sexual element or term may be conveniently and

correctly designated the gonozooid.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX.

Fig. 1. Gonozooid of Coryne eximia, from a drawing by Mr. G. Hodge.

Fig. 2. Gonozooid of Stauridia producta.

Fig. 3. Laomedea fragilis, n. sp.; natural size and magnified.

Fig. 4. Atractylis margarica, n. sp., with its gonophore; 4 a, one of the

tentacular clusters of thread-cells; 2, a single thread-cell from

the above; 44, the lid of the gonophore; 4 c¢, one of the branched

processes ; 4d, an ovum; 4, a portion of the creeping stem, with

cells.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.

Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow, M.A. By the Rev.

LEonarD JeEnyns, M.A. London: Van Voorst, 1862. 12mo.

PERHAPS we are guilty of neglect in not having noticed the Life of

Henslow sooner. Our readers must take this statement as an apo-

logy, if one is necessary, the fact being that no review was required

to direct the attention of our readers to this work. All of them

knew the lamented Professor by reputation, many personally ; and

* There are other slight differences between the figures ; but a comparison

of the detailed descriptions of the two forms shows that those belong to the

drawings, and not to the objects themselves,

462. Bibliographical Notice.

none could do otherwise than highly appreciate his character and

lament his death.

Mr. Jenyns justly remarks that ‘‘ No man ever lived less to him-

selea wa Whatever acquirements he made in the various branches of

human knowledge (and the degree to which he was master of many

of them was very considerable), whatever he took in hand was done

with a view to the benefit of all within his reach. There was no

light hid under a bushel, there was no talent laid up in a napkin.”

Hence resulted his skill as a teacher, and his distinguished success

in reforming a wild and neglected parish, and promoting the moral

and religious character of all persons with whom he mixed.

In his own University he resided long enough to start the move-

ment which is still in progress for the advancement of the natural

sciences ; and he just lived to see them take their true position as a

means of attaining honourable distinction and academic degree.

Mr. Jenyns has entered in considerable detail upon the considera-

tion of these subjects, and the mode in which Henslow’s influence

was brought to bear upon them. He has said much, but not too

much, of the extent of that influence. He has shown how great it

must have been had the Professor been resident at Cambridge during

the later years of his life; and he causes those who take an interest

in the advancement of such scientific studies heavily to feel the loss

which the University has sustained. Had he continued an active

resident member of that body, it is probable that we should never

have heard of the strong opposition which has temporarily frustrated

the plan for obtaining museums and lecture-rooms for the Professors

of Science.

When he attained to the chair of Botany, it had been occupied by

an eminent man who, at least thirty years previously, made one

attempt to lecture on his science at Cambridge, and failing then to

obtain a class, gave up the endeavour, and absented himself from

the University until his death. Doubtless he had a tolerably good

excuse for doing so; for then he would find all, or nearly all, the

leaders of the University discouraging the study of the natural

sciences to the utmost of their power. They knew nothing of those

studies, and seemed to fancy not “‘omne ignotum pro magnifico,”

but exactly the reverse. The study of nature was trifling, if not

worse. In their estimation (and we are sorry to add, in the opinion

of many good and learned men now), it was of no use as a training

for the mind, and utterly worthless by the side of classics and

mathematics.

The possibility of using it to teach exactness in thought, accuracy

in observation, and correctness in language, was first shown to them

by Professor Henslow. It is true that they long continued to apply

the opprobrious name of “non-reading men” to the lovers of na-

tural science ; but by degrees the majority of such persons have at-

tained the knowledge that ‘‘non-reading men” (being naturalists) may

really be hard and diligent students. It is worthy of remark that

several of our most eminent naturalists and geologists of the present

day were, from their preference of the study of nature, considered,

Bibliographical Notice. 463

when students, as neglecting the opportunities afforded them at Cam-

bridge. We venture to say that there is not one of those men who

does not now look back to the time of his residence at Cambridge as

the period when, under the guidance of Henslow or Sedgwick, he

acquired or largely increased the habit of mind and power of observa-

tion which has rendered him what he is.

Henslow was the chief founder of the now well-known Cambridge

Philosophical Society, which originated from conversations with

Prof. Sedgwick during a geological tour in the Isle of Wight. Not

having at that time attained the degree of Master of Arts, he appeared

less prominently amongst the original members of the Society than

was due to his real connexion with its establishment.

Henslow commenced his study of nature with geology and minera-

logy; and in 1822 he became Professor of Mineralogy in succession

to the celebrated traveller, Dr. E.D. Clarke. He only held that chair

for a short time; for in 1825 the Professorship of Botany became

vacant, and he was elected to that office, which he retained until his

lamented death. He immediately commenced lecturing on botany,

and obtained a good class at once. He also took pains to become

acquainted with the students of nature, and opened his house to

them on one evening in each week. This had an excellent effect, by

making those men acquainted who had congenial pursuits, by help-

ing them in their difficulties, and creating emulation amongst them.

Henslow’s attention was soon turned to the improvement of the

Botanic Garden, which was small and surrounded by houses, and

utterly insufficient for the uses to which such institutions are turned

in the present day, although, when founded, it was excellently

suited to the wants of that time. He hoped to raise the garden to

‘a level with some other establishments of the same kind,” and

happily lived to see his wishes attained to a very considerable extent:

The garden was removed to the outskirts of the town, very much

extended, and an efficient curator appointed.

He also commenced the formation of a herbarium ; for very little

was left by the Martyns, and even that little in a deplorable state of

decay. He took active measures, and has left an immense and valu-

able accumulation of specimens in the possession of the University.

When the requisite accommodation is provided for them, and his

successor has been thus enabled to complete their arrangement,

Cambridge will possess an excellent herbarium.

Unfortunately for the University, although happily for himself and

most providentially for the parish, he was in 1837 appointed to the

valuable living of Hitcham in Suffolk, and permanently established

himself there in 1839. From that time the University became to

him necessarily the second object, his parish taking the first place.

Cambridge had the advantage of his presence for only about six

weeks in the year. How he converted a place notorious for crime,

immorality, and ignorance into a model parish must be sought in

in Mr. Jenyns’s book. It is a beautiful lesson to clergymen similarly

situated, and ought to be studied by all who are intended for the

ministry ; but it is a subject foreign to our Journal. Nevertheless

464 Zoological Society :—

we may notice one of the means employed for opening the minds of

the young: we mean the introduction of botany into the parish

school. The study was optional, but was ultimately pursued by a

considerable number of the elder children with very great suc-

cess: they took an eager delight in their botanical lessons; and

one of the Inspectors of Schools states, ‘‘ that the botanical lessons

did draw largely upon the intelligent powers of his little pupils’

minds there can be no question; and that these children, who out

of school were much more conversable than the generality of children

in rural parishes, owed a considerable share of the general develop-

ment of their minds to the botanical lessons and the self-exercise

connected with them.” ‘‘ Neither,” says another inspector, “had I

any reason to think that the botanical lessons interfered with a due

study of the usual subjects of a national school. Independently of

the botany, the Hitcham school ranked wed/ among the better class

of rural schools in the district.”

