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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, Esqa., F.L.S.,
CHARLES C. BABINGTON, Ese., M.A., F.R.S., F.LS., F.G.S.,
J. H. BALFOUR, M.D., Prof. Bot. Edinburgh,
AND
VOL. XVIII.—SECOND SERIES.
wey ey
LONDON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS.
SOLD BY LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS; 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.
1856.
‘‘Omnes res create sunt divine sapientie et potentiz testes, divitie felicitatis
humane :—ex harum usu bonitas Creatoris; ex pulchritudine sapientia Domini;
ex ceconomia in conservatione, proportione, renovatione, potentia majestatis elucet.
Earum itaque indagatio ab hominibus sibirelictis semper estimata; a veré eruditis
et sapientibus semper exculta; malé doctis et barbaris semper inimica fuit.”—
LINNZUS.
** Quelque 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.
coe hot te tot ot Re DOWErS
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, al —
4
Oe.
4
CONTENTS OF VOL. XVIII.
[SECOND SERIES.]
NUMBER CIII.
Page
I. Monograph of the genus Catops. By ANDREW MURRAY ......
II, On a second new species of Spherium from the Paddington
Caeal, - By Dr. J. BRAY, FOR Sc Be, a isieninn visa esmpnnepdelife ces vas 25
III. On the Habits of the Orang-Utan of Borneo. By ALFrep
DE EAE pyicandhensecctssicndescoesareess himlener texans xektuhewhanayerss 26
IV. Polyzoa collected by Mr. M‘Andrew on the Coast of Norway
and Finmark in 1856. By Georecr Busx, F.R.S. & LS. (With a
Plate. ) eeeresese se SlCSCHeee tees eoseeSeseeesaeeeeeteee ses eonese Bes Sse eeeteesseeteves eee 32
V. On the Evils of Lee Synonyms. By §S. P. Woopwarp,
BREE, ios isl acacia ekheas shanapansey Mainbbnnnnede taxa toscehebaiaeshhiayiionss<ee 36
VI. Observations on the External Characters and Internal Ana-
tomy of a Bitentaculate Slug found at the Island of Aneiteum, New
Hebrides. By Joun DeEn1Is MacponaLp, R.N. (With a Plate.)... 38
VII. On Vegetable Cell-formation. By Prof. ARTHUR Henrrey,
Bre Bde se eee a aan WW Aiearebcahee ct ebeds cascieh cadsedessectscvcecees 42
VIII. On the Method of Paleontology. By Toomas H. Huxtey,
F.R.S., Lecturer on General Natural History at the Government
School of Mines, and Fullerian Professor of Physiology R.I. ......... 43
New Books:—The Ferns of Great Britain, illustrated by J. E. Sowerby;
the Descriptions by C. Johnson.—The Ferns of Great Britain and
their Allies, by Anne Pratt.—The Fern-Allies, illustrated by J. E.
Sowerby ; the Descriptions by-C. Johnson.—British Poisonous
Planta; ty ©. SOMMSON Sag... oe PRs «no. oecccsccceseecocevcacvceses 54
Proceedings of the Zoological Society; Royal Institution of Great
Britain ; Botanical Society of Edinburgh ...........cccseeeeeeees 56—73
Note on Edwardsia vesiita (Forbes), by P. H. Gosse; On Cyclas
lacustris, Draparnaud, by J. Gwyn Jeffreys ; Occurrence of Clau-
1V CONTENTS.
silia Mortilleti in Kent, by W. H. Benson; On the Siliceous
Sporangial Sheath of the Diatomacee, by J. W. Griffith, M.D.;
Travels in Central America, by MM. Scherzer and Wagner; On
the Nou-existence of Polarizing Silica in the Organic King-
doms, by Prof. J. W. Bailey; Meteorological Observations and
Page
Table? idien Ad Lae eds oss sb EAGT, AT oe oobi 73—80
NUMBER CIV.
IX. On the Development and Propagation of Spheroplea annulina.
By Dr. FerDinan, GON s SiGe iis Pl A RE PUTS eevee
X. New Terrestrial Shells from Ceylon, with a General List of the
Species inhabiting that Island. By W. H. Benson, Esq. ............
XI, Notice of a curious Metamorphosis in a Polype-like Animal.
By C. W. Pzacu, Member of the Royal Physical Society of Edin-
* btrgh:’ “(Waele Piha g” ctsciscetcscacepecassactectresei ar haeet ber iabereea
XII. Brief Outline of the Anatomy of the genus Aflas (Lesueur).
By JoHn Denis MACDONALD, R.N. (With a Plate.) ...........008.
XIII. On the Development of Arenicola piscatorum ; with Remarks
upon that of other Branchiferous Annelides. By Dr. Max Scuutrze.
(With.a-Plate.},, deskek-sds- to-nenowtal-seske voohsey sb «as eee cer
XIV. Notes on the Freshwater Infusoria of the Island of Bombay.
No. 1. Organization. By H. J. Carter, Esq., Assistant-Surgeon
H.C.S., Bombay..:;( With: three: Plates.) s.r..sescscsesecsecseeseeseneeeccees
XV. Monograph of the genus Catops. By ANDREW Murray ...
XVI. On a new British species of Skenea. By W. fet rape Esq.
(Wath a: Plate.) > sssss.353553035800g sz ygs sveaseg o58s500 855 gk Pikes gat I fkeke radee ;
XVII. Description of a New Species of Dolphin (Steno) from the
upper parts of the River Amazon. By J. E. Gray, Ph.D., F.R.S. &e.
New Books :—Manual of Geology, Practical and Theoretical, by John
Phillips, M.A., F.R.S. &e.—Tenby : a Sea-side Holiday, by Philip
Henry Gosse, A.L.S.—Manual of British Botany, containing the
Flowering Plants and Ferns arranged according to the Natural
Orders, by Charles Cardale Babington, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. &e.
Fourth Edition.—Trees and their Nature, or the Bud and its
81
94
99
101
105
Attributes, by Alex. Harvey, A.M., M.D. &e. .......sseeeues 159—166
Proceedings of the Zoological Society ; Botanical Society of Edin-
burgh SEHR eee HH HOOT CHEE HOH ES EHH EET ETH H EH EAE EES COR re ete seeeaseree 166—183
On the probable Origin of the Organized Beings now living in the
Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries, by M. Oswald Heer.—Note
CONTENTS. Vv
Page
on Clausilia plicatula and C. Mortilleti, by J. Gwyn Jeffreys, ;
Esq., F.R.S.; Note on Lernea branchialis, by W. P. Cocks ; On
_ two new species of Birds from Santa Fé di Bogota, by Philip
Lutley Sclater, M.A., F.Z.S.; On the British Diastylide, by C.
~ Spence Bate, F.L.S.; Note on Helix Cantiana, Mont., by Wm.
Lonsdale, Esq., F.G.S.; Description of a Fossil Cranium of the
Musk-buffalo, from the Gravel at Maidenhead, Berks, by Prof.
Owen, F’.R.S.; A last word on Scissurella, by J. Gwyn Jeffreys,
Esq., F.R.S.; New Mode of Cleaning Diatomaceous Deposits,
by Prof. J. W. Bailey ; New Method of Disintegrating masses of
Fossil Diatomacee, by Prof. J. W. Bailey ; Meteorological Obser-
WALES BY TADIC odscccsscccss.cscosovceccans PLR renter ety 183—192
NUMBER CV.
XVIII. Attempts at a Natural Arrangement of Birds, By ALFRED
MA RRM NR 8 occ yc cccct ss sas ckandasaiiv Aste vpiethl be adigtARENi yas 193
XIX. Recent Discoveries in Vegetable Embryogeny. By ArTHUR
HenFrey, F.R.S., Professor of Botany in King’s College, London... 217
XX. On Edwardsia carnea, a new British Zoophyte.. By PHriuip
Mi Goswa, FRS.....CWith.a Plate.) 50559. .appaesesienaceoGh sah clinysuas nad sic 219
XXI. Notes on the Freshwater Infusoria of the Island of Bombay.
No. 1. Organization. By H. J: Carver, Esq., Assistant Surgeon
ee SINEMA pac Ue cc ta IhB Un anapannng Fibs hs Ske tp hues epnsthanipnennee? «04 221
XXII. Descriptions of one Indian and nine new Burmese Helices ;
and Notes on two Burmese Cyclostomacea, By W..H. Benson, Esq. 249
XXIII. On an Abnormality in the Flowers.of Salix Andersoniana.
By JOHN LOWE, Fag... scscessssssespasesdestrorsergcned sagseetacceaesesayegees 254
XXIV. Cardium exiguum : —its Siphons and its Byssus. By PHiLip
TE, COSGSE, Fel PY Maeh ARIRCT) 035 oc minvenes de -anqusds <mlin tas carbene 257
New Books :—An Introduction to Entomology, or Elements of the
Natural History of Insects, by William Kirby, M.A., F.R.S.,
F.L.S., and William Spence, F.R.S., F.L.S.—Ferny Combes: a
Ramble after Ferns in the Glens and Valleys of Devonshire, by
Charlotte Chanter ...... sipthaions RATE vy al eea Peeve ceded. os oe 258—260
Proceedings of the Zoological Society ..........cseceseseeeceesenens 260—268
On the Vitality of the Anguillule of Mildewed Wheat, by C. Davaine ;
Notice of a new species of Nocturnal Lizard from Mexico, by
Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.; On a new genus and species of Tro-
chilide from Ecuador, by John Gould, F.R.S. &e.; Meteoro-
logical Observations and Table .......cc.sccesseceeseeeceeaeenes 268—272
vi CONTENTS.
Page
NUMBER CVI.
XXV. Monograph of the British Umbilicarie. By the Rev. W.
A. LEIGHTON, B.A., F.B.S.E. (With a Plate.) ..cccccececessseee #0964273
XXVI. On the Development of the Lampreys. By Avucust
DAVE en Pes can senahs ben ahs Sane EaeeaenEe eta 298
XXVII. Monograph of the genus Catops. By ANDREW Murray. 302
XXVIII. Contributions to the Anatomy of the Infusoria. By
N. LisseBRUHn TA Ria et. AF, ROA INA Ie cite etest ones 319
XXIX. New British Arthonie. By the Rev. W. A. Le1curon,
B.A., F.B.S.EB:i (With a Platei): 208. 20. is TM ETERS ct fest 330
Proceedings of the Royal Society ; Botanical Society of Edinburgh ;
Zoological Society ....cleccvecsssscecscsccssseeveccecsegtentescese 333—348
Obituary Notice—William Yarrell; Amphiowus lanceolatus, by W.
P. Cocks; Description of a newly discovered Tanager of the
genus Buarremon, by Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A. &c.; Meteo-
rological Observations and Table ...seccsscssssceeseneceeeners 348—352
NUMBER CYVII.
XXX. A Notice of some New Genera and Species of British Hydroid
Zoophytes. By JosHua ALDER, Esq. (With three Plates.) ...... 353
XXXI. The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. By
Dr. ALEXANDER BRAUN, Professor of Botany in the University of
Berlin, &c. Translated by Cuas. Francis Stone, B.A. ............ 363
XXXII. On the young state of Ophiocoma rosula, and on the Form
and Development of the Spines of this species. By T. H. Stewart.
(Wath a Plate.) ..002. <spsrcaenivhs vib nddp anrppepnansatas digumansi pas deeiiauciaalie 387
XXXIITI. Monograph of the genus Catops. By ANDREw Murray. 391
XXXIV. Elucidation of some Plants mentioned in Dr. Francis
Hamilton’s Account of the Kingdom of Nepal. By Lieut.-Colonel
MappeEn, F.R.S.E., President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 404
XXXV. Notice of a New Subgenus of Helicinade. By Dr. J.
BGR, BB c 05s cieioed tahoe gs neve nchaouies cavbaenate cee 414
Proceedings of the Zoological Society ..s.+.sccsescesseesevereeees 415—424
On Clausilia Rolphu and Mortilleti, by W. H. Benson, Esq. ; On the
Origin of Greensand, and its Formation in the Oceans of the
CONTENTS. Vii
Page
present Epoch, by Prof. J. W. Bailey; On the Cume, by Prof. :
Agassiz ; Note on Callitriche hamulata, by Frederick Townsend ;
Rare British Birds, by W. P. Cocks; Descriptions of two new
species of the genus Orthotomus, by Frederick Moore, Assist.
Mus. East India Company; Meteorological Observations and
Table ...... SAV ehysiesda o\waldcde tap MiNi Haas ssekshos Sedadiese vives see 424—432
NUMBER CVIII.
XXXVI. New Land Shells collected by E. L. Layarp, Esq., and
Gamera tr WT, Baars Batis os ivadeesicandsasddes cpovagecindag odcinp 433
XXXVII. Descriptions of three new British Zoophytes. By
JosHUA ALDER, Esq. (With a Plate.) .........ssscesccesceccsvcececes 439
XXXVIII. Elucidation of some Plants mentioned in Dr. Francis
Hamilton’s Account of the Kingdom of Nepal. By Lieut.-Colonel
Mavpen, F.R.S.E., President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 442
XXXIX. Monograph of the genus Catops. By ANDREW Murray. 457
XL. On the Abnormal Operculum of Polydonta elegans of -New
Zealand.’ By DrJ:"ES GRAY, FRB ei ec sdteccccescosesesccecs 468
XLI. Note on Reticularia immersa and Halia pretenuis. By the
Rev. Tuomas Hincks, B.A. ...... eeu Rs Keb aRhAe biksee ss waneenbes nab eas 6 469
XLII. Contribution to the Conchelogy of France. By J. Gwyn
RPP RBY He eg FR. , vacarrdotsenrssneneesy ans ratnnaterensete tesodt 471
New Books :—Flora Vectensis ; beg a Systematic Description of the |
Phzenogamous or Flowering Plants and Ferns indigenous to the
Isle of Wight, by the late W. A. Bromfield, M.D. &c. Edited by
Sir W. J. Hooker and T. Bell Salter, M.D.— Sylloge Flore
Europeee seu plantarum vascularium Europe indigenarum enu-
meratio, adjectis synonymis gravioribus et indicata smgularum
distributione geographica, auctore C. F. Nyman ............ 473—475
Proceedings of the Zoological Society ; Royal Society....... wass 475—491
Observations on the Structure of the Retina in certain Animals, by
H. Miiller ; Remarks on Nika edulis, Risso, by William Thomp-
son ;‘Naucrates ductor, by W. P. Cocks; On Peculiar and Quasi-
spontaneous Movements of the Plasmatic Cells of certain Ani-
mals, by Prof. Kolliker; Description of a new species of Actinia
from the Devonshire Coast, by E. W. H. Holdsworth ; Meteoro-
logical Observations and Table .......-scscseereseeeecerersecees 492—.499
PLATES IN VOL. XVIII.
PLate I. Polyzoa from the Coast of Norway.
II. Development of Arenicola piscatorum.
III. Anatomy of a Bitentaculate Slug from Aneiteum.
IV. Anatomy of the genus Atlas.
ek
VIL.
VIII. Metamorphosis of a Polype-like Animal. —New British species
of Skenea.
TX. Edwardsia carnea.—Cardium exiguum.
X. British Umbilicarie. .
XI. British Arthoniz.
XI.
XIII. New British Hydroid Zoophytes.
XIV.
“XV. Young state of Ophiocoma rosula.
XVI. New British Zoophytes.
V1. } Organization of Freshwater Infusoria.
ERRATA.
Page 405, line 13 from bottom, for Zirhut read Tirhut,
407, line 22, for eundum read eundem.
»» yy line 11 from bottom, for hot-water courses read hill water-courses.
», 420, line 20, for ponds read ghauts.
”
Vol. xvii. page 501, last line, for June read May.
THE ANNALS
AND
~MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY,
[SECOND SERIES. ]
we iatesedanpsoebeene per litora spargite muscum,
Naiades, et circlm vitreos considite fontes :
Pollice virgineo teneros hic carpite flores :
Floribus et pictum, dive, replete eanistrum.
At vos, o Nymphe 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 Ec, 1.
No. 103. JULY 1856.
I.— Monograph of the genus Catops.
By Anprew Morray, Edinburgh*.
NOTWITHSTANDING Mr. Spence’s able Monograph of the
British species of this genus, and the excellent works of Erichson,
Sturm, Redtenbacher, Kraatz and others, its study is still attended
with so much difficulty, that I imagine the following attempt to
clear up the synonymy, and to make the species more easily
recognizable, will be welcome, particularly to British entomo-
logists. |
When I commenced my examination of the genus, with a
view to publishing the results, I applied to my entomological
friends for their assistance both in the way of information and
communication of specimens, an application which was cordially
responded to. I have thus had the advantage of carefully ex-
amining Mr. Waterhouse’s collection, which I believe to be the
best representative of the Spencian species extant ;—the deter-
mination having been submitted to and approved by Mr. Spence
himself, with this qualification, that he (Mr. Spence) had de-
scribed some of his species from specimens belonging to others,
te whom they had been returned, so that the type specimens
* Read before the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, Jan. 1856,
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 1
2 Mr, A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
were scattered, and the certainty of accuracy derivable from the
actual comparison of specimens with the types was in these
instances no longer attainable. It is on the faith of Mr. Water-
house’s collection therefore that I principally depend for the
identity of the names with the species described by Spence,
where the descriptions themselves have failed me. —
From Mr. Stephens’s collection now in the British Museum
I have in like manner endeavoured to identify the species de-
scribed by him, and as his specimens of Spence’s species m a
majority of instances correspond with Mr. Waterhouse’s, they so
far confirm the authority of that gentleman. I have further
had the advantage of examining the species in the Jardin des
Plantes ;—those of M. Lucas and of M. Chevrolat (who left the
whole of his large collection of Catops for months in my hands),
- and those of M. Fairmaire, M. Javet, and other French entomolo-
gists. To M. Kraatz of Berlin, whose elaborate and. admirable
revision of the European species of the genus shows the atten-
tion he has bestowed upon the subject, | owe especial thanks.
Besides favouring me with his opinion upon my ideas, he has
furnished me with a nearly complete series of his species, and
entrusted those he could not spare to me for examination, so
that I have in general the advantage, when speaking of any
view entertained: by him, of knowing with certainty the iden-
tity of the species: under discussion. In relation to the North
American species I beg particularly to record my obligations to
Dr. Leconte of :Philadelphia, Dr. Asa Fitch of Salem, and Mr.
Calverly of New York... To our British entomologists, Dr.
Power, Mr. J.T. Syme, Mr. Hislop, Rev. W. Little, Rev. Hamlet
Clark, Mr. Guyon, Mr. Bates, Dr. Lowe and others, I also owe
many thanks. They have entrusted to me the whole of their
species for as long a period as [chose to retain them, and the
whole of the gentlemen I have named have liberally placed their
duplicates at my disposal. I take this opportunity to tender to
each of them individually my best thanks for their kindness,
With this acknowledgement of my obligations and expla-
nation of the sources of my information, I shall now in the first
place cast a rapid glance at what has been done by previous
authors, first in the European species and afterwards in the
exotic; I shall then give detailed descriptions of all the different
species which have been described or have come under my notice
(among which will be found one or two new species), and lastly
conclude by giving a short dichotomous table of the characters
of the European species of the genus.
The species which compose this genus were scattered by
ancient authors among several other genera. DeGeer placed
one species under Dermestes, and Geoffroy another under Si/pha.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 3
Fourcroy placed the only one he knew under Peltis, Panzer
under Helops, Fréhlich under Luperus, Fabricius under Cistela
and Hydrophilus, Marsham under Mordelia, and Linnzus (pos-
sibly) under Chrysomela. Latreille was the first who in his
‘Précis des Caractéres Génériques des Insectes,’ established the
genus under the name of Choleva. This was in 1802, and about
two years after it was also recognized first by Paykull, and after-
wards by Knoch, who each gave it another name—Knoch that
of Ptomaphagus which was adopted by Illiger, and Paykull that
of Catops which was adopted by Fabricius, and has been retained
by most subsequent authors. By the rule of priority therefore
the name should be Choleva, but I am glad that I have a suffi-
cient apology for not disturbing the almost universally adopted
name of Catops. Latreille himself appears at first only to have
applied his name to one section of the genus. This appears from
his ‘ Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés et des Insectes,’ where in
speaking of his constituting the geaus, he says, “ Its appearance,
says Geoffroy, resembles that of the Mordelle, that is to say, it
has long legs with which it walks as if it limped. It is from
that character that I have taken my generic denomination:
Cholevain Greek means ‘lame.’”’ The long legs here referred to
apply to the first section of the genus, which was subsequently
erected into a separate genus by Stephens, and may, I think, be
properly maintained as a subgenus, to which Latreille’s name
may be restricted.
The number of species at first deseribed was small. | Latreille
in his ‘ Hist. Nat.’ only describes three, and in his ‘Genera
Crustaceorum et Insectorum,’ published im 1807, he describes
five. He there breaks the genus into two groups, one corre-
sponding to the subgenus Choleva, of which he describes the
species agilis and angustatus, auct., and the other including the
rest of the genus.
Gyllenhal in 1808 published six species in the first volume of
his ‘ Insecta Suecica.’
It is unnecessary to enter into any examination of the syno-
aymy of the species described by these authors. Their descrip-
tions are for the most part too vague and applicable to too many |
species subsequently described to allow us to rely greatly upon
them. Gyllenhal in his 4th volume, which was not published
till 1827, acknowledges that in his 1st volume he had included
five different species under one name.
Mr. Spence was the first author who brought the genus into
something like order.
In his Monograph (published in the Linnean Society’s
Transactions in 1815) he divided the genus into three main
ve 1‘
4 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
sections, dependent upon the antenne being filiform or clavate,
the posterior angles of the thorax obtuse or-acute, and. the
elytra striate or not striate; the dilatation or non-dilatation of
the first article of the middle tarsi in the males was also made
a subordinate character. Of these, the first and last are the
only ones which have been adopted as sectional. characters )by
subsequent authors; but the form of the hinder-angles of the
thorax, although not a good sectional character by itself) will, 1
think, if taken’ im. conjunction with the base’ of\ the: elytra, be
found to furnish good characters for natural subdivision. Mr.
Spence groups his species under the above sectional characters
(to each of which I shall attach the synonym now most in use)
as follows, viz. :— |
* Antenne subfiliform ; posterior angles of thorax.obtuse (= Sub-
gen. Choleva, Steph.). qota y
C. oblonga=angustata, Fab., Erich.
C. agilis=agilis, Tll., Erich.
** Antenne clavate ; posterior angles of thorax acute; elytra for
the most part striated (= Subgen, Catops, Steph.).
(Anterior thighs forthe most part thickened at-the apex inthe
males, and first article of middle tarsi dilated.)
a. Basal margin of thorax excised near the angles.
—C. nigricans =nigricans, Erich.
~-C. sericea= fuscus, Panz., Krich.*
* Erichson, and after him. Kraatz, give C. picipes, Fab., as the synonym.
of Spence’s sericea, but I think this is a mistake, ,The description. better
accords with fuseus, and.I believe that. picipes has not yet been found in
Britain. I recorded it in my ‘ Catalogue of Scottish Coleoptera’ as found
by myself in Scotland, but I am now satisfied that. the specimen on which
I relied was only a large variety of nigricans. _ If Erichson formed his opi-
nion of the synonymy from not finding any other probable representative
of picipes among Spence’s species, the circumstance of its not being British
explains how this may be. If he judged from Spence’s description, he
may have been misled by the commencing words, used by Spence, ‘ Body
broader and more convex than in its congeners,” which he might apply to
picipes, which is the largest species im the genus; and. by Spence’s next
words, “shorter than the preceding,”’ viz. nigricans, he might have sup-
posed him to mean less elongate in form, which picipes is, although cer-
tainly not actually shorter—it bemg longer. The only other resemblance to
picipes is the black elytra; but Paykull’s description of his C. sericeus, to
which Spence refers as in all other respects identical with his, corrects this
incongruity, for Paykull states the elytra of his. species to be obscure tes-
taceous. In Stephens’s collection sericea is represented by a pale variety
of chrysomeloides,
Mr. A. Murray’s' Monograph of the genus Catops. 5
iC. dtristis*= —— ? : |
C. festinans} = ——? (possibly grandicollis, Erich.).
b. Thorax with.the basal margin straight near the angles.
C. chrysomeloides=chrysomeloides, Panz., Lat., Sturm.
Cy Leachitt =tristis, Erich.
C. Kirbti§=rotundicollis, Kellner.
C. Marshami || = ? (either morio, Erich. or wgrita, Erich.)
Cy dissimulator | = ——? (probably morio, Erich.)
~
**K Antenne clavate ; posterior angles of thorax acute ; elytra not
striated...
(Anterior thighs alike in both sexes, the middle tarst with the
first joint rarely dilated.)
C. villosa=sericeus, Fab. (villosa; Lat.) (Ptomaphagus trun-
catus, Steph.)
C. velox =velox, Erich.
C. fumata** = ? (probably settudus, Erich.)
C. Watsoni=fumatus, Erich.
Cy anisotomoides= anisotomoides, Sturm.
C. Wilkinit=precox, Erich.
\\Cy brunneus = Colon (Mylechus), brunneus, auct:
* No species has puzzled British entomologists more to identify than
this. The prominence. given. by, Spence,and Stephens.to the clavate form
of the antenne, and Spence describing it as bearing a close general resem-
blance to chrysomeloides, has had . the’ effeet of making most, of them
attempt to find a representative’ for, it out. of narrow-clubbed and small
varieties of chrysomeloides—and accordingly it is generally so represented
in British collections—an error which I have seen contmental entomo-
logists fall into in like manner. TI cannot ascertain 'to my own satisfaction
what the species was which Spence had in view in describing this. Mr.
Waterhouse had adopted the usual British view, but Stephens has his
tristis wholly represented by fuscus, Erichs.
ft This species is stated by Erichson and Kraatz to be a synonym of
fuscus, but from what I have already said in the note upon sericea, it ap-
pears to me that that synonym is preoccupied. Mr. Waterhouse has not
this name represented in his collection. In Stephens’s it is represented by
two specimens of /ristis and one of grandicollis. Little can be made out
from Spence’s description.
_ { Represented wholly by ¢ristis in Mr. Waterhouse’s collection, and in
Stephens’s collection by two specimens of tristis and two of grandicollis.
§ Represented by rotundicollis both in Waterhouse’s and Stephens’s col-
ections.
|| Mr. Waterhouse has this represented by morio; in Stephens’s col-
lection it is represented wholly by chrysomeloides.
“| Given as a synonym of morio by Erichson. Represented by tristis
in Waterhouse’s collection, and by three specimens of grandicollis and one
of nigrita in Stephens’s collection.
** This name (fumata) has been universally applied to the species com-
monly known as the fumatus of Erich. and other authors, but a comparison
6 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
The next author who went over the genus was Stephens. As
he finally left it in his Manual, it contains all Spence’s species,
besides five of his own, and three which had been described by
Mr. Newman in the ‘Entomological Magazine,’ between the
commencement of the appearance of - his ‘ Illustrations’ and
the publication of his ‘ Manual.’
The following is the result of my examination of the species
standing named in his collection in the British Museum, viz. :—
Ptomaphagus truncatus = C. sericeus, Panz. (truncatus, Illig.)
velox =velox, Spence. '
Sumatus = fumatus, Erich.
_—— Watsoni=fumatus, Erich., and scitulus, Erich., mixed.
anisotomotides = anisotomoides, Spence.
Wilkinit=precox, Erich.
Catops nigricans =nigricans, Spence.
sericea= pale variety of chrysomeloides, Spence.
tristis= fusca, Erich.
Jestinans, represented by two specimens of grandicollis,
Erich., and two of tristis, Erich.
affinis=nigrita, Erich.
- chrysomeloides = chrysomeloides, Spence. |
Leachit,, represented. by two specimens. of grandicollis,
Erich., and twovof ¢ristis, Erich,
Kirbii=rotundicollis, Kellner.
of Spence’s description of it and his next species, Watsons, shows that the
latter is what is now known as fumatus, and that the former is most pro-
bably scitulus, Erich. In his description of Watsoni Spence says, “ In
colour this species does not much differ from the preceding, but is fur-
nished with other characters strikingly distinetive. The antenne are
shorter. and thicker ”’ (which is the case in the true fumatus). He also
gives the last joint as pale, while he says nothing of this distinctive cha-
racter in describing the preceding species. The rest of the description
also corresponds with the view I have taken. I am perhaps wrong in
using the expression “true fumatus.” The true fumatus should by the
rule of priority be what Spence had under his eye when he described it,
but I think we are getting out of all bounds in our stickling for priority.
If an author describes a species so loosely that it cannot be recognized
from his deseription, so that subsequent authors misapply or ignore his
name, while on their part they give a recognizable description, I eannot see
on what prineiple of justice or propriety we are to be called upon to hold
by the unrecognizable name instead of the recognizable, nor why an author
(be he living or dead, or great or small) should be allowed to supplement
his inadequate description by a reference to the typical specimens in his
eabinet from which the descriptions were taken,—a practice now in vogue,
against which I take this opportunity to enter my protest. Notwith-
standing the claims of priority therefore, I do not propose to invert or
disturb the generally adopted names of fumatus and scitulus. I have
pointed out how the case obviously stands, and J leave to the advocates of
priority the responsibility of introducing the confusion to which I demur.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 7
Ptomaphagus Spencet=rotundicolls, Kellner.
fulvicollis = velox, Spence.
Marshami = chrysomeloides, Spence.
+ dissimulator, represented by three specimens of grandi-
collis and one. of nigrita. 7
Choleva angustata=angustata, auct.
gomphoita= ditto.
_ agilis, represented by three specimens of agzlis and two
of angustata.
The other species, or names of species, given in his Manual
are not represented in his collection.
I have not had an opportunity of seeing typical specimens of
Mr. Newman’s three species, frater, soror, and nubifer; but my
friend the Rev. Wm. Little has in his collection specimens which
had been named by Stephens as being the two latter, and if we
may take that as an indication, we find that soror=nigricans and
nubifer = velox.
Erichson’s ‘ Kafer der Mark Brandenburg’ followed in 1837.
His division differs from that of Spence. Tt is as follows, viz. :—
Characters of the first division :— eh
“ Mesosternum simple (without keel) ; body oblong ; antenne and
> Tegs long and thin, the former searcely thickened at-the point ;
legs slender ; tarsi of fore-feet dilated in the’ males, tarsi of
middle feet simple in both sexes.”
This division corresponds to Spence’s first section (Stephens’s
Choleva) ; and Erichson only records two species found in Mark
Brandenburg as belonging to it, viz. angustatus and agilis.
_The characters of his second. division are—
Mesosternum simple; tarsi slender, and anterior tarsi and first
joint of middle tarsi dilated in the males.”
These characters place the following species in this section,
viz. C. fuscus, umbrinus, picipes, nigricans, grandicollis, tristis,
nigrita, fuliginosus, morio, fumatus, and scitulus, of which gran-
dicollis, fuliginosus, and scitulus are given as new. Fuliginosus
is said by Kraatz to be a variety of nigricans (though, from the
description alone, I should not have supposed this), and scztulus,
as already mentioned, had been described by Spence under the
name of fumatus. FHrichson does not record chrysomeloides.as
found in Mark Brandenburg, but from the differences which he
points out between it and éristis, Tam not sure but some con-
fusion exists even in Erichson relating to ¢riséis.
His next division is characterized thus :—
“ Mesosternum simple ; body oval ; anienne somewna. trackened at
8 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
the point ; tarsi slender ; anterior tarsi widened in the falls ; ;
middle tarsi simple in both sexes?
Velow and precox (Spence’s Wilkinity are’ Erichson’s “only
species falling under this division.
The last division has the
** Mesosternum keeled; tarsi strong ; anterior tarsi. in, the males
very broad, widened in the middle in the females ; middle. tars2
of both, sexes equal.”
The only species recorded by Erichson is sericeus (truncatus,
hg. and Steph.).
The above list .is instructive both negatively and. positively,
both for what it does and for what it does not contain. Erichson
was celebrated not only for his: marvellous acumen in: distin-
guishing’ species, but also for his success im collecting, and
for the extent of his: collection... Mark Brandenburg too, may
be taken as fairly representing the rest of Northern Germany;
and unless where the species are of-a local character, we:may
pretty safely assume thatthe same species which oceur;in|Mark
Brandenburgwill be found inthe rest of Northern Germany. These
premises should teach us to use great caution in admitting any new
species from that district not:described by Hrichson, as they lead to
the probable conclusion, first, that such new species might have
been already found in Mark Brandenburg; secondly, that Hrichson
might have seen them ;, and, lastly, might ‘not, have considered
them distinct... Of course I do not! make any further use of the
great weight of -his opinion, than ‘to. bespeak caution im deter-
mining upon such new.German species as he has: passed. over. |
Sturm next: took up the group in his ‘ Deutschlands Fauna’ in
1839. He added two new species to the first group (Choleva)—
spadiceus, Dahl. in litt., and castaneus, Andersch. in litt: —both
of which have been adopted by subsequent authors, although, for
reasons which I shall afterwards, give, I think the latter is only
a variety of angustatus. He also added the dbadius of Meg., the
brunneus of Knoch, and the anisotomoides of Spence to the list
of species found in Germany.
In 1841 Prof. Heer (in his ‘Raune Helvetica’) described besides
most of those already known, two new. species, montivagus and
ambiguus, and reproduced the alpinus, Gyll..The descriptions of
the two former are too short and vague to allow of their bemg
satisfactorily identified from. the book, and I. have, not. seen
authentic specimens. M. Kraatzin his revision also states, that
he has been unable to make them out, but. holds that the alpinus
of Gyllenhal has been rightly revived.
Several detached descriptions of individual species also ap-
peared from time to time. :
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 9
In:1832:a species: from the Morea was described by Brullé in
the ‘Expédition Scientifique de Morée’ under the name of C,
humeralis, which seems to: belong to the subgenus Choleva.
Chaudoir (Bulletin de Moscou, 1845, i.) described two new
species as being found in the neighbourhood of Vienna, longi-
pennis and sericatus. M. Kraatz does not consider these to be
distinct species, but joins them respectively to nigricans and
sericeus.
Kellner in ‘ Stettin Ent. Zeit.’ 1846, No. 6, described four new
species, C. longulus, rotundicollis, coracinus, and subfuscus. As
already mentioned, rotundicollis is the Kirbit of Stephens. Kraatz
observes that subfuscus i is not distinguishable from alpinus, Gyll. ;
and from a specimen of dongulus submitted to me by M. Kratz,
Tam ‘satisfied that itis only a variety of tristzs.
» Rosenhauer(Beitrage zur Insectfauna Huropas) in 1847 de-
scribed C. abdominals (considered by Kraatz to be a variety of
tristis)'and C.varicornis, which, although very clove to sericeus,
~—— to'be'a good species.
‘Redtenbacher in his * Fauna Austriaca? (1849) gives a synopsis
of the species' of the genus, but without adding any new species.
Drs Aubéin 1850 added C: meridionalis and quadraticollis, besides
Catopsimorphus ic aehote to the list. am ee oe to: be
a species.
The only works remaining to be ribtioell are’ M: Kraatz’s revi-
sion of the genus published in parts in the “Stettim Ent, Zeitung’
m1852,/and the‘ Faune' Entomologique® Francaise” “now in
course of publication by ‘MM. 'Fairmaire’‘and) Laboulbéne.
Although the latter°work is ‘subsequent in’date, I shall notice it
first ; partly because none of ‘M. Kraata’s new species are to be
found: in it, and'partly because’ M. Kraatz’s’revision contains a
full summary of all‘the European’ species hitherto described, and
is therefore well suited for closing this part of my paper.
The authors of the ‘ Faune Ent: Franc.’ adopt the name Cho-
leva, Lat., in deference to priority, instead of Catops. They do not
introduce any new species. They adopt the four subdivisions
laid down by Erichson, and in addition attempt to break up the
second subdivision into smaller sections. These subdivisions are—
1. “Posterior angles of corselet obtuse,” in which they place
C. picipes; grandicollis, and alpina, © .
2. “Posterior angles of corselet right-angled, more or less
pointed,” containing C. fusca, morio, nigrita, quadraticolls, tristis,
chrysomeloides, rotundicollis, and fumata.
8. € Posterior-angles of corselet pointed, a little produced behind,”
which contains umbrina, nigricans, and scitula,
These divisions appear ‘to me to group the species in too un-
natural a manner to be of service even as an artificial mode of
10 Mr.A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
arrangement in facilitating the determination. of «species. \>:For
instance, picipes in the first section has most affinity with nigri-
cans in the third, grandicollis in. the first with. ¢ristés in’ the
second (indeed I propose to show presently, that they are the
same species) ; and alpina in the first. has very close affinity with
fumata in the second, and scitwla in the third should join them.
Umbrina undoubtedly ought to go beside velow, which is: not in
this section at all ;—EHrichson’s character of the dilatation of the
first jomt of the middle tarsi in the males separating them.
Their affinity otherwise however is so great, that I thimk: that
character must be disregarded to allow these species to take their
proper place beside each other. |
I now come to Kraatz’s revision, in favour of which I cannot
speak too highly. I differ from him in opinion in one or:two
instances, but wherever I do. so 1 must beg the reader 'to take
my opinion with caution and examine it with suspicion, as the
well-known acumen and accuracy of that gentleman stamp: his
views with a primd-facie authenticity which only: very’ strong
evidence ean overthrow.
He divides, the genus into five sections, the first three and the
last. of which are Erichson’s ; the fourth is new.
In the first) section he has spadiceus, a new species which*he
calls intermedius, angustatus, castaneus (or. cisteloides, Froh\.), and
agilis. In speaking of Sturm I have already expressed my
opinion that castaneus and angustatus were varieties of the same
species, and I cannot come to.a different opinion as regards
intermedius. When I go over the species seriatim, I shall give
my reasons for this.as well as for any similar views I may have
adopted regarding other species.
In the second section he includes acicularis (a: new species,
which from the description seems distinct, but which I have not
seen in nature), umbrinus, fuscus, picipes, meridionalis, nigricans,
coracinus, morio, nigrita, grandicollis, chrysomeloides, longulus,
Kelln. (which, as already mentioned, I think only a variety of
tristis), tristis, rotundicollis, neylectus (a new species nearly allied
to tristis), alpinus, fumatus, brevicollis (a new species which I have
not seen, but which appears from the description to be good),
and scitulus. |
The third section is confined to velox, badius, precox,; brun-
neus, and anisotomoides.
The fourth section is characterized as follows, viz. =
“ Mesosternum feebly keeled; body oblong, smooth and shining ;
antenne strong, scarcely thickened towards the point ; differ-
ence of sexes unknown.”
This section is erected by Kraatz to receive a single species
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. ll
named by him /ucidus, and described from a single specimen
found in Dalmatia.
. The fifth section has received the greatest increase. Hitherto
it had only contained the two species sericeus and varicornis, but
Kraatz has added three new species, strigosus, validus, and colo-
noides. I have not seen validus, but the others appear to me good
and distinct species.
Catopsimorphus orientalis he retains as forming ‘a separate
genus.
The number of exotic species which have been’ described is
not great.
Three species from Algeria, C. marginicollis, C. celer and C.
rufipennis have been described in 1849 by M. Lucas in the ‘ Ex-
ploration de l’Algérie.’
M. Motschoulsky described a species from Georgia, C. pusillus,
in the Bulletins of the Imperial Society of Moscow for 1840.
‘‘Kolenati described in the ‘ Meletemata Ent.’ a species, C. fun-
gicola, from the Russian Province of Elisabethopoleos.
Menetries described a species (C. pallidus) from Bakon in the
Caucasus im his‘ Catalogue ‘raisonné des Objets de Zoologie re-
cueillis dans un voyage au Caucase, &c. He also described in
the Mem. Acad, Imp. Sciences de St. Pétersbourg, 6 sér. vi. 1849,
two species, C. laterttius and C. fuscipes, found at Novaia Alex-
androvskaia.
One species, C. australis, from Van Diemen’s Land, has been
described by Erichson in Wiegmann’s ‘Archiv fir Naturge-
schichte, 1842.
»The North American species hitherto described’ are C. basi-
laris, C. opacus and C. simplez, described by Say in the Journal
of the Academy of Philadelphia; vols. iii, & v. ; C. Spenciana de-
scribed by Kirby in the ‘ Fauna Bor. Amerie.’ ; C. cadaverinus,
C. Frankenhauseri, C. cryptophagoides, C. brunnipennis, and C.
luridipennis described by Mannerheim in the ‘ Bull. of the Imp.
Soc. of Mosc.’ in 1848, 1852 & 1853; C. terminans described
by Leconte in Agassiz’s ‘ Lake Superior,’ and C. clavicornis, C. ca-
lifornicus, C. strigosus, C. consobrinus, C. oblitus and C. parasitus,
described by the same author in the ‘ Proceedings of the Aca-
demy of Philadelphia,’ 1853.
So much for the past history of the genus. We shall now
proceed to the examination of the different species sertatum.
In doing so I shall first take the European species of each
section, and then give the descriptions of the exotic species. I
shall not attempt to intercalate the latter among the European
species, because there are a number which I have not seen. I
shall content myself with classing them according to their
geographical distribution.
12 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
Genus Cators.
Mentum square, transverse, a little narrowed in front, lagula
of the breadth of the mentum at its’ base; widened and? deeply
emarginate in front. Zhe internal lobe of the maxille terminated
by a corneous nail or hook. The maxillary palpi decidedly. larger
than the labial; their third article formed like a reversed coné, the
fourth much more slender, conic and acuminated. The third article
of the labial palpi oval, a little longer than the second. — Man-
dibles short, furnished with a molar tooth at their base, arched,
sharp at the end and unidentate before their summit, Labrum
short, rounded, and a little sinuated in the middle m front.
Head declining, obtuse in front. Eyes nearly rounded, moderate
in size and not prominent. Antenne at least of the length of
the thorax ; their first six articles of variable length, subcylindric,
the last five forming a club, which is sometimes so elongated and
slender as to be scarcely observable, and sometimes' very distinct ;
the eighth joint shorter than the seventh and ninth.” Prothorax
of variable form. | Elytra oblong. or oval, arched,above. Legs
long and slender, the first four joints (and more especially the
first two) of the anterior tarsi, and sometimes the ‘first joint of
the intermediate tarsi, dilated in the males and provided with
brushes of hair below. Mesosternum sometimes keeled. Body
oblong or oval, clothed with a very fine silky pubescence*,
The first division which I shall adopt is the same as Erichson’s,
and I preserye Latreille’s name Choleva for it as a. subgenus ;
but I shall drop the dilatation of the anterior tarsi.and the first
joint of the middle tarsi in the males as a character, ;
It is a detraction from any character that it. requires an exa-
mination of both male and female to recognize it ; and although
the character is perfectly true in. this group, it cannot be used in
contrast to the subsequent divisions which I am going to pro-
pose, as in them exceptions to such a rule occur. I think the
following short characters sufficient. |
Group I. (Subgenus Cuo.tzya.)
Mesosternum not keeled ; body oblong ; antenne almost filiform ;
legs long and thin, posterior trochanters more or less developed in
the males. | PN
1. C. angustatus, Fab.
Cistela angustata, Fab. Syst. El. ii. 20. 23.
agilis, Fab. Syst. El. ii. 20. 27.
* This description of the characters of the genus is copied with some
modifications from that given by Prof. Lacordaire in his admirable work
the ‘ Genera des Coléoptéres.”’
Mr..A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 13
Catops elongatus, Payk. Faun, Suece. i. 345.3; Gyll. Ins. i, 281. 6,
Ptomaphagus rufescens, Mllig. Kaf. Pr. 87. 1.
Catops rufescens, Duft. Faun. Aust. ii. 72. 1?
Cholevu, oblonga, , Lat. Gen. Crust. et Ins. ii, 27. 1; Spence, Linn. Trans.
xh 138. 1:
Catops angustatus, Erich.’Kaf.d. Mark Brand. i. 233. 1; Sturm, Deutschl.
Faun. xiv. 5.1. taf: 272. M. m; Heer, Faun. Helv. i. 578. 1; Redtenb.
Faun. ‘Aust./143, 4; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. Frang. 1. 299.
Oblongus, fuscus vel nigro-piceus ; thorace postice non latiore ;
- elytris substriatis ; antennis pedibusque ferrugineis.
Long. 23 Tin.
A long thin species. The head dark, the parts of the mouth
and the antenne ferruginous ; the latter about the length of the
elytra, the eighth joint a, little smaller than the ninth, the last
jot long and, acuminate, The thorax is variable in. form,
sometimes widest at the middle, as in fig. 1, sometimes widest a
little before the middle, as in fig. 2, and sometimes widest at the
very front, as in fig.3, but, never widest behind; sometimes a little
VOCKigy do Fig. 2. Fig.'3.
- broader than long, and sometimes about equal-in length and
breadth. ‘The sides are rounded. In some examples they are
semitransparent or paler than the centre (and are then known as
the var. angustatus). In others the edges are firm. and con-
colorous (the variety castaneus). The posterior angles are nearly
right-angled, more or less obtuse. The upper side is very
densely and finely punctate in the males, less so in the females,
and in both covered with a thin pubescence. The elytra are
feebly striated, finely and densely punctate, with a fine pubes-
cence, sometimes rounded, sometimes acuminate at the apex,
sometimes wholly ferruginous, sometimes dark chestnut, paler
round the borders....The under side is brown, the edges of the
abdominal segments and sometimes the apex of the abdomen
reddish. The legs ferruginous.
The trochanters and thighs of the hind legs are liable to con-
siderable variation in form in the males. The following varieties
are met with.
1. The trochanters are simple, and the thighs have a fine
tooth below.
- 2..The thighs are simple, and the trochanters are armed with
a sharp spike.
14 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
3. The thighs are simple, and the trochanters lengthened,
formed like a gouge-chisel, convex outwards, concave inwards,
but with the edge turned inwards at the point.
4. Both thighs and trochanters simple.
It will be seen from the above that I consider this a variable
species, and that the variations I have above indicated are nothing
more than different forms of the same species... Erichson was of
the same opinion, for it was he who first observed and recorded
the variations in the form of the trochanters of the hind legs,
and in noticing them he remarks—“ Of the males I: have the
following variations before me. These, one cannot with propriety
refer to different species, when in all other respects the perfect
examples agree.” Other authors however have come toa dif-
ferent opinion, and have made distinct species of these different
varieties, and as these authors are of high standing and) their
species have been very generally adopted, it will be right, 1 thmk,
to give acopy of their descriptions, so that the reader may have
before him the means of judging for himself.
I shall therefore quote the descriptions: of them) given: by
Kraatz, as being both the most recent and the most ample; but,
in accordance with my own opinion, I shall rank them here only
as varieties.
Var. C. angustatus, Kraatz.
Catops angustatus, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xii. 401.
“ Oblongus, piceus; thorace minus dense et subtiliter punctato, ante
medium latiore, angulis posticis obtusiusculis, marginibus et
angulis posticis dilutioribus; elytris, substriatis, rufo-ferru-
gineis, versus suturam postice interdum infuscatis.
“Long. 22 lin.
“Mas, trochanteribus posticis plerumque scalpiformibus.
“ Fem. ? elytris apice acuminatis.
“The longest and narrowest species in this group. The an-
tenne are very slender, longer than the half of the body, always
entirely of a clear ferruginous colour. First joint somewhat
stronger and as long as the second; third nearly twice as long as
the joints on each side of it (second and fourth) ; eighth only a
little shorter than the seventh and ninth, which are equal in
length ; the last joint longer than the preceding, long, cylindrical,
and acuminate. The head is blackish brown; the parts of the
mouth ferruginous, abundantly and finely punctate, The thorax
is a little broader than long, gently rounded at the sides, broadest
before the middle, gradually narrowed towards the base, the pos-
terior angles more or less feebly obtuse-angled ; the basal. mar-
gins are depressed for a moderate breadth, and somewhat bent.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 15
up, so that there is the commencement of a deepened line on each
side. "The upper side is covered with a moderately dense golden-
yellow pubescence, and. tolerably abundantly and finely punctured,
pitchy black, the outer edges and the posterior angles reddish brown,
with a more or less distinctly marked dorsal line, slightly im-
pressed on both sides near the base. The elytra are only very
feebly expanded, sometimes not wider than the base, pressed flat
at the suture, slightly striated, finely and densely punctate, with
a fine silken pubescence, ferrugmous. The darker individuals |
are somewhat) darker towards the apex near the suture. The
legs are ferruginous red.
“ Note I.—A not unimportant sexual distinction in this and
the kindred species is afforded by the formation of the posterior
trochanters. I have already (Stett. Ent. Zeit. xi. p. 284 ff.) ex-
pressed my opinion upon them, but by persevering investigations
I am: now able to add something to what has been already said,
by way: of ‘completion. Male examples both of C. angustatus,
Fab., and C. cisteloides, Frohl. (castaneus, Sturm), occur with
slightly developed simple acuminate posterior trochanters, with
the difference however, that the trochanters im C. angustatus are
narrower and longer than in C. cisteloides, and their point is far
more acuminate. But there are moreover in both species males
with very different, strongly developed.trochanters. Nevertheless
the principle of development is wholly different in the two spe-
cies. The highest step of the development of the trochanters
in the C. cisteloides, is that they are armed at the mner side with
a projecting tooth more or less curved, and in ‘the angustatus,
that they are widened ‘and lengthened into a gouge-chisel form ;
thus it is clear that’ a male of the angustatus can never come
before us with a tooth at the inner side of the trochanter, it
being impossible to form a transition-step to the gouge-chisel
form.
“ Note II.—I think I have found a second interesting sexual
distinction of the females of the C. angustatus, F., in the single
sharp acuminate posterior angles of the elytra. The specimens
of Erichson (to be found in the Royal collection of this place
(Berlm)) are represented as females of C. angustatus ; in the
same way a collection of females here agree perfectly with the
males, but the latter have rounded elytra. One female taken at
Cassels (alas, somewhat injured), which has been kindly sur-
rendered to me by Herr Richl, has likewise acuminate elytra. A
larger series of this generally rare species would be required to
allow us to decide without doubt whether perhaps one of the
species very similar to C. angustatus exists, of which the male
likewise may have acuminate elytra. However, I consider this
highly improbable. 3
16 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
‘«¢ Note I11.—From the near affinity of this species with the fol-
lowing species more minutely described by Sturm (castaneus, St.),
is it surprising that I yet refer to this species the greatest
part of those placed by Erichson under the C. angustatus,
of the authors referred to by him, without subjecting to a
more particular examination the descriptions given by them, and
knowing whether or not they had the work of Sturm on Catops
before them while engaged on their descriptions? Such an ex-
amination has been made as far as possible, and leads to the
result that those authors who entered upon a more detailed
description, such as Gyllenhal, Latreille, Spence, had mostly
both species before them, as Gyllenhal without doubt appears to
have had.”
Var. C. intermedius, Kraatz.
C. intermedius, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 401.
“ Oblongus, fuscus; thorace postice angustiore, ante medium
latiore, angulis posticis obtusiusculis ; elytris substriatis con-
coloribus ; antennis pedibusque ferrugineis.
«Long. 23 lin.
“‘ Mas, trochanteribus posticis scalpiformibus.
“In form this species occupies the middle place between
C. spadiceus, Dahl., and angustatus, Fab.,—shorter and broader
than the latter, less robust than the former ; well distinguished
however by its breadth. It is distinguished at the first glance
from C. spadiceus, Dahl., by the thorax not being deeply and
strongly punctured, as well as by its lighter colour. From C. an-
ustatus it differs in the following points :—
“‘q, The whole beetle is shorter, more compressed, less equally
broad than the C. angustatus, Fab.; the elytra in the middle
somewhat bellied out.
«}, The antennze are likewise uniform in colour, clear ferru-
ginous red, but somewhat shorter and stronger, the eighth joint
relatively shorter than in C. angustatus.
“e¢, The margin of the thorax is somewhat broader, and
more bent upwards than in the C. angustatus, Fab.; it is also
to be distinguished by the deepened lines on each side of the
thorax. The upper side is moderately finelyand densely (coarsely-
shagreen) punctured, ferruginous brown, occasionally somewhat
darker in the middle.
“dq. The elytra are less equally broad than in the C. angus-
tatus, Fab., in the middle somewhat bellied out, entirely of one
colour, ferruginous brown. '
“T have at least half-a-dozen females, but only one male
before me, which with greater probability belongs to this species.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 17
It has gouge-chisel-shaped lengthened trochanters in the hinder
legs. 7
This species has up to this time been collected in the island
of Rugen (Erichson!), Konigsberg (Hargen !), Leipzig (v. Kiesen-
wetter !), S. Wehlen (Markel !), and Diisseldorf (Hildebrand !).
It has also been taken in Austria, For the most part it is
found under leaves. C. angustatus, Fab., is not rarely found
under stones.”
Var. C. cisteloides, Frohl.
** Luperus cisteloides, Frohl. Naturf. 28. 25. 3. t. 2. f. 50.
** Catops castaneus, Sturm, Ins. xiv. 9. 3. t. 273. a. A; Heer, Fn. Helv. i.
378. 2; Redt. Fn. Aust. 143. 4; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xii. 284. 4.
43 cisteloides, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 404; Fairm. & Laboulb.
Faun. Ent. Frang. i. 299.
* Oblongus, nigro-piceus ; ¢thorace nigro-piceo, ante medium vix
latiore, angulis posticis obtusiusculis ; elytris substriatis, piceis
seu castaneis.
“Long. 2% lin.
““ Mas, trochanteribus posticis acuminatis seu latere inferiore
dente magis minusve curvato extante.
“This is readily distinguished from the C. angustatus, Fab.,
by the darker colour:and the form of the thorax. «The antennz
are nearly as long as the body*, reddish: brown, always darker
towards the point.: First: joint: strong, third’ distmetly longer
than the contiguous joints, the fourth somewhat shorter than the
third ; fifth, sixth and seventh equal:in length; eighth nearly half
as long as the seventh, ninth somewhat:shorter than the seventh,
tenth somewhat. shorter than: the ninth; the last jomt almost
twice as long as the preceding, sharply acuminate. The head is
black-brown, extremely finely and closely punctate. The thorax
is formed like that of C. angustatus, Fab., but the sides both
before and behind are nearly equally strongly rounded, so that
the greatest breadth is not before the middle ; the margin is by
far less raised up, less broadly spread out, so that the line on
each side of the thorax is both shorter and less deeply marked ;
the upper side is as a rule entirely pitchy black, extremely deeply and
finely ( fine-shagreen) punctured ; the deep middle line is frequently
wanting. The elytra are moderately arched, lightly striated,
pitchy black, more rarely pitchy brown. The legs are ferruginous
brown. |
“It is spread over the whole of middle and southern Europe,
and not rare. In France (according to Latreille) ; in Lombardy
* This is not correctly expressed. The antennz are longer than the half
of the body, but cannot be said to be “ nearly as long as the body.”” They
are in no degree longer than the antennz of the other varieties.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 2
18 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
(according to Villa) ; in Italy (according to Sturm) ; in Sardinia
(Géné, Berlin Mus.) ; in Sicily (Berlin Mus.),’’*
A consideration of the differences here given as characterizing |
these three species will not, I think, warrant us in looking upon
them as more than varieties.
The differences consist in the form and colour of the thorax,
the punctuation of the thorax and elytra, the form and colour of
the body, the colour of the antenne, the proportions of the
joints of the antenn, and the form of the posterior trocbanters.
Of these, the difference most readily recognizable is that in the
form and colour of the thorax; the form of the thorax in the
typical specimens of C. castaneus, Sturm, bemg that shown in
fig. 1, while C. angustatus, Fab., is that shown in fig. 2, and
C. intermedius, Kr., somewhat between them, but nearest to
fig. 2. M. Kraatz’s description might lead us. to, suppose that
fig. 3 would best. represent C. angustatus, F., but having had
under my eyes typical examples of all three, sent to me by
M. Kraatz, I find that none of them have the thorax widened
more in front than fig. 2, which, indeed, fairly represents the
thorax of M. Kraatz’s specimens of C. angustatus, F.. But I
know that there are examples which have their thorax widened
as much in front as fig. 3. I possess one myself, and Sturm
gives that form in his figure of his C. angustatus. We must
therefore either make a fourth species to receive fig. 3, or else
admit that this subgroup is variable in the form of its thorax ;
and there need be no hesitation in adopting the latter course, as,
although I have not met with any specimen exactly fillmg up the
gap between fig. 2 and fig. 3, I have seen all grades of transition
between fig. 1 and fig.2. Another point of difference, where we
constantly see a gradual passage between the one and the other, is
the colour of the thorax. In the typical C. castaneus, St., it is dark
pitchy black throughout, and the margins are not paler than the
centre, nor semitransparent. In both C. angustatus, F., and C. in-
termedius, Kr., the margins are paler, or semitransparent ; but I
have seen transition specimens where it is almost impossible to
say whether the margins are paler or not, in one view looking
paler, and in another quite dark and opake. Again, specimens
occur very slightly paler on the margins, and so on. The punc-
tuation and depressions, and the spreading out and raising up
of the margins of the thorax also vary. I admit that I have
never seen the normal or perfect examples of C. castaneus, St.,
with the spread-out and slightly bent-up edges of the C. angus-
tatus, ¥., or intermedius, Kr.; but if, as I imagine, the latter are
less mature individuals, and castaneus, St., the more mature fully-
* Kraatz im loc. cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 19
coloured and more solidified form, such a circumstance will suf-
ficiently account for the differences to which I have been alluding,
whether in punctuation, depression, or colour. Indeed, such a
supposition accounts for more; for it is not only in the thorax
that these differences exist, but also in the whole of the rest of
the body. CC. castaneus, St., is darker and more deeply punc-
tate on the elytra also, and the deeper colour extends to the
antennee, which are slightly darker at the point ; and this is only
what might be expected: we always find that where a greater
infusion of colour has penetrated through an individual, it is not
confined to one part, but pervades the whole system. I also
look upon the acuminate sutural apex of the elytra (referred to
by Kraatz as being possibly a sexual distinction of C. angus-
tatus, ¥.) as another indication of immaturity. I have never
seen this im C. castaneus, St., but I have found it indifferently
both in the males and females of C. angustatus, F. As to
the differences in the form of the joints of the antenne of
C. angustatus, ¥., and castaneus, St., these are too slight, even
adopting absolutely M. Kraatz’s own description, to allow us to
use them as characters for a species ; but I cannot entirely adopt
his descriptions without reservation, as, notwithstanding a very
careful examination of the specimens he sent me, I have scarcely
been able to detect the differences he alludes to. Turning back
to his description, it will be seen that the only differences given
are the following :—In C. angustatus, F., he says, the third joint
is nearly twice as long as either the second or fourth. In
C. castaneus, he says, the third is distinctly longer than either the
second or fourth. In angustatus the seventh and ninth are said
to be equal in length. In castaneus the ninth is somewhat
shorter than the seventh. In angustatus the last joint is said to
be “longer than the preceding, long cylindric and acuminate.”
In castaneus it is almost twice as long as the preceding, sharply
acuminate.” The differences here given are thus exceedingly
minute, so much so as to be inappreciable by an ordinary ob-
server. Now I know that in undisputed species in this genus
considerable differences are to be perceived in different indivi-
duals in the relative thickness, &c. of the joints of the antenne ;
so much so-as to make the antenne appear decidedly more
clubbed in the one than the other. This minute measuring of
the joints appears to me therefore an unsafe character, not to be
adopted. There only remains the difference in the form of the
posterior trochanters in C. angustatus, F., and castaneus, St. On
this I shall only observe, that M. Kraatz admits that there is
great variation in the development of these parts, but seems to
think there is an impossibility in a transition taking place
between a trochanter having a projecting curved tooth at the
, 2
20 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
inner side, and a trochanter itself of a gouge-chisel-shaped form
without a tooth on the inner side. “My readers must judge for
themselves as to this; but [ agree with Erichson in thinking that
the development of that part is variable, and I cannot agree with
M. Kraatz in putting bounds to the variation.
The differences we have been considering are almost entirely
those between C. angustatus, Fab., and intermedius, Kr., on the
one part, and C. castaneus, St., on the other. It is much
more difficult to point out those between C. angustatus, F., and
intermedius, Kr.: as to these, I shall confine myself to referring
the reader to the distinctions pointed out by M. Kraatz himself
in his description of C. intermedius above quoted, merely ob-
serving that if I am right in jomimg together the much more
dissimilar forms of C. angustatus, F., and castaneus, St., we can
have no hesitation in.refusing to make another species on the
strength of the almost imperceptible differences relied on by
M. Kraatz, a decision which a careful examination of the speci-
mens of intermedius so kindly furnished to me by that gentleman
has given me no reason to alter. If any of the varieties are to
be exalted into separate species, castaneus, St., is obviously the
one best entitled to this.
Referring back then to my general comprehensive description
of this species above given (p. 13), I have only to add, that the -
extreme examples of the foregoing varieties may be known with-
out much difficulty by the following ‘characters. The less decided
examples form intermediate steps, and it will often be found
scarcely possible to say to» which of the nearest varieties they
belong.
1. Pale ferruginous varieties.
Var. A. Thorax widest at front, as shown in fig. 8; margins
paler than centre.
Var. B. C. angustatus, Kraatz. Thorax widest not at the very
front, but a little before the middle, as in fig. 2; margins
paler than centre ; depressions on thorax not deep. | Elytra
nearly parallel, darker at suture towards apex.
Var. C. C. intermedius, Kraatz. Thorax a little broader than in
var. B; margins paler than centre, with deeper depressions
on thorax. Elytra slightly widened in middle, entirely red
ferruginous.
2. Dark chestnut variety.
Var. D. C.castaneus, Sturm, Thorax widest in middle, as shown
in fig. 1, of a more solid consistence than the pale varieties ;
margins not paler than centre.
This species is found over the whole of Kurope, and Gebler
Mr. A, Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 21
mentions it as having been taken in the south-west of Siberia.
The whole of the above varieties are found in England and Scot-
land, but var. D is the commonest and var. A the rarest—(of it
I have only seen one example),
2. C. spadiceus, Sturm.
Catops spadiceus, Dahl. in lit.; Sturm, Ins. xiv. 11. taf. 273. fig. 6B; Redt.
Fiz. 4.
Fn. Aust. 771; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 399.
Oblongus, nigro-piceus ; thorace fortius punctato,
postice angustiore, ante medium latiore, angulis
posticis obtusis; elytris castaneis, parum ven-
tricatis, apice obscurioribus, substriatis; an-
tennis ferrugineis, apicem versus obscurioribus.
Long. 24-24 lin.
Mas, trochanteribus posticis scalpiformibus.
The most robust species in this group. Head, thorax and
under-side in the fully-coloured individuals pitchy black, the
elytra fine chestnut-brown. The examples not fully coloured are
dirty yellowish brown. The antennz are tolerably long, scarcely
half as long as the body, reddish brown, in the normal state the
last five joints darker ; the first somewhat stronger, third some-
what longer than the adjoining jomts ; second, fourth and fifth of
equal length ; sixth somewhat shorter than the fifth, and as long
as the seventh and ninth; eighth somewhat shorter than the
tenth ; tenth somewhat shorter than the ninth; the last joint is
somewhat shorter than the foregoing, strongly acuminate. The
head is pitchy black, the parts of the mouth ferruginous red ;
the top of the head finely and sparingly, the front more deeply
and strongly punctured. The thorax is distinctly narrower
than the elytra, a little arched, somewhat broader than long; the
sides rounded, and somewhat more so in front than behind, ©
so that the greatest breadth of the thorax is rather before the
middle; the posterior angles are obtuse and rounded off, the
basal margin straight-truncate ; the margin in the posterior half
is broadly expanded and a little bent up, so that a somewhat
bent and deep line arises on each side, particularly when seen
from above. The upper side is strongly and deeply punctate*, mo-
derately densely covered with a golden-yellow pubescence, with
a distinctly impressed line along the middle, about one-third of
* Sturm says, “ finely and densely” punctate, but Kraatz aie cor-
rects this ; the deep coarse punctuation being one of the most characteristie
features of the species.
22 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
the thorax in length. The scutellum is triangular, punctate,
brown. The elytra are moderately arched, chestnut-brown, and
a little darker towards the apex; immediately behind the shoulders
and a little further back somewhat bellied out, but not so that
the greatest breadth lies before the middle. The striz are mode-
rately shallow, but very distinct, and their punctuation is pro-
portionately strong and somewhat wrinkled. The pubescence on
the elytra is long, and not so close or adpressed as in the allied spe-
cies. The legs are ferruginous brown.
Kraatz records the male as having chisel-formed posterior tro-
chanters, but in strongly developed specimens there might easily
occur gouge-formed trochanters. Sturm only knew the female.
{ have also only seen the female.
This species is to be distinguished from the preceding by its
more robust form, deeper punctuation, more bellied elytra, and
by the longer pubescence on the elytra. For a considerable time
I was disposed to look upon it as merely another variety of
C. angustatus, F., but I am now satisfied that it may justly take
its place as a distinct species. The stronger punctuation taken
by itself might only indicate a variety, but the bellied form of the
elytra and the difference in the pubescence are more essential
characters ; the latter is particularly well seen on the edges of
the elytra.
It was first recorded by Sturm as having been found in
Austria and Hungary. Chaudoir found it at Kiew. Kraatz
records it as having been taken. at Halle, Bautzen, Erlangen,
Darmstadt, &c. It has been taken by M. Chevrolat in France,
and I have one specimen taken in Scotland. Kraatz says, it is
generally found under leaves. |
3. C. humeralis, Brullé.
Choleva humeralis, Br. Exped. Se. de Morée, iii. p, 162. no. 255.
“ Nigricans, punctatus, rufo-villosus ; ore, antennis, elytrorum
macula humerali, abdominis segmentorum marginibus pedi-
busque ferrugineis; antennis apice fuscis; elytris profunde
punctato-striatis.
“ Long. 24 lin., lat. 14.
“Head black, finely punctate, with the whole of the mouth
and the half of the antenne ferruginous; the latter slightly
pubescent, their five last articles brown. Thorax a little less
long than broad, rounded on the sides, raised at the posterior
angles, truncate behind, finely punctate, of a blackish brown,
lighter on the lateral margins, and covered with a short reddish
pubescence. Scutellum triangular, blackish and pubescent like
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 23
the thorax. Elytra oval, a little broader than the thorax, marked
with deep longitudinal. strie formed by large deep punctures,
and tolerably strongly punctate in the intervals between the
strize; their colour is of a deep brown, marked with a large fer-
ruginous blotch at each of the anterior angles ; they are covered
by a reddish. adpressed and tolerably dense pubescence. Under
side of the body finely punctate, blackish, with the edges of the
abdominal segments ferruginous. Legs of this latter colour ;
posterior thighs partly brown.
“Upon flowers in the month of June. . Arcadia*.”’
This appears to be the proper place to take in this species.
I have not seen it. Brullé did not give a figure of it in his
work, and on inquiry at Paris I find that his specimens must
have been eaten by the larve of the Anthrent so. destructive to
collections on the continent. The only trace or record of the
species, therefore, so far as I know, is his description, of which
the above is:a translation, and which seems to me to show con-
siderable affinity to the preceding species (spadiceus, St.).
4. C. agilis, Ilhg.
Ptomaphagus agilis, Mlig. Kaf. Pr. 882.
Choleva agilis, Spence, Linn. Trans. xi. 1402.
Catops fuscus, Gyll. Ins. Suec. i. 28]. 5.
Choleva testacea, Latr. Gen. Crust. et Ins. xi. 28.2.
Catops agilis, Erich. Kaf. d. Mark Brand.i. 234. 2; Sturm, Ins. xiv. 7.
2. tab. 272. n. N; Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 379. 3; Redt. Fn. Aust. 133. 3;
Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 405; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. Franc.
i. 300. .
Oblongo-ovatus ; nigro-piceus, vel testaceo-piceus; Fig. 5.
thorace transverso, postice latiore ; elytris sub-
striatis, antennis pedibusque ferrugineis.
neh!
Long. 23 lin.
Mas, tibiis mediis curvatis ; trochanteribus posticis y
inferiore dente curvato acuminato armatis.
Shorter and somewhat broader than C. angustatus, Fab., not
very constant in colour, the darkest examples ferruginous brown
with lighter antennee. The antenne are scarcely half so long as
the body; the third joint almost twice as long as the second ;
the fourth, fifth and sixth are nearly equally long, the remainder
(seven to eleven) are somewhat stronger than the preceding ;
the eighth is half as long as the ninth; the ninth equal to the
tenth; the last joint is a half longer than the preceding joint,
obtusely acuminate, The head is brown, extremely fine and
tolerably sparingly punctured. The thorax is almost twice as
* Brullé in loc, cit.
24 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
broad as long, nearly of the breadth of the elytra, narrower in
front than behind, the broadest part being decidedly behind the mid-
dle; the posterior angles are obtuse and rounded, and the sides are
neither spread out nor bent up, so that the moderately dense and
very finely punctate upper side is entirely smooth. The colour of
the thorax is dark ferruginous brown, darker in.the middle.
Individuals with the thorax entirely blackish occur rarely. The
elytra are generally ferruginous or testaceous, sometimes chestnut
and sometimes pitchy brown ; they are finely and densely punc-
tate ; at the base very feebly, towards the apex more distinctly
finely punctate striate.. The legs are ferruginous brown, the
middle tibie of the males are bent strongly inwards, the posterior
trochanters are not distant at the base, and are armed on the
inner side with a short strong pointed tooth.
This species is readily distinguished by the form of the thorax,
narrowest in front and widest behind. . The other. particulars
which I have printed in #¢alics are characters also easily seized.
It is spread over the most part of Europe, in Prussia, Austria,
Saxony, Switzerland, France, Sweden, and Britain, but is every-
where scarce... + agéyi
The only exotic species belonging to this group which I know
of is C. lateritius, Menet. C. Frankenhaueseri, Mann., would also
fall into this group, if it is retained in the genus at all, but its
pectinate antennz seem to me to require us to create a separate
genus to receive it.
C. lateritius, Men.
Catops lateritius, Menetries, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sciences, St. Petersburg,
6 sér. vi. (1849), p. 52.
“ Oblongo-ovatus, pallide rufo-ferrugineus, breviter griseo-pubes-
cens ; antennis tenuibus longitudine dimidii corporis ; thorace
transverso subdepresso. postice latiore angulis obtusis, late-
ribus subreflexis ; elytris creberrime punctulatis, substriatis,
stria suturali profunde exarata.
“Long. 2 lin., lat. 3 lin.
“ Near C. agilis, Illig., but proportionately narrower, the thorax
is much less broad and flatter, and the antenne are much longer.
“Described from two individuals taken at Novaia Alexan-
drovskaia*.””
[To be continued. ]
* Menetries in loc. cit.
*«
Dr. J. E. Gray on a new species of Spheerium. 25
I].—On a second new species of Sphzrium from the Paddington
Canal. By Dr. J. EK. Gray, F.R.S. &e.
In company with the Spherium pallidum described in the last
Number of the ‘ Annals,’ Mr. Rowse finds another species of the
genus which is very distinct from the well-known and generally
distributed Spherium corneum in being subtriangular, which
gives it much the external appearance of a species of Pisidium.
I cannot identify it with any of the species in the British
Museum collection, nor can I find any description or figure re-
_ presenting it in any of the works on European freshwater Mol-
lusea ; I therefore indicate it as new.
It most resembles some specimens which we have received as
Cyclas tumida of Pfeiffer, but I do not find any species under
that name in Dr. Pfeiffer’s work. The Paddington Canal spe-
cimens are more inequilateral, longer, and more triangular, having
a very distinct hinder slope.
M. Deshayes considers C. tumida as only a variety of S. cor-
neum.
SPHARIUM PiIsiDIOIDES.
Shell ovate, subtrigonal, involueres olive, pale edged, slightly
concentrically wrinkled, rather rounded m front, somewhat pro-
duced, with a broad subangular slope behind; the umbones sub-
anterior, regularly convex. Siphons united nearly to the end,
the upper shorter, subconic ; apertures circular, simple, the lower
rather larger, about twice the length of the upper when expanded,
cylindrical ; the opening circular, simple.
Hab. Paddington Canal.
The adult shells are 6 lines long, 5 high, and 4 thick. They
have much the appearance of a large swollen Pisidium, but have
the two distinct siphons of the genus Spherium.
The young shells which were deposited in the glass of water
during the night were much compressed and nearly regularly
oblong ; they varied in size, some being twice as large as the
others; the largest were about 1} line long.
When the siphons are very much extended the difference in
length between the two is not so great as above, as it is the
basal part of the siphons which appears to be the most extensile,
the apical parts keeping the same relative length to each other
that they did in the less extended state.
I am informed that some British conchologists consider Sp.
pallidum to be the C. lacustris of Draparnaud: it is very unlike
the specimens I have received from France and the rest of Europe
under that name.
26 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Habits of the Orang-Utan.
I11.—On the Habits of the Orang-Utan of Borneo.
By Aurrep R. Watuace,.
THE two species of Pithecus which it is believed have now been
proved to exist in Borneo, appear to have habits so similar that
we shall not attempt to divide them, but shall speak of the
genus in the following observations, in which we shall for brevity
use the native name “ Mias” as applied to both species.
There seems little reason to doubt that the Sumatran Orang
is identical with the larger Bornean species, or that possessing
the lateral cheek-ridges. All these animals confine themselves
strictly to the low, level and swampy districts which occupy
so large a portion of the surface of both these islands ; and this
circumstance sufficiently accounts for the peculiarity of their
distribution. It seems at first sight surprising, that though
they are abundant on almost all the north-west coast of Borneo,
and in the south and south-west districts as far north as Sambas,
yet in the territory of Sarawak they are quite unknown. But
when we know the habits of the animal, we see a suflicient
reason for this in the peculiar physical features of the Sarawak
district. The Mias frequents those districts only which are so
low and level as to be marshy, and are at the same time covered
with a lofty virgin forest... In the midst of these plains are
isolated mountains, on many of which the Dyaks have settled
and planted numerous fruit-trees, which are much sought after
by the Mias, which traverses these hills in all directions, but
always retires to the swamp at night... Wherever the country
becomes slightly elevated, and therefore dry, the Mias is no
longer found. Thus, in the lower part of the Sadong River the
Mias is abundant; but immediately above the limit of the tides,
where the country, though still flat, is just high enough to be
dry, it disappears. Now the Sarawak valley has this peculiarity,
that the lower portion, though swampy, is not covered with con-
tinuous lofty forest, but is principally occupied by the Nipa palm,
while at a short distance above the town of Sarawak the country
becomes dry and covered with low undulations, the greater
portion of which is second-growth jungle, having been at dif-
ferent times cultivated by the Malays and Dyaks. It is probably
the vast extent of unbroken and equally lofty forest which is the
principal attraction to the Mias. These forests are its open
country, the place best adapted to its mode of life, where it can
roam in every direction with as much facility as the Indian in
the prairie or the Arab in the desert. The dry grounds are
more frequented by man, more cut up by clearings and by low
second-growth jungle, in which progression is more difficult,
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Habits of the Orang-Utan. 27
where it is more exposed to danger, and where probably its
favourite food is less abundant.
It is a singular and most interesting sight to watch a Mias
making his way leisurely through the forest. He walks delibe-
rately along the branches, in the semi-erect attitude which the
great length of his arms and the shortness of his legs give him:
choosing a place where the boughs of an adjacent tree inter-
mingle, he seizes the smaller twigs, pulls them towards him,
grasps them, together with those of the tree he is on, and thus,
forming a kind of bridge, swings himself onward, and seizing
hold of a thick branch with his long arms, is in an instant
walking along to the opposite side of the tree. He never jumps
or springs, or even appears to hurry himself, and yet moves as
quickly as a man can run along the ground beneath. When
pursued or attacked, his object is to get to the loftiest tree
near ; he then climbs rapidly to the higher branches, breaking
off quantities of the smaller boughs, apparently for the purpose
of frightening his pursuers. Temminck denies that the Orang
breaks.the branches to throw down when pursued ; but I have
myself several times observed it. It is true he does not throw
them at a person, but casts them down vertically ; for it is
evident that a bough cannot be thrown to any distance from the
top of a lofty tree. In one case, & female Mias, on a durian
tree, kept up for at least ten mimutes a continuous shower of
branches and of the heavy spined fruits, as large as 32-pounders,
whieh most effectually kept us clear of the tree she was on. She
could be seen breaking them off and throwing them down with
every appearance of rage, uttering at intervals a loud pumping
grunt, and evidently meaning mischief.
When a Mias is once up a lofty tree, there is no danger of
his getting away, as he will not descend to the lower branches,
which he must do to pass to another tree. As soon as he feels
himself badly wounded he makes a nest, which, if he completes,
is so secure that he will never fall from it. I lost two Miases that
way, both dying on their nest, when I could not get any one to
climb up or cut down the tree till the next day, when putrefac-
tion had commenced. ‘They choose a horizontal forked branch,
and breaking off all the branches in its neighbourhood, lay them
across one another till a complete leafy bed is made, which quite
hides them from below, and from which they will not move
afterwards. Their tenacity of life is very great,—from six to a
dozen bullets in the body being required to kill them, or make
them fall.
Every night the Mias sleeps on a nest similar to that above
described, but smaller, and generally placed on a small tree, not
more than 50 or 60 feet-from the ground. The same-animal
28 Mr. A.R. Wallace on the Habits of the Orang-Utan,
appears seldom to use these nests more than once or twice, and
they are accordingly very abundant in places frequented by the
Mias. They feed all through the middle of the day, but seldom
return to the same tree two days running. They seem not much
alarmed at man, often staring down upon me for several minutes,
and then moving away slowly to a short distance. After seeing
one, I have often had to go a mile or more to fetch my gun, and
in almost every case have found it on my return within a hundred
yards of the place. I have never seen two adult animals together;
but both males and females are sometimes accompanied by half-
grown young ones, or two or three of the latter go in company.
They very rarely descend to the ground,—probably only in search
of water.
The females have but one young, which clings by the long
hair of its mother’s flanks, and so little impedes her motions,
that in two cases I was not aware of its presence till both fell
together. The food of the Mias consists exclusively of fruits,
with occasionally, when these are scarce, tender shoots and
leaves. They seem to prefer them unripe, and many are in-
tensely bitter, particularly the large red fleshy arillus of one
fruit, which seems an especial favourite. In another case, they
eat only the small seed of a large fruit, of which they destroy
immense quantities. The durian (Durio zibethinus) is also a great
favourite, and the Mias destroys large quantities of this delicious
fruit, in places where it grows surrounded by lofty jungle, but
will not pass over clearings to get. at them. It seems wondeérful
how the animal can tear open this fruit, the outer covering of
which is so thick and tough, and densely covered with strong
conical spines» It probably bites a few of these off first, and
then, making a small hole, tears the fruit open with its powerful
fingers. :
It has been said, that the huge canine teeth of the Orang are
for the purpose of defending himself against the tigers, bears,
and other carnivorous animals of the Eastern forests. Our ob-
servations and inquiries as to the habits of the animal convince
us, however, that no such explanation of this part of the animal’s
structure is at all satisfactory. In the first place, neither the
tiger nor any other of the large carnivora are found in Borneo,
where the Orang is most abundant ; though in Sumatra the tiger
and the Mias are found together. In the second place, the tiger
cannot climb trees, and is therefore quite unable to attack the
Orang, which never need descend to the ground, and very
rarely does so. The Malayan Bear (Helarctos Malayanus) is
the only animal which would have any chance whatever in
attacking him ; but as it is not carnivorous (or but slightly so),
it could have no object in commencing an attack in which it
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Habits of the Orang-Utan. 29
would probably be beaten. The Dyaks are unanimous in their
statements that the Mias never either attacks or is attacked by
any animal, with one exception, which is highly curious, and
would hardly be credible were it not confirmed by the testimony
of several independent parties, who have been eye-witnesses of
the circumstance. The only animal the Mias measures his
strength with is the Crocodile of these regions (Crocodilus bipor-
catus?t). The account of the natives is as follows:—“‘ When
there is little fruit in the jungle, the Mias goes to the river-side to
eat the fruits that grow there, and also the young shoots of some
palm-trees which are found at the water’s edge. The crocodile
then sometimes tries to seize him, but he gets on the reptile’s
back, beats it with his hands and feet on the head and neck, and
pulls open its jaws till he rips up the throat... The Mias always
kills the crocodile, for he is very strong. There is no animal in
the jungle so strong as he.” |
Now it is very important to observe, that in this, the only
case in which the Mias has to defend himself agamst a formidable
attack, he never uses his teeth at all! He depends solely upon
the immense strength of his arms. But even if we suppose that
in Sumatra he is‘sometimes exposed to the attacks of the tiger,
does any one imagine fora moment: that. his teeth would be of
the shghtest use to him? The tiger always: attacks unawares,
and almost always from behind. Let us imagine, then, a tiger
springing upon the back of an Orang who was walking upon the
ground; what could the anima] possibly do, with those fearful
claws deep in his back and shoulders, and those: tremendous
teeth firmly fastened im his neck? ‘The vertebrae would probably
be broken, and the Mias would fall deadoon the spot, as almost
every animal does under such an attack; more especially as the
tiger, knowing the strength of its prey, would be sure to strike
at a mortal part, or obtain such a hold as could not be shaken
off. But there is yet another consideration, which shows that
the canines of the Orang’ can hardly have been given it for the
purpose of enabling it to defend itself against its enemies. The
females have very small canines, and comparatively weak jaws ;
and as they, when suckling young ones, require defence far more
than the males, who are so much more powerful, the same
weapons would hardly have been denied them. It may be
objected, that they would be guarded by the males; but this
- cannot be the case, because the females with young are always
found alone, and the adult males also by themselves, as is the
case with many other animals.
Here then we have an animal which lives solely and exclusively
on fruits or other soft vegetable food, and yet has huge canine
teeth. It never attacks other animals, and is rarely attacked
30 Mr. A.R. Wallace on the Habits of the Orang-Utan:
itself; but when it is, it uses, not these powerful teeth, but its
arms and legs to defend itself. And, lastly, the female, which
is weaker, which is encumbered by its young, and which would
therefore afford a much easier prey, and a more tempting object
of attack, is quite unprovided with these supposed means of
defence. Do you mean to assert, then, some of my readers will
indignantly ask, that this animal, or any animal, is provided with
organs which are of no use to it? Yes, we reply, we do mean
to assert that many animals are provided with organs and ap-
pendages which serve no material or physical purpose. The
extraordinary excrescences of many insects, the fantastic and
many-coloured plumes which adorn certain birds, the excessively
developed horns in some of the antelopes, the colours and in-
finitely modified forms of many flower-petals, are all cases, for
an explanation of which we must look to some general principle
far more recondite than a simple relation to the necessities of
the individual. We conceive it to be a most erroneous, a most
contracted view of the organic world, to believe that every part
of an animal or of a plant exists solely for some material and
physical use to the individual,—to believe that all the beauty, all
the infinite combinations and changes of form and structure
should have the sole purpose and end of enabling each animal
to support its existence,—to believe, in fact, that we know the
one sole end and purpose of every modification that exists im
organic beings, and to refuse to recognize the possibility of there
being any other. Naturalists are too apt to imagine, when they
cannot discover, a use for everything in nature: they are not
even content to let “beauty” be a sufficient use, but hunt after
some purpose to which even that can be applied by the animal
itself, as if one of the noblest and most refining parts of man’s
nature, the love of beauty for its own sake, would not be per-
ceptible also in the works of a Supreme Creator*.
* The talented author of the ‘ Plurality of Worlds’ has some admirable
remarks on this subject. He says, “ In the structure of animals, especially
that large class best known to us, vertebrate animals, there is a general
plan, which, so far as we can see, goes beyond the circuit of the special
adaptation of each animal to its mode of living; and is a rule of creative
action, in addition to the rule that the parts shall be subservient to an
intelligible purpose of animal life. We have noticed several phenomena
in the animal kingdom, where parts and features appear rudimentary and
inert, discharging no office in their ceconomy, and speaking to us not of
purpose, but of law.” Again: “ And do we not, in innumerable cases, see
beauties of colour and form, texture and lustre, which suggest to us irre-
sistibly the belief that beauty and regular form are rules of the creative
agency, even when they seem to us, looking at the creation for uses only,
idle and wanton expenditure of beauty and regularity? To what purpose
are the host of splendid circles which decorate the tail of the peduele more
beautiful, each of them, than Saturn and his rmgs? To what purpose the
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Habits of the Orang-Utan. 31
The separate species of which the organic world consists being
parts of a whole, we must suppose some dependence of each upon
all; some general design which has determined the details, quite
independently of individual necessities. We look upon the
anomalies, the eccentricities, the exaggerated or diminished de-
velopment of certain parts, as indications of a general system of
nature, by a careful study of which we may learn much that is
at present hidden from us; and we believe that the constant
practice of imputing, right or wrong, some use to the individual,
of every part of its structure, and even of inculcating the doctrine
that every modification exists solely for some such use, is ‘an
error fatal to our complete appreciation of all the variety, the
beauty, and the harmony of the organic world.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that an animal so large, so
peculiar, and of such a high type of form as the Orang-Utan,
should yet be confined to such a limited district,—to two islands,
and those almost at the limits of the range of the higher mam-
malia ; for, eastward of Borneo and Celebes, the Quadrumana and
most of the higher mammalia almost disappear. One cannot
help speculating on a former condition of this part of the world
which should give a wider range to these strange creatures,
which at once resemble and mock the “‘ human form divine,’—
which so closely approach us in; structure, and yet. differ so
widely from us in. many points of their external form. And
when we consider that almost all other animals haye in previous
ages been represented by allied, yet distinct forms,—that the
bears and tigers, the deer, the horses, and the cattle of the
tertiary period were distinct from those which now exist, with
what intense interest, with what anxious expectation must we
look forward to the time when the progress of civilization in
those hitherto wild countries may lay open the monuments of a
former world, and enable us to ascertain approximately the
period when the present species of Orangs first made their ap-
pearance, and perhaps prove the former existence of allied species
still more gigantic in their dimensions, and more or less human
in their form and structure! Some such discoveries we may
exquisite textures of microscopic objects, more curiously regular than any-
thing which the telescope discloses ? To what purpose the gorgeous colours
of tropical birds and msects, that live and die where human eye never
approaches to admire them? To what purpose the thousands of species
of butterflies, with the gay and varied embroidery of their microscopic
plumage, of which one in millions, if seen at all, only draws the admiration
of the wandering schoolboy? ‘To what purpose the delicate and brilliant
markings of shells which live generation after generation im the sightless
depths of ocean? Do not all these examples, to which we might add
countless others, prove that beauty and regularity are universal features of
the work of Creation in all its parts, great and small?”
32 Mr. G. Busk on Polyzoa collected on the Coast
not unreasonably anticipate, after the wonders that geology has
already made known to us. Animals the most isolated in ex-
isting nature have been shown to be but the last of a series of
allied species which have lived and died upon the earth. Every
class and every order has furnished some examples, from which
we may conclude, that all isolations in nature are apparent only,
and that whether we discover their remains or no, every animal
now existing has had its representatives in past geological
epochs.
IV.—Polyzoa collected by Mr. M‘Andrew on the Coast of
Norway and Finmark in 1856. By Gzorcx Bus, F.R.S. &
L.8.*
[With a Plate. ]
MOLLUSCA.
Class POLYZOA.
Order I. P. InFunpiBULATA.
Suborder I. Cheilostomata. —
1. Fam. Caperzeapm, Busk (B. M. Cat. p. 37).
1. Caberea, Lamx. (B. M. Cat. p. 37).
1. C. Hookeri, Fleming (B. M. Cat. p. 39. pl. 38. fig. 2).
2. Fam. Cetterorapa#, Busk (B. M. Cat. p. 85).
1. Cellepora, O. Fabricius (B. M. Cat. p. 85).
1. C. cervicornis, auctor. (pars); Couch, Cornish Fauna, p. 111,
pl.19. (Pl. I. fig. 1.)
Much confusion exists with respect to this species, which I
have no doubt more properly belongs to Eschara. The form
here intended, however, which is plainly identical with Mr.
Couch’s, and therefore most probably with Borlase’s, is quite
distinct from the Eschara cervicornis of the B. M. Cat., and I
believe also from that of M.-Edwards (Sur les Eschares, p. 15.
pl. 1. fig. 1), though perhaps not from the form represented in
his pl. 2. fig. 1. The genus Eschara requires careful revision, as
does also Cellepora.
* The list is arranged according to the artificial classification adopted in
my Catalogue of Marine Polyzoa published by the British Museum, in
poaeey so far as that Catalogue at present extends, the synonymy will be
ound,
- of Norway and Finmark. 33
8, Fam. Escuarapa, Busk (B. M. Cat. p. 88).
1. shill Ray (B. M. Cat. p. 89).
1, E. teres, nob. (mn. sp.), Pl. I. fig. 2.
Polyzoary stile of distant, cylindrical, terete branches.
Cells ovate, immersed, their outline being indicated by a single
row of minute punctures. Mouth arcuate above, with a simple
straight lower lip, within which is an aviculartum with an orbi-
cular mandible.
2. EB. Skenei (var. tridens), nob. (n. sp.). Pl. I. fig. 3.
Polyzoary composed of short, flattened, expanding branches
dilated at the ends. Cells distinct, elongated. Mouth subor-
bicular, horizontal, protected in front by a trifid process con-
sisting of a central (unarmed ?) rostrum and an elevated avicu-
larium on either side (PI. I. fig. 3 ec).
3. EH. saccata, nob. (n. sp.). Pl. I. fig. 5.
. Polyzoary composed of elongated flattened branches dilated at
the ends. Cells (in the growing portions) furnished with a
strongly projecting avicularium, in the form of an elongated sac
or pouch which covers nearly the whole front of the cell (PI. J.
fig. 5 6). Mandible rounded.
4, E. rosacea, nob. (n. sp.). Pl. I. fig. 4.
Polyzoary composed of short, somewhat undulating or con-
torted, expanding lobes. Cells deeply immersed, broadly ovate,
surface granulated. Mouth rounded or arcuate above, with a,
sinus in the middle of the lower lip. An avicularium placed
obliquely on one side close to and slightly projecting over the
margin of the mouth.
In the younger cells the avicularium is seen distinctly pro-
jecting above the surface of the cell, but in the older and thick-
ened parts of the polyzoary its extremity only is seen within the
depression leading to the mouth of the cell (PI. I. fig. 4).
Young specimens (4, 6) are of a delicate rose-colour and simple
form.
2. Retepora, Imperato (B. M. Cat. p. 93).
1. R. cellulosa, Linn. (B. M. Cat. p. 93. pl. 121. figs. 3-8; pl.123.
figs. 5, 6).
A small fragment only occurs.
2. R. beaniana, King (B. M. Cat. p. 94, pl. 123. figs. 1-5).
Apparently very abundant.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol. xvii. 3
34 Mr. G. Busk on. Polyzoa collected on the Coast
i Suborder II.. Cyclostomata. | |
1, Fam. IpMonrAp ®, Busk (English Cyclopedia, Art.“ Polyzoa”)
1. Idmonea, Lamx.
1. I. atlantica, Bd. Forbes, Pl. I. fig. 6.
I. atlantica, Johnst. Brit: Zooph. 2nd edit, voli. p. 278. pl. 48.
I. radians, Van. Beneden, Bull. de ’ Acad. de Bruxelles, t. xvi.
p- 647. pl. 1. figs. 4-6. aad
In external habit J. atlantica. very closely approaches some
forms of the Australian J. radians, Lamk., figured and described
by M.-Edwards (Sur les Crisies, &e., p. "25. plol2> figs. 4, 4a
& 46), but the figure has been taken, from, an imperfectly
grown specimen. In all essential characters, however, the two
forms are perfectly distinct. In J. radians the mouth of.the
tubes is distinctly bilabiate, in J. aélantica,, simple. or . merely
sinuated ; in J. radians the surface of the branches is perforated
like a sieve with numerous closely contiguous pores, whilst in
I. atlantica it is quite smooth and merel dotted, with minute
white spots. The branches ‘also in I. aélantica are not nearly,
so much compressed as they are in J. radians, in which, as in
the apparently closely allied’ I: coronopus, Defrance, a fossil form
found at’ Grignon (M.Ed. 7. é. p. 28. pl. 12. fig. 8); the anterior
side of the branches rises in, the middle into an acute ridge.
Taking also into consideration the wide difference of locality, it
would appear quite certain that J. atlantica and I. radians, not-
withstanding their striking outward ‘resemblance’ under certain
conditions of growth, are perfectly distinct species.
2. Hornera, Lamx.
1. H. frondiculata, Lamx. Pl. I. fig. 7 a.
H. frondiculata, Lamx. Exp. Méth. p. 41. pl. 26. fig. 1, & pl.74.
figs. 7, 9; M.-Edwards, Sur les Orie: p. 17. pl. 10. fig. 1 ;
Blainville, Man. d’ Actin. p. 419.
Retepora frondiculata, Lamarck, Hist. d. An. s. V. 2de édit.
p- 277.
Millepora tubipora, Ellis & Soland. p. 139. pl. 26. fig. 1.
M. lichenoides, Linn. ; Pallas; Elenchus, p. 245; Esper, Mill.
pl. 3. figs. 1-4.
Madrepore rameux, Marsigli, Hist. de la Mer, p..49. pl. 33.
figs. 162-164.
i je H. afinis? M.-Edwards, /. ¢. pl. 10. fies 2 te. Pl, I.
- fig. 7 6.
The localities assigned to. this species by Lamouroux are
Kamtschatka, the Indian and Australian Oceans, and the
of Norway and Finmark. 35
Mediterranean. But ¢omparison of the ‘specimens collected by
Mr. M‘Andrew, and of others in, my. possession, collected; by
Capt. Beaufort im lat. 61° 35! N., long. 90° 42! W., with nume-
rous and excellent specimens collected on the coast of Patagonia
by Mr. Darwin, and of. Australia by Mr. M‘Gillivray, has fully
satisfied me that the northern.and southern forms are perfectly
distinct. I suspect also that it will be found that the Mediter-
ranean loeality belongs to a third, distinct species, should the
latter retain-a place in the genus Hornera at all. -
2. Fam. Discoporan#, Busk (Engl. Cyclopedia, Art.“ Polyzoa’’).
1. Diastopora (simplex), M.-Ed. (Sur les Crisies, &c.).
~ LDP obelia, Johnst: Brit. Zooph. 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 276. pl. 47.
TWIT Sigel JOS: |
_ Tubulipora obelia, Couch, Corn. Faun. p. 108; Johnst. Brit.
~~" Looph. p. 269. pl. 30. figs. 7, 8 ; Thompson, Ann. Nat. Hist.
y. 202. :
I have preferred the affix of M.-Edwards’s name to the genus,
although the term Diastopora was first. employed by Lamouroux.
The clear definition of the genus by the former plainly entitles
him to the preference. . The Berenicea of Lamouroux, as observed
by M.- Edwards, should certainly be referred,to the same genus,
ae 2.. Tubulipora, Lamarck.
1... hispida, Fleming...
1 Tshispida; Johnst. Brit.:Zooph. 2nd: edit. ‘vol. i. p. 268. pl. 47.
figs..9, 10, 11.
Discopora hispida, Fleming, Brit. Anim. 530 ; Couch, Corn. Faun.
109. pl. 19. fig. 1? (very bad).
8. Defrancia, Bronn (1825). Defranceia (1846), Reuss, Fossil.
Polypar. d. W. Tertiarb. :
' Pelagia, Lamx.
Lichenopora, Michelin.
Tubulipora (pars), M.-Ed,
Ceriopora (pars), auctor.
Of this genus numerous fossil forms exist in the cretaceous
and tertiary formations, and several living species appear to have
been noticed. Of the two here described, one is already known
as living, and the other only as fossil in the marl (Mergelgrund)
of Essen, and in the tertiary beds of Vienna.
a. Interstices of coste porous.
1; D. truncata, Jameson. Pl. I. fig. 8. |
Polyzoary fungiform, simple; centre of upper surface of disk
*
36 Mr. 8. P, Woodward on the Hvils of Increasing Synonyms.
cupped ; surface of. stem and back of disk, covered with, small, |
oblong, rather distant pores (fig..8.¢). |
Millepora truncata, James. Wern. Mem. i. 560. ;
Tubulipora truncata, Fleming, Brit. Anim. 529; Johnst. Brit.
Zooph. 271. pl. 33. figs. 8-10. dete :
8. Interstices of costa smooth.
2. D. stellata, Goldfuss. Pl. I. fig. 9.
Polyzoary fungiform, proliferous, flattened above; coste nu-
merous, slender; surface of stem covered with large, hexagonal,
closely contiguous pits (fig. 9 c).
Ceriopora stellata, Goldfuss, Petrefact. i. p. 39. t. 30. fig..125
Philippi, Die Tertiarverst. der Nordwestl. Deutschlands,
p. 36, 37. :
Defranceia stellata, Reuss, Die fossil. Polyparien des Wiener
Tertiarbeckens, p. 37. pl. 6. fig. a.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE TI.
Fig. 1. Cellepora cervicornis, auctor.: a, nat. size; 6, portion of surface
towards the end of a branch magnified 25 diam.; ¢, cells mag-
nified. ;
Fig. 2. Eschara teres (n, sp.): a, natural size; 5, portion magnified ;
c, transverse section of a small branch magnified.
Fig. 3. Eschara Skenei (var. tridens): a, nat. size; 6, portion magnified ;
ce; front of cell magnified. :
Fig. 4. Eschara rosacea (nosp.): a; a, a, nat. size; b, portion magnified ;
c, portion magnified (older state of cells); d, portion magnified
(young state of cells).
Fig. 5. Eschara saccata (n.sp.): a, nat. size; 6, portion magnified (young
state of cells); ¢, portion of surface in older parts magnified.
Fig. 6. Idmonea atlantica, 1. Forbes: a, nat. size ; b, front view of branch
magnified ; ¢, side view of branch magnified; d, front of young
branch magnified ; e, back of branch magnified.
Fig. 7. Hornera frondiculata, Lamx.: a, nat. size; 5, var. affinis? nat.
size; c, front view of branch magnified; d, back view of branch
magnified.
Fig. 8. Defrancia truncata (n. sp.): a, nat. size; b, portion of coste
magnified ; c, surface of stem magnified. |
Fig. 9. Defrancia stellata?, Goldfuss: a, nat. size; b, portion of edge of
disk magnified ; c, surface of stem magnified. ;
V.— On the Evils of Increasing Synonyms.
By 8. P. Woopwarp, F.G.S.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
GENTLEMEN,
In the May Number of the ‘ Annals’ I showed that “ the type of
Mr. Jeffreys’ new genus (Schismope) was a typical Scissuredla.”
:
;
&
-
8
:
.
®
:
ity
*
Le
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sb
ae ee ae ee
Mr. 8. P. Woodward on the Evils of Increasing Synonyms. 37
This was a simple matter of fact, admittmg of no reply; but
_ Mr. Jeffreys has thought proper to raise a number of ‘points,
wholly irrelevant to the subject, and most unpleasant to enter
upon. The inaccuracy of his statements can only be accounted
for by great haste and a very bad memory.
He says he had the pleasure of giving me the specimens on
which my observations were made—although I had distinctly
stated, in print, that I received them from Mr. Damon. This.
‘ makes it necessary to add that when I applied to Mr. Jeffreys for
specimens, he informed me he had sent them all to Mr. Damon ;
and he may perhaps remember that when—after I had shown
him the specimens obtained from Mr. Damon—he brought out
a boxful of these tiny shells, I asked him “ how he could have
told me he had none?” He then offered me some more speci-
mens, expressing a wish (as I understood) that, in justice to
Mr. Damon, nothing should be said about them.
Further on, Mr. Jeffreys makes me say I had previously seen
no other Scissurelle, &c. Forgettmg that I showed him the
‘finest. species he had ever seen—-S. angulata, Lovén ; that I told
him. I had found Scissurella in sand from New Zealand ; and
that in the British Museum (to go no further) there is the
type of S. Bertheloti, D’Orb., im a collection we had both lately
been examining. Besides, the question was not about species:
the specific identity of Mr. Jeffreys’ shell with S. elegans, D’Orb.,
was known and admitted by himself, from the first.
A third statement is to the effect that he consulted D’Orbigny’s
memoir at the time 1 showed him Philippi’s and Sowerby’s ob-
- servations. I can only say, that more than a month afterwards
(when the paper on “ Schismope” was gone to the ‘ Annals,’
though not printed) he informed me he had not seen the memoir
in question.
There are several other assertions which it is unnecessary to
follow, as they have neither personal nor scientific interest.
Perhaps Mr. Jeffreys thinks he is letting himself down easily,
and I should be sorry to dispel the illusion.
I will only add a few words of an accomplished botanist, lately
quoted by Dr. Carpenter :—‘“ The naturalist who has the true
interest of science at heart, not only feels that the thrusting of
an uncalled-for synonym into the nomenclature of: science is
an exposure of his own ignorance and deserves censure, but that
a wider range of knowledge and a greater depth of study are
required, to prove those dissimilar forms to be identical, which
any superficial observer can separate by words and a name.”
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient Servant,
S. P. Woopwarp.
Barnsbury, June 1856.
38 Mr. J. D. Macdonald on a Bitentaculate Slug
VI.— Observations on the Eaternal Characters and Internal
Anatomy of a Bitentaculate Slug found at the Island of
Aneiteum; New Hebrides. By Joun Denis Macponatp, R.N.,
Assistant-Surgeon of H.M.S.V. “Torch,” Tender to H.M.S.
“ Herald,” Capt. Denham, R.N., F.R.S., Commanding the
Exploring Expedition in the South Seas. vs
[ With a Plate. |
Av the Island of Aneiteum, in the New Hebrides group, we
obtained the only naked terrestrial Gasteropod with which we
met during our late cruises amongst the South Sea Islands.
At first sight the animal appeared to be simply a moderately
large species of Limaz, but on closely examining two specimens
which Mr. Macgillivray very kindly reserved for me, I noticed
that they possessed but the two tentacula that supported the
eyes. This character made the further study of their anatomy
an object of some interest to me, and I have been induced to
draw up the following account of it with the view of determining
whether the species may be with propriety retained in, or sepa-
rated from, the genus Limaz. !
The animal having the power of extending its body consi-
derably, or of drawing it up in the longitudinal direction, ‘and
spreading it out laterally so as to assume a great variety of
shapes, it would be rather difficult to state its proportions with
any degree of certainty, but it appears to average about
22 inches in length, by $ths of an inch in breadth. It is ofa pale
yellowish-brown colour, varying im depth in different individuals,
and often sparingly mottled with a reddish-brown or black pig-
ment over the dorsal region. |
Along the. middle line of the back a narrow groove extends
from the nape to the obtusely pointed extremity of the tail, and
from this primary groove, on either side, a number of smaller
channels arise, which take a parallel course obliquely outwards
and backwards to the thin margin of the foot, and communicate
with each other laterally by the transverse imterspaces between
the soft mammillary elevations of the skin.
The mantle is of small superficial extent, lying on the right
side of the body somewhat in advance of the centre, and cireum-
scribed by. a triangular sunken outline, with the angles gently
rounded off. The base of the figure thus formed corresponds
with the above-mentioned median groove, which is here slightly
deflected to the left, while the outer rather obtuse angle is so
deeply notched as to appear to be perforated by the respiratory
opening. From the upper and anterior angle two depressed
lines pass forwards, diverging so as to include the roots of the —
tentacula, on the outer side of which they are lost.
st
tee
found at Aneiteum, New Hebrides. 39
A remarkably stout scutellum with smoothly rounded. extre-
mities, presenting little of the scale-like character of the same
organ in other Slugs, is enclosed between) the, layers of the
mantle.
The 4éntacula arise directly from the head, having. no: eon-
nexion whatever with the mantle. They gradually diminish in
size towards the free extremity, which is slightly dilated and of
an oval form, containing the visual organs.
The roof of the mouth is furnished with a quadrilateral horny
tooth, having a crescentic inferior or cutting edge, and from its
intimate connexion with the buccal mass, rather than with the
upper lip, 1t would. remind one more of the upper mandible of
Cephalopods than of its representative in the veritable members
of the genus Limaz.
The lingual sac and dental plates and tubercles very closely
resemble those of Limawx, Helix, and Bulimus. Thus, the sac
itself is short, and. moderately wide, with a rounded fundus pro-
truding a little from the buceal mass posteriorly. The lingual
plates are. subquadrilateral in figure, the outer and posterior
borders being somewhat concave, and the anterior and internal
slightly convex; and each plate supports a simple conical dental
process inclining a little inwards, and having a small angular
projection on, either side of the base. , The’ plates of the central
series are quite rudimentary, each presenting a bifid anterior
portion and. a small and pointed posterior extremity. The latter
characters, if they,do not) prove|to be generic, may at least .
serve to distinguish the species.
The. generative system is remarkable for the compactness of
all its parts.
The.ovarium (Pl. III. fig. 6 7) and Lepiti (k) he m contact with
each other at about the middle of the dorsal region... The former,
on the left side, gives origin to the small or primary oviduct (d),
and the latter, on the right, is wrapped up, as it were, with the
tortuous commencement of the larger oviduct or uterus (m), but
both testis and ovarium are separated from the liver by the in-
terposition of the stomach.
The vas deferens emerges from the smaller or anterior portion
of the testis (0), winds ' in a dextral manner round the uterus,
and having reached the union of ‘the organs of both sexes, it
_erosses over to the left side and retrogrades upon the under sur-
face of the retracted male organ so as to terminate near the in-
sertion of the short retractor muscle (p), which arises from a
point corresponding to the union of the foot with the dorsal
integument on the left. side.
_ The spermatheca (q) is of considerable size and filled with a
purplish-brown secretion ; but its duct, which arises fromthe
AQ Mr. J. D. Macdonald on a Bitentaculate Slug
uterus, is so short, that the sac itself lies in contact with that
tube. Now, in the common Slugs of England, the duct of the
spermatheca has no immediate communication with the oviduct,
but opens externally by a distinct orifice in the generative pit.
Near the commencement of the uterus there is a much smaller
sac-like appendage (m), which may be a rudiment of the mul-
tifid vesicles; organs which, although peculiar to the genus
Helix, I have never seen in any of the numerous Helices which
I have dissected in the Southern hemispbere.
The external respiratory opening leads into a small cavity
with stout areolated walls, and a few little fenestrations in a
small cribriform space establish a communication between this
eavity and the pericardium; a condition which also most ‘di-
stinctly exists in Nautilus Pompilius.
The heart (7) holds a central position ; a small auricle receives
the return-blood from the respiratory surface on the right side,
and the ventricle gives off its principal arterial trunk inferiorly,
a tubular process of the pericardium encircling the vessel at. its
origin.
_A large glandular body (s) arches over the viscera from the
left to the right side immediately behind the heart, and pours
forth its mucous secretion through the respiratory orifice. This
gland is furnished with compressor muscles from the circular
fasciculi of the integument. It is doubtless the homologue of
what might be termed the renal gland of Paludina for example,
_ or the renal follicles of Nautilus ; and. indeed the close rela-
tionship of the Gasteropoda with the Cephalopoda through the
latter genus is well illustrated in many particulars in. the little
mollusk, the principal details of whose anatomy have just been
given *, ae
The only mollusk with which this may be confounded is the
Janella antipodarum of Dr. Gray. The primd-facie probability
of their identity was first suggested to me by Mr. Macgillivray
in the followmg memorandum, which expresses the state of the
question so concisely that I cannot refrain from inserting it,
with that gentleman’s permission :—
“ Limaz bitentaculatus, Quoy & Gaim. Voy. Astrolabe, t. 13.
f.1,2,3. From this description Gray formed a temporary genus
under the name of Janedla, in vol. iv. of ‘ Mrs. Gray’s Mollusea.’
He has since, from receiving one in spirits, published the cha-
racters of the genus (in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. for Dec.
* T have since ascertained that a bitentaculate Slug, answering in every
respect to that above described, is indigenous to Port Slealiona, New South -
Wales. Both unquestionably belong to the same genus, but not having
the opportunity of comparing specimens, I cannot determine if any specific
differences exist between them.
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist..S. 2Nol.18. Pl
J Buasir2, $
J. D.Macdonald, ab nat.dad.
found at Aneitewn, New Hebrides. 4]
1853), describing the only species known to him as ‘ J. antipo-
darum.—N. Zealand.’ Now it. strikes me that the (only) two-
tentacled Slug got during last cruise, and believed by. you to be
the type of a new genus, will fall into, this one—and I make this
memorandum for the purpose of mducing you:to peruse ‘the
December Number of the ‘ Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ now on
the table at. the reading-room of the Library, in case I should
forget to mention it to you verbally.”
I have only to add to this, that I have studied the characters
of the genus Janella given by Dr. Gray; in the Number of the
© Ann, re Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ referred to, and I find that the
three following items are quite sufficient in themselves to show
that Janella antipodarum can have but little affinity to the inol-
lusk above described.
Janella (Gray).
Ist. Shell none, or at least
there 1s no appearance of any
through the skin.
2ndly. The tentacles instead
of being placed on the head, as
in Philomycus-and all the other
- Avionide and Helicide, are
placed in the front part of the
mantle.
Srdly. Mantle covermg the
whole of the back with a slightly
raised margin, leaving a rather
broad space between the edge
and the edge of the foot.
Aneiteum Slug.
Ist. Shell internal, elon-
gated in form, of considerable
thicknessand smoothly rounded
off at the extremities.
2ndly. Tentacula distinctly
arising from the head, as in
Philomycus, &c.
“Ordly. Mantle of small su-
perficial extent, lying on the
right side of the body some-
what in advance of the centre,
but not extending all over the
back.
As it is yet possible that a shell may exist in Janella, aldicta gh
there is no external appearance of any, too much importance
must not be attached to its apparent absence as a distinctive cha-
racter, but the remaining items need no further comment.
The internal ceconomy of the Aneiteum Slug is similar in all
essential particulars to that of Limax. There are however in the
_ former many peculiarities, which will be noticed, as they present
themselves, in the explanation of the figures.
Port Curtis, February 13, 1855.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE III.
Fig. 1. The animal as it appeared in motion.
Fig. 2. Ditto at rest.
Fig. 3. The scutellum.
42 Mr. A. Henfrey on Vegetable Cell-formation.
Fig. 4. The horny cutting tooth: a, somewhat enlarged to show its cha-
racter more distinctly ; 6, natural size.
Fig. 5. a. Seyen lingual plates taken from the middle portion of a trans-
verse series. The rudimentary and bifid central tooth presents a
remarkable contrast to the others. 6. shows the curvatures of the
transverse rows of teeth, the longitudinal series in every case
being rectilinear.
Fig. 6. A simple dissection, in which the internal organs are merely wnra-
velled as it were, so as to afford a tout ensemble of the digestive
and generative systems in particular: a, the retracted tentacula ;
6, buccal mass, with the commencement of the cesophagus, and
the tortuous ducts of the salivary glands; c, a kind of crop or
proventneulay, to the exterior of which a loop of imtestine is
ound down by areolar tissue; d, stomach; e, a small sacculus,
which is probably the rudiment of a pancreas. It is the homo-
logue of the sacculated and internally plaited organ of Nautilus
Pompilius, represented by a more highly developed glandular ap-
paratus in Sepia. f, the liver, which is divisible into four distinct
lobes, each giving rise to a biliary duct opening separately into
the alimentary canal near the glandular sacculus, e.. The intestinal
canal, g, is rather lengthy, winding round. the liver, passing first
forwards and then backwards upon the stomach, forming a loop
upon the proventriculus as above noticed, and, finally, termina-
ting in the anus at h, near the respiratory orifice.
VIl.—On Vegetable Cell-formation.
By Prof, AntHur Henrroy, F,.R.S.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
GENTLEMEN,
Your Number for this month (June) contains some remarks by,
Dr. Carpenter relating to my letter which appeared in the pre-
ceding Number (2nd Ser. xvii. p. 417). I am obliged to trouble
' you with a few lines more on this subject, as Dr. Carpenter ap-
pears to have misconceived the purport of my communication.
With me it was no question of “ general ideas of the process of
cell-formation ;” although I humbly submit that my ‘ general
ideas ’ form as good materials for argument as references to un-
published investigations, General and long experience in obser-
vations of the process did indeed render Mr. Wenham’s account
quite incredible in my eyes: but if Dr, Carpenter reads my letter
carefully, he will see that I founded my criticism on a repetition
of the observations, and that the main feature of my letter was
a denial of the correctness of the statements and of the accuracy
of the drawings. a Pe
I am, Gentlemen, yours obediently,
ArruurR HENFREY.
Mr. T. H. Huxley on the Method of Paleontology. 43
VIII.—On the Method of Paleontology. By Tuomas H. Hux-
LEY, F.R.S., Lecturer on General Natural History at the
Government School of Mines, and Fullerian Professor of Phy-
_ slology R.1.
THERE are two perfectly distmet aspects under which Living
Beings may be studied—the Physiological and the ,Morpholo-
gical, On the one hand, every living being exerts certain forces
and. performs certain acts or functions. It is the object of the
physiologist to ascertain the precise mode in which these acts
are performed, to refer them as far as possible to the ordinary
laws of physics and chemistry, and when, as in many cases, the
functions are highly complex, to analyse them into. their ele-
mentary acts, and to determine by what part of the frame, by
what special organs, these are performed. With the form of
these parts, with their connexion other than that which is in-
volved in their coadjustment towards a common effect, the pure
physiologist has no concern.
On the other hand, every living being has a definite form,
and in all the higher living beings this form is complex; it is
made up of a greater or smaller number of lesser parts, each of
which has its own definite and appropriate figure. Now it. is
with these forms, with their mutual relations, with the laws
which govern their association, that morphology is alone con-
cerned. Although in practice the two branches of biological
science are commonly more or less united, yet it would be quite
possible to write a complete system of pure physiology without
reference to morphology, and of morphology without reference
to physiology. They are as distinct as in the mineral world are
crystallography and chemistry. To put the case in another way.
The different parts of every living being are all mutually related,
they are subject to definite laws of correlation, but these laws
of correlation are of two kinds essentially independent of one
another: there are physiological correlations and there are mor-
‘phological correlations. Thus the teeth and the stomach are
physiologically correlated, contributing as. they do to the com-
mon end of alimentation; and inasmuch as this coadaptation
towards a common end is the very essence of physiological. cor-
relation, the latter has sometimes received the name of rational
correlation ; for when the result to which a combination tends is
obvious, we commonly imagine we can see the reason for that
combination. ; .
Since the validity of nine-tenths of the science of animal phy-
siology involves the admission, that multitudes of the parts of
animals are organs working towards a common end, I do not
4d. Mr. tT. H. Huxley on the Method of Paleontology.
suppose that it ever has entered, or ever will enter, into the
mind of any person conversant with the rudiments of that sci-
ence to question the existence of physiological correlation be-
tween the different parts of animals. But how far that corre-
lation. is: in any case to be called necessary; that is, how far im
order to the due performance of a given function in any case it’ is
impossible that the organs performing that function should be
different from what we find them to be, is quite another question.
Thus the teeth of a lon and the stomach of the animal are in
such relation that the one is fitted to digest the food which the
others can tear; they are physiologically correlated, but we have
no reason for affirming this to be a necessary physiological corre-
lation, in the sense that no other could equally fit its possessor
for living on recent flesh. The number and form of the teeth
might have been quite different from that which we know it to
be, and the construction of the stomach ‘might have been greatly
altered, and yet the function of these organs’ might: have ‘been
equally well performed. Nothing can be more uniform than the
physiological ends which have to be‘attained by living beings ;
nothing more various than the modes in which they are attamed ;
and it would, I thik, in the face of ‘these well-known facts, be
the height of presumption to affirm that the function which ‘we:
see in any case performed in a particular way could not ‘possibly
have been performed in any other mode. |
If physiological correlations are however not necessary ; if,'so far’
as physiology is concerned, we have no right to say with Cuvier,
that “ Every organized being constitutes’a whole, ‘a single, and
complete system, whose parts mutually correspond and concur by
their reciprocal reaction to the same definite end. None of these
parts. can be changed without affecting the others, and conse-
quently each taken separately indicates and gives all the rest ;”?—
then a very important consequence follows, viz. that it is quite
impossible to reason conclusively on physiological grounds alone
from any part of a living being to the whole.
I by no means assert that Cuvier, in enunciating the propo-
sition quoted above, meant to exclude all but physiological con-
siderations so completely as the words appear to indicate. On
the contrary, his practice, no less than other passages of the re-
markable essay from which that citation is taken, shows clearly
that no man more fully understood the value of morphology.
Nevertheless the words of the proposition are distinct enough to
justify those who, guided more by authority than by right reason,
have denominated it Cuvier’s law of correlation, and, ambiguously
supported by Cuvier’s phraseology elsewhere, have imagined the
principle which it involves to have been his guide in paleonto-
logical research,
-
Mr..l. Hi. Huxley on the Method of Paleontélogy. 45
A simple illustration or two, however, will show that the laws
of physiological correlation alone are wholly incompetent to far-
nish such guidance. Suppose I find: the jaw of a vertebrate ani-
mal. with sharp cutting teeth imbedded im it, how far will phy-
siology help. me to determine the precise nature of the animal to
which it belonged? The sharpness of the teeth may lead me to
guess that they were used for cutting some soft substance. The
shape of the articular condyle and that of the processes for mus-
cular attachment may equally render probable the direction and
force of its ordinary movements ; but as to the rest of the or-
ganism, whether the teeth were for cutting up fish, flesh, fowl,
or, carrion, whether the creature itself was piscine or reptilian or
mammalian,—on all these points no amount of mere physiological
reasoning will help me. . Nay, how do I know it is a vertebrate
jaw at,all? that it is vertebrate bone and tooth substance? For
anything physiology teaches me to the contrary, Invertebrate
animals, might, develope osseous and dentinal tissue, and might
possess appendages having the form of vertebrate jaws.
Every naturalist knows that Invertebrate animals do not thus
mimic,the Vertebrata, and he believes that they never have and
never will do.so; but, his confidence is based, not on any physiolo-
gical.reasoning. as to the impossibility of such a proceeding, but
on his simple experience that it never does occur. He rests not on
a deduction from the laws of physiological correlation, but on the
morphological law that no Invertebrate animal ever possesses an
organ haying the forvi and: structure displayed by the jaw in
question. And. this law is:an empirical one; no: further reason
for it.can| be given, than, for) the law of: gravitation. The
whole object of morphology is to. ascertain what structural pecu-
harities invariably, coexist; with one another: why these struc-
tural peculiarities coexist, is'a question with which it does not
necessarily concern itself, and so far.as the mere restorations of
the palzontologist are concerned, it is a wholly irrelevant question.
.The empirical laws of morphology supply all that the paleeon-
tologist requires for this object.
Let ‘us imagine that all existing animals had perished, but that
their dead. forms were gathered. together and submitted to the
investigation..of some intelligent beimg from whom the know-
ledge that they had ever lived was concealed. He: would of
course remain entirely ignorant of physiology and all its: laws.
Life, if he were acquainted. before only with physical and chemical
phenomena, would be an inconceivability, and the conception of
adaptation to purpose, of physiological correlation; would fail to
suggest itself where nothing was known of actions or functions.
Nevertheless, bythe! careful comparison’ of one ‘form: with
another, he would see that in one set of specimens certain: strue:
46 Mr. T. H. Huxley on the Method of Paleontology.
tural peculiarities were invariably associated, in another set
others, ‘and he’ would thus arrive at precisely the same laws
of morphological correlation*, and at the same classification of
these dead forms as that which we have reached from our
study of the living ones. He would not term Lions and Tigers
and Wolves “ Carnivora,” for he would not even know that, they
eat anything, but he would assuredly form a group with prett
nearly the same limits as the Carnivora, simply because all these
animals resemble one another, and differ from the rest. in certain
peculiarities of dentition, &e. So again, he would group Oxen
and Sheep and Deer together, because they present correspond-
ing coexistences of structure, though, knowing nothing of their
digestive processes, he would not call them “ Ruminantia.” ~
And now, after our imaginary being had made himself ac-
quainted with the whole series of forms before him, and had.
established his great laws of morphological correlation and his’
classification, suppose that a mass of fragments of other crea--
tures, more or less similar to those which he had first familiarized
himself with, were placed before him, and he were desired to put.,
these fragments together, and to reconstruct these dismembered
forms, how would he proceed? Suppose the first bone which
came to hand very closely resembled the jaw of a Deer, would he
not naturally conclude—could he logically escape the conclusion
—that in all probability’ the skull and limbs which belonged
to this jaw were hke those ofa Deer also? ~ And finally, sup-_
posing that, guided by this strong probability, he had selected a
complete deer skeleton from the mass, all of whose parts were in
such proportion to one another and to the jaw first discovered,
as to accord perfectly with his already ascertained laws of. corre-
lation of form in the Deer species, could the validity of his resto-
ration be questioned, because he knew nothing about the pur-
poses of all these parts or their physiological correlation? ~
What additional certainty would he gain by now learning
that the Deer had once lived—that it was herbivorous—that its
teeth and internal organs were all exquisitely adjusted to its
mode of life? He would say, That is all very beautiful, and. [
‘am very glad to know it; but such considerations did not in
the least help me to pick out the bones which belonged to the
jaw, nor do they add a grain of certainty to that which I already
feel as to the justice of my restoration. Indeed, my method
tells me a great deal that yours is quite silent about. I knew
empirically that the kind of tooth and jaw placed before me was
* Except so far as he would be deprived of the advantage of the study
of development. This, however, obviously by no means interferes with the
validity of the general argument.
Mr. T. H. Huxley on the Method of Paleontology. 47
always senchiitinl with horns, with slender limbs, and with cleft
hooves; but I could never have. divined these, things from
knowing that, the jaw and tooth were specially. nalsip teh to a
herbivorous diet.
Surely all this is so obyious as to need.no arent amou nt of
demonstration, and no_ less clear is its application to. the ques-
tion, What is the method of paleontology ?.. \ How is it that. we
are able to restore an extinct animal from some fragments of. its
skeleton? It is by deduction from, those: empirical ..laws. of
morphology which express the invariable coexistencesof structur e;
so. far as observation has yet made them known to us, and it is
by this. method only... When once the general nature of an
extinct animal has been ascertained, the laws of physiology may
help us to very useful hints and guesses; but the fundamental
steps towards the determination of the nature of any unknown
fragment, whether recent or, fossil, are purely morphological,
and, SO. far as they are concerned, physiology might be non-
existent,
The. truth of what has just. been asserted, must, long have been
familiar to every thinking botanical; paleontologist ; and I have
never met with any indication, either.in. their works or in con-
versation, that the botanists. imagined they. were guided in their
determinations of extinct plants by any reference to physiological
correlation, or by any other method than deduction from purely
empirical morphological laws. ,, Nor does the palzeontologist, who
concerns himself with inyertebrate forms, often|seek for help from
physiology. [In fact,.the total absence of any acquaintance with
physiology which many,excellent paleontologists, manifest, isa
curious illustration of the justice of my: line of argument, as it
nowise interferes with the-soundness of their work,—so long as
_ they confine themselves to. such purely morphological questions
as are involved in the restoration of extinct forms.
Nor can I find that i practice those paleontologists who
haye studied the Vertebrata trouble themselves much about phy-
siological correlations or adaptations to purpose. The reader of
Cuvier’s ‘‘ Ossemens fossiles” might begin at the tenth volume
and read on to the second, and while he would be astounded at the
enormous knowledge of the laws of morphology—of the observed.
coexistence of parts which it displays—he would find himself
very rarely troubled with any remarks upon physiological corre-
lations or adaptations; and any which might offer themselves
would be entirely subordinate to the great object, of the work,
which is, to apply the purely empirical laws of morphological :
correlation, which have been ascertained to obtain among living
beings, to the elucidation of fossil remains.
48 Mr. T. H. Huxley on the Method of Paleontology.
It is with no little surprise, therefore, that in the first volume
he finds, or seems to find, the principle of physiological correla-
tion brought prominently forward, in the celebrated ‘ Discours
sur les Révolutions,’ as ¢he guide in paleontology, as the
especial means by which the determination of mammalian fos-
sils, at any rate, is effected. “I say, seems to find ; for, after all,
if the master’s words be studied carefully, it will be discovered
that his followers are more Cuvierian than Cuvier. Ja
In fact, as I have already particularly pointed out, in a lecture
which I recently delivered before the members of the Royal
Institution, Cuvier gives up the principle of physiological cor-
relation, both explicitly m words and implicitly in practice,
as an exclusive guide in paleontological research ; and he ex-
pressly admits the necessity of a reference to the laws of mor-
phological correlation. gal Taasdabat
But while admitting the importance of both methods, the
physiological and the morphological, he gives to the former by
his words a prominence which it by no means has in his practice ;
or perhaps I may more justly say, that his phraseology is am-
biguous, from his having confounded the two methods together,
under the one term of “primcipe de la corrélation des formes
dans les étres organisés.” Those who will read carefully from
p. 178 to p. 189 (ed. 4, 1834) of the ‘ Discours,’ will find that
this confusion exists throughout. Thus, if we take one of the
opening passages already cited (p. 178) :—. ‘
“Every organized being constitutes a whole, a single, and
complete system, whose parts mutually correspond and concur
by their reciprocal reaction to the same definitive end. None
of these parts can be changed without affecting the others ; and,
consequently, each taken separately indicates and gives all the
rest.” ; cre
The first paragraph here embodies the principles of both
physiological and morphological correlation. The second para-
graph, however, regards physiological correlation only, and the
statement which it contains is not true. We have no evidence
to justify us in asserting that no one part can be changed with-
out affecting all the others. On the contrary, we have abundant
evidence to show that allied species, for instance, differ in only
a single character ; which would be an impossibility if a change
in one part sensibly. affected all the rest.
Cuvier then goes on to show, in a very beautiful manner, the
physiological correlation which exists between the parts of a
Carnivore, concluding with the well-known phrase, “in the
same way the claw, the scapula, the condyle, the femur, and all
the other bones taken separately, will give the tooth, or one
Mr. T. H. Huxley on the Method of Paleontology. 49
another; and by commencing with any one, he who had a
rational conception of the laws of the organic ceconomy could
reconstruct the whole animal.”
If Cuvier means by “the laws of the organie ceconomy,” (and
the context would indicate that he does,) its physiological laws
merely, then I must venture to say, that I believe this assertion
to be incorrect. I do not believe that the problem— given a tooth
or a bone, the mode of life of an animal, and the laws of physi-
ology, to find the structure of other parts of the body of that
animal,—is a soluble one.
In fact, Cuvier himself, iv'the very next paragraph (p. 182),
almost gives up his own principle, 1 give his own words :—
_. “ Ce principe est. assez évident en lui-méme dans cette accep-
tation générale pour n’avoir pas besoin d’une plus ample démon-
stration ; mats quand il s’agit de Pappliquer, il est un grand nombre
de cas 0% notre connaissance théorique des rapports des formes ne
suffirait point si elle était appuyée sur [ observation.”
And again, in concluding, at p. 187 Cuvier says :—
fit, en adoptant ainsi /a méthode de (observation comme un
moyen supplémentaire quand la théorie nous abandonne, on arrive
& des détails faits pour étonner. La moindre facette d’os, la
moindre apophyse, ont un caractére déterminé relatif a la classe,
& Pordre, au genre et a l’espéce auxqueis elles appartiennent, au
oint que toutes les fois que l’on a seulement une extrémité d’os
ien conservée on peut ayee de application, et en s’aidant avec
un peu d’adresse de lanalogie et de !a comparaison effective,
determiner toutes ces choses aussi strement que si l’on possé-
Gait l’animal entier.” |
_ Finally, at p. 184, after speaking of those invariably coexist-
ent peculiarities of organization among the Ruminants, which
have no apparent physiological connexion, Cuvier says :—_
*“‘Cependant puisque ces rapports sont constans il faut bien
qwils aient une cause suffisante; mais comme nous ne la con-
naissons pas, nous devons supplier au défaut de la théorie par le
moyen de l’observation ; elle nous sert a établir des lois empi-
riques qui deviennent presque aussi certaines que les lois ratio-
nelles, quand elles reposent sur des observations assez répetées :
en sorte qu’aujourdhui quelqu’un qui voit seulement la piste d’un
pied fourchu, peut en conclure que animal qui a laissé cette
empreinte ruminait, et cette conclusion est tout aussi certaine
qu’aucune autre en physique ou en morale.”
I confess that, considermg the Pig has a cloven fovt, and does
not ruminate, the last assertion appears to me to be a little
strong. But my object is not to criticise Cuvier, but simply to
show that nothing could be more marked than his appreciation
of the value of the merely empirical laws of morphology, as
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvii. 4
50 Mr, T. H. Huxley on the Method of Paleontology.,
applied to paleontology, nothing more erroneous than. the,
popular notion, too much favoured by his own language, that his.
method essentially consisted in reasoning from supposed physio-
logical necessities. In the lecture above referred to, I not only.
maintained this view, but I further asserted, and endeavoured
to. prove, that not only are popular and other writers thus,
mistaken in interpreting Cuvier, but that Cuvier himself was.
in error in ascribing to the laws of physiological correlation,
that primary importance in paleontology which he undoubtedly.
does give them. [ brought forward, in fact, the doctrine which,
I have argued at greater length in the preceding pages, viz, that.
paleontology, so far as it consists in the restoration of extinct.
forms, is entirely based upon deductions from the empirical laws
of morphology ; that its conclusions, so far, would be as valid if
the whole science of physiology were non-extant, and if we knew,
nothing of final causes or adaptations to purposes. per
The publication of the abstract of the lecture has elicited a
brusque attack from Dr. Falconer, which, coming as it did from
the pen of a paleontologist of high repute, caused me at first, IT
must confess, no slight alarm; the more so as Dr. Falconer, in
his laudable desire at once to extinguish heresy, had, I found,
taken the somewhat unusual course of widely circulating his
little pamphlet. . | is
The perusal of Dr. Falconer’s essay, however, soon relieved
me from my only real source of uneasiness, by demonstrating
very clearly that Dr. Falconer had been far too much in a hurry
either to master the real question in dispute, to read what I had
written with attention, or to quote me with common accuracy,
and fairness. In fact, Ihave not the good fortune to be among
the “ tantis viris” de quibus “modeste tamen et circum-
specto judicio pronuntiandum est,” and it is clearly in Dr,
Falconer’s opmion not worth while to use much circumspection: .
in dealing with the opinions of mere ordinary “viri.” =,
The first evidence of Dr. Falconer’s entire misconception of.
the point at issue meets one in the title-page—“On_ Prof,
Huxley’s attempted refutation of Cuvier’s Laws of Correlation
in the reconstruction of extinct Vertebrate Forms.” It. is
repeated at page 477. “‘ Nearly three-fourths of Mr. Huxley’s
abstract are devoted to the first head, viz. Natural History, re-
garded as knowledge, the leading feature of which is an attempt.
to refute the principle propounded by Cuvier, that the laws.of
correlation which preside over the organization of animals, guided:
him in his reconstruction of extinct Forms.” Nothing can be.
more entirely incorrect than the assertion contained in the latter
part of this paragraph. TI did not attempt to refute any one of
Cuvier’s laws of correlation. There is not a passage in my
MYT: if Huxley on the Method of Paleontology. 51°
lecture which can be justly so.mterpreted. I merely endeavoured
to prove, and I can find nothing in Dr. Falconer’s essay to_
show that I did not. prove, first, that the phystological laws of
correlation which Cuvier laid down are not as universally and
necessarily applicable as he seems to have imagined; secondly,
that his physiological laws of correlation are of wholly subordi-
nate importance in paleontology, if not absolutely unimportant,
the really important laws by which he worked being those mor-
phological laws, those empirical laws of coexistence which, as I
have said, no man lays down more clearly, but to which he
nevertheless ascribes in words, though not in practice, a subor-
dinate place. This entire misunderstanding of the real point
under discussion vitiates the whole of Dr. Falconer’s paper. It
is again repeated at p. 481, just after Dr. Falconer has gravely
warned us how necessary are “ precision of thought and expres-
sion in disquisitions of this kind.” |
So again, at p. 487, Dr. Falconer says :—
. “ The argument drawn by Mr. Huxley from instances of em-
pirical relation in the vegetable kingdom against there being
necessary or reciprocal relation in the high classes of the animal
kingdom is exactly of this character.”
~ I assert that no one who carefully reads my abstract will find
the slightest ground for the assertion that I have ever made use
of any such argument as that imputed. to. me by Dr. Falconer.
What I say in regard to plants is:-—
~“ And if we turn to the botanist and inquire how he restores
fossil plants from their fragments, he will say at once that he
knows nothing of physiological necessities and correlations.”
To any unprejudiced reader of ordinary intelligence it will be
quite obvious that the question of the existence of physiological
correlation between the parts of plants is here utterly untouched.
The question is whether the physiological or the morphological
laws of correlation guide the botanical paleontologist. I affirm
the latter, and J am supported by every botanist with whom I
have spoken on the subject.
Dr. Falconer writes at _p. 487 :— |
“Nature has formed living beings upon certain types which
‘constitute the basis of methodical nomenclature, and the corre-
lation of part to part and organ to organ is adjusted in subor-
dination to these types.”
~ Now what is this but an admission of all that I have contended.
for, namely, that the physiological correlation of organs is wholly
subordinate to their morphological, or, in other words, typical
correlation? What is it that Dr. Falconer attacks, after all ?
And this question becomes all the more bewildering, when we
find at p.480:— ray
“Our first remark is, where and by whom has the principle of
4k
52 Mr, T, Hy Huxley, onthe, Method of Paleontology.
the ‘utilitarian adaptation.to, purpose’ been used. as an ,instru-
‘ment. of research? Mr, Huxley avers that its value as such .has
been. enormously. overrated... If,so,. by, whom has;it, been ever
used? From the prevalence of adaptations and mechanisms
in nature suited to;the production of certain ends we reason up
to the agency, of an all-wise, powerful and benevolent, Designer.
But. the inference,is a product not an znstrument of the research,
and to call it the latter is simply a misuse of terms,” .. ..,4,.4)
Surely Dr, Falconer. can understand that adaptation, toypur-
pose is adaptation to use, and that therefore; adaptation, to
purpose may well be said to be ¢ utilitarian,’ sete
In answer to the next part of his inquiry, I must, refer him to
Dr. Whewell* ; and with regard to the last part, the misuse of
words is; Dr. Falconer’s.. I am not, speaking of any, inference
from the principle, but of the principle itself...) ou) ay oijaoeen
But the most curious proof that Dr, Falconer, has not, taken
the trouble to read. with attention or. think, oyer carefully the
‘Statements contained in my abstract is yielded jby, the passagejat
p. 480, beginning, “ Mr. Huxley contrasts the, two.as opposite
dogmas.” Dr, Falconer here takes two. parts of the, same, argu-
ment, thrusts. them, into opposition, and, is, then excessively
puzzled to discover that. he can find no “opposition er incom-
ar aan between them. .. However glad I may be to. haye Dr.
alconer’s testimony, to the connexion, of the two, parts of my
argument, even malgré dui, I think, he would, have done; well, to
have read the passage twice before entangling hunself in it, ...
Dr. Falconer, writes at p.490:—. hee
“This invariable coincidence may be; as has been shown above,
either empirical or necessary... Cuvier, like a true interpreter of
nature, employed both. indifferently in his, restorations, accord-
ingly as they were, presented to him, and professed it. This
important fact is nowhere recognized by Mr. Huxley, who argues
the case throughout as if Cuvier had excluded the empirical and
admitted only of necessary correlations,”
This is in the teeth of the passage of my abstract, which Dr.
Falconer himself quotes at p. 487: “‘ Andif it were necessary to
appeal to any authority save facts and reason, our first witness
would be Cuvier himself, who in a very remarkable passage, two
or three pages further, on, (Discours, pp. 184, 185), implicitly
surrenders his own principle.” . Surely this amount of careless
incorrectness is hardly yenial. Surely I may quote to Dr. Fal-
coner his own courteous words, “rarely in the history of science
has confident assertion been put forward in so grave a case upon
a more erroneous and unsubstantial*foundation.” ia
-o*, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences; vol. i. pp: 87,88; and again,
p.78:—* This idea of a final case isan’ essential condition in order to:the
pursuing our researches respecting organized bodies.”
‘MrT! Huxley on the Method’ of Paleontology. °53
“Yast after reproaching meat p.'482, as I conceive unjustifiably,
‘with affirming a casé to be ‘one of Cuvier’s selection, which is
not so, Dr. Falconer falls into the precise error: which he wrong-
“fully ‘attributes to me.” Whaat, Nel Este eon
«Yet ‘us now take the case as put by Mr. Huxley, and suppose
‘that the Brown and White Bears were only met with inthe fossil
‘state; but with the proviso of the other living’ species being
known to us as at present.” hr or |
“What T say‘is, “If Bears were only known to us in the fossil
“state.” Dr. Falconer’s proviso, in fact, is the precise nullifi-
cation of my argument, and yet he still ventures to quote it as
“mine. ‘So again at p. 483, after discussing the Bear question, Dr.
Falcone? states, “ Mr. Huxley next takes in' hand the opposite
*ease of thé Ungulate’ Herbivora, as put by Cuvier.” Dr. Falconer’s
assertion is inaccurate; I do not next take in hand the Ungulate
‘Perbivora ; any one who will read my abstract may see that the
‘discussion ‘as to’ the Bears, comes “at the end of the argument
about the Ungulata, forming not a separate question or opposite
ease) but pat of the same. a
<But here’as elsewhere, Dr. Falconer seems to forget the im-
‘portant distinction between a question of detail and one of prin-
+ geal physiological arguments are good at all in the way
Cuvier put thei, they must be universal in their application, in
‘which ‘case any exception is fatal; on the other hand if they be of
‘limited application, ‘before we' can apply them in paleontology,
we must first have ascertained to what group the subject of our
studies belongs by other means, and these can only be the appli-
‘cation of morphological laws. ) | .
~ T trust I have now brought forward ‘sufficient evidence to
‘justify my accusation of misrepresentation and misconception
‘on Dr. Falconer’s part, and I would most willingly leave the
“subject, were it not necessary in defence of myself and others to
advert to one or two other points in Dr. Falconer’s attack. In two
of these, accuracy as to matters of fact is involved, The first relates
to the Stonesfield Mammal, a title which has been applied as
“much to the Phascolotherium as to the Amphitherium. Dr.
Falconer asserts, that I have been unhappy in my citation of this
‘ease, because the Amphitherium is an Insectivore, and because
the Phascolotherium has fewer teeth than the Amphitherium.
‘Candour might have led Dr. Falconer to quote a little more of
Prof. Owen’s opinion as to the latter animal than he does*. Tf he
“had combined careful thought with candour, he would have
* See British Fossil Mammals, pp, 53 and, 56... Professor Owen espe
cially warns us against concluding “too absolutely” that the Amphitherium
“may not have combined the more*essential points of the Marsupial orga-
“nization” with the slighter inflectiow of the angle of the jaw. |
54 Bibliographical. Notices.
perceived that imasmuch as the Phascolotherium possesses forty-
eight teeth (four more than the typical number in mammals),
and has the strongly inflexed angular process, it precisely fulfils
the conditions of my argument. In point of fact, however) the
number of teeth is an irrelevant consideration. The other ques-
tion of fact relates to the structure of the Sloth’s tooth: when
Cuvier speaks of the alternation of substance in the teeth of an
Ungulate animal, he obviously refers to that peculiar alternation
of vertical plates of enamel, deutine and cement, which the teeth
of the typical Ungulates present. A difference of structure in
layers parallel to the crown of the tooth, is of course possessed, by
every Carnivore, and it is this kind of arrangement which the
Sloth also presents. I venture to think, therefore, that) this
objection to my argument is like most of Dr. -Falconer’s,;and
to use his own words, “more specious than valid.”:001) oy
I have left untouched many points in Dr. Faleoner’s essay, not
because they cannot be answered, but because I conceive théy
will answer themselves. Under this category T leave stich ‘pas-
sages as those at p. 488, the singular bad taste of which will cause
Dr. Falconer, in his cooler moments, far more annoyance than
they have occasioned to,any one else, except his friends. . But I
cannot pass without more grave comment, the allusion, at.p. 477,
to the audience-which I, had the honour to address. . Dr. Fal-
coner’s apparent ignorance of the nature of the Friday evening
audience at the Royal Institution—one which the best:men im
this country approach gravely and earnestly, knowmg as they
do that, whatever be the “ mixture” of their hearers, there ‘is
pretty sure to be among them a fair jury of their peers;—can
be his sole excuse for the tone of his remarks. |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
‘The Ferns of Great Britain, illustrated by J.E.Sowrrsy. The
Descriptions by C. Jounson. London, Sowerby, 1855. 8vo.
The Ferns of Great Britain and their Allies. By ANNE PRartr.
London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 8vo.
The Fern-Allies, illustrated by J. K.Sowrersy. The Descriptions
by C. Jounson. London, Sowerby, 1856. 8vo.
British Poisonous Plants. By C. Jounson.. London, Sowerby,
1856. 12mo.
At has seemed more convenient to notice the aboye books conjointly,
for the first three of them treat upon the same subject. Our pages
(xy, 354) have already contained a recommendation of Sowerby’s
‘Ferns’ to the fayourable consideration of botanists, and we should
not haye thought; it necessary to record the fact, that its proprietor
Bibliographical Notices. 7 55
bias’ isstied “an edition with uncoloured’ plates ata very cheap rate,
hadsit not'come to our knowledge that this determination was caused
by the publication _ by the‘ Society:for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge’.of the book that stands second on-the above list. » It. really
does.seem to,us’that.a ‘ religious.’ Society..goes, much, out of .its way
when it employs the funds of its subscribers in the issue of books of
a secular character, and thus becomes a ‘ publishing house,’ in com-
periens with men who have to. gain their bread by their business,
But the matter becomes far worse when. the book published is such
as that before us. Here we have a work illustrated by numerous
plates, nearly all the magnified portions of which, with the entire
figures of some of the plants, are badly, but certainly copied from
the plates contained in Sowerby’s work. We have taken some
troublein the examination of this piratical act, and find that of those
figures::;which Sowerby cannot) claim, a considerable number are
derived from’ Newman’s}‘Ferns.’. There is not the slightest. ac-
knowledgement.on the part of the Society, nor of the artist, that such
is the origin.of; these plates; and. we are informed that it was only
after legal proceedings had been threatened that the Society, with
some difficulty, consented to insert the following notice in future
copies of their book, and Sowerby obtained payment for the use of
wis plates.:—
“Copy or Notice.—The artist also wishes it to be understood,
that he has purchased permission of Mr. J. E. Sowerby, to copy from
the work latély’ published by him, entitled «The Ferns of Great
Britain, [llustrated,’ certain details of the plates, including the figure
of the:rare plant Gymnogramma leptophylla.”
-s°This notice gives avery faint idea of the extent to which he is
indebted to Sowerby, and,takes no notice of his appropriations from
Newman.,.. We ‘haye entered rather.fully. into this matter, because
we believe that neither the authoress nor the leading members of the
Society have any idea of the mode in which their “ Committee of
General Literature ”’ is acting towards authors and publishers. That
they should require the threat of legal proceedings to perform an act
of common honesty, is more than we can easily believe.
But.enough of this. The public benefit by the issue of the cheap
edition of Sowerby’s ‘ Ferns.’
The Society’s book makes no pretensions to a scientific character,
and will probably fulfil the objects of its writer; but it is certainly
not a work that we can recommend to persons desiring to acquire
any except the most superficial knowledge of the plants. ,
Messrs. Sowerby and Johnson’s ‘ Fern-Allies’ contains 31 plates,
and is intended to be a companion to their ‘ Ferns.’ It treats. of the
Equisetacee, Lycopodiacee, Marsileacee and Characee. The plates
are mostly good; but exception must be made of several of those
representing the Characee, and a few others. That of Hyuisetum
limosum is not like either of the forms, or, as Fries thinks’ them,
species, included under that name ; it appears to be a combination
of the two, such as we have never seen in nature: No os is
given of the typical form of EH. variegatum. There is a good plate
of £. Moorei, a plant of which the specific distinctness is doubtful.
56 “| \9 Zoological Society :—=
Wehave very slight acquaintance with it, but fancy that it will prove
to -be;.a form of the H.itrachyodon (A. Br.), whichis the #) Mackati
(«Newnis)s 02 robien oo a7 J LLNLTON |
«The genus Chara seems to: have been: added to this book unad-
visedly ; for neither the artist nor the describer appears to know
much about the plants included init. Most of the plates are copied
from those in ‘ English Botany,’ or its ‘Supplement ;’: but these are
not: all, therefore’ good; for that of C. vulgaris, taken from an early
volume of ‘Eng: Bot.,’ is very poor. ik
The new plates profess to represent CO. syncarpa and C. prolifera,
the other five species described in Mr. Babington’s Monograph
(A..N. H. ser.:2.:vol.-v. p: 81) remaining unfigured im any English
work. The plate of C. syncarpa is tolerable, and might have passed
‘ without notice had nota piece of some totally different plant, perhaps
C. polysperma, been added at the foot. Certainly C. synearpa never
has the many-jointed stems there represented. As we do not know
from which plant the magnified nucules were’ taken; their value‘is
greatly reduced. In all probability the two entire) nucules’ were
derived: from the wrong plant, and the highly magnified ‘piece of
stem is similarly erroneous. We must be allowed to doubt: the
correctness of Mr, Johnson’s remark, that C. syncarpa is sometimes
moncecious. 1o1s2
»The other new plate isa fair representation: of C. prolifera
although the jointed structure’ of the primary branches is not shown.
We may remark, that Mr./Wilson’s:C. gracias from Llyn Idwell is
stated in ‘the above-mentioned Monograph to be C. syncarpa, and
that, authentic ‘specimens onow: before. us. “confirm “that “statement.
Mr. Johnson: therefore. must not think that’ he has disproved the.
permanency of the moncecious structurein°C? gracilis. lig
The ‘ British Poisonous) Plants» deserves our approbation, being
good as far as it goes. The 28 plates are transferred from ‘ English
Botany,’ and are therefore all, or nearly all, that could be desired.
The recent cases of accidental poisoning with the root of Monkshood
is the especial cause of its publication. It would have been well if'a
figure of the root of this plant, and that: of the Horse-radish, for
which it was mistaken, had been given; for at the season when
such mistakes are liable to occur, neither leaves nor flowers exist,
and they can only be guarded against by making generally known
the differences between the roots. ’ :
‘We hope that this little book will obtaim an extensive circulation.
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
June 12, 1855.—W. Yarrell, Esq:,inithe Chair. « -
On a New Species or THE GENUS PRION.
: By Jonn Goucn, 'F.R.S. ” tese te
Through the kindness of Mr. Yarrell,.I have the pleasure of
bringing to the Meeting a bird which I conceive to be a new species
Mr. J. Gould:onsa new species. of Prion. 57
of Prion; captured on the island: of Madeira; or: on ‘the neighbouring
rocky islets -called the: Desertas.) «I: alsovexhibit five other ‘species
(forming part of my own collection), which I consider to belong /to
thersame:beautiful group, and which’ were captured) by myself during
my voyages:to or from Australiaios feiis 96) tocjon -
b< The entire series’ present'a great similarity inthe colour of their
_plumage, but a great diversity in the breadth 'or lateral development of
their mandibles, as well asin the fringe-like pectinations of the base of
the upper mandible; this latter character bemg much more prominent
in» the» larger’ than: in the smaller species: of the» group, in which
indeed, it is almost obsolete, if not entirely absent. I consider the
members of this genus to constitute a very distinct. group among thr
Petrels, quite, equal in point of interest and value to that of ‘the
Thalassidrome.. 1 have had many opportunities of observing’ the
whole.of them in their oceanic haunts, and did not fail to observe that
every five or six degrees of latitude was frequented by a different and
distinct species: they all inhabit the wide ocean, and rarely visit the
land except for: the purpose of incubation: they are often seen in
immense flocks,:.and sometimes in multitudes: they never mount
high»in the air, but are altogether the most light; buoyant and fairy-
like: members,of the: great:group to: which they belong: their great
stronghold is the temperate latitudes of the southern ‘ocean, and
until, the,occutrence:of the»present: new'species, 1) have never heard
of one being found north,of the equator. ‘> The ‘species to which: the
Madeiran bird is. most nearly)allied, is/that. to:whichd have given
the name..of, P; Ariel, and: which bometowith and shot in great
- pumbers iin Bass’s Straits.» It: differs, however, im “being smaller ‘in
oe
Upper surface delicate, blue ; edge ofthe shoulder, the scapularies,
outer margins. of the external primaries, and the tips of the middle
tail-feathers black ; lores, .sides of the head. and all the ander surface
white, stained with blue on, the flanks and under tail-coverts; bill
light blue, deepening into black on the sides.of the nostrils and at
the tip,.and with.a black line along the side of the under mandible;
feet light blue, the interdigital membrane flesh-colour.
Total length,.103 inches ; bill, +3; wing, 63; tail, 33; tarsi,’ 13.
~ Descriptions oF some New Species or AnT-TuRUSHES
(ForRMICARIINZ) FROM SANTA Fr pi Bogota.
By Puiuip Lutiey:Scuater; M.A., F.Z.S.
1. GRALLARIA HYPOLEUCA?
G. supra, ferruginea;,loris-albidis =: subtus: alba, lateribus magis
cinerascentibus + tibiis et, hypochondriis brunnescentibus.
Long. tota 6°5, ale 3°5, caudee 1L°8..,
The collection of the Jardin’ des Plantes at Paris contains. the only
tn
oo
“a?
919
58 -eoarul lh lh Zoological Society (29898 0
‘example ‘TI ‘have' yet seen Of this bird, which appears to have escaped
the notice of the French ornithologists. It is marked’ as having
been received from Bogota in 1843 by M. Rieffer, Its form is typi-
cal, bitin’ colouring ‘it differs from all hitherto known members of
the genus, though ‘perhaps showmg some resemblance to Grallaria
brevicauda (Bodd.) (Pl. Enl.'706. fig. 1), which is, however, much
smaller.'° It is of a uniform’ ferruginous brown above and white be-
low, passing into a cinereous tinge on the sides. Some brown colour
' 9s'mixed with the feathers on the sides of the breast. The bill is
black; the tarsi plumbeous ; the thighs and the under wing-coverts
brown. T :
2. GRALLARIA MODESTA.
G. supra intense brunnescenti-olivacea, alis caudaque nigrieanti-
brunneis olivaceo tinctis: subtus olivacea, flavescenti-albido
flammulata ; ventre medio flavescenti-albido: tectricibus sub-
alaribus pallide castaneis : mandibula superiore plumbea, hujus’
apice et tomiis et mandibula inferiore, nisi basi, albicantibus :
pedibus pallide brunneis. OT hia re
Long. tota 6°2, alee 3-2, caudee 1°8, tarsi 1°75, 6° ©
This is a rather uniformly-coloured species, of which ‘the British
Museum contains a single specimen. There are indications of darker
marginations to’'the feathers of the nape and back. ‘The breast, fea-
thers‘are medially yellowish-white, broadly margined with olivaceous.
; .2.oti)
° a
3. CHAMRZA MOLLISSIMA. .1° 3 : 3 10
C: supra brunnéeo-castanea, remigibus rectricibusque intus nigri-
cantibus : capitis lateribus et eorpore toto subtus nigris, albo
dense transvittatis: uropygii plumis laxis, elongatis, densis-
simis : rostro Chameezee marginatee ‘simili sed minore.
Long. tota 5°75, alee 3°2, caudee 2°35... awe puasorayd. A
This peculiar Ant-thrush, of which there is one specimen in the
British Museum, has the lower back very densely feathered, the
eoverts reaching to within an inch of the end of the rectrices.. The
wings are shorter than is usual in Chameza—the 4th, 5th, 6th and
7th primaries being nearly equal in length, but the 5th rather the
longest ; the tail rather more lengthened ; the formation of the feet
is much the same. = di
Above the colouring is of a brown chestnut, rather darker towards
the tail; the sides of the head and whole under-plumage are blackish
barred with white, every feather having three or more transverse
white bars. A slight tinge of castaneous is intermixed, particularly
on the breast.
4. ForRMICIVORA CALLINOTA.
F. olivacea; pileo summo et nuchanigris : loris, capitis lateribus,
et corpore subtus ad imum pectus cinereis : abdomine pallide
flavicanti-viridi : tergo lete castaneo, pennis quibusdum nigris
_, supra marginato; alis nigris, carpo.et tectricum marginibus
flavis : secundariis et rectricibus olivaceo marginatis: rostro
Mr. P. L. Sclater on some,new-speciesof Ant-Thrushes. 59
,subulato, mandibula superiore., Wiaeirentes tien: inedlids
plumbea : pedibus plumbeis,,... |
any tota 470, alee 2°0, caudee1+7. '
“This is an exceedingly pretty species of Foepigaenes distinguished
by the bright. chestnut colouring. of, its lower, back, above which, in
the middle of the back, are a few black-tipped feathers, forming a
small black patch.;. It, must. be placed) next) to the) Brazilian Lormi-
civora maculata, (Max.) (Leptorhynchus striolatus, Menetries, Mém.
de P Ac, St. P..1835, pl.. 10. fig. 2*), with which it agrees in form and
style of plumage. A single example of it is in the British Museum.
5. DystTHAMNUS SEMICINEREUS.
& cinereus, pileo intensiore ; subtus medialiter albicantior : dorso
postico.et remigun marginibus cum ventre imo. olivascentibus :
\ tectricibus alarum tenuissime albo limbatis : rostro pedibusque
<, MUYGTIUS» :
a a olivacea, pileo rufescente : gutture medio albo, lateraliter
irs cinerascente : ventre flavicanti-olivaceo 3. mandibula imferiore
“basi albicante.
Whey tota 4°5, alee. 2°4, caudee 1-6.
_in this apparently. new, Dysithamnus, of which the British Museum
contains several specimens, .the cinereous colour.in the male occupies
1e whole, upper plumage down to the middle of the back, where it
aly passes, into olive, and. the whole lower plumage down to
the middle of the belly, where a like colour supervenes. The middle
of the body beneath is much paler. The bill is:rather longer than
in D, mentalis, but the form is,.otherwise the.same....The genus to
which this bird belongs ..is...certainly very. closely, connected. with
ramnophilus, but I doubt. whether. that form can be divided even as
a subfamily from the South American Ant-thrushes.
6. PyriGLENA TYRANNINA.
“ & nigricanti-cinereus, carpo summo. et alarum tectricum margini-
_» bus albts ; plaga dorsi, medit interna nivea ; subtus paulo pal-
- lidior, rostro et pedibus nigris.
pallide brunnea, rufescente tincta ; abdomine toto clare rufo :
_ mandibula inferiore, nisi apice alba.
"Long. tota 5°2, alee 2°5, caudee 225.
A series of specimens in the British Museum clearly connect the
‘somewhat dissimilar male and female of this species, which it is diffi-
cult to place satisfactorily in any of the present established genera
of this family as far as Iam acquainted with them, though without
doubt a member of the group, with somewhat of a Tyrannine aspect.
The characteristic white patch underneath the feathers of the back
is well marked in both sexes.
_..*. M. Menetries has made this bird a second species of his genus Leptorhynchus,
but I do not think it can be satisfactorily. arranged along with the peculiar form
‘which he has made the type of his genus; and the name Leptorhynchus being
preoccupied, I propose to change it into Pstlorhamphus. Type rT. pile mihi.
(Leptorhynchus guttatus,-Men. pl. 10. fig. 1. )
60 | Zoological Soviety.
og StTtq~tRae! 26; 1855.— Dr. Gray, F.R.S., inthe Chair. elie sbit
goon, ott eeorae or some New, Species oF Birps, FROM, Site
FE, DI. Bocora. By Purir Lutiey ScuRTER, MAS 5 ty Yo
1. NEMOSIA /ALBIGULARIS: Ue yd Yo tbbim
N. nigra: dorso postico crissoque cum macula collar utringue et
plumis.narium quibusdam aurantio-flavis: speculo alart albo :
- gubtus alba pectoris et laterum plumis partim intus nigra. vie-
.. tatis : rostro supra nigricante, subtus carneo : pedibus nigris.
Long. tota 4°2, ale 2°5, caude 1°8.
This is a close ally of Nemosia flavicollis (Vieill.), from which,
however, it may be at once distinguished by its white throat, the
yellow colour being confined to a patch on the side of the neck, The
spot above the nostrils and orange tint of the yellow are other dif-
ferences which serve to confirm the validity of this species, _ There
are examples of it in the British Museum and in Mr, Gould’s collec-
tion and my own. RSI
2..PyRiGLENA ELLISIANA. “Has. Besson’
P. fusco-castanea unicolor : facie, mento. et regione auriculart
cum cauda nigricantibus : rostro nigro, RREMC IHS inferiore,
nisi ipsa tomia basique, alba. aval I
Long. tota 7-0, alee 3°3, caudee 3:1. aved dud
The only specimen I have seen of this species was received. b
Lady Ellis ina collection of birds from Bogota, and presented:
her to the British Museum. At ‘the request of Mr. GR. Gray; I
have named it after the donor.: The form is nearly that of P. domi-
cella, but there is no sign of a white, subinterscapular’ spot; as is
general in the species of this. genus. | The tail-coverts are'very thick.
The plumage is of a nearly uniform ciinamon-brown, brighter ‘above,
and with a greenish gloss on the breast. The ‘front, sides of ‘the
head, throat-and tail are blaek. cua stom Das
3. ANTHUS BOGOTENSIS.
A. pennis corporis supert medialiter nigris pallido cervino- irasine
late marginatis : alis intus nigris ; primariis stricte, secundarits
autem et tectricibus pallido cervino-brunneo late marginatis :
rectricibus nigris ; una utringue extima, nist pogonit entertoris
parte basali, tota pallide alba, hrunnescente tincta ; ceteris
extus et duabus mediis utrinque cervino-brunneo anguste lim-
batis: capitis lateribus et corpore toto subtus pallide cervino-
brunneis, ventre crissoque albescentioribus ; pectoris lateribus et
collo antico punctis paucis tr tangularibus nigris, quasi torquem
formantibus, notatis: rostro nigro, mandibula inferiore basi
flavido : pedibus validis, flavis : ungue postico valde. elongato.
Long. tota 5°0, alee 3°2, caudee 2°3.
This is the only bird of the nearly universally distributed fatnily of
‘Pipits I have seen from Bogota, and appears distinct from any species
reviously noticed.’ The bill is ‘vather larger, and the feet’ ‘stronger
‘and thicker than in the ordinary menibers of the'getius. “Above, the
phimage is of the usual ‘pale brownish fawi-colour, thickly clouded
with black, caused by the feathers being broadly margined on each
cy
Atta
Royal Institution. 61
side with the fawn-colour, ,'The sides of, the head and, under-plumage
are uniform, except ¢ on the sides of the breast and across the neck,
where there ‘aré’ small’ black triangilar: spots in the centre’ of some
of the feathers.’ ‘The under wing-covetts are pure’ ‘pale’ ber; the
_— of the belly and crissum lighter ‘andi nearly whitish. »
se i A dae ce PEREGRINA,
O31 OT
_, transversa verticis cum Melee magna AD Avenel di nigris :.ab-
m) “domine erissoque et tectricibus alarum inferioribus albis, pectore
-»| et lateribus rufescenti-griseo mixtis : alis nigricantibus ; pri-
_martis alblido, secundariis rufescenti-griseo, tectricibus majore-
~ bus rufo limbatis ; tectricibus summis pure rufo-brunneis, pene
eastaneis : cauda nigricante rectrice Una utringue extima late,
‘secunda autem versus apicem solum et angustius albo limbata ;
duabus medvis rufescenti-griseo utrinque late marginatis : tec-
tricibus caude superioribus basi rufis : rostro nigro, mandibula
my \wotnfertore basi alba: pedibus intense brunneis.
ondbong: tota Sb, alee 3:8, caudee 2°4.
I have had an example of this bird in my possession several years,
but have always considered it the same) as Wagler’s O. chrysolema,
with» which - it; has) been identified. by: Prince Charles Bonaparte.
Having however lately, obtained specimens: of the Mexican species, I
find, the Bogota bird presents such differences as to render its specific
isolation mecessary..,,.It is: rather Smaller than the former, the taiis
shorter, the, bill longer and» more :curved, and the back. has more
black upon, it.) But.the chief peculiarity to be remarked in my
specimen, (which is not quite adult) is the pure red-brown colour of
athe upper wing-coverts, which in the Mexican bird are lighter, paler,
and more pinky. ‘There are many examples of this species in the
Paris Museum, in the collection recently transmitted from Bogota by
M. Lewy, the French consul there. I have no doubt fully ‘mature
individuals will exhibit still further differences.
ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.
My yp 1856. —The Duke of Northumberland, K.G., F.RB.S.,
President, in the Chair.
On the Ruminant. Quadrupeds and the Aboriginal Cattle of
Britain.” By Prof. Owen, F.R.S.
The. speaker introduced the subject of the Ruminant order of
quadrupeds, and the source of our domesticated species, by some
general remarks upon the classification of the class. Mammalia, and
on the characters of the great. natural, group, defined by Ray and
Linneeus as the Ungulata, or hoofed mammalia.
These are divisible into,two natural and parallel orders; having
respectively the Anoplotherium. and Paleotherium. as, their types ;
which. genera, as.far as geological, researches have yet, extended,
were the first, or amongst the earliest, nepranntattyes of the. A
lata on this planet, , valde aia
625 osu Royal Institution :—
The brilliant researéhes of Baron Cuvier, the’ founder of palzeon-"’
tologieal' science ‘and ‘the reconstructor of those ‘primeval hoofed””
animals, from frasmentary fossil retains in the gypsum quarries’ at’
Montmartre; were alluded to. OM I aS
Diagrams of the entire skeletons of the Anoplotherium and Palséo-””
therium= were ‘referred ‘to, in illustration of their dental ‘and osteo-””
logical ‘peculiarities. 7 7 a
The Anoplotherium, with the typical dentition of
ae ee 4—4 ital BAG
incisors » canines » premolars » molars, HAA Ay S
3—3 1—1 4—4 38 oe089
had all its teeth of the same length, and in a continuous unbroken —
series : this character is peculiar to Man in the existing creation.