But we must stop. We have no intention to give an abstract of

this book, but to show that it is well deserving of perusal. As such

we strongly recommend it to all our readers.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

May 13, 1862.—John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair.

NARRATIVE OF SEARCH AFTER Birps or PARADISE.

By Aurrep R. Watuace, F.Z.S.

Having visited most of the islands inhabited by the Paradisee,

in the hope of obtaining good specimens of those extraordinary

birds, and some knowledge of their habits and distribution, I have

thought that an outline of my several voyages, with the causes that

have led to their only partial success, might not prove uninteresting.

At the close of the year 1856, being then at Macassar in the island

of Celebes, I was introduced to the master of a prau trading to the

Aru Islands, who assured me that two sorts of Birds of Paradise were

abundant there, the large yellow and the small red kinds—the Para-

disee apoda and regia of naturalists.

He seemed to think there was no doubt but I could obtain them

either by purchase from the natives or by shooting them myself.

Thus encouraged, I agreed with him for a passage there and back

(his stay being six months), and made all my preparations to start

by the middle of December.

Our vessel was a Malay prau of about 100 tons burthen, but dif-

fering widely from anything to be seen in European waters. The

deck sloped downwards towards the bows, the two rudders were hung

by rattans and ropes on the quarters, the masts were triangles stand-

ing on the decks, and the huge mat sail, considerably longer than the

vessel, with its yard of bamboos, rose upwards at a great angle, so as

to make up for the lowness of the mast. In this strange vessel,

Mr. A. R. Wallace’s Search after Birds of Paradise. 465

which, under very favourable circumstances, plunged along at nearly

five miles an hour, and with a Buginese crew, all of whom seemed

to have a voice in cases of difficulty or danger, we made the voyage

of about a thousand miles in perfect safety and very agreeably ; in fact,

of all the sea voyages I have made, this was one of the pleasantest.

On reaching the Bugis trading settlement of Dobbo, I found that

the small island on which it is situated does not contain any Para-

dise-Birds. Just as I was trying to arrange a trip to the larger

island, a fleet of Magindano pirates made their appearance, commit-

ting great devastations, and putting the whole place in an uproar ;

and it was only after they had been some time gone that confidence

began to be restored, and the natives could be persuaded to take the

smallest voyage. This delayed me two months in Dobbo without

seeing a Paradise-Bird.

When, however, I at length reached the main island and ascended

a small stream to a native village, I soon obtained a specimen of the

lovely P. regia, which, when first brought me, excited greater ad-

miration and delight than I have experienced on any similar occasion.

The larger species was still not to be seen; and the natives assured

me that it would be some months before their plumage arrived at

perfection, when they were accustomed to congregate together and

could be more easily obtained. This proved to be correct ; for it was

about four months after my arrival at Dobbo that I obtained my first

full-plumaged specimen of P. apoda. This was near the centre of

the large island of Aru; and I there, with the assistance of the

natives, procured the fine.series which first arrived in England.

While at Dobbo I had frequent conversations with the Bugis tra-

ders and with the Rajah of Goram, who all assured me that in the

northern parts of New Guinea I could travel with safety, and that at

Mysol, Waigiou, Salwatty, and Dorey I could get all the different

sorts of Paradisee. Their accounts excited me so much that I

could think of nothing else ; and after another excursion in Celebes

I made my way to Ternate, as the best head-quarters for the Mo-

luccas and New Guinea. Finding a schooner about to sail on its

annual trading voyage to the north coast of New Guinea, I agreed for

a passage to Dorey, and to be called for on the return of the vessel

after an interval of three or four months. We arrived there, after a

tedious voyage, in April 1858, and I began my second search after

the Birds of Paradise.

I went to Dorey in full confidence of success, and thought myself

extremely fortunate in being able to visit that particular locality ; for

it was there that Lesson, in the French discovery-ship ‘ Coquille,’

purchased from the natives skins of at least eight species, viz. Para-

disee papuana, regia, maynifica, superba, sexsetacea, Astrapia

nigra, Epimachus magnus, and Sericulus aureus. Here was a pro-

spect for me! The very anticipation of it made me thrill with ex-

pectation.

My disappointment therefore may be imagined when, shortly after

my arrival, I found all these bright hopes fade away. In vain I in-

quired for the native bird-hunters ; none were to be found there ; and

Ann, & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. x.

4.66 Zoological Society :—

the inhabitants assured me that not a single Bird of Paradise of any

kind was ever prepared by the Dorey people, and that only the com-

mon yellow one (P. papuana) was found in the district. This turned

out to be the case; for I could get nothing but P. papuana sparingly, a

few females of P. regia, and one young male of Seleucides alba, a spe-

cies Lesson does not mention. Nevertheless Lesson did undoubtedly

obtain all the birds he mentions at Dorey ; but the natives are great

traders in a petty way, and are constantly making voyages along the

coast and to the neighbouring islands, where they purchase Birds of

Paradise and sell them again to the Bugis praus, Molucca traders,

and whale-ships which annually visit Dorey harbour. Lesson must

have been there at a good time, when there happened to be an accu-

mulation of birds; I at a bad one, for I could not buy a single rare

bird all the time I was there. I also suffered much by the visit of

a Dutch surveying-steamer, which, for want of coals, lay in Dorey

harbour a month; and during that time I got nothing from the

natives, every specimen being taken on board the steamer, where the

commonest birds and insects were bought at high prices. During

this time two skins of Astrapia nigra were brought by a Bugis

trader and sold to an amateur ornithologist on board; and I never

lad another chance of getting a skin of this rare and beautiful bird.

The Dorey people all agreed that Amberbaki, about 100 miles

west, was the place for Birds of Paradise, and that almost all the

different sorts were to be found there. Determined to make an effort

to secure them, I sent my two best men with ten natives and a large

stock of goods to stay there a fortnight, with instructions to shoot

and buy all they could. They returned, however, with absolutely

nothing. They could not buy any skins but those of the common

P. papuana, and could not find any birds but a single specimen of

P. regia. They were assured that the birds all came from two or

three days’ journey in the interior, over several ridges of mountains,

and were never seen near the coast. The coast people never go there

themselves, nor do the mountaineers who kill and preserve them ever

come to the coast, but sell them to the inhabitants of intermediate

villages, where the coast people go to buy them. These sell them to

the Dorey people or any other native traders; so that the specimens

Lesson purchased had already passed through three or four hands,

These disappointments, with a scarcity of food sometimes ap-

proaching starvation, and almost constant sickness both of myself

and men, one of whom died of dysentery, made me heartily glad when

the schooner returned and took me away from Dorey. I had gone

there with the most brilliant hopes, which I think were fully justi-

fied by the facts known before my visit ; and yet, as far as my special

object (the Birds of Paradise) was concerned, I had accomplished

next to nothing.