The Paleotherium, with the same dental formula as the Anoplo-..
therium, had the canines longer than the other teeth, and’ developed.
into sharp-pointed weapons ; necessitating a break in the dental series -
to receive their summits in closing the mouth. oR REIN: yeahs
The Anoplotherium had 19 vertebrae between the neck and sacrum, |
viz. 13 dorsal and 6 lumbar. The Paleeotherium had 16 dorsal
and 7 lumbar vertebree. SRG Searlet 2G
The Anoplotherium had a femur with two trochatitérs, and the fore"
Ow Bile MRIEROIST 01, 98810
part of the ankle-bone, called “astragalus,”” divided into two equal fa-
cets. Its hoofs formed a symmetri¢al pair on.each foot. Cuvier has very
justly inferred that its stomach must have been complex, and Bry =
bly, in some respects, like that of the Camel or Peccari. The Pala _
therium had’a femur with three trochaniters, an astragalus with ifs fore-.
part unequally divided, and hoofs, three in number, on each foot.” Tt
most probably had a simple stomach, like the Tapir and Rhinoceros, —
which, amongst existing animals, most nearly resemble that extinet
primitive hoofed quadruped, with toes in wneven number.
Every species of ungulate mammal with an uneven number of hoofs
or toes, that has been introduced into this planet since the eocene ~
tertiary period, whether it have 1 hoof on each foot, as in the Horse, “
3 asin the Rhinoceros, or 5 as in the Elephant, resembles the Palzeo-
therium in having more than 19 dorso-lumbar vertebree, which, ver-
tebree also differ in number in different genera; e.g. 22 in the _
Rhinoceros, 23 in the Mastodon, 27 in the Hyrax. The typical
Pachyderms, with an odd number of hoofs, have also three troehan-\,
ters on the femur, the fore-part of the astragalus unequally divided,
and the pattern of the grinding surface of the molar teeth unsym- —
metrical, and usually crossed by oblique enamel-ridges. All the,
existing odd-toed or perissodactyle mammals have a simple stomach .
and a vast and complex cecum ; the horned, species have either a ,
single horn, or two odd horns, one behind the other on the middle
line of the head, as e.g. in the one-horned and two-horned Rhino- _
ceroses. | OT Weert pe Mat eee aan
‘Every species of ungulate animal with hoofs in even number, |.
whether 2 on each foot, as in the Giraffe and Camel, or 4 on each .
foot, as in the Hippopotamus, resembles the Anoplotherium in haying _
19 dorso-lumbar vertebrae, neither more for as in having two
1s
;
Ost
pak
Prof. Owen onthe Ruminant, Quadrupeds. . 689
nters onthe femur, in, having the fore-part..of, the astragaltis
equally divided, and_in, having the. pattern of. the grinding surface. of,
the, molar. teeth more or less. symmetrical... The, horned species. have «
the horns in one pair, or two pairs. All have the stomach more.or less/
complex, and the czecum,small and simple... In the.Hog, the .gastric
complexity is least displayed; butin the Peccari the stomach-has three
compartments ; and in the Hippopotamus it is still; more,complex,
But the most complex and peculiar form of stomach \is, that. whi¢h
enables the animal to ‘‘ chew the cud,” or submit the aliment to a
second mastication, characteristic of the large group of even-hoofed
Ungulata, called ** Ruminantia.” :
These tintid quadrupeds have many natural enemies ; and if they
had been compelled to submit each mouthful of grass.to the) full
extent of mastication which its digestion requires, .before it was
swallowed,’ the grazing ruminant would have been exposed a: long
time in the open prairie or savannah, before it had filled its stomach.
Its chances of escaping a carnivorous enemy would have been jin.a
like degree diminished. But by the peculiar structure of the rumi-
nating stomach, the grass can be swallowed as quickly as it is cropped,
aud. e stowed away in a large accessory receptacle, called the .“ru-
men,” or first cavity of the stomach ; and this bag being filled,-the
ruminant can retreat to the covert, and lie down in.a.safe hiding-
place to remasticate its food at leisure.
“The modifications of the dentition, cesophagus, and, stomach, by
which the digestion in the Ruminantia is carried out, were, described
and illustrated by diagrams, |
The speaker next treated of the yarious kinds of horns and antlers ;
the manner of growth, shedding, renewal, and annual. modifications
athe osdescn horns, the, peculiarities of the, persistent horns, the
mechanism. of the cloven foot, and. the proyision for maintaining the
hoofs in a healthy condition, were pointed out... 54,
The following were the chief yarieties of the ruminating stomach.
In the small Musk-deer (T'ragulus) there are. three cayities, with, a,
small intereommunication-canal between the second and last. cayity, ;
the “ psalterium,” or third cavity, in the normal ruminating stomach,
being absent. This cavity is likewise absent in the Camel-tribe, which
have the cells of the second cavity greatly enlarged, and have also,.
accessory groups of similar cells. developed from the rumen, or, first:
cavity. These cells can contain, several gallons of water. . The rela-
tion of this modification, and of the hump or humps on the back, to
the peculiar geographical position of the Camel-tribe, was pointed. out,,
‘The modifications of the ruminating stomach ; the discovery of ru-,
dimental teeth in the embryo Ruminantia, which teeth (upper incisors
and canines) have been supposed to characterize the Pachyderms,;,
the occurrence of another alleged pachydermal character, viz. the.
divided métacarpus and metatarsus, in the foetus or young of all, rumi-
nants, and its persistence in the existing Moschus aquaticus, and ina
fossil species of Antelope ; the absence of cotyledons in the chorion of
the Camel-tribe, with. the retention of some incisors as well as. canines...
in the upper jaw of that, tribe ; the ascertained amount. of yisceral..
anil oiteologital ‘conformity of the supposed, circumseribed. order, ;
ow? “oO ffi * 7) Fed il i ; WATERLESS ‘
ry
64 ono GRoyalnstitutions—
Ruminantia, with the other artiodactyle (even-toed) Ungulata; :above
all, the numberof lost:links: in) that interesting chain which have
now been restored from the ruins of former habitable surfaces of the
earth—all these and other similar facts have concurred in-establishing
different views‘of thesnature and value of the Ruminant order from
those entertained by Cuvier, and the majority of systematic naturalists
up to 1840. Thus instead of viewing the dnoplotherium as a pachy-
derm, the speaker, having regard to the small size of its) upper)inci-
sors and: canines, to the retention of the individuality of its two chief
metacarpal and metatarsal bones, and to the non-development of horns
at any period of life, would regard it rather as resembling an oyer-
grown embryo-ruminant—of a ruminant in which growth had pro-
ceeded with arrest of development. The, ordinal characters, of the
Anoplotherium are those of the Artiodactyla: On the other) hand,
instead of viewing the Horse as being next of kin tothe, Camel, or as
making the transition from the Pachyderms to the Ruminants, the
speaker had been led, by considerations, of its third trochanter,.its
astragalus, its simple stomach and enormous. sacculated ceecum,..the
paleotherian type of the grinding surface of the molars, and the
excessive number of the dorso-lumbar vertebree, to the conviction of
the essential affinities of the Hquide with other perissodactyles (odd-
toed hoofed beasts). 7 Fa pdpicinnse seit
The primitive types of both odd-toed and even-toed ihe ots occur
in the eocene tertiary deposits: the earliest forms of the so
modification of the Wiodactyla appear in the miocene strata. “The
fossil remains of the aboriginal cattle of Britain have been found in
the newer pliocene strata, in drift-gravels, in brick-earth deposits,
and in bone-caves. 'Fwo of these ancient cattle (Bovide) were’ of
gigantic size, with immense horns; one was a true Bison ee ae
cus), the other a true Ox (Bos primigenius) ; contemporary with these
were a smaller species of short-horned Ox (Bos longifrons), and a Buf-
falo, apparently identical in species with the Arctic Musk-bufialo
(Bubalus, or Ovibos, moschatus). n weit
The small Ox (Bos longifrons) is that which the aboriginal natives
of Britain would be most likely to sueceed in taming. They possessed
domesticated cattle (pecora) when Ceesar invaded Britain. The cattle
of the mountain fastnesses to which the Celtic population retreated
before the Romans, viz. the Welsh “runt”’ and Highland **kyloe,”
most resemble in size and cranial characters the pleistocene Bos ton-
gifrons. Prof. Owen therefore regards the Bos longifrons, and not
the gigantic Bos primigenius, as the source of part of our domestic
cattle. nih bie Ahi
From the analogy of colonists of the present day he proceeded to
argue that the Romans would import their own tamed cattle to their
colonial settlements in Britain. ‘The domesticated cattle of the Ro-
mans, Greeks, and Egyptians bore the nearest affinity to the Brahminy
variety of cattle in India. As the domestic cattle imported by the
Spaniards into South America have, in many localities, reverted to a
wild state, so the-speaker believed that the half-wild races of white
cattle in Chillingham Park, and a few.other preserves in Britain, were
descended from introduced domesticated:cattle.,. The size of the dew-
Prof. Owen oa the Ruminant Quadrupeds. 65
‘lap, and an occasional rudiment of the hump in these white: cattle,
‘as well as the approximation to the light-grey colour-characteristi¢ of
‘the Brahminy race, seemed to point to their primitive oriental source.
‘But the speaker could not regard the pure white colour as natural:to
a primitive wild stock of oxen. It is now maintained by the careful
‘destruction of all piebald calves that are produced by the so-preserved
half-wild breeds.
If the blood of any of the aboriginal cattle, contemporary with the
‘Mammoth and hairy Rhinoceros, still flowed in the veins of any of our
domesticated races, he thought it would be that of the Bos longifrons
transmitted through the short-horned or hornless varieties of the oxen
of the mountains of Wales and Scotland.
In conclusion the speaker referred to the subjoined table of the
asst tteation of recent and extinct hoofed quadrupeds, as indicative
‘Of the progtessive extinction of those forms of Ungulata least likely
to be of use to man, and of the substitution of the ruminant forms,
‘which, from the perfect digestion of their food, elaborate from it the
‘most sapid and nutritious kinds of flesh.
UNGULATA.
: Typica. dberrantia.
a A — byte
ARTIODACTYLA*, PErRiIssoDACTYLA,. ToxopDoNTIA. Situ
_ Anoplotherium. _ Paleotherium. Toxodon. ‘ Manatus.
_Chalicotherium. _Paloplotherium. Nesodon, Halicore.
..Dichobune. Lophiodon. Rytina.
_Cainotherium. Coryphodon. Prososcip1a. Halitherium.
_Poebrotherium. Tapirust. Elephas. Prorastomus.
. Xiphodon. Macrauchenia. Mastodon. |
.Moschus t. . Hippotherium. Dinotherium.
» Antelope. Equus.
. Ovis. Elasmotherium.
_ Bos. Hyraz.
. Cervus. Rhinoceros.
_ Camelopardalis. | Acerotherium.
» Camelus.
_ Auchenia.
~ Merycotherium.
_Merycopotamus.
_ Hippopotamus.
Dichodon.
Hyracotherium.
Hyopotamus.
: eereentoetiony:
_ Hippohyus
Diceeapatient
Dicotyles.
» Phacocherus.
Sus.
*"Aprios, par ;
ddkrvdos, digitus.
t Tepiocoddkrvdos, qui digitos habet impares numero.
¥ Only those genera printed in italics now exist.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol, xviii. :
66 - Botanical Society of Edinburgh :—
“BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. .
April 10th, 1856.—Professor Balfour, V.P., in the Cates |
ihe following papers were read :— ‘
1. “ Remarks on the State of the Forests in Pegu, and other parts
of India,” by Dr. M‘Clelland.
The statements in this communication were taken from Dr. MClel-
land’s Report, as given in a Madras paper. That report, taken in
connexion with Dr. Falconer’s report on the forests of the Tenas-
serim provinces, and Dr. Cleghorn’s on the forests of Madura and
Malabar, prove-—
_ 1. That the forests of Southern India and Pegu art approachin ing
-rapidly to exhaustion. 2. That the first step necessary to che
this process is a more effective organization of the forest. department
of the government of India. Instances are recorded in the Tenas-
“serim provinces of the indiscriminate felling of teak trees of all ages.
Trees with a straight bole of 100 feet, and trees with the wood not
yet hard, were all hewn down alike. In some forests the axe never
ceased for twenty years. In others, every teak tree was removed,
In Malabar the destruction had not been so extensive, and steps had
been taken to prevent the further deterioration of the forests. E:
-- In Pegu, it appears that the Burmese Government and the squatters
bave overworked the forests in a most reckless manner. Trees of all
sizes and ages were allowed to be cut, and it-was stated that upwards
of 70 per cent. of the trees cut were under-sized. In some places
“the forests have been worked unceasingly for thirty years. Exclusive
of trees felled or killed, there remain in the northern forest about
520,000 teak trees, which at the utmost will allow thinning to the
extent of 25,000 trees a-year. This number will soon be exceeded,
and the forests will thus speedily disappear, unless measures are
taken for the renewal of the trees, which it is not the interest of the
lessees to provide for.
The conservancy of the valuable forests in India is a matter of :
great importance, and calls for the immediate attention of the Indian
Government. Steps have already been taken in some of the Pre-
sidencies, but much still remains to be done in order to secure that
the timber of these extensive forests shall be preserved and turned to
eh account,
2. “Remarks on some Edible Sea-weeds,”’ by Dr. Davy.
This paper detailed some experiments on Chondrus crispus, or
Carrageen ; Rhodymenia palmata, or Dulse; Porphyra laciniata, or
Laver; Laminaria digitata, or Tangle; and Fucus vesiculosus, or
Doughlaghman. The author showed from the chemical composition
of these sea-weeds that they were valuable articles of food, containing
ol nitrogen than is present in the ordinary articles of veeeteble
00
“On Fibrous Substances used in India, as communicated in the
ne of the Jurors of the Madras Exhibition.”
The Jurors report’ that_ it has been shown that Southern India is
Prof. Balfour on'the Flora of the Cumbrae Islands, 87
abundantly supplied with fibrous materials of every description: for
textile manufactures.
Among the Endogenous plants of India yielding fibre, are noticed
species of Palms, dyave, Yucca, Sanseviera, Fourcroya, Ananassa,
Musa, Pandanus, Rushes, Grasses, and Sedges ; among Exogenous
plants are species of Calotropis, Tylophora, Cryptostegia, Damia,
Cannabis, Corchorus, Crotalaria, Hibiscus, Abelmoschus, and Abu-
tilon ;' besides the barks of species of Ficus, Bauhinia, Grewia, Dal-
bergia, Isora, Butea, and Vernonia. Among the Palms are Cocos
nucifera, the Cocoa-nut Palm ; Borassus flabelliformis, the Palmyra
Palm of Europeans ; Elate or Phenix sylvestris, the wild Date ;
Caryota urens, or the Indian Sago Palm ; Calamus Rotang, or ground
Rattan. Among Liliaceous plants may be recorded: Agave americana,
American Aloe, and varieties; Fourcroya gigantea, Seemay Kathalay ;
Sanseviera zeylanica, Marool; Yucca gloriosa, Adam’s Needle; Y.
aloéfolia; Ananassa sativa, Pine Apple. Of Pandanacez and
Musacese: Pandanus odoratissimus, or Screw Pine; Musa paradi-
siaca; or Plantain, and Musa sapientum, or Banana,
‘9 Substitutes for flax and hemp are found in the following Dicotyle-
dons':++Culotropis yigantea, or Yercum; Cryptostegia grandiflora,
. or Palay; Damia extensa, or Ootrum ; Crotalaria juncea, or Sunnee
Hemp ;°Corchorus olitorius, or Jute; Hibiscus cannabinus, and
other ‘species; Abelmoschus esculentus and ficulneus ; Abutilon
tomentosum and. polyandrum.
“4. “Notice of the Flora of the Cumbrae Islands,’’ by Professor
Balfour. ;
~ The Cumbrae Islands are situated on the Frith of Clyde, between
the coast of Ayrshire and the Island of Bute. In their geological
Structure, as well as in their flora, they present many points of
affinity with the latter island. Red sandstone, with limestone and
trap, constitute the chief rocks of the Cumbraes. The rarer plants
are found on the rocky grounds near the shores. The species are in
eneral those which characterize the western parts of Scotland. The
limate is mild, and some species are met with which are usually
considered characteristic of more southern situations. The Great
Cumbrae is about three miles long and one and a half broad; its
surface embraces about 2500 acres, one-half of which is arable. The
land rises in the centre of the island to about 400 feet. It consists
of a mass of red sandstone traversed by trap veins, some of which
form very conspicuous dykes. In some parts of the island, limestone
occurs. | te
The Little Cumbrae lies about half a mile south of the Great
Cumbrae. It is about a mile in length and half a mile in breadth.
It is composed chiefly of trap, with here and there portions of sand-
stone. h icagidalbes
~The Phanerogamous plants seen by Dr. Balfour and his party
amounted to about 420; viz.— :
arDieotyledones | 6) 308) Ses e co B14
Monocotyledones » » . . . 106
Pee eee
ROG oo gg at ae
5*
68
~ Botanical Society of Edinburghimss 5) ~
Among the’ more nalttercatings - these feeac be enumerated. spe ta
lowing :—
Brassica monensis (ons
the sandy shores).
Sagina subulata,
Malva moschata.
Hypericum. Androse-
i
Geranium, sanguineum,
Radiola, Millegrana.
~ Rubus discolor.
Lythrum Salicaria.
Cotyledon Umbilicus.
Sedum Telephium.
Carum verticillatum.
Conium maculatum.
Eryngium maritimum
(northern shores_of
the Great Cumbrae).
Haloscias scoticum.
Helosciadium inunda-"
tum.
+— nodiflorum.
(£nanthe Lachenalii.
Dipsacus sylvestris’
(naturalized).
Hieracivm gotten.
—— vulgatum.'"””
erecta,
The number ok Ferns and tein allies is y risliss ,
« ff]
- Jasione montana, ..,., Salicornia. heen
Calluna vulgaris, (var..; Suada, maritim re
tomentosa), , Polygonum Ba frifc
Pyrola media. - Rumex viridis... me ‘ig
Erythrza littoralis, Habenaria viridis, nod
Convolvulus Soldanella Listera cordatar (ioo50%
(sandy northernshores ovata. aod
of the Gt. Cumbrae),» Juncus maritimus.., alae
Mertensia. maritima. Alisma prone
(western shore of the; Zostera, marina,..yar,
anguapiavisn 10q ——
a) ry
Great Cumbrae).
Solanum Dulcamara. e)
Hyoscyamus niger. icu Pe
Linaria yulgaris,.. yulpina, , f
Lamm, ie aL : ‘Elcocaah at un xia
Lycopus europeus,., Schoenus nig named
Scutellaria galericulata. Scirpus maritimus._.
Stachys ambigua. Catabrosa aquatica var.
Pinguicula lusitaniea:. iS fo minorswollo) ait
Utricularia minor: «Festuca pete tak yi
Pseudo- ra %
~ Anagallis tenella. | Méti¢altinifior ea
~ Samolis Valerandi.” ~ Phalaris arun ea, 4
~ Littorella laetistris. var. ‘picta © ailoarts
_ Atriplex Bibingtonii: ” Sclerochloa haere.
— ‘Tritictm Taxi.
iq ———-
yee See
{ORION talusidome at6i02
Equisetaceze, si decent 2 4 arred}
Filices . . ve . . 20»; xe BT rod
Lycopodiaceze, isi sailoa cA aired Bulg sattifooalt
ne oe (or aa 23 [&
Total a “pte. sinpalinss dos
The proportion of Ferns, as “atm with PA daate Esa
is large.
Asplenium marinum.
Botrychium Lunaria.
Hymenophyllum Wil-
soni.
Among the more interesting of these may be notieed—
wibistal
Polypodium Phegapters
Polystichum angu
are,
Seolopendeiam vu
Lastreea Foenisecii.
Ophioglossum yulga-
tum.
Osmunda regalis.
The following is a list of the Cumbrae Mosses, bed determined
by Mr. Nichol, and partly from a list given by. Mr. Levack.:—. . i
Sphagnum cymbi-
folhum. *—
acutifolium.
cuspidatum.
squarrosum.
Pleuridium subulatum.
Gymnostomum tenue.
Weissia controversa.
Dicranum heteromal-
lum.
—— truncata.
Dieranum varium. Tortula muralis.
—— cerviculatum. —— subulata.
—-+ Scoparium..:5 26 = cseniaiathes
—— palustre. . Didymodon. mubelins,.. s
Campylopus flexuosus,
Ceratodon purpureus.
Fissidens bryoides.
‘Trichostomum homo-_ Sa
—- adiantoides. mallum.
taxifolius. ~~ Orthotrichum affine.
Pottia Heimiie °° 9°“ Gritiimia’ pulvinata.”
—— maritima.
Prof. Balfour wn the- Flora ofthe Cumbrac Islands.
Racomitrium Janugi-
nosum.
canescens.
——"aciculares 00"
Ptychomitriuin ‘poly-
phyllam. °
Physcomitrium erice-
torum. ©
toni.
yr ‘amnpulla
Barked fontana.
—— pomiformis. ~
ram eapillare.”
—— carneum.
Mnium - metab
— mm nlabum.*
—— hornum.
— Tostratum. ©
» Atrichum tun dulatum? '
Pogonatum nanum.
alpinum.
- Polytrichtim commune,
- Fontinalis antipyretica.
- Neckera complanata-
_ Pterygophyllum lucens.
~ Pylaisea polyantha.
Entosthodon’ Tenwple- 6
Homalothecium -seri-
ceum.
Thamnium alopecurum,
-Thuidium tamariscinum.
Hylocomnium splen-
dens.
-triquetrum.
-—~— loreum.
uarrosum.
bagresacigel
. Plagiothecium undula-
a ena :
69
Eurhynehium longi-
rostre.
Stokesii.
Brubhythecian “ruta-
bulum.” 4g
velttinum. *
—— populenm.* °°"
——'plumosum.” ~”
- Hypnum commutatum,
—— revolvens,
cuspidatum.
scorpioides.
Schreberi.
—— fluitans.
— purum.
cupressiforme.
Jungermannia aspleni-
oides,
tamarisci.
— furcata.
“The ieee list of Lichens, collected on the: Cumbraes, has been
prepend 5.7 Mr. Maemillan :-~ >
soy PA
Nephro pa -resupinata Parmeliaperlata(barren). Squamaria murorum,
MIFTR
Parmelia aia
(barren)...
—— pulyerulenta., *
parietina.
——-~ stellaris.
Sticta scrobieculata
(barren).
Borrera tenella. ~
Placodium plumbeum.
_ Spherophoron_.coral-
loides (in fruit).
—— compressum.
gyre wees glomulifera i
its
—— - omphalodes (in J
, Cladonia.rangiferina, ..
mncialis.
» Roccella tinctoria.
Parmelia conspersa (in
fruit).
Peltidea canina.
horizontalis. _
Scyphophorus aleicor-"
nis. »
Ramalina fraxineas?
fastigiata.
Parmelia saxatilis.
Lecanora tartarea.
‘Parmelia © remains at ’
fruit).
Evernia prunastri.
Usnea florida.
Ramalina, seopulorum.
Lecidea geographica.
sulphurea.
Lecanora. atta.
Sticta pulmonaria
‘9 (barrei).
-Parmelia olivacea.
Variolaria velata.
Lééanora parella.
»Colléma lacerum.
Sticta fuliginosa (barren).
Squamaria affinis.
Parmelia perforata (bar-
ren).
Stereocaulén paschale (in
fruit).
.. Mir. nee remarked, “In the above list of the most conspi-
.. $ituations far inland. °
‘cuous Lichens of these islands, it will be observed that several species
-oecur which are usuall found only in the depths of shady woods, in
The Parmelia glomulifera, Sticta scr obiculata,
Placodium® plumbeum, Nephroma resupinata, and Sticta fuli ginosa,
are almost peculiarsto the extensive forests of mountainous regions
where there is'a great deal of moisture and shade; and hence their
occurrence, not merely as stray or isolated individualé? for the Lichens
are sometimes very erratic in their choice of habitats, but im con-
siderable quantities. on islands almost entirely destitute of wood and
very ‘much exposed, is a somewhat singular circumstance. It is also
curious. to notice:in, the list no less..than eight-species, which we
‘should search wana beforehand to find, insomuch as they belong
70 \..\ Botanical Society of Edinburgh:
to a somewhat Alpine zone, which usually commences. at .a greater
eleyation than that of the highest ground on the islands. The
region in which the Cladonia rangiferina, Lecanora tartarea, Lecidea
geographica, Spherophoron coralloides, Parmelia omphalodes, &c.,
prevail in the greatest quantity, and attain to their greatest luxuriance
and beauty, commences at about 500 feet, and terminates at a height
of 1000 feet or a little more. Of course, extensive patches of these
Lichens may sometimes be found at much lower elevations ; indeed,
I have repeatedly gathered considerable quantities of each of them,
but very diminutive and ill-developed, all along the west coast. of
Scotland in immediate proximity to the sea; but it is only within the
above limits that uniformly large and perfect specimens, furnished
with fructification, can be obtained. There are two Lichens occurring
on these islands which are found on almost all our sea-coasts, and are
never found far inland, the Parmelia aquila and Ramalina scopulorum.
The former has never been found, I believe, at a greater distance from
the sea than some twenty or thirty miles, and always grows on rocks
fully exposed to the sea-breeze ; it is found in considerable abundance
on rocks so situated on Arthur’s Seat. The latter lichen is peculiarly
plentiful upon rocks along the west coast of Scotland, and attains.a
greater length and thickness in proportion as we advance northward,
the Oreadian rocks being sometimes covered with individuals: from
six to eight inches long, and nearly one broad. The speciméns 'ob- -
tained in the Cumbraes are among the longest and shrubbiest I have
ever seen, and present a remarkable contrast to those gathered on
the east coast, and especially along the Frith of Forth,, where it_is
rare to find an individual aboye.an inch high, and. with, lateral
branches. The ‘fructification: is rather uncommon, and: occurs; I
believe, more frequently on small and well-grown individuals; than
on those which attain the greatest length; the thallus, in the case
of the latter, commonly developing new elongated branches at the
points of the margin where apothecia ought to have been produced.
‘The specimens found in the Western Islands differ considerably from
those collected on the Irish coasts, in being much narrower, of a
paler colour, and destitute of the oblong pale pitted buds, which
give a rough appearance to the aged Irish plant, and also in the disk
of the apothecia being of a much lighter colour, and nearly similar
to the thallus. It is a very variable species, however, if species it
can be truly called, presenting slight differences as regards size, colour,
shape, and mode of branching, on almost every coast. I have ob-
served in Menzies’ Herbarium at the Botanic Garden, a specimen
marked ‘R. scopulorum?’ collected on the coast of California, which
appears to me to differ very little from certain states of our. native
plant, except perhaps in the thallus being a little thinner, softer, and
somewhat lacunose ; and I possess specimens collected in New Zealand
and the Antarctic regions, which, making the usual allowances for the
widely different circumstances in which they were developed, may
safely be referred to one or other of the numerous states of our own
R. scopulorum. ‘ | A
“ By far the most interesting rarity found in these islands, how-
Prof. Balfour on the Flora of the Cumbrae Islands. 71
ever, is the Roccella tinctoria, now for the first time ascertained to
be ‘a native of Scotland; the most northern localities previously
known for it being the maritime rocks along the south coast of
England, and the Guernsey, Portland, and Scilly islands. The
specimens found on the Cumbraes, where I believe it occurs in pretty
considerable abundance, are somewhat slender and diminutive, but
remarkably characteristic. The west coast of Scotland, and especially
the smaller islands, have been very little visited and explored by the
botanist ; and hence it is that we have remained so long ignorant of
the existence of this very interesting addition to the Flora Scotica.
I have no hesitation in saying, that, were a sufficiently careful and
diligent search once instituted along the other smaller and less-known
islands on the same coast, we should be able to record more than one
locality in Scotland for the Roccella tinctoria. I may add, in con-
clusion, that the nomenclature of these Lichens is that of Hooker’s
English Flora. I have adopted it in preference to that of other
authors, whose works are now slowly finding their way among us—
not because it is the best, but because it can be more easily consulted.”
aminaric.
—— filiformis.
- The following list of Marine Algee found on the coast of the Cum-
braes was prepared by Mr. R. Hennedy :— :
Halidrys siliquosa. Chordaria flagelliformis. Odonthalia dentata.
Fucus. vesiculosus and Mesogloia vermicularis. Rhodomela lycopodi-
var, balticus. virescens. oides. |
—— ceranoides. Leathesia tuberiformis. subfusca.
—— serratus. Ralfsia verrucosa. Polysiphonia urceolata.
— nodosus: Elachistea fucicola. formosa.
—— canaliculatus. stellulata. —— fibrata.
Himanthalia lorea. Myrionemastrangularis. elongella.
Desmarestia aculeata. Leclancheri. —— elongata.
o> viridis. | punctiformis. ——— fibrillosa.
pe esculenta. Cladostephus, verticil- Brodizi.
minaria digitata. latus. nigrescens.
—— bulbosa. spongiosus. atrorubescens.
—— saccharina. Sphacelaria scoparia. fastigiata.
+ phyliitis. plumosa. : parasitica.
— fascia. | cirrhosa. byssoides,
Chorda Filum. — radians. Dasya coccinea.
~—— lomentaria. racemosa. Bonnemaisonia aspara-
Zonaria. parvula. Ectocarpus siliculosus. goides.
Dictyota dichotoma and Hincksiz. Laurencia pinnatifida.
~ Var. intricata. fasciculatus (var. —— czspitosa.
Stilophora rhizodes. tessellatus). dasyphylla,
— Lyngbyii. : tomentosus. Chrysymenia clavellosa.
Dictyosiphon foenicu- crinitus. Chylocladia kaliformis.
-laceus. distortus. parvula.
Striaria: attenuata, - Landsburgii. articulata.
+ fragilisy .. —— littoralis. Corallina officinalis.
Punctaria latifolia. granulosus. Jania rubens.
—— plantaginea. sphzrophorus. Melobesia polymorpha.
tenuissima. branchiatus, fasciculata,
Asperococcus Turneri. Mertensii. —— membranacea.
— echinatus. _Myriotrichia claveefor- _——— verrucata.
Litosiphon pusillus. mis. —— pustulata.
Hildenbrandtia rubra.
72
Lithoeystis Allmani..
Delesseria sanguinea.
sinuosay |
—— alatais tslia
— Hypoglossiin..
—— ruscifolia,
Nitophyllum paitte- .
tum.
rebar ori
-Plocamium coecineum.
Rhodymenia bifida.
laciniata,
—— jubata.
——— palmata.
Spheerococcus corono-
pifolius.
Hypnea purpurascens.
Gelidium corneum.
Gigartina mammillosa.
Chondrus crispus.
Phyllophora rubens.
meimbranifolius,
—— Brodizi.
Peyssonelia Dubyi.
Gymnogongrus plicata.
Polyides rotundus.
Furcellaria fastigiata. |
Dumontia filiformis. '
Tridiea edulis.
Catenella Opuntia:
Dudresnaia Hudsoni.:
-Ptilota plumosa-
sericea.
Ceramium rubrum.
—— botryocarpum.
—— strictum.
Professor Gregory
following list of them :
Epithemia gibba.
—— rupestris.
turgida.
- Argus.
zebra.
na SOFEX?
Cymbella maculata:
—— cuspidata.
—— Ehrenber
turgida, fie G.?
obtusa, W.G.
Cocconeis placentula.
ediculus. ©
hwaitesii. :
-transversalis,
I GE R.i PY? WACt
ed
Amphora ovalis.
Botanical Society.of Edinburgh.
| Ceramium flabelligerum. Hate mgephe a aaR ;
nodosum, losa.
— echionotum.. : ercursa...
acanthonotum. Ulva latissima.
ciliatum. Lactuca. _
Griffithsia equisetifolia. Linza... wt
“7 setacea, Porphyra laciniata. _
Wrangelia multifida. vulgaris (var, ie,
Callithamnion plumula.__ nearis).
Turneri. Bangia fusco-purpurea._
—— tetragonum. —— ceramicola.., «»
—— Hookeri. , carmmea...;,
—— polyspermum. Rivularia plicata,. ma
—— corymbosum. i Se
—— pedicellatum. pepe teh
othii. Calothrix conferyicol:
floridulum. ... + luteola. «45
Davyiesii. — scopulorum.
Bryopsis plumosa. © °° —— fasciculata.’ o
Vaucheria velutina. ++ frannosay!) acid
Cladophora rupestris.: > ++-~/hydnoides:},, +) i
——~ letevirens. Tyneeye a
——~ albida. ——Carm mic alii... 2 shy
-¢=7—-Janosa, speciosa. he a
arcta. ee angusti-""
“flavescens. formis. '
fracta. . -”" “Oscillatoria littoralis. ff
“Rhizocloniutm riparia!” ‘subuliformis.: |
‘o.:Conférva ‘littorea.. 1 620+ signiswrty9900 as
2 tortuosaes2 syed Spirulina temyipainites d dt
) +++ implexas Hutchinsiz....
VED So) ~ Monormia intrie
id .Youngiana. . we Sphwrosyga Thwatea
PE ta a intesti- “——~ Broomei.. ~~
“nalis. ~ Spermoseira littorea.) °°
compressa. a8 LIV SIS 2 SISA
examined the Diatoms, and prepared the
Amphora minutissima: »
Cyclotella Kiitzingiana.
Campylodiscus spiralis.”
Surirella minuta. °
‘ pinnata:
—— biseriata:
Tryblionella apiculata,
W.G
Cymatopleura Solea,
Nitzschia sigmoidea. —
amphioxys.
—— vivax.
—_— ‘minutissima.
linearis. 970
Navicula ovalis, Sm.
‘(élliptica, Kiitz.) 0
varians, W. G.
Navicula bacillans.
gibberula.
- rhomboides, var.
elegams: *er far
amphisbeena.
~~ rhynchocephala.
7 lanceolata.
Pinnularia_ major.
—— Dactylus, Ehr.
—— viridis. © ’
pac tcter ioe ‘LAW
gibba. 00 &): to
nes peregrina. :
/— + viridula.,.
—_— mesolenta.
+ divergenss) > ©
—— nodosa, Ehre>
\' Miscellaneous. 73
Pinnularia biceps, W.G. Syneédra minutissima:’ Himantidium Areus.
—— linearis, W. G. acicularis. undulatum.
acuta. Cocconema lanceola- gracile:
Stauroneis Pheenicen- tum.) 0" Fragilaria capucina.
teron. —— cymbiforme. Odontidium mutabile.
punctata. cistula. mesodon.
—— anceps. — Gomphonema’tenellum. Harrisoni, Sm.
—— acuta. olivaceum, Tabellaria.
— linearis. © ~ — constrictum. Denticula tenuis:
— rectangularis, coronatumi: sinuata.
. Ge Fusticulus, Sm. ? — Tabellaria fenestrata.
—— undulata, W. G.-—— geminatum. flocculosa.
dubia, W.G:?) ——— insigne, W. G. -— Diatoma elongatum.
Pleurosigma attenua- — Meridion circulare. Melosira varians.
Uor. ~ Achnanithes exilis. distans.
Synedra radians." - Achnanthidium lanceo- - Mastogloia elliptica.
—— lunaris. latum. Colletonema neglectum.
To themames}of.such species.as have been recently added to the
British flora;:the name of the observer is.added. |
It will be seen that the number and variety of species is considerable,
yet, as we have found it in all other localities in the summer or autumn
of 1855, smaller than usual. The species are, with very few exceptions,
such as_belong to fresh water; forthe only forms that belong to
brackish or sea water are Navicula elegans, Pinnularia peregrina,
and-perhaps.Synedravacicularis. 000.
Thereare one,or two forms, which,.although I haye described them
as occurring: iv the-Glenshira sand; are;yet.more frequent in some of
thesé'gatherings than I have seen:them elsewhere. Such are Cocconeis
transversdlis, which Thave also found)in other freshwater gatherings ;
and Tryblionella apiculata, figured ‘iti the paper I lately read to the
Royal Society of Edinburgh: The rest of the forms, with the ex-
ception.of those.marked with ny name, and one o¥ two others of
Ehrenberg’s, are such as have long been known, and are very frequent.
: "MISCELLANEOUS. -
EDWARDSIA’ VESTITA (FORBES).
One of the most interesting. additions to our native zoophytology
that has been made-for some time is a species described by the late
Professor Edward Forbes under the above title from specimens found
by him on the island of Paros inthe Aigean Sea*. It is a vermiform
Actinia some six inches in length, with a beautiful expanded disk of
spotted tentacles ; the most conspicuous phenomenon in its ceconomy
being that it inhabits a tough thick tube formed of condensed mucus,
which is: secreted in great abundance and thrown off from the surface
of its body... |
This. curious: and—beautiful..zoophyte has been procured in some
numbers by' Mr. W.-A. Lloyd fromthe coast of North Wales; and
* See Annals and Mag. of Nats Hist. for December 1841, and for July
TB4324% .a20h r os
74 Miscellaneous.
specimens may now be seen in the tanks of the Zoological Society
in the Regent’s Park. MIOT 8)
It is'a very interesting coincidence, that the remarkable Annelide
found by Mr. Forbes in the same circumstances ‘and described’ in the
same communication is also at present in the same noble collection ;
for, though T have had no opportunity of closely examining the spe-
cimen, I have no doubt that the curious Serpula which dapircpiatre
appeared some months ago in one ef the central tanks, and whic
has’ been looked upon with some interest by zoologists, is identical
with Forbes’s Grecian Annelide in question. Its most salient point is
the long but graduated pectination of the branchial filaments on their
interior face, the pectinations projecting into the infundibulum and
meeting in the centre. It will probably require to be characterized _
afresh, and to form a new genus.—P. H. Gosse. 3
CYCLAS LACUSTRIS, DRAPARNAUD.
In Forbes and Hanley’s admirable ‘History of the British Mol-
lusca’ (vol. ii. pp. 118 & 119) is a particular and accurate descrip-
tion of specimens in my collection which I obtained from Mr, Clark,
marked “Exmouth 1831: and Dr. Turton’s cabinet.” They ‘were
referred by those authors to the above-named species, Dr. Gray.
could not have been aware of this when he described the same species
in the last Number of the ‘ Annals,’ and assigned to it the name of .
** Spherium pallidum.” Specimens which T’ took last month in
company with Mr, Rouse exactly agree with those in my collection
mentioned above, as well as with the description and figure in Dra-
parnaud’s work. Cyclas caliculata (to some of the varieties of which
this approaches in form), C. rivicola, and a variety of C. cornea.
occurred in the same spot ; so that the species in question cannot be 4.
local variety of any of the others... Its distinctive characters are the
rhomboid form and nearly straight hinge-line ; yellowish- white being
the predominant colour, with a greyish tinge and. darker irregular’
zones in adult specimens. It is probably the Tel/ina lacustris of
Miiller ; but Pfeiffer, Charpentier, Dupuy and some other conti-
nental writers; appear to have mistaken for it varieties of Cyclas.
cornea and C. caliculata. Mr. Rouse having afterwards told me.
that Dr. Gray intended to publish the discovery, I communicated to
the latter my ideas on the subject, but I presume not in time for him
to make any use of them.—-J. Gwyn JEFFREYS.
1 Montagu Square, 16th June 1856.
Occurrence of Clausilia Mortilleti, Dumont, in Kent.
A shell, for which I am indebted to Mr. 8S. P. Woodward, and which
is regarded by him as a small variety of Clausilia Rolphii, Leach,
proves to be a pale, clear variety of C. Mortilleti. Mr. Wocdward
found it on the chalk hills at Charing in Kent, living on the ground
in the woods, at the roots of ivy. Compared with a specimen of
Miscellaneous. 75
CO. Rolphii, collected. by him at Charlton near Woolwich, it. presents
the following differences.
- In C, Rolphii the shell is more elongate and the spire more gradually
decreasing in breadth towards the apex, not ventricose, and suddenly
narrowing to the attenuated upper portion of the spire, as in, C. Mor-
tilleti.:, It is lighter in colour, with a fulvyous tint, rather than the
purplish hue which pervades the specimens of the latter ; the basal
crest isnot prominent or sharply defined, and the rima is narrow,
and elongated nearly to the base; whereas in C. Mortilleti the crest
forms a strong funiculate keel, and the periomphalus is open and
semicircular. In C. Rolphii the lower lamella is. cruciate ;, both
species are deficient in the palatal callus so conspicuous in the true
C. plicatula, Dr.
Length of C. Rolphii, 14 mill.
——— of C. Mortilleti from Charlton-Kings near Cheltenham,
14 mill.
— of ditto from Charing, 11 mill.
-“C. Rolphit has 104 whorls; C. Mortilleti only 9} in English ex-
amples, but a specimen of a more slender variety, which I got at
Chaud-fontaine in Belgium, exhibits the same number as C. Rolphit.
’ Thus the two distant counties of Kent and Gloucestershire produce
a shell which has so long been unaccountably overlooked on the
continent, as well as in England. There are some who still persist
in confounding C. Rolphit with plicatula. of Draparnaud, notwith-
standing the differences observable, and the assurance of De Férussac,
as reported by Gray. Independently of other characters the more
remote costation of plicatula, its palatal callus, and different mode of
rimation sufficiently distinguish it. In colour its ranges with C. Mor-
tilleti, the differences of which were pointed out by Adolf Schmidt
- in the ‘ Annals’ for January last.
- C, plicatula, omitted in Mr. Jeffreys’s notes on the Swiss Mol-
lasea (Annals for January 1855), but noticed in his collection cata-
logue, occurs at Monthey and St. Maurice in the Valais, as well as at
Glarus. In both catalogues he has omitted C. pumila, Ziegler,
var. 3, Pfr., and C. lineolata, Held. The latter shell I got in the
tract explored by him, between Chillon and Villeneuve, as well as in
the north of Switzerland.
at W. H. Benson.
' 12th June 1856.
On the Siliceous Sporangial Sheath of the Diatomaceee.
In the 16th volume (1855, p. 92) of the ‘Annals of Natural Hi-
story,’ I pointed out the occurrence of a siliceous sheath enveloping
the sporangial frustule of a Navicula (Amphirhynchus’), and stated
that ‘it was composed of silex, 7.e. was indestructible by heat and
nitric acid;’’ also, that it was “colourless, elongate, rounded at the
ends, and furnished with coarse transverse strie, or depressions, -
through which the line of fracture runs when the object is crushed.”
76 Miscellaneous.
In the, 2nd_volume.of the ‘Synopsis of the: British Diatomacese;’ the
Rev. W. Smith states, that, he has never observed this siliceous sheath,
and that.“ probably it may have, been an appearance resulting from
the condensation and corrugation of the mucus Henotopedl aroanth ‘the
npent? body.”
I need.,scarcely, say that.Mr. ‘Smith’ 8 Pebceitites is imidinable! ifor
no. kind of mucus will) resist the action of a red sheat:and «nitric acid:
Moreover, the specimen, was not an isolated one, but hundreds of them
were present, It is, however, perhaps, excusable: that’ Mr. Smith
should consider; meas having been. misled by an appearance, having
himself, mistaken the cellular appearance upon the inlet snd the
Diatomaceze for.the expression of a,cellular structuresyoi ©!
In regard to, the ‘blunder’? committed, by» Dr. sii in / the
formation of the name Gyrosigma (which, is not.alliterative however);
I may remark, that this name was retained in the ‘ Micrographic
Dictionary ’ and elsewhere, because it- had, claims from :priority, and
from its adoption by Kuitzing and Rabenhorst ; \also/ because, although
objectionable in structure, it was less’so ‘than. the name. Pleurosigma,
considering that, no two, authors apres as \to spree as: the side’ ot a
Diatomacean, frustule. zabety onl} to
Again, the objection.to the name @uro osipioa Sieodion: lies tdanvitis
other established. generic; names, as Spirogyra; &e.; the pecnccniresiond
which would cause great and cin e ee confusion) Yo 10!
) 1a. OM en M.D. tf
_ 9 St, John’s Square May) 9, 1856, 2 TEKLO iio
A-One mG oid
Travels,in Central Auidhiallo By MM, hisiovatail: and: blac pi
(Communicated: by Count) paris sae A 10% 918d to
‘ Bisse
2957 .
Dr. Scherzer. lately communicated, to ‘the, Imperial pooh of
Sciences at Vienna (March, 6, 1856) a.veport of his, travels ‘Steveb
the northern portion of Central America, undertaken, in company
with Dr..M. Wagner, in; 1852-55, ..A. meteorological journal, was
carefully kept during the whole journey ; and the altitudes of moun+
tains, plateaux, and volcanic peaks, together with. the limits of the
diffusion of the most important. among the animals and. the cul
tivable vegetables, were approximately determined by the aneroid
barometer. Intercourse with the savage Indian tribes, and residence
at villages of the settled and agricultural aborigines of .Honduras,
San Salvador, and Guatemala, provided the tray vellers with valuable
materials for their ethnographical studies.. The governments through
whose territories MM. Scherzer and Wagner passed most. readily
communicated a large amount of statistical and administmiaye infor-
mation,
An extensive entomological collection. was. made .i in Costa Rica and
Guatemala; and MM. Scherzer and, Wagner brought. home. about
40,000 specimens of Invertebrata; among which. are nearly.300
undescribed species (according to MM. I Klug and. Hopffer, of Berlin)
of Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera, . There are also many
new and interesting forms among the land, and, freshwater Mollusea.
Miscellaneous. val
The'specimens of Vertebrata, chiefly Reptiles, are far less nunierotis
than thoseof the Invertebrata; and have been presented, together
with the specimens’ of North American ‘rocks ‘and fossils, ‘by Dr.
Scherzer'to the scientific establishments ‘of the Austrian Empire, or
to persons making them objects of special study.
+o The collections made by these indefatigable travellers’ are at least
sufficient to represent the essential characters of tlie Central American
fauna \and) flora which have’ been ‘hitherto ‘scarcely known: These
researches, having’ been pursued'on the opposite sides of the Cor-
dilleras and«along the'coasts of both oceans, are highly valuable with
reference to the geographical distribution of organized’ beings ; and
the result proves’ that'the ridge of the Andes is an effectual barrier
to’ the diffusion of animals endowed with a small amount of lovo-
motive power, especially the terrestrial molluscs, the insects, and the
Arachmides}/* 911) 0 |
beThe range sof the’ travellers, who sometimes pursued different
courses 'forthe sake of: completing the object of their journey, ex-
tends :from\50°%to:9° Nat! prom the uniform and gloomy scenery
aboutsthe mouth of ‘the St? Lawrence, in Canada, to the virgin forests
of the Andes, south of Costa Rica, luxuriant in the richest variety of
animaband evegetable lifes At Belize’they enrbarked for the West
Tndies}«anid: visited: Jamaica; \Hayti, St.Thomas; and Cuba. ‘The
vegetation of these:isles) ‘although strikingly lixuriant and graceful
in sdnié loealities:(as the Blue Mountains, in Jamaica, and the central
mountain-valleys of St. Domingo),‘is far from rivalling in grandeur
the Centro-American flora, as it wants the lofty and magnificent
trees,and)the, variety of parasiticalyand climbing. plants: characteristic
of the forests of;Central; Aiherica.) On!the:other ‘hand, the tropical
features of the scenery of the Antilles is in beautiful contrast with
the:gloomy uniformity ‘of the North American vegetation ; and a
traveller," landing at Cuba, after having left Quebec eight days before,
may well be struck by the’change of scene. —
‘As ‘a general rule, it appears that the level of the highest deve-
lopment’ of vegetable life gradually rises from the ground-level from
the poles to the equator. In tropical America the most magnificent
flowers are those on the tops of high trees, and on the plants climbing
on’ them. Inthe temperate zone the shrubs are richer in blossoms
than the other vegetable forms ; and from 46° lat. northwards the
great variety of flowers is concentrated in the meadows.
~ “MM: Scherzer and Wagner, besides the observation of physical
facts and the collection of specimens, paid particular attention to the
status of the West Indian’ Colonies, their ceconomical relations, ‘and
their population, |
_ Dr. Scherzer has already published his remarks on North America
(in three ‘vols.); and’ on Central America (in one vol.); he is far,
however; ‘from regarding ‘the object of his researches as exhausted, as
he and his ¢ompanion went through the whole of their enterprise
_ at their own expensé, and consequently with limited’ resources (ex-
eepting the excursion to the ruins. of Guirigua, in Guatemala, which
was undertaken ‘at the cost of the British Government). ~~”
78 Miscellaneous.
On the Non-ewistence of Polarizing Silica in the Organic Kingdoms.
By Prof. J. W. Batiey. a
It ds mow more than twenty years since Sir David Brewster an-
nounced the existence of polarizing or doubly refractive silica in the
cuticle of Hquisetum, and in that of some of the grasses. In Lindley’s
‘Natural System of Botany,’ the following account of Brewster’s
experiments is given :—‘ On subjecting a portion of the cuticle of
Equisetum hyemale to the analysis of polarized light under a high
magnifying power, Brewster detected a beautiful arrangement of the
siliceous particles, which are distributed in two lines parallel to the
axis of the stem and extending over the whole surface. * * * *
Brewster also observed the remarkable fact that each particle has a
regular axis of double refraction, In the straw and chaff of wheat,
barley, oats and rye, he noticed analogous pheenomena.”’ Sate
In Quekett’s ‘Treatise on the Microscope,’ 3rd edit. p..358, diree-
tions are given for preparing the siliceous cuticle of Hquisetum hye-
male for microscopic examination, by boiling in strong nitric acid,
and it is added that ‘in balsam it forms a beautiful object for polars
ized light.” Similar directions are given for preparing the silica.in
the chaff of wheat, oats, &c. :
As these statements are contained in the last editions of each of |
the above-mentioned works, it is evident that no contradiction of the
error involved in them has been pointed out; yet, notwithstanding
the high authority on which they rest, the statements, so far as the
polarizing action of the silica is concerned, are wholly erroneous. If
the cuticle of the above-mentioned plants is completely deprived of
its carbonaceous tissues, it will be found wholly devoid of action on
polarized light, and any preparation of the cuticle which is found to
affect polarized light, will also be found to blacken when heated in
concentrated sulphuric acid, and if then decarbonized by throwing
into the hot acid solution a little chlorate of potassa, the residual
silica shows no signs of action under the polariscope, either alone or
with the selenite plate, although it still retains the forms of the cells,
stomata, &c. 2
It is clear then that the error in the above statements has been
eaused by the imperfect removal of the dense carbonaceous tissues
which are deposited beneath the silica, I have examined rs
species of Lquisetwm and a large number of plants of the Grass tribe
which are most remarkable for their siliceous cuticles, but have
found no trace of any action upon polarized light, when the carbo-
naceous matter was removed. But it is unnecessary to resort to arti-
ficial preparations to prove the correctness of my statements. Nature
has made her own preparations, and deposited them by myriads be-
neath every peat-bog, where may be found not only the. siliceous
shells of the Diatoms and the spicules of the freshwater sponges, but
also a large number of the siliceous parts of the grasses, sedges, Xe;
Ehrenberg has shown*, and I can confirm his statements, that. the
* Berlin Monthly Reports, May 1848,
Meteorological Observations. 79
silica in these Phytolitharia, as well as in the Diatomaceee, Polycysti-
neee and Bpoupiolites, j is not doubly refractive. He makes an excep-
tion in the case of the shell of drachnoidiscus, but my own experiments
rove that when properly cleaned this shell forms no exception. As
I have shown above that the silica in the cuticle of the Hquisetum
and Grasses agrees with that in the lower tribes in characters, I think
the conclusion is warranted, that doubly refractive silica has no ex-
istence in the organic world.—Svzlliman’s American Journal for May
1856, p. 357.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR MAY 1856,
~ Chiswick.—May 1. Overcast: cold showers, partly hail: clear and cold, 2,
Quite clear: cloudy: frosty at night. 3. Cloudy andcold: showery. 4, Overcast:
‘elondy : clear, with sharp frost at night.. 5. Frosty early a.m.: cloudy and cold.
6. Fine; cloudy and cold: rain.. 7. Cold rain. 8. Densely clouded: cold north
wind, 9. Heavy clouds. 10. Uniformly overcast: fine. 11. Light haze : fine:
cloudy. 12. Uniform haze: rain. 13. Rain: cloudy, 14. Heavy showers, 15.
Fine: showers, with some hail. 16. Fine. 17. Cloudy. 18. Boisterous, with
rain° and hail. 19. Very fine. 20. Very fine: slight frost. 21. Fine: rain.
22. Rain. 23. Cloudy: fine. 24. Fine. 25. Cloudy: rain. 26. Fine. 27. Very
fine ; heavy rain at night. 28. Cloudy: very fine. 29. Hazy: cloudy: fine. 30.
str and cold, 31. Rain. ;
‘Mean temperature of the MOnth ......ccseessesscecsencseeecebees 50°-09
Mean temperature Of May 1855. . ,..s..enserecedenerreecersennens 48 ‘78
~ Mean temperature of May for the last thirty years $i Qiasennts 53 55
Average amount of rain in May. — .........cccecscorsccsesescecgess 1°852 inches,
. Boston. —May 1. Cloudy : rain and sleet p.m. 2,3. Cloudy; rain and hail p.m.
5, Cloudy. 6. Cloudy: hailand snow a.m. 7. Cloudy. 8. Cloudy: rain a.m,
, 10. Cloudy. 11. Fine. 12,13. Cloudy. 14. Cloudy: rain with thunder p.m.
15, 16. Cloudy. 17. Cloudy : rain P.M. 18. Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 19,
Cloudy. 20,21. Fine. 22. Rain a.m.and p.m. 23. Fine: rain and thunder p.m.
24, Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 25, 26. Cloudy: rain p.m. 27. Fine: rain p.m,
28, Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 29, Cloudy: 30. Fine. 31. Cloudy: rain p.m.
+ Sandwick Manse, Orkney —May 1. Bright a.m.: cloudy p.m. 2. Sleet-showers
a.M.: cloudy p.m. 3—5. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 6. Cloudy a.m.: clear p.m,
7, Clear A.M. and p.m, 8. Cloudy a.m.: clear p.m. 9. Clear A.M.: rain P.M.
10. Cloudy A.m.: drops p.M. 11. Drizzle a.m.: fog p.m. 12. Hazy a.m.: clear,
ne p.m. 13. Cloudy A.M. and P.M. 14. Cloudy A.M.:rainp.M. 15, Cloudy a.m.
rops p.m. 16. Bright a.m.:cloudyp.m. 17. Clear, fine a.m.: cloudy, fine p.m.
i Showers, bright a.m. : showers P.M. 19. Cloudy a.M.: showers P.M. 20.
right a.M.: clear P.M. 21, 22. Bright a.m.: cloudy p.m. 23, 24. Cloudy a.m,
on p.m. 25. Clear a.m. and P.M. 26, 27, Cloudy a.M.and P.M. 28, Bright a.m:
cloudy P.M. 29—31. Clear A.M. and P.M.
Mean temperature of May for previous twenty-nine years .., 47°85
Mean temperature of this month ............. biibatcessnss <P males 46 °83
~~ Mean temperature of May 1855 oo... ec eeeessenesceueceeseece ra ae "81
Average quantity of rain in May for fifteen previous years . 1°66 inches.
‘the great drought continues ; the rain during the last three months being
less than the average for May alone, which is our driest month, and not half the
quantity that fell in March alone last year.
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THE ANNALS
AND
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
[SECOND SERIES.]
No. 104. AUGUST 1856.
1X. = Oa the Development. and Propagation of Spheroplea
_annulina. By Dr. Ferpinanp Coun*,
Ur to last year there were few botanists who believed in the
sexuality of the Alge. _Thuret’s observations on the antheridia
~of the Fucaces did indeed open anew prospect, in demonstrating
~~ the impregnation of the reproductive spores by minute sponta-
necusly-moving spermatozoids (antherozoids, Thuret) ; yet this
discovery, so long as it remained -isolated, appeared. rather to
_ yemove the Fucacee from the class of Algz, just as the pre-
viously discovered sexuality of the Characez has altered the
position of those plants in many systems. The observations of
Pringsheim}, laid before the Academy in’ March last, have
proved that one of our freshwater unicellular Algz also possesses
separate, sexual organs. . Having discovered spermatozoa in the
- horns”? (previously suspected to be anthéridia) of Vaucheria,
“and traced their entrance into the orifice of the sporangial cell,
Pringsheim has. established the fertilizing process in the most
remarkable manner, and grounded upon this'the conjecture that
difference of sexes exists In all the rest of the Alga, and that the
resting-spores, the true reproductive organs of these plants, are
in all cases impregnated by spermatozoa and are not capable of
germination without this.. The history of development which I]
am about to sketch in the followmg pages affords new evidence
in favour of this proposition: as it rests upon a totally mde-
pendent series of observations, almost simultaneously performed,
and reveals most remarkable modifications of this process, it
may still lay claim perhaps to an especial interest.
. * Translated from the ‘ Monatsbericht’ of the Berlin Academy, May
1855, by Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S. &c.
_ + Annals of Nat. Hist. 2nd Ser. xv. p. 346.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvin. 6
82 Dr. F. Cohn on the Development and Propagation
Spheroplea annulina, Ag., is one of the rarer freshwater Algze,
which is not observed, like most of these plants, everywhere and
at all seasons, but only at long intervals and under peculiar cir-
cumstances ; it consists, like all the Conferve, of cells of variable
length, connected in a single row into long filaments, and is
characterized by a peculiar arrangement of the chlorophyll.
Ehrenberg has already remarked that it covers extensive surfaces
about Berlin with a red coating, and hence may have given rise
to traditions of “ blood-rain.”” Near Bremen, where it was dis-
covered by Treviranus, it occurs upon flooded tracts. At Breslau
I found it the first time at the end of October, last year, in
a potato-field which had been laid under water by the great
overflow of the Oder in the last week of August. The Spheroplea
covered the field, which had dried again after the retreat of the
water, as an almost uninterrupted felt, of a beautiful red-lead or
vermilion colour on the smooth upper ‘surface, and green on the
under side, where it was disentangled into the separated filaments.
The red colour depended upon the spores with which the fila-
ments of the Spheroplea were completely filled up; only those
filaments which were exposed to light and air on the surface of
the felt fructified ; the under side, resting on the ground, con-
tained only vegetative filaments of the normal green colour.
The structure of the Spheroplea-spores is very simple; they
are red globules, usually from 1-125 to 1-100" in diameter, -
surrounded by two hyaline membranes, of which the inner hes
close upon the contents, while the outer is somewhat separated
and is elegantly creased. The spores of Spheroplea are usually
described as stellate; Kiitzing however states that they are
encircled by spiral bands. Both these assertions are justified to
a certain extent: it depends upon the position of the spores
whether they look like many-rayed stars, or as longitudinally
streaked, smooth-bordered globes. The outer coat of the spore
is so folded that the folds meet at the two poles of the globe like
so many meridians. Hence if we look at the pole of a spore,
the folds are seen surrounding the globe like a frill, m a sharp-
angled zigzag; while if we look upon the equator of the spore
with the axis parallel to the object-glass, the folds may be traced
in their whole course as longitudinal lines. In many spores,
especially the large ones, the plaiting of the outer coat is very
irregular, and forms merely wart-like elevations without any
definite arrangement. Sulphuric acid causes an expansion of
this coat, but does not destroy it ; iodine and sulphuric acid colour
it bright yellow. |
_ The contents of the spores consist of rather large starch-gra-
nules, and protoplasm which is coloured bright vermilion-red by
a peculiar colouring matter ; they contain a red oil which stands
of Spheeroplea annulina. : 83
in the closest relation to chlorophyll, and is equally produced
from this and transformed into it. In normal conditions this
oil is diffused so minutely in the colourless plasma, forming a
kind of emulsion, that it appears in infinitely small, red globules
which might be confounded with the so-called protoplasm-
granules ; their oily nature may be ascertained, however, when
the spores die or are destroyed by chemical reagents, as the red
globules then become confluent into large red-lead-coloured
drops, strongly refracting light, soluble in ether, are coloured
bluish-green by iodine, and by a somewhat longer action of sul-
phurice acid acquire a blue colour; this last reaction exactly
resembles that of sulphuric acid on chlorophyll; hence it is not
improbable that the acid converts the oil into the related sub-
stance chlorophyll. If the sulphuric acid remains long in con-
tact with the spores, the latter become bleached; the action of
light produces the same effect upon the spores when dead. The
red colouring matter of the spores of Spheroplea is different
from the erythrophyll of leaves and flowers, but it occurs in the
spores of Bulbochete, as shown by Pringsheim, in Protococcus
nivalis and pluvialis, Chroolepus Iolithus, and many other Algee,
also in Euglena sanguinea ; in every case it is changed, in the
course of development, into green chlorophyll, and vice versd.
The spores of Spheroplea present a remarkable resemblance to
the red, stellate reproductive bodies which Ehrenberg pointed
out in the genus Volvox (V. stellatus), and which, according to
my investigations, contain both red oil and starch-granules.
_ The course of development of Spheroplea being hitherto alto-
gether unknown, and in fact the germination of the resting-
spores of the Algze generally never having been observed, except
in the Conjugatee and Vaucheria, I resolved to turn to account an
immense mass of Spheroplea-spores at my disposal, in an inves-
tigation, and accordingly, at the beginning of October 1854, I
placed a portion of the red felted mass in a vessel of water. A
putrefaction immediately took place, through which the cells of
the filaments were dissolved ; while the spores thus set free,—
which, as a microscopic examination showed, protected by their
two membranes, underwent no alteration whatever,—subsided to
the bottom of the vessel in countless numbers as a reddish mud.
otwithstanding that the glass now stood all through the winter
in the window of a warm room, I could not detect any change
in the spores before March; the germination showed itself first
after a few mild spring days, and it occurred stmultaneously in
two separate vessels. In order to ascertain whether a six-months’
rest was actually necessary to the Spheroplea-spores, I placed a
fresh portion of the filamentous mass in water, at the end of
March ; in this ease I observed germinating plants five days
6*
84 Dr. F. Cohn on the Development and Propagation
after. The germination took place still more quickly in sub-
sequent third and fourth experiments, wherein it occurred in
forty-eight hours, with spores which up to that time had been
kept in the herbarium. I am quite unable to explain the enig-
matical hastening of the germination in the spring months ;_ it
could scarcely have depended on the greater heat, for the room
was heated to a higher temperature during the winter. At the
same time the germination of the Spheroplea-spores occurred
relatively rarely in cultivation, so that it went on through many
weeks, and the majority of the spores still remained unchanged ;
- while in the natural locality, the potato-field above mentioned,
by the middle of April, about which time the field was again
flooded, the spores had all germinated, and no trace, of. the red
felted mass remained, while the standing water was full of the
green filaments of Spheroplea. oH
The germination of the spores. of Spheroplea differs, from
everything formerly known of the development of the Algz and
of plants generally ; on the other hand, it agrees surprisingly
with simultaneous observations on the germination of .Bulbo-
chete* already published by Pringsheim in. these Reports, The
youngest germs of Spheroplea that I perceived were spindle-
shaped corpuscles from 45 to 7, of a line in diameter, and
about 1, of a line long, running out. at both) ends, into, long
filiform points which were irregularly curved and twisted, and
increased the total length to ;4, of a line and more. These! ger-
minating plants resembled in shape, even. indistinguishably,
that interesting species of Closterium which Ehrenberg has de-
scribed and figured as C. rostratum.. The contents of the germ
displayed every intermediate stage from the red of the spore to
the green of the developed plant; the red and green were
mingled in a most elegant manner, either with the red oil-glo-
bules accumulated at one end and the green chlorophyll at the
other, with a colourless band separating them in the middle; or
bands of red and green alternated; or the whole contents were
green sprinkled with red globules. At first sight of these germs,
{ perceived that their dimensions were much smaller than, those
of the spores from which they must have been produced ; hence
they evidently must have originated from a part, not the whole,
of the spore. Added to this, I never found a germinating plant
sticking in the membranes of the spore, but always scattered
free in all parts of the water; so that I was necessarily driven to
the conjecture that these portions must have been. discharged
from the spores as “swarming-cells.” I was soon enabled te
confirm my conjectures by direct observation.
* Ann, Nat, Hist. Ser. 2. xv, p. 349,
_ of Spheeroplea annulina. 85
When the spores of Spheroplea are about to germinate, in the
first place thei contents are metamorphosed, acquiring a pecu-
liar granular organization and assuming a colour more brown-
red, a lighter circle becoming visible in the middle. The red of
the spore is frequently changed into green before germination,
the’ conversion advancing gradually from the borders to the
centre. The contents of the spore next divide, first into two, then
into four or eight portions; these portions break through their
double membrane and emerge into the water as free ‘ swarming-
cells.” In the small number of spores which germinated daily
out of the enormous quantity present, I never succeeded in
catching the moment of the exit, and therefore I do not know
how the two coats of the spore are torn; but the empty mem-
branes are often met with, a mere remnant, at most, of uncon-
sumed contents remaining in them; I also found spores with
undischarged *swarm-cells’ dancing about actively in their inte-
rior. "The whole process differs from what Pringsheim observed
only in'so far, that in Bulbochete a long cylindrical germinal
filament escapes from the spore, and the contents of that are
formed ‘into free ‘ swarming-cells,’ while i Spheroplea this ope-
ration is completed within the spore itself; but I often met with
spores from which the outer stellate membrane had been stripped,
and the contents had begun to divide within the inner smooth
coat.
-)The * swarming-cells* (zoospores) which are formed in the
interior of the spores’ of Spheroplea have an exceedingly elegant
shape, which however, like their size and colour, is subject to
considerable ‘variation. Ordinarily they are globular or short
cylindrical corpuscles ;44 to ;45 of a line long, of a splendid
é€armine or vermilion colour, furnished at one end with a short
colourless head from which extend two long cilia. Other swarm-
ing-cells are larger and pear- or spindle-shaped ; these evidently
derive their origin either from a larger fractional part or from
larger spores: 1 met with globular swarming-spores even as much
as j4, of a line in diameter, not inferior in size to the ordinary
spores ; and perhaps these might have consisted of the total con-
tents of such a spore swarmed out in one mass. Many swarm-
ing-cells are of two colours ; the part next the beak red, the rest
green ; ora green border surrounds a red centre ; but the eolour-
less head or beak, with the cilia, is always evident. Their move-
ments last for many hours, and exhibit that vigorous, and yet
at the same time lazy character whieh distinguishes for example
the swarming-spores of Gidogonium, and still more those of
Chlamidomonas pluvialis, which are similar also in their colour
and the number of their cilia. The long pauses which occur
from time to time in the movements of these swarming-cells are
86 Dr. F. Cohn on the Development and Propagation
remarkable ; one might imagine sometimes that they had settled
quite to rest, but after an interval of an hour or more they sud-
denly recommence their old revolutions.
At the time when the swarming-cell breaks through the mem-
brane of the spore of Spheroplea, it possesses no cellular mem-
brane; but it produces this while still im motion, so that it
becomes distinctly surrounded by a delicate, young, and very
elastic cellulose coat. When the swarming-cell germinates, this
membrane becomes rigid and prolonged at both ends so as to
produce the spindle-shape; these ends grow out rapidly mto
capillary points, which constantly increase in length ; the middle
of the germinating cell then likewise extends itself, the ends
being pushed still further apart, and the entire cell is thus ren-
dered at once longer and thicker. The originally homogeneous,
finely-granular contents of the swarming-cell is changed in ger-
mination, the remainder of the red oil becoming rapidly con-
verted into chlorophyll, the germinating plant thus acquiring a
uniform green colour; but even in the earliest condition colour-
less bubbles (vacuoles) are found in the green plasma, these
vacuoles containing a fluid of less density, while the chlorophyll
between them is compressed, and thus assumes the form of green
rings standing at certain distances apart, In these streaks
large starch-globules are soon secreted, and by the time the
germinating plant is =; of a line long, it has already assumed
the full character of the cells of Spheroplea. It continues to
increase in length and breadth, retaming however its Closterium-
like shape. I met with colossal spindle-shaped cells half a line
and more long, prolonged into capillary pomts at both ends.
Spheroplea is the only Conferva known to me that never pos-
sesses a root; in all other genera one end of the germinating
filament, avoiding the light, grows downward into an organ of
attachment, while the other differently formed end grows by
apical development into the proper filament. In Spheroplea,
not only are both extremities of exactly the same shape from the
first origin, but no apicular growth occurs, at least not after the
capillary ends are completed; the cells here grow in the middle.
Since the green rings in the cells of Spheroplea fix the relative
positions of their points, the places where the growth takes place
may be readily observed, the number of rings being constantly
multiplied, by the division of the old, previously formed ones. But
a minute investigation of this subject would carry us too far from
the object of this notice. After some time the germ-cell divides
in the middle, and with the enlargement of the plant the number
of cells is increased : the length of the cells is strikingly unequal,
for while in some cells they cannot be perceived, other cells are
only ; or 4 0f a line. But in the longest, many-celled filaments,
of Spheeroplea annulina. 87
the fine capillary parts of the elongating ends may always be
observed,—a fact hitherto overlooked. -
The contents of the full-grown cells of Spheroplea exhibit
most elegant structures, the comprehension of which 1s essentially
furthered by the interesting investigations of Al. Braun. The
constituents, colourless protoplasm, green chlorophyll, aqueous
fluid and starch-granules, are distributed in a peculiar manner,
the aqueous fluid forming large bubbles or vacuoles which attain
a diameter almost equal to that of the cell, and hence stand in
rows, like pearls, often in contact at their poles, and flattened
there so as to form seeming septa. In the interval between the
vacuoles is compressed the green plasma with the starch-gra-
nules ; and here further the space becomes disputed by nume-
rous smaller vacuoles which are excreted from the plasma: under
a low magnifying power the whole appears as if there was a
regular alternation of narrow green and broad colourless rings.
If-the vacuoles are smaller and the chlorophyll is more abun-
dant, the cell appears uniformly green,—more intense merely in
the interval between the vacuoles. ‘The vacuoles have an enve-
lopeof condensed plasma, so that when the whole is softened in
water the vacuoles do not dissolve, but sustain themselves for a
long time, like cells; but they are not permanent structures ;
their number and size are subject to constant alteration.
In the second half of April I first observed the germinated fila-
‘ments of Spheroplea beginning to reproduce spores. ‘The regular
arrangement of the green rings disappeared in particular cells ;
the vacuoles increased in number, so that the whole contents
assumed the appearance of a green froth ; the starch-globules
were irregularly diffused through this. These were soon seen
to become grouped together in twos or threes, and largish
masses of the green plasma became accumulated around them ;
after a certain time the middle line of the cell was occupied by a
great number of green lumps, at regular distances, the frothy
matter being distributed between them. As the majority ofthe
vacuoles gradually disappeared these lumps assumed the form of
green stars, such as occur in pairs in the cells of Zygnema, re-
maining connected together by the green radiating filaments of
plasma. Between each pair of these stellate masses a large
vacuole was formed, which became flattened to level septa, so
that the whole cell appeared as if divided into chambers by a
number of parallel plates of plasma. In each of these chambers
there began an uninterrupted metamorphosis of the green mass ;
the mucilaginous filaments were gradually retracted ; the green
substance contracted itself sometimes towards the right, some-
times to the left; in a short time the colourless plasma had
become so distributed around the chlorophyll that the septa of
88 Dr. F. Cohn 6m the Development and Propagation
the chambers separated, and the whole contents were broken up’
into a large number of free globular masses, which were sharply:
defined, composed chiefly of colourless mucilage, and enclosed
in their centre’ an irregularly diffused, mostly laterally situated
heap of chlorophyll. ‘These masses, the young spores, then pass
uninterruptedly through the most wonderful changes; at first:
they are in contact, and thus form by their adjacent boundaries:
the plasmic septa, which are consequently double; their sub-
stance becoming somewhat contracted, the two layers of these
septa separate, the spores thereby becoming isolated; the chlo-
rophyll in their interior is constantly changing its mode of dis-
tribution ; the colourless mucilaginous envelope at one time con-
tracts strongly, so that free, regular globules ave produced ; at
another it expands again, so that they are flattened against their
neighbours ; or sometimes one becomes elongated laterally; and
if a drawing is begun to be made, its shape has entirely altered
before the sketeh is completed. | Finally, the naseent: spores
become rvounded-off into smooth spheres, which however are
still far larger than in the mature condition, and are not com~=
pletely filled with chlorophyll}. But the latter beeomes diffused
gradually more regularly in the spore-globe, while the: eolour-
less plasma is progressively more elaborated) and excreted
consequently the spore is constantly becoming more condensed
and diminished im ‘size, and ‘finally becomes a regular sphere
composed entirely of a granular green substance, enclosing a few
starch-granules, bounded externally by a smooth, elearly-defined
layer of plasma; there’is no: cellulose membrane, the green
structure 1s°very soft, elastic, and under pressure passes away
mto mucus; itis tobe regarded as a ‘ primordial cell? be
Long before the contents of the eells of Spheroplea have be-
¢ome converted into young spores, peculiar changes have eom-
menced in the membrane of their cells; it begims to change imto
amyloid, and therefore is now coloured purple-red or violet) by
iodine alone, without sulphuric acid. Evidently this: is: the
eommencement of the chemical metamorphosis of this mem-+
brane, which terminates in its total solution and sets free the ripe
spores. At particular points of the membrane small: holes are
formed =4; to 54,5 of a line in diameter; I have counted from
two to six of these orifices in each cell ; the holes are more easily
observed, as. colourless spots, when the cell) is coloured blue by
sulphurie acid and iodine. |
This course of development, by which they. are’ transforme
into sporangia with numerous spores, does not oecur in all the
cells of a filament of Spheroplea; during the same epoch totally
different processes are completed in a large portion of the: cells.
Here the green rings between the colourless vacuoles have gra-
of Spheeroplea annulina. \. &
dually assumeda-peculiar colour: they have become: reddish-
yellow, and the starch-granules: haye, vanished. . ‘The. orange-
coloured substance is soon seen to acquire a peculiar organiza-
tion’; in it may be detected, at first obscnrely, but progressively
more distinctly, a separation into granules, then into little
streaks, and finally tt becomes converted into: myriads of short,
confusedly. crowded, little stick-shaped bodies..The colourless
vacuoles between the yellow rings take no part in this transfor-
mation. After this the rings begin to dissolve; suddenly one of
the little: stick-shaped bodies imbedded in the substance. ac-
quires its liberty and begins to move about in the cavity of the
cell; more follow the example; the movement of these bodies
becomes more and more rapid; in a few minutes: the entire
ring becomes decomposed imto a countless number of actively
moving corpuscles; then the stick-shaped bodies of a second and
third ring enter into movement ; finally the entire cell becomes
filled with» these corpuscles, which shoot about and circulate in
all: directions among each other. It is a wonderful sight to
see their: ineredibly lively motions inside the parent-cell.. The
vacuoles partly persist durmg these processes, and they are seen
swiniming in the cavity of the cell as globular bubbles enclosed
bycaomucilaginous’ coat, often put into rapid rotation by the
movements of the stick-shaped bodies.
One or more orifices are formed very early in these cells also,
similar. in shape and size to those which we have described in
the sporangial cells. The first of the stick-shaped corpuscles is
now seen to emerge through a hole into: the water; it is soon
followed by another, and.at length by a, whole herd at once.
Their movements: in the water are at first very weak; they
adhere firmly together and oscillate about im masses; but m a
short time they acquire greater energy and become. scattered
like dust, with mfinite rapidity, through all parts of the drop of
water. The corpuscles remaining in the mother-cell acquire a
more rapid motion the freer the space left them; but. their
number gradually diminishes, and within a few hours all the
moving corpuscles have left their parent-cell. This is then quite
empty, and the orifices.of exit can be perceived very distinctly ;
empty cells of this kind have been observed before, but their
peculiarities could not be explained. The orifices often become
stopped up bya vacuole, which with its mucilaginous membrane
lies against the hole ; this prevents the corpuscles from escaping,
and I have seen them dancing about in their mother-cell after a
lapse of twelve hours, then coming to repose and changed into
yellowish vesicles. . It is not rare to find in the cells of Sphe-
roplea, after the’ exit of the stick-shaped corpuscles, other larger,
brownish globules, which often display, a sluggish movement ;
90 Dr. F. Cohn on the Development and Propagation
these structures, to which Al. Braun had already directed atten-
tion, under the name of pseudo-gonidia, are remnants of the cell-
contents, unconverted into stick-shaped corpuscles, but which
have nevertheless acquired a power of independent motion:
perhaps they owe their origin to the fusion of a number of the cor-
puscles. I likewise sometimes found similar moving globes in the
sporangial cells, mingled with the spores, and they appeared to
have been formed simultaneously with the latter, out of the cell-
contents. These are distmct from other abnormal, cell-like strue-
tures in the Spheroplea-cells, some of which have a power of
motion, as also from the parasitic Infusoria (e. g. Trachelius tri-
chophorus) which make their way into the interior of the cells
through the orifices; the former are very remarkable and
varied ; but I reserve a special examination of them for another
occasion.
The corpuscles which ‘swarm’ out from the last-described
cells of the Spheroplea-filaments are elongated, bacilliform, and
mostly 545 of a line or more in length; their form reminds
one of certain slender Curculionide. The posterior extremity
is somewhat expanded, often spread out flat and of a yellow
colour; one or more granules may often be distinguished ‘in its
interior; the anterior extremity runs out into a long narrow
colourless beak, bearing at its end two long cilia, which are
rendered clearly visible when the corpuscles are killed with
iodine. ‘These corpuscles differ strikingly therefore from the
spermatozoids of Vaucheria discovered by Pringsheim, and which
I have quite recently likewise had the good fortune to observe ;
as also from the spermatozoids of the Fucoidez described by
Thuret—whatever resemblance may exist in other respects—by
the position of the two cilia; and they resemble herein many
‘swarming-spores’ of Algz, especially those denominated micro-=
gonidia, with which they are intimately connected in morpho-
logical respects. .
The movement of the bacilliform corpuscles in Spheroplea is
characteristic : when the energy is weak they oscillate, as if feel-
ing about with the beaks ; when the motion is more active they
rotate on their transverse axis, like a stick fastened in the centre
and rotated around this; their movement is distingushed by this
from that of true ‘ swarming-spores,’ which rotate on their lon-
gitudinal axis. Sometimes the corpuscles rotate upon themselves
without moving from one spot, like a cat round its tail; but they
mostly dart off in cycloids, frequently advancing with jerks and
springs; more rarely they screw themselves straight onwards.
A tendency to seek the light is indicated by their readily col-
lecting at the side of the drop of water next to the window.
Not only did the external resemblance of these corpuscles to
of Spheeroplea annulina. 91
the spermatozoids of the Fucaceze and Vaucheria give ground
for concluding an analogous function,-—I further succeeded in
demonstrating thei fecundating power, by direct observation, with
an evidence such as can only be possessed by a fact of natural
science: there can be no doubt that the active bacilliform cor-
puscles are the spermatozoids of Spheroplea, and therefore the
cells in which they are formed must be denominated the anthe-
ridial cells,
When the discharged spermatozoids have become diffused
through the water, they are soon seen to assemble around those
cells of a Spheroplea-filament, the contents of which have become
metamorphosed into spores. They dance about in the vicinity
of these cells, attach themselves to the membrane, sometimes
tearing away again, soon to return. After a while a spermatozoid
approaches one of those little orifices, which we have already
noticed as perforating the wall of the sporangial cells; here it
fixes itself and pushes the slender beak into the hole. The pos-
terior extremity is often too broad to pass in uninjured ; then it
screws itself forward with evident effort, the beak constantly
working its way, compressing the elastic body; finally it suc-
ceeds in forcing its way through and entering into the cavity of
the sporangial cell. In the mean time other spermatozoids have
slipped in through various orifices; frequently three or four
crowd at once into..one orifice ; the more slender. corpuscles
make their way, at. the first attempt, in a remarkable manner
swimming in wide curves, from the water, through the hole,
without obstruction, into the cavity of the cell; after a time as
many as twenty spermatozoids circulating about in its interior
and ‘swarming’ round the young spores... These, as above de-
scribed, are smooth spheres, more or less completely filled with
chlorophyll, surrounded by colourless plasma, without cellulose
membrane. The spermatozoids rush from one spore to another,
as if electrically attracted and repulsed, so rapidly, that the eye
ean scarcely follow them ; they often swarm from one end of the
sporangial cell to the other ; now and then the spores are thrown
into slow rotation by the vibratile cilia of the spermatozoids, but
this is only accidental and inessential, possibly only when the
spores are in a very free position. I have seen the spermatozoids
moying about in the sporangial cell for more than two hours ;
gradually their motion becomes more sluggish, they become
adherent to the young spores, in such a manner that one or two
spermatozoids become fixed to each spore, cleaving firmly to it
with the beak and cilia, so that their body stands perpendicularly
upon the spore. In this position they oscillate backwards and
forwards for some time longer; finally they come quite to rest
and apply themselves with their whole length against the sur-
92 Dr. F. Cohn on the Development and Propagation
face of the spores; their body is converted into a drop:of muci+
lage and loses its form ; it appears as if a portion of the substanee
was absorbed endosmotically by the spore: a formal penetration
of the spermatozoid into the spore certainly did not take place,
fora remnant of it, perhaps the reddish drops, can long be
seen attached upon the outside of the spore. However, Sphe:
roplea is not very well adapted for the investigation ofthe: real
act of impregnation, on account of the want of transparency in
the green spores, notwithstanding that it offered an exceedingly
favourable object for the earlier processes,
After a short time the impregnated spore becomes enveloped ©
by a true cell-membrane, which at first can only be detected by
the contraction of the contents by reagents, but) subsequently
can be readily seen by direct inspection, as it gradually separates:
further from the cell-contents. A second membrane’ is“soon
produced beneath the first, the. second beimg: originally-in close
contact with the contents of the spore, but:subsequently folded
in the stellate manner above described ; the uppermost, earlier+
formed coat is next thrown off, and such coats are found im the
sporangial cells as empty vesicles among the spores—a ‘ moulting”
or ecdysis already observed by Al. Braun. Finally there as ‘pro-
duced under the stellate coat a smooth membrane, so that ‘the
impregnated spore of Spheroplea bears an analogy with those of
Spirogyra and Zygnema, and. possesses likewise the three coats;
the outermost of which however is: thrown off; notin germi-
nation, but even before the spore is ripe. The contents of the
spore are originally of a uniform:green colour, in which several
starch-granules make their appearance; ‘subsequently they be-
come opake, and pass through olive-green and reddish-brown,
finally into a pure red... The number of the spores depends
upon the quantity of chlorophyll which was present in the spo
rangial cell ; their size is also very variable according as more’ or
less of the green plasma is applied to the formation of one
spore ; although they are usually from ;35 to ;}5 of a line in
diameter, spores also occur which haye double and even 100
times that magnitude; I observed elliptical spores which attained
ays sig» even gis of a line in the long diameter; [ once met
with a monster spore ;/, of a line in the long diameter, the red
contents being enclosed in the papillose spore-coat just as usual,
The approximate or distant arrangement of the spores, in one
or several rows, is also liable to variation.
Spheroplea annulina, although it: always occurs as a multi-
cellular filament, must be regarded as essentially a wnicel/ular
plant, in Nigeli’s sense, since all, the cells, without exception,
even the terminal capillary~pointed cells included, take ‘part in
the propagation, and therefore the whole filament can only be
;
of Spheroplea annulina. L1G 98
viewed as a family of cells (cell-stock). |The history of develop-
ment here narrated reveals tous the fact, that, contrary to what
has' been hitherto imagined in unicellular plants, the individual
is‘not immediately represented by each: cell, but that these ap-
parently equivalent cells become sexually differenced in exactly
thé same way as is the case in any of the most complicated
animal or vegetable organisms ;.that consequently each individual
eell)is by itself barren, and can only be rendered capable of
propagation by the cooperation of a cell of the other sex: We
must therefore distinguish in the cells of the Spheroplea-fila-
ment, male and female cells, or, for comparison with analogous
organs in another kingdom of nature, sperm-vesicles and ovaries,
which) -however must. be more correctly conceived as inde-
pendent, sexualized, elementary organisms. The process of im-
pregnation in the Algze has been found precisely similar in the
three cases! as yet known ; in the Fucacee, Vaucheria, and Sphe-
topled, the spermatozoids come into immediate contact with pri-
mordial cells: destitute: of (cellulose) membranes. The case of
Spheroplea isoespecially interesting, because there can be no
question hereof an aceidental contact of the seminal elements ;
for af an. Fucus the spores to be fertilized emerge upon the sur-
face of the thallus—in Vaucheria the surfaces of the antheridia
and sporangia come almost into immediatecontact—in Spheroplea
the spermatozoids must often make their way through the water
to,an often far-distant: mature female cell; and force an entrance
through a narrow Orifice. Hasyoas it isto observe the fact of
the entrance-of theospermatozoid, the force which guides these
corpuscles through the wide: surface of water and the crowd of
countless animalcules and: plants, ‘to the female cells; and often
makes them find their way through the narrow holes at the first
attempt, remains: still. am enigma. I may also recall the fact
that. Spheroplea is as far removed from alliance with Vaucheria
as the latter from Fucus, and that since sexuality has been dis-
covered in such diverse forms of the Alge, there can scarcely be
a doubt that it must only remain to be discovered in the rest of
the: Algee, and indeed in all plants; I therefore cannot hesitate
to give my adhesion to this conclusion of Pringsheim. .
» Whether the remarkable fact, that the spores of Spheroplea
do not always give origin, like all other spores and seeds, to one
individual, but mostly to several: swarming-cells, and therefore
to several germ-plants;—whether this is connected with the
action of one or more spermatozoids upon the nascent spore, I
must leave unaswered; the only analogy to this fact is afforded
by the origin of several embryos in the ova of the Planariz. It
is remarkable, that, according to Pringsheim’s discovery, the fer-
tilized: spores: of Vaucheria grow out imto a germinal tube by
94 Mr. W. EH. Benson on new Terrestrial Shells from Ceylon.
direct elongation of the internal coat, like the spores of the
Zygnemacee formed through conjugation, while the spores of
Bulbochete, and perhaps the spores of the Desmidieze, likewise
originating through conjugation, behave in the same way as those
of Spheroplea. This induces us to regard. the latter, fact asya
peculiar form of the‘ alternation of generations,’ if we deno-
minate the ‘ swarming-cells’ produced from the spores of Bulbo-
chete and Spheroplea an asexual generation, which by meta-
morphosis is converted at once into the Closterium-like germ,
then by asexual division produces the sexual cells, till the cycle
is concluded by the formation of the impregnated spores.
X.— New Terrestrial Shells from Ceylon, with a General List of
the Species inhabiting that Island. By W.H. Benson, Esq. |
Cyclophorus Parma, nobis, n.s.
Testa latissime umbilicata, planato-depressa, discoidea, tenuiuscula,
confertim et arcuatim sericato-striata, saturate castanea, flammulis
nonnullis pallidis spiram versus ornata, subtus interdum pallidiori ;
spira planata, apice nullo modo prominente, sutura profunda ;
anfractibus 5 convexis, ultimo antice descendente; apertura valde
obliqua, ampla, ovato-rottndata, superne angulata, intus livide
ceerulea ; peristomate duplici, interior: continuo, albido, ad dextram
expansiusculo, exteriori breviter interrupto, expansiusculo, faseo-
corneo ; margine columellari subtus recedente, dextro prorsum ar-
cuato ; umbilico latissimo, minime profundo. Operculo tenui, cor-
neo, 53-spirato, suturis intus extusque pulchre carinatis. =
Diam. major 26, minor 23, alt. 6 mill.
Hab. in regione montana Insulee Ceylon. Mus. E. L. Layard.
There are two specimens in the cabinet of Mr. Edgar Layard.
The shell is easily distinguished from the other planorbular
Cyclophori of Ceylon by its dark colour and depressed. form,
which recall those of Pterocyclos hispidus, Pearson, by its very
wide and shallow umbilicus, and by the size and peculiar position
of the aperture. The whorls of the operculum, which is of a
clear horn-colour, are less closely wound than in C. Cratera.
/ 4
Cyclophorus Cratera, nobis, n.s. Garrat 4 d
Testa late umbilicata, planulato-depressa, subdiscoidea, tenuiuscula,
radiatim et confertim ruguloso-striata, vix nitidula, fulvo-cornea,
raro castaneo-strigata; spira planulata, apice vix: prominente, su-
tura profundiuscula; anfractibus 5 convexiusculis, ultimo longe
lenteque descendente; apertura obliqua mediocri, subrotundata,
- superne angulata, intus albida ; peristomate duplici, interiori con-
tinuo, acuto, breviter porrecto, exteriori expansiusculo, breviter
adnato, albido ; umbilico aperto, profundiusculo. Operculo tenui,
Mr. W. H. Benson on new. Terrestrial Shells from Ceylon. 95
‘corneo,.7-spirato; anfractibus valde angustis, suturis intus et extus
pulchre carinatis.
Diam. major 24 .. minor 20 .. alt. 8
” 2» 22 2 18 9 6
, » ane Os * » 4
Hab. in Insula Ceylon.
There are five good specimens in the cabinet of Mr. Edgar
Layard, of which the largest only has irregular streaks on the
upper side. _ I find a.single dead and bleached specimen among
some Cingalese shells received from Mr. Frederick Layard, The
operculum is more closely wound than in C. Parma, from which
it differs in colour, the form and position of the aperture,
sculpture, and deeper umbilicus ; this part is shallower than in
its near ally, C. annulatus, Trosch., which exhibits, moreover, a
prominent dark apex to the spire, whereas in C. Cratera the
apex is flattened and white. The variation in size is con-
siderable, as may be seen by reference to the measurements.
The smallest variety exhibits the adult character: the narrow
volutions of ‘the operculum, and a darker corneous hue than in
C. Parma, are constant. Its double peristome and the flatness
of the. apex_at. once. distinguish it from C. Thwaitesi, Pfr. Of
three specimens of C, Bairdiu, Pfr., contained.in Mr. E. Layard’s
cabinet, two specimens, well variegated, with chestnut, show
no.indication of a keel, while a pallid variety exhibits it di-
stinctly. |
Leptopoma apicatum, nobis, n. s.
Testa subobtecte perforata, globoso-conica, tenui, oblique striatula,
sublente spiraliter confertim striata, albida, interdum flammulis et
fascia unica infra periphzeriam angulatam ornata, sutura profunda ;
spira_conica, apice saturate castaneo-nigrescente, acutiusculo ;
--anfractibus 43 convexiusculis, ultimo ad peripheeriam obtuse angu-
“Jato; apertura obliqua, rotundata; peristomate duplici, interiori
expansiusculo marginibus callo junctis, exteriori breviter expanso ;
»margine columellari reflexo perforationem fere occultante.
Diam. major 103, min. 9, axis 9 mill.
Hab. in Insula Ceylon (ad portas Curuwitty dictas provinciz Suf-
fragam ?).
This Leptopoma may be distinguished from any of the
varieties of L. vitreum by its angular periphery, dark apex, more
convex whorls, deeper suture, double peristome and parietal
callus, as well as by the reflexion of the columellar lip over the
perforation, and of the narrow lip aboye it. It is deficient also
in the angular projection observable on the lower part of the
same lip in that species. The label which accompanies the
three specimens in Mr. HE, Layard’s. collection gives only the
general habitat as Ceylon; but Mr. Layard’s remarks on, a
small Cyclostoma, 44 lines in height and diameter, and pre-
* 96 Mr, W. H. Benson on new. Terrestrial Shells from Ceylon.
senting a closed umbilicus, and, black. apex, contained;.in) his
‘ Rambles in the Island,’ leave little room for doubting, that, this
is the species found by Mr. C. P. Layard in the Curuwitty Rass,
with another scarcer species which I have not yet seens
Bulimus fuscoventris, nobis, n. s.
Testa anguste rimato-perforata, ovato-conica, tenui, irregulariter
puncticulata? striatula, albida, nitidula, fasciis tribus rufo-castaneis
evanescentibus, basali latissima, picta; spira conica, apice obtuso,
sutura impressa; anfractibus 5 convexiusculis, ultimo 4 teste
zequante, ventricosiuseulo ; apertura obliqua, ovata; peristomate
tenui, undique breviter expanso, marginibus remotis. callo tenui
rufo-castaneo junctis, columellari rimam obtegente, intus ealloso
ascendente. )
Long. 25, diam. 13, apert. 12 longa, 935 mill, lata. ; URDU
Hab. in Insula Ceylon, Teste F. Layard. ale ain
This shell is not in good condition, and the surface and colour
may be somewhat different in perfect specimens. It.has some
affinity to Bulimus Bontiea, but the last whorl is less. ventricose,
and the spire and aperture narrower.
Bulimus rufopictus, nobis, n. s. 5, ati ug’
Testa anguste perforata, ovato-pyramidata, oblique striatula, albida,
strigis rufis interruptis fulguratis, fasciisque tribus saturatioribus,
mediana basalique angustis, submediana latiori, picta ; spira elon-
gato-cenica, apice obtuso, sutura impressa; anfractibus 5 convexi-
usculis, ultimo 3 teste vix eequante, basi convexa; apertura ob-
liqua, rotundato-ovali; peristomate tenui, acuto, expapeifitain.
marginibus remotiusculis callo tenui junctis, columellari superne
latiori, perforationem obtegente, dextro valde arcuato.
Long. 20, diam: 114, apert. 9 longa, 7} mill. lata.
Hab. im Insula Ceylon. Teste F. Layard.
Achatina parabilis, nobis, n. 8.
Testa oblongo-ovata, solidiuscula, nitida, rugose striata, striis minu-
tissimis obsoletis spiralibus decussata, sub epidermide luteo-cornea
albida ; spira elongato-conica, apice obtuso, sutura leviter impressa,
suberenulata ;. anfractibus 6, subplanulatis, ultimo convexiusculo,
3 testee vix eequante ; apertura triangulari semiovata, intus albida ;
peristomate leviter inflexo, marginibus callo tenui junctis, dextro
sinuato, obtusiusculo, columellari perarcuato, oblique valde trun-
cato. .
Long. 20, diam. 10, long. apert. 9, lat. 5 mill,
Hab. in Insula Ceylon. Teste F. Layard.
Helix Galerus, nobis, n. S.
Testa umbilicata, subconoideo-depressa, lenticulari, pallide cornea,
confertissime oblique striata, striis spiralibus exigms decussata ;
spira depresse conoidea, sutura impressa, apice obtusiusculo ; an-
Mr. W.H. Benson on new Terrestrial Shells from Ceylon. 97
fractibus 5 lente accrescentibus, convexiusculis, ultimo antice ma-
jori, non descendente, peripheeria acute carinata, marginata, subtus
convexiusculo, margine periomphali obtuse angulato ; umbilico
profundo, subanguste perspectivo ; apertura subseeuriformi ; peri-
stomate acuto, marginibus distantibus, columellari brevi, superne
reflexiusculo.
Diam. major 9, minor 8, axis 4 mill.
Hab, ad Ragama, Ceylon.
5th June 1856.
Coll. E. L. Layard.
CinGaLEse LAND SHELLS.
Vitrina irradians, Pfr.
—— Edgariana, Bens.
membranacea, Bens.
Succinea Ceylanica, Pfr.
Helix Waltoni, Reeve.
—— Skinner, Reeve.
— Juliana, Gray.
Ganoma, Pfr.
—— Chenui, Pfr.
semidecussata, Pfr.
—— hamastoma; also in Nicobars.
Pheenix, Pfr. Melanotragus
contains vars. of this and the last,
and is set aside by Pfeiffer.
—--- superba, Pfr.
Tranquebarica, also. in South
‘India.
bistrialis, Beck ; also in South
India.
— Ceylanica, Pfr.
Gardneri, Pfr.
coriaria, Pfr.
— vittata, Mill.
Layardi, Pfr.
— ceraria, Bens.
—— concavospira, Pfr.
—— novella, Pfr.
— verrucula, “Pfr.
— hyphasma, Pfr.
—— Enmiliana, Pfr.
—— Woodiana, Pfr.
—— puteolus, Bens.=clathratula,
Pfr. 2
—— mononema, Bens.
marcida, Bens.
—— partita, Pfr.
-—— vilipensa, Bens.; apparently
also in Nilgherries.
perfucata, Bens.
biciliata, Pfr.
—— Isabellina, Pfr.
trifilosa, Pfr.
—— politissima, Pfr.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2.
Helix Thwaitesi, Pfr.
subopaca, Pfr.
—— nepos, Pfr.
subconoidea, Pfr.
convexiuscula, Pfr.
earneola, Pfr.
Corylus, Reeve.
———— umbrina, Reeve.
— Rivolu, Feér.
erronea, Pfr.
—— Charpentieri, Pfr.
fallaciosa, F.; also in S. India.
Galerus, Bens.
Streptaxis Layardiana, Bens.
Cingalensis, Bens.
Pupa muscerda, Bens.
mimula, Bens.
—— Ceylanica, Pfr. (Ennea).
Bulimus 3-fasciatus, Brug.
— Ceylanicus, Pfr.
— albizonatus, Reeve.
—— adumbratus, Pfr.
——— intermedius, Pfr.
—— punctatus, Anton ; Bundel-
khund and South India.
ius, Reeve.
pullus, Gr.=insularis ; North
India.
Panos, Bens.
- proletarius, Pfr.
gracilis, Hution; and North
India.
fusceyentris, Bens.
rufopictus, Bens.
Achatina nitens, Gray.
Ceylanica, Pfr.; and Nil-
gherries.
—— punctogallana, Pfr.
inornata, Pfr.
pachycheila, Bens.
capillacea, Pfr.
veruina, Bens.
parabilis, Bens.
Vol. xviii. | 7
98 Mr. W. H: Benson on new Terrestrial Shells from Ceylon.
Cyclostomacea.
Crslopborus Ceylanicus, Sow. Aulopoma helicinum.
enkeanus, Ph. Hoffmeisteri, Trosch., distinct.
—— Involvulus, Miill., var. erande, Pfr.
alabastrinus, Pfr. Cataulus Templemani, Pfr.
—— punctatus, Grat. Layardi, Gray.
Bairdi, Pfr. —— Ewrytrema, Pfr.
—— Thwaitesi, Pfr. —— pyramidatus, Pfr.
annulatus, Trosch. —— Thwaitesi, Pfr.
—— loxostoma, Pfr. —— Austenianus, Bens.
—— parapsis, Bens. —— decorus, Bens.
arma, Bens. marginatus, Pfr.
Cratera, Bens.
duplicatus, Pfr.
Leptopoma halophilum, Bens.
aureus, Pfr.
orophilum, Bens. Cyclostomus? gradatus, Pfr.
flammeum, Pfr. Pterocyclos rupestris, Bens., var. picta,
conulus, Pfr. Trosch.
semiclausum, Pfr. Cumingi, Pfr.
—— pecilum, Pfr. —— Cingalensis, Bens.
elatum, Pfr. Troscheli, Bens,
apicatum, Bens. -ol-toliemnes Pfr.
- Aulopoma Itieri, Grat. [117 Land Shells.| _
Note.—Cyclophorus stenostoma, Sow. and Pterocyclos bilabiatus, Sow.,
have lately been sent to me as from Ceylon, without any definite locality.
They are both Nilgherry shells, and I consider their Cingalese habitat so
doubtful, that I have not mtroduced them in my list.
The Vitrine of Ceylon have an Indian aspect. A membra-
naceous species also occurs in South India.
The most characteristic form of Helix is that of H. Waltoni
and Skenneri.
A considerable number of Cingalese Helices are of the vitrini-
form type, well represented in the Nilgherries by small species,
and by larger ‘forms even to a considerable height. m. the
Himalaya, and throughout Hindostan.
Several species are common to Hindostan (especially the Pen-
insula) and Ceylon.
The group, H. Rivolii, erronea, and Charpentieri, is*repre-
sented, on the east side of the Bey. of Bengal, by 4. refuge,
Gould, and Achatina, Gray.
The Streptaxes are nearly allied to the Nilgherry species.
Pupa Ceylanica is closely allied to the North Indian P. bicolor,
Hutton, both belonging to the type Hnnea, Ad.
Some of the Bulimi are Indian in type, others approach the
Philippine forms.
The Achatine are of a type well represented im the Nilgherries,
and to which belong species from the Mahabaleshwur hills,
Bombay, Central India, Lower Bengal, Sikkim, and the peneye.
range.
Mr. ©. W: Peach on the Metamorphosis of a Polype-like Animal. 99
The Cyclophort are of Indian, types. Leptopoma represents
forms of the Indian Archipelago.
Aulopoma.is probably altogether, and Cataulus is nearly con-
fined to Ceylon, a species occurring in the Nicobar Isles.
Pterocyclos is an Indian type.
November 24th, 1855,
XI1.—WNotice of a curious Metamorphosis ina Polype-like Animal.
By C. W. Peacu, Member of the Royal Physical Society of
Edinburgh *,
{With a Plate. |
In March of the present year, I obtained from a fisherman’s line
an old and deeply corroded valve of Psammobia ferroensis, hooked
up from deep water. On it I observed some minute jelly-like spots,
and on placing it in a shallow glass of sea-water and examining
it next day with my pocket-lens, I fancied I could make them
out to be Polype-like animals. I accordingly transferred the shell,
in a watch-glass filled with sea-water, to my microscope, and was
delighted to find my suspicions correct, for, after a little manage-
ment so as to catch the light, 1 could see the forms as figured at
A (PI. VIII.), attached to the shell by short footstalks; they were a
little inflated near the upper part, and tipped with a slightly raised
and rounded centre, from which extended four long and four
short leaf-like arms, each granulated down the centre. One or
two had springing from these, delicate tentacle-like arms, as seen
at A, a—probably in a farther state of development. ‘They were
easily disturbed, but soon again displayed themselves, and their
transparency, added to this shyness, rendered it difficult to catch
their forms. At first I thought they were the early stage of an
Hydractinia, and probably H. brevicornis of Miiller, mentioned in
Johnston’s second edition of the ‘ British Zoophytes,’ p. 35.
My next examination was on the 2nd of April, after giving
them a supply of sea-water ; they were still fixed ; I could how-
ever perceive a difference—the centre of the head was more raised
and conical, and the arms shorter. I examined them daily, and
on the 6th, instead of moored creatures, 1 had a fleet of probably
more than 100 minute free naked-eyed medusoid beauties jerking
about in all directions. Except in size they were all alike, and
perfectly transparent ; the umbrella was well rounded and pilose ;
the subumbrella large; each had four large ocellus-like bulbs,
composed of minute dark granules on the edge of the mantle,
* Communicated by the Author, having been read at the Annual Meeting
of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Nov. 1855. :
*k
100 Mr.€. W. Peach onthe Metamorphosis of a Polype-like Animal.
at the bases of the stiffly turned-up tentacles, which were tipped
with a disk having a dark centre surrounded by a light ring,
and outside a darker edge, as seen at fig. 5. Dark but short
bars were arranged in a quincunx’ manner on the tentacula; as
in fig. 9. |
Besides these long tentacula, there were four smaller and
shorter, also turned up, but not furnished with ocelli (as at
fig. 4, where the edge of the mantle is shown); on the lower
part of the mantle runs a canal communicating with the bulbs
of the larger tentacula. In this canal I observed spherical
granules passing along, and as if revolving in the bulbs and a
short way down each large tentacle; into these bulbs smaller
granules descended from the subumbrella by the gastro-vascular
canals. The latter extended to the upper part of the stomach,
as seen at fig. 8, the stomach being attached to them, rounded
on the upper part and divided into four lobes, as at fig. 6; it
then narrows and runs out in a campapulate form to the qua-
drate mouth, which has four long lips fimbriated ‘at the tips, as
shown at fig. 6, and by the view from the under side at fig. 7..
The animals were very active up to the 10th, when some little
change took place; I supplied small quantities of water and ‘used
every precaution, being anxious to see all I could of them. On the
11th they became sickly, and as figured in Pl. VIII. fig. 2; the
mouth, as at fig. 2a; the upper part of the umbrella, as at fig. 2 8,
in eight festoons, the tentacula drooping. On the 13th they were
nearly inactive, and turned inside out, with the tentacula folded
in the upper part, as at figs. 10 & 11. I began to hope, that,
as the mouth had become elongated into a peduncle-like form,
they were about to become fixed again; they however dwindled
away, and alihough I kept the water for months, I could trace
nothing more. I have not yet seen Steenstrup’s work on the
“ Alternation of Generations,” and therefore am unable to say
whether it may be one of the interesting facts observed by him.
They differed in the fixed state from any of the zoophytes noticed
by Johnston, and when free, from all the naked-eyed Medusz
figured in Forbes’s Monograph. It may be one of the latter in
its earlier stage, and probably is, from its being pilose, as is
the case with many of the young of the Medusz which have
fallen under my notice: I have seen many, but this is the most
interesting of all. The most like the free state is Lizzia octo-
punctata of Forbes, pl. 12. fig. 3; it agrees in the form of the
umbrella, in having eight tentacular bulbs and four gastro- vas-
cular canals, in the shape of the stomach, quadrate mouth and
long fimbriated lips. It differs in being pilose, and in having
only eight tentacula instead of twenty, viz. three at each large
bulb and two at each of the smaller ones. Even this difference
Ann. k Mag. Nat. Hist. S.2.Vol.18. Pt
CW Peach, del.
Mr. J.D. Macdonald on: the Anatomy of the genus Atlas.'. 101
inthe number of tentacula, &c. is: of: little» consequence, for I
have: seen, and have a long list of notes and numerous drawings
_Ofothe strange changes, from the young to the adult. state, of
these lovely gems; at present I cannot spare the time to make
the drawings and extend the notes.
Custom House, Wick, N. B., 9th Nov. 1855.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII.
All very highly magnified.
A. A group of the animals on a piece of shell.
A; a. One with slender additional tips to the tentacles. ‘
B.. One of the animals more highly magnified.
Fig. 1. One of the Medusoids.
Fig. 2. Ditto when changing.
Fig: 2a. Stomach and lips.. 26. Upper part of umbrella.
Fig. 3. Under side, showing the arrangement of the tentacula, &c.
Fig. 4. edge of mantle to show the eanal, &c.
Fig. 5. One of the disks at the end of a tentacle.
Fig. 6. The stomach, mouth and lips.
: iy. 8. Upper part of the umbrella, showing the arrangement of the pec
vascular canals.
Fig: 9, A tentacle to show the markings.
Buoy. 10 & 11, The Medusoid changed and turned inside out.
- XII.—Brief Outline of the Anatomy of the genus Atlas (Lesueur).
By Joun Dents Macponaxp, Assistant-Surgeon of H.M.S.V.
“Torch,” Tender to H.M.S. “ Herald,” Capt. Denham, R.N,..,
F.R.S, , Commanding the Exploring Expedition i in the South
Seas,
[With a Plate. ]
Duxine our late cruises between Sydney and the islands of the
Pacific, different species of Lesueur’s curious genus Atlas were
taken in the towing-net, and the following short anatomical
account of them may prove interesting to the zoologist, more
especially as—lke Phylirrhoé—their position in the animal
eaedom has been so much a matter of doubt.
_ These little animals are of a rounded, oval, or elongated form,
pierdine to the amount of contraction of the longitudinal and
circular muscular fasciculi; and they are usually between ith
and ;},th of an inch in length.
) Many of their movements resemble those of Annelida, parti-
cularly the manner in which they protrude and retract the head
and proboscis. They frequently draw up their bodies into the
- form of a sphere, enabling them to resist a very considerable
102. Mr.J.D. Macdonald on the Anatomy of the genus Atlas.
pressure, or clongate themselves so as to assume a vermiform
appearance. The specimens which I selected for examination
were so continually undergoing those changes of form of which
their plant bodies were susceptible, that it was difficult to find
them long enough in one position to portray them with much
accuracy.
The proboscis is supported on a kind of neck, which presents
a series of circular creases when partially retracted. The inte-
gument round the base of this neck forms an annular spreading
fold, bearing on its free border a dense circlet of cilia so large as
to be distinctly visible to the naked eye. Although these are
the only organs available for swimming, the animals possess’ the
power of rising or sinking in the water at will, without any appa-
rent effort, The motion of the cilia is under voluntary control,
_ and the undulations produced by their successive action proceed
in a direction from left to right, with a precision and ae of
effect far surpassing those of the ciliated circlets of the Rotifera.
The species of Atlas creep upon their proboscis, which much
resembles both in form and function the foot of a minute Gaste-
ropod, but the mouth is situated on the inferior or creeping sur-
face. The anterior lip especially expands so as to form a’sub-
quadrilateral locomotive disk ; but behind the mouth a mode-
rately long and bifid lobe projects in a backward direction, the
hollow between the two divisions being richly ciliated.
The upper and fore part or frontal surface of the proboscis
meets the creeping disk in front at an angle of about 45°. It is
also subquadrilateral in form, presentmg a number of rudi-
mentary visual organs superiorly, couched in four small patches
of black pigment-cells disposed in a transverse row, while on
either side it is bounded by a linear elevation, which, together
with the superior border, is clothed with large vibratile cilia.
The oral orifice when open is of a triangular shape, the base
corresponding with the posterior lip, but when closed it appears
like a simple transverse slit.
There are no dental organs in Aflas, but the linmg membrane
of the wide pharynx and cesophagus is thrown into numerous
longitudinal folds, tinted with a deep purple pigment. The
alimentary canal haying formed an elongated gastric dilatation,
takes a tortuous course towards the anus, which is situated at
the anterior part of the dorsal region, some little distance behind
the ciliated circle.
The liver is massive, minutely lobulated, and lined with secre- _
ting cells containing globules of a rich golden-yellow oil. The
gland is in close relation with the intestine, and the passage of
the biliary fluid into the latter is so free, that on the slightest
pressure the stomach becomes distended with it.
ON ee ee
~~ ee
XRD SE ES
Mr.J.D. Macdonald on the Anatomy of the.genus Atlas. 103
The generative pit les at the posterior extremity of the body,
and may be retracted or protruded by the action of the longitu-
dinal or circular muscular fibres of the integuments.
A. large intestiniform tube commencing near the inferior part
of the base of the proboscis takes a flexuous course backwards in
close contact with the abdominal wall, and terminates in an
elongated, tapermg and protrusile organ at the lower part of
the generative pit.
On. either side of the cesophagus a convoluted glandular tube,
with a ciliated lining, gives rise to a long and narrow duct which
passes, directly backwards, and ends in a simple orifice lying
superior.and a little external to the male opening (?) As I have
not been able to trace unequivocal spermatozoa or ova in any of
these tubes, I am doubtful as to the actual function of the par-
ticular organs, but enough has been said to show that Addas is
bisexual.
The covermgs of the body are composed of an external epithe-
hum containing purple, brown, or green pigment-granules, and
a muscular tunic consisting of an external longitudinal, and an
internal circular or subspiral set of fibres. The former are dis-
posed in fasciculi with intervals often exceeding their own breadth,
but the latter form a continuous layer.
The interior of the body appears to be lined with vibratile
cilia, by the agency of which minute globules may be seen
coursing in a definite route through all the open spaces between
the viscera. This would appear to be the only representative of
a circulatory apparatus ; and that of respiration is most probably
combined with it, no heart, distinct blood-vessels or gills having
been detected.
_ This genus would seem to be made up of gigantic Rotifers,
in which the miniature outline, as it were, presented by the mi-
_€roscopic forms is filled up with a more complex internal orga-
nization in animals constructed on a much larger scale. It may
be also mentioned, that they present characters which give them
an, intermediate position between the Bryozoa and Tunicata.
There is no essential difference between the ciliated circle of
Atlas and the circle of tentacula in a polype of Bowerbankia for
example. Were the former produced at regular intervals into
tentacular processes, Atlas. would then only differ from a Bryo-
zoon in those particulars which would naturally associate it with
the Tunicata. On the other hand, it would appear to represent
permanently the larval state of Sipunculus (see Max, Miller,
Mull. Archiv, 1850, v.) ; and in fact it may be regarded as a
common centre, connected, as it were, by radiating affinities with
a circle of forms differimg considerably amongst themselves.
Cuvier was unable to class the genus, from the ambiguity of
10% Mr.J.D, Macdonald on, the Anatomy of the yenus Atlas.
the account given of it; but De Blainville did not hesitate! to
place it under the head of Akera, conceiving that it: was closely
allied to Gasteropteron ; and after his example, this error has been
repeated in the able Monograph of the Bullide by Mr. Adams,
published in the second volume of Sowerby’s ‘Thesaurus Con
chyliorum,’ a work which is yet in progress. The characters
there given are as follow :—‘ Head with two small tentacular
lobes. Body divided into two parts by a narrow pedicle. Foot.
dilated circularly and ciliated at the margin. Shell none.” Now
all these points may be reconciled with the actual state of the
case by reference to the accompanying figures; but from what
has been stated above, I think I may hazard the assertion that
Atlas has nothing whatever to do with the Gententpodes
EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV.
Figs. 1-5 represent different views of a species of Atlas occurring
very plentifully off the coast of New Caledonia.
Fig. 1. Front view, showing the aperture of the mouth, the foot-like
anterior lip, the bilobed posterior lip, and the ciliated fold in a
quiescent state.
Posterior view, showing the eye-specks near the upper margin of
the frontal aspect of the proboseis.
Fig. 3.- A foreshortened view, with the ciliated circle in active motion : the
arraws show the path of the undulations produced by the suc-
cessive action of the cilia.
Fig. 4. A back view of the animal creeping on its labial disk, with the pro-
boscis and ciliated band retracted. The dorsal position of the
anus is also distinctly seen.
Fig. 5. A lateral view.
Fig. 6. A species of Atlas of a brilliant green colour, not so plentiful as the
last, but occurring in the same localities: a, the constricted an-
terior extremity, the proboscis and ciliated band being retracted
to the anus, 0; c, the generative openings.
Fig. 7. Natural size.
Figs. 8,9 & 10. Different stages in the eversion of the ciliated band.
Fig. 11. Diagrammatic figure of the animal, showing the relative anatomy
of its internal organs: a, the wide pharynx; 8, the liver; ec, the
Fig.
bo
intestine; d, the anus; e, a protrusile organ connecter with the.
intestiniform tube f, noticed in the text. At the opposite extre-
mity of this tube two small glandular-looking sacculi, g, are
indicated ; h, the small ducts of the lateral convoluted tubes.
Fig. 12. Natural size of the animal.
Fig. 13. Loop of one of the generative tubes (seen at 11 4) highly magnified,
showing a deposit of dark pigment on one side.
Fig. 14. A few of the hepatic lobuli also highly magnified.
Port Curtis, Feb. 13, 1855.
a al il a ane eth MO Rag SEIN a eA TI
Ve
RSS Oasys Sti ions
’
ear iecyt:
ayy = ae
BAP:
. Ann.k Mag. Nat. Hist. & 2.VaA.18.PL LV.
a ee it i ee
=
Se TF Rr
a tit
AR) 5
See Siero Se
ID Macdonald, o8 nat.del. Tiassa ao:
On the Development of Arénicola piscatorum. 105
XIIL.+-On ‘the Development of Arenicola) piscatoram with
Remarks upon: that of other Branchiferous Annelides.. By Dr.
Max ScnuurzE*,
[| With a Plate. | 5
Most of the Branchiferous Annelida, of which the earliest forms
have yet been observed, leave the egg-capsule or the embryonic
receptacle of the mother in a condition by which they are enabled
to swim about freely. They are furnished with strong bands of
cilia, or with a uniform ciliary coat, so that they can roll about in
the water at pleasure.
By fishing with a fine net in the neighbourhood of the coast
or on the high sea, a considerable number of such roving An-
nelidan larvee come to the hands of the zoologist. As these,
without exception, when in their earliest stages of develop-
ment, possess a very different form from their parents, and are
destitute of any organs by which the determination of their
origin might be rendered possible, a long series of investigations
upon their further evolution is necessary to obtain certain indi-
cations of their parentage. It is rarely that such larve can be
kept alive in the experimental glasses long enough to enable us
to follow their further metamorphoses upon one and the same
individual. Naturalists have therefore generally been compelled
to confine themselves to collecting the different young forms of
the same animal one after the other, by repeated fishings, and
uniting these to form a general picture-of the development.
Frequently however it happens that, notwithstanding constant
exertions, a form once observed never again comes into the net,
or occurs so rarely, that the origin of the single larve has
remained unknown, whilst others which were taken plentifully
and at different periods continued so obstinately in a certain
early stage of development, that all endeavours to ascertain their
subsequent fate were vain. It is therefore not to be wondered
at if, amongst the great number of young Annelides which have
been fished up from the sea and described, there are but few
which we can refer to their parents. A remarkable example how,
with the greatest perseverance, the goal is often reached only
after the lapse of a long period, is furnished by the Mesotrocha
sexoculata, recently ascertained by Max Miiller to be the larva
of Chetopterus, although J. Muller and Busch were repeatedly
led to investigate it during their excursions without being able
to observe any considerable progress in its development.
The employment of artificial impregnation will be of import-
ance to the study of the metamorphoses of the Annelida. As
yet this has only been tried once by Quatrefages, who by this
* From the Abhandl. der naturforsch. Gesellsch. in Halle, vol. iv. Com-
municated by the Author and translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. &e.
106 Dr. M. Schultze on the Development
means obtained young Hermelle, and was enabled to follow their
development for a considerable time. | When we possess a series
of similar observations, the forms discovered swimming freely,
whose mature state is still unknown, may be gradually deter-
mined. Thus, R. Leuckart remarks*, that the larve represented
by Busch, ‘ Beobachtungen,’ &c. tab. 7. figs. 5, 6, which) were
taken up from the open sea, remind one of the young Hermelle
just mentioned, by their long stiff bristles. But in this case it
cannot be supposed that the former are actually the progeny of
Hermelia, as the latter, according to Quatrefages, lose their cilia
before the appearance of any segmentation of the body...
Our knowledge of the development of the Annelida has; also
been advanced by the circumstance, that certain branchiferous
worms bear their eggs about with them until the evolution of
the young. Thus, in Eunice sanguinea, according to Koch, the
young are brought to maturity in the cavity of the body of the
mother, where they are retained until they reach a length of
from one to two inches, and acquire from: 100 to 120 segments.
No trace of cilia appears to exist in these young animals. The
progeny of Nereis diversicolor quit the cavity of the mother at.a
much earlier stage of development. In female specimens of this
Annelide taken in April on the coast near Greifswald, where it
is very abundant, I observed that the oval or pyriform embryos,
which are uniformly covered with cilia, and, from their reddish-
yellow colour, remind one of the young of Medusa aurita, came
in hundreds out of small apertures on the sides of the body,
under the pedal tubercles. These embryos (Pl. II. figs. 11 & 12),
which swim about rapidly, measure 5th to jth of a line; they
are rather opake, in consequence of the numerous fatty vitelline
granules imbedded in the body. They swim with the narrow
end forwards, and the little animal constantly turns on its axis.
Near the anterior extremity is the mouth, marked out by longer
cilia arranged in a circle, and from this a canal passes inwards,
the hinder extremity of which did not appear to be formed.
In front of the mouth there are one or two dark eye-spots,
without refractive bodies. I did not observe any further meta-
morphosis, as the larve soon died in my glasses.
Instead of the cavity of the body, the embryos of other Annelida
are developed in peculiar sacs situated on the dorsal or ventral
surface of the mother, where they generally attain a propor-
tionably high development. This is the case in Sacconereist,
* Jahresbericht, 1848-53, and Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1855, i. p. 21. See
Annals, 2nd Series, xvi. p. 264.
+ Sacconereis helgolandica has recently been ascertained by Krolin
(Miiller’s Archiv, 1855, p. 439) to be the result of the division of Autolytus
prolifer, a great step in the history of the development of this interesting
of Arenicola piscatorum. 107
according to the observations of Johann and Max Miiller, and of
anyself, in» Cystonereis, Kolliker, Exogene, Oersted and Kolliker,
and Syllis pulligera, Krohn. In Sacconereis the young appear
to issue in swarms from the ventral sacs of the mother, as they
are provided with several bands of cilia, and when the sac is
artificially destroyed, possess the power of swimming in a high
degree; whilst the evolution of the young of Cystonereis, Exogene,
and Syllis pulligera takes place on the body of the mother until
the disappearance of the cilia (which are certainly present in the
earliest: stages of Hixogene cirrata and Syllis pulligera) and the
appearance of the segments and lateral bristles.
Inia considerable number of Branchiferous Annelides, again,
the: eggs are deposited enclosed in.a mass of jelly, and develope
themselves in this covering, without any connexion with the
mother, until the young are furnished with bristles and other
locomotive organs like those of the mature animals. These do
not enable them to swim freely for any length of time, but only
to.creep along the sea bottom. Examples of this kind occur in
the Tubicolar families of the Terebellacea and Serpulacea in the
genera Terebella and Protula, with whose young Milne-Edwards
has made us acquainted. As the masses of eggs of these animals
are attached to the exterior of their tubes, no doubt can exist as
totheir origin, when they are collected at the same time with
the mother; and the tracing of their further development is
extraordinarily facilitated by the fact that they require no change
of water, at least as long.as they remain enclosed in the gela-
tinous masses, and therefore survive in the glasses.
An example of this mode of development is also presented by
Arenicola piscatorum, the egg-masses of which I collected near
Cuxhaven, on the 22nd March 1852, and brought with me to
Greifswald, where the further development took place. On the
island of Neuwerk, which lies a few miles to seaward of Cuxhaven,
the traces of Arenicola piscatorum occur in extraordinary numbers.
In passing, during the ebb-tide, over a surface of sand but
slightly covered with water, | saw, lying on the sand, close to
almost every one of the little heaps thrown up by the worms
gemmiparous worm; and the same is probably the case with the second
species, S. Schultzit, from the Mediterranean, described by J. Miiller. I
have no doubt that the animal of this genus taken by me at Heligoland,
and mentioned by J. Miiller from my letters, is identical with that observed
by Max Miiller (Miiller’s Archiv, 1855, p. 13). I took no notes of the
number of segments in the body ; but the young animal is represented at
fig. 10 (Pj. IL.). It represents: a further step in the development of the
young worm represented by M. Miiller, /. c. tab. 2. figs. 5-8, and is par-
ticularly distinguished by its four bands of cilia. Of the fine cilia which
at an earlier period covered the whole body, only those on the head are
still in existence.
108 Dr. M. Schultze on the Development
at this period, which were here scarcely six inches apart, a pyri-
form selatinous mass about half an inch long and of\a fine rose
colour: On examining them more closely, I found that each of
them was'fastened into the sand by a gelatinous stem of about:
two inches long, and that the red colour was caused: by an’
ageregation of red granules in the interior of the greenish-yel-:
low jelly. These are the eggs of Arenicola, of which from:300
to 400 are enclosed in the gelatinous mucus (Pl. II, fig.1),
From microscopic examination of some of them, it appeared
that the yelks lay close together in the gelatinous mass, only
enclosed in an extremely delicate vitelline membrane, something
like those of Nemertes in their pyriform vesicles ; and as I found
no traces of the commencement of segmentation, I orielaached
that the eggs were only just deposited.
Unfortunately I was unable to trace their development on the
spot, and only recommenced my observations nine’ days» after-
wards on the egg-masses which I took with me to Greifswald:
I then found that the process of segmentation was completed:in
most cases, and that the oval embryos had acquired a fringe of
extremely fine cilia, in the form of a broad band, near what I
afterwards ascertained to be the anterior extremity (fig. 2).
Other eggs, which were rather backward in their development;
although they certainly gave no satisfactory clue to the course
of the process of segmentation, showed at all events that: this
was complete, and that the vitelline membrane had taken: part:
in it so far as to furnish envelopes for the globules of segmenta-
tion, and consequently gave off the materials for the walls of the
embryonal cells. The embryos could therefore have been enve-
loped in no other capsule, but lay quite free in the semifluid
jelly, in which they began to move about: slowly after the deve-
lopment of the cilia. The animals soon became rather more
elongated (fig. 3), and with this change of form new circles. of
cilia made their appearance (fig. 4), one close before anda second
close behind the first ciliary band, and a third at the hinder
extremity of the body. All three of these are very narrow, and
consist only of a few series of very fine cia, which can only: be
seen with a high magnifying power, and never exhibit the rota-
tory motion which is often so remarkable in the free-swimming»
Annelidan larve. At the same time two dark-red eye-spots
made their appearance in the neighbourhood of the first circle
of cilia. This was the condition of the embryos on the twelfth
day.
The length of the animal now gradually increases, whilst the
circles of cilia undergo no change in number or form. On the
other hand, distinct annular constrictions make their appearance
in the middle of the body, the first close behind the last circle of
of Arenicola piscatorum. 109
cilia; whilst: the following ones are at first rather, close together
(fig. 5), but gradually become more distant, with the further
growth of the animal (fig. 6)... The body, which hitherto had
been quite opake, now separated into a lighter, peripheric por-
tion, lying under the skin, which still continued, rather dark,
and an opake central portion. The former represents the cavity
of the: body, the latter the intestine, in which a cavity may be
recognized by the granules which move about in it... The intes-
tinal canal does not, however, lie free in the general cavity, but
is attached to the inner surface of the skm by annular bands
corresponding in number with the developed segments of the
body. A mouth exists behind the eyes, on the ventral surface ;
the analiopening occupies the extreme hinder end of the body,
No traces of a nervous or vascular system are perceptible,
On the twentieth to the twenty-fourth day the bands of cilia
disappear entirely, and the young animals, which had previously
moved slowly about in the gelatinous mass, now quit it in the form
of sluggish, helpless worms. Their length is now 3 to 2. Their
form=is cylindrical, somewhat widened towards the anterior ex-
tremity, which terminates in a pomt, and truncated behind
(fig. 7). The mouth les close behind the red eye-spots, which
are destitute of a refractive medium; it leads into a muscular
cesophagus (a), and this into the intestine, which runs straight
backwards to the anus. The number of segments in the body
has inereased to 10 or 12 by additions, at the hinder extremity
(between the last and penultimate segments). On the most
anterior of these the first lateral, bristles are perceptible, standing
in groups of from two to four; they are delicately serrated on
one edge (fig. 9), in this respect resembling the infinitely larger
bristles of the mature Arenicola.
My endeavours to keep these young worms any longer failed
entirely. I put them into a glass upon a thin stratum of sand
which I had brought with me from the island of Neuwerk, con-
taining a variety of Infusoria and Alge which might possibly
have served them for nourishment, but they died without under-
going any further change of form. I think, however, that I
saw indications of the formation of the auditory vesicle, as I ob-
served on each side, in front of the eyes, a small vesicle with a
tolerably sharp outline, and with irregularly granular, but not
ealeareous, contents, which would probably afterwards be the
otolithes.
It is to be expected that the young Arenicole, after creeping
outiof their gelatinous envelope, would bore into the sand in the
neighbourhood of their parents, and then gradually acquire their
mature form. The next thing to. be done, therefore, is to seek
_the young in this situation at the proper season.
110 Dr. M. Schultze on the Development
From the foregoing statements, the development of Arenicolu
has the greatest similarity with that observed by Milne-Edwards
in Terebella and Protula. In these, also, the eggs are deposited
without any envelope besides the vitelline membrane in gelatinous
masses, in which the young are developed to a certain point.
They also obtain an anterior and posterior circlet of cilia, by
means of which they move about in the soft jelly, and do mot
quit this until their more powerful locomotive organs, the bristles,
are developed, and the cilia have disappeared, so that a free
swimming condition does not occur. Nevertheless there is a
difference in the number of bands of cilia, as the last-mentioned
forms do not acquire the two fine circles which occur in Arenicola
before and behind the broad band. But no great stress can be
laid upon this difference, as the increased number of ciliary circles
appears in this case to be rather a division of the original simple
anterior band, and they are all situated upon the same-segment,
the head. Miulne-Kdwards supposes that the young: animals,
after the development of the first cilia upon their surface, ereep
out of the vitelline membrane, which is afterwards absorbed. It
appears to me more probable, that m Terebella and Protula, as
in Arenicola, the vitellme membrane ‘passes into the embryo
itself, by furnishing the envelopes of the globules of segmentation,
or the future embryonal cells, and that consequently no egg-
capsule exists from which the embryos must escape. Milne-
Edwards did not observe the process of segmentation, and was
consequently in uncertainty as to the part taken in it by the
vitelline membrane.
Remak, in his recent investigations upon the development of
the Vertebrata, has described the part played by the. vitelline
membrane, which he calls the egg-cell-membrane (Hizellenmem+
bran), in the segmentation of the egg of the Frog, as consisting
in its furnishing envelopes for the segmentary divisions by the
agency of constrictions, which it acquires simultaneously with
the vitelline mass itself. I have confirmed this statement in the
eges of Petromyzon Planeri, which also undergo a total segmen-
tation*. I doubt, however, the propriety of adopting the name
of egg-cell-membrane for the membrane immediately enveloping
the yelk, as this and no other deserves the name of. vitelline
membrane. I believe we must regard the vitelline membrane
as having the same signification in the eggs of Arenicola as in
these eggs.
In other Branchiferous Annelides, however, the behaviour of
the membranes of the egg appears to be different... At leastin
the case of Hermella, Quatrefages asserts that during segmenta-
* See Annals, May 1856, p..443.
of Arenicola piscatorum. 1h1
tion the vitelline membrane retains its form of a simple vesicle,
but afterwards unites with the surface of the embryonal. cells,
forming the skin of the embryo, and acquiring cilia on its outer
surface. And this statement acquires more force from those of
O. Schmidt with regard to the development of Amphicora (Fa-
bricia) sabella*. This little Annelide, which has been classed
amongst the Cephalobranchiate worms, although, according to
Schmidt, it bears its branchie on its tail, lays its eggs in the
tube which it inhabits, but which it then quits. Their develop-
ment resembles that of Exogene and Cystonereis, and in the
course of it the vitelline membrane becomes converted into the
skin of the embryo,as in Hermella. New observations must
prove the reality of the occurrence of such a participation of an
ege-capsule in the formation of the embryo, which would differ
from all known modes of animal development.
If we attempt, in conclusion, to refer the numerous and vari-
ously formed Annelidan larvee hitherto observed to a few typical
forms, im order to facilitate the examination of their further
metamorphoses, and acquire an approximate knowledge of the
mode of development common to all, the nature of the ciliary
coat, and the number and arrangement of the bands of cilia
when such occur, present us with a constant character applicable
to this purpose, as has already been pointed out. by others.
In this way Busch} distinguishes two groups of Annelidan
larvee,—one, for which Lovén’s larvat serves as the type,
possessing a circlet of cilia at each end of the body (the anterior
generally situated between the eyes and the mouth), between
which the segments of the worm are afterwards developed. These
have been subsequently named Telotroche by J. Miiller (Archiv,
1855, p. 12); and besides Lovén’s larva, the destiny of which is
unknown, this series includes a portion of Busch’s larvae, which
also cannot be referred to their parents, the larvee of Polynoé
(Sars), Nereis (Busch, /. c.-tab. 9. fig. 11), Terebella, Protula,
and Arenicola. Perhaps also the young Hermelle may be re-
ferred to this position, as Quatrefages thinks (Ann. des Se. Nat.
3 sér. x. p. 189), although, according to the description and
figure, they are destitute of a hinder cirele of cilia.
The second group established by Busch is that of the Meso-
troche, with a simple or double wheel-like organ situated in the
middle of the body. To this belong all the larve to which the
generic name of Mesotrocha has been applied, one of which, the
M. sexoculata, as already stated, is now ascertained to be the
young state of a Chetopterus.
* Neue Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Wiirmer, p. 29. ”
+ Beobachtungen, &c., pp. 57, 62.
{ Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1842, p. 302.
112 Dr. M. Schultze onthe Development
All Annelidan larve, however; cannot. be referred, to. these
divisions, For instance, the young .of .Sacconereis,.as already
mentioned, possess several (four) bands of cilia at equal distances
on the body. The same is the case with a larva from Trieste, |
described by J. Miiller (Monatsber. der Berl. Akad. 1851, p47);
it measured ;%,’”, and possessed no bristles, but was distinguished
by the presence of bacillar corpuscles, like those in the ‘skin of
the Turbellaria; andalso with the larva from Trieste with 2.strong
and 10-14: weaker circles of cilia, figured by Busch, tab. 9.
figs. 9 and 10, which was traced further by Max Miiller (Diss.
Inaug. Berol. 1852, p. 25, tab. 3. figs. 14-17), but without
arriving at its definite form. These young Annelida many be
denominated Polytroche, after J. Miiller. Ba
Lastly, the general coating of cilia, which frequent occurs
in the earliest period of embryonic life (Chetopterus, Sacconereis,
Nereis, diversicolor), but generally gives place to the isolated
circles, appears to be persistent in the same form throughout.the
whole larval existence of many Annelides. For such J. Miller
proposed the name of Atroche; he observed: one of them ‘at
Trieste, measuring 55!", which was already furnished with de-
veloped setee (Monatsber. 1851, p. 472).
All the young Annelides referred to these four divisions agree
in their development from the egg-in the form of: globularior
oval, non-annulated embryos, in receiving indications of division
into segments from the dirclets of éilia when these are present,
but only acquiring the form of an. Annelide, with distinct body-
segments and lateral. bristles, after the lapse of some time. A
considerable deviation from this plan of development is presented
by Cystonerets Edwardsit, and Exogene Oerstedii and cirrata,
described by Kolliker, as also by Hxogene naidina according to
Oersted, and Amphicora sabella according to O. Schmidt. The
young of these animals acquire, whilst still in the egg, a form
similar to that of the mother, as they appear at their first forma-
tion divided into several segments, like the embryos of the Arti-
culata. In the embryos of Cystonereis Edwardsii, Kolliker
counted 8-9 segments, and 6 in Ewogene cirrata. In these there
are no traces of circles of cilia, and even a general coat of cilia is
wanting ; whilst, on the other hand, fine cilia occur on certain
regions of the body, as in the embryo of Hxogene cirrata on the
ventral surface. In these animals, therefore, we cannot speak
of a larval state, as they pass through all those changes of form
whilst still in the egg, which gradually occur in the others during
their free-swimming period, and long after their embryonal ex-
istence, ‘They are therefore destitute of the provisional, transitory
organs which characterize the larval condition of the others.
To this short summary. of the present state of our knowledge
of Arenicola piscatortim. 113
of the development of the Branchiferous Annelides, T add a
tabular view, nm families, genera and species, of all those worms
whose earlier states have hitherto been observed, whether singly
or in complete series. The systematic arrangement is that of
Grube, in his ‘ Familien der Anneliden.’ It shows how extremely
small, in comparison with the number of known species, is
that of the observations of their developmental forms, a number
however which would certainly be doubled, if we were acquainted
with the parentage of all the larvee hitherto observed. 2
Tabular View of those Branchiferous Annelides of which the Young
States have already been observed.
Rapacia,
APHRODITEA.. Polynoé cirrata..... . Sars, Wiegm. Arch, 1845, 1.
Rie
ERGROE cistane sald exon M. Miiller, Arch, 1851, p.323;
: Desor, Bost. Journ. vi. p. 12.
EUNICEA ..... Eunice sanguinea.... Koch, Neue Denkschr, der
REE AY schweiz. Gesellsch. viii.
LycoripEa ... Nereis diversicolor .. Schultze, in this paper.
Why Nereis, sp. dub.,..... Milne-Edwards, Annales des
Sci. Nat. 3 sér. ui. p. 166;
Busch, Beobachtungen, &c.
p. 69. tab. 9. figs. 11, 12.
PuyLLopocera. Phyllodoce, sp....... M: Miiller, Arch. 1855, p. 17,
1} . note.
SYLLIDEA ,... Syllis pulligera \..,..|,.Krohn, Wiegm, Arch. 1852, i.
15 aay
Autolytus prolifer... . Koti. Wiegm. Arch. 1822, 1.
p. 66; Miller, Arch. 1855,
ava p. 489.
(Sacconereis helgolan- M. Miller, Mill. Arch. 1855,
dica, p- 13; Schultze, in this
paper.
Sacconereis Schultzii.) J. Miller, Ueber den allgem.
Plan. in der Entwickelung
der Echinodermen, p. 7, note.
Cystonereis Edwardsii. Kolliker, im Koch, Neue
Denkschr. der schweiz.
, Gesellsch. vii. p. 21.
Ewogene naidina .... Ocrsted, Wiegm. Arch. 1845,
y . 20.
Exogene Oerstedu and Kélliker, Neue Denkschr. der
cirrata. schweiz. Gesellsch. viii. pp.
15, 22.
ARICIEA...... Nerine (Malacoceros) Leuckart*, Wiegm. Arch. 1855,
longirostris,
Leucodore ciliata....
i.pp. 63 & 77 ; Busch, Beob.
tab. 8. figs. 1-4.
Oersted, Annul. Dan. Consp.
p- 39. tab. 6. fig. 96(?) ;
Frey and Leuckart, Beitrage,
&e. p. 98. tal. 1. fig. 19 (2).
* See Annals, 2nd Series, xvi. p. 23
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvii.
114 On the Development of Arenicola piscatorum. |!
Limivora..
TeLeruusa .., Arenicola piscatorum. . Schultze, in this paper.
TEREBELLACEA. Terebella nebulosa, &e. Milne- Edwards, Ann. des’ a
Nat. 3.sér. ii. p. 145:
HERMELLACEA. Hermella .......... Quatrefages, Ann. des Sci.
Nat. 3 sér. x. p. 153.
SERPULACEA.. Protula..........6. Milne-Edwards, Ann. des Sei.
Nat. 3 sér. iii. p. 161, |
Fabricia, (Amphicora) O. Schmidt, Neue Beitr. zur
sabella. Naturgesch. der Wiirmer,
1848, p. 27.
CHARTOPTEREA, Chetopterus ........ M. Milley, Arch. 1855, pol.
Mesotrocha sexoculata, J.
Miiller, Arch. 1846, p..101 ;
Busch, Mill. Arch, ie
p: 187 ; Beob. &e. 185
p: 59.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE II. Bh
Fig. 1. Mass of eggs of Arenicola piscatorum, enclosed ama pedunculate
gelatinous envelope : natural size.
Fig. 2. Embryo of Arenicola after the process of segmentation has reached
the stage in which the embryo commences its movements in the
gelatinous mass by means of a broad band of cilia at the anterior
end (about 10 days old). 150 diameters.
Fig. 3. The same embryo, rather‘more elongated. (one day older), Xi
Fig. 4. An embryo in which the body has become more elongated, with
the appearance of new bands of cilia (12 days old).
Fig. 5. An embryo, in the interior of which the differentiation of the
central cord (the alimentary canal) has commenced, with ‘the
appearance of the first traces:of segments (13 days).
Fig. 6. An embryo in which the intestinal-canal and the segments( are, still
more distinctly developed; the general cayity is traversed, by
transverse walls, corresponding in number with the segments,
and attaching the intestine to the inner surface of the walls of
the body: the circles of cilia are still unaltered (17 days).
. A young larva, 24 days old, which has escaped from the gelatinous
envelope. The circlets of cilia have disappeared, the number of
segments has considerably increased, and the anterior extremity of
the intestine passes into a barrel-shaped cesophagus, the wide an-
terior opening of which is close to the mouth (a). The anterior
segments of the body are furnished with setz. 80 diam.
Fig. 8. Anterior extremity of the same embryo, seen from the side to show
the position of the mouth on the ventral surface.
Fig. 9. Sete from the anterior segments of the body. 400 diam.
Fig. 10. Young of Sacconereis, with four circles of cilia, from Heligoland.
Figa 11 & 12. Young of Nereis diversicolor, just escaped from the cavity
of the mother; fig.11, from the ventral side, showing the mouth, a;
fig. 12, from the back.
Fig.
“I
Mr. HJ. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. V5
XIV.—Notes on the Freshwater Infusoria of the Island of Bombay,
No.1... Organization... By. H. J..Carrmr, Esg., Assistant
Surgeon, H.C.S., Bombay.
{ With three Plates. ]
For some time past, when circumstances would permit, I have
paid considerable attention to the Infusoria and Freshwater Algze
of the Island of Bombay, which being the same, generally, as
those of Europe, have not occupied me much in specific descrip-
tion, while they have left me comparatively uninterrupted in
their structural and physiological observation. How much has
been gained by the latter the following summary of my “ Notes”
will show. — |
I shall commence with the freshwater Rhizopoda, the Astasie
and Huglene ; but before proceeding to remark on them sepa-
rately, I would premise some observations on the general organ-
ization of Infusoria, and ‘these will be arranged under the fol-
lowing heads :—
~ Pellicula, or skin.
Diaphane, or transparent moving matter.
Sarcode, or abdominal mucus.
Molecule, or minute grains.
“Granules, or large grains. 3
', Digestive Globules, or spherical spaces which enclose the food.
.| Spherical. Cells, or biliary. organisms. (?)
Vesicula, or‘ contracting vesicle.”
Nucleus. sth
Ovules, or embryonic cells:
Spermatozoids. (?)
Impregnation.
Development of Ovule.
Pellicula.—This term has been proposed by Mohl for the
consolidated surface of material which has no distinct enclosing
membrane*, Dujardin, in allusion to the tegumentary covering
of Ameba, &c., likens it to the film which occurs over “ flour-
paste or glue allowed to cool in the air+ ;” and the same view
of it will be taken here. It is at first inseparable and undi-
stinguishable from. the tissue which hes beneath it, yielding
in every way to the form which the latter assumes. As, how-
ever, Amba progresses in development, and its activity begins
to diminish, the pellicula appears to thicken and harden, al-
* Mohl on the Structure of Chlorophyll. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist,
vol. xv. p. 325, foot-note. May 1855.
+ Hist. Nat. des Zoophytes Infusoires, p. 29 et seq.
8*
116) Mri. J) Carter\on the Organizationvof Infusorias
though at still retains: great tenacity ;»and thus, the expansioris
of the subjacent’ tissue are seen, to burst through it in much the
same manner that the énd ofa stream of lead bursts, through
its: pellicle.) Finally, when. all activity! ceases, and, the Amatha
becomes stationary (by fixing itself to some neighbouring object
through apedicular prolongation of the pellicula), a new Jayer,of
the: latter is formed below the old one; and thus the capsule, is
formed, and the. pellicula replaced on the. body of, the! Ameba,
until the latter. becomes firmly encysted (PL. V, figs. 6,8)*.. -Te
what part of the body of the Amaba the pedicular , process) cor-
responds, I am ignorant; but it is interesting ‘to. see/that,.m
Huglena, where a similar, process. takes: place, at 1s the anterior
extremity which is next the pedicle (fig..9);.. Many freshwater
Rhizopoda secrete a testaceous covering, which inereases)in size
with the animal; but the fleshy part.of, the body, being. for, the
most part free, is of course still covered with, pellicula: ;The
pellicula forms the surface-covering of Astasia and, Huglenat,.as
well as that of all the holo-, poly-, diplo- and mono-ciliated, flexible
animalcules and zoospores. Here too, probably,,the cilia,them-
selves are also covered with it, though. secreted; by, subjacent
organs, analogous perhaps, to those whichisecrete the hairsjon the
bodies of higher animals,— a supposition, that would appear ridi-
culous did we not find-such,a correspondence, between the,yvital
processes of the highest and lowest developments as to iInduceus
to thik the latter,are. but a repetition of the: others on) a,smaller
scale; that is to say, .effected by similar,agents, of corresponding:
minuteness, conducted|-om the same prineiple,, |, Taking, -the
above view of the pelliculay we must regard it, as a_structureléss
product, which hardens after secretion., . May, we, not, infer,that
there is a layer below, specially organized for its formation?
Diaphane.—By this name I, would designate the. moying
substance on which the pellicula, rests (figs..1-3).' .dmeba,
whose primary figure is spherical, has the power, of ,changing
this into an almost unlimited number of ‘secondary forms, most
of which, being attended with root-shaped. prolongations, |this
Infusorium is justly entitled toa place among the Rhizopoda.
_* After this the numbers alone of ‘the figures will be inserted, as they
are continuous throughout the three plates. 6
+ Although Astasia and Euglena are here mentioned together, it seeinis
that, in classification, one should be on the animal, and the,other on the
vegetable side of Ameba; for Astasia possesses a mouth and. complicated
buecal apparatus for biting off and taking in food, while Huglena appears
to have no mouth, and to be nourished by endosmosis. The half-developed
cilium, too, in Euglena, compared with the strong prehensile organ which
occurs in Astasia, with many other points which will be «mentioned. here-
after, allies the former as much more to the zoospore or gonidium of the
Algze, as the reverse does the latter to the higher Infusoria.
a
Mri'.\J) Carter\on the Organizationiof Infusoria. 117
That°the diaphane is structureless aud transparent, so far as our
microseopie powers extend, may be seen by 'the travellmg of
some ‘kinds ‘of Amaba across theofield of) the microscope, in
which the coating of ‘the diaphane, though broader all round
than the diameter of ‘the turbid mass of contents in the centre,
only now and then, when the’ light is favourable, comes ‘mto
view! The radii in Actinophrys are wholly devoid of turbid
material, except towards the base; and the advancing border of
the Ame@bé generally is always transparent (figs. 2 a,3 a). But
whether granules’ are mixed with it or not, the diaphane by
itself; that is the contracting material, in the present state of our
microscopic powers, must be characterized by transparency and
motion, without apparent structure. It has the same appearance
aiid ‘polymorphic ‘power in Diffugia, Euglypha, and Arcella, as
in’ Amaba > butin Astasia and Euglena, though still possessing
#reat latittide in’ this respect, it can put forth no prolongations,
and, consequently, the primary forms of these families are never
entirely Tost. °-Phis latitude is still more limited in’ Oxytricha,
Plesconia; Paramecium; &e., though in many Infusoria of this
class it’ has still the power of temporarily producing considerable
alteration nv shape. It might be stated that the diaphane can-
not’ beodemonstrated in these animalcules;: but the great power
‘Of motion of their tegumentary covering, combined with trans-
parency, warrants the use of ‘the term here:just as much as in
‘Rhiopoday where it'is only more striking; because, for want of
vila, the ‘animalcule is: compelled to put'it forth in delicate ex-
‘pansions ‘and prolongations, in progression; and for the capture
of its food ;—indeed, these are the'two ‘great; modes in which all
its ‘vital’ movements are effected:
Some’ micht ‘think, from*what has been’ stated, that there is
iio difference originally between the pellicula and diaphane, and
thatthe latter passes into'the former when ‘the animalcule be-
eomes eticysted. But neither appears to be the case; for if we
watch’ Ameba or Euglena undergoing this process, the activity
and acéompanying polymorphism of the diaphane are diminished
érily by'the thickening and consolidation of the cyst, until the
latter is fully formed, when they cease altogether. Subsequently,
however, in Euglena, when this animalcule becomes temporarily
encysted, the diaphane. separates. itself from the last layer of
pellicula’ which completes the cyst, and thus the Euglena: be-
comes free within it ; after which it will force off the constricted
peduncle of attachment from the object to which the cyst may
have been fixed, and, projecting its cilium through the broken
part, swim about) for some ,tiane, until (perhaps. by. increase.of
size) the cyst is ‘altogether: burst, and: its: hberation. restored
118 Mr. Hed. Carter.on the Organization of Infusoria.
(fig..9). . Yet it might still be observed, that this is no.proof of
the eyst. and, diaphane, having been originally distinct structures,
—the, diaphane may have been re-formed ; in which ease 1 can
only refer.to what I have suggested respecting the origin of the
pellicula, and add that what takes place generally im the higher
organisms appears to me to. be applicable to the lower. ones.
Certainly we do not find one structure erected by the organism
of another in the former, but the production of each structure
dependent on the presence of its proper organism ab initio;
that is, that the structure does not appear before it is accom-
panied. by the fully developed form of the cell or organism which
produces it. I do not question that, under the laws of vitality,
one organism may occasionally take on the excretory or secreting
functions of another, nor that, from a common stock, all organ-
isms, in obedience to the same ‘laws, may be adapted to that which
is, particularly required of them ; but I-think that when, once.a
being is fully developed, each organ of which it may be com-
posed has its peculiar organism, and that. organism its, peculiar
duties, which, except. in unusual. instances, are the only ones
that at is capable of performing. ‘That the diaphane, therefore,
should pass into the pellicula, or the pelli¢ula be secreted: by. the
diaphane, seems untenable,
Related to the diaphane xis, the, transparent intercellular si
stance of Spongilla, which. has, a polymorphism equally great
with. the fully, developed, cells... This, however, can only. be
satisfactorily seen when the new sponge.is growing out from the
seed-like, body, at, which time it, spreads itself over the glass in,a
transparent film, charged | with.contracting vesicles of different
sizes, and in various degrees. of dilatation and .contraction.
How this substance is produced. so early it is difficult to conceive,
since it seems to. come into existence mdependently of the de-
velopment of the sponge-ovules, which are seen imbedded in. it,
and there. undergoing their transformation into sponge-cells.
The spicula too are developed synchronously with the advancing
transparent. border, from little glairy globules about the size of
the largest ovules, which send out.a linear process on each side,
and thus gradually grow into their ultimate forms. Perhaps
the only way of accounting for the early appearance of this in-
tercellular substance is to consider that it is a development. from
some remnants of the original protoplasm, and then that. it has
the power of scereting a. ~general pellicula, while at the same
time it is in part the general diaphane ; and perhaps possesses
also the power of producing new sponge-cells, as we see the
protoplasm in Vorticella and the roots of Chara producing new
buds, viz. independently of the cell-nucleus.
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 119
| Sareode.—This name was proposed by Dujardin for the
*elutinous substance of the interior” of Infusoria* ; and we
shall here understand it as applicable solely to what, in other
words, might be termed the “ abdominal mucus” (figs. 1b, 2’,
3). The sarcode occupies the centre, while the diaphane and
pellicula form the circumferential layers of Infusoria ; besides
this, itis the seat of the “granules” and other organs’ of ‘the
interior, and appears to receive the food directly into its sub-
stance. From the greater latitude of the particles which are
situated towards the centre, that portion may be inferred to be
of less density than the rest ; and sometimes, when the animal-
eule is rendered spherical by aqueous distension, there appears
to be an actual cavity here (fig. 2d); but as I am not certain
about the real situation of the water under these circumstances,
I shall return to this point again by-and-by. In the Rhizopoda
generally, the sarcode appears to have no external communica-
tion, and ‘hence the food must pass into it directly through the
diaphane; but'in most of the other Infusoria it communicates
with the surrounding medium by one orifice at least. The same
kind of ‘substance occupies a good portion, if not the whole, of
the\internal or abdominal cavity of Astasia and Euglena, Vorti-
cella, Paramecium, and the Infusoria of this class. When death
is about to take place, it comes forth from Vorticella, Parame-
cium, &c. in round, transparent, structureless expansions; and
even during life in Stentor a portion may be’ made, by pressure,
to issue through a rupture of! the pellicula without any apparent
injury to the animalcule+. Otostomat, also, when under press-
ure, throws off portions of its sarcode through the anal orifice,
containing a number of the “ spherical cells,” to be mentioned
hereafter, with which it is charged in this kind of infusorium.
As we shall presently find that the portions of food which ‘are
received into the midst of the sarcode are circulated round the
abdominal cavity, it seems necessary to admit, also, that the
sarcode is endowed with a power of motion, in which we cannot
help seeing an analogy to that motion which exists in the ali-
‘mentary canal of higher animals.
In Euglena the sarcode is separated from the diaphane by a
layer of pomted, sigmoid fibres, arranged parallel to each other,
so as to form in Crumenula texta, Duj., a conical cell, which, as
‘soon as the ovules have become developed, and the diaphane and
other contents of the sarcode have died off, becomes transparent,
but still retains its conical form until the resiliency of the fibres,
—* Op. cit. p. 35.
f* Ehrenberg, ap. Dujard. op. cit. p. 34, foot-note. It is the same with
Nassula.
t Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xvii. pl. ix. figs. 6-8, 1856.
120) Mr Had Carternon the Organization of Infusoria.’
now wnrestramned) by the) diaphane and) other soft parts,;cause
dehiscence,and the ovules are set at liberty (PL VI. fig. 60). May
we not: infer, that’ the siliceous’ frustule:of Navicula is similarly |
situated to this fibrous layér;and that it also: derives its power of
motion froman external coating of diaphane?. That there is a gelax,
tinous layerexternal:to the frustule probably in all Diatomeea, may
frequently be:seen, although it may not:be always endowed: with
mobility: In:a species of Palmellea too, like Gleocapsa granosa,
Kg.*, which I have had under observation, the transparentiext
ternal covering: (“envelope-cell ” of Cohn) not only-at-one»period
presents. anactinophorous form, but also moves -aboutounder
this condition, bearing the green elliptical cell withim (singly; ‘or.
divided into two or four, &c. as the case may be), whose form
depends upon the presence of amore or less firm:(skeleton) coat,
that. corresponds in position and. office: tothe» spiral coatsin
Euglena and the siliceous frustule in Navicula, viz.in supporting
the contents of the sarcode and chlorophyll-bearing protoplasm,
and im sustaining their form in all:these organisms respectively
(fig. 19). In Oseillatoria (princeps, Kg., mihi) again, although;
like Navicula, the presence of a layer of substance endowed with
motion round the» cells cannot be scen, yet, when we» observe
the whole chain of a fragment moving slowly backwards:andfor-
wards within» its) sheath, and even extending: beyond it, so as:to
force out the loosened: cells) ateither:end: (probably: for the
formation, of | new filaments), we can come:to no: other! eonclu:
sion, that I see, than that cach cell, which: corresponds ' in office
to the frustulein Navicula, &e.,:is surrounded: by a’ transparent,
gelatinous substance, endowed: with motion, and. that, en:masse,
they perform this act: although this’ substance cannot: beseen
when the cells are: undergoing simple elongation or filamentous
development, yet. it becomes: evident enough when they are
undergoing. crucial division. without’ the sheath for the multi-
plication of filaments.. In none of these instances: does. this
envelope, if existing in Navicula, as well as the rest, present-any
change on the addition of iodine but a yellow tinge, even when
assisted by sulphuric acid ; andit therefore appears to be entitled
just as much to the term of diaphane:in Navicula (if present),
Gleocapsa granosa (?); and. Oscillatoria, asin the Infusorias In
Clostertum there are no signs ofan organof this kind externally,
except at the extremities, where it may be an extruded» part of
the ciliated. protoplasm within; for :C. lunula, as: Morren«has
stated, can fix itself. by one end, and partially rotate upon: that
end; while in Spiregyra this much extrusion of the:protoplasm
* Hematococeus granosus, Hassall, pl. 81, fig. 6, British Freshwater
Algee ;— but with cells seattered, not continuous.
Mr. HL. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria:’ 121
is not»permitted, and the cell is here closed after the manner of
vegetable cells generally,, What further strengthens the view that
there is in-some Diatomes’ (e.g. Navicula-and Nitzschia) a layer
corresponding to:diaphane on the:surface, is, that: there is some
prehensile and transporting organ “here, which undoubtedly has
the power of seizing particles that: come’ in contact: with it; ‘and
of) conveying them partially or wholly backwards and forwards
fromone extremity of the frustule to the other, or of retaining:
them! on any’ part of it stationarily.
Molecule.—We will apply this term to the ciingte; sileitels
granules with which the sarcode is charged (fig. 3:4). They
differ in size, and are the first: bodies that appear in. it; but
whether they be of different kinds, have any particular office, or
undergo any further development, I am: at) present ignorant.
Ameba; Astasia: (fig..45), and Euglena (fig. 46), in the earlier
part of their: existence, respectively seem to capac nothing else
but: this molecular sarcode,) the nucleus, and contracting vesicle ;
afterwards the: “ granules”? appear, and ast’ of all:the ovules,
both of which are developed in the sarcode amongst the molecule.
By the time:the ovules have become fully formed, the sarcode and
itsimoleculee have died off, or disappeared (figs. 26, 46, 56).
\0Granules.~+This name-is: intended for certain lar ee granules,
iehiiels make their! appearance among the molecule, ‘and are cire
culated round: the abdominal cavity im the manner of the diges-
tive:globules,and particles of food .(figs.: 4a, 5:e) 65 a). They
are of different» sizes, but; chiefly:characterized .by being much
larger than the molecule; few in, number; of a circular, elliptical,
elongated, sub-round, or irregular shape, with thick dark edges,
‘apparently produced by obstructiom ‘to: the) passage of ‘hght,—
‘colourless, or ofa) yellowish-green tints) When large, and with
no other granular matters present but the molecule, they form
a striking feature in the interior of Ameba, Vorticella, Oxytricha,
Paramecium aurela, Sc. ; but at times they are so insignificant in
size. as to be undistinguishable from the molecule, even if present
‘at-all... That they are not ovules may be satisfactorily seen when
‘both are together; the dark, thick, and frequently irregular
edges and colourless state of the former contrasting strongly
»with:the thin, ecular margin and. faint yellow tint of the latter
(figs Dic). | They appear to increase: in size and number with
‘the:age of the mfusorium, and, when fully developed, to remain
eunaltered ‘in size; though apparently somewhat) shrivelled in
(form, until their dissolutions» On one occasion, while watching
the metamorphosis, of an Oxytricha (similar to, but not the
same as that described by M. Jules Haime*, and of which I
* Anh, des Sem, Natit, xox. po 109, Zool. 18532;
122) =Mrv TL.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
hope to give a detailed account hereafter), these granules, during
the formation of the globular eell within the body, which
enclosed the materials from which’ the Plesconia was ultimately
developed, became congregated together at the posterior’ ex-
tremity of the Oxytricha, and remained there in a roundish mass,
shut out from the cell, until the latter burst for the liberation
of the Plesconia, when, with the deciduous coverings, they
passed into dissolution. Of the nature of their office I am
ignorant, but they are sufficiently remarkable and constant to
demand particular notice. ie. A
In the development of the sponge-cell, a similar set of large
granules makes its appearance at a very early period, and
increase in number and size until they form as remarkable a
feature as those above noticed. At this time they are about
+0000 Of an inch in diameter, of an elliptical shape, and of ‘a
light amber colour by transmitted light; they are the eolowr-
bearing granules or cells of Spongilla, and give the colour ‘of
chlorophyll to this organism when it becomes green. My
Such granules would appear to be present also in the earliest
forms of Ameba, since they may be seen’ in mono- and diplo-
ciliated monads, which, on losing’ these appendages, become
polymorphic, and assume all the ‘characters of Ameba. Here
they not only resemble the granules of the sponge-cell, but ‘at
the same time appear to’ be of the same kind ‘as those above
described. | Neither is’ it -uneommon ‘to see’ polymorphie ‘cells,
precisely like Ameba, bearmg’ granules’ coloured like those’ of
the sponge-cell ; but the resemblance between the two organisms
is so great, when the latter is free, that it is impossible to say
which is which : however, they are greenish-yellow and elliptical-
elongate in the foot of Difflugia proteiformis, Ehr., which cannot
be confounded with the cell of Spongilla. That these granules
are not ovules in the sponge-cell, any more than in the Infusoria,
_ their colour alone is sufficient to determine. + !
Digestive Globules—We shall use this term for spherical
spaces of the sarcode, which are filled with water, and generally
contain more or less food -(figs. 3.e, 65.6, 74 d). They are
formed in Vorticella and Paramecium in the following way, viz.
as the particles of nutritive matter are drawn into the vortex of
the buccal cavity, by the cilia which are disposed around its orifice
for this purpose, they are forced down, with a certain amount
of water, into the sarcode at the end of it, where they'at first _
form ‘a pouch-like dilatation, which sooner or later becomes
constricted close ‘to the buceal cavity, and, having been’ thus
separated from it, passes off in'a spherical form into the midst
of the sarcode (figs. 65:c,74c¢e). The formation of one globule
is soon followed by that of another; and so on successively the
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 123
food, with a large quantity of water, is taken into the abdomen ;
sometimes the globule appears to contain nothing but. water.
When in the sarcode, it is) continually undergoing circulation
round the abdominal cavity, until the whole of its contents are
digested, and resolved into a fluid, or until their nutrient parts
aveabstracted ; the remainder then, still ina, globular form, if
there be sufficient water left to sustain this, is cast. off through
the anal orifice, as it arrives opposite this point during rotation
(fig..68 5).. Frequently, however, nothing but the crude ingesta
remain ; for as soon as the globule begins to. be circulated, the
watery contents begin to be absorbed,—hence some particles of
food are almost always present, without any globule round them
(fig.'5.d);, added to which, in many. instances bodies pass directly
into the sarcode without any globule at all (fig. 74). I cannot,
with some others, think, that there is any intestinal canal in the
abdominal cavity, because the digestive globules and other par-
ticles of food are. constantly undergoing circulation round the
whole of its aterior... In Vorticella, particles of food may ocea-
sionally be seen to circulate throughout, and accumulate, in
every, corner of its mterior, particularly those which do not happen
to, be.enclosed in globules (fig. 74 ee). . Moreover, the intimate
resemblance which exists between the alimentary organs of higher
Infusoria, viz. Nassula,; Otostoma, &c., and those of the binocular
and) so-called blind Planarig,—in the distance of the mouth from
the anterior extremity, the, presence of a-buccal apparatus, and
a simple sac-like stomach, im.,the latter, lmed\with a layer of
mucous substance (sarcode’?), charged with the “ spherical cells” |
about to be described, is so great, that with such a simple gastric
organ in an animal.so closely allied. to these Infusoria as Planaria,
I,do not see what reason we have, in descending the scale, to
expect..a more complicated. digestive apparatus ;. but, on the
contrary, one still more simple, in which there would be no
stomach at all ;—a condition which appears to me to be common
to all the Infusoria that have come under my notice.
In the Ameba, for want, apparently, of a channel of com-
munication with the exterior, the introduction of food seems to
take place directly through the. diaphane; and it is only now
and then that the process by which the digestive globule is
formed can be distinctly seen. Thus, on one occasion, where
the particle about to be enclosed was a small Ameba, the latter,
after struggling for some time, got under the former, when the
large Ameba raised its diaphane in a dome-shaped cavity over
the small one, and then, closing in below, after the manner of a
sphincter, shut in the. small Ameba, which, witha: portion. of
water, immediately. passed into the, sarcode; under the form/of a
124 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization: of Infusoria.
spherical digestive globule*,, That the food is broken’ down ‘by
a digestive process im this: way may be;seen.in the.dmeba, where
it frequently appears in: all. degrees of solution;in:the same im-
dividual ; viz. from an opake, crude mass, to a blue or brownish’
fluid, according to the colour which the» material, may, assume
under its altered condition. In, Astasia digestive globules:also
appear; but here the food is:taken in through a distinet mouth;
while>in Euglena the absence: of such vesicles, would appear'to
indicate that its support is of a different kind, if not imtroduced
ina different way. I 9VB
Spherical Cells.—These cells, to which, I /have! just»alluded,
abound in the sareode of Otostomart, and apparently in many of
Ehrenberg’s Allotreta (fig.-92)... In. Otéstoma, theyrare)of. dif.
ferent sizes, because they aren all stages of development);! and)
to keep: up: thew numbers, without, distending» the» animaleule;
they must be continually undergoing rapididecay, as ;welbasore=)
production. The most remarkable: feature:inothems, that the.
largest, besides: other. granular | bodies,,;.contaiiaosevéral »small
cells, filled with a brownish-yellow, fluid; and)these cells-are dlso
found free among) the general’ group ;, but; what their ultiniate
destination is, as they do not appear to grow largér, orto -be-
come reproductive; 1 am: ignorant, » In, the Planarie to. which |,
have alluded, as: well ‘as:im) Rotifera; such! cells, nearly fillthe
stomach, and the large ones beig more or less grouped:togethier
m- the former, iat: the) same otime that they chiefly, contain the
yellow cells, the whole acquires a:sub-acinousor glandularappear- -
ance, very like the hepatic, element, surrounding the, alimentary
canal of some of the dower worms. It .is) also; interesting: te
find: here that each possessesia lash, of cilia (about 50) \projecting
_ from one partoof the cell, »which,: for. some:time) after) they/are
forced: into the water through the oral orifice, or a rupture of the
body, act by their whipping movements, as imperfect locomotive
organs, while, when these cells are fixed. in, situ, the same whip-
ping movement must keep up a ‘continued agitation of the gastric
contents, which, if not conducted im a similar way, in. the, Infu-
soria, has its analogue there in the circulation of the digestive
globules, and granular matters of the sarcode (fig: 92 a, g).
Although ovules may occasionally issue together with these cells
from Otostoma, &c. as well as from the Planarie, yet. the two
ean hardly be confounded; as.in..the Planarie the: peculiar
character of the ovule not only distinguishes it; but by careful
manipulation the whole generative apparatus’ may be exposed
outside, the stomach, . | | |
* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv. p. 93, 1849.
+ Idem, vol. xvii. pl. ix. fig. 6b
Mroly J; Carter on the: Organization of Infusbriai 125
«That thesecells incPlanaria and Otostoma: are homologous
organs cam hardly be! dowbted, both from their general characters
and their correspondence in position ; but what their office may
be is*ati‘present unknown): Occurring; however, as they:do, in
the ‘stomach’ of: Planaria and® Rotifera; where there is ono:other
analogue of the’ so-called ’biliary follicles ofthe lower worms*;
and: being almost’ identical’ in Otdstoma and Planaria; they not
only*ally these two organisms, but, atthe same time; appear to
bethe homologue of the biliary follicles im-each. 189
I have never seen any cells of this kind in dmeba, unless the
“granules”? already described be their analogues. It: appears
evident’ that these are the same both in Amaba and the sponge-
cell; and that they are the seat of the green colour in the latter.
Are‘the green granules’ of the sponge-cell analogous to the parts
or cells ‘respectively which hold the colouring matter or endo-
chrome inithe Diatomea, Closterium, Spirogyra, Cladophora, &e.,
and ‘(through the latter) to the “ green disks” or peripheral.
layer of ‘chlorophyll-bearing cellules in the internode of Nétella,
and those which, scattered irregularly through its moving pro-
toplasmj are circulated round ‘the cell-of: Serpicula verticallata
ache a, 64a) ? olf so, ‘the chlorophyll-bearing: parts of the
rotoplasm “in vegetables’ may be’ the’ analogue of» the: liver: im-
antimals.y!"Envsome? Rotifera theo spherical ‘cells: appear to bear
bile!asgreen cas grass’ orochlorophyll+; while m ‘others: it is
yellows) The 'same\ diversity of) colour’ occasionally ‘manifests
itself an the Diatomee ;while' in Spirogyra especially, the. oil-
globules: and amylaceous “deposits, >which> abound in abortive
conjugation, ‘are’entirely confined'to' the green spiral-bands, thus
corresponding, incone identically, andimthe other transitionally,
withthe’ fat and sugar which are formed in the liveriof man ; the
colouring matter in all of course: being, when present, a mere
indication cet. par. of the nature of the organ. | How the colour-
bearing ‘cellule of the spherical cells are produced in Otostoma
By this I do not mean to class the Planarians with the Worms. Mr.
©. Girard, who has followed out the “ Embryonic Development of Plano-
cera elliptica,’ would ally them to the Gasteropoda,— Researches upon
Nemerteans and Planarians,’ 4to, Philadelphia, 1854. .
_ + Since writing this, I have seen Diglena catellina, Ehr., discharge the
green matter from its alimentary canal, and retain nothing but the ordinarily
eoloured biliary cells} also D. eaudata'to have the whole of the soft tissues
of \its-body coloured «in this: way, unless there be diverticulations of, the
stomach, to this.extent;..so that I now. begin to think this colour, which at
first appeared persistent, to be adventitious, and gained from the Euglene,
and, perhaps, chlorophyll-bearing protoplasm on which these species chiefly
feed. Accidentally, perhaps, the bile may become green in any species of
Rotifera, as in animals generally ;_ and this appears to be the case with the
endochrome of Diatomee.
126 Mr. Hv J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria!
and ‘Planaria, Tam ignorant; but’ in’ some Rotifera (e.g. Brae
chionus Pala; Ehr.) they present’ themselves at an early ‘period!
ina eircular or discoid group, attached to the cell-wall, and thus,’
with the absence of the nucleus, closely paienws a granulated
state of that organ. |
VesiewaA would propose this name for the ‘ Contracting
Vesicle,’ on account of the latter being a Joose and inconvenient
term’ in description (figs. 3c, 44), It is certamly the’ most
striking organ of the Infusoria, from its defined circular outline
when dilemdad, its hyaline aspect, and above all its sudden
disappearance and gradual return at intervals, which give it)a
pulsatory character, so like that of a heart, that at first welare
inclined to conclude that it must be the representative: of this
organ in the Infusoria. Spallanzani considered \it’a’ respira
tory organ*; Ehrenberg the male organ of generation +5: and
Siebold a circulatory organ}. The’ following facts,’ however,
would seem’ to show that it is neither of these, bt an Vexeuvtony
organ, viz. :— OE
Ist. Itis always seen either close to the pelliewlay or close’ to’
the buecal cavity, and always stationary. | Thus, in Paramecium
aurelia, it is close to the surface; and although it of course passes
out of view as the animaleule turns’ on its long ‘axis; ‘yet 1!
always reappears, after contraction, in the same place (figs. 68a,
74 ff); while in Vorticellaat is attached to the buccal cavity;
and, being centrically situated; seldom passes out of view; except
when ‘it disappears under» ee after which it also’ re-
appears'in the’same places:
2nd. In Actinophrys Sol§, ane other Amebe, during the wis
of ‘dilatation, the vesicula projects far‘ above the level of the’
pelicula, even so much so as occasionally to form an elongated,,
transparent, mammilliform’ eminence, which, at the moment’
of contraction, subsides precisely like a blister of ‘some ‘soft
tenacious substance that has just been pricked with a’ 0
(fig. 24: a).
8rd. Lastly, when we watch the contraction of the vesieulis
in a recently encysted Vorticella, we observe that at the same
moment that it contracts the buccal cavity becomes filled with
fluid; and further, that this fluid disappears from the: buceal
cavity, and all trace of the latter with it, long before the vesicula
reappears ; thus proving at once, that the fluid comes ‘fromthe
vesicula and does not return to it, rc pete i may become of 18
afterwards (fig. 78).
The position of this organ, then, its manner of kguiteuntitte,
* ‘Ap. Dujardin, op. cit. pp. 103, 104. “+ Idem, pp. 105-108.
{ Ap. Claparéde, Ann. & Mag. Nat, Hist. vol. xv. p. 212, 1855. wa
§ Idem, loc. cit, pl. vin. fig. 1.
Mr.. Hy J.\Carter, on the, Organization, of Tofurorias 127
andthe, buccal, cavity of encysted. \Vorticella becoming filled ‘with
fluid the moment it disappears (where we knowit to be attached
to the buccal. cavity, and, not, to. the pelicula), are almost conclu-
sive of ,its.excretory, office... We have now to, find, out: how this
fluid is brought to the vesicula.
It will, be: remembered that there is a series of fusiform. sinuses
which.surround each. of the vesicule in, Paramecium aurelia, and
some other animaleula of this class, on which Spallanzani made
the important, observation, that as they become empty the. vesi-
cula| becomes filled*, This may be. easily seen, as well as that
they do not reappear until some. time after the vesicula has, con:
tracted. ).'Thus we infer, that the fluid with which the vesicula
is | distended comes through the. sinuses, but.is not returned. by
them, to the body, of the Paramecium.
) Now; in) some, cases, faint hyaline or transparent lines, may be
seen. to,extend,outwards'} from each of these sinuses, which lines;
Kekhard. hag stated,‘ traverse the. body.in a. stellate, manner.”
Hence, when we add Eckhard’s evidence (which I have been. able
to) confirm, in,a, way that; will, be presently described). to the. ob-
sexyation of\Spallanzani, and, connect this, with the facts already
adduced an, favour of the! excretory office of | the vesicula, it. does
not)seem) unreasonable, to conclude that. the whole. together
forms an excretory vascular system, in; which) the vesicula 1 is the
chief receptacle and, organ of expulsion.
While, watching Paramecium aureha, 1. on several .occasions
not only observed that \the vesicule. were |respectively. surrounded
by from seven to twelve pyriform sinuses,of, different) sizes, and
that lines extended. outwards from theniin the manner described
by Eekhard; but L further observed, that these lines were com-
posed.of a series of pyriform or fusiform sinuses, which diminished
in size outwards; and frequently 1 could trace, as, many as three
in succession, including the one,next; the vesicula. (fig..66 5.0).
Hence Iam inclined to infer, that this vascular system through-
out is more or less composed of chains of such sinuses, and that
all;have,more or less contractile power like that of the vesicula.
Just, preceding death, when Paramecium aurelia is compressed,
and,,under other favourable circumstances, these sinuses run
into continuous: hyaline lines, and may not only be seen extend-
ing im a radiated, vascular form across the animalcule, but even
branching out round the position of the vesicula, which, having
now become, permanently contracted, has thus poured, back the
contents which render them visible (fig. 67 6 0)... They, enter
* aaa ap. Dujard. op. cit. p. 103; Spall. Opusc. Phys, trad.
Franc. t. is p, 248.
ft Aun. & Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 448, 1846.
128 Mr WJ. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
the lower or mner part of the organ, and at this point, therefore,
are pushed inward as the vesicula becomes distended (fig. 68 aa).
Under the same circumstances, also, when the vesicula is slowly
dilating and contracting, it may be seen to be attached to a small
papilla on the surface, about twice the diameter of those which
surmount the trichocysts*, and through which it probably
empties itself (fig.68 aa). In Otostoma there appears to be a
similar arrangement of vessels round each vesicula, and here also
they seemed to me to be branched,—at least such was my ‘ith-
pression after having watched this animaleule for a long time,
in order to determine the point. saeco
In Ameba and Actinophrys the vesicula is generally single ;
sometimes there are two, and not unfrequently in larger Amiba'a
greater number. In Euglypha 1 have not been able to recognize
them, but in Arcella vulgaris and Difflugia proteiformis(figs. 79,80)
they may be seen in great number, situated round 'the margii6f
that part of the animalcule which is within the test’; and from
their always reappearing, after contraction, in the “same "plaéés
respectively, we may perhaps infer that the’ situation’ of ‘the
vesicula in Amaba and Actinophrys also is fixed, though “from
their incessant polymorphism it appears to be continually vary-
ing in position. In Paramecium, and Ehrenbers’s° Enterode
generally, the vesicula is either single or dual.“ When it exists
in great number in any of these (e.g. Chilodon cuéulluls,
Ehr.), this ‘appears to depend on accidental dilatations'of ‘the
sinuses in connexion with it. Thus, in’ the’ animialewle just
mentioned, where the vesicula is single; and seems” to be’ ’sub-
terminal and lateral in its normal position, it is not wieommon
to meet with a group in which every member presents a variable
number of contracting vesicles, variably also and irregularly di-
spersed throughout the body, without one being in the true pisi-
tion ofthe vesicula (figs. 82, 83). That the vesicula does'‘make
its appearance now and then may be inferred, as it perhaps may
also be inferred that from over-irritability, or some such ‘éatise,
it does not remain under dilatation long enough to receive the
contents of the sinuses; and hence their accidental dilatation,
* These are narrow, fusiform, cells, arranged. perpendicularly, and sat
some little distance from each, other, under the pellicula, where they.thus
form a layer all over the body, and each, according to Dr. Allman, contains
a delicate, resilient thread, coiled up in its interior, which, just after the
cells have been forcibly pressed out into the water, by crushing the ‘ani+
maleule, causes them to assume, for a second, a circular form; and then
burst, through which the thread is set free, and, lying rigid. on,.the ,glass,
presents the form of an acicular, crystal, terminated. at, each ent b re
pointed extremity, one of which, being more attenuated than the other,
appears like an appendage. To these cells Dr. Allman has given the name
of “ trichocysts.” (Quart! Jouin. Microseop. ‘Se. vol. tii p.177, 1855.)
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Oryanization of Infusoria. 129
andthe appearance of a plurality of vesicule. That, also, the
sinuses which are in the immediate vicinity of the vesicula do
empty themselves into it may be easily seen, when both are
present; and what takes place near, it seems not unreasonable
to infer may, through a concatenation of communication, take
place from a distance. At the same time, the sinuses of this
system in the sarcode of Amaba not only seem to burst into
each other, and into the vesicula, but. when the latter has con-
tracted, another sinus, partially dilated, and situated near the
border, may be seen to swell out and contract after the same
fashion, before the reappearance of the vesicula (fig. 81a a).
Then there is no knowing how many vesicule there may be in
Ameba; while Actinophrys Sol, Ehr., is surrounded by a peri-
pheral layer of vesicles, which, when fully dilated, appear to be
all of the same. size, to have the power of communicating with
each, other, and. each, individually, to contract and discharge its
contents externally as occasion may require ; though, generally,
one only appears and disappears in the same place. In Oxytricha
the ‘vesicula,is. single or dual, but in Plesconia, as far as, my
observation extends, always single. The vesicula is, always
single, in, Vorticella, where. it.is attached to the. buccal cavity
close to, the anal orifice, as in Rotifera and the young of Cyclops
quadricornis (fig. 74 f, h).. In one species of, Vorticella, there. is
a. distinct pouch for these excretory orifices, about, half-way up
‘the buccal cayity (fig. 75 a). In Colepina, the, vesicula occupies
the posterior extremity.
Its existence,in Aséasia, Anisonema, and Huglena can only, be
determined by. inference... They, all, have, a) transparent. vesicle
situated close to the anterior extremity.; and in Astasia we know
that it is thus situated close to the buccal cavity (fig. 45 e).,. In
Anisonema it seems to alter in size and shape,.as it does in. some
Amebe, without completely contracting ; and,im, Astasia also it
is at..one time more defined and apparent than at another;
but, this may be owing to change of position in the entire ani-
maleule... In Polytoma Uvella it. is similarly situated, but double,
and,has' been, seen to, contract by Schneider* ; and in a, stall
colourless animalcule, very much like a young Aséasia, as well
as ina minute species of Chlamidomonas, Ehr., 1 have frequently
seen this vesicle contract and dilate m the manner of the vesicula ;
so that there can be little doubt about the vesicle in the anterior
extremity of Astasia, Anisonema, and Euglena (fig. 49 6). being
the homologue of the vesicula, though in the latter the red body
be appended to it; this, however, is not the ease in the Chiami-
sisi mentioned, where the red spot is Hany) in the middle of
i a el és. Mag. Nat, Hist. vol. Xivep. 322, 1854,
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 9
130) = =Mrod\ Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
the body, and» Scieeayerapd whist _ a is inthe anteérior
— 918 Bf normal IHS: ie
(‘Phe apparent ‘quiescent state of the: sidadunda in \Astasia; Dus
plener, Soe may ‘be ‘an ‘approach to ‘its disappearance | altogether
as a distinct organ, and therefore a step nearer to the vegetable
kingdoni: | But Schneider; in allusion ‘to this, quotes a passage
from Cohn, in which the latter observes, that “ internal pulsating
spaces*” have been discovered in “certain genera of Alge;” on
which Schneider! justly remarks, that if they ‘oceur in the
swarm-cells of \Conferve, they certainly cease to be a. characters
istic of animal! nature* ;”—thus rendering’ useless another! dis
stinguishing pomt between animals and plants at this part ofthe
organic kingdom, which after all, perhaps, may be found tovhave
its homologue in the vacuoles of the vegetable protoplasniy>!!
> Thati the vesicula is a distinct organ, ‘and not merely a:
hke the digestive globule, might’ be? inferred from its ‘always
occurring in the same’ place in the same ‘species 3‘ butiiniaddition
to this, the fact was on one occasion most! ee
strated to me by its'remaining. pendent ina globular formi'to ithe
buceal cavity of a Vorticella; when, by the deconipositionof'the
sarcode, and‘ evolution of! a swarm ‘of rapidly moving! monadic
particles, ‘these two organs, with the'cylindrieal nucleusor'gland;
though ‘still slightly*adhering to ‘each other, were ‘so! disseetéed
out as to be nearly separate ;' and thus: yielding i in position from
time: to: time, ‘as they were /struck “by ‘the! little particles, their
formisi ‘and relative positions line became opartieulardy
evident) (fig: 76a). 10 e199q" Jeo A aunoilonve
Although ‘globular’ in shape, yet) as! before: abetted itis ee
companied in Paramecium aurelia by'a variable number of
form: sinuses, which’ are arranged around) it: in a’ stellate Giant
In most of the other animaleules these are globular, andj under
exhaustion of the animaleule from various ‘causes, are frequently
so distended, and thus ‘so approximated, as to assume the
pearance of an areolar structure, immediately in contact’ with
the vesicula (fig. 84). Each globular sinus, however, would‘ap
pear 'to be the proximal or largest of a concatenation of smaller
ones, which diminish in size with their distance from the vesieula
(fig. 82 2). The vesicula becomes doubled preparatory to fissis
paration, and therefore appears dual in Vorticel/a, and quadruple
in Paramecium, &e. (fig. 69); and itis’ interesting to find that
in the metamorphosis of the former into Acineta it frequently
acquires a plurality similar to thot ne sige sich in the Rhizo-
tay ere | wav levoieal od
Ha 4 it ATROATA BB Tete sord cad? boaoitaant
* Loe. cit. p. 330.
Tt See particularly Stein’s'work on the Development of Infusotia.
Mr. H.J. Carter on:the Organization of Infusorid. 181
‘0 Of the ase of the vesicula, and its vascular:system, we are at
present ignorant, further than that its functions are excretory 5
arid when we observe the quantity of water that is:takeninto!the
sarcode with the food, and try to account for its disappearance,
it:\does not seem improbable thatthe vesicula,and»ats: vessels
should; be chiefly concerned in: this; office: »” Another ‘service,
however, which it performs, is to burst the spherical membranes
of, Vorticella and Plesconie when they want to return to-active
life after having become encysted: this it: effects: by repeated
distension, until the lacerated cyst gives. way sufficiently for the
animaleule to slip out. At these times, also, the: animaleule’ is
rendered: so spherical by ‘this distension that itis also: evidently
one way by which the Infusoria might assume this form (fig..12).
Hence;:in describing) the, sarcode, [have expressed | a:idoubt
whether the water im an Ameba, when distended in this: manitier,
besin ats: centre jorim the cayity/of the vesicula. Certainly, when
Ameéba:is in:the form, of,a;: sphere, I never have been able ito see
the:vesicula, while all the other elements of the cell, have ‘been
perfectly: plaim 5! added: to. which, under these cireumstances;'a
parti of; the cell-wall is! generally transparent, from the absence
ofthe sarcode and its granules; which would be the case: ifthe
vesicula were the | cause; of the; distension, sinee nz Ameba itis
attached to-the pellicula, and therefore no, sarcode exists imme+
diately. opposite this pomt (fig: 13): a yl
Should: it; have) anyother uses; thera are) eidbclinbiy dnadians to
thks of the “Water Vascular System)??,of Rotifera,) which in
Brachionus Pala, one of the largest species of this)élass,) consists
ofia corrugated: sac when empty (like the; bladder of mammalia),
opening by! a constricted neck into a heart-shaped cloaca close
to the termination of thealimentary canal; and, when distended;
presenting (mzhz) a single, vessel opening, into its fundus, and
then passing down through. its: side towards the'neck, where it
divides! into two, which respectively run up laterally to: the | an-
terior settee of the body, bearmg im their course four mono
ciliated (Huxley)* pyriform' diverticula, and probably termi-
nating, as in Lacinulariat, partly in junction and partly in blind
tubes. The vacuolar structure attached to these vessels may be
analogous: to the vacuolar structure connected with the vesicula
in the Infusoria,\and,it would, be interesting to determine if the
vacuoles) in it. occasionally diminish in size or disappear, or \be-
eome dilated when from disease. or approaching death. the vesi-
eula/ itself is unnaturally and, permanently distended. - Should
the lateral vessels not terminate in Brachionus: Pala, .ascabove
mentioned, then they must, as appears to be the case in the other
* Quarts Journ. Mieroscop, Se, vol. i..p. 7. iy j Pans 4
152 Mr, H.J. Carter om the Organization of Infusoria,
Rotifera open into the vesicula close to its communication with
the cloaca. rotaD asso oso ry
It might be asked here, if all: vacuolar dilatations of the sar-
code belong to this excretory system of sinuses ; that is, excepting
those made by the buceal! cavityim the manner mentioned ?
Certainly, where there is a plurality, of actively contracting vesi-
cles, without the appearance of the vesicula, as in Chilodon cucul-
lulus, we may,-as' before ‘stated, attribute this to a\kind of*over-
irritability or constrictive spasm ‘of ‘the vesicula, and, therefore,
considerthat these vesicles are accidental dilatations of the sinuses:
in connexion with it; as we may set down the dropsical 'state:of
Himantophorus Charon (Ehr:), and other.animaleules of the kind,
to.an opposite condition of, this, organ, viz..that.in which, it is
unable to relieve itself of its contents (fig..84).;.this L haveyoften
seen occur under my own eyes. But there is an intense vacuolar
state of the sarcode that occasionally, presents itself in Ameba,
which makes it look, like an areolar tissue composed of. vesicles
diminishing to a smallness, that cannot be determined by th
microscope,—such as is seen in the advancing border of Spongilla
when issuing from the seed-like body, and in the protoplasm of
the vegetable cell: whether this ‘still be a part of the vesicular
system or not, I am unable to decide; at the same time, the-con-
tracting vesicles:in the transparent growmg ‘border of the néw-
developmg sponge are so numerous, and so like those which) are
seen'in the protoplasm. of the last cell’ under formation of “the
stem ‘and roots of Chara when budding fromthe nucule,that we
cannot fail tosee-a most striking'analogy between the two, even
if we cannot reconcile ‘ourselves 'to' the former being a part of the
vascular ‘system / attached’ to- the: vesicula ; indeed, ‘inthe new
nucleus itself of the roots’of Chara, vesicles ‘do appear and dis
appear. ef JS Bis 19WO'T
Lastly, fromthe’ presence of the vesicula in Spongilla, and its
being so constant in the Rhizopoda generally, and ‘so numerous
in Arcella vulgaris, it does not seem altogether unreasonable ‘to
infer that the streams of water which issue from the great’ canals
of ‘Spongilla are produced by the ‘continued pouring into them;
from the vesicule of the different sponge-cells, the superfluous
water which they imbibe by endosmosis, apparently, durmg
nutrition ; for the type of Spongilla is ‘to be) surrounded ‘with‘a
general pellicula, in which there is ‘only oneexcretory opening;
and through which pellicula the ends alone of the spicula -pro-
ject m bundles ; nor does it ‘seem altogether far-fetched ‘to cone
ceive that the’ offices‘of glandular organs’ in higher developments
may be performed, in'some instances, ‘after this fashion, 00%
[To ibe continued,] tae
MiX: Murtay’s Mondgraph of the venus Catops. «138
diiw notisoiauvaines ei: 03 s2o0lo sluoizay on
_ , XV.—Monograph of the genus Catops.
ise 08) (0 en By Anprew) Murray, Edinburgh.
‘ hevolinem vacrecs [Continued;from p.24;]
(wows none GROUP IT, (Subgenus Camors (true),)
~Mesosternum not. keeled; body ‘oblong ;antenne more, or less
clubashaped or :thickened, towards the apex, eighth yoint, decidedly
smaller, than. seventh and ninth. :The posterior. trochanters not
more developed im the: males, o. ». WBS £90009. 0
Yst Subdivision! “Base of thorax decidedly narrowed or cut in,
8 thatthe thoraz and elytra do’ not form a continuous’ outline.
Middle ‘tirst widened in the males.’
dmowk oe tooth al@yeOy adiewaris; Kraaty.
Catbps acicularis, Kraatz, Stet. Ent. Zeit. xiii, 406.6.
Oblongus,, ferrugineus ; antennis subfiliformibus ; thorace trans-
4 verso, postice latiore, angulis posticis obtusiusculis ; e/ytris
_.Substriatis ¢ransversim strigosis. |
Of the slender, form.of the species im:the foregoing group; but
proportionally not! so. elongate ; ferruginous brown; easily distin-
guished from the remaining species) of» this:group by its trans-
versely istrigose elytraso;The antennee are slender, reddish brown,
notoquite sd‘ longyas/ the elytra; first joint somewhat) shorter
thari the: seconds| second equal tothe third ;, third equal to the
fifth ;fourth somewhat, longer and stouter/than: the sixth ; eighth
only jone-third of the-length ofthe seventh, and} somewhat nar-
rower than those on each side of it ; ninth somewhat shorter than
the seventh, almost somewhat, stoutery and, equal.to the tenth ;
eleventh of the stoutness of the preceding, about: half.as long,
from the middle forward cone-shaped acuminate...The\head is
densely and finely punctate, pitchy-black. . The thorax.is'nearly
of:the breadth of the elytra, wholly light, twice as broad as long,
slightly arched, the'sides wholly rounded, somewhat more strongly
behind than.in,front,-so,thatithe greatest breadth is behind, the
middle ; the anterior) angles,are somewhat bent down, strongly
rounded, the posterior yangles are\;obtuse-angled. 'The,-basal
margin is extremély lightly sinuated;\on: both sides towards |the
scutellum; the upper side of the thorax is moderately densely and
finely, shagreen-punctured..; The: ‘elytra | are) uniform: oblong,
gradually: narrowed ‘towards the apex, each being roundeds they
have feeble traces of longitudinal strize, and besides are trans-
versely strigose almost parallel with the base of the thorax. The
legs are ferruginous brown and slender.
134 MA? Miirray’s Monoyhaph of the'genus Catops.
Pp Have ndt'Séen this Speviés in’ Hattie, and have merély copied
M: Ktaiitz’s hae tiohl. “Tt” appeais tobe readily recognized
amdns its weishb ih rs by its ‘transversely strigose elytra.” “‘Tt'is
found in Sicily, and appears to 'be rare, M. Kraate stn ‘onl nly
seen three specimens: |
7 Cofaiocts Penis torisy
Filthy sions Panz. Fn. Germ, 18.1. ge PM cay og
Luperus: fuscus, Frohl. Naturf: 28.24. 2. t. 1. f. 16: fart Sig imite
Catops‘sericeus, Payk: Pn. Suec.i. 342.11. i ae (
Catops rufescens, Fab. Syst.-El, ii, 563.1. Ware prev
Choleva sericea, Spence, Linn. Trans, xi. 145. 6, Eid oils Sint
Catops festinans, Gyll. Ins, Suec. iv. 314. LS aaa a ke
Catops fuscus, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. i. 235.'3 5 Sturm, Dbutsett Pil ‘Xiv.
(oO) VB) 662274. 4. aA; Heer; Fn. Helvio it 379: 4 ;\Redt.) FnivAustr)64.
lh; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit, xiii, 407.8; Feirmal, & Laboulb, Fn, Ent.
Fr. i, 101. 7. baiiian
Breviter ovatus, fuscus;/antennis subfiliformibus ; thorace trans-
Verso, postice latiore, angulis posticis rectiss elytris, rufo-brun -
nels, ‘substriatis. nA .tiote
Bis brown, short 6val: Antennee Rey ere very
feebly thickened towards the extremity, not quite so long as the
head and thorax ; first joint longer than the succeeding’ joints ;
second very little shorter than third; third and fourth’ very
nearly equal ; - fifthoand sixth yequal; both .a little shorter/than
fourth ; seventh not; much iftat/alhlonger than: sixth, but,a; good
deal br oader ; eighth shorter thanjthose on each side of it; but not
greatly narrower;/ninthand tenth about same size,.and eleventh
actuninate’ and nearly: twicevasolongias the tenth. Head .and
thorax black,overy: densely: punctate, with a. yellowish grizzly
adpressed) pubescence; mouth reddish ; edges, of thorax, ferrugi-
nous brown.) Thorax rounded: on the aided, broadest behind, the
middle, at. the base almost: twice, as broad as) long,
very slightly rounded in at the posterior angles, which,
are right-angled and have a slight: tendency to pros .,
jeet behind. Elytrareddish brown, covered with a spp
bluish-grey bloom ;:a little widened im>the middle,
apex almost acuminate ; densely punctate, -and: with) la 9
strie visible towards:the apex, ecécal yc perceptible i in “front.
Bote reddish brown..)) °': Absord
»/Phis) species:is easily distinguiideadh icin the: nest: of the sec-
tion, by the breadth of its thorax’ behind, which gives its outline
vat: first sight,and before the junction of the thorax, and elytrads
éxamined, very much the appearance of beingia continuous oval
ishghtly interrupted ati the:base: of thelelytvaz'2 ionic:
It is widely distributed, bemg found:beth im England: a Seot-
Mr, A, Murray's Monagranh,of the genus Catops. 185
land,,France, Germany, and most of, Huropes, Kraatz says. that it
his, seldom, or;never found under, Jeayes or, fungi, /but in. cellars,
stables, potato-heaps, .&c.,.. Fairmaire,and, Laboulbéne, mention
it;,ashaying. been; also taken in, moss,.at;the roots of | trees.
Stephens gives “ carcases” as its habitat,.and rightly, enough
so far as regards the species he has under this name (viz. a pale
variety of chrysomeloides),| butyancorrectly as regards the true
fuscus. It is, however, easy to predicate of each species. by,.a
simple inspection of its antennee whether it.1s,a carcase-feeder
or not. Those species with. filiform or slightly thickened an-
tennze are found among leaves and moss, &c.' ‘Those with heavy,
thick, clubbed antennz are found under, dead birds or small
mammals,.,,.In other words, those which have, to seek, out,.pu-
trésceont matter for. their food, or ainidus for their eggs, are fur-
nishéd with largely developed antenne to enable them to smell
it out.
erisit so81odt : eudr Berk meridionalis, Aubé.
OY theridtondlis; Aubé ‘Ann. Soe! Ents Fr! viii, 326. 34, t.1 2. f, 25 Kratz,
Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 428. 10.
Ovatus, convexiusculus, piceus; antennis pedi-
,,busque, ferrugineis ;. thoracis ,angulis posticis
= {4 Valde, productis;. elytris oblongiusculis, | stria-
Long..2§ Jin... ) 60 ese BS
vec Pitehy-brown ; im ‘general appearance occupy-
‘jie the middle between fuses, Panz. ;'and picipes;
)Paby° Head black and finely punctate: Antenne
datid’ palpi ferruginous ; :antenne of) the !length of
‘lie ‘head and\thorax, only feeblyothickened:to-
wards the point ; first joint! equalinlength to:the. >
-thikd, andonearly twice as long as:the second; fourth equal to
sthe fifth, ‘also to the sixth,: and) somewhat’ shorter than’ the
third.;;seventh equal to the second, yet: somewhat stronger than
those-on each ‘sidesofvit';) eighth »scarcely halfso \long as the
séventh, scarcely more slender;:somewhat shorter than the:ninth ;
tenth equal ‘to the nmth; eleventh acuminate. The thorax is
pitchy-brown, moderately convex,/transverse, of the breadth of
the elytra, oncevandsa halfias' broad as'long,emarginate in front,
Jeutilalmost straight behind; where it is broadest ; the’ sides‘ are
broadly rounded ; the anterior angles depressed and rounded, |
the posterior projecting behind: and ‘somewhat acute. Scutellum
stolerably: large, ‘finely ,punctatesand' reticulate. Elytray brown,
-oblong oval, nearly twice asilong as! 'broad; finely. punctate! and
‘reticulate; and marked ioneach: side: of ‘the suture/with'a‘suffi-
ciently distinct stria,!andowith several others: onthe disk! mueh
_ jess perceptible, particularly front.) Legs: ferruginousy: |!
186; MryAa. Maarray's Monograph of the genus Catops!
This species at first sight looks very ike»an overgrowm fuseuss)
Panz., but closer: examination shows that:it\is:a good species;
the! proportions of the joints of the antennie aswell as other;par-
ticulars being wholly. differents>: In aospecimen:whichd owe'to:
the kindness! of» M.:Kraatz, Dobserve that) the development: of
the posterior angles of the thorax is considerably exaggerated an
the outline Ihave given, which is copied from Aubé’s'own figurey
Aubé, also states it asylarger tham picipes,> Fab., whiclechad
hitherto been considered the largest: known Catops ; but my «spex
eimen. is scarcely so large as the:smaller individuals of :picipes;
from which I should imfer: that /it ought» perhaps»rather:to‘be
stated.as being about the same sizeas picipes. | Its: entirely fers
ruginous eolouk and the projecting posteriorangles of the thorax
fuittieh a tolerably good primd-facie guide:to the species.» 111100!
ioltas idounsta in Sieily, andyis'as oqpet scarcein Seieegr tenor ig do
; oil iti
te) Lif vie) 10 al O18
Gre picipes, Pa. ne ousth ial
29128 TOSIGTZOG
Hydrophilus picipes, Fab. Syst. Eb is 251, 10.
Ptomaphagus picipes, Illig. Kaf. Pr. 893.
Catops striatus, Duft. Fn. Aust. ii. 74.3. ame
—_— blapsoides, Germ. Ins. Sp: Nov. 84. 142°? °
s+ picipes, Erichs:(Kafiids M. Br,i/236) 59 Sturm, Deutsch Paid. xiv
17. Jo be274. £0. C5-Heer, Bny Helve i378. 53) Redti Hn, Aust. 144;
10; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 428. 9; Pairns: & Laboulb. Fn. Ent.
Franc. i. 300. 4.
MISC , ANOIDICIIN
Ovatus, convexus, niger ; pnteuniepubitifarmibuie, roitpig ngsiod’
pedibusque,,.piceis; apice testaceiss » thoraee si yBi “joi
.transverso, basi-‘sublatiore; | angtilis ’ posticis 1.8 At
obtusis ; elytris apice’ Scie fiatis.
Long. 22 lin, :
This is the isthodle & species ‘of tha peu’, with
the exception.of the last... Oval, convex, black...
Antenne scarcely thickened at the end, reddish
brown at the base, blackish at’ the extremity,
excepting the last joint, which is’ light yellow.
Head very densely and finely punctate, mouth” veddigh the
thorax is likewise very densely and fitiely punctate, with’ a fine
silky pubescence, black, strongly rounded on the’ sides, narrowed
both in front and behind, but most in front, posterior atigles obtuse,
posterior margin yery. slightly sinuated on.each, side, the greatest
breadth behind the middle. . Elytra,oyaly very, convex; black, with
a slight grey hoar-frost. bleem,.upon them, very densely pune-
tate, with striz faint, in front, deeper, behind.,; Under side black,
-abdomen and legs BrEWB> fabive Sera ND brown, tarsi pale
derruginous,..... iq vient
_« The only species wank wluch , st siciiien wisks 6 this spciste
MrA. Maurray’s\ Monograph of the genus Catops: 187
confounded is:C, nigricans, Spence. Its large-size removesit ‘from
all butitand Cxmeridionalis, Aubé, and'\C.chrysomeloides; Spence.
Independentof other distinctions, its colourat' once distinguishes’
ibifrom meridionalis; which is' ferruginous, while this is “black.
It likewise! wants the’ projecting posterior angles of the thorax.
Its ‘subfiliform antennee :distinguish) it: from: C2 ‘chrysomeloides,
which? hasothe: heaviest and thickest clubbed “antennee in the
genus; and there only remains C. nigricans, to which itis much
more ‘alhed. . Both have subfiliform «antenne,: pale at: the base
and apex; and the proportionate length of the joints: of ‘the
anitennee Ismuch the same ; they are both: black, with’ ferru-
ginous> legs ;“and I:have, specimens of nigricans very little infe-
riomin size to picipes, but picipes is a broader and more’ robust-
looking insects ot has the:elytra much more convex and bellied
out, andats) thoraxus differently: shaped, being’ more: contracted
in front; and very commonly nigricans has two or three depres-
sions on the disk of the. thorax, which, picipes has not. The
posterior angles of the thorax in nigricans have a slight tendency
to project behind, which is not the case in pieces.
This species is ‘found over the greater part of Europe, but is
rare. I have not yet seen,a British specimen,..., Kraatz, observes
that. it.is principally found im-fungi, |Fairmaire and Laboulbéne
ay ita As taitentis im the trunks hg trees @ presume decayed).
10. C. nigricans, Spence.
Choleva nigricans, Spence; Linn? Trans. xi!'14173." .
Catops nigricans, Brichs. Kaf:'d) MicBr. i) 237. 6;°Sturm,; Deutsch]. Fn.
xiv. 18. 8. t. 273.4 foe. C4;|Heer; Fay Helv. 1/380::6; Redt? Fn. Aust.
( 144, 11; Kraatz, Stett. Ent, Zeit, xiu,.429.1d ; Tuite, & Laboulb.
Fn, Ent. Fr. i. 303. 16.
Catops var. minor, C. fuliginosus, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. i. 239.10; Sturm,
Deutschl. Fn.)xiv,.28., 13 ;. Redt.' Fn: Aust. 771.
C. caliginosus (Mus..Berol.).
Catops var.-major, C. longipennis, Chaud. Bull. de Mose, 1845, No: 111.196.
Oblongo-ovatus,, niger seu.piceo-brunneus ; an- Vig. 9.
tennis longioribus, oedsolete clavatis, ferru-
(ygineis, apice plerumque fusceseentibus ; tho-
oiface; transyerso,, postice latiore,. angulis pos-
ticis, acuminatis; .elytris, apice substriatis.
ng, LF lin. tins 6 yo
‘Oblong: oval; corivex.’ Black or piceous brown..
‘Aiitenne a little longer than the head and thorax,
very slightly thickened towards ‘the’ extremity, “aii
sometimes “entirely ferruginous, more’ generally’ férrupidons at
the base and becoriiis' fuscescent towards the point. “Head
finely punctate, mouth reddish brown. Thorax very densely, and
finely “punctate; findly’ pubescent, alittle narrower than the els ytra,
S
NI
IES
+2
188 MrA? Murray’s Monograph.of the genus Catops.
sides rounded, the gneatest width. at: the middle; very generally
with two-or three depressions on the disk; j\ posterior angles: with
a point; projecting» a | little: behind, which makes) the posterior
margin) appears to! ibe: visibly: simuate on both» sides. ‘Elytra
blackish: brown, sometimes: paler, e/ongate-oval, somewhat con-
vex, densely and finely punctate ; faintly striate, | the stride per-
ceptible: towards ‘the :extremity, effaced im fronti: Ainger: nee
lacks, legs reddish: brown, thighs blackish. i
Kraate gives the following remarks:on the larger aie araliller
vavicties whieh have been described: under the names of fi ati
Sperivts, Chand., and C. fuliginosus) Evichs.:; via >
iA; Larger, for the! most part female specimens, differ ae
the smaller males in many particulars, so that\ one may:easily be
led: to, suppose: them distinct: species«:) In) the: first )place,| the
antenne of these largerexamples: aresomewhat: more elongate
than’ those’ of the smaller specimens, and when sthey belong to
females are also somewhat) less :stout, which makes :them when
taken: as ‘a whole: look :much:longer:thanothe antennzxof the
smaller individuals. Then the elytra are more: bélliedsont;-so
that. the whole animal assumes a more convex appearance ; at the
same time also the ‘trix of the elytra are more feebly inarked in
this ‘than in the other kind. Such examples are generally found
along with the rest, but‘not frequently, and are not of the ‘typical
form. If there had not been laid before me by himself one of the
original typical examples. from»Germar’s fine collection, it would
not ‘have: been possible for me, fromthe short and imperfect, de-
seription which Chaudoin gives:of\ his;C.-longipennis*, to peaoiiap
init the just-described variety :of (Ccnigricans, Spence.) : iio
») Lhe description by .M, Chatdoir toywhich.M. Kraatz refers is
as follows; .vizt<- «5 »
‘Near the wmbrinusy a little, largen; foatnn more PAS, a ax
broader, more rounded .on the ‘sides: elytra less swollen, out,
flatter, longer : antenne more slender, last) joint. of these smaller
and more pointed,
“ A male, found at Kiew in the garden of the town under ang
leaves, in the beginning of September.” « it O11
As to Krichson’s fuliginosus,,M: Kraatz goes on i:1\
SB. The type of C; nigricans, sp., \is) the. one: Asotibeds as
C.. fuliginosus by Evichson, according to ‘two.specimens left. by
Drs Meuer to the Royal: Museum (of Berlin),.,'Those,specimeris
which \are,in the Royal) Museum, as) C,.nigricais areonot fully
coloured; and, when we have:dnly! afew specimens for compa-
LisOn; such have altogether a different, appearance from) the full-
coloured, specimens. If we:compare more minutely Exichson’s
clear! deseriptions! of both speéciesy we find, besides an; agreement
*Kraataindoes eit. * + Chaudor: in doe, cit.
MrwA. Murray’s Monographof the:genis Catops. 139
on the most important points, only twordifferences. Oneis thet
thevantenne of OC. fuliginosus are darker; which proceeds from the
perfectly full colouring of the: animal.\\: 'The\other again is that
the sinuation: of the hind’ margins: of the thorax(which parti-
cularly characterizes this species) is- im: O. nigricans distinet, in
C.fuliginosus' feeble,—a ‘mark, which in, individual ,cases is. not
always present’ im equal force, and which also ‘appears to the eye
of the observer in different aspects stronger or weaker than: is
really the cases: There are no specimens named C.,fulginosus,
Erichs., inthe Royal Museum, but instead of it:are C. caliginosus,
Erichs., evidently projected» from, the description of C.:fuligi-
nosus.°' We. must suppose that Erichson had originally: given ‘his
specimens: of C. fuliginosus the name of C. caliginosus, and) as
such also)determined thenr to his acquaintances, but subsequently
_ allowed) it: to remain forreasons unknown: to me*,”
» Incdealing with a description emanating from Erichson, it will
probably: be: better ‘that quote his description of C. fuliginosus,
leaving»the reader'to form ‘for himself his opinion of its value as
a species.) | [tis im :these terms :+~
“ Oblongo-ovatus, niger; antennis, obsolete clavatis, rufo-piceis,
),,,apice nigricantibus; thorace basi apiceque latitudine quali,
;..angulis, posticis acuminatis ; elytris obsoletissime striatis,
SAPO Sud MAMtid yd ur sited bis! as9d tom b |
vio Werycloselycallied to:the foregoing: (nigrita, Evichs.). The
antenne have ‘the same form»and .the ‘same’ proportions; ‘but ‘are
differently coloured; ‘they are! brownish: red, the last! four or five
joints including“the\terminal blackish.’ The thorax! is somewhat
shorter! than'm -the' foregomg; a little narrower thaw the elytra,
lightly rounded on the sides ; the posterior angles pointed 5: the
posterior margin°on each side between theedge\and the middle
twice'feebly sinuated.o The elytra are oblong oval, very indi-
‘stinetly striated. “The colour of the body is black ; the head and
thorax have a fine yellow-grey pubescence ; the elytra are more
brownish black, with a:grey hoar-frost rime‘on them. © The legs
are ferruginous brown, the thighs blackish +.”
The impression the description.rather leaves upon my mind is,
that Erichson’s intended fuliginosus may have been the species
subsequently described by Kellner under the name of coracinus.
The yellow pubescence on the thorax for instance, and the ash-
grey rime-on the‘elytra, apply well to it, but not to nigricans: on
thevother! hand; the size,:12clin.,is too much for coracinus.
Again, it-may ‘be ‘that; the small ‘examples:of nigricans) standing
under the namie ‘oftcatiginosus in the Berlin. Museum collection;
were not’ published: by ‘Brichson from: a doubt of (their being
*>Kraatz: mdoen cit. *. + Evrichson: ini lee vicit.
140 MYO MUP’ Monoyraph of the Gents Catops.
distinct, and that’ C. fuliginosus may have been described’ from,
other specimens, although they are not now in the collection, i in
the Berlin Museum.
‘Still, in the face of M. Kraatz’s deliberate opinion, fortified‘as
it ‘is § by the ‘specimens in the collection’ of the Berlin Royal
Museum, ‘and also doubtless by the traditions which must re-
main of ‘Bvichson’s own views in a place which has only 80
recently been deprived of him, I have not ventured to carry. ny
difference of opinion further than to submit the above suggestions
for the consideration of the reader.
I have only to add with reference to. this species (C. nigh:
cans, Sp.), that the readiest distinction between it and such.
others (except C. picipes) as are likely to be mistaken for it, is
furnished by the longish almost subfiliform ferr uginous: anténnee
In my observations on C. picipes I have already noticed | the
primd-facie differences existing betweeh it and this species.”
Widely distributed, being found ‘in. Scotland and England!
France, Germany, and most of Europe, but nowhere eonhimiot.
PA
-
11.) Co coracinus, Kellner. © isiobnola bas
Catops coracinus, Kelln. Stett. Ent. Zeit. vii. 177.3; Redt. i. Aust. TA; :
Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 43}, 12. igile
Ovatus, niger ; antennis obsolete. clavatis, rufo- er
piceis ; thorace transyerso, basi, latiore, angulis pos- Fig. 10.
ticis distincte rectis ; elytris obsoletissime striatis, 3 -<
Long. 1} lin.
This bis a considerable ‘fesemblanoe to C. nigri-
cans, Spence, in the form; of. the elytra and antenne,
but is smaller, and more contititous in its outline:
the hinder arieles of the thorax’ are very’ slightly adualniute- SO
slightly as to be aap observable except by minute exami-
nation : the elytra are indistinctly striated. The antennz are as
long as the head and thorax, slightly thickened towards the
point, in some individuals a little thicker than in others, reddish
brown ; the club usually blackish, but the depth of colour varies.
The head and thoraz’ are black, densely and finely ‘punctate,
with a fine short yellowish pubescence. The thorax is’ almost’as
broad as the elytra, broadest in the middle, straight at the base
the anterior angles rounded, and the posterior angles Hiyhd aiff
at the very angle ; that.is, when looked’ at superticially, the angle
would appear obtuse, but when.examined more, carefully there,
appears a very short. space of right angle before the thorax’ takes)
its curved outline; the seutellum;is proportionally large, and.
clothed, with the same coloured | pubescence. as the thorax.|., The:
elytrajare oval, densely..and. finely, punctate, black,, clothed with.
anjashen;grey ‘pubescence or bloom, indistinctly, stuiated ; no yel-.
Mr, A. Murray’s Monograph of, the genus Catops, Al
mie pubescence along the base of the elytra... The legs are reddish
rown.
‘Tts small size, shorter and more Harpe antenne, more
uniform, and less bellied outline distinguish this species from
preipes, Fab,, Its.shorter and more thickened antenn, the
yellow pubescence on the thorax and seutellum, want of depres-
sions, on the disk of the thorax, and the want of the;produeced
posterior. angles of the thorax distinguish it from the smaller
pane of nigricans, Spence. Its , antenne only slightly
thickened, as well as its smaller size, distinguish it from ehry-
someloides, Spence. From most of those which. haye a decided
yellow pubescence on the thorax.it is distinguished by the want
of yellow pubescence along the base of the elytra. This separates
it. from tristis, Panz., including abdominalis, Rosenh., montivagus,
Heer, longulus,. Kelin., grandicolls, Erichs., and “rotundicollis,
elln., and from neglectus, Kraatz, and nigrita, Erichs.. Its
yellow. pubescence also is finer, shorter and more delicate than
in any. f these., The only remaining species with which it may,
be confounded is morio, Erichs., but the more elongate shape
and slenderer form of, morio andthe, difference in the posterior
angles. of the thorax distinguish it. .Morio has not got the
slight acumination which coracinus has at these angles, and. in
it they are gently obtuse instead of being at first right-angled.
The thorax in morio is also flatter.
It is found in Scotland and England, and i in various parts of
the Continent.
12. C. moro, Fab.
Catops morio, Fab. Syst. El. ii. B64 G97 9
Choleva dissimulator, Spence, Linn. Trans. ‘xi. 150. 1M.
Catops sericeus, Gyll. Ins. Suec. w313. 142. : |
ao morio, Erichs: Kaf, ds. M. Br. 1.240.115 Storm, ee tenhhs Fn. xiv.
29. 14, t, 276. fig. b,B; Heer, Faun. Hely. 382.14; Redt. Faun.
Aust. 144,13; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii.431. 13; Fairm. & Laboulb.
as Fn. Ent. Franc. i, 301. 8.
Qblongo- ovalis, niger; antennis obsolete clayatis,
_articulis duobus primis ultimoque et pedibus
.ferrugineis ;. thorace. basi;apiceque_latitudine
. _Subzequali, angulis posticis obtusis ; elytris ob-
, Soletissime. striatis.
Long., 13 lin,
° The antenne are as long as the’ head and
thorax, imperceptibly but not greatly thickened
towards the pot’; the first ‘two joints are ferru-
gindus yellow, the rest, with’ the exception of the 9 2
last, blackish, the last joint’ yellow’: ‘rarely the hah antentize
are ferruginous, which “Erichson observes is the case withthe’
examples in’ Fabricius’s collection. > The° body vis *blaek ° the’
Fig. 11.
142 =Mro A. Murray’s\ Monograph of the; genus/Catops
head densely and»distinctly, punctate; the: parts»of the: mouth
red.) The thorax is:vather | depressed and is thickly: aid-finely:
punetured, with! a fine yellowish-grey dense pubescence 5 :itlis
half as;broad! again: as) long,: hghtly: rounded on» the sides,
somewhat! narrowed ‘infront, but!) behind only a yvery)|little
narrower: than in the midiles the: posterior angles are nearly
obtuse-angled; the posterior margin is truncate and» straight)
The sdutellum has ‘the: same» pubescence: as the thorax. The
elytra:have an\ashy-grey bloom, no yellow pubescencealong
their base, are densely punctate, nearly without traces! of ‘striae,
a little widened. in the middle, behind obtusely acuminate. The
legs are ferruginous red, the thighs: brown. laid} sofredeoq
The: (same! characters which distinguish \coracinus | fromthe
other species m this group apply also to morio, and yunder ‘that
species I have already given a comparison of the differeniees;beq
tween them... They are however closely, allied. (j+1109 sonoonedng
This appears to he arare species)! So farvas I. know, it hasinot
yet: been) taken in ‘Scotland. Itjis:found'in England; and is
widely spread over the Continent.) It is,meluded by:Geblerbire
his list! of insects) found in South-west Siberia.: »M. ~— says!
it-is fiend Henle leaves andi in the thinks of wito:0 new bis
if AIO PION SAI MO 991199
| 13, C nignitdy Tries, ino) s9Mmetalafios
Cae tristis, Gyll. InsiSuec. ivi Skid diiei) sorooqe ei) Jo xetons ort
morio, Payk. Fn, Suec, 1. '344. 2. ET onrrort soto at
nigrita, Erichs, Kaf. d. M. Br. iy, 239, 9." ss
—— tristis, Sturm *, Deutsch]. Faun, xiv. 24. 11. t,.275. ‘fig. a0! tether
—— nigrita, Heer,’ Fn. Helv)’3881.'12;'Redt! Fry Aust: ai ise ‘Kirdatz!)
Stett. Ent. Zeit ii 432 p Fairm) &jLaboalby Pa! Ent: Frans. i) 304)
Oblongo-ovatus, niger; antennis Obsolete Clavatis !" iath
rufo-piceis, clava nigra, apice ‘testacea ; thorace Fig. 2.
basi apiceque Jatitudine squali, anipiilis posticis’ °
fere rectis leviter acuminatis ; elytris obsoletis-
sime striatis.
Long. 1 lin.
Oblong-oval. . The antenne are as long as the
head and t thorax, imperceptibly thickened towards
the point. The first six jomts are reddish brown,
the remainder brown, the 8th joint not much
smaller than..the. rest, the last joint, oval,,, acuminate, ee etng
The thorax ‘is scarecly a half: broader. than: long, rounded: on’
* Both from his figures and deseriptions it eee to me évident that’
Sturm has transposed the names of nigrita, Erichs and tristis, Panz, ‘This’
has not been noticed by Kraatz or subsequent authors, but & very short’
perusal, will I think convince them of it. ' For instance, of tristis, Panz., he’
sa 8; oe the thorax broad, short,” &c., and. of nigrita Erichs., “ tHe thorny
narrower than the elytra, trausverse, whith is just Feversing the, characters
of the thorax ; and his’ figures speak, for themselves.
Mri A. Murray’s' Monograph of the:genus'Catops. 148
thei sides; ‘broadest; in’ the middle ;; nevertheless only a) little
narrowed in ‘front and behind; \imfront:ratheronarrower than
behind 59:the posterior) angles »sometimesi a‘ little pointed) *,
the) posterior margin: straightly truncate; and only:towards the
middle;very slightly sinuated. It is:covered witha: yellow silken
pubescence. °° 'The elytra, as well as the: whole ‘body, are black;
they shave'\a ‘brownish-blue ‘or purplish peachy bloom; withi:a
yellowish pubescence more conspicuous at: their base and basal
margins than on the disk. They are finely punctured, very im-
perceptibly striated, longish oval, in the middle a little widened,
behind obtusely acummate. The legs are ferruginous red, the
posterior thighs sometimes brownish.
.'Thisas the first of a little group of species, which, with a de-
cided ‘yellow pubescence on the, thorax, has a brownish-blue or
purplish bloom ‘on the elytra, accompanied with yellow hairs or
pubescence conspicuous along the base and: basal margins of the!
élytra;+-a character which will limit our comparison to only two
or three ispecies. ‘The: two -species just described, C. coracinus
and: i! morte, have also: ‘yellow pubescence on the) thorax, but
their elytra have not:a purplish bloom, buta greyish- ash) bloom,
and want the. yellow hairs: along the base.) The yellow pubes-
cence on the thorax of these two also is feeble both in colour and
consistence compared with’ those:'which ‘follow. The form of
the thorax of this species distinguishes itfromiall!)\) -pig13,
the others. Figure 13 shows the ‘relative’ form °
of the thorax of nigrita and ¢ristis, the plain, line
being the outline, of, nigrita, and \the dotted line.,.,..;(
that of éristiss:| These two. speciesiare in other. .:)
respects extremely, alike.,, The; antenne:, however
also furnish characters of, discrimination—the.... an
club of ¢ristis being heavy and.thick, while;the antenne of nigrita
are only obsoletely clubbed... The great breadth of the thorax,of
grandicollis, Erichs., easily distinguishes it ; and the, form of the
thorax of rotundicollis, Kelln., which is an exaggerated form. of
that of ¢ristzs as above delineated (fig. 13), will prevent nigrita
being confounded with that species, The elytra in both nigrita
and tristis are elongate and give a long character to the whole
insect, while rotwndicollis has the elytra short and rapidly acu-
minate. og gala setae
* Erichson in his description states that the posterior angles are pointed,
but Kraatz'says that he cannot agree with him in that respect +‘ accord-
ing to, my view,” he says, “they are right-angled, in not a few, examples
passing into obtuse-angled.” I. have. examined a considerable, series
carefully with a view to determine this point, and find that both are.
right. _I-possess specimens whieh have the posterior angles pointed, and
others where there is no, appearance of a point, but the line of the, base of
the thorax. perfectly, straight, This is another, proof, of the variable ¢ha-
racter of the genus. It also shows us how inadequate are Spence’s sec-_
tional divisions which are founded on this very character. |
144 Mr.A, Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
This species is widely spread, and is found under leaves, and
under the carcases of birds and small mammals.
14. C. tristis, Pauz.
Helops tristis, Panz. Fn. Germ. 8. 1.
Choleva Leachii *, Spence, Linn. Trans. xi.
Catops tristis, var, ™ vil Ins. Suec. iv. 312. 1.
tristis, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. 1. 238, 8.
nigrita, Sturm, Deutschl. Faun. xiv. 24. 11. t. 275. f. ¢. C.
tristis, Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 380.8; Redt. Fn. Aust. 144.12; Kraatz,
Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 433.18; Fam. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. Fr. i. 302.
Oblongo-ovatus, niger ; antennis abrupte clavatis, —
} c Ne BEY ig. 14.
clava fusca, articulo ultimo breviori; thorace
transverso: basi apiceque latitudine subzequali,
angulis posticis rectis; elytris obsoletissime )
striatis.
Long. 13 lin.
_ Of the same size and general form as the last
species (nigrita, Erichs.); the thorax, however,
is not so broad, particularly behind. Perhaps
the commonest impression it makes on a first
introduction is that of an insect with longish elytra and a’ dis-
proportionately short, narrow, somewhat square thorax. The
antennz are nearly as long as the head and thorax, strongly
thickened towards the point ; the first six joints slender, reddish
brown, those following brown, broader than long, the eighth
not only much shorter but also narrower than the remainder of
the club, the last a little larger than the preceding, with a cone-
shaped point, generally pale : at the tipt. The head and thorax
are black, densely punctate, more or less wrinkled transversely,
and thickly covered with a close yellow pubescence ; the hairs
springing from the wrinkled punctuation as shown in the
magnified sketch represented in fig. 15. Fie. 15
The thorax one-half broader than long, sat
rounded on the sides, broadest in the ta
middle, or perhaps rather a little before oi, ;
the middle, giving the primd-facie effect
of being narrowest behind ; but on com-
paring the narrowness both in front and
behind it is found nearly equal, or rather
narrower before than behind. ‘The posterior angles are sharply
right-angled, the straight edge proceeding a little forward before
* As already mentioned, I have been unable to make out satisfactorily
what the ¢tristis of Spence is, and therefore have not added that as a syn-
onym here.
+ Erichson says that the last joint is brown like the preceding, but this
is only the case sometimes; generally speaking it is paler.
Mr.‘A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 145
“the outward curve commences: the posterior margin is almost
straight, only a little sinuate ‘towards’ the ‘middle. The ‘elytra
are covered with a brownish-blue or purplish bloom, and with
some yellow pubescence most observable at the base and along the
basal margins*. Under the bloom .the) elytra,.themselves.:are
brownish, lightest at the base;»they:ate-densely punctate; with
feeble traces of strize, in the middle somewhat expanded, behind
oval-acuminate. . Under side and thighs dark brown, tibize fer-
ruginous brown, tarsi ferruginous yellow,
»:Erichson adds that in the males the extreme termination of
each elytron is produced into a single Fig. 16.
point: «In the females the point is com-
monly rounded. My experience is that \
it varies indifferently. Cu, Necks]
This is a variable species, and under it,
I think, should be comprehended not only the C. abdominalis of
Rosenhauer, the longulus of Kellner, and the montivagus of Heer,
but also the grandicollis-of Erichson, and probably the rotundt-
collis of Kellners::'These T'shall include as varieties under this
species, giving however a separate description of each, and where
I have not seen the variety in nature, quoting the words of the
author who:deseribed it. © —
Var. A. .C, abdominalis, Rosenh. Beitr. Ins. Fn. Eur, i. p. 22,
‘¢ Oblongo-ovatus, niger; antennarum basi, abdominisque seg-
‘i*mentis 2 primis ferrugineis; prothorace basi apiceque latitu-
dine eequali, angulis posticis rectis ; elytris obsoletissime stri-
oatis; antennis abrupte clavatis.
Long. 13 lin., lat.1 lin.
“Very similar’ to the C. nigricans, but smaller and not so
Convex; particularly like the C. montivagus, Heer, Fn: Helv. i.
381. I should consider it perhaps to belong to the latter, were
it not that the posterior part of the abdomen of two examples
which I possess from different districts of the Tyrol is uniformly
ofa different-colour from that of the rest, a character which is
not known to me.in any other Catops, and which Heer must cer-
tainly have Observed in describing his species had it existed im
it. In the ‘new species also the colour of the base of the an-
tenn and ‘of the feet is much darker and the thorax is broader.
_* It is perhaps scarcely necessary to say, that in speaking of the bloom
and the pubescence on these species, I am speaking of perfectly fresh speci-
mens in good condition. When the insect gets greasy and dirty the bloom no
longer exists, and the yellow hairs get clogged together so that they look
black. The best way in such cases is to turn them about in different direc-
tions, till the eye catches the light in which the pubescence or bloom best
shows itself. |
Ann. & Mag. N: Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvin. eLO
146 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
The head is not large ; black, finely and densely punctate, with a
yellowish-grey pubescence. The mouth is brownish. The an-
tennze are somewhat longer than the head and thorax, the first
six joints brownish red, slender, the remainder black, broader
than long, and thickened into a club towards the outer side ;
the eighth joint much shorter and more slender than the rest,
the last somewhat more slender. and about a half longer than
the preceding, with an obtuse point. The thorax is densely
wrinkled-punctate, and thickly clothed with close-lying yellowish
hairs, transverse, about a half broader than long, rounded on
the sides, broadest in the middle, narrower in front than behind,
the anterior angles obtuse, the posterior straight, the posterior
margin scarcely sinuated. The elytra are a little broader
than the thorax, somewhat bellied out in the middle, oblong
oval, usually attenuated to a point at the apex, densely and
finely punctate and transversely wrinkled, covered with a grey
pubescence and bluish hoar-frost, the sutural strize very distinct,
and in the middle of the elytra we perceive the trace of several
strie. Under side black, the thighs dark brown, the tibiz fer-
ruginous brown, the tarsi ferruginous yellow ; the first two seg-
ments of the abdomen are of a lively ferrugimous red, the
remainder black, finely and densely punctate, delicately pubes-
cent.
“Found in the Tyrol near Steinach and on the Franzenhéhe,
4000-8000 feet above the level of the sea*.” | |
The reader will see that the above is a pretty accurate descrip-
tion of C. tristis, with the exception of the colour of the first two
segments of the abdomen. Colour is at all times a character of
very doubtful value in Coleoptera, and the constant symptom
of immaturity or of not fully developed colour is the substitution
for black of a ferruginous brown or red of greater or less inten-
sity, or over a greater or less extent.
I have not seen specimens of this variety in nature, but
M. Kraatz, who had authentic specimens through his hands,
states that it is a mere variety of ¢ristis. :
Var. B. C. longulus, Kellner.
Catops longulus, Kellner, Stett. Ent. Zeit. vii. 176; Redt. Fn. Aust. 771;
Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xii. 433. 17.
Oblongus, niger ; antennis obsolete clavatis, basi apiceque testa-
ceis ; thorace basi apiceque latitudine squali, angulis posticis
rectis ; elytris obsoletissime striatis.
Long. 2} lin.
According to M. Kellner’s description this species is distin-
* Rosenhauer im loc. cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 147
guished by its long and slender form, and thereby easily sepa-
rated from the remaining varieties or species in this division.
The antenne are of the length of the head and thorax, mode-
rately strong, black in the middle, the basal joints reddish, the
terminal joint yellowish, the club a little thickened ; the head and
thorax are densely punctate, clothed with yellowish-grey hairs ;
the latter is gently rounded on the sides, narrowed in front and
_ behind; the posterior margin is cut straight, and only slightly
sinuated on each side of the scutellum. The elytra are long and
uniform in their shape, densely and finely punctate, indistinctly
striated, lightly covered with yellowish-grey hairs and hoar-
frosted. The legs are black-brown, the feet brownish red.
M. Kellner states that he found this kind on high hills near
the mountains (of Thurimgia) “ under moss and on exposed dead
birds : very rare.”
The only discrepancy which the above description shows be-
tween this variety and ¢ris¢is is that the club is but little thick-
ened, and that the elytra are long and uniform in their shape.
The degree of thickness of the club of the antennz varies in all
the thick-clubbed species (of course within certain bounds) ; and
the circumstance of its. being found under dead birds sufficiently
shows that this is one of the thick-clubbed species. Moreover,
owing to the kindness of M. Kraatz, I have seen authentic ex-
amples of it, and am thus enabled to say that the antenne are
not of less thickness than they are in many other specimens of
C. tristis. The length of the elytra, which is in point of fact the
characteristic mark of this variety, is of no value as a character,
scarcely any two examples of ¢ristis having the elytra of the same
proportions. In some they are more bellied out than in others,
which makes them look not so long, and others are longer in
point of fact, but they all have the same character which cannot
well be mistaken, and this supposed species is only a variety
with disproportionately elongate elytra.
I have found this variety in Scotland and England.
Var. C. C. montivagus, Heer, Faun. Col. Helv. 1. 381.
“Oblongo-ovatus, niger; antennis basi, tibiis tarsisque rufo-
testaceis, pronoto subtransverso, basi apiceque latitudine sub-
sequali, angulis posticis rectis, acutis; elytris obsoletissime
striatis ; antennis abrupte clavatis, articulo ultimo penultimo
vix longiore.
“ Long. 13 lin.
“Very similar to C. tristis ; chiefly to be distinguished by its
thorax being a little longer, but narrower. The first five joints
of the antennz are rufo-testaceous, the eighth the smallest, much
10*
148 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
shorter and narrower than those that follow, the last shortly ovate;
scarcely longer than the preceding ; the thorax much narrower
than the elytra, a little broader than long, with the sides lightly
rounded, behind subsinuate, very densely punctulated, clothed
with a dense yellow silky pubescence ; elytra oblong ovate, very
elosely punctate, but evidently impressed with a sutural stria ;
thighs pitchy black. Dens
“Very rare in the Alps. (At the Gemmi near the Dau-
bensee*.’’) !
The above description can I think be referred to nothing but
tristis ; the greater relative length of the thorax, which M. Heer
specifies as the chief distinction, being doubtless either the result
of variation in the length of the elytra, or one of the variations to
which this species is subject. The next variety, which J refer to
the same species, shows a much greater variation in the relative
dimensions and proportions of the thorax. |
Neither M. Kraatz nor myself have seen authentic examples of
the above species, but M. Rosenhauer speaks of it (supra) as if he
was familiar with it, and says that but for the colour of the last
segments of the abdomen in his abdominalis, he would have
referred that species to montivagus. M. Kraatz having ascer-
tained aliunde that abdominalis was an immature specimen of.
tristis, differing only in the colour of these segments, it follows
that montivagus is what the description would lead us to suppose,
viz. a variety or synonym. of ¢ristis.
Var. D. C. grandicollis, Erichs.
C. grandicollis, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. i. 237 ; Heer, Fn. Col. Helv. i. 380 ;
Redt. Fn. Aust. 144; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 432.15; Fairm.
& Laboulb. Fn. Ent. France. i. 300. .
Ovatus, nigro-fuscus ; antennis obsolete clavatis Fie. 17
; Tae ‘ Sete . B td
pedibusque rufis, illis apice nigricantibus ;
thorace transverso, coleopteris latiore, angulis
posticis obtusis ; elytris obsoletissime striatis,
Long. 12 lin.
Somewhat of the form of the C. nigrita, but
larger, and especially broader. Black-brown.
The antennz are not quite so long as the head
and thorax, gradually slightly thickened, to-
wards the point reddish brown, the last joint blackish. The
head and thorax are densely punctured and granulated exactly
as in C. tristis, clothed with close-lying yellow hairs. The latter
is considerably broader than the elytra, more ‘than one-half
* Heer in loc. cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 149
broader than long, strongly rounded on the sides, the anterior
angles rounded, the posterior angles obtuse-angled, the posterior
margin cut straight, of the breadth of the elytra. These are
oblong oval, somewhat convex, densely and finely punctate,
indistinctly striated, brownish hlue or purplish hoar-frosted,
with a yellowish pubescence along the base and basal margins.
The legs are brownish red.
This variety stands in a very different position from those
which have gone before. They are so near the type, that they
might without much harm have been described as synonyms.
The present, on the contrary, differs in some respects widely
from the type, and it is by no means surprising that it has
hitherto been considered one of the best characterized and
most distinct species.
The great breadth of the thorax is the prominent distinguishing
character ; its shape also is somewhat different, being nearer that
of C.nigrita, Erichs. The grounds on which I have deemed it a
variety of tristis, are first, that all the specimens of grandicollis I
have taken have been in company with ¢ris¢is, and they were gene-
rally without the admixture of another species except rotundicollis,
which, as I have already said, I suspect to be another variety of
tristis. The examples of grandicollis were almost invariably males*,
and those of tristis for the most part females. In my earliest cap-
tures it so happened that I found nothing but males of grandicollis
and females of tristis, and naturally came to the conclusion that
they were the two sexes of the same thing. Subsequent researches
have convinced me to the contrary, as I have now a good many
male specimens of ¢ristis, and one female of grandicollis. Still
the great preponderance is as I have stated, and the result to
which I have come is, that grandicollis is the normal form of the
male, and ¢ristis of the female ; although, as is known sometimes
to take place in other orders of animals, the female occasionally
assumes the form of the male, or vice versd. Another ground for
assuming them to be.the same species is their great general re-
semblance to each other, notwithstanding that the one has got
such a broad thorax, while in the other it is narrow. This simi-
larity is owing perhaps to the thorax in both being transverse,
and the rest of the body of the same figure. The pubescence,
colouring, wrinkling and punctuation are identical, and when two
fine fresh specimens with their pubescence and bloom untar-
nished are placed together, I think it is almost impossible to
avoid the conclusion that they belong to the same species. The
differences that exist other than the broad thorax are very trifling.
The antennze of grandicollis are perhaps a trifle thinner and not
'™* Erichson founded his description on a “ single male specimen.”
150 Mr. A, Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
so dark in the middle as in the generality of ¢ristis, and the ter-
minal joint is usually not paler than the rest of the club. But
these are all variable items in ¢éristis itself. I have specimens
with their antenne in every respect to the most minute parti-
cular the same in both kinds. The only other discrepancy is,
that the slight sinuation-on the hind margin of the thorax of
tristis seems wanting in grandicollis. In a word, the only per-
manent difference is in the form of the thorax, which, in the face
of the circumstances I have adverted to, does not in this instance
appear to me a sufficient ground for constituting it a different
species.
Another curious confirmation of this view is, that similar
variations in the form of the thorax take place in C. chrysome-
loides. In fact, I possess specimens of the latter having exactly
the form of tristis; the sole difference being that they are larger ;
the thorax is more coarsely granulated, its pubescence darker ;
the elytra more rounded and not so acuminate at the apex, their
bloom also is ash-grey instead of purplish, their base is black
instead of brownish, and the yellow hairs at the base are wanting.
The antenne are thicker and darker and the last joint is longer.
These particulars serve to show that it is not ¢ristis; and in
addition these varieties are found mixed with large numbers of
the normal form of chrysomeloides. For instance, among about
200 specimens of chrysomeloides which my friend Mr. Bates re-
cently sent me, all taken together at one time, [ found three or
four with the form of ¢ristis ; also a specimen or two having in
like manner exactly the form of grandicollis, but with the elytra
not as in the variety of ¢ristzs bearing that name, but as in chry-
someloides ; the antenne are thicker and darker, but there is no
other difference in the relative proportions, except in the last
joint, which is not long, as it isin chrysomeloides. Further, there
were a few specimens in the same lot having the shorter form
and more acuminate elytra of rotundicollis ; and lastly, there were
examples having the form of the thorax of nigrita. The result
to which I have come therefore is, that similar variations in form
exist both in C. tristis and C. chrysomeloides ; that as we have a
variety of the former with a broad thorax (C. tristis var. grandi-
collis), we have also a variety of the latter of like form (C. chry-
someloides var. grandicollis). In like manner of each we have
C. tristis var. rotundicollis and C. chrysomeloides var. rotundi-
collis, and C. tristis var. nigrita and C. chrysomeloides var. nigrita.
We have a var. of chrysomeloides like tristis (C. chrysomeloides var.
tristis), but I have not found any like resemblance to C. chryso-.
meloides in tristis. : 9g:
In all these varieties, however, there are certain general cha-
racters which appear to be constant, and enable us to refer each
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 151
variety to its proper species. These are the colour of the elytra -
and of its bloom, and the colour of the pubescence at the base
of the elytra. There are also other characters, which, although
they vary in individual species on the one side or other, are on
the whole pretty constant. The antenne of chrysomeloides are
almost invariably considerably thicker than in ¢ristis, and the
last joint longer. The pubescence of the thorax (except in the
same variety) is browner than in ¢ristis, and, except in the var.
rotundicollis of tristis, is more coarsely granulated. The form of
the apex of the elytra, except im the same variety, is also rounder
in chrysomeloides than in tristis.
Var. E. C. rotundicollis, Kellner.
C. rotundicollis, Kellner, Stett. Ent. Zeit. viii. 176.2; Redt. Fn. Aust. 771;
Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 434.19; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent.
Fr. 1. 302,
Ovatus, nigro-fuscus ; antennis obsolete clavatis ;
pedibus rufo-piceis; thorace transverso subru-
guloso, lateribus fortiter rotundatis, angulis pos-
ticis rectis ; elytris apice obsoletissime striatis.
Long. 13 lin.
Fig. 18.
The antenne are scarcely so long as the head
and thorax, thickened towards the point, reddish
brown, lighter at the base. The head and thorax
are densely punctate, or rather granulated and
densely covered with yellowish grizzly hairs ; the
latter is strongly rounded on the sides, most so towards the
front, narrowed behind, the anterior angles rounded, the pos-
terior angles almost pointed and right-angled, the posterior
margin cut straight, and slightly sinuated on both sides near
the scutellum. ‘The elytra are oval, a little convex, densely and
finely punctate, indistinctly striated, with a bluish or purplish
bloom or hoar-frost on them, and also with yellowish hairs par-
ticularly at the base, and are narrowed to a point at the apex.
The legs are brownish red, the feet lighter.
This variety or species is found along with ¢ristis and grandi-
collis, but it is not without hesitation that I remove it from the
list of distinct species. The characters, however, which distin-
guish it being all variations in degree, and at times approaching
more or less to the type of ¢ristis, I have come to look upon it as
a variety of that species. It is well known that carcase-feeding
beetles are always more subject to variation than others, owing
to the chance of the food of the larve becoming exhausted before
they are full fed. This species may be a starved variety. The
particulars however by which it is most readily distinguished
152 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
are its smaller size, the strongly rounded edges of the thorax
inflexed towards the base, and perhaps more than any other, the
more strongly marked punctuation or rather granulation on the
thorax; but none of these distinctions appear to me sufficient
to justify its being kept as a distinct species. As to its size,
although it is only about half the size of grandicollis, I have un- _
doubted specimens of ¢ristis quite as small as it; and even of
grandicollis I have seen a specimen received by M. Kraatz from
Thuringia not. much larger. The general cut of the thorax is
that of ¢ristis, but broader in front. The elytra terminating
sharply is a character also shared by ¢ristis. The bluish or purplish
bloom on the elytra is perhaps not quite so marked a feature as
in ¢ristis, but it is still well developed, and the yellow pubescence
on the thorax and along the base of the elytra is the same. The
distinction most appreciable is the punctuation or rather granu-
lations on the thorax. To the naked eye, or under a weak lens,
the thorax looks as if it were more coarsely punctate and of a
coarser texture than in ¢ristis. Under a higher magnifying power
it assumes the aspect shown in fig. 19, Fig. 19.
and a comparison of that with fig. 15
and fig. 20, exhibiting the marks on the
thorax of ¢ristis and neglectus (next spe-
cies), will showthat it occupies a medium
place between them. This punctuation
in rotundicollis however is not always
ve i Wadi i ‘A
WATS BY
equally coarse, showing gradations to the feebler granulations of
tristis.
It is not a rare variety, and is found under dead birds, &e.
both in England and Scotland and all over the Continent.
15. C. neglectus, Kraatz.
Catops neglectus, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 434, 20.
Ovatus, nigro-fuscus; antennis obsolete clavatis pedibusque rufo-
piceis ; thorace ‘transverso, postice angustiore, variolariter
punctato ; elytris apice substriatis.
Long. 13 lin.
Shape entirely that of ¢tristis. Antenne obsoletely clavate,
reddish brown. The head is black, deeply, densely and distinctly
punctate. The thorax is in the middle almost of the breadth
of the elytra, nearly half as broad as long, somewhat convex,
the sides moderately strongly rounded (exactly as in ¢ristis),
more narrowed behind than in front, so that the greatest
breadth is before the middle. The posterior angles are right-
angled, the posterior margin feebly sinuated on each side in
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 158
front of the scutellum. It is covered with a dense yellow pubes-
cence as in ?¢ristis, but is not granulated like it, but covered
with shallow punctures, so that under a strong lens’ it looks
exactly as if pitted with the small-pox, and out of each shallow
flat pit issues a yellow hair (sometimes two, springing from the
same centre); these pits are arranged in a sort of irregular
transverse order (see fig. 20), which gives r
the thorax to the naked eye the ap- a
pearance of being strongly transversely ,
wrinkled. The elytra are densely and
finely punctate, with indistinct, very eva- - ‘
nescent traces (when highly magnified) 7 wit
of similar depressions being scattered | (@Y\VY, ee we
over them, and with indistinct traces of
strie at the apex; they are clothed with a purplish brownish
bloom similar to that of ¢tristis, and with yellowish hairs princi-
pally seen at the base. The legs are brownish red, feet lighter.
Till this species was made known by M. Kraatz, it had been
always overlooked. Ona hasty glance it looks exactly like ¢ristis ;
a little better inspection, particularly of the apparent granu-
lations on the thorax, leads one to suppose it is rotundicollis, but
a careful examination brings out the much deeper and differ-
ently formed punctuation of the thorax. This is the only cha-
racter to be relied on to separate it from ¢ristis ; for although the
antennz are not so abruptly or heavily clavate as in that species,
and are entirely of a reddish brown instead of having a blackish
club, still in neither particular are they so different as to be beyond
similar variations to be found in the true ¢ristis. I therefore
felt great difficulty in making up my mind whether they were
distinct species or not. Thanks to the liberality of M. Kraatz,
who supplied me with specimens of his neglectus, I was enabled
to examine them all very carefully, which I did under high
powers of the compound microscope, and although there is in
one sense undoubtedly a transition between tristis and neglectus
through rotundicollis, inasmuch as while the sculpture of the
thorax in ¢ristis is slightly wrinkled, that of rotundicollis is gra-
nulated, and that of neglectus variolose, still there did appear a
greater difference between neglectus and rotundicollis than be-
tween the latter and ¢ristis. It is not easy to embody the dif-
ference in words, but I am enabled by the kind assistance of
Dr. Greville, whose qualifications as a microscopic observer and
microscopic draughtsman are unsurpassed, to submit the differ-
ences to the reader, in the woodcuts, figs. 15, 19 and 20, drawn
, by him, which show the sculpture of the thorax of the three
kinds as seen under a magnifying power of 280 diameters. These
I think prove the close relationship of rotundicollis, fig. 19, with
DS
154 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
tristis and grandicollis (both of which are exactly the same), fig. 15:
the punctures from which the hairs issue are only a little larger
and deeper in the former than in the latter, which also shows
the first faint traces of the circular depressions between these
punctures in the former. In neglectus however, although there
are deep circular depressions, these are on a totally different
arrangement from those in the other species. Here they sur-
round the puncture from which the hairs spring, while in rotun-
dicollis they are placed between the hairs. In neglectus the con-
cave curve of the depression is turned towards the hair, in rotun-
dicollis it is the convex curve which is turned to it.
Although the character is narrow, I incline to think that
this is a good species, more especially as M. Kraatz mentions
that nothing approaching to a transition between it and rotun-
dicollis has been found.
This interesting species was taken by M. Kraata in Hessia,
but I have not wi observed it in any collection made in this
country.
16. C. quadraticollis, Aubé.
Catops quadraticollis, Aubé, Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de Fr. 1850, viii. tei
35. t.11. f.3; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. Fr. i. 302.
Oblongo-ovalis, convexiusculus, niger; anten- Fig. 21.
narum articulis primis et ultimo, tibiisque
. ferrugineis ; thorace quadrato, vix postice an-
gustiore, angulis posticis rectis.
Long. 12 lin.
Oblong-oval, convex. Brownish black, co-
vered with a sparing yellowish-grey pubescence ;
mouth and base of the antenne obscure ferru-
ginous. Antenne gradually clavate, a little
longer than the head and thorax. Thorax almost as broad
as long ; sides feebly arched, almost straight, except in front,
where they are pretty strongly rounded ; posterior angles right-
angled, a little sharply pointed; very finely and densely pune-
tate. Elytra with a more marked punctuation, very dense ;
sutural stria deep, disappearing on the anterior third. With a
strong lens some traces of striz are perceptible. Thighs brown-
ish black, tibize and tarsi obscure ferruginous.
This species is almost of the size of ¢ristis, which it comes very
near in form and colour. It is however a little more elongated
and generally deeper in colour, and the antenne are less clavate ;
but the principal difference is in the form of the thorax, which
is nearly as long as broad and rectilinear on the sides, in fact
nearly square ; the posterior angles also are straighter. Dr. Aubé
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 155
says that the lateral margins are a little more rounded in the
males than in the females, but always less so than in ¢ristis,
I have seen one female example of this. species, in the collee-
tion of M. Chevrolat. At first I was disposed to consider it as
a variety-of ¢ristis, but on closer examination I became satisfied
that it is a distinct species ; at least, that we must hold it so
until a closer study of its affinities and alliances shall teach us
otherwise. . .
17. C. chrysomeloides, Panz.
Helops chrysomeloides, Panz. Fn. Ger. 57. 1.
Choleva chrysomeloides, Latr. Gen. Crust. et Ins. 29. 4; Spence, Linn.
Trans. xi. 146.7.
Catops chrysomeloides, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br.1. 697.74; Sturm, Deutschl.
Fn. xiv. 22. 10. t., 275. f. 6. B; Heer, Fn. Helv. 380.9; Redt. Fn.
Aust. 144. 10; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xii. 432. 16; Fairm. &
Laboulb. Fn. Ent, Fr. i. 302. ‘
Ovatus, nigro-piceus; antennis abrupte clavatis, — Fig. 22.
clava nigra nitidula, articulo ultimo oblongo ;
thorace transverso, basi latiore, angulis posticis
rectis; elytris obsoletissime striatis.
Long. 2 lin.
Ovate, convex ; deep brown or biack, with a
pretty dense pubescence. Antenne shorter than nf
head and thorax, strongly and abruptly clavate,
the base (first six joimts or so) red, the club black or deep
brown, the fourth, fifth and sixth joints not longer than thick,
also not thicker than those preceding, those following consider-
ably thicker, the seventh, ninth and tenth somewhat thicker than
“long, brown; the eleventh oblong oval; the eighth narrower
than the other joints of the club, very short. Thorax one-half
broader than long, rounded on the sides, narrowed a little more
in front than behind; at the posterior margin a little narrower
than the base of the elytra; the posterior angles right-angled,
pointed; the posterior margin lightly sinuated on each side,
covered with a coarse yellowish grizzly pubescence. Elytra like
the thorax, very finely and densely punctate, very indistinctly
striated, with an ashy grey bloom; no yellow pubescence. Legs
ferruginous red, often brown on the thighs.
This very distinct species is distinguished at once by the large
black club of its antennz. When seen along with other species,
its gloomy black opake appearance, combined with a larger club
of the antenne than any other species, at once point it out. The
only other large black species in this group are picwes and
nigricans, and neither of these has heavy thick-clubbed antenne.
From the other thick-clubbed species (none of which however
156 Mr. W. Webster on a new British species of Skenea.
have antennze equal to it in thickness), it may be quickly distin-
guished by its gloomy black colour, and by the dull ash-gre
bloom on the elytra. The pubescence on the thorax is all
grizzly yellow, a good deal coarser than the strong rich russet
yellow of ¢ristis and the other thick-clubbed species ; and the
bloom on the elytra wants the purplish tinge observable in
these species ; and there are no yellow hairs along the base or
margins of the elytra, which are not lighter in colour themselves
than the thorax. Immature specimens wholly ferruginous brown
are occasionally met with. The thickness of the club of the
antenn is also not always equally great, but always greater
than in any other species.
As I have already mentioned in speaking of the varieties of
tristis, similar varieties occur of this species, viz. :—
Var. grandicollis, with larger broad thorax.
Var. tristis, with narrow short thorax and broad elytra,
Var. rotundicollis, of the shape of rotundicollis, but larger.
Var. nigrita, of the shape of nigrita.
For the differences between these varieties and the similarly
named varieties of tristzs, see the remarks on page 150.
As I have already mentioned, this species used very generally
to be made to represent both ¢ristzs and chrysomeloides by British
~ and even foreign entomologists.
Tt is found under small dead birds and mammals. Mr. Bates
of Leicester has taken hundreds (and supplied me largely) by a
simple trap which is very useful for taking some of our rarest
Clavicornes. He puts three or four rabbits’ feet into a soda-water
bottle, buries it in a favourable locality, so that the mouth of the
bottle is level with the ground, and in a week or ten days the
interior of the bottle is swarming with insects, among which
great rarities occasionally occur.
[To be continued. |
XVI.—On a new British species of Skenea.
By W. Wesster, Esq.
[ With a Plate. |
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
GENTLEMEN,
Turoveu the kindness of C. Spence Bate, Esq., I am enabled to
send you a drawing (PI. VIII. figs. 12, 13) of an extremely
minute Skenea which I found in sand, taken amongst Corallina
officinalis from rock-pools at Gwyllyn Vase near Falmouth.
It is involute, like Skenea nitidissima, and equally umbilicated
Dr. J. E. Gray on a new species of Dolphin: 157
both above and below; but the whorls, which are three, instead
of two and a half, do not increase quite so rapidly in size. Its
distinctive feature consists in having three spiral ribs or-carinz
of a shining fulvous tint, which contrast strongly with the
whitish ground colour of the shell ; one is situated on either side
extending from the apex to the orifice, and the third, which is
not so distinctly elevated, on the centre of the body. _
The entire volutions appear under a good lens strongly
wrinkled longitudinally, more especially on the mner sides, and
under a still higher power finely striated spirally. The mouth,
which is well rounded and does not turn to either side, embraces
a considerable portion of the body-whorl. The operculum I
have not been able to examine: its diameter hardly equals the
twentieth of an inch.
As yet I have only obtained four specimens, but have still
some small portion of the sand in which they were found, remain-
ing unexamined. :
ff the shell as described above is already known, I should feel
greatly obliged if any of your scientific correspondents would
favour me with the name.
- Tam borne out in my opinion that it is new to the British
fauna by Dr. Battersby of Torquay, who has kindly examined the
shell ; should it prove equally new to science, Skenea tricarinata
would be a very appropriate designation.
It may be interesting to some of your readers to know, that I
met with several fine specimens of the rare Crenella costulata in
rock-pools in Mount’s Bay, and also with Modiola phaseolina in
_ some abundance in the same locality.
Yours faithfully,
Upton Hall, near Birkenhead, W. WEssTER.
June 21, 1856. |
EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII.
Fig. 12. The shell highly magnified. Fig. 13. Natural size.
XVII.—Description of a New Species of Dolphin (Steno) from
the upper parts of the River Amazon*, By J. E. Gray, Ph.D.,
F.R.S. &ec.
Mr. H. W. Bares has sent to the British Museum the skulls of
two Dolphins which he has procured from the upper parts of the
Amazon.
The first is named Bouto by the natives, and found near
Ega. It is evidently the Delphinus Geoffroyii of Desmarest,
[* A brief abstract of a notice of two species of Dolphins occurring in the
Amazon, by M. Paul Gervais, appeared in the Annals, vol. xvii. p. 521.—
Ep. Ann. Nat. Hist.)
158 Dr. J. E. Gray on a new species of Dolphin.
described from a specimen procured by the French from the
Lisbon Museum during their occupation of that town, and
which the Portuguese most probably received from the Brazils.
M. F. Cuvier, in his ‘ Cetacea,’ p. 112, described this species
under the name of Delphinus frontatus.
M. D’Orbigny discovered the same, or at any rate a nearly
allied species, in the River Moxos in Upper Peru or Bolivia,
and described and figured it under the name of Inia Boliviensis,
Voy. Amér. Mérid. t. 22.
The measurements of the Brazilian skull are as follows, in
imches and parts of inches :-—
inches.
Length Of skull... es. seoces coacccsacsenceesgensenssena 214
OE TCM cs casa cascassehack tat tateraa eras Aebeeie nee 13
of teeth-line of upper Jaw ......cseseseeees 124
Of lower JAW — ....ccscscecessene 11
OF LOWEE FRWid eos iyy- vee decyersdnedes teaser encng 174
— of symphysis of lower jaw ....+-seeseceseere +
Width of skull js score seve gdh andindhs mapas peemnstgoieres 10
in front of orbits at notch ......+++..seeeees 6
Of beakk at notch sos. ciiiid.ccddacdcdesocnle os 3
28 28
Tee th 3 x
It is only the hinder eight or nine teeth which have a distinct
internal heel; the succeeding ones gradually assume the usual
conical form, ‘but all the teeth are more or less rugulose.
Mr. H. W. Bates observes : “The animal from which the skull
was taken is very large, and wholly of a pinkish flesh-colour. I
have seen them rear themselves entirely above the surface of the
water when the sexes are sporting in shoaly bays. It goes in ~
pairs, rolling together..... There are black dolphins of the
larger species, but I do not know if a variety or a separate
species. They also roll in pairs, and are abundant towards the
Delta of the Amazon. I cannot say whether the flesh-coloured
species is found in the Delta; one fact only I can mention—I
have never seen a black and a pink dolphin together in pairs.
They are always both either black or pink. neil Feb. 17,
1856.
The second species is named Tucuai by the natives. Mr. H.
W. Bates has sent the skull of each sex. They are similar, but
the skull of the female is considerably smaller than that of the
male. These skulls evidently belong to a species of the genus
Steno, which has not before come under my observation. It.
may be described in the Catalogues as
Steno Tucuat. The Tucuxi.
Nose of the skull depressed at the base, convex and attenuated
at the tip, rather (;,th) longer than the length of the head,
Bibliographical Notices. 159
nearly three times as long as the width at the notch; frontal
triangle elongate, continued considerably in front of the notch-
line. Teeth 2, slender, conical. The lower jaw rather slender
and slightly bent up at the tips; symphysis rather keeled
beneath in front. |
Inhabits the upper parts of the Amazon River near Santarem.
The measurements are as follows, in inches and parts of
inches :—
Male. Female
Length of skull......cscceecersrevcess Seni RH
Or OB co caaakanhectne ade ch coe 1 5 Qeecesees cya 64
of tooth-line........+...es008. pape ore 3
—— of lower jaw ......seeeereseses TOP esses: 94
of symphysis ....+....eseee. » SLES SPR 1¥
Width: of shah s..26, 0h iis Gk ik Gh. ceaes cai 54
of beak at notch ..6......... Oe ecdiisneves 24
- of forehead over notch ...... [Raa Pe ie 44
Mr. H. W. Bates, in his letter of the same date, observes :—
“The Tucuzi, pronounced Tucoshee, is of a darkish black or
fuscous colour. It does not roll over like the Bouto, but comes
slowly to the surface to breathe.”
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
Manual of Geology, Practical and Theoretical. By Joun PuItuies,
M.A., F.R.S. &c. Griffin and Co., London and Glasgow, 1855.
Tue foundation of this work was laid twenty-five years ago,-—in the
‘Encyclopedia Metropolitana, —and, without changing its general
character, it has been enlarged and improved by the materials col-
lected by the author and numerous fellow-labourers in the same field
during the interval. Among the most important geological researches
of late years has been the examination of the older rocks of Wales
and the Border Counties, and the newer and not less interesting de-
posits of the tertiary series of Eastern England and the adjoining
Continent. The author has devoted considerable space to these sub-
jects ; and, by a careful condensation of the evidence brought forward
by the multitude of observers conscientiously enumerated in his pre-
face, has given us a lucid and valuable résumé of paleozoic and
cainozoic facts, which, together with the revised chapters on mesozoic
history, form a really useful Manual of physical and topographical
geology. Unlike many elementary works, this is far from being a_
compilation ; for the author, without neglecting the observations
of others, has observed for himself, and brmgs us his own enlarged
and practical experience,—the fruit of years of scientific labour, both
under official engagements and as separate undertakings. The man
who has worked for himself in the field can best recognize the edu-
cational wants of others, and thus offer them the necessary elementary
knowledge by which the inquirmg mind may be led in the right di-
rection to comprehend the philosophy of the closet and the facts of
160 Bibliographical Notices.
the:field.; , The mode of: inculcation of such facts: varies; too much
with books and teachers. The mere exercise of memory in learning a
table of classification is a poor substitute for the knowledge obtained
by. the student from a good practical teacher,
After a succinct notice of the history of the science, in which: the
origin of inductive: geology forms an interesting and. instructive: sec-
tion, the author:enters upon elementary views of the structure and
composition of the crust of the earth and of the preservation and dis-
tribution of organic remains.
To this succeeds a:series of chapters descriptive of the primary,
hypozoic, paleeozoie, mesozoic, and cainozoic strata, in the ascending
order. In this respect we regard this plan of arrangement as pre-
ferable, inasmuch as it provides the student with: the true »suc-
cessional ordination of the various geognostical pheenomena. \ ‘Thus
he is better enabled to trace the origin of the successive-and deri-
vative strata,—the varying hydrographical areas more or less:defined
by these deposits,—and the gradual advance, in’ different: directiotis
and under varying circumstances, of vegetable and-animal organisms;
—and hence he is presented with a comprehensive view of the arses
phases of the earth’s physical history. iw
Following the chapters on descriptive geology is:a i i sheuetad
to modern causes in action,—a section which we are inclined tothink
should take its place at the commencement of the:work ; for'the
ordinary mind, when acquainted with existing physical agencies, not
only better appreciates the present operations of nature, but possesses
an index and a key to the multitude and apparent mystery: of ancient
physical phenomena.
Inorganic phenomena, more especially those connected with the |
effects of heat, are fully treated of in the next following divisions of
the work ;—one chapter being devoted specially to the nycany de of
Mineral veins.
In..a subsequent chapter, on the state of geological theory, we
would particularly recommend to notice the section on geological
chronology, in which the probable rate of accumulation of deposits
is inferred from the study of the mechanical and chemical origin of
strata,—the alternations of beds of different lithological characters,
and of different natures, such as marine, freshwater, and igneous,—the
succession of races of imbedded organic beings, — and lastly, the repe-
titions of convulsions, and the metamorphism of rock-masses. In
the same chapter we find two useful tables illustrative of the distinet
groups of animal life which have followed one another in a settled
order of geological time. The one, adapted from M. A. d’Orbigny,
affords a rough estimate of the proportional number of species of all
animals in the several geological groups; the second, repeated from —
the author’s work on Yorkshire; ‘has reference to the distribution in
time of the more prominent vertebrate types specially characteristic
of the great geological periods.
The appendix of tables and calculations contains also some prac-
tical observations on the instruments used by the working geologist,
namely, barometers, clinometers, &e., with directions for the benefit
Bibliographical Notices, 161
of those persons who are anxious to furnish satisfactory data for the
elucidation of questions connected with the general and special struc-
ture of rocks, such as dip, strike, divisional planes, faults, dykes, veins,
cleavage, &c. One page only, and that in the Appendix, is devoted
to the constituent ingredients of rocks,—a subject too little attended
to, and for which might have been found a fitter‘and ampler space in
the body of the work. A careful and useful glossary is added.
Without entering into any detail respecting the geological descrip-
tions in this work, as regards the mineral character, distribution, and
fossils of local deposits, we can but advert to a novel and extremely
useful feature presented by Prof. Phillips’s Manual. We allude to
the lists of genera of organic remains occurring in each group or
terrain of the geological formations. These lists are so arranged and
printed that the genera peculiar to certain strata are at once recog-
nizable, and the numerical proportion of genera and species are seen
_ ata glance. In our notice of Morris’s ‘Catalogue of British Organic
Remains’ in Annals, vol. xv. p. 54, we recommended that such tabu-
lated lists of genera and species should be made under the super-
intendence of the author of that work. Prof. Phillips, however, has
with considerable labour eliminated the materials required for such
categorical arrangement, in conformity with the geological classi-
fication adopted in that work, and has thus, with excellent judgement,
enabled the student to comprehend at one view the numerical pro-
portions, in family, generic, and specific groupings, of animal and
vegetable life during the several geological periods ; and those inter-
ested specially in the lower palzeozoic rocks will find at p. 122 a
table exhibiting the generic relations of the then existing great divi-
sions of animal life during the Cambrian and the Lower and Upper
Silurian periods.
One excellent feature of Mr. Phillips’s book consists of the many
well-executed illustrations of landscape-scenery illustrative of topogra-
phical geology. We wish that we could equally approve of the euts
mtended to portray the characteristic fossils. Generally speaking,
the imperfection of the specimens selected and the want of accuracy
in the drawing render the majority of the figures almost useless for
comparison. |
This work, having features of its own both in palzeontological and
geological aspects, and being well stored with modern information,
and characterized by the experience and philosophic opinions of the
author, takes a high rank among elementary works on geology. As
a text-book, embodying the real methods of geological investigation,
this edition necessarily offers more complete evidence of the unity of
the laws of nature, and of the correctness of the principles of geology
enunciated in the previous edition,—principles which amidst all the
activity of research are still unaltered, the methods of research and
the lines of reasoning remaining the same.
Much remains to be done ; the geologist has still great questions
before him waiting for solution ; his labours will be well directed and
much lightened by such manuals of the science as those provided by
Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, and Phillips.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 1]
162 Bibliographical Notices.
Tenby : a Sed-side Holiday. ‘By Puizie Henry Gosse, A.L.S.
London, Van Voorst, 1856. 12mo. |
Amongst the numerous caterers to the appetite for popular books
on Natural History, which is. rapidly, whether for good or ill, be-
coming, a more and, more fashionable craving, Mr. Gosse has,un-
doubtedly taken a very leading position. This is due not, only,.to
the numerous works of this nature which owe their existence to, his
prolific pen, for in this respect he is certainly not without rivals, but
to the intimate practical acquaintance which he possesses with those
marine creatures with which he principally has to do, and to.a second
and still rarer quality, springing perhaps to a certain extent from the
former, that of treatimg whatever comes under his hand. in a,style, at
once pleasant and elegant, intermixing so much of, human interest
with his descriptions of what in less,skilful. hands. would furnish
intolerably dry reading, at least to the masses, that, the,dry bones
become clothed with flesh and endowed. with an, astonishing, amonnt
of life and vigour. As regards the positive. effect. of these works,
and the policy of consigning original zoological observations, to pages
which may almost be regarded as addressed exclusively, to, the, un-
learned in such matters, there may be two opinions; but,there can be
no doubt, that those multitudes who at this particular period of ‘the
year are always meditating gravely upon the necessity. of passing the
next two or three months in some dreary watering-place, have good
cause to be thankful to Mr. Gosse for his delightful, productions,
and to wish most heartily that there were. more guides and instruc.
tors “like unto him.” 2 NIE
“Tenby,” Mr. Gosse’s new sea-side book, does not fall short. of its
predecessors in general interest, although the amount of new, matter
for the student contained in it is perhaps rather less. It opens with
an amusing account of the railway journey into, Wales, andthe, first
acquaintance with the semi-foreign natives of the Principality ;:the
energetic struggles of the Tenby coachmen to secure customers,are :
not forgotten, and the whole journey is described in a style whichjin
these days of unromantic travel is quite refreshing...The first; im-
pressions of Tenby and the neighbouring scenery are also graphically
described, — Saint Catherine’s and its caverns stand out vividly in many
pages, and the singularly rapid influx of the tide over the sands serves
to introduce a humorous picture of the perplexity of three ladies,
whom Mr. Gosse ungallantly describes as ‘‘ middle-aged’ and
somewhat heavy in person,” who in their anxiety to view the
beauties of the place were somewhat unpleasantly reminded of the
fact that the old proverb, “Time and Tide wait for no man,” ap-
plies with equal truth to the fairer portion of humanity, This and
many other passages of a similar nature, including several excellent
descriptions of scenery and pieces of local history, must be regarded
by the scientific naturalist, however he may enjoy them, as coming
parenthetically in the midst of his severer studies ;—we shall there=
fore refer no farther to the lighter portion of Mr. Gosse’s book.
We have already said that the number of new facts brought for-
ward in the \present volume seems to be less than in Mr. Gosse’s |
Bibliographical Notices. 163
“Devonshire Coast.’ On thesother hand, several of the chapters
(or Letters as our author calls them) contain excellent descriptions
of things, which although previously well known to zoologists, will
undoubtedly be exceedingly interesting to the general reader, im the
elegant costume in which they are here’ presented to him. Amongst
these'we may notice the development of the Decapod Crustacea and
Barnacles, of Clavellina and the Hchinida. One chapter is devoted
to the description of the Pedicellarie, which’ Mr. Gosse, with the
principal authorities of the present day, regards as component parts
of ‘the Echinoderms on whose surface they are found; our author
gives’a very full description of the structure of these curious bodies,
and besides the ‘three kinds or species described by Miiller, notices
a’ fourth form, to which he gives the name of Pedicellaria steno-
phylla. ‘The Actinie and their beauties naturally take up a good
deal'of Mr. Gosse’s attention,—they are frequently referred to in
various parts of the work, and three new species are described in his.
last letter; whilst'in'an Appendix he gives some extracts from his
paper on Peachia hastata in the Linnzean Transactions, in which he
establishes the genera Sagartia and Bunodes at the expense of the
old genus Aetinia; and gives his views as to the nature and affinities
of the family of the Sea Anemones.
Mr. Gosse is; however, by no means constant in his attachment to
the sea; and two of his letters are devoted exclusively to the fresh-
water Rotifera ;—im one ‘he describes the mode of capturing these
little creatures, and in the second the way in which they are to be
observed under the microscope, and the structure of several striking
species.
Pwo! circumstances’ must prevent our giving any extracts from
this*charming little book,—one of these is the difficulty of selection
where so’ much is excellent, and the other the want of space. In
taking leave of it, however, we cannot but feel that it will do much to
open up new sources of delight to thousands who may visit not only
Tenby but other watering-places, by awakening in their minds some
little interest in the many apparently insignificant, but truly inter-
esting creatures, which they would otherwise pass contemptuously in
their objectless saunterings: by the sea. We may add that the work
is illustrated with twenty-four coloured lithographic plates, executed
by the author, most of which are exceedingly good.
Manual of British Botany, containing the Flowering Plants and
_ Ferns arranged according to the Natural Orders. By Cuares
~CarpaLe Basrneton, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. Fourth Edi-
‘tion, with many additions and corrections. London : Van Voorst,
_ 1856, pp. 446. ) :
»oAm examination of Mr. Babington’s fourth edition suggests little
that we have not already said, still less that we might not have ‘said,
respecting its predecessor... The countless silent rectifications of.
diagnosis, which give Mr. Babington’s writings their chief value, will
hardly be appreciated except by assiduous use; but the marks of
cae 11*
164 Bibliographical Notices.
unwearied observation of ‘living nature and familiarity’ with’ the
published and unpublished researches of ‘contemporary botanists up
to the latest moment are: obvious to any reader, |The only new
feature of this edition is an attempt to introduce all bond fide English
names, excluding those uncouth Anglo-Latin titles which sound’like
fond reminiscences ‘of pre-Litmeean nomenclature. Mr. Babingtow
has advanced a little—we ‘wish it had been more—towards distin
guishing undovbted and little doubted natives from ‘suspected ‘in-
truders of all kinds. Some’ species formerly at liberty are now
bracketed ; others bracketed with numbers are now bracketed with+
out numbers ; others are absolutely rejected. The notation, however,
is in this respect somewhat ambiguous’ and ‘inconsistent. A few
probably new species, about which the author has not’ yet: quite made
up his mind, are neither excluded nor admitted to full citizenship,
but wisely introduced on a doubtful footing: Utricularia neglecta and
Potamogeton gracilis may be taken as examples. The disagreeable
but necessary work of correcting the synonyms goes) on: as) before;
the result in some cases being the restoration of old. names’; thus
Myosotis suaveolens is now once more alpestris.\ Little’ can’ be
objected against these proceedings except their piecemeal ‘nature,
A fearless and thorough revision. of the names of, our plants on de-
finite principles, whether those of the British Association or others,
is much wanted... Mr. Babington did good.service.in. this. depart-
ment in the early part of his career: it is to be-wished that he would
return to it with increased knowledge on a more methodical plan than
he has lately followed. »'This desultoriness is perhaps not. confined
to nomenclature. Mr. Babington’s observations, extensive and minute
as they are, appear to have been too much confined to such plants ‘as
have accidentally fallen in his way. For instance, he long ago: deé-
scribed, on rather slender evidence, a Potamogeton allied. to P. pec-
tinatus as probably the P. zosteraceus of Fries. .. In, his third. edition,
having become. better acquainted with the plant, he named.it anew
as P. flabellatus, at the same time distinguishing» P. pectinatus itt
italics as having “leaves formed of two interrupted tubes,’ This
language might surely be too easily taken to mean that the leaves of
P. pectinatus differ essentially in structure from the upper leaves
of P. flabellatus. Mr. Babington is of course too good a botanist
not to have known, that in plants so closely allied’ the difference (if
such there be) could only be one of proportion, as the leaves of.
neighbouring species: are ewe formed of “interrupted tubes,’
and the peculiarity of P, pee¢inatus can lie only in the predominance
of two over the rest. -But though the ambiguity of 1851 may be
excused by the want of adequate knowledge of the corresponding
structure in P. flabellatus, it was surely incumbent on the author of a
Flora to have studied his own species a little further before 1856, and:
not to leave the description as deceptive as ever, especially as Hooker
and Arnott had meanwhile challenged the distinctness of the species
on definite grounds. Many of the important changes of detail’ now
introduced’ into the ‘Manual’ are already known to our readers
through the monographs which’ the author has lately published
Bibliographical. Notices. 165
in’ this Journal...A great. part. of them,,will,,we.are confident,
maintain their ground with, it may.be,.a few; modifications.;. Others
unavoidably excite our scepticism; but,.,.until arguments are .ad-
duced. on the other. side, founded on, something like. equally. cau-
tious’ and intelligent study, Mr. Babington, has, a,fair right to claim
a strong provisional, authority. If any one starts, as, assuredly he
ought to do, at being told that, dretium majus and minus. constitute
five species, we.can only.counsel patience and renewed obseryation,
A large. proportion of the novelties occur in the genus Hieracium,
where the pains bestowed, by. Mr. Backhouse on the, cultivation. of
doubtful forms supply an excellent, check on. hasty conclusions, in
either direction... We should. not omit to notice the arrangement of
the Grasses, which has been greatly improved; chiefly from. Fries and
Andersson.
alida fais Species introduced or separated in the Ath edition.
Ranunculus’ trichophyllus,; Chaiv. Hieracium senescens, Backh.
R: Drouetiiy F. Schultz 2 . 5-H. Jasiophyllum, Koch.
Ri Baudotii,, Godr. H. Gibson, Backh,
R.. floribundus, Bab. .; H. argenteum, Fr.
R. peltatus, Fr. H. nitidum, Backh.
Poly gala austriaca, Cr. H. ageregatum, Backh.
fSagina densa, Jord.] H. stelligerum, Froel.
Hypericum anglicum, Bert. Thymus Serpyllum, L.
Rubus pampinosus, Lees. +Salix acutifolia, Willd.
Epilobium rosmarinifolium, Orchis inearnata, L.
oHaenke.: ce aE a Epipogium aphyllum, Sw..
¥; anagallidifolium,, Lam. ; Arum italieum, Mill.
alium montanum, V2ll, {Potamogeton sparganiifolius,
G.commutatum, Jord, Laest.? |
G. elongatum, Prest. : {Eleocharis Watsoni, Bad. ]
Arctium tomentosum, Pers. Festuca Myurus, L.
A} intermedium, Lange. » Equisetum Moorii, Newm.
ASpubens, Bab. 00 oo Pseudathyrium alpestre, Newm.
Hieracium holosericeum,: Backh. ?P. flexile, Newm.
H, eximium, Backh. ? Asplenium acutum, Bory.
Hi. ecalenduliflorum, Backh. ’ {Gymnogramma leptophylla, Desv.}
Hi. gracilentum, Backh. ? [Botrychium rutaceum, Sw.] ©
H. globosum, Backh, ? [Ophioglossum lusitanicum, DL.)
Hh) 89091 Species omitted in the Ath edition.
Thalictrum majus. Hieracium anglicum.
Rubus calvatus. H. oreades. ]
. fuseus.” | . dovrense.
R. Wahlbergii. Salix Helix.
Hieracium atratum. S. Forbyana.
Trees and their Nature, or the Bud and its Attributes. By Auex.
“~"°"Harvey, A.M., M.D» &e. London; 1856:
‘ This is an amusing little volume, displaying a great deal of acute-
ness, and the results of very careful reading within a limited. sphere,
The object of the work is the discussion of the vexed question of
166 ( Zoological, Society :-— H «lV
individuality in plants, and the advocacy of the claim of the dud to
the dignity of the.‘ yegetable individual.’ , So far as inquiries of this
sort tend to direct attention to the physiological laws ruling the
growth and multiplication of plants, they are beneficial; but as re-
gards the main question it appears to us only a metaphysical puzzle,
calculated to afford much amusement to those whose taste lies that
way, but having no practical bearing. The meaning of the word
‘individual’ must always depend on foregone conclusions. It seems
to us that the author is not clear in distinguishing potentiality from
actuality. When a botanist speaks of the annual layers of wood of
the stems of Dicotyledons as ‘ roots,’ the term can only be admitted
in. a figurative sense... A bud may be capadle of producing a distinct
tree, but if it be not detached, it becomes an individual. branch, not
an individual tree. Our author does not appear to be aware, either,
that. roots as well as stems originate in definitely organized ‘ buds,’
formed in the cambium region. The work is agreeably written, and
its perusal may serve as a pleasant intellectual exercise, but it, must
not be accepted by any means as a full exposition of the question...»
ab els
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. a be
July 10, 1855.—John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chait."
On THE. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAMMALIA),
AND Birps or THE HIMALAYA. ,
By B. H. Hopeson, Ese-*
‘“The Himalayan mountains extend from the great bend of the
Indus to the great bend of the Brahmapttra, or from Gilgit to
Brahma Kind, between which their length is 1800 miles.’ Their
mean breadth is about 90 miles; the maximum about 110, and the
minimum 70 miles.” ‘The mean breadth of 90 miles’ maybe’ most
conveniently divided into three equal portions, each of which’ will
therefore have 30 miles of extent. These transverse climatic divi-—
sions must, be, of course, more or less arbitrary, and a microscopic
vision would be disposed to increase them considerably beyond three,
with reference to geological, to botanical, or to zoological pheenomena.
But, upon comparing Captain Herbert’s distribution of geological
phenomena with my own of zoological, and Dr. Hooker’s of botanical,
I am satisfied that three are enough. ‘These regions I have deno-
minated the lower, the middle, and the upper. ‘They extend from
the external margin of the Tarai to the ghat line of the snows. ‘The
lower region may be conveniently divided into—I. The sandstone
range, with its contained Dhins or Maris; II. The Bhaver’ or
Saul forest; III. The Tarai. The. other two regions require no
* Extracted from a memoir by the same author, entitled, “On the Physical
Geography of the Himalaya,” and printed in the Journal As. Soc. Bengal for 1849,
by Frederic Moore. he
Mr. Hodgson on the Mammalia and Birds of the Himalaya. 167
subdivisions. The following appear to be those demarecations by
height which most fitly indicate the three regions :—
Name. Eleyational limits,
Lower region ...... Leyel of the plains, to, 4000, feet, above. the sea.
Central region...... 4000 to 10,000 feet above the sea.
Upper region. ..,.. 10,000 to 16,000* feet, above the, sea: highest
peak measured is 28,176,
“To begin with Man, the upper region is the exclusive habit of
the Bhétias, who extend along the whole line of the ghats, and
who, with the name, have retained the lingual and physical charac-
teristics of their tramontane brethren. To the central region are
confined—but each in their own province from east to west—the
Mishmis, the Bors and Abors, the Akds; the Daphlas, the Lhépas,
the Lepchas, the Limbis, the Kirantis, the Murmis, the Néwars,
the Stinwars, the Chépdngs, the Gtirtings, the Magars, the Khas or
Khasias, the Kéhlis, the Garhwalis, the Kakkas, the Bambas, the
Gakars, the Khatirs, the Awans, and the Janjihs. To the lower
region are as exclusively limited the Kéceh, the Bdédé, the Dhimal,
the Kichak, the Tharu, the Dénwar, the Sallah, and the Béksar.
Of these ‘races, those of the central region are all of transnivean
origin, like the first named; but they are much altered in speech
and aspect by twelve to fifteen centuries of residence in a cisnivean
climate, and by mixture in some few cases (as Khas or Khasia) with
southern blood ; whilst the races of the lower region are of the
aboriginal Indian’ or ‘Tamulian stock, and nearly unmixed, though
some of them have adopted the speech and customs of the Hindust.
The hill Bréhmans, Rajpits and Moslems, so common to the west-
ward, so rare to the eastward, are more modern immigrants from the
plains, It.is very deserving of special notice, that the people of the
upper region cannot endure the climate of the central one, nor those
of the central region the climate of the lower one; so that the distri-
bution even of the human race in the Himalaya affords a remarkable
verification of our triple transverse division from a quarter the least
likely to afford any such argument. But to proceed to our zoological
enumerations. ‘To the upper region exclusively belong, among the
Ruminants, the Bisons (Poéphagus) and Musks, the Wild Goats
sean Hemitragus) and Wild Sheep (Pseudois, Ovis); among the
nts, the Marmots and Pikas (Lagomys) ; among Plantigrades,
the Bears proper (Ursus). _ In the middle region, true Bovines (Bos)
take the place of the Bisons of the upper region; Caprine Antelopes
(Nemorhedus, Kemas) replace its Musks and Wild Goats and Sheep ;
common Rats, and Mice, and Hares, and Porcupines, and Hedge-
hogs, its Marmots and Pikas; and Sun_ Bears (Helarctos) its true
Bears; whilst the Deer family, unknown, to the upper region, is here
* This is about the average height of the ghats and of the perpetual snow. It
is also nearly the limit of possible investigation, and of the existence of organic
phenomena.
t For these tribes see Journ. As. Soc. Beng. for December 1847, and April and
June 1848, and May 1849.,
168 sland Zoological Society :-— weboH AM
represented) only, * ;by: the anomalous Stilt-horns (Stylocerus).:
the lower region, the, Ox family is represented by Bibosand Be:
balus (splendid wild: types); the Deer family, here abundant, by
Rusas, Stags, Axises, and Stilidloras to boot; the Antelopes) by
Tetracerus, or the four-horned' kind; the Rodents, by the Bambi
Rats. (2hizomys) and | Spiny Hares ‘( Caprolagus) ; and the: Bear
family by ‘the Honey Bears (Melursus) ; add to alt which, that to
this region are, exclusively confined all the large Pachyderms, such’
as the Elephant and Rhinoceros; and the Monkeys also (Semno-
pithecus et Macacus), though not so exclusively in their case.) ‘The
Carnivora, again, are represented in the upper region by Ounces, by
Foxes of a large sort (V. montanus), by the Weasels proper, and by
the Ailurt or Cat Lories; im the middle: region, by the Wild Dogs
(Cuon), the Marten Weasels, Leopards, 'Thick-tailed Leopards’
(Ff. Macrosceloides, Hodgs.), Wild Cats (F. Murmensis, Pardo-+
chrous Ogilbit}, Libyan. Lynxes (Libycus), Zibets, » Screw-tails)
(Paradowurus), and Prionodons ; and in the lower region by Tigers,
Leopards, Hyzenas, Wolves, Jackals}, insectivorous Foxes (Kokrt),:.
Bear-badgers (Ursitaxus), Urvas, Mangooses, Helictes or Oriental
Gluttons, small Civets (Viverrula), hirsute Screw-tails; and sharp-
faced Cats (Celidogaster). Zibets recur in this region but rarely,
and one small species of Mangoose is found in special spots of ‘the
central region. The Otters in) the upper region are represented ‘by
the small golden and brown species (L. aurobrunnea); m:thecentraly
by L. monticola and indigitata ; in the lower, by the large Chinese
species. I. Sinensis. .Among the Squirrels, the, great. thick-tailed:
and. purple species (S. maerurotdes et purpureus): belong) solely to!
the lower region ; the small Lokries (8. Lokria et: Lokroides) to: the:
central, and the Siberian, to the upper; whilst Flying: Squirrels, a
numerous group, are confined to the central region, so fat as appears?
In the Bat group, the Frugivorous. species, or Pteropines, ‘all are)
limited to the lower region, whilst the Horse-shoes Ss ripeasapiane st
specially affect. the central region.
“From the. class of Birds we may select as charactefistic of, the.
three. regions the following :—
“<The True Pheasants (Phasianus), the Tetraogalli, the Slavgionlen
Pheasants (Ithaginis), the Horned and the Crested Pheasants (Ceri-
ornis, Lophophorus) of the upper region, are replaced by Fowl Phea-
sants (Gallophasis)} in the mid-region, and by Fowls proper (Gallus)
* T am fully aware that Rusas (Samber) are found in the western hills, but a
careful consideration of the facts in that part of the Himalaya, with due advert-
ence to the known habits of the group, satisfies. me that these Deer have been
driven into the western hills by the clearance of the Tarai and, Bhayer. _.
t Jackals have made their way (like crows) to the most populous spots of the
central region, but they are not proper to the region, nor Indian Foxes, though
some of the latter turned out by me in 1827 in the great valley of Nepal, have
multiplied and settled their'race there. Ex his disce alia.
} The influence of longitude on geographic distribution might be singularly
illustrated, did space permit, from numerous Himalayan groups, Galline and
others: thus, for example, a black-breasted Ceriornis is never seen east of the
Kati, nor’a red-breasted one west of it. So of the black and white crested Gal-
lophases; whilst a black-backed one is never seen west of the Aran, nor a’white
back east of it.
Mr. Hodgson on the Mammalia and Birds of the Himalaya. 169
in! the'lower.. In. like manner; among the: Partridges ( Perdicine),
thé’ Grouse Partridges (Tetraoperdix) belong exclusively to the upper
region; the Chukérs (Caccabis) and the Tree Partridges (Arboricola)
to the: central; and the Francolines' (/'rancolinus) to the lower,
though the black species of this last form are:also found in the mid-
region. In the Pigeon group, the Blanched Pigeons \(C. leuconota)
belong ‘solely to the upper region; the Vinous Pigeons (C. Hodgsoni)
tothe central, and the Green, the Golden, and the Banded (Teron,
Chalcophaps, Macropygia), asentirely to’ the lower; the Trerons
alone partially entering the central tract from the lower.
«The splendid Edolian Shrikes ( Chibia, Chaptia, Edolius) belong
exclusively to the lower region. They are replaced in the central
tract’ by plain Dicrurines, and in the upper by plainer Lanians.: The
Cotton Birds (Campephaga) of the south are replaced by gaudy
Ampelines:(Cochoa) and Leiothricinians (Leiothriz, Pteruthius,
Cutia) im the middle region: but both groups seem excluded from
the morth. «. Among the Fly-catchers the gaudy or remarkable
_ species'\and forms belong wholly or chiefly to the lower region, as
Tchitrea, Rhipidura, Cryptolopha, Myiagra, Hemichelidon, Chelid-
orynx whilst those which approach the Warblers (Niltava, Siphia,
_ Digenea) belong to the mid-region; and the plainer and more Euro-
pean types are alone found in the northern.
. * Among’ the Fissirostres, Goat-suckers and Swallows are pretty
generally distributed; but: Rollers, Bee-eaters, Eurylaimi, Trogons,
andiall such: gaudy types, belong to the south, with only occasional
alpine. representatives,’ as Bucia is of Merops.. The Tenuirostral
birds belony distinctively to the lowerregion. ‘Yet they have repre-
sentatives: or summer visitants in all three; even among the Sun-
birds: Upon. the whole, however, it may be safely said that the
Sun-birds’ (Nectarinia) ‘belong to the south; the Honey-suckers
(Meliphagide) to the centre and south; and the Creepers, Nut-
hatches and “Wrens*, to the north and centre. The Sylvians or
Warblers are too ubiquitarian, or too migratory for our present pur-
pose, even Boreal types bemg common in the lower in the cold
weather. Horn-bills, Barbets, Parroquets (Paleornis, Psittacula)
belong to the lower region, though they have a few representatives
in the central; none in the upper. Woodpeckers abound im’ the
lower and central regions, but are rare in the upper. True:Cuckoos
(Cuculus) are as common and numerous in the central region as Walk-
ing Cuckoos (Pheenicophaus, Centropus), &c. are in the southern,
where also the Golden (Chrysococcy«) and. Dicrurine Cuckoos (Pseud-
ornis) have their sole abode, whilst what few of the group belong to the
upper region, are’all allied ‘to the European type. ‘The Ravens, Pies,
Choughs, Nut-¢rackers and Conostomes of the upper region are re-
placed in the central region by Tree Pies (Cissa, Dendrocitta), Jays,
Rucket-birds (Psilorhinus), Pie Thrushes (Garrulax), Timalias, and
..*.1 have in this paper followed, without, entirely approving, Mr, G. R. Gray’s
classification of my collections in the printed Catalogue of the, British Museum.
The geographie distribution is now attempted for the first: time. But J will recur
to the subject in aseparate paper devoted to it, Sgiyle
170 Zoological Society :—
Hoopoe Thrushes (Pomatorhinus) ; and in the lower region, by the
common Indian Crows(C. eu/minatus et splendens), Grackles*, Stares,
Vagabond: Pies and Dirt-birds’ (Malacocercus). Thrushes proper
with Rock Thrushes, Ousels, Myophones, Zootheres, Tesias and
Hypsipetes are as abundant in the central and upper region as
Bulbuls, Orioles, Pittas, are in the central and lower.
**In the Finch family, the Haw-finches, Bull-finches, Gold-finches,
and Cross-bills (Lowia) are as strictly confined to the upper regions
as are the corvine Conostomes, Nut-crackers, Choughs and Ravens.
The former are replaced in the central region by the Buntings,
Wood-finches (Montifringilia), and Siskins; and in the lower
region by the Weavers and Minias. The Raptorial birds are, in
general, too cosmopolitan to subserve the purposes of geographic
distribution. Still it may be remarked that the True Eagles belong,
quoad breeding at least, to the upper region ; the Crested Eagles
(Cireaétus), the Neopuses and Hawk Eagles (Spizaétus) to the
central; and the Pernes (Haliaétus et Pandion) and Haliasturs to
the lower. Among the Vultures the distinction is more marked :
for the Eagle Vultures (Gypaétus) belong exclusively to the upper
region; the large European Vultures (fulvus et cinereus) to the
eentral; and the Neophrons and the small Indian Vultures (Ben-
galensis et tenuirostris) to the lower. The Himalaya abounds in
Faleonide, all the occidental types and species being found there,
and many more peculiar and oriental ones; and it deserves special
remark, that whereas the former (Imperialis, Chrysaétos, Lanarius,
Peregrinus, Palumbarius, Nisus, &c.) affect the upper and central
regions, the oriental types (Hypotriorchis, Haliastur, Hierax,
Hyptiopus, Elanus, Poliornis) are quite confined to the lower
region. a vege
zs Those perfect cosmopolitans the Waders and Swimmers, migrate
regularly in April and October, between the plains of India and Tibet,
and, in general, may be said to be wanting in the mountains, though
most abundant in the Tarai. The great Herons (nobilis et cinereus),
the great Storks (nigra et purpurea) and great Cranes (the Cyrus
and Damoiselle) of the Tarai are never seen in the mountains, where
the Egrets aléne represent the first group. But the soft-billed
smaller Waders (Scolopacide) are sufficiently common in the moun-
tains, in which the Woodcock abounds, breeding in the upper region
and frequenting the central, and rarely the lower region, from
October till April. Geese, Ducks and Teals swarm in the Tarai,
where every occidental type (so to speak, for they are ubiquitous)
may be seen from October till April; and many oriental non-migra-
tory types; whereas in the mountams the Mergansers (orientalis)
and the Cormorants (sinensis et pygmaeus) only are found, and that
very scantily, with a few Rails and Gallinules and Sandpipers from
the vast host of the Waders.”
* When Darjeeling was established there was not a Crow or Pastor to be seen.
Now there are a few Crows, but no Pastors. Enormously abundant as both are in
the lower region, this sufficiently proves that they are not native to the central
tract, though common in the great valley. of Nepal. - ‘
Indian impressions regarding the Habits.of certain Animals. 171
ON NATIVE IMPRESSIONS REGARDING THE Natura Hisrory! |
OF CERTAIN [INDIAN] ANIMALS,
By H. Torrens, Ese., B.A., ViP. As, Soc. BencaL*,
_.The. singular. impressions current among, natives, even of the
highest rank, as to the habits and nature of certain animals, are not
undeserving of record, It is rarely that the credence of the) nar-
rators.in these things can be elicited, if even they go so far as to
mention the existence of the belief; for they dread the ridicule as
much as they anticipate the incredulity of a European: consequently
these strange stories are but imperfectly known, even to the best
informed. among us in such legends. I mention one or two, with the
circumstances of my acquaintance with them. |
While out tiger-shooting with a party of Musulman gentlemen, I
was asked, in, a confidential way, whether I had ever seen the
Phnew,: I spell the word with the almost undescribable nasal aspi-
rate with which it was invariably pronounced to me, With an air
of graye and. serious interest, which is the best way of inspiring
confidence, I replied, that the nature of the thing or being was
unknown to me, and I requested information on the subject. On
this there was a little hesitation, when, after a time, it was explained,
that as I had seen more of Tigers than my companions, they fancied
I might haye also seen or heard something of the animal that always
preceded the Tiger, called Phnew, from the ceaseless iteration of a
sound similar to its name. I required further enlightenment as to
this creature, when I found it was a ‘something that preceded the
Tiger by six, cubits, wherever he went, making the noise ‘phnew’
without. end, looking for things, for it.’ The old tales of ‘the
Iion and his provider” recurred to me at once, and I bethought me
of the hospitality. of some cat-like sound of Felis Tigris having led,
during his nightly search for prey, to the creation of the story. I
have done all I could, but in vain, to discover whether there were
real. grounds for the belief, based on such a habit of the animal. I
killed. several Tigers in company with my friends afterwards, but
though we found no, Phnew with any of them, the silent faith of my
believers in the marvellous has remained unshaken as to the existence
of the: mysterious animal, I subsequently learned that there is in
Bengal.a like belief respecting it among the Hindus, who term the
creature Ghégt.
There are few Englishmen in India who have not perhaps heard
some of the strange tales related by the natives regarding Serpents.
The most remarkable to me has always been the belief in the Raj
Samp, or Kimng-snake, who is represented as belonging to a superior
order of Serpent, as exacting homage and obedience from his ophite
subjects, and sometimes, as appearing with the semblance of a crown,
the type of his authority. I was one day in company with a number
* Extracted from the Journal As. Soc. Bengal for, 1849. By Frederic. Moore.
_f According to Babu Rajendralal Mittra, the Hindus distinguish the Ghog as a
different animal from the P’heu.—Edw. Blyth, Esq. ,
172 wo \o Zoological Society:—
of native gentlemen; when the conversation turned upon the nature of
antidotes in the case of Suake-bites, the belief as to the cure effected by
applying to the wound the head of the identical reptile that had) in-
flicted it, the charms powerful to compel the Snake to appear, —as to
all which matters I have never been able to obtain, amid many tales,
any relator daring enough to declare himself an eye-witness of the
marvels he recounted. At last, mention being made of the King-
snake, a party present said—‘* At any rate I can assure you of the
existence of him, for it is well known that I have seen,” and the story, to
the following effect, was then told. The narrator, being at that time,
he said, about fourteen years old, had run hastily to the terraced roof
of a ground-floor house to recover his kite, when his attention was
attracted by a large Goomna (Cobra capello) which, without perceiving
him, raised itself with dilated hood in the erect attitude common with
those Snakes, and uttered a loud cry.. Immediately some ten or twelve
Snakes appeared from different quarters, and assembled before their
king, when, after a short time, he pounced upon and devoured one of
the smaller ones, with which arbitrary assertion of regal power the con-
vocation terminated. Now the narrator of this tale had no. interest
in attempting to mislead me; he had mentioned what he stated again,
and again to the majority of persons present for years before I ever saw
him, and he is naturally of intelligence, and in no sort the man to tell a.
useless falsehood. It is, I was then informed, by these sort of assem-
blages that the King-snake asserts his power, and that his subjects.
are called to them for the purpose of bringing tribute, in the shape of
dainties for the royal palate; should, however, no tributary Frog
or Cat, or bird be forthcoming, or should even the offering produced
be insufficient, one of the luckless ophids pays in person the penalty
of the omission, even as had been witnessed by my informant. I
ventured with respect to his story to object, in as delicate.a way as.
I could, to the incident of the ery uttered by the King-snake, but.
in this I was immediately over-ridden. The cry of the large Goomna
was well known in the ruinous city where we were, and in which.
they abound, and it was described to me as a strident sound, the
attempted imitation of which resembled the acute staccato note of
a treble hautboy. I heard this sound myself subsequently during a
sleepless night, emitted by a large Snake which killed a Rat in my
bed-room : as it was pitch dark, I was unable to rise and destroy the
intruder, but the sound was too peculiar not to have been that of the
ophid, according as it did with the description given me, and being
unlike anything I ever heard before, as also contrasting distinctly
and remarkably with the cries of its victim. I have noted down
these trivial, but not incurious matters, as an inducement to the
record of more valuable facts as to the opinions held by natives upon
the habits of animals, whence perhaps some really useful information
may be elicited.
Note by Mr. Buyru.
The Snake which I have had invariably pomted out to me as the
Ra, Samp by natives of. Bengal, is Bungarus. annularis, which
Mr. J. Gould on:some new species of Birds. 173
habitually preys upon other Snakes, and. is: currently said to. be a
deadly enemy of the Cobra. \ I have taken ‘a Tropidonatus umbratus
about»two-thirds the length of its devourer from the stomach of this
species. \ Another ophiophagous: species ‘with, the Cobra hood >is
Hamadryas hannah of Cantor; or Maia vettata of Elhot, a spe-
cimen of which, 9 feet long, I obtained in the Midnapore jungle.
Mr. Layard some time ago informed me ofa popular notion
among the natives of Ceylon respecting a“ horn’’ which is said
to’ grow sometimes, but very rarely, on the forehead of the Jackal ;
and this horn is regarded by them as a specific of innumerable
virtues. Strange to say, the same notion is equally current among
thematives of Bengal, who believe that it ensures the prosperity of
its possessor, and success in every undertaking.
3 hee July 24, 1855.—Professor Tennant, F.G.S., in the Chair.
to op Ow some New Species or Birds COLLECTED BY Mr.
M‘Ginturvray. By Joun Gounp, F.R.S. etc.
In exhibiting a portion of the first collection of birds which has
been sent, to this country by Mr. John M‘Gillivray, the naturalist
attached to H. M. surveying ship ‘ Herald,’ Captain Denham, I have
to remark, that it comprises. several species of especial interest,
particularly some ,obtained on the Isle of Pines, and on Lord
Howe’s, Island. It, also comprises a new form among the Tur-
dide. or Thrushes, from that isolated spot the island of Tristan
d’Acunha, which presents a union of the characters of the genera
Turdus, Chameza and Oreocincla. This new bird I propose to
characterize under the generic and specific appellations of Nesocichla
eremita. Among the birds from Lord Howe’s Island is a singular
species of Merula or Blackbird, nearly allied in form to, but. ver
different in colour from, the Merula nestor of Norfolk Island; to
this species the specific name of vinitincta is assigned. From the
same island are two distinct species of Zosterops, entirely new to
science. They differ from any other species of the genus which has
come under my notice, one of them being a very large bird for a
Zosterops, and the other a much smaller species, being nearly allied
to, but distinct from, the Australian Zosterops dorsalis: to these
two species I give the names of Z. strenuus and Z. tephropleurus.
A beautiful Parrakeet from Cape York, nearly allied to Platycer-
cus palliceps, 1 propose to name Platycercus cyanogenys. Among
the hinds from the Isle of Pines is a very beautiful Pigeon, apper-
taining to the genus Péilinopus. This bird, with several others
of even greater interest, I propose to make the subjects of a second
paper.
3 Genus Nesocicuta.
Bill strong, more powerful than in the genus Turdus; gonys
nearly straight, with a small notch near the tip in the upper man-
dible’;\ culmen gradually descending from the base; nostrils’ seated
in an ‘oval depression at the base of the upper mandible ; wings short,
174 : Zoological Society :—
somewhat concave ; first primary very small; the third, fourth and
fifth equal and the longest ; tail rather shorter than in Turdus, and
the feathers rather pointed ; tarsi very strong, toes strong and much
lengthened, particularly the hinder one; front of the tarsi seutel-
lated ; under part entire.
This form’ differs from all others in the great family of the
Thrushes, and appears to partake of the characters of the genera
Turdus, Chameza, and Oreocinela.
NESOCICHLA EREMITA.
Head and all the upper surface, wings and tail dark sandy-brown,
with a darker shade in the centre of each feather, but the primaries
have paler edges, and the greater coverts and secondaries are: tipped
with sandy buff; lores and cheeks rufous; feathers.of the under:
surface deep buff at the base, with a lengthened pear-shaped: mark
of brown down the apex of each feather, these marks being so large!
and thickly placed as to give the whole.a mottley appearance ; on)
the throat these marks somewhat resemble strize ; thighs. buff; ; tal :
black ; tarsi reddish-brown, toes darker.
Total length, 8} inches ; bill, 11; wing, 33 ; tail, 3; fais; 1 ef
Hab... The island of Tristan d’Acunha, 3
Remark.—This bird is about the size of the common. Song. thrush,-
Turdus musicus, and similar to it in appearance); on examination, ;
however, it will be found to differ very considerably in structure.
MERULA VINITINCTA.
The male has the head and nape blackish-brown, upper aishtuoel
and wing-coverts reddish-brown ; wings brown margined with oliva-
ceous; tail brown ; throat dark bluish grey ; under surface vinaceous
red; bill bright eamboge-yellow ; ; eye-lash yellow; tarsi and toes
ellow.
‘ Total length, 8 inches; bill, 1; wing, 42; tail, 33 ; tarsi, 1}.
The female is very similar, but is of a’ somewhat paler tint, and:
has only a trace of the black hood of the male.
Hab. Lord Howe’s Island.
Remark. Of the same form, and somewhat allied to the Merula
nestor of the Norfolk Island.
ZOSTEROPS TEPHROPLEURUS.
Head and upper surface bright olive-green, with a wash of grey
across the shoulders; wings and tail slaty brown, margined with
olive-green ; throat dull yellow; around the eyes a circle of white
feathers, below which is‘a mark of black ; under surface pale vina-
ceous brown, becoming gradually paler on the lower part of the ab=
domen, and passing into the pale ape of the under tail-coverts.
Total length, 43 inches; bill, 2; wing, 23; tail, 24; tarsi 2.
Hab. Lord Home’ s Island.
Remark. This species is allied to Z. dorsalis, but is of a some-
what larger size, and is less richly coloured on the flanks,
Lieut. Burgess on the Birds of Western India. 175
ZOSTEROPS STRENUUS.
Head and upper surface bright olive-green, with a wash of dark
grey across the shoulders ; wings and tail slaty-brown, margined with
greenish olive ; eyes surrounded by the usual ring of white feathers,
beneath which is a narrow line of blaek ; chin and throat yellow ;
flanks pale vinaceous ; centre of the abdomen nearly white ; under
tail-coverts pale yellow ; bill and feet bluish black.
Total length, 53 inches; bill, 1; wing, 23; tail, 24; tarsi, 2.
Hab. Lord Howe’s Island.
This is by far the largest species of the genus yet discovered.
_PLATYCERCUS CYANOGENYS.
Crown of the head pale sulphur-yellow ; cheeks ceerulean blue ;
feathers of the nape, back and scapularies black, broadly margined
with ‘sulphur-yellow, stained with green on the lower part of the
back; -rump and upper tail-coverts greenish yellow, with an ex-
tremely narrow fringe of black at the tip of the feathers ; shoulder
and greater wing-coverts deep blue; lesser coverts black, bordered
with deep blue ; primaries and secondaries blackish brown, the basal
half. of ‘their external webs deep blue, the apical half pale blue;
tertiaries black, broadly margined with greenish yellow; breast pale
greenish yellow, abdomen light greenish blue ; all the feathers of the
undersurface slightly fringed with black ; under tail-coverts scarlet,
narrowly margined with yellow; two middle tail-feathers greenish
blue ; the next on each side blue, slightly tipped with pale blue; the
remainder blackish brown at the base of their internal webs, and
deep: blue externally ; their apical portions being beautiful pale blue.
Total length, 13 inches ; wing, 67; tail, 7; tarsi, 3.
_ Hab. Cape. York, north-east coast of Australia.
Remark. This species offers a very close alliance to Platycercus
palliceps, but differs in having no trace of scarlet on the forehead, in
the green-tinge of the borderings of the feathers of the back, in the
greenish yellow of the breast, and in having the cheeks blue instead
of light yellow.
Nores on THE Nests AND Ects or THE Brrps or WESTERN
InpraA.—Part XI. By Lirut. BurGEss.
Family CoLyMBID&.
Genus PopIcepPs.
PopiIcEPS PHILIPPENSIS.
I believe the egg sent with this paper to be that of the Grebe. It
was taken from the nest with several others in the month of August.
The nests. were composed of rotten reeds and grass, fastened, between
tall reeds* ; each nest contained about eight eggs, 1 inch and nearly
* The eggs were carefully covered over, and the heat arising from the nest was
most perceptible : the eggs appear to be hatched by the heat arising from the de-
caying vegetable matter.
176 Zoological Society :—
5ths in length, by 1 inch in width. Some of the eggs were nearly
10
white, others much discoloured.
Family PeLEecanip”. Subfamily Larip”.
Genus STERNA.
Subgenus SreRNa.
STERNA MELANOGASTER (Temm.). BuLAck-BELLIED TERN.
I found this Tern common on the river Bheena, and was fortunate
enough to obtain an egg. On a second occasion, when walking on a
sand-bank in the midst of the river where I obtained the first egg, I
was beset by a pair of these Terns, and on looking about on the
ground, found two eggs deposited in a slight hollow scraped in the
moist sand, not far from the brink of the water. These birds, when
flying overhead, utter a cry very like the chirp of a Sparrow. One
could easily distinguish the different kinds of Terns by their varied
notes. '
The Black-bellied Tern breeds during the months of March and
April, laying two eggs. The egg measures | inch and rather more
than ,2,ths in length, by 1 inch in width. It is of a rich stone-colonr,
spotted chiefly round the centre, and more sparingly over the large
end with grey and light brown spots.
Subgenus RuyNcuHoprs.
RHYNCHOPS NIGRA.
This large species of Tern I found most abundant on the river
Bheena, and had ample opportunities of studying its habits. On a
large sand-bank in that river I found that a large colony had esta-
blished themselves, and found young birds able to fly, nestlings and
eggs. The appearance of these birds is attractive, their long
orange razor-like beak, long wings, and curious skimming flight,
ever and anon dipping their lower mandible under water, their odd
shuffling gait when walking on the sand, as if they scarcely knew
what to do with their beak, and apparent difficulty in arranging
their long swift-like wings, their curious chattering notes when they
assemble on some spit of sand at the water’s edge,—all these points
attract any one fond of natural history.
I first noticed these birds on a mud-bank in the river in the month
of January. On visiting the same place in April, I found them on
a sand-bank higher up, and suspecting this to be their breeding-
time, was conveyed over the water to the bank. Onreaching it and
narrowly inspecting the ground, I found the remains of broken egg-
shells ; after a further search, I was rewarded by finding four or
five nests, also the nest of a Little Ringed Plover and Black-bellied
Tern. The Rhynchops lays four eggs in a hole scraped in the
damp sand and gravel. Those which I found were mostly near the
water’s edge. In some nests I found young ones, and procured one
young bird that was able to fly very fairly. Any one at all accus-
tomed to the habits of birds might have told that they were nesting
Dr. EK. Crisp on the Anatomy.of the Tasmanian Wolf. 177
by their restlessness, and the Vicious way in which they attacked allin-—
truders. I saw them buffet a large Ploverthat pitched on the bank,
and boldly attack those insatiable pilferers of nests, the Crows. The
very young’ birds, when first’ hatched, care: covered ywith'!a whitey-
brown down, spotted with dark spots. .The curious square end of
the beak is very marked. The legs and feet of a dirty greyish-brown.
The eggs are rather more than’ 1}:inch’'in length, by 1 inch and
rather, more than ,',th in width, of a pale stone colour, spotted and
blotched with grey and two shades of brown. —
“T’subjoin ‘the description of a young bird that was able to fly,
probably about six weeks or two months old. The beak (after the
skin“was dried) was of a dull brown tinged with orange; the under
mandible" sharp, as in’ the old bird, but scarcely longer than the
upper. |’ Feathers on the checks pale fawn colour, with a few dusky
spots, those On the forehead much the same, but the dusky spots
more visible’; on the top of the head behind the eye, back of the
eck; ‘the feathers are dull black, with pale ferruginous edges ; lower
art of the back,of the neck whitish, with a broad brown bar, and
Hell ih pale ferruginous; upper tail-coverts, some dusky black,
with’pale ferruginous edges, some ferruginous mottled with white ;
tail-feathers, lower. portion white, upper portion dusky, with a
marked border of pale ferruginous ; primaries nearly black, with
pale tips ; smaller quill-feathers, lower portion dusky, upper nearly
white; secondaries much the same, the white being much clearer ;
greater coverts dusky, with whitish tips; tertials dusky, with pale
ferruginous edges; the lesser coverts the same ; chin, throat, breast
and belly, ‘under tail-coverts white ; sides of the neck white, with a
few'dusky spots; legs and feet dirty orange-brown.
i ie aarthies Pe: ;
_ On. some Points RELATING TO THE ANATOMY OF THE
*.«.‘kASMANIAN. Wor (THYLACINUS) AND oF THE Care Hunt-
-,. 1n@ Doe .(Lycaon rictus). By Epwarps Crisp, M.D.
«Before I proceed to the immediate object of my communication, I
may:beexcused, I trust, for alluding to a mode of investigation that
Tyhave* followed in all my dissections, viz. that of taking accurate
weights*and measures of the body of the animal and of the viscera,
with drawings the size of life of the organs examined.
“By this method, combined with the use of the microscope, I be-
lieve’ hereafter that much light will be thrown upon many physio-
logical subjects which are at present but imperfectly understood.
It is, however, only by comparison on a large scale that any import-
ant benefit is likely to result.
» Tayiacrnus CyNOCEPHALUS.
This animal (a male) died at the Society’s Gardens, where it had
been “for several years. I believe it is the only one that has been
dissected in this country. It weighed 33 ibs.; and measured from
nose'to root of tail’ 2 feet 93 inches. The tail; 15 inches. The penis
curved backwards. The cause of its death was unapparent. It was
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol. xviii. 12
178 | | Zoological Society :—
excessively fat; the fat on its abdomen and other parts weighing
probably four or five pounds. The heart, long and pomted ; weight,
4 oz. 60 grs. The trachea of moderate size; the connecting mem-
brane at the posterior part very thick. The lungs trilobed; weight,
4 oz. 304 grs. The liver composed of five main lobes ; weight, 14 oz.
The spleen long, thin and narrow, with a lateral tongue-like process
(as in nearly all of the Marsupiata) 4 from the upper end. Length
of spleen, 10} inches; its average breadth about an inch; it was
seated along the left side of the stomach, imbedded in fat. The
kidney of a rounded form; weight, 1 0z. 167 grs. The alimentary
canal measured only 6 feet 6 inches. The stomach of moderate size ;
its coats very thick, and capable of great distension. The rugze of
the lining membrane large and prominent; the pyloric valve strong
and muscular; the length of empty stomach 8 inches; the duode-
num at its commencement studded with numerous bead-like pro-
cesses, which emerged into a portion of mucous membrane thickly
studded with villi about 3 lines in length, as represented in figs 1.
These were continued for nearly four feet ; they resemble much the
rumen of the sheepvor rein-deer. In the small intestmes of the Rhi-
noceros, fig. 2, the villi are about 6 or 8 lines in length, ‘but far less
numerous.
The ceecum absent. The large intestine measured 12 inches; the
coats thick and the lining membrane plicated longitudinally. The
relative weight of the viscera as compared with that of the ‘body is
about as follows :—Liver, 3; spleen, 54, ; kidney, 53, ; heart,;44;
lungs, ;+;; the blood-corpuscles about 7,455 of an inch in diameter.
Fig. 2.
I have examined the two skeletons of the Thylacinus at ithe Mu-
seum of the College of Surgeons, a description of which is given by
Professor Owen in the new Osteological Catalogue (p.347). ‘The
teeth, 46 in number ; incisors, 8 above and 6 below ; canines, 4;
molars, 28, 14 in each jaw = 46. Vertebree : cervical, 7; dorsal,13;
lumbar, 5; sacral, 2; caudal, 23; ribs, 13. i
The time does not allow me to dwell on many points of great in-
terest respecting the anatomy of this animal, but a comparison of the
structure of the Thylacinus with the Dog I am about to describe will
not be unprofitable. |
Care Huntine Doe (Lycaon vierus. 8. Africa).
This animal died at the Society’s Gardens, where it remained for
some months previous to its death, a few days before which period
_ Dr. E. Crisp on the Anatomy ofthe, Cape Hunting Dog. A179
it had. several convulsive. fits... I.could not examine the brain; but
Mr. Ward, who stuffed the animal, told me, that.a large quantity of
serum. escaped from the cranium,.so that, probably death was occa-
sioned. by inflammation of the brain and effusion of fluid.
In Cuvier’s ‘Animal Kingdom,’.1849, by Carpenter, p. 91, is the
following note :——“ This. remarkable species is dog-like, but certainly
nota Canis; its form and colouring (and, there is reason to suspect,
its internal conformation) are vather those of a hyena, and it is
known, to copulate.in the manner of those animals, and not in the
peculiar mantier of the dogs and. foxes. . Even. its dentition is the
same,as-that elsewhere found (with one other exception, Proteles)
throughout ithe group to which we conceive the hyzenas to belong,
the dental.system of which latter appears to be modified in accord-
ance, with their much increased and prodigious strength of the jaw.”
_.» This: dog weighed, about, 50 Ibs. ; it measured 3 feet 1 inch from
nose-to root/of tail; tail, 13 inches; height to the back behind neck,
2 feet 3 inches; fore-leg, 16h inches; ribs, 13. Teeth: imcisors, 6
‘dnjeach jaw, 12,;. canines, 4; molars, 10. above and 12 below, =38.
The age of the avimal about 2} years. Heart of a rounded form ;
weight 8,02. ; the parietes of the left ventricle 10 lines in thickness, of
the right 3 lines ; the aorta of large calibre, and its coats thick. Lungs,
the right four-lobed, the left three- ; weight 26 0z. Trachea very large.
Liver seven-lobed,;,, weight 21 oz. Bile of a dark yellow colour, Gall-
bladder .of moderate size. Spleen about.500 grs. in weight ; long,
lax, thin,and narrow, as in all the Carnaria. It was in the usual
situation in this order of animals, viz: on the left of the stomach, to
which it was attached by a wide mesenteric fold; the splenic artery
and vein long; no valves in the latter. Pancreas small and elon-
gated. Kidney oblong,.less concave on its inner side than usual.
The stomach of moderate size, and shaped like that of the dog;
length 12 inches; this organ with the esophagus measured 12 feet
6 inches ; the czecum, which was in 23 spiral folds like that of the
dog, when unfolded was 5 inches in length ; the colon and rectum
1 foot 10 inches ; total, 14 feet 9 inches. .The ceecal valve strong
and distinct. The-alimentary canal was too-much decomposed to
allow of my making a microscopical examination of it, but its struc-
ture appeared. to resemble that of the Dog.
4d The-ribs of the Hyzena,are 15 ; those of the Lycaon 13, as in the
Dog, Wolfiand Fox... The teeth of the Hyena, judging from two
skulls in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, are, 4 incisors above,
6 below, 10 molars above, 12 below, canines 4, =36, In the skull of
the Striped Hyzena 10 molars in each jaw (one specimen), and in
some: fossil jaws. of this, animal,the number of, molars is less than
‘above quoted ;. but much, of course, will depend upon the age of the
animal... In the. Pointer,) Blood-hound, Dingo, and other dogs, I
found 12 molars above and 14 below, the canines being 4 and the
incisors 12. The same with the Wolf and Fox.
The only record’I can find of the disseétion of a Hyzena is one fur-
nished. me by Professor Quekett, and in this animal (30 years old)
12%
Rd da Ti
180 _ Loological Society.
the alimentary canal measured 39 feet 54 inches. The account is
copied from Professor Quekett’s notes. I was at first inclined to
suppose that the copyist had made some mistake, the length men-
tioned being very great fora carnivorous animal. Professor Quekett
suggested “that the large quantity of phosphate of lime taken by
the hyzena might explain the anomaly,’’
On referring, however, to the notes of my dissections of four dogs,
in which I carefully measured the alimentary canal of all, the above
statement does not appear to be so improbable :—
Small Terrier, alimentary canal 7 feet 4 inches.
Small Terrier (young), 7 feet.
Blood-hound, 21 feet; including large intestines, 2 feet 2 inches.
Large Mastiff (old), weighing 104 lbs., 31 feet; including large
intestines, 3 feet.
Common Fox, 10 feet 6 inches.
Young Indian Wolf (four months old), 6 feet 1 inch.
So that, looking to the ribs, teeth, csecum, length of alimentary
canal, and general form of the viscera, this animal must be ‘classed
with the Dogs, and not with the Hyzenas.
Additional Remarks on the Lycaon pictus.
After the death of the dog, the bitch which was with him became
restless, howled frequently, refused her food, and died July 13th, ten
days after.
I examined the body a few hours after death. She was about the
same size as the dog, and of the same age. She had probably lost
10 or 15 Ibs. in weight. The body weighed 31} Ibs., and the sub-
joined is the relative weight of the viscera, fractions being omitted :—
Heart, 7 02. 75.
Lungs, 24 oz. 34.
Liver, 18 02. 35.
Spleen, 790 grs. 345.
Pancreas, 370 gers. }5-
Kidney, 1080 grs. 54+.
Alimentary canal, 13 feet 6 inches,
The uterus resembled that of the bitch (C. familiaris’ ; the vagina
9 inches in length, the cornua 6 inches each.
But one of the most interesting results of this dissection was the
examination of the blood-corpuscles ; these were larger than in any
carnivorous animal that I have dissected ; they measured, the greater
part of those examined, about the 3000th of an inch in diameter,
being larger than those of Man.
I may add, that I could not discover any morbid lesion in this
animal, and that I believe her death was occasioned by the loss of
her companion.
Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 181
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH,
May 8, 1856.—Colonel Madden, President, in the Chair.
The following papers were read :-—
1. “Qn the Sexuality of the Algee,” by Dr. Ferdinand Cohn, of
Breslau.
After adverting to the various recent discoveries in Cryptogamic
reproduction, particularly those of Thuret and Pringsheim, the author
gave an account of the pheenomena observed by him in Spheroplea
annulina. He showed that the cells of one part of the filament be-
came male, and exhibited antheridia filled with spermatozoa, while
those of the other part became female, being transformed into sporan-
gia, developing many spores. He then described minutely the mode
in which the spermatozoa came into contact with the female cells
and fertilized the spores. He also gave an account of the mode of
fecundation in the genus Gdogonium.
‘‘ Having observed,” the author remarks, ‘‘in the lower plants the
necessity of the material and immediate contact and union of sper-
matozoa and eggs or spores ; the want of a peculiar membrane around
the latter before impregnation; the formation of this wall and the
multiplication of the developed cell as the immediate consequence of
fecundation, we may conclude that the same course of development
may also be followed in the reproduction of other organisms,—a con-
clusion which is entirely confirmed by the most recent observations
on the fecundation of animals.”
~ 2. “On the Preparation of Sugar and Arrack from Palms in
Ceylon,” by Alexander Smith, M.D.
Three Palms yield sugar in Ceylon: Cocos nucifera, Borassus fla-
belliformis, and Caryota urens. From each of these the juice of the
flowering-stalk is collected, and from it sugar is regularly prepared ;
but it is from the Borassus that almost all the palm sugar is obtained.
It is from the sugar of the Cocos that arrack is made in Ceylon,
3. “On the occurrence of Scalariform Tissue in the Devonian
Strata of the South of Ireland,’ by Robert Harkness, F.G,S., Pro-
- fessor of Geology, Queen’s College, Cork,
The author, after noticing the occurrence of Cyclopteris hibernica
in the neighbourhood of Cork, remarked that in some of the higher
beds of the Devonians of the South of Ireland there had been found
ai quantities of drifted vegetable matter in the form of more or
ess perfect stems of trees, exhibiting in their interior a fibrous char-
coal-like substance, which when examined by the microscope presented
evident scalariform tissue, showing that the plants belonged to the
Fern alliance,
_ 4. “Notice of some additions to the Cryptogamic Flora of Edin-
burgh,” by Mr. W. Nichol.
The author remarked that the presence of such plants as Leshkia
subrufa, Trichostomum flewicaule, Anoectangium compactum, En-
ealypta ciliata, Tortula tortuosa, Bryum Zierti, and Blindia acuta,
182 Botanical Society of Edinburgh.
at Habbies How, indicates an approach to an alpine flora.’ Habbies
How is a narrow chasm running nearly east and west, bounded on
each side by precipitous tocks, which are seldom exposed to the rays
of the sun. It lies at the base of the northern slope of ‘the highest
of the Pentlands (here attaining an altitude of about 1800 feet), and
it is on the rocks facing the north that the plants oceur.
Professor Balfour read .a letter from Mr. Macmillan, in which he
stated that he had received .a number, of Lichens gathered on, the
Cumbraes, among which were several very rare species, for which
no locality had, previously been found in Scotland,, they being
eminently southern species; such as Parmelia tiliacea and corrugata,
and Opegrapha Lyellit and dendritica.
Mr. Macmillan remarks :—‘‘ I found in a wood immediately above
Inver, near Dunkeld, an immense number of juniper bushes, the ome
and branches of which were profusely covered with magnificent spe
mens of the Podisoma juniperi-communis, a very rare Hypodermous
fungus, previously found only, as far as am aware, in one. or two
stations in England. Last year, I observed beside the monument) ye
the grounds of Taymouth Castle, a very. old juniper, bush completely
covered with it. In a fresh state, and particularly during ‘damp or
rainy weather, it bears considerable resemblance to some species’ of
Clavaria ; growing in the form of a bundle of thick gelatinous stems
of an orange colour, and tapering at, one extremity—agegregated
together on the part of the branch infested, and completely envelop-
ing it—and thus giving it an appearance not unlike a pine-apple
when seen from a little distance. In an old state, and in hot weather,
however, it dries up and becomes hard’ and shrivelled. |
June 12, 1856,—Prof. Balfour, V.P., in the Chair. hot
te following papers were read :-— )
«Elucidation of some Plants mentioned in Dr. Francis Pani.
ne s Account of the Kingdom of Nepal,” by Lieut.-Colonel Madden.
. An attempt to determine several of the doubtful species.
2. **On the Duration of the Life of Plants,’’ by Prof. Ficeiiuad |
3. “Inquiry into the signs of current Electricity in Plants,’ by
H. F. Baxter, Esq.
After alluding to the researches of Beequerel, Donné, Wartmam,
and Zantedeschi, the author proceeded to detail experiments made
on plants by means of the electrodes of a galvanometer. ' He exa-
mined the electric currents in the leaves, roots,’ flowers, fruits, —
tubers, and the following are the conclusions drawn :—
ist. That when the electrodes of a galvanometer are brought ito
contact, one with the surface of the leaf, and the other with the sap
flowing from the same leaf, an effect occurs upon the needle indicating
the surface and the sap to be in opposite electric states) These effects
cannot be referred entirely to ordinary electro-chemical actions, but
may be referred, in part, to the organic changes which take place in
the leaf during vegetation.
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
7 i ee
Miscellaneous. 183
2nd. When the electrodes are. brought into contact, one with the
external surface of the spongioles of a plant, and the other with the
sap ascending from the root, the sap and the external surface are in
opposite electric states. The effects which are here observed with
the galvanometer may, in the majority of instances, be due to ordinary
electro-chemical actions ; but in some instances the effect cannot be
referred to these actions, but may be referred to the organic changes
which occur in the roots during vegetation.
_ 3rd. That with the petals of flowers slight currents were obtained ;
and,
4th. In fruits and tubers powerful currents may be occasionally
obtained ; but these effects are evidently secondary results, due to the
reaction of the different vegetable juices upon each other.
4. “Notice of some Additions to the Hepatice of the neighbour-
hood of Edinburgh,” by John Lowe, Esq.
5. “ Record of Localities for Rare Plants,’ by Prof. Balfour.
~ 6. “Continuation of Account of some of the Contents of the
Museum at the Botanic Garden,” by Prof. Balfour.
_, 7,‘ List of the Fibrous Plants of India,’ communicated by Prof,
Balfour,
MISCELLANEOUS.
On, the. probable Origin of the Organized Beings now living in the
» ddzores, Madera, and the Canaries. By M. Oswaup Herr.
In a letter to M.. A. DeCanpo.Lue.
In your Geography of Plants you have adopted the opinion of
Edward Forbes, that in the miocene period the European continent ex-
tended to the Azores and Canaries, and supported it by fresh proofs*.
In fact, the predominant European character of these islands, which
occurs in their insects as well as in their flora, proves that they were
anciently joined to the continent. Nevertheless we must not forget
that, as compared with Europe, these islands are very different from
those of the Mediterranean. They are distinguished in the first
place by a much greater number of peculiar species, which constitute
a-third or a fifth of the plants ; and in the second by some American
types, which make their appearance in all these islands. These are
not only certain American species which might have reached them
accidentally by the agency of the winds and currents, or of man, but
‘American genera which are represented by peculiar species. I will
instance the genera Clethra, Bystropogon, and Cedronella, as also
the unique pine of the Canaries (Pinus eanariensis, Sm.), which
belongs to the American forms with acicular ternate leaves. The
relations of the Laurels is very remarkable in this respect ;..they form
“a great part of the forests of Madeira and the Canaries, dividing into
four species and playing an important part... Two species (Oreo-
we DeCandolle, Géographie Botanique raisonnée, p. 1310.
184 Miscellaneous.
daphne foetens and Persea indica) are essentially American types;
the third (Phebe Barbusana, Webb) belongs to a genus which occurs
in India and America; and the fourth (Laurus canariensis, Webb)
corresponds with the European species. By the possession of these
laurel forests the islands-of the Atlantic differ greatly from the African
continent, where they are entirely wanting, and approach America
rather than Africa, notwithstanding the proximity of the latter.
These facts obtain great importance by the observation that the
flora of the Atlantic islands has much resemblance to the Tertiary
flora of Kurope.
In my ‘Flora Tertiaria Helvetize,” I have proved that a considerable
number of plants of the Tertiary epoch corresponded with species
peculiar to Madeira and the Canaries, in such a manner that there
must be a relation between the two floras. On the other hand, our
Tertiary flora indicates a great resemblance to the flora of the
southern United States. Many perfectly characteristic genera, such
as Taxodium, Sequoia, Inquidambar, Sabal, &c., were distributed over
the whole of our tertiary country, and composed partly of species
very closely allied to those which now grow in America; other genera
belong equally to America and Europe (such as Quercus, Corylus,
Populus, Acer, &c.), and occur in the European Tertiary epoch, com-
posed of species corresponding with the American forms. |
We find similar cases amongst the terrestrial mollusea and insects,
although this is not so positive as with regard to plants.
‘These remarkable circumstances are explicable, if we suppose that
during the Tertiary epoch a terrestrial formation united the continents
of Europe and America, and that this surface was extended by some
projection to the Atlanticislands. A glance at the map of the depths
of the ocean by Maury, shows that the bottom of the Atlantic forms
a longitudinal valley, of which the deepest parts are between the
twentieth and fortieth degrees of north latitude, nearly at an equal
distance from Europe and Africa, but that on the two sides of this
deep valley there is a vast maritime plateau, which includes the At-
lantic islands, as well as the whole space between the European con- »
tinent, Newfoundland, and Acadia, Beyond this space another long
valley, but of less depth, takes its rise, in a direction from south to
north-east between Madeira and the Azores; it loses itself close to
the coast of Oporto.