My ardour for New Guinea voyages being now somewhat abated,

for the next year and a half I occupied myself in the Moluccas; but

in January 1860, being joined (when at Amboyna) by my assistant

Mr. Allen, I arranged a plan for the further exploration of the

country of the Paradisee, by sending Mr. Allen to Mysol, while I

Mr. A. R. Wallace’s Search after Birds of Paradise. 467

myself, after making the circuit of the island of Ceram, was to visit

him with stores and provisions and proceed to Waigiou, both return-

ing independently to meet at Ternate in the autumn.

I had been assured by the Goram and Bugis traders that Mysol

was the very best country for the Birds of Paradise, and that they

were finer and more abundant there than anywhere else. For Wai-

giou I had, besides the authority of the native traders, that of Les-

son also, who visited the north coast for a few days, and mentions

seven species of Paradise-Birds purchased there by him.

These two promising expeditions turned out unfortunately in every

respect. On reaching Goram, after much difficulty and delay, I

found it impossible to make the voyage I had projected without a

vessel of my own. I therefore purchased a smal] native prau of about

8 tons, and after spending a month in strengthening and fitting it

up, and having with great difficulty secured a native crew, paid them

half their wages in advance, and overcome all the difficulties and ob-

jections which every one of them made to starting when all was ready,

we at length got away, and I congratulated myself on my favourable

prospects. Touching at Ceramlaut, the rendezvous of the New

Guinea traders, I invested all my spare cash in goods for barter with

the natives, and then proceeded towards Mysol.

The very next day, however, being obliged to anchor on the east

coast of Ceram on account of bad weather, my crew all ran away

during the night, leaving myself and my two Amboyna hunters to

get on as we could. With great difficulty I procured other men to

take us as far as Wahai,-on the north coast of Ceram, opposite to

Mysol, and there by a great chance succeeded in picking up a make-

shift crew of four men willing to go with me to Mysol, Waigiou, and

Ternate. I here found a letter from Mr. Allen, telling me he was

much in want of rice and other necessaries, and was waitmg my

arrival to go to the north coast of Mysol, where alone the Paradi-

see could be obtained.

On attempting to cross the strait, seventy miles wide, between

Ceram and Mysol, a strong east wind blew us out of our course; so

that we passed to the westward of that island without any possibility

of getting back to it. Mr. Allen, finding it impossible to live with-

out rice, had to return to Wahai, much against his will, and there

was kept two months waiting a supply from Amboyna. When at

length he was able to return to Mysol, he had only a fortnight at

the best place on the north coast, when the last boat of the season

left, and he was obliged to take his only chance of getting back to

Ternate.

Through this unfortunate series of accidents he was only able to

get a single specimen of P. papuana, which is finer there than in most

other places, a few of the Cictnnurus regius, and of P. magnifica only

a native skin, though this beautiful little species is not rare in the

island, and during a longer stay might easily have been obtained.

My own voyage was beset with misfortunes. After passing Mysol,

_ I lost two of my scanty crew on a little desert island, our anchor

breaking while they were on shore, and a powerful current carrying

468 . Zoological Society :—

us rapidly away. One of them was our pilot ; and, without a chart or

any knowledge of the coasts, we had to blunder our way short-handed

among the rocks and reefs and innumerable islands which surround

the rocky coasts of Waigiou. Our little vessel was five times on the

rocks in the space of twenty-four hours, and a little more wind or

sea would in several cases have caused our destruction. On at length

reaching our resting-place on the south coast of Waigiou, I imme-

diately sent a native boat after my lost sailors, which, however, re-

turned in a week without them, owing to bad weather. Again they

were induced to make the attempt, and this time returned with them

in a very weak and emaciated condition, as they had lived a month

on a mere sand-bank, about a mile in diameter, subsisting on shell-

fish and the succulent shoots of a wild Bromelia. .

I now devoted myself to an investigation of the natural history of

Waigiou, having great expectations raised by Lesson’s account, who

says that he purchased the three true Paradisee, as well as P. magni-

fica and P. sexsetacea, with Lpimachus magnus and Sericulus aureus,

in the island, and also mentions several rare Psittaci as probably

found there. I soon ascertained, however, fromthe universal testi-

mony of the inhabitants, afterwards confirmed by my own observa-

tion, that none of these species exist on the island, except P. rubra,

which is the sole representative of the Paradiseide and Epimachide,

and is strictly limited to this one spot.

With more than the usual amount of difficulties, privations, and

hunger, I succeeded in obtaining a good series of this beautiful and

extraordinary bird ; and three months’ assiduous collecting produced

no other species at all worthy of attention. The parrots and pigeons

were all of known species ; and there was really nothing in the island

to render it worth visiting by a naturalist, except the P. rubra, which

can be obtained nowhere else.

Our two expeditions to two almost unknown Papuan islands have

thus added but one species to the Paradisee I had before obtained

from Aru and Dorey. ‘These voyages occupied us nearly a year ; for

we parted company in Amboyna in February, and met again at Ter-

nate in November, and it was not till the following January that we

were either of us able to start again on a fresh voyage.

At Waigiou I learned that the Birds of Paradise all came from three

places on the north coast, between Salwatty and Dorey—Sorong,

Maas, and Amberbaki. The latter I had tried unsuccessfully from

Dorey ; at Maas, the natives who procured the birds were said to

live three days’ journey in the interior, and to be cannibals ; but at

Sorong, which was near Salwatty, they were only about a day from

the coast, and were less dangerous to visit. At Mysol, Mr. Allen

had received somewhat similar information ; and we therefore resolved

he should make another attempt at Sorong, where we were assured

all the sorts could be obtained. The whole of that country being

under the jurisdiction of the Sultan of Tidore, I obtained, through

the Dutch resident at Ternate, a Tidore lieutenant and two soldiers

to accompany Mr. Allen as a protection, and to facilitate his opera-

tions in getting men and visiting the interior.

Mr, A. R, Wallace’s Search after Birds of Paradise. 469

Notwithstanding these precautions, Mr. Allen met with difficulties

in this voyage which we had not encountered before. To understand

these, it is necessary to consider that the Birds of Paradise are an

article of commerce, and are the monopoly of the chiefs of the coast

villages, who obtain them at a low rate from the mountaineers, and

sell them to the Bugis traders. A portion is also paid every year as

tribute to the Sultan of Tidore. The natives are therefore very jea-

lous of a stranger, especially a European, interfering in their trade,

and above all of going into the interior to deal with the mountaineers

themselves. They of course think he will raise the prices in the in-

terior, and lessen the demand on the coast, greatly to their disadvan-

tage; they also think their tribute will be raised if a European takes

back a quantity of the rare sorts; and they have besides a vague and

very natural dread of some ulterior object in a white man’s coming

at so much trouble and expense to their country only to get Birds of

Paradise, of which they know he can buy plenty at Ternate, Macas-

sar, or Singapore.

It thus happened that when Mr. Allen arrived at Sorong and ex-

plained his intentions of going to seek Birds of Paradise in the

interior, innumerable objections were raised. He was told it was

three or four days’ journey over swamps and mountains; that the

mountaineers were savages and cannibals, who would certainly kill

him ; and, lastly, that not a man in the village could be found who

dare go with him. After some days spent in these discussions, as

he still persisted in making the attempt, and showed them his au-

thority from the Sultan of Tidore to go where he pleased and receive

every assistance, they at Iength provided him with a boat to go the

first part of the journey up a river; at the same time, however, they

sent private orders to the interior villages to refuse to sell any pro-

visions, so as to compel him to return. On arriving at the village

where they were to leave the river and strike inland, the coast people

returned, leaving Mr. Allen to get on as he could. Here he called

on the Tidore heutenant to assist him and procure men as guides

and to carry his baggage to the villages of the mountaineers. This,

however, was not so easily done; a quarrel took place, and the na-

tives, refusing to obey the somewhat harsh orders of the lieutenant,

got out their knives and spears to attack him and his soldiers, and

Mr. Allen himself was obliged to interfere to protect those who had

come to guard him. The respect due to a white man and the timely

distribution of a few presents prevailed ; and on showing the knives,

hatchets, and beads he was willing to give to those who accompanied

him, peace was restored, and the next day, travelling over a fright-

fully rugged country, they reached the villages of the mountaineers.

Here Mr. Allen remained a month, without any interpreter through

whom he could understand a word or communicate a want. How-

ever, by signs and presents and a pretty liberal barter he got on

very well, some of them accompanying him every day in the forest

to shoot, and receiving a small present when he was successful.

In the grand matter of the Paradise-Birds, however, little was

done. Only one additional species was found, the Selewcedes alba,

470 Zoological Society :—

of which he had already obtained a specimen on the island of Sal-

watty on his way to Sorong; so that at this much-vaunted place in

the mountains, and among the bird-catching natives, nothing fresh

was obtained. The P. magnifica, they said, was found there, but was

rare; the Sericulus aureus also rare; Epimachus magnus, Astrapia

nigra, Parotia sexsetacea, and Lophorina superba not found there,

but only much further in the interior, as well as the lovely little

Lory, Charmosyna papuana. Moreover, neither at Sorong nor at

Salwatty could he obtain a single native skin of the rarer species.

Thus ended my search after these beautiful birds. Five voyages

to different parts of the district they inhabit, each occupying in its

preparation and execution the larger part of a year, have produced

me only five species out of the thirteen known to exist in New Guinea.

The kinds obtained are those that inhabit the districts near the coasts

of New Guinea and its islands, the remainder seeming to be strictly

confined to the central mountain-ranges of the northern peninsula ;

and our researches at Dorey and Amberbaki, near one end of this

peninsula, and at Salwatty and Sorong, near the other, enable me

to decide with some certainty on the native country of these rare

and lovely birds, good specimens of which have never yet been seen

in Europe. It must be considered as somewhat extraordinary that

during five years’ residence and travel in Celebes, the Moluccas, and

New Guinea I should never have been able to purchase skins of half

the species which Lesson, forty years ago, obtained during a few

weeks in the same countries. I believe that all, except the common

species of commerce, are now much more difficult to obtain than

they were even twenty years ago; and I impute it principally to

their having been sought after by the Dutch officials through the

Sultan of Tidore. The chiefs of the annual expeditions to collect

tribute, have had orders to get all the rare sorts of Paradise-

Birds; and as they pay little or nothing for them (it being suffi-

cient to say they are for the Sultan), the head men of the coast

villages would for the future refuse to purchase them from the

mountaineers, and confine themselves instead to the commoner spe-

cies, which are less sought after by amateurs, but are to them a

profitable merchandise. The same causes frequently lead the inha-

bitants of uncivilized countries to conceal any minerals or other na-

tural products with which they may become acquainted, from the

fear of being obliged to pay increased tribute, or of bringing upon

themselves a new and oppressive labour.

I have given this short sketch of my search after the Birds of

Paradise, barely touching on the many difficulties and dangers I

experienced, because I fear that the somewhat scanty results of my

exertions may have led to the opinion that they failed for want of

judgment or perseverance. I trust, however, that the mere enume-

ration of my voyages will show that patience and perseverance were

not altogether wanting; but I must plead guilty to having been

misled, first by Lesson and then by all the native traders, it never

having occurred to me (and I think it would notjhave occurred to any

one), that in scarcely a single instance would the birds be found to

Mr. A. R. Wallace’s Search after Birds of Paradise. 471

inhabit the districts in which they are most frequently to be pur-

chased. Yet such is the case; for neither at Dorey, nor at Salwatty,

nor Waigiou, nor Mysol are any of the rarer species to be found

alive. Not only this, but even at Sorong, where the Waigiou chiefs

go every year and purchase all kinds of Birds of Paradise, it has

turned out that most of the specimens are brought from the central

mountain-ranges by the natives of those places, and reach the shore

in places where it is not safe for trading praus to go, owing to the

want of anchorage on an exposed rocky coast.

Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her

choicest treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained.

First we find an open, harbourless, inhospitable coast, exposed to the

full swell of the Pacific Ocean; next, a rugged and mountainous

country, covered with dense forests, offering in its swamps and pre-

cipices and serrated ridges an almost impassable barrier to the cen-

tral regions; and lastly, a race of the most savage and ruthless

character, in the very lowest stage of civilization. In such a country

and among such a people are found these wonderful productions of

nature. In those trackless wilds do they display that exquisite

beauty and that marvellous development of plumage, calculated to

excite admiration and astonishment among the most civilized and

most intellectual races of man. A feather is itself a wonderful and

a beautiful thing. A bird clothed with feathers is almost necessarily

a beautiful creature. How much, then, must we wonder at and

admire the modification of simple feathers into the rigid, polished,

wavy ribbons which adorn P. rubra, the mass of airy plumes on

P. apoda, the tufts and wires of Seleucides alba, or the golden buds

borne upon airy stems that spring from the tail of Cicinnurus regius ;

while gems and polished metals can alone compare with the tints

that adorn the breast of Parotia sexsetacea and Astrapia nigra, and

the immensely developed shoulder-plumes of Epimachus magnus.