If we may attribute any importance to these very general data, we
must admit that during the miocene period the maritime plateau
above indicated. was solid ground.
This country, this ancient Atlantis, would have had the same
plants as central miocene Europe, of which the remains are found in
the mollasse of Switzerland in such astonishing profusion, that I shall
be able to give descriptions and figures of about six hundred species in
my ‘ Flora Tertiaria.’, On the coast of this country the marine shells
presented a great conformity in America and Europe; and this remark-
able phzenomenon is still reproduced, that Europe has more littoral
than deep-sea species of shells and fishes in common with America ;
which proves that at one period a band of firm ground must have
Miscellaneous. 185
united these two parts of the world. The Atlantic islands had already
risen towards the south coasts of this continent at the diluvian period.
That this country was at the bottom of the sea during the miocene
epoch, is shown by the fossil shells of Porto Santo and St. Vincent
in Madeira and those of the Azores; but that it had emerged at the
diluvian period is proved by the terrestrial mollusca of Canigal, and
the fossil plants of St. Jorge in Madeira*.
The islands formed at this epoch would have received their vege-
tation from the Atlantis in the diluvian period, and consequently at
an epoch when this continent had entered upon a new phase of deve-
lopment. If we suppose, that then, by a subsequent depression of
the soil, the connexion with America was destroyed, and subsequently
that which existed with Europe, we shall obtain the elements for the
explanation of the existing flora of these islands. We there find the
remains of the flora of the ancient Atlantis, and in consequence many.
types of the Tertiary flora are retained there whilst they have disap-
peared in Europe. These remains, with a certain number of other
species, form the peculiar plants of these isles, corresponding in part
with the American species because they have issued from the same
centre of formation. But it is with Europe that these islands have
the most species in common, probably because their connexion with
this continent lasted longer.
At tne diluvian period the flora of central Europe was displaced by
great changes of climate (extension of glaciers, %c.) ; and as by the
depression of the Atlantis the connexion with America was destroyed,
the new European vegetation could not extend on that side, but only
towards the east. It is thus that the characters of the new vegeta-
tion would be explained, particularly that of the lower countries, whilst
theAlps and the north have undergone less change. “This also is
the reason of the great analogies which occur between the north of
Europe, Asia, and America. I arrive therefore at the same conclu-
sion with yourself as regards these latter countries, namely that the
alpine vegetation is certainly the most ancient in our country, and
that subsequently when the climate became warmer, after the glacial
epoch, it rose from the low countries to the mountains and Alps.—
Bibliotheque Univ. de Geneve, April 1856, p. 327.
Note on Clausilia plicatula and C. Mortilleti.
By J. Gwyn Jerrreys, Esq.
_ Mr. Benson, in the last Number of the ‘Annals’ (p. 75), states
that I omitted Clausilia plicatula in my “ Notes on the Swiss Mol-
lusea,” as well as two other so-called species of Clausilia; all of
which he had found in Switzerland. My reason for omitting C. pli-
catula was explained in the preface to my “‘ Notes,”’ in which I said
I was induced to think that'a notice of ‘some hitherto unrecorded
localities’ which occurred to me might be interesting, and that I
adopted Charpentier’s Catalogue as my text-book. By referring to
that catalogue it will be seen that Charpentier mentions C. plicatula
-* See Heer, “ Ueber die fossilen Pflanzen yon San Jorge in Madeira,”
Zurich, 1855,
186 Miscellaneous.
as ‘fort commune dans toute la Suisse occidentale.” I found it at
Belmont, les Rochers Naye, Lausanne, Devens, Blonay, and Mont-
reux. |For the same reason [ omitted such common species as Sue-
cinea amphibia, Helix arbustorum and nemoralis, Pupa avena, Clau-
silia parvula, Cyclostoma elegans, and Ancylus fluviatilis.
C. plicatula is undoubtedly distinct from C. Rolphii ; but whether
C. Mortilleti is not a variety of C. Rolphii is another question.
Judging from a comparison of specimens of C. Mortilleti kindly sent
me by Mr. Prentice, with specimens of C. Rolphii, described and
figured by the authors of the ‘ British Mollusca,’ I am inclined to
think they ought to be united. Mr. Hanley is of the same opinion.
The differences pointed out by Mr. Benson are equally observable in
varieties of C. nigricans and C. bidens. However, Mr. Benson has had
great experience in the discrimination of species from varieties ;\ and.
(as I remarked on a former occasion) naturalists may fairly differ on
this point.—J. Gwyn JEFFREYS. |
1 Montagu Square, 11th July 1856.
LERNZA BRANCHIALIS.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
Falmouth, June 28, 1856. .
GENTLEMEN,—The “ Lernea branchialis,” Linn., was procured
this morning by Miss Vigurs from the gills of the Gadus Aiglefinus.
It. measured one inch and seven-eighths in length. The head was
ornamented with two transparent horns, about one-eighth of an inch
long, slightly curved and sharp at the pomts. Neck long; body
inflated, bent in the form of the letter S$; filaments contracted,
annulated, very much contorted, transparent. Colour of head, neck
and body chocolate-brown.
I am, Gentlemen, yours truly,
W. P. Cocks.
On two new species of Birds from Santa Fé di Bogota.
By Puruie Lutury Scuarer, M.A., F.Z.8.
HrtrEROCNEMIS MARGINATA, Sclater.
H, supra, cinnamomeo-brunnea, pennis strictissime nigro mar-
ginatis: alis caudaque intus nigricantibus, externe brunnes-
centibus : subtus alba, gutturis et pectoris totius plumis stricte
brunneo, marginatis, quast squamatis; his marginibus versus
ventrem gradatim latioribus: ventre crissoque cinnamomeo-
brunneis, nigro transversim vittatis : rostro nigro, mandibula
inferiore basi alba ; pedibus pallide brunneis.
Long. tota 3°0;, alee 2°2; caudee 1°2; rostri a fronte\*5.
Mr. Strickland’s name Holocnemis, proposed in 1844 for the
H. nevia (figured in Cont. to Orn. 1849, pl. 18), has, been) pre-
viously applied to a genus of Coleoptera by Schilling, and I there-
Miscellaneous. 187
fore propose to change it into Heterocnemis. A second species of
the genus’ seems to be the bird figured in’ Buffon’s Pl. Enl.:73,
fig. 2, under| the name of ‘Le’ Bambla de‘ Cayenne’ = (Turdus
bambla, Bodd.—Heterocnemis bambla, mibi.)—The present) bird:is
very closely allied to the latter.’ Inthe upper’ plamage ‘it: is: very
similar, being only of a more ¢innamomeous' tinge ; but it may be
distinguished by the want of the white markings on the wings, and
the tliroat, breast and upper belly being white, each feather narrowly
margined with brown. In H. éambla these parts are ash-brown,
with obsolete ‘transverse markings. Lesson’s Myrmothera troglo-
dytes (Dese. d. Mamm. et Ois. p. 301, no. 118) seems the same as
H. bambla. ‘This form is indeed very closely connected with some
of the Wrens, and hardly to be separated from certain birds that are
usually placed in the genus Scytalopus.
TODIROSTRUM GRACILIPES, Sclater.
T. supra olivaceum ; alis caudaque nigricantibus, olivaceo anguste
limbatis; pileo fuscescente ; loris mentoque albidis ; subtus
flavum, lateribus olivascentibus ; gutture et pectore longitudi-
naliter nigro striatis ; tectricibus subalaribus sulphureis ; ros-
tro nigro ; pedibus carneis; tarsis gracillimis.
Long. tota 3°8; alee 2°0 ; caudze 1°7.
This apparently new species is most nearly allied to 7. maculatum
(Desm.) and 7. sériatzcolle, Lafr. (in both of which the neck is also
striated), but has the whole throat yellow. The bill agrees in form
with that of the former bird, but is rather shorter and narrower.
I type specimen is in the British Museum.—Proc. Zool. Soc.
cia 24, 1855.
ON THE BRITISH DIASTYLIDA.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
: 8 Mulgrave Place, Plymouth, July 10, 1856.
GENTLEMEN,—It has recently been pointed out to me by Mr.
Alder that I have unfortunately made use of two generic names in -
the paper'on ‘the British Diastylide,” lately published in the
‘Annals,’ that have been previously employed to designate other
genera of animals. It is therefore desirable that the names Halia
and Venilia should be changed, and I propose instead to use Iphinoé
and Cyrianassa respectively. ‘The names as applied will therefore
be Iphinoé trispinosa and Cyrianassa gracilis.
Believe me, yours obediently,
C. Spence Bate.
Note on Helix Cantiana, Mont. By Wm. Lonspate,. Esq. F.G.S.
* Helie Cantiana is abundant around Keynsham, Somerset. It
was first found in the spring of 1825, alive and near the entrance to
Dr. Fox’s establishment, between Keynsham and Brislington; and
more recently in lanes close to the town.”
188 Miscellaneous.
Description of a Fossil Cranium of the Musk-buffalo (Bubalus mos-
chatus, Owen), from the Gravel at Maidenhead, Berks, By Prof.
Owen, F.G.S.
This specimen was discovered by the Rev. Mr. Kingsley and
Mr. J. Lubbock in a gravel-pit close to the engine-house at the
Maidenhead station last summer, and is the first example of the
subgenus Bubalus yet recognized as fossil in Britain. It consists
of the cranial part of the skull, with the horn-cores, nearly perfect.
The Professor, in describing this fossil, first offered his reasons for
regarding the so-called ‘‘ Musk-ox”’ as having been unnecessarily
separated from the Buffaloes, and then gave an account of the few
fossil skulls of the Musk-buffalo yet known, viz. those figured by
Pallas, Ozeretskowsky, and Cuvier. A comparison was then made
of the fossil remains with recent crania; and, although the skulls
somewhat differ in a few points, especially in the relative curvatures
of the horn-cores, yet the author was led to conclude that, as far as
the materials for comparison at his command would serve, the dif-
ferences between the fossil and recent Musk-buffaloes are not of
specific value; that the Bubalus moschatus of the Arctic regions,
with its now restricted range, is the slightly modified descendant of
the old companion of the Mammoth and the 'Tichorhine Rhinoceros,
which with them enjoyed a much wider range, both in latitude
and longitude, over lands that now form three divisions or con-
tinents of the northern hemisphere; and that the circumstances
which have brought about the probably gradual extinction of the
northern Rhinoceros and Elephant have not yet effected that of the
contemporary species of Arctic Buffalo.— Proc. Geol. Soc. Dec. 19,.
1855.
A last word on Scissurella. By J. Gwyn Jerrreys, Esq., F.R.S.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
GENTLEMEN,—I had not intended at first to notice the commu-
nication of Mr. Woodward in your last Number, entitled ‘‘On the
Evils of Increasing Synonyms ;” but, lest it may be assumed that I
admit his statements, I must request you to insert these few remarks.
The real question at issue, and the only one which in any way —
concerns naturalists or the cause of science, is whether Schismope is
synonymous with Seissurella, or whether they constitute distinct
genera. Now, although Mr. Woodward modestly states that he
has shown they are synonymous and that the fact admitted of no
reply, I cannot help reminding your readers that Dr. Gray (who is
undeniably a much better authority than either Mr. Woodward or
myself) has expressed a contrary opinion, and that the respective
characters of those genera were taken from species which differ from—
each other in form, organization, and habit. I have now before me
130 specimens of Scissurella crispata of different ages and sizes, all
of which exhibit the open slit.
As regards myself personally, I must repeat my regret that Mr,,
Miscellaneous. 189
Woodward has thought proper to mistake and pervert what passed
between us, as it has nothing whatever to do with the present con-
troversy.
It is true that he asked me for specimens of the Schismope, and
that I referred him to Mr. Damon, who had all my collection of
Mediterranean shells, on his repaying me (by previous, agreement)
the expenses I was at in dredging. But it is noé true, that when I
took him specimens (which I had a day or two before picked out of
some sand), he put such an impertinent question to me as_he suggests
‘my remembering.
_ It was on this occasion that we examined together under a micro-
scope these specimens (and not the specimens given to him by Mr.
Damon), and that he noticed the peculiar structure of the closed slit.
After we had consulted Philippi, and Sowerby’s ‘Genera’ (and not
“at that time,” as Mr. Woodward would have me say), I went to the
British Museum Library and referred to Sowerby’s translation in
the Zoological Journal of D’Orbigny’s Memoir. The result of this
reference I gave in a former paper.
. When I took Mr. Woodward the tative I certainly understood
him to say that he was unacquainted with any other species of Scis-
surella than S. crispata. It was some time afterwards that he
showed me Mr. M‘Andrew’s specimen of S. angulata, Lovén (a true
Scissurella and closely allied to S. erispata, but of a much larger
size) ; and I certainly never saw D’Orbigny’s specimen of 8. Berthe-
loti in. company with Mr. Woodward, nor heard him say anything
about a New Zealand Scissurella. We examined together a collec-
tion of fossil shells (containing Pleurotomaria and Trochotoma) in
quite another part of the Museum ; and this he seems to have mis-
taken for the D’Orbignyan collection.
This explanation, however, cannot interest your readers; and I
will not trespass any more on their patience.
I am, Gentlemen, yours obediently,
J. Gwyn JEFFREYS.
1 Montagu Square, 11th July 1856.
New Mode of Cleaning Diatomaceous Deposits.
By Prof. J. W. Barzey.
Having found the following method of cleaning diatomaceous de-
posits more speedy and efficacious than any other I have tried, I
recommend it to all those who may have occasion to prepare speci-
mens of the si/iceous organisms in soundings, guano, mud, &c. Dis-
solve out the lime compounds, if present, by means of nitric or
hydrochloric acid, wash and filter. Then put the moist contents of
the filter into a porcelain capsule with enough strong sulphuric acid
to make of the whole a fluid mass. Heat the capsule over a spirit-
lamp until the organic matters are all charred, and continue the heat
until strong acid fumes are evolved. Keep the capsule hot, and add,
in minute portions at a time, finely powdered chlorate of potassa. If
the acid is hot enough to give off fumes, the chlorate will be im-
mediately decomposed without the accumulation of explosive gases,
190 Miscellaneous.
and it will exert so powerful an oxidizing action, that ‘in afew
moments a carbonaceous material as black as ink will become per-
feetly clean and colourless. Nothing’ now will remain to: be done
but to wash off the acid, which is best done by the addition of water
and repeated decantations. I also would advise that the materials
thus cleaned should not be dried, but should be kept in bottles: with
a little aleohol, which prevents their felting together, and does not
allow the growth of the byssoid plants which often develope in water:
It is necessary to caution those not familiar with chemistry against
using the chlorate of potassa with sulphuric acid in any other way
than above directed, as violent and dangerous explosions might re-
sult. The process as above given is perfectly safe and) mer one
—Silliman’s Journal, January 1856, p.. 145.
New method of Disintegrating masses of Fossil Diatomacex:.
By Prof. J. W. Barry.
Many masses of fossil Diatomaceee are so strongly coherent, that they
cannot be diffused in water (for the purpose of mounting in balsam)
without a degree of mechanical violence which reduces, to fragments
many of the most beautiful and interesting forms. This is: particu-
larly the case with some specimens from the “infusorial deposits’’ of
California. Some of these I endeavoured to break up, by boiling in
water and in acids, and also by repeated freezing and thawing when
moistened, but without good results in either ease. At, last. it oe-
curred to me that the adherence might be due to a slight portion of
a siliceous cement, which the cautious use of an alkaline solution might
remove without destroying any but the most minute shells of the
Diatoms. As the case appeared a desperate one, a {‘ heroic remedy”
was applied, which was to boil small lumps of the diatomaceous mass
in a strong solution of caustic potassa or soda. This proved,to be
perfectly efficacious, as the masses under this treatment rapidly split
up along the planes of lamination, and then crumbled to mud, which
being immediately poured into a large quantity of water, ceased to
be acted upon by the alkali, and gave, when thoroughly washed, not
only all the large shells of the Diatoms in a state S of unhoped-for
perfection, but also furnished abundance of the minute. forms,
Having obtained by this method highly satisfactory results: from
specimens from many localities, I can confidently recommend it as
an addition to our modes of research.
The following directions will enable any one to apply the. process.
Put small lumps of the mass to be examined into a test tube, with
enough of a solution of caustic potassa or soda to cover them; then
boil over a spirit-lamp for a few seconds, or a few minutes, as the
case may require. If the solution is sufficiently strong, the masses
will rapidly crumble to mud, which must be poured.aé¢ once into a
large quantity of water, which after subsidence is removed by decan-
tation. If the mass resists the action of the alkaline liquor a still
stronger solution should be tried, as while some specimens break up
instantly in a weak solution of alkali, others require that it should
be of the consistence of a dense syrup. The mud also should be
Meteorological Observations. 191
poured off as fast as it forms, so as to remain as short a time as
possible in the caustic ley.
‘The only specimens which I have found not to give good results
by the method above described, are those from Tampa Bay, Florida, and
the infusorial marls from Barbadoes. | In the masses from Tampa
the, lapidification is so complete, that the alkali destroys the shells
before the lumps break up; and in the case of the Barbadoes marls
the cementing material is calcareous, and requires a dilute acid for
its removal. In applying the above process one caution is necessary,
which is to thoroughly wash the shells with water, and not with
acids, as the latter will cause the deposit of a portion of the dissolved
silica, and materially injure the beauty of the specimens. When the
washings are no longer alkaline, the specimens may be thoroughly
cleansed by acids, or by the chlorate process described above.—
—Silliman’s Journal, May 1856, p. 356.
|. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR JUNE 1856.
“ 'Chiswick.—June ¥. Hazy: cloudy. 2,3. Very fine. 4. Very fine: cloudy :
lightning at night. 5—7. Very fine. 8. Dull and cloudy. 9, 10, Very fine.
11. Cloudless. . 12. Very fine: rain at night. 13. Rain. 14. Showery and
boisterous,, 15. Very fine :,cloudy : clear and fine. 16. Very fine. 17. Showery.
18. Very fine ; cloudy: rain. 19. Rain. 20. Showery. 21. Very fine : cloudy :
tain. 22.’ Cloudy and fine. 23. Overcast. 24: Very fine: uniformly overcast.
25. Very’ fine. 26. Sultry.’ 27. Cloudless and hot. 28. Uniformly overcast :
sultry; cold at night; range of temperature 45°. 29, 30. Clear and dry air.
+ 1,,;Mean, temperature of the month, ....,:<ssesccesecesereeresroncese 58°65
Mean temperature of June 1855 ......sccesceeeese a cma Be anaes 57°98
Mean temperature of June for the last thirty years ......... 60 *31
‘Average amount of rain in June” os eee lec ceeeese eee eee cece eeeee 1880 inch.
~ Boston.—Sune 1. Cloudy: rain a.m. and rm. 2—6. Fine. 7. Cloudy. 8—
11. Fine: 12. Cloudy: rain rm. 13,14. Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 15. Cloudy.
16.,Fine,,17. Rain am. . 18. Cloudy... 19. Cloudy: rain a.m. 20. Cloudy.
21, Fine: rain p.m, 22, Cloudy: rain a.M.and p.m. 23,24. Cloudy. 25. Fine.
26. Cloudy: thermometer 86° p.m. 27. Fine: thunder p.m. 28. Cloudy. 29.
Fine. 30. Rain a.m. and P.M.
Sandwick Manse, Orkney.—June 1. Cloudy a.m. : drizzie P.M. 2. Drizzle a.m.:
bright p.m. 3. Cloudy a.m.and p.m. 4. Cloudy A.M.: drops P.M. 5. Bright
A.M. : cloudy p.m. 6. Cloudy a.m.and p.m. 7. Rain a.m.: bright p.m. 8. Clear
Aim. and p.m. 9. Cloudy a.m.: drops, clear p.m. 10, Clear a.m: showers P.M.
1], Rain a.M..and p.m. 12,13, Bright a.m.: clear, fine p.m. 14. Cloudy a.m. :
sleet-showers p.M. 15. Clear a.m.: cloudy p.m. 16. Showers a.m.: cloudy p.m.
17. Showers a.m. and p.m. 18. Bright a.m.: showers p.m. 19. Rain a.m.:
bright p.m. 20. Cloudy a.m.: bright p.m. 21. Rain a.m.: bright p.m. 22.
Bright a.M. and p.m. 23. Clear a.m.: cloudy p.m. 24. Fog a.m.: drizzle p.m.
25. Hazy a.m.: damp p.m. 26. Drops a.M.; rain,clear p.m. 27. Bright a.m. :
damp p.m. 28. Damp a.m.: showers p.m. 29, 30. Clear a.m.: cloudy p.m.
Mean temperature of June for previous twenty-nine years ,.. 52°76
“~Mean temperature of this month ......... Rik eh ticket pop cnet we OL °47
Mean temperature of June 1855 — w.iceeecs ese ee esse sen ees eel GRRE
Average quantity of rain in June for previous sixteen years... 2°24 inches.
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THE ANNALS
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
[SECOND SERIES.]
No. 105. SEPTEMBER 1856.
-—
<<
XVIII.—Attempis at a Natural Arrangement of Birds.
By Aurrep R. Warace.,
Ir we examine the varied form and structure of Birds with a
view to their natural arrangement, we see as it were intuitively,
that certain well-marked groups exist; which can be distinctly
_ separated from the class, can be easily defined, and will contain
species which are more nearly related to each other than to any
other birds. Such are the Swimmers and Waders, which together
may be called Water Birds, and of the propriety of the separation
of which from the whole of the Land.birds there has never been
a difference of opinion among naturalists. Again, among land
birds the Accipitres or Raptores of naturalists, containing the
Hawks, Vultures, and Owls, form a well-marked group, all the
members of which are undeniably related among themselves,
but are separated as it were by a chasm from all other birds;
for we consider the supposed affinity of the Owls with the Goat-
suckers to be quite incorrect ; those birds resembling each other
only in a few unimportant particulars, while in all essential
points of structure they widely differ. A third group which can
also be readily distinguished and separated from the rest, is that
of the Rasores or Gallinacee. The Pigeons are generally in-
eluded in this order; but in that case a definition of Gallinacez
becomes impossible, as so many of their most marked pecu-
hiarities do not exist in the Columbe. It is however extra-
ordinary, that though the Pigeons possess more characters which
connect them with Perching birds than with Rasores, yet it is
more easy to conceive their connexion by intermediate links with
the latter than with the former ; for it has never yet been pointed
out what particular family or genus of Perching birds makes the
least approach to a Pigeon. We therefore conceive that the
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol. xviii. 13
194 Mr.A.R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
Columbee should form a distinct order, and should be considered
asan abnormal and passerme development of Rasores, repre-
senting the Perchers, but.having no direct affinity with them...
_ Having thus eliminated a considerable number of generally
large-sized birds, we have still remaining by far the larger .por-
tion, forming the Passeres, Insessores, or Perching birds. Out
of about 7000 known birds, upwards of 5000 are Perchers.,. It
is to this great group, or rather to a limited portion of it, that
we intend to devote the present paper.
The Passerine order comprises, at. once the most perfect, the
most beautiful, and the most familiar of birds. . The feathered
inhabitants of our ficlds, gardens, hedge-rows and. houses belong
to it. They cheer us with their song, and delight us with their
varied colours. Their activity and elegant motions are constant
sources of pleasure to every lover of nature... They are, the birds
with which from our infancy and boyhood we are most, familiar,
and we therefore involuntarily derive from them. that. ideal,.or
typical form of animal life with which we connect the. general
term, Bird. And thus domg, who can doubt jbut that. we)are
correct ? ‘The lightness, activity, elegant forms, brilliant colour
and harmonious voice by which birds as a whole are peculiarly
distinguished from all other animals, find in this. group. their
fullest expression and most complete development. Here too
the greatest variety.of forms and habits is found, which, are all
connected, together by such insensible gtadations, that. to;diss,
cover, in eyery case their true affinities has ever been. and _ still
remains one of the most difficult, and at the same, time most.
interesting problems the naturalist has to solve.
The writer of this paper has enjoyed the great privilege of
observing the habits of many tropical birds in a state of nature
in §, America, and is at present doing so in the Indian Islands.
Every naturalist knows how important this is towards a proper
appreciation of the affinities of Birds, to which their habits are
generally a sure guide, or at all events of much value in con-
junction with other structural characters. Without pretending
to any great knowledge of anatomy, he believes that no intel-
ligent. person can. be in the constant habit of skinning) birds
without obtaining much information on very important, parts of
their. internal ‘structure. Even mere external characters, such
as the texture, and) arrangement of the feathers, the form and,
structure of the tarsi, the form of the nostrils and of the tongue,
can be examined far better in a recently killed bird than ina,
dried or,.mounted. specimen. .In the process of skinning we
also, ascertain the thickness and tenacity of the skin, the solidity
of, the. bones, the form and. strength of the skull, and the
texture,.and contents of the..stomach, which chareteage are
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 195
perhaps, for the determination of affinities, of as much import-
ance as any which can be pointed out. Observations of this
nature have been applied by him to an arrangement of the
Passeres; not as a perfect scheme, but as a starting-point to guide
future inquiries. One portion of this arrangement, with the
families included in which he is best acquainted, he now wishes
to submit’ to the judgment of ornithologists.
The method illustrated at the commencement of this paper, of
marking off certain groups from the general mass, has been
satisfactory, because the portions so severed have been not only
capable of definition, but have contained only species which have
agreed in all essential points of their structure and ceconomy.
They have therefore met with general acceptance, and in all the
different systems of ornithologists these groups have scarcely
suffered any variation. But in attempting to carry out this
system in a further division of the Passeres, no such satis-
factory and generally accepted results have been produced. No
syste matist las been satisfied with the arrangements of his
predecessors, and, after an endless variety of divisions and sub-
divisions, we are as far off from any generally accepted system of
arrangement as ever.
’ The reason of this we conceive to be, that we have to deal
witha mass of species in which the series is so nearly complete,
that there are no more of those great chasms separating consi-
derable portions from each other, and that the affinities are so
mtricate and minutely varied, and so cut up as it were by minor
gaps between genera and families, that any attempt to form
great and well-marked subdivisions must fail, for the simple
reason that such are not marked out by nature. In such a case
an arrangement may be possible, but a classification may not be
so. We must therefore give up altogether the principle of divi-
sion, and employ that of agglutination or juxtaposition. We
shall best explain our meaning by pointing out the errors we
conceive to have been produced by the former method in most
modern classifications.
~The system of Cuvier, as modified by Vigors, Swainson, and
G. R. Gray, may be fairly taken as that most generally in use, at
least in this country. The tribes of the Conirostres, Dentirostres,
Fissirostres, Tenuirostres, and Scansores, are said to be the na-
tural divisions of the Passeres, the main difference of opinion
being as towhether the Scansores shouldor should notform a sepa-
rate order, a question we believe to be of no importance what-—
_ ever. These divisions being accepted, every bird is forced mto-
one of them, and the result has been the most incongruous and
unnatural combinations. For instance, in the Tenuirostres ‘are
combined the Humming Birds and the Sun Birds (Nectarinia),
families which in a natural arrangement would have, in our opi-
13*
o
196 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
nion, the mass of the other Passeres intervening between. them.
In the case of these two families, a mere outward resemblance
appears to have been universally mistaken for an affinity...A
similarity im. size, in the prevalence of metallic colours, and. in
the slenderness of a very variable bill, has been taken to. over-
balance the most important structural differences. The universal
characteristics of the Hummers are, excessively long wings, and
as excessively small feet, with more or less united toes, They
_ take their food exclusively on the wing. Every motion is.made
upon the wing. The feet are solely used. as means of: support,
never for locomotion. The Sun Birds and their allies, the Cere-
bide of America, have on the other hand long, legs. and, toes,
the hinder toe especially being very long and. powerful ; they,are
therefore as capable of hopping and perching as any of the most
highly developed Passeres. Their wings,too, are short and round,
quite incapable of any powerful flight, and their, tail. almost, in--
variably short and even. Much stress has been laid, upon.the
similar form and. structure of the tongue... But, the: extensile
tubular tongue only exists in some genera (Anthreptes, Arachno-
thera), while in others it is short, flat, and not extensible (Diceum,
Cinnyris, Cerebide). There is therefore no. general, agreement
of structure to unite these groups, except. the.solitary.and
trivial one of an elongate and slender bill. (71109
On similar principles, we believe the Conirostres and Denti-
rostres to be equally untenable and unnatural. . They. are. prot
fessedly founded on one character only, and. not.on. general
structure; and it is therefore not to be wondered at, that in their
attempts to pay some little regard to natural affinities, while
forcing the genera and families into these divisions, no two natu-
ralists should be able to arrive at the same results, ..The-asso-
ciation of the Hornbills with the Crows, the separation of the
Larks from the Wagtails, and the necessity for putting Denti-
rostral birds (Tanagers and Jays) in the Conirostral, tribe, are
some of the inconsistent results of the system.
The remaining groups, the Scansores and the Fissirostres, we
believe to be much more natural, and in fact to be the only ones
which can be distinctly separated from the Passeres, of which
they form an abnormal development... It is to the arrangement
of these two groups that we more particularly address our-
selves. ‘ois!
_ The. Fissirostres are those passerine birds .whose. feet , are
adapted solely for a state of rest,—all motion being performed
by the wings. | With very rare exceptions, they never move the
shortest. distance by means of their feet,—a character which di-
stinguishes them at once from all. other. Passeres, which either
hop, climb, or walk almost incessantly. Such a peculiar economy
must evidently depend upon corresponding peculiarities of or-
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 197
ganization ; and it is a remarkable proof of how little importance
is the form of the bill alone as an index of affinity, that in this
highly natural group we find every form of bill,—conical,
toothed, hooked, serrated, spear-shaped, curved, and flat. The
external characters which distinguish these birds are, very short
and weak legs, long, or at all events powerful wings, and a wide
gape. Ther characteristic habit is to sit motionless, watching
for their prey, to dart after it and seize it on the wing, and to
return to their origial position to swallow it. The groups which
possess these peculiarities m the greatest perfection are the
Trogons and the Kingfishers, with which we shall commence
our inquiry into the extent of the tribe. We must observe at
starting, that many continental ornithologists still place the
Trogons among the Climbers, because they have their toes
placed two and two, whereas those of the Kingfishers are
arranged’ as in the majority of birds. But this is a point of
detail which: does not in the least affect the habits, for the toes
' are in both cases connected together at their basis so as to form
a’ broad sole, giving’a firm support to the bird without grasping.
In both the leg is equally short and weak, and in both all the
habits dependent on the feet are precisely similar. Of how very
little importance this change in the position of the toes is, unac-
companied by a change in their form, motion, or mode’ of con-
nexion with each other, we may judge from the fact of there
being ‘species of ‘Kingfishers and of Woodpeckers with only
three toes, and which yet have no perceptible difference of habits
from the rest of the family. It would be as reasonable (and as
unnatural) to withdraw these birds from their respective families
and form of them a new three-toed family, as to separate the
Kingfishers from the Trogons for the reasons assigned. As an
instance’ how totally unable the Trogons are to use their feet for
anything like climbing, we may mention that the Trogons of
South America feed principally on fruit, which one would think
they would get by climbing or walking after if they could. But
no ; they take their station on a bare branch, about the middle
of the tree, and having fixed their attention on some particular
tempting fruit, they dart at it, seize it dexterously on the wing,
and return to their original seat. Often, while waiting under a
fruit-tree for Chatterers or Pigeons, have we received the first inti- -
mation of the presence of a Trogon by the whir-r-r of its wings
asit darted after a fruit. It is curious that this habit seems con-
fined to the Trogons of America. In the East I have never yet
observed it, and in the numerous’ specimens I have opened
nothing has been found. but insects: ° The AfricansTrogons ‘alse
appear to be wholly insectivorous.
Somewhat intermediate between the Trogons and Kingfishers
are the Bee-eaters (Meropide) and the Jacamars: (Galbulide).
198 Mr. A.R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
The last possess the metallic plumage of the American Tro-
gons, and habits almost identical, while the bill is an approach
to that of a Kingfisher. The Motmots (Prionitide) are also
closely related to the Trogons, and may be considered as an off-
shoot of them, or of the Bee-eaters, parallel to the Jacamars. The
habits of all these birds, and of the small Eastern Kingfishers of
the genus Ceyz, are almost identical, and we think there can be no
reasonable doubt of the very close affinity of these five families.
The Rollers (Coraciade) are the next group whose affinities we have
to consider. These birds have for a long time been strangely mis-
placed among the strong-legged Crows and Grackles, whereas the
short legs (with the toes united in some genera), wide gape,
insect food captured on the wing, the nest in holes of trees or in
the earth, and the colour and-form of the eggs, all bring them
close to the Bee-eaters, Motmots, and Kingfishers, the two former
of which appear to be their most direct affinities. . The strue-
ture of the skeleton, according to the best observers, confirms
this result, which may therefore be considered as well established. —
We now arrive at the Capitonide, or Puff Birds of S.America,
which, like the Trogons, have been often, placed among the
elimbing birds, from having their toes placed two and, two.
They are, however, true sedentary birds, with habits exactly
analogous to those of the Jacamars, Bee-eaters, and, Trogons.
Some, like the Tamatias, frequent the gloomiest. and. thickest
parts of the forest, where they sit motionless on some low branch,
aud thence take short flights after insects. Others, like Monasa
and Chelidoptera, frequent more open situations, sitting on bare
branches often of dead trees, and take longer flights, which in
Chelidoptera almost vie with those of Swallows for ease and
rapidity. The last-mentioned genera make their nests in holes
in sloping ground on the banks of streams,—a habit exceedingly
general among Fissirostral birds, but we believe quite unknown
among the Scansores. Their nearest affinities seem to be with
the Meropide aud Trogonida, though their large heads and heavy
bodies would show some approximation to the Kingfishers.
We now arrive at some birds which have always been asso-
ciated with the present group, of which, in fact, they appear to be
the highest, development, but which are nevertheless widely sepa-
rated from the families we have hitherto been’ considering.
They are the Swallows and Goatsuckers. In these the power
of capturing insects on the wing has reached its maximum.
The gape is enormously wide, the feet. generally very ‘short,
and the wings long and powerful... Even between the two there
is, however, a considerable hiatus ;. but. no one has ever doubted
that they are more nearly allied to each other than to any
other. birds, The question then remains, to which family of the
Fissivostres ave either of them allied? . Where is the link that
Ie ee Se
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 199
connects them? The Swallows appear to us to ‘be farthest
removed from any of the birds hitherto placed in the tribe.
Their small size, powerful flight, and compact plumage, added
to’ their strongly grasping feet, seem to shut out any’ direct
affinity with them. It is, then, in the Caprimulgide that we
must look to discover the affinity we are in search of;' and we
believe that the only group to which we can approach them is
the Trogonide. The average size, the excessively thin skin, the
‘mass of downy plumage, the general form, the nature of the
food, and, in many species, the mode of capture, all point to an
affinity in this direction. The different structure of the feet is
the most important character on the opposite side of the question ;
but as this equally exists in such an undeniably closely allied
family as the Prionitide, it need not be considered an insur-
mountable obstacle. There is, no doubt, still a very wide chasm
to’ be passed over; but it will be still wider if we compare them
‘with any other family of the Fissirostres, with which their ana-
tomical structure, as well as the general considerations before
alluded to, compel us to place them. We consider, then, the
Swallows ‘and Goatsuckers to exhibit the greatest development
of the Fissirostral' form; or, if the term is preferred, to be' the
typical. groups. And, as a consequence of this position, they
can ‘neither of them serve as the connecting links or transition
to any other tribe or order of birds; for if the Fissirostral
character is what serves to distinguish this tribe from all others,
it must certainly follow that those birds which have this cha-
racter im its highest development must be most distinctly sepa-
rated from all the species of any other group. We have here
another reason for believing that the resemblance of the Goat-
suckers tothe Owls is one of externals, and not of essentials,—
of-analogy, but not of affinity.
» We have now briefly passed in review all the families which
possess the characters of Fissirostral birds in a plain and obvious
degree, and which, without the greatest violation of their natural
affinities, cannot be placed elsewhere in the system ; but there
are several others which have been associated with these by many
naturalists,’some of them we believe erroneously. And, first,
the Lurylaimide, or Broadbills of the Eastern Archipelago, have
been, ‘and still are, generally placed among the Fissirostres.
They. have, however, in our opinion, no right whatever to this
situation, being true Passeres, allied to the Cotingas and Querulas
of 8: America. The Eurylaimus Javanicus and the Cymbirhynchus
macrorhynchus feed inthe same manner as ordinary percliing
birds, hopping about the branches of trees, and picking off the
fruit, which forms their principal subsistence: | Their legs are of a
moderate length, their toes' strong, and the hind toe large and
powerful, which is never the case in'true Fissirostres. (tis this
200 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
peculiar conformation of the feet which affects the whole character
and habits of these birds, which is not the case with the trivial
circumstance of the toes being partially: united. They have,
moreover, none of the Fissirostral habits, nor any modification’ of
them, as they do not capture imsects on the wing, those which
we have found in their stomachs being always ants and small
Coleoptera, picked off the bark and leaves of the trees.) To what
erroneous results a dependence on such isolated characters: as
more or less united toes will lead, is seen by the Manakins and
Rupicole of §. America being also often considered as’ Fissi-
rostres on the same groundsas the Hurylaimi. Those birds are,
however, purely frugivorous, are excessively active on their feet,
have strong skins, firmly-set plumage (as have also the Hury-
laimi), and, in fact, not one single natural character which can
remove them from the great mass of Perching birds. The beau-
tiful Calyptomena viridis has also all the habits of the Chatterers,
and cannot be separated from them without a great) violation’ of
natural affinities. | ‘9
The little Todies of the W. Indies have also’ been usually
classed. as Fissirostres; but their moderately long and ‘slender
legs, short rounded wings, and their excessive activity on‘their
feet, are so totally opposed to the characters of every other
member of that group, that. we think them: far more naturally
associated with such Flycatchers as Todirostrum and Megalophus.
From the description of Mr. Gosse, in his ‘ Birds:of Jamaica,’:it
appears that they are most active little birds, hoppmg, perching,
and flying after insects in every possible place and) position’:
how totally opposed is this to the general character of the Fissi-
rostres, which are sedentaryand motionless, except when upon the
wing! We cannot allow the one character of their nidification
in holes on the banks of streams to counterbalance such a total
diversity in structure and habits. It is, besides, impossible to
point out any one group of Fissirostres to which they can be
said. to make any approach, whereas they have the. greatest
possible resemblance to the genera of Flycatchers above men-
tioned... We must therefore unhesitatingly decide, that) the
Todies are not to enter among the Fissirostres.
In place, however, of these two families which we: reject, we
introduce two others which have not generally found: a ‘place
here. . From an examination ofythe structure of the feet and
toes, and from a consideration of their-habits, we are led to con-
clude that the Hornbills are Fissirostral ‘birds, though of a very
abnormal form, ‘Their'very short legs, and united toes with a
broad flat sole, are exactly similar to:those of the Kingfishers.
They have powerful, wings, but their heavy bodies oblige them
to use much exertion in flight, which is not therefore very rapid,
though often, extended, to considerable distances... They are (in
a a eee eS ae eee ‘whe ate
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 201
the Indian Archipelago at least) entirely frugivorous ; and ‘it is
curious, to observe how their structure modifies their mode: of
feeding. They are far too heavy to dart after the fruit in the
manner of the Trogons; they cannot even fly quickly from
branch to branch, picking a fruit here and a fruit there ; neither
have they strength or agility enough to venture on the more
slender branches with the Pigeons and Barbets, but they alight
heavily on. a branch of considerable thickness, and then, looking
cautiously round them, pick off any fruits that may be within
their reach, and jerk them down their throat by a motion similar
to that used. by the Toucans, and which has been erroneously
described as throwing the fruit up in the air before swallowing
it:\ When they have gathered all within their reach, they move
sideways along the branch: by short jumps, or rather a kind of
shuffle, and the: smaller species even hop across to other branches,
when they again gather what is within their reach. When in
this:;way they: have progressed as far as the bough will safely
carry them, they take a flight to another part of the tree, where
they,pursue the same course. It thus happens that they soon
exhaust all:the fruit within their reach ; and long after they have
left ‘a tree, the Barbets and Hurylaimi find abundance of food
oni ‘theslender branches and extreme twigs. We see; therefore,
that their very short legs and syndactyle feet remove them com-
pletely from the» vicinity of the Toucans, in which’ the legs
are actively employed in moving about after their food. Their
wings; too, are as powerful as those of the Toucans are weak,
and jit.is only the great weight of their bodies that prevents them
from being capable of rapid and extensive flight. As it is, their
strength of wing is: shown by the great force with which they
beat: the air; producing a sound, in the larger species, which can
be distinctly heard a mile off, and is even louder than that made
by the flight of the great Muscovy Duck. They are still farther
_ removed from the Crows, with which they have also been very
generally associated, solely because they are Coyirostres, or conic-
beaked !—another instance of the extremely erroneous results
which are arrived at by a dependence on a single character, and
especially on one-which so little influences the habits of «a bird
as the external form of its bill.
The: preceding deductions from the habits of these birds had
been made before I became aware that Mr. Eyton had ‘arrived at
similar results from anatomical considerations alone; and I had
great pleasure in finding that there was such solid support’ for
the opinion which I had formed, entirely from my own ‘observa-
tions. The only- question that' remains then ‘is,.to:what family
of the Fissirostres do: they »most' nearly approach? © A‘ careful
consideration leads: us to: fix: upon the ‘Kingfishers.»''They are
among the largest birds in the group, they have’the largest bills,
202 Mr. A.R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
and, in the structure of the feet, the two are almost identical.
The Hornbills of Africa are said to feed principally on reptiles,
as do the King-Hunters (Dacelo) of Australia. We look upon
Hornbills, therefore, as one of the abnormal developments: of
Fissirostral birds, of which+they are the largest, the least elegant,
and the least gifted with facilities for locomotion and for obtain-
ing their food ; and that their nearest affinities lie im the diree-
tion of the Kingfishers.
The remaining family, which, according to our views, belongs
to the Fissirostral tribe, is that of the Trochilide, or Humming
Birds, hitherto always placed in the Tenuirostres, which we have
before adduced some reasons for believing to be an altogether
artificial group. In this innovation we are not aware of having
any support; yet we think it possible to show good reasons for
it. What is it that characterizes the Fissirostral group’ but
minimized feet and maximized wings, always connected: with
some modification of structure, adapted to give facilities for
seizing the food with the mouth? and all these the Hummers
possess in a remarkable degree. In the ease and flexibility of
their motions on the wing they surpass even the Swallows. Their
little feet exactly resemble those of some of the Swifts (Dendro-
chelidon), and the long, variously-curved bill and extensile tongue
give them the same facilities for obtamimg their food as do
the short bill and wide gape in the other. They are, too (we
believe), like the Swallows, purely insectivorous ; for in every
specimen we have examined the stomach was full of insects,
principally minute flower-frequenting Coleoptera. No doubt
they do partake occasionally of the nectar, or the pollen of the
flowers they frequent, but as a delicacy rather than as solid food:
The firmness and solidity of their muscle, the thickness of their
skin, and the immense muscular exertion which they constantly
make, can doubtless be supported only by animal food, which the
very small space occupied by their stomach and intestines also
shows to be the case. But a stronger proof, of this assertion is,
that there are many species which never frequent flowers! All
the species of the genus Phaéthornis which we met with on the
Amazon were found only in the lower parts of the forest, among
the shrubs and palms which rise only a few feet from the ground.
Here we have often seen them searching the leaves for insects,
supporting themselves almost motionless in the air, their body
erect and their bill pomted upwards, and passing rapidly over
the under surface of each leaf in succession. They would often
dart suddenly out into an open space, and remain motionless a
few feet from my face, and then) fly off again to repeat their
search for their favourite food.) At the various trees in flower
about which I have observed and shot Hummers, I have never seen
a species of Phaéthornis, whereas I used daily to meet with them
a ee ee ee eS er
‘ =
> ee ee
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 203
in the gloomy jungle, where not a flower exists; and yet, from
never being able to see them at.a greater distance than three or
four yards, they were the most difficult of all to obtain, without
blowing them to pieces. Many species also hunt for insects in
the air, exactly like true Fissirostral birds. I have often observed
them in the evening, on the banks of streams, coming out of the
jungle just as the Goatsuckers were beginning to appear, and
darting about after the mosquitos and other minute insects,
returning after each short circuit to the edge of the forest, where
they remained balanced in the air for a moment and then darted
off again. At other times they will sit on the topmost twig of
a dead tree, and making short circuits in the air, return to it,
exactly in the same manner as do the Jacamars and Puff Birds.
There is also another interesting fact to be mentioned. I had
brought me a nest contaiming two little Hummers, apparently
very recently hatched. I tried to feed them, and gave them,
first, according to established rule, syrup made of honey and
water; and also of molasses ; but the poor little creatures did
not, at all like it, though they opened their mouths as if raven-
ously hungry. They were nearly choked by the liquid, and tried
all\they) could to spit it out, which they generally succeeded
in doing. Finding all my efforts to suit their taste in vain, I
resolved to try if they ‘liked insects better, and caught some
minute flies which were very abundant. On dropping one: of
these into their mouths, they immediately closed their beak and
by a great muscular effort of the throat swallowed it, and opened
their mouths again for another. In this way they would each
take fifteen or twenty little flies one after the other before they
were satisfied. I thus kept them alive three or four days, and
could I have bestowed sufficient time and constant) attention
upon them, there is no doubt they would have lived) much
longer. At all events the experiment satisfied me that the young
Hummers are fed by their parents with insects, and not. with
honey. :
I also observed that the beak of these little birds was. very
short, triangular, and very broad at the base,—in fact exactly the
beak of a Swallow slightly lengthened. We see thereforein the
Humming Birds an extreme and peculiar development of the
Hirundine form of the Fissirostres. - The wings of the Swallow,
already among the longest in the whole class of Birds, are still
further lengthened. The feet, already so short, are still further
reduced, The plumage, which in the Swallow has beeome more
compact and appressed than im any other of the Fissirostres, has
these qualities still further developed... The skin, which im’ the
tribe generally is thin and tender, is in) the Swallows compara-
tively thick and strong, and in the Hummers is perhaps stronger
in proportion to their size than. m any other birds. | The billjis
204 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
that of a Swallow lengthened out to contain the long and exten-
sile tongue; and the vital force and energy which enables the
Swallows to enjoy such long-continued and rapid motion; seems
here to have reached a point beyond which further development
is scarcely possible. How then can we refuse them a ‘place
among those birds of which they possess the distinctive cha-
racters in the most eminent degree, while at the same time we
keep together birds as different from each other as the King-
fisher from the Swallow, because they possess those characters ?
But it will be objected that the structure of the tongue is so
different and peculiar, and agrees so well with that of the Sun
Birds. But we have already mentioned, and again repeat, that
in closely allied genera of Sun Birds the tongue is totally dif-
ferent, and that therefore it is not a character to outweigh the
whole structure and habits of a group of birds: moreover, in
other groups the same difference in the tongue is not held to be
sufficient to separate birds otherwise allied... The Cuckoos and
the Toucans have ever been placed near each other, yet how dif-
ferent their tongues! while the Woodpeckers, still farther differ-
ing from them, are notwithstanding placed in the same tribe of
Climbing birds. We might also expect, that when the structure
of a bird had become so peculiarly modified as to bring it to seek
the same food in the same places as another bird of quite-a dif-
ferent type of structure, we-should find each of them gifted with
the same peculiarly modified organ adapted to such habits ; and
we therefore find that the Sun Birds and the Hummers, though
with a widely different general structure, yet have a similarly
constructed tongue which they both use in. extracting minute
insects from flowers and leaves. An exactly analogous instance
exists in the Picide and Dendrocolaptide, two families as different
in general structure as the Trochilide and Nectarinide, but which
yet have one striking similarity in the rigid tail, which enables
them both to rest vertically against a tree while extracting insects
from the bark. We contend that these cases are strictly ana-
logous, and that there is no more real affinity in the one case
than in the other. The character which is most opposed to this
view of their affinities is their nidification ; but we think this is
not only not an insuperable obstacle to their being thus placed,
but one that we might to some degree have anticipated. In
some of the Swallows we have already seen one deviation from
the general character of the tribe in the carefully constructed
nest of clay. In the Goatsuckers we have another, the Podargus
of Australia forming a nest of sticks and grass on the branches
of a tree. We should therefore expect that birds so peculiarly
and highly organized as the Hummers;sorzaérial in their habits,
and so intimately associated with flowers‘and foliage, would have
a modified and characteristic form of nidification.
Mr, A.R. Wallace on the. Natural Arrangement of Birds. 205
_We have now completed a very brief and. imperfect review of
those families which we conceive can be separated from the mass
of Passeres.to form the tribe of the Fissirostres, and in the
accompanying diagram. we have endeavoured to represent at one
glance their various affinities.
Diagram of the Affinities of the Fissirostres.
TROCHILIDZ.
(Hummers.)
HIRUNDINIDZ.,
(Swallows. )
. CAPRIMULGIDZ.
(Goatsuckers. )
TROGONIDZ. PRIONITIDZ.
(Trogons.) (Motmots.)
|
GALBULIDZ, —<=. MEROPIDZ, —_=_.» CORACIADZ,
(Jacamars.) (Bee-eaters.) (Rollers.)
‘CAPITONIDE. .
(Puff Birds.) ALCEDINIDE.
(Kingfishers.)
'
BUCEROTIDZ.
(Hornbills;)
206 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
It is intended that the distances between the several names
should show to some extent the relative amount of affinity ex-
isting between them ; and the connecting lines show im what
direction the affinities are supposed to lie. By referring to the
diagram it will be scen that there are seven families placed
close together, forming a central mass.. Beyond the Trogons at’
some distance come the Goatsuckers and Swallows, while at the
greatest possible distance from each other are the Hornbills and
the Hummers, the former having a distant affinity to the King-
fishers, the latter to the Swallows.
We may here mention that it is an article of our zoological
faith, that all gaps between species, genera, or larger groups are
the result of the extinction of species during former epochs of
the world’s history, and we believe this view will enable us ‘more
justly to appreciate the correctness of our arrangement. For in-
stance, let us suppose that the gaps shown in this diagram’ have
been all filled up by genera and families forming a natural trans-
ition from one of our groups to the other, and we shalk be ‘able
to judge whether our arrangement will agree with such a sup-
position. Thus, if the space between the Kingfishers and Horn-
bills has been filled up by a natural succession of families, we
can see that the change must have been to heavier, larger, and
larger-billed birds, and we see such a change begun already from
the Jacamars to the Kingfishers. So from the Goatsuckers to
the Swallows the change is to smaller, stronger-winged; thicker-|
skinned, and brighter-coloured birds,—exactly the kind of change’
which continued on will lead us to the Hummers. On the same
principles we may conclude, that as the change from the Jacamars
to the Rollers is to stronger-legged birds which do not feed
solely on the wing but also on the ground, so the same change
continued on would lead us to true Passeres in which the pecu-
liar Fissirostral characters altogether disappear. The Coraczade,
therefore, are either an extreme Passerine form of the tribe, or
else form a transition by direct affinity to the Passeres.
The method of representing affinities here adopted we believe
to be of the highest value. It is founded on the method sug-
gested by the late Mr. Strickland, and which we believe Dr.
Lindley has been the first naturalist to adopt, namely that of
placing to the right and left of every family or other group the
names of those to which it is most nearly allied. But this alone
conveys no idea to the mind, especially in an extensive group,
till represented. by a diagram, the most convenient way to con--
struct which we have found to be as follows. Suppose you have
a family of a dozen genera which you wish to arrange ; first write
down the names of the genera in any order, and right and left of
them those to which you believe them to be allied most closely.
—:
eS Pe ee ee eS
Sy are Sea
Mr. A, R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 207
Then take a dozen pieces of paper or card cut out with a gun-
wadding punch, and on each write aname of a genus. Place them
on a table and arrange them according to your list. This will
not always be so easy a matter as it appears at first sight, for
you will most likely find that you have set down some conflicting
affinities, or that you have mistaken some mere analogies for
affinities. When you have them in tolerable order, the next
thing is to get the distances between them to bear some propor-
tion to the closeness or remoteness of the affinities, and lastly,
bring the whole into symmetry by placing what appears to be
the main. line of affinities in a straight line, and bringing the
others into branches right or left from it. When this is done,
the positions can be copied on a sheet of paper and kept for
reference as a trial-arrangement, which is to be tested by every
new fact that is procured, and by any additional knowledge that
may be gained on the structure or habits of any of the species.
The advantage claimed for this particular form of diagram is
that-it.¢an:be printed with ordinary type, whereas any circles or
figures: to! represent the groups require woodcuts or lithographs.
It.1s, much.to: be wished that in every systematic work each tribe
and family should be illustrated by some such diagram, without
which it-1s often impossible to tell whether two families follow
each other because the author thinks them allied, or merely be-
cause the exigencies of a consecutive series compel him so to
place»them.~ Thus, Bonaparte places in his ‘ Conspectus,’ the
Trochilide between the Cypselide and the Phytotomide. . By
making them follow the Swifts he would seem to take the same
view of their affinities as is here done, but by placing imme-
diately after them the Phytotomide, one is at a loss to understand
by what principles he has been guided. An explanatory dia-
gram, or even the plan of denoting the affinities as adopted by
Dr. Lindley, would remove such doubts, and render a work of.
such great labour and research as the one referred to less likely
to be misunderstood.
On the Affinities and Limits of the Scansorial Birds.
» However. much systematists have differed as to what families
should enter into or be excluded from the Scansores or Climbers,
considered as a natural group of Birds, there are four families
which. have formed part of it.in every system. These are the
Woodpeckers (Picide), the Parrots (Psittacide), the Cuckoos
(Cuculide), and the Toucans (Rhamphastide)... We may there-
fore take these as.a basis, to inquire in what respects the Scan-
sores differ from the true Passeres and from the Fissirostres, and
to deduce their natural characters.. Having done this, we may.
208 Mr.:Ai R, Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
inquire further if any and what other groups can be naturally
associated with them.
The first thing that strikes us on comparing these birds with
each other is, that we could hardly pick four families from the
whole class which should have more diversified forms of bill.
The resemblance and affinity between them must therefore exist
in other parts of their body, and we find it in their wings and
feet. The former are generally short, rounded, and very weak,
quite incapable of rapid or long-continued flight, while the latter
are remarkably large, powerful, and peculiarly formed... They
may be said therefore to be the very reverse of the Fissirostres,
whose grand features are large wings and small feet, while in
the Scansores the small wings and large feet are equally cha-
racteristic. But it is the peculiar structure quite as much as the
size of the feet to which we must pay attention. The toes are
always exceedingly long, and the outer toe is either turned com-
pletely backwards or nearly at right angles to the others... This
toe is often the longest of all, while the true hind toe is always
small, and sometimes altogether wanting. It is this peculiar
structure that altogether separates this group from all the short-
winged and strong-footed Passeres, whether they are walkers,
erchers, or climbers.
The habits that result from this form of foot and wing are, as
might be expected, to a great extent characteristic, and will serve
us as a valuable guide in those cases of anomalous form and
structure where the position of a genus or family might be other-
wise doubtful. These birds then are truly arboreal, rarely de-
scending voluntarily to the ground. They use their wings only
for passing from tree to tree, and, whether frugivorous or insecti-
vorous, they obtain their food in or upon trees. Their motions
along the trunk or branches, or among the thick foliage, are
either true climbing, or a succession of rapid hops producing an:
appearance of climbing. ‘The Woodpecker runs up the vertical
trunk, and assisted by a peculiarly modified tail and a powerful
wedge-shaped bill, seeks his food beneath the bark. The Parrot
climbs, assisted by his hooked bill, after the fruit, which alone
he feeds on. The insect food of the Cuckoos is sought for upon
the leaves and smaller branches, and they progress among these
so rapidly, that they have been constantly mistaken by us for
squirrels or other small arboreal animals. The Toucans again
hop actively about the tops of lofty trees, devouring an immense
quantity of fruit.
Now, though these four families have evidently more connexion
with each other than with any other birds, yet they present so
many important points of difference, as to show that they are in
reality very distant from each other, and that an immense variety
—
MreA. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 209
of forms must have intervened to-have filled up the chasms, and
formed a complete series presenting a gradual transition from
one to the other. The differences in the form of the bill have
already been alluded to, but those of the tongue are perhaps still
more extraordinary ; the fleshy tongue of the Parrot, the barbed
extensile spear of the Woodpecker, the short horny tongue of
‘the Cuckoo, and the long and slender feathered tongue of the
Touean; would seem rather to belong to birds most remote from
each other, than to those for whom we can find no nearer allies.
We shouldbe inclined to consider therefore that they form
widely distant portions of a vast group, once perhaps as exten-
sive and varied as the whole of the existing Passeres.
Notwithstanding the difference of their food, it. is evident that
the Cuckoos and the Toucans approach more closely to each
other than to the others. Their legs are longer, and they con-
sequently hop, which the other two never do. Their bills are ,
similar. in form, their plumage is in both much more loose than
either in the Parrots or the Woodpeckers, which again, in these
peculiarities in which they agree, to some extent approach each
other. » We would place therefore the Parrots and the Wood-
peckers at one extreme of the group, and also considerably re-
moved from each other, while the Toucans and Cuckoos, rather
nearer together, should be placed at the other extreme.
eoThe Barbets (Bucconide of Lesson and Bonaparte, Capitonine
ofG.sR. Gray) have also been always included amongst the
Climbers, but their place has been so often varied and their affini-
ties so much misunderstood that they require a separate con-
sideration, especially as in the systems of Swainson and Gray
they have been considered as a subfamily of Picide, and have
therefore not appeared among the families of the Seansores. The
only ground for placing them with the Woodpeckers appears to
have been that some African species do cling against and peck
at trees something in the manner of those birds. Their whole
structure however is totally opposed to their being thus placed.
In their feet, wings, and the form of the whole body they much
more nearly resemble the Toucans. ‘The texture of their
feathers, their broad, angular and weak skulls also resemble
them, and are strikingly dissimilar to those of the Woodpeckers.
From my own observations too, I can assert that, in the habits
both of the South American and of the Eastern species, they
resemble the Toucans more closely than any other birds; and
Le Vaillant makes the same observation with regard to the African
species. Besides, the grand characteristic of the Woodpeckers,
the barbed and extensile tongue, which exists equally in the Yunz
and. Picumnus, is totally absent im the Barbets, while their bill is
of quite a different type of form, much more nearly approxi-
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol. xvii.
210 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
mating to that of the Cuckoos. In their habits too. they, are
equally distinct: they hop and cling, but never climb, and they
live almost exclusively on soft fruits. We must therefore con-
sider them as a distinct family, and place them in the vicinity of
the Toucans and Cuckoos. pe
‘We will now proceed to the consideration of those groups,
about the propriety of including which in the Scansorial tribe
considerable difference of opinion has existed. These are the
Turacos (Musophagide), the isolated genus Opisthocomus, and
the Certhiade including the Dendrocolaptide. These last. have,
we believe, only been so placed by Messrs. Vigors and Swainson,
but as their classification claims to be pre-eminently “The Natural
System,” and as it has still some advocates, it deserves to be
carefully examined. What are the characters then by which the
Dendrocolaptide are supposed to be united to the Picide? They
appear to be these: both are true Climbers, both have a rigid
tail which assists them in maintaiming an erect position; and
both feed on insects which they obtain upon the trunks, and
branches of trees. On the other hand, they present many and
important differences. The long, slender, curved bill and short,
horny, non-extensile tongue of the Creepers are very far removed
from the’ strong straight bill and extensile’ barbed tongue’ of the
Woodpeckers. But this, it may be said, is of no importaneé; asa
similar difference exists in the other families admitted’ into the
Scansores. This is true; but then those birds agree in’ having
the same form of feet, which is of far more importance ‘in’ this
case than it may at first sight appear, for we shall beable ’to
show not only that the Creeper’s foot is very different fromthe
Climber’s, but that 7¢ 2s further removed from it than'is that of
any other of the Passeres. GC OVEA .e19589
The characteristic form of foot in the Certhiade and Dendro
colaptide is to have the toes placed normally, three forward and’
one backward, and to have the forward toes all connected to-
gether at their bases, particularly the outer toe, which. is gene-
rally longer than the inner, and often connected 'to'the ‘middle
toe as far as the second joint. The result of this conformation
is, that the forward toes do not spread much laterally, but form’
one line of support opposed to the hind toe. This hmd ‘toe also
is remarkably long and powerful, and armed with an ‘equally
powerful claw. “This peculiar structure has been gradually ar-'
rived at, through the most nearly allied families of Passeres!
Passing fromthe Wagtails and Larks through the Anabatide to’
the Certhiude, Sittide, and Dendrocolaptide; we find the outer
toe gradually more and more united'to'the middle one, andthe
hind toe ‘beeoming gradually larger and more developed; so
that we are justified in asserting that ‘we see here that peculiar:
— a SO eS anf
> + ee.
~~.
ON es ee
Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds. 211
modification of the normal (+-toed) foot which is adapted for ,
elimbing. In the Woodpeckers, however, we find the outer toe
always turned completely backwards, and therefore quite free
from the middle toe. The true hind toe is also invariably small
and weak, and of so little importance that in several species of
Woodpeckers it is altogether wanting, without at all diminishing
the bird’s powers of climbing. If we compare this foot with
that of the other Scansores, we shall find that it is an extreme
modification of the Scansorial form, adapted for true climbing.
The toes are all more powerful, the claws much stronger, the
outer toe longer, and the hind toe smaller. If therefore the
structure of foot in the Cuckoos and Turacos, where the outer
toe can be placed either forward or backward and the hind toe
remains moderately developed, is (as is universally allowed) the
link between the ;-toed and ;-toed form, then it follows that of
all -toed feet the Woodpecker’s is most removed from the +-toed,
and of all + toed feet the Creeper’s is the furthest removed from
the =-toed;—-and thence as a further deduction it follows, that
the feet.of the Creepers and Woodpeckers are the furthest. pos-
sible removed from. each other... When, in addition to this_re-
markable. result, we consider that the structure of the climbing
tail is, totally, dissimilar in the two cases, we shall see that there
exist, no, grounds. whatever’ for establishing an affinity. between
the; two families, and that the Creepers must not only be sepa-
rated from the Scansores, but in a natural arrangement will be
placed at a very considerable distance from them.
\. The, Musophagide, containing the Turacos and Plantain-
eaters, have been placed among the Scansores by the conti-
nental ornithologists (Temminck and Vieillot), while in England
they have been. considered to be Conirostres. by Swainson and
Gray... We believe the former are correct ; for these birds have
the short, rounded and weak wings of the Cuckoos and Toucans,
and consequently very imperfect flight, while their legs are very
strong, the outer toe long and versatile, but rather, less. so than
in, the Cuckoos, and. the hind toe, as in all, Scansores, short.
Their habits are described as being almost exactly those, of the
Toucans and. Barbets, their plumage is of a similar texture, while
the short. crest at the backof the head is similar,to,that, of the
Woodpeckers... Some species are,said to be able to cling, to ver-
tical'trunks: Their internal structure and the form, of the, ster-
num appear to correspond exactly to this view of their, affinities,
which is still further confirmed by their nidification, hke that. of
all other Scansores, in hollow trees, so that they maybe well
placed. in the wide interval, between. the,Cuckoos, and. Toucans
| 14%
212 Mr. A. R. Wallace 'on the Natural Arrangement of Birds!
on the one side, and the Woodpeckers and Parrots on ‘the other,
but rather nearer to the former than'the latter. Lf, on the other
hand, we place this group among the Conivosteds, we can give
nd Such satisfactory account of its structural affinities. Swainson
places it between the Fringillide and the Buceride. The former
have all well-formed Passerine feet, the hind toe always well
developed, and the outer toe never so long as the middle one;
they have generally powerful wings, and are of such’ a uniformly
small size as not even to give them an appearance of. affinity
with the Turacos and Musophagide. . The Hornbills' are af ‘pos
sible still further removed, as our previous account of their
habits and the structure of their feet will at’ once’ show.’ We
cannot believe that so very acute and observant a naturalist as
Mr. Swainson could have been led to propound these’as natural
affinities, had he not been blinded by his belief'in the universal
existence in nature of a numerical and circular arrangement;
which, without disproving it in any particular cases, we believe
can be shown’ to be absolutely untenable on two general grounds:
Ist. Geological investigations prove that the animals now ‘exist-
ing on the “earth are probably not one-tenth, perhaps=not/ one-
hundredth, of those which have existed; for all before the Tertiary .
epoch were of different species and mostly of ‘different! genera}
and thousands of other genera, families, and’ whole orders: must
have existed of which we are absolutely in ignorance)’ If there-
fore this regular system were true of the whole, it must be quite
imperceptible in the mere fragment we ‘have ‘an’ acquaintance
with. Instead of complete circles bemg the rule, ‘they should
scarcely ever exist ; in fact, the gaps left ‘inthe ‘system ‘by-its
authors do not leave room enough for all the forms that must
have become extinct. 2ndly. This system absolutely places limits
to the variety and extent of creation; for it is said that every
group can only contain five subgroups, and the number of ‘gra-
dations of groups is fixed. For instance, in a family there can
be only five subfamilies, in each of which there can be only five
true genera, and again in each genus five subgenera.’ In the
Psittacide therefore there can be but twenty-five ‘generi¢ forms,
and when those are all known, not only is it declared to be im-
possible ‘to discover a new one, but it is also asserted that no
others can possibly ever have existed and become extinct This
is the logical deduction from any ‘system of definite*numbers in
natural history, and itis one ‘that should convince every ses
of the false basis on which all stich’ systems ' rest.
Having determined the position of the Turacos, we shall next
have to considér that remarkable bird, the! Opisthocomus cristatus.
This has been and still is placed among the Gallinacese by most
continental authors.’ Mr. G. R. Gray, however, places it near the
Mr. A, R. Wallace.on\the, Natural Arrangement of Birds, 213
Turacos, and, Mr.. Swainson. in the family of the Cuckoos. ,We
believe it) should be placed) between the two,,or rather as a lateral
branch from the Turacos., This. bird, is,.very, abundant. on the
banks. of the Amazon, where we have often observed and shot
its;Lt frequents low bushes on the river’s edge, where it feeds
on leaves, principally those of a gigantic Arum, It never goes
on«the ground. . This, circumstance, combined with the fact of
its having no/gizzard,, would at once decide that it is not Galli-
naceous.),, Qur own impression at the time, from its general ap-
pearance, flight; and) habits, was, that it was a gigantic Cuckoo.
Itslong erest.remarkably resembles that of the genus Diplo-
pterus, several. speciés| of which occur in the same district, and
they. both:-have the habit of throwing it up when alarmed in
exactly, the,same manner, In its bill and general form it ap-
proaches the Turacos more nearly than any other bird. The
only, difficulty is\in, the feet, which, though similar in form, have
not the versatile outer toe. of those, birds. . This however seems
of less importance, because a genus of Musophagide (Schizorhis)
has,also all the toes directed forwards... The short, wings, weak
heavy: flight,. strong; legs, long toes, and the character of the
plumage, added.to;the resemblances already pointed out, cer-
tainly,justifyus in, believing this to be the true position for. this
singular, bird,/whileits peculiar food and internal structure show
that,it is to-some,extent isolated, and cannot be referred to any
known: family.
o/We have. now only one, more group to introduce. into our
Scansores, but it is\one, of extreme interest, as tending in some
degree to fill.up,the wide chasm which separates the Psittacide
from alljother, birds. This we believe is.done by the Coliide, a
small group of, birds peculiar to Africa, and which have been
enerally classed as Finches, from their small size and_ thick
beaks. .The particulars which Le Vaillant gives of their habits
are however exceedingly curious, and show’a resemblance to the
Parrots which no other birds exhibit. They live entirely on
fruits; never touching either seeds or insects. They never perch
or jump. They walk with the whole tarsus applied to the ground,
creeping: as it. were upon their belly... They are yery fleshy, and
_ weigh twice as much as another bird of apparently the same size,
for their feathers are, so, short and so close-laid upon their body,
that they are really much, larger, than they appear. .. They, have
also very weak wings, and can fly a very,short distance.) ... They
climb up to the top. of,a tree,or bush to fly to, another, and in
doing so, lose elevation so as generally to arrive at the foot. of it.
They climb. one foot after the other, and help themselves on with
their beaks. : }
» Now, almost the whole of this deseription will apply. to. some
/
214 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
of the Parrot tribe and to no other birds. Their bill is an‘ ap-
proach to that of the Parrot ; the upper mandible being thick,
much curved, and acutely pointed, while the lower is much’
smaller and nearly straight,—a form quite different from that of
the Finches. The feet are very peculiar, the hind toe being
small and capable of being turned forward. The tongue is de-
scribed as cartilaginous and flat,—one step from the ordinary
horny-tipped tongue to the fleshy one of the Psittacide. We
consider therefore the Coliide to be more nearly allied to the
Parrots than any other birds, and to be an isolated link serving
to connect them with the other Scansores in the direction of the
Musophagide.
In the accompanying diagram we have endeavoured to lay
down the families of Scansorial birds, so as to represent their
respective affinities; but the very imperfect and fragmentary
state in which according to our views the group exists, prevents
our arriving at a very satisfactory result.
We may here remark, that we can never hope to arrive at the
true direction and amount of the affinities of the several families
of birds, owing to our complete ignorance of the extinct forms.
It is probable that in very few cases is there a direct affinity be-
tween two groups, each being more-or-less distantly related to
some common extinct group, so that we should represent their
connexion more accurately by making our central line a blank,
for the extinet portion of the group, and placing our families.
right and left, at different distances from it. We should thus
see the reason why we so rarely find one family or genus exactly
intermediate between two others. For mstance, though the
Cuckoos are by their feet intermediate between the Turacos and
Toucans, yet their different plumage and their insect food show
that they are more properly a lateral branch from some common
central group now extinct.
Having thus determined the extent of the two groups which
can be.separated from the Passerine birds, there remains an ex-
tensive series of species which we believe constitute one great
group of equal value with those we have already defined. This
group may be called the normal or typical Passeres, and consists
of about thirty-five families, containing between three and four
thousand species, or at least half of the known birds. These we
believe are too intimately connected with each other to allow of
their being separated into a few great divisions without violating
many of their natural relations.» 'They-have all normal or =-toed
feet, which are never so short or weak as to be unadapted for
progression. .The bill is always moderate in size and form, and
im the few, cases. where it is peculiarly modified, as in some spe-
cies of Dendrocolaptes, other species in the same family possess the
Mr..A. R. Wallace. on the Natural Arrangement of Birds, : 215
normal form. There is.also a. remarkable moderation in size;
for, though, the species are so numerous, there,are none either so
large.or so.small as are to be found in the two abnormal groups.
There\is.also a much greater uniformity in texture of plumage
itt
Diagram of the Affinities of the Seansores.
BUCCONIDZ.
(Megalaima. )
RHAMPHASTIDZ.
(Toucans.)
CUCULIDE.
(Cuckoos.)
Opisthocomus.
MUSOPHAGIDE.
(Turaco.)
PICIDZ.
( Woodpeckers.)
COLIIDE.
PSITTACIDA.
(Parrots,)
and in form, as well as in habits, which binds the whole'into one
compact and natural group. It is also a most important point
216 Mr. A..R: Wallace on the Natural Arrangement of Birds.
to consider that there are no isolated families,—none but have
numerous points of connexion and transition with others ; and to’
such an extent is this the case, that there is scarcely an extensive
family group about the limits of which ornithologists can agree.
The. Thrushes,. Warblers, Flycatchers, Chatterers, .Tanagers,
Finches, Shrikes, Bush-Shrikes, and many, others are im. this
condition, and. offer a striking contrast to the families of the
Fissirostres and Scansores, about the limits of every one of which
there is scarcely any doubt or disagreement whatever. | Here
then we have three groups, one of which, though, very, much
more extensive than the others, offers less variation in the form
and size of the species, and in the modifications of their, prin-
eipal organs, Correct principles of classification would surely
obhge us to consider the three groups of only equal rank.
But all the families which compose this group are so. inti-
mately, connected with each other, that the limits of a great
many of them cannot be determined, and there is no family of
any extent which does not gradually blend: into others. How
then can we hope to form two or three primary. divisions which
shall be sufficiently well marked out to command general accept-
ance? without some probability of which, the mere multiplication
of systems of classification is a nuisance.
We conceive therefore that the efforts of ornithologists should
be directed to the study of the different families individually, in
order to determine their extent and to point out, their true affi-.
nities with other families. When this has been done for all, we
may be able.to arrange the whole group so as to present, to the
eye a view of the relations of the several parts, and. then, and
then only, shall we be able to determine whether any and. what
subdivisions can be established.
There is one other point on which it is. necessary to say a few
words before concluding this paper. It is on the connexion of
the. three groups we have here endeavoured to establish with
each other. The subject is a most difficult one, and we. have
been able to come to no satisfactory conclusion upon it. We are
inclined however to imagine, that the Puff Birds and Barbets, as.
exhibiting the least development of the peculiar characters. of
their respective tribes, may show the line of connexion between
the Fissirostres and Scansores, while the Rollers may connect
the former with the normal Passeres somewhere near the Eury-
laimide. . But.a minute and careful examination of the families
in question is requisite to decide so, nice a point, on which too
the greatest light may be thrown by anatomical observations.
It is to be hoped that some ornithologist will be found to inves-
tigate it fully, ind
Mr. A. Henfrey on Vegetable Embryogeny. 217
XIX.—Recent Discoveries in Vegetable Embryogeny. By ArtuuR
Hznrrey, F.R.S., Professor of Botany. in King’s College,
London.
TH subject of the development of the embryo of flowering
plants being one of those upon which T have constituted myself
a reporter, from time to time, for the pages of the ‘ Annals,’ I
find it necessary again to demand a small space, for the purpose
of making ‘known ‘some important events which have lately
occurred in the history of the question, and at the same time of
putting in ‘a distinct claim to priority in the publication of one
_ of the most important of the latest discoveries.
Tt ‘is well known to all readers of this Journal who are inter-
ested inthe present subject, that I have always been an advocate
for, and defender of, the opinion first put forth by Amici, that
the embryo originatés as a distinct cell in the embryo-sac, and
is merely fertilized by the pollen-tube. Several physiologists
(whose papers will’ be found referred to in my ‘ Report’’ pub-
lished’ in the ‘Annals’ in 1852*) have argued on the same side;
oné of them however, Tulasne, declaring his inability to find the
germinal vesicle in’ the embryo-sac before fertilization, although
he distinctly asserts that it originates quite independently of the
end of the pollen-tube. -On the other hand, Schleiden has con-
tinued ‘to defend ‘his original views, and has been ardently sup-—
ported by his pupil Schacht, and more lately by Deecke. |
The events of the last few months have quite changed the
aspect of the discussion ; not only has Schleiden given his ad-
herence to the opinion that the germinal vesicle pre-exists in the
embryo-sac, but Schacht also now states that he was in error,
and that the embryo is a product of a body originating in the
embryo-sac, and is merely fertilized by the pollen-tube.
“The merit of convincing Schleiden is due to another’ of his
own pupils, Dr. Radlkofer, of Munich, who published at the
beginning of this year some excellent observations on Euphrasia
Odontites, and certain other plants+; and was empowered to
make known therein Schleiden’s acknowledgement of the accu-
racy of his representations. The memoir of Dr. Radlkofer did
not add any new fact of importance to our knowledge, but
was’ of much value, not only from its bearing the approval of
Schileiden, but from its setting in their true light the phenomena
which Schacht’ and Deecke’ had recently urged as subversive of
Aiici’s' views. ‘Dr. Radlkofer’s observations were made durmg
* Ann) Nat. Hist! Ser.'2. vol ix! p: 447, &e.” °
+ Die Befruchtung der Phanerogamen, von L. Radlkofer,'M. & Ph.D.
Leipzig, 1856.
218 Mr, Ay Henfrey on Vegetable Embryogeny.
last year, but did not reach me until late in the spring of this
year, and were therefore overlooked in the brief summary of late
researches contained in my last publication. This publication, a
paper read before the Linnean Society of London, March 4th,
1856, and reported in the ‘Annals’ of May following, .con-
tained the facts supporting, and the more definite. assertion of;
the opinion which I had propounded in. the. article‘Ovule,’
(page 482) in the ‘ Micrographic Dictionary,’ in the autumn of
1855, that the germinal vesicles (or corpuscles). exist, in) \the
embryo-sac before fecundation, not as complete cells, but as cor=
puscles of protoplasm which acquire their cellulose, coat after the
fertilization by the agency of the pollen-tube.
Entertaining this view, it was with no little satisfaction that
I last week received a new paper, by Schacht (published in
the Reports of the Berlin Academy for May 22nd, of, this
year), on the “ Process of Fertilization in Gladiolus, segetwm;?
in which he completely abandons the. opinion so long and so
warmly urged by him, of the origin of the embryo: from: the
end of the pollen-tube, and not only admits the pre-existence
of the embryonal corpuscles, but, in ignorance of »my. recently
promulgated statements, describes the phenomena nearly in
the: same manner as I have done in Santalum, more: parti-
cularly as regards the formation of the cellulose coat around
the protoplasmic embryonal corpuscle, as a consequence of the:
fertilization. This corroboration of my views may be given in
his-own words: “In the unfertilized embryo-sac of Gladiolus
segetum lie two germ-corpuscles, closely adherent to the: micro-
pyle-canal, the upper part of the corpuscles consisting of a
bundle of delicate filaments, the lower of a mass of proto-
plasm. At the epoch of flowering these corpuscles. are not-sur-
rounded by a firm membrane ; their points project freely out of
the embryo-sac. On the third or fourth day after the appli-
cation of the pollen, the pollen-tube arrives at the germ-cor-
puscles and becomes intimately connected with them, and a firm
membrane is developed around the latter as the first product of
this conjunction. The end of the pollen-tube swells, becomes
thickened, and loses its granular contents. Both corpuscles are
ordinarily fertilized by one pollen-tube, but only one of them
becomes further developed, a nucleus appearing in its plasma-
mass, and soon after this a horizontal septum. The first: cell
of the rudimentary germ produced in. this way grows gradually
up into the embryo, while the upper half of the original»ger-
minal ‘corpuscle becomes the suspensor, which \appears firmly
connected with the wall of the embryo-sac.: Not: uncommonly
two or three pollen-tubes descend, without producing any essen-
tial alterations; the pollen-tube’ ‘sometimes branches in the
Mr. P. H. Gosse on a new British Zoophyte. 219
micropyle, and, though very rarely indeed, the fertilized germ-
corpuscle “may also branch in the embryo-sac. | Hence the
pollen-tabe ‘exerts a fertilizing influence, and does not, as I
formerly*assumed, directly produce the germ, for the first cell of
the germ does not originate in its interior; on the contrary, its
influence ‘causes a granular protoplasmic mass existing in the
embryo-sac’ before fertilization to produce that cell from which
both ‘the embryo ‘and its suspensor proceed. Those filaments
( fertilization-filaments), of which the apices of the germinal cor-
puscles' consist, and which L always found destitute of any power
of motion, are quite essential to the act of fertilization, but they
do not appear to take any direct part m the formation of the
first ‘cell ofthe germ.” (Pp. 11, 12.)
wAsoto these ‘filaments’ I cannot say anything at present;
they oceur in the situation of the ‘ coagula’ which I have de-
scribed and figured in my memoir, and Schacht’s drawings are
not very unlike what I have seen, except that I did not detect
any filamentous structure; and moreover, I do not think they
project freely from the embryo-sac, although I have described
them>as' oceupying the absolute summit and exhibiting a kind
of notch between them.
Ivmust not. conclude this brief notice without offermg my
testimony “to the value of Tulasne’s recent researches on this
subject*" Although: he: has missed the most essential point,
his observations: are’ of exceeding value as contributions to our
knowledge of the history of the embryo-sac and the earlier stages
of growth of embryos.
London, July 30th, 1856.
is all 5 Edwardsia carnea, a new British Zoophyte.
# By Puitir H. Gossz, F.R.S.
[ With a Plate. ]
Spe Char. Mouth conical; tentacles above twenty-four, in
three rows; epidermis subpolygonal, coriaceous, rough, brown;
anterior column and posterior bulb pellucid, carneous, marked
with white.
| Deseription—Length $ths of an inch, of which the anterior
column:is: }th of an inch ; diameter of body ;4;th;. expanse of
tentacles 41,th of an inch.
Body enclosed ima tubular epidermis, from which the anterior
and posterior extremities protrude.at will (Pl. IX. fig. 1). This
*, Ann, des Se. Nat., Botaniquey4™¢ Sex. iy. p-6d,
220 Mr. \P. H. Gosse on anew British Zoophyte..\/ |
epidermis 1 is thick and coriaceous, roughened externally, the pro-
jections having a slight tendency to longitudinal arrangement;
imparting a subpolygonal form to the body, which however is
very indistinet: its colour is yellowish-brown, tinged: in:parts —
with rufous, and slightly translucent, so that the scarlet: hue of
the stomach shines through it, when the animal is contracteds:»
Anterior column cylindrical or slightly barrel-shaped ; fluted ;
pellucid, almost colourless ; each fluting defined» byoa slender
white line, and marked with an oblong-linear: spot of opake’
cream-white near its base: stomach visible through thes mites
guments like a thick scarlet axis.
Oral disk small ; a star of cream-white rays on a ibaa
ground, surrounded by twenty-eight short, subfusiform, pointed,
pellucid, carneous tentacles: mouth scarlet, on a. low conical
papilla.” Tentacles shghtly ringed with alternate bands'of :sabs
opake and pellucid carnation; they are arranged in three indi+
stinet circles, those of the innermost circle thickest, graduating
outwards. .
Posterior extremity, when extruded, a somewhat inflated
bladder, membranous, delicately pellucid, carneous, with the
pale septa distinctly visible. The extremity is: imperforate it
does not form a defined sucking-disk, but its. surface is*eapable
of adhering with considerable ‘force to extraneous bodies (as a
plate of glass for example), on pressure, thus forming a tem-
porary disk. When this bulb is extruded, the epidermis is
forced upward, and lies in great tucks or folds around the body;
like a loose stocking (see fig. 4). At other times; itis quite
covered by the epidermis, which then appears continuous and
imperforate (see fig. 3).
In the specimen described, the anterior column was stocked
to the epidermis, not at the extremity of the latter, but) alittle
within its periphery, which, when the column was protruded, rose
in irregular, overlapping, and somewhat everted points around
its base (see figs. 2 & 3). In the process of contraction, the
retiring column carried with it the epidermis, causing this to
invert itself toa considerable extent... After a time, however (a
week or more), I observed that the column, in retreating, ceased
to invert’ the epidermis, ‘simply descending ,into it as intowa
‘tube, the everted points of which remained exactly as they were
when'the animal was protruded. Hence I presume that there is
no organic connexion between what-is called the epidermis and
the animal, but that the former 1s»a cutaneous -secretion thrown
off, and inhabited as a tube; like the investiture of Adwardsia
pestita: Tu’ this casé:the attachnient ofthe mouth,of the tube
to ‘the ‘column ‘observed -before; was probably..a.voluntary and
temporary adhesion produced by the suctorial i of the |
Mr. H, J. Carter\on the Organization of Infusoria. 221
general surface ; a) property which we have seen to. exist in all
parts of the posterior bulb. or
-. This pretty and interesting, though minute, Actinoid was found
at Torquay in July by Miss Pinchard, an accomplished student
of our marine natural history.» This lady kindly forwarded it to
me imaits:own native nidus,—an old Saaicava’s burrow in the
limestone rock, out of which its fore-parts projected (see fig. 2).
Though removed from its burrow for the purpose of examination,
_ itvhas lived several weeks in one of my small aquaria, expanding
ab/intervals (somewhat charily), and frequently adhering to the
glass by its posterior bulb. :
SHOOU 1211
bats | EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX.
Fig. 1. Edwardsia carnea: natural size.
Fig: 2. Ibid. (magnified), in the act of protruding.
Fig, .3.,1bid. (magnified) ;. the anterior column protruded and expanded.
Fig..4, Ibid, (magnified) ; the posterior bulb protruded.
XK L+-Notes.on the Freshwater Infusoria of the Island of Bombay.
1) Noel. Organization... By H. J. Carrer, Esq., Assistant
| Surgeon H.C.8., Bombay.
ie {Concluded from p. 132.]
ex ftt*
part; an organ situated in the outer portion of the sarcode, which,
when well marked; presents under the microscope the appear-
ance of a full moon (to; use a familiar simile), with similar slight
cloudinesses (figs. 1d, 2.e, 3d). It is discoid in shape, of a fait
yellow colour, and fixed to one side of a transparent capsule,
which, being generally more or less large than the nucleus itself,
causes the latter to appear as if surrounded by a narrow pellucid
ring?) In this state it is mvariably present in Amoeba, Actino-
phrys; Spongilla, Astasia (fig. 45 b), and Huglena (figs. 46 a, &c.),
though “difficult. at first to recognise; particularly im the two
latter families; where the pellucid space or capsule, at ‘the bottom
of which it ‘is situated, is often the only visible sign of its. pre-
sence: In Difflugia proteiformis it cannot of course be seen, from
~ the thickly incrusted state of the test; but im asmaller and. less
incrusted* species, which might be called) D. ¢ricuspis (from the
trefoil-form of the opening of the test) (fig. 80),.as welloas in
Huglypha, its position is posterior, and evident, from ithe: large-
ness of the capsule; though the nucleus itself) is so:faint,that
even in’ Huglypha it .can ‘only: occasionally be ‘distinguished ;
while*in Arcella: vulgaris (Bhr.): itis constantly:.double, and
222 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
opposite (fig. 79). In Ameba. Gleichenii the nucleus itself oe-
casionally presents a pellucid spot or punctum in its centre,
In Vorticella there is a long cylindrical organ, which appears
analogous to, if not homologous with, the nucleus, and this, in
a large Epist. ylis common here, and some other species of. Vorti-
cella, is wrapped once round the upper part of the buccal. cavity, in
the same manner as the ovary is wrapped round the visceral organs
of Salpa among the Tunicata (fig. 74g). Stein states that after
Vorticella microstoma has become encysted, this organ divides
up into embryos, which, when the parent, integument: bursts,
come forth like “ Monas colpoda or Monas scintillans’? ; and) he
“assumes” that these monads, after having become fixedand
stalked, pass into young Vorticelle* ;—an assumption which can
hardly be doubted, though it may be some: time, before chanee
favours its demonstration.
In Otostoma, and many forms of Ehrenberg’s ‘Biitetodeldris
class of animalcules, there is a similar organ, either of a: ¢ir-
cular, cylindrical, or fusiform, elongated shape (Annals, vol.xvii:
pl. 9. fig. 6). In Oxytricha also there is something of the kind,
and in Himantophorus (Charon, Ehr., mihi) it extends, nearly all
round the body, commencing from the posterior extremity, and
terminating on the right side close to the vesicula.
The cylindrical organ in Vorticella not unfrequently presents
a granular appearance, and the granules, which are minute; but
uniform in size, appear to occupy the periphery ; but: whether
they are inside or outside the wall of the cylinder, orin;the|sub-
stance of the wall itself; I have not been able to: determine.
Stein places them inside, in the form of a granular cylinder,and
within this ‘nucleoli +,’’—nucleated, discoid. bodies, into which
the nucleus becomes divided. |
In the Rhizopodous cell which inhabits the protoplasm of ithe
Characeet, it is at first uniformly clear and transparent; then
semi-opake and subgranular, afterwards two er more distinct
granules make their appearance, and finally it becomes wholly
granular and much enlarged; or undergoes. fissiparation and
thus gives origin to more cells, like the cytoblast of the veges
table kingdom.
Use.—It is impossible, in the present state of our knowledge;
to specify the uses of the nucleus.» Qne point, however; is evi-
dent, that,it appears very early in the development. of the fresh-
water Rhizopoda, sponge-cell, &c.;, and another, that) it! bearsya
close analogy to a similar organ in: the vegetable cell, viz. they
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. ix. p. 474 & 477.
+ Die Infasionsthiere, &e. Taf. 4. fig. 24: 4to, s50r 1854.
{ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xvii. p. 101, 1856
Mri. J. Carter onthe Organization of Infusoria. 228
~ eytoblast, which’ also is the primary organ of this cell ; and there-
fore, perhaps, we might term it the presiding organ, or consider
that such are its primary offices over the development and life of
these cells ‘respectively. If we trace it from the Rhizopoda into
the vegetable kingdom, we shall find it occupying the very same
position relatively in Ameba that it does in the cell of Serpicula
verticillata*, Thus, in some Ameoebous cells which settled down
from their’spherical into the plane reptant forms, the following
sequence from ‘without inwards was distinctly seen: viz. Ist, the
pellicala and diaphane ; 2ndly, the molecular sarcode bearing the
nucleus, anda layer of greenish granules externally; 3rdly, the
aqueous fluid of the centre (figs. 1, 2) ;—and in the spine-cell of
the leaf of \Serpicula—1st, the cellulose cell-wall; 2ndly, the
molecular protoplasm, m which are imbedded the green granules
(viz. cells or organisms in which part of the protoplasm’ bears
ehlorophyll) and the cytoblast ; 3rdly, the aqueous fluid. of the
centre (figs. 63, 64). The difference between cellulose and pel-
licula, ‘and the absence of the vesicula, &c. are points which have
so ‘little todo with the analogy in question when the. latter is
followed up through Astasia, Huglena, Navicula, Closterium, &e.
into Gidogonium, and Nitella to Serpicula, that very little doubt
will, I think, then remain, of the offices of the nucleus in Ameba
being similar to those of the nucleus of the plant-cell, whatever
these:may ‘hereafter prove to be.—Here, again, I would return
for'amoment to the cause of sphericity in Ameba, and submit
whether the cavity containing the distending fluid is that of the
vesicula or the centre of the sarcode ; since the aqueous cavity of
thevegetable cell may then be analogous to the vesicula; for, as
before stated, I have never been able to succeed m detecting the
vesicula in Ameeba when under :a spherical form ; although, the
moment it becomes plane and polymorphic, this organ reappears,
of its usual size, and endowed with its usual activity.
» Much, however, as the nucleus may at first appear to bea
presiding organ, there can be no doubt, from what will presently
be ‘stated, that its ultimate destination, in some organisms’ at
least, is to pass into granules which become new beings.
Ovules.—This term will be applied to a number of discoid, or
globular, nucleated cells, which appear together in ‘the sarcode of
some of the Infusoria. At an early stage in Spongilla, Amoeba, Bu-
glypha, Astasia, and Euglena, these bodies consist of a transparent
capsule, lined with a faint yellow'film of semi-transparent matter,
which; subsequently: becoming more opake and ‘yellowish also
* This aquatic plant; is selected. for comparison, because the, circulatory
movement is well marked im the cells which occupy the body. of, the leaf,
and the cytoblast and protoplasm in the spine-cells of the margin.
224 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
becomes more marginated or distinct, and assumes a nucleolar
form. In Spongilla there is also a delicate, pellicular layer, which
is endowed with a low power of movement (figs. 89 4, 40 a).11
I first noticed these ovules in the seed-like bodies of Spongilla,
where they are enclosed in transparent globular saes*, each«sae
holding a greater or less number of ovules, which are discoid in
form, of different sizes, and accompanied by a great number of
active molecular granules (figs. 37, 38); and during the pasty year
I have frequently seen such in Ameba Gleichenii, where they have
been equally numerous, have borne the same characters; and:have
been accompanied by a number of active molecular granules, «as
in the transparent globular cells of the capsules of Spongilla(tignd.)
They occur also in Kuglypha alveolatat, congregated round the
hyaline capsule of the nucleus, from four to fifty im number, and
mostly of the same size, but always globular, and aecompanied
also, as in Spongilla, by molecular granules (fig. 26). » Such
ovules may also be seen similarly situated in Difflugia:tricuspis
(H. J.C.) and m Arcellina dentata (Ehr.) ; enclosed: in the! latter
in an ovoid capsule, which nearly fills the test. In) Actinophrys;
also, they appear to have been seen by M. Nicolet, :as) will «be
mentioned hereafter. ' ibe.-oA3
Astasia and Euglena constantly become filled with diseoid
cells ofa similar kind, but in those of the former I have seldom
been able to distinguish the capsule from the internal,contents,
on account of their smallness and the incessant motion ofthe
animaleule (fig. 46). In Huglena, however, they are very evident,
andit)is worthy of remark that each partakes of the form»of
the Euglena to which it belongs (figs, 50,58). Thus in £. acus it
is'long and cylindrical ; in E. viridis oblong, compressed (fig..59);
in Crumenula texta and Phacus circular, compressed, &c. -»
In Spongilla and Ameba these ovules follow the motions of
the sarcode, in which they appear to be loosely imbedded ; they
also undergo partial transposition in Astasia and, Euglena, but
in Huglypha and Difflugia are chiefly located round the globular
hyaline capsule of the nucleus, at the posterior part, of the
body (fig. 28),—a, position which it is well to remember ;. for
although apparently unconnected in all, with the nucleus and
its capsule, and diffused generally throughout the sarecode in
Spongilla, Ameba, Astasia, and Euglena, yet in Huglypha-and
Diffiugia, which, we shall hereafter find the best for, typical
_* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iy..p. 87, 1849, Of the formation of
the seed-like body, I need not say more here, than that it consists of a>
capsuled aggregation of ovule-bearing sponge-cells ; while Ameba presents
the same appearance, when pregnant with ovules, as one of these cells, and
becomes capsuled singly.
+ Dujardin, Hist. Nat. des Zoophytes, Atlas, tab. 2. fig. 9.
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 225
reference, they are undoubtedly developed in the neighbourhood
of the nucleus, and therefore confined at first to a particular
part of the body.
» Inmany of Ehrenberg’s enterodelous Infusoria it is not un-
common to see a number of defined globular bodies, of nearly
equal size, and of a faint, opake, yellow colour, which closely
resemble ovules,—~ex. gr. Amphileptus fasciola (Khr.), Himanto-
phorus Charon (Ehr.), Sc. ; nor is it improbable that many of his
Trachelina, which come near Planaria, possess ovules similar to
those which are found in the latter; but, from being so much mixed
up with the spherical cells, pass equally unnoticed while in, as well
as when outiof the body, under such circumstances. M.J. Haime,
however, has distinctly seen instances in which these bodies have
been ejected from Infusoria, and have passed into locomotive ani-
maleules under his eye. Thus he states that in Plesconia they
form a group of from forty-to fifty im the middle of the body, are
round, issue‘one by one, remain tranquil some time, then deve-
lope: two filaments, one in front, the other behind, and move
about rapidly. In an “undescribed” species of Dileptus they
are whitish, ‘and form a wreath, extending almost throughout
the whole length of the body, become yellow towards the anal
extremity, where they pass out with the remains of the food,
soon develope two opposite filaments, and move about. rapidly.
In: Paramecium aurelia, M. Haime states that an ovary appears
some hours before death, about the middle of the body, which
becomes filled with about sixty little nuclei; these increase in
size, burst the ovisac, and thus pass into the body of the parent,
from which they finally escape by an opening in the tegumentary
covering, formed by the diffluence of the latter, and the ovisac
follows them *. : ,
- Spermatozoids.—This term is provisionally applied to granules
which are originally developed from the nucleus in Ameba,
Euglypha, and Spongilla(?). In Ameba the process appears to
commence by an increase of size in the capsule of the nucleus,
which becomes more or less globular; at the same time the nu-.
cleus itself becomes uniformly granular ; the latter then increases
in size, 8o'as to occupy a third of the interior of the animaleule,
and then undergoes, apparently, duplicative subdivision, for the
mass is sometimes seen to present a single groove, which passes
through ‘the centre, and ultimately becomes divided up: into
several segments. These segments assume a circular com-
pressed or globular form, and continue entire until the granules
or spermatozoids of which they are composed become fully deye-
loped, when the latter acquire the power of locomotion, and
* Ann. des Sc. Nat. Zool. t. xix..p. 131, foot-note, 1853.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 15
226 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
thus separate from each other ; meanwhile the original capsule
of the nucleus for the most part disappears (figs. 10-15): “In
this way, some individuals out of a group of Ameba radiosa, _
bearing such granules, were seen moving about, even'when'so -
reduced that hardly anything but their cell-wall, and 'the‘one‘or
two spherical segments of the granulated nucleus that remamed
in its interior, were left; upon being delivered of which it may
be presumed that they became effete or died (fig. 14). | Some-
times these segments are evidently held together by ‘a’ ‘soft
mucous cell, which, being polymorphic, assumes the form of
Actinophrys, and thus exhibits a locomotive power \(fig:)16));
while at others the cell becomes firm, transparent, and ‘spherical,
and the granules do not leave it until they become endowed with
locomotion (fig. 15). When the latter is the case, the sperma-
tozoids may be seen, if fully developed, to be bounding “about
their respective capsules, while the capsules: themselves are’ still
rolled on in the sarcode of the Amaeba under progression.|) At
other times the whole mass of spermatozoids, ‘all separated,
and having left their capsules, may be seen to fill the body of
the Ameba, whilst still under active polymorphism: and. loco-
motion. Lastly, the parent sometimes dies in ‘this state; and
then the mass of spermatozoids may be seen 'to undergo’ gradual
disintegration, as the granules, by twos and threes, ‘or more, dis+
entangle themselves from the sarcode, and bound off into®their
new element. ‘These granules or spermatozoids ini Huglypha
average about +4455 to ¢zdyq Of an inch in diameter; about
four of them would make the diameter of the largest ovules,
which are, again, somewhat less than human blood-globules#
In Euglypha alveolata a similar development takes place‘round
the anterior part of the capsule of the nucleus (fig. 29) “but
from the concealed position of the latter, I have not’ been able
to see it distinctly origmate in the nucleus, as in Amoeba. » The
segments here have always been compressed, probably fromthe
soft polymorphic state of the mucous cell which encloses them
admitting of their assuming a plane or reptant actinophorous
form (fig. 31); and in this way they are carried out of the Hu-
glypha, which; like Ameba, perishing on their development,/and
passing into decomposition, thus allows them to quit the parent
cavity ;) at’ other‘times they separate close to the hyaline capsule
of thecnucleus, and finally swarm’ about. im the test: generally
(fig. 29). Although this development, as well as that of the
ovules; takes place more profusely in different individuals than’ in
the same one; yet it is by no means uncommon to see, Ina growp
of ovule-bearmg Huglyphe alveolate, individuals with both deve+
lopments in them at once (fig. 80); and with no gradation in
the size of the ovules to’ indicate that they originated in the
Mr, H.J. Carter.on the Organization of Infusoria. 227
granules, or vice versd,—the two developments thus appearing
distinet): and this seems to be confirmed by what takes place in
alarger variety of this species of Huglypha, where there is a test
something like that of the parent developed in the interior, and
within this, a spherical capsule, provided with a straight tube,
which. extends to the pointed end of the test im which it is
immediately, enclosed (fig. 82). At this time the animal has
_ entively disappeared, and the contents of the spherical capsule,
haying undergone segmentation, assume the form. of circular
masses) of | granules, like those developed from the nucleus mm
EE) alveolata ;, after. which the granules separate, and pass out of
the straight tube, which is slightly patulous at its free extremity
(fig: 83). Other tests of the same variety may be seen more or
less: filled with ovules, as before described.
» Lastly, in Spongilla, there are always many cells to be found
in} that. part of the mass where the seed-like bodies are being de-
veloped, partly filled with similar granules, loose or in a cireum-
scribed;sgroup ;- but I have not yet been able to determine
whether «this development is nucleolar, or ovular at an early
' stage. | It is\certainly most like the granular development of the
nucleus;in Huglypha and Ameba.
icon Astasia; irregular globular botryoidal masses, dividing up
into spherical- cells, colourless and translucent, or of a faint,
opake, yellow tint, present themselves so frequently (and. gene-
rally inversely developed with the ovules, as in the Rhizopoda),
that I cannot help thinking that they are also developments
from:the-nucleus (figs. 47, 48) ; but from not having seen them
present that evident granular aspect which characterizes this de-
velopment in the Rhizopoda, I have not been able to determine
satisfactorily whether they are parts of the latter, or that kind of
division of the sarcode into green spherical cells which some-
timies takes place in Euglena.
>In. Euglena, also, I have described a development of the nu-
cleus, partly under the idea that it might be a parasitic rhizo-
podous development; but now it appears to me to be a simple
enlargement; granulation and segmental development. of this
body into polymorphic, reptant, mucous cells, filled) with sper-
matozoid granules, as in the Rhizopoda*.
»| Binally:: | from what organs, in the freshwater Rhizopoda,
Astasia, and) Euglena, are the ovules and. the spermatozoid
granules developed ? | Qs
»/ Of the origin of the latter from the nucleus there appears to
eto be: no doubt; for imdependently of the changes: taking
place in it which have been mentioned, 1 have never been able
* Ann. & Mag. Nat; Hist. vol. xvii. p, 115, 1856.
15%
228 Mr.H,J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
to see the nucleus and its capsule in their original form when the
spermatozoid mass has been present, though I have occasionally,
in Ameba, and almost always in Euglypha, seen the empty glo-
bular capsule in connexion with the latter. In Ameba, before
the spheroidal divisions of the nucleus have separated from each
other, they frequently appear in the form of a botryoidal mass,
projecting from one part of the capsule. |
But, as regards the ovules, although they are also unquestion-
ably developed around the globular eapsule of the nucleus in
Euglypha, yet the fact of their being developed throughout the
greater part of the sarcode which lines the cell of Huglena, and
the same in Astasia, which is closely allied to Ameba, while in
the latter they appear also to be developed from the sarcode -
generally, seems to indicate that they are developments of some
part or parts of the sarcode—perhaps of some of the molecule.
That the two developments, viz. that of the ovules and sperma-
tozoid granules, present themselves together in Huglypha, ‘has
already been stated, and the fact of the ovules in Euglena first
becoming developed outside the capsule of the nucleus, and the
granular development of this body following it, shows that the
ovules are not developed from the nucleus. The capsule, there-
fore, in EHuglypha, under these circumstances, as well’ as when
there are oyules alone present, is often seen minus the nucleus ;
and the same in Ameba Gieichenii, where it may be observed
rolling about with the ovules when the latter have, for the most
part, reached their largest size (fig.5). In these instances, too,
the granules of the nucleus, if the latter has undergone’ this
transformation, may be dispersed among the general mass, as
the nucleus on such occasions has, if not absent, appeared faintly
marked, probably from having become effete or atrophied,—the
ovules and spermatozoids appearing to be inversely developed ;
and in Astasca and Euglena, the former to be destroyed on the
development of the latter.
Nicolet has stated that in Actinophrys the generative organs
consist of a central spherical membrane, enclosing little globules,
which are the rudiments of “ eggs,” surrounded by a “ gela-
tinous granular layer,” the granules of which appear to be the
reproductive organs*. But this simple statement, though bear-
ing the semblance of fact, is too meagre, without illustrations, to
be of any use. If his “ spherical membrane” be the same as
our capsule of the nucleus, after the latter has become globular,
then certainly the ovules are not contained in it in Kuglypha.
Stein also figures the nucleus of his Actinophrys oculata in
accordance. with Nicolet’s observations, viz. with a granulated
* Comptes Rendus, vol. xvi. p. 115, 1848.
Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 229
nucleus, fixed in a spherical capsule, surrounded by a zone of
granular plasma (?) (fig. 95)*. This, as will be seen hereafter,
is very like the state of the nucleus in the rhizopodous cell of
the protoplasm of the Characeze, when the former is undergoing
reproduction.
With reference to the organs of generation in the other Infu-
soria, I can state no more than that although there is a fusiform
nucleus in Otostoma,1 have also constantly seen a bunch of string-
like filaments floating about its interior, which appeared to be
attached near the buccal cavity ; and although I could make out
nothing more, I could at the same time only liken these to the
generative apparatus in the Planaria mentioned, which floats
round the buccal cavity and upper part of the membranous
stomach in a similar manner.
Impregnation.—In Ameba and in Actinophrys a union of
two individuals is not uncommon, and many have noticed this
in, the latter. It has occurred to me, also, to see it in a species
of Ameba, which, from its circular form, and the prolongations
only, taking place from one point of the circumference, appeared
thus to, present, an anterior extremity, by which. several pairs
of the group were united (Plate V. fig. 17) ; and on one occasion
two separated under my eye, when an attenuated prolongation
of one seemed to be drawn out through a thick prolonged por-
tion, of the other (fig. 18). More convincingly and frequently,
however, this union was observed in a group of Huglypha, where
the anterior extremity of the body is distinct (figs. 34,36). Here
the protruded parts, after having been united for some. time,
began to separate by constriction at the point of contact, which,
soon diminishing to a mere mucous thread, became smaller and
smaller, and more elongated, as the two individuals, retreating
from each other, withdrew themselves into the bottom of their
test respectively, from which they appear on such occasions never
again to emerge. Lastly, in a group of Euglena deses, several
couples appeared united by the tails, not only to one another,
but fixed to the watch-glass at this point, where they continued
until each sank down, close to the other or separate, into cap-
suled forms filled with ovules,—a state which appeared so much
the more to be the result of impregnation, from the number of
couples thus united presenting every stage of ovigerous develop-
ment in their interior, from mere molecular sareode to repletion
- with full-formed ovules: (figs. 49, 52). It is not. an uncommon
thing to see, among a group of Huglene agiles (H.. J. C.), mdi-
viduals chasing each other, becoming united head to head, head
and tail, or tail to tail, and then separating with difficulty by a
-* Op. cit. tab. 5. figs. 25-28,
230 = =Mriv Hi J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
whirling motion, as if the bond of union were a mucous thread,
which could be only twisted off in this manner. Two Euglene
virides rnay also sometimes be seen united by the intertwisting
of their filaments only, just like the congress of two snails.
All these unions appear very much like so many acts of ‘con-
jugation ; but when we find Huglypha as well as Arcella united,
not only in pairs, but triply and quadruply, in this way, and the
same with Huglena viridis, the connexion of these phenomena
with reproduction, as Claparéde has: stated *, becomes “* exceed-
ingly doubtful ;” particularly as we have seen the spermatozoid
granules developed from the nucleus and among the ovules ; and
this granular spermatozoid development, if it be one, does ‘not
take place until after conjugation. At the same time, in one
group of Huglyphe, nothing but spermatozoids were developed,
while in another hardly anything but ovules appeared ; ‘and it
was only here and there that both were found together; again,
in the larger variety of Huglypha, the granules were developed m
a distinct apparatus, and the ovules in the same manner'as m
4. alveolata, viz. in the posterior part of the body, outside the
capsule of the nucleus.
Lastly, we come to the question whether or not these statics
are spermatozoids ? That the ovules in Spongil/a pass into poly-
morphic cells, I proved by experiment some years since}; aid
lately, I have repeated similar experiments, with the’same results.
Moreover, I have seen the ovule of Euglypha in every stage, from
its first appearance in the test to the time when it has acquired
tle power of putting forth rhizopodous prolongations (fig.’31),
after which the tests of very small Huglyphe presented them-
selves inthe same basin, which did not appear before the parents
lad ‘died off and left their ovules to shift for themselves. Hence
this ‘is one mode of propagation among the Rhizopoda, whatever
the granules which we have provisionally called. spermatozoids
may be. Then, also, it has often occurred. to me to see circular
groups of spermatozoids undergoing disintegration or dehiscence
in the test of Euglypha, while ovules were present, and granules
like the former swarming round the latter at the same time’ as
well as granules of the same kind in Ameba Gleichenti, where
the ovules ‘have been far advanced in development. In Spon-
gilla also similar ‘granules abound in ‘the transparent globular
sacs of the capsules which contain the ovules (figs. 37,38) 5 and
when~ the latter are set free by forcibly bursting the former,
thesé little granules crowd round the large ovules so markedl
that, I. made this, observation several, years since{, when I littl le
* Atay & Mag, Nat. Hist. vol. «xv. p: 286, nga
+ Idem, ‘oe: cit. t Idem, Joc’ eit.
Mr, H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 281
- thought that there was any reason for thinking them organs of
impregnation. Lately, however, I have observed, that full half
the larger ovules of the seed-like body, under this condition,
have one of these granules in different degrees of connexion with
them, from simple approximation to almost undistinguishable
incorporation (fig. 89 a’—e) ; also that when the internal contents
granulate on the third or fourth day after they have been set
free, the prominence caused by the appended granule does not
disappear until the whole ovule has passed into a polymorphic
cell (A, /); that is, that after this, no capsule or anything else re-
mains behind, to indicate that the granule and its capsule, with
this prominence, have not. wholly become transformed into the
new sponge-cell,. This granule, however, is not entirely confined
to the larger, ovules, where it is for the most part. affixed to the
margin, but is also presented here and there by many of the
small ones. In the larger ovules it bears, in size, the proportion
of about,one to eight, and the largest ovules average about's,4,5th
of an inch in diameter. About twelve hours after the ovules and
granules, haye been set free in the manner mentioned, into di-
stilled water, in a watch-glass, they, as well as the granules, ex-
hibit-a-great deal. of motion, which lasts up to the end of the first
day, when. they, become quiet again; and this, motion, though
least in, the largest ovules and most in the smallest granules, is
generally from, one side to the other in all, like that of a zoospore
which.is, attached to the glass by one of its cilia, or of a monad,
which. possesses. a polymorphic coat attached to some body, and
a moving single cilium. Some of the granules, however, every
now) and, then appear to break away from this attachment, and
then present a single (?) ciliary appendage, which ceases to, be
visible again the moment they become fixed. All theovules, |
both those with which a granule is connected, and those without,
appear to undergo a like granulation of their internal contents,
and.pass into new sponge-cells (7, 4, /), which for aiday or two
remain, polymorphic and reptant, and then assume,a spherical
actinophorous form; while there is also a development of single (?)
ciliated, monads, closely resembling those which are found in the
fully-developed sponge \(m). In their reptant state,,also, \the
former present the vesicula and, frequently a. single. cilium,
| Under what. circumstances we are to view the incorporation \of
this granule with the sponge-oyule, Iam ignorant*,, Certain, it
NOOYTOL Sid i i h36i Sd fI9 hy
®t is just possible that these, granules maybe buds like those which
appear on the so-called “ferment-cells”’ (fig. 44), but the latter grow intonew
cells as large as the old ones before they are detached, if even this takes
place then, which is not the case with the granule attached to the sponge-
ovule. Again, the ferment-cells are chiefly seen iin pairs, from*the,bud in
many having increased to nearly the size of the parent, while \the sponge-
232 Mr. HJ. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
is, that one of these granules, which at) first hardly appears to
differ, from, the ovule itself, except im size and the’ addition,
perhaps, of a single cilium, may frequently be seen to: exhibit
movements about a large ovule indicative of a desire to become
incorporated with it ;-and frequently, also, it seems to sueceed
in. fixing itself permanently to its circumference, before the eye’;
while occasionally a monociliated granule may be seen'to be ap-
pended to one of the sponge-cells thus newly developed, im the
same manner that the “ zoosperm ” attaches itself to similar cells
in the old sponge (fig. 43).
In the absence, then, of direct evidence respecting the ulti-
mate destination of these bodies, we must infer that they are
germs, which grow into new individuals (perhaps like) micro-
gonidia*), or that they are impregnating agents, which enter
into the ovules, and thus render them capable. of further deve-
lopment, or both. Analogy, in connexion with the facts men-
tioned, seems to favour the latter view ; for when we observe the
development.of the ovules, and these spheroidal or discoid seg-
ments of the granulated nucleus, which are of about the same dia-
meter as the ovules, occurring together in the same Euglypha ;
and one cell, viz. that. of the ovule, remaining entire, ‘while the
contents of the other, viz. the spheroidal segment of the nucleus,
has apparently divided up into a number of locomotive granules,
_the process so far accords with what takes place in higher or-
ganic developments during the process of true generation that
we become much induced to extend the analogy still further,
and consider that the contents of some of the spermatozoid gra-
nules.or, smaller cells go into this larger one to complete it, in
the families of Rhizopoda, &c. mentioned. The monociliated cells
(‘zoosperms” +) of Spongilla might, perhaps, by some’ be con-
sidered young sponge-cells, which lose their cilium on further
development ; for such is the course with the monads which are
produced from the rhizopodous cells of the protoplasm of the
ovules do not appear in this state. It is only when the buds of the fer-
ment-cells are. very small, that there is any direct resemblance’ between
them and the sponge-ovules presenting a similar condition. If the granule
in connexion with the sponge-ovule be a bud, it must be detached from the
* parent when very young, for there are no intermediate stages as im the fer-
ment-cell to show that it is in reality one.
Again, the oscillation of the granule round the sponge-ovule may be a
physical attraction ; this oscillation, however, does not present itself among
the ferment-cells, while in the sponge-oyule\it appears to end frequently im
a permanent attachment of the granule to the ovule,—a condition that may
be aided by the “‘ external layer ” or diaphane envelope of the latter.
*) See Braun on the reproduction of Hydrodictyon. Ray Soc. Pub, Bot.
aud Phys. Mems. pp. 89 & 261.
ft Ann. and Mag, Nat, Hist. vol. xiv. p, 334,
Mr. HJ. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.. 233
Characez. before they pass into Amabe:; while the number of
the former being as great in the first portion of sponge which
issues from the capsule as in the older mass, if not more so,
seems not only to support this view, but also that they do not
all form :part, of the surface-layer of the canals in which cilia
have béen detected by Mr. Bowerbank, for at this period there
are no canals present. The facts above mentioned, however, are
opposed to this view; for there is a marked difference between
the-reptant sponge-cells produced from the ovules in the watch-
glass, and the monociliated ones developed from the granules,
both in size and appearance (/, m); and although the cilium sub-
sequently seen in the former may have pre-existed in the ovule,
still, both) being’ polymorphic, rhizopodous cells, and, therefore,
when united undistinguishable mdividually, the cilium might
belong: to either, 2. e. to the sponge-cell or to the incorporated
granule,—the: latter of which may frequently be verified when
examining a piece of Spongilla torn to pieces, under the micro-
scope (fig. 43). “Whether or not, however, both possess a cilium
at first, the sponge-cell loses it afterwards, whatever may happen
to\that of the supposed zoosperm, which may not become incor-
porated with one; and this may be the case with the monads
which are produced from the rhizopodous cell of the Characese,—
there may be two kinds.
Should it be hereafter proved that the granules of the nucleus
thus become impregnating agents, then this mode of generation
may perhaps be extended through Huglena to Navicula, Closte-
rium, Spirogyra, Gidogonium, and Cladophora; for in none of
these Algee has anything approaching to a process of generation
-been detected beyond conjugation and the formation of the
spore; while, indeed, in Spirogyra mirabile (Hass.), Gidogonium,
and Cladophora, the spore is formed without conjugation.—
Might not the granulation of the nucleus, &c. go on in the
spore ? |
In Cladophora the gonimic substance consists of nucleated
cells, each containing a portion of green chlorophyll-bearing
protoplasm, and these are arranged in the way of a pavement on
‘the inner side of the cell ; hence we must consider Cladophora a
‘composite Alga, which would then form the first step to the cell
of Nitella, in which the green chlorophyll-bearing cells would
correspond to the same kind. of organisms in ‘the: cell of Clado-
_phora; but as the form of Nitella is more complicated, so it re-
‘quires distinct organs of reproduction for its general develop-
ment. That the conjectured mode of generation. mentioned.
the freshwater Rhizopoda may, be the same:as in the lower Alge,
and that the addition of other and distinct organs for this pur-
pose in the higher developments is a necessary sequence of their
234 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
complication, are observations merely put forth for what they
may proye worth. At the same time, it appears evident, that
each organ must have its proper cell, and this cell its proper
mode. of impregnative reproduction, just as much as the most
complicated beimgs of which it forms a part; while the granu-
lating of the nucleus of a cell to furnish fertilizing germs for the
process of generation, when a simple division of it, only. is re-
quired for common reproduction, is perhaps not the least un-
tenable view that may be held on the subject.
In Physactis saccata, Kg., the spherical, terminal cell of the
snake-like filaments is filled or lined with a homogeneous, trans-
lucent substance, in one part of the circumference of which is a
nucleus, and this part is invariably next the last granuliferous
cell of the filament (fig. 70.4), which with the four or five fol-
lowing ones unite together to form the elongated club-shaped
sporangium (fig. 71). When the sporangium is completed, the
spherical cell is seen to be united to it by a kind of neck, but
the nucleus and its homogeneous contents have disappeared,
that 1s, have passed into the sporangium (fig. 71 a).; While
here,and there may be seen spherical cells unattached to (pro-
bably separated from) their filaments, some of which have a gra-
nular substance growing out in a linear form from the nucleus
(figs. 72, 73). Hence then, as we have the nucleus. of the sphe-
rical cell applied to the terminal cell of the granuliferous, chain,
a.tubular, prolongation connecting it with the 'sporangium, the
disappearance of the nucleus and other contents of the spherical
cell after the formation of the sporangium, together with a gra-
nular growth from the nucleus of this cell when the sporangium
isn process of formation, I think it may fairly be inferred, that
the chief part which the spherical cell adds to the sporangium is
this granular growth from its nucleus. : |
Development of the Ovule.—In Spongilla and Huglypha, this
appears to take place by the passing of the transparent, faint-
yellow film, which lines the interior of the capsule, into an opake,,
yellowish, granuliferous membrane ; synchronously with which
it becomes more marginated towards the capsule, and. presents,
in the centre, a pellucid area, in the middle of which, again, is.
a minute granule or body, which appears to. be the rudiment, of
the nueleus, (fig. 59)... Frequently, also, another layer, as before
stated, is seen in the ovules of Spongilla external to the capsular,
one; and this appears to. be endowed with locomotive power,)as
it generally presents a parabolical, shape, extended. out from: one
side, of ;the ovule (fig. 40 a); after, which the. ovule in.each, be-
comes transformed, apparently, wholly, into.a, polymorphic, ,rep-
tant Rhizopod (fig. 397,). The same process, modified, appears
to take place im the ovules of Huglena.'/Thus in E. viridis, where
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 285
they are of an oblong shape (and therefore unmistakeable, if
nothing but a legion of this species pregnant with ovules be pre-
sent), they are found like the ovules of Spongilla, viz. scattered
over the sides of the vessel, and evidently have, in like manner,
the power of locomotion in addition to that which both also pos-
sess of turning upon their long axis when otherwise stationary.
This, perhaps, may be partly effected by the external membrane
just mentioned. The pellucid central area in the oblong ovules
of E. viridis corresponds with the oblong shape of the capsule
(fig. 59) ; but beyond this, and the central granule, I have not
been able to follow their development out of the parent ; though,
from the number of young #. virides which present themselves
under the cireumstances mentioned, it may reasonably be inferred
that they come from the ovules. The young Euglene, however,
being so rapid in their movements when once the cilium is
formed, it can hardly be expected that, except under a state of
incarceration, their development can be followed so satisfactorily
as that of the slow-moving Rhizopod. Instances do occur, how-
éver, where the ovules gain the cilium within the cell, and there
bound about, when fully developed, like the zoospores of Algz
within ‘their spore-capsules. In this way I have seen them
moving rapidly within the effete transparent capsuled body of
E. viridis and in Crumenula texta, where the spiral fibre layer is
so strongly developed as to retain the form of the Euglena for a
long time after all the soft parts have perished. On these occa-
sions the embryos are perfectly colourless, with the exception of
a’central point, which reflects a red tint ; and on one occasion,
while watching a litter in rapid motion within the capsuled body
of ‘. viridis, the capsule gave way, and they came out one after
another just as zoospores escape from the spore-capsule ; but
from their incessant and vigorous movement I was unable to fol-
low them long enough to make out anything more about them.
Kolliker also noticed in Huglena “four to six embryos in one
individual, and entirely filling it, which at last, furnished with
their red points and cilia, broke through their parent, leaving it
an’ empty case*.” The same kind of development of the oyule
probably takes place in all the Rhizopoda as in Spongilla, and in
Astasia' as in Euglena. 1 have seen young’ Astasie in the
effete body of ‘an old one, but could not say that the latter was
the ‘parent. | . Ka
“To Stein’s original and valuable observations on the develop-
mént of enibryos, arising fromthe division of the nucleus-in
Vorticelle, I have already alluded; and also-to M. Jules Haime’s
statements regarding the oyules’which he saw’ in’ the ‘bodies ‘of
* Quart. Jou. Microseop.Sey vol... p. 84, 1853)
236 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
Plesconia, Dileptus, and Paramecium aurelia. Neither, however,
appears to have seen ovules in either of these Infusoria suffi-
ciently distinct to describe their composition in detail.
Lastly, I would advert here to the rhizopodous forms which
Vorticella occasionally appears to assume when under gemmi-
parous reproduction. Stein has described it in Acineta, and I
have since observed it in a Rhizopod undistinguishable from
Ameba Gleichenii; I have also seen Vorticelle developed singly
from Acineta ; and am now compelled to return to the conclusion
which I doubted formerly, viz. that the rhizopodous development,
which takes place in Huglena is a similar passage of the nucleus,
and perhaps certain other contents of this Infusorium, into a
rhizopodous form*, It appears to be as general in the family of.
Euglena asin that of Vorticella ; and although these, two organ-
isms at first look very different, yet not only is their metamor-
phosis into rhizopodous forms similar, but the sudden contractile
movement at intervals of a species of Glenodinium (Ehr., very
nearly the same as G. ¢abulatum) is so like that of Vorticella, and
Glenodinium is so closely allied to Euglena, that we cannot help
seeing in this act alone a feature which links together Euglena
and Vorticella,—if not also, with other points of resemblance,
the biphorous Tunicata or Salpide. :
Hence then, as Vorticella may pass into Acineta or Amoeba,
and Euglena also into a rhizopodous cell, and the former may in
its metamorphosis produce young Vorticelle, so perhaps Euglene
may produce young Huglene after a similar manner. |
How, then, are we to regard this granulating development of
thenucleus ? We have seen that it occurs in Luglypha, where also
there is a distinct development of ovules. Are we to regard. it
as the flowéring of a dicecious male plant, or as the budding of a
moneecious or bisexual flowering one,—as the impregnating ele-
ment, or as a reproductive gemmiparous one? We can hardly
consider it budding or gemmiparous, because it is a development
of the nucleus itself, which allies it more to fissiparous or dupli-
cative subdivision; and if this cannot be determined, perhaps it
* This was the original view I took of it. I then conceived it to beva
foreign development, like the rhizopodous cell of the Characez, for it, took
place in.several Crumenule, which had respectively been enwrapped for a
short time in rhizopodous cells, when I thought the germs of the new de-
velopment might have been introduced into them. Still I wavered im my
opinion, as may be seen in the latter part of my description of this (Ann.
and Mag: Nat. Hist. vol. xvii. p. 115), and since then I have returned to
the old view, which is that above expressed ; for independently of other
evidence in favour of it, Huglena would be an exception to what now seems
to be a general occurrence in organisms closely allied to it, that is, if we
considered this granular metamorphosis of the nucleus into polymorphic,
rhizopodous bodies, a foreign development.
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 237
had better be called “ granulation.” Gemmez grow out from the
surface, and do not appear to contain any portion of the nucleus
(ew. gr. Vorticelle)* ; neither could I discover an elongated nu-
cleus, as Stein has figured, in the Amebe and Acinete which I
saw developing young Vorticelle, the former in plurality (one to
three), and the latter singly ; if present in the amcebous form, it
was circular, and if in the Acinete, undistinguishable from the
general “ granulation.”
- Again,—Where are these transformations to end? Into what
kind of rhizopods do the sheathed Vorticelle pass? How many
of the freshwater Rhizopoda are alternating forms of Vorticelle ?
How many actinophorous Rhizopods those of Euglene? How
many more Infusoria pass into amoebous forms? &c. are questions
originating in Stein’s important discovery, which not only indi-
cate the necessity of further investigation, but a considerable
approaching change in the classification of Infusoria.
It is desirable, also, that I should add here what little more
I have been able to collect respecting the development of the
Monads in the rhizopodous cell, which dwells and multiplies in
the protoplasm of the Characeze +. This, it will be remembered,
I conjectured to be by segmentation of parts of the diaphane and
sarcode; but before making any further observations on the sub-
ject here, I will again premise a brief description of this cell. It
is distinctly a Rhizopod, like Ameba, or the sponge-cell, but of
greater tenuity, and without, so far as my observation extends,
a vesicula ; that is, I have not been able to recognize this organ
in it, though on dying it presents vacuoles. The nucleus, as
before stated, is clear at first, then becomes cloudy, and presents
one or more defined granules, afterwards semi-granular and
opake, and then uniformly granular throughout, when it appears
to multiply by fissiparation in the parent cell, and thus to give
rise to several daughter-cells, after the manner of a vegetable
eytoblast ; or to grow into an elongated granular body, of whose
ultimate development, while within the living internode of the
Characex, I am ignorant (fig. 93). But when the internode of
Nitella (ex. gr.) is about to die, and this rhizopod seizes upon
the green disks of the periphery and other nutritious matters
of the interior, now deprived of the vitality which kept them
together and thus exposed to the rapacity of the ascendant para-
site, the nucleus, undergoes various changes, which arrests of
development at different. stages, among the myriads.which are
‘* A‘similar ‘process takes place im the roots of Chara, where the new
nuclei for the new buds come into existence in the protoplasm surrounding
the old nucleus, but at some little distance from it, after which the old
nucleus perishes.
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vols. xvi. ps. 10,.& xvia. p15,
238 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
presented to view, seem to elucidate. Thus the nucleus with its
capsule, now surrounded by the nutritive contents enclosed within
the sareode, enlarges and passes from its discoid form (elliptical
in the large Nétel/a) into a globular one* : meanwhile the former
becomes distinctly and uniformly granular; the granules en-
large and become refractive ; they assume, en masse, a spheroidal
form enclosed within a cell of their own, and thus become di-
stinct from the capsule; at the same time one or more refractive
(oil ?) globules, or a nucleus, may sometimes be seen in the latter.)
While this is going on, a zone of colourless plasma (?) forms: all
round the capsule of the nucleus, which thus becomes separated’
from contact with the now hardened cell-wall or :pellicula, ‘as’
well as from the diaphane and sarcode (fig. 94). The nextistage:
is the bursting of the proper cell, and passage of the granules
of the nucleus into its capsule, and from thence into’ the: soft)
plasmic zone which surrounds it. After this, the plasma ‘assumes
a mulberry shape, and divides up into monads, which feed upon
the enclosed nutritive matters, and are at length: seen im the
position of the sarcode and diaphane, now circumscribed ‘by ‘a:
transparent delicate membrane, the second pellicular cyst}. ‘That:
the refractive granules of the nucleus, and portions: of the en=)
closed nutritive contents, which are coloured brown by the dead)
chlorophyll, get into the bodies of the monads, cannot be doubted; |
as such matters are seen in them, and could come from no other)
source. Frequently, however, cells may be seen, ‘apparently
under an arrest of development, in which the plasmie zone has:
assumed a subtuberculated or mulberry form, and the granules:
of the nucleus are still in their globular cell within the capsule; '
hence it may be inferred that the segmentation of the plasma
commences before the granules of the nucleus get into it (fig. 96).
Again, im a more advanced but still arrested stage, the capsule.
of| the nucleus is seen to be empty, and its bright granules, in
the little pouches or mulberry-shaped excresceuces of the plasma,
now reduced to a mere membrane by arrest of development
(figs. 97, 98). From which it may also be inferred that each.
pouch, which represents a monad, receives one or more:of the)
granules of the nucleus. Does the tuberculated or mulberry:
* T must infer this, because the nuclei in the large species of Nitella; ‘as’
well as in) Chara verticillata, are all elliptical. She,
+ Is this degenerated pellicula and diaphane, or a new, eyst, composed of ,
the former only? I am now inclined to the latter theory, here as well as in
Otostoma (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xvi. p. 108 & xvii. p. 118 respec-
tively), and that in Otostoma the ciliated coat is divided up for the new litter; ’
while in the rhizopodous cell of the Characez the diaphane and secreting
organ. of the, pellicular cysts become effete and pass into dissolution, . (See
the discussion on this point ante, pp. 117, 118.)
Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 239
surface of the plasmic zone, thus under an arrest of develop-
ment, indicate that it has taken this shape from consisting ori-
ginally of a number of ovules enclosed within a globular mem-
brane; and if so, is the passage of the granules of the nucleus
into them to be considered an act of impregnation? If they
were ovules, then one would think that there would be no oc-
easion to lay up extraneous nutrition for them, more than in
Buglypha, Spongilla, &e., the ovules of which, after the parent
perishes, remain’ for a certain time in the effete body, and
ultimately undergo a kind of incubation generally after they
haveleft-the: cavity in which they were developed. Again,
though very; much like the granulating of the nucleus in Hugly-
phaand Ameba, where the bodies which are thus evolved singly
orin groups ‘generally become endowed with active locomotive
. power before they leave the parent; yet in these instances no
plasmic zone around the nucleus preparatory to this has been
observed*, In the present stage of our knowledge, therefore,
we are not-able to say whether this be a gemmiparous or a
generative process; whether monads developed in this way are
merely multiplied zoosperms of this organism, or the mixed pro-
duct ofia genuine generative process; whether there be, in ad-
dition,:an ovular development, as in Euglypha, &e.; or whether
thie» monads' thus developed soon perish, or become new cells.
Certainly in Spongilla there are two kinds of developments, viz.
the'so-ealled zoospores or monads, and the transformation of the
ovules directly: into the sponge-cell : both are polymorphic, and
at first: have each (?). a single cilium ; but one bemg much smaller
than the other, they may perhaps be regarded respectively as
macrogonidia and microgonidia, as Braun has suggested for the
zoospores of Hydrodictyont+. From whence, then, come the so-
called zoospores in the latter—from the granules or the nucleus ?
Lastly, there are two organs in those Huglene (mihi, which
for no:just reason Dujardin has separated from this family), viz.
Phacus (Bhr:) and Crumenula texta (Duj.), that I should notice
here; though I am perfectly ignorant of their use. These are
the! so-called “red spot,” which in Crumenula texta, where it is
comparatively very large, rests in the form of a small obtuse
cone upon the vesicula; and the glairy capsuled body, which
always.exists in the. centre of Phacus,.and.im the. long lip of
Crumenula texta, &e. ;—in some Huglene there is an undefined
yellowish body here. ;
“Of what use the “red spot” or body may be, I am igno-
rant; but it. is very common to see matter like that, of,.which
* Actinophrys oculata (Stein), however, presents a nucleus and plasinie
zone of this kind. (See p. 228.)
+ Ray Soc. Pub. Bot. and Phys. Mems. loe, cit.
240 Mr, H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
it is composed multiplied throughout the body of Euglena, both
in an amorphous and molecular form, or, when nothing but
the ovules remain in the colourless, transparent, fibrous cells of
the two species mentioned, to see. little granules of it moving
with a more than Brownonian motion among the ovules. Ehren-
berg regarded it as the rudiment of a visual organ ; and perhaps
he is right, for there seems to be very little difference between
the pigment of the skin of a Negro and the pigment of the
choroid membrane of his eye, while the latter is confined to
the eye alone in white-skinned people. Again, in some of the
Rotifera, it is not uncommon to see the material of which the
red pigment of the eye is composed, more or less dispersed in a
molecular form, though it is generally confronted by a bluish
refractive matter, corresponding perhaps to the vitreous humour
and lens. Also, in the so-called blind Planaria, there are organs
like eyes with flat cornez, but no pigment ; and when the animal
is about to divide ‘into two across the stomach, the first indi-
cation appears to be an inversion of the integument which is to
form the future eye, and at the same time a covering of it with
cuticle, which thus supplies the cornea. Finally, then, as we
find in the Albino eyes capable of seeing without the presence
of pigment ; the eye formed by an induplication of the skin ; the
pigment dispersed over the body, as well as in the eye, in the
Negro, while it is confined to the eye in the white races,—we are
led to the conclusion that the red body in the family of Huglena,
though not necessarily indicating sight, may nevertheless mark
the point where something of this nature exists in this, as well
as in other Infusoria of the kind, although, as in Astasia, it is
not similarly marked, any more than in many animals wherein
a visual organ is present without this accompaniment.
In a small species of Euglena, which dwells in the brackish
water of the main-drain of Bombay, and which, after having -
been placed in fresh water, assumes the still, Protococcus form,
multiplying itself by fissiparation and internal segmentation of
the sarcode, after the manner of vegetable cells, and occasionally
in linear arrangement, like the filamentous Alge,—the red body
is as often omitted as repeated in each cell; while in the active
state, previous to longitudinal deduplication, the red body always
becomes dual, one on each side the vesicula. But in transverse
fission it is frequently absent in the lower half, and only remains
in the longitudinal divisions of the anterior one (fig. 62 a-d). It
is interesting, too, to observe that this body is present .in the
gonidia of Ulothrix zonata, one of the filamentous Algee, and that
- it also is confined fo the first cell in fissiparation, which so far
corresponds with Euglena, that when the latter assumes a fixed
or algoid form, by capsulation, the peduncle of the pellicula is
extended from the anterior, ciliated extremity. This also is the
Mr.H. J. Carter on the Organization.of Infusoria. 241
part which developes the root-like prolongations in Gidogonium ;
and probably the gonidia of Ulothriz grow after the same man-
- mer; im which case the red body would remain in the inferior
half, and not be repeated, as in Euglena, when the latter fissi-
parates, in the still form, transversely.
With reference to the single, glairy, capsuled body which exists
in the centre of Phacus, and in the large lip of Crumenula texta,
also dually ii Huglena geniculata (Duj., spirogyra, Khr.), one on
each side the nucleus (figs. 53 a, 37 a, 88 a), 1 can state nothing
further than that in the two first it consists of a discoid trans-
parent capsule, which at an early stage appears to be filled with
a refractive, oily-looking matter; that it is fixed in a particular
position, and remains there apparently unaltered, with the ex-
ception of becoming nucleated, until every part of the animaleule
has: perished, and nothing is left but the spiral-fibre coat, and
perhaps a few ovules. In Euglena geniculata it is bacilliform,
and contains a.correspondingly-shaped nucleus ; and although I
can state nothing respecting its uses, I cannot fail to see that it
has an interesting analogy, particularly in the latter instance, with
two similar organs, which are commonly seen in the Navicule,
and which in N. fulva, ex. gr. are situated in a variable position,
between the nucleus and the extremities on either side (fig. 89.
In this species they make their appearance as little specks,
generally previous to the development of the oil-globules, &c.,
and, enlarging rapidly, assume a globular form, consisting of a
transparent capsule, enclosing a glairy, refractive, oily-looking
fluid. As the starch and oil-globules are developed and subside,
these glairy globules’ become distinctly nucleated, sometimes
iregular in form, or pedicled to the endochrome-bearing proto-
plasm, and, like their apparent analogues in Crumenula, &c., re-
main in the frustule when everything else has become decom-
posed, or has passed into minute brown-red granules (sporules ?),
when they present a central, glairy, circular nucleus, surrounded
by a double globular capsule, neither of which, like the globule
in Crumenula, takes any colouring from a solution of iodine. I
need not here go further into the description of this organ in
Navicula : suffice it to say, that it also appears constantly in a large
species of Amphiphora common in the brackish water of the
main-drain of Bombay, where it assumes the form, when fully
developed, of an elliptical body, terminated at each end by a
compressed, truncated, or obtuse elongation, like a barrel, and
is always attached to the circumference of a vesicle (fig. 90 a, a).
I should not have written so much about this organ here, but
as it is not (as, 1 think, is generally supposed) a common oil-
globule, and we know so little of the organology ‘of the Diato-
mee, while its occurrence in Navicula seems to add'to the other
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist: Ser. 2/ Vol. xviii. “16
242 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
points of alliance which exist between the Diatomee and Eu-
glene, its mention may not prove useless or uninteresting to
those who are engaged in these studies. Perhaps for the present
we had better call it the “ glair-cell.”
Here I should not omit to add, that the resting-spore or
macrogonidium (Braun) of Gidogonium developes a number of
capsules like the ovules of Kuglene ; and that though they occa-
sionally exhibit, under the action of iodine, a blue tint, indicative
of their amylaceous nature, yet when fresh and newly formed,
they only take the brown-yellow one invariably presented by
the ovules of Euglena under the same circumstances. Similar
colourless capsules may also be seen moving about cells of Gido-
gonium whose contents have left their walls, and appear to have
partially progressed towards that of the spore, without having
had strength to assume the globular form ; and these very much
resemble the ovules of Crumenula when moving by the aid of a
cilium within the effete transparent cell. All must allow, from
what I have stated respecting the cell-contents of Gdogonium
flavescens (Kg.), viz. that under favourable conditions, when the
cell is broken, they can leave it bodily, form into a spore, and
swim about by aid of their cilia, and that the germs of Gfdogo-
nium can pierce the sheath of Oscillatoria princeps (Kg.), and ger-
minate between its cells, that these are phenomena of a kind much
more common in the animal than in the vegetable kingdom.
In conclusion, I have only to remark, that the reader is re-
quested to view all speculative suggestions in this summary of
my “ Notes” as mere cursory observations, introduced for the
purpose of calling attention to subjects which are deemed worthy
of consideration ; the study of this part of organic creation being
so much in its infancy, and so intricate, that hardly anything
but that which has received ocular demonstration should be
taken for fact.
P.S.—The following is a good illustration of what I have-just
stated. Since writing the above, I have seen numbers of “ pores ”
in the investing membrane of Spongilla, open, remain so, and
close ; admit currents of water, as proved by the presence of par-
ticles of carmine; which particles were found to have been taken
into the bodies of the sponge-cells and so-called “ zoosperms,”
and afterwards thrown off again as the refuse of food by Amba.
This last fact establishes the animality of Spongil/a. The “ pores,”
at times, appear to be generally closed; hence the error of my
having supposed this with a single vent to be the typical form
of the investing membrane of Spongilla, and the consequent in-
ference, that it was thus supported by endosmosis. I shall have
to. recur to these facts more particularly hereafter.
Bombay, 10th June 1856.
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Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Oryanizaiion of Infusoria. 248
EXPLANATION OF PLATES V., VI., VII.
PLaTE V.
Ameebous cell under spherical distension, about to become plani-
_ form, from the brackish water in the marshes of the island of
Bombay; 1-400th of an inch in diameter: (a) pellicula and dia-
phane ; (4) sarcode and granules; (¢) space unoccupied by sar-
code; (d) nucleus in its capsule.
Section of ditto through the nucleus, showing the same parts
marked with the same letters: (¢) nucleus ; (d) central cavity now
distended by water,
Ameba quadrilineata, H. J.C. (n. sp.?), under reptation : (a) dia-
phane; (0) molecule of sarcode; (c) vesicula; {d) nucleus and
capsule ; (e) digestive globule containing a fragment of Oscil-
latoria.
Ameba Roeselii(?), Duj.: (a) “ granules ;”’ (0) vesieula; (c) nu-
cleus.
Ameba Gleichenii (?), Duj.: (a) discoid ovules of different sizes,
the largest 1-2800th of an inch in diameter; (2) one more mag-
nified showing the capsule; (¢) “granules ;” (d) portions of
food; (¢) capsule of nucleus empty; (f) vesicula. Animal
about 1-400th of an inch in diameter when spherical.
Figs. 6-8. Ditto, becoming capsuled. 6. First stage, all extraneous matter
- Fig. 9.
thrown off, peduncle formed, but pellicula still admitting of (6)
expansions; (a) ovules and granules. 7. Capsule too much
hardened to admit of expansions of the diaphane. 8. Capsule
formed, rough, yellow, about 1-3U00th of an inch in long diameter.
Euglena (viridis, mihi), Ehr., encapsuled, capsule rough, of a yel-
lowish-brown colour: (a) red-body next the peduncle.
‘Figs. 10-16. Ameba radiosa (?), Duj., showing nucleus in different stages
et
of “ granulation.” 10. (@) nucleus enlarged, granular. 11. Nu-
cleus still more enlarged, (12) presenting first sulcus of dupli-
cative (?) subdivision. 13. Same process ending in the production
of a mass of spherical, delicate, transparent, granuliferous cells.
14. Parent nearly effete with only two of the spherical cells re-
maining, the granules of which have become large, free, separated
from each other and endowed with rapid locomotive power.
15. One of these cells more magnified. 16. Plane or actino-
phorous form of ditto previous to hardening of the pellicula and
development of the granules.
. Fig. 17. Ditto in conjunction.
Fig. 18. Ditto, another pair, just after separation. *
Fig: 19. Actinophorous form of a species of Palmellea(?), Kg., like
Gleocapsa granosa, Kg., but with cells, separate and solitary.
Fig. 20. Nucleus of Ameba under “ granulation,” presenting the second
sulcus of duplicative subdivision.
‘Figs. 21-23. Different forms of botryoidal granuliferous cell-development
of the nucleus in Amebe.
@ Fig. 24. Ameeba Roeselii (?), Duj., presenting a nucleus undergoing botry-
oidal development: (@) mammilliform projection of vesicula pre-
aratory to discharging its contents.
Fig. 25. s aire alveolata, Duj.: (a) sarcode, granules, and molecule ;
(6) nucleus and capsule (the former very seldom visible except in
: | 16%
244
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35,
36.
37.
Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
young individuals) ;.(c) particles of food; (d) supernumerary
scales; (d') form of scale. Average length of full-grown test
1-400th of an inch,
. Ditto, with body transformed into an ovisac filled with ovules.
Ovule about 1-4000th of an inch in diameter.
. Ditto, presenting a development of delicate granuliferous cells like
those of Ameba radiosa. Cells about 1-4000th of an inch in
diameter: (a) capsule of nucleus which generally remains entire.
. Ditto, showing that the ovules are developed outside the capsule
of the nucleus: (a) opercular closure of the test accompanying
these developments.
. Ditto, showing a separation and development of the granules into
moveable bodies (spermatozoids?) within the test: (a@) group of
cells entire on their passage outwards. This and the last figure
also show the development of the ovules and granuliferous cells
in the neighbourhood of the nucleus and its capsule, and the
latter apparently growing out of the nucleus.
Ditto, showing ovules and granuliferous cells developed in the
same test, and together : (a) supernumerary scales.
Ovule of Euglypha alveolata more magnified : (a) showing capsule
and nuclear portion; (4) ditto with pellucid area and central gra-
nule; (¢) bearing granules. Do these granules indicate an ap-
proaching development of the sarcode, or are they adventitious ?
They do not appear in the early state of the ovule, but generally
before it has left the test, wherein granules like those developed
from the granuliferous cells are frequently seen oscillating round
them. (d) development of external layer or diaphane, now giving
the ovule a rhizopodous form. 31’. Granuliferous cell more mag-
nified ; in this state it progresses under a plane, actinophorous
form, or the granules become large, separate, and exhibit much
activity within the test. 5
Euglypha alveolata (large variety?), 1-300th of an inch in length,
showing a special apparatus for the development of the granu-
liferous cells: (a) animal (?) transformed into a secondary test ;
(6) cyst containing granuliferous cells; (¢) tube for their libe-
ration when they have become locomotive. The same is seen in
the common or smaller variety.
Ditto, ditto, with the granules separated and endowed with active
locomotive power : (6) shows the structure of the test of H. al-
veolata. ;
Euglypha alveolata in conjunction ; the granules of each passing
freely backwards and forwards into each other’s tests, as if the
two bodies had been two drops of water thus united. The union
however is only apparent, as we see in the separation of Arcella
vulgaris, which also exhibits a similar conjunction both still and
under reptation.
ribadis ditto, separating: (a) the bond of union reduced to a mere
thread,
Ditto, separation of the fleshy substance completed, tests still
united : (a) nucleus in its capsule,
PLATE VI.
Globular sac of seed-like body of Spongilla, partly filled with
ovules and granules, of different sizes. he
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Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 245
Portion of contents of ditto more magnified: (a) largest ovule of
the group presenting the type of the whole, viz. that of a nearly
coloprless cell within a transparent capsule ; (2) granules ; (c) ditto
im connexion with ovules; (d) ovules without a granule. Largest
ovules 1-3000th to 1-2000th of an inch in diameter.
Series of ovules of Spongilla to show the different degrees of ap-
“oman of the granule. 39 a'-c. Where the granule is ad-
erent to the margin; (f) marginal view of ditto; (d) when
adherent to the flat surface of the disk; (gy) marginal view of
ditto; (e) two granules in connexion with one ovule; (4) deve-
lopment of the ovule in connexion with a granule which appears
to open into the cavity of the capsule, within which the granular
sarcode is making its appearance ; (7) next stage of development,
in which the ovule has become slowly polymorphic and presents
a vesicula; (k) when the polymorphism is more active ; (/) ditto,
presenting a cilium; (m) granule (?) transformed into a monad
precisely like the “ zoosperm.” All these developments take place
in three to five days after the ovules have been pressed out of the
seed-like body into distilled water in a watch-glass.
» Ovule of Spongilia in progress of development to show the pre-
sence of the external layer or diaphane extending from it in-a
parabolic form. (It may here be asked, “ what becomes of the
‘ capsule ’ which is originally so well defined?” This line of de-
mareation between the diaphane and sarcode disappears as soon
_as the ovule becomes polymorphic.)
. Ovi-bearing sponge-cell, still polymorphic, from the seed-like
body at an early period, viz. before the capsule is formed. Sphe-
rical form 1-700th of an inch in diameter.
. Form of a sponge-cell which exists in a layer around the young )
uncapsuled seed-like body, and probably constructs the capsule.
. Small sponge-cell with so-called “ zoosperm ” attached, from an
old piece of Spongilla.
. Group of so-called “ferment-cells ” from the juice (vulg. “toddy ”’)
of Cocos nucifera, under fermentation ; to contrast with the ap-
parent budding development of the ovule of Spongilla: (a) va-
cuoles which abound im all these cells. Largest, circular cells
1-2000th of an inch in diameter.
Astasia limpida, Duj., previous to the formation of ovules:
(a) molecular sarcode ; (b) nucleus; (c) vesicula ; (d) buccal tube
or proboscis ; (¢) position of anal orifice (?). Length about 1-438th
of an inch.
. Ditto, filled with discoid ovules, of which few are ever found so
large as the largest of Spongilla; they are generally about
1-6000th of an inch in diameter: (a) more magnified view of
ovule showing its capsuled character.
Ditto, containimg spherical granuliferous cells like those of Ameba
and Euglypha. Ovules atrophied as in Crumenula texta under
similar (?) circumstances (see tye vol. xvii. pl. 9. figs. 11-13) :
(a) granuliferous cell more magnified. ,
Ditto, with a botryoidal development (of the nucleus?) of similar
cells: (a) bunch more magnified.
Euglena viridis in conjunction previous to the formation of
ovules: (a) position of nucleus and capsule; (0) vesicula ;
(ce) red body; (d) molecular sarcode. Length of largest indi-
viduals 1-200th of an inch,
246
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
50.
. di.
. O2.
. 53.
. 59.
. 60.
. 6).
. 62.
63.
65.
66.
Mr. H. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
Euglena viridis, after the formation of ovules ; individuals still
adhering to each other and to the watch-glass in which this was
observed. >
Ditto, subsiding into spherical encystment.
Ditto, encysted. (Although one of each of these pairs is left
blank, both individuals were alike in nature.)
Crumenula texta, Duj., showing sarcode and its granules, nucleus,
vesicula, red body, and (a) glair-cell; (4) glair-cell more mag-
nified to show its nucleated character. Length of animalcule
about 1-560th of an inch. (For a figure of the same filled with
ovules or ‘‘ embryonic cells,” see loc. cit.) Ovules about 1-2300th
of an inch in diameter.
. Ditto, effete, containing ovules endowed with locomotive power ;
probably from the development of a cilium, which in this instance I
could not see for want of a microscope of higher power. (8, 6) red
grains, round, composed of material like that of thered body; (ce, d,e)
different phases of the ovule of this specimen more magnified.
. Euglena viridis (large specimen) encysted and filled with ovules.
. Internal, transparent, tough sac holding the ovules (probably a
transformation of the parent): (a) portion of the contents of the
sac to show that they consist of ovules of different sizes, and
harap
vule more magnified to show its oblong or quadrilateral form in
Euglena viridis: (a) capsule; (0) film of homogeneous matter
lining its interior; (¢) pellucid area with central granule. (‘This
ovule has somewhat progressed in development.)
Effete cell of Crumenula texta, showing that it possesses a ske-
leton cell composed of sigmoid fibres arranged spirally, so as to
assume a conical form: (a) end view; (6, c) form of fibres;
(d) portion of a broken cell. Is not this analogous to the spiral-
fibre of the vegetable cell ? ,
Longitudinal deduplication of Euglena viridis during active life.
Euglena agilis, H. J. C. (nu. sp.?), from the brackish water of the
marshes of Bombay: (a,6,c) Protococcus or still-form after
having been kept in a watch-glass and supplied with fresh water ;
(a) transverse division showing that the red body is not deve-
loped in the lower half; (¢) ditto quadruple, longitudinal divi-
sion showing that the red body is equally multiplied; (d) linear
development (probably by longitudinal division, as the red body
is present in each cell). Animal 1-600th of an inch in length.
Serpicula verticillata, Roxb. Spine-cell of leaf showing the proto-
plasmie cell or primordial utricle of Mohl. (a) nucleus; (4) green
granules in the reticulate molecular protoplasm (the former cor-
responding to the “granules,” and the latter to the molecular
sarcode of the amcebous cell, figs. 1, 2) (2).
. Ditto, cell of body of leaf showing protoplasmic cell in rotatory
motion, carrying round with it chlorophyll-bearing cellules (pro-
bably only an enlarged form of the green granules of the spine-
eell, fig. 63), imbedded in the protoplasm promiscuously. These
two figures are for comparison with the ameebous cell, figs. 1 & 2.
Paramecium aurelia, Ehr.: (a) granules; (6) digestive globules
containing food; (¢) buccal cavity drawing in particles of food
for the formation of the new digestive globule at its lower extre-
mity. Length about 1-170th of an inch. |
Ditto ; diagrammatic view under compression, showing (a, a) vesi-
ete it ie
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Fig,
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| Fig.
Fig.
67.
68.
75.
76.
77.
78,
79.
80.
Mr. Hi. J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria. 247
culz and the papille respectively through which their contents
appear to be discharged ; (0,4) radiating lines or vessels consisting
of a concatenation of pyriform,and fusiform sinuses. This state
can be only partially seen, viz. when the vesicule are just re-
ceiving the contents of the sinuses; at this moment both may be
observed to be slightly dilated together, but never to the extent
represented in the diagram.
Paramecium aurelia, Ehr.; sketch of, under compression, just
preceding diffluence and death; showing the dilatation of the
proximal sinuses only, and the passage of the rest into each
other, so as to form continuous vascular channels.
Ditto, not compressed ; showing a lateral view of the vesiculze in
situ: (a, a) dilatation of the vesicule pressing inwards the prox-
imal sinuses, which are thus shown to open into the inner part of
the vesicule ; (5) discharge of digestive globule through the anal
aperture ; (c) granules.
. Ditto, in transverse fissiparation, to show the quadrupling of the
vesiculee.
. Filament of Physactis saccata, Kg., with terminal spherical cell
previous to the formation of the sporangium: (a) homogeneous
contents of spherical cell ; (4) nucleus of ditto.
. Ditto, after the formation of the sporangium: (a) spherical cell
now empty and connected with the sporangium by a tubular pro-
longation.
. Spherical cell of P. saccata separated from the filament.
. Ditto, with a granular development extending from the nucleus.
Puate VII.
. Epistylis Galea (?), Ehr., showing (a) entrance of buccal cavity ;
(6, 6, 6) buccal cavity with constriction, armed with cilia (?);
(ce, ¢) digestive globules in process of formation; (d, d) ditto
formed and containing food; (e, e) small green zoospores taken
in as food, and showing by their circulating throughout every part
of the body that they are not confined to an intestinal canal ;
(f.f ) vesicula opening into the buccal cavity just above the con-
striction; (h) arrow marking the position of the anal aperture ;
(g) cylindrical form of nucleus wrapped round the vesicula and
buccal cavity like the ovary in Salpa; (2) closed individual.
Vorticella —— ?,; presenting a pouch-like extension of the buccal
cavity in the position of the anal aperture and discharging orifice
of the vesicula: (a) pouch; (6) vesicula; (¢) another individual
passing into the Acineta form.
V. microstoma, showing the separation of the different organs
under decomposition: (a) vesicula; (0) buccal cavity; (c) nu-
cleus; (d) diffluent operculum.
V: convallaria (?), Ehr., to show (@) granules, (0) nucleus.
V. microstoma, to show the invisible state of the buccal cavity
during the dilatation of the vesicula, and vice versd: (a) with
vesicula ; (¢) dilated; (>) disappearance of vesicula and reap-
pearance of (d) buccal cavity ; (¢) nucleus.
Arcellina vulgaris, Ehr,, showmg (a, a) duality of nucleus;
(b, b, b) plurality of vesicula; (¢) granules ;.(d) filiform attach-
ments of animal to the test. Animal 1-200th ofan inch in
diameter.
Diffugia tricuspis, H. J.C. (n.sp.?), showing (a) nucleus ; (0) ve-
248 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Organization of Infusoria.
sicula in plurality ; (c) podal prolongations with greenish elon-
gate “ granules ;”’ (d) tricuspid form of opening oF teat’ (e) fili-
form attachments of animal to the test. Animal t-320th of an
mch long.
Fig. 81. Ameba quadrilineata, H. J. C., showing two lateral vesiculze (a, a)
about to discharge themselves independently of the large, appa-
rently normal one (4). Animal about 1-350th of an inch in Jength.
Figs. 82, 83. Chilodon cucullulus, Ehr., two individuals to show hnear con-
tinuation of circular sinuses in one (82), and the vesicula in its
normal position: (a) nucleus; (4) dental apparatus; (ce) vesi-
cula; (d) lines of sinuses. 83. To show apparent absence of
vesicula and irregular distribution of contracting sinuses. Animal:
| largest size seen 1-320th of an inch in length.
Fig. 84. Spirostoma virens (?), Ehr. Posterior extremity to show dropsical
state of proximal sinuses and vesicula ; the former thus presenting
the appearance of an areolar structure round the latter.
Fig. 85. Bursaria leucas (?), Ehr.: (a) nucleus; (0) vesicula surrounded
by six globular sinuses.
Fig. 86. Himantophorus Charon, Ehr. ; vesicula of, surrounded by dilated
proximal sinuses.
Fig. 87. Euglena spirogyra, Ehr., showing (@) posterior glair-cell with its
broad surface upwards, and cylindrical nucleus; (a’) anterior
glair-cell with its margin upwards ; (b) “nucleus.” Animal about
1-133rd of an inch in length.
Fig. 88. Phacus pleuronectes, Duj.: (a) glair-cell and its nucleus ; (0) sap-
posed position of “nucleus.” Animal 1-500th of an inch long.
Fig. 89. Navicula fulva, Ehr., showing the form of its endochrome or
organ bearing this colour: (a, a) glair-cells; (6) nucleus sus-
pended by threads to the endochrome, like those of Spirogyra.
Frustule 1-183rd of an inch long.
Fig. 90. Amphiphora oblonga, H. J. C. (n. sp.?), primary surface showing
form of endochrome after division: (a, a) glair-cells; (a’) one
more magnified. Largestspecimen seen 1-75th of an inch in length.
Fig. 91. Ditto, lateral view ; the margin is of course angular.
Fig. 92. Spherical cells or ‘ biliary organisms:’’ (a) one from Otostoma,
H. J. C., containing five or more cellule filled with a bile-coloured
fluid ; (a') one from a binocular Planaria, showing (0) oil-glo-
bule, (ce) bile-cellulze, (d) lash of cilia; (e) another cell from the
same Planaria, containing four daughter-cells, each of which is
provided with a single bile-cellule;. (f) ditto with a single
large bile-cellule in the centre, and several small oil-globules ;
(g) spherical cell from Brachionus Pala, Ehr., presenting one
large bile-cell filled with granules, also a lash of cilia; this bile-
cell has much the appearance of a granulating nucleus.
Figs. 93-98. Rhizopodous cell inhabiting the protoplasm of the Characez,
under different phases to show the early stages of the develop-
ment of the monads. 93. The cell with single nucleus as it exists
in the living protoplasm : (a) pellicula and diaphane ; (4) nucleus
in the capsule; (¢) sarcode containing molecule and greenish
“< granules.”
Fig. 94. Ditto after having taken in food (the green cellules of the imter-
node at its death), which is represented by the dark shade:
(a) old pellicula or external cell; (a’) secondary pellicular layer
or internal cell; (6).food in the midst of the sarcode, which, with
the diaphane, now perishes; (c) development of plasmic (?) zone
round the capsule of the nucleus now become globular; (d) nu-.
Mr. W. H. Benson on new species of Burmese Helices. 249
cleus subdivided into spherical granules of refractive matter, still
circumscribed by their proper membrane within the capsule ;
(e) nucleolus within this proper capsule which sometimes appears
as a disk of protoplasm, at others as an oil-globule, and at others
in a state of minute granulation.
Fig. 95. Nucleus of Actinophrys oculata after. Stein (tab. 5. figs. 25-28.
op. cit.), to compare with the nucleus and plasmic zone just de-
scribed : (a) ‘‘ Marksubstanz ;”’ (0) “ nucleus.”
Fig. 96, Rhizopodous cell of Characez under arrest (?) of generative deve-
lopment: (a) plasmic zone reduced to a membranous (?) state
and presenting a number of pouches on its surface; (d) granules
: still within the capsule of the nucleus.
Fig. 97. Ditto, with capsule of the nucleus empty, and its refractive gra-
nules in the pouches of the mulberry-shaped plasmic membrane.
Fig. 98..The mulberry-shaped plasmic membrane, &ec. of the foregoing
figure isolated.
ee
XXII.—Descriptions of one Indian and nine new Burmese
Helices; and Notes on two Burmese Cyclostomacea. By
W..H. Benson, Esq.
1. Helix pylaica, n. s., nobis.
Testa obtecte perforata vel imperforata, depresso-conoidea, solidi-
uscula, nitente, superne radiato-costulata, subtus leeviori, costulis
evanescentibus, cornea, spira depressa, apice obtuso, sutura im-
pressa ; anfractibus 64 lente accrescentibus, angustis, ultimo antice
vix descendente, subtus convexo, ad periomphalum excavyato ;
apertura transversa, angusta, lunato-lineari dente unica elongata
parietali, lamelliformi, alba, coarctata ; peristomate incrassato, ob-
tuso, edentulo, albo, intus strictinsculo, margine externo infra an-
gulum peripheerii sinuato.
Diam. major 9, minor 8, axis 5 mill.
Hab. ad Maulmain. Teste W. Theobald. |
This and the following shells were collected by Mr. W. Theo-
bald, jun. It presents a singular resemblance to the North
American H. hirsuta, Say, in the form of the aperture and the
structure of the parietal plait; but there is no disposition to
form teeth on the basal callus as in that shell, .It must be in-
eluded in the division Tridopsis of Beck, of which H. hirsuta
and the Burmese H. infrendens, Gould, form a part. A still
nearer approach to the latter species will be found below in
.. capessens.
2. Hele artificiosa, n. s., nobis.
- "Pesta anguste umbilicata, orbiculata, discoidea, nitidiuseula, superne
liris confertis sulcisque profundis spiralibus, costulisque confertis
obliquis decussata, subtus liris remotioribus strusque radiatis ornata,
pallide cornea, spira planulata, interdum omnino planata, apice vix
\
250 Mr. W. H. Benson on new species of Burmese Helices.
elevato, obtuso, sutura profunda; anfractibus 63 angustis, lente
accrescentibus, ultimo superne subangulato, subtus convexiusculo ;
apertura sub-anguste lunata, obliqua; peristomate acuto, leviter
sinuato, margine columellari brevissimo, basalique expansiusculo,
dextro crenulato.
Diam. major 14, minor 12, axis 5 mill.
Hab. ad Phie Than vallis Tenasserim. Teste W. Theobald.
The sculpture of this discoid species is very elaborate, and
strongly pronounced in proportion to the size of the shell, pre-
senting a very beautiful appearance under the lens. The ends
of the spiral lire give a scalloped edge to the outer lip.
3. Helix capessens, un. s., nobis.
Testa imperforata, depresso-conoidea, superne radiatim costulato-
striata, subtus leeviori, rufo-cornea; spira subconoidea, apice ob-
tusiusculo, sutura impressa; anfractibus 63 convexiusculis, lente
accrescentibus, ultimo acute carinato, antice leviter depresso, subtus
convexiusculo, ad periomphalum excavato; apertura transversa,
angusta, dentibus 3 basalibus eequalibus coarctata, margine recto,
obtuso, vix sinuato.
Diam. major 9, minor 8, axis 4 mill.
Hab. ad Maulmain. Teste W. Theobald. —
Nearly related to H. infrendens, Gould, which was found by
Mr. Theobald at. the Kangoon Caves on the Salween River, but
easily distinguished by its more depressed form, keeled periphery,
and the more regular dentition of the basal margin. The profile
of the spire is less convex, and the last whorl is depressed in
front below the level of the keel of the penultimate whorl,
whereas in H. znfrendens it ascends at the same part.. H. capes-
sens forms, with H. pylaica, a notable addition to the restricted
section Zridopsis.
4. Helix convallata, n. s., nobis.
Testa vix perforata, convexo-depressa, tenui, nitidissima, radiato-
striata, translucente, olivaceo-cornea ; spira convexiuscula, apice
prominulo obtuso, sutura profunde canaliculata; anfractibus 6
convexis, lente accrescentibus, prope suturam acute angulatis, ul-
timo rotundato, non descendente, subtus convexiusculo ; apertura
vix obliqua, lunata; peristomate acuto, superne prope suturam
angulato, antrorsum leviter arcuato, margine columellari oblique
descendente, expansiusculo.
Diam, major 14, minor 11}, axis vix 7 mill.’ Apert. lata 7, alt. 5 mill.
Hab.ad-collem Therabuin yallis Tenasserim. . Detexit W. Theobald.