I will now point out the distribution of the species of Birds of

Paradise, as far as I have been able to ascertain it. The Aru Islands

contain P. apoda and P. regia; and we have no positive knowledge

of P. apoda being found anywhere else. Mysol has P. papuana, P.

regia, and P. magnifica; Waigiou P. rubra only. Salwatty, though

so close to New Guinea, has no restricted Paradisee, but possesses

P. regia, P. magnifica, Ep. albus, and Sericulus aureus. The island

of Jobie, and the Mysory Islands beyond it, certainly contain true

Paradisee ; but what species beyond P. papuana, is unknown. The

coast districts of the northern part of New Guinea contain P. papuana

and P. regia pretty generally distributed, while P. magnifica, P. alba,

and Sericulus aureus are scarce and local. Lastly, the central moun-

tains of the northern peninsula are alone inhabited by Lophorina

superba, Parotia sexsetacea, Astrapia nigra, Epimachus magnus,

and Craspedophora magnifica; and here also probably exist the

unique Diphyllodes Wilsoni and Paradigalla carunculata.

The most widely distributed of the Paradisee is therefore the

little P. regia, which is found in every island except Waigiou. Next,

and probably most abundant in individuals, comes the P. papuana,

472 Miscellaneous.

wanting only in Aru, Salwatty, and Waigiou. The next most widely

spread species is P. magnifica, occurring in two islands (Salwatty and

Mysol) as well as on the mainland. ‘The other species are all found

on the mainland only—with the exception of P. apoda (probably re-

stricted to Aru), and P. rubra, which, being certainly confined to the

small island of Waigiou, offers the most restricted range of the whole

family.

It is interesting to remark that all the islands on which true Pa-

radisee are found are connected by banks of soundings to the main-

land of New Guinea. The hundred-fathom line includes the islands

of Aru, Mysol, Waigiou, and Jobie, which have probably been, at no

distant geological period, connected with New Guinea; while Ké,

Ceram, &c., are separated from it by deep sea, and on them no Pa-

radisee exist.

The island of Gilolo, on which the genus Semioptera occurs, ex-

tends towards Waigiou, and has the island of Guebe exactly between

the two, suggesting the probability of a connexion there; but the

depth of the intervening sea is unknown.

It may be considered as certain that every species of Paradise-Bird

yet obtained from the natives has come from the north peninsula of

New Guinea, that being the part most frequented by the Malay

traders. The vast extent of country east of long. 136° is quite un-

known ; but there can be little doubt that it contains other and

perhaps yet more wonderful forms of this beautiful group of birds.

If we look round the whole circumference of the globe, we shall be

unable to find a region at once so promising to the naturalist and so

absolutely a ‘‘ terra incognita”’ as this great tropical land ; and it is to

be hoped that our explorers and naturalists may soon be induced to

direct their attention to this hitherto neglected country.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Remarks in reference to the Gracula pectoralis of Mr. Wallace.

By G. R. Gray.

Mr. Watuace has lately described an interesting bird under the

appellation of Gracula pectoralis, which bird had been previously

recorded by Lesson, under the name of Sericulus anais, from a spe-

cimen in M. Bourcier’s collection. Lesson gives a correct description

(Revue de Zool. 1839, p. 44) of the bird, so far as a mutilated New-

Guinean skin would permit.

The late Prince C. L. Bonaparte, in 1850, refers to Lesson’s spe-

cies in his ‘ Conspectus Avium,’ but in his very short notice of it he

unfortunately uses the word abdomine when it ought to have been

pectore, and thus this misapplication of a word has caused a difficulty

in defining the bird. This mistake he also continued in the ‘Comptes

Rendus,’ 1853, page 831, though he there gave a new and more

lengthened description. At the same time he proposed it as the type

of a new division, under the name of Melanopyrrhus.

Miscellaneous. 473

In 1850, Mr. Cassin unknowingly described this bird under the

new name of Pastor nigrocinctus (Proc. Acad. Philad. 1850, p. 68).

The description, he informs us, was taken from two specimens—one

in the Albany Museum, U.S., and the other in the Philadelphian

Academy. ‘The fact of the similarity of this species with that of

Lesson was first pointed out by Dr. Sclater (Proc. Zool. Soe. 1857,

p- 6). It is one of the birds which I had, in my ‘ List of Genera,’

published in 1855, ‘‘so quietly recapitulated,”’ as the learned Editor

of ‘The Ibis’ (1862, p. 291) is pleased to remark, “with the dry

interrogatory, ‘ Nonne avis arte facta?’ ”’ I was induced to affix this

observation from the appearance presented in my drawing, which

was taken from M. Bourcier’s typical specimen. It is now proved,

in part at least, that I was not altogether wrong in supposing that

the art of the taxidermist had been employed in endeavouring to

replace by artificial means what the New-Guinean natives had de-

prived the three previously known specimens of,—for example, their

wings and legs. The false restoration of these organs was the cause

of a wrong position being assigned to the bird in regard to the family

it occupied in the system of ornithology. Mr. Wallace’s perfect

specimens prove that the true wings and legs are very similar to

those of the genus Gracula, both in form and colour ; and it appears

to be intermediate between the genera Gracula and Basilornis, being

allied to the latter in its more slender-formed bill.

The name and synonyma of this fine and singularly coloured bird

will now stand as follows :—

Gracula (Melanopyrrhus) Anais.

Sericulus Anais, Less., Rev. de Zool. 1839, p.44; Pr. Bon., Consp. Av.

i. p. 349.

Melanopyrrhus Anais, Pr. Bon., Compt. Rend. 1853, p.831; G. R. Gray,

List of Gen. 1855, p. 46.

Pastor nigrocinctus, Cass., Proc. Acad. Philad. 1850, p. 68.

?Oriolus Anais, G. R. Gray, Gen. of B. App. p. 11; id. Cat. of Birds of N.

Guin. p. 26.

Gracula pectoralis, Wall., Proc. Z. S. 1862, p. 166. pl. 20.

Hab. New Guinea (Wall.).

The Gorilla. By Tuomas J. Moore.

A statement, resting upon no reliable authority, lately appeared in

the Liverpool newspapers, announcing the arrival and exhibition in

this port of a young living specimen of a Gorilla.

This announcement, having been copied into the ‘Times,’ and

continuing to be copied into various other papers, being absolutely

untrue, it becomes necessary to give it an unqualified contradiction.

The so-called Gorilla is simply a Chimpanzee, standing somewhat

over two feet in height, and having the large ears, flesh-coloured

muzzle, with white hairs on the chin, and the deeply cleft fingers so

characteristic of the species.

It is a robust, lively, and amusing creature, imitating its keeper

474 Miscellaneous.

in various ways, as in trying to unlock a cupboard and to tack pieces

of list over cracks in the door. But how any one who has once seen

either a Chimpanzee or a Gorilla could mistake it for the young of

the latter passes comprehension.

Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, who have both seen

the animal (the latter coming expressly from Wrexham, on the faith

of the above public announcements, to do so), will confirm my

statements, if they have not already published protests of their

own.

One specimen of the Gorilla has certainly been imported into

Liverpool alive. This occurred in the winter of 1855-56.

This individual, called “‘ Jenny,” was slightly larger, I believe, than

the preceding, and was purchased by Mrs. Wombwell, in whose

menagerie it lived some short time, and in which, on its subsequent

arrival in Liverpool, I first saw it. A short notice of this animal was

written by Mr. Waterton, and subsequently published in some local

paper. It was active in its habits, and so far from being savage or

ferocious, it lived with its mistress in her own special travelling

carriage, about which it jumped and climbed freely.

Upon its death in March 1856, it was forwarded to Mr. Waterton,

in whose museum at Walton Hall the preserved skin may still be

seen. The skeleton is in the museum of the Philosophical and

Literary Society of Leeds, whither it was forwarded direct from

Walton Hall.

A young specimen, which died at the Gaboon, in the spring of

this year, in the possession of Mr. R. B. Walker, may be seen, stuffed,

in the museum of the Natural History Society of Manchester. This

is smaller than the preceding, being, as nearly as I can remember,

about the size of the young stuffed example in the British

Museum.

The recent acquisition of the skin of an adult Gorilla, in first-rate

condition, tempts me to make public the way in which it was pre-

served. It was very carefully skinned, down even to the very tips of

the fingers and toes, and the skin preserved in spirit*, The carcase

was exposed to insects for a short time, and then packed in a suitable

box. By these means both skin and skeleton arrived in excellent

condition, and indicate the most reliable methods of preserving future

specimens for importation. They were secured for this Museum

through the liberality of Mr. Henry Duckworth, F.G.S., of this

town.

Before concluding, I may note that an enormous skeleton of a

male Gorilla, presented to this Museum by Mr. R. B. Walker, mea-

sures 16% inches in the length of the femur.

Free Public and Derby Museum,

Liverpool, Nov. 24, 1862.

* Instructions recommending this method of transmitting the skin of

the Gorilla were sent to the Gaboon by Dr. J. E. Gray, of the British

Museum, in 1861,—Ebs.

Miscellaneous. 475

Note on the Otothrix Hodgsoni.

By G. R. Gray.

In a late Number of ‘The Ibis,’ Mr. Blyth refers to my Otothrix

Hodgsoni (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 101. pl. 152), and makes it ab-

solutely identical with Podargus cornutus. He goes so far as to say

that the former is the young of the latter species. If he had, how-

ever, actually compared them together, he could never have made

such an erroneous identification. In his Catalogue of Birds, Mr.

Blyth doubtfully considers the Podargus cornutus as the adult of

P. javanensis, while in another work (Journ. A. 8. B. 1847,

p- 1180) he tells us that the P. javanensis is the young dress of

P. auritus (!).

Mr. Blyth has, however, referred to two examples as B & C,

under the head of Podargus affinis, in his Catalogue, p. 81, in these

words: ‘* Head, wings, and tail of two specimens of a nearly allied

but distinct species. From Darjiling.’’ This locality is identical

with that from which the Ofothrix Hodgsoni is brought, and I be-

lieve therefore that these fragments belong to my species ; so that in

these he could see distinctive characters, although he now ventures

to judge from the figure only, and pronounces my Hodgsoni to be no

other than cornutus, young.

The specimen of Otothrix Hodgsoni from which the description

and figure were derived is that of an adulé female, taken from the

nest with its young ; and it has, among other differences, a smaller

bill than that of P. cornutus, its general coloration, the extreme

length of the whiskers, &c.-

Note on Pleuronectes sinensis, Lacép.

By Dr. A. GUNTHER.

The generic name of Tephritis has been given by me to the Chinese

Turbot, or Pleuronectes sinensis, Lacép. (Catal. Fish. iv. p. 406).

Having since found it preoccupied by a genus of insects, I propose

to replace it by that of Tephrinectes.

Note on the Size of a Seal at the time of Birth.

By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.

We have received from the Zoological Gardens the body of a

Ringed Seal (Callocephalus fetidus), that had died soon after its

birth. It was entirely covered with closely set, well-developed fur

of a silver-grey colour, being rather browner on the upper surface.

It is 2 feet 8 inches long, from the tip of the nose to the end of tail ;

the fore paws are 6, and the hinder 8 inches long, and the latter are

7 inches wide when expanded. The webs of the feet are covered

with hair, and the claws are well developed and black. The whiskers

are white, well developed, and slightly waved.—Proc. Zool. Soc.

June 10, 1862.

476

INDEX to VOL. X.

Apvams, A., on the animal and affi-

nities of the genus Alaba, with de-

scriptions of new species, 293; on

new species of Scissurellide, 346 ;

on the animal and float of Ianthina,

417; on the animal and affinities of

Scaliola, 420,

Alaba, on the animal and affinities of

the genus, 293.

Alder, J., on anew genus and some

new species of naked Mollusca,

261.

Alepisaurus ferox, notes on, 317.

Alepocephalus rostratus, notes on,

285.

Alligators, synopsis of the species of,

327.

Anatomus, new species of, 347.

Andrenide, on the form of the pec-

ten in, 152.

Aphantochroa, new species of, 316.

Apide, on the form of the pecten in,

152.

Aquila Desmursii, remarks on, 390.

Ascaris, new species of, 314.

Astianthus, characters of the genus,

31.

Astylozoon, characters of the new ge-

nus, 260

Australica, new species of, 24.

Baird, Dr. W., on some new species of

entomostracous Crustacea, 1; on

new species of Entozoa, 314; on

new species of Estheria and Lim-

netis, 391.

Baly, J.S., on new species of Phyto-

phagous Beetles, 17.

Bate, C.S., on the supposed disco-

very of a minute vertebrate jaw in

mud dredged at St. Helena, 440.

Batissa, on a species of, 415.

Baur, A., on Synapta digitata and its

supposed parasite, 216.

Bellonella, description of the new ge-

nus, 148.

Beneden, P. J. van, on the transform-

ation of Entozoa, 157.

Bennett, Dr. G., on the habits of

Rhinochetus jubatus, 308.

Benson, W. H., on Indian and Bur-

mese species of Unio, 184; on a

singular shell from Southern India

allied to Tanalia, with remarks ona

Travancore Batissa and on the

Himalayan form Tricula, 414.

Berberis, on the nature of the thorns

ris, GV/B4

Bignoniacez, revision of the order,

Birds of Paradise, narrative of search

after, 464.

Blackwall, J., on newly discovered

Spiders from Rio Janeiro, 348,

42].

Bombifrons, characters of the genus,

269.

Books, new: — Babington’s British

Botany, 50; Gwyn Jeffreys’s Brit-

ish Conchology, 53; Hooker’s

British Ferns, 140; Sclater’s Cata-

logue of American Birds, 143;

Stainton’s Tineina, 305; Krodyer’s

Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift, 370;

Wallich’s North-Atlantie Sea-bed,

380; Darwin’s Fertilization of the

Orchids, 384 ; Jenyns’s Memoir of

Henslow, 461.

Bothriocephalus, new species of, 315,

Bowerbank, Dr.J.S., on the anatomy

oe physiology of the Spongiadze,

44,

Brauer, F., on the larva of Hypo-

derma, 397.