Singular among the allies of Helix vitrinoides on account, of
the excavated canaliculate suture with a carinate margin,
Mr. W. H. Benson on new species of Burmese Helices. 251
5. Helix Hariola, n. s., nobis.
Testa perforata, subturbinata, tenui, oblique striatula, striis minu-
tissimis confertissimis spiralibus sub lente ornata, non nitente,
diaphana, purpureo-cornea, strigis opacis, albis, laciniatis, fascias
duas latas efformantibus, picta; spira conoidea, apice obtuso,
sutura impressa; anfractibus 45 convexiusculis, ultimo ad peri-
pheriam obtuse angulato; apertura obliqua, late lunata; peri-
stomate tenui, albido, margine dextro, basalique expanso, colu-
mellari laminam triangularem dilatatam, umbilicum subtegentem
_ efformante.
- Diam. major 15, minor 13, axis 10} mill. Apert. 63 mill. longa,
8 lata.
Hab. ad Thyet Myo, prope ripas Trawadi fluvii. Detexit W. Theobald.
The interspace between the opake bands forms a dark girdle
below the angle, and the periomphalus is similarly coloured.
The shell is more depressed in form and destitute of a keel, but
singularly like the rare H. Capitium, Bens., in colouring. Since
the discovery of the latter species by Capt. Boys, at the foot of
the Rajmahal Range near Sikrigali, it has not been met with by
any naturalist in that quarter; but an imperfect specimen of a
very rare Helix met with by Mr. Theobald in the hills above
Cuttack, 400 miles to the southward of its original habitat,
proves to be a young H. Capitium.
6. Helix bifoveata, un. s., nobis.
Testa umbilicata, oblato-globosa, utrinque concava, oblique striata,
minutissime granulata, luteo-fusca, translucente; spira profunde
exeavata, perspective umbiliciformi ; anfractibus 43 angustis, con-
-'vexis, recedentibus, ultimo prominente, superne compresso, glo-
boso, ceeteros occultante, subtus cirea umbilicum mediocrem per-
- spectivum compresse angulato ; apertura verticali longissima utrin-
que testam superante, angustissime lunata, superne et infra suban-
gulata; peristomate simplici, acuto, expansiusculo, marginibus
remotis convergentibus, columellari brevi subverticali, leviter
expanso. |
Diam. major 10, minor 9, axis 6 mill. Long. apert. 7, lat. vix 2 mill.
Hab. ad collem Therabuin vallis Tenasserim raro. Detexit W. Theo-
bald.
This is the most singular among the planorbular Helices
which exhibit a concavity, and, as it were, an umbilicus on the
spiral, as well as the basal face of the shell. The parietes of the
true or basal umbilicus are more vertical than those. of. the
spiral depression, and the excavation is deeper. ‘The sculpture
is peculiar, ‘consisting of lines of granules crossing each other
obliquely.
The published species most nearly related to H. bifoveata are
H. Omicron, Pfr., H. Shuttleworthi, and H, Calculus.
252 Mr. W. H. Benson on new species of Burmese Helices.
7. Helix pansa, n. s., nobis.
Testa perforata, conoideo-depressa, confertim oblique striata, subtus
nitida, radiatim striatula, translucente, fusco-cornea ; spira convexo-
conoidea, apice prominulo, glabro, nitido, sutura leviter impressa ;
anfractibus 6 lente accrescentibus, convexiusculis, ultimo ad _peri-
pheeriam subcarinato, subtus convexiusculo ; apertura obliqua, late
lunata; peristomate recto acuto, margine columellari oblique de-
scendente, superne breviter reflexo.
Diam. major 14, minor 13, axis 6} mill. Apert. 5 longa, 7 lata.
poe ad Akaouktoung prope ripas Trawadi fluminis. Detexit W. Theo-
ald.
Allied to the Sikkim form, Helix tugurium, nobis.
8. Helix Bolus, n. s., nobis.
‘Testa subaperte perforata, globosa, tenui, oblique striatula, striis
minutissimis confertissimis spiralibus, sub lente, sculpta, nitidula,
translucente, pallide cornea, interdum fascia unica rufa supra peri-
pheeriam ornata ; spira conoidea, apice obtusiusculo, sutura leviter
impressa ; anfractibus 5 convexiusculis, ultimo inflato; apertura
vix obliqua, rotundato-lunari; peristomate tenui, expansiusculo,
albido, margine columellari latiori, superne perforationem subte-
gente.
Diam. major 14, minor 12, axis 103 mill.
” 9 153, 29 14, 29 113 +
Apert. majoris 9 mill. longa, 8 lata.
Hab. ad Prome. Detexit W. Theobald.
This shell varies in being more or less globose in the last
whorl, some specimens presenting a subturbinate appearance.
The band is indifferently present or absent in each variety.
9. Helix textrina, n. s., nobis.
Testa perforata, depressa, superne lineis radiatis et spiralibus rugose
decussata, pallide rufescente, subtus leeviori, lactea ; spira planius-
cula, apice obtuso, sutura leviter compressa ; anfractibus 5} sub-
planulatis, sensim accrescentibus, ultimo supra peripheriam angu-
lato ; apertura late lunari; peristomate acuto, vix expansiusculo,
margine columellari oblique descendente, superne brevissime re-
flexo.
Diam. major 29, minor 25, axis vix 13 mill. Apert. 15 mill. lata,
10 alta.
Hab. ad Thyet Myo. Detexit W. Theobald.
Allied to H. labiata, Pfeiffer, a Western Himalayan shell, but
differing in its more depressed form, peculiar sculpture, like that
of the upper part of H. ligulata, by its more widely lunate aper-
ture, and by the absence of any true labiation. The —_ may
be more pronounced in fresher specimens.
Mr. W. H. Benson on new species of Burmese Helices. 253
The spire is more depressed and the apex less prominent than
in H. Theodori, Phil.; the shell also is more solid, the aperture
wider, and the columellar lip descends more horizontally.
10. Helix Laidlayana, n. s., nobis.
Testa constricte perforata, sinistrorsa, turbinato-depressa, tenui, ob-
lique striata, striis confertissimis spiralibus decussata, nitidiuscula,
translucente, albida, fascia 1 supera angusta, rufo-castanea, peri-
pheeriam tangente, interdum | supera lata, et altera infera remo-
tiuscula ornata ; periomphalo et pariete aperturali castaneis ; spira
depresse conoidea, apice obtusiusculo, sutura leviter impressa ;
anfractibus 5 sensim accrescentibus, ultimo ad peripheeriam angu-
lato, antice breviter descendente, subtus convexo ; apertura valde
obliqua, subquadrato-lunata ; peristomate recto, acuto, margine co-
lumellari subrecte descendente, anguste reflexo, perforationem con-
strictam subtegente.
ane major 27, minor 23, axis 15 mill. Apert. 15 mill. lata, 135
alta.
Hab. in Provincia Bengalensi Bheerbhoom, ubi exemplum unicum
junius detexit J. W. Laidlay ; nuperrime in Provincia Orisse,
non procul ab urbe Cuttack, exempla majora non raro invenit
W. Theobald.
Named after a former Secretary of the Asiatic Society of .
Calcutta, to whom I am indebted for a specimen found by him
many years ago in the region of the late Santhal insurrection.
The rediscovery of the shell in about 20° N. lat., as well as the
detection of H. Capitiwm in the same quarter, shows that. these
species range through nearly 5 degrees of latitude. The colour-
ing of H. Laidlayana has much resemblance to that of H. quesita,
Fér., but the shell has nearer relations to H. interrupta, nobis,
and H. trifasciata, Mull. It differs from H. interrupia in colour,
depressed form, greater number of whorls, contracted perfo-
ration, descent of the last whorl above the apérture, and in the
disposition of the bands. When a single broad dark band is
present in interrupta, it touches the angulate periphery. From
H. 3-fasciata it differs in lustre, less depressed form, want of
solidity, contracted perforation, more vertical columellar lip, and
in the disposition of the bands, that which is above the periphery
in 3-fasciata never touching the angle. The colour of the peri-
omphalus and parietes of the aperture is also peculiar.
_ Among the known Burmese Helices, H. Achatina, Gray (an-
guina, Gould), var. 8, Pfr:, was taken by Mr. Theobald at Maul-
-mmain, and at the Kangoon Caves on the Salween River. A
small variety of H. refuga, Gould, occurred at Kwadouk, near
Thyet Myo, on the Northern Frontier, and an interesting dex-
254 Mr. J. Lowe on Salix Andersoniana.
trorse variety at Phie Than in the Tenasserim Valley. A fragment
of H. Saturnia, Gould, was also sent from that valley, where
H. retrorsa and anceps, Gould, were found abundantly, and H.
Theodori, Phil., very sparingly. A shell, apparently referable as
a variety to the Darjiling H. Castra, nobis, was once met with
at Pya, between Maulmain and Tavoy. Helix Merguiensis, Ph.,
H. gabata, Gould, a small var. of H. delibrata, nobis ( procumbens,
Gould), and H. honesta, Gould, occurred both at Maulmain and
in the valley of the Tenasserim River, where H. resplendens, Ph.,
was not rare. The widely spread H. similaris, Fér., is noted from
Thyet Myo and Prome, on the river Irawadi, and a sharply-
keeled variety of H. rotatoria, V. d. Busch, hitherto supposed to
be peculiar to Java, inhabits the banks of the same river, lower
down, at Akaouktoung. None of the Helices, described by Gould
or others from the former dominions of the Burmese Empire,
appear to have escaped the researches of Mr. Theobald, who has
added largely to the list, several other species of Helix remain-
ing to be described. : |
Rhaphaulus (Anaulus and Megalomastoma) Chrysalis, Pfr.,
from Maulmain, in a more perfect condition than the type spe-
cimen, shows a much longer tube running up the penultimate
whorl than either bombycinus or Lorraini, Pfr., and its colour is
a rich chestnut. A dead specimen of Megalomastoma sectilabre,
Gould, from Yanglaw on the Tenasserim River, confirms an opi-
nion communicated last year to Pfeiffer, and derived from Gould’s
and Mason’s observations, and from a view of Pfeiffer’s supposed
specimen of sectilabre from Borneo, that, although allied to, it
was quite distinct from my Bornean M. Anostoma, with which
Pfeiffer had believed it to be identical. The channel in M. Ano-
stoma (Annals, 1852, vol. x. p. 269-270) is on the inner lip, as
in M. altum, Sow. In sectilabre it appears on the right lip, near
the top of the aperture. The latter is a more solid shell, with ~
the spire more slender and longer in proportion ; the suture is
distinctly marginate ; the peristome is white (not coloured, as in
M. Anostoma), and presents a contrast with the orange-chestnut
interior of the aperture ; the apex also is not pale or white, as in
the Bornean species.
Cheltenham, 30th July 1856.
XXITI.—On an Abnormality in the Flowers of Salix. Ander-
soniana. By Jonn Lows, Esq.*
In the year 1841, the Rev. J. E. Leefe. communicated to this
Society a paper, entitled ‘ Remarks on some curious Metamor-
* Read to the Edinburgh Botanical Society, July 10th, 1856.
Mr. J. Lowe on Salix Andersoniana. 255
phoses of the Pistil of Salix Caprea.” A short time since, I ob-
served a corresponding set of changes occurring in the male
flowers of Salix Andersoniana. These, as forming, with those
of Mr. Leefe, a complete series of morphological changes, may
not be unworthy the Society’s notice. The changes observed by
Mr. Leefe in Salix Caprea consist of a gradual conversion of the
pistilline into staminal organs, each step in the process being
clearly explained by the plate which is given with his paper in
the Ist volume of the Society’s ‘ Transactions.’
In the present specimens we have just the opposite, viz. the
stamens becoming converted into ovaries, and this by every con-
ceivable gradation.
The plant from which these were taken grows about half a
mile below Cramond Bridge near Edinburgh ; it is to all appears
ance strong and healthy, and in the majority of its flowers there
was no observable alteration.
Fig. 1. is a floret whose filaments are partially united at the
hase ; in other respects it is perfectly normal. The scales and
glands i in this as in the other florets present nothing unusual.
Fig. 2. The stamens still further united, giving the filament
a forked appearance.
_ Fig. 3. represents one of the stamens of the last figure con-
verted into an ovary which bears a pollen-mass on its imner
edge; the other stamen is unaltered.
Fig. 4. A still more advanced condition. The ovary has no
vestige of pollen-cells, but at the base is the remaining anther,
sessile.
Fig. 5. shows each stamen converted into a carpel and bear-
ing an antherine mass. The styles have each but one stigma.
Fig. 6, The two ovaries are here nearly united, but have a
fissure superiorly in which are the remains of the anthers. "The
styles are distinct and monostigmatous.
Fig. 7. The fissure seen in last figure has disappeared by the
256 Mr. J. Lowe on Salix Andersoniana.
union of the styles; a pollen-mass still remains on the side of
the united ovaries.
Fig. 8. A complete and well-formed ovary.
I ought to remark here that these figures are not intended to
represent the progressive development of the ovary as shown by
any individual floret, but simply the different stages which may
be traced in a number of florets and which may be reasonably
regarded as successive.
We may now consider the cause of these phenomena. and the
laws which govern formations of this nature.
The generally received opinion regarding the production of
dicecious flowers is that each flower is rendered unisexual by the
suppression of the other sexual whorl, and though this may be
mainly true of many dicecious plants, it does not appear to ex-
press the whole truth with respect to dicecious Amentifere.
Dr. Braun in his ‘ Rejuvenescence of Nature,’ states that both
kinds of sexual organs are derived from the same leaf, or as he
expresses it, “the same leaves appear in the male as stamens and
in the female as carpels.” In other words, the leaf which fails
to produce a male will give rise to a female organ, and vice versd.
Hence, though it is perfectly correct to say, that there is an
arrest of development when stamens are alone produced, it is —
otherwise with respect to female organs, since there. is here not
an arrest but an exaltation of development. .
These specimens illustrate also the parts of the leaf which
give origin to the different parts of the essential organs ; thus, the
anther gradually merging into the carpel shows that it 1s derived
from the lamina of the leaf (the fact of the carpel being formed
by the lamina of the leaf being ascertained by morphological
changes in other plants). The pollen observed on the edge of
the ovary in fig. 5, would encourage the, idea that pollen is
merely a gemmiferous condition of the lamina of the leaf. And,
lastly, we may allude to the gland, which, although not pre-
senting any peculiarity in the present specimens, I have never-
theless found in others assuming a very interesting form. I am
not aware that the question has been mooted as to what is its
real morphological value. It might be assumed to represent an
abortive stamen, but that we find it present in those Salices
which may be regarded as having their staminal whorl complete,
Salia pentandra for instance. Moreover it is found to be placed
opposite the interval in flowers which have only two stamens,
thus having an alternate arrangement. I have little doubt,
especially since meeting with the specimen shown in fig. 9, where
there are two glands alternating with the stamens, that they re-
present the corolla. Regarding the scale as the calyx, we have
thus the various whorls of the flower complete.
Mr. P. H. Gosse on Cardium exiguum. 257
XXIV.—Cardium exiguum :—its Siphons and tts Byssus.
By Puiie H, Gosss, F.R.S.
[With a Plate. |
A minute Cockle (Cardium exiguum), about one-fourth of an
inch in diameter, and of a pure white hue, was dredged by me in
Weymouth Bay, May 13th, 1855, and was deposited in one of
my aquaria. For some time after I had domiciled it I saw no
more of it, and supposed it was lost; but one day my attention
was arrested while looking with my lens through the glass side,
along the edge of the bottom-rubbish, by an object which I
knew not what to make of. From the midst of the floccose
matter a very minute bladder was projected, the motions of
which were so vivacious as to cause me no little surprise and spe-
culation as to what manner of thing it might be. After vainly
trying to decipher it by mere gazing, I ventured carefully to -
clear away some of the rubbish on each side with a pin-point
fastened to a stick ; when I discovered my tiny friend, the Cockle.
No trace, it is tPue, was now to be seen of the bladder, but after
a few minutes I saw it again, and understood the mystery ; not
indeed all at once, but by degrees, and by repeated examinations.
The facts I thus learned I will now record.
In the great spinous Cockles (C. aculeatum, &c.) the ejecting
or anal siphon is formed closely like the receiving or oral one,—
a simple orifice, surrounded by filiform tentacles. But in this
pigmy species the anal orifice is crowned by a semi-elliptical sac,
which at the instant of opening the valves for the renewing of
_ respiration is projected with a jerk. This sac is composed of
membrane of the most extreme delicacy, and of such transpa-
rency that it would be utterly invisible but for rows of minute
opake-white dots that run down it longitudinally. It terminates
in a circular aperture, whose width is about half that of the
greatest diameter of the sac; but from the sensitiveness and
contractility of the membrane, the form and dimensions of the
orifice slightly vary. Its edges are not in the least thickened,
and they are with the greatest difficulty detected, except by the
termination of the macular lines just mentioned. In some cir-
cumstances it is protruded to a much greater extent than in
others, foritig a very elongated ellipse, and extending to the
length of 4th of an inch, or little less than the transverse dia-
meter of the valves. I for a time thought it was projected by
the evolution of its walls; but on more careful examination, I
saw that the sides collapsed into a wrinkled thread when the
jet ceased, and were instantly distended, with force, when it was
renewed.
The movements of this organ, though not extensive, are
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. ays:
258 Bibliographical Notices.
indicative of great sensibility. It is continually contracting and
dilating both laterally and longitudinally ; bends quickly from
side to side ; twitches spasmodically ; and occasionally contracts
or constricts one part without altering the rest. The ejection of
the effete water from it is continuous while the organ is pro-
truded, and sufficiently forcible to make the current visible at the
distance of upwards of an inch from the orifice. The receiving
current however is intermittent. The siphon through which
this latter passes is a short truncate column, the edge of
which is set with about fifteen short incurved tentacles, separated
from each other at their bases by more than their own diameters.
This column, when withdrawn, first becomes oval, and then col-
lapses ; the sides coming into contact as the valves close over it.
I am not aware that any one has included the Cockles among
the byssus-spinners. This little species however exercises the
faculty freely. It crawls up the glass sides of my aquarium, or
up a phial, six inches or more in a few hours, moving: itself by
several diverging threads of varying length; and frequently,
when disturbed, hanging by one alone, after the others, have
been cast off. I watched the process of spinning, which did not
differ from what I have observed in other byssiferous Conchifera.
The tiny white foot was protruded, and pressed against. the
glass for a few seconds; during which a slit, with mobile fleshy
lips, was opened in its upper edge, not reaching to the tip, but
terminating at about two-thirds of its length from the base.
When the foot was withdrawn, two threads were found attached
to the glass by minute sucking buttons, All the time of the
process I perceived that the terminal, ungrooved portion of the
foot, which was pellucid, seemed to be permeated by a central
canal through which a fluid was percolating. Such at least was
the appearance.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX. a
Fig. 5. represents Cardium exiguum, with the siphons extended ; magnified
© diameters. Ov
Li
ey BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. Sede:
An Introduction to Entomology, or Elements of the Natural History
of Insects... By Witutam Kirey, M.A., F.R.S, F.L.S., and
Wixnisam Spence, F.R.S,, F.L.S8., Seventh Edition. Sm. 8vo:.
London; Longmans, 1856, } gotten
Arrér the long period during which this work has occupied a high
place’ in our entomological literature, almost all that remains for us
to do is to ‘announce 'to our readers the appearanee of this ** new and
cheaper” edition of the ‘Introduction to Entomology.’ It comprises
only the first two volumes of the original edition, containing what may
be termed the popular portion of the book, and is in fact a reprint of
basse; th: aa VVTINM. J Bastre. le
]1_4. Edwardsia carnea.
d. Gardum exiguum.
a
Bibliographical Notices. 259:
the sixth edition of these two volumes, which were, published. sepa-
rately some years since. tes :
Considering the exceedingly low price at which this volume of
upwards of six hundred pages is offered to the public, it is certainly
very well got up, although we are sorry to see a good many misprints
in its pages, which one would think might easily have been avoided
in a work which has been so often printed. The entomologist perhaps
may find these but trifling difficulties, but many of them will prove sad
stumbling-blocks in the way of the ordinary reader. We should
have been glad also to have seen a few alterations in the notes in some
parts: of the work, as for instance at page 155, where the reader is
referred to, Mr. Westwood’s ‘Introduction’ for an “ account of the
facts hitherto recorded respecting ”’ the Strepsiptera, although Mr.
Westwood’s book, having been published before the history of these
singular insects was cleared up by the researches of Von Siebold and
others, must necessarily give a very erroneous view of the present
state of our knowledge of their mode of life.
An interesting appendix is formed by the addition to the volume of
the account furnished by Mr. Spence to Mr. Freeman’s Life of the
Rev. W. Kirby, of the origin and progress of the ‘Introduction to
Entomology,’ with particulars of the portions which are principally
due to each author.
Ferny Combes : a Ramble after Ferns in the Glens and Valleys of
' Devonshire. By Cuartorre Cuanter. London, Reeve, 1856.
.. Thisyis a pleasant little volume, written, in a simple style, and com-
mending itself alike to the tourist and valetudinarian, whom it would
fain lead through some of the beauties of the ‘ far west,’—and whom
it would seek to inoculate with that love of natural history which
unfolds a new volume of hidden stores to the temporary sojourner
*midst Arcadian scenes, converting the barren moor, and bleak upland
waste; into a paradise. Although its main object is, as indeed its
title would imply, to point out localities for those species of our ferns
which the authoress has detected in the fairy Combes of Devon, yet
she distinctly disclaims any intention of entering the realms of science :
«I write,” says she, “for the votaries of health and pleasure, not for
votaries of science. I write for those of less cultivated intellect, who,
with an innate taste and love for all that is beautiful and divine in
nature, too often wander in darkness where even alittle knowledge
would open to them worlds of light in the animal and vegetable king-
doms,—provided not only foruse, but for endless interest and research
into the works of their Creator.” Her delineations of the’ country
through which she conducts us are truthful and good,—clearly ema-
nating from the pen of an observer, and bearing no evidence’ (as is
too frequently, the. case. in .similar publications). that she.tas merely
compiled from the works. of others. ., The deseription (p..17); of the
inconveniences of a ‘Devonshire lane.’.is. marvellously, correct ;, and
to us, who have wandered, over and over again, through, these ‘arva
beata,’ prying into. every nook..and, crevice between the: limits: of
Lynton and. Lundy, and have. marked (to our, cost). the, sudden
17%
260 Zoological Society :—~
ehange which comes over the ‘ face of the deep’ when the bold pro-
montory of Hartland affords us no longer its friendly shelter on our
passage to the ‘isle of rats,’ her remarks are painfully suggestive of
the past: ‘* Ah! how the coast and sea alter as you pass Hartland
Point ! No gentle wavelets ripple over the sand, but sturdy Atlantic
billows, rolling in from the far west, come bounding over the’ stony
strand, and leap high into the air as they strike against the project-
ing masses of rock.” (p. 26.) ef
Her picture, too, of Clovelly is manifestly ‘ drawn from the life ;’ as
is also that of the entrance into it, by the well-known ‘* Hobby-drive,”’
—‘a road terraced along the cliff, winding in and out through deep
wooded glens and over trickling streams ; whilst, below, the blue sea
shines between the branches, and the waves make gentle moan upon
a beach you cannot see” (p. 28). Clovelly is indeed a wonderful
spot, and any one,” says our authoress, ‘* who would venture down
its street must leave his dignity behind him, and get down as best he
can,—fortunate if he have not a hard tumble or two by the way.”
Another writer has aptly deseribed it as “a small fishing-village built
on the steep slope of a cliff, and looking almost as if the whole place
had been wrecked from some large ship, and had cleverly contrived
to scramble on shore, and clamber up the rocks just beyond) high-
water mark, but had never been able to reach the summit*.” > -
In the concluding portion of her volume, Mrs. Chanter pilots us
through the ‘ pixied haunts’ of Dartmoor, and leads ‘us into many a
wild and unvisited retreat. From the top of Lustleigh Cleve,she
surveys, amidst craggy Tors, the teeming valleys beneath,—and
taking up her harp, m all the warmth of a poetic, imagination, .
exclaims: ‘‘It is a place in which one longs to linger and drink in
all its charms. It is a place from which one cannot turn without a
sigh of regret ; a place that comes back in pleasant dreams of happy
hours; a place one seems to have known somewhere, somehow,—
long, long ago.’’ (p. 67.) oy...
The last chapter of this little book contains some. directions on
the cultivation of ferns, and the three or four preceding ones de-
seriptions of the species of these plants, referred to in other parts of
the work. © These descriptions appear to be copied for the most part
from Mr. Moore’s works, and they are illustrated by some pretty
good coloured figures.
a
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
November 13, 1855.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair.
CHARACTERS OF SOME APPARENTLY New Species or Bucco-
nip&, By Puitie Luriey Scuatrer, M.A., F.LS.
1. Bucco HYPERRHYNCHUS. |
Tamatia hyperrhynchus, Bp. MS. et Consp. Vol. Zygodact. p. 13.
B. supra fulgenti-niger ; fronte lata et supercilits antiecis albis :
* June: a Book for the Country.in Summer-time. By H. T. Stainton
(London, 1856), p. 65.
Mr. P. L. Sclater on some new species of Bucconide. 26}
_subtus albus, nigro late torquatus ; lateribus nigro radiatis :
sin wostro maximo.
1 Long. tota 10:5 ; alee 4:5; caudee 3°5; rostri a rictu 271.
»» dab. In regionibus fl. Amazonum superioris (Hawawell). Mus.
Paris. et P. L.S..
_ When I drew up the characters of Bucco macrorhynchus, as given
in the ‘ Annals of Nat. Hist.’ for May 1854, p. 357, I had not in my
possession specimens of the true macrorhynchus from Cayenne, and
consequently confounded with it the present bird. But the much
larger size of the bill and whole body, the greater extension of the
white colour, on the front, the narrower black band and the total
absence of any fawn-coloured tinge on the belly and vent are quite
sufficient to distinguish this Bucco from its Cayenne representative.
DL have lately ascertained, through the kindness of Prince Bena-
parte, that this is the species included under the name Tamatia
hyperrhynchus in his Conspectus Volucrum Zygodactylorum, pub-
lished in the ‘Ateneo Italiano’ of May last, and I have therefore
adopted ‘his. specific designation. But no descriptions. have yet
appeared of the many new species of which the names only are inserted
_ in that and other similar recent publications of the Prince.
|The type specimens of the present bird are in the French National
collection. |
2, Bucco pyson1.
“Tamatia gigas, Bp. Consp. Vol. Zygodact. p. 13?
“Bucco dysoni, G. KR. Gray in Mus. Brit.
“'B. supra fulgenti-niger ; fronte usque ad oculos et collari postico
— albis : subtus albus ; vitta pectorali lata nigra ; lateribus nigre
! variis ; rostro pedibusque nigris.
“Long. tota 9°7; alee 4:5; caudee 3°4 ;. rostri a rictu 1°8.
Hab. Jn America Centrali, Honduras (Dyson). Mus. Brit.
Obs. Species a Buccone macrorhyncho fronte latius albo, rostro
‘majore, et ventre pure albo, a Buccone hyperrhyncho rostro minore
et fronte minus albo diversa, et inter has duas media locanda.
A single specimen of this bird in the British Museum was procured
by Mr. Dyson in Honduras. In my Synopsis of this family I have
‘confounded it with its near affines, from which I now think, as
might have been expected from the locality, it will bear separation.
It is very probable that Prince Bonaparte’s name, gigas (which was
applied to a bird brought by Delattre from Nicaragua), was intended
for this same species, but as. the type has disappeared, and no
specific characters have been published for the name, it is difficult
to be certain on that point.
3. Bucco PULMENTUM.
Tamatia (Nyctactes) pulmentums Bp. et Verr. MS. :
B. supra fusco-brunneus;, fronte..et, supercilis.. rufescentebus ;
torque angusto nuchaliincouspicuo albido; dorst medi alarum
uropygiique plumis partim. fulvo terminatis: subtus albus ;
gutture wnferiore pallide rufescente ; plaga utrinque guttural
262 Zoological Society :-—
magna cum maculis crebris pectus totum et ventrem ffredpue
ad latera) occupantibus atris: rostro nigro.
Long. tota 5°0; alee 3:1; caudee 2:5.
Hab. In Peruvia Orientali et regionibus fl, Asdascanta superioris :
Pebas (Cast. et Dev.): Chamicurros (Hawawell). Mus, Paris.,
Joh. Gould et P.L.S.
Obs. Sp. Bucconi tamatie affinissima, sed gula pallidiore et
maculis ventris majoribus et intensioribus differt.
This appears to be a western representative of the B. famatia of
Cayenne, from which, however, I think it may be fairly separated.
MM. Verreaux of Paris have lately received a considerable number
of specimens of it from the Upper Amazon. Ehepe all present the
same distinctive characters as are above noticed.
4. MoNASA PERUANA.
Monasa peruana, Bp. et Verr. MS.
M. plumbescenti-nigra, capite et gutture intensioribus ; fronte et
menti summa parte albis: rostro ruberrimo,.
Long. tota 11:0; alee 5°0; caudee 4°5.
Hab. In Peruvia Orientali in regionibus fl. Amazonum superioris :
Chamicurros ({awawell). Mus. Joh. Gould et P.L.S.
Oés. Simillima M. personate sed rostro clarius rubro, mento ad
ipsam apicem solum albo haud nisi dubie disjungenda, .
My specimen of this bird was obtained. from the MM. Verreaux,
and carries the MS. name above quoted, which I have thought it as
well to adopt. The characters which separate it from its well-known
Brazilian representative are certainly very slight, but appear to be
constant in at least a dozen examples I have examined from the
same locality.
5. Bucco PIcATws.
B, supra niger; plaga in summis scapularibus utrinque magna et
maculis in pileo rotundis cum loris albis: subtus albus; vitta
lata pectoral nigra: cauda nigra, rectricibus tribus utrinque
extimis in medio et harum omnium apicibus albo maculatis :
vostro pedibusque nigris.
Long. tota 6:7; ale 3:2; caude 2°3.
Hab. In reg. fl. Amazonum superioris ; Chamicurros (Hawawell).
Mus. Joh. Gould.
Obs. Species, Bucconi tecto forsan nimium affinis, et ob crassitiem
majorem, torquem pectoris latiorem et caudam minus albo maculatam
non sine dubio constituenda.
Mr. Gould’s collection contains two examples of this bird, which
he has entrusted to me for comparison with its Cayenne representa-
tive.’ It‘is not, however, without hesitation that I have determined
to separate’'them from it. Besides their larger: size and broader
breast-band, the white medial square spot extends in the present
species’ only through the three lateral recttices; with a slight trace of
it in the fourth.
In the Cayenne bird the outer five pairs are all strongly marked
foes. Thewhole plumage of the bird is also generally more intensely
ac
Dr. J. E. Gray on new species. of Freshwater Tortoises. 268
6. MALACOPTILA NIGRIFUSCA.
Malacoptila fusca, ex Bogota, Sclater, P. Z,8. 1855, p. 136.
M. nigricanti-brunnea, plumarum scapis pallide fulvis ; loris et
plumis mystacalibus cum plaga triangulari super-pectorali
albis : ventre medio crissoque fere unicoloribus, albicantioribus ;
rostri basi lete aurantia, apice nigro; pedibus nigricanti-
brunneis.
Long. tota 6°5 ; alee 3:5; caudee 2°5.
Hab. In Nova Granada; Santa Fé de Bogota. Mus. Brit. et Joh.
Gould.
~~ (Obs. 8p. Malacoptile fusce affinissima sed statura minore et
coloribus nigricantioribus: rostri basi leetius aurantia.
This New Grenadian bird, which in my Synopsis of this family and
List of Bogota birds I united with the true fusca of Cayenne, cer-
tainly presents considerable claims for specific distinction. The
body is generally smaller, the bill in particular is shorter and not so
strong, and at the base is of a deep orange colour instead of pale
yellow, the black not extending so far towards the base of the upper
mandibles ; the markings on the head, throat and breast also, are
much blacker,. and I have therefore named the bird nigrifusca.
There are specimens of it in the British Museum and in Mr. Gould’s
collection.
The East. Peruvian or High-Amazon examples on the other hand
(which are held distinct by some naturalists under Du Bus’ title
wmornata) resemble the Cayenne bird much more nearly. After
remarking that the white lore-spot is nearly obsolete, and the skins
“are rather finer and larger, it is in truth difficult (at least with my
present examples) to see further differences, and I therefore regard
M. inornata as a very doubtful species.
Rio Napo specimens are still more like the true fusca.
On some New Species or FRESHWATER TORTOISES FROM
Nortu America, CEYLON AND AusTRALIA. By Dr. J. E.
Gray, F.R.S., F.R.G.S. etc.
Fam. I. Emypip.
The freshwater Tortoises which have been referred to the genus
“Emys, as it is at present constituted, may be divided into two very
distinct genera; and this is the more advisable as it is extremely
difficult to distinguish the American species of which it is composed,
and the separation of any of them by organic characters must facili-
tate the process. The genera may be thus named and defined ;—
L. Emmys. |
>The lower jaw rounded beneath, and covered with the hinder part
of*the horny beak; the toes strong, covered with, broad; band-like
‘scales. ©
This genus includes: £. ornata, EL. scripta, £. Holbrook, and
many other species, both Asiatic and American.
“2. Pseupemys.
~The lower jaw flattened beneath and covered with 4'soft skin. ‘The
264 Zoological Society :—~
toes weak, slender, covered with small scales above, and very broadly
webbed.
1. Pseudemys concinna.
2. P. serrata.
The genera Batagur and Malaclemys have nearly similar feet, and
they appear, like Pseudemys, to be the most aquatic animals of the
family.
The species which have hitherto been referred to the genus CistuDo
differ considerably in their habits, some being nearly terrestrial and
others almost exclusively aquatic. The examination of the animal
shows that there are good external characters by which they may be
divided into natural groups agreeing with their habits and their
geographic distribution.
J. The more terrestrial: have the front of their legs covered with
thick; imbricate, triangular scales, the toes only. slightly webbed,
and the sternum broad, hiding the legs when withdrawn, as—
1. CistupDo. .
The head rhombic, the forehead flat, and eyes lateral : ‘confined
to N. America; as
C. Car olinensis, with four, and C. Mexicana, with only three toes
on the hind feet.
2. LUTREMYS.
The head oblong, depressed, with the eyes on the upper part of the
cheek. Found i in Europe, as L. Europea, : .
Il. The more aquatic kinds have the front of the legs: covered
with small scales and some broad, transverse, lunate plates; the toes
webbed. They are confined to Asia; as
3: CuvorRAa.
The head rhombic, the eyes lateral, the sternal lobes broad, hiding
the legs when contracted, as C. dmboinensis and C. trifasciata.
4. CyCLEMYS.
The head depressed, eyes subsuperior, the sternal lobes iat
narrow, not hiding the legs when contracted, as C. dentata and
C. platynota, 'The latter species was referred to the genus Testudo
by F. Miller, and when I first described it I considered it as an
Emys, but the examination of a series of specimens of different ages
shows that it is a species of Box Tortoise nearly allied to C. dentata.
It has been hitherto believed that there was only a single species
of the: genus | ‘KinosTERNON, as now restricted, found in the United
States; and all the adult specimens I have received from that country
are, 1 lowit own, exceedingly. alike, so much so that I cannot under-
take to say that we have-adult specimens of more than a single species,
On-examming the young specimens of this genus from the United
States, im the Museum Collection; it is evident that there are at least
three most distinct species found in that country, which probably in
Dr. J. EB. Gray on new species of Freshwater Tortoises. 265
their eroded and discoloured adult state are so alike as to be mistaken
for one another.
They may be thus described :-—
1. KrnostERNON PENSYLVANICUM.
Head brown-dotted ; temples with two parallel distant streaks of
white spots, from the upper and lower edge of the orbit, and a third
streak across the lower:jaw ; neck white-dotted ; back deep brown ;
lower side of marginal shields, the axillary and inguinal plates and
each of the sternal plates with a large yellow spot; sternum broad,
rounded. before and behind.
. Hab. North America, Florida, #. Doubleday, Esq.
2, KINOSTERNON HIPPOCREPIS.
Head brown, with a broad white streak on each side, from the end
of nose’over the eyebrows to the sides of the nape; back pale and
sternum brown; dorsal shield with a single apical and some scattered
black spots ; under side of each marginal and sternal plate. rather
aler in the middle; sternum rather broad, rounded in front and
slightly truncated behind. ;
~ K. Pensylvanicum, Holbrook, N. Amer. Herp. t. 21.
Hab. North America, New Orleans, #. Doubleday, Esq.
3. KINOSTERNON PUNCTATUM.
Head brown, minutely white-dotted, without any streaks ; the back
brown, discal shield with a very distinct apical, and some scattered
black spots; margin with a very narrow white line ; under side whitish,
with minute scattered black dots and line; sternum narrow, con-
tracted. at-each end, and with straight sides behind, rather truncated
in front and more distinctly and broadly so behind. !
Hab. North America.
There are several specimens of the first species of different ages
from various parts of the States, in the British Museum; I have
therefore retained for it the more general name; and two young
specimens and a half-grown one of the second species, and only a
single young specimen of the third species ; the latter is so distinct,
by the narrow form of its sternum, from the other two, that it might
be referred to the genus Aromochelys if the pectoral plates were not
triangular; it may be considered as the species passing towards
that genus, and I should think that the adult, animal must differ
considerably from the common form of K. Pensylvanicum.
AROMOCHELYS.
The Musk Tortoise, or, asit is more commonly called, theStinkpot of
North America, is easily distinguished from the other Kinosterna by
- the narrowness of the sternum and the humeral plates being square,
like the pectoral. one, instead of triangular, as they: are ‘in K.| scor-
poides and K.Pensylvanicum.: For this reason I have: proposed: to
divide them into a distinct group under the name of Aromochelys::
lam the more inclined: to-do so, as there ares two most: distinct
species in the British Museum Collection, which have) either been
266 Zoological Society :—
confounded together by the American naturalists, or haye been most
unaccountably overlooked. They may be thus defined :—
i
1. AROMOCHELYS ODORATA.
Head moderate, with two streaks from the nose, one above and
the other under the eyes, to the side of the neck; the back oblong-
convex, the vertebral line rather flattened; the gular plate mh
triangular, the humeral plate rather oblique, shield brown, purple-
brown spotted.
Holbrook, N. Amer. Herpet. t. 22.
Hab. United States and Louisiana.
2. AROMOCHELYS CARINATA.
We have four specimens of this species in the Museum Collection.
Cat. Tortoises B.M. t. 20 a.
Head very large, black-dotted, without any lateral streaks; back,
oblong, very high, the vertebral line high and acutely keeled the
whole length, shields grey-brown, spotted and lined with purple-
brown ; the gular plate very small, linear, transyerse marginal, the
humeral plate square, transverse, parallel to the pectoral plates. —
Hab. North America, Louisiana. |
There-are two species of North American Tortoises which are re-
ferred to the genus CuELypra, which are so. differently organized
that they are evidently the types of two very distinct genera, which
may be thus characterized :—
1, CHELYDRA. !
Head moderate, rather depressed, covered with a soft skin, chin
bearded, neck granular; back with two slight keels; marginal plates
in a-single series. ;
Chelydra serpentina.
2. MAcROCcHELYS.
Head large, angular, contracted in front, covered with symmetrical
horny plates, neck with several series of spinose warts; back with
three sharp continued tubercular keels; the lateral marginal plates
in a double series.
M, Temminckii.
Fam. Il. Cuetypip2.
When Australia was first visited by Sir Joseph Banks, he brought
home with him from New Holland a freshwater Tortoise, which Dr.
Shaw described under the name of T'estudo longicollis. This has
been made the type of the genusCuEeLopina._ Recent travellers in
Australia have shown that the genus is distributed over the country;
each part appears to have a species peculiar to itself. In ‘Capt.,
now Sir George Grey’s Travels, 1 described and figured a species from
Western Australia under the name of Chelodina oblonga.. In a col-
lection, which. we, have. lately.received from Haslar Hospital, there
are twoivery,large specimens. of the genus sent from Swan River
by the late Mr.-Collie, which, though similar in several respects to
Dr. J. E. Gray on new species of Freshwater Tortoises. 267
Chelodina oblonga, may be considered as a distinct species, which
I shall proceed to shortly characterize.
The species of the genus hitherto described have the thorax
covered with very thin smooth shields, so transparent that a peculiar
black reticulated appearance, which exists between the shields and
the bones of the thorax, can be distinctly seen through them. This
character is common to C. longicollis of New Holland, C. oblonga, and
Mr. Collie’s species from Swan River, which I propose to call, in
honour of my late friend and excellent collector—
1. CHELODINA COLLIEI.
The shield oblong, elongate, contracted and revolute on the sides ;
under side uniform pale yellow. |
Hab. Swan River, Alexander Collie, Esq.
This species agrees with C. oblonga in the uniform colour of the
back and sternum, which is only varied by the dark lines of the netted
appearance before referred to; but it is easily known from that species
by its larger size, the much narrower shape, and the lateral margin
becoming strongly revolute, and the edge over the hinder limb raised
up and rather expanded.
The British Museum have lately received, with some other speci-
mens, from the Australian continent—but unfortunately the special
habitat was not indicated—the shell of a Tortoise which has all the
characters of the genus as at present defined, except that, instead of
the shields on the thorax being thin, submembranous and. semitrans-
parent, they are thick, horny and concentrically grooved like the
shields of many other genera, It is not accompanied by the head or
limbs of the animal, so we have not the means of determining if
they offer any characters which, with the peculiar structure of the
shell, might render it desirable to form it into a separate genus.
It may be defined and thus named :—
2. CHELODINA SULCATA.
Shell depressed, roundish ovate, brown; shield horny, thick,
distinctly concentrically grooved.
Hab. Australia.
Fam. III. Trionycip2.
_ The species of this family, which have the hind legs covered with
‘moveable flaps affixed to the sides of the hinder lobe of the sternum,
named Cryptopus by MM. Dumeril and Bibron, may be divided
into two very distinct geographic genera.
1, Emypa, Gray. |
The. margins of the upper shield strengthened with bones ; the
sternum with three pairs of callosities and a small odd one behind
the anterior pair. Asia. |
“2. CxycuANostEvs, Peters. } 19 119.
The margin of the upper shield’ flexible, without’any bones; the
sternum with four pairs of callosities and an odd one*behind the two
anterior pairs; the pair on the hinder lobes small, far apart. Africa.
268 Miscellaneous. |
It has been usually stated that the only known species of the
genus EmMypa was generally distributed over India; we have in the
British Museum specimens only from the Valley of the Ganges. The
young specimens all agree in the head and shell being variegated.
We have lately received a specimen of this genus from Ceylon,
collected by Mr. Thwaites, which differs in both the above particu-
lars ; and in the Museum of the Society there is the shell of an adult
animal, sent home from Ceylon by Dr. Kelaart, which shows that, it
is a most distinct species. They may be thus characterized :—
1. EMyDA PUNCTATA.
Back and upper part of the head pale spotted; the odd anterior
callosity small, roundish triangular; the hinder callosity of adult
ovate, inner edge semicircular; of young triangular, far apart.
Hab. India, Ganges. |
2. EMYDA CEYLONENSIS.
Back and upper part of the head (in spirits) dull pale olive ; lips,
chin and lower part of the body whitish. The odd anterior sternal
tubercle large, oblong, transverse; the hinder pair of callosities
large, close, in adult nearly united, with straight parallel inner edges.
Emyda punctata, Kelaart, Prod. Faun, Ceylon. 179.
Hab. Ceylon.
Dr. Kelaart, in his work on the Ceylon animals, was not aware of
the distinctness of this animal from the continental. species ;. he ob-
serves that the head is black-lined when alive. :
The new species described in this paper are figured in. the
Illustrated Catalogue of Tortoises in the Collection of the British
Museum. |
MISCELLANEOUS,
On the Vitality of the Anguillulee of Mildewed Wheat.
By C. Davaine.
Tux Anguillule of wheat in the larva state are endowed with the
power of remaining dry and apparently dead for several years, and
recovering their powers of movement when moistened. , This is not
the case with these animals after they have acquired sexual organs.
In the larva state also they exhibit a remarkable resistance to the
action of violent, poisons, provided these are not of a nature to act
upon their, tissues. The author has found, by experiment, that opium,
the salts of morphine, belladonna, atropine, strychnine, and, its,com-
pounds, &c.; have no action upon these animals. In a concentrated
solution, or paste. of these substances, they. continued, to, live and
move fora fortnight... Nicotine, on,the contrary, soon, destroys their
movements, but not their vitality, for after remaining several days in
contact. with this substance, they become asilively as ever when freed
from it by washing. \ .
Organic matters, and especially animal matters in a state of decom-
Miscellaneous. 269
position, have the same action as nicotine upon the Anguillule. A
little piece of meat, cheese, some paste, &c., put into the water con-
taining them, will render the whole of them straight and stiff in the
course of a few hours in hot weather. By drying and again moist-
ening them, or by washing them constantly with pure water, they
soon begin to move again, and the author has repeated this resusci-
tation frequently with the same individuals. So great is the influence
of decomposing animal matters upon the Anguillule, that if a few of
them be crushed in opening a mildewed grain, this will be sufficient
to prevent the others from moving when placed in a small quantity
of water.
‘Substances which act chemically upon the tissues, and especially
acids, destroy these animals more or less quickly; sulphuric acid,
diluted with 200 volumes of water, kills them in a few hours, and
may be employed to destroy them in seed corn. This action, which
is common to all acids, is the more singular, as other Anguillule live
and breed in vinegar. ;
~'These animals also support an intense cold. The author has
exposed them to a temperature of —4° F. for several hours without
killing them. Heat on the contrary is fatal to them, and they perish
at about 148° F., whilst the Rotifera and Tardigrada support a heat
of 212° F. The author remarks, that as wheat loses its germinative
power at about 148° F., it was unnecessary that these animals should
be enabled to bear a higher temperature.
‘The adult Anguillule exhibit far less tenacity of life in all these
respects. The larvee live two months or more in water ; the adults
on an average a day and a half. The extreme limit was five
days. The larvee live at least two hours in sulphuric acid diluted
with 200 volumes of water; the adults less than one hour. In a
mixture of 3 parts of water and 1 of alcohol, the larvee live for six
hours or more, the adults only two hours. The larve kept for more
than a month in glycerine are soon revived when put into pure
water ; the adults could not be resuscitated after lying in this sub-
stance for two hours. Five hours’ exposure to a temperature of —4°F.
does not injure the vitality of the larvee, whilst exposure for the same
period to a temperature of + 3° to + 4° F. always kills the adults.
The larvee may be kept dry for several years and revived by placing
them in pure water; whilst the adults after a desiccation of a few
hours have entirely lost their vitality.
The author has also made some experiments with the view of
determining whether these singular little animals would undergo any
métamorphosis if placed in conditions different from those in which
they usually occur, and found that changes of habitat produced no
modifications in their characters, which would approximate them to
the other Nematoid worms. He placed the larvee in vegetable mould,
im Vinegar and flour paste, and administered them to animals. In
no ease did the Anguillule acquire the appearance of the Nematoid
worms which live naturally in such situations, and when administered
to cold-blooded animals they were evacuated im a motionless state, but
still alive.— Comptes Rendus, July 21, 1856, p. 148.5 ©
270 Miscellaneous.
Notice of a new species of Nocturnal Lizard from Mexicoy «>»
By Dr. J. KE. Gray, F.R.S, &e. rrobd
Among the animals collected at Cordova in Mexico by M. Sallé,
lately added to the Zoological Collection of the British Museum, is a
fine specimen of nocturnal Lizard, belonging to the genus Cubina,
which appears to have hitherto escaped the notice of zoologists. _
CuBINA GRANDIS.
Blackish, brown beneath, crown black spotted; nape with an
elongated oblique spot on each side, forming an imperfect crescent ;
back with five narrow, the tail with eight broad white cross rings,
the one on back of the neck just in front of the shoulders crescent-
shaped, the rest transverse.
The back and legs covered with close, rounded, smooth tubercles ;
the tail with regular rings of small, less raised tubercular seales ; the
crown of the head with smooth scales ; the temple with conical acute
tubercles; the belly covered with smooth, rather elongated, square,
four-sided shields; the under side of the tail with smaller, narrow,
more elongated similar shields; the chin and throat with small gra-
nular scales ; labial shields moderate, four-sided, with three rows of
larger six-sided shields on the edge of the jaw, below the lower
labial plates, the hinder one of the series being rather smaller and
slightly keeled ; the toes elongate, narrow, black above, with a white
ring over each joint.
Body and head, 5 ; tail, 5 inches.
Hab. Mexico, near Cordova (M. Sallé).
On a new genus and species of Trochilidee from Ecuador:
By Joun Gov tp, F.R.S. &e.
This fine species of Humming Bird is remarkable for its size,
deeply forked. tail, and the harmonious hues of its plumage, which,
although less glittering and metallic than in many other species, is
nevertheless strikingly beautiful. I consider this bird to be new to
science, both generically and specifically, and as the name of Victoria
regia has been given to one of the finest flowers of the same: part: of
South America, I am desirous of dedicating this new Humming Bird
to the Empress of the French, and I accordingly, propose to name it.
Eugenia imperatriz. Its native habitat is the vast Andean forests, in
the neighbourhood of Quito in Ecuador, where it procures its insect
food from the bell-shaped flowers of the Dature. an
Genus EvGEntA, = Beem
Gen. Char. Bill. rather. lengthened, straight. and. strong; ..wings:
long and pointed ; tail lengthened and very much forked, the feathers:
narrow and rigid; tarsi clothed with feathers nearly to the’ toes ;
feet small. a
EUGENIA IMPERATRIX.
Male. Face and fore part of the neck brilliant grass-green ; crown
of the head, back; neck, chest and upper part of the flanks very
Meteorological Observations. 271
deep green; on the centre of the throat a gorget of reddish-violet ;
abdomen and under tail-coverts shining, greenish-yellow; wings
purplish-brown; tail deeply forked, the feathers black, narrow and
rigid ; some tufts of white downy feathers across the lower part of
the abdomen ; thighs brown in front, white behind.
Total length 64 inches ; bill 14: wing 33; tail 3.
Female. Upper surface green ; throat, chest and abdomen greyish-
white spangled with green, the spangles being very minute on the
throat.and gradually increasing in size downward to the flanks ;_ tail
blackish-brown ; tarsi white.
-Total length 54 inches; bill 13; wing 23; tail 23.
Hab, Ecuador.—Proc. Zool. Soc., Nov. 13, 1855.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR JULY 1856.
Chiswick.—July 1, Cloudless, with very dry air. 2. Dry haze: very fine.
3. Clear and very fine. 4. Fine: overcast: slight rain. 5. Fine: overcast : very
fine.’ 6; Very fine: lightning, with rain at night. 7. Densely clouded : rain.
8.-Very heavy rain, cold and boisterous. 9. Fine. 10. Very fine. 11, Cloudy:
slight drizzle; fine. 12. Overcast. 13. Very fine: overcast: cloudy. 14. Very
fine: overcast. 15. Cloudy and fine: lightning, with rain at night. 16. Rain:
heavy clouds and showers: very fine. 17. Very fine. 18. Overcast: drizzly: very
fine. 19. Fine: overcast. 20. Slight drizzle: overcast: rain. 21. Very fine.
22. Sultry. 23. Slight fog: very hot: cloudy: lightning. 24. Shower: very hot.
25, 26. Exceedingly fine. 27. Overcast: rain. 28. Cloudy: very fine ; hazy.
29. Slight fog: very fine. 30. Uniform haze: very fine. 31. Slight fog: very
sultry: clear and fine.
Mean temperature of the month ..........4. sebepr ste Sitters (2 ote 4!)
Mean temperature of July 1855 __...... painisds swieredes Shistsoteews 62 -99
Mean temperature of July for the last thirty years .......... 63 “11
Average amount of rain in July ssccesssssscrecceorseseenes ee.» 2°958 inches,
Boston —July 1—4. Fine. 5. Cloudy. 6. Cloudy: rainp.m. 7. Cloudy: rain
A.M. and p.m. 8. Fine: rain A.M.andr.m. 9. Fine: rain p.m. 10. Fine. 11.
Cloudy. 12. Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 13. Cloudy. 14. Fine. 15. Cloudy.
16. Cloudy: rain A.M. andr.m. 17. Fine. 18. Rain a.m. and pm. 19, Fine.
20, Cloudy. 21,22. Fine. 23,24. Cloudy. 25. Fine: rain p.m. 26. Cloudy.
27. Cloudy: rain a.m. 28—31. Fine.
| Sandwick Manse, Orkney.—July 1. Bright a.m.: clear p.m. 2. Clear A.M.
and p.m. 3, Clear a.M.: showers P.M. 4. Drizzle a.m.and p.m. 5. Cloudy A.M. :
rizzle, showers p.M. 6, Showers a.m. : drizzle, showers P.M. 7. Rain A.M. :
ight p.m. 8. Drizzle, showers a.m. and p.m. 9. Drizzle, showers a.m.:
cloudy Pm. 10. Cloudy A.M. and p.m. 11. Cloudy a.m. : rain p.m. 12. Bright
AMe: bright; fine, thunder p.m. 13. Bright a.m. : cloudy, fine p.m. 14. Clear,
fine a.m.: cloudy, rain p.m. 15. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 16. Drizzle a.m. :
rainp.M. 17. Clear a.m.andp.m. 18. Rain a.m.: showers p.m. 19,20. Drizzle
A.M.: damp p.m. 21. Bright, fine a.m. and p.m, 22. Clear, fine a.m.: cloudy,
fine p.m. 23. Rain a.m.: cloudy, fine p.m. 24, 25. Bright a.m.: bright, fine p.m.
26. Clear a.m.: showers p.m. 27. Bright a.m.: showers p.m. 28. Showers A.M. :
cloudy, fine p.m. 29. Clear, fine a.M.: rain p.m. 30. Bright.a.m.;: hazy p,m.
31, Cloudy, fine A.M.: rain P.M.
Mean temperature of July for previous twenty-nine years... 55°22
Mean temperature of this Month ...sersereescersersecese ene paves DEE
Mean temperature of July 1855 —...sssssesesseweseieiies aanvaer 59339 3
Average quantity of rain in July for previous sixteen years ... 2°45 inches.
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THE ANNALS
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
{SECOND SERIES. ]
No. 106. OCTOBER 1856.
XXV.— Monograph of the British Umbilicariz.
By the Rev. W. A. Leicuron, B.A., F.B.S.E.
{ With a Plate. }
Tue Umbilcaria constitute a distinct and well-marked group
of Lichens. ‘Their thallus bears a general external resemblance
to that of some species of Endocarpon (e. g. End. miniatum), but
the different internal structure shows these genera to have no
real connexion. Their apothecia approximate in external form
to those both of Lecidea and Opegrapha. But this resemblance
is limited to external character alone, for dissection demonstrates
that there is no affinity in structure between the plants. The
apothecia of the Umbilicaria are entirely destitute of that black
carbonaceous excipulum which is so conspicuous a feature of
the Lecidee. Their structure greatly assimilates, and indeed is
almost identical with, that of the apothecia of the plant generally
known as Lecidea vesicularis, Ach. With the Opegraphe the
resemblance is altogether external, the gyrations or redupli-
cations to which the apothecia are subject alone constituting the
similarity ; interna! structure being here also entirely different.
The structure of the thallus appears to be alike in all the
plants included in the genus, however dissimilar their external
- aspect may appear. The only differences apparently arise from
~ one portion or layer being more or less developed in growth,
_ probably from local circumstances, than another. This. has
been admirably investigated, described and figured by M. L. R.
Tulasne, in his “ Mémoire des Lichens,” published in the ‘ An-
~ nales des Sciences Naturelles,’ 3 série, tom. xvii. The thallus
oe of U. pustulata, he says, presents a double cortical layer. The
Ann, & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 18
274 Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariz.
superior cortex is formed of small polygonal cells intimately
united, and its superficial brown colour is veiled by a sort of
furfuraceous powder, whose cellular elements, very irregular, are
unequally distributed and variously associated. The cortical
layer of the inferior face of the thallus is about double the
thickness of the preceding, and forms with it nearly a fourth
part of the entire thickness of the lichen, This part of the
plant is greyish, of a horny consistence, and very hygrometric.
It is constituted, as nearly all the tissues of this sort, by glo-
bular utricules, with extremely thick walls, and so united to
each other, that the external contours of each of them are in-
distinct. This horny layer bears on its free face an infinity of
minute papille of a conical or pyramidal form, and which are
continuous with it, that is to say, formed of a tissue entirely
similar, but of a very deep brown colour. The fibrous medulla
which occupies the middle of the thallus, is, as im most foli-
aceous lichens, a loose tissue filled with air, above which, the
spherical gonidia form a slight continuous layer. The structure
of the other species scarcely differs in any material point of view.
In our plate (Pl. X. fig. 1) we have copied M. Tulasne’s exquisite
illustrative section. ,
The apothecia arise from the medullary layer, and their deve-
lopment appears to take place somewhat in the following manner.
In the spot where an apothecium is about to appear, the cortical
layer is, by the uplifting of the medullary layer, formed into a
small wart or tubercle. This tubercle opens in the middle, the
hymenium appears exposed to view, the cortical layer is on either
side thrown back or reflected upon itself so as to constitute ‘a
kind of excipulum to the hymenium, which is gradually and
progressively protruded upwards by the medullary layer, until
a fully expanded apothecium is formed, sessile or closely ap-
pressed on the surface of the thallus. The apothecia are of a
deep black or brown colour, but ‘a vertical section shows this
tint to be confined exclusively to the surface of the disk and of
the excipulum. The base of the hymenium is not subtended by
any carbonaceous mass, as in the Lecidee, the medullary layer be-
coming in that part of a brown colour more or less deepened in
tint. The apothecia are either simple, forming a single patellula,
or compound, consisting of numerous gyrations having much the
general appearance of the lirellee in the Opegraphe. The internal
structure is the same in both cases ; and dissection shows that
the compound apothecia result, not from a division of the disk of
a single patellula, but from a great number of apothecia spring-
ing from the'same spot, forced, by’excessive compression against
each other ‘and growth within a ‘limited circular space, to assume
a gyrate direction, and to exhibit the singular appearances for
Rey. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariee. 275
which the apothecia of the genus are so conspicuous and re-
markable.
So far as my opportunities of research extend, the first writer
who: mentions these plants is Tournefort, in his Institutiones
Rei Herbariz, 1710, who describes, in the concise manner usual
with earlier writers when treating of Lichens, two species, U. pus-
tulata and grisea. Vaillant, following his great master, in his
Botanicon Parisiense, 1727, describes and figures the same two
species, with that characteristic accutacy and fidelity for which
his plates are so valuable. Micheli, in his Nova Genera Plan-
tarum, 1729, makes U. pustulata the sole type and constituent
of his 18th Ordo of Lichens, in which the seeds are disposed
in comosa arbuscula” over the whole surface of the plant.
These seeds, which are now ascertained to be pulverulent ex-
erescences of the thallus, he figures with much accuracy, and
also the apothecia, of which however he takes no notice in his
description, possibly supposing them to be only the incipients of
the fructification which would be ultimately developed into the
““comosa arbuscula.” His tab. 47 represents characteristically
aivery large specimen in that torn or deeply divided. state fre-
quently observable when the plants attain considerable magni-
tude, and apparently resulting from this excess of growth. He
complains that Vaillant’s figure is taken from too small a spe-
cimen, but identifies it with his own, having received an authentic
_ specimen from Vaillant himself. Dillenius, in his Historia Mus-
corum), 1741, describes at length and figures U. probescidea,
Turn. and Borr., grisea, Ach., erosa, Hoffm., arctica, Ach., poly-
phylla, T. and B., pellita, Ach., and pustulata, Ach.
>, Linneeus, in Species Plantarum, 1763, under his section
Lichenes Umbilicati cludes six species, velleus, pustulatus, pro-
boscideus, deustus, polyphyllus, and polyrrhizos. The same ar-
rangement is followed by Pollich (Flor. Palat. 1777), Lightfoot
(Fl. Scot. 1777), Weber (Spicil. Gotting. 1778), Hudson (Fl.
Angl. 1778), Hagen (Tent. Pruss. 1782), Humboldt (Fl. Frib.
1793), Retz (Fl. Scand.1795), Withering (Arrang. 1795), Afze-
lus (Act. Upsal. 1788), Westring (Act. Sc. Stockh. 1793), and
' Acharius (Act. Sc. Stockh. 1794), varying indeed: in the number
of species» described according to the cireumstances of their
respective localities.. Hoffmann, in his Plante, Lichenose in
1788 (according to. the date on his tab. 2) first, uses the generic
naine Umbilicaria, He figures with inimitable beauty and:aceu-
racy eleven species. This: name Umbtlicaria was immediately
adopted. by Baumgarten. (Flor. Lips. 1790), Schrader (Spicil.
1794), and Acharius (Prodr..1798). In. this, latter ,.work it
should be mentioned that Acharius refers murinus to the genus
Endocarpon. The generic name Umbilicaria is very aptly taken
: 18*
276 = Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie. —
from the umbilicate thallus; but Acharius, in his Meth. Lich.
1803, changed it to Gyrophora from the external appearance of
the fructification, because he thought it most probable that
future observation would show that Lecidea Oedert, silacea, pri-
vigna, and other species also, ought. to be included in the same
genus, because their apothecia became deformed or gyriform
like those of Umbilicaria, in which case the former name Umbi-
licaria would not be applicable to the genus thus compre-
hensively considered. Dissection and the microscope haye shown
that these conjectures of Acharius were groundless, and that
there was no real necessity for a change of the generic name.
He describes in this work fifteen species, all of which are true
Umbilicarie, but refers pustulatus to Lecidea. Ventenat again
changes the generic name to Capnia. DeCandolle, in Flor.
Frang. 1805, adopts the genus Umdbilicaria of Hoffmann and
Acharius, and enumerates thirteen species, several of which are
now considered as varieties or states of the same plants. Acha-_
rius retains his name Gyrophora in his Lich. Univ. 1810, de-
scribing eighteen species, including murinus and pustulatus.
Flérke has some remarks on the genus in the Berlin Magazine
for 1810, but which I have not seen. Wablenberg (FI. Lapp.
1812) changes the name of the genus to Gyromium, but without
assigning any reason for so doing, which name he continues
in his Flor. Carpath. (1814), Flor. Upsal. (1820), and Flor.
Suec. (1824-26). In this latter work he explains the cause of
the change to be, from the similarity of the fructification to in-
testinal convolutions. Turner and Borrer in the Lichenographia
Britannica (1813) retain the name Gyrophora, as all the generie
distinctions in that work had been taken from the fructification.
They describe ten species as found in Britain, with an elaborate
care and minute fidelity and accuracy which cannot be praised
too highly. Another valuable feature of this work was the de-
termination of the plants of Linneeus and Dillenius from their
respective herbaria. Acharius (Syn, 1814) extends the number
of species to nineteen; one of them, G. Clemeniei, growing on
wood, is now referred to Thelephora quercina, Pers., all the rest
being saxicolar plants. Scherer, in Meisner’s Naturw. Anz,
1817, has a paper on the Gyrophore, and another on the “ Umbi-
licarie Helvetice” in Seringe’s Musée Helvétique d’Hist. Nat.
1821. These he arranges under six species, which he describes
at length, adding full synonyms from Vaillant downwards, and
illustrates them with five plates filled with beautifully coloured
figures of all the species and varieties. In his Spicilegium he
refers U. pustulata to Lecidea, and places all the rest under four
species, viz. U. depressa, U. polymorpha, U. enea, and U. erosa ;
whilst in his Enumeratio (1850) he again includes pustula/a, and
Se ee ee ee ce
r
Se
ms
Be a eal ne a a
Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarix. 277
rearranges the various forms into eight species. British authois,
as Purton, Midl. Fl. (1817), Hooker, FI. Scot. (1821), and
Greville, Fl. Edin. (1824), adopt Gyrophora as the genus. Fries
in all his works resolutely maintains the original name, Umbili-
caria, of Hoffmann. Eschweiler, Syst. Lich. 1824, places Gyro-
phora mm company with Solorina, Ach., Dermatocarpon, Eschw.,
Endocarpon, Hedw., Capitularia, Eschw., and Peltidea, Ach., in
his Cohors V. Dermatocarpee. Wallroth, Crypt. Germ. (1831),
makes Uimbilicaria a section of his genus Graphis, considering
the affinity in structure of the apothecia with those of the Gra-
phidee, hinted at by Bernhardi, Flérke and DeCandolle, to be cor-
rect and well founded. Hooker in Brit. Flor. (1833) follows the
arrangement of Fée (Cryptog. Ecorces, 1824) into Gyrophora and
Umbilicaria, from the different external aspect of the apothecia.
His distribution of the species differs somewhat from that of the
‘Lichenographia Britannica.’ Dr. Taylor in Flora Hibernica
(1836) again unites the two genera. Merat in Flor, eny. Paris
(1836) puts U. pustulata into a new genus called Lasallia. Che-
vallier (Flor. Paris, 1836) and Flotow (Lichenes Flor. Siles., 1850)
separate Umbilicaria and Gyrophora. Tuckerman, Syn.,Lich.
Amer. (1848), retains the entire genus Umbilicaria, Hoffm., with
a modified generic character.
_ Massalongo (Licheni Crostosi, 1852) retains Umbzlicaria,
Hoffm., for the generality of the species, but refers U. pustulata
to a new genus, Macrodictya, his distinctions being taken from
the dissimilarity of the sporidia. In his Memorie Lichenog.
(1853) he rejects his new genus Macrodiciya and adopts Merat’s
Lasaiha. In his Systema Lichenum Germaniz (1854) Koerber
separates Umbilicaria (pustulata) from Gyrophora. Nylander in
his “ Nouvelle Classification des Lichens ” in Mém. Soc. des Se.
Nat. de Cherbourg (1854 & 1855), retains the original and com-
prehensive genus of Hoffmann, Umbzlicaria, as the type of his
tribe Gyrophoree. 7
From the preceding summary it is seen, that whilst the plants
have retained their relative position as members of a closely con-
nected group, considerable difference of opinion has existed as
to the name which should be assigned to it, and whether Umdi-
ficaria pustulata should be included in the same genus; or form
a distinct genus by itself. From the identity of structure both
of thallus and apothecium, I incline to think that it ought, with
_ the other plants, to constitute one and the same genus,.and that
the original name of Hoffmann, Umbilicaria, which appears. to
have been changed from no really substantial scientific: reasons,
should be restored to it.
‘The learned authors of the ‘ Lichenographia Britannica’ com-
plain, and with justice, that the genus has been divided into too
278 Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarive.
many species. In my opinion our British Umbilicaria appear to
resolve themselves into two species only, U. pustulata, which has
peculiar sporidia, and U. varia, which may include all the rest,
the sporidia being alike in all and this latter species comprises
two series distinguished by the copper or grey colour of the
thallus.
1. Umbilicaria varia. Thallus coppery or ashy-grey, simple
or compound, naked or fringed at the margins; upper surface
smooth, efflorescent, granulate, pustulate, areolate, corrugate ‘or
reticulated ; lower surface smooth, pitted, granulate, papillose,
fibrous or reticulated ; sporidia in asci, eight, minute, oblong,
pale.
* Thallus dark copper-coloured when dry.
a. polyphylla, Schrad. Thallus thin, unequally lobed, naked
and smooth on both sides; upper side greenish copper-colonr,
under black.
Lichenoides tenue pullum, foliis utrinque glabris, Dill. 225. t. 30. f. 129.
A. B. C (1741).
Lichen &c. undique glaber, Linn. Fl. Lapp. no. 452 (exel. ‘syn.).
Lichen polyphyllus, Linn. Sp. Pt. 1618 (ed. 2. 1763); Huds. Fl. Brit: 551 ;
Lightf. Fl. Seot. 2.863; Robson, Br. Fl. 300; Web. Spicil. 258 ; Humb.
Fl. Frieb. 29; Retz. Scand. 288; With. ‘Arr. 4, 65; Sm. ‘E. Bot.
<4, bs 1282,
Lichen glaber, “Ach, in Act. Stockh. xv. 95. t. 2. £5” (1794) (fide ‘Ach.
et T. & B.); Ach. Prodr. 144.
Umbilicaria polyphylla, Schrad. Spicil. 102 (1794); Hoffm. Fl. Germ. 2.
109; Pl. Lich. 3, 14. t. 59. f. 2; a, Tuckerm. Syn. 71.
Gyrophora glabra, Ach. Meth. 101 (1803) ; ; «, Syn. 63. excl. syn. var. an-
thracina; «.& 8B, Hook. Fl. Scot. 2.41; Heppe, Fl. Wurzburg. 69 ;
Chey. Ti. Paris, ed. 2. 1. 643.
Unmbilicaria glabra «, DC. Fi. Frang. ed. 3. 3, 412 (1805).
Gyrophora heteroidea a. 5 B, Ach. L. Univ. 218 (1810); Moug. & Nestl.
342!
Gyromium polyphyllum, Wahl. Fl. Lapp. 481 (1812); Fl, Carpath, 394 ;
Fl. Upsal, 423; Fl. Suee. 481.
i polyphytta, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 214 (1813); Hook. Br.
Fl. 2. 217; Koerber, Lich. Germ. 95.
wakamade enea, «: glabra, Scheer. Spicil. 90. 364 (1826-33) ; Exs. 149!
Umbilicaria polyphylla, Fries, L. Ref. 352, excl. b. & ce. (1831); 8. V. S.
117; Leight. Lich. Brit. Exs. 65!
Umbilicaria polyphylla, «. glabra, Scher. Enum. 28 (1850).
Graphis enea, 8. discolor, Wallr. Crypt. Germ. 1. 34] (1831).
a, monophylla. 'Thallus of a single peltate leaf.—Turn. &
Borr. lc. |
Snowdon, Déllenius: Cheshire and Cornwall, Lich. Brit.
Clova.!, Craig Raynoch.! Mr. W. Gardner in herb. Borrer... York-
shire ! Mr..G. Dizon... Scotland ! Mr. G. Lawson. Ingleby and
Rey. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie. 279
Howden Gill, Cleveland, Yorkshire, Mr. W. Mudd! Barmouth,
Rev. T. Salwey! Wrekin and Arcoll Hills, Shropshire !
“ Thallus peltate, flattish, consisting of a single leaf, adhering
to. the, stone by a small thickish callous disk, mostly orbicular,
but sometimes inclining to elliptical, from half an inch to an inch
and a half in diameter; the edges slightly cleft into numerous,
irregular, rounded lobes, and minutely, but unequally, crenate :
upper surface of a greenish copper-colour when moist ; when dry,
black, or of a very dark brown closely approaching to it, smooth,
or rarely very slightly wrmkled, and naked, occasionally marked
with minute black dots: under surface for the most part perfectly
black, whether wet or dry, and usually covered with a fine sooty
efflorescence, scarcely perceptible without a microscope, which
does not stain the fingers; when this is wanting, the surface is
generally most minutely granulated, and in some instances
‘blotched with a colour similar to that of the upper side: sub-
stance coriaceous, but so thin as to be almost. membranous,
pliant and soft when moist, rigid and extremely brittle when
dry. Trice very rarely produced, scattered, when present, all
over the thallus, sessile, but fixed only by their centre, of an
irregularly angular figure ; their margin thin, notched, enclosing
a more or less convex disk, the gyri of which are not arranged
concentrically; but compose, for the most part, several separate
groups.”— Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit.*
_ Specimens from Upsal, Fries fil., in my herbarium are iden-—
tical with this form. |
b. congregata, T. & B. Thalli small, clustered, much curled,
edges erect or reflexed.
Maze Beck, Westmoreland ! M7. W. Robertson in herb. Borrer.
Mynydd-y-Myfyr near Oswestry, Shropshire! Rev. T. Salwey.
Scotland! Mr. G. Lawson. Wrekin and Arcoll Hills, Shrop-
shire! Ingleby, Yorkshire, Mr. W. Mudd!
Specimens ! from Acharius in herb. Borrer, labelled by him-
self “ Gyruphora anomea var. variegata,” are minute specimens
of this state of the plant.
The states monophylla and congregata grow together in some
abundance on the Wrekin and adjoiming hills, and may be seen
_ passing into each other by every degree of gradation.
ce. sulcata, T. & B. Thallus marked on the upper side with
_ superficial cracks.
~ On Ben Ferg, a mountain in Inverness-shire, by the head of
Loch Ericht! Mr. Borrer. Clova! Mr. G. Lawson.
~ * We have adopted the descriptions from this privately printed work,
as little or nothing can be added to their fidelity and accuracy.
280 Rey. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarte.
* Thallus somewhat thicker than in ‘a,’ simple or more or
less compound; wpper surface marked with a few superficial,
undulating, indented lines, the edges of which occasionally sepa-
rate so as to leave a smooth black interstice ; under surface as in
‘a, but more commonly blotched with the paler colour of the
upper side.”—Lich. Brit.
This state seems apparently a transition to hyperborea.
d. lacera,. Thallus very deeply divided, divisions laeero-lobate.
Craig Raynoch! Mr. W. Gardner in herb. Borrer. Scotland!
Mr. G, Lawson.
The mode of division of the margins of this state is different
from that of the preceding ones, and assimilates to that observable
in anthracina.
A. specimen in my herbarium, collected by M. Philippe at
Tourmalet, Pyrences, agrees with this state.
Mr. Borrer’s herbarium contains specimens! of G. anthracina
from Acharius and Scherer, with which I have not noticed any-
thing identical among British plants. Their general appearanee
is different from. polyphylla, but the sporidia are similar, (See
Pl, X. fig. 3.)
PuaTe X. fig. 2.°
8. flocculosa, Hoffm. Thallus thin, unequally lobed ; upper
side of a greenish copper-colour, dotted, and rough with sooty
granulations ; under, black, naked, pitted.
Hoe floceulosus, Wulf. in Jaeq. Coll. 3. 99. t. 1. f..2.(1789), fide Turn.
Borr. ;
Lichen deustus, Schrank, Fl. Salish. 234 (1792); Westring in Act. Stockh.
1793 (fide Ach.) ; Ach. Prodr. 145 (exel. Linn. syn.).
Umbilicaria flocculosa, Hoffm. Fl. Germ. 2. 110 (1795); Pl. Lich. 3. fase. 4.
3. t. 68. figs. 1-4; Massal. Ricerch. 61 (exel. syn.).
Gyrophora deusta, Ach. Meth. 102 (1803); L. Univ..255; Syn. 66 (excl.
Linn. syn. in all); Sm, E. Bot. t. 2483.
Gyrophora flocculosa, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 217 (1813); Koerber, L.
Germ. 95.
Gyromium deustum, Wahl. Fl. Carpath. 394 (1814); Fl. Upsal. 423; Fi.
Suec. 856 (excl. Linn. syn.).
Umbilicaria polyphylla, c. deusta, Fries, L. Reform. 352, exel. Linn. syn.
(1831); Nyl Nouv. Classif. 175.
Graphis enea, «. coneolor, Wallr. Crypt. Germ. 1. 341 (1831). 3
Gyrophora deusta, Hook. Fl. Seot, 42 (1821); Brit. Fl..2. 218 (excl. Linn.
syn.); Grev. FL. Edin. 328.
Umbilicaria enea, y. flocculosa, Scher. Spicil. 91. 364 (1823-36) ; Exs,
152!
—— polyphylla, B. deusta, Tuckerm. Syn. 71 (1848)...
polyphylla, 8. floceulosa, Scheer, Frum. 28 (1850).
—— varia, var. flocculosa, Leight. Brit. Lich. Exsice, 219)!
Highlands of Scotland, Mr. Dickson. Corstorphine and Craig-
Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariz. 281
lockhart Hills, Maughan, Dr. Greville. North of England! Rev.
John Harriman in herb. Borrer. By the lake by the ascent of Ben
Nevis! northern ridge of Ben Cruachan !° Mr. Borrer. Caer
Caradoc, Shropshire! states a. b. & c. growing together.
a. monophylla. Thallus of a single peltate leaf.
“ Thalius consisting generally of a single peltate leaf from
1 to 2 inches in diameter, attached to the rock by a central cal-
lous disk, orbicular, flattish, but curled and reflexed at the edges,
which are irregularly lacerated or divided into a few unequal
shallow lobes: the upper surface dark greenish-brown when
moist; when dry, of a rusty-brown approaching to black, mi-
nutely dotted and sprinkled with a coarse sooty efflorescence,
very copious in some specimens, but in others rare, sometimes a
little wrinkled about the centre, and occasionally bearing nume-
rous small leafy scales: the under surface dark brown or black,
naked, quite smooth in general, though now and then most
minutely granulated and pitted, more copiously in some speci-
mens than in others, with small depressions, which are often so
numerous as to give it an absolutely reticulated appearance :
substance coriaceous, very thin, so as to be almost membranous ;
flexible when moist, but rigid and brittle when dry. Trice rare,
scattered about the thallus, sessile, but attached only by the
centre, orbicular, their margin slightly elevated and. entire, their
disk convex ; the gyri most frequently concentric, sometimes, but
rarely, forming irregular groups.”—Lich. Brit.
Specimens from Upsal, Sweden! Fries fil., and from the
Pyrenees! M. Philippe, in my own herbarium, agree with our
British plants,
_b. polyphylla, T. & B. Thalli small, clustered, curled.
- Whitwick Rocks, Leicestershire ! Rw: A. Bisnam.
» Thallus composed of numerous small remarkably curled leaves
arising from a common central disk and growing in an irregu-
larly orbicular group, the diameter of which is not greater than
that of the simple leaf of monophylla.
.¢. squamigera. Thallus rough with small scale-like leaves.
d. erosa. Thallus with ragged and perforated edges.
‘The tric are figured in ‘ K. Bot.’ from foreign specimens
received from Dr. Swartz. ._None_of the British. specimens in
_Mr. Borrer’s herbarium bore any fructification, nor those in
“Scherer’s Lichenes Exsiccati,
Closely allied to a. polyphylla, aud appar ently approxittiating
_- toe. erosa by the state d. esa.
PLATE X. fig. 4) Sporidia. -
282 Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariz.
y. hyperborea, Uoffm. Thallus thin, jagged, and somewhat
lobed, a little perforated, naked on both sides ; upper side green-
ish-brown, pustulate ; under side blackish-brown, nearly smooth,
slightly pitted.
“* Lichen superficie subtus lacunata, Linn. Fl. Lapp. n. 453” (fide Wahl.).
pullus, “ Wulf. in Jacq. Mise. 2. 83. t.9. f.3 7? (1781) (fide Dicks.) ;
Dicks. Crypt. 2. 23 (seeund. specim. in herb. Borrer !).
—— erosus, Westr. in Act. Stockh. 1793 (fide Ach.).
—— hyperboreus, Ach. in Act. Stockh, xv. 89. t. 2. f. 2 (1794); Prodr. 146.
Umbilicaria hyperborea, Hoffm. Fi. Germ. 2. 110 (1795); Pl: Lich. 3.
fase. 4. t. 71; Stenh. in Sched. Crit. fase. 5 & 6. no. 126; Fries, L.
Ref. 353; S.V.S. 117; L. S. 126 (fide Nyl.); Tuckerm. Syn. 73;
Massal. Ricerch. 63. fig. 117; Nyl. N. Class. 175!
Lichen Jacquini, With. Arr. 4. 62 2? (1796).
Umbilicaria papillosa, DC. Fi. Frang. 3rd ed. 3. 411 (1805).
Gyrophora hyperborea, Ach. Meth. 104 (1803); L. Univ. 225; Syn. 66;
Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 227; Heppe, Fl. Wurzb. 70; Moug. & Nest.
Stirp. Crypt. Vosges. 1047!; Koerber, Lich. Germ. 95.
Gyromium hyperboreum, Wahl. Fl. Lapp. 482 (1812); Fl. Ups. 424; Fl.
Suee. 856.
Umbilicaria enea, 8. hyperborea, Scher. Spicil. 91. 364 (1823-36); Exs.
1501151!
Graphis enea, y. papulosa, Wallr. Crypt. Germ. 341 (1831).
Umbilicaria polyphylla, y. hyperborea, Scher. Enum. 29 (1850).
By the Truim, near Dalwhinnie, Inverness-shire? James Brodie
of Brodie, Esq. |
“ Thallus peltate, composed of a single leaf, attached to the
stone by a thick, callous, central base, irregularly orbicular,
2 inches or more in diameter, flattish, folded in a most uncertain
manner, erose and laciniated at the edges, so as to be torn into
many shapeless lobes of variable size, and perforated here and
there with equal irregularity : wpper surface dusky greenish-
brown when moist, much darker and losing the tinge of green,
or sometimes almost black, when dry; always naked, and all
over rugged, with irregular pustular elevations of the cuticle,
which has the appearance of having burst, leaving smooth black
interstices, varying much in width and figure between the ele-
vations : under surface deep blackish-brown, smooth and naked,
irregularly pitted all over, and thence appearing obsoletely reti-
culated ; sometimes, in very old specimens, slightly granulated,
and pierced here and there with perforations of the inferior coat
of the thallus: substance coriaceous, thin, flexible’ when ‘moist,
and somewhat so, though brittle, even when dry. ‘Trice sessile,
attached by the centre, irregularly orbicular, elliptical, or va-
riously distorted and angular, flat, or more generally more or
less convex ; their margin nearly entire; gyri of the disk often
parallel and straight, but most frequently variously twisted and
disposed in several groups, and in this case the common margin
——S a
en ars
Fee Fk aN Si eae oe
Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie. 283
of the’ tricee is often wanting. In old specimens the thallus is
sometimes found partially separated into two coats, but much
less frequently and remarkably, as in e. erosa. The edges of the
_ blisters of the cuticle become also now and then detached, and
somewhat elevated, so as to give the thallus the appearance of
being covered with leafy scales.”—Lich. Brit.
Mr. Borrer states that he has sought for the plant in vain in
the particular station specified by Mr. Brodie.
In my own herbarium is a specimen received from Mr. George
Dixon, of Great Ayton, Yorkshire, given to him by a friend who
collected it somewhere in Scotland; but I could not ascertain
the exact locality by subsequent correspondence. Specimens
from Upsal, Sweden, from Fries fil. and Dr, Nylander are iden-
tical.
PuATte X. fig. 5 & fig. 5a. (1. Section of thallus and apothecia. 2. Spo-
ridia.)
6. arctica, Ach. Thallus thickish, crenate, slightly lobed,
naked on both sides ; upper side greenish-brown, rugged with
pustules ; under, blackish-brown, nearly smooth.
Lichenoides atrum corti Persici instar exasperatum, Dill. 110. t. 30. f. 119,
fide herb. Dilleniani cl. Borrero teste (1741).
Gyrophora arctica, Ach. Meth. 106. t. 2. f. 6 (1803); L. Univ. 221; Sm.
E. Bot. oy 2485; Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 225; Sommerf. Suppl. Fl.
4, Lapp. 177.
ose proboscideum, B. arcticum, Wahl. Fl. Lapp. 483 (1812), fide spe-
; aint a Wahlenbergio seipso recepti teste cl. Smithio in E. Bot.
t. 2485.
‘Gyrophora proboscidea, 8. arctica, Ach. Syn. 65 (1814); Hook. Br. Fl. 2.
xg Qhhe
teeta polymorpha, y. arctica, Scher. Spicil. 88 F, 363 (1823-36) ;
Exs. 556!; Enum. 27; Tuckerm. Syn. 71.
» Rocks in the county of Durham?! Mr. Robson in herb. Borrer.
Devonshire? Mr. Hudson.
© Thallus peltate, flattish, consisting of a single leaf, affixed to
the rocks by a thick, callous, central disk, orbicular, from an inch
to, two inches or more in diameter ; its edges irregularly crenate,
divided into a few shallow rounded lobes, and somewhat reflexed :
upper surface of a dull greenish-brown when moist, changed. by
drying to a pale pruinose grey in the centre, whence it, gradually
darkens. towards the edges, where it.1s blackish ; or sometimes it
is dark brown all over ; naked, everywhere very rugged, with irre-
gular, pustular elevations, of the cuticle, which here: and; there
towards the edges of the thallus has the appearance of having
burst, as if from being overstretched, leaving depressed, smooth,
undulating interstices: under, surface of a paler brown. and sub-
pruinose, black. (in our specimens), about the centre, quite smooth
284 Rev. W.A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarice.
or very minutely papillose: substance coriaceous, thickish, flex-
ible when moist; rigid, almost horny, but tough, when dry,
Trice slightly elevated, orbicular, varying to angular and subre-
niform, somewhat convex ; their margin entire, scarcely elevated ;
gyri of the disk sometimes concentric, but more frequently dis-
posed in several irregular groups, usually, not constantly, leaving
a minute cavity in the centre. | ,
The fragment of a specimen from Mr. Robson in herb. Borrer
has all the appearance of belonging to y. hyperborea. It seems
scarcely sufficient to enable us to form a decisive opinion on this
plant.
Puate X, fig. 6.
e. erosa, Hoffm. Thallus thickish, splitting when old into two
or three lamine, jagged and somewhat lobed, perforated; upper
side greenish-brown, naked, divided by flexuose anastomosing
lines into. convex areole; under side paler, papillose, separately
pierced, fibrous.
Lichenoides rugosum durum pullum, peltis atris verrucosis, Dill. 220. t. 30.
f. 118 (1741) (fide herbarii Dilleniani cl. Lightfootio teste, l. c. infra).
Lichen polyrrhizos, Huds. Fl. Angl. 550 (exel. syn. Linn.) (1778).
torrefactus, Lightf. Fl. Scot. 2. 862 (1777) (see. specim. a Lightfootio
seipso recepta cl. Borrero teste in Lich. Brit. cit. infra) ;. With, Arr, 4,
62 (excl. syn. preeter Dill.). |
erosus, Web. Spicil. 259 (1778); Swartz in Act. Ups. iv. 250 (fide
Ach. & Seheer.); Ach. in Act. Stockh. xv. 87. t. 2. f. 1; Prodr. 145.
reticularis, Westr. in Act. Stockh. xiv. 45 (fide Ach.) (1793).
Umbilicaria torrefacta, Schrad. Spicil. 104 (1794). ,
Lichen Cribellum, Retz. Fl. Seand. 287 (1795).
Umbilicaria erosa, Hoffm. Fl. Germ. 2. 111 (1795); Pl. Lich. 3, fase. 4. 7.
t. 70; DC. Fl. Franc. ed. 3. 2. 411.
Umbilicaria erosa «, Scheer. Spicil. 93. 364; Exs. 153!; Enum. 29; Stenh.
in Sched. Crit. fase. 5 & 6. no. 127; Fries, L. Reform. 354; Summa
Veg. Scand. 117; Tuckerm.! Syn. 73; Massal. Ricerch. 62. fig. 116;
Nyl. N. Class. 175!
Gyrophora erosa, Ach. Meth. 103 (1803); L. Univ. 224; Syn. 65; Sm,
E. Bot. t. 2066; Moug. & Nestl. Crypt. Vosges. 2601; Turn. & Borr.!
Lich. Brit. 229; Hook. Fl. Scot. 2.42; Brit. Fl. 2.218; Tayl. Fl.
Hib. pt. 2.155; Koerber, Syst. Lich. Germ. 96...
Gyromium_erosum, Wahl. Fl. Lapp. 482 (1812); Fl. Suec. 856,
Graphis enea, 8. dispansa & e. cribrosa, Wallr. Crypt. Germ, 342 (1831),
Highlands of Scotland, Lightfoot. . St. Vincent’s Rock near
Bristol; Hudson: Llanberris, Rev. Hugh Davies. On the vitri-
tied forts: the Highlands of Scotland ; Durham; Yorkshire ;
North. Wales; Sir J.ck. Smith. Mangerton and other mountains
in Ireland, Dr. .Faylor.. Corry Leese, Ben Nevis! Mr. Borrer.
Ben Beck! Craig Koynoch! Mr. W. Gardner in herb. Borrer.
Clova! Mr. G: Lawson. Capel Cerig, North Wales! Mr. H.
Rey. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariz,, 285
Piggot. Birkdale, Westmoreland! Mr. W. Robertson in. herb.
Borrer, Dartmoor! Mr. Borrer.. Swinhope Fell, Durham! Mr.
WW. Mudd. Barmouth, N. Wales! Rev. T. Salwey.
Thallus peltate, consisting of a single leaf, attached by a
thick, callous, central base, suborbicular or oblong, an inch or
two in diameter, flattish, but elevated towards the centre, so as
to have an irregularly convex appearance, undulated, and not
unfrequently erect or reflexed at the edges, rugged all over, and
torn, without any order, into various rounded lobes of most. un-
certain size, which are most usually shallow, but occasionally
reach almost to the root, and slightly imbricated : it is also per-
forated, chiefly towards the edges, with numerous cavities of no
definite size or figure, giving to some specimens the appearance
of being fringed with beautiful lacework ; in other specimens the
perforations are found all over the thallus, and again in others
they are almost, if not altogether, wanting : upper surface dusky
greenish-brown when moist, when dry deep brown, and fre-
quently almost black, always naked, in a young state even, and
_ marked with various undulating black indented lines, which, as
the plant becomes older, grow more numerous, and, frequently
anastomosing, divide the cuticle into irregular areole, which
swell into pustular elevations: under surface, when wet, semi-
transparent, generally light greyish-brown, but sometimes of the
same colour as the upper one, turning darker, often blackish,
from drying; minutely granulated, so as to look like shagreen
when magnified, entire in young specimens, in old ones ragged
with irregular holes, which have elevated thickened lips, and do
not extend to the upper coat of the thallus; besides which, there
also grow out of the under surface, in all stages of its existence,
fibres of the same colour and substance as itself, aptly compared
in ‘ English Botany’ to shavings, performing, according to Dil-
lenius and Schrader, the office of roots: substance coriaceous,
variable in thickness, flexible when moist, rigid and brittle when
dry. Trice numerous, scattered all over the thallus, affixed by
their centres, sessile or slightly elevated, flat or variously convex,
varying in shape from linear through every gradation to orbi-
cular ; sometimes surrounded by a nearly entire slightly elevated
margin, but more frequently wanting it, and consisting merely
of irregular clusters of twisted gyri*.”—Lich. Brit.
The sporidia were not seen in the specimens of U. Muhlen-
bergit from Mrs. Merry in herb. Borrer ; but in specimens: of
U. Muhlenbergii and its variety alpina in the same herbarium,
received from America from Mr. Edward Tuckerman, jun., they
were identical with those of erosa (see Pl. X. figs. 9 & 10).
* Tor the spermagonia of this form see Tulasne, /.¢,
286 Rev. W.A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie.
Specimens of erosa from Upsal, Sweden, Mies fil. ; Stockholm,
Dr. Nylander, and Saibten, M. Philippe, in my own herbari ium,
are identical with our British plant.
PLATE X. fig. 7. Spuridia. Fig. 8. Section of thallus and apothecia,
¢. pellita, DC. Thallus thin, unequally lobed and crenate;
upper side greenish copper-colour, smooth; under side black,
papillose, reticulated and densely ‘fibrous ; ‘tricee sepnteslcaunee x
growing out into tufts of fibres.
Lichenoides pullum superne et glabrum, inferne nigrum et cirrosum, Dill.
226. t. 30. f. 130 (1741).
Lichen polyrhizos, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1618? ; Lightf. Fl. Scot. 2. 864; eae bhs
_ Br. Fi, 301; With. Arr. 4. 64 (exel. syn. 240 Dill).
velleus a, Huds. Fl. Angl. 550 (1778) (excel. var. 8).
Umbilicaria vellea, Hoffm. Pl. Lich. 2. 9. t. 26. f. 3 (exel. Linn. syn.) (1791),
admirable; Schrad. ‘Spicil. 105 (exel. syn. Lightf.).
Lichen hirsute, Westr. in Act. Stockh. 1793 (fide Ach.).*
—— peilitus, Ach. in Act. Stockh. xv. 99. t. 3. f.2 (1794); Prod: 149; Bins
E. Bot. t. 931.
Gyrophora pellita, Ach. Meth. 108 (1803), L. Univ. 228. t. 2. f, 10; Syn,
67; Turn. & Borr.! Lich. Brit. 238; Hook. Fl. Seot. 2.42; Brit.
Fl. 2. 219; Tayl. Fl. Hib. pt. 2. 155; Chev. Fl. Paris. 1. 644. Ke
Umbilicaria pellita, DC. Fl. Frang. 3rd ed. 2. 409 (1805).
depressa, 8. spadochroa F, Scheer. Spicil. 83. 362 (1823-36).
Gyromium polyrrhizon, Wahl. Fl. Suec. 858 (1824-26)... ,,
Umbilicaria polyrrhizos, Fries, L. Reform. 358 (1851) ; Summa Veg. Scand,
117; Scher. Enum. 29; Nyl. N. Class. 175.
On the rocks called Llyn Llydaw, Snowdon; and about ph
Cwm y Ffynnon tas; also on the summit of the mountains at
Cwm Brwynog towards Ardhu near Llanberris, Dillenius. , High,
lands and Lowlands of Scotland, Lightfoot. Clark’s Park and
Paradise near Moneymusk, Aberdeenshire, Withering. Carnedd
Llewellin, near the summit. On Moel Shabdéd near Capel Cerrig,
Caexparyonshire, Mr. Griffith. Yorkshire, Mr. W.. Brunton.
Durham, Rev. J. Harriman. Cheshire, Turner and Borrer. . On
rocks on Tonlagee, Co. Wicklow, Dr. Taylor. Scotland! Mr.
G. Donn in herb. Borrer, without locality (fructu) ! Mr. Sowerby
in herb. Borrer. Cronkley (fructu)! Mr. W. Robertson in herb.
Borrer.. Loch Phadrick ! Craig Koynoch! Clova! Mr. W. Gard-
ner in herb. Borrer. Ben Ferrag! Llyn Canvay! Mr. Borrer.
Near Lake Tumanel, Cumberland (fructu) ! Mrs. Joshua Stanger.
Barmouth, N. Wales! Rev. T. Salwey. Clova! Mr. G. Lawson.
os Thallus peltate, sometimes simple, but generally consisting
of many leaves, spreading from a common central disk, by which
they are affixed to the stone, in a roundish cluster varying from
1 to 3 or 4 inches in diameter ; many such clusters often forming
together irregular patches of considerable extent : the leaves vat "y
much in size, in proportion as the thallus is more or less com-
ee ee ee a se ee Oe
ee ee ee
i rey n SS
St IR, tas
Rev. W. A. Leighton on’ the British Umbilicarie, 287
pound: when it consists of a single leaf, this is sometimes
2 inches in diameter, of an irregularly orbicular outline, with a
few, rounded, shallow, crenate lobes, and nearly flat; in the
more common and complicated state, each leaf is seldom an inch
in diameter, usually much smaller, much and variously crumpled,
suborbicular, very uncertain in the number and shape of its
lobes, which are usually, however, few and shallow, their edges
waved. and crenate: upper surface of a greenish copper-colour
when wet; copper-brown, sometimes. blackish, when dry ; very
smooth and even, excepting a few scattered minute black dots,
sometimes impressed, at other times slightly elevated : under sur-
face invariably quite black, clothed for the most part with innu-
merable entangled black fibres, which most frequently are pro-
truded beyond the edges, so as to give them the appearance of
being fringed (which sometimes also they are in fact), less fre-
quently naked here and there, or nearly all over, and then
rough with minute shagreen-like granulations, and irregularly
reticulated (which is most remarkably the case towards the
centre), with elevated veins or threads, which are often detached,
except at their extremities, so as to form a coarse Jacework :
substance coriaceous, but thin, flexible when wet, very rigid and
brittle when dry. Trice rare, orbicular or elegantly lobed, flat,
appressed to the thallus, to which they are affixed by the whole
under side, always destitute of a margin, and composed entirely.
of numerous narrow gyri, which are much and variously subdi-
vided and contorted, but seem to spread from a common centre,
and frequently unfold, or grow out into elevated irregular clusters
of much-branched minute black fibres, and these clusters are of
more frequent occurrence than the trice themselves.”’—Lich.
Brit.
Our British plant coincides with specimens of U. polyrhizos
(Linn.) in my herbarium received from Fries fil., collected at
Upsal, Sweden.
Prats X. fig. 11.
~ In. Mr. Borrer’s herbarium are authentic specimens! from
Acharius of G. hirsuta and G. vellea* which appear to be iden-
tical. In the former the sporidia were not seen, but those of the
Jatter were double the size of those of pellita (see Pl, X. figs. 12
and 13), consequently showing them to be distinet. species.
oat Exs. 187! and 188! were also identical with the
charian ‘specimens. . iggy
No British specimens have occurred to our notice ; though
Robson in his British Flora, p. 800, gives as a habitat for the
Yr
*For the spermagonia see Tulasne, 7. c.
288 Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariz.
plant of Dillenius, 545. t. 82. f..5, “on rocks near Settle in York-
shire.” :
** Thallus ashy-grey when dry.
n. grisea, Hoffm. Thallus thin, crenate, somewhat lobed,
papillose on both sides; upper side pale ash-coloured, naked ;
under mostly naked, blackish.
Lichen pulmonarius saxatilis, e cinereo-fuscus, minimus, Tourn. Instit. 549 _
(1719); Vaill. Paris. 116. t. 21. f. 14.
Lichenoides saxatile, foliis minus divisis, cinereo-fuscum, Dill. in Raii Syn.
73 (1724).
coriaceum cinereum, peltis atris compressis, Dill. 219.
Lichen deustus, Robs. Br. Fl. 300 (1777) t. 30. f. 117 (1741) (fide herbarii
Dilleniani cl. Borrero teste).
griseus, Swartz im N. Act. Stockh. v.p.91.t.2. f. 3 (fide Ach.) ; Westr.
in Act. Stockh. 1793 (fide Ach.); Retz. Seand. 286.
Umbilicaria grisea, Hoffm. Fl. Germ. "9. 111 (1795).
Lichen Dillenit, With. Arr. 4. 63 (1796).
murinus, Ach. Prodr. 143 (1798).
Umbilicaria murina, DC. Fi. Frang. 3rd ed. 3. 412 (1805); Nyl. N. Class.
175.
Gyrophora hirsuta, y. murina, Florke m Berlin Mag. 1810, p. 67 (fide
Scheerer).
Gyrophora murina, Ach. Meth. 110 (1803); L. Univ. 231; Syn. 69; Sm.
E. Bot. t. 2486; Stenh. in Sched. Crit. fase. 5&6. no. 132 (1825) 5
Hook. Brit. Fl. 2. 218; Chev. Paris. 1. 643. t.14. f: Ile.
grisea, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit, 236 (1813).
Umbilicaria depressa, B. spadochroa A, Scher. Spicil. 82. 362 (1823-86).
Gyromium velleum, 5. murinum, Wahl. Fl. Suec. 857 (1824-26).
Graphis vellea, 8. alutacea, Wallr. Crypt. Germ. 344 (1831).
Umbilicaria vellea, vy. hirsuta, « murine, Fries, L. Reform. 358 (1831) ;
Summa Veg. Scand. 117. ‘
veliea, y. spadochroa, a. grisea, Scher. Enum. 24 (1859).
Found on St. Vincent’s Rocks near Bristol by Mr. Dare, Dil-
lenius.
“ Thallus peltate, consisting generally of a single, orbicular,
crumpled, coneave leaf, from an inch to an inch anda half in dia-.
meter ; sometimes of two or three smaller leaves ; attached to the
stone on which it grows by a callous central disk, divided at. the
edges into a few, shallow, rounded lobes, and irregularly notehed |
or crenate: upper surface of an ash-colour, with a slight tmge
of brownish-green when wet ; white ash-colour and subpruinose, ..
but still brownish towards the edges, when dry; granulated, as)
if minutely cracked all over, but smooth to the touch, and |
scarcely appearing rough to the naked eye: under surfaces, ’
whether wet or dry, dark brown, varying to almost. black, .
covered with a minute shagreen-like roughness, naked, or very. -
rarely producing a few scattered branched fibres : substance thin,
flexible when wet, and still somewhat. flexible, but brittle, when |
Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie. 289
dry. Trice, except in their very youngest state, when they
appear as round black dots, depressed, and almost immersed in
the thallus, orbicular and reniform, surrounded when young by
a margin, which afterwards disappears. Disk at first flat, very
convex in a more advanced stage; its gyri arranged concen-
trically.””—Lich. Brit.
Doubtful if of British growth, but inserted on the authority
of Dillenius, whose herbarium contains only two specimens
(foreign ?), marked as having been received from Celsius.
Distinct from U. hirsuta by the different sporidia (see Pl. X.
fig. 12).
Piate X. fig. 14.
0. deusta, Linn. Thallus thin, crenate, slightly lobed, naked
on both sides; upper side greenish-brown, rugged and. reticu-
lated ; under, ash-coloured, smooth. :
Lichen, deustus, Linn. Sp. Pi. 1618 (excl. syn. Vaill. & Dill.) (1763), fide
herb. Linn. cl. Borrero teste); Huds. Fl. Angl. 550 (rev. Daviesio
teste) ; Lightf. Fl. Scot. 2. 861.
proboscideus, Afzel. in Act. Stockh. 1788 (fide Ach.); Ach. Prodr. 147
(in part).
Umbilicaria mesenterica, Schrad. Spicil. 103 (1794).
Gyrophora proboscidea «. (in part), Ach. ! Meth. 105 (1803) ; L. Univ. 220 ;
Syn. 64; Sm. E. Bot. t. 2484; Turn. & Borr.! Lich. Brit. 222; Hook.
Fl. Scot. 2.41; «, Brit. Fl. 217; Heppe, Fl. Wurzb. 69; Johnst. Fi.
Berw. 2.99; Chey. Fl. Paris. 1. 644; Koerber, Syst. Lich. Germ. 96.
Gyromium proboscideum, Wahl. Fl. Lapp. 483 (1812); Fl. Carpath. 394 ;
Fl. Suee. 857.
Umbilicaria polymorpha, B. deusta, Scheer. Spicil. 88. 363 (1823-36); Exs.
148!; Enum. (in part) 26.
Graphis corrugaia «, Wallr. Crypt. Germ. 338 (1831).
Umbilicaria proboscidea w. (in part), Fries, L. Reform. 354 (1831); Summa
V. Scand. 117; L. S. 128 (fide Nyl.); Nyl. N. Class. 157!
St. Vincent’s Rocks near Bristol and about Llanberris, Hudson.
Highland rocks of Scotland, Lightfoot. North of England and
Wales, Sir J. H. Smith. Rocks near the summit of Hedgehope,
Northumberland, Dr. G. Johnston. Ben Lawers, Scotland!
Mr. Borrer.
“ Thallus peltate, flattish, but umbonated in the centre, and
rather elevated and undulated at the edges, consisting generally
of a single leaf, affixed to the rock by a thick callous central
disk, which scarcely ever forms any stalk, or sometimes, though
rarely, of many leaves growing together and diverging from a
common centre: leaf orbicular, from an inch to an inch and a
half in diameter, irregularly crenate at the edges, and often here
and there divided into a few shallow rounded lobes: upper sur-
face a dull greenish-brown when moist, when dry changing to a
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol. xvi. 19
290 Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariz.
pale pruinose grey in the centre, whence it gradually darkens
towards the edges, where it is nearly black ; in some specimens
all over blackish; always marked, especially about the centre,
with elevated reticulated veins, which are very conspicuous in
most individuals, though occasionally almost wanting: under
surface quite smooth, except now and then a few granulations
towards the central part, naked, of a smoky-brown, varying in
depth, somewhat palest when wet, and always lightest near the
middle: substance thin, between coriaceous and membranous,
flexible when moist, and often scarcely rigid, though very brittle,
when dry. Zrice numerous, scattered all over the thallus, quite
sessile, though affixed only by their centre, depressed, usually
orbicular, but varying to angular and reniform, surrounded by
an entire elevated margin. Disk nearly flat; its gyri either con-
centric or arranged in several parcels, lying together without any
regular order, and often leaving in the middle a subtriangular
cavity.”—Lich. Brit.*
Swedish specimens from Stenhammer and Nylander, labelled
Umbilicaria proboscidea (.) Fries, are identical.
b. fimbriata, Turn. & Borr. Thallus edged with a few black,
branched, tooth-like fibres. :
Gyrophora deusta, B. fimbriata, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 222.
proboscidea, Moug. & Nest. Stirpes Vosges. 249!
Similar in substance, colour, and every other respect with ‘a,’
except in having the edges of the thallus here and there toothed
and fringed with a few scattered black branching fibres; evi-
dencing an approach to proboscidea. There are also occasionally
a few fibres sprinkled over the underside. |
Highlands of Scotland! Mr. Borrer. Between Glen Callater
and Lochnagar, Scotland! Mr. J. Tatham. Clova! and about
Loch Phadrich! Mr. W. Gardner in herb. Borrer... Swinhope
Fell, Durham! Mr. W. Mudd. Glenmalure, co. Wicklow, Mr.
Isaac Carroll.
Specimens in my herbarium collected at Tourmalet, Pyrenees,
by M. Philippe and Mr. Spruce, coincide with this state.
ce. corrugata, Turn. & Borr. Thallus thin, rough with ele-
vated reticulations.
Umbilicaria corrugata, Hoffm. Pl. Lich. 2. 65. t. 43. f. 4-7 (1794), admi-
rable; Massal. Ricerch. 61. fig. 113. ;
Lichen proboscideus (in part), Ach. Prodr. 147 (1798).
Gyrophora proboscidea, 8. exasperata, Ach.! Meth. 105 (1803).
* For the spermagonia see Tulasne, ?/. ¢.
Rey. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie. 291
Umbilicaria proboscidea y, DC. Fl. Frang. ed. 3. 3. 410 (1805).
Gyrophora proboscidea y, Ach. L. Univ. 221 (1810).
proboscidea a. (in part), Ach. Syn. 64 (1814).
deusta, y. corrugata, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 222 (1813).
Umbilicaria proboscidea «. (in part), Fries, L. Reform. 354 (1831).
Gyrophora proboscidea (in part), Chev. Fl. Paris. 1. 644 (1836).
Umbilicaria polymorpha, 8. deusta (in part), Scher. Enum. 26 (1850).
Highlands of Scotland! Mr. Borrer.
Similar in all respects to ‘a,’ except in its upper surface
having extremely prominent reticulations, rising to nearly a line
in height, and looking like a series of erect curled squame.
_d. mesenteriformis, Turn. & Borr. Thallus thickish, the upper
side rough with elevated reticulations, and somewhat papillose.
Lichen mesenteriformis, Wulf. in Jacq. Mise. 2. 85. t. 9. f. 5 (fide Turn. &
Borr.) (1781).
Gyrophora deusta, 5. mesenteriformis, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 222 (1813).
Highlands of Scotland! Mr. Borrer.
Upper surface of the thallus singularly rugose, almost papil-
lose. The reticulations nearly as prominent as in ‘c,’ and some-
times growing out into new leaves: substance considerably
thicker than in the other states.
- I must refer here a specimen ! amongst Mr. Spruce’s Lichenes
Pyrenzi collected at Lac Lehon.
PuaTE X. fig. 15.
t. proboscidea, DC. Thallus thickish, unequally lobed, fringed
at the edges, naked on both sides; upper side greenish-brown,
rugged; under, ash-coloured, smooth.
Lichenoides corneum, marginibus eleganter fimbriatis, Dill. 218. t. 29.
f. 116 A (1741); Fl. Dan. t. 471. f. 1, 2 (fide Turn. & Borr.).
Lichen proboscideus, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1617 (excl. syn. Amoen. Acad. & Dill.)
(1763) (fide herb. Linn. cl. Borrero teste); Huds. Fl. Angl. 551;
Wulf. in Jacq. Misc. 2. 80. t. 9. f. 2 (fide Turn. & Borr.); Hedw.
Crypt. 2. 5. t. 1 A (fide Turn. & Borr.); Retz. Scand. 288; With.
Arr. 4.65; Sm. E. Bot. t. 522, two upper figures.
—— polyrrhizos, Weis. Crypt. 81 (1770) ; Web. Spicil. 265.
— crinitus, Lightf. Fl. Scot. 860 (1777).
cylindricus, Afzel. in Act. Stockh. 1788 (fide Ach.) ; Ach. Prodr. 148,
—— foliaceus umbilicatus, peltis turbinatis truncatis perforatis, Linn. FI.
Lapp. 359 (Sm. 2nd ed. 1792).
Umbilicaria crinita, Hoffm. Pl. Lich. 2. 67. t. 44. f. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 (1794) ;
Massal. Ricerch. 61. fig. 111.
Gyrophora cylindrica «, Ach. Meth. 107 (1803); L. Univ, 223; Syn. 65 ;
took. FL. Scot. 2.42; Brit. Fl. 2. 218; Johnst. Berw. 2.99; Wallr.
Crypt. Germ. 339; Tayl. Fl. Hib. pt. 2. 155; Koerber, Syst. Lich.
Germ. 97.
Umbilicaria proboscidea «, DC. Fl. Frang. 3rd ed. 3. 410 : rts
292 Rey. W.A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie.
Umbilicaria proboscidea, B. cylindrica, Fries! L. Reform. 356 (1831);
Summa t" Seand. 117.
Gyromium cylindricum, Wahl. F\. Lapp. 483 (1812); Fl. Suec. 857.
Gyrophora proboscidea «, Turn. & Borr.! Lich. Brit. 219 (1813).
Umbilicaria polymorpha, «. cylindrica A. & D, Scheer. Spice. 86 (1823-36) ;
a. monophylla, Exs. 143!; b. polyphylla, Exs. 146!; a. crinita, &
d. fimbriata, Enum. 26.
Gyrophora crinita, Chev. FI. Paris. 1. 644 (1836).
Umbilicaria cylindrica, Tuckerm. Syn. 71 (1848); Nyl. N. Class. 175.
—— varia, var. proboscidea, Leight. Brit. Lich. Exs. 95!
On Snowdon on the rocks called Llyn Llydaw, and near Llyn
Cwm y Ffynnon tas; also on the summit of the mountains
from Cwm Brwynog towards Ardhu near Llanberris. On lofty
rocks of the Berwyn Mountain, Dillenius. Rocks on the High-
land mountains, as on Goatfield in the Isle of Arran, on the
mountains of Breadalbane, Ben Nevis in Lochaber, Lightfoot.
On rocks in the mountainous parts of Dartmoor, Devonshire,
Mr. Newberry. Summit of Carnedd Llewellin, Mr. Griffith.
Scotland, Wales, and North of England, Sir J. HE. Smith. On
Cheviot, Mr. Winch. Near the summit of Hedgehope, North-
umberland, Dr. G. Johnston. On rocks at Connavalla, Ireland,
Dr. Whitley Stokes. On Mangerton, Ireland, Dr. Taylor. Rocks
about Loch Phadrick ! rocks Stroine-dhu ! summit of Carlowrie !
Mr. W. Gardner in herb. Borrer. Birkdale, Westmoreland !
Mr. W. Robertson in herb. Borrer. Clova! Mr. G. Lawson.
Scawfell! Mrs. Joshua Stanger. Yorkshire! Mr. G. Dixon.
Summit of Arran Mowddy! Mr. Borrer, Falcon Clints, Tees-
dale, co. Durham! Mr. W. Mudd.
“ Thallus peltate, ascending, composed usually of numerous
imbricated curled leaves, attached to the rock by a thick central
callous disk, which is sometimes drawn up into a sort of stalk,
whence they spread in nearly a circular form, making patches
of 1 or 2 inches in diameter: the leaves, taken individually, vary
in shape from orbicular through every intermediate degree to
cuveiform, and are divided very irregularly, some down to the
centre, others slightly, into rounded lobes, the edges of which
are crenate or dentate, and everywhere fringed with black
branched compressed fibres, a line or two long, composed of the
substance of the thallus itself, so that they may perhaps most
properly be regarded as elongated teeth, though they have en-
tirely the appearance of cilia of a different substance: these, from
the remarkably undulated mode of growth of the edges of the
thallus, often look at first sight as if they were disposed in two
or three rows: the upper surface is of a dull greenish-brown
when moist; and of a smoky-grey, with a pruinose appearance,
and sometimes speckled with white, when dry ; always roughish
with minute elevated reticulations of the cuticle, very visible in
Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie. 293
some specimens, but in others scarcely to be detected : the under
surface is quite smooth and naked, except occasionally a few
scattered fibres, which are either branched or simple, shorter and
usually much paler than those which fringe the edges of the
thallus: it is of a pale ash-colour near the centre, but gradually
darker towards the edges, where it is brown, with a greenish
tinge when moistened : substance coriaceous, flexible when moist,
extremely rigid and almost horny when dry, but still tough.
Trice plentifully produced all over the thallus, and often
clustered, turbinate in their first state, afterwards becoming
supported upon extremely short peduncles, mostly orbicular, but
not unfrequently reniform, surrounded by a nearly entire undu-
lated. margin, nearly of the same height as the disk, so that the
whole surface is flat; the gyrt are mostly concentric, leaving in
the centre a subtriangular cavity, but are not rarely disposed in
various parcels, lying together without any regular order.”—
tach, Brit.
. Specimens in my own herbarium collected “ in alpibus Jemt-
landiz”’! by Fries fil.; ‘(ad rupes in Pyrenzis orientalibus”’ !
by, Dr. Cam. Montagne and M. Philippe, are identical.
b,| denticulata, Turn. & Borr. Edges of the thallus coarsely
fringed and toothed.
Lichenoides corneum §c., Dill. 218. t. 29. f. 116 B.
Lichen proboscideus, Sm. E. Bot. t. 522, two lower figures.
Gyrophora cylindrica, 8. denticulata, Ach. Meth. 107.
cylindrica «. (in part), Ach, L. Univ. 223,
proboscidea, 8. denticulata, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 219.
Umbilicaria polymorpha, «. cylindrica B, Scheer. Spic. 87; Exs. 144!
polymorpha, «. cylindrica, b. denticulata, Scher. Enum. 26.
Rocks about Loch Phadrick ! rocks, Ben-na-Bourd! Mr. W.
Gardner in herb. Borrer. Clova! Mr.G. Lawson. Summit of
Arran Mowddy! Mr. Borrer. Galtymore, co. Tipperary! Mr.
I. Carroll.
In all respects similar to ‘a,’ except that the marginal fibres
are coarser and larger, and more evidently a prolongation of the
thallus.
_.A “forma minor in alpibus maritimis Ligurie occidue,’’ re-
ceived by me from Prof. De Notaris, seems referable here.
ce. denudata, Turn. & Borr.. Edges of the thallus» almost
naked.
Umbilicaria crinita, offm. Pi. Lich. 2. 67. t. 44. f. 7.
Gyrophora proboscidea, y. denudata, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 219.
Umbilicaria polymorpha, «. cylindrica ©, Scheer. Spicil. 88 ; Exs. 145! (not
294 Rev. W.A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie.
characteristic, at least in my copy; but specimen! in herb. Borrer re-
ceived from Scheerer good). ;
Umbilicaria polymorpha, «. cylindrica, ce. nudiuscula, Scher. Enum. 26.
Highlands of Scotland, Turner and Borrer. Summit of Gly-
der! Faleon Clints! Westmoreland Mountains! Mr. Borrer.
d. exasperata, Turn. & Borr. Thallus polyphyllous, ragged,
rough on the upper side.
Gyrophora proboscidea, 8. exasperata, Turn. & Borr. Lich. Brit. 219.
County of Durham, Mr. Rodson.
Remarkably curled and undulated, and divided into numerous
small irregular lacinize: upper surface remarkably rough.
I have seen no specimens, but this and denudata appear to be
connecting links with @. deusta.
Puate X. fig. 16. Section of thallus and apothecium. Fig. 17. Ascus.
Fig. 18. Sporidia.
2. Umbilicaria pustulata, .Hoffm. Thallus thin, torn, and
lobed, papillose and naked on both sides; upper side pale olive-
green, blistered and sprinkled with fibrous glomeruli ; under side
brownish, deeply pitted: sporidia in asci, one or two, very large,
oblong, pale, wrinkled or reticulated on the surface, 3-septate ?
Lichen cruste modo saxis adnascens, verrucosus, cinereus, et veluti deustus,
Tourn. Instit. 549. (1719) (fide Turn. & Borr.); Vaill. Paris. 116.
t. 20. f. 9.
Lichen pulmonarius saxatilis, inferne reticulatus, et lacunatus, superne
cinereus, ac verrucosus ; receptaculis florum et seminibus nigricantibus,
et velutli deustus, Micheli, 89. t. 47 (1729).
Lichenoides pustulatum cinereum et veluti ambustum, Dill. 226. t. 30. f. 131
A. & B (1741); Fl. Dan. t. 597. f. 2 (fide Turn. & Borr.).
Lichen pustulatus, Linn. Sp. Pl. 2nd ed. 1617 (1763); Fl. Lapp. 359 ;
Lightf. Fl. Scot. 2. 858; Robson, British Fl. 300; Huds. FI. Angl.
549; Pottich, Palat. 3. 250; Web. Spicil. 261; Leers, Fl. Herborn.
265; Humb. Fl. Frib. 28; Retz. Scand. 287 ; With. Arr. 4. 64; Ach.
Prodr. 146; Sm. E. Bot. t. 1283; Westr. 161, cum icone (fide Turn:
& Borr.).
Umbilicaria pustulata, Hoffm. Pl. Lich. 2. 13. t. 28. f. 1, 2, & t. 29. f. 4
(1791); Schrad. Spicil. 102; DC. Fl. Frang. 3rd ed. 3. 411; Hook.
Fl. Scot. pt. 2. 42; Brit. Fl. 2. 219; Stenh. in Sched. Crit. fase. 5 & 6.
peli hy Fries, L. Reform. 350; 8. V. S. 117; Chev. Fl. Paris. 1.
42.
—— pustulata «, Tuckerm. Syn. 70; Bohler, Lich. Brit. 125!; Scheer.
Enum. 25; Leight. Brit. Lich. Exs. 166; Koerber, Lich. Germ. 93 ;
Nyl. Nouv. Class. in Cherb. Mém. 3, 175.
BRP EE cn 04 Ach. Meth. 85 (1803); Scher. Spicil. 106. 190; Exs.
!
Gyrophora pustulata, Ach. L. Univ. 226(1810); Syn. 66; Moug. & Nest.
Stirp. Vosges. 60!; Turn, & Borr. Lich. Brit. 232; Purton, Midl. Fl.
2. 598; Heppe, Fl. Wurzb. 71; Tayl. Fl. Hib. pt. 2.155; Spruce’s
Lich. Pyren. !
Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarie. 295
Gyromium pustulatum, Wahl. Fl. Upsal. 424 (1820); Fl. Suee. 858.
Graphis pustulata, Wallr. Crypt. Germ. 345 (1831).
Lasallia pustulata, Merat, Paris. 202 (183 ); Massal. Mem. 118. -
Macrodictya pustulata, Massal. Ricerch. 59. fig. 109 (1852),
On rocks and stones in mountainous districts. By the road
from Pemnorvay to Dolbelmen, and under Keven Lees Castle,
Dillenius. Malvern Hills, Stokes. Old wall, about half way
between Caernarvon and Beddgelart, Rev. H. Davies. Near
Biddiston Lighthouse, Cheshire, Mr. Bradbury. Near Halifax,
Mr. Bolton, Nant Hevynant Vale, near Snowdon, Turner and
Borrer. Near Bantry, Ireland (fruit), Miss Hutchins. Ireland,
Dr. Taylor, Highland mountains of Scotland, Lightfoot. Dart-
moor! Devonshire (fruit), Sir W. J. Hooker. Hey Tor! Moel
Hebog! Loch Sligachan, Mr. Borrer. North Wales, Rev. T.
Salwey. Nesscliffe ! Caer Caradoc! Shropshire.
“ Thallus a single leaf, attached to the rock by a thick, cal-
lous, central disk, orbicular in its youngest state, but afterwards
varying from orbicular to elliptical, or sometimes quite irregular
in its form, from 1 to 8 or 10 inches in diameter ; flat, except
at the edges, where it is elevated, cleft at first into a few, shallow,
rounded lobes, which, as the plant grows older, deepen and be-
come torn, so as to be entirely shapeless : upper surface pale dull
olive-green when moist ; whitish ash-colour, with more or less
of a brownish or sometimes of a glaucous tinge, when dry, and,
then particularly, palest at the centre; uneven in every part,
except sometimes for a very small space round the centre, with
pustular elevations of the whole substance of the thallus, of
an elliptical figure, and varying in size from that of hemp-
seed to that of turnip-seed, large and small being mixed
. together without any order, though they generally decrease in
size towards the edges of the thallus ; the whole surface, as well
of the pustules as of the interstices, is rough with minute gra-
nulations (bearing no slight resemblance, in miniature, to those
on the surface of Lycoperdon Proteus), which are most evident
at the centre, and scarcely observable in any other part by the
naked eye, and produces also scattered clusters of black branch-
ing fibres, most numerous towards the border, where they often
become confluent; similar fibres generally liming the edges of
any cavities in the thallus, and sometimes that of the whole
thallus itself (as represented in the upper fig. in K. Bot.), with a
beautiful black continuous fringe: under surface brownish olive-
green when wet; when dry, varying from dark brown, to ash-
colour, and generally slightly pruinose, naked, minutely granu-
lated and full of cavities, exactly corresponding with the pustules
of the upper surface, which in some specimens are so numerous,
that the under surface has at first sight the appearance of a
296 Rev. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicariz.
coarse network; the interior of the cavities black, and rather
more minutely granulated than the other parts: substance cori-
aceous, thin, very flexible when wet, but exceedingly brittle when
dry. Trice of extremely rare occurrence, scattered among the
tufts of flocculi, principally towards the edges of the thallus;
patelliform, sessile, yet slightly elevated, urceolate when young,
afterwards subturbinate, orbicular, their largest size about equal
to that of rape-seed ; their margin at first raised, thick, often
very rugged and even flocculose, sometimes entire or only waved,
gradually becoming narrower, and at length obliterated, as the
disk, which in the young fruit is concave, becomes flat, and at
last slightly convex. This part is, in all its stages, opake, and
of an uneven appearance, when observed with a glass; in old
convex trice it is occasionally rugged with irregular warts,
usually depressed at the centre, and approaching more or less
nearly to the appearance of imperfect gyri. These warts in our
specimens do not assume a concentric arrangement, but are
either scattered singly or clustered into little groups.”—Lich.
Brit. Sporidia one or two in each ascus, of a very large size,
oblong, pale, and wrinkled with network, without apparent septa,
though not unfrequently three darker lines may be seen like
horizontal septa *, |
It would seem that the external darker portion of the cor-
tical layer of the apothecium frequently developes into minute,
branched, thick, fleshy fibres, which increase into the tufts or
floceuli above mentioned.
Specimens in my own herbarinm from Upsal, collected by
Fries fil. and Dr. Nylander ; from Italy, Prof. De Notaris ; from
Aste, M. Philippe; from 8. de Amoreira, Estremadura, S. de
Cintra, and S. de Gerez, Nos. 21, 82 & 107 of Dr. Fr. Wel-
witsch’s ‘ Cryptotheca Lusitana,’ are in all respects identical with
our British plant.
Mr. Menzies’ specimen from the Cape of Good Hope! in
herb. Borrer, mentioned in Lich. Brit. 234, is smoother and
less granulated on both surfaces, tinged of an ochrey-red; the
apothecia very numerous, much more sessile, their margins
entire or irregularly waved and undulated, but not at all fibrous.
Sporidia similar to those of British specimens. A specimen in
my own herbarium received from Prof. De Notaris, collected by
Zeyher at the Cape of Good Hope, and labelled “ Lasallia (Gyro-
phora, Eschw.) porphyrea, De Not.,” appears identical with
-Mr. Menzies’ in structure and sporidia, The thallus when wetted
becomes of a vivid scarlet hue.
Of the two specimens of G. Pennsylvanica in herb. Borrer !
* For the spermagonia see Tulasne, /. c.
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Rey. W. A. Leighton on the British Umbilicarix. 297
mentioned in the note, Lich. Brit. 235, as received from Mrs.
Merry, the under surface of one was very finely and less con-
spicuously granulated, whilst that of the other was very coarsely
granulated, but not more so than is observable in Devonshire
specimens ! of U. pustulata in the same herbarium. The upper
surface was smoother and browner, though still with the pale
yellow tinge; the pustules less numerous and rounder, but still
variable. The apothecia were sessile, either simple or gyrate
from compression and aggregation. The sporidia in both are
identical with those of our U. pustulata, of which we cannot but
regard them as varieties or states.
Specimens of U. Pennsylvanica! and of U. pustulata B. papu-
losa! from North America, from Mr. Tuckerman, in herb. Borrer,
had sporidia identical with our U. pustulata.
- - Fée describes the sporidia of U. pustulata as elliptical, 4-celled.
Puate X. fig. 19. Section of thallus and apothecium, younger state. —
Fig. 20. Section of ditto, older state. Fig. 21. Sporidium.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE X.
Fig. 1. Section of thallus and apothecium of Umbilicaria pustulata, Hoffm..,
from Tulasne.
2, Umbilicaria polyphylla, Schrad.: sporidia.
Fig. 3. Umbilicaria anthracina, Ach, & Scher. Exs. 154: a, aseus and
paraphyses ; 0, sporidia.
4. Sporidia of Umbilicaria flocculosa, Hoffm.
5. Sporidia of Umbilicaria enea, B. hyperborea, Scher. Exs. 150.
Fig. 5a. 1. Section of thallus and apothecia of Umbilicaria enea, 8. hyper-
borea, Scher. Exs. 151. 2. Sporidia.
Fig. 6. Sporidia of U. arctica, Ach. Specimen from Mr. Robson.
Fig. 7. Sporidia of U. erosa, Hoffm.
Fig. 8. Section of thallus and apothecium of U. erosa, Hoff.
Fig. 9. Sporidia of U. Muhlenbergii, var. alpina, from Mr. Tuckerman.
Fig. 10. Sporidia of U. erosa, from Mr. Tuckerman.
Fig. 11. Sporidia of U. pellita, DC.
Fig. 12. Sporidia of U. vellea, Ach., from himself, in herb. Borr.
Fig. 13. Sporidia of U. depressa, var. hirsuta, Scher. Exs. 137.
Fig. 14. Sporidia of U. grisea, Hoffm.
Fig. 15. Sporidia of U. deusta, Linn. and Turn. & Borr.
Fig. 16. Section of thallus and apothecium of U. proboscidea, DC.
Fig. 17. Ascus of U. proboscidea, DC.
Fig. 18. Sporidia of U. proboscidea, DC.
Fig. 19. Section of thallus and apothecium of U. pustulata, Hoffm., in a
young state.
Fig. 20. Section of same in a mature state.
Fig. 21. Sporidium of U. pustulata, Hoffm.
The sporidia are all equally magnified, and therefore in relative pro-
portion.
298 M.A. Miiller on the Development of the Lampreys.
XXVI.—On the Development of the Lampreys.
By Aveust MULiER*.
M. Auveust Mitier has observed some interesting facts in
the history of the small Lamprey, which occurs abundantly in
the fresh waters near Berlin. The animals appear suddenly at
the spawning season in clear brooks, where they glide about
amongst the stones, or, attaching themselves to these by the
mouth, float in the stream. After spawning they disappear
entirely ; and, during the period of their occurrence, none but
full-grown individuals are to be seen.
At the spawning time they are seen in small groups of ten
or. more individuals, and the spawning is effected in the fol-
lowing manner :—The male fastens with his mouth upon the
neck of the female behind the eyes, and then twists his body
half round towards her belly, when the emission of the ova and
seminal fluid takes place.
The recently emitted ova are less than half a line in diameter,
white, slightly yellowish, and enclosed in a thin gelatinous
capsule, which is difficult of detection even after swelling in
water. ‘The segmentation is complete, as already stated by
Schultze+, and commences about ten hours after fecundation.
The process is described much in the same terms as by Schultze:
the yelk is divided into a smaller upper, and a large lower por-
tion, from the former of which the embryo is developed; the
upper portion is composed of small, and the lower of large
masses, and the centre is occupied by a cavity, which afterwards
becomes smaller, and gradually draws towards the head of the
embryo.
The hinder end of the egg becomes flattened, and on the
upper part of this flat space the anal opening makes its appear-
ance, surrounded in front and on the sides by a horse-shoe-shaped
ridge, and from this a narrow canal is soon traceable half across
the egg, beneath the region of the dorsal cord. ‘The brain and
spinal cord then become more strongly developed; they are
divided by a longitudinal furrow, which soon closes again. The
dorsal cord never advances further than between the labyrinths
of the ears. Its contents appear striated towards the period of
exclusion, as is also the case in the embryos of some bony
fishes; but in the Lamprey the striz consist of series of cells.
The head grows out, and exhibits two lateral swellings, separated
by a cleft in the middle. Above these is the cavity of the
mouth, and subsequently the nasal opening makes its appear-
ance, and gradually moves from the ventral to the dorsal surface.
* From Miiller’s Archiv 1856, No. iv. p. 323. Communicated by
W.S. Dallas, F.L.S.
+ See Annals, vol. xvii. p. 443.
ee EP ame” _F ee)
M. A. Miller on the Development of the Lampreys. 299
The hinder portion of the body is thick, and contains the
vesicular intestine, which is still filled with cells of segmenta-
tion. <A yelk-sac is never present. The long neck begins
to move, and at its base the heart is seen, without a pulsating
bulb.
About the eighteenth day the young animal escapes from the
egg, when it is white and opake; but its substance gradually
becomes clear, until the movement of the. blood can be recog-
nized, when it begins to develope pigment. The brain and
spinal cord resemble a constricted thread,‘thickened anteriorly.
The eyes appear as dark points on the sides of the brain, The
neck exhibits eight clefts, of which the anterior soon closes, andthe
cavity of the mouth is united with the branchial cavity by a small
opening. The intestine consists of a very fine membrane, covered
with a very long bacillar epithelium. Along the back of the
intestine runs a fold which receives a vessel, and the ureters rise
on the dorsal side of the intestine, and form but few ramifica-
tions, in which ciliary movement is seen. The dorsal wall of
the mouth has at first two, but afterwards several papillar
elevations. In front of the heart is a longish oval organ, like
a vesicle, and divided down the middle; this becomes the mus-
cular portion of the sucking apparatus of the Lamprey.
A muscular veil is now developed in the mouth, which pre-
vents the exit of water; and the papillee of the upper surface of
the mouth increase in number and form branches, constituting a
sort of net which prevents the entrance of foreign bodies. At
this period the author was surprised by the great similarity of
his young fishes with those of the genus Ammocetes, which
occur in the same waters with the Lampreys, and for some time
he endeavoured in vain to find any difference between them.
After keeping them for two years they died, without exhibiting
any tendency to take on the form of their parents; and during
the whole of this period they appeared to be genuine Ammoceetes.
The author was therefore led to imagine, that the supposed
genus Ammoceies was in reality founded upon the young of
Petromyzon.
To ascertain the correctness of this supposition he sought for
_Ammocetes in course of metamorphosis, and found them in a
condition which distinctly showed their intermediate state. The
silvery lustre of the skin which distinguishes the Lampreys was
already perceptible, and the dorsal fin was elongated. The eye
was distinct, but in some individuals was still dull, whilst in
others it was perfectly clear. The mouth was narrower than in
the true Ammocetes; in the latter it measures 3} millimeters,
during the metamorphosis 3, and in the fully developed animal
in sprmg 53, The distance of the nasal opening from the
300 M.A. Miiller on the Development of the Lampreys.
anterior margin of the mouth increases in a regular ratio; thus,
in the Ammocetes it is 44, in the metamorphosis 6-7, and in
the developed Petromyzon 9 millimeters. The cleft which
separates the upper from the lower lip in the Ammocetes was
still distinctly present in some animals, but had completely dis-
appeared in others.
The papille of the mouth were reduced, but bore no horny
armature, and the veil of the mouth still existed in some indi-
viduals, especially those which exhibited the cleft between the
upper and lower lips most distinctly. When the opening of the —
mouth was completely rounded, the veil was reduced to a small
remnant. ‘The branchial apertures had lost the external valves
which in Ammocetes prevent the ingress of water; and, in the
most developed individuals, these apertures were furnished with
a border. The inner branchial apertures were narrowed, but
wider than in the Lamprey. In the structure of the cesophagus
and other particulars of their anatomy, the animals also exhi-
bited the same intermediate condition. The ova in the ovaries
had already become white and opake; those present in the
ordinary Ammocetes being transparent. They exhibited the
germinal vesicle distinctly, and the testes had developed cells
for the formation of spermatozoa.
The metamorphosis goes on rapidly from this poimt. -In
sixteen days the yellow teeth made their appearance in many
animals, and the sucking apparatus was in action; but it had
not acquired its ordinary energy in four weeks in animals kept
in confinement,
With this change of form comes a corresponding change in
the mode of life. The Ammocetes shun the light, and bury
themselves in the sand at the bottom of the water. Their
respiratory organs are protected by the network in the mouth ;
they live upon the substances which are collected by it in their
mouths, and their cesophagus exhibits ciliary epithelium. The
author found the shells of Bacillarie in all the Ammocetes which
he examined. The Petromyzon, on the contrary, being well
furnished with eyes, seeks the light, and swims about in the
clearest water, or fixes itself by suction, when respiration is
effected by the ingress and egress of the water through the
external branchial apertures.
There is therefore no doubt that the Ammocetes are the larvee
of Petromyzon, just as the Tadpoles are the larve of the Frog.
As however only one European species of Ammoceites has been
described, although we have several species of Lampreys, the
author thought it worth while to examine the Ammoceetes of the
River Lamprey. He found this to be exactly similar to that of
the small Lamprey above described ; both possess a gall-bladder
M. A. Miiller on the Development of the Lampreys. 301
and otolithes, although these only persist in the small Lamprey.
With regard to the Sea Lamprey he could ascertain nothing,
It appears from his observations that the duration of the
larval existence must be three years.. The spawning takes place
in the spring, and only once in the year. In May he took six
Ammocetes ; three small ones, measuring on an average about
22 inches, and weighing on an average 94 grains, and the other
three measuring about 6 inches, and weighing on an average 87
grains. ‘The three first must have been those of the preceding
year, the larger ones must have been two years old; and as they
showed no trace of metamorphosis, they could not have pro-
duced perfect Lampreys until the third year. Large individuals
of Ammocetes also occur after the time of the metamorphosis,
and these probably do not undergo their change until the fourth
year. In the perfect state, the Lampreys live a very short time.
Immediately after the spawning season they disappear entirely,
and their dead bodies may be seen floating in the water, the
ovaries of the females being quite empty. This long duration
of the larval state is remarkable, as in the only other Vertebrata
which undergo a metamorphosis (the Batrachia) this usually
takes place at an early period, and the animal continues to grow
long after it has acquired its mature form. The metamorphosis
of the Lampreys, therefore, resembles that of the Insects, in
‘which the larval period is the most important portion of the
animal’s existence,—its principal business in the perfect state
consisting in providing for the continuance of the species.
In conclusion, the author refers. to the doubts which these
observations may induce as to the systematic position of the
. Lampreys. In the occurrence of the metamorphosis, and the
complete segmentation of the yelk, they resemble the Batrachia ;
and they also differ from the Fishes in the occurrence of a pair
of elastic swellings in the bulbus arteriosus, one above each semi-
lunar valve, whilst the inner wall of the bulb is destitute of the
trabecular system which is generally present in Fishes. The
structure of the brain also is different from that prevailing
amongst the Fishes ; but, according to the author’s views, the
nature of the dorsal chord and its appendages 1s decidedly piscine.
The result of his examination of comparative characters is, in
“fact, to leave the Lampreys exactly in their former position.
He promises a longer memoir on this subject, illustrated with
figures.
302 Mr. A, Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
XXVIL.— Monograph of the genus Catops.
By Anprew Murray, Edinburgh.
[Continued from p. 156.]
Exotic Species.
18. C. celer, Lucas.
Catops celer, Lucas, Explor. de l’Algérie, Anim. Art. ii. p. 225.
Oblongo-ovatus, fulvo-pubescens ; capite subtilissime granario ;
antennis ferrugineis, ultimis articulis fuscis ; thorace granario,
angulis posticis acuminatis; elytris granariis ; corpore infra
granario ; pedibus ferrugineis femoribusque nigricantibus.
Long. 1} lin., lat. $ lin.
Very closely allied to the C. nigrita; black, covered with a
yellow, silky, very dense pubescence. The head is very finely
shagreened and scarcely pubescent. The labial as well as the
maxillary palpi are of a clear ferruginous colour. The antennz
are ferruginous, with the four last joints of a deep brown. The
thorax is very finely shagreened, much more pubescent than the
head ; it is very slightly convex, rounded on the sides, with the
posterior angles projecting and pretty strongly acuminate. The
scutellum is very finely granulated and scarcely pubescent. The
elytra are a little more strongly granulated than the head and
thorax, and are very pubescent. All the body below is granulated,
scarcely pubescent, and of the same colour as above. The legs
are ferruginous, very lightly pubescent, with the thighs blackish.
Found by M. Lucas in Algeria under stones in the month
of June. He mentions Oran and the Bondjaréa as localities
where he took it, and he observes that it is very agile.
The above description is reproduced from that of M. Lucas.
I have seen specimens in his possession, but not having had
an opportunity of comparing them with the specimens in my
own cabinet, I am not able to pronounce positively upon them.
The same remark applies to the other two species from Algeria
described by him (marginicollis and rufipennis).
19. C. fuscipes, Menetr.
Catops fuscipes, Menetries, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sciences St. Pétersb. 6 sér. vi.
(1849) p. 53.
“ Oblongo-ovatus, convexus, posterius valde angustatus pallide
rufo-ferrugineus ; capite, thoracis dorso, pectore abdomineque
nigro-fuscis ; antennis tenuibus longitudine dimidii corporis ;
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 803
thorace antrorsum angustato, lateribus deflexo, angulis posticis
productis acutis; elytris stria tantum suturali exarata*.”
Long. 1 lin., lat. $ lin. .
Menetries says that this species somewhat resembles his
C. lateritius (already described (No. 5) in the first group), but
that it is much more convex and narrower behind, with the pos-
terior angles of the thorax pointed and prolonged backwards ; he
adds that moreover it has no perceptible striz on the elytra, ex-
cept one along the suture, but that it 1s particularly the colour
which distinguishes it at the first glance.
I have not seen this species, but the above description, parti-
cularly the portion which I have printed in italics, would seem
to indicate an affinity to C. nigricans, and the pale colour has
probably arisen from immaturity. I have therefore, in the absence
of any more precise information, placed it in this group.
Menetries does not mention its locality, but as it comes im-
mediately after C. lateritius, and he institutes comparisons be-
tween them, it is probable that they were found not far from
each other. In that case the locality of this species would be
Novaia Alexandrovskaia.
20. C. vestitus, mihi.
Oblongo-ovatus, fuscus, dense griseo-pubescens; Fig, 23.
~ antennis clavatis, nigris, basi ferrugineis ; thorace
transverso, granulato, angulis posticis obtusis ;
elytris stria suturali.
Long. 2 lin.
Oblong-oval, blackish-brown; mouth and legs
ferruginous ; clothed with a thick, coarse, griseous
pubescence, of a more lively fulvous colour on the
thorax. The antenne are clavate, black, except at :
the base, which is ferruginous; they are not so slender at the
base as is usually the case, making the club look less thickened
than it is in reality. The first jomt is large, the second shorter
and narrower ; the rest are nearly all of equal length, with the
exception of the seventh and ninth, which are a little longer,
and the eighth, which is shorter. They gradually increase in
thickness up to the seventh, which is the broadest and largest
of them all; the eighth joint is smaller and thinner than the
seventh and ninth, but not very minute; the terminal joint is
suddenly acuminate at the tip, looking as if truncate at the end,
with a short spike projecting from the centre. The thorax is
transverse, broadest a little behind the middle. The posterior
* Menetries in Joc. cit.
304 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
angles are obtuse, except at the very angle, where there is an
exceedingly minute rectangular starting-point. The surface is
cparsely granular. The scutellum is small. “The elytra are gra-
nulated and have a distinct sutural stria, but apparently no
others—at least the traces, if any, are exceedingly indistinct.
The anterior tarsi and first jomt of the middle tarsi are dilated
in the male.
This species has some resemblance to C. chrysomeloides, but it
is smaller, the thorax is narrower and more transverse, the an-
tenne are not so heavily clubbed, and the joints are differently
proportioned. It has also some resemblance to C. ¢ristis, but
the form of the thorax as well as a difference in the pubescence
distinguish it. The pubescence is coarser and more dense than
in most other species.
From the East Indies (Boys’ collection). The above descrip-
tion is taken from a unique (male) example kindly presented to
me by my friend Mr. Westwood.
21. C. Spencianus, Kirby.
Choleva Spenciana, Kirby, Fn. Bor. Amer. p. 108 (1837).
Catops cadaverinus, (Esch.) Mannerh. Beitr. zur Kaf. Faun. der Aleu-
tischen Inseln, Sitka, und Calif., aus d. Bull. Naturforsch. Moscow,
xvi. (1843) p. 82. no. 173.
fuscus, Hoff. var. Dej. Cat. 3rd ed. 133.
“‘ Oblongo-ovatus, fusco-piceus, tenue-pubescens; anten-
nis mediocribus, clavatis, basi ferrugineis; thorace brevi
transverso, basi parum latiore, angulis posticis obtusis; |
elytris rufescentibus punctatis, stria suturali impressa ;
pedibus ferrugineis piceis ; femoribus infuscatis.
“ Long. 13 lin., lat. 1 lin.* ”
Body black, covered with decumbent pale hairs. Head
minutely punctured ; antennz shorter than the prothorax, the
two first joints ferruginous, the eighth shorter and smaller than
the rest ; mouth and palpi ferruginous ; prothorax not visibly
punctured, with all the angles rounded ; base with a slight sinus
on each side; elytra acute, very minutely punctured, with a hair
emerging from each puncture, without furrows, except a single
one parallel with the suture, ferruginous, black at the tip; ab-
domen piceous, rufous at the base; legs ferruginous,
Found in the Sitka Islands by Eschscholtz and Kuprianoff.
A comparison of the authentic unique specimen of Kirby’s
Choleva Spenciana preserved in the British Museum, with speci-
mens of Mannerheim’s Catops cadaverinus, shows that they are
the same species.
Fig. 24.
* Mannerheim in Joe, cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 305
Mr. Kirby remarks regarding it, that “This species appears
to present the type of a new family of Choleva, not noticed in
Mr. Spence’s ‘ Synopsis Sectionum ’ in his admirable Monograph
of that genus. From his first section (Choleva, Steph.) it bor-
rows the rounded posterior angles of the prothorax; from his
second (Catops, Steph.) its clavated antenne; and from his
third (Ptomaphagus, Steph.) its unfurrowed elytra: it seems
properly included in the second, with which it most agrees in
habit*.”
_ Var, 6. Mann. Bull. de la Soc. Mose. 1843, pp. 173, 254.
Ferrugineo-testacea ; capite fusco; thoracis disco antennisque
infuscatis ; elytris pallide vido. testaceis, postice nonnihil
obscurioribus.
As Count Mannerheim observes, this species is somewhat allied
to C. morio, Krichs. ( fuscus, Gyll.), but distinguished from it by
the thorax being smaller and narrower and ‘the elytra longer.
The colour both of the pubescence and body is paler.
In carcases in the island of Afognak; taken sparingly in
the month of August by M. Holmberg, who also took it in Cali-
fornia. It was likewise brought by M. Frankenhauser from
the interior of the Peninsula of Kenai.
_ For the figure of this and the other American species I am
indebted to my friend Dr. Leconte of Philadelphia, who has kindly
furnished me with drawings of them made expressly for my use
in this paper. They are in half outline, and all his figures are
_ four times enlarged. The head is brought up simply to show
proportions.
22. C. brunnipennis, Mann.
Catops brunnipennis, Mann. Nachtrag zur Kafer-Fauna der Nord-Amerikan-
ischen Lander der Russischen Reiches, Mose. 1853, p. 14.
— © QOblongo-ovatus, convexus, crebre subtilissime reticu- Fig.25.
lato-strigulosus, nigro-piceus, griseo-pubescens ; an-
tennis thorace vix brevioribus, ferrugineo-testaceis,
clava parum incrassata fusca, articulo octavo minutis-
simo; thorace longitudine sesqui latiore lateribus
modice rotundatis, antice latitudine basis haud angus-
. tiore, angulis omnibus subrotundatis; elytris obscure
castaneis, apice subacuminatis, stria suturali leviter
exarata ; pedibus piceo-testaceis,
“Long. 1$ lin., lat. ¢ lin.
“Longer than C. cadaverinus, Esch., more narrowed behind,
* Kirby in Joc. cit.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 20
3806 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
besides differing from it in having the antenne more slender, the
thorax much broader, shorter, and not narrowed in front.
“Found tolerably frequently near the river Tschunuktnu in
the Peninsula of Kenai, in carcases at the end of June, M. Fran-.
kenhauser *.”
The reader owes the figure of this species to Dr. Leconte.
23. C. luridipennis, Mann.
Catops luridipennis, Mann. dritten Nachtrag zur Kafer-Fauna der Nord- :
Amerikanischen Lander des Russischen Reiches, Mosc. 1853, p. 84.
“ Ovatus, convexus, crebre subtilissime reticulato-strigu- Fig. 26.
losus, nigro-piceus, griseo-pubescens ; antennis thorace
nonnihil longioribus, crassiusculis nigris, articulo oc-
tavo minuto; thorace longitudine fere duplo latiore,
lateribus rotundato, antice latitudine basis haud angus-
tiore, angulis omnibus rotundatis ; elytris obscure cas-
taneis, apice obtusis rotundatis, stria suturali leviter
exarata; tarsis rufis.
“ Long. 12 lin., lat. 2 lin.t”
Mannerheim says that this species is allied to his C. brunni-
pennis, but is-shorter, and is besides distinguished by having
the antenne thicker, the thorax shorter, its sides more rounded,
and the elytra rounded at the apex.
Collected in carcases in the months of July and August by
M. Frankenhauser on the banks of the Tschunuktnu in the
Peninsula of Kenai: not frequent.
24. C. simplex, Say ? Lec.
Catops simplex, Say? Journ. Acad, Nat. Se. Philad. v. 184; Leconte, Syn- .
opsis of the Silphales of America in Proceedings of Acad. Philad.
1853, 281.
Fig. 27.
“ Piceus, fulvo-sericeus, dense punctulatus; thorace an-
trorsum subangustato, lateribus rotundatis, basi late
rotundato ; elytris obsoletissime striatis, stria suturali
profundiore ; antennis basi testaceis ; tibiis calearibus
mediocribus armatis. :
“ Long. 12 lin. |
4:
“The anterior tarsi and first joint of the middle tarsi of the
male are moderately dilated ; the antenne are as long as the
head and thorax, moderately thickened; the seventh joint is a
little larger than the sixth, and equal to the ninth ; the eighth
is about one-half smaller {.”
* Mannerheim in loc, cit. + Ibid. { Leconte in Joe. cit.
Lees eee Ne ge ee
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops: 307
The above is Dr. Leconte’s description ; the following is Say’s :
“ Pale brownish, sericeous; terminal and five basal joints of
_ the antenne rufous. Inhabits. Arkansas. Head dark ferru-
ginous; antenne dark ferruginous, the five basal joints and
terminal joint rufous ; palpi and mandibles ferruginous ; thorax
rather paler than the head, quadrate, a little transverse, sides
regularly arcuated ; posterior margin not wider than the ante-
rior; posterior edge rectilinear ; angles rounded; elytra paler
than the thorax, light brownish, with obsolete striz, more ob-
vious towards the tip; very numerous minute punctures fur-
nishing minute hairs; beneath piceous ; feet rufous; thighs yel-
Jowish beneath. Length nearly ,ths of an inch. This.species
occurred on dung*.” |
Dr. Leconte in speaking of his species remarks, that he is not
positively certain that it is Say’s species, which was found in
Arkansas, while his was from New York. He adds, “ The thorax
is more narrowed in front than described by him; although the
legs are in reality black, the lustre of the fulvous hair is such,
that one might readily be tempted to describe them as testaceous
at base.” ,
25. C. clavicornis, Lec.
Catops clavicornis, Lec. Synopsis of Silphales of America in Proceed. Acad.
Philad. 1853, 281.
Fig. 28.
“Oblongo-ovatus, ater, subtiliter pubescens, dense punct-
ulatus; thorace antrorsum valde angustato, lateri- 2
bus rotundatis, basi late rotundato; elytris versus
apicem obsolete striatis, stria suturali profunda ; an-
tennis thorace brevioribus, magis clavatis.
“Long. 13 lin.
~©Qne female: New York. This species is readily distin-
guished from the preceding (C. simplex) by the shorter, more
clavate antennze, which are only indistinctly testaceous at the
base ; the seventh joint is about twice as large as the sixth ; the
eighth is smaller than the sixth, and appears only about one-
third as large as its neighbours. The spines of the tibiz are
4 somewhat smaller than in the preceding species (simplex)+.” °
2nd Subdivision. Thorax forming a continuous or nearly con-
tinuous line with the elytra; middle tarsi of the males widened in
some species, in others not. ;
In the last subdivision our arrangement led us gradually from
* Say in loc. cit. + Leconte in Joe. cit.
20*
308 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
the species with slender antennz to those with the heaviest and
thickest-clubbed antennze. The affinity to these leads us now to
reverse this order, and to commence this subdivision with those
having similar thick antenne.
A. Antenne heavily clubbed and middle tarsi widened in the
males.
26. C. fumatus, Erichs.
Choleva Watsoni, Spence, Linn. Trans. xi. 156.
Catops agilis, Fab. Syst. Eleuth. ii. 565. 6; Gyll. Ins. Suec. i. 277. 2;
Panz. Faun. Germ. 95. 10; Duft. Fn. Aust. iii. 75. 4.
Catops fumatus, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. i. 240. 12; Sturm, Deut. Fn. xiv.
31. 15. t. 176. f. c. C; Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 382.15; Redt. Fn. Aust..
144.7; Kraatz, Stett. Ent: Zeit. xiii. 436. 22; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn.
Ent. Fr. i. 303.14.
Oblongo-ovalis, fusco-piceus ; antennis brevibus, cla- Fig. 29.
vatis, basi apiceque ferrugineis; thorace brevi,
basi latiore, angulis posticis rectis; elytris pedi-
busque testaceis.
Long. 13 lin.
One of the smaller species. Oblong oval. Deep
brown. Antenne short and thick, a little longer
than the thorax, brown ; last joint broader than
long, both it and the three first joints ferruginous.
Head black, densely punctate. Thorax with reddish transparent
margins, slightly arched ; densely and finely punctate, almost
twice as broad as long, as broad at the base as the elytra, or
very nearly so, narrowed in front ; posterior angles right-angled,
pointed ; posterior margin almost straight. Elytra oval, acu-
minate, densely punctate, without traces of strie, except the
sutural ; reddish-brown, often brownish at the extremity. Under
side blackish-brown. Legs ferruginous. ;
Distinguished from the other European species of this sub-
division, except alpinus and scitulus, by its short, thick, heavily-
clubbed antenne.
The alpinus is clearer in colour, is longer, and has the thorax
usually narrower than the elytra. Scztulus differs from fumatus
in having the antenne longer, the elytra broader, the posterior
angles of the thorax projecting, and the colour somewhat dif-
ferent, the elytra being brown, without the reddish tint which
is characteristic of fumatus, particularly at the base of the elytra,
and having a marked sericeous lustre.
One of the commonest species. It is found in Scotland and
England, and all over Europe, under detritus, in decaying fungi
and under leaves.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 3809
27. C. alpinus, Gyll.
Catops alpinus, Gyll. Ins. iv. 3121.2; Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 318. 11; Kraatz,
Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 435. 21.
Catops subfuscus, Kellner, Stett. Ent. Zeit. viii. 177.4; Redt. Fn. Aust. 771.
Oblongo-ovalis, fusco-piceus; antennis abrupte clavatis, Fig. 30.*
basi ferrugineis ; thorace brevi, angulis posticis ob-
tusiusculis ; elytris pedibusque rufo-brunneis.
Long. 14-17 lin.
Very like C. fumatus, but usually somewhat larger,
with a narrower thorax, the posterior angles of which
are obtuse, and the basal margin not so broad as
the elytra. The antennz are as long as the head
and thorax, with the basal joints reddish and thick ;
club blackish; the last jomt is usually black, but sometimes
yellowish at the tip. ‘The head is black, densely and finely
punctate, with a yellowish pubescence. The thorax is blackish-
brown, densely punctate, densely clothed with yellow hairs, at
_ the basal margin not so broad as the elytra, cut straight, and
slightly sinuate on both sides of the scutellum, the anterior -
angles obtuse and the posterior angles slightly rounded. The
elytra are oval, densely punctate, lightly clothed with yellow
pubescence, clear reddish-brown, generally blackish at the tip
and towards the suture. The legs are brownish-red.
The normal specimens are readily distinguished from fumatus
by their larger size and more elongate form, and by the thorax
being narrower than the elytra; but these characters are some-
times wanting, and in form the smaller specimens do not differ
from C. fumatus ; the clearer colour, the particularly strong dark
club of the antenne with its eighth joint proportionately smaller,
then serve to distinguish it ; but on the whole I am very doubtful
of its being more than a variety of fumatus, and it is with hesi-
tation I have placed it as a distinct species.
Generally distributed over the north of Europe; but I have
not yet seen British specimens.
28. C. brevicollis, Kraatz.
Catops brevicollis, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 436. 23.
“ Ovatus, fusco-piceus ; antennis ferrugineis obsoletissime clavatis,
articulo ultimo duobus precedentibus longitudine equali, acumi-
nato ; thorace fusco, transverso, basi latiore, angulis posticis
rotundatis ; elytris substriatis pedibusque rufo-testaceis.
“ Long. 13 lin.”
I have not seen this species. The following is M. Kraatz’s
description :—
* The comparative breadth of the elytra is rather exaggerated in this
figure.
310 Mr. A. Murray’ s Monograph of the genus Catops.
“ Nearly in the middle between C. fumatus and C. scitulus.
Easily distinguished from both by the wholly different thorax
and form of the antenne. Pitchy-brown; elytra and legs
brownish-yellow. The antenne are somewhat longer than the
head and thorax, reddish-brown throughout ; the club scarcely
perceptibly thickened ; the five last joints are only a little stouter.
than those preceding, and are of equal breadth ; the first joint is
somewhat longer and a little stouter than the second ; the third
somewhat shorter than the second, distinctly larger than the
fourth, almost equal to the sixth ; fifth scarcely larger than those
on each side of it; seventh half as long again and somewhat
stouter than the sixth, equal to the ninth; eighth scarcely
slenderer, and half as long as those on each side of it; tenth a
little shorter than ninth ; eleventh as long as ninth and tenth
together, from the middle outwards sharply acuminate. The
head is pitchy-black, very finely moderately densely punctate ;
the mouth brownish-yellow. The thorax of the breadth of the
elytra, broadest at the base, more than twice as broad as long,
tolerably strongly and symmetrically narrowed from the base
towards the front. The anterior angles are rounded, somewhat
depressed ; the obtusely rounded hinder angles project a little
beyond the anterior margin of the elytra; the posterior margin
is very feebly sinuated on both sides near the middle ; the upper
side is moderately, densely, finely shagreen-punctate, pitchy-
black ; the sides and posterior margin brownish, tolerably closely
covered with a long yellowish-grey pubescence. The elytra are
uniform, only slightly narrowed behind, densely and finely punc-
tate, with a slight bloom or hoar-frost on them, sparingly and
finely pubescent, brownish-yellow. The under side of the body
is pitchy-black. The legs are reddish-yellow*.”
M. Kraatz has established this species upon one example from
Sicily, communicated by Zeller to the Royal Museum of Berlin.
29. C. scitulus, Erichs.
Choleva fumata, Spence, Linn. Trans. xl. 155. 4.
Catops scitulus, Krichs. Kaf. d. M. Brand. i. 241. 13; Sturm, Deutschl.
Faun. xiv. 33. 16; Redt. Faun. Aust. 772; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit.
xiii. 437. 24; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. Fr. i. 304. 17.
Ovatus, fuscus; antennis leviter clavatis, ferru- Fig. 31.,
gineis; thorace postice latiore, angulis posticis
productis, rectis; elytris pedibusque obscure
fusco-testaceis.
Long. 1} lin.
Oval, brown. Antenne as long as head and
thorax, ferruginous, a little deeper before the
* Kraatz in loc. cit.
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Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 311
extremity. Head brownish-black, densely. punctate. Thorax
large, deep brown, densely punctate, only one-third broader than
long, as broad at the base as the elytra, narrowed in front from
the middle, rounded on the sides; posterior angles pointed, a
little projecting behind, which makes the posterior margin
visibly sinuated on each side. Elytra oval, slightly acuminate,
densely punctate, without vestiges of strie, except the sutural ;
testaceous-brown, extremity blackish. Legs ferruginous.
Resembles C. fumatus, but differs by having the antennz
longer, the elytra broader, and the posterior angles of the thorax
projecting a little behind, and its colour darker and con-
colorous ; and covered with a fine silky pubescence, so that when
looked at from behind, a paler sericeous band appears to stretch
across the elytra. 2
Not common. Has been taken near Berlin, in Thuringia,
Erlangen, Switzerland, near Paris, near London, and in the
south of England. I have not seen any examples taken in
Scotland.
B. Antenne not heavily clubbed; middle tarsi of males rarely
widened.
30. C. depressus, mihi.
Breviter ovatus, postice attenuatus, ferrugineus; an- Fig. 32.*
tennis subfiliformibus; thorace transverso, sub-
depresso, postice latiore, /ateribus postice leviter
-mflexis; angulis posticis fere acutis; elytris pal-
lidioribus, substriatis.
Long. 14 lin.
Entirely of a pale ferruginous colour; the elytra
paler, and the legs testaceous. The antenne are
slender, pale ferruginous ; first jot stouter and
longer than the second; third joint nearly twice as long as the
second ; fourth nearly as long as the third ; fifth and sixth joints
nearly equal in length—if there is any difference, the fifth
is longer than the sixth, but this is scarcely perceptible; they
are also all of the same breadth, and each is shorter than the
_ third; the seventh is a little longer than the sixth, and broader ;
the eighth is only half as long as the seventh, but scarcely
narrower; the ninth and tenth are nearly equal in length,
rather broader than the seventh; the eleventh is nearly round,
but with a slight obtuse point at the tip. Head brown, pretty
* The sinuations of the thorax and prominence of the shoulders are
rather exaggerated in this figure.
312 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
closely and distinctly punctate, most deeply in front, and with
a shallow frontal depression; clothed with a yellowish pubes-
cence. Thorax transverse, subdepressed, narrowest in front ;
the posterior angles meeting, and as broad (or nearly so) as the
base of the elytra, the lateral margins with a slight appearance
of inflexion just before the posterior angles; the anterior angles
rounded ; the posterior angles somewhat acute ; posterior margin
broadly sinuate towards the sides; shagreen-punctured, clothed
with a yellowish pubescence. Elytra 23 times as long as the
thorax, ferruginous-red; shoulders prominent, and tapering
from them towards the apex ; turned rapidly in at the apex, so
as to make it appear almost slightly truncate; a depression
surrounds the scutellum (which is large and triangular) and
extends along on each side of the suture for more than half
the length of the elytra, the back of each elytron rising in a
somewhat humped manner from the depression; there is a
deep sutural line running up the middle of this depression ; it
touches the suture at the apex, expands as it goes along, and
contracts almost to the suture again when it reaches the scu-
tellum ; the elytra are tolerably distinctly striated, the stric
deepest at the apex; shagreen-punctured, and clothed with a
close testaceous yellow pubescence. Legs and under side of same
colour as upper side, but rather paler, clothed with a similar
pubescence.
At first sight this species is very like fuscus, many specimens
of which have the same depression on the back of the elytra ;
but it is distinguished at once by the different form of the
posterior part of the thorax, which in fuscus turns in to meet
the base of the elytra, while in this species it does not. The
joints of the antenne are also somewhat different in their pro-
portions, and-the elytra taper more rapidly to the apex, and
the apex itself at its extremity has a tendency to become semi-
truncate for a short space, while in fuseus the apex is rounded
off to the suture. There is, however, no doubt that this is
very much akin to fuscus, and, in a strictly natural arrange-
ment, should come next to it; but no arrangement will provide
for all the aberrant forms which occur, and an occasional sepa-
ration of nearly allied species must be submitted to, for the
sake of the greater facility of determination afforded by artificial
divisions.
The above description is taken from a single female spe-
cimen which I found in M. Chevrolat’s collection, and which,
although unique, he has kindly ceded to me. It stood among
his European species, but the exact locality was not men-
tioned. 3
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 313
31. C. umbrinus, Erichs.
Catops umbrinus, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Brand. i. 235.4; Redt. Fn. Aust. 771 ;
Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 407.7; Fairm. & Laboulb. i. 303. 15.
Ovatus, brunneus; antennis subfiliformibus; tho- _— Fig. 33.
race transverso, postice latiore, angulis posticis
elongatis, acutis ; elytris substriatis.
Long. 13 lin.
Short oval, brown. Antenne scarcely thickened
at the extremity, ferruginous, lighter at the base,
clear yellow at the apex. Head almost black ;
mouth reddish. Thorax densely and finely punc-
tate, broadest behind, posterior margin sinuate, and the pos-
terior angles pointed, projecting, embracing the base of the
elytra. Elytra very slightly widened in the middle, obtusely
rounded at the apex, finely and densely punctate with indistinct
strie, scarcely more visible behind. Legs reddish. Middle
tarsi of males widened.
The completely oval shape of this species, the outline of the
thorax fitting exactly to the elytra, distinguishes it from all but a
few. Its slender antennz distinguish it from those in the pre-
ceding section of this subdivision. It is the largest species of
this section, and comes nearest to C. velox. Its larger size,
darker colour, the posterior angles of the thorax more projected
behind, and the middle tarsi widened in the males, distinguish
it from that species.
Widely distributed over the Continent, but I am not aware
of its having been taken in Britain*. It has been taken near
Stettin, Berlin, in Austria, near Kiew, Paris, Fontainebleau,
&e., on trees and under leaves.
32. C. velox, Spence.
Choleva velox, Spence, Linn. Trans, xi.’ 154. 13,
Catops velox, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Brand. i. 241. 14; Sturm, Deutschl. Faun.
xiv. 3. 5. 17. t. 277. f. 6. B; Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 383.17; Redt. Fn.
Aust. 144. 15; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 437. 25; Fairm. &
Laboulb. Fn. Ent. Fr. i. 304, 18.
Ovatus, ferrugineus ; capite fusco ; antennis lon- Fig. 34.
gioribus, obsolete clavatis, ferrugineis; thorace
transverso, basi latiore, margine postico leviter
sinuato, angulis posticis. rectis ; elytris obso-
letissime striatis, subtilissime transversim ru-
gulosis.
Oval, ferruginous-red; head brown, reddish
* T recorded this in my ‘ Catalogue of Scottish Coleoptera’ as having
been taken by Mr. Morris Young near Paisley, but I am now satisfied that
this was a mistake.
314 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
in front, extremely finely punctate. Antenne as long as the
head and thorax, slender, very feebly thickened towards the
extremity, ferruginous, the last joit not more slender than the
preceding, excised at the extremity. Thorax densely and finely
punctate, as broad behind as the elytra, one half broader than
long, rounded on the sides, narrowed in front ; posterior angles
right-angled, pointed a little inwards; posterior margin lightly
but visibly sinuate on each side; ferruginous, with the disk
darker, and the margins semi-transparent. Elytra scarcely
widened in the middle, obtusely rounded:at the extremity, with
very indistinct strize; surface densely punctate, finely wrinkled
across. Anterior legs slightly widened at the extremity ; middle
tarsi not widened in the males. |
Distinguished from C. scitulus, to which it has considerable
outward resemblance, by its more slender antenne, its paler
colour, the margins of the thorax lighter-coloured than the disk, |
its transversely wrinkled elytra, and its middle tarsi not widened
in the males. ,
Differs from C. umbrinus by its smaller size, its lighter colour,
the posterior angles of the thorax not produced behind, the
elytra transversely wrinkled, and the middle tarsi not widened
in the males. :
Found throughout Britain and over the Continent not un-
frequently. It has also been taken by Chaudoir at Kiew, and
by Wollaston at Madeira, where, however, it appears to be ex-
cessively rare.
33. C. bisidieass Dahl., Sturm.
Catops badius, Meg. Dahl. Col. et Lepid. 30; Sturm, Deutschl. Fn. xiv. 40.
20. t. 278. b. B; Heer, Faun. Helv.i. 383. 19; Redt. Fn. Aust. 145.
15; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 437. 26.
Ovatus, piceo-brunneus ; antennis longioribus, Fig. 35.
obsolete clavatis, ferrugineis; thorace trans-
verso, basi latiore, margine postico recto, angulis
posticis rectis, prominulis ; elytris obsoletissime
striatis.
Long. 1-12 lin.
Perfectly egg-shaped, the sharper end behind,
gently convex, clear pitchy-brown, the whole
upper side clothed with a fine, adpressed, yellow-
ish-grey pubescence. The antenne are a little longer than the
head and thorax, ferruginous-yellow, somewhat thickened to-
wards the point; the seventh joint longish, the eighth shorter,
but as broad as the last, the terminal joint obtuse roundish.
The head is very finely punctate, the eyes black. The thorax
is finely and densely punctate, short, behind exactly as broad as
Mr, A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops, 315
the base of the elytra, strongly narrowed in front, the anterior
and posterior margins not sinuate, the sides lightly rounded,
the posterior angles right-angled, somewhat projecting over
the shoulders of the elytra. The scutellum large, triangular,
finely punctate. The elytra are oblong-oval, widest in the
middle, behind acuminate-oval, finely shagreened, with a deeply
impressed ‘sutural stria, but without traces of other strie. The
under side of the body and the legs are of the same colour as
the upper, only somewhat lighter.
Distinguished from C. velox by its decidedly more slender
form, by its colour always pitchy-brown and not reddish-brown,
and by the posterior angles of the thorax somewhat projecting
over the margins of the elytra.
Differs from C. precox by its thorax not being wider than
the elytra, and from C. brunneus by its larger size, and the
posterior angles of the thorax not being obtuse.
This species seems rare. Sturm simply says it is found in
Austria. Kraatz says he has only seen two specimens, which
came from Vienna. I have not seen it.
34. C. precox, Erichs.
Choleva Witkinu, Spence, Linn. Trans. xi. 157.
| Catops precow, Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. i. 242.15; Sturm, Deutsehl. Fn. xiv.
37. 18. t. 277. f. e. C; Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 318. 18; Redt. Fn. Aust.
145. 16; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 438. 27; Fairm. & Laboulb.
Fn. Ent. Fr. i. 304. 19.
Oblongo-ovatus,ferrugineus; antennislongioribus, _—‘Fig. 36.
obsolete clavatis, ferrugineis ; thorace brevi, basi
latiore, margine postico recto, angulis posticts
obtusis; elytris obsoletissime striatis, paulo
angustioribus quam thorace.
One of the smallest species, of a peculiar shape,
oblong-oval, gradually narrowed behind, with the
apex somewhat truncate, brownish ferruginous, clothed with a
very fine and thin yellowish pubescence. The antenne are
ferruginous-red, almost longer than the head and_ thorax;
only the three last joints are perceptibly thicker than those
preceding, and the eighth joint decidedly shorter, but not more
slender than the seventh. The head is frequently brownish or
blackish on the front. The thorax is. large, transverse, very
slightly, but still perceptibly, broader than the elytra; the sides
are rounded, more narrowed in front than behind ; the posterior
angles obtuse; the posterior margin straight, very finely and
densely punctate. The scutellum is of the form of an equilateral
triangle. The elytra are oblong, straight, perceptibly narrowed
behind, with the apex truncate, somewhat flat, more distinctly
316 Mr.A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
punctate than the thorax, and very feebly and indistinctly
striated, with the exception of the sutural stria, which is deeply
impressed. The anterior tibize are slightly widened towards the
extremity.
Where the characteristic breadth of the thorax is well deve-
loped, this species can be recognized by the base of the thorax
being a little wider than the base of the elytra, and by the elytra
narrowing backwards and becoming truncate: where this is less
conspicuous, the smaller size, narrower shape, the straight mar-
gins of the elytra, and their narrowing behind, distinguish it from
C. velox. From C. badius, its smaller size, much lighter colour, -
straight posterior margin of thorax not projecting backwards at
the posterior angles, separate it; and it is readily distinguished
from the following species (C. brunneus) by the finer punctuation
of the elytra. aM
Spread over all Europe, including Scotland and England, but
everywhere scarce.
35. C. transverso-striatus, De}. Cat.
Catops transverso-striatus, Dej. Cat. 3rd ed. p.
Angustatus, elongatus; antennis longioribus quam capite et
thorace ; elytris postice attenuatis, striatis et fortiter elongatis,
transversim strigosis.
Mas, elytris longissimis. Long. 1} lin.
Fem., elytris minus elongatis. Lat. 1 lin.
This species bears considerable resemblance to C. precoz, is
of the same colour, but is larger, and in the male especially has
the elytra much more elongate. It has also the elytra very
deeply transversely strigose, and has seven distinctly impressed
irregular striz, besides a deep sutural stria.
Male. Pubescent, of a yellowish testaceous or pale brown
colour. The antenne are testaceous, slender, longer than the
head and thorax. The first and second joints are long, the first
a little shorter and thicker than the second; the second, third
and fourth are about equal in length ; the fifth, sixth and seventh
are all nearly of the same breadth and thickness, but each a
little shorter than the one preceding it; the eighth is slightly
shorter than those on each side of it. The last three are thick-
ened; the last is short and a little acuminate. The head is a
little darker than the rest of the body, and the mouth somewhat
lighter. The thorax is pubescent, smooth, not punctate, but
feebly granulose, broader than long, rounded on the sides,
broadest a little behind the middle, bisinuate at the base, with
the posterior angles projecting slightly backwards. The scu-
a on
eee ee ee
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 317
tellum is large and acutely triangular, The elytra are very long,
being five times the length of the thorax, and taper towards the
apex in a wedge-shape. They are very deeply transversely
wrinkled, with a profound .sutural stria, and seven other strie
less deeply impressed but still quite distinct. The apex of each
elytron is somewhat rounded. The margins of the elytra are
broadly inflexed, leaving a prominent lateral ridge.
Female. The above description will apply also to the female,
with the following alterations:—She is much shorter and com-
paratively broader, and the elytra are not so disproportioned
in their length. The antenne are shorter and thicker, the base
and apex much paler than the middle. The impressed striz on
the elytra are much less evident, but the transverse strigations
are equally distinct.
No species that I have seen has the transverse strigations so
strongly marked. It may at first sight be mistaken for a very
large precox, but these strigations and the almost dispro-.
portionate length and wedge-shape of the elytra in the male
distinguish it readily.
I found three males and one female under this name, marked
as coming from Portugal, in the collection of the Count Dejean ;
the kindness of M. le Marquis de Laferté Senectére having
placed that collection in my hands for examination.
36. C. brunneus, Dahl., Sturm.
Catops brunneus, Knoch, Dahl. Col. et Lepid. 30; Sturm, Deutschl. Fn.
xiv. 38. 19. t. 278. f. a. A; Redt. Fn. Aust. 145. 16; Kraatz, Stett.
Ent. Zeit. xiii. 439. 28.
Ovatus, piceo-brunneus, fumatus ; capite fusco; an- _—‘Fig. 37.
- tennis longioribus, obsolete clavatis, ferrugineis ;
thorace transverso, basi latiore, margine postico
recto, angulis posticis obtusis ; elytris brunneis.
Long. | lin.
As large as the preceding species (C. precoz),
but of a wholly different shape. It is broad-oval,
moderately flat, behind broadly truncate, ferru-
ginous-brown and shining. The antenne are as
long as the head and thorax, thin, gradually some-
what thickened towards the apex, the terminal joint roundish,
pubescent, the eighth joint short. The head broad, pitchy-
black, finely punctate; the parts of the mouth ferruginous-red.
The thorax is large, broad, as broad at the base as the elytra,
only slightly narrowed in front; the sides lightly rounded; the
posterior angles obtuse; the basal margin straight; it is more-
over slightly convex, somewhat darker on the back, very finely
and densely punctate, and thinly clothed with a fine yellowish-
318 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
grey pubescence. The scutellum is obtusely triangular, densely
punctate. The elytra are of a short and broad oval form, broadly
truncate at the apex, finely shagreen-punctured, thinly clothed
with a yellowish-grey pubescence, deeply impressed with a
sutural stria, ‘and without any traces of other strie. The abdo-
men is pitchy-black ; the legs are ferruginous-yellow.
The salient points in which it differs from the preceding have
been already noticed. It is.larger, more densely pubescent,
more thickly punctate and less shining than the following spe-
cies (C. anisotomoides). en
The above description is reproduced from Sturm, as I have
not seen the species. It has been taken m Hungary and
Austria.
37. C. anisotomoides, Spence.
Choleva anisotomoides, Spence, Linn. Trans. xi. 156. 16. ,
Catops anisotomoides, Sturm, Deutschl. Fn. xiv. 42. 21. t. 278. f.c. C;
Heer, Fn. Helv. i. 384. 20; Redt. Fn. Aust. 145. 16; Kraatz, Stett.
Ent. Zeit. xiii. 439. 29; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent, Fr. i. 304, 20,
Fig. 38.
Ovatus, piceus, nitidulus; antennis longioribus, ob-
solete clavatis; thorace transverso, basi latiore,
margine postico recto, angulis posticis obtusis ;-
elytris piceis seu rufo-piceis.
Long. % lin.
Oval, very convex.. Pale ferruginous-brown,
somewhat shining, variable in depth of colour,
deeper on the disk of the thorax and of the elytra,
with a fine brown pubescence. Antenne tolerably long, scarcely
thickened at the extremity. Thorax transverse, as broad at the
base as the base of the elytra, narrowed a little in front, very
densely but finely punctate ; posterior margin straight, posterior
angles obtuse. LElytra elongate-oval, scareely widening behind
the base, then gradually becoming narrower; densely punctate,
but not so finely as the thorax; suture raised; sutural stria
deep, almost reaching the scutellum; no traces of other striz
to be seen. Legs and antenne of the same colour as the body.
The smallness of its size, and its short and more convex form,
distinguish it from C. velox. It is nearer in point of size to
C. precoz, but the more elongate form of the latter and its dif-
ferently shaped thorax distinguish it; and a tendency which it
has to curl itself up like an Agathidium will suggest what it is. _
Distributed over all Europe, and generally common. In
Scotland and England it is scarcer; but in France and Germany
it is very common. Fairmaire says it is found almost all the
year round in vegetable detritus, principally on the banks of
lakes and marshes.
[To be continued. |
3 Pee ey Spal Salis ae
Te, ease
M.N, Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria. 319
XXVIII.—Contributions to the Anatomy of the Infusoria*.
By N. Liesperkvuugn.
Tue essential characters, discernible by direct observation, as-
signed by Ehrenberg to the genus Ophryoglena, are, that the
mouth and the anal point do not le at the same end of the
body; that the body bears cilia over the whole surface, and that
a forehead-eye exists ; and, more particularly, “the mouth is a
pit below the forehead, and the anal point is observed on the
back at the base of the tail.”
Of the three species, Ophryoglena atra, acuminata and flavicans,
the latter is thus described :—O. corpore flavicante, ovato, turgido,
postico fine attenuato obtuso, ocello rubro frontali. Size ,j,th of
- aline. It is added of O. flavicans,—“ It resembles a Bursaria,
ee a ee _
and I only distinguish it from this by the eye-spot, hitherto
unknown in the family, the physiological importance of which I
established. The cilia of the mouth are longer than in the
preceding species. The mouth, passing away from the forehead,
forms a deep pouch, and near this there always exists a light,
but not so distinct, spot as in the preceding species.” It was
made to take mm indigo.
During iast winter and spring, I frequently found in the
water of the Spree, where Spongille were present, an Infusorium
which shares the essential peculiarities of Ophryoglena flavicans,
and manifests, in addition, some hitherto unknown. Its yellowish
body is entirely covered with cilia ; the cilia are placed in lon-
gitudinal rows; it is ovate, attenuated towards the posterior
extremity, without becoming prolonged into a point. At the
part called by Ehrenberg the forehead (Stirn), it bore a pigment-
spot varying from brown-red to dark brown, situated’ close
by the mouth, which formed a deep pouch. According to
Ehrenberg, the spot is not always so distinct as in the other
species, and the animalcule in question likewise exhibits this
irregularity: the pigment-spot of Ophryoglena atra, which I
found frequently in the stagnant water near Pichelsberg, is
ordinarily more distinct. The inconstancy of the colour of the
eye-spot of our Infusorium affords no essential distinction, if
we entertain Perty’s statement, that the pigment-spot of Ophryo-
glena griseovirens is reddish in young specimens and blackish in
old ones (Perty, zur Kenntniss klemster Lebensformen in der
Schweiz, p. 142).
The animalcule I observed differs in size, which amounted to
ith of a line, and also in the constant presence of two contractile
vesicles; for Ehrenberg ordinarily saw only one, rarely two,
* Translated from Miiller’s Archiv, January 1856. |
320 M.N. Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria.
which he regarded as indicative of the commencement. of
division. | ;
The animalcule took up abundance of indigo. I did not, see
any excretion of substances, and hence I cannot, state anything
about an anal point ; no special orifice was visible. .
The presence of an eye-spot, the position of the mouth, the
complete investment of the body with cilia, require the assign-
ment of the animalcule to the Ophryoglene ; and the described
form of its body, its colour, the peculiar pouch-like form ofthe
mouth, the variability of the distinctness of the pigment-spot,—
all these make it appear warrantable to name the animalcule
Ophryoglena flavicans, until more certain distinctive characters
have been discovered. The following notices regarding it relate
more particularly to the existence of a hitherto unobserved
watch-glass-like organ near the pigment-spot, and to the vascular
system,
The Eye-spot and the watch-glass-like Organ.
In order to describe accurately the position of these organs,
it is necessary previously to give a more particular account of
the mouth of the animalcule. The mouth forms a narrow slit
in the form of a semicircular line, and lies in a small depression.
In a large specimen, measuring ;6,ths of a millimetre in length
and ;1,4,ths of a millimetre in breadth, the distance of the upper
point of the mouth from the end of the head was ;,th of a
millimetre, of the lower from the upper point of the mouth
sééoths of a millimetre. The oral cilia, placed all round the
margin of the slit, are far longer than the cilia of the rest of the
body, although these are also remarkable for length; the cilia
of the mouth are seen to project far beyond the others when
the animalcule lies so that the mouth is on the outline of its
figure. The oral slit leads directly into a sac-like space, which
may be traced for a short distance into the cavity of the body,
whenever the latter is not filled up with the strongly refractive
granules; we may also then detect a membrane constantly
vibrating backwards and forwards in the interior of the sac.
But this part ordinarily only becomes distinctly visible when
the oral portion, with the pouch, has been isolated by the com-
pression of the animalcule; the mouth is the entry into the
pouch; at the opposite side is an orifice, through which sub-
stances which have been taken in by the mouth are conducted
further. Near to this is attached the vibrating membrane, and
it is fixed by one angle to the internal wall of the sac, while the
other parts project freely into the cavity of the latter. That it
is not. merely an apparently undulating membrane, as Stein
correctly asserted of the ciliary wreath of the Trichodinz, is at
M,N. Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria, 321
. once ascertained by compressing the isolated oral structure while
the membrane still vibrates.
Close by the oral slit, on its concave side, lies the pigment-spot.
Its form is extremely irregular, sometimes globular, sometimes
ellipsoidal, in many cases toothed. Ordinarily it is so distinet
as to be at once perceived; sometimes, however, it is so small
that it can only be detected by close examination. In animalcules
filled with strongly refracting substances alone, it is always
difficult to discover it. The pigment-spot of Ophryoglena atra
has, on the whole, more uniformity of form and magnitude. If
we squeeze down an Ophryoglena flavicans between the covering
glass and the slider, we find that the pigment-spot is composed
of a heap of minute, scarcely measurable granules, strongly re-
- fracting light. I never could discover a lens in the pigment.
All the specimens examined by me possessed but a single
pigment-spot. Beside this lies always a hitherto unobserved
structure, the form of which is perfectly described when we call
it a watch-glass on a small scale. This watch-glass-like organ is
transparent and colourless, and shows no trace of fibrous or any
other structure. The circular base has a diameter of about
Toath of a millimetre; its depth amounts to about a third part
of this diameter ; the convexity is very considerable. The watch-
glass-shaped organ usually turns its convex side towards the
pigment-spot ; its concave side is directed towards the point of
the head ; it does not seem to be moveable by the animalcule.
When isolated, it withstands the action of water for a longer
time than is usually the case with the other parts of the body of
this Infusorium. After lying some time in water, it swells up
in some degree, and frequently becomes perforated by a hole in
the middle. The presence of the watch-glass-shaped organ is
not dependent on the presence of a pigment-spot; for Ophryoglena
atra possesses a pigment-spot, but no watch-glass-shaped organ,
while Bursaria flava has a watch-glass-shaped organ, but no
pigment-spot. In other Infusoria with eye-spots, as in the
Huglene and. Peridinia, I have sought in vain for this organ. |
have not met with any facts throwing light on its function. *
The Nucleolus.
This structure, first described by Von Siebold in Lozodes
Bursaria, and subsequently observed by Stein in Prorodon, is
properly the only part, except the eye-point, which distinguishes
the Ophryoglena in question from Bursaria flava,—at least in
all the specimens which I have hitherto observed. These two
animalcules stand, on the whole, much nearer together than
Bursaria leucas and Ophryoglena atra, which resemble each
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 21
322 M.N. Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria.
other very much in form and in the structure of the mouth ;
Ehrenberg himself, too, has said, that he only distinguished
Ophryoglena flavicans from a Bursaria by its eye-spot. Bursaria
flava, which I found in great numbers, in spring and summer,
in stagnant water in the Berlin Thiergarten, has the same
structure of the mouth, the same throat-like prolongation, and
the same undulating membrane as Ophryoglena flavicans; the
watch-glass-shaped organ also stands in the same place, near
the concave side of the mouth, and likewise regularly has its
convexity directed towards the point of the head; the’ only
difference is a slightly larger size, the diameter of the base
amounting to ~42,ths of a millimetre, when the animaleule did
not exeeed 4 of a millimetre in length. In the interior. of ‘the
body frequently occur long, yellow-ochre-coloured globular gra-
nules, about ~45th of a millimetre in diameter, rendering'the ani-
malcule opake ; among these were isolated colourless spheroidal
cavities, like those which Ehrenberg describes in Bursaria flava.
I could not find an anal orifice ; but: sometimes there was at the
posterior extremity of the body a hght spot and a depression,
which Ehrenberg refers to the anal orifice. I found the form of
the body to agree exactly with that of Bursaria flava:as figured
by Ehrenberg, as did also the position of the contractile vesicle;
so that Ehrenberg’s description exactly applied: “ Bursaria
corpore ovato-oblongo, flavo, sepe postica parte paullo tenuiores
subacuto, ore corporis aliqua parte superato.”
Let us now return to the description of the: nucleolus. in
Ophryoglena flavicans. As this animalcule usually contains in its
interior extremely few, and at the same time minute granules
<3
of strong refractive power (in rare cases I found them like those ~
which occur in \Bursaria flava), the internal structures are
generally readily perceived. The nucleolus is shaped like @
grain of barley, and is marked at each end with a few sharply
defined streaks or furrows ; its length is somewhat ‘more than
+éoths of a millimetre, its thickness in the middle’ about’ +35th
of a millimetre. Its substance has a stronger refractive power
than that of ‘the rest of the body, but far less than the fat-hke
globules. ©Under the highest magnifying power, no structure
could be distinguished; and it withstands ‘for a considerable
time the action of water. The nucleolus is situated on the
middle of the testis, as Ehrenberg called this organ; or the
nucleus, ‘as it is termed by Von Siebold. The nucleus is' about
one-fifth of the entire length of the animaleule, and its 'bréadth
in the middle is about one-third of its length. ‘Its longitudinal
axis ordinarily coincides nearly, like that of the nucleolus; with
the long axis of the animaleule: >It is of ovate form; its sub-
stance displays no recognizable structure. a
M..N. Lieberkuhn on the. Anatomy of the Infusoria. 323
The nucleolus has very different characters in all the specimens
of ‘Bursaria flava I have hitherto observed. It was always so
small. that it was difficult to find it, and never became visible
until the Infusorium was compressed, while in Ophryoglena flavi-
cans it may usually be seen through the integuments. Its form
is globular, and it presents no structure. | It generally adheres
firmly to the surface of the ovate nucleus.
The nucleus is not any larger in the rather larger specimens
of Bursaria flava which possess two contractile vesicles. |
met with some of them occasionally in company with the one-
vesicled: They did not differ from the rest at all in shape, in
the condition of the ciliary clothing, or in the formation of the
miouth, so that [held them to be identical until I observed the
second contractile vesicle, or the somewhat differently formed
and »smaller watch-glass-shaped organ; which last, in the
specimens I have hitherto examined in respect to this point, had
nota circular, but an elliptical base,—so far at least as a judg-
ment. can be formed from the mere aspect. Measurements
made on one specimen gave—length of the animalcule, +4;ths of
a millimetre ;: greatest) thickness, ;2,ths of a mill. ; diameter of
the globular nucleus, +4 ,ths of a mill. ; of the nucleolus, +4,,ths
of'a\mill.; distance of the mouth from the head-point, 34,ths
of a-mill.; distance of the contractile vesicles apart, jth of a
mill.,;,of the hinder one from the tail-point, ;75ths of a mill.;
greatest diameter of the base of the watch-glass-shaped organ,
+epoths—smallest, ‘5 5ths of a millimetre.
The Vascular System.
... This consists of two contractile vesicles, and a system of canals
which open into them. The best subjects for the examination
of these objects are usually found in those specimens of Bursaria
flava which contain in their interior only the smallest forms of
the strongly refractive granules. I frequently found such among
the others. in the. pools of the Berlin Thiergarten. The con-
tractile vesicles lie.in the immediate vicinity of the mouth, a
little behind it: if we conceive the animalcule to he upon
its| back,,.with the mouth upwards and the end of the head
turned. away, from the observer, the contractile vesicle will
be placed. to. the left of the mouth, on its convex side, distant
from, it about. a quarter of a circumference; when there »are
two. vesicles, the anterior contractile vesicle lies exactly in the
same spot, and the posterior is cut by a straight line drawn from
the, anterior vesicle to the tail-point... The position is: just the
same.in the Ophryoglene. above. described. If we» examine: a
Bursaria of this kind with a power of about 800 diameters, we
21%
3824 M.N. Lieberkuhn ow the Anatomy of the Infusoria.
perceive near the surface a quantity of light streaks, which
run together towards the contractile vesicle from the anterior
and posterior parts of the body, in more or less considerable
curves. In each streak we detect an extremely delicate but
perfectly distinct canal, terminating ultimately in the contractile
vesicle ; its walls and its contents are readily distinguished by
their different refractive power. When one of these canals is
traced backwards from its orifice, we may often perceive, after
it has run a short distance, a ramification; this may frequently
be traced to one of the extremities of the body, and sometimes
it gives off another branch; ultimately the canals become so
excessively fine, that they are invisible. Their opening into the
vesicle and their course in running from it are: seem verydi-
stinetly when the contractile vesicle is turned directly upwards;
we may then recognize how the canals run between: the con-
tractile reservoirs, which lie very close to the surface of the:body,
and between the surfaces of the body inside the cortical» sub-
stance; and the orifices may likewise be seen. Another -re-
markable position is when the nucleus is turned next the observer
at the surface of the body; the canals are then seen remarkably
clearly on its bright background. A few canals always run
over directly, with a slight curvature, towards the posterior part
of the mouth. When the animalcule lies so that the contractile
vesicle appears at the margin of the body, there is sometimes an |
appearance as if one or more of the canals opened externally-at
this point ; but close examination shows that they curve round
and run towards other parts of the body. |
The number of vessels opening into the contractile vesicle in
_ Bursaria flava is about thirty; this number, or a few more or
less, existed in all the specimens which I exammed in reference
to this point. They are apparently uniformly distributed’ over
the whole surface. ratte
The specimens of Bursaria flava with two contractile vesicles
have the system of canals double, each system grouped inde-
pendently around its reservoir. The canals of the: posterior
reservow stretch into the district of the anterior; but’ I have
never been able to detect any communication between the two.
In the Ophryoglene from the Spree, very little could be detected
of the canals, even when the interior of the body contained: only
slightly refractive substances. When a suitable: specimen‘ is
somewhat compressed between the glasses, so that it ‘cannot
move about, the vessels are especially seen when they have the
ee for a background, and when they end in the contractile
vesicle. | sevehe
I have never been able to trace any vessels into the interior of
the body ; for stance, towards the nucleus. Iam also ignorant
Tah ee ZF
M.N. Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria. 325
at) present whether that part of the contractile vesicle which is
turned toward the centre of the body of the animalcule receives
wx § vessels. |
oth Bursaria flava and Ophryoglena flavicans belong to those
Infusoria in which the contractile reservoirs may assume the
well-known stellate form. Von Siebold describes this pheno-
- menon, in Paramecium, in the following words :—‘“ These pul-
sating spaces have a very striking shape; they consist of two
central round cavities, around which stand from five to seven
smaller pear-shaped reservoirs, with points directed outwards,
in thesshape of a star. In the pulsation of these strange star-
shaped reservoirs sometimes the stars disappear entirely, some-
times only the central round spaces, and sometimes only the
rays.” The opake Bursarie exhibit this phenomenon just in
the same way as it is described by Von Siebold; and those
specimens in which the vascular system can be detected, offer
the explanation of it. The small pear-shaped spaces are really
the ‘commencements of the vessels, which expand. with the
accumulated fluid, and the rays are the further prolongations of
the same, which may be traced to the ends of the body.
At the moment when the contractile vesicle has attained the
- igreatest expansion, that is, when the diastole is terminated, it
appears in the form of a globe filled with colourless fluid, from
which the vessels run out on all sides in the cortical substance
as canals, apparently of equal diameter ; they have at this time
the smallest diameter they can assume at their embouchure into
the reservoir. In opake specimens, this is the moment when
the opened contractile vesicle is observed. A little before we
observe the commencement of the systole, the vessels begin to
expand slowly, at points distant about one diameter of the con-
‘tractile vesicle from the surface of the latter, to many times their
original size. The more the systole progresses, the wider and
‘Aonger become the swollen places, and they approach gradually
to the contractile vesicle. If we make an observation at the
moment when the diameter of the contractile vesicle is diminished
toabout one-fourth of its original size, the shape of the apparatus
agrees in all essential points with the well-known stellate figure,
_ ‘represented by Dujardin in Paramecium Aurelia, with the single
exception that the embouchures of the rays are distinctly visible,
and. their peripheral prolongations run out widely in the form
‘ofcanals over the entire animalcule. . Opake specimens of the
Bursaria display the phenomenon only in such a degree that the
tays terminate in delicate attenuated points, at a distance of
about one diameter of the reservoir from the latter. When the
contractile vesicle has closed completely, the fusiformly expanded
vessels only are seen,.as they run together with their apices to
3826 M.N, Lieberkubn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria.
one point. This completes the systole. The diastole then re-
commences. If we examine the animal at the moment when the
reservoir has again attained half its greatest diameter, we find:a
totally different appearance from that at the corresponding epoch
of the systole. The vessels are not expanded now in the form
of a spindle, but of a funnel, with the base of the, funnel im
the contractile vesicle, and the point prolonged out into. the
vessel. This is the form which Ehrenberg has figured in Para-
mecium Aurelia, only omitting the further prolongations of. the
vessels ; Von Siebold rejects Ehrenberg’s figure, and recognizes
Dujardin’s ; but both are really correct, only, representing
different instants; Dujardin gives a stage of the systole, Khren-
berg of the diastole.
The more the contractile vesicle now expands, the) more is
the depth of the funnel decreased, and its diameter proportion-
ately increased ;- or, in other words, the vessel expands only at
its embouchure, and the depth of the expanded part decreases in
proportion with the advance of the diastole., In opake Bursarie,
we see at this time only the contractile vesicle produced out in
various directions into short funnel-shaped, processes. , By
degrees these processes entirely disappear, the contractile vesicle
haying expanded to its original volume. . We. now.-see, again
how, from the fully expanded contractile. vesicle, the whole: of
the vessels run out in the. cortical, layer, in: all directions, as
slender streaks ; im opake specimens, only the contractile. reser-
voir is visible.
The processes above described are those usually observed win
a suitable specimen is placed so that it cannot move, or only
move yery little, upon the slider, If, however; a Bursaria is
compressed somewhat more with the covering-glass, or if the
water on the slider is almost all evaporated, some other peculiar
phenomena present themselves, not only in the contractile
vesicle, but in the vessels. The last diastole, coming. perfectly
to rest, and nothing unusual being observed, except, that. the
reservoir is more elongated, with the systole appear suddenly
two contractile vesicles instead of one; that is, a portion of the
surrounding substance makes its way across the middle of the
contractile vesicle while it is contracting, and thus. divides, it
into two parts. Hach of these two new reservoirs has) its,own
systole and diastole. In most cases their contractions do not
oecur-at the same moment. . Hach as. in connexion, with those
vessels which opened into it before the, separation, |The. vessels
exhibit the same play as if there were but one uninjured .con-
tvactile: vesicle. . Sometimes the two reservoirs reunite into, a
single one. I saw this happen during a diastole which oc-
curred exactly. simultaneously: in both; they. advanced near
a wine eee
M.N. Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria. 327
together, projected out points toward each other, which came in
contact ‘and formed a dumb-bell-shaped reservoir, and this was
rapidly converted into a globular vesicle, which contracted and
expanded as/at the origin.
Von Siebold has already observed in’ Phialina vermicularis,
‘Bursaria cordiformis, &c., “that in’ strong contractions of the
whole body, a largish’ round pulsating space was drawn out
longitudinally, constricted) in the middle, and at length was
separated into two smaller round spaces,—exactly as occurs
when adrop of oil is separated into two portions.”? During the
above-described alterations in the contractile vesicles, alterations
ordinarily take place in the vessels also. Thus expansions appear
in them at points lying very distant from the contractile reser-
voirs. These enlargements are not however subject to rhythmical
disappearance and reappearance, but are permanent; they are
filled: with the same colourless fluid as the contractile vesicles,
and are mostly globular or ellipsoidal. If such enlargements
of ‘the’ vessels are seen in specimens which, from unfavourable
optical conditions, do not display the vessels themselves, they
may be taken for vacuoles (in Dujardin’s sense). Their con+
nexion ‘with the vessels, ‘and their mode of origin, which is
readily accessible ‘to observation, prove that they are totally
distinct’ from the vacuoles in the mterior of the body, part of
which contain nutrient substance, while part do not.
- have ‘not’ ‘succeeded in any case in isolating a membrane of
the contractile reservoir or of the vessels. I find no trace of
cilia‘in the interior of the vascular system. ‘This alone suffices
to distinguish essentially those Infusoria furnished with vessels,
from the Distoma-embryo in which G. R. Wagener has discovered
ciliated vessels.
Different hypotheses have been put forth in explanation of the
function of the contractile vesicles. _ There is a detailed account
of these in’ Claparéde’s paper on <Actinophrys*. Claparéde
rightly explains the contractile vesicles as organs of the cireula-
tion. » As to the direction in which the fluid flows in the vessels,
nothing’ can be directly observed in most cases; since we cannot
perceive in’ the fluid any solid corpuscles at all similar to the
blood-corpuscles of other animals. Is it a perfect circulation ?
or does the fluid flow back again in the same vessel in which it
has been propelled forward by the contractile vesicle? ‘or are
the‘ contents of the contractile vesicles constantly expelled: ex-
ternally? The last view hasbeen set up by Oscar: Schmidt,
He states that he has seen’ the place of exit: m’ the genera
Bursaria and Paramecium, Claparéde is opposed to this, since,
* Ann. and Mag: Nat: Hist. ser: 2, xv. p. 211.
828 M..N. Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria.
in the most minute examination, he was unable to discover that
the contents of the contractile vesicle were expelled externally in
the systole... Actinophrys is better suited to the settlement of
this question than a ciliated Infusorium. [have many times
sought for currents in the fluid surrounding Actinophrys Sol and
A, Hichhornii, when the fluid contaimed masses of fine globules
immediately in front of the projection of the contractile reservoir;
but I have never seen, any more than Claparéde, any correspond-
ing displacement when the vesicle contracted. ..In Bursaria
leucas, B. Vorticella, Paramecium Aurelia and, Ps: Chrysalis; 1
obtained the following results :—The contraction takes yplace
exactly in the manner described by Schmidt ; the vesicle contracts
from, the interior of the animaleule towards a poimt lying near
the surface, and. it expands on the entrance of the fluid in such
a manner, that it increases in diameter gradually: from: the
surface of the animalcule inwards toward the centre. » But does
this teach us what Schmidt concludes from it, that the reservoir
expels its contents outwardly every time when it contracts
toward. the outside, and becomes filled from without: when» it
expands. toward. the interior? If the contractile! reservoir is
attached by that part turned toward the surface of\ the animal-
cule, to the internal surface of the cortical substance, while the
portion projecting into the interior of the body is freean ‘the
soft medullary mass,—will not the contraction take: place from
within, outwardly, and the expansion from) without imward,
whether the fluid flow inwards or outwards? In: Actinophrys,
sometimes.in Arcella vulgaris, and in. Urostyla grandis, a totally
different; import must be attributed to the contractile reservoir, if
Schmidt’s criterion be valid; for here the reservoir does not
contract.toward the surface, but toward the interior of the
body, and forms an elevation on the surface when it becomes
filled, as. described minutely-in Actinophrys by both Von Siebold
and Claparéde. . But it is not on this alone that Schmidt rests
his, opinion: ,he asserts that he has observed also an actual
external orifice.of the contractile vesicle... I must admit that
Bursaria, Vorticella has a distinct orifice at the hinder part of the
body, and this exactly at the place to which the contractile vesicle
contracts, until.it.vanishes. But regarding this orifice which I
saw, only.so much is established, that it is the anal orifice which
Ehrenberg -has already described. -I have seen the emergence of
remains of devoured substances, of lorice of Bacillarize, of fine
undeterminable granules, &e,, from this very hole, so frequently,
that, there can. be.no doubt on this point; and it iseven not rare
for, a, corpuscle, to, slip out from the anal orifice durmg the
diastole,—-that is to say, at the very time when, according
to, Schmidt, the fluid..should. flow. in from the outside. I
ee
M,N. Lieberkuhn on the Anatomy of the Infusoria. 829
found ‘the Bursaria just named. during sprmg and summer in
standing water near Tempelhof; it agrees’ in the main with
Ehrenberg’s Bursaria Vorticella. The buceal orifice is situated as
in) Bursaria truncatella, in which however 1 did n ot observe any
contractile vesicle at the posterior end of the body. The speci-
mens of .B. truncatella I observed were all about trd of a line or
more long, those of B. Vorticella at most jth of a line. The
latter is m any case not a Leucophrys; therefore, in case Ehren-
berg considers his Bursaria Vorticella a Leucophrys, it is a dif-
ferent animaicule from the latter. I was equally unable to
satisfy myself of the correctness of Schmidt’s view in the Para-
mecia.\ When a specimen of Paramecium Aurelia lies so that
the contractile vesicle, either the anterior or posterior, is seen at
the margin, it appears, under certain circumstances, as though
a short canal ran directly out through the integument of the
animaleule ; but in reality it only runs into the integument, and
turns round toward ‘the side of the body directed away from
the eye,» I found the same in Paramecium Chrysalis also ; it was
always one of the rays of the contractile vesicle which presented
to Schmidt the appearance of an external orifice. ‘The saime is
the case in Bursaria flava, where I could always trace the cur-
vature of the: vessel toward the opposite side of the body most
distinctly. -F.) Stein strongly questions the external opening of
the contractile vesicle in the Vorticelle: Hence it is clear, that
the explanation of the contractile vesicles as part of a water-
vascular system is unproven.
Ts it however established, on’ the other hand, that the con-
tractile reservoirs pour back their contents again into the paren-
chyma whence they receive it, as Von Siebold says? And if this
is the case, how does it happen ? Everything indicates’ most
strongly that the contractile vesicles are filled out of the vessels
durimg the diastole. We see how, during this process, the
swollen part of the vessels near their embouchure gradually or
suddenly return to their smallest diameter, as the stellate figure
vanishes.. And I have observed a part of a vessel inflated with
the fluid, originating at the extreme end of the animalcule,
traverse the whole distance up to the contractile vesicle’ during
a single diastole. This phenomenon may be supposed to show
that’ the absorbed fluid which had inflated the vessel into a
globule,» flowed during the said period into the contractile
inesdtrr Qist
But if there is a fair presumption that the contractile vesicles
are filled out of the vessels, the above’ observations’ teach’ us
nothing whatever on the si as to where the Rad flows
: during’ the systole.
[have hitherto only bevottic sensi bid with one fae rélating
330 Rev. W. A. Leighton on new British Arthoniz.
to this point. In Bursaria Vorticella we may detect the following
fact: as soon as the contractile vesicle which lies at the pos--
terior end of the body has contracted, we may observe at the
margins of the animalcule, in its usual position of swimming,
that two long narrow cavities originate, filled with transparent
colourless fluid, and these stretch from opposite the mouth —
as far as the region of the contractile vesicle. They both gra-
dually enlarge, and thus approach near to the anal point ; here
they meet, lose their often very irregular form, and change into
the globular: the remaining contents of the body are displaced
upwards by this; and then these globular reservoirs contract
until they vanish, without it being perceptible where the fluid
has been driven to; after some time the narrow light streaks
reappear, and the process is repeated in the way above-described.
The afferent canals, therefore, are not filled at the commencement
of the systole. But must this not be so much the more expected,
if the fluid flowed back in the same path as it came in, the
vanishing of the contractile vesicle taking place much more
rapidly than its production ?
I have never yet found in any Infusorium special canals in
which the fluid is seen to flow back into the body during the
systole, and which would give the means of a perfect circulation.
The facts stated in this paper were first made public at the
meeting of the Berlin “ Naturforschende Freunde,” June 19,
1855.
XXIX.—New British Arthonie.
By the Rev. W. A. Leteuton, B.A., F.B.S.E.
[With a Plate.]
Since the publication of my Monograph of British Graphidee,
the following species of Arthonia, new to our flora, have occurred
to my notice.
1. Arthonia glaucomaria, Nyl. Thallus none; ardelle hy-
menicolar, sessile, round; disk black, flattened, more or less
convex, dull; sporidia in asci, eight, oblong, 1- 2- 3-septate:
Arthonia glaucomaria, Nyl. Nouv. Class. Lich. (2 Mém.) in Mém. Soe. Se.
Nat. Cherbourg, 3. 189 (1855); Syn. Arthoniarum in Mém. Soe, Se.
Nat. Cherbourg, 4, 98; Leight. Lich, Brit, Exsic. 247!
Parasitie on the apothecia of Lecanora glaucoma, Ach.
Haughmond Hill! Caer Caradoc! and Long Mynd! Shrop-
shire... Barmouth! N, Wales... Cliffrigg, Cleveland, Yorkshire !
Thallus undistinguishable from that of the matrix. . Ardelle
Se es a
he Oe ee ee
Rey. W. A. Leighton on. new. British Arthoniz. 331
round, very variable in size, either single, or several arising as
elevated rounded spots on different. portions, of the surface of
the hymenium of Lec. glaucoma, ultimately becoming confluent,
and entirely covering it, thus rendering it abortive, and giving
it the general appearance of a black disk with a white irregular
wavy thalloid margin. Disk roughish, somewhat flattened or
more or less convex, without any margin, of an opake brownish-
black. A vertical section shows. the parasite occupying the
upper portion of the hymenium, obliterating all traces of the
paraphyses and asci of L. glaucoma, and leaving its pale yellow
hypothecium alone free. Mymenium of a pale brown colour,
with numerous obovate or pyriform asci imbedded in a compact
mass without any appearance of paraphyses. Jodine turns the
Arthonia of a deeper brown, but the hypothecium of L. glau-
coma.of a blue colour. Sporidia in asci, eight, oblong, normally
with three septa, frequently with two only, and sometimes with
only one; the cells either empty or filled with minute rounded
granules, colourless or pale yellow.
Our specimens were identified by Dr. Nylander*.
PuaTe XI. fig. 1. Thallus of L. glaucoma with the Arthonia on the apo-
thecia: nat. size. Fig. 2. The same, magnified. Fig. 3. Vertical
section of apothecium of L. glaucoma, showing Arthonia glauco-
maria parasitic in the upper portion of hymenium. Fig. 4. Ascus
and sporidia of A. glaucomaria, magnified. Fig. 5. Sporidia, more
highly magnified.
2. Arthonia vinosa, Leight. Thallus thi, membranous,
smooth, pale brown, subdeterminate ; ardelle sessile, irregularly
roundish ; disk deep vinous red, convex, dull; sporidia in asci,
eight, large, obovate, uniseptate.
Arthonia vinosa, Leight. Lich. Brit. Exsic, 224 ! (1856).
On oaks: Newton Wood! Stagdale! and Oggeray Gill! Cleve-
land, Yorkshire, Mr. W. Mudd. Nesscliffe Hill, Shropshire !
Thallus forming irregular patches of greater or less extent,
and of various form, of a cheerful pale brownish hue varying in
intensity, on the bark of oaks. Ardelle minute, variable in size,
roundish,.oblong. and. irregular in form, single or confluent,
more or less raised or, convex, especially on older barks, whilst
- on younger barks they are scarcely raised and almost flat. On
* Dr. Nylander in his Syn. Arthoniarum quoted above, says. of his
A. parasemoides, which he states to occur on the apothecia of Lecidea para-
sema, Ach,; and. also on Lecanora. glaucoma, Ach., “ex Anglia eandem
misit rey. Leighton.” I,know not to what plant he refers, He charac-
terizes A. parasemoides thus: ‘‘ Thallus nullus, apothecia parasitica hyme-
nicola atra convexiuscula, mtus albida vel nigricantia ; spore 6-89 ovoides
1+3-septatz, gelatina hym. iodo sordide rubescens.”’
382 ~—-Rev. W. A. Leighton on new British Arthonie.
older barks the ardelle have a watery stain or shading off around
them of a pale brown colour, especially conspicuous on spe-
cimens with a paler tinted thallus, and on those which are
whitened over with (? Lepraria alba). Disk of a rich deep brown
or vinous red colour, in old age becoming blackish, without
margin. <A vertical section showed the obovate asci imbedded
in a dense and compact almost fleshy brown mass in which no
paraphyses were conspicuous. Sporidia in asci, eight, obovate,
colourless or of a pale yellow, margined, with a single septum,
the upper cell rather larger and broader than the lower one,
either empty or filled with comparatively large round granules.
Differs from A. lurida, Ach. (Leight. Brit. Graph. p. 57. fig. 38,
and Leight. Lich. Brit. Exsic. 17 !), to which its general aspect
has some resemblance, in the sporidia being double the size of
those of that species. |
Puate XI. fig. 6. Thallus and ardelle of nat. size. Fig. 7. Whitened
thallus and ardelle with surrounding watery stain, nat. size.
Fig. 8. Thallus and ardelle, magnified. Fig. 9. Vertical section
of ardella. Fig. 10. Sporidia, magnified. :
8. Arthonia aspersa, Leight. Thallus thin, membranous,
smooth, indeterminate, greyish-green ; ardellze minute, sessile,
various in form; disk black, flattened, more or less convex,
dull; sporidia in asci, eight, small, obovate, 3-septate, upper cell
largest.
Arthonia aspersa, Leight. Lich. Brit. Exsic. 248! (1856).
On holly: Hobhole, Baysdale, Cleveland, Yorkshire! Mr. W.
Mudd.
Thallus very thin, spreading indeterminately, of a pale opake
greyish-green. Ardelie minute, very numerous and crowded
as if copiously sprinkled, distinct or confluent, very variable mn
size and form, sometimes mere specks, roundish, oblong, ovate,
angular or of irregular wavy outline. Disk more or less raised,
convex or flattened, without any margin, opake black, smoothish.
A vertical section shows the hymenium to consist of a dark brown
compact mass destitute of any distinct paraphyses, with numerous
round or very broadly obovate asci imbedded in it. . Sporidia in
asci, eight, obovate, pale yellow, margined, 3-septate, the upper
cell considerably the larger, occupying nearly one-half of the
sporidium, the septa being confined to the lower portion.
Differs from A. Swartziana, Ach. (Leight. Brit. Graph. p. 54.
fig. 33 ; Leight. Lich. Brit. Exsic. 70 !), in the sporidia bemg
only half the size of those of that species and in the different
arrangement of the septa.
For the two last plants 1 am indebted to Mr. W. Mudd of
Ann.d’Mag Vat. Hist.S.2N018.PUX.
& ‘ J has tre. tith .
f v
re ch
Wt stonke Kes
bar dnt
FAT ee Le en ee ee
Royal Society. 383
Cleveland Lodge, Yorkshire, whose indefatigable researches in
his neighbourhood have supplied me with many Lichens hitherto
unknown to our flora.
Puare XI. fig. 11. Thallus and ardelle, nat. size. Fig. 12. The same,
magnified. Fig. 13. Vertical section of ardella. Fig. 14. Ascus
and sporidia. Fig. 15. Sporidia, highly magnified. Fig. 16. Scale
of to55 Of ‘an inch, magnified equally with the sporidia in figs. 5,
10 & 15, to show their real size.
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
ROYAL SOCIETY.
April 3,:1856.—Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., V.P.,
in the Chair.
“On the Dicecious Character of the Rotifera.””_ By Philip H.
Gosse.
Professor Ehrenberg, in his descriptions of this class of animals,
assumed them to be in every case hermaphrodite. His conclusions
remained unchallenged till 1848, when Mr. Brightwell discovered
the separate sexes of Asplanchna Brightwellii. The author of this
memoir soon afterwards discovered a second species of the same
genus. (4. priodonta) with a like dicecious character ; and more
recently Dr. Leydig has added a third (A. Sieboldiz), which does not
differ in this respect from its congeners.
Dr. Leydig plausibly conjectures that Enteroplea of Ehrenberg is
the male sex of Hydatina, that Notommata granularis is the male
of N. Brachionus, and that Diglena granularis of Weisse is the male
of D. Catellina.
The author of the present memoir has ascertained from his own
observations that the sexes are separate also in Brachionus Pala,
B. rubens, B. amphiceros, B. angularis, B. Bakeri, B. Dorcas,
B. Miilleri, Syncheta tremula, Polyarthra platyptera, Sacculus
viridis, and Melicerta ringens. ‘The males of these species, which are
here described in detail, differ so greatly from the females in form,
size, and structure, that they could not have been supposed to
belong to the same genera, or even families, if their parentage, had
not been distinctly determined.
One of the most remarkable characters of male Rotifera is the
absolute and universal atrophy of the digestive system. No mastax,
jaws, cesophagus, stomach, or intestines occur in any example of
any species. Another peculiarity is the great disparity between the
sexes. In every observed case the male is inferior in size and in
organization to the female.
he muscular system is well developed in the males of Hydatina,
Asplanchna, and Brach. Miilleri.. The frontal cilia are’ in general
greatly developed in this sex, the result of which is/ seen in the
energy and rapidity of its locomotion. In. most instances, the great
occipital ganglion is distinct, with a red eye seated on it; and, the
latter is almost always present, even where the ganglion cannot
334 Royal Society :—
be defined. The lateral convoluted threads appear in Hydatina,
Asplanchna, and Brach. Doreas ; and in Aspl. Brightwellit they are
accompanied by tremulous tags, and by a contractile bladder. »
Irregular masses of opake substance are almost constantly present
in male Rotifera. This substance Dr. Leydig considers a urinary
concretion. |
In all cases the abdominal cavity is occupied by a capacious sperm-
sac, from which spermatozoa are forced out by pressure. The out-
let of the sperm-sac is by a thick, protrusile, and retractile penis.
In those species which possess a foot, the mtromittent organ is
soldered to its dorsal side, and is often so greatly developed that the
foot itself appears as an appendage. The penis is protruded by
eversion ; and is then seen to be a thick column with the extremity
truncate and ciliated. The sexual coitus has been witnessed by the
author in several instances. :
For a parallel to the curious facts thus established, the author
considers we must look to the Crustacea. The Hectocotylus of
certain Mollusca is scarcely an analogous case; nor are those
Entozoa in which the males are organically united to the females.
In the Crustacea, however, many examples occur of a sexual
difference which may be compared with that of the subjects of this
memoir. In the genera Bopyrus, Phryxus, and Ione, the males are
notably smaller than the females, very diverse in form, and in some
respects inferior in structure. In the Siphonostoma, “the males are
extremely small, and do not in the least resemble the females”
(Baird); though those of different genera bear a strong resemblance
inter se, even where the females are very dissimilar. So low is their
grade of organization, that Burmeister has attempted to prove the
minute males to be embryonic forms. Finally, in the Cirripedia,
Mr. Darwin has proved the existence of males in the genera [b/a and
Scalpellum, which are very minute as compared with their females,
excessively abnormal in form, and in some respects in an embryonic
condition, though unquestionably mature, as shown by their sperma-
tozoa. And, what is still more interesting, there is, in these male
Cirripedia, “no vestige of a mouth, or, masticatory organs, or
stomach.”” The same observer describes the internal structure as
“a pulpy mass with numerous oil-globules ;”’ and the sperm-vesicle
as “a pear-shaped bag at the very bottom of the sack-formed animal
containing either pulpy matter, or a great mass of spermatozoa,”—
terms which might have been employed in describing some of the
male Brachioni.
In all these analogies, the author finds additional reasons for
assigning to the Rotifera a zoological rank among the Articulata.
June 19, 1856.—The Lord Wrottesley, President, in the Chair.
** Researches.on the Foraminifera.’’—-Part IT. By William By
Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.
In the pursuance of his plan of minutely examining certain typical
forms of Foraminifera, for the purpose of elucidating their history as
living beings, and of determining the value of the characters they
Dr. W. B. Carpenter’s Researches on the Foraminifera. 385
present. to the systematist, the author in this memoir details the
results of his investigations on the genera Orbiculina, Alveolina,
Cycloclypeus, and Heterostegina.
The. genus Orbiculina has long been known, through its. preva-
lence.in the West Indian seas, which causes its shells to abound in
the shore-sands of many of the islands of that region. These shells
present. great varieties of form, and have been ranked under three
distinct species; but M. d’Orbigny has correctly inferred, from a
comparison. of a large number of specimens, that their diversities of
form are partly attributable to differences in the stage of growth,
and partly to. individual variation, so that all the Orbiculine of
Cuba, the Antilles, &c., are referable to but one specific type. Of
the essential features of its structure, however, he would seem to be
quite ignorant; since he ranges Orbdiculina in a distinct order from
Orbitolites, to which it is very closely allied. This alliance was
first. pointed out by Prof. Williamson, whose account of the structure
of Orbiculina, though defective and erroneous in certain points, is
nevertheless correct. in the main.
The author has had the opportunity of examining not merely a
considerable number of West Indian specimens, but also a set ot
specimens peculiarly remarkable for their high development, which
form. part of Mr. Cuming’s Philippine collection. Many of these
present, the form of flattened disks, marked with concentric circles,
and -having one or more rows of pores at their edges, not. distin-
ishable, save by their prominent central nuclei, from certain forms
of Orbitolites, formerly described. The similarity is equally great
in. their internal structure ;.so that, if a marginal fragment only
were submitted to examination, it would not be possible to say with
certainty whether it belonged to an Orbitolites or an Orbiculina,
The distinguishing character of the latter is derived from its early
mode.of growth, which is uniformly spiral; and from the cireum-
stance that each of the first three or four turns of the spire not
merely. surrounds, but invests its predecessor, thereby producing an
excess in the thickness of the earlier over that of the later-formed
portion, which gives rise to the central protuberance already men-
tioned. The transition from the spiral to the cyclical mode of in-
crease is effected (just as it is in those individuals of Orbitolites
which begin life-upon the spiral type) by the opening-out of the
mouth of the spire, which extends itself on either side around the
previously-formed body, until its two divisions meet on the opposite
side, where they coalesce so as to constitute a complete annulus.
This transition. may take place at any period of growth after the
completion of the first, four or five turns of the spire; so that we
sometimes meet with small specimens which have already become
discoidal and taken-on the cyclical. plan of growth, whilst: we occa-
sionally meet with full-grown specimens which retain the spira.
form, and show no tendency whatever towards the assumption of the
cyclical plan of growth. These facts obviously point to. the very
subordinate value of plan of growth as a distinctive character.
The author next proceeds to a like investigation of the genus
336 Royal Society: » :
Alveolina, which he shows to bear a very marked resemblance: te
Orbitolites and Orbiculina; in the simple concretionary texture of the
shell, in the freedom of communication everywhere: existing among
the chambers, in the mutual relations of these to each other, and
in their mode of communication with the exterior; whilst its plan
of growth is very different, the axis round which the spiral; turns
being greatly elongated, and every additional whorl of the spire pro-
ducing a much greater augmentation of its length than of its diameter.
There is obviously a close physiological relationship between this
genus and the preceding, since the condition of each individual«seg-
ment of the sarcode-body must be essentially the same in:each;.and
it is merely in the mode in which these segments are: multiplied,—a
character which we have seen not to be constant in: different» parts
even of the same specimens of Orbitolites and Orbiculina;—that it
differs from them. ) TaqoNY
A marked contrast to Orbitolites and Orbiculina’in all their-phy-
siological characters, coexisting with an agreement in their respective
plans of growth, is presented by the genera Cycloclypeus:and Hetex
rostegina; the former of which, like Orbitolites, is cyclical from ithe
beginning, its chambers being formed in successive annul rounds a:
central cell; whilst the latter, like Orbiculina, is: spiralsin. ther first:
instance, but tends, as age advances, to assume the discoidal:shape:
and cyclical plan of growth. The genus Cycloclypeusis,amew,one,
founded by the author upon specimens dredged-up: by Sir E.:Belcher
off the coast of Borneo. These are the largest Foraminiferarat pre-
sent. known to exist; the diameter of some of them being not,legs
than 24 inches. The genus Heterostegina was formed by) M. d’Or~
bigny ; but he seems only to have been acquainted:with: young spe
cimens, and has altogether misapprehended its true characters and
relations. A fragment of the flattened spire of Heterostegina could
scarcely be distinguished from a marginal portion of the disk of Cy-
cloclypeus; so close is the conformity between the. two, as regards
the form and relations of the chambers, their mode of communica-
tion, and the structure of their shelly envelope. Each chamber, as
in Nummulites, has its own proper wall, so that the partition be-
tween the adjacent chambers, whether of the same row or of different:
rows, is double; and between its two lamelle there is interposed an’
additional stratum of shell that belongs to neither. "This additional
stratum is thin, in the septa dividing adjacent chambers of the same’
row; but it is much thicker, and forms a much more complete
separation, in the septa intervening between different rows. “It is
traversed by a canal-system, analogous to that existing in Nummu-
lites ; which the author believes to be oceupied in the living’state by”
threads of sarcode, and to be specially destined for the nutrition of
the ‘intermediate skeleton’ formed by the aggregate of these’ inter-’
posed lamellte. ‘The chamber is covered-in above and below iy
successive layers of a minutely-tubular and peculiarly-compact shell-
substance, resembling dentine in its general aspect; certain parts of
this, however, are non-tubular, and form cones, of which the bases’
appear on the surface as minute rounded tubercles. The adjacent
is oe)
ee ee ee Se eee eS eee ee eee ee
Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 837
chambers of the same row do not seem to communicate with each
other; but each chamber communicates with two chambers of the
previously-formed row, and, in like manner, with two of the subse-
quently-formed row, by narrow passages, the number and position of
which are by no means constant. These passages seem to afford the
rincipal means whereby the segments of the sarcode-body occupy-
ing the inner chambers, can be nourished from the exterior; but it
is by no means impossible that the tubuli of the shelly laminze that
invest the chambers above and below, may also be subservient to this
purpose, since, however numerous may be the laminee, the tubuli
are continued through them all from the cavity of the chamber to
the external surface.
The almost entire separation of the segments of the sarcode-body
in these two genera, the investment of each of them with its own
proper envelope of shell, the minutely-tubular structure and firm
consistence of the shell-substance, and the interposition of: the inter-
mediate skeleton with its canal-system, are features that place them
in such marked: contrast with Orbitolites and Orbiculina, that, not-
withstanding their conformity to those two genera in their respective
plans of growth, it is scarcely possible for them to be more widely
removed in everything that relates to their respective physiological
conditions. |
From:a comparison of the five genera whose structure has been
thus elucidated, the author deduces the conclusion that, in this
class, external form, which depends exclusively on plan of growth,
affords no. clue whatever to internal structure ; and that the latter
alone, as the exponent of the physiological condition of the animal,
can afford the basis of a natural classification.
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.
July 10th, 1856.—Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair.
In. taking the Chair, Professor Balfour stated that the painful
duty devolved upon him of recording the death of the President,
Colonel Madden, which took place suddenly and unexpectedly from
rupture of the aorta soon after last meeting of the Society. “We
all, I am sure (he said), deeply deplore the loss of one who took a
warm interest in our proceedings. His amiable deportment and
gentlemanly manner endeared him to all of us, and we rejoiced to
see one who had spent a large portion of his life in the active service
of the East. India Company devoting his time and leisure to the. pro-
Secution of science. During his residence in India he was a careful
observer, and. made many interesting remarks on the. flora ofthe
country... He sent home the seeds of many valuable plants, which
have flowered. in Glasnevin and in other gardens. When he. came to
settle in Edinburgh, he joined the Royal and Botanical Societies, of
both of which he became a very active member. He was elected a
councillor of the Royal Society, and took a marked interest in its
_ proceedings. He particularly took charge of the scientific additions
22
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii.
338 Botanical Society of Edinburgh :—
which it was agreed to make to its library. To the Transactions of
the Botanical Society he contributed an excellent paper on the
occurrence of Palms and Bamboos high on the Himalaya, and it is’
to be hoped that the paper which was read from him at our last:
meeting will be in such a state as to allow of its publication. (aw
**T have also to report the death of Mr. William Gourlie of Glas-
gow, who was connected with our Society from its commencement,
and aided it much by his exertions. He was a zealous naturalist,
and had made a large and valuable collection of plants, which it is’
hoped will not be lost to science. From his mercantile position
in Glasgow, he was able to render important service to this Society
and to botanists on many occasions, and he was always ready and
willing to do everything in his power for the promotion of science.
He set an example of zeal to the mercantile men of the western
metropolis, and his labours promised to be instrumental in infusing:
a taste for science among the community of Glasgow. When the»
Meeting of the British Association took place in Glasgow in’ Sep-:
tember 1855, he acted as local Secretary. The labour which he:
underwent, not merely during the Meeting, but for months before,
was extraordinary. He spared no pains to render the Meeting
creditable to Glasgow, and the arrangements which he made called
forth commendation from all. About the time of the Meeting, :
symptoms of disease of the bones in the face appeared. He endured
at first great suffering, which he bore with much fortitude ‘and .re-
signation ; and, after a protracted illness, he sunk in the course of last’:
week. He has been taken away in the midst of his usefulness, and:
at the very time when he seemed to be gaining the highest eminence :
in his native city. The place which he occupied will not be easily -
supplied. Let us hope that his enthusiastic love of science, and ‘his
noble exertions in the cause of botany, will be the means of stimulating
his townsmen to follow his steps; and that, while they are prosecuting
their commercial speculations, they will not think it beneath their
notice to devote some of their time to science, which was to him in
his season of recreation a source of high enjoyment, and which secured
for him many friends in all parts of the world. Though dead, may
he yet speak to them!” iy
Professor Balfour read a note from Mr. Babington in reference to
Mr. Cock’s statement made at a recent meeting, that Hypericum
anglicum does not grow at Falmouth. Mr. Babington has seen spe-
cimens at Falmouth, collected by Mr. Polwhele, and H. hireinum
grows there also. bo
The following paper was read :—
1. ‘A brief Account of the General Botanical Features of a Hill.
District in Western India, with the results of a Series of Observations:
in connection with Vegetable Climatology,’’ by John Kenneth Wil-.
son, Esq. )
The Yn, or rather mountainous district, upon which I am about
to make a few observations, is situated upon an immense moun-
tain-chain which lies parallel with the coast of Western India, and |
which extends from the Province of Candeish in the north, to Cape
Mr. J . K. Wilson on Vegetable Climatology. 339
Comorin in the south. This mountain-chain is. designated the
Western Ghauts. It is situated between isothermal lines which de-
_-viate little from their parallels of latitude, and the points of inter-
section which they form with the meridian. The Ghauts extend
over an immense area, included between the parallels of 21° of north
and 8° of south latitude. ,
) The particular portion of this district to which I am about to call
attention is denominated the Mahabaleshwar Hill district. In this
district is situated the source of the river Krishna. Near the head
of this river is placed a small Brahmin village named Mahabaleshwar,
and a large number of bungalows occupied by European residents,
The site of the European bungalows is 17° 56! north latitude, and 73° 30!
east longitude. . The Mahabaleshwar district has been long and de-
servedly a favourite resort of invalids ; the climate being cold, bracing,
and-elastic, and the scenery around magnificent. The hills of the
district rise abruptly by means of terraced trappean steps on their
western side from the Province of the Concan, and on their eastern
side from the Province of the Deccan. Their general elevation above
the level of the sea is 4500 feet, and their highest attainment 4700 feet.
_ Their elevation is much more abrupt and precipitous on their western
aspect than on their eastern; the suddenness of their elevation on
the western side freely exposing them to the influence of the sea
breeze... The hills from top to bottom are trappean and highly
quartzose.. They are extremely eccentric in their formation, being cha-
racterized, by great diversity of outline; precipices, ravines, chasms,
searps,; woods, and waterfalls abounding on their surface. They are
well supplied with water which permeates their surface from stream-
lets. which ‘traverse them in all directions.
_» In some of the districts at the foot of the hills, I observed the soil
_ inereasing from the disintegration of the trap rock, and the native
__ agriculturists selecting for their cereal crops those localities where
_ the greatest. amount of disintegration was going on. On the summit
of the table-lands, the soil consists of red clay formed by the disin-
tegration of the laterite, a species of cellular ferruginous claystone,
which overlies the secondary trap formation, and which constitutes
the surface-rock. The soil is very abundant on the lower levels,
where it forms a highly productive brown mould, owing to its inter-
mixture with decayed vegetable matter and the debris of the trap
rocks ; but. upon the higher levels the soil is much more. scanty and
of.a redder colour ; the rock below it generally existing in the form
of superficial or detached masses, hardened and blackened. by oxida-
tion from exposure to the air. :
- On the plains at the base of the hills rest those plants which re-
lire the hottest climate, such as the Palms, Banyans, and oleaginous
| bs; the vegetation in this locality being tropical, and similar to
_ that’ which characterizes the plains of India generally ; but: upon
' proceeding from the plains to a more elevated position, a vegetation
fia different nature presents itself... The withered grass aiid scanty
__ Stripes of Cocoa-nut trees, and groves of Palms, that. afford very
inadequate shelter from the scorching rays of a tropical sun, are, ex-
_ changed for a vegetation of surpassing beauty, alien and variety,
i : : 09%
840 Botanical Society of Edinburgh.
standing out in marked and vivid relief upon the fantastic terraces
and mural cliffs of the surrounding rocks; and consisting of a certain
intermixture of temperate with tropical genera, the i ita
genera being tropical.
The vegetation is not distributed in equal parallel lines as regards
altitude, except when regarded en masse, as I frequently found spe-
cies of genera whose proper habitat was on the hill portions of the
district, spreading, extending, and flourishing in the plains, during
the cold season—the plains being at this season cooled down to\a
temperature in which they could exist ; while again, during the, hot
season I observed plants whose proper habitat was in the plains,
spreading, and diverging into the hill districts. _ It is probable also
that species of tropical hill genera reach not only a much, higher
altitude, but hkewise a much higher latitude, than. their represen-
tatives on the plains, owing to the less extensive range of the ther-
mometer, greater amount of moisture, and less free, sae HOP actin
they possess in their more elevated position. site
At the base of the hills, as at that of almost all sig other, pect
tains in India, the ground is covered with jungle, at, first thinand
open, and then becoming marginal, and. well-nigh impervious, )con-
sisting of shrubs, trees, and high grasses, intermixed with an. immense
quantity of miscellaneous underwood. The amount,of carbonic acid
exhaled in the jungle during darkness is enormous; /this amount, is
fostered by the rank and luxuriant vegetation, and. by..the older vege-
tation in progress of decay; but fevers are not. 80 prevalent among
the inhabitants in this as in other jungle districts, andthe approach
to the hills is at all times safe, owing to the jungle being cleared in the
neighbourhood of the roads. In some parts, at a distance from) the
roads, it grows, however, so thick, and so thoroughly interwoven with
enormous creepers and thorny parasites, as to. be rendered perfectly
impenetrable. Among the jungle trees, I observed as typical of this
district the occurrence of Grewia Asiatica, Combretum ovalifolium,
Nauclea Cadamba, Carissa Carandas, Grislea tomentosa, and. also of
several species of Celastrus, Zizyphus, Cordia, and Sterculia,, ....)
When mentioning the occurrence of the Stereuliacea, I may state
that in the Province of the Concan I had an opportunity of examining
that rare tree, the Adansonia digitata, with its immense stem, large
flower, and enormous fruit. There is every reason.to believe, as
Roxburgh has shown, that this tree, although indigenous in Africa,
is yet an exotic an India. It is one of the largest trees in. the world,
and is supposed to exceed any other in longevity. In several specimens
which I examined, I never could find the occurrence of any such
annular rings as would be necessary to prove the very great longevity
generally attributed to this tree., Professor Lindley has in a most
excellent manner shown the true value of calculations regarding the
age of this tree. "The natives use the pulp of the fruit, which’ affords
a pleasant acid, as a medicine, and as the basis of a sort of sherbet,
very grateful to patients suffering from febrile complaints. 'The’ young
leaves are eaten as food, and the fibres of the wood are put to a
variety of useful purposes.
The humid yapoury atmosphere which pervades the jungle bhodés
—————- a HS ee eee * eee
Zoological Society. 34]
under the massive bowers of foliage so gigantic, is most favourable to
the ‘growth and spread of Fungi, Lichens, ‘and other Cellulares; ac-
cordingly, in this locality they abound everywhere.
In some portions of land cleared of jungle by the native agricul-
turists, I observed many fruit-trees flourishing in cultivation, such as
the Mango (Mangifera Indica), Custard Apple (Anona squamosa),
Plantain (Musa paradisiaca), Pomegranate (Punica granatum), &c.
Tn several small plots of cultivated ground, likewise recovered from
the jungle, I observed Rice, Sugar Cane, Bamboo, and other useful
plants, growing and flourishing in apparent abundance, and asso-
ciated with cereal grains, such as Holcus Sorghum (joaree) and Hol-
Cus spicatus (bajree).
"On ascending the mountain slopes, and after emerging from the
jingle, the vegetation again becomes changed. — At first the change
is ‘slow, but at length it becomes well marked and decided. The
undérwood becomes less abundant, and the trees stand forth in more
solitary grandeur and in greater relief, the varied colouring of our
autumnal foliage being absent among them, but this absence being
more than compensated for by the richness of their verdure, the con-
trast: of their forms, and the gracefulness of their proportions. Mosses
of various descriptions and beautiful Lichens clothe the rocks, while
‘Grasses’ of great variety and fantastic appearance are met with in
‘abundance? ' Arums and Euphorbias now become prevalent. In ad-
‘dition’ ‘to the rarer trees and shrubs already enumerated as occurring
an the jungle, I observed as typical of this distriet—which district
qmay' be designated that of the slopes—the presence of the Bridelia
‘montana, Pentaptera paniculata, and P. tomentosa.
°' Ti continuing ih an-altitudinal direction, the ascent of the hills
‘becomes’ suddenly very abrupt, the trap rock being now thrown up
‘in most places into immense terraces, crowned by table-lands, and
flanked by high and precipitous cliffs. On these table-lands forest
trees ‘are generally absent ; but forest trees occur here and there.
‘The whole surface of the table-lands is, however, strewn over with
large tree shrubs and plants of great variety. The Calyptranthes
‘earyophyllifolia or Jambool tree is very characteristic of this district.
‘The Olea dioica, Terminalia Chebula, Symplocos racemosa, Meme-
‘tijlon ramiflorum, and the Water-tree or Oomber (Ficus glomerata)
“eceut very frequently. Urtica pulcherrima, Rubus rugosus, a species
‘of Saliz' (the tetrasperma of Roxburgh), Hriolena Hookeriana, and
‘Pygeum ‘acuminatum occur here and there.
a oie BAL: [To be continued, |
¥iivexce
o fH 8 EE EOL! GOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
absolisNovember 27th, 1855.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S,,; in the Chair,,
MTOR RISE
loTE, ON THE GeNUS LeGrRiocincLus, Lesson, AND ITS SYNO-
» >, Nyms.. By Pattie Lutiey Sciarer, M.A, erc.
__Inhis last published work on natural history, entitled * Description
“des Mammiféres et Oiseaux,’ which is part: of the series: known as
342 Zoological Society :—
*Complément aux ceuvres de Buffon,’ M. Lesson’ has’ elevated to
generic rank by the name of Legriocinelus, a bird previously deseribed
in the ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles’ (ix. p. 168, anno 1838) as
‘Petrodroma mexicana. While lately in Paris I was favoured. by
Prince Charles Bonaparte with a sight of several volumes of very
beautiful coloured drawings of birds and other animals of which
M. Lesson in his lifetime had published descriptions only. M.Tesson’s
descriptions, as is well known, are so short and often so inaccurate as
to render identification of the originals almost impossible ; and these
‘drawings are therefore very valuable, and, as they are to be disposed _
of, will, it is to be hoped, pass into the possession of some public
institution, where access to them may always be had. Among them
is a plate of the so-called Legriocinclus, which, there.is no difficulty
in perceiving at a glance, is a member of Lafresnaye’s genus Ram-
phocinclus, and so closely resembling the R. drachyurus, the type of
that genus, as to leave little doubt that the two generic names are co-
equal. But if Lesson’s locality is correct (Vera Cruz), which, how-
ever, I am hardly inclined to believe, the Legriocinclus mexicanus may
possibly be a new species of this peculiar form—hitherto considered
as confined to the Antilles, but thus extended geographically to the
mainland. |
Three species of Ramphocinclus only are given by Lafresnaye
in his article in the ‘Revue Zoologique’ (1843, p. 67): Of the
‘first of these—the type of the genus—R. brachyurus (Turdus
brachyurus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. xx. 255, et Enc. Méth. p. 655),
‘the Paris Museum contains several fine examples from the islands
of St. Lucia and Guadaloupe. Vieillot says his bird was from
Martinique, which is very probable, as that island is situate between
the other two.
Upon reading attentively Lafresnaye’s description of his second
species of the genus, R. tremulus, I think there can be little doubt
that, if not absolutely identical with, it is at all events a very
close ally of the bird which Mr. Gould described as long ago as
1835, under the name of Stenorhynchus ruficauda. There are two
specimens of this bird in the British Museum, from the island of
Nevis.
Stenorhynchus, having been previously employed in Zoology, was
changed by Mr. G. R. Gray in 1840 to Cinclocerthia. pees
Prince Bonaparte, in his ‘ Conspectus’ (p. 223), has somehow 01
other confounded the third species of this same genus along with
Campylorhynchus scolopaceus of Spix, which is quite a different form
and is the type of the wren-like genus Campylorhynchus, and Thryo-
thorus longirostris of Vieillot, which he hkewise quotes as synony-
mous, 1s, I believe, a true Thryotherus. Again, Zoothera cinclops
of the same work (p. 253), since generified into Cinclops (Cinclops
melanoleucus of Mr. G. R. Gray’s lately published List of Genera),
seems to be nothing more than a bird of this,.genus—probably
R. brachyrrus, though it is dangerous to draw positive conclusions .
from so meagre a description. 4
Under these circumstances I propose to reduce into one group, or
at all events to place in close juxtaposition, the following six generic
SS ae pe re ae te eae
ae
Mr. F. Moore on some new species of Birds. 848
terms, some of which have hitherto been arranged in widely different
families :—
1. Stenoruyrncuvs, Gould (1835), P. Z. S. p. 186.
2. Cincrocertuts, G. R. Gray (1840), List of Gen. p. 22.
3. Rampnocincuvs, Lafr. (1843), Rev. Zool. -p. 66.
4, Herminiervs, Lesson, (ubi?) |
ey ahead aba Lesson (1847), Deser. d. Mamm. et Ois.
p. 278,
6. Crycxops, Bp. (1854), Notes Ornithologiques, p. 25.
Of these, Mr. G. R. Gray’s name Cinclocerthia is the oldest that
can be adopted.
. Note.~-Since writing the above, I have carefully examined the
two specimens of Cinclocerthia ruficauda in the British Museum.
They seem to agree in every respect with Lafresnaye’s description of
Ramphocinclus tremulus, and, as the islands of Nevis and Guadaloupe
are so near, I think we may reasonably conclude that these two
birds are not specifically distinct. The rectrices are twelve in num-
ber, and not ten, as Mr. Gould supposed (P. Z. 8. 1835, p. 186)
might be the case.
The three species of this group ought therefore apparently to stand
as follows :—1. CINCLOCERTHIA RUFICAUDA (Stenorhynchus rufi-
caudus, Gould; C. ruficauda, G. R. Gray; Ramphocinclus tremulus,
Lafr.). 2. CINCLOCERTHIA GUTTURALIS (Ramphocinclus gutturalis,
Lafr.); and, 3. CINCLOCERTHIA BRACHYURA (Turdus brachyurus,
Vieill. ; Ramphocinclus brachyurus, Lafr.; Zoothera cinclops et
Cinclops melanoleucus, Bp.). }
~ Norice or SoME New species or Birps. By Freperic
Moors, Assist. Mus. East Inp1a Company.
Genus Orocoris, Bonaparte.
- Orocorts LonerRostRis, Gould, MSS.
Allied in colour to O. penicillata, and in the markings of the head
and breast, but differs in its larger size, considerably more lengthened.
bill, wings and tail, and thicker toes; and in the feathers of the back
being broadly centred with brown. :
Length 73 inches; of wing 5 inches; tail 3$ths ; bill to frontal
plumes =&ths; to gape 3ths; tarsus 1$ths; middle toe and claw
ths; hind ditto ;’;ths of an inch.
_ Hab. Neighbourhood of Agra. In Mr. Gould’s Collection.
Genus Emperiza, Linn.
i Emperiza stracnevi, Moore.
Affined to HZ. Oia, but differs in having the markings about the
head more broadly developed, and of a deeper black colour, forming
three well-defined black bars, as seen laterally ; the throat and sides’
344 oon si Beolegieal Society: —
of neck being whiter, and. ashy,on the, frontiof the neck only; the
breast and the rest of the under-parts being uniform bright, rufous-
brown, which colour is also promiment on the back, and especially
on the scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts,
Length 6 inches; of wing 33ths; tail 3; tarsus $ths of an inch,
Hab. Kumaon. In Mus. East India Company...
EMBERIZA CASTANEICEPS, Gould, MSS.
~ Also: affined to 2. Cia. Crown and ‘ear-coverts deep, chestnut-
brown ; “superciliary ‘streak, base of upper mandible, throat, Frans
and sides of neck ashy white; behind the ears and nape ‘ashy ; .
spot before the eye and streak from base of lower mandible down the
sides of the throat black ; back, scapulars and ramp rufous-brown,
the two former having blackish centres to the feathers ; ; wings dusky
black, the feathers margined with rufous-brown; tail dusky black,
the two centre feathers broadly margined with rnfous-brown, the two
outer tipped obliquely with white for nearly the whole length ; breast
and flanks rufous-brown, and paling towards the centre of the belly ; AS
upper mandible dark-horn, lower paler.
ength 5} inches’; wing 23ths; tail 23ths; tarsus 3 of an inch, .
Hab, Kintang i in'China, In Mus. East’ India Comp., J. Gould,
Esq.
Genus Propassrer, Hodgson, Gray’s Zool, Misc. p. 84 (1844);
P. Z. 8. 1845, p. 36.
PHENICOSPIZA, Blyth, J. A. 8. Beng. xxiii. p: 213 (1854).
PROpPASSER THURA.
Carpodacus Thura, Bonaparte et Schlegel, Monogr, des Loxiens,
t.23.°0Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. p. 531 (male). :
Propasser rhodopeplus, part. Hodgson.
Hab «Nepal. ‘In Mus. East India Comp. Brit, Mus., J. Gould,
Es
This species may be distinguished from the true P. rhodopeplus, by
its rather smaller and a trifle more pyrrhuline bill; the colour, of
the! male above being hair-brown, the feathers beived with blackish,
and the lesser'range of wing-coverts only being crimson-tipped ; the
under-parts, rump and upper tail-coverts, cheeks, uchente and
superciliary streak are pale silvery-crimson, the end of the latter and
the centre’of the belly being pure white ; the crimson feathers of the:
head and ‘throat. being centred also with white, and the crimson
colour being deepest at the base of the bill; whereas, in P, rhodopeplus
the «male ‘above. is dark crimson-brown, and. has both ranges . of.
wing-coverts and the tertiaries pale crimson-tipped, The female of
P) Thura (which is now for the first time described) may be distin-
guished from the same sex of P. rhodopeplus by being paler above and ~
having paler centres to the feathers; the colour of the under-parts
being COnRIASTAPLE more uniform; having also but faint centres to
the feathers.,...P..rhodopeplus isa trifle larger than P. Thura.
The Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte has compared these ApRETOAID,
and his Highiiess ‘also verifies their, distinctness. -
Dr. J. E. Gray on-a new yenus of Fish-scaled Lizards. 845
> |PROPASSER PULCHERRIMUS, Hodgson.
'Propasser pulcherrimus, Hodgson, Gray’s Zool, Misc. (1844),
85
Hab. Himalaya. In Mus, East India Comp., Brit. Mus., J. Gould,
Esq.
The male differs from P. rhodochrous in having the forehead,
superciliary streak, cheeks, throat, and under-parts, with the rump,
of a paler or more silvery-crimson colour, being in some lights very
silvery ; the upper parts, with the crown, are dusky-brown with pale
crimson-tinged edges to each feather.. The female differs from the
Same sex of P. rhodochrous in. having the under-parts dusky white,
instead of rufescent, and the colours above are also less rafescent.
The size is the same as that of P. rhodochrous, excepting that in
P. pulcherrimus the wing is longer in both sexes.
“ Remarks.—Both sexes of this species and P. rhodochrous were
sent from Nepal by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., under the name, of pul-
cherrumus, which name, upon examining his. original drawings in:
the British Museum, we find refers to the true shodochrous and not to
the present species ;. but, as that indefatigable naturalist applied the
name to both birds, we deemit but correct to retain it for the present
bird.
Genus Linota, Bonaparte.
CANNABINA, Brehm.
LINOTA BREVIROSTRIS, Gould.
‘ Innota brevirostris, Gould, Bonap. Geogr. et Comp. List of B.
p. 34 (1838).
? Fringilla bella, Hempr. et Ehrenberg, Mus. Berol.
Hab: Erzeroum and Afghanistan... In Mus. East) India, Comp. et
J. Gould, Esq.
Allied to L. montium, but distinguished from that species ‘by its
lighter colour, and the male having the pink colour on the rump
paler; the axillaries and the basal edge of the inner web of the
primaries and secondaries pure white ; the tail being. margined on the
whole outer and broadly on the inner web also with pure white ; the
primaries and secondaries above are also broadly margined exteriorly
with white. The female is also paler and broadly edged as. in the
male with white.
~ Length 5 inches ; of wing 3iths; of tail 25ths; centre feathers
% inch less; bill to frontal plumes ,3,ths; to gape 4 an inch; tarsus.
7jths ; centre toe and claw 3ths; and hind ditto 4 an inch.
“Remark.—Cabanis in Catal. Birds Mus, Heine, p. 161: states:
that “the bill ‘of F. del/a, of Hempr. and Ehrenb., isa trifle larger’
than in L. cannabina, Linn., but in colour almost, agrees with Z..
fringillirostris, Bonap. et Schlegel, Monog. Loxiens, t. 49s\p.45:
New Genus or Fisu-scatep Lizarps (Scissosar#), FROM
New Guinea... By J. E. Gray, Ph.D. FEVRS., ere. Ere.
The Lizard which I have the pleasure of bringing before the:
Society this evening, was presented to the British Museum, with
346 4.) Zoological Society:
other most interesting and novel specimens, by Mr. John MacGillivray,
who accompanied H.M.S. Herald as naturalist during her voyage t in
the Australasian seas.
Corvcta,
Head broad, flat-topped ; nostrils ovate, oblique, simple, not: +
longed behind, on the middle of the lower part of the nasal shie
supranasal shields none; rostral square; internasal one, large, Busided,
broader behind ; froAtabaihsel two, moderate, band-like, transverse ;
‘lateral-frontal one, small, subtrigonal, nearly equal-sided ; frontal
parietals two, rhombic, contiguous at the angle; imterparietal one,
rhombic, elongate ; eyebrows covered with band-like shields ; lower
eyelid with a series of larger opake scales ; temple covered with large
shields; ears large, simple, edged in front.
Body fusiform, compressed ; scales, 6-sided, smooth, with 3, 5 or
7 grooves, seen through the skin, of chin and underside of the rps
thinner, smooth.
Legs strong ; toes five, cylindrical, elongate, unequal, with a series _
of band-like shields beneath ; claws strong, curved.
Tail elongate, tapering, rather compressed, scales of upper surface
like those of the back, but rather larger, with.a central series of
broad hexangular shields beneath. |
Hab. Australasia.. |
This genus belongs to the same section in ‘the Museum Catalogue
as Ateuchoglossus, characterized by the simple nostril and scaled
opake lower eyelids. It differs from that genus in the smoothness
of the seales, the shielded underside of the tail and several pees Cha
racters.
ConvuciA ZEBRATA.
Pale yellowish-white (in spirits); back with iak va blackish«
brown cross-bands; upper part of. limbs and. tail blackish, varied ;
head dark-brown.
Hab. New Guinea, the Island of San Christoval, John Mac.
Gillivray, Esq., two adult and young specimens.
Length of adult nearly 2 feet.
December 11, 1855.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair,
Description OF Two New Species or ACTINIA, FROM THE
Sourn Coast or Devon. By E. W. H: Hoipsworru.
Among various species of Actinia collected by me in July, last, 0 on
the south coast of Devon, two appear to be undescribed, and. although’
of small size, are of some interest as being additions to the fast
increasing list of our native zoophytes..
They were found on the rocks near the entrance to Dartmouth
harbour, a part of our western coast, which, from its steep rugged ©
character and its luxuriant growth of sea-weeds, presents a fruitful
hunting-ground for those in search of marine productions. 3
The first that I have to notice may be thus characterized :—
Body smooth and cylindrical when fully extended, from. half to
three-quarters of an inch § in height, but very much flattened-when
j
Mr. E. W. H. Holdsworth on two new species of Actinia. 347
«contracted ; tentacula in four rows, moderately long, slender, and
‘slightly tapering towards the tips, their length regularly diminishing
from those of the inner circle outwards. The entire animal has a
_ pale transparent appearance, and the only trace of decided colour
about it is found in a narrow dark blue line surrounding the base of
each tentaculum, and extending a little in the direction of the mouth,
but soon becoming indistinct. Very delicate white lines are at times
visible on the surface of the body, but these are probably only the
edges of the membranous septa seen through the transparent skin.
When this animal is at all roughly handled, the long seminal fila-
ments are thrown out from the mouth in great profusion. This
little Anemone approaches very closely in many respects the Act. can-
dida of Mr. Gosse, and J am indebted to that gentleman for his ready
assistance in determining the differences between them. Act. candida
may be distinguished by its possessing fewer tentacles, by the colour
of the body being of a moré opake white, and especially by the narrow
lines surrounding each tentaculum being of a reddish-purple tint, and
enlarging into a conspicuous spot on each side of its base. In their
habits and general appearance they are very much alike, and had I
‘obtained only one example of the pale species, I should hardly have
ventured to consider it more than a variety. Ten specimens, how-
ever, were taken from different places, and did not vary except in
size ; they were found on the exposed surface of perpendicular rocks
at about half-tide mark, and when out of the water and contracted,
were very difficult to distinguish, owing to their great transparency.
I propose for this species the name of pallida.
It has been my custom, after any expeditions in search of Actinia,
to bring home one or two plants of Laminaria digitata, in order to
examine at my leisure the various forms of animal life commonly met
with among their tangled roots; and it was on one of these plants I
found, in company with minute Ophiocome, green Nereides and
numerous other animals, the beautifully marked Anemone that I have
now to describe.
It has the following characters :—
Body elongate, cylindrical, about three-quarters of an inch in length
when extended, the upper half covered with numerous pale perforated
warts, increasing m number as they approach the top, and from
which the white filaments are protruded when the animal is irritated.
Tentacula in five rows. Colour of the body a dark orange, becoming
aler towards the base. This species is chiefly remarkable for the
fieonity of its oral disk, which for colouring and elegance of marking
will bear comparison with that of any of the larger kinds. The external
half of the disk is of a rich purplish-brown, changing into a light
orange tint towards the mouth, the pink tumid lips of which are
frequently conspicuous ; from near the centre diverge ten or twelve
pairs of yellow bands slightly separating as they proceed outwards,
and at their extremities partially surrounding the bases of the tenta-
cula, according to the following arrangement. Taking a'small’seg-
ment of the disk, the first tentacle may be said to arise from the
Space between two pairs of bands, the second being situated within
7
848 Miscellaneous.
thé pair; the band bifureates near its extremity, and encloses the
third: tentacle ; these branches again divide and form a similar enclo-
sure for the arms of the fourth row: beyond these is a set of very
short tentacula; these, as far as I have been able to examine them,
are ‘not comected with the yellow bands, but their small size and the
difficulty of seeing their entire length when the animal is expanded,
render it almost impossible to describe their exact appearance. On
the surface of the disk a cream-coloured spot is situated near the
base of each tentacle of the first and second rows, those connected
with the inner series being farther removed from them than those of
the second; the alternation of light and shade produced /by this
arrangement gives a battlemented appearance to the disk, and adds
considerably to the general effect. ‘The tentacula rapidly diminish
in size from those of the inner row outwards; they are dark ‘brown
at the bases, becoming paler towards the tips, and are: encircled »by
three well-defined white rings, of which the basal ones: are -very
distinct. Several examples of this species were obtained atvextreme
low water-mark, from a large mass of detached rocks’: known’ asi the
Mewstone, near the entrance to Dartmouth harbour.:| They were:met
with on two or three occasions, but were always found wok x manag
the roots of Laminaria digitata. SBE
A few weeks since, part of a plant of Laminaria was sent 'toime
from Devon, and among the roots I found six: specimens) ofan
Actinia that closely resembled the one just described, excepting’ that
the brown on the tentacula and certain parts of the disk was replaced
by various shades of red. These animals differ so little; except in
the general colour of the disk and appendages, that until I have an
opportunity of examming some more specimens, I must consider the
red one as only a variety of the other, and as such I would pros
visionally describe it. This uncertainty obliges: me to depart from
the old-established rule of giving the specific name from some marked
character in the animal, and I must therefore propose: the»more
general title of ornata for the brown species, and suggest’ that of
rubida for the red one, should it on future examination eres to abe
distinct, which I am inclined to think is probable. /
4 %
MISCELLANEOUS.
OBITUARY NOTICE. WILLIAM YARRELL.
Tue list ‘of British zoologists has just lost one of its: best’ eal
brightest ornaments in the person of William Yarrell; who died sud-
denly'at Yarmouth on Monday the ‘Ist of Septemberi: Mr. Yarrell
was born in. June 1784, in Duke Street, St. James’s, where his father
carried on the busmess of a newspaper agent: this busmess was’ after-
wards continued by the son in a bie Street until aseely the time: ‘of
his decease.
On the 3rd of Aint last, as he was returning front thaichyy ~
was seized by a giddiness and unsteadiness of foot, which proved to
Ne eS ee eR
Miscellaneous. 349°
be ‘caused: by incipient paralysis. From this he had pretty. nearly
recovered, only complaining of a slight ‘‘woolliness” in, his. brain,
when on the Saturday before his death he went to Yarmouth with
an invalid friend. On Sunday night he was attacked by a difficulty.
of breathing, which continually increased until about. half-past
twelve, when he tranquilly departed from this world. ,
‘Early im life Mr. Yarrell was celebrated as a keen and. successful
sportsman, but during this sporting phase of his existence neither
neglected the management of his business, nor, what is of more im-
portance to. us, the cultivation of his innate taste for natural history,
for he was busily engaged in forming collections illustrative of the
natural ‘history of this country, especially of its Birds and Fishes,
andiin: making notes of their habits, which stood him in good stead
when at the mature age of forty he began to write upon his favourite
science. His first, paper, containing ‘‘ Notices of the occurrence of
some rare: British Birds observed during the years 1823, 1824 and
1825,” was published in the ‘ Zoological Journal’ in the latter, year.
From this time he seems gradually to have relinquished the gun and
the rod for the pen, and his communications subsequently appeared
pretty frequently in the periodical above mentioned, in ‘Loudon’s Ma-
gazine of Natural History,’ and in this Journal. He also contributed
valuable papers:to the Transactions of the Royal, Linneean, and Zoolo-
gical Societies ; but the works upon which his fame chiefly rests,
and those with which the English student at. all events will princi-
pally connect the name of. Yarrell, are the admirable Histories of
British Birds and Fishes, published in a style of such unrivalled ex-
eellenee by Mr. Van Voorst. In these works we find accuracy of
scientific research, combined with a plain but agreeable mode of
communicating information on the details of the natural -history of
particular species, such as has rarely been equalled; and. these
Histories of British Birds and Fishes will always remain of the
highest value to the investigator of the natural history of these islands.
Mr. Yarrell was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1825,
and for some years before his death he was a Vice-President and the
Treasurer of that Society. He was also one of the founders.of the
Zoological Society, and a constant attendant at its meetings; and for
many years he was the Treasurer of the Entomological Society.
Whilst thus distinguished in the scientific world, Mr. Yarrell’s
social qualities endeared him highly to his acquaintances. His more
intimate friends always spoke of him in terms of affectionate regard,
and even those who knew him superficially could never be insensible
tothe kindliness of his nature... To quote the words of.a writer.in
the‘ Athenzeum,’ who evidently knew him well, ‘‘ His judgment was
¢lear and sound, his appreciation of the value of facts and.of evidence
most) accurate, his advice always. practical and thoughtful... Hig
truthfulness and simple-heartedness were even childlike,. his, temper
gentle; his heart loving and affectionate, and he was, liberal),and
charitable almost to the verge of imprudence. A kindlier,,spirit
never lived.”’
350 Miscellaneous.
AMPHIOXUS LANCEOLATUS.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
Falmouth, September 23, 1856. :
GEeNTLEMEN,—The “ Amphiovus lanceolatus,” Yarreil, was found
in dredger’s refuse from Gwyllyn Vase Bay on Friday last, by Mr:
Henry Bastian of this town. Length one inch and one-sixteenth ;
breadth in the middle one-eighth of an inch; of a lanceolate form,
tapering to each extremity, riband-like, transparent as crystal ; mouth
circular, produced, armed with long slender cirrhi, crenated laterally ;
when these are reflexed, the passage to the oral aperture is consider-
ably increased in length and diameter, and the water, with its crus-
tacea, &c., has ready ingress, assisted by the ciliary current. The
animal closes the aperture by contracting and crossing the free
extremities of the cirrhi. It swims rapidly with a wriggling or snake-
like motion for a few seconds, and then suddenly settles down at the’
bottom of the vessel, where it remains motionless, lying flat on its
side, with the mouth open to its fullest extent (to all appearance
dead), for thirty or forty minutes, or longer if not disturbed... Two
days after its capture, I put into the vessel (of water) a quantity of
shell-sand, which at first appeared to excite it very much, for it
swam with increased velocity for a second or two, and then suddenly
disappeared under the bed of sand formed at the bottom of the
lass.
" Fifty minutes after this occurrence, I was pleased to see one-third:
of the body projecting in a vertical direction from the surface of the
sand, its mouth open, and the cirrhi slightly reflected at their extre--
mities ; but on agitating the water with a piece of straw, the body.
was partially drawn in, and on repeating the annoyance it disappeared
altogether. |
This morning the body was completely covered (over) with the
sand, but the open mouth could be seen just above the surface of it—.
awaiting its prey (?). I consider it a scarce fish in our neighbourhood,
not a rare one. Its rarity arises from the naturalist being ignorant.
of its habitats, and selecting ground for his dredging operations.
incompatible with the movements of the fish. Dr. Vigurs’s fish’
(1851) carried ova. Mr. Bastian’s is a young one. | ;
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient Servant,
W. P. Cocks.
Description of a newly discovered Tanager of the genus Buarremon.
By Puruie Luriey Scuater, M.A. &c.
Through the kindness of Sir William Jardine I am enabled to
describe a specimen of a very distinct species of Buarremon, which
Professor Jameson of Quito has lately transmitted to this country.
It was obtained by him during a recent. expedition into the eastern
Cordillera of the Andes near Quito at an elevation of 6000 feet above
the sea-level. In form and size it is similar to B. pallidinuchus, but
the style of coloration is different and more nearly resembles that
Meteorological Observations. 351
- of B. schistaceus. Sir William Jardine has named it leucopterus,
: from the conspicuous white spot on the wing. The area of the
- genus Buarremon appears to extend along the Andean range from
, Bolivia’ into Southern Mexico, the vicinity of Bogota being perhaps
_ the principal sedes or focus, where no less than seven or eight species
- occur. The present bird may be characterized as follows :—-
BUARREMON LEUCOPTERUS.
B, schistacescenti-niger, alis caudaque obscurioribus ; pileo ochra-
ceo-rufo; macula utringque anteoculari et speculo alari con-
spicuo,cum toto corpore subtus albis ; lateribus in cinereum tra-
hentibus ; capitis lateribus nigris; tectricibus alarum inferi-
oribus albis ; rostro pedibusque nigris.
Long. tota 6:2; ale 2°8; caudee 2°7.
Hab. in dp Equatoriana (Jameson).—Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 27,
1855,
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR AUG. 1856.
Chiswick.—August 1, 2. Slight haze: very hot. 3. Hot and sultry. 4. Over-
cast: very hot. 5. Cloudless and hot. 6. Cloudy: slight haze: very fine. 7.
Clear: hot and sultry. 8. Cloudy: overcast : very fine: rain. _ 9. Slight rain.
10, Cloudy and fine. 11. Very fine: cloudy: rain, 12. Cloudy: very fine. 13,
- Very hot : heavy rain at night. 14. Cloudy and fine: rain. 15. Cloudy and fine.
--16. Very fine : thunder, lightning and rain at night. 17. Slight rain at half-past
_ eight A.M. : excessively heavy rain commenced, nearly an inch fell in one hour: _
Cloudy at night. 18. Cloudy. 19. Overcast: rain. 20. Foggy: overcast: heavy
rain at night... 21. Densely clouded : boisterous, with heavy clouds and showers.
__ 22. Partially overcast : cloudy: very fine. 23. Fine. 24, Cloudy and fine. 25.
os ht showers. 26, Very fine. 27, Uniformly overcast: very fine. 28. Cloudy
fine: rain. 29. Very fine. 30. Slight fog: very fine. 31. Very fine: rain
ee a ee Se ee ee
-
bee
4 a night.
~~. .--- Mean temperature of the month ............cscseececeeees aeaene 63°40
_ ____, Mean temperature of Aug. 1855 ......cesereeeenees advo ogni'o ane 00-00 -
_. Mean temperature of Aug. for the last thirty years — ......... 61 :97
Average amount of rain in AUg. ...cccsesssseceseccecscsscseweees ‘2°413 inches.
-
4 _Boston.—Aug. I—3. Fine. 4. Cloudy. 5, 6. Fine. 7. Fine: thunder, light-
~-~-ning and rain A.M. and p.m. 8. Fine. 9. Cloudy : rain A.M.andp.M. 10. Cloudy.
_ 411,12. Fine. 13. Cloudy, 14. Cloudy: raina.m, 15, 16.. Fine. 17. Rain
_ AM.and pm. 18. Cloudy: rain a.M.andr.m. 19. Cloudy. 20. Cloudy; rain
_ AM.andpm, 21. Rain a.M,andp.m, 22. Cloudy: rain a.m, 23. Cloudy.
_ 24. Rain, 25. Cloudy. 26. Cloudy: rainp.m. 27. Cloudy: rain a.m. 28,
_. Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 29—31. Cloudy. —
Sandwick Manse, Orkney.—Aug.1. Drizzle a.m.: fog p.m. 2. Clear, fine a.m.:
clear p.m. 3, Bright a.m.: cloudy r.m. 4, Bright a.m.: clear, fine, aurora p.m.
5,6. Bright a.m.: clear, fine p.m. 7. Bright a.m.: cloudy, fine p.m. 8. Cloudy
A.M. and p.M. 9. Cloudy A.M.: cloudy, fine p.m. 10. Bright a.,m.: cloudy p.m.
11. Drops a.m. : drizzle p.m. 12. Bright a.m. : thunder-showers p.m. 13. Clear
4g . AM. : bright p.m. 14. Bright A.m.: vapour, fine pM, 15. Damp 4.M. : drizzle P.M.
°16. Damp.a.m.: clear p.m. 17—22. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 23, Cloudy A.M,
. = Sendy, drops PM, 24. Bright a.m.: cloudy p.m. 25. Rain a.m.: showers P. M.
6. Showers A.M.: drizzle, showers p.M. 27. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 28. Rain
ie : drops p.m. 29. Showers a.m.: drops p.M. 30. Clear a.m.: cloudy p.m,
“31. ‘Rain «.M. : clear, aurora P.M.
ag ‘Mean temperature of Aug. for previous twenty-nine years. ... 55°03
: Mean temperature of this month — ......... ak 4s sonhcd base naan 53 *22
ie Mean temperature of Aug. 1855 — ..iscssesececseesnseveeserecvens 56 °10
ag Average quantity of rain in Aug. for previous sixteen years... 3°01 inches,
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THE ANNALS
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
[SECOND SERIES. ]
No. 107. NOVEMBER 1856.
<i
XXX.—A Notice of some New Genera and Species of British
- Hydroid Zoophytes*. By Josuvua Axper, Esq.
[With three Plates.] —
Havine had occasion lately to examine the zoophytes of the
coasts of Northumberland and Durham for the purpose of draw-
ing up a local Catalogue for the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club,
I have been so fortunate as to meet with several undescribed
species, some of which have not been before observed, and others
have been misunderstood or passed over as varieties. The
species here described belong to the Anthozoa Hydroida of
Johnston.
Family Corynide.
VORTICLAVA, nov. gen.
Polype linear-cylindrical or clavate, soft, naked, affixed at the
base, solitary ?. Head terminal; tentacles in two rows, stout,
dissimilar, the upper row capitate.
Vorticlava humilis, n. sp. Pl. XII. figs. 1-4.
Body white, semitransparent, nearly of equal thickness through-
out; upper tentacles five, short and stout; lower tentacles
ten, about three times the length of the upper.
Length of body 5% inch.
On Corallina officinalis, in a rock-pool between tide-marks,
Cullercoats.
* Read at the late Meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science at Cheltenham. Four new species of Polyzoa, forming a
rt of the communication then read, have been published in the 17th Num-
Ses of the Journal of Microscopical Science.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. ae
354 Mr. J. Alder on some new genera and species
Only one specimen has yet occurred to me of this very inter-
esting little zoophyte, which may readily escape observation on
account of its diminutive size. It was observed on a branch of
Corallina officinalis that had remained for a while in a glass of sea-
water, in the autumn of 1853. The pools where it was obtained
have been searched several times since for additional specimens,
but without success. Iam happy, however, to find that the spe-
cies was also found by Mr. Busk, in the same year, at Felixstowe in
Suffolk. The Cullercoats specimen, which lived with me several
days, showed little animation, holding itself always in a curved
position as represented in fig. 2. The mouth is tubular and
prominent. The upper tentacles, which surround the mouth,
are short and generally curved inwards; their enlarged heads
showing, when highly magnified, a congeries of little tubercles,
which probably contain thread cells. The lower tentacles form
a radiating circle near the base of the head.
Mr. Peach has described, in the ‘ Annals of Natural History ”
for August last, the change of a zoophyte somewhat similar
to this into a naked-eyed Medusa. That gentleman’s obser-
vations led him to conclude that the change was a complete
metamorphosis, and not a reproduction by gemmation as is
usually the case, though the exact point of transition does not
appear to have been observed.
Names given to genera in this family must be considered pro-
visional and subject to revision, should the Zoophytes afterwards
prove to be the transition-state of something already known.
At present this genus has as good a claim to recognition as
Clava and some of its nearest allies.
Family Tubulariade.
Eudendrium confertum, n. sp. Pl. XII. figs. 5-8.
Polype white or pale flesh-coloured, with a longish ovate head,
surrounded by a single row of tentacles. Polypary consisting
of short crowded stems rising from a common base ; they are
tubular, yellowish horn-coloured, strongly wrinkled across but
not annulated, slightly branched, and expanding a little
_ towards the apertures: base a densely reticulated and closely
adhering crust, the interstices filled up by a membrane.
Height + to 3 inch.
On old shells of Buccinum undatum and Fusus antiquus from
deep water, Cullercoats.
This little zoophyte appears to have been first noticed by
Dr. Johnston, though he had subsequently overlooked or for-
gotten it, as when I sent him a description of a specimen got at
of British Hydroid Zoophytes. 305
Cullercoats in 1854, he wrote me that it was not anything he
was acquainted with. I have since, however, found in his Cata-
logue of the Zoophytes of North Durham, published in the
‘Transactions of the Newcastle Natural History Society,’ mention
made of a zoophyte, which is undoubtedly the same as this, and
the description is so characteristic that I cannot do better than
adopt it. “I have observed,” he says, “a small Tubularia which
invests old specimens of Murex antiquus with a dense beard-like
coat, and may, possibly, be a species distinct from the above
(ZT. ramosa). It is only the quarter of an inch in height, slender,
horny, wrinkled, slightly and irregularly branched, the branches
without rings at the origins: polypes white, furnished with a
single series of obtuse tentacula, that do not seem to exceed
ten in number. In this respect it agrees with 7. ramosa as
characterized by Dr. Fleming, but differs from the specimens
which [ have seen, and also from Ellis’s figure of it, in which
the tentacula are much more numerous.” The incrusting base,
which Dr. Johnston does not appear to have examined, forbids
our considering it to be the young of Hudendrium ramosum.
The basal ramifications are corneous and more solid than the
ascending stems, rather broad, flat and undulating in outline,
forming a dense network, the spaces between the larger reti-
culations being nearly filled up with smaller ones, and the
whole, in old specimens, appear to be united by a membrane.
The number of tentacles is not very constant, varying with age,
and occasionally reaching sixteen, but ten is the more usual
number. The mouth is conical when at rest, but varies much
in form, sometimes expanding to a flat disk, with-a wide aper-
ture, similar to what is occasionally seen in Hydractinia echinata,
to the polype of which this bears a strong resemblance.
I have lately met with specimens, apparently of this species,
more branched than the form above described, and showing at
the top of the tube, a cup-like expansion, similar to what is repre-
sented by Van Beneden in his E. ramosum: the cup, though
continuous with the tube, is more membranous and soon falls
off. The species may therefore possibly be the same with that
so well described by Van Beneden, but is not the 7. ramosa of
Linneus, of which Ellis’s figures must be taken to represent the
type.
Eudendrium capillare,n. sp. Pl. XII. figs. 9-12.
Polypary minute, very slender, thread-like, a little branched,
transparent, pale horn-coloured, smooth, excepting two or
three faint rings near the origin of each branch. Polypes ter-
minal on the upper branches, vase- or pear-shaped, with a
single row of eighteen or twenty long, slender tentacles : re-
23%
356 Mr. J. Alder on some new genera and species
productive capsules on separate short branches near the lower
part of the stem on clustered or verticillate pedicles, two or
three capsules in linear series on each pedicle.
Height 3 inch.
Parasitical on Antennularia ramosa, from Embleton Bay,
Northumberland, R. Embleton, Esq.
The peculiarity of this elegant and graceful little zoophyte is
that the reproductive capsules are on separate branches from the
polypes ; the latter always terminating the upper branches, while
the former are on branches near the lower part of the stem. The
moniliform mode of arrangement of the capsules on the pedicles
is similar to what is seen in E. ramosum, where, however, they
are in union with the polypes, arranged round the base of the
tentacles. A more near approach to the mode of arrangement
in E, capillare may be found in Cavolini’s Sertolara racemosa
(Hudendrium racemosum), which has two kinds of reproductive
capsules, one set of which are arranged in moniliform series on
umbels very closely resembling those of our species. According
to Krohn (as quoted by Professor Owen), these capsules, in the
Mediterranean species, are found to contain spermatozoa, and
this may possibly be the case in the present instance. ,
For a knowledge of this new species I am indebted to Mr.
Embleton, who kindly sent it to me along with some other very
interesting species collected in Embleton Bay. It was fortu-
nately preserved in spirits, so that the characters of the animal
could be distinctly made out ; otherwise it might readily be taken
for a Coryne.
Family Sertulariade.
Sertularia tricuspidata, n, sp. Pl. XIII. figs. 1, 2.
Stem: slender, alternately branched, twisted at intervals, and
jointed above each cell: cells alternate, rather distant, smooth,
exactly cylindrical, a little bent outwards, with a three-toothed
rim ; ovicapsules strongly ribbed across, with a narrow funnel-
shaped aperture.
Height 1 to 2 inches,
On zoophytes from deep water on the Northumberland coast.
Without a careful examination of its characters, this species
might be passed over as asmall variety of S. polyzonias, from
which it differs in the slenderness of its proportions, in the shape
of the cells, and especially in their three-toothed apertures.
Mr. Busk has pointed out to me that there is a species very
nearly resembling this found in the South Seas—the S. Johnstont
of Gray, of which he has kindly sent me a specimen from New
SAS ye ee a ee ee
of British Hydroid Zoophytes. 357
Zealand. Like our species it is tridentate; but on a careful
comparison of the two, I find that the southern form differs from
ours in the following particulars. It is of smaller size and more
compact mode of growth; the cells are more closely set, smaller,
shorter, broader at the base, and attached for a greater part of
their length, besides having some rib-like thickenings of the
walls, which are not to be found in the northern species. There
are likewise occasionally two or three cells together without a
joint. The ovicapsules are very similar, but the aperture is not
so much produced, and is conical, not funnel-shaped. Upon the
whole I think there can be little doubt that the two species are
distinct. The form is at least new to the British seas.
The cells of this species do not bulge out below as in S. poly-
zonias, and the capsules are narrower and much more strongly
and regularly ribbed across, with a funnel-shaped aperture, having
a smooth, everted rim.
Sertularia tenella, n. sp. Pl. XIII. figs. 3-6.
Sertularia rugosa, var., Johust. Brit. Zooph. 62. f. 8c.
Minute, creeping, throwing up short unbranched or slightly
branched stems, which are slender, zigzagged, and jointed
above each cell: cells alternate, rather distant, elongate,
barrel-shaped, finely wrinkled across; the aperture erect,
patent, squared and four-toothed.
Length 3 to 1 inch.
Parasitical on Plumularia falcata and other zoophytes, but not
common.
This pretty little species is smaller and more delicate in all its
proportions than S. rugosa, with which it has hitherto been con-
founded. The cells are more erect, narrower, and more closely
and regularly ribbed or wrinkled across; the wrinkles generally
- rising a little opposite each angle; they are six or seven in this
species—in S. rugosa three or four. The aperture is erect,
patent, and conspicuously squared and four-toothed: in S. ru-
_gosa the aperture is much less prominent, and is always bent
outwards. The stem of S. ¢ened/a is slender, seldom exceeding
half an inch in length, and most frequently unbranched : it is
waved or zigzag, bearing a cell at each angle: opposite each cell
there is a joint, above which the cell is much constricted and
slightly ringed er twisted. The cells are more distant than in
S. rugosa, in this respect resembling S. polyzonias, but are more
slender and elongated than in either species; they are thin,
- delicately wrinkled transversely and produced a good deal at the
top. The aperture is closed by a quadripartite operculum, open-
358 Mr. J. Alder on some new genera and species
ing in segments as in Campanularia syringa, but here the seg-
ments are fewer, corresponding with the angles of the mouth.
S. rugosa has a similar operculum. The ovicapsules, for a know-
ledge of which I am indebted to the Rev. T. Hincks, scarcely
differ from those of S. polyzonias and S. rugosa, but are perhaps
a little more produced at the top. The polypes appear to be
yellow or orange-coloured. Specimens of S. ¢enel/la occur in
which the creeping fibre throws up only single cells on short
foot-stalks throughout its course. In this form it might be
taken for a Campanularia.
Family Campanulariade.
Campanularia volubilis. Pl. XIII. fig. 7.
Sertularia volubilis, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1311; Ellis, Brit. Corall. 24.
t. 14. f. aA.
Stem creeping, sometimes giving off shoots in a free state, gene-
rally spirally twisted ; pedicles rather longish, spirally twisted,
and not ringed at the base; a single spherical ring below
each cell; cells generally rather narrow and deep, with about
ten shallow blunt denticles round the margin: ovicapsules
rising on short pedicles from the creeping stem, oblong flask-
shaped, smooth, with a long narrow neck.
Height about jth inch.
On Plumularia falcata, Sertularia fallax, and other zoophytes :
frequent.
Three or four species have hitherto been confounded under
the name of Camp. volubilis. It therefore becomes necessary to
redescribe and discriminate them, and to ascertain, if possible,
to which the Linnean appellation properly belongs. Unfortu-
nately the description of that author is very imperfect, but as he
quotes the excellent figures of Ellis, with which his description, —
as far as it goes, corresponds, these may be fairly taken as
representing the true C. volubilis. The distinguishing character
of the species there represented is the spirally twisted stem ; and
Ellis remarks in his description, that “ at the bottom of each
[cup], where they join the stalk, the microscope discovers to us a
very minute spherule or little ball, as in some drinking glasses.”
With these characters the species here described perfectly agrees.
I have for some time been satisfied that this was distinct from
the C. volubilis of Johnston and other modern British authors,
but it was not until lately that 1 was so fortunate as to meet
with its ovicapsules, the peculiar form of which will, I think,
remove all doubt on the subject. This species is almost equally
common on our coast with that described by Dr. Johnston (which
aa SS ee
I a a
ee ee eo
tke
Se Vids
nf
of British Hydroid Zoophytes. 359
I propose calling C. Johnstoni), but on account of its usually
inhabiting deeper water, it is not so generally met with. They
may, however, be occasionally found mixed together on the same
zoophyte, particularly on the stem of Plumularia falcata; but
when their peculiar characters are known, they can readily be
distinguished from each other. C. volubilis, as here distin-
guished, is scarcely more than half the size of C. Johnstoni, and
has the cells usually narrower and more cylindrical, with the
crenations of the margins blunter and shallower. But the best
distinguishing character is in the pedicle, which in this species
is always spirally twisted throughout, though becoming less
marked towards the top, where a single spherule supports the
cup. The creeping stem is generally, but not always, twisted
when attached ; but when, as is often the case, it becomes free,
its spirally twisted character is beautifully displayed, and it has
the appearance of a minute transparent cord, with a club-shaped
termination. The pedicles and cells arising from the free part
of the stem are always shorter than where it is attached, and
more nearly resemble Ellis’s figure. The ovicapsules are oblong
flask-shaped, smooth, compressed laterally and produced into a
very long and narrow neck ; they arise from the creeping stem
by a short pedicle of two whorls.
Campanularia Johnston, Pl. XIII. fig. 8.
Camp. volubilis, Johnst. Brit. Zooph. 107, woodcut 18; Couch, Cornish
Fauna, 40. t. 2. f. 1; Gosse, Ramb. Dev. Coast, 296. t. 18.
Stem creeping, plain; pedicles long, with numerous close-set
rings at the base, and more or less ringed at the top; the
middle part usually plain; cells deep and rather large, with
ten or twelve strong denticles round the rim: ovicapsules
nearly sessile on the creeping stem, ovate oblong, strongly
plicated transversely and truncated at top.
Height 13 tenth.
On sea-weeds, zoophytes, and shells, from between tide-marks
to deep water: common.
This species is of more robust growth than the last, with the
cells larger and more strongly denticulated ; they are also wider,
but this character is rather variable in both species. The pedicles
are longer and stouter, and have always numerous close-set rings
at the base, and also several rings at the top: the middle part is
variable, sometimes partially or even whoily ringed, but more
frequently plain*. The creeping fibre is always plain, and
‘ It is important in this genus to distinguish between rings and spiral
ridges.
360 Mr. J. Alder on some new genera and species
seldom if ever detached. The ovicapsules are large, ovate or
subcylindrical, more or less elongated, with a truncated top, and
very strongly plicated transversely; they rise from the creeping
stem by scarcely perceptible pedicles. (Mr. Gosse has repre-
sented a spur at the bottom which I have not observed.) It may
be a question for future solution, whether this species is ever
branched. I have found branched specimens from deep water
very much resembling this, with a ringed base and strongly
denticulated cup, which I believe to be the young of Laomedea
dichotoma 8, Johnst. (Sert. longissima, Pallas), having once found
an example a little more advanced, with the ovicapsules of that
species. In Ellis and Solander’s ‘ Zoophytes,’ however, a figure
is given of a branched specimen under the name of Sertularia
volubilis, with vesicles resembling C. Johnstoni.
Campanularia Hincksti. Pl. XIII. fig. 9.
Camp. volubilis, var., Hincks in Ann. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. vol. xi. p. 180.
Stem creeping, plain ; pedicles long, nearly smooth, with two or
three slight spiral twists at the base, and two or three sphe-
rical rings at the top, one of which is within the cup: cells
rather long, with parallel sides, wrinkled or lineated longitu-
dinally ; marginal denticles ten, of a squared or castellated
form, a little indented at top.
Height 1} to 2 tenths.
On shells and zoophytes from deep water: rather rare.
This species differs from the two former in the castellated
form of the rim, and also in the shape of the cup, which is
broad at the base and lineated longitudinally ; the spherical ring
within the cup is also a distinguishing character. The pedicle
is long and quite smooth, with the exception of one or two rings
at its junction with the cell, and a slight spiral twisting at the
base. In this respect it differs from the C. volubilis of Van
Beneden, the cells of which, though differing in shape, have a
somewhat similar castellated rim, but the pedicle is short and
strongly annulated throughout. This latter will probably
constitute a fourth species. The C. Hincksii was first noticed
by Mr. Hineks, who described it in the ‘Ann. Nat. Hist.’ for
March 1858, as a curious variety of C. volubilis, from specimens
sent him by Mr. Templar from the West of England. I have
since met with it sparingly from deep water on the Northum-
berland coast. Mr. Hincks informs me that in his specimen the
ovicapsules were apparently smooth, but from their imperfect
state of preservation, this character was not satisfactorily made
out. My specimens are without capsules.
of British Hydroid Zoophytes. 361
Campanularia gracillima, n.sp. Pl. XIV. figs. 5, 6.
Stem erect, compound, subunilaterally branched ; cells very
slender, long, tubular, thin, set on loosely twisted pedicles of
about two whorls: aperture entire.
Height 1 inch.
On shells and zoophytes from deep water, Northumberland
coast: occasionally.
This is a critical species, greatly resembling C. dumosa, from
which it can only be distinguished by comparative characters,
though its general appearance and habit at once strike the eye
as something distinct. It is much smaller than C. dumosa,
thinner in texture and more flexuose when fresh, with narrower
cells, set on longer pedicles. The stem is erect, and generally
compounded of two or three tubes, diminishing to one at the
ends of the branches. It is a good deal branched, the branches
often rising more from one side of the stem than the other.
The cells are long, very slender, thin and transparent, with a
smooth rim; they are set on pedicles, about one-fourth the
length of the cells, loosely twisted and making about two turns ;
they generally rise at a less angle from the stem than in
C. dumosa, and are more fragile, being very apt to fall off when
dry. The cells of C. dumosa, on the contrary, are more persistent
than in any other species of the genus. C. gracillima appears
usually to assume the erect form; only in one instance have I
observed it creeping over the surface of a shell near the base of
the ascending stem. :
A Campanularia from Bass’s Straits, of which Mr. Busk has
sent me a drawing, is very similar to this, if not identical.
Genus GRaAMMARIA, Stimpson.
“‘Polypidom rectilinear, elongated, cylindrical, composed of
aggregated tubes, generally without branches, which, when they
occur, are of the same character as that from which they spring.
Cells arranged on all sides in more or less regular and equi-
distant longitudinal rows, giving the section of the stem a star-
like appearance.” —Stimpson*,
G. ramosa,n. sp. Pl. XIV. figs. 1-4.
Polypary stout, horn-coloured, irregularly branched, the
branches rising from a constricted base: cells cylindrical,
bending outwards to a distance nearly equalling the width of
the stem, with an even margin, behind which they are fre-
quently annulated with one or two lines of growth ; they are
* Synopsis of the Marine Invertebrata of Grand Manan, p. 9. t. 1. f. 3.
362 On new genera and species of British Hydroid Zoophytes.
set in about four longitudinal rows, the adjoining cells alter-
nating, and the opposite cells nearly on a line with each
other.
Height 1 to 2 inches.
From the deep-water fishing-boats, on the coasts of North-
umberland and Durham: rather rare.
This species comes very close to the Grammaria robusta of
Stimpson, of which it may possibly be a variety, the principal
difference being that the British form is constantly branched,
while the American species is linear and straight. The genus is
new to Europe, and does not appear to differ much from the
Salacia of Lamouroux founded on an Australian species.
EXPLANATION OF PLATES XII., XIII., XIV.
PuaTeE XII.
Figs. 1, 2. Vorticlava humilis, natural size and magnified.
Fig. 3. A tentacle of the lower row much enlarged.
Fig. 4. Ditto of the upper row ditto.
Figs. 5, 6. Eudendrium confertum, natural size and magnified.
Fig. 7. A polypary of the same, magnified.
Fig. 3. A tentacle contracted and very highly magnified.
Figs. 9, 10. Eudendrium capillare, natural size and magnified.
Fig. 11. A polype of the same, more highly magnified.
Fig. 12. Reproductive capsule (sperm-capsule?), more highly magnified,
PLATE XIII.
Figs. 1, 2. Sertularia tricuspidata, natural size and magnified.
Figs. 3, 4. tenella, natural size and magnified.
Fig. 5. Ovicapsule of the same.
Fig. 6. A polype-cell showing the operculum.
Fig. 7. Campanularia volubilis, highly magnified.
Fig. 8. Johnstoni, ditto.
Fig. 9. —— Hincksii, ditto.
PLATE XIV.
Fig. 1. Grammaria ramosa, natural size.
Fig. 2. Another specimen magnified.
Fig. 3. A portion of the same more highly magnified.
Fig. 4. A section of the stem of the same.
Fig. 5. Campanularia gracillima, nat. size.
Fig. 6. A portion of the same, magnified.
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Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 363
XXXI.—The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. By
Dr. Atexanper Braun, Professor of Botany in the Univer-
sity of Berlin, &c.* Translated by Cuas. Francis Srone, B.A.
[Concluded from vol. xvi. p. 354. ]
Wurtz thus, on the one hand, all the facts seem to unite in
establishing the individual nature of the shoot, on comparing
shoots in their qualitative relations, phenomena are brought to
view which seem to contradict such a view of its individuality.
The higher departments of the animal kingdom usually present
| as individuals, representatives of the specific type agreeing in all
essential respects, though, perhaps, not perfectly identical. The
fact of the separation of the sexeswas all that modified this
view; and here, indeed, the essence of the species does seem
to be divided between two different individuals. Attempts have
not been wanting to obviate this contradiction by the Platonic
doctrine of the original unity of the sexes, by the assertion of
Paracelsust ; that, in fact, the two together must be regarded as
the one real individual—and such like.
This contradiction to the usual view of what constitutes the
individual is shown in a far higher degree by qualitative compa-
risous of vegetable shoots, not merely of the same species, but
also of the same stock. Thus we see, e. g. in Equisetum arvense
(Field Horsetail), shoots totally different in aspect proceeding
-from the same root-stock ; in early spring they are pale, disco-
loured, unbranched, terminating with a strobilaceous-like fruc-
tification ; later, green and foliaceous ones appear, verticillately
ramified. Investigations into subterranean vegetation show even
other varieties of shoot- formation, viz. offsets dwindling down to
a point, and club-shaped buds which, at a later period, drop off
of themselves. The Colt’s-foot (Tussilago Farfara) presents
similar phenomena, in early spring putting forth leafless shoots,
with asparagus-like scales terminating with yellow capitula,
which in summer are followed by others bearing leaves. The
flowers in the little capitula of the first present a third variety
of shoots in their lateral branchlets. Even in common life we
distinguish leaf-buds from flower-buds, on many trees. Let us
consider this relation in the Cherry-tree, for example. On. the
same branch we find, on the one hand, buds which develope into
branches bearing leaves, without producing flowers ; on the other
hand, some bearing only little squamate leaves on the shortened
* Reprinted from Silliman’s American Journal for January 1856.
+ “For this ye must know: man without woman is not a whole; only
with woman is he a whole. That is as much as to say: both together make
man, and neither alone.”
364 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.
axis, from whose axils the flowers rise and form a third kind of
shoot.
On examining closer into the real origin of these differences,
we find their ground to be a partition of the different steps of
the metamorphosis (of the formations) among different shoots.
True, there are many plants which go through the whole series
of formations, from the inferior* and the foliaceous formations
up to flower and fruit ; but the cases are very numerous in which
this does not take place, and in which the single shoot is not
able to produce all the formations. Thus there are shoots which
are only able to realize the lower steps, and never attain to flowers
and fruit ; while others overleap all the inferior degrees and com-
mence immediately with the formation of flowers. Hence, on
the one hand, we see the metamorphosis interrupted, a stoppage
taking place at a determinate step; on the other, the metamor-
phosis attained by passing over the intermediate steps. Still
more remarkable are the cases in which the retardation is not
merely an interruption at a determinate step, but appears as a
real retrogression in the metamorphosis, whereby an alternate
rise and fall—an oscillation—usually takes place, which may at
last pass over in victorious progress to the formation of flower
and fruit; though in most instances it prevents the shoot in
question from ever attaining itsend. Hedlleborus niger is an ex-
ample of the first case; for after many years of inferior- and
foliaceous-leaf formation, at last it attams superior leaves and
fruit by overleaping the formation of foliaceous-leaves which
until then had prevented its further progresst. Many of our
trees with true foliage present examples of the second case.
Their branches commence with bud-scales (inferior-leaves), the
succeeding foliaceous branch ends with a terminal bud (thus
falling back to inferior-leaf formation), and in the next period of
vegetation they rise again to foliaceous-leaf formation {,—as in
* On the terminology of the leaf-formations, see Wydler, Bot. Zeit.
1844, 36tes Stiick, and A. Braun, Verjiingung, p. 66. (Henfrey’s Transl.
Ray Soc. 1853, p. 62.)
+ Analogous cases occur in the branches in 4/sculus and many Maples
which attain to flowers. Among herbaceous plants Anemone nemorosa and
Asarum Europeum also belong here, and especially remarkable is the Tulip,
the plants of which, not yet ripe for flowering, annually develope one single
foliaceous leaf, followed by a central bud hidden in the middle of the bulb
and composed of several inferior-leaves. ‘This bud preserves this position
in bulbs deep in the ground, but in those nearer the surface it 1s, as 1t were,
led out of the centre of the bulb, and sinks deeper into the earth, causing
an indentation of the surrounding base of the preceding leaf in form like a
spur, boring through the old bulb and penetrating vertically into the
ground, and at the same time sinking itself into a deeper stratum with the
spur ;—an arrangement explained, but not with sufficient clearness, by
Henry in Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. vol. xxi. p. 275. t. 16 & 17.
+ In such librations, of course, the formation of the flower can only be
Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 365
the Oak, Beech and Poplar. A similar oscillation between infe-
rior-leaf formation and foliaceous-leaf formation, keeping pace
with the change of season, is seen in the creeping main-shoot of
Adoxa, and in the stock of Hepatica nobilis, creeping close to the
soil, with its short internodes, and which in so far deserves its
French name (la fille avant la mére) as its flowers, which unfold
before the foliage, do not belong to the same individual as the
foliage, but are produced laterally as a “ daughter generation ”
from the axils of the inferior-leaves of the maternal stem *. A
similar phenomenon, only in a higher degree (a rising and fall-
ing between foliaceous- and superior-leaf formation), is presented
by those plants whose inflorescence ends in a foliaceous coma, as
is remarkably the case in the Pine-Apple, and also in the New
Holland species of Melaleuca and Callistemon, whose crowded,
brush-like inflorescence (é. e. the region covered with superior-
leaves and bearing the flowers in the axils of these) returns and
forms foliaceous-leaves, and in the following year again attains
an inflorescence.
While every leaf-formation may bring the progress of the
metamorphosis on a single shoot to a consummation, it is con-
ceivable that one shoot may be allowed to each step for itself
alone. Thus, there are shoots which represent inferior-leaf
formation alone; e.g. the root-stock of Paris quadrifolia, the
tuberiferous branches of the rhizoma of the Potato+; and there
attained by particular branches, deviating in character from the rest,—the
catkins which pass over leaf-formation advancing from the inferior-leaves
immediately to the superior-leaves out of whose axils the flowers are
emitted.
* The same obtains in Galanthus nivalis, in which every annual gene-
ration consists of one inferior-leaf, one foliaceous-leaf with a vagina, and
one without a vagina, which follow each other in simple alternation, in a
distichous arrangement. The flower, as a branch, is emitted from the axil
of the second foliaceous-leaf, while the direct continuation of the shoot re-
turns again to inferior-leaf formation. In striking contrast to the extremely
simple relations of this plant we find Owalis tetraphylia and other species
of that genus, in which the subterraneous main-stem also presents an alter-
nation of inferior-leaf formation and foliaceous-leaf formation, advancing
with the change of season, but conjoined with a rare abundance of leaves
and a complicated phyllotaxis. The number of the inferior-leaves amounts
to several hundreds; and transverse sections of the bulbs, which last
through the winter and are formed by the close approximation of these
leaves, form some of the prettiest specimens of phyllotaxis, showing 21-15
arrangement through easily computable 8-, 13- and 2l-ranked oblique
spirals. The number of the foliaceous-leaves is not so large ; they develope
in the summer, and form an 8- to 13-leaved rosette, out of which the axil-
lary inflorescences issue, with their long peduncles.
+ In case (as sometimes occurs) the tuber does not pass through this
formation and advance to foliaceous-leaf formation. The tuber is the
thickened apex of the inferior-leaf shoot. Cf. the figure by Turpin, Mém.
du Mus. d’Hist. Nat. t. 19. pl. 2.
366 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.
are some which are endowed with the foliaceous-leaf formation
only, as the primary axis of many species of Veronica, the sterile
leafy branches of several Huphorbia, as well as the leafy branches
of those woody growths which have no bud-scales and no terminal
inflorescence (e. g. Rhamnus Frangula). Cases of pure superior-
leaved shoots may be seen in the peduncles of Veronica Cha-
medrys, officinalis, &c., in the (always lateral) spike-bearing
scapes of Plantago, and the racemes of Convallaria majalis, which
shoot out of the axil of the highest lower-leaf as branches. Even
the leaf-formation belonging to the flower can be divided among
different shoots, and thus the flowers may be produced piece-
meal, so to say; as is the case in all dicecious plants, where
the two most essential formations of the flower (the stamens and
pistils) are found, not in the same flower, but in two separate
ones. Even the less essential parts of the flower, the sepals and
the petals, may occur separated from the other particular shoot-
lets; as may be seen in the neutral flowers in the coma of the
spike of Muscari comosum and in the ray-flowers of the cyme of
Viburnum Opulus. The destitution of the shoot may be carried
so far as to cause it to produce but one single leaf, or one single
formation (whether from the sphere of the plant-stock, or from
that of the leaves) ; in which case the individual represents only
one single organ; as, for mstance, in the branches which form
the axis of the inflorescence in Vicia monantha and other Legu-
minosee with racemes reduced to one flower, bearing one single
superior-leaf, from whose axil the flower proceeds. The male
flower of Euphorbia is a peduncle whose flower consists of one
single stamen*. Must we, now, still regard as individuals, these
* The genuine cases will be of rare occurrence if we look at the cases
which belong here rigorously, that is, if we take into account the dwarfed
foliaceous formations which may possibly exist, suppressed or scarcely dis-
cernible. The male flower of Euphorbia itself properly belongs here only
in appearance, as two small scales (inferior-leaves) occur, more or less de-
veloped, at the base of the peduncle. The small involucre of the male
flower proceeds to develope itself out of one of these scales. (Cf. Wydler,
Linnea, 1843, p. 409.) Another example of a one-leaved shoot (though a
spurious one) is presented in the Californian Pinus monophylios (Fremont),
whose lateral branchlets bear a fascicle of needle-shaped leaves reduced to
one single needle: but this, as well as the pair of such leaves of our ordi-
nary Pines, is preceded by a vagina composed of several bud-scales.
Perhaps another deception is played upon us in this case, for the perfectly
round form of this needle excites the suspicion that it may be composed of
two which have grown together through their whole length. The seed-
bearing fruit-scales of the cone of Abietine, which are placed in the axils
of the scales, also appear to be one-leaved shoots; but the series of changes
which these scales present in cones of Pinus Larix which have completed
their growth, proves that these fruit-scales are composed of two concrete
leaves. The spurious axis of the Grape is a concatenation of alternating
Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 367
shoots, so partially endowed, and the last-named so destitute ?
Certainly. For if the individual can fall short, though ever so
little, of the perfect realization of the specific idea, then there
are no limits to its imperfection and destitution ; for, after all,
the realization of this vegetable Idea by the different members
of the vegetable kingdom is precisely similar to the realization
of the species by its single individuals. To be sure, our idea of
a plant implies that it shall manifest its life in a series of suc-
cessive formations, that it shall put forth its leaves, flowers and
fruit by successive steps ; and yet there are plants which produce
no leaves and no fruit (the Cryptogamia) ; again, there are others
which hasten on to form flower and fruit with various inter-
missions of the regular steps, as is especially the case with the
ugly parasites destitute of that green foliage which elsewhere is
so characteristic a product of the vegetable world*. One of
these (the Hydnorat, which preys upon the root of the South
African Euphorbia) seems entirely devoid of all the foliage which
is usually formed before the flower. Hence, therefore, in gene-
ral we cannot necessarily regard individuals as perfect repre-
sentatives of the specific idea, and hence, too, we cannot regard
them as representations invariably identical in their realizations.
Individuals appear rather as living attempts, by which the Idea
is more or less attained, and is thus realized with various modi-
fications. From this point of view even the differences in indi-
one- and two-leaved leaf-shoots, if we do not count the one or two little
dwarfed superior-leaves, which in most cases are perceptible on the apex of
the single shoot which finally forms a cirrhus. Ophioglossum presents a
genuine case of a one-leaved shoot. The spike of this plant is a single
fertile leaf, standing in the axil of the sterile one, and hence belonging to
a lateral axis, of which however nothing is perceptible but this leaf. (Cf.
Schnitzlein, Icon. fam. nat. Heft ii. t. 32.) The utriculus of Carex is the
solitary leaf of an axis which in its normal condition developes no farther,
and out of which, as the axillary formation of the utriculus, the female
flower is emitted. And the so-called neutral flower of Panicum, and the
allied Grasses, is a shootlet which developes nothing but one leaf (the
bract of the flower).
* Orobanche, Lathrea, Monotropa, Cynomorium, all of which agree in
the inferior-leaf formation passing immediately into superior-leaf formation,
and thus the formation of foliaceous-leaves is omitted. In the celebrated
Rafflesia the immense flower is preceded by bud-scales only, which must
be considered as the inferior-leaf formation. The same occurs in Frostia,
which preys upon the branches of arborescent Leguminose, and which re-
sembles a mere flower so much, that one might doubt whether it is merely
a monstrous papilionaceous flower or a real parasite. (Cf. Endlicher, Gen.
Plant. p. 76; and Guillemin, Nouv. Ann. des Sc. Nat. i. t. 1; and as to
parasites in general, Unger, Annalen d. Wiener Museums, part 2.)
+ E. Meyer, Nov. Act. Acad. L. C. Nat. Cur. xvi. 2. p. 771. t. 58 & 59,
and R. Brown, On the female flower and fruit of Rafflesia and Hydnora,
1844, pl. 6-9.
868 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.
viduals,.as pointed out by the doctrine of shoots, within the
limits. of vegetable species, will no longer surprise us; on the
contrary, it will open to us a deeper insight into that independ-
ence presented to us even in the life of nature, in the realization
of the internal problems of the creation.
But here, too, as is so variously the case in nature, the regu-
lative law is admirably united to the free configuration ; for what
gives a peculiar interest to the differences among shoots in the
same species is the regular reciprocal relation among the shoots,
as they reciprocally complete each other by their very one-sided-
ness, and thus form a higher whole. In this respect the quali-
tative difference of shoots bears a certain relation to their origin,
that is, to the order of ramification to which they belong. And
as the formation of shoots, as was shown, is a process of propa-
gation, we see here, in the history of the development of the
species, propagation taking the place of individual development.
A second individual takes up the thread of reproduction which
the preceding one was unable to carry any farther. . Thus, what
we are accustomed to see elsewhere attained in the individual, is
here reached by the generation in a more or less strictly deter-
mined cycle ;—in other words, where the single shoot is inca-
pable, a determinate succession of shoot-series arises to bring the
internal problem of its existence to a consummation,—to com-
plete the metamorphosis into flower and fruit. This remarkable
phznomenon,—which is a very frequent one in the vegetable
kingdom, and is one of the essential characteristics of many of
the most important families of plants, e. g. the Grasses, Synan-
theree, Labiatifloree, Crucifere, Leguminosae, &e.,—is the same
as that which in the animal kingdom (in whose lower orders it
reappears) was, we cannot say discovered, but brought to a
clearer comprehension not long since by the Norwegian natu-
ralist Sars*, completed and confirmed by Von Siebold’s investi-
gations into the history of the development of Medusa aurita +,
and soon after substantiated in its universality by the Dane,
Steenstrup, under the name of “ aiternation of generation,” or
propagation and development by alternate series of generations f.
Single cases of alternation of generation had been already care-
fully observed § ; but they were too much in opposition to the
* In Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1844, where the observations published in the
author’s earlier works, on the adolescent states of Medusa, are complete
and concluded.
+ Beitrage zur Naturgesch. der wirbellosen Thiere. Danzig, 1839...
t Ueber d. Generationswechsel, iibersetzt von Lorenzen, Copenhagen,
1842. ;
§ Bonnet’s industrious observations, the first that were made, of the
alternating mode of reproduction of Aphis, published in his ‘ Traité de
Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 369
usual mode of reproduction to be understood in their true mean-
ing. It was attempted to reconcile them with the customary
mode by an unnatural interpretation, which regarded them as
subversive exceptions to the general rule; while on the contrary
almost all later works* bring to light a multitude of unexpected
facts which take their places naturally under the law of alter-
nation of generation as now known, and substantiate the perti-
nent words of Goethe with which Steenstrup opens his Memoir:
“ Nature keeps on her course, and what seems an exception is in
rule.” It was Sars, however, who first gave the answer to the
riddle, the key to the newly opened domain, when he said of the
course of development of Medusa, that here “ it was not the in-
dividual, but the generation, which underwent the metamor-
phosist.” This was the true point of view; for Steenstrup
‘dwelt too exclusively on the physiological side, the functional
relations, of the alternating generations. Steenstrup, in fact,
VInsectologie’ in 1745, though made in 1740, belong here. Also Cha-
misso’s correct observations of alternation of generation in Salpe, described
in his Memoir, De Animalibus quibusdam classe Vermium Linnzana,
Fase. 1, 1819. Fragments in regard to the alternation of generation of
Trematoda were known (but as such they did seem very enigmatical) by
Bojanus’s Beschreibung d. konigsgelben Wiirmer (the “nurses” of Tre-
matoda according to Steenstrup) aus welchen Cercarien (the larve of the
final generation) herauskommen (Isis, 1818), and by von Bauer’s important
work on Cercarié and the related Bucephalus (Beitrage zur Kenntniss d.
niederen Thiere, Act. Nat. Cur. vol. xin. 1827).
* Of the later works, by which the field of alternation of generation has
been extended, [ will adduee in particular: Sars, Fauna litoralis Norvegie,
1846, in which the sections especially important in relation to alternation
of generation are those on Syncoryna, Podocoryna, Perigonimus, Cytais,
as well as on Agalmopsis, Diphyes, and Salpa.— Van Beneden, Recherches
sur l’Embryogénie des Tubulaires (1814); Mém. sur les Campanulaires de
la cdte d’Ostende (1845, in the Mém. de |’Acad. Roy. de Bruxelles, t. xvii.) ;
Recherches sur ’Anat., la Physiol. et le Dével. des Bryozoaires (Mém. de
PAcad. Roy. de Br. t. xviii.).— Dujardin, Sur le Dével. des Méduses et des
Polypes hydraires (Ann. des Sc. Nat. Nov. 1845).—Krohn, Bemerkungen
iiber die Geschlechtsverhialtnisse d. Sertularimen (in Miiller’s Archiv, 1843,
e 174); Ueber d. Fortpfi. u. Entw. der Biphoren (Froriep’s neue Notizen,
No. 868, 1846).—Busch, Beob. titber Anat. u. Entw. d. Infusorien (Arch.
f. Naturgesch. xv. p.92). How great an importance must be attributed to
the discovery of alternation of generation in dispelling the darkness which
until then settled on the history of the life and development of Entozoa,
may be seen in particular in Siebold’s pregnant communications in R.
Wagner’s Handworterbuech d. Physiologie, p. 640 (Article: Parasiten).
+ Sars, l.c. p.29. This assertion, of course, must not be understood as
if the particular generation did not come im for its part of a metamorphosis.
Sars’ view is most beautifully corroborated by a comparison with plants ;
as in plants the metamorphosis of the individual itself is connected with
_ the formation which leads to the completion of new parts, which im their
turn have their own subordinate metamorphosis.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 24
370 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable. Individual.
considered that the significance of alternation,of generation,con-
sisted in its being an organic nursing of the brood conneeted
with particular generations, for which reason he) termed the in-
dividuals of these generations “nurses ;”-—a, mode ,of miewing
the subject, which, with all Steenstrup’s pregnant elaboration of
his idea, and with all the analogies, he pointed out between it
and the well-known phenomena of nursing the brood. by. parti-
ticular individuals among bees, wasps, ants and termites, does
not seize the essential point of the phenomenon of alternation
of generations*. Rk. Leuckart+ conceives alternation of gene-
ration from a more comprehensive physiological point. of view,
in connexion with the totality of all the other phenomena of
the formation of different individuals, whether it occurs in-a dif-
ferent or in the same generation; regarding all these pheeno-
mena from the point of view of a division, not merely, of the
generic task, but of the vital task in general, among certain in-
dividuals ; considering it as a polymorphism determined; byva
division of labour... But even this yiew. must! lead:‘to the-mor-
phological one ; for the division of labour is determined by the
organic development, while this itself obtaims its peculiar cha-
racter from the determinate step of the metamorphosis at which
the development ceases ;—and this is just what is so unmis-
takable in the phenomena of alternation of generation in plants.
Hence asa typical phenomenon of development, as a metamor-
phosis of generation, alternation of generation (as ‘well ‘as the
metamorphosis of the individual) presents analogies with the
graduated. series mm the animal and vegetable. kingdoms, and
the organic: seale of the creation, in general.;—a point :to which
* Steenstrup’s explanation is most correct in regard:to.the history of the
development of Distoma, whose nurses and grand-nurses are at last, utricles
entirely filled with the brood, and forming mere receptacles of the brood.
Its application is less happy to those cases where the transition,from the
preparatory generations to the final generation takes place through external
shoot- or bud-formation, as in Sertularie, Campanularie, and Coryne,
whose nurses forming the polype-stem can continue to live even after the
concluding generations, comparable to the flower in plants, separate or
wither off.. Hence the vital actiyity of the Rreparabory generations is not
exhausted in the production of the brood. _ Steenstrup’s view, accordingly,
would only be correct if non-sexual brood-production (by imternal or ex-
ternal shoot-formation or. by division), and Ttecklation of generation were
correlative conditions of each other... But this.is not. the case, as repro-
duction by shoots takes place without any alternation of.generation in.a
great number of animals (Ascidia, Bryozoa, Madrepora), and) by. division
as well (Astrea, Annulata, Infusoria)...These.cases.are comparable to the
occurrence of unessential branches in plants ;, while alternation of generation
represents the. succession. of essential, shoots, F
+ Ueber d, Polymorphismus d. Indiy..od.d. Ersch. der, Arbeitstheilung
in d, Natur. Ein Beitrag-z, Lehre v. Generationsw, (1851). :
Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 371
Carus *’ called attention, and Reichert, his predecessor, as
well.
The difficulties which the qualitative differences of shoots of
one and the same species seem to present to our conception of
shoots as individuals, will be entirely obviated if we can demon-
strate that a partial outfit and equipment of individuals, perfectly
analogous to those found among plants, are likewise found in
the animal kingdum, where in most cases there is less doubt as
to what is an individual,—if we can show that in both kmgdoms,
and in a similar manner, a polymorphism of individuals occurs
which depends upon a division of the steps of development and
of the vital problem of the species among individual members,
whether of the same generation (divisions of generation), or of
different generations cyclically succeeding each other (alternation
of generation).
‘Let us first compare the phenomena of alternation of gene-
ration (or, as it should be called, cyclical succession of gene-
rations) in both kmgdomst+. As is the case in the alternation
* Zur/naheren) Kenntniss. d. Generationsw. (1849); and, Einige Worte
ub. Metam. u. Generationsw. (von Siebold u. Kolliker, Zeitschr. f.. wiss.
Zool. iii. 1851, p. 359).
~-— These remarks on alternation of generation in plants, do not depend,
as one might perhaps be disposed to think, upon a zoological doctrine
fancifully-applied to plants. But I recognized the phenomenon as the
same, and I treated of it in my papers, if not under the same name, still! in
the same meaning, before my attention was called to the occurrence of this
phenomenon in the animal kingdom by Steenstiup’s work. _ As soon as
the’ doctrine of the shoot as the vegetable individual was assumed in all its
eonsequences, a determinate succession of generations emitted one from
the other necessarily appeared to be the ground of the flower’s first making
its appearance in many plants im a determinate degree of ramification, and
of the oceurrence of a determinate succession of steps in the series of axes
up to this goal, caused by a peculiar partition of the leaf-formations. .
Hereby the essential shoot-succession, which is the one which represents
alternation of generation, was accurately distinguished from the unessential
one. Twenty years ago, or more, C. Schimper distinguished between
essential and aubaakiibint shoots, denominating the first (in a wider sense of
the word) “ Ableger” [off-sets], the latter “‘ Ausleger”’ [out-sets]. Inthe
*Versammluneg d. Naturforscher * in Mayence in the autumn of 1842, I made
a communication on this subject, and at the same time in particular I
ealled attention to the frequent importance of the characteristics involved
in these relations when applied to improving the differentiation and group-
ing of species. Of this communication a report appeared in the ‘ Flora’ for
1842; p. 962, though, indeed, somewhat distorted by inaccuracies. Wydler
treated the same subject in the ‘Bot. Zeit.? 1844, St. 37, under the heading
*“Achsenzah! der Gewiachse,”” and gives a compendium of examples, in
which, however, much appears which needs qualification. As Wydler in-
forms us, Aug. de St. Hilaire is said to have turned his attention to ascer-
taining the number of essential axes in plants ; however, I find nothing in
the place referred to in the ‘ Lecons de Botanique ’ but the distinction be-
tween determinate and indetermmate growth, which has been known since
24°
372 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual:
of generation. of animals, a twofold. reproduction, appears) in
plants: sexual and non-sexual. . Disregarding for, the present
the various relations of alternation, of generation. among the
Cryptogamia, we find sexual reproduction (in animals. by. ferti,
lized ova,—in plants by fertilized seeds) always vested im the
generation which concludes the cycle of generations, .. That the
consideration of this generation as the concluding one is not
arbitrary, is shown by comparing it, with the usual course of
the metamorphosis ; for the concluding generation is invested
with the concluding formations of the metamorphosis, (flower
and fruit), im the same way in fact asin the animal the complete
development, of the organs of generation occurs at the summit
of the individual metamorphosis. The preceding (preparatory)
generations, which Steenstrup. calls “ nurses,” on the contrary
invariably produce their brood by non-sexual reproduction; im
the animal kingdom this takes place, now through germ-granules
which develope in the interior ofthe body (as; the. nurses ,of
Distoma), now by ,a-process of division inthe, posterior part. of
the body (the nurse, of the Medusa, the, Tape-worm), or; finally
by external, persistent or deciduous, shoot-formations (Coryne,
Campanularia, Sertularia, &c.)..., Among Phanerogamia, the last
is the only kind. occurring subservient to alternations of gene-
ration. bot KE :
In animals, as in, plants, the number of the generations, in
which,the eycle of alternation of generation, is completed, is for
the most/part.a determinate one. Medusa, Salpe, Coryne, and
Tubulane conclude this cyclein the second generation ; accordin
to Steenstrup’s. showing, Distoma: pacificum has. a Bal
alternation of generation, and the family, stock, of, Pennatula
seems also to be formed by a trimembral.succession..of shoots.
Campanularia has a, quadrimembral cycle, in, which however the
two first. generations are of the same character. Among. Sertu-
laria, cycles of still more numerous members appear to occur:
eight to ten generations form the annual cycle of. generation. of
Joachim Jung’s time, and was brought forward especially by Roeper and
applied by him to classifying inflorescences. It is exemplified, in that place,
by creeping stems, upright root-stocks, and by bulbs; and the section on
indeterminate stems is unluckily exemplified by wrong cases, viz. Scirpus
palustris, Primula officinalis, and Menyanthes, to which indeterminate
mainshoots are falsely ascribed.—Steenstrup also lays down an. alter-
nation of generation in plants, m the concluding remarks in his work
quoted above, as well as in his later book, ‘ Ueber das Vorkommen des
Hermaphroditismus in der Natur” (On the Phenomenon of Hermaphro-
ditism m Nature), though in an ‘entirely different manner from nine as
here given; for he compares the single leaves of the plant with the indi-
ee in animals,—a mode of viewing the subject in regard to which J
have already expressed my opinion in the Introduction. | eo
Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 373
Aphides, though, excepting the last one, they are all similar and
not even determinate as to number.
To these examples from the animal kingdom much more nu-
merous ones from the vegetable kingdom might be added, though
Twill only adduce ‘a few of them here. Most Labiatiflore,
Synantheree, Grasses, Polygalee, Primulacee, the Dictamnus,
Tris, Galanthus nivalis, &c., have a bimembral alternation of
generation in different ways, according to the partition of the
formations. In Paris, for example, the first generation takes
the lowest grade: it presents a subterranean inferior-leaf shoot
(rhizoma), which never leaves the darkness of the earth, only
reaching the world of light, towards which all plants strive, in
its posterity, viz. in the quadrifoliate and unifloral lateral shoots
which it sends up. The first generation of Viola odorata and
allied ‘species forms foliage proper ; still, the maim axis tarries
close to the earth, and the second generations (the lateral flowers)
scarcely rise above the foliage. In Lysimachia nummularia the
main-shoot, a rooting leaf-stem, creeps along the surface of the
ground, growing indefinitely, and terminating only in the (essen-
tial) lateral branches by its golden-yellow flowers. The main-
shoot’ rises perpendicularly, forms foliage proper, and passes
on to superior-leaf formation ‘in many species of Veronica, e. g.
V. acinifolia, producing its flowers as a second generation out of
the axils of the leaves. The same holds good in regard to Oro-
banche ramosa, which fixes itself ‘and preys upon the root’ of
Hemp, though its main-shoot has no green leaves.’ A very-re-
markable bimembral alternation of generation is shown by Adoza,
now so famous, its name to the contrary notwithstanding*. ‘The
main-shoot creeps along the ground, oscillating with the seasons
between leaf and inferior-leaf formation,—at every return of the
latter ‘stretching out like a runner’ and boring into the’earth.
Flowers and fruit, frustrated by the invariable retrogression of
the main-shoot, are produced by the aspiring perpendicular
branches, after a pair of small leaves on the scape, and several
insignificant superior leaves, out of whose axils the lateral flowers
are emitted as unessential shoots of the third degree. Hepatica
presents a similar division of the formations among the two ge-
nerations of shoots; but the main-shoot, rejuvenated from year
to year ‘and alternating between inferior-leaf and leaf formation,
is short and upright.’ The branches with: their single flowers,
forming the second generation, arise in the axils of the scale-like
inferior-leaves. A bimembral succession of shoots occurs in
Convallaria Polygonatum, the genus Alve, all species of Plantago,
_ * E, g. Adoxa moschatellina, which derives its name from 5d£a (fame).
The relations of growth in this plant have been correctly described by
Wydler, Bot. Zeit. 1844, p. 657.
374 Dr: A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.
Veronica officinalis, Chamedriys, &e., Viola sylvatica, Lysimachia
thyrsifolia, Alyssum saxatile, and some other Crucifere, Echeveria
coccinea, all the species of Melilotus, Medicago, Galega, in Pisum,
and many other leguminous plants, and in Succisa ‘pratensis,
Anacyclus, Pyrethrum, Polygonum, Bistorta, &c. A familiar ex-
ample oceurs in Secale: its spiciferous culm forms the shoot of
the first degree, the lateral spikelets which compose the spike
itself are those of the second*, and the florets in the axils of the
superior leaves (pales) “of these spikelets are the shoots of the
third degree, 7. e. the third generation of the cycle. A quadri-
membral suecession of shoots occurs in Trifolium montanum,
Hedysarum coronarium, and in several of the New Holland phyl-
lodineous Acacia. Several species of Carex, e. g. C. maxima and
leptostachys, have a trimembral succession of ‘shoots wp to the
male flower and a five-membral one up to the female.
If we were to reckon the similar generations which are reared
one above the other until the tree gains strength enough to per-
fect its flowers, in many trees without terminal buds, as im the
Willow, or the Lime, we might find a number of generations
equal’ or even much superior to that presented by Aphis. °”
Besides the generation essential to itself, and by which it gives
existence to the hext grade m the cycle, every generation may
have still another’ unessential reproduction, which only extends
the same ‘grade.’ As above we distinguished between essential
and’ unessential shoots, so here accordingly we must distinguish
an-essential succession of generations,—the true alternation of
generation,—and an unessential one. Very often both oceur in
the same species of plants. A fine example of this is shown in
Lysimachia nummularia, from whose creeping and rootimg ‘leaf:
axis are emitted not only peduncles, but here and there a new
creeping leaf-axis exactly repeating the origimal one (except ‘as't6
the two early-lost cotyledons) : and from the undetermined leaf-
bearmg main-axis of Tropeolum minus are emitted in regular
alternation three lateral flowers ata time, and then again one
(unessential) leaf-shoot. In Cardamine amara the first genera-
tion (the stem bearing foliaceous and superior leaves) is repeated
in a twofold manner, by lateral branches from the cauline leaves,
and by creepers from axils of the root-leaves. Similar relations
obtain’ in’ Mentha and a large number of other plants. This
sarne phenomenon is repeated in the animal kmgdom. ‘The
polype-like nurses of the Medusa increase.as such: (according to
Sars and Von Siebold) by lateral buds and runners: | Syncoryne
* ‘Secale, in fact, has no terminal spicule ; neither has Tritiewm mono-
coccum, while the other cultivated species of Tritiewm have.
# Ihave described the Grape in reference to this subject in ee
place (Verjiingung, p. 49) [Henfrey’s Transl. op. cit. p. 46
Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 375
are, spadix-polypi, which represent. trees by their formation. of
unessential. branches, emittimg finally from every, branch and
fromthe middle stock a whorl.of individuals of the second (and
last). degree... Campanularie and Sertularie. put, forth runners
from, the bases of the main-individual, which again shoot. up
and, become new main-stems, or new stems emerge out. of
them ; and. perhaps. the ramifications of Bucephalus (which
according to Steenstrup’s supposition is the larva of Aspido-
gaster, conchila), as represented by Baer in Noy. Act. Acad. Nat.
Cur. xiii. 2, belong here.
In our qualitative comparison of. shoots, it was shown how
the shoot: may be limited to a few leaves, or even to a single
one ; in like manner the animal individual, in the division of
réle which occurs in alternation of generation, may become the
representative of one single organ, of one single function.
Thus.the females of Coryne squamata are hardly anything more
than egg-stocks, and,the males than sperm-stocks*. The mem-
bers of the Tape-worm, which are so many individuals of the final
generation, hardly represent. anything more than hermaphrodite
sexual apparatus. ',.As.an analogous example in. the vegetable
kingdom perhaps|the Willow+ may be compared to the Coryne ;
here too the shoots of the last degree are nothing but naked
unisexual apparatus of reproduction. .. In Potamogeton {,.on. the
contrary, they are hermaphrodite, as in the Tape-worm. .. The:
construction of many) of the lower animals, which. when, con-
sidered. as individual animals seem to be the strangest. monsters,
becomes more intelligible as soon as they are regarded. from.this
point, of view;—as soon as we make up our minds to regard the
supposed. individuals as a family stock, and. its parts (formerly
held .to. be. mere organs, and which, physiologically considered,
are really nothing more) as individuals. . In particular. this is
true of Physophora, Stephanomia and Agalmopsis.
- (In. many cases we.find alternation of generation connected
with .division of ‘generation, that is, the appearance of hetero-
geneous individuals in one.and the same generation.. Just. as is
the. case in animal and vegetable forms without alternation of
generation, so, where it is connected with alternation of, gene-
ration, division of generation relates principally to the sexual
functions; and a glance.at the animal ‘angdom shows us rela-
tions of alternation, of. generation complicated by division.per-
>> * Hence’ Rathke regards the male individuals as mere testicles. Cf,
Wiegm. Archiv, 1844, p. 155, and Steenstrup, Hermaphr. tab; 1. £..17-20,
+ The two stamens in the Willow, and the floriferous bud as well, are
receded by only two very small bracts, which grow together and form a
ittle scale.
~The flowers of Potamogeton are branches which bear only stamens
and carpels.
376 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual:
fectly, sumilar to, those which occur in the vegetable: kingdom.
In animals which go through an alternation of -generation, the
individuals of the preparatory generations are non-sexual); still
they may nevertheless have a determinate aamportance im relation
to the completion of the race whichis to form their posterity:
When. in fact the final generation does not consist of hermaphro-
dite individuals, as obtains, for, instance, in the Tape-worms;
various alternations are conceivable: the final mdividuals of both
sexes can, be nourished by the same nurse, and hence the sexual
division will first take place in the second, or generally speaking,
in the last, generation; or, different nurses may. nourish: the
two. sexes, so that.a division of generation will occur even at
the degree of nurse-formation.. li in the last case the nurses
are not single ones, but even then form per se:a family stock,
then.on the same stock we may, either have male-bearmg and
female-bearing nurses, together, or, these, two -kinds. of | nurses
may be divided among different stocks, according as the division
of,.generation..oceurs. in a determinate later generation, or|ds
present, already in the. first. Although as yet: the observations
of these,relations.by no means. form an-unbroken chain*, still
this much, is. certain, that’ in animals, in the) same) wayas)an
plants, both. moncecious and dicecious forms occur; and hence
there.are families partly bisexual, partly. unisexual.:Coryne,
) Lubularie, Campanularia, and. probably all: Sertularie . (hence,
doubtless, the greater part of Hydroids), also, Veretillum, Cyno-
morium, according to Steenstrup; Krohn, and other: observers,
are dioecious, whether they form small simple stocks, as :Coryne
squamata, or small ramified trees, as Syncoryne, Campanularie +,
&c.,..Qn. the. other hand, the Siphonophora, according: to: Milne-
Edwards’s description of Stephanomiat (and judging from Sars’
description of Agalmopsis), are moneecious family stocks ; Hydre
are also moncecious§... To enter any further into these relations
as they occur in the lower, animals would. lead us too far from
our subject; but it may be in-place to give some details as: to
* Thus, e. 9., as far as I know, it remains to be shown whether the
single nurses of Meduse produce Meduse of both sexes, or, as is most
probable, only those of the same sex.. In Aphis also this point still needs
to be more accurately determimed, |
t+ Steenstrup, Hermaphr. pp. 66, 67, 72.
{ Ann, des Se. Nat. 1841, p. 217. pl. 7-10.
§ The later investigations into the Siphonophora by Huxley, Edin. Phil.
Journ. 1852, Kolliker, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool.) 1852, .and..Leuckart,. Zool.
Untersueh. Heft 1, 1853, corroborate the moneecious relations of these won-
derful creatures as regards most of their genera, e.g. Agalma, Agalmopsis,
Stephanomia (Apolemia), Physophora, and the other closely related genera.
Busch’s researches into the group of .Diphyide have. proved them to, be
dicecious, and the same; obtains .1n, the related genus Epibulia, . (Later
note.)
Dr. Av Braun ‘onthe Vegetable Individual. 377
the manifold relations under which sexual division of generation
occurs in plants.
Dicecious’ relations may occur without alternation of genera-
tion: when, in fact; the flower has’ a termimal inflorescence and
no branches, or only unessential ones,~-when, therefore, as ‘it
is ‘usually expressed, itois«“ uniaxial,” as e..gs'in Rubus Cha-
maemorus, Lychnis, and Viscum. Much more frequently, how-
ever, division of the sexes occurs in plants which at the same
time have a cyclical: succession of shoots (alternation of genera-
tion),++a succession which each of the two heterogeneous stocks
passes through independently, and not always pari passu. This
is a-circumstance which ‘must not” be neglected in considering
the differences of habitus in male and female flowers.’ Thus, in
Mereurialis the female plant bears flowers even on the second
axis 3: in the male plant, howeyer,—if I do not misunderstand
theinflorescence (a spike composed of small glomerules),—this
first yoccurs on: the:third..: In Carex dioica, vice versd, the male
eplant.flowers:‘im, thessecond line’ and the female in the third*.
ela other dicecious) plants, on'the other hand, the male and female
‘flowers ‘appear in: the scorresponding generation's e/g. in’ the
‘second, Siratiotes; Empetrum, and Taxus ; in ‘the’ third, ‘Sala,
oPopulus; Myrica, Cannabis; in the fourth; Phenix: “In:Hemp,
the extremely: heterogeneous ‘appearance of the inflorescence of
-themale:and \female:plants does’ not depend upon a division of
-the flowers ofthe two, sexes among different axes, but upon’ the
“production of numerous utiessential peduncles in the male inflo-
3 ipedinste: |
pithaeaivel ) necessarily presupposes a succession ‘of ‘shoots
{alibknation of generation); in the simplest case at least for one
of the two: Sexes, as both cannot be united in the same terminal
flower ; “but, vice versd, both may easily appear in determinate
e(equal or unequal) degrees of ramification. The most important
ccireumstance:to ‘be | cousideréd in ‘moncecious relations, consists
oim both: the sexes (2.'e. the shoots which bear them) occurring
" either subordinately or coordinately t, for one either arises out of
* The second axis, whichis a complete dwarf or a mere bristly spine,
bears the so-called ‘ urceolus,’ in the axil of which the female flower is
placed, as the third member of the succession of generations.
+ The female flowers are placed at the sides of the primary branches
“as branches of the second degree. In the same place where one single
- flower occurs in the female plant, a furcately ramified inflorescence is found
‘in the male, ee by branching out of the two bracts of the original
flower. :
{Both these cases doubtless occur in ‘the animal kingdom ; the first
>< probably i in Aleyonella, where the ‘stock ‘is said to be composed partly of
males and partly of females. °’ As thé stock is here formed by individuals
continually shooting out of each other, one sex must shoot out of the
378 Dr. A. Brann on the Vegetable Iniividual,
the other, or they both spring from a common, mother-stem.
In the first case, the female flower usually belongs to the earlier,
the male to the later (subordinate) generation ; the male flower-
shoot: springing from the female*, as e.g. in Luphorbia, Ricinus
and Poterium, in which the female flower terminates. the-main
axis, and the male occurs as a lateral shoot+...In Buaus.the
female flower occurs as the second, the male as the third axis;
in many species of Phyllanthus (e. g. Ph. niruri), the female as
the third, the male as the fourth ; in Xylophylla, the female (on
the margins of the spurious leaves) as the fourth, the male
arising from the bracts of the female flower (as in Phyllanthus)
as the fifth... In Momordica, Ecbalium, Cephalanthera, and some
other Cucurbitacee, the female flower, placed. in the axils of the -
foliaceous leaves of the main-stem, belongs to, the third axis, and
the male to the fourth; for the third axis, which here: arises
from the base of the peduncle of the female flower as main axis
of the racemose male inflorescence, is a superior, leaf-shoot: | In
the other cases,—in which the succession: of shoots, in order,to -
arrive at the two kinds of flowers, separates into. two, coordinate
lines,—-both kinds of flowers may appear either immediately, in
the first generation after this separation, or, since here again
preparatory generations are intercalated, in a later one... Further,
the numberof the generations (axes) im the two lines arising
from the division, may be either equal or unequal... A few. ex-
amples may serve to explain the manifold cases which’ thus
occurs» lm» Musa; Myriophyllum and Sagittaria, the. coordinate
male and female flowers appear in the first generation after the
separation, and in the whole as a second system of axes.» Here
the: female flowers stand in the lower, the male im the. upper
part of the spicate or racemose inflorescence. The. ‘contrary
holds true of Cucurbita and the moneecious Bryoniet ; for here
other. The second case occurs m Agalmopsis (according to Sars), where
partly female (seminal vesicles} and partly male individuals grow out. of
the same main-stem.
* The opposite case seems to occur very rarely or not at all. A mon-
strosity, which for some reasons might be adduced here, is found in Laria
Europea and Picea alba, in which transitions of the amentaceous male
flowers into, female cones occur, where the fruit-scales are emitted from the
axils of stamens which are often only slightly abnormal.
+ As in all the examples adduced, the unessential aggrandizement of
the infloreseence must be disregarded, which oecurs in Ricinus and Pote-
rium in the form of lateral female flowers emitted beneath the terminal
female flower,
{ Bryonia has apparently axillary racemes; but a more careful inyesti-
gation shows that they do not spring immediately out of the axil of the
foliaceous leaf, but (as secondary branches) out of the peduncle. of a single
flower standing directly in the axil of the leaf which exactly corresponds to
the flower in Cucurbita.
Dr, Av Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 379
the earlier flowers,: which appear im the axils of the foliaceous
leaves,’ are male; while the later ones, which appear on the
further contmuations of the stems, are female. Arum*: has
below female, in the middle male, and above again female flowers,
though these last’are dwarfed and sterile. Likewise in the first
generation after the separation, but in the whole as the third
system of axes, we find both kinds of flowers in Pachysandra
and Acalypha, and here again, as is usually the case in inde-
terminate spicate inflorescences of mixed sexes, the female flower
is in the lower, the male in the upper part of the inflorescence.
The same obtains in moneecious Palms with axillary spadices ;
though here the flowers appear in ramified spikes from the
fourth system of axes. When the flowers make their appearance
in’ the second generation after the division, they cannot easily
be united in the same inflorescence, and special male and female
_ mflorescénces' will arise. Thus, e. g., in Platanus, Liquidambar
and Sparganium;in which the female inflorescences occur on the
lower’ part of the’ main-shoot, and the male in the upper; like-
wise in Quercus and Fagus, though here, vice versd, the male in-
florescences' are the lower, and the female the upper. . Finally,
if the division of the succession of shoots is an unequal one in
the separated ‘lines of generation leading to the two kinds of
flowers, 7: e. if the number of essential axes is unequal, it is
greater sometimes for one sex and sometimes for the other.) In
the Walnut (Juglans) it is the male flower which vattains the
higher degree of ramification ; in Xanthium, and the species of
Carew with separated male and female spikes, it is, on the con-
trary, the female flowery.
‘Other dimorphisms or even polymorphisms of the flowers,
more or less independent of sex, occur when the sexes appear
in the two different lines of generation ; for even among flowers
of the same sex, whether hermaphrodite, male, or female, differ-
ences often reveal themselves of a very striking character, which
are generally coordinate according to fixed laws of division of
generation. Thus, in all Primula, and in several Labiate, two
kinds .of hermaphrodite flowers occur, in a state of dicecious
* The inflorescence in Arum is terminal, as well as that in Calla.
+ In species of Carex with terminal male and lateral female spikes, the
male flower belongs to the first generation after the division, and the female
to the third. In most of the species where the shootlet which bears the
inflorescences is a continuation of the main axis of the plant, the male
flowers represent in general the second generation and the female the
fourth ; in those species, on the other hand, which have a shortened main
axis, which forms a mere rosette of leaves whence the shootlets bearing
the inflorescences proceed as branches, the male flower is the third system
id axes, and the female the fifth; as e@ g. in C. maxima, leptostachys and
pilosa.
380 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.
separation; one with a large corolla and strongly developed
stamens (forma brevistyla), the other with a small corolla and
strongly developed pistils (forma longistyla). According to C.
Schimper’s obseryations* both forms occur at times in Labiate
even on the same stock and in the same inflorescence, e. g. in
Dracocephalum Moldavicum, Many species of Viola also produce
two kinds of hermaphrodite flowers on the same stock; early
ones of the usual form, and late ones without petals. In Viola
mirabilis the first arise directly out of the main-stem (as branches
of the first degree) and are mostly sterile, while the latter spring
from the foliaceous branches (as branches of the second degree)
and are fertile. In Impatiens, sterile flowers with perfect corollas
and apetalous fertile ones occur in the same raceme. The cases
in which normally formed above-ground and abnormally formed
under-ground flowers appear, belong here ; the latter have their
corolla developed slightly or not at all, and are merely female,
and, par excellence, fertile. If both kinds of flowers are fertile,
the subterranean fruit differs from that borne above the soil;
such cases are found especially in the family of Leguminose, e.g.
in several species of Lathyrus and Vicia, in Amphicarpea, and
Arachist+ ; and also in the very remarkable Abyssinian Conyol-
vulaceous plant, Hygrocharis Abyssinicat. Among the most
striking cases of dimorphous flower-formation are those described
by Jussieu§ in Gaudichaudia, Camarea, and other Malpighiacee.,
Ho besides the flowers conjoined im racemes or in corymbs,
and formed according to the common type of the family, other
apetalous flowers occur, standing alone and hidden in the axils of
the leaves. Besides the normally formed glandulose. corolla,
they have only one stamen and two carpels. In several cases
the dimorphism of the flowers is confined to the formation of
the fruit alone, as e.g. in some species of Aithionema (espe-
cially 4%. heterocarpum, Gay), which in the same raceme bear
ser dehiscent silicles with two cells and several seeds, and
partly one-celled and one-seeded indehiscent silicles. Cerato-
capnos||, a North African genus of Fumariacee, bears in the
lower part of the spike oval, ribbed, one-seeded nutlets, and in
* Communicated in the Versamml..d. Natur. zu Wiesb. in Sept. 1852.
+ For details, vide Treviranus, Bot. Zeit..1853, p. 393.
+t, Hochstetter, in Schimp. Iter Abyss. Nos. 572 & 1701... The same plant
is called Nephrophyllum Abyssinicum by Richard, Tent. Flor. Abyss. and
figured in pl. 76. The two kinds of flowers are emitted from the axils of
the foliaceous leaves of the same creeping stem; those provided with
corolla, stamens and pistil stand upright; the others without corolla and
stamens bend down to the ground on their long peduncles.
§ Adr. de Jussieu, Monographie des Malpighiacées (1843).
|| Durieu, Explor. scient. de Algérie, pl. 78. Endlicher, Gen. Plant.,
Suppl. iv. p. 32.
Dr, A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 381
the upper part, lanceolate two-valved and two-seeded _siliques.
Polymorphism of flowers and fruit occurs in the most hetero-
geneous manner in the family of Composite; I will only refer
to Zinnia, Dimorphotheca, Heterotheca, Thrincia, Geropogon,
Crupina; and especially to Calendula, where the hermaphrodite
blossoms of the ray produce three different forms of fruit, so
that, including the male flowers of the disk, the capitulum
presents four different forms of flower-shoots (belonging to the
same generation). As somewhat similar cases in the animal
kingdom, the instances of dimorphal insects, of which there are
several, might be adduced*.
A separation of the series of generations into several distinct
lines occurs in: fact not only as regards the flower, but also,
though less frequently, even among the inferior formations of the
plant ; this is especially the case where a particular lateral line
is allotted to the leaf as well as to the flower. The true Pines
afford the best known example of this. Their fascicles of needle-
shaped leaves are nothing but foliaceous branches of cireum-
scribed growth +, which lie outside of the line which leads to the
two kinds of flowers, while they are essential, as the leaf-forma-
tion ‘appears on them alone}. Here the eeneration 2 up
into three kinds of essential and coordinate shoots: Ist, the
small leaf-shoots, which, after some few inferior-leaves forming
the vagina, bear two, dhiee, or five foliaceous leaves ; 2nd, the
male flowers, or small shoots, which are provided with stamens
only ; 3rd, female inflorescence, shoots with superior-leaves (the
integumentary scales of the strobile) in whose axils the fruit-
scales of the cone are formed, belonging to a further system of
axes. In the animal kingdom cases analogous to these occur
in moncecious Siphonophora, especially in Stephanomia, and
Agalmopsis, where even more than three kinds of coordinate
individuals are emitted from the main axis: in particular motory
individuals (the so-called Swimming-bells), nurses, the proboscis-
like formations or imbibing tubes, and as already mentioned,
two kinds of sexual individuals.
The differences of shoots thus far considered depend princi-
* The first in several species of Dyticus (D. marginalis, circumceincius,
Lapponicus, Reselii, according to Erichson, Gen. Dyticeorum, 1832, p. 31) ;
the last in Aphis Quercus, accordmg to Bonnet.
“+ That the fascicles of leaves in Pinus are branches, is proved by the
ees ato of pererescence, which is not unfrequent, especially in young
‘Pines
{ The main-stem, as well’as ‘all the elongated branches essentially
yesembling the stem, bear only leaf-seales, which may be best compared to
bud-scales, and ‘ascribed to the inferior-leaf formation.’ Tt is only in early
youth (in the first and second years) that the main-stem itself bears needle-
shaped leaves.
382 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Fillintdudl
pally upon this: one portion represents exclusively the:vegeta-
tive formation, or a certain part thereof; the others represent
the degrees of formation which belong exclusively or principally
to the sphere of fructification. Hence, in regard to the division
of functions, to one portion the functions of nutrition are allotted,
to the others those of generation. For this reason the different
kinds of shoots of such a partial character must. unite ina deter-
minate succession, and complete each other; and even those
which we have designated as unessential are of importance in
enriching, preserving, and increasing the plant-stock. Finally,
we have still to consider those shoot-formations which properly
do not belong either to the essential or the unessential succession
of shoots, but rather to an aberrant formation; as they neither
conduce to the perfection of any of the common steps of the
metamorphosis, nor perform any essential physiological function
in the plant, but at the best are only of some service as organs
of defence, support, or adherence. These are the shoots which
take the form of thorns, bristles, hooks and tendrils, which: for
the most part owe their peculiar abnormal character to an entire
suppression of the leaf-formation, and a final induration of the
point of vegetation: these seem to be the last, terminal or lateral
members of the generation, abortive in every respect. . Not-un-
frequently they form the last ramification of paniculate and
dichotomous inflorescences, like terminal flowerless peduncles,
as e.g. in Teloxys (Chenopodium aristatum, L.), Acroglochin, —
and. in. a very peculiar form, branching and complicated »by
aculeate or setiform leaf-formations, in Pupalia, Desmocheta,
Digera and Cometes*; also in Seleropus, where they take-the
form of short, thick, cartilaginous stalks, with two: converging
leaf-apicules. Among the Grasses they are known under the
form of bristles in Setaria. In many Rhamnaceous and Sapin+
daceous plants (Helinus, Cardiospermum) they appear as: small
cirrhi; not as the last sterile ramifications of the inflorescence;
but on the contrary as the first, followed by other. fertile
peduncles. They often occur in the axils of foliaceous leaves ;
and wherever they make their appearance they naturally arrest
the further succession of shoots, when they have neither of the
two leaves at their origin, out of whose axil an additional shoot
may be developed. This is the case in Passzflora, whose flower
* The plumose tails which. form the “envelope” of Cometes are the
last branches of the dichotomous imflorescence, accompanied by similar
accessory (secondary and tertiary) branchlets. “All these numerous sterile
branchlets are elongated and beset with setiform leaflets arranged in spiral
order (2), commencing with two similar anterior leaves. The direction
of the phyllotaxis in all these branchlets follows the law of fureate inflo-
rescence. .
Drs A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 383
arises from the axil of a leaf situated at the side of the base of
the tendril... The thorns of Ononis, Elaagnus and Maclura*
present the same phenomenon. In other cases the succession
of generation thus arrested by the aculeate shoot is restored by
secondary formations ; when, with the thorn, a second shoot
follows out of the axil, which m some cases may form a leaf-
shoot, and in others a flower-shoot. This happens in Gileditschia,
in several Acacia (e.g. A. pulchella), in Prinsepia utilist, the
Lemon, the Egyptian Balanites, Duranta, Bougainvillea and
Randia, in which the secondary shoot arises close under the
spine; while in Celastrus pyracanthus}t and Europeus, as well
as Pisonia aculeata§, the secondary shoot occurs above the
thorn. In Uncaria pilosa|| and Strychnos spinosa, pairs of
leaves with axillary thorns alternate with pairs which have
peduncles in their axils.
Have even these’ phenomena of extreme alienation of the
individual (as they occur in the thorns and hardened ‘shoots of
plants) analogous forms in the animal kmgdom? Yes, I believe
they have! «I believe I may assert that in the animal kingdom
itself there:are individuals! which occur as mere: fixed’ claws;
pincers; ‘scourges, tactile and predial filaments, &c.—individuals
which perform neither functions of nutrition nor of reproduction
in'the society'to which they belong, but which probably ‘merely
assist in‘seizing’ the food, or lend a helping hand in’ defending
the community... The cases which I have here m mind-are of
frequent occurrence among Bryozoa, and especially in the’group
of \Cellaria. Individuals in the form of horns (which usually
conclude the’ series of complete cell-inhabiting’ individuals)
occur, eg. inv Eucratea cornutaY and Cordierui** in another
form (reminding us of Teloxys), as forked terminal spines, ‘in
Vesicularia spinosa++. Moveable individuals, representing mere
weapons, in form like a bird’s beak, a crab’s claw, or a pincers,
appear in Acamarchis aviculariatt and flustroides§§, Retepora
cellulosa; Serupocellaria scruposa|| || and many others. In the last-
* Here belongs also the curious hook of Uncinia, which is also visible,
though less developed, in many species of Carex. The utriculus is a leaf
at the base of this spme.
t Royle, Ilustr. of the Bot. of Himal. pl. 38. fig. 1.
| : Boissier, Voy. bot. en Espagne, t. 38.
Rheede, Hort. Malab. vu. t. 17.
|| Wallich, Plant. As. Rar. t. 170.
{| Ellis, op. cit. pl. 21. f. 10 (Cellaria cornuta) ; M.-Edw., Ann. d. Se.
Nat. (1838) t. 8. f..2 (Crisidia cornuta).
» ** Deserip. de Egypte, Polypes, t. 13. f. 3.
+t Van Beneden, Rech. sur les Bryozoaires, t: 4. f. ¢.
» tf Van Beneden, /.c. t. 6.f.1-8(Cellularia avieularia, Pall. Crisia avieu-
laria, Lamx.). §§ Ellis, op. eit: pl. 38. f. 7.
||| Wan Beneden, J. c. t. 5. f. 8-16 (Cellaria scruposa, Auct.).
384 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.
named. Cellarig, besides the claw-individuals, there are also
scourge-individuals, which Van Beneden himself compared to
the cirrhi in plants, and which even Leuckart * acknowledges
to be individuals. Besides the ‘Swimming-bells’ evidently re-.
sembling Medusa, the peculiar retractile predial filaments of the
Siphonophora doubtless belong here also; they are remarkable
for a purplish-red swelling on or under the apex, and they shoot
out singly as branches from the stalk of the nutritive individual
(imbibing-tubes), and themselves bear a series of similarly
formed filaments as secondary branches. They are found with
unimportant departures from this form, especially in Physo-
phorat, Diphyest, and Agalmopsis. In the last-named genus,
according tu Sars§, they have even three modifications: the
spadiciferous terminal piece ends in a long simple filament, or
in a short two-parted one, or without any filament at all. In —
Stephanomia\| numerous filaments, called tentacles, arise out of
the stalk of the nutritive animals (the so-called proboscis-formed
organs) without such coloured swellings, which in the same
manner may also be regarded merely as individuals with a very
incomplete outfit of organs].
After having in the foregoing review regarded all lateral shoots
which spring from the main axis of the plant as real individuals,
however unimportant a fraction of the total specific character
they may realize, it will hardly be deemed surprising if we finally
apply this mode of view to the branches of the root and to ad-
ventitious shoots. It is only possible for the main-shoot to
develope freely both the points of vegetation of the axis; yet
* Polymorphism. p. 17.
+ Philippi, Miiller’s Archiv, 1843, taf. 5.
+ Sars, Fauna lit. Norv. tab. 7. § Ib. tab. 5.
| Milne-Edwards, Ann. d. Se. Nat. 1841, pl. 7-10.
§| Since Sars observed the separation of the Medusa-like sexual indi-
viduals in Agalmopsis, the view that Siphonophora are composite animal
stocks has gained ground more and more among zoologists. But this
mode of viewing the subject was for the first time carried out (after a
fashion) consistently in Leuckart’s latest work on strange animal forms
(Zool. Unters., erstes Heft, Siphonophoren, i853); and this idea had
forced itself upon me as early as 1847, when I compared the descrip-
tion of Diphyes with Agalmopsis, in Sars’ Fauna lit. Norv. In the above-
named work, Leuckart extends the view which allows individual import-
ance to the parts of the stock of Siphonophora, not only to the tentacles
and predial filaments, but also to the covercles, which in most of the
enera are placed close above the nutritive individual as protective enve-
nce these formations, like all the other appendages of individual import-
ance, being emitted from the stem as shootlets, and in the first stages of
their formation, resembling the tentacles in particular. Accordingly the
Siphonophora have not less than eight different forms under which the indi-
vidual may appear on the whole stock. (Later note.) [1 have omitted the
enumeration of these forms.—TR.]
Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 885
even here the lower point remains undeveloped. On the con-
trary, the lateral shoots, thus far considered, have no lower
point of vegetation; for their base is united to the maternal
shoot, and hence they are mere developments of the upper point
of vegetation. Opposed to these, there are, however, other
shoots by which the lower point of vegetation is represented,
and which on the other hand have no upper point of vegetation.
Among these may be reckoned not only the root-branches which
take their rise from the main root, but also all adventitious roots
which spring from the stem at determinate or indeterminate
places." I must, however, content myself with this general hint,
as any attempt to particularize these relations could after all
only show the deficiency of the investigations into this subject,
and how desirable a more comprehensive work is on root-forma-
tion in the vegetable kingdom.
The few points which I have selected out of the inexhaustible
field of shoot-formation in the vegetable kingdom may in the
mean time suffice to show that the comparison of the vegetable
shoot with the animal individual is not far-fetched or arbitrary,
but is presented to us by Nature herself. The solution of the
difficulties which this mode of conceiving the vegetable indi-
vidual encounters in the lowest grades of the vegetable kingdom;
I must defer to.a later day. These difficulties are founded upon
the less complete organization of the inferior plants, and at all
events cannot invalidate the results gained in considering the
higher organizations. We may therefore consider it settled;
that although the individual has not exactly the same importance
in the vegetable kingdom as in the animal, plants still realize
their vital cycle in sections which are not only comparable to
the animal individual, but are in fact its complete analogues.
What distinguishes plants is the formation of family-stocks (a
formation manifested in the highest vegetable representations,
and here in the richest fullness) ,—as ancestral trees organically
connected, variously disposed in their ramifications, and com-
prising numerous generations, rendered reciprocally complete
through individuals variously endowed. And this leads us back
again to the tree from which we set out; in which even our
natural perceptions seemed to discern something more than one
common individual, and whose high import scientific research
must confirm. Just what at the outset appeared to be an
obstacle to. our allowing the single shoots of the tree their true
significance,—now that we have compared them with alternation
of generation in animals, at length proves to be the most con-
clusive demonstration of the correctness of our first conception.
The conception of these so. heterogeneous shoots as individuals
of one and the same species has led us, in fact, to a more pro-
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvii.
386 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.
found and more pregnant conception of individuality, which will
no longer seem paradoxical when we perceive it is confirmed
even in the highest realms of life—in the sphere of the mental
development of the individual. Or are the differences of human
individuals in mental endowment and development less important
than those which we have seen in the morphological and phy-
siological endowment and development of shoots? Do we not
meet with a similar reciprocal completion, a similar division of
labour among the individuals of the family, of the state, and of
nations, and ¢ cannot even the human individual become likewise
a mere organ? Do we not see the development of the human
race itself bound up with a succession, in which the later
rations continue the edifice their predecessors began, like branches
depending upon the earlier otek and nourished by them —
which generation is added to generation, and cycles to
so that thus, by the ever-renewed labour of the individual, the
problem of human life may be ceaselessly aspired to, and at last
reach its final accomplishment ?*
* The preceding pages were almost all printed when I was fortunately
enabled to read Reichert’s memoir (Die monogene Fortpfianzung,
viewmg
doctrine of enapkyta—regarding not only the shoot, but even its single
parts, the internodes, with their leaves, as series of individuals shooting out
of each other, or intimately connectex! by continuable bud-formation.
Since, however, it is imphed in the idea of an individuel, hat # shall some-
how be limited by, and distinguishable from (notwithstanding it is connected
with), others, it seems to me that even from this point of view Reichert’s
Mr. T. H. Stewart on the young state of Ophiocoma rosula. 387
XXXII.—On the young state of Ophiocoma rosula, and on the
Form and Development of the Spines of this Species. By
T. H. Srewart.
[With a Plate. |
On looking over a maundful of trawl-refuse lately, which was
obtained by the fishermen from off the Plymouth coast, and
principally from near the Eddystone lighthouse, I found fine
specimens of Salicornaria farciminoides, around the lower por-
tions of many of which a parasitic sponge* was attached. On
tearing apart this sponge to look for the form of the spicula, a
number of exceedingly small starfishes were found on it. When
I first saw them, I fancied that they were young Ophiocome
rosule, and subsequent investigation has proved this to be the
ease ; although on looking at them afterwards with a low power
(100 diam.) under the microscope, I was, from the very peculiar
form of the spines, led to think them a new species of Ophiocoma.
It is an interesting and curious fact, that not only have these
young starfishes been found in deep water, as at the Eddystone,
which is about 50 fathoms, but also in pools left by the receding
tide in limestone rocks under the “ Hoe,” Plymouth, and in this
case also crawling on a soft sponge; and I have not hitherto
observed them in contact with any harder material.
The fact of their having been found in two such different
localities proves that this Ophiocoma spawns both in deep and
shallow water. It is also remarkable that they should in each
case have been found on sponge, and that those from the deep-
water locality were never seen to crawl on the Zoophyte, but
were found exclusively on the sponge at the base.
They were not stalked, as the late lamented Prof. Edward
Forbes fancied the young of the Ophiocome might be (however,
they may have passed this period), but could crawl about at
pleasure, though they did not seem to be very active, and seldom
moved unless intentionally disturbed, and were crowded chiefly
in the corners of the sponge.
None of them, however, when roughly handled, showed any
tendency to break off their arms. :
The largest of them did not exceed one-eighth of an inch in
diameter, including both the rays and disk.
Their appearance when alive, under the low power of a micro-
scope, was a most interesting sight; and by employing the
polarizing apparatus, the colours that the various parts, more
especially the spines, exhibited, made them tenfold more beautiful.
* On submitting this sponge to Mr. Bowerbank, whose judgement on
such subjects is always appreciated, he not only kindly examined it, but
also pronounced it to be a new sponge.
25%
888 Mr. T. H. Stewart on the young state of Ophiocoma rosula.
The disk in this young state is more pentagonal than in the
adult animal. It is of a deep yellowish-brown or purple colour,
and it was this part that rendered the starfish evident on the
sponges.
The entire starfish was very transparent, so that the move-
ments of the stomach and parts within could be distinctly seen
under an inch power (100 diam.).
The disk was spimous, but had the spines more irregularly
arranged than in the full-grown starfish. The forms of the spines
are those depicted in Pl. XV. fig. 4. They were most distinctly
seen on the borders of the disk, between the rays, and all of
them had a like typical form, though some differed from others
on the same starfish in slight particulars, as the length of the
stalk bearing three spinules or secondary spines.
The base of these spines is a flattened disk, and somewhat
circular in form; immediately above the base is a contraction,
and it then shows a perforated structure; the holes producing
these perforations are regular and arranged in the central line.
The length of the stalk is rather /ess than half the length of the
whole spine. The spine then separates into three prongs or
spinules, which are rather more than half the length of the
whole spine.
_ These spinules in some spread out wider apart than in others,
and in one they approached each other again at the tip. All the
spines of the disk are of this form, and they retain the same in
the adult O. rosula, but as a general rule they are rather longer
in the stalk. . |
If the animal be turned on its back, and examined with a
power of 100 diameters by transmitted light, the outline of the
stomach is seen to be of a pentagonal form, and has five lateral
attachments to the inner surface of the body, which are situate
between the rays. The outline of the stomach is dark and well
defined, and appears like lines passing from one point of attach-
ment to the other; it might be taken at first sight for the
nervous system, were it not for the fact, that the meeting of the
lines where the nervous threads to the rays would be given off,
takes place between the rays, and. not at their base, as would be
the case if it were the nervous system.
The contractions of the stomach were very evident ; sometimes
the orifice was completely closed, and was then central, and the
radiating muscular fibres could be detected. At other times it
was dilated quite to the lines indicating the outline of the stomach
before mentioned, and at another time much to one side.
The dilating muscle possesses a great deal more power than
the contracting one, as the motion of the former was considerably
quicker effected.
Mr. T. H. Stewart on the young state of Ophiocoma rosula. 389
Within the stomach were seen ten attached club-shaped bodies,
similar to the membranous tentacula of the arms, which were in
constant motion ; two were attached between each dark bundle
of spines, or oral cluster, which are situated at the mouth of the
disk. They seemed to be contractile, and to draw back to the
sides of the stomach, assuming a somewhat globular form.
But what I desire more especially to direct attention to are the
spines on the rays; these may be said to be of three kinds :—
1st, those which may be termed palmate or basal spines of the
ray, or the first set at the part where the ray springs from the
disk (fig. 4); 2ndly, the reticulated spines (fig. 5); 3rdly, the
hooked spines (fig. 6).
The first set are shaped somewhat like a hand with the fingers
spread out, only minus a thumb: as the greater number have
only four spinules, or secondary spines, these are longer and
more widely separated from each other than in the second set,
and consequently the whole spine is broader. It has a broad,
thick, and rounded base, and immediately above the base the
spine is narrowed, and then becomes wider again so as to form
a constriction at this part; and in fact the spine may be divided
into three parts,—the base, the body constricted at the lower
part, and the spinous extremities.
The palmate portion of the spine is pierced with irregular
holes. The entire spine is covered with a delicate membrane,
and this connects the spinules, forming a web, thus giving the
spine a strong resemblance to the foot of afrog. In other parts
of the spine this membrane is closely attached to it; and where
the webbing occurs, the two parts covering the upper and lower
portions of the spine come in contact, and thus as it were en-
close it in a membranous sac. This membrane is destroyed by
boiling in caustic potash.
The spines of the second set may be said to occupy rather
more than the lower two-thirds of the ray on the under side, and
almost the whole of the upper. They are more irregular in their
form than the last, especially as regards the number, form, and
arrangement of thespinules. Their base is not so rounded and
the constriction not so well marked as in the first set. In fact,
the spine altogether is not so symmetrical and constant in its
shape as either of the others, and is evidently in a transition
state, for no two of these spines were alike in form, whilst the
first or palmate, and the third or hooked, never varied to any
marked extent. In the adult animal, the hooked spines still
preserve the form that they had in their young condition, though
of course they are proportionately larger.
As the second set of spines grow, they become more regular —
in form, and the spinules, or what are then the rough serrations,
390 Mr. 'T. H. Stewart on the young state of Ophiocoma rosula.
are placed at regular distances, and the spine becomes symme-
trical, and assumes that beautiful form depicted in fig. 8;
and figured by Prof. E. Forbes, who says, “the lightness and
beauty of which might serve as a model for the spire of a
cathedral.”
The most interesting of all these spines are the third set, or
hooked ones, which occupy the tip and a portion of the under
surface of the extremities of the rays. They are not unlike
reaping-hooks, only they have a secondary hook below, just at
the point of the junction of the handle and blade. They
also have a tubercle below this on the handle, but this is never
formed into a decided hook like the other two above. It
was the existence of these hooked spines that led me to fancy
the young O. rosula a new Ophiocoma. But im order to be quite
sure on the subject, and not to make new species without careful
investigation, I boiled some older O. rosule in caustic potash ;
and on examining the result, I found the same hooked spines to
be present.
By examining and comparing the spines of these young with
those of an adult O. rosula, it will be noticed that the hooked
ones do not grow in the same proportion as the rest; for in the
adult, though they still-keep the same form, they are very small
in comparison to the other spines, whereas in the young they
are of the same size and serve an important office, viz. enabling
these young and feeble starfish to gain a firmer hold of the sub-
stance on which they crawl, so that they are not drifted off by
every slight force to which they are exposed ; and indeed I found
that while they were alive it required a considerable effort to
separate them from their attachment.
_ It would appear therefore that these hooks are specially pro-
vided for the young condition of the starfish, and is another
beautiful instance how Nature modifies parts of the body to
meet the special requirements of animals under varying cireum-
stances. These hooked spines have the same rounded base and
constriction as the others, and they then form the sickle-like
termination.
Parallel with this terminal hook in about the middle of the
spine another is formed, which is not so long or large as the
terminal one; and at an equal distance below this second hook
is a little tubercle, which is not developed into a hook, but is
perforated with small holes, as also is the base, giving it when
only slightly magnified a granular appearance.
1 have never found more than two hooks on a single spine,
except in one adult animal, where on one of the spines there
were three; but the lowest near the base was very rudimentary.
All the spines are covered with the animal membrane before
Sl ee ee a ee r
aa on
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 391
described, and all the spinules are more or less connected toge-
ther or webbed. by it.
Royal College of Surgeons, October 14, 1856.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XV,
Fig. 1. The perfect young O. rosula, magnified 100 diameters.
Fig. 2. The under surface of disk as seen when alive, magnified 100 diam.
Fig. 3. The spines of young O. rosula from the disk.
Fig. 4. Palmate or basal spines of the ray.
Fig. 5. The reticulate spines,
Fig. 6. The hooked spines from the extremity, and a portion of the under
surface of the ray.
Fig. 7. The spines of young O. rosula, showing animal membrane.
Fig. 8. Perfect spine of adult O. rosula, magnified 100 diam.
XXXITI.— Monograph of the genus Catops.
By Anprew Morray, Edinburgh.
[Continued from p. 318.]
Exotic species.
38. C. marginicollis, Lucas.
Catops marginicollis, Lucas, Expl. de Algérie, Anim. Art. ii. p. 224.
pl. 21. fig. 4.
“Capite nigro, granario ; thorace subgranario, nigro, Fig. 39.
ferrugineo marginato, angulis posticis subacu-
minatis ; elytris nigris striatis subtilissimis con-
fertissime punctulatis; corpore infra nigro, sub- iia
tiliter granario; pedibus antennisque ferrugineis.
“ Long. 2} lin., lat. 13 hn.
“The head is black, granulated, and scarcely pu-
bescent. The maxillary and labial palpi, as well as the |
antenne, are entirely ferrugimous. The thorax pubescent, very
lightly granulated, black, with the lateral margins ferruginous ;
it is very gently convex, rounded on the lateral parts, with the
angles on each side of the base less projecting, and a little less
acuminate than in C. celer, Luc. The scutellum is black, gra-
nulated, The elytra, of the same colour as the scutellum,
pubescent, have a very fine and very dense punctuation; they
are striated, and the strie are sufficiently well marked. All
the body below is of a deep brown, and is very finely granulated.
- The legs are entirely ferruginous*.”
This species was taken by M. Lucas at Oran, in the west of
Algeria, under stones, in the end of February.
* Lueas in loc. cit.
392 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
39. C. rufipennis, Lucas.
Catops rufipennis, Luc. Expl. d’Algérie, Anim. Art. ii. p. 224. pl. 21. fig. 3.
“‘Capite nigro, granario; thorace subtilissimegranario, Fig. 40.
nigro, ad latera posticeque rufescente marginato ;
elytris granariis rufis, ad suturam utrinque uni-
striatis ; corpore infra nigro ; pedibus rufis tibiis-
que fusco-maculatis.
“Long. 24 lin., lat. 1 lin.
“This is smaller than C. celer, from the same
country (Algeria), and cannot be confounded with it,
on account of the colour of its elytra, which are entirely ferru-
ginous. The head is black, granulated. The maxillary palpi,
as well as the labial palpi, are reddish. The antenne are ferru-
ginous, with the last joints a little brownish. ‘The thorax
slightly pubescent, very finely granulated, and tolerably convex ;
black, margined with ferruginous on the sides and behind ;
the sides are rounded, as are also the angles on each side of the
base. The scutellum is black, pubescent, and very finely granu-
lated. The elytra very pubescent, ferruginous; they are finely
granulated, striated, and a sutural stria appears pretty deeply
impressed on each side of the suture. The whole body below is
black. The legs are of the same colour as the elytra, with the
thighs marked with brown, and the tibiz finely denticulated*.”
Met with by M. Lucas on a single occasion, under stones, in
the month of January, in the ravines of Djebel Santon, in the
neighbourhood of Oran.
40. C. fungicola, Kolen.
Catops fungicola, Kolenati, Meletemata Ent. fase. v. 51.
“ Castaneus, nitidus, pubescens, punctulatus; capite brunneo,
antennis pedibusque testaceis.
“ Long. 0°:0025, lat. 0:00133.
“Head blackish-brown, shining, scarcely punctulated ; tho-
rax testaceous or chestnut, pubescent, very finely punctulate ;
elytra convex, chestnut, shining, narrowed behind, rounded,
punctulate. Scutellum brown, punctulate.
“ Lives in fungi in the woods of Mount Ssarijal, in the pro-
vince of Elisabethopolis +.”
This species is unknown to me, and I place it in this group
merely from the colour, none of the characters on which I
* Lueas in Joc. cit. + Kolenati in loc. cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 893
have rested my subdivisions of the genus being mentioned by
M. Kolenati.
41. C. pusillus, Motsch.
Catops pusillus, Victor Motschoulsky, Bull. Soc. Imp. Mose. 1840, p. 175.
*‘ Ovalis, cinnamomeus, sericeo-pubescens; thorace Fig. 41.
transverso, angulis posticis subproductis, lateribus
rotundatis; antennis pedibusque dilutioribus pu-
bescentibus.
“ Long. 3 lin,, lat. 2 lin.
“One of the smallest species of Catops, and covered
with a close golden pubescence. The antenne are a little pilose,
of the length of the head and thorax together, the eighth joint
much smaller and shorter than the seventh. The thorax is trans-
verse, rounded on the sides, and when looked at from in front,
it appears even a little broader than the elytra; it is cut
straight at the base, and has the posterior angles a little project-
ing backwards. The scutellum is triangular. The elytra are \
oval, obliquely emarginate at the extremity towards the suture,
with the exterior angle projecting in a point. On each side of the
suture there is an impressed line which reaches a little beyond
the half of the elytra. The anterior tibie are a very little
dilated *,”
The emargination of the elytra at the apex of the suture fur-
nishes an easy character for distinguishing this species.
M. Motschoulsky mentions that he took it in spring at Ana-
nur, on the great military route of Georgia, and in the month
of August, near Davial, on the same route. It was found under
stones, and in the earth, among roots, in obscure places. The
specimens which have been recently excluded are often of a tes-
taceous colour.
42. C. pallidus, Menetries.
C. pallidus, Menetr. Cat. rais. des Obj. de Zool. rec. dans un Voyage au
Caucase, &e., p. 169.
-“ Oblongo-ovatus, subdepressus, ferrugineus, breviter griseo-
pubescens ; elytris obsolete punctulatis, apice subacuminatis.
“ Long. 2 lin., lat. 14 lin.
* Found at Bakont.”
The above meagre description is all that we know of this
* Motschoulsky in Joc. cit. Tt Menetries in loc. cit.
894 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
species; it would, however, rather appear to belong to this
group.
43. C. Dauricus, Motsch.
Catops Dauricus, Motsch. Remarques sur la Collection de Col. Russ. de
V. de Motschoulsky in Bulletin de Moscou, vol. xviii. 1845.
“ Testaceo-ferrugineus ; thorax angustior quam elytra.
“ A species remarkable on account of its thorax being much
narrower than the elytra, which are of a tolerably broad oval,
and acuminate at the extremity. The facies approaches nearly
the genus Pteroloma, but the body wholly removes it. It is of
a ferruginous-yellow colour, and is found on the summits of the
alps of Hamar-Daban in Mongolia*.”
I have not seen this species in nature, and the above descrip-
tion is too short to enahle us to form an accurate idea of its
form or affinities.
44. C. basilaris, Say.
Catops basilaris, Say, Journ. Acad. Philadelphia, ii. 194.
“Niger, brevissima flayescente pubescentia ‘vestitus ; elytris
brunneis, pallidioribus ad basin. :
“ Long. 12 lin.
“« Body black, covered with numerous short. yellowish hairs ;
eyes fuscous; antenne blackish, two basal joints yellowish-
white ; eighth joint very small, transverse, shortest ; the seventh
and three terminal joints largest, the latter somewhat piceous ;
thorax. transverse, quadrate, convex, rather narrower, before ;
lateral edge regularly arcuated, basal and anterior edge sub-
rectilinear ; angles rounded; scutellum. triangular ;. elytra
brownish, paler at base; a distinct subsutural impressed line;
labrum and palpi pale piceous, beneath blackish piceous ;. feet
dark piceous. |
“ Found under wood at Engineer Cantonment, on the Mis-
sourit.”
I believe it is not known what species Say had in view in
describing this. Dr. Leconte, whose knowledge of American
entomology is perhaps greater than that possessed by any other
naturalist, includes it, in his ‘Synopsis of the Szlphales of
America, among those which were unknown to him. Say’s
description, I think, seems to point either to an affinity with
C’. tristis or C. fumatus, and I place it in this group with doubt.
* Motschoulsky in Joc. cit. tT Say in Joc. cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 895
45. C. opacus, Say.
Catops opacus, Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Se. Philad. v. 184; Leconte, Sy:
Silph. Amer. in Proceedings of Acad. Philad. (1853) 280.
“ Ater, punctulatus, subtiliter pubescens ; thorace semi- Fig. 42.
elliptico, basi late rotundato ; elytris obsolete striatis ;
tibiis calcaribus magnis armatis.
“Long. 2 lin.
“New York and Ohio: rare.
“The male has three joints of the anterior tarsi
strongly dilated; the middle.tarsi are not dilated. The
sutural stria of the elytra is deeper than the others*.”
46. C. terminans, Leconte.
Catops terminans, Lec., Agassiz, Lake Superior, 218 ; Lec. Synops. Silph.
N. Amer. Proc. Acad. Philad. vi. 1853, 282.
“ Oblongo-ovalis minus convexus, nigro-piceus, subtiliter Fig. 43.
pubescens ; elytris distinctius rugose punctulatis, stria
suturali profunda; thorace breviore, antrorsum valde
angustato, angulis posticis vix productis; pedibus
fuscis ; antennis apice flavis, basi testaceis.
“ Long. | lin.
“Very abundant at the mouth of the Pic river, on the north
side of Lake Superior, under dried animal matter. This species
is broader and less convex than C. consobrinus, and is easily
known by the more distinct punctuation, and by the absence of
the transverse lines. The thorax is densely and finely punctulate ;
it is about twice as wide as its length, strongly narrowed in
front, rounded on the sides, especially anteriorly, slightly emar-
ginate at apex, truncate at base, and very slightly sinuate at the
posterior angles, which are scarcely perceptibly acute. The
anterior tarsi of the male, and the first jomt of the middle tarsi,
are dilated +.”
47. C. monilis, mihi.
Oblongo-ovalis, fuscus ; antennis capite et thorace
longioribus, articulo octavo minutissimo, articulis
ante sextum non gradatim crescentibus magnitudine,
fuscis, articulo ultimo et articulis ad basin ferru-
gineis ; thorace leviter, elytris fortiter transverso-
-strigosis, his stria suturali impressis; pedibus
spinosis.
Long. 13 lin., lat. $ lin.
Oblong-oval, nearly of the same size and form as C. alpinus,
* Leconte in loe. cit. + Leconte in loc. cit.
396 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
brown, a little darker behind and on the middle of the thorax.
The antenne are longer than the head and thorax; the basal
joints (first, second, third, fourth and fifth) and the last joint are
ferruginous-yellow ; the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth joints
blackish-brown ; first joint large, and longer than second ; second
thin and slender, a little longer than third ; third, fourth and fifth
thin and slender and very short, nearly all of equal length ; sixth
shorter than these, but rather broader; seventh largest and
broadest of the whole; eighth excessively minute; ninth and
tenth of equal length and thickness, rather narrower than the
seventh, their sides more parallel than is the case in other spe-
cies ; eleventh of the same breadth as the two preceding. Head
broad, rugosely punctate; mouth broad, concolorous. Thorax
pale on the margins, lightly transversely strigose. Elytra more
decidedly transversely strigose, with the suture and a sutural
stria somewhat depressed, and indistinct traces-of strie towards
the apex. Scutellum equilaterally triangular, somewhat de-
pressed, clothed all over with a concolorous fuscous pubescence ;
beneath the pubescence the surface is somewhat shining ; under
side and legs fuscous-brown, paler than above; tibiz slightly
and delicately spinous, middle tibize slightly bent.
This species has very much the appearance of alpinus, but the
structure of the antenne is different. They are longer than in
that species. The club also does not gradually increase in thick-
ness from the first joint onwards till it reaches its greatest
breadth at the seventh, and then taper away again, as in
alpinus ; the club from the eighth joint to the middle of the last
joint is of. equal thickness, giving a somewhat moniliform ap-
pearance to the club, from which character I have given its
name. In alpinus the third joint is thicker and longer than the
second, while here it is smaller and slenderer. In alpinus the
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh joints go on increasing in thick-
ness, while here the third, fourth and fifth form a narrow slender
peduncle, all being of nearly equal size ; the sixth and eighth joints
here are much smaller than in alpinus. The pubescence in this
species is also darker and duller and more sparing than in alpinus.
It was found at Caraccas by M. Sallé, and presented to me by
his relative M. Chevrolat.
48. C. spinipes, mihi.
Elongato-ovalis, fuscus; antennis capite et thorace vix Fig. 45.
longioribus, articulis ante sextum gradatim crescentibus
magnitudine, fuscis, articulis ultimis et primis pallidi-
oribus ; thorace leviter et elytris fortiter transverso-
strigosis, his stria suturali impressis ; pedibus spinosis.
Long. 1 lin., lat. 3 lin.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 897
A good deal smaller than the preceding (C. monilis), to which
it has considerable resemblance, but is more elongate in form.
The antennz are not quite so thick; the joints do not continue
thin, short and slender from the second to the sixth, but go on
increasing in breadth from the second to the seventh; the
second and third are nearly of equal length ; the fourth and fifth
are each shorter than the third, and gradually but slightly
increase in breadth ; they are all of nearly the same length;
the sixth is shorter than the fifth, but not very minute ; the
seventh is the largest joint in the antenna; the eighth is minute,
but not nearly so much so as in monilis ; the ninth is as broad but
shorter than the seventh ; the tenth is a little narrower than the
ninth, and the eleventh a little narrower than the tenth, otherwise
they are nearly of the same size. The antenne are brown, with
the exception of the two first joints which are clear ferruginous,
and the three last which become gradually paler to the tip. The
head and mouth are broad; the former is rugosely punctate and
darker than the rest of the body. The thorax is short, darkest
in the middle, transversely rugose. The elytra are very distinctly
transversely strigose ; there is a sutural stria impressed on them.
The scutellum is small, elongate triangular, depressed, and darker
than the elytra. The whole body is covered with a dense fuscous
pubescence of the same colour throughout, but throwing a
reflexion like a lighter band across the elytra towards the apex
when viewed in certain lights. The under side is of the same
colour as the upper. The legs are paler; they are very distinctly
spinose, a character which is found in other species, but which,
from being very marked here, I have taken to furnish a suitable
name to the species. The middle tibie are a little bent. In the
males the anterior tarsi are widened, but the middle tarsi are
not.
Found at Caraccas by M. Sallé, and presented to me by
M. Chevrolat.
Group III.
Mesosternum keeled; middle tarsi alike in both sexes.
1st Subdivision. Body polished and shining; the elytra not
transversely strigose.
49. C. lucidus, Kraatz.
_ C. lucidus, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 439. 30.
“‘Oblongo-ovatus, nigro-piceus, nitidus ; antennis pedibusque fer-
rugineis; thorace transverso, basi latiore levi ad angulos ob-
tusos utrinque distincte sinuato ; elytris flavo-testaceis, apice
piceis, passim minus profunde punctatis.
“Long. 13 lin.”
398 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
Not having seen this species, I can only reproduce M. Kraatz’s
description, which is as follows :—
“A new species differing so much from all the species of
Catops known to me, by its shining glittering upper side and
clear yellow elytra, that I cannot class it under any one of
Erichson’s groups: not only so, but I was not wholly averse to
have based a new genus upon it, if in spite of the many differ-
ences there was not a form of transition to that of the perfect
Catops in a species which I possess (the only one hitherto
accessible), and a species from Mesopotamia in the Royal Mu-
seum (of Berlin) (though in other respects differing little from
the C. lucidus of this country). The antennz are nearly of
the length of the elytra, entirely of a lively reddish-brown,
stout ; first joint distinctly longer than the second, and as well
as it a little more slender than the remaining joints; third a
little stouter than the fourth, nearly as long as the first ; fourth,
fifth and sixth are reverse cone-shaped, the following joint always
somewhat shorter than the preceding; the seventh is equal to
the ninth and to the tenth in length, which is the same as the
length of the fourth joint, but somewhat stouter; the eighth is
somewhat shorter but scarcely more slender than the joints
which encompass it; the eleventh is almost of the length of
both the preceding, from its base to its last third growing gra-
dually broader, from thence cone-shaped acuminate. The head
is black, shining, not punctate; the mouth yellowish-red. The
thorax at the base is more than double as broad as long, gra-
dually narrowed from the base towards the front, so that the
greatest breadth is before the middle*, gently rounded on the
sides ; the anterior angles are obtuse, somewhat sloping down-
wards, the posterior angles likewise obtuse and rounded off ; the
posterior margin is distinctly sinuate and depressed over the
moderately densely finely punctate scutellum, and on each side
towards the posterior angles, so that the posterior angles project
slightly and are a little reflexed; the upper side is dark pitchy-
brown, clearer on the sides and posterior angles, flatly arched,
bright shining. The elytra are symmetrical oblong, only feebly
narrowed behind, shining pale yellow, brownish towards the
scutellum, dark pitchy-brown at the apex, disappearing at some
distance, with punctures irregularly arranged in rows and clothed
with solitary yellowish hairs; the under side is shining black,
not punctured, the last abdominal segment yellow. The legs are
lively reddish-brown.
* Sic in orig., viz. “ von der Basis an nach vorn allmalig verengt, wodurch
die grésste Breite vor der Mitte.’ It should probably have been, “ greatest
breadth behind the middle.”
OE ee ES ee ee ge ke ey Le *
ea
a ett ee ee
| 5a ae ae Ae
SPIO
a 7
te
Spe
io MEARE Se ranic’ =
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 399
“One example from Kuhr, probably found in Dalmatia*.”
I am unable to give any description of the species from Meso-
potamia above referred to by M. Kraatz.
50. C. cryptophagoides, Mannerheim.
Catops cryptophagoides, Mann. Bull. Soc. Imp. Mosc. 1852, pt. 2. p. 333.
“‘Oblongo-ovatus, convexus, rufo-ferrugineus, nitidus, glaber-
rimus; antennis extrorsum valde incrassatis pilosis, articulo
octavo precedente multo minore ; thorace levi, antrorsum ro-
tundato, angulis posticis supra elytra rotundato-productis ;
elytris disperse punctatis, subrugulosis.
“ Long. 2 lin., lat. 4 lin.p’”
I have not seen this species. M. Pippingskéld collected it
in the island of Sitka under a stone.
Mannerheim states that in form it comes very near the genus
Colon, but he rather referred it to Catops from the structure of
the antennz, although at the same time differing from both by
the polished smoothness of its body. From this indication it
should probably rank beside /wcidus, Kraatz, and I have accord-
ingly placed it in this subdivision.
2nd Subdivision. Body not polished and shining ; elytra trans-
versely strigose.
51. C. strigosus, Kraatz.
Catops strigosus, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. p. 441. 31. Fig. 46.
Ovatus, rufo-ferrugineus ; antennis longioribus,
obsolete clavatis, ferrugineis; thorace trans-
verso, angulis posticis fere acuminatis ; elytris
substriatis, evidenter transversim strigosis, apice
acuminatis.
Long. 13 lin.
The antennz are slender, entirely reddish-brown ; first, second
and third equal in length; fifth scarcely longer than those on
each side of it, half as large as the first joint ; seventh somewhat
longer and stouter than the foregoing, equal to the ninth and
tenth ; eighth scarcely half as long and a little thinner than the
seventh ; eleventh somewhat longer than the tenth, moderately
sharply acuminate. The head is red-brown, densely and finely
punctate. The thorax is nearly 24 times as long as broad; at
the base it is of the same breadth as the elytra; it is gradually
narrowed towards the front, gently rounded on the sides; the
* Kraatz in loc. cit. + Mannerheim in Joc. cit.
400 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
upper side is moderately densely clothed with golden-yellow
pubescence, coarsely granulated ; the anterior angles are obtuse,
sloping downwards ; the almost pointed posterior angles pro-
ject pretty strongly backwards embracing the elytra, so that the
posterior margin appears to be strongly sinuated on both sides
near the elytra. The elytra are oval, strongly narrowed from
the middle towards the apex, each tolerably sharply acuminated,
moderately densely and finely pubescent, and deeply transversely
strigose, with distinct traces of longitudinal strie. Under side
and legs reddish-brown.
Kraatz says it is of a reddish colour, but the only specimen I
have seen was black.
Of the form of the C. velox, Spence, approaching most to it,
but a little smaller, more acuminate behind, and easily recog-
nizable by its keeled mesosternum ; distinguished from the fol-
lowing species by its different form and longer antenne; and
from C. acicularis, Kraatz, the only other species of the pre-
ceding groups which has transversely wrinkled elytra, by its
smaller size and shorter and broader form.
Found in Austria: extremely rare.
_ 52. C. validus, Kraatz.
Catops validus, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 441, 32.
“Oblongo-ovatus, niger, fusco-sericeus ; antennis rufo-piceis, cla-
vatis ; thorace, elytrisque transversim strigosis, apice truncatis.
“ Long. 22 lin. :
“This distinct species comes near the following in the form
of the body, and only deviates from them by its greater size and
the different structure of the antenne. I confine myself there-
fore to describing the latter more strictly.
« Antenne reddish-brown ; first joint at least twice as long
and half as strong again as the second, somewhat more slender
at the base; second very small, at the’end nearly as broad as
long, somewhat more slender at the base; third at least three
times as long as second, for the last third part becoming gradually
somewhat broader; fourth equal in length to second, but some-
what broader ; fifth equal to fourth ; stxth somewhat shorter and
broader than the eighth; seventh somewhat shorter, but just as
broad as the ninth; eleventh distinctly more slender and half as
long again as tenth ; from the base to the apex conical acumi-
nate, somewhat paler at the tip. Agreeing in other respects
with the following species.
“Two examples from Stentz in Hungary are in the Royal
Museum, under the name of C. validus*.”
* Kraatz in loc. cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 401
Not having seen this species in nature, I have merely copied
the description of Kraatz. In size it is a third larger than the
following species ; but although that of itself would not be suffi-
cient to constitute it a distinct species, the differences in the
structure and proportion of the joints of the antennz are too
great to allow us to hesitate in according it a place as such.
The principal differences in these proportions have been printed
in italics in the respective descriptions of the antenne of these
species.
53. C. sericeus, Fabr.
Catops sericeus, Fabr. Syst. El. ii. 564. 2; Erichs. Kaf. d. M. Br. i. 243. 16;
Sturm, Deutschl. Fn. xiv. 43. 22. t. 278. f. d. D; Heer, Fn. Helv. i.
384. 21; Redt. Fn. Aust. 143.1; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 442.
34; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. Fr. i. 305, 21.
Helops sericeus, Panz. Fn. Germ. 73. 10.
Ptomaphagus truncatus, Mlig. Mag. i. 42. 4.
Catops truncatus, Gyll. Ins. Suee. i. 279. 3.
psieere moe Latr. Gen. Crust. et Ins. ii. 29. 5; Spence, Linn. Trans. x1.
Mycetophagus picipes, Kug. Schneid. Mag. 558. 9.
Mordella silphoides, Marsh. Ent. Brit. i. 493. 19.
Var. minor. Catops sericatus, Chaud. Bull. de Mose. 1845, no. 3. 199,
Oblongo-ovatus, niger, fusco-sericeus ; antennis Fig. 47.
brevioribus, nigro-piceis, ad basin ferrugineis ; —-
thorace elytrisque transversim strigosis, his
apice truncatis.
Long. 1-13 lin.
Oval, a little depressed above, of a deep
blackish-brown, very silky. Antenne about as
long as the thorax, perceptibly thickened towards
the extremity ; first jomt twice as long as the second; second
and third nearly equal in length and thickness; fourth and fifth
nearly equal in length, each shorter than second or third; sixth
about the same length as fifth, but decidedly broader, twice as
long as eighth, and not so broad ; seventh a very little longer and
much broader than sixth ; ezghth less than half as long as seventh,
and scarcely less broad; ninth and tenth each about the same length
as seventh, but broader ; eleventh more slender and half as long
again as tenth, and only commencing to be acuminate past its
middle; the apex obtuse, reddish-brown, lighter at the base,
deeper at the apex. Head black, large, finely punctate. Thorax
shining black, finely transversely wrinkled, a little broader than
long, somewhat narrowed in front ; posterior angles pointed, pro-
jecting backwards, which makes the posterior margin broadly
arched. Elytra of a brown, more or less dark, finely transversely
strigose, becoming narrower from the base to the extremity,
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 26
402 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
which is obliquely truncate. Legs brown ; thighs often blackish.
Size very variable.
Distinguished at first sight from all the allied species, except
varicornis and validus, by its truncate elytra. From C. varicornis
it is distinguished by the apex of the antenne not being light-
coloured, and from C. validus by its smaller size and by the dif-
ferent proportions of the joints of the antenne.
Common in Britain, and generally distributed all over Europe.
54. C. varicornis, Rosenhauer.
Catops varicornis, Rosenh. Beitr. zur Ins. Fn. Eur. i. 23; Kraatz, Stett. Ent.
Zeit. xiii. 442. 33.
Oblongo-ovatus, niger, fusco-sericeus ; antennis brevioribus, basi
apiceque ferrugineis ; thorace elytrisque transyersim strigosis,
his apice truncatis.
Long. 14 lin.
Closely allied to C. sertceus, and principally distinguished by
the form and colour of the antennz, which are shorter and
ferruginous both at the base and the apex, and the beetle is usually
somewhat darker. The head is broad, finely punctate, shining
black with a grey pubescence ; the mouth ferruginous-red. The
antenne scarcely reach beyond the half of the thorax, and are
thickened on the outer side so as to be distinctly club-shaped.
The individual joints are as in the C. sericeus, but form a rounder —
oblong and thicker club. The first five joints are ferruginous-
red, those following brownish ; the eighth shorter but not more
slender than the remainder ; the last transverse, short, and very
obtuse, much shorter than in the C. sericeus, and reddish-yellow.
The thorax is large, black, shining, clothed with a silky pubes-
cence, almost square, a little broader than long, of the breadth
of the elytra, somewhat narrowed in front, gently rounded on
the sides ; the posterior angles pointed, projecting slightly back-
wards, the posterior margin rounded. The scutellum is large,
triangular, transversely strigose. The elytra are dark brown,
finely transversely strigose, a little arched, somewhat rounded on
the sides, moderately narrowed towards the extremity, not so
strongly truncate at the apex as in C. sericeus, and more rounded,
with a fine brownish pubescence. The under side is black ; the
legs are brown, the tarsi paler.
The pale terminal joint of the antenne, combined with the
general appearance of C. sericeus, at once indicates this species.
It is also a deeper insect than sericeus, and the sides more nearly
approach the perpendicular.
Described by Rosenhauer from three specimens found at
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 403
Stettin. It has since been found in other parts of Germany, and
no doubt is scattered all over the continent. I have not found it
in Scotland, but it has been taken by Mr. Guyon near Richmond,
and by Dr. Power near London.
Chaudoir’s C. sericatus is said by Kraatz to be only a small
variety of this species. I have not seen it, but I have no doubt
he is correct. Chaudoir’s description contains no character suf-
ficient in my view to support the establishment of a new species.
His description is as follows :—“ C. sericatus, hitherto confounded
with C. sericeus. It is constantly three times smaller, more
narrowed behind ; the elytra narrower ; the wrinkles above less
marked; the antenne less enlarged towards the extremity, the
last joints more elongate, the eighth a little narrower, the last
less obtuse, and of the colour of the preceding. The breast is
less convex ; the colour of the elytra is lighter towards the extre-
mity, which is almost ferruginous.
“Found at Kiew in spring, under dry leaves at the foot of
trees*,”
) 55. C. colonoides, Kraatz.
Catops colonoides, Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xii. 169. 35.
Oblongo-ovatus, fusco-sericeus ; antennis obsolete cla- Fig, 48.
vatis, ferrugineis ; thorace elytrisque transversim stri-
gosis, his non truncatis.
Long. < lin.
The antenne are about the length of the head and
thorax, imperceptibly thickened towards the point, fer-
ruginous-red ; the seventh joint scarcely broader, but at least
twice as long as the preceding, always darker-coloured than the
remaining joints; the eighth joint somewhat smaller than the
sixth; the ninth, tenth, and the acuminate eleventh tolerably
equal in size. The head is blackish-brown, finely punctate, with
a grey pubescence. The thorax is blackish-brown, somewhat
lighter on the extreme posterior margin, extremely densely and
finely granulated, about a fourth broader than long, narrowed
in front, moderately rounded on the sides; the posterior angles
are sharp, projecting backwards. The elytra are dark brownish,
towards the apex lighter, finely transversely strigose, covered
with a fine silky brown down, gradually narrowed towards the
apex. The under side is blackish-brown, the margins of the
individual abdominal segments lighter ; the legs are ferruginous-
brown. Nearly constant in size.
A very distinct species, similar to C. sericeus, and, like it,
* Chaudoir in Joc. cit.
26*
404: Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
with transversely wrinkled elytra, but smaller than the smallest
individuals of that species, and easily distinguished by the wholly
different form of the antenn, by the gradually narrowed and
not truncate elytra, and the stronger more distant transverse
wrinkling. The club of the antenne is as a rule somewhat
darker, the last joint somewhat larger than the preceding, cone-
shaped, acuminate.
Kraatz says that it is taken near Berlin in loose sand at the
foot of old oak-trees, and that it is frequent in moors.
[To be continued. |
XXXIV.— Elucidation of some Plants mentioned in Dr. Francis
Hamilton’s Account of the Kingdom of Nepal. By Lieut.-Col.
Mappen, F.R.S.E., President of the Botanical Society of
Edinburgh*. |
Tue possession by the University of Edinburgh of the duplicate
herbarium (unfortunately incomplete) and the valuable MS.
Catalogue of the Plants collected in Nepal and other parts of
India by the late Dr. Francis Hamilton (formerly Buchanan),
has recently afforded me the opportunity of comparing them
with some which he has introduced into his ‘Account of Nepal,’
only, or chiefly, by their vernacular designations, which are of
no assistance to the English reader. Of the result of this
examination I purpose to submit a short statement to the Bo-
tanical Society, to the members of which it may prove the more
interesting from the fact that, in several cases, the scientific
names have not hitherto been given in any, even the latest,
works on Indian Botany which have fallen under my notice,
although the plants are well known and of general utility
in India. Nor will it be considered imconsistent with the
object of our meetings, to dedicate a brief space to an in-
quiry into the botany of a district which engaged the in-
terest and employed the time of this accomplished naturalistt,
* Read to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, June 12, 1856. The
death of the author having occurred since this paper was read before
the Botanical Society, it has been printed without the benefit of his cor-
rections.
+ The genus Hamiltonia, of the order Cinchonaceze, was devoted by
Roxburgh to the memory of this “illustrious peregrinator,” as he is called _
by D. Don. H. suaveolens is a shrub of the Rajmahal and other hills of
Behar; and a very beautiful azure-blue variety abounds all along the base
of the Himalaya, the H. azurea of Wallich, scabra of D. Don, propinqua
of Jacquemont. The flowers are sweetly fragrant till bruised, when they
exhale a most foetid odour, from which the plant derives its Kumaéon name
from the Kingdom of Nepal. 4.05
whose late residence, Leny, near Callander, must be familiar to
many of our explorers of the romantic scenery of the Trosachs.
_ Dr. Hamilton was, I believe, the first to investigate the botany
of Nepal and the adjacent countries, in which he has been
zealously succeeded by Wallich, Griffith, and Hooker. I have
not myself had the good fortune to visit these regions, and poli-
tical jealousy has almost sealed Nepdl, especially its alpine tracts,
to us; but I have traversed its western frontier, and was for
several years associated with its military tribes in the service of
the East India Company, and have thus been enabled to acquire
the popular names of several of the plants in question. I shall
not altogether limit myself to those occurring in the ‘ Account of
Nepal,’ but shall extend my remarks also to a few of those enu-
merated in the Catalogue, with respect to which there is reason
to think any additional information will be acceptable, or any
errors remain to be rectified. Many points must continue un-
determined, and will furnish a field of inquiry to future botanists.
Dr. Royle has been the most successful investigator of the
various sources of the many articles of the Indian Materia Me-
dica, in his valuable ‘Illustrations of the Botany of the Hima-
layan Mountains’; but the origin of many of those contained
in his list, published in the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal’ for October 1832, is still to be made out. With refer-
ence to the object before us, the most advantageous plan, per-
haps, will be to quote the several passages from Dr. Hamilton’s
work as they occur, with some regard to the natural sequence
of the orders as understood by Dr. Lindley; appending such
notices as may be supplied by the Catalogue, and concluding
with my own comments.
As Dr. Hamilton always makes use in his Catalogue of the
classical names for the various provinces, it may be well to pre-
mise that |
Magadha is the modern Behar.
Mithila 3 Zirhut.
Cosala 54 Oude and Gorakhpur.
Camroop 9 Rangpur and Assam.
Angga 3 North-western Bengal.
Banga ‘ Western and Southern Bengal.
Matsya 43 the district of Dinajpur.
of Padéra. Dr. Hamilton himself remarks thus on the specific name at
No. 694 of the Catalogue :—
“‘ Hamiltonia suaveolens. Habitat in sylvis Anggze et Mithile.
“Nomen specificum haud aptum, cum flores, licet aliquando suaveo-
lentes, seepius, ut in Pederia et Serissa affinibus, odorem stercoraceum
gravissimum spirant, quod in ceteris ejusdem generis speciebus quoque
evenit.
406 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
“‘ Phaphar, said by some to be a species of Amaranthus, called
Amardéna in the low country; but others say that this is a
mistake.
“ Uya, which I presume is rye, the natives saying that it is
neither barley nor wheat, but has a resemblance to both.”
The chief grains of Kullu, a hill province north of the Sutlej
river, now a British possession, were reported to Dr. Hamilton
to be Phaphar, Chuyé, and Uya: “The Chuya, from the de-
scription given, would seem to be the Holcus Sorghum, although
the coldness of the situation renders this doubtful” (pp. 274,
275, 315).
The Uyaé is the Hordeum celeste, well known to the residents
of Simla as the Ua jaéo, or Ua barley, being in high estimation
in the preparation of cakes. |
Phaphar or Phaphra is the Fagopyrum rotundatum, Bab.
(emarginatum, No. 1688, Wall.), near F. tataricum; it is known
as Bitter Buckwheat, and is very generally cultivated in the higher
and colder sites of the Himalaya; Fagopyrum vulgare (or escu-
lentum), No. 1687, Wallich, being common lower down, and
known as Ogal or Ogla, and Kotu (not Kultu); distinguished
from the last as Sweet Buckwheat*. Chuyd and Anardaéna are
one and the same: Amaranthus anardana, No. 2028 of the Cata-
logue (exclude synonym Amaranthus frumentaceus, Hort. Beng.
677). “ Anérdina Hindice. Colitur in arvis Cosale et Ne-
pale ;” and at Bhdgalpur on the Ganges, according to Moquin
in DeCandolle. Andrdéné implies the supposed resemblance of
the grains to the carpels of the Pomegranate. I never met any
one who used the name, and incline to think Amardana, as
Dr. Hamilton once writes it, may be the true one, meaning ‘im-
mortal grain,’ and therefore nearly identical with Amaranthus :
nothing can better answer to the appellation than this species,
which is grown all over the Himalaya, and is also known as
Marsa and Bathu. It rises six to eight feet high, and is either
of a brilliant crimson or a rich yellow. The effect of a mountain-
side, terrace above terrace, covered with distinct fields of these
colours, and glowing under the rays of the. afternoon sun, is
gorgeous indeed ; but as an article of food, it must be confessed
the reality falls far below the promise of the eye. Amaranthus
caudatus is occasionally cultivated for the same purpose, and is,
in GarhwAl, called Ramdané, ‘the grain of God.’
Cynosurus corocanus: Maruya of Nepal: now Eleusine coro-
* There is considerable discrepancy in the description of the Himalayan
Buckwheats given by Don (Prod. Fl. Nep. pp. 73, 74. Nos. 21, 22, 23),
Babington (Linn. Trans. xviii. 93 seq.), and Meisner (P1. As. Rar. vol. iii.).
I am only acquainted with two cultivated species, the Ogal and the Pha-
phar, as noticed in the text.
from the Kingdom of Nepal. 407
cana, everywhere cultivated in the British Himalaya as Man-
dua or Maruad. 2. stricta is also grown in Garhwal.
Holcus Sorghum. Kaunguni, Muccai, or Muruli,—the first
being the Newar name (i. e. of the aboriginal Mongolian popula-
tion), the last two those of their Parbatiya or Hindoo conquerors,
also a mountain race. Generally, however, Kangani is Pani-
cum italicum, and Muccai (Makkai) Zea Mays: it is probably
a term of Indian origin, but the Mohammedans suppose it to
be so termed because Maize came to them from Mecca; of this
fact. it is but a very slender corroboration that the French call
the same corn ‘Blé de Turquie.” Sorghum vulgare is little
cultivated in the mountains, but Sorghum saccharatum is occa-
sionally seen about Almorah.
Panicum colonum. Tangni, Tangri, or Kakun, p. 231.
Sabe, referred to Ischemum, a grass of the Nepél Tarai,
growing in great quantities, and exported to the British terri-
tories for the manufacture of ropes (p. 64).
No. 2824. Ischemum Sabe. Sabe, Hindice. Habitat in
Mithile campis ubi legitur ad ligamina foliis nectanda. (Speci-
men from Nathpur.)
No. 2325. Ischemum sparteum. Sabe, Hindice. Habitat in
Magadhe montosis. Ad usum eundum cum precedente inservit.
(Specimen from Ghoramara.) These two plants are identical ;
Spodiopogon laniger, No. 8845 B. of Wallich’s Catalogue, Nepal,
1821, being there referred to a new genus, “ Eriantho affine.”
In 1850 I found it stacked in large quantities on the bank of
the Ganges at Bhojpur and Monger in Behar, where the owners
called it Saba, SAma, and Sabar, and informed me that it was
brought down from the Rajmahal Hills, south, and from those
of Tirhut, north—the localities specified by Dr. Hamilton.
Dr. Royle (Illustrations, p. 416) states that Spodiopogon laniger
is “one of the grasses found in the northern as in the southern
parts of India.” In Kumaon it occurs as far in the mountains
as Almorah, and up to an elevation of 5000 feet, flowering in
April. Mr. Edgeworth informs me that it is abundant in the
rdos or hot-water courses of the Sewalik and lower ranges of the
Himalaya in the Pinjor Dun, below Simla, up to 3000 feet ;
there, as throughout Northern India, it is termed Ban (a word
which in Shakespeare’s Hindustani Dictionary is erroneously
identified with Munj), and is well known as a common material
for making rope, which is much used, especially for the bottoms
of beds and similar purposes. Dr. Royle adds that Eragrostis
(Poa) cynosuroides is employed for rope-making: under the
names Darbh (Dabh) and Kusa, it plays an important part in
the religious ceremonies of the Brahmans, and, when young, it is
a favourite food of cattle; but any other destination has not
408 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
fallen under my observation. Hriophorum (Trichophorum) co-
mosum, Wall., cannabinum, Royle, called Babar and Baib, and
Saccharum (Erianthus) Munja, also yield excellent material for
cordage (the latter requiring the preliminary process of being
pounded) ; but we are indebted to Dr. Hamilton for having in-
dicated the importance of Spodiopogon laniger as supplying one
of the textile articles of Indian produce.
Kshir Kangkri, or Titi Pirali ; a Lilium or Pancratium (p. 86).
No. 855. Paneratium sylvestre. Titi Piralu montanorum,
Hindice. Habitat in sylvis Nepale inferioris. (Marked in the
margin Alum cumaria.) From Chatera, April 1810. There
is no specimen in the Herbarium, but Wallich believed it to be
his No. 8974, P. verecundum. Dr. Hooker met “a very sweet-
scented Crinum” in the Sikkim Tarai, perhaps idéntical with this.
Dr. Royle (Illustr. p. 374) has a Crinum (C. Himalense)
from Mansar, in the interior of the Himélaya; and the late Dr.
M‘Gregor assured me that he had found one wild in the valleys
near Sabathu.
Dr. Hamilton, however, states that the true Titipiralu (which
signifies the bitter bulb or Colocasia) consisted of the dried
scales of a tuberous root, having every appearance of being a
species of Lilium. Of this genus, as well as.of Fritillaria, many
species inhabit Nepal, and among them L. japonicum, sometimes
called L. Wallichianum, known in Kuméon as Findora, a corrup-
tion of Pindalu. “The bulb-scales of Lilium japonicum dried
are said to be employed in China, like salep, in pectoral com-
plaints.” (Royle, Illustr. 388. Figured, Wight’s Icones, t. 2035.)
According to some of his informants, the Kshir Kangkri is
one of the Cucurbitacee; this is borne out by the signification
‘juice of the cucumber ;’ perhaps C. Hardwickii, which is called
Air-dlu in Kumaon, and Pahari Indréyan, Hill Colocynth, in
Garhwal, from its bitterness. Royle, t. 47. f. 3.
Amomum: Desi Elachi, large Nepal Cardamom, with mem-
branous angles (pp. 74, 75). t
No. 13. Amomum? aromaticum, Hort. Beng. 1; Roxb. FI.
Ind. 1. 44. Alaichi montanorum in Nepala. Colitur inter
montes Nepal. (To this is added at a subsequent date),—To
this probably belonged the specimen received from Surat, which
Linnzeus considered as the true Cardamomum. (Linn. Trans. x.
252.)
There is no specimen in the Herbarium. In Dr. Christison’s
valuable collection of Materia Medica, this species is named
“Java Cardamom, Pereira, ed. ii. p. 1135. From Amomum
maximum, Roxb. Java and Bengal.” I observed it exposed for
sale in considerable quantities at Barmdée, a mart on the western
frontier of Nepal, where it was said to come from Dotti, a pro-
from the Kingdom of Nepal. 4.09
vince bordering Kumaon to the east. Roxburgh (/,c.) describes
Amomum aromaticum, Morang Elachi, as a native of the valleys
on the eastern frontier of Bengal, with an ovate capsule, the
size of a large nutmeg ; those of Doti are much smaller.
“ Singgiya Bikh or Bish (of the lower mountains and hills,
p- 98), much celebrated among the mountaineers. The plant
was brought to me in flower, but was entirely male; nor did I
see the fruit, which is said to be a berry. So far as I can judge
from these circumstances, I suppose that it is a species of Smilax
with ternate leaves. To pass over several of its qualities that
are marvellous, the root, which resembles a yam, is said to be a
violent poison. The berries also are said to be deleterious, but
when applied externally are considered as a cure for the goitre,”’
p- 87. ,
No. 2219. Smilax? virosa. Singgiya Bish vel Bikh monta-
norum, Hindice. Habitat in Nepale montibus. Identified by
Wallich with No. 5099 of his Catalogue, Dioscorea virosa, which
Dr. Royle informs us occurs also in Garhwal and Sirmur under
the name of Ramberee (the divine Zizyphus). It is remarkable
in this genus from having its stems furnished with aculei; and
Dr. Royle calls our attention to the fact that this species, with
D. triphylla, pentaphylla, and demona, all with compound leaves,
are distinguished by the acridity of their tubers*. Singgiya a
Bikh, signifying ‘horned poison,’ alludes to their curved form
in D. virosat.
No. 220. Smilax? narcotica. Bharbang montanorum, Hin-
dice. Habitat in Nepala inferiore ad montium radices.
This is identified by Wallich with the preceding.
* Roxburgh (ii. 806) and Graham (Cat. of Bombay Plants, p. 218) agree
that the tubers of D. pentaphylla are wholesome, and used as an esculent.
Graham tells us that the root of D. triphylla, ‘‘ mtoxicating and intensely
bitter,” is often sliced and infused in toddy to render it more potent. It
occurs in Kumaon as high as 6000 feet ; D. demona, with equally nauseous
tubers, only reaches to 3000.
The root Charmaghas, so often mentioned in the Sanserit dictionaries,
has not been identified. I found it sold at Barmdee by the Nepalese
traders ; but my specimens were destroyed by the ‘ Fish insect,’ Lepisma
saccharina, the scourge of our Indian libraries and herbaria. It may be the
Sham, or root of Cherophylium esculentum, mentioned in Royle’s ‘ Illus-
trations,’ which is probably the Chamaas, “a wild edible root used as a
relish” by the people of Rol, near the Shatul Pass, Basehar (Lloyd and
Gerard, i. 293). The S. ndlika implies a plant with a tubular stem: sap-
tald, having seven leaves.
+ The vernacular Sing, ‘a horn,’ softened from the Sanscrit Sringa, gives
the origin of the Arabic and Persian word for ginger, Zinjabil, from which
the Greek Zingiberis is derived. The common source of all is the Sanscrit
Sringavéram, signifying ‘antler-shaped ;’ and it is remarkable that this
classical name, as well as that (Naiada) from which the ancients formed
their term (Nardos) for spikenard, is no longer used in the Indian dialects,
being superseded by some of the many synonyms,
410 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
Pinus Picea,W. Common Spruce Fir. Hingwal Ka Ch’hota
Saral, z.e. Small Alpine Pine, pp. 83-96.
No. 2064.. Pinus striata: Pinus Picea, Hamilton’s Nepal, 83,
96. Hingwal Ka Ch’hota Saral (Alpium parva Pinus), Hindice.
Habitat in Nepale alpibus. On the label, ‘leaves very odorous.”
This is Picea Webbiana, and is identified by Wallich, No. 5058
(for 6058), Pinus Webbiana: P. striata, Ham.
Neither Wallich nor Hamilton has the Himalayan Spruce
(Abies Smithiana, or Morinda) from Nepal; it is also absent
from Kumaon, but is common both east and west of these pro-
vinces.
P. excelsa is figured by Wall. Pl. As. Rar. m. t. 201; but
t. 246, P. Smithiana, errs in exhibiting the cones erect.
Catalogue, No. 2063. Pinus Strobus. Gobiya Saral monta-
norum, Hindice. Habitat in Nepalze alpibus. (‘The native name
belongs to the Jast.) Weymouth Pine, p. 83. Pénus excelsa,
which is very near to P. Strobus. In Lambert’s ‘Description of
the genus Pinus,’ it is characterized as follows :—‘ This species
approaches so near in habit and in the figure of its cones to
P. Strobus, that were it not for the simple round membranous
crest of the anthers, it would be almost impossible to distin-
guish their limits as distinct species. The leaves of this species
are considerably longer than those of P. Strobus, and the cones
larger.” P. Strobus has “ antherarum crista omnium minima é
setis duabus erectis brevissimis.” Mr. D. Moore of Glasnevin
informed me that it is, in Ireland, less hardy than P. eweelsa.
A variety of this in our Horticultural Society’s Garden, with
short leaves, removes one of the differences on which Lambert
relies. Colonel Markham (Shooting in the Himalaya, 213, 214)
says that, in Kunawar, “torches are made from the Cheel Pine,
which, being full of turpentine, burns beautifully, and gives a
capital light. ..... The gum of the Cheel is held in great
estimation for its healing qualities throughout the hills.” So
Hooker, Journals, i. 45.
The Salla of Dr. Hamilton is Pinus longifolia, also called
Chir, a species occasionally introduced into our Pineta, but
quite unfitted to endure the severity of our winters, being a
semi-tropical plant.
It is observable that Dr. Hamilton nowhere mentions the
Deodar, which he could scarcely have failed to procure had it
been indigenous to Nepal. When in India, with very scanty
materials for an opinion, I came to the conclusion that we have
no evidence of its existence till we come to Garhwal, though it
is usually quoted as a native of Nepal: a reference to Dr. Wal-
lich’s Catalogue establishes the correctness of this conclusion,
for under his No. 5060 (for 6050?) we have “Pinus Deodara,
from the Kingdom of Nepdil. 411
Roxb. a Kamaon, R. B. (Robert Blinkworth). ? 8. ex horto
quodam ad Pétan in Nepalia, 1821.” But even in Kumaon,
where fine groves occur, the tree is clearly introduced.
Juniperus: Dhupi. Alpine Nepal. No. 2280. Juniperus
squamosa. Dhupi montanorum, Hindice. Hamilton’s Nepal,
96. Habitat ad Emodi nives: labelled, “ Thibet Hills.” So
Wallich, No. 6043. J. squamosa, Ham. Gosainthén, Chur.
The common: species of the Himalaya, with considerable diver-
sity as found in the dry or the rainy districts. The description
of the Dhupi in the ‘ Account of Nepal,’ p. 96, can, however,
only agree with Juniperus excelsa: “ A very large tree.” “ Its
wood has a beautiful grain, a fine mahogany colour, and a re-
markably pleasant scent, a good deal resembling that of the
pencil Cedar, but stronger, and I think more agreeable. Planks
of this are sent to Thibet, from whence they are probably carried
to China.” Dhup signifies ‘ incense.’ )
Juniperus: alow bush; Thumuriya Dhupi. “ Branches and
leaves have an agreeable smell, and are used in fumigations,”
p. 96. :
No. 2279. Juniperus? incurva. Thumuriya Dhupi monta-
norum, Hindice. Hamilton’s Nepal, 96. Habitat ad Emodi
nives. No. 6042, Wallich. Juniperus recurva, Ham., identified
with his J. recurva. Gosainthan. Dr. Hamilton’s specimen
quite resembles some of the north-western forms of J. sqguamosa,
and: has neither the hue nor the pendulous branchlets of the J.
recurva of our collections, which is certainly not a native of the
British Himalaya. Dr. Hooker (Journals, ii. 28, 45) calls it
the weeping Blue Juniper, and figures it as a tree 30 feet high,
in Upper Sikkim, but comparatively scarce.
Catalogue, No. 2067. Cupressus sempervirens. Bhairopati,
Hamilton’s Nepal, 97. Habitat in Nepale alpibus. Labelled,
“ Brought from the alps of Thibet: said to be a shrub.” (“Its
dried leaves have a disagreeable sulphureous smell,” p. 97.) The
name is here given, ‘ Bhaingropati ;? and in p. 97, Bhairopati
(i. e. Siva’s leaf) is said to be a Rhododendron. Wallich
(No. 6041) identifies Dr. Hamilton’s specimen with Juniperus
excelsa; and has Cupressus torulosa (No. 6046) only from Niti
in Garhwél. I have stated elsewhere, on the authority of the
late Mr. J. E. Winterbottom, that he had obtained it from
Gosainthén in Nepdl; but he subsequently discovered that his
specimens were those of a Juniper. Dr. Hamilton’s plant has
the branches four-sided, «agreeing with Don’s “quadrifariam
imbrieatis” of C. torulosa (Prod. Fl. Nep. 55) and with my own
observation. Lambert says, “ ramulis teretibus,” perhaps from
a young state of the plant.
Hingwal Ka bard Saral: the Yew, according to Dr. Hamilton,
412 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Planis
confirmed by his specimen No. 2281. Taxus baccata falcata.
Yew-tree, Anglorum. Hingwal Ka bara Saral montanorum,
Hind. Hamilton’s Nepal, 83, 96, 117. Habitat in Nepale
alpibus. The name signifies ‘great Alpine Pine,’ and is cer-
tainly misapplied, probably by the carelessness of the collectors ;
as ‘small Alpine Pine’ cannot belong to Picea Webbiana. They
have most likely been interchanged.
Zuccarini* constitutes a distinct species (Taxus Wallichiana)
for the Himdlayan Yew; but though the leaves are more curved,
and the berries smaller than in our European tree, the difference
is so trifling, that, with our knowledge of such a marked variety
as the Irish Yew generally reproducing the common form, a new
species seems uncalled for. Dr. Hooker (Journals, 11. 25) holds
that the Himalayan, the North American, and several connect-
ing links, all belong to Taaus baccata; he tells us (i. 186) that
the red bark is used as a dye, and for staining the foreheads of
the Brahmans in Nepal. The timber found by Layard in the
palaces of Nineveh, and pronounced by him to be Cedar, is in
reality Yew.
Dr. Wallich (No. 6054, and Tent. Flor. Nep. t. 44. p. 57)
identifies Taxus baccata falcata of Nepal with Taxus nucifera of
Kaempfer from Japan, an oversight which has been set right by
Zuccarini, as well as by the fact that no one has hitherto de-
tected that plant or other Taxus in any part of the Himalaya.
Dr. Wallich has indeed, in *‘ No. 6056, Taxus? Lambertiana,
Wall. Pini spec. Wall. Herb. 1824. Himalaya, Webb, Govan,
Kamroop.” No specimen exists in the collection here; but
from Lambert’s genus Pinus ui. t. 67, we know it to be Pinus
(Picea) Pindrow. ‘Dr. Wallich, who had seen neither flowers
nor fruit, supposing it to be a Taxus, has doubtfully referred it
to that genus under the name of Taxus Lambertiana, in the
Catalogue of his Herbarium. It does not appear to have been
found in Nepal, but is frequent in the countries to the west-
ward, having been observed in Kumaon by Captain W. 8S. Webb,
and in Sirmore and Garhwal by Drs. Govan and Royle.” Dr.
Thomson (Western Himalaya and Tibet, p. 86) considers it
one species with Picea Webbiana : “The long green-leaved state
is that of the moist Himalaya; in the driest regions the very
short glaucous-leaved form occurs.’ The Himalayan chain
from Kuméon to Baséhar on the Indian face is annually
drenched with rain; and still more the various detached out-
liers, Dudutoli, Chur, &c., rising above 11,000 feet. Every-
where in this tract, so far as my observation extends, the Pin-
* Morphology of the Coniferze, 52, 53, in Reports and Papers on Botany,
printed for the Ray Society, London, 1846.
from the Kingdom of Nepal. 413
drow alone will be found up to about that elevation, when in a
few hundred feet it yields to P. Webbiana. Owing to this lofty
habitat, P. Webbiana is stimulated into premature growth by
our early springs, and often cut down by subsequent frosts ;
the Pindrow, though from a lower zone, is not liable to this
accident.
The preparation of a kind of tea from the Yew-tree is, [ think,
peculiar to the Himalaya, and it is remarkable that so dangerous
a plant should have been selected. Col. Markham (Shooting
in the Himalaya, p. 115) thus describes its use in Kashmir:
“There is a capital substitute for tea, in the inner bark of the
Yew-tree, dried and prepared like tea. The colour is perfect ;
but I never could find much taste in the infusion, although one
- of my friends once said that he liked it better than tea.” It is
for this reason that, in Kunawar, Taxus baccata is called Sang-
cha=Sang fea, perhaps connected with the name of the moun-
tain Sung-lo in Kiangnan, “ famous in China as being the place
where the green tea shrub was first discovered, and where green
tea was first manufactured *.”
Of the popular idea of the great age attained by this tree, I
met with a curious illustration in 1851, when an Irish gardener
repeated the following as being an ancient composition taught
him by old people. Three years being the age assigned to the
unit, the total comes to 2187 :— ;
Tri saoghail muic, saoghal con ;
Tri saoghail con, _—saoghal eich ;
Tri saoghail eich, = saoghal aufhir ;
Tri saoghail aufhir, saoghal seade ;
Tri saoghail seade, saoghal iolair ;
Tri saoghail iolair, saoghal au iur.
In English.
Three lives ofa pig = life of a dog;
Three lives of adog = life of a horse;
Three lives of a horse = life of a man;
Three lives of aman = life of a path (or furrow) ;
Three lives of a path = life of an eagle;
Three lives of an eagle = life of a yew.
[To be continued. |
* Fortune’s Tea Countries of China, 86.
414 Dr. J.E. Gray on a new Subgenus of Helicinade.
XXXV.—Notice of a New Subgenus of Helicinadee.
By Dr. J. BE. Gray, F.R.S.
THERE is an inclination, in several groups of Marine Univalve
Mollusca, for the animal to form a more or less deep notch or
fissure on the hinder part of the outer lip, as in the genera
Pleurotoma, Amphibola, Pleurotomaria, and Siliquaria; this
notch appears to be formed to facilitate the entrance and exit of
the water from the respiratory chamber. Sometimes the slit, or
a series of holes which may be considered as an interrupted slit,
is placed more in front, as in Haliotis ; or when the shell is sym-
metrical, as in Emarginula, it is in the centre of the front edge.
Some shells which are normally destitute of this notch are liable
to a malformation exhibiting it, as is the case in the common
Littorina littorea.
I had never observed any indication of such a conformation
in any terrestrial mollusk until Mr. Damon of Weymouth kindly
showed to me some specimens of a species of Helicina he had
received from Cuba, under the name of Trochatella regina, which
have this notch most perfectly developed, and as it indicates a
peculiar structure in the animal, I propose to separate it from
the group hitherto recognized in the family Helicinada, as a
distinct subgenus. Dr. Pfeiffer has considered it as forming a
peculiar section of the genus Trochatella, but none of the other
species of that genus show any inclination to this peculiarity.
I may here remark, that some species of this family have a
notch or very narrow slit in the front of the outer lip near the
axis, but this slit appears to have no relation to the notches or
slit referred to in the other genera, being merely formed by a
process in the front of the outer edge of the operculum, a pecu-
liarity I have not observed in any other family of Mollusks.
HAPATA.
Shell conical, subglobose ; spire conical, acute, whorls striated ;
aperture semiovate; outer lip expanded, with a deep sinus in
front and a deep wide notch in the hinder part of the outer edge.
Pillar-lip callous, straight in front, without any anterior slit.
Operculum half-ovate, annular, thin, horny; nucleus in the
middle of the inner straight edge; covered internally with a
thick, smooth, shelly, callous coat.
Hapata regina = Trochatella regina, Pfeiffer, Pneum. Mon.328;
Cat. Phanerop. Brit. Mus. 236.
Hab. Cuba.
a: Re,
Zoological Society. 415
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
November 27, 1855.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair.
On Panorpa#A ALDROVANDI, LAM.
By 8. P. Woopwarp, F.G.S.
The specimen of Panopea Aldrovandi, preserved in spirits, and now
exhibited to the Zoological Society, was presented by Capt. Guise to
the Gloucester Museum, and was lent me for examination through
the kindness of J. W. Wilton, Esq., of Gloucester.
PanopzA ALDROVANDI, Lam.
(Chama glycimeris, Aldr.)
One-fourth natural size.
a, a’, Adductor muscles.
P,p, Pedal muscles.
r, Position of renal organ.
t, Labial tentacles, or palpi.
b, Body.
J, Muscular foot.
m, Pallial muscle, or retractor of
the mantle.
s, Siphonal muscle.
The arrows indicate the inhalant,
or branchial siphon, and the exhalant
or anal siphon, communicating with
the channels above the gills.
This species is found at Sicily, and on the south coasts of Spain
and Portugal; but not, so far as we are aware, at Mogador or the
Canaries.
416 Zoological Society :—
On the coast of Sicily, according to M. Philippi, it. is rare, and
only found between La Trezza and Aci Castello. _M. H. Crosse,
who purposely visited this locality, found a rocky beach in. which it
could not possibly live, and the only spot where the fishermen were
acquainted with it was the village of Giardini, near the sandy bay of
Taormina; eyen there only odd valves were procured, and he says it
would be exceedingly difficult to obtain the animal on account of the
absence of tides*.
Capt. Guise has favoured me with the following note :—
“The Panopea was collected, together with many of the rarest
forms of Mediterranean Mollusca, by the Rev. L. Larking, on the
coast of Sicily ; the animal, when alive in a vessel of sea-water, was
a most lively mollusk—slashing its siphons about, and discharging
the water with the force of a piston.”
There appears to be no description of the animal published.
Philippi had not seen it, nor Valenciennes, at the time he wrote the
monograph of the genus for Chenu’s ‘ Conchological Illustrations.’
Being the type of the genus Panopea, I was the more desirous of
examining it, especially as British naturalists have taken their notion
of Panopea from the British shell called ‘* Panopea Norvegica ”—
which it now appears does not belong to the genus, or even to the
same family, but must be referred to Saxicava amongst the Gastro-
chenide.
In P. Aldrovandi all the visible portion of the mantle and the
long united siphons are clothed with thick, brown epidermis, striped
with black, and very much wrinkled by the contraction of the animal
in alcohol: it was impossible, without dissection, to see whether the
orifices of the siphons were fringed as in Mya. The anterior gape of
the shell exhibits an oval space, perforated in the centre by a small
pedal orifice, scarcely large enough to admit the little finger. °
By lifting up one valve and removing the portion of the mantle
within the pallial line, the internal organs were seen and sketched.
The body is large and oval, suspended by four muscles whose ~
attachments are close to those of the adductors; it is truncated in”
front, where it supports a small finger-like muscular foot ; behind it
is produced into a blunt point. | !
The oral palpi are triangular and pointed, but were probably larger
and broader during life; they are deeply plaited inside, with a plain —
posterior border.
The gills are two on each side; the nner gills extend from the ©
base of the respiratory siphon to the palpi, between which they are
received ; they are deeply plaited, the plaits being in pairs, and the
lower edge of the gill is grooved. The inner dorsal margins are not
united to the body, so that the dorsal channels are only closed by
the apposition of the parts.
The outer gills are simpler in structure, being formed of a single °
series of vascular loops placed one behind another; the free edge is —
not grooved, and the gill terminates in front some way behind the —
* Journ. Conch. vol. ii. 1851. )
Mr. 8S. P. Woodward on Panopea Aldrovandi. 417
inner gill. ‘The dorsal margin of the outer lamina is expanded be-
ond the line of suspension, and is fixed.
The gills of the opposite sides are united to each other behind the
body and to the branchial septum.
The whole structure is closely like that of Mya arenaria, the
chief differences being the shortness of the palpi, and the inequality
of the gills.
There are nine other reputed recent species of Panopee.
1, P. appreviata, Val.; discovered by M. d’Orbigny on the
coast of Patagonia between the R. Negro and S. Blas. This shell
appears to have been again met with by the U. 8. Exploring Expe-
dition, under Commander Wilkes, and is described by Dr. Gould as
LP. antarctica.
| 2. P. ZELANDICA, Quoy ; of which an odd valve only was picked
up on the beach.
3. P. sovanpri, Gray; probably the same as the last.
4, P. austrauis, G. Sby. (Genera of Shells, pl. 40. f. 2), one of
G. Humphrey’s shells from New South Wales; of which there is a
series in the British Museum, from Tasmania.
5. P. ausrrauis, Val. (not Sowerby’s).
This species is as large as P. Aldrovandi, and very like it. Being
quite distinct from the P. australis of Sowerby, it is proposed to call
it P. natalensis.
It was discovered in the sandy bays of Port Natal, by Capt. Cecile
and the officers of the French frigate ‘ Heroine,’ who observed the
tubes of the shell-fish projecting through the sand at low water.
“The sailors endeavoured to draw the creature out of its habita-
tion by the tube, but in vain; for the siphons, after offering con-
siderable resistance, in every instance gave way, and often were with-
' drawn entire, in spite of the grasp of its persecutor. Curious to
__ know the nature of the being which thus escaped them, they dug for
_ it with spades, and at length uncovered the Panopea buried several
_ feet below the surface of the sand, and gregarious*.”’
6. PANOP#A JAPONICA, A. Adams, Zool. Proc. for 1849, p. 170.
_ pil.6.f.5. This species, of which the original and unique example
_ isin the Leyden Museum, is much like the fossil P. intermedia of
_ the London clay.
— 7. Panopaa GENEROSA, Gould; Puget Sound, Oregon. (U. S.
Expl. Exped.)
8. Panopaa norveeica, Spengler, is found - throughout the
_ Aretic seas, from Behring’s Straits to Newfoundland, the North Sea
and Russian Lapland.
____I was so convinced of the affinity of this shell to the Saxicava, that
_ (in my Manual) I placed the latter genus next to Panopea ; it now
_ appears that I should have left it in its former place with Gastro-
_ chena and have removed the Panopea norvegica to it. The shell
* * Forbes, i. p. 174, from Valenciennes’ Archives du Muséum, t. i. 1839.
* oe ie Meg. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol. xviii. 27
418 Zoological Society :—
into a number of separate spots, and the animal has very long taper-
ing gills, prolonged far into the branchial siphon, 3
9. PANOP#A MIDDENDORFFI, A. Adams, Zool. Proc. for 1854,
p- 137. Arctic Seas. (Haslar Museum.) Appears to be a variety
of P. norvegica.
The Geographical Distribution of the genus Panopea affords an
illustration of the rule, or “ law,’ so earnestly investigated by the
late Prof. E. Forbes,—that the range of genera, as well as of species,
depends in great measure on their geological antiquity ; and that
when the members of a group are scattered over the greater part of
the world, we may expect to find evidence of their existence in. the
intervening. spaces during a former age. M. d’Orbigny describes
139 extinct species of Panopea, commencing in the Permian age,
and occurring in every part of the world where secondary or tertiary
strata have been found.
December 11, 1855.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair.
Cuaracters oF Two New Spreciss or TANAGERS.
By Puinuie LutTuey Sciater, M.A.
1. DuBusIA AURICRISSA.
Dubusia cyanocephala? Sclater, P. Z. 8.1855, p. 157.
D. supra flavescenti-olivaceo-viridis : capite nuchaque ceruleis :
loris nigris : subtus cerulescenti-cinerea: tectricibus subalari-
bus et ventre imo crissaque cum tibiis vivide aureo-flavis.
Long. tota 6:5, alee 3°6, caudee 5:0.
Hab. in Nova Grenada, Bogota.
Obs. Species D. eyanocephale simillima, sed rostro minore, colore
dorsi flavescentiore olivaceo, capitis ceeruleo magis extenso, ventre
ceerulescenti- neque albescenti-cinereo, et tectricibus subalaribus nec-
non ventre imo crissoque cum tibiis vivide aureo-flavis. .
Since compiling the list of Bogota birds, in which I have included
this species under the name Dubusia cyanocephala?, I have examined
D’Orbigny’s types of that bird in the Paris Museum, and find them
so different from the present as to lead me to conclude that they are
specifically distinct.
The present bird—which must be considered as the representative
of D. cyanocephala in the mountain ranges of New Grenada—is com-
mon in collections from Bogota. The British Museum contains ex-
amples of both the species. Those of D. cyanocephala were procured -
by Mr. Bridges in Bolivia.
2. InipORNIS PORPHYROCEPHALA.
Tanagra analis, Tschudi in Mus. Berolinensi.
I, supra purpurea, dorso imo et marginibus alarum et caude virides- -
centibus : fronte, loris, mento summo et regione auriculari nigris:
gutture late et lete aureo-flavo: pectore summo purpurascente:
ventre viridescente, medialiter rufescenti-ochraceo : ano intense -
SS ee ee
Oe eee de Ae tee
eee eR” pee ee ee ee
SE SSP
tk el
rt
=
a
LAER
anmaatanaeneen aslhciasl 6d pe AED REN ED
i as iat Tier HS
Ee aig AN PPT Bee ees
Stee: ¥ oe
Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiminia. 419
‘ou ferrugineseenti-castaneo : tectricibus alarum inferioribus virides-
centibus : rostro superiore nigro, inferiore albo.
Long) tota 5:6, alee 3:0, caudee 2:2.
(Hab, in Nova Grenada et rep. Equatoriana.
Obs. Affinis Iridornithi anali, sed capite dorsoque summo purpu-
reis, pectore purpurascente et ventre viridescente facile distinguenda.
When at Berlin 'in 1854 I first noticed a specimen of this Tanager,
which is in the Museum there under the name * Tanagra analis,
Tschudi.” But having just before that had the opportunity of ex-
amining type specimens of the latter bird in the collections of
Brussels and Bremen, I saw at once that the present was to all
appearance a distinct although closely allied species, and accord-
ingly ‘assigned to it a new name in my MS. At Neufchatel I
again saw ‘I'schudi’s analis (the types described in the Fauna Peruana
being contained in the Museum at that place), and I was also so
fortunate as to obtain by exchange, through the courtesy of M. Cou-
lon, the Directeur of the Museum there, a duplicate example of
that species. Upon comparing this with a skin lately received by
Mr. Gould along with other birds from the neighbourhood of Quito,
I find the same differences as I had previously noted in the Berlin
Museum specimen; and, fortified by a second example, no longer
hesitate to introduce the bird as new to science under the title of
Lridornis porphyrocephala.
February 12, 1856.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair.
On THe Genus Assiminta (Leacn).
By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., P.B.S. etc.
.,In.a list.of some species of British shells at the end of an arrange-
ment of Mollusca in the ‘London Medical Repository’ for 1821 (vol. xv.
p-239), 1 noticed a new mollusk under the name of ‘ Nerita (Syncera)
hepatica, n.s. The animal of this shell differs from all others of this
order by the eyes appearing to be at the end of the tentacula, but I
believe that they are placed on a peduncle as long as the tentacula,
and the peduncle and tentacula are soldered together.”’
.. Dr. Leach, when he examined the animal of this shell, formed it
into a genus under the name of Assiminia, and named the species
after myself as 4. Grayana, described under this name at the end of
the genus Limnea,.in Fleming’s ‘ British Animals,’ p. 275 (1828),
who observes, “‘ Dr. Leach sent me several years ago a shell from
Greenwich marshes, constituting a new freshwater genus, under the
title Assiminia Grayana. ‘The lip is thickened on the 0% and re-
flected over the cavity, but is destitute of the oblique fold, and the
lip does not extend over the body whorl. The colour is brown ;
‘whorls six in number, conical, regularly increasing in size, glossy,
with minute lines of growth. Length about ;2,ths of an inch.”
“In my paper “On the Difficulty of distinguishing certain genera of
Testaceous Mollusca by their Shells alone, and on the Anomalies in
regard to Habitation observed in certain species,” published in the
*Philosophical Transactions’ for 1835, p. 301, I observe: ‘ About
27%
420 | Zoological Society: 60
fifteen years since I first. observed in. the marshes) near the bank: of
the Thames, | between Greenwich, and, Woolwich, ; in} conipany: with
species of Valvata, Bithynia and Pisidium,a small univalvecshell,,
agreeing with the smaller species of the littoral.genusZdttorina,im
every character both of shell and.opereulum,,|; Yet this very. peeus
liar and, apparently, local species has an, animal. which at once:distin=
guishes it from the animal of that genus and from all Ctenobranchous
Mollusca. Its tentacula are very short and thick, and have the eyes
placed at their tips, while the Littorine, and all the other animals
of the order to which they belong, have their eyes placed on small
tubercles on the outer side of the base of the tentacles, which are
generally more or less elongated. The shell in question and its
animal were described and figured by Dr. Leach in his hitherto un-
published work on British Mollusca, under. the name of Assiminia
Grayana, and as this name has been referred to by Mr. Jeffreys and
other conchologists, it may be regarded as established, and that of
Syncera hepatica, proposed by myself in the * Medical Repository,’
vol. x. p. 239, will take rank as a synonym.’ A’ second’species of
this genus has lately been made known by Mr. Benson, by whom it
was found on the ponds in India. Its shell is banded like that, of
Littorina 4-fasciata and several other smaller Jcttorine,; and: has
been figured in the Supplement to ‘ Wood’s Conchology;’ t::6; f. 28,
under the name of Turbo Francesie.”’ tid
In my edition of ‘Turton’s Manual,’ 1840, p.,88, I characterize
the genus. thus:—-Assiminia: Shell ovate, conical, solid ;. mouth
ovate ;, tentacles very short, scarcely longer, than the,tubercles .on
which the eyes are placed, and united to, their side, p. 78, f,.4,.5, 6,
observing, ‘‘ the, animal differs from Littorina in the apparent posi-
tion of the eyes, which isan anomaly among the, water,and Cteno-
branchous Mollusca ;”’ and after quoting, Mr. Berkeley’s. description
of the. tentacula I observe,—‘‘I am inclined to, retain, my former
theory, for if, the pedicel of the eye of this genus is minutely exa-
mined, it will appear to be formed of two, parts united by.a suture.’?
In. 1852, haying obtained, permission..of the family, I BRned
Dr. Leach’s ‘ Molluscorum Britanniee Synopsis’ above .referred, to,
and he there described the, genus— ‘‘ Assrminta._ Testa. conica,
spira. mediocris. .Animal tentaculis duobus brevibus, apice, paulo
angustioribus obtusis, ad apicem oculigeris, instructum,; oculi paryi,
rotundi; operculum tenue.”’
“‘From the form of the shell this genus might be considered as
belonging to the, second, stirps (testa conica, spira brevis), but the
animal. proves. that, it is more, nearly allied to Sebanea, than to any
other of the British genera.” (p,.155. t..9..f. 4,5.)
. Lately, some.doubt has. been, attempted. to..be,thrown on the
distinctness..of the genus; which. it, has,.been., proposed should be
united to, the genus. 7runcatella of Risso.
Considermg; the. very, great. similarity. which. often. exists in the -
general appearance of the animals of very, distinct, genera of Mollusca,
—a similarity so great, that if a person was to,place before me, without
the shell or operculum, the animal, of the genera Murex, Triton, Pur-
2 ee . .
Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiminia. 421
pura, Fasciolaria, Columbella, &e., Ishould not be able to distinguish
one from the other without the examination of the teeth ow the lin-
gual membrane, and ‘that would only enable me to separate Triton,
Cassis and Fasciolaria from each other and from Murex, Purpura and
Columbelia, and not the three latter genera from each other; and it is
the’ same with the animals of several other orders and families ;—
Fig. 1,
Soy, gus eee tier
1 chy Truncatella truncatula B. 2.. Assiminia Grayana.
, a. With foot extended, in, the act of a, Under side of animal and shell.
. drawing up the shell, . ; b. Side view.
‘6, Side view. , c. Front of foot, showing’ how the
-'¢. Seen beneath as crawling up a lower lamina of the foot pro-
' glass, when the muzzle is ex- jects beyond the upper.
serted.
yet’ the ‘animals of the two genera dssiminia and Truncatella (see
figs. 1 and 2) proposed to be united, are so unlike in general ap-
pearance, minute structure and habit, that it is extraordinary that
any person should have made the proposal.
i think the best way to show the distinction of these two genera
will be to copy, in addition’ to. the extract already given, the figures
(sée figs. 1 and’2) and descriptions of the animals given in different
authors, commencing with Mr. Lowe, who has figured and described
the animal of ‘Truncafella in the fifth volume of the ‘Zoological
Journal,’ and Mr. Berkeley’s description and figure of the animal of
Assiminia ; then the description of the animal of the Indian species
of the latter genus, both printed in the volume above referred to;
and, ‘lastly, some extracts of additional peculiarity of the genus
Trincatella, observed by Mr. Clark, and published in his work on
British Mollusca.
oe], TRUNCATELLA. » R.T.-Lowe, Zool. Journ, v. 299. t..19. f. 4.
«© Pentacula (2 contractilia) eylindrico-conica, brevia, obtusa, basi
‘© “distincta; proboscide separata; oculis sessilibus paullo supra basis
angulum externum positis. Caput proboscidiforme easertum. Os
ad extremitatem proboscidis cylindrice, inter tentacula exserte,
disciformem, supra emarginatam (sc. bilobam, ob buccas labiales in
proboscidem ipsam coadunatas vel commutatas).' Pallium collare
' ‘siphone’ nullo; orificio ad dectrum ‘corporis ut in Helice, Melam-
pode, Pedipede, &¢.' Pes rotundaius vel ovalis, brevis, minimus,
°° “nosticus. Operculum “corneum simpler, i.e. non spirale, ovale,
aperturam test@ omnino claudens.” Testa turrita; adulta cylin-
422 - Zoological Society :—
drica, decollata vel truncato-obtusa ; anfractibus. distinctis, vel
levibus vel transverse costatis, Apertura ovalis, brevis } peri-
tremate continuo. Labrum simplex. Epidermis nulla. °°
Animal littorale, amphibium, sed revera marinum et branchiis
spirans. Ingredienti, discus terminalis proboscidis pro pedis parte
antica servit; itaque modo fere larvarum Phalenidarum Geome-
trarum gradibus alternis incedit. Testa junior, tereti-acuminata,
e pluribus anfractibus quam adulta constat; prioribus in plerisque
demum (ut in Hel. Bulimo decollato) defractis, truncata evadit.
“It is now nearly three years (1829) since the acquisition ofa single
live specimen of Cyclostoma truncatulum, Drap., and a long and
continued observation of its animal, convinced me that it was entitled
to rank as a distinct genus from any which were then constituted.
I had accordingly designated it in my MSS. by the generic name of
Herpetometra ; derived from its peculiar manner of crawling. This
appellation I had since purposed changing into Truncatella, the very
name by which I find the self-same species designated by Risso in
his ‘Histoire Nat. &c. de Europe Méridionale.”. In this work,
however, the genus rests, like very many others of the same writer,
on most unsubstantial ground, the animal being entirely neglected.”
“‘ AsstMINIA. Berkeley, Zool. Journ. v. 429. t. 19) f. 4.
“ Voluta denticulata, Mont. (Carychium Myosotis, Michaud,
Compl. de Phistoire de Drapard.), and Assiminia Grayana, Leach,
abound under stones in the salt marshes by the Thames at Gravesend,
Having an opportunity of examining both in a living state in the
summer of 1832, I was surprised to find manifest indications’ that
both were pulmoniferous, which were confirmed on a minute inspec-
tion of the internal structure, as far as perhaps could be expected in
‘such small animals. I was enabled in the former to trace distinctly
the course of the vessels, and was decidedly of opinion that the lungs
were constructed for the breathing of air unmixed with water. In
the other case I was not so successful, though the utmost pains were
taken; but as the animal is only half the size, the difficulty was much
increased. I am enabled, however, to assert, that I could detect
nothing like branchize ; and what is more to the point, that the vault
of the cavity of respiration was traversed by a multitude of minute
vessels all tending one way towards a large vessel running down im
the direction of the heart, which is exactly the structure in pulmo-
niferous Mollusca. ‘This, perhaps, will be esteemed as decisive when
the external characters of the animal are taken into consideration.”’
* ASSIMINTA GRAYANA,
“ Foot broadly obovate, obtuse, composed evidently of two distinct
laminze, the lower projecting beyond the upper, and. separated from
it. by an accurately defined line; above fuscous, beneath olivaceous,
shared with cinereous. Tentacula very short and obtuse, fuscous ;
eyes at the tips. Muzzle porrected, not truly proboscidiform, deeply
notched in front, fuscous, strongly annulated ; the edge of the lip
paler; on each side is a groove running backwards from the base of
ee
Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiminia. 423
the tentacula,,. Mantle open behind. Feces elliptical (as in Cyclo-
stoma), .Operculum, corneous, ovate, spirally striated. .The most
remarkable circumstance in this animal is the position of. the eyes,
at the. tips of the tentacula, as in Helix and its allies, and not at
the base., It would appear as if there were in reality no tentacula,
and only the tubercle common to many Mollusca at the base of the
tentacula a little more developed than usual. The shell is so like
that of some species of Rissoa, that it is quite surprising that in
Dr, Fleming’s ‘ British Animals,’ and in Mr. Jeffreys’ paper in the
‘Linnean Transactions,’ it should be placed in, or close to, the
genus Iimnea. Dr. Leach seems to have formed his conclusions from
an actual inspection of the animal, and consequently made a distinct
genus for its reception, In many points the animal resembles very
much that of Cyclostoma, and is perhaps a step nearer than that and
Helicina, which have the mantle open behind, to the Pectinifera.
Its nearest ally, however, amongst the pectiniferous Mollusca I
should conceive not to be Rissoa.
The animal and shell are figured in Forbes and Hanley’s ‘ British
Mollusea,’ iii. 70, t. 71. f. 3, 4, and t. H.H. f. 6.
*“‘ Mr. Benson, at page 463 of the same volume of the Zool. Journ.,
has given the following description of the animal of Assiminia fas-
ciata (Turbo Frances, Gray, in Wood’s Supplement, t. 6. f. 28) :
—‘‘ Animal: Head with only two short, thick, subcylindrical ten-
tacula, with the percipient points placed at their summits. Snout,
like that of Paludina, transversely corrugated and bilobed, or rather
emarginate at the centre of the extremity, the lobes rounded. Mantle
free, and branchial cavity open. Foot witha spiral horny operculum,
angular at the upper part.”
may add to these deseriptions that Mr, Clark has lately stated that
the tentacula of Truncatella Montagui are “short, flat, broad, triangu-
lar, and diverge greatly, scarcely forming an angle of 25°. The eyes
are large and black, and have white prominent pupils, which visibly
dilate and contract. I haye never observed such in any mollusk,
though similar ones may have escaped notice; they are placed a
little nearer to the base than the middle of their lower half, not on
pedicles, but quite flat on the centre of semicircular expansions of
the outer side of the tentacles, with an external tendency. The
branchial plume is single, of an elongated, kidney-shaped figure, and
has the usual constriction or sinus at the end nearest to the heart ; it
can be detected with high powers in sunlight, through the body
volution of pale, clear, thin shells.”
The eyes of Truncatella littorea “are precisely those of 7. Mon-
tagui, and a similar white pupil is a singular coincidence.’
In conclusion, I may observe, that I regard the general form and
organization of the animal and shell of Truncaéella as so peculiar, that
I have long considered it the type of a peculiar family, characterized
by the form of the lips and feet, the mode of walking, the short,
broad, diverging tentacles, the position of the eye and its peculiar
form, and the truncation of the shell.
424. Miscellaneous.
On the other hand, the general form of the animal, the manner of
walking, and habitation of the genus Assiminia are'so like those ot
some of the smaller species of Jéttorina (which Dr. Leach named Sa
banea), that, if it was not for the peculiar: position of the eye‘on its
long pedicel I should. have been inclined to have considered it as a
subdivision of that genus, with very short: tentacles ‘arid elongated
eye-peduncles,,. But Mr. Berkeley’s observations have set that at
rest, as well as the distinction between it-and Truncatella; for he
shows that Assiminia has lungs like Cyclostoma, or rather Helicina,
while the Littorine and Truncatelle have well-developed gills for
respiration, like the greater part of the marine genera; but the gills
of Littorina and Truncatella are very unlike one another, the gills
of the former being broad, short, laminar, and of the latter, single,
ovate, and pectinate. .
P.S.—Messrs. H. and A. Adams, in the number of their work
issued since this paper was read, are ‘so impressed with the pecu-
liarity of the combination of characters that the animal presents, viz)
a pulmonary respiration, spiral: operculum, and terminal ‘eyes, that’ |
they have formed for the genus a suborder named Prosophthalma, and
a particular family, Assiminiade : see Genera of Mollusca, 313. ;
MISCELLANEOUS.
ON CLAUSILIA ROLPHII AND MORTILLETI.
I HAVE lately received the first part of Adolf Schmidt’s * Kritischen
Gruppen der Europiischen Clausilien,’ containing the groups allied,
severally, to. Cl. ventricosa, Dr:, plicatula, Dr., rugosa, Dr., and to’
the true gracilis, Rossm., and placing Cl: ventricosa, Rolphii, Leach,
and tumida, Ziegl., in the first group, while ineolata, Held, plicatula,
&e. are assigned to the second. TOMB Lat
I am also indebted to Mr. Woodward for a further supply of Clau~
sie found by Mr. Sharman at Charlton in Kent. » These all prove
to be! of the form found by Mr. Prentice at Chariton Kings %near
Cheltenham, and assigned by A. Schmidt to C/. Mortilieti, Dumont. -
Early in June I called M. Schmidt's attention to the fact of his
having altogether ignored Cl. Rolphii, as a substantive species, in the”
Prodromus published im the ‘Malak. Blatter’ of the present year.
It now appears that, after some doubt whether Gray’s description -
did not apply to Cl, dineolata,-he had finally arrived ‘at the con-
clusion that the plate presented a better outline of the form of the
shell to which he had referred under the name of Mortilleti, and
which he had. received from Mr. Prentice, through his brother, from:
England, ;where Cl. lineolata) had not been detected. Clausilia:
Rolphii therefore appears as-a substantive species, with CZ. Mortillete
as a syhonym. | pop
On. a review of ithe single large specimen first received from
Mr. Woodward, and which I regarded as the: type of Cl. Rolphit
(Annals for July 1856, page 75),:and on further examination of
A. Schmidt’s amended characters, remarks and figure, Iam disposed
- — hy fee eG Nh ee Se ee ke See vr en Ss PE oe eS ree ee
a ee gil Pie eee ae Pare ep Te SF ,
eS ;
Miscellaneous. A265
to consider the two Woolwich forms as being variations of Rolphii ; the
peculiar form of) the subcolumellar plica, and other characters, not
admitting of the union of either with any other allied species. The
specimen formerly in question must for the present be considered as
a large and unusual variety, or accidental deviation from the general
type of Cl. Rolphii. This deviation is particularly observable in the
form of the spire, in the less-developed basal crest, and in the more
narrowly rimate and contracted periomphalus. There is also no trace
of the slight palatal callus, vanishing towards the base, which is
observable in the ordinary form found in other English localities and
on the continent.—W. H. Benson.
On the Origin of Greensand, and its Formation in the Oceans of
the present Epoch. By Prof. J. W. Baiuey.
As, an introduction to the subject of this paper, it is proper to
refer to various observations which have been made of facts inti-
mately related. to those which I wish to present. That the calca-
reous shells of the. Polythalamia are sometimes replaced by silica,
appears to have been first noticed by Ehrenberg, who, in a note
translated by Mr. Weaver, and published in the Philosophical
Magazine for 1841 (vol. xviii. p. 397), says :—
“I may here remark that my continued researches on the Poly-
thalamia of the Chalk have convinced me that very frequently in the
earthy coating of flints, which is partly calcareous and partly sili-
ceous, the original calcareous-shelled animal forms have exchanged
their lime for silex without undergoing any alteration in figure, so
that while: some are readily dissolved by an acid, others remain insolu-
ble; but in\chalk itself, all similar forms are immediately dissolved.”’
The first notice of casts of the cells and soft parts of the: Poly-
thalamia was published by myself in the ‘ American Journal of
Science’ for 1845, vol. xlviii, where I stated as follows :—~
**The specimens from Fort Washington presented me with what
I believe have never been before: noticed, viz. distinct casts of Poly-
thalamia. That these mimute and perishable shells should, when
destroyed by chemical changes, ever leave behind them indestructible
memorials of their existence, was scarcely to be expected, yet these
casts of Polythalamia are abundant and easily to be recognized in
some of the Eocene marls from Fort) Washington.” This notice
was accompanied by figures of well-defined casts of Polythalamia
(Z..c. pl. 4. fig. 30, 31).
Dr. Mantell also noticed the occurrence of casts of Polythalamia
and their soft parts preserved im flmt and chalk, and communicated
an account of them to the Royal Society of London, in May 1846.
In this paper he speaks of the chambers of Polythalamia as being
frequently filled with chalk, flint, and silicate of iron (Phil. Trans.
1846, p.466):: To Ehrenberg, however, appears to be due the credit
of ‘first distinctly announcing the: connexion between the Polytha-
lamia and the formation of greensand, thus throwing the first light
upon the origin of a’ substance which has long been a puzzle to
426 Miscellaneous.
geologists. In a notice given by this distinguished observer yi
the nature of the matrix of the bones of the Zeuglodon from
bama (see Berlin Monatsbericht, February 1855), he says :—
**That greensand, in all the numerous relations in which Ihave |
as yet examined it, has been recognized as due to the filling-up of
organic cells, as a formation of stony casts (Steinkernbildung) mostly
of Polythalamia, was stated in July of the preceding year.” He
then refers to the Nummulite limestone of Traunstein in Bavaria,
as rich in green opal-like casts (Opalsteinkernen) of well-preserved
Polythalamian forms, and mentions them as also occurring, but
more rarely, in the Glauconite limestones of France. He then
proceeds to give an account of his detection of similar casts in. the
limestone adhering to the bones of the Zeuglodon from Alabama,
and states that this limestone abounds in well-preserved brown,
green, and whitish stony casts of recognizable Polythalamia, This
limestone is yellowish, and under a lens appears spotted with green.
' These green spots are the greensand casts of Polythalamia, and they
often form as much as one-third of the mass... By solution in dilute
hydrochloric acid, the greensand grains are left, mixed with quartz-
ose sand, and with a light yellowish mud... The latter is easily
removed by washing and decantation.. The casts thus obtained are
so perfect, that not only the genus, but often the species of the
Polythalamia can be recognized, _Mingled with these are frequently
found spiral or corkscrew-like bodies, which Ehrenberg considers as
casts of the shells of young mollusks. :
With reference to the perfection of these casts of the Polythalamia,
and the light they throw upon the structure of these minute animals,
Ehrenberg remarks :—_..
“The formation of the greensand consists in a gradual filling-up
of the interior space of the minute bodies with a green-coloured, opal-
like mass, which forms therein as a cast. It is a peculiar species of
natural injection, and is often so perfect, that not only the large and
coarse cells, but also the very finest canals of the cell-walls, and all
their connecting tubes, are thus petrified and separately exhibited,
By no artificial method can such fine and perfect injections be ob-
tained.”
Having repeated the experiments of Ehrenberg upon the Zeuglodon
limestone, I can confirm his statements in every particular, and would
only add, that besides the casts of Polythalamia and small spiral
mollusks, there is also a considerable number of green, red, and
whitish casts of minute anastomosing tubuli, resembling casts of the
holes made by burrowing sponges (Cliona) and worms.
In the Berlin Monatsbericht for July 1855, Ehrenberg gives an
account of very perfect casts of Nummulites, from Bavaria and
from France, showing not. only chambers connected by a spiral
siphuncle, but also a complicated system of branching vessels. He
also gave at the same time an account of a method he had applied
for the purpose of colouring certain glass-like casts of Pashia
which he had found in white tertiary limestone from Java. This
method consists in heating them in a solution of nitrate of iron, by
ae ee a in es ee
Miscellaneous. 427
means of which they can be made to assume different shades of
yellow and brownish-red, still retaining sufficient transparency when
mounted in balsam to show the connexion of the different parts.
The interesting observations of Ehrenberg, which are alluded to
above, have led me to examine a number of the cretaceous and
tertiary rocks of North America in search of greensand and other
easts of Polythalamia, &c. The following results were obtained :—
Ist. The yellowish limestone of the cretaceous deposits of New
Jersey, occurring with Teredo tibialis, &c., at Mullica Hill, and near
Mount Holley, is very rich in greensand casts of Polythalamia and
of the tubuliform bodies above alluded to.
2nd. Cretaceous rocks from Western Texas, for which I am in-
debted to Major W. H. Emory, of the Mexican Boundary Com-
mission, yielded a considerable number of fine greensand and other
casts of Polythalamia and tubuli.
3rd. Limestene from Selma, Alabama, gave similar results.
- 4th. Hocene limestone from Drayton Hall, near Charleston, South
Carolina, gave abundance of similar casts.
~ 5th. A few good greensand casts of Polythalamia were found in
the residue left on dissolving a specimen of marl from the Artesian
well at Charleston, 8.C. ; depth 140 feet.
6th. Abundance of organic casts, in greensand, &c., of Polytha-
lamia, tubuli, and of the cavities of Corals, were found in the
specimen of yellowish limestone adhering to a specimen of Scutella
Lyelli from the Eocene of North Carolina.
~ 7th. Similar casts of Polythalamia, tubuli, and of the cavities of
Corals, and spines of Echini, were found abundantly im a whitish
limestone adhering to a specimen of Ostrea selleformis from the
Eocene of South Carolina.
~ The last two specimens scarcely gave any indications of the presence
of greensand before they were treated with dilute acid, but left an
abundant deposit of it when the calcareous portions were dissolved
out. All the above-mentioned specimens contained well-preserved
and perfect shells of Polythalamia. It appears from the above, that
the occurrence of well-defined organic casts, composed of greensand,
is by no means rare in the fossil state.
I come now to the main object of this paper, which is to announce
that the formation of precisely similar greensand and other casts of
Polythalamia, mollusks, and tubuli, is now going on in the deposits
of the present ocean. In an interesting Report by Count F. Pourtales,
tipon some specimens of soundings obtained by the U.S. Coast Survey
in the exploration of the Gulf Stream (see Report of U.S. Coast
Survey for 1853, Appendix, p. 83), the sounding, from lat. 31° 32',
long. 79° 35', depth 150 fathoms, is mentioned as “a mixture in
about equal proportions of Globigerina and black sand, probably
greensand, as it makes a green mark when crushed on paper.”’ Having
examined the specimen alluded to by Count Pourtales, besides many
others from the Gulf Stream and Gulf of Mexico, for which I am
indebted to Prof. A. D. Bache, the Superintendent of the Coast
Survey, I have found that not only is greensand present at the
428 Miscellaneous.
above locality, but at many others, both in the Gulf Stream,.and
Gulf of Mexico, and that this. greensand, is often in the form of
well-defined casts of Polythalamia, minute mollusks, and branching
tubuli, and. that the same variety of the, petrifying. material is
found as in, the fossil casts, some being. well-defined greensand,
others reddish, brownish, or almost white... In some.cases I have
noticed a single cell, of a spiral Polythalamian cast, to be composed
of greensand, while all the others were red or white, or vice versd.
The species of Polythalamia whose casts’ are’ thus’ preserved, are
easily recognizable as identical with those whose perfectly preserved
shells form the chief part of the soundings. That these are of
recent species is proved by the facts that some of them still retain
their brilliant red colouring, and that they leave distinct remains of
their soft parts when treated with dilute acids., It is not. tobe
supposed, therefore, that these casts are of extinct species washed
out of ancient submarine deposits... They are now forming in the |
muds as they are deposited, and we have thus. now going..on, in the
present seas, a formation of greensand by processes precisely ana-
logous to those which produced deposits of the same material as|long
ago as the Silurian epoch. In this. connexion, it is-important.to
observe that. Ehrenberg’s observations. and. my..own, ‘establish, the
fact that other organic bodies than Polythalamia\ produce, casts of
greensand ; and it should also be stated that many of the grains of
greensand accompanying the well-defined casts are of wholly un-
recognizable forms, having merely a rounded, cracked, lobed, or even
coprolitic appearance. . Certainly many of these masses, which often
compose whole strata, were not formed either in the cavities of Poly-
thalamia or mollusks. The fact, however, being established beyond a
doubt, that greensand does form casts in the cavities of yarious organic
bodies, there is a great probability that all the masses of this substance,
however irregular, were formed in connexion with organic bodies, and
that the chemical changes accompanying the decay, ofthe organic
matter have been ‘essentially connected with. the deposits in the
cavities, of green and red silicates of iron, and of nearly pure silica.
It is a curious fact in this connexion, that the siliceous. organisms,
such as the Diatomaceze, Polycistineze, and Spongiolites which accom~
pany the Polythalamia in the Gulf Stream, do not appear to have
any influence in the formation of casts. es
The discovery of Prof. Ehrenberg, of the connexion between
organic bodies and the formation of greensand, is of very great
interest, and is one of the many instances which he has given to
prove the extensive agency of the minutest beings in producing geo-
logical changes.—Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 364.
On THE Cuma. By Pror. Acassiz.
In a recent number of the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural His-
tory,’ Mr. Bate describes some Crustacea related to Cume, which
had young, and therefore'were adults. This is not in conflict with
the statement of Prof. Agassiz in this Journal, vol. xiii. p. 426,
ae ae es ee
Miscellaneous. 429
wliére'he'says, “‘In regard to the Crustacea called Cume, TI cannot
say ‘positively thatthe group must as a whole be suppressed.’ But
E can state with confidence, that all the species of that genus which
F‘have*had an‘ opportunity to examine alive—and I have watched
three—are: young of Palemon, Crangon and Hippolyte.” Prof.
Agassiz, ina recent letter (to J. D: Dana, dated’ Nahant, July 18th)
respecting these observations of Mr. Bate, writes that “‘they only show
how’ extensive a field of observation remains untrodden among these
little forms. Had Mr. Bate looked more fully mto the embryology
of Crustacea, he would have been better prepared to appreciate the
close correspondence there is between the young of certaim families and
the adults of others; and would have known that these facts are not
limited to the Macroura, as I have shown in my Lectures on Embryo-
logy; p.62-69: he would know that the eyes of even the highest
Crustacea are sessile in the young, &c., and that such characters ob-
served upon young Crustacea do not therefore prove them to be peculiar
types, unless at: the same time their reproduction be satisfactorily
traced: » Acknowledging Mr. Bate’s interesting observation as proving
that his Diastylis Rathkii is an adult animal, the question has made
areal progress*through his researches; but it remains as certain as
before, that-there are'Cume which are larve of Macroura.” —Silli-
mans American Journal, Sept. 1856.
90 NOTE, ON, CALLITRICHE HAMULATA.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
RDMOYSO Dot: October 13,°1856.
*'GENTLEMEN,— While lately in Scotland I had the satisfaction of
finding the Callitriche hamulata (Kiutz.) growing in a ditch commu-
nicating with the river Annan, close to Jardine Hall.
~The specific character of the C. pedunculata, as given in Babington’s
Manual (ed. 4. p. 293), applies accurately to the C. hamulata, with -
the exception of the supposed want of bracts in the former plant.
“On mentioning the subject to Mr. Babington, he informed me that
he had detected bracts on cultivated plants of his C. pedunculata,
B. ‘sessilis, and convinced himself that that plant is C. hamulata. He
considers C. hamulata (Kiitz.) as the type of the species, and the
C. pedunculata (DC.) to be a variety of it.
' My discovery does not therefore increase the number of our spe-
cies, but only corrects the nomenclature by identifying a doubtful
plant with a known continental species. This is a highly satisfactory
result.
I may add that Mr. Babington mentioned that the bracts are
usually very deciduous in this plant ; such I found to be the case in
the Scottish specimens. |
Ree SRN: I am, Gentlemen, yours obediently,
FREDERICK TOWNSEND. \
480 Miscellaneous.
RARE BRITISH BIRDS.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
Plymouth, October 16, 1856. _
GENTLEMEN,—During the late gales we have been visited by
rather an unusual number of the Sterna arctica and 8. hirundo.
Specimens of each species have been shot in the neighbourhood.
The Thalassidroma pelagica was captured alive on the 2nd of this
month, in the passage of a house, Woodlane Terrace, by H. O. Bull-
more, Esq. The bird was in excellent condition, fat and. fleshy, but
right wing was broken.
I am, Gentlemen, yours truly,
W. P. Cocks.
Descriptions of two New Species of the Genus Orthotomus. By
FREDERIC Moores, Assist. Mus. East India Company.
At a Meeting held in the early part of the present year; I laid
before the Zoological Society a monograph of this interesting genus,
and since that time I have been favoured by my brother with a search
through the birds contained in the Derby Museum, which has resulted
in the discovery of two additional undescribed species. ‘These I now
proceed to characterize.
ORTHOTOMUS DERBIANUS, Moore.
Forehead, crown and occiput dark ferruginous ; back, rump and
sides of neck ash-colour ; ear-coverts, throat and breast pale ash,
with the centre of the feathers whitish; flanks ashy-white ;. belly
and vent dull white; wings brown, broadly margined throughout
with yellowish-green; edge of shoulder pale brown; under. wing-
coverts rufescent-white ; tail much graduated, ferruginous-brown
above, dusky at base, paler beneath, and without discernible terminal
spots or band; thighs ferruginous; upper mandible horn-colour,
lower mandible and legs pale.
Length, 55 inches; of wing 2 inches; tail 2} inches; bill from
frontal plumes $ths inch, to gape }$ths inch, and tarsus =8,ths ‘of
an inch.
Hab. Philippines ? (H. Cuming)... In Derby Museum, Liverpool.
Remark.—May be distinguished from all the previously known
species by its greater size, and in having the ear-coverts, throat and
breast ash-colour, with the centres of the feathers whitish.
ORTHOTOMUS MACULICOLLIS, Moore.
Forehead ferruginous, becoming dull on crown; feathers of the
occiput greenish-brown, faintly edged with black; nares, behind
the eyes, a line under, with the ear-coverts and sides of neck ferru-
ginous-white, each feather being edged with black; back and ramp
greenish ; throat white; breast, belly and vent ferruginous-white ;
sides of breast black, and flanks light greenish ; wings brown, edged
Meteorological Observations. 431
exteriorly with greenish-ferruginous-brown; edge of shoulder and
under wing-coverts pale rufescent-white; tail brown above on the inner
webs, and. yellowish on the outer, beneath pale ashy-brown, having
indistinct dusky spots towards the end, and pale at tae tips and inner
margins of the feathers ; thighs pale ferruginous. Bill, darkish horn
above, paler beneath ; legs yellowish.
Length, 4,3; inches ; of wing 1,5; in. ; tail 1,85 in.; bill to gape 4,
and tarsus = of an inch. |
Hab. Malacca. In Derby Museum, Liverpool.
Remark,.—Allied to, but distinguished from O. longicauda by
having the sides of the head and neck ferruginous-white, each feather
being edged with black.—Proc. Zool. Soc. Dee. 12, 1854.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR SEPT, 1856.
Chiswick.—September 1. Very fine : thunder and lightning at night, but without
rain. 2. Shower: very fine: clear. 3,4. Heavy dew in the mornings: very fine.
5. Slight fog: cloudy and fine. 6. Slight fog: rain at night. 7. Very fine. 8.
Foggy: very fine. 9. Dense fog: very fine: cloudy. 10. Slight haze: very fine.
11. Overcast. 12. Cloudy: very fine: rain. 13. Cloudy. 14. Clear and fine.
15. Fine: overcast. 16. Clear: fine. 17. Overcast: rain. 18. Rain: very fine.
19. Clear, quite cloudless: very fine. 20. Very clear: cloudy and cold: slight
frost at night. 21. Fine: rain. 22. Clear: showery: fine. 23. Clear: cloudy:
bright sun at intervals. 24. Clear: heavy showers. 25. Clear: dense clouds:
fine. 26. Fine: rain at night. 27. Heavy rain. 28. Rain: heavy showers.
29. Cloudy and fine. 30. Very fine: cloudy: fine at night.
Mean temperature of the month ......... biceveoecccceeresegeores O4 41
Mean temperature of Sept. 1855 ...........sccecscseceeceeeseees 56 *11
Mean temperature of Sept. for the last thirty years. ......... 56°95
Average amount of rain in Sept. ..ssseseecscceseesecseeesees w+... 2°455 inches.
Boston.—Sept. 1—4. Fine. 5. Cloudy. 6. Fine. 7. Fine: rain a.m. 8,9. Fine.
10; Cloudy. 11, Cloudy: rain A.M. 12, Cloudy. 13. Cloudy: rain a.m. and
p.m. 14, Fine. 15. Cloudy. 16. Fine. 17. Cloudy: rain p.m. 18,19. Fine.
20. Cloudy... 21,22. Fine: rainr.m. 23, Cloudy. 24—26. Fine. 27—29.
Cloudy: rain A.M. and p.m. 30. Cloudy.
Sandwick Manse, Orkney.—Sept. 1. Clear a.m.: clear, aurora p.m. 2. Bright
A.M.: clear p.m. 3. Clear a.m.: cloudy rm. 4,5. Clear a.m. and p.m. 6.
Bright a.m.: cloudy p.m. 7. Drizzle a.m.: damp p.m. 8. Damp a.m.: fog P.M.
9. Fog a.m. andp.m. 10. Fog a.m.: showers p.M.. 11,12. Bright a.m. : showers
pM. 13. Showers, bright a.m.: cloudy p.m. 14. Drizzle, bright a.m.: showers
p.m. 15. Showers A.M. and p.m. 16. Showers A.m.: rain, lightning p.m. 17,
Showers a.M.: clear P.M. 18. Sleet showers a.M.: showers P.M. 19. Cloudy
A.M.: showers P.M. 20. Showers a.M.: cloudy p.m. 21. Bright a.m.: showers
p.M. 22. Rain A.M.: showers P.M. 23. Bright a.m.: showers P.M. 24. Rain A.M. :
showers P.M. 25. Showers A.M. and p.m. 26. Clear a.m.: clear, aurora p.m.
27. Hoar-frost a.M.: showers, aurora P.M. 28. Damp a.m.: cloudyp.m. 29.
Showers A.M. and p.m. 30. Showers a.m.: clear P.M.
Méan temperature of Sept. for previous twenty-nine years ... 52°28
Mean temperature of this month —..,.+.+. f4es eh asin. sohesb endo cas 50 *83
Mean temperature of Sept. 1855 ...cesssssseeseeseesseeseeenes we 92°74
Average quantity of rain in Sept. for previous sixteen years... 2°82 inches.
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THE ANNALS
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
[SECOND SERIES.]
No. 108. DECEMBER 1856.
XXXVI.—New Land Shells collected by BK. L. Layarn, Esq.,
and described by W. H. Brunson, Esq.
Tue following shells were collected by Mr. E. L. Layard at the
Cape of Good Hope, and on his route to that colony, at St.
Vincents, in the Cape de Verde Islands, and St. Helena. His
researches have added new localities for several species already
known, and he has furnished some interesting facts respecting
their habits.
Bulimus arenicola, nobis, n.s.
Testa vix perforata, trochiformi, irregulariter subplicato-striata,
nitidula, albida, rufo-castaneo fasciata; spira attenuato-conica,
sutura leviter impressa, apice acuto, castaneo; anfractibus 65
subplanulatis, ultimo magno, dimidium teste efformante, acute
carinato, subtus convexiusculo, fasciis duabus, altera suturali,
altera ad carinam, ornato; apertura magna, subquadrato-rotun-
_ data; peristomate simplici, aeuto, margine -externo infra ad peri-
pheeriam angulato, columellari verticali arcuato, expansiusculo,
superne breviter appresso-reflexo, perforationem fere claudente,
basali valde arcuato.
Long. 17, diam. 15; long. apert. 10, lat. 83 mill. ; diam. anfr. supra
aperturam ad carinam 11 mill.
Hab. ad colles arenosas prope sinum “ Waterloo” dictum Caffrariz.
Were it not for the evident affinity of this shell to the Natal
species, Bulimus spadiceus, Menke, I should have been inclined
to refer it to the genus Heliz. Mr. Layard states that there is
a brown, bandless variety. It may be at once distinguished from
_ B. spadiceus by its higher and more slender spire, by the acute
carination of the last whorl, and by its imperfect perforation ;
the umbilicus in B. spadiceus being pervious, although narrow,
and merely hidden by the free dilatation of the columellar lip.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvii. 28
434. Mr. W. H. Benson on some new Land Shells.
Bulimus Gemmula, nobis, n.s.
Testa rimato-perforata, ovato-conica, striatula, nitida, cornea; spira
conica, sutura impressa, apice obtusiusculo; anfractibus 5, ultimo
ad basin circum umbilicum, subangulato-compresso ; apertura ro-
tundato-ovali, tuberculo vix conspicuo parietali subangulari munita ;
peristomate undique expansiusculo, tenui, acuto, margine dextro
arcuato,
Long. 23, diam. 13 mill.
Hab, ad insulam Sancti Vincentii Promontorii Viridis, sub lapidibus.
Found by Mr. Layard on the west side of the island, under
the Duke’s Head Mountain ; not uncommon. ‘This little shell
belongs to the group which contains Bulimus nitidulus, Pfr.,
B. putillus, Shuttl., caenopictus, Hutton, tutulus, nobis, and mar-
ginatus ( fallax), Say, which have’ been indifferently assigned to
Bulimus and Pupa, and all of which are characterized by the
tubercle at the right angle of the parietal; border. :
Bulimus, compressilabris, nobis, n. s.
Testa vix perforata, subuliformi, confertim flexuose costulato-striata,
cerea, albida, sutura subimpressa, marginata, apice obtusiusculo ;
anfractibus vix 7, ultimo # longitudinis equante; apertura trek:
cato-ovali, basi rotundata ; peristomate, tenui simplici, -margine
-dextro superne antrorsum arcuatim producto, subcompresso, colu-
mellari verticali, breviter reflexo, subtus nullo modo truncato nec
emarginato.
Long. 64, diam. 2 mill.
Hab.ad insulam Sanctze Helenze in: horto:publico non infrequens,
This is a form of the widely spread type to which Bulimus
Goodalli, Octona, &c. belong... Mr. Layard found it in a little
artificial watercourse in the public gardens at the entrance of
Jamestown.
Achatina Spiculum, nobis, n. s.
Testa imperforata, subulato-cylindracea, gracillima, hyaleea, politis-
sima; spira elongata, apice obtuso, sutura impressa, marginata ; —
anfractibus sub 6, convexiusculis, ultimo 4 testee sequante; aper-
tura verticali, attenuato-pyriformi, basi rattniiate « labro obtusius-
culo, leviter arcuato ; columella.ad basin oblique valde truneata et
pariete callosis.
Long. 4, lat..1 mill. ; long. apert..14 mill,
Hab. ad.insulam, S$" Vincentii sub lapide.
A single specimen was found by Mr. Layard on the west side
of the island, under the Duke’s Head Mountain. This is a very
distinct species of the Acicula type. An uncertain species, Ach.
vitrea, W. B., from Teneriffe, is contained in D’Orbigny’s collec-
tion in the British Miiseutr. Dr. Pfeiffer has, on examination,
transferred it to the genus Bulimus, im which he places it as
Mr. W. HL, Benson on some new Land Shells. 435
577 a. Suppl. He has favoured me with a copy of his diagnosis,
from which I am enabled to state that it has no close relation-
ship with the present species.
Achatina Veru, nobis, n.s.
Testa imperforata, subulato-cylindracea, gracili, leevigata, cerea, ni-
tidula, translucente ; spira elongata, apice obtuso, sutura impressa,
marginata ; anfractibus 5 convexiusculis, ultimo + teste equante ;
apertura. verticali, pyriformi, basi latiuscula rotundata ; peristo-
mate acuto; labro tenui, leviter arcuato ; columella subcallosa, ad
basin leviter oblique truncata.
Long. 44, diam. 1 mill. ; long. apert. 15 mill.
Hab. in insula Sanctze Helene.
A single specimen was found. by Mr. Layard with Bulimus
compressilabris. It belongs to the aciculoid type, and is de-
ficient in the lucid transparency and peculiar slenderness of
Ach. Spiculum... The proportions of these two shells differ from
those of their allies, 4, Acicula and Hohenwarti, neither of which
can compete with the new species in slenderness.
Pupa Acarus, nobis, n.8,
Testa rimato-perforata, cylindrico-ovali, minutissima, cornea, pellu-
cida, sutura impressa, apice obtusiusculo ; anfractibus sub quinque,
conyexis ; apertura rotundato-ovata 6- -plicata, plica ‘1 valida lamel-
liformi irregular mediana’ parietali, 2 columellaribus, quarum su-
periori minuta, inferiori valida transversali, dentibus 3 palatalibus
brevibus parum profundis, quarum | basali et. proxima majori ;
peristomate tenul, eorneo; undique breviter angulatim expanso,
...Intus leviter marginato.
Long. 13, diam. 3 mill.
Hab. ad insulam “St Vincenti sub lapidibus.
There is some indication of a fourth tooth above, on the palate,
in the only specimen received, but. it cannot. be made out di-
stinctly. The shell occurred in company with Achatina Spiculum.
Pupa Layardi, nobis, u.°s.
Testa areuato-rimata, elongato-conica, oblique striatula, albida ; spira
~ elongato-conica, apice ?, sutura impressa ; ; dnitewetib ws 6-7
superstitibus, subplanulatis, ultimo antice ascendente, pone aper-
turam angustiori, subscrobiculato, basi compresso-cristata; apertura
triangulari-obovata, verticali, breviter soluta, sex-plicata ; peristo-
~ mate undique expanso, marginibus tenuibus acutis, dextro plicis
_ tribus, columellari plica unica majori decurrente, parietali 1 angu-
lari, secunda remotiuscula, omnibus profunde intrantibus, munitis,
Long. sp. imperfecti 7, diam. 4 mill.
Hab, ad Promontorii Bonee Spei extremitatem ‘‘Cape Point”’ dictam.
Three specimens of this singular Pupa were found dead under
a rock by Mr. Layard. The specimen. sent to me is much
. 28*
436 Mr. W. H. Benson on some new Land Shells.
weathered, is deficient in the upper whorls, and is shghtly
damaged on the columellar lip; but the:characters of ‘the ‘aper-
ture and of the last whorl are too peculiar'to’ allow of its being
confounded with any other species. \ The, superior parietal plait
and. the upper palatal one, run almost contiguously parallel, for
some distance.into the aperture, forming an imperfect tube which
opens at the top of the aperture.
The rather variable sinistrorse. shell (perhaps including P. ca-
pensis, Kr.) which I found on the shores of Simon’s and Hout Bays,
and which I referred in a former. paper. to, Pupa pottebergensis,
Krauss, was found abundantly on the same Point by Mr. Layard,
together with Heli« Menkeana, Pfr., and the true Heli# Lucana of
Miller. A small variety of the latter shell, from Caledon, I was
at first inclined to describe as a new species. It, differs in having
the umbilicus almost rimate, and shows a passage towards a small
variety of Helix Alexandri, Gray, found, in Namaqua Land, with
several, varieties of H. globulus., .The same modification, of the
umbilicus, in the species dwelling more to the eastward, is, ob-
servable in a.specimen of Helix. Menkeana sent to,me by Prof.
Albers, from, Elim,, as compared .with Mr. Layard’s specimen,
and with the larger inflated variety which I found,on the sand-
hills in Hout, Bay... Pupa Kurri, Krauss, noted by its deseriber
as a Zwellendam: species, has also been forwarded from the
George District.
Helix Charybdis, nobis, n. 8. =
Testa subaperte. umbilicata, discoidea, | utrinque concaya, confertim
radiato-costulata, costulis alternis acutis salientibus, cornea ; an-
fractibus 44 convexis, ultimo angusto, ceeteros dominante, superne
subangulato, subtus convexo; apertura anguste lunari, altiori quam
lata, utrinque testam superante ; peristomate tenul, acuto, margine
columellari expansiusculo, umbilico profunde perspectivo.
* Diam. major 53, minor 43, axis 23 mill. Long. apert. 3, lat. 2 mill. ©
Hab. ad Promontorium Bone Spei.
Mr. Layard found this species rarely, in company with H. per-
plicata, nobis, at the Waterfall, near the highest blockhouse, on
the Table Mountain towards Rondebosch. Only three specimens
were taken. The specimen described is in bad order, especially
about the aperture, the characters of which may be open to cor-
rection on the receipt of a better specimen.
Helix Tollini, Albers.
Testa obtecte subperforata, globoso-depressa, tenuiter striata, sub lente
striis exilissimis spiralibus utrinque decussata, nitidula, sericea,
fusco-cornea, translucente; spira vix elevata, apice prominulo, ob-
tusiusculo, sutura impressa, submarginata; anfractibus 5 con-
vexiusculis, ultimo rotundato, subinflato; apertura verticali, rotun-
dato-lunata ;_peristomate recto, tenui; margine columellari subito
Mr: W.-H. Benson on some new Land Shells. 437
, valde reflexo; superne expanso, calloso, appresso, ‘ perforationem
:obsoletam tegente, tum oblique descendente.
Diam. major 12-14, minor 11-124, axis 7-9 mill.
Previously to the receipt of Mr. Layard’s specimens, Dr. Pfeiffer,
who had’ obtained ‘the ‘shell’ from Dr: Albers, sent it to me for
inspection ; and T subsequently received examples from Dr. Albers
himself, with the name above adopted, Mr. Tollin having trans-
mitted to him the first specimens seen in Europe.
Mr. Layard has found it on all sides of Table Mountain at the
Cape of Good Hope, on the Devil’s Peak, and in the ravine behind
the Admiralty at Simonstown, always in damp shady places, under
stones. The caudal portion of the animal is very long aiid narrow,
and carinate above. The inferior tentacula are short and white,
the superior very long and attenuated, generally wavy, and black,
with white tips, slightly clubbed, in which the small black eyes
are’ set/'.'The animal creeps fast, with a ‘serpentine motion,
carrying the ‘shell horizontally on the back, and, when recently
taken, has’a ‘curious habit of retracting the head into the shell,
while ‘the long tail portion remains extruded; it then throws
itself about, as Mr. Layard reports, doubling, twisting, and often
springing away ‘several inches, with the little button-like shell
adhering to the anterior extremity of the part exposed. In con-
nexion with this fact Pmay mention that Mr. Theobald has lately
met, in the Khasya Hills, with a little Vitrina which springs
3 or 4 inches from the ground.
1 Several. Helices, which I met with round the foot of Table
Mountain, have been observed by Mr. Layard’ at various’ ele-
vations, as instanced already in H. perplicata, which inhabits
succulent plants, as well as the under sides of stones. H. vor-
tictalis, Bens., occurred on the Devil’s Peak, the Lion’s Head
and Tail, and on Table Mountain, under stones, wood, leaves,
and sacking; H. bisculpta, B., on the. Deyil’s Peak, under
stones. . Helix dumeticola, B., was met with near the shore at
Camp’s Bay, parasitic on Helix capensis, and feeding on that
species under ground at the roots of geraniums. Three living
specimens were taken with their heads buried in their half-
eaten victims, and lived for some time feeding on the small
specimens which were introduced into their box. The animal is
about half an inch in length, and the upper part of the body is
dark grey, with two light’ stripes running close together down
‘ the: back, which is minutely mottled. The under side’ and tail
are light brown.
HH. sabuletorum; B., lives ‘under stones at Simon’s Bay, in the
Round Battery, and in the Admiralty’ Garden. Mr. Layard
states that ‘it has two tetitacula, with the eyes at the summits.
~The lower pair may perhaps be inconspicuous, or abortive, as in
438 Mr. W.H. Benson on some new Land Shells.
Vertigo. He reports also that he had found, on the, Devil’s
Peak, a unique minute conical Helix with acute radiating
ribs, together with a small Vitrina, which was crushed in the act
of capture. Another new Helix, from a ravine at Simon’s Bay,
is in a condition too imperfect for description, and an imperfect
shell from the ravine which runs between the Devil’s Peak and
Table Mountain may be another subglobose translucent var. of
H. Menkeana. |
At St. Helena Mr. Layard found a shell, answering to Quoy’s
description of Succinea St. Helene, on the leaves of a Sagittaria,
and of an arborescent Fern, m the watercourse of a ravine at
Brown’s Hill. The animal was whitish below, and, in old speci-
mens, reddish mottled with brown above, and with a dark line
running from each of the superior tentacles down the back. At
the same spot whence he procured Bulimus compressilabris, B.,
he got a single specimen of the widely-spread Helix pulchella
(which I had detected at the more remote locality of the Cape),
and of a decayed shell which could not be distinguished from
the North American H. minuscula, Say. These shells may have
been imported into the garden with plants. Under stones, in
damp places about Napoleon’s Tomb, he found the smaller
variety of Pupa anconastoma, Lowe, abundant. This is evi-
dently the shell which I got in 1832 between Plantation House
and Stitch’s Ridge (Annals, 2nd Series, vol. vu. p. 263), and
which I lost before I could observe its characters sufficiently.
It is found in the Canaries, as well as in Madeira, and by some |
writers its separation from P. umbilicata, Drap., is contested.
Helix remotu, Bens., occurred to Mr. Layard under stones
on the upper side of the road leading from Jamestown to
Longwood,
Cyclophorus convexiusculus, Pfr., var. minar.
I had described this shell as new with reference to the de-
scription in the Zoological Proceedings for 1855 of C. convewt-
usculus, Pfr., brought from the Cape by Mr. Macgillivray, Dr.
Pfeiffer having omitted to notice the obtuse angularity of the
periphery of the last whorl. Wishing however to obviate the
possibility of error, I applied to Mr. Cuming, who obligingly
forwarded the type specimen, which proves to be the same
species, only larger by half the diameter, and with a more
obtuse apex, the vertex in Mr. Layard’s shell being a little more
prominent, and the whorls only four in number. The epidermis
is also darker, and more strongly plicate in the smaller variety.
The aperture is milky-white internally. Diam. major 4, minor 3,
axis 2 mill. This is the only Cyclophorus certamly known to
inhabit the African continent. |
“Mr. J. Alder on new British Zoophytes. 439
Mr. Layard discovered it in damp mould, amongst a pile of
loose rocks, in a steep rayine, on the side of Table Mountain
overlooking Camp’s Bay, and in company with the next species.
Hydrocena Noticola, nobis, n. s.
Testa subobtecte perforata, globoso-conica, leevigata, uitidula, suc-
cinea, pellucida ; spira conica, apice obtusiusculo, rubello, sutura
valde impressa; anfractibus 4, convexis, ultimo. ventricoso ;
_ apertura vix obliqua, ovato-acuta; peristomate tenui acuto, callo
parietali, columellarique, appresso-reflexo, umbilicum fere tegente.
Operculo normali, corneo, pellucido, paucispirato.
Long. 2, diam. 1} mill.
fab. cum precedente.
This is the first species of the genus which has been observed
on the African continent. In its smoothness it presents a
marked contrast to the Citra-gangetic species from the Khasya
Hills and, Burma.
A Lymnea, a Planorbis, and a Unio (probably the shell found
by Rang in the Berg River, and nearly allied to the European
U. pictorum), have been found by Mr. Layard, and will, with
some fluviatile shells taken by myself in the vicinity of Cape
Town, form the subject of a separate paper.
Cheltenbam, November 7th, 1856.
XXXVII.—Descriptions of three new British Zoophytes.
By Josuva AtpEr, Esq. |
[ With a Plate. |
In addition to the new zoophytes described in my former com-
munication to the ‘ Annals of Natural History,’ 1 now beg to
offer an account of three others, extracted from a Catalogue of
the Zoophytes of Northumberland and Durham, about to appear
in the ‘ Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club,’
Family Tubulariade.
Tubularia implexa, n. sp.
_ Tubes small, very slender, generally more or less contorted
below; smooth, wrinkled, or regularly annulated beneath a
smooth transparent epidermis; slightly and subunilaterally
branched, the branches going off nearly at right angles to
the stem, and a little constricted at their bases. Gregarious,
forming a densely tangled mass of } to $ of an inch in height.
Discovered by Mr. R. Howse on an old anchor brought in by the
fishermen from forty fathoms water, thirty miles off Holy Island.
440 Mr. J. Alder on new British Zoophytes.
As the polype of this species has not, been observed, its claim
to a place in this genus cannot be fixed very decidedly. . Its
mode of branching is similar to that of the other Tubularie, but it
is much smaller than any species hitherto described. The divi-
sion of the tube into two coats is curious. This takes place
sometimes near the base, but more frequently in the young
branches, where the thin, smooth epidermis shows a strongly
ringed tube within. The epidermis in dried specimens shrinks
to the form of the inner tube, so as not to be distinguished
from it.
Family Campanulariade.
Laomedea neglecta, n. sp. Pl. XVI. figs. 1, 2.
Polypary minute ;,stem filiform, subflexuose, with two or three
alternate simple branches, each bearing a cell; the stem, is
annulated with from four to seven rmgs above the origin of
each branch, and sometimes slightly ringed below it,;, the
branches are ringed throughout : cells narrow and deep, with
alternately shallow and deep crenations, forming about eight
bimucronated denticles round the margin... Polype with fifteen
or sixteen slender tentacles.
Height 5% in. ee |
On the under side of stones between tide-marks, Cullercoats
and Tynemouth : frequent. a
This delicate little Laomedea, though apparently not. rare, has
hitherto escaped observation ; or, if observed, it has been passed
over as the young of Johnston’s small variety of L. gelatinosa
(L. flexuosa, Hincks, MS.), with which it is sometimes associated
on the same stone. It is, however, not very readily seen unless
the stone is examined with a magnifier. It differs from the
‘species above named in being of much humbler growth, more
slender, and in having smaller, narrower, and deeper cells, ere-
nulated on the margin. The margin of the other is plain. The
erenulations are very difficult to detect, on account of the extreme
tenuity of the edges. They resemble those of the true Sertu-
laria gelatinosa of Pallas (Laomedea gelatinosa, var. 8, Johnst.),
though the shape of the cell is different, as may be. seen by a
reference to fig. 83, where a cell of that species is figured for
comparison. I have also added two cells of L. longissima, Pallas
(L. dichotoma, 8, Johust.), fig. 4,. the only other British denti-
culated Laomedea with a campanulated cell. These two species:
were supposed to have plain margins by Dr. Johnston, who had
not seen them in a perfect state.
4 hoon
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. S. 2Vol.18.PL.XVI.
’ TBasire, se.
M.S ell:
Bere)
ey,
IH,
oy.
,
7
als
M55
MG
Mr. J. Alder on new British Zoophytes. 441
Laomedea acuminata, n. sp. Pl. XVI. figs. 5, 6, 7, 8.
Polypary minute, scarcely branched ; with a slender, annulated
stem; cells thin, membranous, finely striated longitudinally,
elongate-ovate or pod-shaped, squared below, and tapering to
a fine point above; margin slightly crenulated. Polype reach-
ing, when extended, to two or three times the length of the
cell, with about twenty muricated tentacles, united by a web
at the bare.
Height 4, in.
On an old shell of Fusus antiquus from deep water, Cullercoats.
This is an extremely curious and interesting species, which
one would scarcely think of referring to the genus Laomedea,
were it not for its near alliance to the L. lacerata. The stem
rises from a creeping fibre, and is generally more or less annu-
lated throughout, the annulations becoming fainter, or entirely
disappearing towards'the cell. In most of the specimens ob-
served, the stem bore only a single polype, but in two or three
instances a branch, bearing a second polype, was seen proceed-
ing from it. The ‘cells ‘are extremely elastic and membranous,
changing form with the polype, and scarcely to be distinguished
from it when alive, excepting at the apex when the animal is °
withdrawn. ‘The polype, when extended, stretches far beyond
the cell, the latter adhering closely to it and becoming cylin-
drical. The whole animal is very extensile, and frequently
changes its form. The tentacles sometimes appear short and
stout, and at other times they are extended into long and slender
threads, as in the freshwater Hydra, to which the animal then
bears considerable resemblance. The tentacles are united by a
web for about one-sixth of their length; a circumstance I have
not observed in any other species. The margin of the cell
‘appears to be crenulated, and not divided into deep segments, as
in L. lacerata. This character, however, is difficult to ascertain.
‘T have watched the opening of the cell several times when the
polype was emerging from it, without being able to detect the
exact form of the Taare which is extremely thin and mem-
branous.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE XVI.
Figs. 1, 2. Laomedea neglecta, natural size and magnified.
Fig. 3. A cell of Laomedea gelatinosa, Pallas.
Fig. 4. Two cells of Laomedea longissima, Pallas.
Fig. 5. Laomedea acuminata, natural size.
Figs. 6, 7. The same highly magnified, with the polype in different states
of expansion.
Fig. 8. The same with the polype withdrawn.
442 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
XXXVIII.— Elucidation of some Plants mentioned in Dr. Francis
Hamilton’s Account of the Kingdom of Nepal. . By Lieut.-Col.
MappEn, F.R.S.E., President of the Botanical Society of
Edimburgh.
[Concluded from p. 413.]
Bhurya patra, or Bhurjapatra, p. 97. Betula bhojpatra,
Wall. “This bark (of a fine chestnut colour) is imported into
the low country in considerable quantity, and is used both in
the religious ceremonies of the Hindus, and for constructing
the flexible tubes with which the natives (and Europeans also)
smoke tobacco.” Both in India and in Persia this bark was
anciently substituted for paper (called Tus in Persia); hence a
Sanscrit name of the Birch, Vidhadal, ‘leaf of knowledge.’
The blocks used in Thibet for stereotype printing are formed of
its wood... The Sanscrit Bhurjja, ‘firm or hardy in the earth,’
seems the origin of our term Birch, Russian, Beréza, &c.. The
Bharangi bark from Almorah (Royle, J.A.§.B. for October
1832, No. 110) is explained to be Betula bhojpatra,—Illustrated
Cat. of Great Exhib. of 1851, vol. ii. 7
Kéephal (not Karphal), p. 85. . Myrica sapida., Kayaphal,
from the Sanscrit Katphal, signifies both acid and stony, fruit.
It is scarcely worth eating; but the bark is sent down to the
plains in large quantities, and is used, I think, in dyeing.
Lalchandan, “a timber tree, the foliage and appearance. of
which have some resemblance to the Laurels” (p. 85)....No
specimen or reference seems to exist in the Catalogue; but. the
plant.is probably Goughia Himalensis, Bentham (a new genus. of
Euphorbiacez, near to Sarcococca), which is not uncommon, in
moist valleys in outer Kumaon and other provinces. of the
Himalaya as far N.W. as Dharmsa4la near Kotkangra, at 5000-
7000 feet. The Kuméon name, Rakt Chandan, is of the same
import as that given by Dr. Hamilton, and signifies ‘ Red San-
dal-wood ;? the heart-wood being used for the sectarial mark
which the Hindus daub on their foreheads,
. The genus Goughia is described and figured in Wight’s Icones,
vs 22. t.' 1878-79.
Catalogue, specimen No. 1486. . Sinapis Gorrea. Ghor rayi,
Hindice. Colitur rarius in Indie Gangetice arvis ob semina
acria. In fr. Surjaghorri, 27 March, 1811. Identified by
Wallich (No. 4790) with Sinapis erysimoides, Roxburgh, Fl. Ind.
iii, 123, from Wynaad, a district of Malabar.
Ten years since, I noticed this plant under cultivation at Al-
morah, with the names Makara. rai, Asl rai, Tarantula and True
Strom the Kingdom of Nepal. 4.43
Mustard. I referred it doubtfully to S. erysimoides or nigra.
On a voyage down the Ganges in 1850, I found the plant com-
monly grown from Mirzépur as far down as Bar in Behar, but
in the greatest abundance about Benares, being cultivated (like
the rest of the genus) in the cold season, on the rich clay banks
of the river. The leaves are used as cress, the seed for the
same purposes as with us; as well as in horse and camel medi-
cmes: hence the name Ghor-rai, Horse Mustard. On arriving
in Europe that year, it was at once recognized as Sinapis nigra.
The cultivation of Sinapis niyra in India does not appear in
our works on its agricultural resources. Dr. Royle enters Sinapis
nigra? (No. 219) among the Indian articles of Materia Medica
(Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Oct. 1832); and in the Liverpool
Collection of Imports, Class 29. No. 270. of the Exhibition of
1851, is “ Mustard Seed, Brown: Sinapis nigra, from Bombay.
Import, 1100 quarters in 1850.” In the Illustrated Catalogue,
ii. 879, is a similar entry,—‘‘ Annaloo Noone (Sinapis nigra)
from Tanjore;” and * Khardal rai, Sinapis nigra.” (871.)
It appears from Ainslie’s ‘ Materia Indica,’ 1. 231, that the
plant was cultivated long since in the Calcutta Botanic Garden
from seeds “ brought from Hngiand by Colonel Garstin.”
‘’Malayagini, p. 84, “a pale yellow wood, with a very agree-
able scent.”
~ 1262. Michelia Zila. Ham. Nepal, 217. Zila’ champa.
Habitat in sylvis Nepale. This is apparently M. Kisopa. Mi-
chelia Dolisopa is described by Don (Prod. Flor. Nep. 226) as
“arbor vasta ligno odorato gaudens, ad zdes zdificandas om-
nium arborum Nepaliz optima.” Magnolia (Michelia) excelsa,
Wall. (Tentamen Fl. Nep.), yields a valuable timber, of a fine
texture, at first greenish, but soon changing into pale yellow.
This is probably the champa of Darjiling, described as “an ex-
cellent yellow timber.” One of these I suppose to be the.
Malayagiri, a term implying ‘ mountain Sandal-wood.’ | Dr.
Hooker mentions the Cupressus funebris, Chandan, as “ valued
only for the odour of its wood” (/. c. ii. 45), which is probably
yellow. Ligustrum nepalense, Buxus Himalensis, Symplocos cra-
tegoides, have all yellow wood, but without odour. Camphora
glandulifera, the Nepal Camphor-tree, however, has pale yellow
wood, while fresh smelling strongly of camphor, and may be the
Malayagiri.
* Bish, Bikh, and Kodoya Bish or Bikh; nor am I certain
whether the Mitha ought to be referred to it, or to the foregoing
kind,” Bishma.
« Phave only seen the flower and fruit of one. This is called
Bishma or Bikhma, and seems to me to differ little in botanical
characters from the Caltha of Europe,” p. 99.
444, Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
‘Catalogue, No. 1247. Caltha? Bismia.> Bishma vel eT
Hulton’ s Nepal, 99. Habitat inter nives\Emodi:) + \~ °
1248. Caltha? Nirbisia. Nirbishi vel Nirbikhi. . Ham. Ne
pal; 99.» Habitat cum precedente. Montanorum unus shane
pro radice indica toxicaria ostendebat, alter autem sequentem
afferebat.. Flores non vidi. 7
1249. Caltha? Codoa. (No specimen.) Kodoya Bish vel Bikh,
Hamilton’s Nepal, 99. Habitat cum duabus: precedentibus.
Credo hane esse reveram Toxicariam Indorum radicem. | Flores
non vidi.
In Brewster’s Edinburgh Journal of Science, i. 249-251,
“On the Herba Toxicaria,’ Dr. Hamilton imforms us that
his specimens were collected in July 1810, near the sources of
the Kosi River, and therefore necessarily quite immature ; still
it is surprising that he should have referred them, even doubt-
fully, to Caltha, to which they bear no’ resemblance. Inthe
very short account in the Journal last mentioned, founded pro-
bably on the specimens before us, he says of Caliha Bismia,
“The Bikhma is used in medicine, and is a strong bitter, very
powerful in the cure of fevers*.”” Caltha Nirbisia “has no dele-
terious qualities,” while Caltha Codoa includes Bish and Kodoya
Bish. Dr. Wallich+ showed that ‘all these specimens belong to
Aconitum: his 4723, A. palmatum, bemg Caltha? Bishma,°W:
Ham:; and’ 4721; A. ferox, inchading ‘Caltha? Nirbisia and
C.? Codoa, H. Ham.
It would be impossible to unravel this complication ‘eithvoat
a visit to’ Nepal; but perhaps some’ additional light’ may be
thrown on the subject by eliminating the known from the un-
known, and rejecting the specimens as misnamed.’. Dr. Hamil-+
ton (p. 98) expressly says there are ‘four’ different~ plants.”
We know that the Bish{ proper is Aconitum ferow. gyre
* So in the Account of Nepal, p. 99.
+ He left oceasion for additional criticism. The description of A. faa
in the ‘ Pl. As. Rar.’ is full and interesting, pp. 35-39 ; but the: plate (t.41)
and specimen 4721 A. belong to A. dissectum, Don’s Prod, 197... A. ferox
flourishes at from 11,000 to 13,000 feet; it has beautiful deep-blue flowers
in August and September, and is described and figured by Dr. Balfour and
Mr. M‘Nab in the Ed. New Phil. Journal, October 1849, plate 5, from
plants which first flowered that autumn in our Horticultural Garden. A,
multifidum is abundant at from 12,000 to 14,500 feet); A. palmatum grows
at Nagkhanda near Simla in forests at 8500 to’ 9500 feet, and flowers from
May to July; A. heterophyllum at from 8500 to 13,000 feet.
{ The term vish, Sanserit, denotes ‘ poison’ simply, and is froui the
same root as vishnu, ‘penetrating, pervading.’ In the mountains and the
north-west provinces it is pronounced Bikh; in Behar and Bengal, Bish;
but there 1 is no difference m the original word. Narbishi means ‘ not
sonous,’ a term from which Don (General System of Gardening, i. 63)
forms his genus Nirbisia to include two deadly Aconites and an innocent
Delphinium,—as uncalled-for therefore in botany as it is false in fro:
\vfrom.the Kingdom of Nepal. 445
Bikh' may be 4. palmatum, or Dr. Hooker’s new species; from
Upper Sikkim, A. duridum, reported to be as virulent as.A. ferox
(Journals,!i. 168 ; ii. 108)... A. ferox is found all over the alpine
Himalaya; on the Shatil Pass, in Basehar, it is well known as
Bikh; also Maur, Méiir, and Mahur, of the same import... Vat-
sanaba, ‘ calf-destroyer,’ is the original of the Bachnag*,.men-
tioned by Dr. Royle from the Makhzanul Adwiyyah, \ In order
to: ascertain whether it were justly called Mitha, ‘sweet,’ I
masticated a very small slice, and found it was so; but this was
soon succeeded by the most distressing burning all over the
mouth and fauces, though nothing was swallowed.
Plants of other genera are also known as Bikh and Mahi:
the root of Meconopsis Wallichii is reported in Sikkim to be very
poisonous (H. and Th. Flor. Indica, 254); and the root of a
Convallaria with verticillated leaves is considered a very virulent
poison (Hooker’s Journals, i. 168). Dr. Royle (Iilustr. 382)
says that.“ Polyyonatum verticillatum, L., ealled Mitha-dudhya
in: Sirmore, and Smélacina’ pallida, called Didhya-mohura, are
both accounted. poisonous in. the Himalayas.” On Mahasu,
near Simla,'I:observed people gathering the young shoots.of P.
verticillatum ox cirrhifolium, to induce intoxication; and. the
poisonous root:Mahura was useful, they said, in cases of ring+
worm. | :
»oNirbishi denotes\some plant, “not Aconitum ferox,’’ but re-
sembling it. Dr. Royle observes that he was struck with the
resemblance’ of some Delphinium. roots from, the Himalayas) to
those: sold'.as Narbisi;.and both at Pindri in Kumaon and
Bhojgara; on the south side of the Kowdri Pass in Garhwal,. at
11,000 to:14,000 feet above the sea, I found the beautiful Delphi-
mum Kashmerianum, Royle, p. 55. t. 12 (Jacquemontianum, Cam-
bassedes, Voyage aux Indes, viii. t. 7), with cylindrical. tuberous
roots, absolutely identical in form with the ordinary Nirbisi,
and, I doubt not, its true source. No one, however, could pre-
viously supply me with the least information as to the province
which produced it: the Nepalese said it came from the west ;
the Tibetans told Major i. Strachey it came from the east.
* Bachnag, according to Graham’s ‘ Bombay Plants,’ is Gloriosa superba;
its root is a virulent poison.
+ In the Journ. As. Soc. of Bengal for May 1849, page 438, Dr. Hooker
_ states that “another far more powerful Bikh is yielded by a plant of the
~ order Composite, which I have gathered abundantly at 10,000 and 9000
feet ; and it requires care to distinguish its root from that of the Aconites ;
when mixed, the Bhotiyés could not separate them.” Dr. Hooker informs
me that the plant in question is a Cacalia, allied to. C. aconitifolia; and
that the reputed qualities having never been confirmed in any shapes he
does not doubt that they are altogether due to the similarity of its foliage
to the Aconite.
446 Lieut.-Col. Madden.on some Plants
Dr. Royle (J. A. 8. B. October 1832) got the root (No, 49). from
Amritsir. Its properties seem to be unknown; he, describes) it
as having a pure bitter taste*,
'The Bishma of Dr. Hamilton is expressly stated. to be a bitter,
which precludes the idea of its being Aconitum ferox, of which
the taste is sweet; and Colonel Kirkpatrick, in his ‘ Account, of
Nepal,’ p. 182, note, long since supposed it might bea kind of
Gentian. . Dr. Royle conjectures that it may be Aconitum. hetero-
phyllum (excellently figured, ‘ Illustr.’ t. 13), the root of which,
called Atis, Patis, and. Mahaushadham, ‘the great drug,’ is in
much estimation for its medicinal qualities. Atis isa vernacular
corruption of the Sanscrit Ativisha, ‘overcoming pvison,—
antidote,’ (erroneously rendered summum venenum by Wallich,)
with the synonyms Upavish, ‘reverse of poison,’ and Prativisha,
‘against poison, an antidote’+; the last..is. the. origin. of the
vernacular Patis. This plant, however,.is not quoted,as indige-
nous to the east of Kumaon; and we may. therefore substitute
Gentiana Kurroo, Royle, whichis. much. used.,in.the N,Wi
mountains, or deonitum multifidum, a very abundant. species in
the alpine Himalaya, “ planta 4. Anthore affinis,” Royle 5 of this,
or A. dissectum, Colonel Munro states (Hooker and, Thomson’s.
Fl. Indica, p. 58) that “ the roots are, eaten im -Kunawar as a
pleasant tonic.” Dr. Royle’s A. multifidumis from that district.
A.. Lycoctonum (lave, Royle) is as comnion in the Himalaya as.in
Alpine Europe; and its roots, which are, I believe, hieatnesi
may also be so employedt. |
* Dr. Royle distinguishes this Amyitsir and Basehar. drug from the
common sort: according to him it is fusiform, externally black; somewhat
flattened and wrinkled, and in some respects resembling the Bikh itself,
with a slight degree of bitterness and acrimony (Tllustr. p. 49). This would
agree well with the roots of Wallich’s fig. of Aconitum ferow (A. dissectum),
and with Colonel Munro’s fact of a Kunawar species being used:as a tonic.
It appears, on the authority of Linnzus, that in certain, cold climates the
root of A. Napellus is eaten with impunity.
+ It is the Jadwar or Zedoary of the Arabs and Persians. “Ideoque
dixit Avicenna nihil esse ea preestantius ad ebibitum Napellum” (Royle,
Illustr. 50). In all probability this is purely an imaginary virtue. :
{ Griffith (Journals of Travels, ix. 37, 57) says, “I hope before my re--
tute to have seen Coptis Teeta in foweers and to have proved that the Beese,
is different from that of Nepal.” The Coptis, called Mishimi Tita, or
Bitter, from being indigenous to the Mishimi Mountains, a branch of the
Himalaya, bounding Assam to the east, is, like the best Chiretta, of a
yellow colour, “a pure intense bitter of some permanence, but without
aroma.” | He calls it a “ valuable drug.” It may be one of the Bikhmas.”
In Hindustani, Bikhman i is explained by Shakespeare, “name of a medi-
cine or poison,” perhaps from the Sanser. vishama, uneven. Bee or Bih is
merely the Assamese form of Bish: thus we have Koni-bih (Croton Tiglium),
Naga-bih (Gordonia integrifolia). Mr. Griffith (J. A. Soc. Beng. 1837,
331-335) mentions “ the celebrated poison, Bee,”’ of the Ranunculacee (and.
from the Kingdom of Nepal. 4AT
Jumne-mundroo, p. 85. Berberis (Mahonia) — nepalensis ;
properly Jamani mandru.
Chootraphul, 7. e. fruit of the Chotra, a Barberry. Catalogue,
No. 841. Berberis asiatica, Hort. Beng. 25; DC.i. 107. Ha-
bitat in dumetis Nepalee. The specimen is wanting, and Chotra,
Chutro, is the proper name of B. aristata; but Wallich has,
No. 44, B. asiatica, Roxb., from Nepal and Kumaon.
Catalogue, No. 1082. Rhododendron puniceum. Potasar: Go
rangs: montanorum Hind. The common R. arboreum.
“Sanpati: a small Rhododendron, like Myrica Gale ; the leaves
are very odorous, and even when dried retain their fragrance.
It is used in fumigations, and sent to the low countries,” p. 97.
Catalogue, No. 1083. Rhododendron. Son Pati. Hamilton’s
Nepal, p. 97. The specimen is imperfect, but seems to belong to
Rhododendron anthopogon or pendulum; the leaves of the first
aré very aromatic, and are burned as incense. .
Bhairopati.. Rhododendron. “Its qualities are similar to
those of the former, but it is less fragrant,” p. 97.
Catalogue, No. 1084. Rhododendron Bhatropatium. Bhairo-
pati v. Bhaingropati. This specimen is also without flowers or
fruit, but belongs to R. lepidotum, or one of the varieties: or
allied species discovered by Dr. Hooker. .
‘Catalogue, No. 1062. Melia Azederach.
a. Ene. Method. i. 341; Willd. Sp. PL. ii. 558. Colitur ad
urbes Indie rarius, habitat in Nepala. In flower, Calcutta Botanic
Garden, 4th January 1814.
No. 1063. M. Azederach.
“8. Ene, Method: i. 841. Melia sempervirens, Willd. Sp. PI.
ii. 559, Habitat ad Indie pagos. In flower, Jolpigorry, 31st
March.1809...,
Wallich’s Cat. 1251. MM. sempervirens.
Nepal and Kumaon.
‘Thid? 1250. M. Azederach, L. H. B.C.
Dr.. Hamilton’s first No. has oval-lanceolate leaflets ; in 1062
they..are somewhat. broader and less arcuate; the difference,
however, is certainly not more than is usual in specimens from
the same tree; and hence Dr. Hamilton finds M. Azederach in
Nepal, where Dr. Wallich finds 2. sempervirens; and M, sem-
pervirens in the Indian villages, which Dr, Wallich has only from
says it is “im very great request.”’) as one of the three staple articles of the
Mishims. Masters (J. Agri. and Hort. Soc. Cale.iv. Zu0) tells us that ‘the
juice of -this fruit (Dillenia speciosa) is mixed with the Mishimi Bzh to
prepare the poison for arrows.”’ ~And Wilcox (As. Res. xvii. 456) mentions
two kinds of poison from the mountains north of Assam,—the Bor Bis
(great poison) and Sengumuri Bis; all no doubt to be included im the
above-mentioned species of Aconitum.
448 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
the Calcutta Botanic Garden. I am satisfied that the Himalayan
plant is identical with that of the Gangetic plains; in the hills
it is called Dek or Jek and Betain; m the plains, Bakayan,
a name which is applied to M. sempervirens, As. Res, xi. 170,
No specific name could be more inappropriate, since it is com~
pletely leafless during the winter months; and this appears to!
be true also, to a somewhat less extent, of the West Indian
M. sempervirens, Swartz, which is said to vary from a small bush
to a tree. Seemann (Kew Journal of Botany, October 1851),
informs us that this is a native of Panama, and known as ‘Ja-
sinto.’ DeCandolle (i. 621) mentions Jamaica as its habitat,
and says, “priore minor, florens jam: biennis, folia tardius au-
tumno deponens, et tepidarium per hyemem in nostris hortis
requirens.” Roxburgh (ii. 395) adds to the difficulty: he says
M. sempervirens is “a native of Persia, now common throughout
India...... It blossoms the greater part of the year im our gar~
dens, and is perfectly distinct from Azedarak, which is a robust,
deciduous timber tree, and this is a small delicate evergreen, of,
short duration compared with the other.” | He gives Bakarja as,
the Hindustani name,—evidently the Bengali name, Bakarjan,:
of M. Azederach. This last he calls a native of Chinas Graham
(Cat. of Bombay Plants, p. 30) says it. is common ‘about, vil-,
lages” in the Concan and Deccan, 8.. India. Jaequemont
(Voyage dans l’Inde, iii. 147) finds it under the same. cireum-
stances in the Punjab, but scarcely indigenous, nor has it, the
least claim to be so considered anywhere in Northern India. ,Its,
Sanscrit names, Mahatikta, ‘the great Bitter,’ and Mahanimb,
therefore, go for nothing, and are not in the, Amera, Kosha..
The Persian Azdd-i-darakht, ‘the spreading tree,’ which gives;
it the specific name, with its popular one, ‘Indian or Persian.
Lilac,’ is compatible with its importation from America by the)
Portuguese, who, like other Roman Catholic people, use, the
berries in rosaries (Bead-tree) ; once introduced, its “very great.
beauty,” and flowers like the Lilac, sweetly fragrant (Roxburgh), }
would speedily cause its general diffusion. Wight and Arnott;
(Prodromus, p. 117) found Roxburgh’s own specimens of J.
Azedarach and sempervirens so much atike as to appear as if cut)
from the same tree ; and the figure of the latter im the Botanical |
Register, t. 643, may very well be M. Azedaraeh im a young state, |
and forced.in a stove. In Dr. Royle’s List, No. 191, Bakain
is entered as M. sempervirens ; and in February 1850.1 saw this:
last in the Calcutta Botanic Garden in full flower, a tree 30 feet.
high, called Mohé nim by the Bengéli gardeners, and quite the»
same with the Bakaéyan of Northern India. +f
Timmue (for Timmur) or Taigbul: a| mountain shrub; and»
an arboreous species on the lower hills (p. 84). The first, well
from the Kingdom of Nepdi. 449
known for its aromatic capsules, and for the thick prickly clubs
used by fakirs (mendicants), is the Xanthoxylon hastile of Royle
(X. alatum of Roxb. ui. 768, and X. acanthopodium, DC.), called
Timur and Zejbal, the last expressive of its strong pungency,
It seems to be the Jwarantika, ‘fever-ender,’ of the Sanscrit.
It is (perhaps erroneously) referred to X. aromaticum, a West
Indian species, in the Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibi-
tion of 1851, ii. 895. There is a new species flourishing in
shadier and loftier sites in Kuméon, which Mr. Edgeworth pro-
poses to call X. tomentosum; of this the native name is Simur ;
it ‘has similar properties. The arboreous species mentioned
by Dr. Hamilton may be X. Budrunga of Roxburgh, of which
the capsules are of a warm spicy nature, with the fragrance of
lemon-peel. Toddalia floribunda, Wall., and another species of
Xanthoxylon are natives of Nepal; and Tetrodium cymosum and
Sraxinifolium (Royle, 157) may be from Lower Nepal.
Padam chhal ‘‘is a plant with a thick cylindrical root that is
used in medicine, and brought to the low country for that pur-
pose. The specimen that I procured had one large heart-shaped
rough leaf, and had somewhat the appearance of an Anemone”
(p. 100). The name signifies ‘bark of the Lotus,’ and, accord-
ing to my Nepalese authority, belongs to some species of Rheum,
_ probably R. Emodi, or Webbianum, or both, the roots of which
have “a spongy texture” (Royle) resembling the Lotus.
‘Sied burrooa: Daphne papyrifera, Ham. pp. 85, 232 ; pro-
perly written Seta-baruwa, 7. ce. White Baruw4. The shrub
abounds in the temperate districts of the Himalaya; and the
paper made from its bark, though coarse, is not touched by in-
sects: “The bark is exceedingly strong and pliable, and seems
to be the same with certain tape-like bandages employed by the
Chinese in tying many of their parcels.”
‘Sinkauri, Silkauli: the leaves, Tejpat. Both its bark and
leaves have a fine aromatic smell and taste, and this quality in
the leaves is strengthened by drying” (p. 84). Cinnamomum
albiflorum; Laurus Soncaurium, Ham., Linn. Trans. xiii. 557 ;
C. Cassida, Don, Prod. 67. Another Sinkauri is distinguished by
its aromatic quality residing in the bark of the roots. Dr. Hamil-
ton received it from the mountains of Morang, the tract between
the rivers’ Kosi and Tista. In the Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. 558,
he describes this plant as Laurus Sailyana: “vis aromatica tota
in radicis cortice posita. . Hic autem cortex levis, colore lateri-
tius, odoratissimus, sapore grato aromaticus. Cortex ramorum
et folia insipida, inodora.” Nees von Esenbeck (in Wall. Pl. As.
Rar. ii. 73-75) identifies it as Cinnamomum albiflorum B, very
near C: Tamdla, ‘Tay’ Bengalensium, cultivated in the gardens
of Caémrup. — ,
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol. xviii. 29
450 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some\Plants
Machilus odoratissimus (Laurus Champa-et bombycina; Herb.
Ham.), a fine tree of all the warmer valleys of the Himalaya;as
known m Kuméaon as the Kaula, which term entersanto Hamil
ton’s Nepalese names. Dr. Hooker found Cinnamomumt im Bile
kim, up to 8500 feet (i. 162).
Phe ‘Seta:iand!\Céld “Bhoty thés of! the gr Be cy atindeal
mountaineers) are called Musa and Gya by the Newars:(the
Mongolian aborigines of Nepal). They are two varieties‘of the
Dolichos Soja, the one of which has*yellow flowers and. white
seeds, and the other has black seeds.and purplish flowers. ‘The
former is ripe about the 1st of November, the latter about the
Ist of September” (p. 228).
Catalogue, 1778. Dolichos Soja, » Soja hispida, DC. Garo
Kolai, Bengalensium. Bhot'mas, Montanorum Hindice. Colts
tur in Camrupe orientalis et Nepalee montosis.
Thence abundantly up to Kumaon, where.the Soy Bean: splits
are called Bhat.“ Bhut. . Soja hispida,’ Kumaon:”?\ Illustrated
Cat. of G. E. of 1851, 11.:871.: .No mention of: it, chowever, in’
this respect occurs im our botanical) orcagricultural works on
India. ‘Soy pulse is reckoned rather unwholesome, and much
of the sickness which assailed the divisions bpereta ep neta
Nepél'in 1813-14 was: popularly attributed to its use.
Catalogue, 1690. Hedysarum Alhagi. Habitat.in riflis praxicn
et Honsanid areviodis; Labelled, “ Monger, 17th Juney: 18b1.7?25
Phis is the common Jaw4sé or Camel: Thorn of the plains of
Northern India, and is here mtroduced as) anvexample: of :the
way in’ which species are unnecessarily formed, on the supposi-,
tion ‘that~a new? locality »(though erroneous): requires!a mew)
species. The-plant extends’ from the: extreme-north of India
down to Behar, where I have seen it: m»the . neighbourhood of
Monger, near the well-known hot: spring» of Sitékund. It:is
Dr. Wallich’s No.5760. Alhagi Maurorum, Hedysarum Alhagi,
H. Ham. e Monger; and neither of: these . botanists: gives: any:
intimation of the genus being found in. Nep4l, nor’is there:any
known Sitékund in‘that country. Yet,on the supposition that’
it is from that country, Alhagi ‘Nepdulensium forthwith appears)
in’ our books:—Don, System) of Gardening, ii. 310,“ Native
of Nepaul, near Sitaucund/”): DeCandolle; Prod) u 352. Syne
Genista Juasi, Hams —Hedysarum. Hamiltoni, Sprengel, Syst.
ii! 816 ; and Manna‘ Nepaulensis, D.Don, Prod.Fl. Nep..2474
Habitat. in Nepalia, prope enc notinngyr: Hata! vn whieh: DC.
follows. Tt
In the same manner D. Don has (Prod. 101) Heliotvabiiia
obovatum: | Hab. versus ;ripas, fluminis (Bhagirathi) infra.Mor-
shidabad, Ham. (it is H. ewropeum, L.), ‘toowhich DC. prefixes,:
“In Nepalia versus,” &c., the’ locality being Bengal. ~A Me
fromthe Kingdom of Nepal. 451
lanthus Himalayanus.is constituted (Linn. Trans. xx. 417) from
a garden specimen of MZ) major grown at. HAwalbagh, near Al-
morali, the only mdividual, of the genus in. Kumdon.) In short,
if' we take.as criteria) the genera Viburnum, Lonicera*, Cirsium,
and others in DeCandolle’s Prodromus, one-fourth of his Hima-
layan species have no reality independent of the different, names
imposed by different botanists, and| adopted as. species without
examination.
Alhagi: Maurorum is interesting as the shrub which. yields
the ‘Manna’ of N. Persia, Bokhara, and Samarkand, called
Tarangabin or Taranjabin; the plant itself being Khér-i-Shutar
and Ushtar-Khar, 7. e. Camel Thorn. The Manna, of, Mount
Sinai, a product of Tamarix gallica, is also formed in Louristén
and Jrak,; where itis called/Gazéngabin or, Gazdnjabin. The
names are all Persian.
» Sanifraga ligulata, Wall.
S.:Pacumbis, Ham. MSS.-in Don, Prod, 209... Dr. Hamil-
ton’s specific name, L doubt not, isa misprint:for PAshan-bhéd,
its: Sanscrit: designation) (pronounced, .Pakhén-bhédin, in the
mountains), still-preserved:as Paékhan-bhéd.in Nepal and Gar-
hwal»:so: Royle, J. AoS. B. Oct. 1832,.No.121. HH. H. Wilson
erroneously-explains the Sanserit term by: Plectranthus scutella-
rioides. » It signifies ‘ Rock-splitter’;.-and.\it, is) the more. inter-
esting that the name should in this. remote district be applied
to a species of our genus Savifraga, smee Pliny (H. N. xxi,/30)
refers: Saxifragum to Asplenium Trichomanes,, or, Adiantum ,Ca-
pillus-Veneris 1.“ caleulos,¢ corpore: mire; pellit, frangitque, uti-
que nigrum.) Qua de caussa potius, quam.quod in saxis nasce-
retur, a nostris: saxifragum adpellatum, crediderim.”
‘0 Catalogue;!:771..:Calotropis, procera. | Habitat, in) arenosis
Mithilz,.Magadhe, et Cosale.
The distribution’ of this plant (C..Hamiltonii, Wight, Contrib.
53):1s:ill: understood. . Abundant.in-the south of Syria (Beid-el-
osshar); Northern Africa, and. all the warmer. regions of Asia, I
traced: it down ‘the Ganges to Nadiya.in Bengal, where at appa-
rently ceases: It: appears to, .have escaped) the, observation. of
Roxburgh, and is not:mentionedin- his ‘Flora Indica.’,,,The:
allied species, Cs. gigantea, is unknown, in Northern India, /ex-
cept at the base of the Himalaya: below Naini Tal in, Kumaon;
where. for some. miles it.occurs im profusion; thence southward
I. met; with it wild:till ten:or: fifteen, miles below Rajméhal,
from which to Nadiya both species are intermingled, C. gigantea
* Lonicera quinguelocularis of Hardwick ‘and Roxburgh (DQ.viw.338:
no.090) is L. diwersifolias Wall. (no..24,334), as L ascertamed on ,the-spot
where the General discovered, it: ...exclude ‘‘ ramis yolubilibus.””
aor
452 - Lieut.-Col. Madden’ on somePlants
reaching Caleutta. The name Madar* applies to’ both: the
term Ak, also often applied, is from Sans. Arka, “the sun,’ to
which the flowers always turn; hence, where the two occur,
C: gigantea is called Bara akand ; C. procera, Chhota akand-;
great and small Calotropis.
Griffith (Itinerary Notes, p. 207) has nearly the same distri-
bution as above: “ Calotropis Hamiltonit ; very common through-
out the sandy plains of India, on the N. side of the Rajmahal
hills, to the complete exclusion of C. gigantea. In appearance
there is scarcely any difference, and, as far as foliage goes, per-
haps none; the flowers are smaller, and invariably the leaflets
much smaller and bilobed at the apex.” Dr. Hamilton (Linn.
Trans. xiv. 246-248) explains the differences excellently. Dr.
Hooker (Notes of a Tour in the Plains of India, P. i. ‘p. 78)
notices nearly the same distribution as Griffith : “The species
look very different, but when gathered, there ‘is extreme diffi-
culty in recognizing them.” He adds, that “there is considerable
discrepancy of opinion as to their comparative efficacy, the votes
being in favour of C. gigantea.”
Catalogue, No. 781. ‘Swertia Chirata. ‘Bara Chirata.
No. 782. Gentiana Cherayti.. Chhota Chirata:
Dr. Hamilton informs us (p. 85) that of these two species the
smaller (782) is the one most in request. It is the Agathotes
Cherayta of D.Don (Linn. Trans. xvii. 522); Gentiana flori-
bunda (Prod. 127); G. Chirata, Wall. (P. A. R. ii. 34. t. 252,
where the flowers are of far too intense a yellow).’ Dr. Hamilton
truly describes it as a perennial; it has yellow roots, hence thé
Atibie Kasb-al-zarirach, “yellow stem or twig’ (Royle, 278) ; it
brings twice the price of the other’ kinds: “sapore intense
amaro,” Wall., who also notes its “radix perennis.” It flou-
rishes in woods and shady places, with Plantago-like leaves, and’
is the largest plant of the whole, reaching 4:4 feet high; so that
the native appellation, given by Dr. Hamilton, does not apply.”
No. 781 is probably Ophehka angustifolia, from which much
of the Chirayita of commerce is obtained}; but several other’
* ‘Madarine, the active principle of C. gigantea, “ possesses the pro-
perty of coagulating by heat, and becoming again: fluid’ on exposure to
cold.”
+ .D. Don (Linn. Trans. /, c. 524) says it is ‘‘ more bitter than the last,”
the Agathotes. _Wallich, on the contrary (Pl. As. Rar. iii, 2), says that it
and paniculata ‘possess only a slight degree of bitter taste.’” Don is here
most correct, according to my experience.
The large and handsome Swertias of the Alpine Himalaya do not appear
to be imported to the plains.
Chiréyita derives its name from the Kiratas, a people of Eastern Nepal,
the Cirrhade of Arrian: hence the Sanscrit Kiréta-tikta; but the moun-
taineers call it simply Kanda Tita, ‘ bitter stem.’
from. the. Kingdom of Nepdil. 453
species, alata, .cordata, fasciculata, purpurascens, are equally
esteemed or,collected.... These.are annuals, and abound in open
sites,.at,various zones from 4000. to 12,000 feet above the sea.
Ophelia angustifolia.and paniculata are; figured in Wallich’s
Pl, As. Rar. iii. t. 204-5.
“The Kutki, is another officinal plant, with a, woody root,
and a stem containing many alternate leaves, toothed on the
edges and shaped like a spathula. It has much the appearance
of a Saxifrage. The roots are brought for. sale” (p..100).
Picrorluza Kurrooa, Royle, Mlustr. t..71. f. 2,.a bitter for which
he tells. us that Gentiana Kurroo is frequently. substituted.
Nima quassioides, occurring in the valleys of Basehar and Upper
Garhwal at.5500 to 8000 feet, is also called Karwi, from its
exceedingly, bitter bark and wood.
-» Pterorhiza Kurrooa is abundant. im the Alpine Himalaya, on
the open downs above the limit.of forest, 12,000 to 14,000 feet.
There is.a second species, in, Kuméon,, discovered..by Major. R.
Strachey, at, similar heights,
Jatamangsi, p. 97: the Nard or, Spikenard of the ancients ;
Hebrew Neredde, from the Sans. Nalada, z.e. ‘ giving fragrance.’
Nardostachys Jatémdnsi,,Royle, Ilustr., t,.54..f..2.. .Patrmia
Jatamasi, Don, Prod. 159, 160, The. Indian women consider
the smell very agreeable, and most, of them, that can-afford it
use oil impregnated with this. root. for perfuming, their. hair.
All I, can say is,” adds Dr.,Hamilton, ‘that if this root,was
the Spikenard of the Roman ladies, their lovers. must have. had
a very, different, taste from. the youth of modern, Europe.” Cant.
i, 12... There is, however, a larger species, NV. grandiflora (DC,
Prod, .iv..624),. in. Kumaon, flourishing .at., similar, elevations
(18,000 to 14,000 feet). to N.. Jatdmdnsi*, and with) a similar
root; “but itis much larger, and its smell is.more agreeable”
(Wall. P. A. R, in. 40); and, Lambert (Genus Cinchona, 1821,
p- 179). says, .it),“‘ may .be ;considered..as possessing. the most
agreeable odour of any” of the Valerians, . His figure (p. 1&0)
evidently represents this species,,not N., Jatémdnsi; and the
description, anticipated from Don’s Prodromus, proves that the
latter. also, unless made.from Nepal, specimens, belongs. to it.
The perfume and properties of the genus are, in fact, very nearly
those of Valeriana Celtica and Phu; and it is curious enough
that the radical leaves of the last two species (the roots of which
are substituted in Western Asia for the Spikenard) .are. simple,
and bear a considerable resemblance, to: those of Nardostachys.
* Tt is strange that DeCandolle (iv. 624) should, assign .Méndu and
Chitor in. Central India as stations for this: plant, which cannot live at
Almorah, 5500 feet, beyond a few. months.
454 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants
The name Jatémansi signifies ‘locks. of hair,’sometimes ‘simply
Masi; and the vernacular Balchhar denotes‘ hairy ‘staff, all
with reference to the root, which has been compared to the tail
of an ermime, “on account of its withered’ stalks’ and ribs of
leaves, cohering in a bundle of yellowish~brown capillary fibres.”
Pliny’s description accords (Nv H. xn. 26):° “Cacumina in
aristas se spargunt: ideo gemina dote nardi spicas ae folia cele+
brant.” Spica isa translation of the Arabie Sumbul, Hindi
Bal, ‘an ear of corn.’: Sir W. Jones, im As. Res. 1. 405-10,
iv. 109, where the figure (copied, except the root, by Roxburgh,
ib. iv. 435) with cordate radical leaves, is, as Lambert truly ob-
serves (J. c. p. 179), that of Valeriana Hardwickii (Pl. As: Rar.
iii. t. 263). The roots of this very common species have the
same smell as those of V. officinalis, are also used medicinally,
and were substituted by Sir William Jones’s collectors without
any very glaring imposture. . In Pliny’s time also, adulteration
took place by Pseudo-nard, “‘crassiore atque Jatiore folio.”
They are called Shameo in Nepal and Kumdon, the Sanserit
Shami, from Sham, ‘to-calm’; proving how widespread is' the
antispasmodic energy attributed to them. :
The aromatic-rooted Grass, Andropogon Jwardneusa (i. é.’ the
‘fever-goad,’ also Jwarandsaka, ‘fever-destroyer ”), ‘at first taken
for the Spikenard*, is abundant all along the base of the Hima-
laya, and in the valleys of Kumaon up to 4000 feet.” At a lower
level in the valley of the Alakananda in Garhwél, the still more
fragrant species, A. Calamus-aromaticus, Royle, t. 97; nardoides,
Nees, from which the celebrated Rusa, ‘or Grass-oil of Nimmar,
is distilled, is not uncommon: Dri Royle only traces it ‘north
to Delhi. lonsvais igi
“The Manjit, or Indian Madder, ‘seems 'to be'of two kinds:
the Rubia cordata of Willdenow, anda species’ of Rubia’ not
described in the common systems of Botany. © Both'seem to be
equally fit for the purpose, and grow in the same manner.’ It
is cultivated exactly as cotton is’ among the hills” (p.'74).
Catalogue, No. 354. Rubia cordifolia.
Catalogue, No. 355. Rubia Chaya: From Bhotan.
The first is Rubia Manjistha, Roxb.'i. 874, the R. cordata of
Thunberg, from Japan; differing by its pentandrous flowers
from RK. cordifolia, L., from Siberia: But this test is not satis-
factory, as remarked by Wight'‘and Arnott, whose statement is
perfectly correct, that'the flowers of R: Manjisthdé are frequently
tetrandrous. ©“DeCandolle (iv. 588) describes them’ as ‘all pen-
tandrous, and those of R. cordifolia both tetrandrous and pen-
* “The root of Andropogon muricatum”’ is given as a secondary mean-
ing of Nalada, Spikenard.
\ofrom.the Kingdom of Nepal. 455
tandrous; agreeing with R. Javana (R. cordifolia, Blume); which
he considers: ‘medial, form.» Wight’ and Arnott (Prod. 442),
Wight (Leones, i,t. 1873 Hlustr, iit, 128 dis), and Don, (Prod.
133) iallidentify them. | .R. Manyistha is very abundant im the
Himalaya, from, 4000 to 9500 feet, with black fruit, and. deep
ned flowers, not yellow, as represented i in-Archer’s Popular Eco-
nomic Botany, P. xv. f..78:
>The second ‘species, which’ Dr. Hamilton codeidaa new, is by
Dr. Wallich (No, 6069) identified with R. cordifolia, i. Our
Edinburgh specimen, however, though» imperfect, seems to be
an, undescribed species, which I found in the glen,of the Sarju
River.in Eastern Kumdon,. in two localities, Ramesar, and. Gan-
goli,,at 8000 to 4000 feet elevation above the sea. Mary Edge-
worth proposes to name it R. nervosa. . Griffith (Itinerary Notes)
probably. found it in Bhotan,;'| his No. 11,is Rubia. Manjistha,
Dewangiri,; in-'woods. . Noi 116. Rubia cordifolia; alt...2800
pediin sylvis. .No: 367. Rubia cordifolia, Khegumpa.. . Yields
Manjistha(Madder), | No. 1021. Rubie@ sp. Seandens, hirsuta,
certe distincta aR: cordifolia, towards, Panga, in woods, 6500
to 7500 feet. In the Journals of; Travels, p..203, | he writes at
Dewangiri, elevated 2000. feet.:).“‘ L-find that large quantities of
Manjistha or Madder are sent tothe plains from |this, where
the plant) is.very common,” || At.p! 292. we have Rubia hispida,
at,8700 feet;,andyat p. 296, Rubia hirsuta,at.5500 feet. . At
p.209 he says, ‘* Madder is furnished by both Rubia Manjistha
and.\R.. cordifolia; these species..are.quite distinct, the latter
affecting greater-elevations: than the former, scarcely. descending
‘below ;4000.feet.”, ~The; plant becomes.shorter and’ stouter at
high elevations ; and in a matured Report, published: in} the
Jour. As. Soc.Bengal for April. 1839, 'p.'281, he modifies this
view, and ‘identifies. these two supposed species,adding that
‘“Bhotan has.two species! - ‘The two species used in Bhotan-are
very distinct, and.very general constituents of other mountainous
floras ; one of'them has leaves. without. stalks,” . This is perhaps
Dr. Hamilton’s plant from Bhotan...-His specific name. Chaya
appears to vindicate,a {practice condemned by Mr. Archer. (/. c.
1212): Munjeet as often called: Chay-root ;, but this is.a mis-
Aake, the latter being the’ produce of a totally different, plant,”
Hedyotis umbellata, in, Tamul Saya. . In Bengal, Chaya is dérua
lanata..,, Wallich,({Roxh. Fl. Ind. i. 384) has Rubia alata, from
Nepal, which Don reduces to, R. cordifolia; and-Major Strachey
has, a Rubia from Niti.in/Garhw4l, with /greenish flowers, which
he considers to. be R. Manjisthd of Roxburgh.,/ Rubia purpurea,
figured and described by Decaisne in Jacquemont’s ‘Voyage
aux Indes,’ is merely R. cordifolia, one of the, many instances in
456 On some Plants from the Kingdom of Nepél:
that valuable work of needless synonyms, owing to the wantcof
ordinary precaution as to what previous. botanists +had already
named.
“ Umbelliferous plant with root resembling Athamanta Meum,
and when fresh, an uncommonly fragrant smell” (p. 98). Very
probably the well-known Chora, Angelica glauca of Mr. Edge-
worth, abundant. at 9000 to 10,000 feet (and which I take to be
the aromatic Gertheon or Certheana of Assam, a compound of
Valeriana and Pastinaca, Griffith, Journals, 37, 57; and J. A.
Soc. Beng. 1837, 331,335). Two thousand feet higher flourishes
the Hushial, also very aromatic, which I believe to be Hymeno-
lena angelicoides, DC. Prod. iv. 245; as well as Hymenidium
Brunonis, Nesir or Lesir* of the: mountaineers, a very fragrant
lant.
Bhutkes: Bhutkesar, pp. 86, 98. ‘* A thick woody root, on
the top of which were many stiff bristles, and from among these
the young leaves were shooting.” These Dr. Hamilton thought
belonged to -Thalictrum, and Dr. Royle (LIllustr: p. 69) refers
Bhutkes to Corydalis Govaniana; but it:is: actually :theroot of
Oreocome filicifolia: and elata of Mr. Edgeworth: (Linn. ‘Trans?
1845), especially the former. This is probably identical -with
Selinum, Candolla (Peucedanum: Wallichianum, DC. Prod. iv.
181; Selinum tenuifolium, Wall.) and Pleurospermum cicutarium,
Royle, Llustr.. Don’s three species of Athamanta, Prod. 184-5;
described in accordance with the signification of Bhutkes, seem
to belong to Oreocome. \ Both the above plants, and one or two
species of Cortia, growing at: great elevations (14,000 to 15,000
_ feet); are well known alloover the Himalaya by Dr. Hamilton’s
names, which signify ‘ hair of the: spectre, against which they
are worn as ‘charms. ‘They are often called simply Kés, ‘hair,’
for the same reason as the Jatamansi. With the medicinal root
Bhutkes, Dr. Hamilton mentions another, called Jainti,; which
he refers to an Orchid growing among moss on large stones, on’
the higher mountains. Celogyne precox is:so described on his
authority im Don’s Prodromus, p: 37: Brim” (p. 100) is another
* Dr. Hoffmeister has pomted out the resemblance of this name and
plant.to the Laserpitium (Lesir-pati).of the Romans, the Silphium of, the
Greeks, which the historians of Alexander inform us that his army. found
in Afghanistan. The Greeks of Cyrenaica represented the plant (Thapsia
Stlphium of Viviani, Flor. Lib., or Thapsia garganica, Desfontaines) on
their coins still extant; and Pliny (N.i xix/15; xxii. 49) paints in high
colours the virtues.of its gum-resin,; Laser Cyrenaicum, as a medicine and
perfume. The celebrated drug, Asa dulcis of ,Cyrene,,recalls the, Assa-.
foetida of Persia, as well as,a kind of mcense from the Himalaya, called
As& puri (7. e. ‘the fulfiller of hope’), of which the Nepalese told me won-
derful virtues. 19250 UY f
Mr. Ay Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 457
- orchideous root used)im medicine ; but neither of this nor of the
Bartyalbhera -seeds'(p.: 285) from Chhinaéchhin im Yumila, a
province east of Kumdaon, have I any identification to bring
forward.
XXXIX.—Monograph of the genus Catops.
By Anprew Murray, Edinburgh.
[Concluded from p. 404, ]
Exotic Species.
56. C. suturalis (mihi).
Affinis C. sericeo, sed elongatior, lateribus minus rec- _ Fig. 49.
~ tis, et thorace forma breviore ; elytris longioribus.
Long. 13 lin.
pubescence ; elytra ferruginous-brown, with the ante-
rior half of the sutural margin and the margins of
the elytra: darker ;: inflexed» margins of elytra and
margins of. under side of thorax clear ferruginous,
remainder of under side pitchy-black ; legs ferru-
ginous. » Antenne with. base ferruginous, club and apex dark ;
first joint large and long; second not so long ; third and fourth
of nearly the same length; fifth shorter than fourth ; sixth
shorter than seventh; seventh large and broad; eighth very
small’; three last nearly of the same size. . Thorax faintly trans-
versely strigose, posterior angles obtuse. Elytra deeply trans-
versely strigose.» Scutellum elongate. Sutural stria shortened,
joining the suture at about one-third from the apex. Elytra
truncate ‘at. the apex; pubescence on elytra darker than on
thorax.
This species has a great resemblance to C..sericeus, but differs
from it in the followimg particulars... In general outline it is
scarcely broader in front than behind, while sericeus is usually
markedly so: The thorax:begins to round-in towards the head
almost immediately from the base forward, while in sericeus it’
does not begin to turn inwards till about the middle of the
thorax. Scutellum more elongate than in sericeus. ‘The length
of. the elytra is 23 times that of the thorax, while in sericeus
it is not so much as twice that length. ‘The elytra also are not
so broadly truncate at the apex.
Described from a specimen in M. Chevrolat’s collection. re-
ceived under this name from M. Motschoulsky. Locality not
mentioned ; supposed to be from Mongolia.
Fuscous ; head:and thorax with fulvous sericeous | |
458 Mr.A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
57. C. californicus, Leconte.
Catops californicus, Lec, Synopsis of Silphales of N. America, Proc. Acad,
Philadelphia, vol. vi. 1853, p. 281.
Oblongus, ,,subovalis, piceus, sericeus, ipbtilidaiene Fig. 50.
punctulatus et transversim strigosus ; antennarum
basi, pedibus, elytrisque pallidioribus, his.striasutu-
rali profunda; thorace antrorsum. valde angustato,
angulis posticis paulo productis subacutis.
Long. 1 lin.
VY
The antenne are slightly clavate and as long as the head and
thorax; the thorax is strongly narrowed in front, truncate at: base,
and slightly simuate near the posterior angles, which are subacute ;
the sides are broadly rounded ; the disk is sometimes. blackish,
and the sides dark rufous. . The punctures, of the upper surface
in this species are very indistinct, and the transverse strie very
fine; the pubescence is_sericeous, but not dense ; the ‘anterior
tarsi. of the male jare strongly dilated, the intermediate pait
simple, the posterior pair longer than the tibiee, |
Dr, Leconte mentions that it'is.abundant at San Jose and! Sai
Diego, California... He also observes’ that one-feniale specimen
which he had from San Diego appeared more elongated than the
others and much, more narrowed ‘posteriorly. . He. could ‘not,
however, find any. other difference. /
58. C. consobrinus, Leconte.
Catops consobrinus, Lec. Syn. Silph. N. Amer. Proc. Acad. Philad. vi. 1853,
p.-281.
S Oblongo-ovalis, subelongatus, ater, subsericens, VIX; Fig 5,
punctulatus, subtiliter transversim strigosus; antennis _
basi rufo-piceis ; elytris stria suturali profunda ; tho- _
race antrorsum modice angustato, angulis posticis
leviter productis.
“ Long. 1 lin.
“Georgia. This species resembles the two preceding, but is a
little more elongated and more oval ; it is entirely black, except-
ing the base of the antennze and the tarsi, which are rufo-piceous.
The thorax is more than one-half wider than long, moderately
narrowed in front, broadly truncate at apex, very slightly
rounded on the sides, truncate at base, and faintly sinuate at
the posterior angles, which are slightly acute. The punctures
are very indistinct. The transverse scratches are as fine as in
C. californicus*.”
* Leconte in loc. cit.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 459
59. C. Lecontei, mihi.
Catops ‘strigosus, Lec. Syn: Silph. N. America, Proce. Acad. Philad. vol. vi.
1853, p. 281.
“ Oblongo-ovalis, subelongatus, piceo-rufus, sericeus, Fig. 52.
distinctius strigosus ; thorace latitudine sesqui brevi-
ore, antrorsum modice angustato, angulis posticis vix
productis, subacutis ; elytris stria suturali profunda ;
antennis magis incrassatis, piceis, basi testaceis.
“ Long. 1 lin.
* One female, South Carolina, Dr. Zimmerman. This species
resembles the preceding, but the thorax is less narrowed in front
and less rounded on the sides ; the transverse lines on the thorax
and elytra are more distinct ; the punctures are very indistinct ;
the first four or five joints of the antenne are testaceous, the rest
are piceous ; ‘the apex is indistinctly paler*.”
The ** Synopsis of the Silphales of America north of Mexico,”
im which this species was described by Dr. Leconte under the
name of strigosus, was published in February 1853, while
M~ Kraatz’s description of the European species so named by
him was’published in the ‘Stettin Ent. Zeitung’ in 1852. By
the rule of priority therefore, the name strigosus must be retained
for Kraatz’s species, and another name given to this. It appears
to me that it is an appropriate homage to name it after the
eminent naturalist who first described it.
SARt is 60. C..oblitus, Leconte.
Catops oblitus, Lec. Syn. Silph. N. Amer. Proc. Acad. Philad. vi. 1853, 282.
“ Subellipticus minus convexus, rufo-fuscus, pubescens ; Fig. 53.
thorace punctulato antrorsum subangustato basi trun-
eato, angulis posticis fere obtusis ; elytris transversim
minus dense strigosis, stria suturali distincta ; antennis
flavis, art. 4-10 fuscis.
“ Long. 13 lin.
*‘ Three specimens, Georgia. Easily distinguished by its sub-
elliptical and less convex form. I cannot discover, any. punc-
tures on the elytra; if they exist they are concealed by the dense
pubescence, which is however scarcely sericeous.. The male,has
three joints of the anterior tarsi,dilated; the. middle, tarsi, are
simple in both sexes+.”
The mesosternal keel is less elevated in; this and the next than
in the other species.
* Leconte in loc. cit. + Leconte in loc. cit.
460 Mr.A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus’ Catops.
61. C. parasitus, Leconte.
Catops parasitus, Lec. Syn. Silph. N. Amer. Proc. Acad. respond vi. 1853,
p. 282.
“ Breviter ovatus, piceo-rufus, sericeus; thorace disco Fig. 54.
obscuriore, brevi, antrorsum valde angustato, angulis .
posticis non productis ; elytris transversim. strigosis,
stria suturali profunda ; antennis basi apiceque flavis.
“ Long. 3 lin.
“ New York, in ants’ nests, with Heterius brunnipennis, March
and April. This species is ‘much broader and more suddenly
narrowed posteriorly than the others. The thorax is fully twice
as wide as its length, punctulate, not strigose, strongly narrowed
in front, broadly rounded on the sides, truncate at base, with
the posterior angles simply rectangular and not produced. The
elytra are punctulate and distinctly striate transversely. The
antennz are as long as the head and thorax, very slightly incras-
sated, rufo-piceous, with the first four joints and the apical,one
yellowish ; the seventh joint is more than twice the length of
the sixth; the eighth joint is much shorter, but scarcely thinner
than the ‘following ones. The anterior tarsi of the male are
broadly dilated ; the first joint of the middle tarsi is less dilated
than in C. terminans**:?
The mesosternal keel is finer’ and less raised’ in’ this'‘and
C. oblitus than in the other species. :
62. C. ascutellaris, mihi.
Oblongo-ovatus, fusco-sericeus; antennis vix ad, apicem Fig. 55.
incrassatis, fuscis, basi apiceque ferrugineis ;., thorace
elytrisque leviter. transversim . strigosis,. his. stria...
patna impressis; scutello.inviso.
Long. 7 lin,
Fuscous-brown. The antenne are scarcely so long |
as the head and thorax, so slightly clavate as to’ be almost
filiform, fuscous, the basal jomts ferruginous, the two ‘apical’
joints pale ; first and second joints long and slender, those follow-
ing short, gradually though very slightly increasing in breadth:
up to the seventh ; the seventh is rather shorter than the ninth,
and of about the same thickness; the eighth is not narrower than
those on each side of it, but shorter, being about, half the length
of the ninth ; the ninth and tenth are equal in length and thick-
ness ; the eleventh is larger than the tenth, and becomes acu-
minate towards the point, The head is darker than the rest of
* Leconte in Joc. cit.
MroA. Murray’s' Monograph of the genus Catops. 461
the body. The thorax forms :a ‘continuous or nearly continuous
line withthe elytra; its posterior angles do not project behind;
both thorax and elytra are seen under a powerful lens to be very
finely though distinctly transversely strigose. The elytra are not
truncate, although they aré rounded rather rapidly at the apex.
The scutellum ‘is not visible.’ The sutural stria is distinct at the
base, but it draws closer to the suture as it proceeds to the apex,
and is lost before it reaches it. Under side and legs ferruginous-
brown.
From Caraccas.. 1 received this. species from M. Deyrolle,
under the manuscript name of eguinoctialis ; but the advantage
of having a name bearing reference to some particular character,
when that can be had, is so obvious, that I am sure that that ex-
cellent entomologist will excuse my not adopting the name he
had destined for it.
winsit 63... C. australis, Erichs.
Catops australis, Erichson, Wiegm. Arch. (1842) p. 243.
Mesosterno carinato, niger, nigro-pubescens ; thorace Fig. 56.
~ elytrisque transversim strigosis.
Long. 14 lin. galbin
Oval, lightly convex, black, with black pubescence. y
Antenne of the length of, the head and. thorax, the
apex slightly thickened, the eighth .jomt. narrower
than those next it, black, piceous at the base. Thorax
about the same breadth as the elytra, with the sides
lightly rounded, the posterior angles slightly projecting obliquely
behind, nearly right-angled ; the base subsinuate on each side,
finely transversely strigose. Elytra transversely feebly strigose,
the strigations rather widely separated, impressed with a sutural
stria, rounded at the apex. Legs concolorous, tarsi piceous, the
anterior lightly dilated at the base in the males. Mesosternum
slightly keeled.
This species seems to. come. between strigosus, Kraatz, and
Sericeus.
At is\found in|Tasmania, and is the only species, yet recorded
from the southern part of the hemisphere.
Genus Caroprricuus, mihi.
Antenne of eleven joints, the last eight of which are strongly
serrated in the males, somewhat less so in the females ; the three
first are slender; the eighth joint, is very slightly, if at all, nar-
rower or shorter than those on each side of it. In other respects
the characters do not differ from those of Catops.
462 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
1. C. Frankenheusert, Mann.
Catops Frankenheuseri, Mann. Bull. Soc. Imp. Mose. 1852, pt. 2. /p. 332."
Elongatus, fusco-piceus, griseo-pubes- Fig, 57.
cens ; antennis pectinatis, basi ferru-
gineis, articulo ultimo pyriformi apice
acuminato ; thorace quadrato, angulis
rotundatis, obsolete canaliculato, pos-
tice in medio impresso; elytris ob-
longo-ellipticis, subtilissime punctu-
latis, tenue striatis, stria suturali pro-
fundiore, rufo-testaceis, cinereo-holo-
sericeis, pilis longis fuscis preesertim
in margine obsitis; pedibus ferru-
gineo-piceis.
Long. 24-3 lin., lat. 14-13 lin.
Elongate, having a good deal the form of the: first group
(subg. Choleva) of the genus Catops: fuscous, clothed with a
griseous pubescence.. Antenne pectinated, black, ferruginous at
the base ; the first three joints slender ; third longer than second ;°
fourth to tenth each of nearly ‘equal length, globose, with a long
spine proceeding outwards. ' Thorax quadrate, angles rounded,’
obsoletely canaliculated, impressed behind in the middle. Elytra
oblong-elliptic, very finely punctulated, feebly striated, the:sutu-
ral stria deeper, rufo-testaceous, with a cmereous bloom and:
clothed with long brown hairs, especially on the nen legs.
dark ferruginous. §
Inhabits the island of Sitka. Several specimens were tdkew ;
by M. 'Frankenhzeuser in a. human body lying ina wood, aes ane
putrid fungi. Is
I owe the above figure to Dr. Leconte. ul yiqssb s
Genus Catorstmorpuus, Aubé. ‘19
Catopsimorphus, Aubé, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 2 sér. vol. viii. p. 324.
“ Antenne with eleven joints, very much flattened ; the eighth
not narrower and scarcely shorter than the seventh ‘and ninth.
Epistome cut almost straight. Labrum broadly and deeply
emarginate, and provided in front with a small very slender
membrane, strongly emarginate in the middle.and ciliated in the
emargination. Mandibles denticulated at the extremity and fur-
nished. within. with a ciliated membrane. | Maxille. with, the
internal, lobe terminated by,.a, small hook; the external lobe)
obtuse and hairy at the extremity. Maxillary palpi with four)
joints, the first very small, the second slightly clavate, the third
obconic, the last.conical, a half smaller than the third, Labium
4
Mary cA. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 463
membranous, pretty deeply emarginate. Labial palpi with three
cylindrical joints, the last smallest. . Tarsi with five joints, the
anterior and middle probably dilated in the male. ~The facies of
this genus is completely analogous to that of Catops. It differs
from it principally in the form of the antenne. We know
nothing of its mode of life*.”
1. C. orientalis, Aubé.
- Catopsimorphus orientalis, Aubé, Ann. Soc, Ent. Fr. 2 sér. yin, 325.
“‘ Qvalis, conyexiusculus, niger, griseo-pubescens ; Fis. 68
antennis, ore, elytris pedibusque ferrugineis ; foibul
thorace antice angustato, angulis omnibus ro- A
tundatis.—3} mill. )
“Head black, somewhat brilliant, tolerably
broad, very finely punctate and slightly pubescent.
Labrum, palpi and antennz testaceous ; the latter
with the first joint longish, cylindrical; the second
almost globular ; the remainder transverse, flat-
tened, and gradually inereasing in size to the last, |
which terminates ina point; the eighth scarcely
shorter):than the -seventh and ninth. .,Thorax
black, pubescent -and: finely punctate and reticu-
lated;-more than:one and a half times broader than long, much
narrower in front:than behind, cut-almost. straight atthe apex
andthe: base,:very broadly.rounded:at the.sides ; the anterior
and posterior angles obtuse and rounded. Elytra-as broad. as
the thorax atthe base, about’one-and a half times longer than
broad;:broadly rounded behind.;:ferruginous, less finely punctate
and reticulated than the thorax ; pubescent and marked with.
a deeply impressed stria on each side of the suture. Under side
of body black, with the extremity of the abdomen somewhat
ferruginous. Legs ferruginous ; thighs shghtly brown t.”
Dr. Aubé mentions that he had two individuals of this species,
both taken in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. He sup-
poses them to be both females from their having all their tarsi
simple, .
X
nS
~~
_—
Since the first part-of this paper was in print, I have had an
opportunity of carefully examining the specimens in the collec:
tion of the Count Dejean, now’ belonging to the Marquis de
Laferté Senectére, who'kindly placed them im my hands for
that purpose; and ‘it may be desirable’ that I should ‘state the
* Aubé in /oe. cit. + Awbé in Joc. eit: —
464 Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
result of my examination in reference to the names used by
Count Dejean and published in his Catalogue. The specimens
are for the most part in good order and preservation. A few,
however, were in a less satisfactory state, and of course I give
my opinion of these with doubt. As might be expected in such
a difficult genus, there were sometimes more than one species
placed under the same name, so that it is a matter of opinion
which was the typical species he intended to designate.
The names in the collection correspond with those published
in the 3rd edition of his Catalogue, 1837. His
Catops rufescens= C. angustatus, Erichs.
oblongus = cisteloides, Froehl. (castaneus, Sturm).
ovatus, De}. =agilis, Erichs.
major, De}.=picipes Erichs.
—— Americanus was in too bad a state to determine.
morio=nigrita, Krichs.
Under this name were found specimens of nigrita, fuscus,
and wmbrinus, but the preponderance in point of number
was decidedly in favour of nigrita.
Catops tibialis, De}.=coracinus ?, Kelln.
This species and a portion of those standing under the
next name, fuscus, but which were the same, were marked
as coming from Portugal. I thought they came nearer to
coracinus than any other, but am not satisfied that they
were not perhaps an undescribed species.
Catops fuscus=tristis, Erichs.
I have no doubt that Dejean meant éristis to be the type
of his fuscus. He had a number of ¢ristis, and one of
grandicollis under it, and none of these under any other
name. At the same time he had among them several of
the above Portuguese species, and some of alpinus, Gyll., as
well as Spencianus, Kirby (cadaverinus, Mann.).
Catops chrysomeloides=chrysomeloides, Sp.
australis = australis, Erichs.
agilis = fumatus, Krichs.
Some of C. alpinus, Gyll., were mixed with fumatus under
this name, but the great majority were the latter.
Catops truncatus=sericeus, Erichs.
A single fumatus and a single velow have found their way
into the mass of sericeus, but this is obviously by inad-
vertence.
Catops transverso-striatus =a new species described by me under
this name in the foregoing pages.
Mr.iA) Marray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 465
Catops pallidus=velox, Spence. Represented by a’ single bad
specimen.
luridus =scitulus, Erichs.
The first specimens are scitulus, then follow some of velox,
and lastly what may be brunneus, Sturm.
flavescens=precox, Erichs.
— minutus = anisotomoides, Spence.
The ‘remainder ‘of his species are different species of Colon,
and do not fall within this Monograph.
On looking over the preceding parts of this paper, I am not
satisfied with the figure given of C. nigrita (fig. 12), and would
beg the reader instead of it to adopt the figure I now give, as a
more accurate representation of the species.
A figure of transverso-striatus ¢ was omitted to be given with
the text. It is now yen
C. nigrita. C. transverso-striatus.
I haye onl y now to add the Dichotomous Table of the European
species which I promised at the commencement of this paper.
It is not to be understood as a substitute for the descriptions,
but merely as a slight aid in turning to the quarter where the
species are likely to be found.
Dichotomous Table of Characters of European Species of Cators,
Mesosternum simple ..........ssedersensevessersseesonce 1
Mesosternum keeled ............secseeenee sitbvion seeaosé 30
Antenne nearly filiform and decidedly longer than
1. SUNOEEE FUR oe C ihe dont ns ansh ston sar ehctananr wath 4 $aer'- 2
Antennz more or less clavate, and not longer or
very slightly longer than thorax, ..vesseedeseeeseee 5
2. 2 Thora broader towards base than in front ......... agilis.
Thorax, not, broader towards base than im front)... 3
and. elytra bellied rout, . ncse> eppaey> ca cos oiptonerivaeds spadiceus.
Punctuation fine, pubescence dense and _ short, and
elytra elongate and NAarTrOW ..........seeecceeeeeeeeees 4
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviui. 30
pe coarse, pubescence long and sparse,
3.
466 Mr. A.Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops.
4 Margins of thorax paler than middle — ..........++++- angustatus.
‘ { Margins of thorax not paler than middle ... do. var. cisteloides.
Base of thorax cut in, so as not to form a continuous
5 OUutNE With Clytra — ...socccacessndensanegaches eacesens 6
Base of thorax forming a continuous outline with
elytra Or nearly SO ....01 sscccssccccssececscseseronse 19
Colour of pubescence grey and brown or dull yellow
on thorax, yellowish hairs on base and margins
of elytra wanting or scarcely perceptible, and
“4 either no bloom or grey bloom on elytra ......... 7
Colour of pubescence clear yellow on thorax, a
brownish-blue or purplish bloom on the elytra,
and yellowish hairs on base and sides of elytra... 14
a
Antenne longish and ‘subfiliform, not heavily
7 ; clubbed) (5; cieuc5 a PM UTS ave re tee iby | 3 ha ts © 2 8
Antenne shorter and more clavate ......... ihieiee cdi 12
Elytra transversely strigose .....4...+. in chivedddacedyib acicularis.
| Elytra not transversely strigose .......++..46 wae puonnedy 9
9 yee With apex pale yi..s,sscccsscccreesssvccasons ptcipes.
* | Antenne with apex not paler than rest ........4.+ 10
10 eevee angles of thorax acuminate behind ...... 11
’ | Posterior angles of thorax not acuminate behind... fuscus*.
Posterior angles much produced, antenne wholly
11 FOPFUSINOUE |. sis scenesierynsnenss secducepsstarsdesanalone meridionalis.
‘| Posterior angles only slightly produced, antenne
more dusky towards apex ...cceccsesesscscsececeeeee nigricans.
12 A cui very heavily clavate .........0...cscsceescoeces chrysomeloides.
* | Antennz only moderately clavate .........seseeeeee we 13
13 { Insect thin and narrow ..........ccscsesscseees whens eas moro.
‘| Insect shorter and more compact ......csc.sseeeeeeees coracinus.
14 Antenne comparatively long and subclavate ...... nigrita.
" | Antenne heavily clavate ....2...s0-cscccvececses wogene [LO
Thorax deeply punctured ........scecscoraccencoasenoes neglectus.
15. ; Thorax more or less transversely granulose or
WENO sos oe cs cscawescgeuseessacdingied di spievbeehiend 16
16 d rate nearly parallel on the sides .......... cv eedene quadraticollis.
* | Thorax not parallel on the sides ...........seeeseeees 17
17 fe sel faintly transversely wrinkled —............46 18
“{U Thorax granulose .......+sssesercsscnsescsvcees tristis, var. rotundicollis.
Thorax short, transverse, and not broad; elytra ‘
8.4 usually very JONG | oss anwardunandertiacenrmnech? wees tristis (type).
Thorax broad, elytra moderate in length ... tristis, var. Ganaccole.
19 { ae tarsi widened in males .......04« etic te Shoes 20
Middle tarsi not widened in males .......... ere eae A 25
* Fuscus is one of those species, which, from their transitional charac-
ters, nearly put dichotomy at defiance. It might almost be placed under
No. 19 instead of No. 6, as the base of the thorax has only a slight inter-
ruption in its continuity ; and again, its brown or purplish elytra are not
unlikely to induce one to place it under No. 14 instead of No. 7.
Mr. A. Murray’s Monograph of the genus Catops. 4.67
Antennee heavily clavate — ......cecsescssevescceccceeces 21
“ U Aanberitnse: CAD CIAGRE 1) Ceceetbadiibevesestaesaseccees cesses 22
2] iio not narrower at base than elytra ............ Sumatus.
‘| Thorax slightly narrower at base than elytra ...... alpinus.
99 Pena with posterior angles rounded ............+++ brevicollis*.
| Thorax with posterior angles not rounded ......... - 23
93 { Thorax with lateral margins reflexly sinuated ...... depressust.
| Thorax with lateral margins rounded | .........+++0+ 24
(Thorax with posterior angles projecting strongly
backwards, forming an acute angle; elytra not
distinguished by sericeous pubescence ......+++.4. umbrinus.
24, 4 Thorax with posterior angles projecting slightly
"1 backwards, the angle not acute but right-angled ;
elytra distinguished by a silky pubescence which
in different lights shows like a light band across
Mt TEAUD: <3 inane ss ces sshpicy vanaenesbaretveh open ocy0S Sid «hp eed scitulus.
25 { Thorax not wider at base than elytra ..........000 . 26
‘| Thorax slightly wider at base than elytra ............ precox.
Elytra more than three times the length of thorax transverso-striatus.
26.4 Elytra not more than three times the length of
TOUR laithte<scescocvcscevessesdeepcues Seacadass Sep 27
27 {eres margin of thorax sinuated ....se..sesseeeeeeees velox.
* | Basal margin of thorax straight ............sscsseseeees 28
98 iP Soeins angles of thorax right-angled .........++ badiust.
" | Posterior angles of thorax obtuse .........+0+4. teneees 29
MMU IUEEIE 055 sak oce soos osestacsv er gamevtasetes sooese Anisotomoides.
"Insect more elongate ...... ptcccehencedpscreesscese cones brunneust.
30 1 aie polished and shining ............+e000 SaderaiensKd lucidus.
PRY MIE SMOBNNOU: 850000 ssi06 Shin can ssc peresiese <ascinne 31
3] ce not truncate — .......scseeeeees EB tlle 32
AARP URR SETROREED'? Sila ii Wendélsshvcdecdgeecdocecsobieccse 33
39 {oe MCAT cli i is edebe iacaediscedeshescsceceees strigosus.
Rh DEPERA HOb-ROUUUNALE! fasdcs senrsrceradnsstencovcecsvcseves Colon.
33 freuen with apical joint pale .........cc.secesseeeees varicornis.
* | Antennze with apical joint not pale .........seeeeeeee 34
Antenne heavily clubbed, with base not paler than
34 WOME, Sissi chiepearcoish Svouss Sed soba dBkLsapH pee bine denen rvicines validus.
Antennz moderately clubbed, and base paler than
CHD sv ccpecessces Likuscs baie sanveatoapenocéenctaesseduss eee SETICCUS.
* Not having seen this species, I only place it under No. 19 provisionally,
the description given by M. Kraatz being scarcely sufficient to satisfy me
as to its place.
+ Not haying seen the male of this species, it is only from supposition
that I have placed it under No. 20.
t Not having seen badius nor brunneus, their place is marked provi-
sionally and with hesitation.
30*
468 Dr. Gray on the Abnormal Operculum of Polydonta elegans.
XL.—On the Abnormal Operculum of Polydonta elegans of New
Zealand. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e.
In the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for May 1854,
N.S. vol. xiii. p. 419, I described the reproduced operculum of
a Fusus, fig. 1, and the restored operculum of Pleurotoma baby-
lonica, showing that the restored operculum and the mended part
of one only partially destroyed differed from the normal form of
the operculum of the species.
At that time I had not observed the same fact in opercula of a
spiral form. In an interesting collection of shells and other
animals made in New Zealand by Dr. Andrew Sinclair, the late
Colonial Secretary of that colony, I found a specimen of Poly-
donta elegans with a very abnormal operculum ; arising, I have
little doubt, from the operculum having been entirely destroyed
by some external violence and reproduced by the animal.
The reproduced operculum is circular,
of the size of the mouth of the shell, but
instead of being formed of numerous
narrow, very gradually enlarged whorls,
it has a rather large central circular
part or nucleus, which extends into
a broad, rather rapidly enlarging whorl
and a half, somewhat like the oper-— —
cular or the more circular-mouthed Reproduced operculum of
Littorinide. Polydonta elegans.
I may observe, that though I have examined all the opercula of
shells that have come under my notice for years, I have never
seen any example of reproduction of the operculum in the Tro-
chide before ; but according to the following paragraph, extracted
from Mr. Clark’s ‘ Marine Mollusca,’ p. 309, it is not uncommon
in Trochus lineatus :—‘ A singular character is attached to this
species, which I have not observed in any other Trochus. The
animal either casts the operculum, or is deprived of it by the
attacks of enemies, perhaps from its own pulli, white masses of
which, in the genial season, I have seen deposited on the foot,
and they may possibly feed on and destroy it ; however this may
be, numerous examples are found with the opercula in various
stages of development and renewal, but never resembling the
original: this is a curious fact, which I can at present scarcely
account for on rational grounds. The renewals and reparations
form irregular spiral, oblique and elliptical curves, or, instead of
the sixteen normal volutions, often only show two grossly spiral
ones, as in the Littorina littorea. I have many such in my
collection. I may observe, that, however the sculpture of the
Rev. T. Hincks on Reticularia immersa and Halia pretenuis, 459
area may be varied, the operculum always retains the circular
form.” ,
I think the irregularity may be easily explained, when we
consider that the animal has to reproduce the operculum in the
most rapid manner to replace the lost part, and therefore com-
mencing from the centre, it forms only one or one and a half
broad whorl, instead of the large number which it gradually
deposited. As it has to adapt the operculum to the increased size
of the mouth of the shell and of the foot on which it is formed,
and the end of the foot of the animal and the circular mouth of
the shell not being altered by the abstraction of the operculum,
the reproduced operculum is naturally of the form of the pre-
vious normally formed one.
XLI.— Note on Reticularia immersa and Halia preetenuis.
By the Rev. Tuomas Hincxs, B.A.
In the ‘ Annals’ for February 1855 I described a supposed
Polyzvoon under the name of Halia pretenuis. I had never met
with the species living, and merely inferred from the character
of the cell, &c. that it must be ranked as a Polyzoon, and not as
a Hydroid. Mr. Alder, having recently made a careful exami-
nation of the common parasite of Sertularia abietina and other
zoophytes, which passes as the Reticularia immersa of Professor
Wyville Thomson, has informed me that he can detect no dif-
ference between this species and the Halia, and that he believes
them to be identical. I have now no doubt that his opinion
is correct, and that the genus Halia was founded on speci-
mens of the zoophyte which Prof. Thomson has described as
Reticularia immersa. In characterizing this species, however, he
has fallen into a mistake as to the form of the cell, and his
figure (vide Annals, Ser. 2. vol. xi. pl. 16) is not an accurate
representation of the reality. Deriving my knowledge of Rett-
cularia, as I did, from his description and figure, there was
nothing to lead me to suspect its identity with the form which I
had obtained on mussel-shells from the Dogger Bank, and
which I published as Halia pretenuis. I could have no doubt that
the zoophyte of his paper was not the species which I had before
me when I constituted the new genus.
The cause of this mistake on the part of so able a naturalist
may perhaps be found in the difficulty which attaches to the
examination of Reticularia in its ordinary state,—the cells being
densely packed together and forming a confused mass, amidst
which it is no easy matter to trace the form. When the species
creeps over shell (as was the case in my specimens) the character
470 Rev. T. Hincks on Reticularia immersa and Halia preetenuis.
is greatly altered,—the cells are sparingly distributed along
the fibre, and the difficulty vanishes. Both Prof. Thomson and
myself overlooked the fact, that the production, which we re-
spectively designated as Reticularia and Halia, had been pre-
viously described by Mr. Hassall in the Transactions of the
Microscopical Society (vol. ii. p. 163) under the name of Cam-
panularia serpens. Mr. Hassall’s description may not perhaps
be as full and precise as might be desired, but it is sufficient for
the identification of the species. There is no doubt that it has
no claim to a place in the genus Campanularia, and that Prof.
Thomson was right in constituting a new genus for its recep-
tion. The name Reticularia, therefore, must be retained, but
Mr. Hassall’s specific designation is entitled to precedence.
The characterization may be revised as follows :—
Order Hyproipa.
*,
Fam.
Genus RETICULARIA.
_ Polypidom “a parasitical, investing network of horny tubes,
immersed in. a horny crust ;” cells decumbent, adherent, irre-
gularly disposed along the fibre, to which they are attached at
the base. “ Polype of a greenish colour, with numerous smooth,
solid tentacula ; very minute.”
Reticularia serpens.
Campanularia serpens, Hassall, Microscop. Transact. vol. for 1852.
Reticularia immersa, W, Thomson, Annals, vol. xi. for 1853.
Halia pretenuis, Hincks, Annals for Febr. 1855.
Capsularia serpens, Gray, List of Brit. Radiated Animals, p. 151.
Cells elongate, with upturned, terminal, and more or less
tubular orifices, inoperculate, and with even rim, |
The polypidom is a creeping fibre of great delicacy, which
forms an irregular network, corneous and closely adherent ; it is
invested by a kind of crust, which, when the zoophyte is in a
recent state, gives it a soft and spongy appearance, but is not
apparent when it is dried; the ced/s, which occur sometimes in
pairs, one on each side of the fibre, sometimes singly, sometimes
im companies, are elongate, attached by the base to the poly-
pidom, adherent, except at the anterior extremity, which bends
* I do not associate Reticularia with any of the existing families of
Hydroida, fully agreeing with Prof. W. Thomson im the opinion that the
section of the genus Campanularia which embraces C. syringa, dumosa,
parvula (and to these may now be added the C. gracillima (Alder)),
together with the genera Coppinia and Reticularia, should form a distinct
group “intermediate between the Sertularians and the Campanularians.”
Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on the Conchology of France. 471
upwards, and terminates in a circular aperture; they are com-
monly laid alongside the fibre, and often appressed to it, but
occasionally stand out from it.
There are two very distinct states of this zoophyte. In old
specimens, spreading over the stems of Sertularia, &c., the cells
are massed confusedly together, and the form is with difficulty
distinguishable. On shells it presents a much simpler appear-
ance: the cells are sparingly distributed and distinct, and in
such specimens I have never been able to detect any trace of a
crust.
Hab. Exceedingly common on our coasts, both north and
south, on Sertularia abietina and other zoophytes; also on
mussel-shells from the Dogger Banik, &c.
XLIL.—Contribution to the Conchology of France.
By J. Gwyn Jerrreys, Esq., F.R.S.
Havine spent part of this autumn on the coast of Normandy,
with my family, I have been requested by some of my scientific
friends to publish the result of my researches; but I fear my
story will not be much longer than that of the weary knife-
grinder. In fact the whole of my work in the North of France
was fruitless, as regards the discovery of new or rare species ;
although perhaps a list of some species taken by me, and which
have not been noticed by writers on French Conchology, may
be of some use in contributing towards the elucidation of the
important problem of geographical distribution.
Etretat (where I was located) is a small sea-bathing place,
containing about 1800 inhabitants, and is distant seventeen
miles from Havre on the road to Dieppe. It is a delightful
retreat, and has hitherto escaped invasion by our countrymen,
who, if they knew of the clear sea and atmosphere, the picturesque
rock scenery, the fontaine, subterranean river, and oyster park,
and above all the facility of access from England, would soon
crowd and spoil the place. This may be a selfish, but I believe
it is a common, sentiment.
The fauna of this coast was, I understand, investigated many
years ago by the late Abbé Dicquemare, whose MSS. are now to
be seen in the public library of Rouen; and Cuvier is said to
have made Fécamp (which lies about ten miles to the north of
Etretat) his retreat during the storm of the Great Revolution,
and to have commenced there his studies on the Mollusca.
M. Bouchard-Chantereaux has published a list of the marine
Testacea found in the Pas de Calais; M. Collard des Cherres
has also published a list of those found in the Department of
472 Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on the Conchology of France.
Finisterre; and M, Petit de la Saussaye has given in his ‘ Journal
de Conchiliologie’ a résumé of French marine Conchology, in
an article entitled “ Catalogue des Mollusques marins qui vivent
sur les Cotes de France.” This Catalogue was published in 185] ;
but it is too meagre to offer a satisfactory comparison between the
French and our own Conchology, especially as regards the minute
species. M. Moquin-Tandon’s admirable work, which has lately
been published, on the Land and Freshwater Mollusca of France,
may be safely consulted for that branch of the subject.
My dredging at Etretat was a complete failure, as the sea-
bottom for many leagues seemed to be composed of nothing but
flint pebbles ; and the shore was nearly as unproductive. The
only uncommon species I obtained was Otina otis; and of this
only a single specimen occurred to me.
I will now enumerate the marine Testacea I found, and which
are not included in M. Petit’s Catalogue, as well as the localities
for a few land shells, which are not given by M. Moquin-Tandon.
. Montacuta bidentata, Forbes and Hanley’s Brit. Moll.
. Trochus Montagui, Brit. Moll.
umbilicatus, Brit. Moll.
. Lacuna puteolus, and variety, Brit. Moll.
vincta, Brit. Moll.
. Rissoa semistriata, Brit. Moll.
. Skenea planorbis, Brit. Moll.
. Odostomia plicata, Brit. Moll.
obliqua, Brit. Moll.
Rissoides, Brit. Moll.
11. Otina otis, Brit. Moll.
12. Cerithiopsis tuberculare, Brit. Moll.
13. Nassa varicosa, Brit. Moll. M. Petit refers to this as a synonym
of NN. inerassata, which is also common on the French coast.
14. Zonites glaber, Moquin-Tandon; Etretat, Lillebonne, and Hon-
fleur. I do not agree with M. L. Pfeiffer, that the Z. alliarius
of British authors ought to be united with this species.
striatulus, M.-7'. (Z. radiatulus, Brit. Moll.) ; St. Clair
near Ktretat.
16. Helix aspersa, M.-7'. ; Etretat and Honfleur. I mention this (to ~
us common) species, because M. Moquin-Tandon gives its habitat
as “ Principalement la France méridionale.’ =.
fusca, M.-T. (H. revelata, Bouchard) ; Etretat.
limbata, M.-7'.; Honfleur and Lillebonne.
19. Clausilia nigricans, M.-T. ; Etretat.
Rolphiu, M.-T.; Honfleur, Le Héve near Havre, and Lille-
bonne. I observe that Mr. Benson has modified his opinion ~
as to the Cl. Mortilleti of Dumont being a distinct species.
M. Moquin-Tandon gives it as a synonym of Cl. Rolphii.
1 Montagu Square, London, Oct. 31st, 1856.
Bibliographical Notices. 473
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
Flora Vectensis: being a Systematic Description of the Pheno-
gamous or Flowering Plants and Ferns indigenous to the Isle of
Wight. By the late W. A. Bromrieitp, M.D. &c. Edited by
Sir W. J. Hooker and T. Bextu Satter, M.D. London, 1856.
8vo, pp. 678, xxxv. Portrait of the Author. Map.
We have recently received a copy of this valuable and long-ex-
pected posthumous work, and have the pleasure of expressing, upon
the whole, our high approbation of it. The editors have wisely
avoided adding more than was absolutely necessary to the manu-
script of our lamented friend; but, owing to his decease before the
completion of his original plan, it was necessary to add the technical
characters of many genera and sections of them, and of not a few
species, in which the manuscript was deficient. In doing this they
have usually adopted the words of Messrs. Hooker and Arnott from
their ‘ British Flora,’ but in some cases where it was perfectly mani-
fest that the author was adopting the arrangement of Mr. Babington,
they have taken the definitions from that gentleman’s ‘Manual.’ In
this we think that they have exercised a sound judgement, although
we fancy that they have not always correctly appreciated Dr. Brom-
field’s views. But this is a matter of very little consequence, for the
value of the work is not at all affected by it. It is very unfortunate
that the author did not leave behind him a more complete account
of his own views on these matters, for his opinions upon the best
characters to be employed in defining the genera and species would
have been highly acceptable, from the attention which he is known
to have paid to the value’ of characters in the different natural
orders. ‘he great peculiarity and value of the book, as. it is now
presented to us, consists in the elaborate descriptions of the great
majority of the species drawn from the examination of very many
specimens of each plant. They are by far the most complete and
accurate descriptions of British plants which we possess, and strongly
remind us of the elaborate and voluminous ‘ Flora Italica’ of Berto-
loni, but even surpass those of that eminent botanist. From its
proximity to the mainland, the Isle of Wight possesses a more
extensive flora than is usually to be found in small islands, and
therefore this work contains Dr. Bromfield’s descriptions of a very
large portion of the common plants of England. From the situation
of the Isle, it of course does not include the plants peculiar to the
more distant parts of Britain. There are many species of which the
full descriptions were not prepared by the author, and in such cases .
the editors have inserted a specific character derived from one or the
other of the above-mentioned British Floras, together with such notes
as were to be found in the author’s manuscripts. For some months
preceding his final departure from England, Dr. Bromfield had been
inserting in successive numbers of the third volume of the Bofanical
Journal called the ‘ Phytologist,’ a very complete account of Isle of
Wight plants, in which he communicated to the public a large quantity
474, Bibliographical Notices.
of most valuable critical and other remarks. As much of this informa-
tion was acquired, and many of the views there adopted were formed, at
a later period than that at which the parts of this work which treat
concerning the same plants, were written, we think that the editors
might advantageously have added, as notes to the Flora, many ex-
tracts from these papers. It is plain that they have thought
differently, for the ‘ Phytologist’ is rarely quoted by them.
The author’s preface contains some remarks upon the rules to be
observed in deciding upon-the claims of plants to be considered as
indigenous or introduced, which well deserve the consideration of
the writers of local and even national floras. He very properly
protests against the scepticism of those botanists who “reject as
aliens a large proportion of species that have been long recognized
and admitted by common consent into our indigenous catalogues,”
acknowledging at the same time that “they at least err on the safe
side.” He adopts the view expressed by Fries in the following
words: “Eas dico plantas indigenas, que per longam annorum
seriem sine omni cultura inter provinciam copiose et definito loco
propellarunt et quotannis sunt multiplicatee.’’ He is of opinion that
“the safest criterion for resolving doubtful claims to enrolment is to
be sought for by reference to the geographical distribution of the
species under consideration. The more extended study of this im-
portant branch of botanical science would. . . . go far in removing
many of those scruples that are raised against the admission of no
small number of our vegetable productions into the aboriginal lists.”’
Accordingly great attention is paid to the continental distribution
of all plants upon which much doubt has been cast. Botanists have
cause to thank him for this care ; for we are quite convinced that it
is the true mode of attaining correct views on this contested subject.
It often happens that plants which are now only found in rather
doubtful stations in our fully cultivated country are really old natives
which have been reduced in quantity or driven from their original
sites by improvements in agriculture. When this has happened the
plants may now continue to exist in a very few restricted spots, or be
found scattered thinly over a large district, maintaining themselves
with difficulty in hedgerows or on bits of waste ground. In such
cases, it is much the fashion to state boldly that they are not indi-
genous, without inquiring if their continental distribution is or is not
favourable to their claims to admission amongst British plants.
It does not seem desirable to extend this notice by entering upon
discussion concerning any of the species, although there are many
things stated by the author, or introduced by the editors, which do
not accord with our views. In some of these cases we feel quite sure
that the remarks would have been omitted or modified had the author
been permitted to prepare his work for the press; but the editors
have done wisely in printing the manuscript as they found it. It
must be remembered that the work has not, alas! had the benefit of
the author’s revision since the spring of 1850, and that much advance
has been made in our knowledge of British plants during the last six
years. These facts do not, however, detract from the value of the
Zoological Society. 475
‘Flora Vectensis,’ the essential peculiarity of which lies, as we have
already stated, in its valuable original and elaborate descriptions of the
species noticed by its author.
Cautioning botanists to bear in mind that the real date of the book
is not that of its publication—and that it is posthumous ; and recom-
mending those who may use it to distinguish carefully between the
work of the author and the additions (clearly marked with inverted
commas) of the editors,—we most strongly recommend the work to
our readers.
Sylloge Flore Europee seu plantarum vascularium Europe indige-
narum enumeratio, adjectis synonymis gravioribus et indicata
singularum distributione geographica. Auctore C. F. Nyman.
Oerebroz, 1854-55. Royal 8vo, pp. 442. xxiv.
This is a work which was wanted as affording a mode of easily
ascertaining the extent to which any species of plant is known, upon
published authority, to be distributed throughout Europe. It cannot
fail of beimg much employed for that purpose, having been drawn up
with great care. A list of the works used in its compilation is ap-
pended, by means of which the author’s accuracy may be tested in
doubtful cases. Of course a work of this nature must have occupied
a considerable time in its preparation, and therefore we cannot hope to
find that it is quite up to the present state of our knowledge. Judging
from a somewhat careful examination, it is far more complete in that
respect than we expected.
The chief objection to it is found in the system upon which it is
arranged. Being the work of. a Swede, probably a pupil of Fries, it
is not wonderful that he should think the system proposed by that
eminent man the proper one to adopt. As that classification is not
im common use, some little inconvenience results. This is met by the
addition of a copious index to the genera and subgenera.
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
February 12, 1856.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair.
DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS IN THE CoL-
LECTION OF THE British MuUSEUM, HITHERTO APPARENTLY
UNNOTICED. By ApAm WHiTrTE.
The number of “new species” of Coleopterous Insects in the
Museum collection is in relative proportion to the great richness of
the other branches. In this paper, some species belonging to the
families Prionide, Lamiade, and Cetoniade will be given, as there is
every likelihood, from the way in which these great groups have been
investigated by Messrs. Serville, Burmeister, Schaum, Gory, and
other entomologists, that the species are as yet unrecorded in scientific
476 Zoological Society :—
works ; it is to the kindness of Dr. Gray, the keeper of the depart-
ment, that I am indebted for permission in laying these descriptions
before the Society.
Tribe LONGICORNIA.:
Family Prionip&.
The Prionide consist of several marked subfamilies, in one of
which we would place Tricrenoroma, G. R. Gray, one of the most
interesting of the genera of Beetles. This form, which appears to
me to be altogether Longicorn, is chiefly remarkable for its hetero-
merous tarsi, and for the ninth and tenth joints of its antenne being
serrated or produced at the end, almost as in the Lucanide. It is
one of those “aberrant” forms which naturalists call “ annectent,”’
and which appear to partake of the characters of several groups,—
for instance, with the depressed form and velvety pilosity of many
Elateride, it has five joints to the two first pairs of legs, and four only
to the hind pair. Its head, jaws, and legs are essentially Longicorn,
the number of joints of the tarsi being not a necessary character of the
group; the tarsi of Parandra are pentamerous, and Dorx pentamera,
an Australian insect described by Mr. Newman, has likewise five
joints to all the tarsi. The sternum of Trictenotoma is also peculiar,
that of the prothorax being received into a notch of the mesothorax,
while the sternum of the metathorax is capable of being firmly fixed by
*« dovetailing,” as it were, into the hinder notch of the mesothorax; in
fact, this structure must enable the insect, if placed on its flat back,
to “right” itself, like those Beetles called “‘ Skip-jacks” (Zlateride).’
In some species, such as 7. Childrenii (G. R. Gray), 7’. Templetonii
(Westw.), and 7. Grayit (F. Smith), the sternum of the metathorax
bulges ; in 7’. enea (Parry) that part is flattened, and the thorax is
curiously serrated on the lateral margin in front, and has a very pro-
jecting point on the side beyond the middle, and notched between
that point and the posterior angle, instead of being nearly straight
and simply angled as in the other three species. Of these Tricteno-
tome, all the species described are in the Museum Collection ; the
T. Childrenii being the type female specimen from the Tenasserim
coast, described by Mr. G. R. Gray in one of the two insect volumes
of Griffith’s edition of ‘Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom’ (pl. 5 and 5*).
The 7’. Templetonii of Westwood (Oriental Ent. tab. 23, f. 3) is a
native of Ceylon; like the former, it has a yellowish-grey pile; the
T. Grayii described by Mr. F. Smith in 1851 (Cat. Coleopt. Brit.
Mus. Cucujide, p. 18) is from Borneo, and has a purplish base beneath
the more tawny pile of the upper parts; in the Museum there are two
females, one from the collection of Mr. Alfred Wallace, who obtained
it at Sarawak. The 7. enea, the giant of the genus, is of a brassy
green, slightly pilose above. .The Museum has lately obtained a
specimen from India; the specimen was found by a soldier at
Dhargeeling.
To the same family, and not very remote from the subfamily con-
taining Spondylis and its allies, belongs, in the opinion of Dr. Bur-
meister, Mr. Westwood, and Mr. Leconte, the very anomalous Hypo- -
Sa ee
Mr. A. White on some Coleopterous Insects. 477
cephalus, of which a fine figure, with some striking remarks, has been
published by Mr, Curtis in the ‘Transactions of the Linnzean Society ;’
of this species, three specimens known to me, exist in this country,
one in Mr. Melly’s great cabinet at Liverpool, a second drawn by
Mr. Westwood in the ‘ Arcana Entomologica,’ from a specimen in his
own very curious collection, and a third exhibited at the Linnzeah So-
ciety in 1854, from the rare cabinet of Mr. Aspinall Turner of Man-
chester. This remarkable Prionidous insect, like the Mole-cricket,
has been altogether constructed for a subterraneous life ; its marvel-
lously developed thorax, fossorial and burrowing legs, curiously de-
fended head, abbreviated antennze, and other characters well shown
by Mr. Westwood, and particularly by Mr. Curtis, all mark this ;
just as Dorysthenes of the East, a burrowing insect, is shown by
M. Guerin- Meneville to have Walrus-like jaws, as Lethrus has incurved
mandibles and other features useful in supporting the creature in the
holes of the ground whence it comes. As aberrant Prionide may be
mentioned, the very curious genera Torneutes, Reich., described in
the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (ii. 9, t. 2. f. 7), of which three species
are now known, one from Patagonia, described by M. Guerin, and
the singularly interesting EHrichsonia of Mexico, named by Mr.
Westwood, in memory of that most laborious and scientific of all the
German entomologists, Dr. Erichson. The genus Thaumasus,
Reich. (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1853, p. 419), founded on what Olivier
described as a gigantic species of Ips (Ips gigas, Journ. d’ Hist. Nat.
1792, i. 267, pl. 14. f.6; Thaumasus g., Reich. 1. c. p. 422, pl. 13.
f. 4), may be particularized as another aberrant form. In fact, the
family Prionide, like many other great families, is more negative
than positive, and will be found at its extremities, or at many points
of its circumference, to lead off to other families, and even tribes:
so that the naturalist, who wishes to simplify arrangement, however
much he may split up genera, ought to avoid dividing families.
It may interest the general reader to quote a short passage from a
privately circulated paper, written by my friend Mr. Empson of Bath,
a distinguished natural-history traveller in South America. The insect
alluded to is the noble Psalidognathus Friendii (G. R. Gray), which
is named by the natives of Columbia ‘Alaja,’ that is, ‘ the jewel.’ Mr.
Empson remarks, “The first of these splendid insects which I ever saw,
was at a feast given by the Cabildo, at Mariquita; upon that occasion
Don Domingo Conde had placed one of them as a button to loop up,
after the Spanish fashion, the broad brim of his Panama hat; to this
brilliant ornament a loop of living Fireflies was attached, in a mode
common in South America, and which does not injure those dazzling
insect gems ; thus decorated, the sombrero of the cavalero was more
conspicuous in the ball-room than the jewelled tiaras of his more
wealthy neighbours, although sparkling with the choice emeralds
from the mines of Muzo.
« After many a weary search,” adds Mr. Empson, “ with Don
Domingo for my guide, in the primeeval forests on the eastern slopes
of the Andes, we captured three of those Alajas.”’ One of those, he
remarks, ‘ was resting on the perishing trunk of a palm-tree ; in our
478 Zoological Society :—
eagerness to secure it, my hand was so much lacerated that I was
obliged to relinquish my prize, and we saw its gorgeous colours
flashing beneath the fuil blaze of a tropical sun; it settled on the
stem of a cedar, and was then more cautiously transferred into my
possession.”
With these few remarks, which might be much amplified, a curious
genus of Prionide, allied to Psalidognathus, G. R. Gray, and to
Prionacalus, figured in a previous part of the Proceedings, may be
here briefly described. It is strictly pseudo-tetramerous, and has
much of the character of Mr. George Gray’s fine Columbian genus.
This genus, for which I would propose the name Psalidocoptus*, is
from Tana, in the New Hebrides, and is one of those fine insects for
which science is indebted to the researches of Mr. John Macgillivray,
the late able Naturalist of H.M. surveying ship ‘Herald.’ The
sternum does not notably differ from that of Psalidognathus, but it
differs in having very short palpi, much shorter antennee, the third joint
the longest, the eight following about equal in length. Head, exclu-
sive of the jaws, rather longer than wide, behind the eyes somewhat
narrowed and without projection. Eyes prominent, transversely
kidney-shaped, very slightly notched in front. Thorax wider than
long, but much longer than in Psalidognathus and Prionacalus, with
three broadish spine-like projections on each side, one in front, one
about the middle, and one before the hinder angle. Scutellum small
and wide, covering the abdomen; in the male, considerably sur-
passing it. Wingless; elytra united on the suture, contracted some-
what at the base, where there is a short spine, gradually dilated
about the middle, and as gradually tapering toward the end, where
they terminate in two spine-like points, the outer the longest, the
inner almost a continuation of the notch, between which would be the
suture ; the two points curiously rotundate-emarginate. Legs very
long and strong, particularly the femora, which are compressed.
Tarsi with small pulvillus on end of three first joints ; tarsi of female
broader and shorter than those of the male.
PSALIDOCOPTUS SCABER, 0. 8.
Head between the eyes with a deep line, divided into two in front.
Thorax surface curiously undulated, and with the head scarcely
rough, although with small scattered warts; the elytra scabrous,
with numerous small warts; each elytron with two parallel ridges
united behind the middle and a sutural ridge; margin of elytra
between warty and serrated. Jaws strong, punctured at the base,
incurved, sides parallel, inner side short and obliquely cut between,
the cutting edge sharp; a curious tuft of ferruginous hair on tro-
chanter; legs serrated below on femora and tibia, more or less
scabrous. The whole insect is of a blackish-brown, with ferruginous
hairs bordering the inside of the tibiee of the first and second pairs of
legs ; thorax beneath, and other parts, liable to be chafed by motion
* WaXis, scissors, and kéarw, from a fanciful idea of the waved outline being
as it were cut with that instrument.
479
Mr. A. White on some Coleopterous Insects.
of joints ciliated with ferruginous hairs. Abdomen somewhat squa-
moso-verrucose beneath, a pit behind each scale-like wart, with a
short hair proceeding from it.
ty
}
a Hy
ike
Y
wycte S
a : - <
Pag.
oa
ANS
Nj
Note. The figures were drawn on wood by Miss E. Wing, and are
of the size of nature.
=
Family Lamrap2&.
Among the Lamioid Longicorns there is a genus containing many
finely coloured African species. The genus Tragocephala, Dupont
(Dej. Cat. p. 638), was first briefly characterized by Laporte in his
‘ Animaux articulées,’ tome ii..p. 472. Fey,
TRAGOCEPHALA NoBILIs. Lamia nobilis, Fabr. S. El. ii. 297 ;
Oliv. t. 11. f. 76; also described by Fabricius as Saperda leta,
l.c. p. 318. Sierra Leone. -(Coll. Brit. Mus.)
TRAGOCEPHALA FORMOSA. Cerambyx formosus, Oliv. t. 20.
480 Zoological Society :—
f. 153, is another well-marked species from S. Africa, abundant in
collections. (Coll. Brit. Mus.) ahae
TRAGOCEPHALA PULCHELLA, Westw. Arc. Ent. ii. t. 69. f. 4, is
another species from Sierra Leone. (Coll. Brit. Mus.)
TRAGOCEPHALA VARIEGATA, Bertolom., Ann. Sc. Nat. 1845,
p. 423. 8S. Africa (Inhambere).
TRAGOCEPHALA GALATHEA, Chevr., Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1855,
p- 184, was procured by the Scottish missionaries at Benin, Old
Calabar.
The TRaAGOCEPHALA ANGOLATOR and T. Lucta, described by
Olivier and Newman, belong likewise to this genus, but are aberrant
forms, as is the TRAGOCEPHALA TRIFASCIELLA, described and figured
in the illustrated Proceedings for 1850. The latter differs somewhat
from Tragocephala proper, while Lamia angolator, from its short
wide thorax, &c., may hereafter constitute the type of a distinct
section: all three are in the Museum Collection. |
In the Museum Collection are some undescribed species, which
may be characterized as
TRAGOCEPHALA COMITESSA.
T. elongata, nigra; fronte aurantiaca ; thoracis lateribus auran-
tiacis, post tuberculum nigris; elytris fascits duabus sulphureis,
lateribus aurantiacis ; prima continua, secunda angustiore, an-
tice et postice sinuata; elytris singulis punctis tribus albis ;
sutura apice albo-punctata, ante apicem macula aurantiaca
margine pallidiore ; metathorace maculis duabus aurantiacis,
aliquando obsoletis; abdominis segmentis tribus basalibus
lateribus subtus aurantiacis.
Long. lin. 93-11.
Hab. Africa Austr. (Port Natal). Coll. Brit. Mus. (Gueinzius et
Krauss).
T. formose affinis sed distincta.
TRAGOCEPHALA CHEVROLATII, 0. S.
T. nigra, capite aurantiaco, mandibulis bast aurantiacis, fascia
in genis, fascia inter antennas et vertice nigris; thoracis lateri-
bus flavis, tuberculo apice et postice nigro; dorso nigro, macula
parva pallida posticali alteraque antica sepe obsoletis ; elytris
singulis nigris ; fascia mediana aurantiaca subobliqua, ramum
antice ferente ; maculis duabus aurantiacis sepe obsoletis, ma-
cula magna aurantiaca ante apicem, punctoque parvo ad apicem;
abdominis lateribus aurantiaco maculatis; pedibus cinereo-
griseis, femoribus flavo maculatis.
Long. lin. 83-11.
Hab, Africa Austr. (Port. Natal). In Mus. Brit., &c.
In honorem L. A. Augusti Chevrolat, Parisiensis, Coleopterophili
valde egregii.
TRAGOCEPHALA DUCALIS, 0. 8S.
T’. capite aurantiaco, fascia oculari, alteraque verticali nigris;
antennis crassiusculis, nigris; thorace supra medio nigro, lateri-
Mr. A. White on some Coleopterous Insects. 481
bus aurantiaco late marginatis, pube subvermiculata; elytris
nigris fasciis duabus aurantiacis suturam haud attingentibus,
lateribus latioribus, marginibus pallidis, apice aurantiaco, ma-
culis tribus parvis inter apicem et fasciam secundam, exteriore
majore ; corpore subtus aurantiaco, abdominis segmentis, medio
et lateribus nigris; pedibus ochraceo-griseis, femoribus extus et
intus aurantiaco maculatis.
Long. lin. 8-9}.
Hab. Africa Austr. (Port Natal). Coll. Brit. Mus. (Saunders, &c.)
TRAGOCEPHALA GEMMARIA, I. S.
T. nigra; lateribus frontis maculaque genarum et macula inter
antennas pallide ceruleis; thorace supra maculis novem ceruleis,
quatuor in margine antica, tribus in postica; elytris singulis
maculis 12-13 pallide ceruleis; thorace subtus et abdominis
lateribus maculis ceruleis majoribus; pedibus posticis, femoribus
extus, tibiis bast supra ceruleo-notatis ; antennis articulo se-
cundo compresso.
Long. lin. 63.
Hab. Africa Occid. (Sierra Leone) (Rev. D. F. Morgan). Coll.
Brit. Mus.
TRAGOCEPHALA GUERINII.
T. nigra, capitis thoracisque lateribus fascia flava continua, ely-
tris fascia lata guttaque ante-apicali ferrugineo-ochraceis, meso-
thorace ferrugineo-ochraceo, medio nigro-lineato abdominis late-
ribus subtus fascia flava extus dentata.
Long. lin. 10. —
Hab. Congo.
In honorem Guerin-Meneville, entomologi et carcinologi Parisi-
ensis celeberrimi, natureeque delineatoris exquisitissimi.
TRAGOCEPHALA BUQUETIANA.
T. nigra, fronte macula elongata aurantiaca sub oculis ramum
haud emittente ; elytris singulis basi fascia aurantiaca obliqua,
humero et spatio circa scutellum nigris; fascia mediana et
macula sub-apicali aurantiacis. |
Long. lin. 8}.
Hab. Sierra Leone (Rev. D. F. Morgan).
In honorem M. Buquet, Parisiensis, in Coleopteris exoticis ditis-
simi et peritissimi.
We have also in the Museum the elegant, slim, little graceful
T. TeNvuricornis, Chevr., from Port Natal, the T. scenica of Dej.,
from W. Africa, and the T. prcror, Klug, a common S. African
species.
Tribe LAMELLICORNIA.
Family CeTon1ap&.
Note.—Mr. Turner of Manchester, the possessor of a very fine
collection of the larger and more showy Coleoptera of West Africa,
and of many of the Beetles of other lands, showed me a specimen of
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 31
482 Zoological Society :—
the (so-called) Goliathus giganteus, of which I once saw the example
in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, and which served to show that
the sharp and discriminating eye of the able and judicious Dr. Schaum,
who, with Dr. Burmeister, is one of the best authorities on the subject
of Cetoniada, was probably right in regarding G. giganteus and
G. Drurii as mere local varieties of one species, to which the name
Go.iaTHus ArricaNnus, Lamarck, may be given.
TRIGONOPHORUS HOOKERI, 0. 8. |
T. lete viridis, metallico valde refulgens, pedibus gracilibus, femo-
ribus viridibus flavescenti-rubro lineatis seu lavatis, tibiis rubris,
posticis intus ciliatis, tarsis fuscescenti-nigris ; thorace antice
angustato, supra dense punctulato, margine postica solum levis-
sima; scutello fere toto levi; antennis subrufis, capite maris
in fronte rufo.
Hab. In India alpina.
Named after Dr. Joseph Hooker, F.R.S., &c. &c., author of many
noble botanical works, and of the ‘ Himalayan Journal.’ During
his travels in India he found this and many other fine species of
insects now in the Museum Collection. We have now all the species
of this interesting group except 7’. Delessertii, Guerin-Meneville.
STETHODESMA SERVILLEI.
S. fusco-subpurpurea, sericea, thorace flavo cingulato, elytris singu-
lis maculis decem parvis albo-argenteis, uropygio albo-maculato,
subtus rufo-brunnea, plagis albis lateribus singulis in serie
duplict ordinatis.
Hab. In Africa meridionali (Port Natal) (Dr. Krauss).
The red of the thorax extends on its under side. Mesothorax
with scattered scales. Head cut in front, and side lobes produced
shortly and somewhat rounded. Legs uniform in colour.
Huic insecto nomen Servilleanum, synonymon Entomologiz, in
honorem dudinet-Serville amici dilectissimi, proposuit descriptor.
CLINTERIA DUCALIS.
This insect, of which the name only appears in the Museum List
of Cetoniade, p. 15, published in 1847, is regarded by Dr. Schaum
as a variety of the very variable Clinteria atra. 'The present variety
is of a dull olive-green, and has a patch of golden-yellow about the
middle of each elytron. The under side is purplish-brown, and the -
sides have two rows of small white spots. The head and legs are
purplish. |
It is a native of Silhet, and notwithstanding the great authority of
Dr. Schaum, I cannot help, even now, regarding it as distinct from
C. atra, Wied., of which C. funeraria and C. biguttata of Gory and
Percheron are varieties.
CLINTERIA HOFFMEISTERI.
This very beautiful and distinct species was described in the
‘Annals and Mag. of Nat. History,’ vol. xx. p. 341.
Mr. A. White ov some Coleopterous Insects. 483
Scu1zoruiIna Bassi.
Described in the ‘Annals and Mag. of Nat. History’ (vol. xx:
p: 264). The genus Bassia was not named after Mr. G. Bass.
ScuizoruHina (Hemrpuaris?) Emit.
S. (H.?) nitida, subgracilis, subparallela, eneo-viridis, thoracis
linea laterali, maculisque duabus postice aurantiacis (aliquando
subobsoletis), elytrisque singulis lineatim punctatis, aurantiaco
maculatis aut plagiatis.
Animalculum hoc pulchrum, Febr. 2ndo, a.p. 1856, die nat. de-
scriptum, Emilie Jalland, filiee fratris mei, dicatum est.
Head rather closely punctured, very slightly notched in front,
above distinctly punctured. Thorax indistinctly punctured, except
before the hind angles, shaped much as in H. insularis, of a highly
polished but obscure brassy green, thickened margin of thorax in
front yellow, the yellow continuous (beyond the middle of the edge)’
on the.imner side; thorax on each side with a narrow irregularly-
edged yellow line, almost parallel with the edge, and truncated and
somewhat dilated behind ; before the posterior thoracic lobe are two
small triangular yellowspots. Scutellum yellow; margins, especially
at the apex, green ; each elytron is irregularly margined with yellow
on the sides at the base, and there are six to eight irregular yellow
marks, one before the apex somewhat transverse ; sides of meso- and
metathorax yellow; sides of abdomen with three yellow spots;
pygidium with two yellow marks nearly covering it, and divided by a
pear-shaped green spot, or green extended so as to leave only four
small yellow spots ; tibiz and tarsi tinted with purplish; base of
anterior femora and coxze rufous. ‘This species quite connects the
subgenera Hemipharis and Diaphonia, and shows the accuracy of the
views of that learned entomologist Dr. Schaum. The two specimens
are females, and have short lamellee to the antenne.
- Hab. New Hebrides (Aneiteum). Collected by Mr. John Mac-
gillivray, the able naturalist to H.M.S. ‘ Herald.’
ScuHizorHina (HemrpnHartis) Ip.
S. (1.) grandis, fusculo-nigra, capitis vertice, thorace supra, elytris
a bast usque ultra medium, pygidio, mesothoracis lateribus, meta-
thorace femoribus posticis infra flavescenti-brunnets.
S. (H.) Brownii valde affinis et forsan varietas geographica. Di-
catur Idee Pfeiffer, viatricis celeberrimee quee in Ceram speciem hance
pulchram invenit. .
CrTONIA (PROTATIA) PROCERA, 0. 8.
C.(P.) supra viridi-subsericea, poroso-punctata, albido paululum
submaculata in elytris presertim, elytris apice spinoso-pro-
ductis; subtus lete metallico-viridis, abdomine plagis 16 albo-
pilosis, in quatuor ordinibus disposiiis.
In size between P. ferruginea and P. regalis; above, including
upper side of legs, it is of a fine dull, dark velvety green, which,.
when rubbed, displays beneath a metallic base, as sa of the
484 | Zoological Society :—
Cetoniade, such as Goliathus torquatus ; the edges of the nasus are
metallic. The head and thorax above are thickly and distinctly
poroso-punctate ; there is an indication of a yellowish-white dot near.
each front angle of the thorax (which dot may vary in size in other
specimens) ; the elytra have four dots passing into short transverse
streaks on each side, and a small spot near the suture, about the
middle, and a short white streak midway between the middle and the
spine; three dots between that and the spine, which is longer and
much more distinct than on the sides of elytra, transversely pitted in
many shallow short waves; general surface punctured, the punctures
chiefly in strize. Head small, slightly ridged on sides in front of eyes, |
slightly narrower in front, and rather deeply grooved behind front
margin. Under side and legs metallic green ; femora and mesothorax
acuducted, the latter with two or three patches of isabella pile ; abdo-
men irregularly punctured, smooth, with eight transverse patches of
isabella pile on each side in double columns. Hairs on tibie rufous ;
fore edge of front tibize and tarsi of all the legs metallic green.
Hab. Philippine Islands. (Coll. Cuming.)
This is alluded to in Dr. Schaum’s second list of Cetoniade, and
is quoted under the above name.
Cetronia (Prot#tia) ScHAUMII.
Supra obscure viridis, subtus lete metallico-viridis, capite fluvo
trilineato, linea media latiore, thoracis marginibus anticis late-
ralibusque flavis, plaga transversa subheraldice postica flava,
scutello flavo apice excepto viridi; elytris flavo irregulariter
transverse trifasciatis, elytris singulis medio longitudinaliter
sub-bicarinatis, et 9-11-punctato-lineatis, pedibus flavis, extus
et apice articulorum subviridibus, tarsis obscure viridi-fuscis,
abdominis lateribus subtus punctatis, segmentis quatuor late-—
ribus flavo-marginatis ; uropygio favo triangulariter biplagiato
elytris apice suturali acuminato, sterno antice flavo producto.
Hab. Celebes (Madame Ida Pfeiffer).
Head semicircularly cut in front, the margins trending inwards.
Seems really to connect Pachnoda with Protetia.
Named in compliment to Dr. Schaum, whose name and abilities
require only to be mentioned when Coleoptera are described.
On a New Species or Pigeon.
By G. R. Gray, F.L.S. & Z.8., ere.
As I believe the members of the Society take some interest in
those birds which have passed a portion of their existence in the
Gardens, I am induced to place before them a Pigeon, which I have
every reason to suppose has remained hitherto undescribed. It be-
longs to the same division as the Garnet-winged Pigeon of Latham
(Columba erythroptera, Gm.), which has been placed in Dr. Reich-
enbach’s subgenus Phlegenas by H. H. Prince Bonaparte; but I
think that, considering the numerous divisions that have been
Mr. G. R. Gray on a new species of Pigeon. 485
formed in this class of birds, it might with equal propriety be divided
from it.
I am led to consider that there exists some slight confusion in the
description of the Columba erythroptera, which is stated by Latham
(in his History, viii. p. 71) to come from the Isle of Eimeo, which
he describes as having the “belly and vent black ;” but I think that
this is a mistake, as I find amongst Ellis’s drawings, made during
the voyage of the great circumnavigator Cook in the year 1777-79,
a representation of a Garnet-winged Pigeon that was found on “York
Isle or Eimao,”’ having those parts pure white, and that it even
extends to the end of the under tail-coverts and on the thighs.
Latham has further noticed two varieties; viz. that which forms
his var. A. is from Otaheite, and the description was taken from the
drawing of Forster, who also accompanied the same celebrated
voyager during the years 1772-74, which exhibits the belly and
vent as “dusky.”’ Forster had applied the name of C. /eucophrys to
this bird, under which name the description will be found in his
‘ Descriptiones Animalium, &c.,’ edited by Professor Lichtenstein, at
p- 168; while the variety B. is stated to be from the island of Tanna,
and is recorded as having a “reddish black”’ belly (the same colour
as the back). ;
From these notices, there appear to be at least two, if not three
species of Garnet-winged Pigeons; and may not they, like the Péi-
lonopt, be peculiar to the different groups of islands of the South
Pacific Ocean? This, however, cannot be at present satisfactorily
determined, from want of specimens from the different localities, but
I have ventured to draw attention to these differences, that it may lead
to a further elucidation when an opportunity offers.
I may add, however, that M. Temminck, in his work on Pigeons
(t. 55), figures one that may probably come near to variety B. of
Latham, but he describes the belly black with purple reflexions.
The British Museum contains two specimens from Bow Island,
which approach in some measure to the variety A. of Latham, but
the belly is of a dusky greyish black.
The one now exhibited is quite different from those referred to ;
it may be described in the following terms, with the name of
Cat@nas (PHLEG@NAs) STAIRI.
Glossy brown, with coppery reflexions in some lights; top of head
and back of neck dark slate, glossy with green; front, side of neck
and breast pale vinaceous brown; throat and a gorget round the
breast white, which latter is margined outerly with dark garnet
colour; abdomen vinaceous brown, dusky on the sides ; quills dusky
black, slightly margined with rufous; tail brown, with a broad band
of black at the end. Bill black and feet pale. ~
The specimen is marked as a male, and I suppose was brought
from the Samoan or Navigators’ Islands, as the British Museum
was preéviously in possession of a skin given by the Rev. J. Stair as
from that locality, with other interesting birds.
486 | Royal Society :—
On a New Species or Lerpiporprerovus Insect.
By G. R. Gray, F.L.S. & Z.S8., ere.
Among the various novelties sent home during the voyages of
H.M.SS. ‘ Rattlesnake’ and ‘Herald’ by Mr. Macgillivray, is the
splendid Butterfly now laid before the Society. It belongs to the
great genus Papilio and to the subdivision Ornithoptera, and like
the other known species of that group, its flight is very elevated; so
much so, that it became necessary to employ powder and shot to
secure the specimen; many shots have perforated the wings, and
have rather damaged the specimen, but still not so as to entirely
destroy the beauty of this remarkable butterfly. No lepidopterous
insect of its magnitude has hitherto been known from the locality of
this species; which, from the other insects contained in the same
box, is supposed (as no memorandum was sent with it) to be either
Solomon Islands, Aneiteum, New Hebrides, or the Fiji group,—at any
rate from one of the islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
The general colour is glossy bronze-black, with the two outer rows
of irregular-sized spots of pure white, while those at the base of the
fore wings are rich king-yellow, but partly pure white outerly ; the
seg margin of the secondary wings narrowly bordered with king-
yellow.
The under surface like the upper; but the anterior margin of the
secondary wings broadly bordered, and some of the spots tinged,
with rich king-yellow. The head and thorax pure black ; the body
ochraceous yellow above, and black along the middle beneath.
{tis a female. The male remains at present unknown, but one
may suppose, by the usual brilliancy of the males of this group to
which it belongs, that it is likely to prove a most beautiful insect,
exhibiting some gorgeous combination of colour.
The name I propose for this splendid insect is Papilio (Ornitho-
ptera) Victoria.
ROYAL SOCIETY.
Dec. 13, 1855.—Colonel Sabine, R.A., Treas. and V.P., in the Chair.
«On the Structure and Development of the Cysticercus cellulose,
as found in the Pig.’’ By George Rainey, Esq.
The Cysticercus cellulose, in its mature state, consists of two
parts: one a small oval cyst, composed of a very thin membrane,
rendered uneven on its external surface by minute rounded projec-
tions, and containing in its interior, granular matter, particles of
oil, and a colourless fluid. This may be called its ventral portion.
The other is folded inwards, occupying the centre of the cyst just
described; but by pressure it may be made to protrude. This part
is sometimes called the neck. Its length varies very much in dif-
ferent Cysticerci, depending upon their age. It is hollow, having
strong membranous parietes, wrinkled transversely, and composed
both of circular and longitudinal fibres. The cavity has no visible
communication with that of the ventral portion. It contains a
Mr. Rainey on the Structure of the Cysticercus cellulose. 487
multitude of small oval laminated calcareous bodies, which, when
acted upon by acids, effervesce briskly, and become partially dis-
solved, leaving only a small residue of animal matter. When the
neck is protruded, the extremity farthest from the cyst is seen to
present an enlargement, sometimes called the head, on the free
surface of which there is a quadrangular area, occupied by
four circular disks and a ring of hooklets. Each angle contains a
disk, and the hooklets are placed in a circle around the centre of
this space. The suctorial disks are traversed each by a passage
taking rather a spiral course, and terminating in the cavity of the
neck. The membrane composing a disk presents two orders of
fibres, circular and radiating. The hooklets are generally twenty-
six in number, thirteen long and as many short, arranged alter-
nately a long and a short one. Each consists of a curved portion
like a bird’s claw, and a straight portion or handle; and at the
junction of these two parts there are tubercles, two in the short
hooklets, and only one in the long ones. The hooklets are crossed
by two zones of circular fibres. They are also connected by
radiating fibres, which occupy the spaces between each adjacent
pair, like the interosseous muscles situated between the metacarpal
bones and phalanges. The hooklets are disposed like radii, with
their points turned outwards and the extremities of their handles
inwards, which, not meeting, circumscribe a circular space whose
centre corresponds to that. of the quadrangular area before men-
tioned. At this part there is no perforation answering to an oral
orifice, but here the membrane is simply depressed so as to present
a conical hollow. By pressure upon the neck, this membrane can
be made to protrude in the form of a tongue-like process, to which
the handles of all the hooklets are connected, so that when this
part in the living animal is made to move, the handles of the hook-
lets will be drawn in with it, and their points carried from the
entozoon, and thus made to penetrate the part to which it attaches
itself. ‘These entozoa are chiefly found in the cellular intervals
between the muscular fibres, contained in an adventitious cyst
formed by the condensation of the surrounding tissues. No more
than one entozoon is ever met with in one cyst.
Development of the Cysticercus cellulose.
The earliest appearance of the incipient stage of the Cysticercus
cellulose is a fusiform collection of small cells and molecules in the
substanee of a primary muscular fasciculus, or immediately beneath
its sarcolemma. ‘These cells, in this condition of the entozoon,
have only an imperfect or partial covering; however, they soon
become completely enclosed in a well-defined membrane which is
at first homogeneous, but which afterwards sends out short,
slender, projecting fibres, resembling short hairs or cilia. These
hair-like fibres, though resembling in some respects cilia, differ
from them in being much less sharply defined and less pointed ;
however, for convenience sake, I shall speak of them as cilia.
Their direction is remarkable. At either extremity of the fusiform
488 Royal Society :—
animal they are reflected backwards at a very acute angle, like the
barbs of a feather, their direction being of course opposite at the
two ends. They become less and less inclined as they approach the
middle of the body, where they stand out at right angles to the sur-
face. The apparatus of cilia-like processes above described is evi-
dently designed to give to the entozoon, whilst in this stage of its
existence, the power of penetrating between the ultimate muscular
fibrille, and thus to enable it to force its way from the interior of a
primary fasciculus into the spaces between the muscular fibres. This
will be the effect of the friction of the fibrille against the cilia, which
will allow of motion in one direction only. And as its two. ends
must move in opposite directions, the cilia will also serve to aid the
entozoon in its development longitudinally. That such is their
office will be apparent on examining a sufficient number of speci-
mens; in some of which the primary fasciculi will be seen to have
been completely split up by these animals. But the correctness of
this inference is more strikingly proved by the influence which the
size and arrangement of the primary bundles of muscular fibres
have upon the form and dimensions of the entozoa. Thus in the
muscular parietes of the heart, where the primary fasciculi are smaller,
and, from their frequent interlacing, shorter than in other parts, the
Cysticerci are, in this stage of their development, also very short and
of a different form to those found in other muscles, composed of
striped fibre, although in other respects perfectly similar; and, when
completely formed, those taken from the heart cannot be distinguished
from those formed in other muscles. The cells which have been
alluded to as forming the principal part of the Cyséicercus thus far
developed, and contained in the investment first described, are all of
the same character, differing only in their form and size, according to
their age and situation. ‘Those situated about the centre, and form-
ing the chief part of its bulk, are collected together into rounded
masses, giving to many of the animalcules an obscurely annulose
appearance. They are of an elliptical, or rather reniform figure.
‘This form, however, is not essential to these cells, but merely re-
sults from the circular shape of the masses into which they enter,
the convexity of each cell being a part of the outline of its
respective mass. ‘These cells contain minute granules, or rather
molecules, which are variously disposed in different cells, so as to
present a variety of appearances, such as circular spaces, which
might be mistaken for nuclei, but which seem rather to be pro-
duced by a deficiency of the cell’s contents at these parts, than by
any distinct nucleus. ‘The mode of formation of these cells must be
examined in the growing parts of the animal, and for this purpose its
extreme ends are best adapted. When one of these ends is about
to have an addition made to its length, the investing membrane
at this part becomes at first very thin, and then disappears. A
clear space is next seen, having in some specimens the form of the
part which is about to be added to the extremity of the entozoon ;
in others it has no defined limit. This space contains, in some
cases, nothing but extremely minute molecules, of different
Mr. Rainey on the Structure of the Cysticercus cellulose. 489
shapes; ‘in others, these molecules are mixed with granules of
various sizes, which have every appearance of having been pro-
duced by the coalescence of the molecules; and lastly, with these
molecules and granules, there are in other examples very distinct
globular cells, of a bright aspect, looking more like nuclei than
perfect cells; these soon become flattened oval, and ultimately take
the elliptical form before described. All the time these changes are
taking place in the molecules and cells, the membrane has been in
progress of formation, so that when the molecules have disappeared,
and their place has become occupied by perfect cells, the end of the
animal is completed. . The cilia are soon afterwards added. The
lateral growth of these animals takes place in the same manner: the
first indication is a separation of the cilia, which, it must be observed,
are larger at the sides of an entozoon than at the extreme ends;
and then a thinning of the membrane supporting them ; and, lastly,
the formation of globular cells, as before noticed. After the animals
have become of a considerable size, and forced their way from the
interior of the primary fasciculi into the cellular spaces between
the larger muscular fibres, they still continue to grow, especially
in breadth; but they lose their cilia, and gradually acquire those
parts which have been described as belonging to the neck. The
first evidence of this addition is the appearance of inversion of the
middle part of the cyst, forming a small hollow, the sides of which
look as if thrown into folds containing granular matter, and the —
bottom presents a circular space in which are granular particles of
various forms and sizes, but those in the centre are darker than the
rest. It is from these particles that the suctorial disks, the hook-
lets, and the first of the laminated bodies are about to be formed,
but as yet none of these parts are recognizable. At a stage a little
more advanced, this apparent inversion of the cyst has increased,
the neck has become longer, and the appearance of disks, hook-
lets, and*laminated bodies is sufficiently distinct to be perfectly
recognizable. The process of development is particularly apparent in
the hooklets, and perhaps there is no other instance of the growth of
an animal tissue which presents such facilities for the examination
of the manner in which it is effected. First, because the part of
the entozoon on which these organs are formed, is sufficiently trans-
parent to admit of examination by the highest magnifying powers
without any previous dissection. Secondly, because the material
of which they are composed is so characteristic, and so dissimilar
to the surrounding parts, that it can be detected in the minutest
possible quantities. And, thirdly, as only a few of these hooklets
are in progress of development at one time, and as these are in all
stages of formation, every step in the progress of their growth can
be traced from the merest molecule to a perfect hooklet. This is
important in reference to the general theory of development, as it
furnishes an example of the formation of a complete set of organs,
on a plan more simple, and at variance with the cell-theory of
Schwann and others. - Before one of these hooklets takes on a
recognizable form, it exists as a group of exceedingly refractive
490 Muito Royal Society :—
particles, all apparently of the same composition, and of a more or
less globular form, but of very different sizes, some being so minute
as. scarcely. to be visible by one-eighth of an inch lens, others
being almost as large as the handle of a perfect hooklet, while
the rest are of all dimensions between these extremes. The next
condition of a hooklet is the apparent fusion or coalescence of
some of these particles into the hooked part of the organ. Then
the handle and tubercles are added, these having been previously
formed by the fusion of the smaller particles, and these latter by
the coalescence of the minutest and the minuter ones. Before
the several parts are perfectly consolidated, their points of junction
can be distinguished, and in other groups the fragments corre-
sponding to those recently united can be recognized. Directly a
hooklet is found, it is of its full dimension; and some of its parts
are even larger and more clumsy-looking than in older hooklets.
The substance of the particles entering into these organs, after
they are once formed, undergoes no change in its microscopical
characters, but is the same after as before their union. It is im-
possible to single out any one particle from the rest, which can he
taken for the nucleus of a cell, or for what physiologists would call
a nucleated cell; and thus there is nothing which indicates that
these organs have been formed by transformation of previously ex-
isting cells, but, on the contrary, there is every appearance that
their formation is due to the simple coalescence of homogeneous
molecules.
Up to the present point, the facts which I have stated are so
obvious, that their accuracy will, I think, not be questioned; also
the interpretation of them is not only that which appears to
me the most natural, but is almost self-evident. ‘There remain,
however, some considerations of a more theoretical kind, though
not of less importance. It will be asked, how the entozoon, in its
earliest condition, such as I have described it, finds access to the
interior of a primary fasciculus. Before attempting to answer this
question, I must observe that my description commences from a
condition of this entuzoon so complete, that no one, on examining
it in this state with the microscope, will deny its perfect similarity
to those of the higher form. But there are other links in the chain
which I must now consider, and which so far have been omitted
only because I wished to keep that which is certain distinct from
that which is probable. Before the cells and molecules already
described accumulate in sufficient quantity to present the undoubted
character above mentioned, they are found aggregated in smaller
groups, and even occurring individually in all the primary fasciculi
of the diseased muscle; their quantity, and the size and form of
these groups, present the greatest possible irregularity in the dif-
ferent fasciculi. In some the molecular deposit looks like an early
stage of fatty degeneration, but it has characters very different ;
one is the shape of the molecules, which resemble in all respects
those in the growing ends of an entozoon; and another is, their
situation, which seems to be between the primary fibrille, tending
Mr. Rainey on the Structure of the Cysticercus cellulose. 491
to separate them longitudinally; however that may be, it is an
abnormal condition, and always coexistent with the higher forms of
the Cysticercus; and as the entozoon, as I have first described it,
could not possibly have taken on that form all at once, these groups
of molecules must therefore be looked upon as its antecedent stage,
or as portions of Cysticerci in progress of development. But I also
find in the specimens of muscle infested with these entozoa, many
of the capillaries and smaller blood-vessels filled with organic mole-
cules, which, so far as I am able to judge from the comparison of
such extremely minute bodies, seem to resemble those molecules
which are found in the primary fasciculi. ‘The vessels filled with
these molecules have their coats so thin as to be inappreciable, and
some of the capillaries appear to be partially destroyed, and their
molecular contents diffused among the sarcous elements. As this
is an abnormal condition of the contents of these vessels, as well as
of their coats, and, so far as my experience goes, is not found ex-
cepting in conjunction with the earliest stages of the Cysticerci, I
am inclined to believe that the molecules in question are the same
as those in the primary fasciculi, and that it is by their coalescence
in these fasciculi that the formation-cells of the Cysticerci are
formed. |
Addendum, Dec. 6.—After an entozoon has left the interior of a
primary fasciculus, and arrived at the space between the muscular
fibres, it loses its ciliated investment, and increases in breadth. Its
margin now seems to be formed entirely by the convexities of
the globular masses of cells of which its body appears to be made
up, causing it to present a crenate form similar to that of the ven-
tral portion of the perfect animalcule, with this difference only,
that these cells are compressed. ‘The next change which is visible
is the formation of folds, which become more perceptible as the
animal increases in breadth, and which remain in the perfect
entozoon so long as it is confined to a small space, but dis-
appear when it gets to the space between the surface of a muscle
and the fascia covering it. The unfolding in this last situation
seems to be produced by the imbibition of fluid, and the consequent
distension of the ventral part. ‘These more advanced stages of the
worm-form are best found in those specimens of diseased muscle
in which the perfectly developed Cysticerci abound. ‘Their number
in proportion to that of the perfect animalcules varies considerably
in different specimens.
I have always succeeded in finding some of those of the worm-
form along with the perfectly developed ones; and in some cases
there are as’ many of one kind as the other. After they have
acquired a certain breadth—about one-twelfth, or the one-eighth of
an inch,—the central part of the cyst appears to be drawn inwards,
forming a hollow; at the bottom of which, the granular material
- is deposited from which the suckers, hooklets, and calcareous
granules are formed, as above described.
4.92 Miscellaneous.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Observations on the Structure of the Retina in certain Animals.
By H. Miurer.
I HAVE shown in my work upon the Retina, that this part furnishes
microscopic characters which may be employed in the systematic
distribution of vertebrated animals, to such an extent, that it is often
possible to determine the class, the order, and even the genus of an
animal from a small fragment of its retina.
In general the more marked the systematic characters are in the
different divisions of a class of Vertebrata, the more do we observe
variations in the microscopic characters of the retina. The retina of
the Sturgeon presents one of the most remarkable examples of this.
In a recent examination I found that the layer of batons in this fish
is constituted in accordance with a type foreign to the other Fishes, a
type which occurs moreover in the class of Birds. There are two
elements, the cones and the batons. The latter are truncated ex-
ternally, whilst the internal part passes into a conical point. The
fatty drops, which have been mentioned by other observers, do not
belong to the batons but to the cones, which I had formerly suspected,
and as may be seen in my work above referred to. The cones are com-
posed of an internal thicker, and an external thinner part, as in Birds.
At the extremity of the former part is the fatty drop, which, except
in its.less brilliant colour, exactly resembles those which are found in
the cones of Birds. We do not at present know any other Fish, of
which the retina exhibits this arrangement of cones and batons,
exactly similar to that of Birds. But on the one hand it is very re-
markable that this type of the retina, proper to Birds, also occurs in
certain Reptiles, namely the Tortoises, which, themselves, in this
respect differ widely from the other sections of the Reptiles. On the
other hand, I may remark, that, amongst Fishes, it is exactly in the
orders which also possess the most peculiar characters, that we find the
most distinct variations in the elements of the retina. In the Sturgeons
the layer of cones and batons is constituted in accordance with the
type of Birds; in the Cyclostoma, as appears from my previous re-
searches, there are only simple cones, without batons; in the Pla-
giostoma, on the contrary, I have only found batons and no cones.
In the class of Reptiles, we also find very important differences between
the Batrachia, the Sauria, and the Tortoises, whilst in the Birds and
Mammalia there is a greater uniformity in the general type of the
elements referred to, and only slighter modifications.
Another remarkable point is the presence of nervous fibres with
double outlines in the retina in certain animals. It is well known
that in the eye of the Rabbit. there is a beautiful white radiation
especially on the two sides of the entrance of the optic nerve, and
many observers have remarked, that fibres are sometimes found else-
where which contain a kind of medulla. But, besides the Rabbits,
there are many animals in which the optic fibres present a medulla
with dark outlines, in a very marked degree.
I have found that in the Sturgeon, the optic fibres which extend
Miscellaneous. 493
in a very elegant manner in the form of a double comb, possess very
strong outlines in a great part of the retina. The retina of the
Plagiostoma also, both Sharks and Rays, contains fibres of a breadth
-of as much as 0°01 mill., which exhibit all the characters of the
varicose fibres with double outlines which occur in the nervous centres.
Lastly, I have observed that in the eyes of many Dogs, the optic
nerve is still white at its entrance into the eye, and that it is only in
the retina that the nervous fibres become pale and transparent. But
the change takes place very soon after the entrance of the optic nerve,
whilst in the fishes just mentioned, the fibres with double outlines
extend over a great part of the retina, and only pass by degrees
to the aspect of the pale fibres. In a physiological point of
view it is remarkable that in the Fishes of which I am speaking,
notwithstanding the double outlines of the nervous fibres, the retina
appears to be tolerably transparent during life, whilst in the Rabbits
and Dogs it is opaque and white, in the whole extent of the fibres
with double outlines. In the former case the influence upon the
sight does not appear to be important, but in the latter the perception
of light must be hindered or disturbed as far as this peculiarity of
the fibres extends ; and the ophthalmoscopic effect of the bottom of
the eye, and especially of the entrance of the optic nerve, must present
remarkable modifications in all the animals in which a state similar
to that which has long been known in the Rabbit exists.—Comptes
Rendus, Oct. 20, 1856, p. 743.
Remarks on Nika edulis, Risso. By Witu1am THompson.
The possession of a healthy specimen of Nika edulis has enabled
me to offer the following remarks, which, I trust, may add some-
thing new to what is already known of this species. .
The first specimen I obtained by dredging on the 2nd July, 1853.
I find by my notes, which were made at the time, that it was a
female, and in spawn; the ova were darkish green, the animal itself
was of a cream colour, and spotted with red dots; the spots were
of different sizes, perfectly round, and rather thickly and regularly
placed. This specimen was dead before I examined it, and this will
account for the difference of colour as contrasted with the specimen,
the more immediate subject of the present paper. I had previously
obtained one specimen, and a third specimen, also in spawn, was
brought to me on the 20th July, 1855; the ova were bright green,
and the animal of a cream colour. This specimen was dead when
examined.
The subject of the present paper was brought to me alive by my
dredger on the 21st February in this year, and lived three weeks.
It was dredged in Weymouth Bay, near the mouth of the harbour.
The colour in this living specimen was very different from that of
the dead specimens I had previously obtained. When first brought to
me, the whole animal was a light greenish-drab, irregularly and thinly
sprinkled with pure white stars; the carapace and covering of the
abdomen were alike transparent, and the intestines could be easily
49 4, Miscellaneous.
seen beneath. I could also detect the breathing apparatus placed on
each side at the back of the mouth; the movement was similar to
that of a long rope when gently waved at oneend. After a few days’
confinement it changed colour : five or six broadish bands of a lovel
rose colour appeared, the bands of colour being restricted to the back
portion of each segment of the body; the tail also changed to the
same rosy hue, but in the course of two or three days the animal again
assumed its original colour. I have noticed this change of colour in
many of the Palemonide and Crangonide, and I believe it to arise
from the transparency of the cuticle enabling any change in the body
itself to be seen through it, and that the change of colouring of the
body is occasioned by fear or some instinct. In all the specimens of
Nika I have obtained the shell is soft as in a new-moulted Prawn, and
in piercing them with a fine pin for preserving, the shell bends before
it. Is this of any value as a generic character? M. Milne-Edwards
says they resemble dthanas “in possessing but a small rostrum ;”
they also resemble them in their mode of locomotion, as they then
carry the external pedipalps and first pair of feet extended before.
them in a line with their body; their movements are also slow and:
deliberate, and they appear to progress by walking and not by
swimming; when alarmed they shoot backwards by striking forward
with their tail, as is the habit of all the long-tailed Crustaceans.
I now proceed. to lay before you the information I have obtained
as to its habits.
I may assert that Nika is essentially a burrowing genus. I was
not prepared to find it so, as I considered its slender limbs and its
prominent eyes but ill-adapted for the pirpose ; however, we live
and learn, and I have learned that practice is far better than theory;
had I relied on the latter I should have insisted that Nika edulis was
not a burrower.
. In accordance with a plan which I have formed of attempting to
study the habits of any of our rarer marine animals I may have the
good fortune to meet with, I placed my prisoner in a vase with a
few weeds and some pebbles, that being the nature of the ground on
which it was dredged; I left it in this vessel for two days, and found
out it was not at home, and, in fact, that a pebbly bottom was not
its choice. I therefore removed it to a large earthenware pan in
which I had previously placed a few weeds, having filled it also to
the depth of three inches with coarse gravel; I then left it for an
hour, and on examining the vessel I could not find my friend; I
searched on the table, thinking it might have thrown itself out, but
it was without success ; I turned over the stones and weeds, and with
the like result. I then commenced turning over the gravel, and at
last found that Nika edulis was a burrowing Crustacean. I accord-
ingly transferred it for facility of observation to a vase, and placing
in it the same material, namely, the coarse gravel and weeds, in this
gravel it buried itself three several times. Burrowing in this loose
material was evidently a difficult matter; it required great patience
and perseverance to overcome the difficulty occasioned by the loose
gravel constantly falling in on the excavator: it took the animal ten
Miscellaneous. | 495
minutes to burrow to about the depth of three parts of its length.
I afterwards transferred it to a vase with sand to the depth of three
or four inches at the bottom; in this it quickly disappeared, three
minutes sufficing to completely cover itself. In this vase it was that
I made the following observations on it. |
Its mode of mining is extraordinary: lying at the bottom of the
vase, it commenced proceedings by probing the sand around with its
third pair of feet, and inserting them to some depth in it; when it
found a spot suited for the purpose, that is, free from any large
stones, it at once commenced excavating. These operations were
carried out by the external pedipalps, which are very long and
strong, and also by the first, third and fourth pairs of legs; the
second pair of legs, as may be supposed, are for this purpose per-
fectly useless: they are as much as possible placed out of the way,
being bent up snugly with the hand turned backwards: the only
motion I could detect was a nervous action in the moveable finger,
constantly attempting to clutch objects, but not seizing anything.
The fifth pair of feet have a simple though useful office assigned
them: it is to support the body in the proper position until the
burrowing has progressed sufficiently to enable the burrower to do
without their support; they are then immediately called into more
active employment, and assist in the work of excavation. The spot
for burrowing having been selected, the little animal steadies its
body by means of its fifth pair of legs, and this allows the greatest
freedom of action to. the body. The pedipalps perform a prominent
part in the burrowing; the nail on the last joint is curved slightly
forward, and the advantage of this is clearly seen, as in digging, the
pedipalps are forced into the sand or shingle, and are thus forced
forward and outwards, and they prevent the side of the burrow from
falling in; the third and fourth pairs of feet are in constant motion,
probing the sand and loosening it, thus lightening the labour for the
pedipalps ; all these movements take place very regularly and at the
same time. A small hollow having been made, the animal raises its
body by means of its fifth pair of legs to nearly a right angle with
the bottom; its eyes, which are very large and carried at right angles
with the body, are thus suddenly thrown forward with a spring in a
line with the rostrum, and the hollow is surveyed; should it not be
of a sufficient depth the body is again lowered and the burrowing
continues, the eyes resuming their original position; when the hole
is sufficiently deepened, the eyes are again brought forward, the
antennee are thrown back in a line with the body, and the animal
forces its head in the hole it has made; this is facilitated by the
body being gradually raised by means of the fifth pair of legs ; the
head being inserted, the burrowing continues with increased energy,
and the animal assumes the position as in photograph No. 2; this
view shows the sand which has been thrown up accumulated in a
heap under the body.
I have occasionally found it continue in this position, but gene-
rally it burrows perpendicularly, until only the tips of the antennee:
are visible. fat resient roy sai
496 Miscellaneous.
I placed my captive in a glass vase, and his having selected the side
of the glass for burrowing (probably from the glass forming one firm
side to the work), enabled me to watch every movement; the sand
appeared to be passed to the mouth of the hole by the legs and false
legs, when it filled round the body and filled in as the animal passed
downwards. The antennze are delicately sensitive. I believe this
sensitiveness depends on the sense of touch: the slightest contact
with them sets the animal in motion (and this when it is buried
some depth), using every exertion to burrow deeper. It is evidently
a night-feeding genus, as it remained buried and inactive during the
day, but the state of the sand in the tank in the morning proved
that it had not been idle during the night.
From these facts I am justified in stating that Nika edulis is a
burrowing species (if not of a burrowing genus), and that its bur-
rowing is only by day to hide itself from its enemies, and not to
procure food.
The description I have given of the colouring of this species will
be found to be different from that given by Risso, as stated by Mr.
Milne-Edwards. I should have great diffidence in differing from
these eminent naturalists had I not imagined that their descriptions
might have been taken from cabinet specimens. Had I waited to
describe my specimen until after its death, I must have described it
as it now is, namely, flesh-red ; I find all the thinner-shelled Crus-
tacea change more or less of a flesh-red, with the exception of the
Crangonide.—Proc. Zool. Soc., April 22, 1856.
NAUCRATES DUCTOR.
To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.
Falmouth, November 1, 1856.
- GENTLEMEN,—A shoal of the Naucrates ductor, Cuv., made its
appearance in shallow water, Custom House Pier, on Friday afternoon,
Oct. 31, 1856, and more than three dozen of them were caught in
nets, baskets, &c., by persons on the beach. I have procured species
of this interesting fish every year during my residence in this neigh-
bourhood.
I am, Gentlemen, yours truly,
W. P. Cocks.
On Peculiar and Quasi-spontaneous Movements of the Plasmatic
Cells of certain Animals. By Prof. KoLuiKer.
I have just observed at Nice, upon a fine animal of the family of
the compound Ascidians, which according to M. Milne-Edwards has
not yet been described, a very peculiar fact, namely, movements of
the cells which occur in great number in the gelatinous substance
common to the whole bunch and formed of cellulose. These cells,
which are round or stellate and of very various forms, have, in the
living animal, a slow, but easily perceptible movement, consisting in
a constant change of form, so that the same cell, which was at one,
time round, becomes stellate or fusiform in different degrees, by the
Miscellaneous. 497
formation of two or several prolongations, often very long and even
branched, returning subsequently to the round form which it had at
the commencement. This movement, which is constantly observed
in all these cells, although slow, is nevertheless pretty strong, and I
have even several times observed cells which changed their position
by the formation of processes, the whole presenting a considerable
resemblance to the movement of an Actinophrys or Ameba. As in
these animals, the contents of the cells also took part in the move-
ment, and it was easy to see that these granulations passed sometimes
into the processes, returning afterwards into the body of the cells, so
that the change of form of the cells is accompanied by a movement
of all the parts of which they consist, which may probably be inti-
mately connected with the chemical and vital phzenomena which are
accomplished in these cells as well as in all the others.
Having observed these movements, it occurred to me that it was
possible that many stellate cells exhibited similar movements, espe-
cially as something of the same kind has already been seen in the
pigmentary cells of the Frog, and I set myself to examine the plasmatic
cells or corpuscles of the conjunctive tissue. As these observations
were made during the last days of my stay at Nice, I cannot give
them the extent which I desired ; however, I was fortunate enough
to see that the plasmatic cells of the gelatinous conjunctive tissue of
the head of the Torpedo, and the stellate cells of the gelatinous sub-
stance of the body of Cassiopeia borbonica, also exhibit movements
similar to those which I have just described, and I do not doubt that
it will be found that this phenomenon has a considerable extent,
and even some physiological importance.—Comptes Rendus, Oct. 27,
1856, p. 794.
Description of a New Species of Actinia from the Devonshire Coast.
By E. W. H. Hotpsworru.
When contracted, the body forms a rounded button about } of an
inch in diameter, but in full expansion it is generally elongated to
the extent of 21 inches, and terminates in a somewhat cup-shaped
disk about 13 inch wide, and having its extended edges frequently
thrown into irregular festoons. The tentacula, about 150 in number,
are arranged in four or five series, as in most of the group to which
this species belongs; the first row contains twenty-five arms, about
half the length of the diameter of the disk, and moderately stout ;
the others gradually diminish in size as they proceed outwards, their
numbers at the same time increasing ; but the irregular manner in
which they are placed renders it difficult to enumerate the contents,
or to determine the limits of any one of the series. The disk is of a
uniform olive-brown without any superficial markings,—the appear-
ance of radiating lines, sometimes visible, being only the upper edges
of the internal septa showing through the transparent skin; the
mouth opens transversely, and displays a regular crenation of its
pink lining membrane. The tentacula are of a reddish purple, and
entirely destitute of rings or other marking; they err a remark-
3
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii.
498 Meteorological Observations.
able contrast to the body of the animal, which at its upper part is of
a dark orange colour, gradually assuming a paler tint towards the
base ; numerous white sucking-pores are disposed over the upper
surface, and afford points of attachment to surrounding substances,
when required to conceal the body ; they also give exit to the con-
voluted filaments, which are abundantly thrown out from them and
the mouth, when the animal is irritated. Its natural haunts appear
to be narrow crevices of rocks, into which it can retire when alarmed,
and I was prevented obtaining many specimens by their having
chosen such inaccessible hollows for their residence. Four or five
examples were, however, procured at extreme low-water mark, from
the very productive rocks outside Dartmouth harbour, and, excepting
in size, presented no points of difference. I propose for this species
the name of vinosa.—Proc. Zool. Soc., June 10, 1856.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR oct. 1856.
Chiswick.—October 1. Exceedingly fine. 2. Cloudy. 3. Cloudy and fine: rain.
4. Rain: cloudy: rain. 5. Rain: cloudy: fine: lightning at night. 6. Foggy:
rain: cloudy. 7. Hazy and drizzly: rain at night. 8. Heavy rain: densely over-
cast. 9. Overcast. 10. Hazy: fine. 11. Heavy rain: uniform haze: slight rain
at night. 12. Foggy: uniform haze. 13. Dense fog: very fine: cloudy. 14.
Foggy : overcast: fine. 15. Rain. 16. Overcast: showery. 17. Fine: overcast :
hazy. 18. Very fine. 19. Dense fog: very fine. 20. Foggy: very fine. 21.
Foggy: exceedingly fine. 22. Very dense fog: exceedingly fine. 23. Foggy:
very fine. 24. Fine. 25. Foggy: heavy clouds: fine. 26. Hoar-frost: hazy:
very fine. 27. Frosty: haze: fine. 28, 29. Very dense fog. 30. Hazy clouds:
overcast: fine. 31. Uniform haze: rain: cloudy.
Mean temperature of the Month .........sscsescesecsseerovescnecs 51°28
Mean temperature Of Oct. 1855 oo... .seceseeeesetececeecerecens 50 °28
Mean temperature of Oct. for the last thirty years ............ 50 00
Average amount Of rain in OCt. — .ssescseessecesceeececessccterens 2°802 inches.
Boston.—Oct. 1,2. Fine. 3. Fine: rainr.m. 4. Raina.m.and p.m. 5. Cloudy.
6. Fine. 7,8. Rain a.m. and p.m. 9—12. Cloudy: rain a.m.and p.m. 13.
Cloudy. 14. Fine. 15. Fine: rain a.m. and p.m. 16. Cloudy: rain p.m. 17.
Fine. 18. Cloudy. 19. Fine. 20,21. Cloudy. 22, 23. Foggy. 24. Fine.
25—28. Cloudy. 29. Foggy. 30,31. Cloudy: rain a.m.
Sandwick Manse, Orkney.—Oct. 1. Bright, fine a.m.: cloudy, fine p.m. 2.
Bright, fine a.m.: drops P.M. 3. Hazy a.M.: drops p.m. 4. Hazy a.M.: drops,
‘showers p.m. 5. Showers a.M.: clear, aurora P.M. 6. Clear, fine, hoar-frost a.m. :
clear, aurora P.M. 7. Clear, fine, hoar-frost a.M.: cloudy p.m. 8. Bright a.m.:
cloudy p.m. 9. Cloudy, fine a.m.: clear p.m. 10. Cloudy, fine a.m. and P.M.
11. Bright, hazy a.m.: cloudy p.m. 12. Clear, fine a.m. and p.m. 13. Bright,
fine A.M.: cloudy p.m. 14. Damp a.m.: clearp.m. 15. Damp A.M.: cloudy P.M.
16. Showers a.m.: drizzlep.m. 17. Cloudy a.m.: rain, clear p.m. 18, Bright a.m.:
drizzle p.m. 19. Bright, fine a.m.: drizzle p.m. 20. Bright, fine a.m.: clear,
aurora P.M. 21. Fog a.m.: cloudy p.m. 22. Cloudy, fine a.m.: showers P.M.
23. Clear, fine A.m.: clear, aurorap.M. 24. Clear, frost, fine a.m.: clear, aurora
p.M. 25. Dampa.m.: raine.m. 26. Drizzle a.m.:dampp.m. 27. Drizzle a.m.
and p.m. 28. Damp a.m.: cloudy p.m. 29. Hazy, fine a.m.: clear p.m. 30.
Cloudy, fine a.m.: cloudy p.m. 31. Cloudy, fine a.m.: clear, fine P.M.
Mean temperature of Oct. for previous twenty-nine years ... 47°57
Mean temperature of this Month ....csecsecccsccercesccterseesees 48 *84
Mean temperature of Oct. 1855 wc cece eececeee eens irehinndtancets 45 72
Average quantity of rain in Oct. for previous sixteen years ... 5°09 inches.
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500
INDEX to VOL. XVIII.
Acuatina, new species of, 96, 434.
oR new British species of, 346,
497.
Agassiz, Prof., on the Cume, 428.
Alder, J., on some new genera and
species of British- hydroid Zoo-
phytes, 353, 439.
Algee, on the sexuality of the, 81, 181.
Alternation of generations, on the,
368. ;
sg pint on the development of,
298.
Amphioxus lanceolatus, on the habits
of, 350.
Anguillule of mildewed wheat, on the
vitality of the, 268.
Animals, on peculiar movements of
the plasmatic cells im certain, 496.
Annelides, on the development of the
branchiferous, 105.
Anthus, new species of, 60.
Arenicola piscatorum, on the develop-
ment of, 105.
Aromochelys, new species of, 266.
Arthoniz, descriptions of new British,
30
or eae observations on the genus,
41
mere on the anatomy of the genus,
101.
Babington’s, C.C., Manual of British
Botany, reviewed, 163.
Bailey, Prof. J. W., on the non-ex-
istence of polarizing silica in the
organic kingdoms, /8; on a new
mode of cleaning diatomaceous de-
posits, 189, 190; on the origin of
greensand, and its formation in
re oceans of the present epoch,
425.
Balfour, Prof., on the flora of the
Cumbrae Islands, 67.
sa S., on the British Diastylide,
187.
Benson, W. H., on Clausilia Mortil-
leti, 74, 424; on new terrestrial
shells from Ceylon, with a general
list of the species inhabiting that
island, 94; on new Indian and
Burmese Helices and Cyclosto-
“macea, 249; on some new land-
shells from the Cape, 433.
Birds, new, 56, 57, 60, 173, 186,
260, 270, 343, 350, 418, 430, 485 ;
of the Himalaya, on the geogra-
phical distribution of the, 166;
attempts at a natural arrangement
of, 193 ; on the affinities and limits
of the scansorial, 207 ; rare British,
430.
Books, new :—Sowerby’s Ferns of
Great Britain and Fern-Allies, 54;
Johnson’s British Poisonous Plants,
ib.; Phillips’s Manual of Geology,
159 ; Gosse’s Tenby, 161; Babing-
ton’s Manual of British Botany,
163; Harvey’s Trees and their
Nature, 165; Kirby and Spence’s
Introduction to Entomology, 258 ;
Chanter’s Ferny Combes, 259;
Bromfield’s Flora Vectensis, 473 ;
7 ap Sylloge Florze Europese,
475.
Botanical Society of Edinburgh, pro-
ceedings of the, 66, 181, 337.
Braun, Prof. A., on the vegetable in-
dividual in its relation to species, —
363.
Buarremon, new species of, 350.
Bucco, new species of, 260.
Bulimus, new species of, 96, 433.
Burgess, Lieut., on the nests and eggs
of the birds of Western India,
175.
Busk, G., on Polyzoa collected on the
coast of Norway and Finmark,
32.
Callitriche hamulata, note on, 429.
INDEX.
Calcenas, new species of, 484.
Campanularia, new British species of,
358.
Cardium exiguum, on the siphons
and byssus of, 257.
Carpenter, Dr., on the Foraminifera,
334,
Carter, H. J., on the freshwater Infu-
soria of the Island of Bombay, 115,
221.
Catops, monograph of the genus, 1,
133, 302, 391, 457.
Catopsimorphus, description of the
new genus, 462.
Catoptrichus, description of the new
genus, 461.
Cattle, aboriginal, of Britain; on the,
61.
Cellepora, on some species of, 32.
Cell-formation, on vegetable, 42.
Cetoniade, descriptions of new, 481.
Ceylonese shells, list of, 94.
Chameza, new species of, 58.
Chelodina, new species of, 267.
Choleva, on the species of, 1.
Clausilia Mortilleti, observations on,
74, 185, 424. ;
Clinteria, new species of, 482.
Cocks, W. P., on Lerneza branchialis,
186; on Amphioxus lanceolatus,
350; on the occurrence of some
rare British birds, 430; on the oc-
currence of Naucrates ductor, 496.
Cohn, Dr. F., on the development
and propagation of Spheroplea an-
nulina, 81; on the sexuality of the
Algee, 181.
Coleoptera, descriptions of new, 1,
133, 302, 457, 475.
Conchology of France, contributions
to the, 471.
Corucia, characters of the new genus,
346
_ Crisp, Dr. E., on some points relating
to the anatomy of Thylacinus and
Lycaon, 177.
Cubina, new species of, 270.
Cume, observations on the, 428.
Cyclas lacustris, note on, 74.
Cyclophorus, new species of, 94.
Cysticereus cellulose, on the struc-
ture and development of, 486.
Davaine, M., on the vitality of the
Anguillule of mildewed wheat, 268.
Defrancia, on some species of, 35.
Diastylide, on the British, 187.
501
Diatomaceze, on the siliceous spo-
rangial sheath of the, 75.
Diatomaceous deposits, new mode of
cleaning, 189.
Dolphin, on a new species of, 157,
Dubusia, new species of, 418.
Dysithamnus, new species of, 59.
Edwardsia, new British species of,219.
Edwardsia vestita, note on, 73.
Emberiza, new species of, 343.
Emyda, new species of, 268,
Eschara, new species of, 33.
1 Seana new British species of,
ce description of the genus,
10.
Fibrous substances of India, on the,
Flora of the Cumbrae Islands, on the,
67; of the Atlantic Islands, on the,
183.
Foraminifera, researches on the, 334.
ee of Pegu, on the state of the,
66.
Formicivora, new species of, 58.
Gosse, P. H., on the Edwardsia ves-
tita of Forbes, 73 ; on a new British
species of Edwardsia, 219; on the
siphons and byssus of Cardium
exiguum, 257; on the dicecious cha-
racter of the Rotifera, 333 ; Tenby,
reviewed, 162.
Gould, J., on a new species of Prion,
56; on new species of birds, 173 ;
on a new genus of Trochilide, 270.
Grallaria, new species of, 57.
soy ina new British species of,
Gray, Dr. J. E., on a new British
species of Spherium, 25; on a new
species of Dolphin, 157; on some
new species of freshwater Tortoises,
263; on a new species of nocturnal
Lizard, 270; on a new genus of
Lizards, 345; on a new subgenus of
Helicinade, 414; on the genus
Assiminia, 419; on the abnormal
oo of Polydonta elegans,
468.
Gray, G. R., on a new species of
Pigeon, 484 ; on a new species of
Lepidopterous insect, 486.
Greensand, on the origin of, 425.
Griffith, Dr. J. W., on the siliceous
sporangial sheath of the Diato-
maceze, 75.
502
Halia preetenuis, observations on, 469.
Hamilton’s, Dr. F., Account of the
Kingdom of Nepal, on the plants
mentioned in, 404, 442.
Hapa, description of the subgenus,
414.
Harvey’s, Dr. A., Trees and their
Nature, reviewed, 165.
Heer, O., on the probable origin of
the organized beings now living in
the Azores, Madeira, and the Ca-
naries, 183.
Helicinade, on a new subgenus of,
414.
Helix, new species of, 96, 249, 436.
Helix Cantiana, note on, 187.
Henfrey, Prof., on vegetable cell-
formation, 42; on recent disco-
ea in vegetable embryogeny,
Heterocnemis, new species of, 186.
Hincks, Rev. T., on Reticularia im-
mersa and Halia preetenuis, 469.
Hodgson, B. H., on the geographical
distribution of the mammalia and
birds of the Himalaya, 166.
Holdsworth, E. W. H., on new species
of Actinia, 346, 497.
Hornera, on some species of, 34.
Huxley, T. H., on the method of pa-
leontology, 43.
Hydrocena, new species of, 439.
Hypocephalus, observations on the
genus, 477
Idmonea, on some species of, 34.
Infusoria, on the organization of, 115,
221; contributions to the anatomy
of the, 319.
Insects, descriptions of new, 1, 133,
302, 457, 475.
Janella, observations on the genus, 41.
Jeffreys, J. G., on Cyclas lacustris, 74;
on Clausilia plicatula and C. Mor-
tilleti, 185; on Scissurella, 188 ;
on rare shells from the coast of
France, 471.
Johnson’s, C., British Poisonous
Plants, noticed, 54.
Kinosternon, new species of, 265.
Kolliker, Prof., on peculiar move-
ments of the plasmatic cells of
certain animals, 496,
~~. Lamiade, descriptions of new, 479.
Lampreys, on the development of the,
298.
Laomedea, new species of, 440.
INDEX.
Legriocinclus, note on the genus, 341.
Leighton, Rev. W. A., on the British
Umbilicarie, 273 ; on new British
Arthoniz, 330.
Leptopoma, new species of, 95.
Lernea branchialis, note on, 186.
Lichens, new habitats for rare British,
182; descriptions of British, 273,
330.
Lieberkuhn, N., on the anatomy of
the Infusoria, 319.
Linota, new species of, 345.
Lonsdale, W., on Helix Cantiana, 187.
Lowe, J., on an abnormality in the
flowers of Salix Andersoniana, 254.
Lycaon pictus, on some points relating
to the anatomy of, ihr
M‘Clelland, Dr., on the forests of
Pegu, 66.
Macdonald, J. D., on a bitentaculate
slug found at Aneiteum, 38; on
the anatomy of the genus Atlas,
101.
Madden, Lieut.-Col., on Nepalese
plants, 404, 442.
Malacoptila, new species of, 263.
Mammalia of the Himalaya, on the
geographical distribution of the,
166.
Merula, new species of, 174.
Meteorological. observations, 79, 191,
271, 351, 431, 498.
Monasa, new species of, 262.
Moore, F., on some new species of
birds, 343 ; on two new species of
Orthotomus, 430.
Miller, A., on the development of
the Lampreys, 298.
Miller, H., on the structure of the
retina in certain animals, 492.
Murray, A., on the genus Catops, 1,
133, 302, 391, 457.
Naucrates ductor, note on the occur-
rence of, 496.
Nemosia, new species of, 60.
Nepalese plants, notes on, 404, 442.
Nesocichla, new species of, 174.
Nika edulis, remarks on, 493.
Operculum, observations on an ab-
normal form of, 468.
Ophiocoma rosula, on the young state
of, 387.
Ophryoglena, on the anatomy of, 319.
Orang-utan, on the habits of the, 26.
Orthotomus, new species of, 430.
Otocorys, new species of, 61, 343.
INDEX.
Owen, Prof., on the ruminant qua-
_ drupeds and the aboriginal cattle
of Britain, 61 ; on a fossil cranium
of the Musk-buffalo from the gravel
at Maidenhead, 188.
Paleontology, on the method of, 43.
Panopzea Aldrovandi, observations on,
415. . .
Papilio, new species of, 486.
Peach, C. W., on a curious metamor-
phosis in a polype-like animal, 99.
Petromyzon, on the development of,
298.
Phillips’s, J., Manual of Geology, re-
viewed, 159.
Plants from Nepal, on some, 404,
442.
Platycercus, new species of, 175.
Polydonta elegans, on an abnormal
operculum of, 468.
Polythalamia, observations on, 426.
Polyzoa, descriptions of new, 32.
Prion, new species of, 56. —
Prionide, descriptions of new, 476.
Propasser, new species of, 344.
Psalidocoptus, new species of, 479.
Psalidognathus, remarks on the ge-
nus, 477.
Pupa, new species of, 435.
Pyriglena, new species of, 59, 60.
Quadrupeds, ruminant, on the, 61.
Rainey, G., on the structure and de-
* igo of Cysticercus cellulose,
86.
— immersa, observations on,
469.
Retina, on the structure of, in certain
animals, 492.
Rotifera, on the dicecious character of
the, 333.
Royal Institution, proceedings of the,
61
Royal Society, proceedings of the,
333, 486.
Salix Andersoniana, on an abnor-
mality in the flowers of, 254.
Scherzer and Wagner, MM., on the
vegetation of Central America, 76.
Schismope, on the new genus, 36, 188.
Schizorrhina, new species of, 483.
Schultze; Dr. M., on the development
of Arenicola piscatorum, 105.
Scissurella, on the genus, 36, 188.
Sclater, P. L., on new species of Ant-
Thrushes, 57; on new species of
birds from Santa Fé di Bogota, 60 ;
503
on new species of birds, 186, 260,
418; onthe genus Legriocinclus,
~ 341; on a new species of Buarre-
mon, 350.
Sertularia, new British species of, 356.
Shells, new, 25, 94, 156, 249, 433.
Silica, on the non-existence of polar-
- izing, in the organic kingdoms, 78.
pyre on a new British species of,
56.
Slug, on the external characters and
internal anatomy of a bitentaculate,
found at Aneiteum, 38.
Sowerby’s Ferns of Great Britain and
Fern-Allies, reviewed, 54.
Spherium, new British species of, 25.
Spheeroplea, on the development and
propagation of, 81.
Steno, new species of, 157.
Stethodesma, new species of, 482.
Stewart, T. H., on the young state of
Ophiocoma rosula, 387.
Thomson, W.,on the burrowing habits
of Nika edulis, 493.
Thylacmus cynocephalus, on some
pointsrelating totheanatomy of,177.
Todirostrum, new species of, 187.
Torrens, H., on native impressions
regarding the natural history of
certain Indian animals, 171.
ge new species of freshwater,
263.
Townsend, F., on Callitriche hamu-
lata, 429.
Tragocephala, new species of, 480.
Trictenotoma, description of the ge-
nus, 476.
Tridornis, new species of, 418.
Trigonophorus, new species of, 482.
Trochilide, description of a new
genus of, 270.
Tubularia, new species of, 439.
Umbilicariz, monograph of the Bri-
tish, 273.
Vegetable embryogeny, on recent dis-
coveries in, 217.
climatology, observations on,
338. :
individual, on the, 363.
Vorticlava, new British species of,
353.
Wagner, M., on the vegetation of
Central America, 76.
Wallace, A. R., on the habits of the
Orang-utan, 26; on the natural
arrangement of birds, 193.
——" (7508 INDEX.
Webster, W., on anew British species Yarrell, William, notice of the late,
of Skenea, 156. 348. nS 5
White, A., on some coleopterous in- Zoological Society, proceedings of the,
sects, 475. 56, 166, 260, a4 415, 475.
Wilson, J. K., on vegetable climato- Zoophytes, on some new genera and
logy, 338. species of British, 219, 353, 439,
Woodward, S. P., on the evils of 469.
increasing synonyms, 36;0n Pano- Zosterops, new species of, 174.
pea Aldrovandi, 415.
END OF THE EIGHTEENTH VOLUME.
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
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