Ceenopsis, characters of the genus, 334.

Caiman, monograph of the species of,

330.

Cambridge geology, notes on, 97.

Campsidium, characters of the genus,

32.

Candona, new species of, 2.

Capricornus, new species of, 320.

Centrolabrus trutta, notes on, 161.

Cephalophus, new species of, 400.

Cervus, on a new species of, 394.

Charz, onthe pro-embryos of the, 321.

Charrs, on the British, 228.

Charybdeide, on’ the systematic po-

sition of the, 6.

INDEX.

Chasmatostoma, characters of the

new genus, 257.

Chlorospingus, new species of, 310.

Chrysomela, new species of, 20.

Clark, Rev. H., on new species of

Hydroporus, 173, 326.

Clarke, Rev. W. B., on the age of the

New South Wales coal-fields, 81.

Clubiona, new species of, 426.

Coal-fields of New South Wales, on

the age of the, 81.

Coccinella, new species of, 337.

Colasposoma, new species of, 19.

Coleoptera, additions to Madeiran,

287, 331.

Cork, on the natural and artificial pro-

duction of, in the Cork-oak, 400.

Cosmetornis, new species of, 445.

Cossypha, new species of, 443.

Craniz, on the recent, 126.

Crimora, description of the new genus,

Crocodiles, synopsis of the species of,

Cyclemys, on a new species of, 157.

Cynopterus, new species of, 397.

Cyphagogus, description of the new

genus, 299.

Cypris, new species of, 3.

Cythere, new fossil species of, 203.

Daniell, Dr. W. F., on some Chinese

condiments obtained from the Xan-

thoxylacez, 195.

DeCandolle, C., on the natural and ar-

tificial production of cork, 400.

Delphinus, new species of, 388.

Diala, new species of, 298.

Didrichsen, M., on the nature of the

thorns in Berberis, Ribes, and Par-

kinsonia, 373.

Doris, new British species of, 261.

Doto, new British species of, 264.

Drassus, new species of, 425.

Drepanostoma, characters of the new

genus, 209.

Dysdera, new British species of, 240.

Elditt, M., on the early stages of

Microdon mutabilis, 79.

Empidochanes, new species of, 312.

Emys lutaria, on the discovery of an-

cient remains of, in Norfolk, 224.

Engelmann, T. W., on the Infusoria,

241,

Entomostraca, descriptions of new, 1.

Entoniscus Porcellanz, description of,

Ole

477

Entozoa, on the migrations of, 77,

157; new species of, 314,

Epeira, new species of, 430.

Ephedra, observations on, 133.

Eripus, new species of, 422.

Estheria, new species of, 391.

Euplectes, new species of, 444,

Kuryope, new species of, 19.

Eutriptus, new species of, 292.

Fishes, on rare or little-known Ma-

deiran, 161,274; death of, m the

sea during the monsoon, 320.

Flower, W. H., on the brain of the

Javan Loris, 150. “

Fregilus, new species of, 316.

Furina textilis, note on, 393.

Garreau, M. L., on the functions of the

nitrogenous matter of plants,33,111.

Gastrostyla, characters of the new

genus, 209,

Gastrus Equi, on the anatomy of the

larva of, 372.

Gonioctena, new species of, 27.

Gonostoma denudata, notes on, 279.

Gorilla, on the habits of the, 473.

Gould, J., on new species of Hum-

ming-birds, 315.

Gracula pectoralis, remarks on, 472.

Gray, G. R., on some West African

Birds, 443; on the Gracula pecto-

ralis, 472 ; on the Otothrix Hodg-

soni, 475.

Gray, Dr. J. E., on new species of

Spoggodes and a new allied genus,

69; on claviform Pennatulide, 73;

on a new species of Paragorgia,

125; on two new genera of Zoo-

phytes, 147; on a new species of

Cyclemys, 157 ; on the species of

Crocodiles, 265 3 on a new Leopard

from Japan, 320 3 on a new Wild

Goat from the island of Formosa,

320; on the species of Alligators,

327 ; on a new species of Dolphin,

388 ; on a wingless bird, or Moho,

and a Raven found in Hawaii, 389 ;

on a new species of Cynopterus,

397; on the occurrence of the King-

crab on the English coast, 399; on

a new species of Bosh-Buck from

Natal, 400; on the size of a Seal

at the time of birth, 475.

Gunther, Dr. A.,on the British Charrs,

228; on a new Spider from Cochin

China, 299; onthe genus Trachinus,

301; on Pleuronectes sinensis, 475,

478

Su J. H., on Aquila Desmursii,

390.

Gyrodactylus elegans, on the occur-

rence of, in Shropshire, 77.

Halerosia, characters of the genus,

273.

Halictus, on the alar hooks of the

species of, 152.

Haloporphyrus lepidion, notes on, 166.

Hancock, A., on a new genus and

some new species of naked Mol-

lusea, 261.

Harpalini, observations on the, 375.

Hartlaub, Dr. G., on a new bird from

Madagascar, 396.

Heliothrix, new species of, 316.

Helix, new species of, 95.

Helix coronula, on the discovery of,

in a recent state, 935.

Helops, new species of, 338.

Hincks, Rev. T., on the Zoophytes of

South Devon and South Cornwall,

360; on the production of similar

_ gonozooids by Hydroid polypes be-

longing to different genera, 459.

Houghton, Rev. W., on the occurrence

of Gyrodactylus elegans in Shrop-

shire, 77; on the Unicorn of the

ancients, 363, 416.

Hydropori, new species of, 173, 326.

Hylophilus, new species of, 310.

Hypoderma, on the larve of, 397.

Tanthina, on the animal and float of,

417.

Tnfusoria, contributions to the natural

history of the, 241.

Jacare, characters of the genus, 328.

Jeffreys, J. G., on the animal of Zo-

nites excavatus, 76; on aspecies of

Limopsis now living in the British

seas, with remarks on the genus,

343.

Johnston, J. Y., on rare and little-

known Madeiran fishes, 161, 274;

on Alepisaurus ferox, 317.

Kirkby, J., on species common to Car-

boniferous and Permian strata, 202.

Krefft, G., on Furina textilis, 393.

Kroyer, Dr. H., on new species of

Mysidze and other Crustacea, 370.

Laparocerus, new species of, 332.

Lema, new species of, 17.

Leopard, on a new, from Japan, 320.

Leptopogon, new species of, 311.

Lernzeodiscus Porcellane, observa-

_ tions on, 44.

. INDEX.

Leucohimatium, new species of, 290.

Ligurnus, new species of, 444.

‘aE pees new British species of,

Limulus Polyphemus, on the oceur-

rence of, on the English coast, 399.

Limnetis, new species of, 393.

Limopsis, remarks on the genus, 343.

Lipaugus, new species of, 80.

Lituaria, observations on the genus,

Lixus, new species of, 331.

Longitarsus, new species of, 336.

Lowe, Rev. R. T., on the discovery of

the fossil Helix coronula recent,

and of other new land-Mollusca, 93,

Lycosa, new species of, 349.

Macrourus ccelorynehus and levis,

notes on, 169,

Mecistops, characters of the genus,

273. :

Mecocerculus, new species of, 313.

Megascolex czruleus, on the habits

of, 146.

Meinert, M., on the anatomy of the

Jarva of Gastrus Equi, 372.

Metophthalmus, new species of, 290.

Microdon mutabilis, on the early

stages of, 79.

Microthorax, characters of the new

genus, 258.

Miers, J., on Ephedra, 133,

Molinia, characters of the genus, 272.

Mollusca, on the aquiferous and ovi-

ducal system in the Jamellibran-

chiate, 446,

Moore, T. J., on the Gorilla, 473.

Morchellana, description of the new

genus, 69.

Mormolyce, on a new species of, 96.

Miiller, F'., on the systematic position

of the Charybdeide, 6; on the

Rhizocephala, 44 ; on a new para-

sitic Isopod Crustacean, 87.

Mygale, new British species of, 240.

Myiobius, new species of, 312.

Mysidez, contributions to the history

of the, 370.

Newton, A., on the discovery of an-

cient remains of Emys lutaria in

Norfolk, 224.

Nudibranchiata, new British, 261.

Ochtheeca, new species of, 313,

Oopholis, characters of the genus, 267.

Orbiculze, on the recent, 126,

Otothrix Hodgsoni, note on, 475.

INDEX.

Owen, Prof., on the Hyracotherian

character of the lower molars of the

supposed Macacus from the Eocene

sand of Suffolk, 240.

Paleozoic rocks, on the discovery of

microscopic organisms in the sili-

ceous nodules of the, 160.

Palinia, characters of the genus, 270.

ic Sekai on a second species of,

25,

Paralepis coregonoides, notes on, 283.

Parkinsonia, on the nature of the

thorns in, 373.

Pentastoma, new species of, 314.

Permian strata, on species common to

Carboniferous and, 205.

Peters, W., on a new genus of Tree-

frogs, 159.

Philydor, new species of, 311.

Phycis blennoides, notes on, 274.

eee Beetles, new species of,

Plagiodera, new species of, 25.

Plants, on the functions of the nitro-

genous matter of, 33, 111.

Plectromantis, description of the new

genus, 159.

Pleuronectes sinensis, note on, 475.

Polypes, Hydroid, onthe production

of similar gonozooids by different

genera of, 459.

Polythalamia, on the phenomena of

motion in the pseudopodia of the,

405,

Pouchet, M., on the migrations of the

Entozoa, 77.

Prestwich, J., on the drift deposits

containing flint instruments, 57.

Pringsheim, M., on the pro-embryos

of the Chare, 321.

Prion, new species of, 317.

Reeve, J., on the recent Craniz and

Orbicule, 126.

Regalecus, on the anatomy of a species

of, 13.

Reichert, Prof., on the phenomena of

motion in the pseudopodia of the

Rhizopoda, 401.

Rhinochetus jubatus, on the habits

of, 308.

Rhizocephala, on the, 44.

Rhizopoda, on the phenomena of mo-

tion in the pseudopodia of the, .

401.

Ribes, on the nature of the thorns in,

373.

479

Robertson, C., on the aquiferous and

oviducal system in the lamellibran-

chiate Mollusca, 446.

Robertson, J., on the occurrence of

Dysdera erythrina in Sussex, 240,

Rolleston, Dr. G., on the aquiferous

and oviducal system in the lamelli-

branchiate Mollusea, 446.

Royal Society, proceedings of the,

57, 144.

is aa ampullaceus, notes on,

Sacculina purpurea, observations on,

Salmo, new British species of, 238.

Salticus, new species of, 351.

Scahola, on the animal and affinities

of, 420.

Schjodte, Prof., on the Harpalini, 375.

Scissurellide, new species of, 346,

Sclater, Dr. P. L., on a new species of

Lipaugus, 80; on new species of

birds, 309; on the Deer of For-

mosa, 394,

Sclerostoma, new species of, 314.

Scopelus Bonapartii, notes on, 281.

Seal, on the size of a, at the time of

birth, 475.

Seeley, H., on the Elsworth rock and

associated strata, 97.

Seemann, Dr. B., on the natural or-

der Bignoniacez, 29,

Solenocaulon, description of the new

genus, 147.

Sparassus, new species of, 423.

Sphasus, new species of, 350.

Sphecodes, on the alar hooks of the

species of, 152.

Spiders, description of new, 299, 348,

421.

Spoggodes, new species of, 69.

Spongiadz, on the anatomy and phy-

siology of the, 144.

Staveley, Miss E. F., on the form of

the comb in different Andrenide

and Apidz, and on the alar hooks

of the species of Sphecodes and

Halictus, 152.

Stenops javanicus, on the brain of

the, 150.

Strobilophaga, new species of, 445.

Styliferina, new species of, 299.

Synapta digitata and its supposed pa-

rasite, on, 216.

Tanalia, on a singular shell allied to,

480

Tarphius, new species of, 289.

Tennent, Sir J. E., on the gigantic

earth-worm from Ceylon, 146.

Tetrarhynchus, new species of, 314.

Theridion, new species of, 429.

Thomisus, new species of, 421.

Trachinus, remarks on the genus, 301.

Trechus, new species of, 287.

Trichophorus, new species of, 444.

Tricula, remarks on the subgenus,

415.

Turdus, new species of, 309.

Tylas, description of the new genus,

396.

Unicorn of the ancients, on the, 363,

416.

Unio, new species of, 184.

Uraleptus Maraldi, notes on, 165.

Urochroma, new species of, 313.

Veretillum, on some species of, 74,

Verrier, M., on the migrations of the

Entozoa, 77.

Walker, R., on the anatomy of a spe-

cies of Regalecus, 13.

INDEX.

Wallace, A. R., on the habitats of the

Birds of Paradise, 464.

Wallich, Dr., on the discovery of a mi-

nute vertebrate jaw in mud dredged

at St. Helena, 304, 441.

Westwood, J. O., on a new species

of Mormolyce, 96.

White, Dr. M. C., on the discovery

of microscopic organisms in the si-

liceous nodules of the Paleozoic

rocks, 160.

Wollaston, T. V., on new Madeiran

Coleoptera, 287, 331.

Xanthoxylacez, on some Chinese con-

diments obtained from the, 195.

Xanthoxylum, new species of, 201.

Zonites excavatus, on the animal of,

76.

Zoological Society, proceedings of the,

69, 146, 228, 508, 388, 464.

Zoophytes, on two new genera of, 147;

of South Devon and South Corn-

wall, on the, 360.

Zosterops, new species of, 444,

END OF THE TENTH VOLUME.

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,

RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET,