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THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY,

INCLUDING

ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, and GEOLOGY.

(being a continuation of the ‘annals* combined with LOUDON AND
CHARLESWORTh’s ‘magazine OF natural history.’)

CONDUCTED BY

PRIDEAUX JOHN SELBY, Esq., F.L.S.,
CHARLES C. BABINGTON, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S.,
J. H. BALFOUR, M.D., Prof. Bot. Edinburgh,

AND

RICHARD TAYLOR, F.L.S., F.G.S.

VOL. XVI.— SECOND SERIES.

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS.

SOLD BY LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL,
AND CO.; PIPER AND CO.; BA1LI.I^:KE, R^JENT STREET, AND PARIS:
LIZARS, AND MACLACHLAN AND STEWART, EDINRURGH :

HODGES AND SMITH, DUBLIN : AND ASHER, BERLIN.

1855.

^‘Oinnes res creatae sunt divinae sapientiae et potentise testes, divitiae felicitatis
humanae : — ex harum usu honitas Creatoris ; ex pulchritudine sapientia Domini ;
ex ceconomiain conservatione, proportione, renovatione, potentia majestatis elucet.
Earum itaque indagatio ab hominibus sibirelictis semper aestimata; a vere eruditis
et sapientibus semper exculta ; male doctis et barbaris semper inimica fuit.” —
Linnaeus.

“ Quelque soit le principe de la vie animale, il ne faut qu’ouvrir les yeux pour voir
qu’elle est le chef-d’oeuvre de la Toute-puissance, et le but auquel se rapportent
toutes ses operations.” — Bruckner, Theorie du Systeme Animal, Leyden, 1767.

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.

The sylvan powers

J. Taylor, Norwich, 1818,

So 5

AS1

,G

^CES library

CONTENTS OF VOL. XVL

[SECOND SERIES.]

NUMBER XCI.

Page

I. Observations on the Development of Gonidia (?) from the Cell-
contents of the CharacecB, and on the Circulation of the Mucus-sub-
stance of the Cell ; Tvith a Postscript. By H. J. Carter, Esq.,
Assistant-Surgeon H.C.S., Bombay 1

II. Descriptions of the Animals of certain Genera of Conchifera.

By S. P. Woodward, Esq., F.G.S 22

III. Notes on some new or little-known Marine Animals. By

Philip Henry Gosse, A.L.S. (With two Plates.) 27

IV. On the Homologies of the Carapace and on the Structure and
Function of the Antennae in Crustacea. By C. Spence Bate, F.L.S.,

&c. (With two Plates.) 36

V. On Double Monstrosity in Fishes 47

Proceedings of the Linnaean Society ; Zoological Society ; Royal Insti-
tution; Botanical Society of Edinburgh 51 — 78

On the Nereis bilineata, by William Thompson; On a New Species
of Thalassidroma, by George Robert Gray, F.L.S. & F.Z.S. ; On
the Eggs of Otoyyps and Prosthemadera, by H. F. Walter; Me-
teorological Obseiwations and Table 78—80

NUMBER XCII.

VI. Notes on Palaeozoic Bivalved Entomostraca. No. I. Some
Species of Beyrichia from the Upper Silurian Limestones of Scandi-

navia. By T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S. (With a Plate.) HI

VII. On the Conjugation of the I)iatomacea\ By J. W. Gkiki rni,
M.D., F.L.S. (With a Plate.) .* 02

IV

CONTENTS.

Page

VIII. On a new Genus of Fossil Cidarid^, with a Synopsis of the

Species included therein. By Thomas Wright, M.D., F.R.S.E 94

IX. Brief Notices of several new or little-known species of Mam-

malia, lately discovered and collected in Nepal, by Brian Houghton
Hodgson, Esq. By T. Horsfield, M.D 101

X. On the Assiminia Grayana and Rissoa anatina. By William

Clark, Esq 114

XI. Descriptions of two newly discovered species of Araneidea. By

John Blackwall, F.L.S 120

XII. Note on the Descent of Glaciers. By J. Gwyn Jeffreys,

Esq., F.R.S 122

New Books : — Catalogue of British Hymenoptera in the Collection
of the British Museum. Part I. Apidce — Bees, by Frederick
Smith, M.E.S. — Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philosophical
Society 124 — 128

Proceedings of the Zoological Society; Botanical Society of Edin-
burgh 128—146

On the Organization of the Pedicellate Glands of the Leaf of Drosera
rotundifolia, by M. A. Trecul ; On a new Organ observed in Cal-
litriche (C. platycarpa, &c.), by M. A. Chatin ; Description of a
new Tanager of the Genus CalUste, by Philip Lutley Sclater,
M.A. ; On the Spermatophora of the Crickets, by C. Lespes;
Meteorological Observations and Table 146 — 152

NUMBER XCIII.

XIII. Observations on the Genera Pachyhdella (Diesing) and Pel-
togaster (Rathke), two animal forms parasitic upon the abdomen of

Crabs. By Professor Steen strup 153

XIV. Notes on Palaeozoic Bivalved Entomostraca. No. II. Some

British and Foreign Species of Beyrichia. By T. Rupert Jones,
F.G.S. (With a Plate.) 163

XV. On the Heart and Circulation in the Pycnogonidce. By Dr.

A. Krohn. (With a Plate.) 176

XVI. Abstract of a Monograph of the Family Gorgonidoe. By

M. Valenciennes 177

XVII. On the Genus Assiminia. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S.,

V.P.Z.S

183

CONTENTS.

V

Page

XVIII. On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New
Species. By Alfred R. Wallace, F.R.G.S 184

XIX. On some new Species of Hemipedina from the Oolites. By

Thomas Wright, M.D., F.R.S.E 196

XX. Short Biographical Notice of the late Dr. Johnston of Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed 199

New Books : — The British Flora, comprising the Phsenogamous or
Flowering Plants and the Ferns. The 7th edition, with Additions
and Corrections, &c., by Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H.,
D.C.L. &c. &c., and George A. Walker- Amott, LL.D. &c. &c.... 203

Proceedings of the Royal Society ; Linnsean Society ; Botanical

Society of Edinburgh ; Zoological Society 205 — 229

Monstrosity of Antirrhinum majus, by Dr. J. E. Gray ; Notice of the
Horns and Skull of the Arnee, by Dr. J. E. Gray ; Meteorolo-
gical Obseiwations and Table 229 — 232

NUMBER XCIV.

XXI. The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. By
Dr. Alexander Braun, Professor of Botany in the University of

Berlin, &c. Translated by Chas. Francis Stone 233

XXII. Note on the Subgenus Limea, Broun. By John Lycett,

Esq ! 256

XXIII. Notes on the Brachiopoda observed in a Dredging Tour
with Mr. M‘Andrew on the Coast of Norway, in the summer of the
present year. By Lucas Barrett, F.G.S 257

XXIV. On the Young States of some Annelides. By R. Leuckart.

(With a Plate.) 259

XXV. Observations on the Genus Assiminia. By William

Clark, Esq 272

XXVI. On the Morphology of the Organs called Lenticels. By

M. E. Germain de Saint-Pierre 273

New Books : — A Manual of Marine Zoology for the British Isles, by
Philip Ilenrj' Gosse, A.L.S 277

Proceedings of the Zoological Society ; Linna!an Society

278—296

VI

CONTENTS.

Sibbald’s Drawings of Scottish Animals, by the late Dr. George John-
ston ; Clausilia Rolphii, by Mr. S. P. Woodward ; Note on Helix
aspersa, by Mr. S. P. Woodward ; Descriptions of some new spe-
cies of Birds, by the Viscount Du Bus de Gisignies ; On the Oper-
culum of Diplommatina, by Captain Thomas Hutton ; Note on
Apliyllanthes monspeliensis, and the new Family Aphyllanthacea,
by M. Parlatore ; Meteorological Observations and Table . 296 — 304

NUMBER XCV.

XXVII. Notes on some new or little-known Marine Animals. By
Philip Henry Gosse, A.L.S. (With a Plate.) 305

XXVIII. On the Injurious Eifeets of an excess or want of Heat
and Light on the Aquarium. By Robert Warington, Esq 313

XXIX. On the Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration and on the
Structm’e of the Organs of Breathing in Invertebrate Animals. By
Thomas Williams, M.D. Lond. (With a Plate.) 315

XXX. Notice and Description of a new species of Spider. By the
Rev. Hamlet Clark, M.A., Curate of All Saints, Northampton ... 329

XXXI. Observations on the Habits of the Stickleback. By Robert

Warington, Esq 330

XXXII. The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. By
Dr. Alexander Braun, Professor of Botany in the University of
Berlin, &c 333

New Books : — Glaucus; or the Wonders of the Shore, by Charles

Kingsley 354

Proceedings of the Linnsean Society ; Zoological Society 356 — 3/8

Bohemian Forests and Peat-bogs, by Dr. Hochstetter ; Occurrence of
Diodonta fragilis at Weymouth, by William Thompson, Esq. ;
Description of a second species of the genus Procnias, by Philip
Lutley Sclater, M.A. ; Descriptions of some new species of Birds,
by the Viscount Du Bus de Gisignies ; Description of a new spe-
cies of Petrogale, by Dr. J. E. Gray ; Meteorological Observations
and Table 3/8 — 384

NUMBER XCVI.

XXXIII. On the Batrachian Ranunculi of Britain. By Charles
C. Babington, M.A., F.R.S. &c

385

CONTENTS. Vll

Page

XXXIV. On the Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration and on the
Structure of the Organs of Breathing in Invertebrate Animals. By
Thomas Williams, M.D. Lond. (With a Plate.) 404

XXXV. On the _Genera of Mollusca, and on the Genus Assiminia
in particular. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c 422

XXXVI. A few Remarks on the BracMopoda. By Thomas
Davidson, Esq., F.G.S. &c. (With a Plate.) 429

XXXVII. On the Phsenomena of the Reproduction of the Chitons.

By W’^iLLiAM Clark, Esq 446

XXXVIII. Note on Linaria sepium, Allman. By Charles C.
Babington, M.A., F.R.S. &c 449

New Books : — Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds con-
tained in the British Museum, by G. R. Gray, F.L.S. — Descrip-
tive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Histological Series contained
in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Prepared for

the Microscope. Vol. it 450 — 457

Proceedings of the Zoological Society 457 — 464

Shropshire Mollusca, by J. Gwyn Jeffreys; Note on the Arrested
Development of the Tadpole of the Common Frog, by W. Davies ;

List of Species of Mollusca obtained by Prof. Goodsir from
Spitzbergen, bv R. M^Andrew, Esq. ; Meteorological Observations
and Table 464— 467

Index

468

PLATES IN VOL. XVI.

Plate I. \ Structure of the Carapace in the Crustacea. — Conjugation of
II. /■ the Diatomaceae.

jy' j- New or little-known Marine Animals.

VI..

yj' Palaeozoic Bivalved Entomostraca.

VII. Young States of some Annelides. — Circulation in the Pycno-
gonidae.

VIII. New or little-known Marine Animals.

IX. Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration in Invertebrate Animals.

X. New Species of Brachiopoda.

XI. Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration in Invertebrate Animals.

THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[SECOND SERIES.]

“ per litora spargite museum.

Naiades, et circilm vitreos considite fontes :

Pollice virgineo teneros hic carpite flores :

Floribus et pictum, divae, replete canistrum.

At VOS, 0 Nymphae Craterides, ite sub undas ;

Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco
Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas
Ferte, Deae pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo.”

N. Parthenii Giannettasii Eel. 1.

No. 91. JULY 1855.

I. — Observations on the Development of Gonidia (?) from the

Cell-contents of the Characese, and on the Circulation of the

Mucus-substance of the Cell; with a Postscript. By H. J.

Carter, Esq., Assistant Surgeon H.C.S., Bombay.

The following is a short summary of observations on the cell-
contents of the Characese made in the island of Bombay during
the last eight months, and which want of time only now pre-
vents me from communicating in a more extended and complete
form. All physiologists are acquainted with the development
of the spiral filaments in the globule and a new plant from the
nucule, but the passage of the cell-contents into gonidia in this
family of the Algae does not seem to have met with description ;
nor has, 1 think, the circulatory movement been satisfactorily
explained.

Before, however, proceeding to the detail of these phaenomena,
it is desirable to refresh the memory of the reader with a descrip-
tion of the recent cell of the Characcae in which the circulation
is going on, and for this purpose I shall take an internode of
Nitella, as at once furnishing the simplest and largest type of
the cell throughout the family*.

* The species of Nitella which I have used for my observations is a de-
licate, slender plant with long internodes and umbelliferous verticils, the

Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 1

2 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

The internode of Nitella consists of — 1st, the cell-wall ; 2nd, the
green layer ; 3rd, the mucus-layer ; and 4th, the axial fluids to each
of which parts separately let us now direct our attention.

Cell- wall. — This, in the internode, is cylindrical, more or less
convex at each end, transparent, and resistent like all other cel-
lulose membranes of the same kind.

Green layer. — In contact with the inner surface of the cell-
wall is a layer of green bodies, which, being more or less discoidal,
we shall call green disks.^^ These disks, w'hich are slightly
separated from each other, are arranged up and down the inter-
node in parallel lines, and the layer which they thus form is
divided into two equal parts by two transparent linear intervals,
which, for reasons that will appear hereafter, have been aptly
termed by Slack the lines of repose.^^ Neither these lines, nor
the lines of green disks which are parallel to them, are exactly
parallel with the longitudinal axis of the internode, but twisted
round it in a semispiral form, so that by transmitted light the
two white intervals, which are on opposite sides of the internode,
present the appearance of a cross with acute angles, which angles
vary in their degree with the length of the internode.

The green disk, which is more or less elliptical and com-
pressed, is composed of a vesicle of chlorophyll in which are
three or more granules of compressed, circular or elliptical form,
each of which is also, apparently, in a distinct vesicle of chloro-
phyll, and the whole thus grouped together form a green body
which is attached to, or imbedded in, the cell-wall of a third
vesicle. At least, this appears to be the typical form of the

green disk,^^ though its component parts are not always di-
stinctly individualized ; and a vesicle with a nucleus, such as I
have described, may frequently be seen among the cell-contents
of the internode when the latter has been evacuated, whilst the
divisions of the green disk with a granule in each, as well as faint
lines between them, indicative of each being surrounded by a
transparent vesicle, may often be seen while the disk is in situ.
Thus, the green layer is composed of a number of vesicles set
together in linear arrangement, to each of which is appended
the green disk mentioned. The average size of the green disk

latter consisting of sixteen to twenty branches, alternately long and short.
The long branches are thrice divided, and the last division in all termi-
nated by a spine. The organs of fructification, which are cast together in
the axils of the verticil or separately in the centres of the umbels of the
branches, are, with the terminal divisions of the latter, too small to be seen
distinctly by the unassisted eye. It grows here and there in the muddy
tanks of the island of Bombay all the year round, and from the slime and
foreign matter which collects about it, looks not unlike toad’s sjiawn. Its
chief character, when cleansed of this, is its delicate, slender, umbelliferous
aspect.

3

from the Cell-contents of the Characeae.

in the species of Nitella on which I have been making observa-
tions, is l-4300th of an inch in diameter. Iodine with and with-
out sulphuric acid gives it a dark brown-red colour, but does
not turn it or its contents blue.

Mucus-layer. — Immediately within the green layer is a gra-
nular, colourless mucus, which is unequally and unevenly spread
over the surface, so that it presents a wavy line towards the axial
fluid. The unevenness of the inner surface of this mucus arises
from partial aggregations of its substance, w^hich are most pro-
minent and accumulated midway between the lines of repose.
One of these aggregations is generally larger than the rest, and
this in the spiniform cells which terminate the branchlets and
in the early state of the internode itself contains the cytoblast,
which with its accompanying mucus also at this early period
lines the inside of the cell ; so that the whole of the granular
mucus-layer and its contents, which afterwards form such a large
portion of the internode, is developed from this cytoblast, and
should be regarded as merely an increase in quantity of the ori-
ginal protoplasm or primordial utricle of Mohl.

We have now to direct our attention to the contents of the
granular mucus, which, when one extremity of the internode is
truncated by a sharp cutting instrument, under water, rushes
out partly in a loose amorphous form, and partly enclosed in
vesicles of variable dimensions, the largest of which are some-
times nearly as wide as the internode. Both the amorphous
masses and vesicles are again charged with vesicles of dilFerent
sizes, circular disks containing a finely granulated substance,
subreniform or round starch-globules, and a number of irre-
gularly-shaped bodies of different sizes, but of which none exceed
the 1500th part of an inch in diameter.

The most striking of these contents are the circular disks,
which, from their defined outline and uniform size and appear-
ance, are easily distinguished from any of the other bodies.
They average about the 2150th part of an inch in diameter, and
appear to be filled with a minutely granular mucus of a very
faint yellow colour, which, a certain time after the disk has been
exposed to the water, contracts into an elliptical form, and thus
shows that it is enclosed within a capsule, from which it is also
distinct. These disks may be seen in considerable numbers
loose or imbedded in the amorphous masses of mucus, or in
that filling the large vesicles, or in variable plurality in trans-
parent globular vesicles otherwise empty ; lastly, they may be
seen fixed singly to, or in the wall of a vesicle, which appears to
be their normal ap])cndage, and though this vesicle is sometimes
hardly distinguishable, it is at others five or six times the dia-
meter of the disk. Iodine colours the nucleus of a deej) brown

1*

4 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

amber colour, but leaves the capsule and globular cell un-
affected.

Many globular vesicles of different sizes, which appear to be
entirely empty, are also to be observed, and here and there a
solitary starch-globule.

But the composition of the irregular bodies, which appear to
vary in size from a minute granule to the largest starch-globule,
is not so evident. These bodies, w^hich have a faint yellow opake
colour, and apparently granular structure, are like the circular
disks loosely scattered through the mucus, or enclosed in plu-
rality within transparent globular vesicles otherwise empty, or
attached to or imbedded singly, in the wall of one of these cells,
which also seems to be their normal appendage. In Chara ver-
ticillata (Roxb.) these bodies in the early part of their growth
are club-shaped, after which the large end appears to expand
into an irregular, globular or agariciform head, to which the
small end then forms a kind of pedicel, and thus they are also
found within vesicles. At first these irregular bodies look very
much like starch-granules, and particularly the agariciform ones,
from the eccentric lines on their surface ; but iodine, even when
assisted by sulphuric acid, only turns them of a deep brown
amber colour like that which it produces in the nucleus' of the
disk ; sometimes it seems to have little or no effect upon them.
They differ from the circular disk in the extreme irregularity of
their form, their apparent want of capsule, greater thickness,
deeper yellow colour, greater opacity, and in their apparent ori-
gin from granules infinitely smaller than the circular disks.

Axial fluid. — This, as before stated, fills the centre of the in-
ternode ; it is of an aqueous consistence, colourless, and fre-
quently contains bunches of acicular raphides (oxalate of lime ?),
starch- globules, and many of the faint yellow irregular bodies
just mentioned, all of which, except the raphides, appear to have
accidentally dropt into it from the mucus-layer.

Thus we have the internode of Nitella complete, and we have
only to conceive the mucus-layer moving round the axial fluid
and propelling it and its particles in the same direction (by the
projections on its surface), to obtain a true idea of the motion
which takes place within the cell of the Characese.

Let us now follow the passage of the cell-contents into
gonidia.

All are aware, that in the freshwater Algae commonly called
Confervae, the formation of the spore is preceded by a breaking
up or displacement of the cell-contents, after which a conden-
sation and re-arrangement of them takes place, and they are then
invested with a capsule which remains entire, until the time
arrives for the spore thus formed to germinate. Now, under

5

from the Cell-contents of the Characese.

certain circumstances^ which appear to be the approaching dis-
solution or death of the cell-wall, a similar process takes place
in the ceils of the Characese, and following this from the begin-
ning, we find, that it first commences with a cessation of the cir-
culation, after which the lines of green disks forming the green
layer become displaced, and, as if obeying a still continued but
inappreciable movement of the mucus-layer, they roil themselves
up into lines which assume a more or less irregular arrange-
ment across the internode, or into groups of different sizes, more
or less connected by narrow lines of mucus and single disks, so
as to present an areolar structure in contact with the inner sur-
face of the cell-wall. The next stage is the separation of the
disks into still more distinct groups, which, having become more
circumscribed and circular, leave the cell-wall and evince a cer-
tain amount of polymorphism and locomotion. The cavity of
the internode, hitherto rendered turbid by the breaking up of
the green layer, now clears off and becomes transparent, save
where the circular masses, which have changed from their ori-
ginal green into a brownish-green yellow colour, intercept the
light. After a day or two, — but the time seems to vary, — the
green disks become entirely brown, and the group, assuming a
more circumscribed and circular form, shows that it is sur-
rounded by a transparent globular cell ; this we shall henceforth
call the gonidial cell. A new substance, consisting of a bluish
semitransparent mucus, more or less charged with minute gra-
nules (from which its colour appears to be derived), and refrac-
tive globules of a faint yellowish-green and sapphire-blue colour,
makes its appearance in different parts of the brown mass, or to
one side of it, and afterwards, becoming botryoidal or mulberry-
shaped, separates into gonidia. The brown chlorophyll with the
other effete contents then shrinks up into a structureless, homo-
geneous, more or less defined, circular nucleus, of a dark brown
colour, and the cell, frequently projecting on one side in a
conical form, bursts at the apex and gives exit to the gonidia.

The gonidia are globular, ovate or spindle-shaped, and of a
light blue colour. They average l-4300th of an inch in dia-
meter, and contain, together with the blue substance mentioned,
more or less also of the refractive globules, and a transparent
vesicle. Each gonidium is provided with one or two cilia accord-
ing to its form, that is to say, the globular ones [iresent one and
the spindle-shaped two, which may be perceived while they are
yet groujicd or seyiaratc in the transparent gonidial cell, where
they already exhibit a certain amount of polymorphism. Shortly
after they have become free in the internode, the wall of the
latter gives way and they pass into the water, where, for a cer-
tain time, they remain so active, that it is almost impossible to

6 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

describe their form ; but here and there, that which I have stated
may be seen in those which are less active in their movements
than the rest.

There are, however, certain peculiarities about the elongated
and spindle-shaped gonidia which it is desirable to notice, viz.
that one cilium appears longer than the other, and that while
the short one floats almost motionless backwards, so as to
appear as if it proceeded from the posterior extremity, the latter,
for the most part, keeps up a constant whipping-movement in
front which frequently renders it imperceptible. Both cilia
however appear to be of the same length, if we add the length
of the gonidium to the one which floats behind, and which is
concealed in the first part of its course by lying in contact with
or underneath the body of the gonidium ; both also appear to be
occasionally brought together anteriorly. There is also fre-
quently a kind of proboscis extended from the rostrum or beak
of the gonidium which moves incessantly, both in the ovate and
spindle-shaped forms, and seems to have a suctorial extremity
by means of which it fixes the gonidium to the glass, while the
floating cilium also appears to be provided with a similar power
and to exert it for detaching the gonidium, when so fixed, by
pulling it backwards, which it does with a peculiar jerk ; when
this little proboscis has been present, I do not think I have ever
observed the anterior or active cilium.

After a while, perhaps some hours, the gonidia become sta-
tionary, and while they appear to be fixed by the proboscis men-
tioned, the long cilium floats motionless, or presents a languid
kind of w'hip-like undulation ; the latter then disappears, and a
day or two after, the gonidia both small and great, for there are
many sizes, as will presently be mentioned, are seen creeping
about the watch-glass (into which they were transferred for ob-
servation) under as active polymorphism as any amoebous cell
could present ; diffluent, digitated, and in the form of that beau-
tifully radiated figure caWed Actinop hr ]/s Sot (Ehr.). They also
now present the contracting vesicle,^^ as well as other vesicles,
which do not appear to alter their dimensions, but vary, like the
former, in distinctness with their change of position and the
varying form of the gonidium. After a few days^ existence in
this state their polymorphism becomes very sluggish, they re-
main for some time under a slowly changing rhizopodous figure,
which is more or less common to all, and then disappear.

Whether they germinate or not, I have not been able to
determine.

Lastly, a development of transparent mucus which becomes
filled with vibrios and Bacterium termo (Dujar.), iminediately
follows the elimination of the gonidia both in the gonidial cell

7

from the Cell-contents of the Characese.

aud in the internode, presenting itself in a mass or branched
organized form, more particularly at those parts of the latter
which have become ruptured. This also disappears after a few
days, and a thorough dissolution of the internode and its original
contents seems thus to be completed.

We have now then seen that a breaking up or displacement of
the green layer, a grouping of its green disks, the investment of
the groups with a mucus-covering, their complete separation,
their endowment with a certain amount of polymorphism and
locomotion, the turning brown of the chlorophyll, and the passage
of the investing mucus into a globular transparent cell, precede
the evolution of the gonidial substance and its subsequent self-
division into gonidia ; let us now see if there be anything else
within the gonidial cell during the time this process is going on.

It will be remembered, that a great number of discoidal
bodies exist in the mucus-layer of the internode, and that many
of these are loose, while others are fixed singly in the wall of a
transparent vesicle ; now (apparently under an arrest of develop-
ment), a gonidial cell frequently presents itself, in which a single
disk, with or without its vesicles, precisely similar to one of
these, is seen within or to one side of the brown chlorophyll,
surrounded by a shrivelled, crenulated membrane, appearing,
from its irregular mulberry-like surface, want of motion, dingy
colour, and absence of refractive granules, as if it were the re-
mains of the gonidial substance which had perished from some
cause or other just before it began to separate into gonidia.
^Moreover, in many of the disks, the nucleus is not only seen to
be separated from its capsule by an annular interspace, but its
granules have become larger and more distinct, and an irre-
gular cavity like a contracted vesicle appears to exist in its cen-
tre. When the circular disk is enclosed within the brown matter,
it may be rendered more evident by the addition of alcohol,
which extracts the colouring matter completely, while the appli-
cation of iodine deepens the colour of the brown matter, and
gives a dark brown tint only to the nucleus of the disk.

That the gonidial cells should contain a nucleus within the
brown matter is easily conceived, for on truncating a young in-
ternode, sometimes, in the way which I have mentioned, parti-
cularly where the green layer is soft and previously disturbed,
the whole of the contents rush out together, and all the vesicles,
both large and small, become surrounded with green disks,
which, under these circumstances, present a similar appearance
to that which is witnessed in the internode when the green layer
has been broken up and its green disks separated into grouj)s,
pre])aratory to the develo}) incut of the gonidia.

8 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

But many of tlie gonidial cells are too small to contain the
circular disk, and we have still to account for the disappearance
of the irregular bodies of a faint yellow colour and granular
structure, which appear to form a much larger proportion of the
cell-contents than the circular disks.

As the smallest of the gonidial cells, which may appear in the
internode, is but a very little larger than the single gonidium
which it contains, and others are sometimes present which may
contain fifty or more, it is obvious, that although the latter may
also contain a circular disk, there is no room for it in the
former. Nevertheless, the small gonidial cells containing one,
two, and three gonidia, as they vary in size from the 4300th to
the 2150th of an inch in diameter, are provided with a body pre-
cisely similar to the irregular ones mentioned, which is not in
the interior, but attached to or imbedded in their cell-wall, and
with the latter seems to comprise all the elements of which the
small gonidial cells are composed. In this way then we can
account for the disappearance of the irregular bodies.

It is also not unusual to see in the older internodes, when their
contents are passing into gonidial cells, a few of the green disks
in situ, as well as loose in the cavity, and their disappearance
also calls for explanation, which would be difficult, if we did not
frequently see some of them actually in situ, under the form of
gonidia, among the other green disks which have not passed into
this state or departed from their original linear arrangement.
Whether the gonidium has here taken the place of the green
disk, or whether it has been developed in its transparent vesicle,
I have not been able to determine; but in an old internode,
where the basal structure of the green layer has become more or
less hardened, the remains of the transparent vesicles may occa-
sionally be seen in their original position, while the green disks
have disappeared. In the fan-shaped groups of cells too, which
form part of the capsule of the globule, the red granules, which
are equivalent to the green disks, may frequently be seen at-
tached, like the irregular bodies, singly or in groups, to the
periphery of small gonidial cells whieh contain one or more
gonidia. This appears to be invariably the case at the dehiscence
of the globule, while the absence of circulation in these cells
from the commencement would indicate a corresponding scarcity
of the mucus-layer and its contents. With the exception of the
central cavities of the globule and nucule, I have not seen any
kind of cell in the species of Chara and Nitella, which I have
had under observation, that has not produced gonidia.

Lastly, we have to account for the genuine starch-globules and
raphides, both of which may be seen lying among the gonidial

9

from the Cell-contents of the Characese.

cells ; but in no instance have I seen the former in the gonidial
cell, or been able to produce a blue colour in the nucleus of the
latter by the application of iodine.

Thus we have followed the contents of the internode of Nitella
from the breaking up of the green layer to the development of
the gonidia. Let us now direct our attention to the different
parts of the gonidial cell analytically, more however with the
object of adding to rather than recapitulating what has already
been stated respecting it.

We have seen that the mucus-investment, which appears to
be derived from the mucus-layer, gives the cell the power, not
only of limited polymorphism, but also of locomotion ; in addi-
tion to this also, the cell possesses for some time the power of
projecting thread-like filaments of extreme tenuity from its sur-
face that adhere to neighbouring objects, and thus form a point
d’appui towards which the cell can then move itself. Subse-
quently, however, these processes, apparently following the same
law of development as the cell, become stiff, and then stand out
like short, straight hairs, more or less thinly scattered over its
cii’cumference, and resembling a parasitic growth, — which some
might consider them, as they do not appear on all the cells, but
my impression is that they are what I have stated. I have also
seen, now and then, a small gonidial cell in which the hardening
process appeared not to be about to take place, but, from the
rhizopodous prolongations of a part of its periphery, and its con-
taining nothing besides the gonidial substance, presenting rather
the appearance of a polymorphic spore about to germinate than
to pass into a fixed cell. Occasionally the gonidial cell, after it
has become stiff and transparent, presents itself under a lenti-
cular form ; at others, as if a notch had been cut in it, and
sometimes with a plane surface, &c., but all these irregularities
appear to be caused by objects against which the cell rests while
passing from its flexible into its hardened cellulose state. Iodine
alone does not appear to impart any colour to the gonidial cell.

Immediately wdthin the transparent globular cell is a layer of
brown matter, which, as before shown, is composed of the green
disks in which the chlorophyll has thus become changed in
colour. This layer is also globular, and encloses the circular
disk alone or with its vesicle. It often presents a botryoidal
surface, which appears to be occasioned by the presence of the
gonidia inside or in the midst of its substance; when the gonidia
have been developed, this as well as its granular contents disap-
])car, leaving a homogeneous, brown substance, which shrinks
up into a more or less defined nucleus of a much darker colour.
The brown matter is deepened in colour by the addition of
iodine, and extracted by that of alcohol. In the small gonidial

10 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

cells there appears to be no brown matter, but from the red gra-
nules, which are the equivalents of the green disks in the fan-
shaped group of cells forming part of the capsule of the globule,
being attached singly or in groups to their periphery, it may
reasonably be inferred that this is the position of the so-called
brown matter in them.

After a certain time, the gonidial substance with its bright
refractive granules makes its appearance in different parts of the
brown matter, as if it were rising out of it, and then to one side
in a distinct mass which acquires a mulberry-form and separates
into gonidia ; or the gonidia may be fully developed inside or in
the midst of the brown matter before they make their appear-
ance. The gonidial substance has already been described, as
well as the bright refractive globules, which do not alter in
colour by contact with iodine. Making its appearance then in
this way, it is not extraordinary that the gonidia, in addition to
their own peculiar blue-coloured mucus, which colour, as before
stated, appears to depend on its granular contents, should, for
the most part, also contain more or less of the refractive globules,
and occasionally a fragment of the brown matter, which is the
case.

I have already described the commonest form of gonidium,
but there is still another about twice the size, viz. 2150th of an
inch in diameter, which although not so frequent, is nevertheless
sufficiently so to show, that there are two sizes more common
than the rest ; for we shall presently see, that the gonidial sub-
stance may occasionally come out as a whole, or in gonidia of
all sizes below its original bulk. This large gonidium generally
presents itself under a circular or globular form, with a single
cilium, but it is sometimes seen ovate or spindle-shaped like the
smaller one. It must be obvious to all, that a polymorphic cell,
such as the gonidium is, can have no constant figure while in a
state of activity ; hence at one time it may be of one shape, and
at another of another ; but when under polymorphism and the
cilium has disappeared, a group of gonidia will evince a strong
tendency to assume the same kind of figure generally, whatever
that may be. Thus, just after they become stationary, the form
of Actinophrys Sol seems to prevail ; then the digitated form for
progression ; then the diffluent form, which appears to be pro-
duced by the more internal protoplasm bursting through that
which is becoming hardened on the surface ; and lastly, the
tardy, rhizopodous form which I have mentioned; but I will
not vouch for this sequence, and only instance it for example.

I have already alluded to the variety in size of the gonidia,
but this is an exception to the general rule, for the smallest
gonidial cell, in which only one gonidium is developed, yields a

11

from the Cell-contents of the Characese.

gonidium equal in size to tlie one first mentioned. It may how-
ever yield a smaller one, and occasionally, in the same mul-
berry-group, may be seen gonidia of different sizes ; again, some-
times a whole group is composed of the same-sized gonidia,
which are not more than half the size of the common form, that
is l-8600th of an inch in diameter ; while occasionally a large
mass is seen creeping about which seems equal in size to the
whole of the gonidial substance bf a large gonidial cell. Some-
times a compound mass of gonidia, composed of three or more
which appear to have flowed into each other, may be seen, with
their cilia projecting from different parts of the circumference.

I have already alluded also to the variable contents of the
gonidia. In addition to the dull, bluish- green mucus, they also
frequently contain more or less of the bright refractive globules,
which, when the latter are beneath or in the midst of the mucus,
may be mistaken for the transparent vesicles which I shall pre-
sently mention.

The gonidium may also contain more or less of the brown
matter, and occasionally, when it is unusually large and of a
Florence-fiask shape, with the vesicle in front and a fragment of
brown matter of a bright colour present, it is hardly distin-
guishable from Astasia.

Lastly, we come to the vesicles which are seen in the goni-
dium. WTiile the gonidium retains its cilium and swimming
motion, the vesicle is for the most part single, and though
changeable in position with the movements of the cell-wall of
the gonidium, does not appear to be endowed with contractility
per se ; but when it loses its cilium and sinks down to the reptant,
polymorphic state, the vesicle becomes distinctly contractile, and
the gonidium is then hardly distinguishable from the young
Amoeba or sponge-cell. Frequently in this state also it presents
one or more hyaline vesicles which are not contractile, and only
change their position with those parts of the gonidium to which
they may be attached.

We now come to the nucleus of the gonidial cell, and of this
I can state little more than has already been given. It is evi-
dent, that although the larger ones contain a nucleus, the smaller
ones do not, unless the irregular body fixed to their periphery
is to be considered its equivalent. I have mentioned that the
nucleus of the large cells appears to be the circular disk of the
mucus-layer, and that the latter is sometimes with and some-
times without its vesicle ; also that frequently, under an arrest of
development, it is surrounded by a crenulated membrane. The
fine granules of which the central part is composed, ap])car also
on these occasions to have become larger and more evident, and
in one instance they were replaced by three or four large glo-

12 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

bales of a faint yellow colour, as if they had run together. In the
larger goniclial cells, where a set of healthy gonidia of normal
size have been developed, the nucleus shrinks up with the effete
brown matter into a common, homogeneous-looking mass, from
which it is then undistinguishable.

General Observations.

Having now described the gonidial cell synthetically and ana-
lytically, let us for a few moments direct our attention to the
offices of the several elements of which it is composed.

The gonidial cell, originally a portion of the mucus-layer en-
dowed with the power of motion, at first appears to gather up a
number of the green disks and wrap them round the nucleus ;
after which it becomes separated from the contents which it has
thus enclosed, and passes into a firm, transparent membrane of a
globular form, which serves to isolate and protect the materials
from which the gonidia are to be developed. Lastly, it fre-
quently assumes a conical form, which bursts at the apex and
then gives exit to its gonidia. Whether the bursting is an act
of its own, or induced by the distension of the mucus before
mentioned, which becomes developed in it immediately after the
evolution of the gonidia, and subsequently throughout the inter-
node, I have not been able to determine ; but the mucus in
question is frequently seen protruding from the ruptured parts
of the cell in an organized, transparent, fungoid mass, or in a
branched form, as if it had caused the rupture.

This mucus appears to me worthy of notice, from its great re-
semblance, under the organized forms mentioned, to the gonidial
substance. When within the gonidial cells and in the internode,
it swarms with vibrios ; but when liberated, the vibrios, after
moving about for some time in the water, settle down into a
form like Bacterium termo. When in the massive or branched
form mentioned, bright, refractive, blue-green granules are scat-
tered through it, and there appears to be an abortive attempt at
a cellular division of the mass generally. Can this be the rem-
nants of germinating matter which are left about the gonidial
cells and the internode ?

The power of the green disks, as well as the irregular bodies
of the mucus-layer, to produce gonidia, is incontestable, for we
have seen gonidia developed in cells where nothing else but the
green disk or the irregular body was present.

What is the office then of the circular disk ?

This I can only suggest from inference. It is perfectly evi-
dent that there are corpuscles m the nucule besides the starch-
globules, which corpuscles resist the blue colouring action of

13

from the Cell-contents of the Characese.

iodine, and it seems equally so, that there are only these two
kinds of bodies in the nucule \ again, these corpuscles very closely
resemble in colour, and in not becoming blue by contact with
iodine, the irregular bodies contained in the mucus-layer of the
internode, while they bear in other respects also a strong analogy
to them. Lastly, we now know, that a gonidial cell having one
of these irregular bodies for its nucleus or peripheral appendage
can develope a gonidium. Thus then, if the irregular bodies
and the corpuscles be identical, we have the germs of gonidial
substance and starch-globules as the contents of the nucule, the
latter being designed for the nourishment of the former. May
not the circular disk contain nutriment for the gonidia ? — while
the irregular bodies would seem to be identical with the green
disks, and are indeed, in many instances, almost undistin-
guishable from them, even when both are present among the
contents of the evacuated internode.

Thus we see a great resemblance between the formation of
the gonidia and the germinating of the nucule, and in the for-
mation of both with that of the resting spore of Algae
generally.

As yet, I have never seen a new plant developed from the
gonidium of Nitella, nor have I ever been able to identify their
germination with that of germinating cells, which I have fre-
quently seen on the surface of an internode containing the
gonidia; neither did Pringsheim see those germinate which
came from Spirogijra, in wLich he has carefully described the
same kind of gonidial development as that wLich takes place in
Nitella^. But Braun, who has followed the development of
gonidia in Hydrodictyon L states, that the larger gonidia (for
there are two distinct sets, which he calls macrogonidia and
microgonidia) germinate, that is, form the young water-net,
while the smaller ones never do this, but unite into groups,
forming a homogeneous green mass, which becomes covered
w ith a distinct cell-membrane. This very much resembles the
fungoid growTh at the ruptures of and about the internode wLich
follows the disappearance of the gonidia of Nitella, and which I
have suggested might be the last efforts to form and to increase
of the remnants of gonidial substance left in the gonidial cell
and about the internode. Be this as it may, the dividing up of
a body formed after the manner of a resting spore into smaller
ones, resembling gonidia, which afterwards germinate, is the

* “ On the Germination of Resting Spores and one form of Moving
Spores in SpiroyyraP Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. xi. p. 210, 185d.

t Pub. of Ray Society, Botan. and Phys. Mem., Phaenoni. of Rejuve-
nescence in Nature. Transl. by Ilenfrey, p. 201.

14 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

normal process of reproduction in Achlya prolifei'a^, as well as
in Cladophora glomerata-\ , &c. ; and therefore it seems not im-
possible thatj under certain circumstances^ the gonidia of Nitella
might produce a new plant ; but this has not yet been proved ;
neither have we, I think, an instance on record of the resting
spore, which commonly developes a new filament, dividing upon
some occasions into small spores, which can also each produce a
new filament. Although AgardhJ saw the resting spore of
Spirogyra divide up into small spores, while he was endeavouring
to see the single filament developed from it which Vaucher
had described, he does not state whether or not these sporules
germinated. One difference between the resting spore and the
gonidia is, that in the former the process of development is very
slow, and in the latter very fast; hence it may be that the
resting spore is only resolved into gonidia when it does not

go its full time,^^ so to write, and therefore produces an
abortive progeny ; while in Achlya prolifera, where the spore
does not wait until the next season for development, this is the
normal process, and each small spore produces a new indi-
vidual.

Since writing the above, I have been able to confirm some
more observations which I had made some months since respect-
ing another kind of passage of the cell-contents of Nitella into
ciliated sacs, viz. —

About three weeks after gathering plants of Nitella and
placing them in a basin of water, the green layer of the long
slender internodes becomes separated from the cell-wall, and
gathered up into dark, spherical bodies, averaging about the
100th part of an inch in diameter, or large enough to be seen
by the unassisted eye.

These at first move up and down the internode with the rapidity
of animalcules, but afterwards lose this power of locomotion and
become stationary. They then present, under the microscope,
the appearance of resting spores ; that is to say, they consist of
a dark green, globular, grumous mass, invested with a trans-
parent spherical cell. This green mass, in all that I have
examined, has been in an active state of rotation, first one way
and then the other, by means of short cilia which covered its
surface, like those on the spore of Vaucheria Ungeri^. On being
crushed between two pieces of glass, this mass was found to
consist chiefiy of pellets of different sizes, of a deep green
colour (formed of groups of green disks, respectively surrounded

* Thuret, Ann. des Sc. Nat. 3® Ser. t. 14. pi. 16, Botan.

t Unger, idem, 2* * * §’ Ser. t. ii. p. 1, Botan.

X Ann. des Sc. Nat. 2® Ser. vi. 197.

§ Thuret, Ann. des Sc. Nat. 2*^ Ser. t. xix. p. 266, Botan.

15

from the Cell-contents of the Characese.

by a mucus-investment), together with a few of the common-
sized gonidia, some gonidial substance, and a great number of
the bright refractive globules before mentioned. Iodine gave
the green pellets a deep brown colour, but did not alter in 'ap-
pearance the rest of the contents.

Two days after I had collected a number of these globular
bodies and placed them in a watch-glass for observation, partly
in and partly out of their respective internodes, the green mass
in many had become divided up into four or more sacs, which
were ciliated like the parent one, and enclosed in a second trans-
parent spherical cell. These also rotated individually and en
masse, while the division appeared to have enabled them to
throw off the greater portion of the dark green pellets, now
become black, and lying loosely in a more or less flocculent state,
like effete matter, in the inner cell.

The third day the spherical cells had burst, and the ciliated
sacs, which averaged 1 -430th of an inch in diameter, were set
free in the water.

They now presented different appearances, according to their
contents, shape and motions. All were filled with a colourless,
granular mucus, charged with small vesicles, and each presented
also a large “ contracting vesicle.^^ In some there was left only
a trace of the dark matter, while in others there was a con-
siderable quantity, either in an undefined shape, or in small
globules. They presented both an undulatory motion of the
cell-wall, and a ciliary motion of its surface. Sometimes the
cilia were motionless, and lay like a halo of short radii round its
circumference, though the sac was otherwise gradually changing
its shape ; while at others there was no appearance of cilia at
all. On the other hand, sometimes the sac was rotating rapidly
under a globular form, with its wall undulating and cilia playing
over it with corresponding activity ; the rotation of the sac ap-
peared contrary to the movement of the cilia. Occasionally a
sac might be seen under an elongated, oblong form, with a
slowly undulatory change of shape at one end, and a languid
movement of the cilia on its surface generally ; again it might
be seen with mucus-radii spread out in the same way as those
of Actinophrys Sol.

It would, however, be endless to describe the forms which
these sacs presented ; but it is worthy of remark, that instead of
being like those of the Amoeba, they so closely resembled the
order of one-cellcd ciliated animalcules, many of which were
present in their largest forms, that, had it not been for the
dark matter mentioned, I should have frequently been unable
to determine the difference ; and I cannot help thinking it j)ro-
bable, that many of these quasi animalcules have their origin in

16 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Circulation of the

a similar way, and either germinate after having become sta-
tionary, or pass after a short time into dissolution, as the sacs
have hitherto done which I have just described.

I had forgotten also to mention, that there is frequently a
considerable space between the outer and inner spherical cell
just described ; and here, before the green mass has undergone
division, may frequently be seen one or more of the common-
sized gonidia, under their ciliated active form ; which, after the
division has taken place, passes into the diffluent one, when they
may be seen, on the contrary, creeping slowly over the inner
surface of the external spherical cell, in a polymorphic state.

The tenacity to life of the green matter and mucus-layer
after the death of the cell-wall is so great in the species of
Zygnema, to which I shall have occasion to allude presently,
that although all the filaments broke down from the destruction
and dissolution of the cell-wall a few days after they had been
placed in a basin of water for examination, the mucus-layer
continued to hold the spiral bands together, with but little
alteration, except in form and position, for three weeks after-
wards, when the whole began to break up into small parcels of
green matter, of variable sizes, below the 700th part of an inch
in diameter, each of which is now rounded wdth a mucus-in-
vestment that is carrying them about under the form of Actin-
ophrys Sol ; but wdth a halo of short cilia in many, immediately
round the circumference, in addition to the long radii. Whether
they will ultimately germinate, or their contents — now of a
bright yellowish-green, but still presenting a tint of brown in
it — pass into gonidia, time will show^ ; but from the brownish
tint, I should think the latter the most likely sequence.

Circulation.

What is commonly understood by the circulation in the
Characese,^^ is, that the cell-contents move round the internode ;
but this is a very vague idea of the phsenomenon. There is but
one part that moves, viz. the mucus-layer; and another part which
is circulated, namely the axial fluid ; while the green layer, so
long as it is uninjured, remains stationary.

The axial fluid, as before stated, is impelled by the uneven
surface of the mucus-layer, as may be seen by watching the
motion of a bunch of the raphides wfflen struck by one of the
mucus-prominences. It will then present not only an accelera-
tion of its progress, but, the force having been communicated to
the radiated crystals next the mucus-layer, causes it to rotate
backwards, or in the contrary direction to that in which it is
being transported. Hence, as I have before stated that the

17

Mucus-substance of the Cell in the Characese.

aggregations are most prominent midway between the lines of
repose, so the greatest impetus is given to the axial fluid and
its suspended bodies in this part, while at the sides, that is,
close to the lines of repose, it is remarkably slow. This was
the reason why Slack* thus designated them ; but he was
wrong when he conceived that the dark deflned surface of the
mucus-layer was a membrane which was flxed to these lines
throughout their course, and therefore divided the ascending
from the descending current, inasmuch as the opposite currents,
which are closely approximated at these parts of the internode,
frequently take from each other the particles which are lingering
along their direction, and thus whirl them backwards and for-
wards, or up and down, according to the position of the inter-
node, until, by chance, they get into a more powerful part of
the stream, and are then carried round the internode with the
rest, — which would not be the case if a partition existed along
the lines of repose.

Easy, however, as it is to describe the way in which the axial
fluid is circulated, it is not so easy to describe the property by
which the mucus-layer travels round the internode.

That Amici and Dutrochet should have ever considered the
green disks instrumental in any way in effecting this in the
internode of the stem, shows that neither of them recollected at
this time, that the mucus-layer moves round the internode of
the roots of the Charace?e in just the same manner, where there
are no green disks present ; while the total absence, or rare
occurrence, of gonidial cells in the internodes of the roots of
Characese, we now know to be an additional reason for inferring
the absence also of the green disks there, even if they were
present without their green colour to make them more visible.

That the green disk is occasionally seen to move per se, and
to rotate actively in situ, has been observed by others as well as
myselff; and the observations of Donne, confirmed by Dutrochet J,
prove, that under certain circumstances, viz. when in a globule
of the mucus-layer, they will rotate also out of the inter-
node ; but these are exceptions to the general rule. Again,
out of many scores of observations, I have seen only two in-
stances in which the green disk (in an old internode, where
most of the contents had passed into gonidial cells) presented
each a cilium ; also, on one other occasion, three green disks in
situ, in an internode where the circulation was going on rapidly,
j)resented each a short thick cilium in active motion ; but these,

* Trans. Soc. of Arts, vol. xlix. pt. 1, 1833.

t Varley, Trans. Soc. of Arts, vol. xlix. j)t. 2, 1833.

J Ann. (les Sc. Nat. 2*" Ser. t. x. 1838.

Ann. ^ May. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi.

2

18

Mr. H. J. Carter on the Circulation of the

again, may be conceived, from what I have stated, to be very
rare occurrences, and, as such, are only worth remembering.
The only change in the green disk which is frequently observed,
is its transition from its common elliptical to a circular form,
which generally accompanies a cessation of the circulation ; but
not always, for the former is sometimes seen when the circula-
tion has been permanently arrested, and the latter when it is
going on with great activity.

The contraction, however, of the green layer as a whole, when
the internode sustains even a slight injury, is worthy of notice.
The same thing takes place in Zygnema [nitidum^ mihi). On
one occasion, when testing the evacuated contents of a truncated
internode with tincture of iodine, I observed a fragment of the
green layer, which was projecting from the orifice of the inter-
node, to tremble rapidly when the iodine touched it; this
motion, after a few seconds, became rhythmical, and then slower
and slower, until it altogether ceased ; thus exhibiting the same
kind of convulsive motions as muscular fibre under similar
circumstances. When one end of an internode is truncated
with a sharp instrument, as before stated, the whole of the loose
contents rush out^ while the green layer remains within the
internode, but retracted both from the orifice and sides of the
cell- wall; and it is this contraction which appears to be the
principal agency in causing the rapid expulsion of the mucus-
layer, which I may here mention is every now and then drawn
back into the internode spasmodically, from a contraction, ap-
parently, of its own substance, and perhaps a momentary relaxa-
tion of the green layer at the same time. In what part of the
green layer this contractile power resides, I am not able to
state ; but as the green disks are appended to vesicles which
thus make up the green layer, and the irregular bodies of the
mucus layer, which appear to be almost identical with them,
have also an appended vesicle, which, a certain time after they
have been exposed to the water, contracts to such an extent as
to become undistinguishable from the irregular body itself, it
may be the contraction of the vesicles of the green disks which
produces the general contraction of the green layer.

Be this as it may, the movement which is the chief object of
our consideration here is that of the mucus-layer. It has already
been shown, that this is independent of the green layer ; and
this, combined with the power of polymorphism and locomotive
agency which it presents when investing the groups of green
disks preparatory to passing into the firm gonidial cell-wall,
seems conclusive of its possessing an inherent power of mobility
independent of any other influence, so long as it remains un-
altered, and within an uninjured internode. The movement of

19

Mucus-substance of the Cell in the Characese.

rotation may appear both peculiar and unaccountable ; but that
of the sponge-cell, when under progression, particularly in an
elongated form, is identical with it. If we watch the latter, we
shall see the granules that are attached to the upper part of the
cell move rapidly forwards until they arrive at the advancing
boundary, where they sink down, become stationary, and remain
there until the rest of the cell has passed over them, when they
again ascend from behind, and again are carried on to the an-
terior border ; and so on, as the cell progresses, after the manner
of a flexible wheel. Thus the mucus -layer in the internode of
Nitella rolls round an imaginary oblong axial plane, whose
edges correspond with the lines of repose, w^here, as a matter of
course, there is a long linear eddy, in which the mucus is almost
stationary, as well as the axial fluid and its particles immediately
beneath.

Were any further proof wanted of the independent contrac-
tion or movement of the mucus-layer, that might be cited which
I have mentioned when endeavouring to account for the con-
tractility of the green layer ; but, in addition to this, I have
seen the mucus-layer in an internode of the root of Chara
verticillatay when the rotatory movement has been returning
after having been arrested, stretch itself directly across the
internode, from one part where it had become aggregated into
a large mass. The jerking movements which are seen in this
mucus after it has been allowed to escape from the internode in
the way mentioned, seem to be owing to the successive bursting
of the vesicles with which it is filled ; but its diminution in bulk
is indicative of something more than common contractility.
Lastly, in the cells of the species of Zygnema mentioned, there
is not only a ceaseless irritable contractility exhibited in the
mucus-layer next the cell-wall, but also throughout the mucus-
threads suspending the cytoblast ; and although this motion is
not rotatory, which indeed it could hardly be, with the cytoblast
so suspended, yet here and there, and particularly against the
septa at the extremities of the cell, aggregations of granular
mucus, enclosing one or more faint yellow-coloured bodies, like
that of the cytoblast, frequently present themselves, which ai’e
as unceasingly active in their polymorphism (stretching out
their processes here and there) as any portions of Spongilla or
Amoeba that the eye meets with.

1 have since seen in the youngest, or terminal cell of a filament
of introverted Zygnema with single spiral band, a distinct but
very irregular travelling up and down of the mucus-layer,
exactly like that of the Characca3. It can only be seen in the
long delicate young cell, where the spiral band is stretched out,
and where the minute granules of the mucus are congregated to

2*

20 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia

such an extent as to indicate the presence of the moving trans-
parent protoplasm.

Thus the phsenomenon of motion in Zygnema, in Spongilla,
and in the CWacese being exhibited by the same kind of sub-
stance, in organisms so nearly allied, and in instances where
there is evidently no direct connexion between it and the parent
plant, leads me to view it in all as modifications of one common
property, and that property a vital endowment of the same
nature as contractility or power of motion generally throughout
the animal kingdom.

Bombay, January 1855.

Postsci'ipt. — Since this paper was written, I have taken a dif-
ferent view of the nature of the so-called gonidia in it, viz.
that they may be Infusoria, perhaps of the family Astasicea (Ehr.),
and that the ciliated sacs ” may have had a similar origin.

Contrary to what Pringsheim has stated (Ann. and Mag. Nat.
Hist. vol. xi. 1853, p. 294 et seq.) respecting the integrity of
the cells of Spirogyra, wherein he witnessed a similar process of
development of gonidia to that which I have described above in
Nitella, viz. that a supposition of such gonidia being foreign
structures, not belonging to the Spirogyra, would be an altogether
inadmissible hypothesis, since they are formed in the interior of
the closed filament-cells of the Spirogyrse, directly from their con-
tents,&c. ; — contrary also to what I have myself stated above
respecting the formation of the same kind of gonidia in the cells
of Nitella, and where I might have also added that the cell-wall
did not show any signs of decay or unsoundness until the

gonidia were developed in the one instance, and the ciliated
sacs in the other ; — I have nevertheless, from recent observa-
tions, been induced to doubt the correctness of this view.

While examining some filaments of Conferva in which the
cells had become divided into resting spores, I perceived that
one of the capsules was so far empty, that it contained nothing
but a single large Astasia, which was filled with the chlorophyll
and other granules of the spore, part of which had turned
brown ; and although the capsule of the spore was fresh and the
vaginal sheath of the filament unruptured, there was a small
round hole in one part passing through both that was not more
than the 1 -4300th of an inch in diameter, and about which the
Astasia was lingering for the purpose of making its exit, but
having gorged the whole of the contents of the spore, this was of
course impossible.

Here then was an infusorium with a transparent flask- shaped
sac terminated by a long cilium, distended by the granular con-
tents of the spore, and so incarcerated, that it must either die

from the Cell- contents of the Characese. 21

in the spore-capsule or pass into an ovarian sac and develope its
progeny much in the same manner as we have seen the gonidial
cells in the internode of Nitella. At all events, the hole by
which the Astasia entered was visible, and from its minuteness
indicated a very minute size of the Astasia originally compared
with that which it presented when I saw it.

Again, from Stein^s valuable observations on the development
of Vorticellce (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. ix. 1852, p. 471),
and latterly my own observations on this family, I can easily
conceive, from the extreme minuteness with which the germs
might leave the ovary of Vorticella, their rapid development
under favourable circumstances, and their multiplication by fissi-
paration and gemmation, even when barely changed from their
larval or infant, monadic form, how accidental holes may exist in
the internode of Nitella, or in the cell of Spirogijra, Cladophora,
or any other filamentous or thalloid Algse, large enough to
admit such germs and gemmse, and yet pass unnoticed by the
microscopist, though not by the voracious young of Infusoria.

Whenever a cell in the filamentous Algae shows by derange-
ment of the granular chlorophyll or gonimic contents that its
functions have ceased or become interrupted, several gonidia
similar to those developed in the cells of Nitella may be seen
swimming about it and trying to get into it, which they do
immediately the cell-wall gives way, and then fixing on its
mucus-contents devour them.

All this seems to point out that the so-called gonidial develop-
ment within the cells of Nitella is anything but spontaneous,
while it favours the view which I have now taken, that it is
infusorial.

But as we see the fragments of the contracted chlorophyll-
bands of Spirogyra retaining their freshness and greenness while
wrapped in their mucus, for weeks after the cell-wall has passed
into dissolution, a question may suggest itself, whether the con-
tents of a resting spore when quickly swallowed by an infu-
sorium which dies soon afterwards, might not germinate to a
certain extent, under such circumstances — the sac of the infu-
sorium supplying the place of the capsule of the spore. If so,
indeed, then an infusorium would ajter this manner appear to
develope a plant. On the other hand, if the chlorophyll turns
brown, that may be considered a sign of the death of the spore-
contents ; and if anything arise out of this, it must be viewed as
the ])rogcny of the infusorium, such as the so-called gonidia
appear to be which I had described above as developed from tlie
cell-contents of the Characeje.

This “postscripts^ will not invalidate the faets in my paper,
although it may afiect the reasoning, from tending to change

22

Mr. S. P. Woodward on the Animals of

our view of the nature of the gonidium so called therein, and
n^ake it an infusorium instead of a zoospore, of which much
more might be said in support if this were the place for it;
and although one of the facts brought forward in proof of the
independent movement of the mucus, was the polymorphism
and locomotion of the gonidial cells which it was supposed to
have composed, there are sufficient reasons left for my still re-
taining the opinion, that its contractility is not the effect of any
chemical process of nutrition that is going on in the cell, though
it may not be uninfluential as a physical agent in this process.

II. — Descriptions of the Animals of certain Genera of Conchifera.
By S. P. Woodward, Esq., F.G.S.

My dear Sir,

I HEREWITH send you some more figures of the animals of cer-
tain genera of Bivalve shells {Conchifera), which Mr. Woodward
has made for me, and the notes he has appended to them.

These animals have been shortly noticed by me in my paper
on the Arrangement of Bivalves in the ^ Annals,^ vol. xiv. p. 21.

I am, my dear Sir, yours truly,

J. E. Gray.

Dr. Francis.

Solen {Cultellus?) Javanicus. Singapore.

Mantle-lobes united, covered with wrinkled epidermis ; siphons
very short, fringed ; no ventral orifice ; pedal opening terminal.
Foot straight, compressed, truncated, attached by small suspen-

a, a\ adductor muscles ; /, liver ; h, heart ; p, palpi.

sors — two beneath the hinge, and two in front of posterior ad-
ductor. Palpi very large, oblong, pointed, attached lengthwise.
Gills long, narrow, equal, plaited transversely. A long curved
portion of the intestine lies close to the left side, bordering the
])alpi.

[This is a species of the genus Pharus. — J. E. G.]

23

certain Genera of Conchifera.

Glauconome rugosa, Philippines.

Mantle-margins plain, united ; pedal opening anterior, rather
large. Siphons longer than the shell, moderately thick, united
nearly to their ends, retracted, by inversion at half-length, into
the branchial cavity, where they project beyond the centre of the

a', a, adductor muscles ; p, p, pedal muscles ; r, retractor of siphons ;
b, c, pedal opening.

shell ; orifices fringed. Foot moderately large, thick, linguiform,
heeled; suspensor muscle attached close to, but distinct from,
the adductors. Palpi very large, broadly falciform. Gills two
on each side, long and plaited, rounded in front, the outer pair
shorter and furnished with a plaited dorsal flap.

In G. curta the siphons are much shorter and more deeply
divided; the branchial was introverted at its extremity in the
specimen examined.

Anomia ephippium.

Animal unsymmetrical ; mouth and byssus twisted to the
right side. Mantle quite open, except for a space of five lines at
the hinge ; its margin double, slightly fringed (no ocelli) . Gills
two on each side, unsymmetrical (the right pair shortest in
front), very delicate, flat (destitute of internal partitions or gill-
tubes), crescent-shaped, tapering to a point and united poste-
riorly ; suspended by two falciform membranes (m) forming three
dorsal channels, the lateral incomplete; outermost gill-laminse
free at the dorsal edge, and furnished with a broad reflected mar-
gin or supplementary gill (r, r) ; innermost laminae also unat-
tached, but united to each other throughout their length, the
united edges passing to the left side of the body in front. Mouth
on the under side, between the ligament and byssal plug. Lips
narrow, plain, longest on the right side, confluent with the gills ;
[palpi obsolete). Foot small, cylindrical, expanded at the end
and grooved, suj)ported by two muscles from the left valve.
Byssus large, laminar, passing through a nearly com])letc fora-
men in the right mantle-lobe, and attached by a powerful muscle

24

Mr. S. P. Woodward on the Animals of

to the centre of the left valve. Adductor moderate, indistinctlv
composed of two elements ; pallial line continuous. Sexes di-

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2. Fig. 3.

Fig. 1 . Animal lying in its upper {left) valve ; right mantle-lobe turned
back in front.

Fig. 2. Animal in right valve, with left mantle-lobe removed.

Fig. 3. Section of gills.

/, ligament ; o, mouth ; /, foot ; u, anterior ; p', posterior pedal
muscles; p,p, byssusand byssal muscle; a, adductor; v, ventricle;
i, rectum ; generative organ ; m, gill-suspensors ; r, r, reflected
gill-margins.

25

certain Genera of Conchifera.

stinct ; generative organs combined with the right mantle-lobe.
Ventricle exposed, not perforated by the rectum.

There is an admirable memoir on the structure of Anomia by
Dr. Lacaze-Duthiers, in the Ann. Sc. Nat. 1854, t. ii. p. 1, with
tigures. These and some drawings by Mr. Albany Hancock
have been compared with the example here represented.

[This description differs in many particulars from that given
by Mr. Clark in the ‘ British Marine Mollusca.^ — J. E. G.]

Placuna placenta. Singapore.

Animal nearly symmetrical, free (or attached by a byssus when
very young). Mantle quite open, its margin fringed with large
and small cirri, and furnished with an inner pendent border.
Adductor round, subcentral. Gills as in Anomia, their outer
margins grooved. Pallial muscle reduced to two fasciculi in

Right valve with the animal, as seen on removing the left mantle-lobe.
/, ligament; c, cartilage; p, pedal muscle;/, foot; h, liver; g, gene-
rative gland; v, ventricle ; a, adductor; i, rectum ; 6, 6, branchio-
pallial muscles.

front of, and one behind, the adductor. Pedal muscle minute,
anterior, attached to the upper (left) valve. Foot small, cylin-
drical, tubular (very extensile ?). Lips short and wide, becoming
striated inside near the gills. Generative organ and rectum
attached to the right mantle-lobe. Ventricle exi)osed, not ])cr-
forated.

It will be seen by the figures that Placuna is essentially like
Anomia ; both are very different from Ostrea, and more like tlui

26 On the Animals of certain Genera of Conchifera,

Scallops. Carolia [Hemiplacuna) is a Placuna with the hinge
and byssus of Anomia ; Placunomia has no pedal muscle, like
Placuna sella ; whilst Anomia pernoides has an anterior pedal sac
in each valve , as pointed out by Dr. Gray.

Anatina subrostrata, Philippines.

Mantle-margins united ; no ventral orifice ; pedal opening quite
anterior, minute. Siphons united, thick, not entirely retractile
into the shell, covered with rugose epidermis j orifices small

a, a', adductors ; g, single gill ; o, cavity of ossicle ; I, liver ; h, palpi : the
termination of the alimentary canal in the exhalent siphon is indicated
by dotted lines.

(fringed?). Foot very small, compressed. Gills one on each
side, long, narrow, very thick and deeply plaited, furrowed at
the lower edge, not continued into the branchial siphon ; dorsal
border free, nearly as wide as the gill. Palpi very long, narrow,
free, striated inside.

Modiolarca trapezina. Falkland Islands.
Mantle-lobes united, leaving only three small, subequal ori-

a, a', adductors ; p,p', pedal muscles ; /, pedal opening ; I, liver; the gill-
tubes are distended with spawn.

fices, the intersj)aces with two rows of cirri ; branchial opening

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 27

with a fringed border, the others plain. Anterior adductor muscle
larger than the posterior. Foot with a small flat sole, crenulated
at the edge, deeply grooved behind and byssiferous; pedal
muscles small in front, large behind, close to the adductors.
Palpi very small. Gills oblong, finely striated ; the outer ones
not quite so deep, furnished with a dorsal border, their free edge
grooved only in the middle.

This remarkable shell, which resembles the Palseozoic Modio-
lopsis in the large size of the anterior adductor, is found attached
by its byssus to floating weed in many parts of the Southern
Ocean.

III. — Notes on some new or little-known Marine Animals.

By Philip Henry Gosse, A.L.S.

[With two Plates.]

(Fascis II.*)

Class ARACHNIDA.

Order Acarina. Fam. Oribatad^.

Genus Halacarus (mihi).

Body covered above with a well-defined shield, either entire or
transversely sulcated ; under surface divided across the middle :
rostrum head-like, consisting of a bulbous lip tapering to a point,
divided longitudinally beneath, allowing the protrusion of a pair
of slender filiform mandibles ; palpi terminated by a fang-like
unguis : feet cursorious, tipped with two falcate ungues ; di-
rected two forward and two backward ; thighs remote. Marine.
Name from aX?, the sea, and aKapi, a mite.

Sp. 1. H. rhodostigma (mihi). Plate HI. figs. 1-5.

Body divided above and below ; claw of palpus slender, little
curved ; legs nearly equal ; thighs of first pair ventricose ; claws
of all simple ; whole surface minutely punctured.

Description. — Length of an inch from anus to tip of

rostrum ; colour pellucid whitish, stained with pale red on the
anterior half ; above and below studded with punctures, which,
under a high power, take the form of rosettes (whence the specific
name, from poSov, a rose, and arLypg, a point), or the spots on a
])anthcr^s coat (fig. 4) ; the punctures are conspicuous on the
first thighs, hut arc scarcely visible on the other limbs. The

* Fasc. 1. appeared in the ‘Annals’ for Aiignst 185‘3.

28 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals.

haunches are moderately distant at their origin, springing from
the margin of the body, the shield being notched to give them
exit ; the third joint of the legs is the largest, much swollen in
the first pair (fig. 1) ; the fifth is also large, and the sixth (the
terminal one) is long, but slender, tapering abruptly from the
middle ; the claws (fig. 5) are simple hooks, much curved, neither
pectinated nor tipped with an accessory piece, but the joint
from which they spring is tipped with two nearly parallel styles :
the legs are equal in length.

The shield of the body above is subtruncate in front, but pro-
jects in a small medial point (fig. 2) ; its general form is long-
oval, with a transverse sulcus at the origin of the second legs ;
this sulcus, however, does not extend across the whole breadth,
being met on each side by a bent longitudinal sulcus, which cuts
off a wing-like portion, on which is seated a large crescent-
shaped dark eye. Below, the body has two transverse divisions
(fig. 1) ; one at the origin of the first legs, another at the origin
of the third ; these two impart the aspect of the division into
head, thorax and abdomen, of a beetle : there is also a narrow
longitudinal portion separated on each side.

The rostrum (fig. 3) forms a thick bulb tapering to a point,
from which during life I observed two apparently soft, fiexible,
filiform, divergent organs (mandibles ?) protruded and retracted
(fig. 1). At a strong shoulder on each side of the rostrum,
about one-third from its point, is articulated a palpus of four
joints, of which the second is by far the largest ; the terminal
one is a style, slightly curved, pointed, and furnished near the
base with two strong bristles on the inner side, and one on the
outer. All the joints of the legs are armed with a few short
bristles. The vulva (fig. 1) occupies a large oval area at the hind
part of the venter, and the anus is terminal.

This little species is not uncommon at Weymouth, among sea-
weeds from low-water-mark ; and I find it in my tanks, crawling
up the glass, always immersed ; doubtless introduced with weed-
covered stones.

Sp. 2. H. ctenopus (mihi). Plate III. figs. 6-10.

Body divided below only; claw of palpus a stout pointed
hook ; hind legs longest, but otherwise alike ; claws of all pecti-
nate ; whole surface smooth.

Description. — Length of body to tip of rostrum y^nd of an
inch ; colour dark -red above with a white line down the centre
of the back ; under parts cream-white, very satiny ; legs trans-
parent-corneous. The shield of the u])per parts (PI. 111. fig. 6)
is entire, nearly oval, but projecting into a point over the rostrum ;

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 29

its margins are sinuated and notched at the emission of the legs,
and the excavations at those parts are still more strongly marked
on the under surface. Beneath (fig. 7) there is a transverse
sulcus opposite the origin of the third pair of legs, but bent for-
ward on each side to the second pair ; a longitudinal bent sulcus
exists on each side, whose limits are undefined. The vulva and
anus are both on the under surface, the latter small and situated
behind the former, which is large and oval, and both are enclosed
in an oval area.

The rostrum (fig. 8) is a globose bulb, drawn out to a more
lengthened point than in the former species, its tip extending to
the third joint of the palpi. The palpi (fig. 9) are usually pro-
jected parallel to the rostrum, but are capable of divergence ;
the joints have nearly the same relation to each other as in
H. rhodostigma ; but the third bears a stout spur-like spine on
its inner face ; and the fourth, which is stout at the base, much
curved inward and acute, is armed with another spine, but
longer and more slender, which likewise points inward and
forward.

The legs (fig. 6) are consimilar, except in length ; the first
and second being to the length of the body as 4^ to 5^, the
third and fourth as 6| to 5 1 ; hence the hind pairs are just half
as long again as the fore pairs. The coxae of the first and second
originate close together, but the others are remote from them
and from each other. The joints are nearly cylindrical, but di-
minish slightly to the last, which bears two very moveable sickle-
shaped ungues. Each unguis (PI. III. fig. 10) has an accessory
piece set on the under side of its extremity, and is strongly pec-
tinated all along its concave edge. Hence the name, from Kreh,
a comb, and ttoi/?, a foot.

No eyes w^ere visible, unless a black speck on each side of the
bulb of the rostrum was an eye, which I much doubt, from the
position of the conspicuous organs of vision in the former spe-
cies. Found (a single specimen) with the preceding.

MTiether either of these species has been described before I
cannot certainly say. Fabricius (Spec. Insect, ii. 491; ed. Hamb.
1781) has included two Norwegian marine Mites, Acarus zosterce
and A. fucorum, which he briefly describes; — the former as
A. subrotundus, albidus, abdomine rufo the latter as ‘^A. pal-
lidus, lineis duabus flexuosis nigris, pedibus posticis brevissimis
incurvis.^^ Meagre as these characters are, they are sufficient to
show that neither of my species was intended.

M. Paul Gervais in his ^Apteres^ (iii. 253) mentions that
M. Hujardin had described a marine Oribates, in the ^ Journ. de
Plnstitut^ for 1842; but he has not given the characters, and I

30 Mr. P. H. Gosse on nevj or little-known Marine Animals.

have not been able to find any trace of such a species in the
^ Comptes Rendus ^ for that period.

The only British marine Mite yet recognized, so far as I am
aware, is the Halarachne halichoeri of Professor Allman, which
is widely different from these in form and habit, being parasitic
within the nostrils of a Seal.

The form now described I cannot refer to any of the published
genera : the dorsal shield seems to locate it among the Oriba-
tadce, and near to Belba and Galumna] but in the form and
structure of the rostrum, there is a curious affinity with Raphi-
gnathus among the Trombidiadce.

Class CRUSTACEA.

Order Podosomata. Earn. Pycnogonid.e.

Genus Phoxichilidium (M.-Edw.).

P. olivaceum (mihi). Plate III. figs. 12, 13.

Rostrum thickened at each extremity, hollowed in the middle,
frds as long as first joint of mandibles ; the portion of the first
segment of body anterior to the first pair of legs, about as long
as rostrum ; fourth joint of first pair of legs dilated ; all the legs
four times as long as the body ; colour olive.

This species is perhaps one of the many British forms of this
family, which Leach says were in his possession, but which he
had not had an opportunity of determining. I found it at Wey-
mouth, in the low spring-tides of April. The characters above
given are those in which the specimen differed conspicuously
from the P. coccineum of Dr. Johnston, by comparison with his
figures in the ^Mag. of Zool. and Bot.^i. pi. 13. My specimen
was Jth of an inch in length, exclusive of the members ; a female,
bearing the globose egg-masses that characterize the genus.
Pig. 12 represents it of the nat. size; and fig. 13, the fore-parts
magnified.

Order Edriophthalma. Earn. Cyamid^.

Genus Cyamus (Eabr.).

C. Thompsoni (mihi). Plate III. fig. 11.

Body about ^th of an inch in length. Eive pairs of feet equally
developed ; all 5 -jointed ; all with the penultimate joint large and
ovate. Third and fourth segments each furnished with a single
small oval appendage.

This species was obtained by Mr. Wm. Thompson of M^ey-
mouth, after whom I have named it. It was attached to one of

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-knovm Marine Animals. 31

two specimens of Hyperoodon bidens, the capture of which in
Portland Roads was recorded in the ^Annals of Nat. Hist.^ for
November 1854. Pour species of Cyamus are enumerated by
M. Milne-Edwards in his ^Hist. Nat. des Crustaces ^ (iii. 113),
from all of which this specimen differs signally. Indeed that
eminent carcinologisPs resume of the generic characters must be
modified to include this species, which yet is an indubitable
Cyamus. The first pair of feet,^^ he observes, “ are difficult to
perceive when we look at the animal from above ; — they are com-
posed of five joints, and are terminated by a minute sub-cheliform
hand, slightly oval. The second pair are very large, hooked, and
composed of only four distinct pieces.^^ Now in this new spe-
cies, the first pair do not differ either in form or size from the
second, third, fourth or fifth pair ; the hand is as stout, as ovate,
and the claw as strong and as much hooked as in the second
pair, while this latter pair are composed of five joints as distinct
as in the others, and in no wise differing from them.

Class ANNELIDA.

Order Ch^topoda. Pam. Nereid^e.

Genus Syllis (Sav.).

Sp. 1. S. tubifex (mihi).

Head lobed ; post-occipital segment equal to the following ;
antennse moniliform ; tentacular cirri antenniform ; feet lobed,
armed with one pencil of hooked setae ; superior cirrus shorter
than the breadth of the segment, not moniliform : animal fissi-
parous, minute, inhabiting a membranous tube.

Description. — Body ^rd of an inch long, dirty-white, composed
of about forty-five segments.

Head small, the lobes well developed and deeply divided,
clothed with short hairs. Eyes large, widely diverging ; those
of each lateral pair about equal in size, and placed so close as to
be sometimes in contact. Antennae three, moniliform, clothed
with short bristles ; the central one nearly twice as long as the
others, composed of about twenty-five well-marked joints ; the
outer pair having about twelve each.

Proboscis long, the outer portion about -f the length of the
inner. Prontal margin of outer part serrated ; inner part covered
witli small oval tubercles, set closely in quincunx, and in trans-
verse rows.

Post-occipital segment not larger than the rest ; furnished
with two tentacular cirri on each side, of which the upper is
about twice as long as the lower, equalling respectively the an-

32 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals,

tennse. Those of the two following segments are similar in
length and structure, being all antenniform.

Segments slightly incised, much broader than long. Foot
short, subconical, obtuse, and divided at the tip into three or
four lobes ; armed with a bundle of bristles, each of which bears
a terminal hook very freely jointed on an oblique knob. Supe-
rior cirrus shorter than the breadth of the segment, tapering,
not moniliform. Inferior cirrus scarcely projecting beyond the
foot, ovate and leaf-like.

The bundles of hooked bristles consist of about sixteen each,
but those near the tail appear to have only about twelve. I can-
not find any accessory pencil of fine hairs by the closest pressure ;
but the long slender pair of internal plates are present.

The internal surface of the head-lobes is clothed with vibratile
cilia, by the action of which a strong uniform current is drawn
into the mouth. The current passing down along the antennae
may at first be supposed to be produced by cilia on these organs,
but I could not detect any on close examination. The inferior
surface of each foot is also strongly ciliated, and vortices are
produced on each of these organs, the whole forming a powerful
current from head to tail.

This is one of the species that increase by spontaneous divi-
sion from the posterior portion of the body. There was, at the
tail of the specimen described, an incipient young one of about
five or six segments, triangular in its general form and little de-
veloped, but well separated, by an incision, from the parent.

This species I frequently found in my glass jars of sea-water
at Ilfracombe, especially in those in which I was keeping the
Hydroid zoophytes. It climbs to the surface, and then along
the very edge of the water, forms a slender membranous tube
attached to the glass, open at each end, within which it dwells.
If touched at either extremity, it issues forth at the other with
much agility, wriggling its segments in lateral undulations. No
drawing was made of this species.

Sp. 2. S, longiseta (mihi). Plate IV. figs. 14-21.

Head not lobed ; antennae short, not moniliform ; no tenta-
cular cirri; feet obtuse, simple, armed with two pencils of
bristles, of which the inferior are twice the breadth of the seg-
ments; superior and inferior cirri equal, minute; inhabits a
membranous tube. (Fig. 14, nat. size; 15, magnified.)

Description. — Head round, not distinctly lobed (fig. 16) ;
three antennae, slightly fusiform, not moniliform, shorter than
the breadth of the head, set in a transverse line : four eyes,
brick-red, reniform, the inner pair set a little behind the outer,
and rather smaller : no tentacles or tentacular cirri.

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 33

Segments about thirty-eight, nearly alike in size, but those of
the middle parts more separable ; diminishing abruptly at the
tail.

Feet slightly developed for the first five or six segments ;
thence thick, with a semi-oval lobe projecting from the upper
portion (PL IV. figs. 17 & 20), from which protrudes a fan-like
pencil of bristles, which are short (about as long as the foot),
slightly curved, consisting of a slender shaft with a terminal
notched knob, bearing a short curved blade set in the notch ;
this blade is longer in the upper bristles (fig. 18) of the pencil
than in the lower ones (fig. 19). The lower pencil (figs. 17 &
21) consists of very long, simple, finely-pointed bristles (about
twice as long as the breadth of the body), which project laterally
or posteriorly, and are not retractile ; these long bristles do not
appear till the 10th segment, and disappear at the 32nd.

The tail consists of two fusiform appendages, much resembling
the antennse, about half as long as the greatest width of the
body.

Colour hyaline, slightly tinged with yellow. Total length
^th of an inch.

Found at Weymouth on the side of a glass in which I had
placed a tuft of Rhytiphloia. It makes a gelatinous tube attached
to the glass (fig. 14), in w^hich it moves freely backwards and
forwards by means of its long seta3.

Order Ch^etopoda. Fam. Sabelladje.

Genus Othonia (Johnston).

Gill-fans two, composed of several soft, thick, curled-inward,
pectinated, ciliated stems set like a star around the mouth : body
composed of twelve to thirty-five segments, all furnished with
lateral pencils of bristles, but without hooks. Animal inhabits
a membranous tube, open at both ends, which it often forsakes.

The discovery of two other species of this genus renders ne-
cessary a revision of the generic characters ; as some of those
enumerated by Dr. Johnston (LoudoiTs Mag. N. II. viii. 183)
are merely those of the single species then known, O. Fabricii.

Sp. 1. O. Fabricii (Johnst.). Plate IV. fig. 22.

Segments fourteen ; first and last with a pair of eye-like spots :
pinnse of gills graduated in length ; bristles simple.

Description. — Head with two well-defined eyes, and a ring of
vibratile uncinate cilia. Gill-fans wrinkled; pinnated; thcpinnje
long, and so graduated that the tips arc level ; they often curl

Ann. May. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 3

34 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals,

inward at the tips ; their colour is a clear green. Segments four-
teen, all but the last two furnished on each side with a pencil of
stiff long bristles, few, converging to their tips, deeply seated,
nearly straight, but curved forward at the points, simple ; wholly
retractile. Last segment round, with a pair of well-defined eye-
like spots.

Length y^th of an inch.

This little species is common at Weymouth, coming out of
tufts of Rhytiphlcea pinastroides when these are kept in glass
vases. The little Annelid crawls up the side of the glass, often
going tail-foremost; a curious fact, when considered in con-
nexion with the eye-like spots on the last segment, which cannot
be distinguished from the true eyes of the anterior extremity.

It is possible that this may be the immature condition of one
of the succeeding species. The ring of uncinate cilia suggests
youth.

Sp. 2. O. Bairdii (mihi). Plate IV. figs. 23, 24.

Segments above thirty, without eye-spots at either extremity ;
gills each composed of five or six stems, set with a double row
of short pinnae : bristles with an oval expansion at their base.

Description, — Gill-fans two, ample, each consisting of five (or
six) stems divided almost to the base, each set with a double row
of short ciliated pinnae, not graduated, curling inwards in a
plumose manner. Segments (in the specimen described) thirty-
four, all but the last two with pencils of bristles ; three in each
pencil (fig. 24) very short, finely-pointed, with an oval blade-like
dilatation at the base of each. The segments diminish quickly
but gradually to the last, which forms a blunt point, and is un-
spotted. No eyes are visible on the head, nor any ring of cilia.

Length ^ih of an inch ; colour whitish-green, opaque ; gill-fans
hyaline.

A single specimen was found with the preceding, at Wey-
mouth, in April. I have dedicated the species to my esteemed
friend. Dr. William Baird of the British Museum.

Sp. 3. O. Johnstoni (mihi). Plate IV. figs. 25-28.

Segments above thirty, without eye-spots; gills each of about
sixteen stems, some of which are simple, others set with gra-
duated pinnse : bristles with an expansion near the tip.

Description, — The gill-fans are composed of many (about
sixteen) stems, some of which are quite simple, others set with
numerous long, but graduated pinnje in two rows, and others in
an intermediate condition, the pinnae being rudimentary or
short (fig. 26). The stems (fig. 28) are hollow, with close-set
transverse lines {septa ?) ; and the pinnae are covered with small

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 35

vibratile cilia. These fans are very deciduous, for, in captivity,
I have seen the animals voluntarily throw off in succession more
than a dozen of the stems, separating them at the base : probably
they are renewable, as I know to be the case, from repeated
observations, in Sabella.

Segments about thirty-three ; nearly equal, except that they
diminish rapidly at the posterior extremity, tapering somewhat
abruptly to a blunt point. All but the last two are furnished
with graduated pencils of bristles, about eight or ten in each
pencil. In those of the anterior segments the bristles are of
two forms (fig. 27), the shorter consisting of a slender, acutely-
pointed stem, which is dilated near the tip into an oval plate,
through the centre of which the stem passes ; the longer ones
are of essentially the same structure, but the dilatation is gra-
dual and elongate, and therefore blade-like or lanceolate. Both
kinds end in finely-drawn points, which are much curved. To-
wards the hinder part of the body all the bristles take the latter
form.

The animal throws off at will a transparent gelatinous mem-
brane, which forms a tube just large enough to hold its body,
and the sides of which are pushed out by the bristles during
their movements.

Length i an inch ; colour greenish-white.

I have named this species after Dr. George Johnston, who
may be called the father of our marine invertebrate zoology. It
is the most common of the three at Weymouth, being found
abundantly in shells and stones, dense sea-weeds, &c., from tide-
marks and deep water.

Class POLYZOA.

Order Infundibulata. Fam. VKSicuLARiADiE.

Genus Nolella (mihi).

Cells erect, subcylindrical, springing singly, but closely, from
an undefined polymorphous incrusting mat ; tentacles eighteen,
forming a bell. Name from nola, a little bell.

N. stipata (mihi). Plate IV. fig. 29.

Cells about ^^^th of an inch long, whitish, sub-opaque.

I found this species numerous in mats on the fronds of Phyl-
lophora rubens, dredged between the Abergavenny and Portland
Breakwater, in Weymouth Bay. It is very near Bowerbankia,
but the number of its tentacles distinguishes it from all recog-
nized genera, except Avenella (Dalyell), from which, however, it

3*

36 Mr. C. Spence Bate on the Homologies of the Carapace

totally differs in habit and form. The opacity of the cell pre-.
vented me from discerning whether it has a gizzard.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES III. and IV.

Plate III.

Fig. 1. Halacarus rhodostigma, magnified, ventral surface.

— 2. Ibid, dorsal surface of trunk.

— 3. Ibid, rostrum and palpi.

— 4. Ibid, punctures of surface.

— 5. Ibid, ungues of foot.

— 6. H. ctenopus, magnified, dorsal surface.

— • 7. Ibid, ventral surface.

— 8. Ibid, rostrum and palpi.

— 9. Ibid, right palpus.

— 10. Ibid, one unguis of a foot.

— 11. Ci/amws magnified, ventral surface.

— 12. Phoxichilidium olivaceum, nat. size.

— 13. Ibid, fore-parts magnified.

Plate IV.

Fig. 14. Syllis longiseta, in its tube, nat. size.

— 15. Ibid, magnified.

— 16. Ibid, head, somewhat laterally.

— 17. Ibid, a right foot seen from behind.

— 18, 19. Ibid, setae of the upper pencil.

— 20. Ibid, a middle segment, from above.

— 21. Ibid, the same, from below.

— 22. Othonia Fabricii> magnified.

— 23. O. Bairdii, magnified.

— 24. Ibid, a pencil of setae, more enlarged.

— 25. O. Johnstoni, nat. size.

— 26. Ibid, magnified (middle segments omitted).

— 27. Ibid, bristles of two forms.

— 28. Ibid, a portion from a stem of the gills, with two pinnae.

— 29. Nolella stipata, magnified.

IV.~Ow the Homologies of the Carapace and on the Structure and
Function of the Antennm in Crustacea. By C. Spence Bate,
F.L.S. &c.*

[With two Plates.]

In the class Crustacea the most auterior articulation is that
w^hich supports the eyes. This is shown most conspicuously in
the genus Squilla, in which animal it is united by a free joint
with the next succeeding ; but if this lucid example were want-
ing, the relative position of the ophthalmic ring in advance of
any of the rest is clearly manifest in the larva and pupa stages
of the Decapoda.

Dissection moreover leads to the same conclusion. Upon

* Communicated by the author, having been read at the Linnaean Society,
April 17, 1855.

and on the Function of the Antennce in Crustacea. 37

laying bare the cephalic ganglion^ we find that the two anterior
branches of nerves pass to the eyes, the central being the motor
oculij the outer the ophthalmic, and lead direct to the organs
of vision.

In all the higher tribes, except the aberrant family of Dia-
stylidce (Say) [Cumaoi M. Milne-Edwards), the eyes are borne on
moveable pedicles. In the Brachyura the ring which bears these
pedicles is free, but unlike Squilla, instead of being seen distinctly
in advance of the animal, it is enclosed within and covered by
the anterior portion of the carapace ; I say that it is covered by,
and not absorbed into, the structure of the integument which
forms the anterior portion of the external skeleton of these
animals.

If we throw off the carapace we shall find that the calcareous
representation (PL I. fig. I a) of the ophthalmic ring occupies a
position between and connecting the two eyes, lodged in a fossa
(PL I. fig. 2 w) formed by the interspace between the dorsal and
ventral arches of the second ring, the superior antennal, which
arches approximate in the Brachyura so closely, that, as in the
genus Cancer, they meet in front of and enclose the ophthalmic
ring, leaving the point of union visible only by a distinct suture
(PL I. fig. 3 d). Thus the ophthalmic ring is covered by and
not fused with the rest of the testaceous skeleton ; — it therefore
takes no part in the development of the carapace of the Decapod
Crustacea.

The superior antennse succeed the eyes, and with the excep-
tion of the genus Squilla, the ring which supports them is always
fused with the succeeding, the inferior antennal. These two
form a closely associated part in the anterior structure of the
animal, and together build up the whole of that portion of the
carapace which is in advance of the cervical suture, and which,
I think, I shall be able to show, forms almost the whole of the
carapace in the Brachyura, — half of the same in Macroura, — and
that it lessens in importance as the animal descends in the scale
of nervous centralization.

If we turn our attention to the lower forms, we find that in the
Cuma and other allied genera of the Diastylidce, the eye (for the
two coalesce so as to form but one) is developed nearly in the
centre of the carapace ; but this appearance is only the result of
the great development of the lateral angles of the carapace,
which meet in front and form what appears like a rostrum ;
they never unite, but are distinctly separated through the centre
of the so-called rostrum, as well as on either side of that portion
which sup])orts the antennal rings, which occupies a small island
as it were in the centre of the carapace (PL I. figs. 4, 5 & 6).

The fact which dissection has enabled us distinctly to make

38 Mr. C. Spence Bate on the Homologies of the Carapace

out^ that the small central patch bears the two antennae, that
the external angles of the carapace which pass in front and
surround it posteriorly, carry the mandibles, demonstrates the
relation of one portion of the carapace to the other, and that the
line of separation round the antennal centre homologizes with the
cervical suture of the Macroura.

The constant position of this suture in all Crustacea when
present is the same, and forms a line of demarcation between
the third and the fourth rings, and therefore visible in its posi-
tion external to the inferior antennse; and M. Milne-Edwards is
most assuredly wrong when he attributes the depressions on the
earapace, which terminate in the central notch of the orbits of
the Brachyura, to be the representatives of the cervical suture of
the Macroura,

If we wish to judge of its position in the Brachyura, it is but
just that we should make a careful investigation of the structure
of the animal in its immature condition. In the so-called pupa
stage of the Crab, we find that the inferior antennse are attached
to the extreme horns of the carapace (PI. I. fig. 7), but these
horns are folded beneath the animal ; it is this reflexion which
afterwards forms the orbit in which the eye is lodged.

The position of the antenna, anchylosed as it is with the der-
mal skeleton in all^^the Brachyura, still holds the same, therefore
by inversion the cervical suture must be interiorly inside, but
still within the limits of the carapace ; such a suture is plainly
demonstrable in most of the Brachyura (PI. I. fig. 10, and
PI. II. fig. I), and separates the inferior antennal (a) from the
mandibular ring {h) ; it extends posteriorly to the extreme
limits of the carapace, forming as it were two side pieces, the
epimerals of M. Milne-Edwards: this line unquestionably homo-
logizes with the cervical suture of the Macroura.

If we turn our attention to the develqpment of the nervous
system in these various animals, we shall find that centralization
decreases in an inverse ratio with the development of that por-
tion of the carapace which is posterior to the cervical suture, and
vice versa, that centralization is most perfect when that portion
of the carapace which is anterior to the cervical suture is largest.

In the Brachyura the nervous ganglia are in the highest de-
gree consolidated, and in the Spider Crabs the most perfect cen-
tralization exists j there we shall find that the cervical suture,
the line of union between the inferior antennal and mandibular
rings, is so lateral, that the two side pieces of the incomplete
mandibular ring are reduced to much less importance than is to
be found in any other tribe of the whole class. In the genus
Cancer, &c. the line of union remains but partially anchylosed,
and splits when the animal throws off its exuvife.

39

and on the Function of the Antennce in Crustacea.

In the Galatheadce, the development of the mandibular ring
shows a closer approximation to the Brachyura than to the Ma-
croura, in which latter the tw^o antennal rings occupy but one-half
of the whole carapace, the mandibular ring furnishing the re-
mainder; whereas the Baguridce assimilate closer in the deve-
lopment of the same portion to the Macroura, — a circumstance in
its position among Crustacea corroborated by the fact, that pre-
vious to their taking possession of the shell of the mollusca, they
exhibit all the characteristics of a perfect Macroura. Here, when
the nervous centre commences its first tendency to separate into
numerous distinct but less important ganglia, we find those
rings which carry distinct organs of sense, and furnished by
nervous filaments from the cephalic ganglion, decrease in a rela-
tive proportion to the rest of the animal : this, which we see very
apparent in the Macroura, is carried to the greatest extent in the
DiastylidcB, where the carapace is constructed almost wholly of
the mandibular ring, having but a small area in the centre
which bears the antennae. And more, the carapace extends pos-
teriorly so as to envelope only the Gnathopods ; the rest of the
thorax being complete in the development of each separate ring.

Lower in the scale we find that the whole thorax, including
the Gnathopods, is perfect in its distinction from the cephalic ring,
which latter is so reduced in importance as to differ little in ap-
pearance from that of a single ring ; whereas consolidation still
remains, and embraces wuthin the compass of this one ring the
whole of the seven anterior.

But we have seen in the descending scale of nervous force the
rings which carry the organs of consciousness degenerate in im-
portance, and yield to a corresponding development of the man-
dibular ring ; this law appears still to be in force in the Amphi-
poda, the lowest type of the Macroura form, in which I am
inclined to believe that the mandibular ring represents the whole
of the upper portion of the cephalic articulation ; the anterior
three being so diminished in importance, that they are to be
found only in the perpendicular anterior wall of the head *, or
perhaps represented by their appendages only.

Since the present paper was eomrnunicated to the Linnsean
Society, the author has had the opportunity, through the
kindness of ^Ir. J. Lubboek, of perusing Dana^s great work on
Crustaeea, and it is but just he should state, that the conclusions,
which careful and long-continued observation of the homologies

* An example of which may be seen in the manner in wliich the two
first joints of the external antennae are absorbed in the frontal asj)ect of
Talitra ; a circumstance overlooked by naturalists, who have invariably de-
scribed this genus as having but three instead of the constant five articu-
lations to the peduncle of the inferior antennae.

40 Mr. C. Spence Bate on the Homologies of the Carapace

of tlie carapace of Crustacea had induced him to arrive at, are in
some of the most important points anticipated in the work of
the United States^ Exploring Expedition.

But since they have been arrived at by independent research,
the regret with which the author found his deductions forestalled,
are to a considerable extent removed by the important testimony
of so learned and correct a naturalist as Mr. Dana. The follow-
ing two sentences are taken from the first volume of that author ;
the italics being in the original text : —

“We are therefore led to believe, that the so-called epimerals,
or ventral pieces of the carapax, are in fact the posterior exten-
sions of the mandibular segment.” (Page 27.)

Again —

“ . . . . Milne-Edwards thus makes the larger part of the
carapax epimeral in character.

“ Excepting that we consider what is here called epimeral, the
mandibular segment, we agree with Edwards, for the most part,
in the above-mentioned deduction ; so that while the mandibular
segment is confined to the ventral pieces of the Brachyural cara-
pax, it constitutes its posterior half in Macroura” (Page 32.)

The author also has had the opportunity at the British Mu-
seum of seeing the plates in Kroyer^s great work on the Natural
History of Scandinavia, wEere he finds the carapace of Cuma
Rathkii (Kroyer) (the Alauna rosirata of Goodsir) is figured
with the so-called rostrum separated from the antennal region^
as drawn and described in this paper.

The Anterior or Internal Antennae.

These organs are borne by the second ring, and supplied with
nerves from the cephalic ganglion.

The anterior antenna is evidently of importance to the animal,
and is always present in aquatic Crustacea : as a general law it
consists of an articulated peduncle of three joints, which I believe
I am correct in asserting, unlike those of the external antenna,
are never anchylosed together or with the carapace, and a
terminating filament, which is generally double, often treble,
but I believe never single, above the Amphipoda. This appen-
dage is various as well as unequal in length, and in every species
that I have examined, whether in Brachyura, Macroura, Am-
phipod or Isopod, will invariably be found furnished, in addition
to the small hairs common to other parts of the animal, with
long, delicate, membranous cilia, in form varying in genera and
species; they are always larger than the ordinary hairs, but
much more delicate in structure. These vary in number and
in thickness of clusters, but, as far as my experience goes, are
invariably present on the upper antenna.

41

and on the Function of the Antenna in Crustacea.

In the Anomoura, Macroura, and all below, the antenna gra-
dually increases at the base. In the Brachyura this increase is
immensely developed in the first or basal articulation. Exami-
ning this organ in the larva, I thought I observed what I took to
be an otolithe*; this led my attention to the same in the adult
Brachyura, and there I found, upon breaking open the basal ar-
ticulation, what appeared to be an imperfect kind of cochlea.
Afterwards, in company and with the assistance of my friend
Mr. Howard Stewart, we were enabled to trace distinctly the
nerve which supplied this antenna directly to the centre of the
cochlea (for such I believe it is), as I feel convinced that the
upper antennae are auditory organs.

But since the general opinion up to the present time has been
that they are olfactory and not auditory, and as the external an-
tennae are invariably considered as auditory and not olfactory, I
shall withhold any further discussion until those organs have
been described.

In the lower forms of Podophthalmia, as also in the Sessile-eyed
Crustacea, the basal joint of the antenna is not enlarged, neither
have I been enabled to find any structure answering to the
internal cell ; on the other hand, the whole organ increases in
length, as if to gain by external surface what is lost by internal
development.

Among the land Crustacea this antenna is obsolete, and in
Ligia and other amphibious marine ones it is rudimentary.

The Inferior or External Antenna.

These are borne upon the third ring, and are among the most
constant organs present. One of these antennae is formed of a
peduncle consisting as a general law of five articulations and a
filament, generally multiarticulate and very long; these are
sometimes anchylosed together so as to be even as few as a single
articulation.

The five joints of the peduncle are all distinct in the Macroura.
In Amphipoda the first and second are closely associated, but

* In Macroura, Dr. Farre states that he found sand deposited in the base
of the internal antenna, which he assumes to act the part of otolithes ; this
the author has failed to find, and, from the fact that the membrane over the
orifice s])oken of by Dr, Farre is imperforate, thinks it probable that the
specimen examined by that observer must have been injured.

It may be that in this communication sufficient justice is scarcely done
to Dr. Farre’s researches, since the short abstract published in the ‘ Annals ’
for 1843 has been the only means tlie author had at his disposal to become
acquainted with them. But if» as he thinks. Dr. Farre’s researches
on the Macroura corroborate his on the Brachyura, then the evidence is
strofif^ against the generally received oj)inion of naturalists and physiologists,
including among them Edwards and Siebold.

42 Mr. C. Spence Bate on the Homologies of the Carapace

scarcely fused. In Brachyura the whole, more or less, certainly
the four first, almost always coalesce, and are generally formed
into a very compact mass, so that their position can only be
indicated in Sternorhynchus by the presence of the olfactory oper-
culum.

In the Macroura this operculum is absent, and an orifice pro-
tected by a thin membrane represents the position of the organ.
In the Amphipoda the organ is developed in the form of a strong
spine or tooth with an orifice at the extremity*. In the Isopoda
I have not been able to decipher with confidence the organ of
sense in the inferior antenna, but that it exists can scarcely be
doubted, since the lower antenna, except in parasitic Crustacea, as
the female of Bopyrus and lona^ is I believe never rudimentary.

The nerve which supplies this organ is a fifth pair or a branch
of the fourth. In the Brachyura, in which our dissections have
chiefiy been made, the fourth pair of nerves extends beyond the
inferior antenna, and then terminates in the muscles which raise
and close the olfactory operculum.

This organ, which is described by M. Milne-Edwards as an
organ of hearing, differs in its construction in the different
families of Crustacea. In the Brachyura it is a small moveable
appendage, situated at the point of articulation between the
third and second joints ; it is attached to a long calcareous lever-
like tendon, at the extreme limit of which is attached a set of
muscles by which it is opened and closed, to assist in which
operation at the angle of the operculum most distant from the
central line of the animal are fixed two small hinges. When
the operculum is raised, the internal surface is found to be per-
forated by a small circular opening protected by a thin membrane.

Among the Macroura this orifice exists at the extremity of a
small protuberance, and is not capable of being withdrawn into
the cavity of the antenna, as in the Brachyura.

The next question which we have to consider is, to which sense
either of these two sets of organs belongs ; — whether the upper
belongs to the auditory and the lower to the olfactory, as I shall
endeavour to prove, or vice versa, as maintained by Prof.
Milne-Edwards.

We shall divide the evidences on either side under two heads ;
the first, that which is derived from an external observation ; and
the second, that which is derived from its internal organization.

First then from external circumstances : An auditory appa-
ratus is an organ furnished to an animal for one or both of two
objects ; first, for protection from danger ; secondly, for the plea-

* This will be more enlarged upon in the forthcoming Report at the
next Meeting of the British Association.

43

and on the Function of the Antenna in Crustacea.

sure derivable from sounds. To animals so low in the scale of
beings as the Crustacea, placed as they are in a medium which
must considerably modify its character, sound can convey little
to the consciousness of the animal beyond a sense of security or
danger.

To enable this to be of the most extensive value, the auditory
organ must and always is so placed as to be most exposed to
external impressions at all periods ; particularly when the animal
is at rest or pre-occupied.

Now if we look at the organ the present state of science attri-
butes to the sense of hearing, we find that in the most perfectly
formed animals, the Brachyura, it is enclosed within a bony case
and secured by a calcareous operculum ; that it is always so in a
state of rest, and only exposed when especially required. Not
only is this the case throughout the order, but in some genera,
as CorysteSj Cancer, &c., it is again covered by the supplying
organs of the mouth.

If we take into consideration that the inferior antenna is fre-
quently developed into organs assimilating to feet, and fre-
quently used for the purpose of assisting to climb, &c., it seems
difficult to admit that it is an organ capable of protecting the
animal by its quick detection of the sound of approaching
danger.

If we turn our attention to the superior antenna, we find that
in the living animal it is always elevated in the water and never
at rest, — always playing with a constant vibration and a jerking
motion peculiar to itself in the higher orders. Among the Am-
phipoda, though constantly erect, the motion is more regular and
graceful ; this probably is consequent upon the greater relative
length of the organ.

This organ is one that appears as if always on the watch ; — let
the animal be at rest, let it be feeding, no matter, the superior
antenna is ever elevated and on constant guard.

Again, if we turn our attention to the land Crustacea, we find
the organ as an antenna disappear; and in Ligia and the amphi-
bious Orchestida they are rudimentary, as if the organ, passing
from water into a less dense medium, required modification in
order to adapt it to the change of circumstances.

If we take into consideration the nature of sound, and its dif-
ference of character when conveyed under water from that of
j)assing through air, the obtuse character of the former, which
can scarcely be more than a vibratory action of particles of
water, which conveys to us a very modified and imperfect idea
of sound, we find it difficult to understand that the organ
situated at the base of the under antenna is capable of receiving

44 Mr. C. Spence Bate 07i the Homologies of the Carapace

impressions of sound, enclosed as it is within and covered by a
stout calcareous operculum.

But if we view it as an organ of smell, every objection pre-
viously becomes evidence in favour of the idea. The small door
when it is raised exposes the orifice in a direction pointing to the
mouth ; this also is the direction of the same organ in all the
higher orders. In Amphipoda it is directed inwards and for-
wards. In every animal it is so situated that it is impossible for
any food to be conveyed into the mouth without passing under
this organ, and of this the animal has the power to judge its
suitability for food by raising the operculum at will, and expo-
sing to it the hidden organ — the olfactory.

If we turn to the upper antenna, we find that its position,
form and power are as capable of fulfilling the office of conducting
the sensation of sound, as the lower is that of smell. As I before
observed, it is always placed erect, and continually feeling in the
water for the first approximation of sensation. The filamentary
appendages are always two or more, one of which is supplied
with singularly delicate membranous cilia, being apparently pro-
longations of a similar membrane to that which covers the larger
orifice of the olfactory organ. These lengthened and delicate
cilia are peculiarly adapted to receive and convey the most minute
vibratory sensation of the medium in which they are suspended.
These organs when spoken of may conveniently be designated
as auditory cilia, and have been found in every species of Crus-
tacea that has been searched for them.

If we turn our attention to the internal structure of this an-
tenna, we shall find that it supports the idea of its being an
auditory organ more forcibly than its external analysis.

In the BracJujura, as before observed, the first or basal arti-
culation is largely developed ; if it be removed from its connexion
with the animal and broken open, the basal articulation will
be found occupied by a still smaller chamber having calcareous
walls of a much more delicate character than the integumentary
structure. This internal chamber or cell is that which in this
paper is supposed to be a cochlea, from its analogy both in its
structure and supposed use to that organ in higher animals. It
is situated in the cavity of the basal articulation of the antenna,
and attached to the walls furthest from the median line of the
Crab. It presents a tendency to a spiral form, but passes not
beyond the limits of a single convolution. The calcareous walls
extend across the axis of the ideal spire, and the internal cavity
is one continuous irregular chamber, the walls of which at the
centre of the axis closely approximate so as almost to meet.
PI. II. figs. 3, 4, 5, 6.

45

and on the Function of the Antennce in Crustacea.

This internal cell represents, we think, the cochlea of higher
animals, to which it bears some resemblance both in form and
structure. If so, then bc3mnd dispute it identifies the superior
antenna as an organ of hearing.

The internal structure of the inferior antenna differs very
materially from the appearances we have just described. In the
Brachyura, where the organs are most fully developed, there is
attached to the operculum a long osseous tendon or lever, by
which the attached muscles raise or close the entire organ, but
there is no internal structure of any kind which could identify
it as being an organ of sound. The aqueous sac mentioned by
Edwards I have entirely failed to discover.

Viewing the two antennae each as a whole, in their relative posi-
tions and connexion with the rest of the animal, we are forcibly
led to the conviction that the upper antenna is an organ of
hearing, and the lower antenna is an organ of smell.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES I. and II.

Plate I.

Fig. 1. The ophthalmic ring and appendages of Cancer Pagurus isolated
from its position.

Fig. 2. The internal aspect of the two antennal and the anterior portion
of the mandibular rings of Cancer Pagurus.

F F F shows the line of fracture in consequence of the removal of
the upper portion of the carapace.

AAA. The inner or anterior antennal ring, the supposed limits of
which are shown in dotted lines.

•w. The fossa which is exposed by the removal of the ophthalmic
segment.

X, X. The internal extremities of the orbits.

y, y. Cavity exposed by the removal of intemal antennae.

B B B B. The external or posterior antennal ring, the limit of
which is defined anteriorly where it is fused with the anterior
antennal ring by the dotted line, posteriorly by the margin of
the oesophageal opening E, by a ridge between B and C, where
a line of separation is often, if not always visible, and the line P,
which splits in some of the Brachyura when they throw off the
exuviae.

z. The white spot in the deej) hollow shows the position of the

olfactory organ (auditory of M. Milne-Edw^ards, Von Siebold,
&c.).

C C C C. The fourth or mandibular ring ; epimeral of Prof. Milne-
Edwards*.

m, m. Calcareous tendon of mandible.

* The author anticipates being able to demonstrate, in the Report on the
Amphipod Crustacea for the British Association, that the so-called epi-
merals of the thorax, in the Sessile-cyed Crustacea, are in fact the first joint
of the leg. If this be correct, and the so-called epimerals in the Brachyura
be admitted as the fourth or mandibular ring, the side pieces or epimerals
of authors will be found to have no existence, — a circumstance which the
author affirms to he the case.

46

On the Function of the Antennae in Crustacea.

Fig. 3. The anterior aspect of the internal or first antennal ring isolated
from the rest of the carapace, answering to A A A in fig. 2,
which is the internal aspect of the same.
a. The line of demarcation between the dorsal and ventral arches,
which enlarges at (e) to permit the organ of vision to pass
through.

hy h. Portions of the orbits.

c. The superior antenna in situ.

f. The foramen through which the nerves and muscles pass to the
superior or internal antenna, which is here removed.

d, d. Depressions left by the removal of the external antennae, the

extremity of the third joint of the peduncle of which here rests,
with which it is almost fused.

Fig. 4. Carapace of Diastylis (Say) Rathkii, Kroyer, = Alauna rostrata,
Goodsir, Bell : dorsal aspect.

Fig. 5. Ditto : ventral aspect.

Fig. 6. Lateral view.

Fig. 7. Carapace of Cancer Pagurus : pupa stage ; ventral aspect.

Fig. 8. Carapace of Astacus fiuviatilis : dorsal aspect.

Fig. 9. Do. do. do. : lateral view.

Fig. 10. Carapace of Corystes Cassivelaunus : lateral view.

Plate II.

Fig. 1 . Carapace of Cancer Pagurus : ventral aspect.

Fig. 2. Cephalic ring of Erichtkonius difformis, to show the relation in
which it stands to the carapace of Podophthalmia. The antennal
rings, which in the Sessile-eyed order are absorbed within the
posterior, are here produced in dotted lines (a)*. The letters in
all define the homological divisions.

a. The two antennal rings.

b. The mandibular.

The line between a and b is the limit of separation between the
rings and homologies in Brachyura with the cervical suture
in Macroura.

Fig. 3. The anterior or internal antenna of Cancer Pagurus. The dotted
line at (a) shows the position of the internal cell.

Fig. 4. Posterior view of the basal articulation of the antenna, showing the
internal or auditory cell (the presumed cochlea of the author).
Fig. 5. Anterior view of the internal cell; the outer or dermal walls of
the antenna being broken away.

Fig. 6. Internal view of the cell, which is broken to show the relative ar-
rangements of its walls.

* The author would wish this passage to be accepted only provisionally
for the present, as, since the paper has been in the hands of the printer,
on examining some specimens of Gammarus which had been saturated in
dilute acid, he thinks he has identified a line or suture which must
homologize with the ceiwical suture in the higher types. Should further
research establish the fact, then it must result that the inferior antennal,
as well as the mandibular segment, enters into the structure of the first or
cephalic ring of the Amphipoda ; but this he hopes to discuss soon more at
large elsewhere.

On Double Monstrosity in Fishes.

47

V. — On Double Monstrosity in Fishes.

On the 19th March last, M. de Quatrefages exhibited to the
French Academy of Sciences a living specimen of a double mon-
strous Fish. The observations made by M. de Quatrefages on
the occasion of this exhibition have given rise to a discussion
upon the phaenomenon of double monstrosity in Fishes, in
which several of the most distinguished physiologists of France
have taken part, and although, as might be expected from the
nature of the subject, no very decisive results have been ob-
tained, there seems to be every reason to hope, from the zeal
with which these gentlemen appear to be devoting their atten-
tion to the solution of the interesting question of the mode of
production of these monstrosities, that their researches may
eventually throw considerable light, not only upon the partieular
phaenomenon in question, but also upon the origin and deve-
lopment of the normal embryo. For this reason we have thought
it advisable to give a short account of some of the leading state-
ments that have been made, in the hope that by so doing we
may call the attention of some of our readers to this interesting
subject.

The monster exhibited by M. de Quatrefages had been ob-
served by him for a period of nearly two months. When he first
received it, it consisted of two young fishes, completely separated
from each other and adhering to the opposite sides of a vitellus,
which exhibited a deep notch in front. Each of these embryos
exhibited a certain amount of deformity, — one, the largest, had
the face deformed and the eyes entirely wanting, whilst the other
parts of the body were perfectly developed ; — in tne other the
head was well-formed, the body humped and the tail twisted.
The two abdominal veins (afterwards converted into the venae
portae) were in their usual position, and their ramifications
spread over the whole surface of the vitellus, eommunicating at
their extremities with the roots of the vitelline veins, which
afterwards form the hepatic veins. It is remarkable also that
numerous anastomoses united the last ramifications of the abdo-
minal vein of each embryo with those of the vitelline vein of the
other, so that a continual interchange of blood took place. [Ac-
cording to M. Coste the circulation in double monsters is common
to the two embryos, — the greater part of the blood which has
circulated in the body of one passing into the vessels of the um-
bilical vesicle [abdominal vein], whence the greater part of it is
conveyed by the vitelline vein to the auricle of the other embryo
and so on, and in accordance with this reciprocal circulation
the contractions of the two ventricles take place alternately.

48

On Double Monstrosity in Fishes.

M. de Quatrefages, however, states that such was not the case in
two instances observed by him.]

On the 19th February, nearly a month after the specimen
came into the possession of M. de Quatrefages, and about six
weeks after its exclusion from the egg, the two embryos were
close together and ready to unite on one side of the abdomen,
whilst on the other they were still separated by a considerable
space occupied by the vitellus. When exhibited to the Academy,
the vitellus was nearly gone, and the larger of the two was
nearly ready to feed. It had originally been placed to the right
of the vitellus, but had become superior, lying somewhat across
the smaller and more deformed individual, which it carried about
with it.

The conclusion at which M. de Quatrefages arrives with re-
gard to this monster is, that it is formed by the coalescence of
two originally distinct embryos, and that the vitellus from which
it was developed was also double, the point of junction being in
his opinion indicated by the deep notch already mentioned at
the anterior part of the vitellus. This opinion is also shared by
M. Serres.

M. Coste however maintains that there is only a single vitellus
and umbilieal vesicle, since at whatever period these monsters
may be observed, the vesicle is always simple ; and this view is
further supported by the intimate connexion between the circu-
latory systems of the two embryos. He considers that as the
external lamina of the umbilical vesicle really forms a common
abdominal wall enclosing the vitellus, it is impossible to regard
the two embryos as distinct individuals developed at the poles of
a double vitellus and becoming coalescent at a late period of
their growth, as they are actually united from the first into a
single organism by this membrane, and their subsequent union
is only effected by the gradual contraction of this membrane as
the vitellus becomes absorbed. This conjugation is consequently
a primordial phsenomenon, and of a much more intimate nature
than one of simple adherence, such as the case cited by M. Geof-
frey Saint- Hilaire, in which two chickens, hatched from two
separate yelks contained in the same egg, were found to adhere
to one another by the belly.

M. Lereboullet holds the same opinion with M. Coste, regard-
ing the primitive simplicity of the vitellus, and his observations
(made upon the eggs of the Pike) appear to be tolerably con-
clusive upon this point. He states that in the eggs of the Pike
the development of the embryo commences at the moment when
the blastoderm has almost completely enclosed the vitellus, by
the formation of a small triangular tubercle on the blasto-
dermal ridge {bourrelet blastodermique) , and that from this

On Double Monstrosity in Fishes.

49

centre the embryonic fillet takes its rise. In many cases the
ridge of the blastoderm bears two tubercles^ from each of
which an embryonic fillet is produced, and the further develop-
ment of these gives rise to double embryos of various kinds. It
appears from a statement of M. Lereboullet, that the formation
of these monsters may be determined at pleasure by placing the
eggs in unfavourable conditions for development.

M. Lereboullet describes the formation of several varieties of
these double monsters. 1. In some instances two tubercles were
produced on the margin of the blastoderm, from each of which
proceeded a fillet furnished with a dorsal furrow, forming two
embryos adhering to the marginal ridge. Soon afterwards the
divisions of the vertebrae made their appearance, the external
ones having their ordinary form and dimensions, whilst the in-
ternal gradually became confounded, passing from the body of
one embryo to that of the other, thus causing the partial amal-
gamation of the two embryos. In this manner a double fish is
formed, arising from two primitive germinating points produced
upon the blastodermal ridge, so as to become partially joined ; it
has therefore two separate bodies with a common tail. A spe-
cimen of this description, in which the fusion of the double em-
bryo had extended to about the middle of the body, lived for
four days after exclusion from the egg.

2. In other eggs the blastodermal ridge gave rise to a long
and broad fillet terminated anteriorly by two rounded lobes.
Two parallel furrows made their appearance in the fillet, and
soon exhibited the vertebral divisions, whilst the anterior lobes
acquired a determinate form, and each produced two ocular vesi-
cles, constituting an embryo with a single body and two distinct
heads. In these cases however the duplicity was transitory; the
two heads soon came in contact, and became soldered together
in such a manner as to form only a single head. M. Lereboullet
has observed these phsenoraena in about fifteen instances, but
could never ascertain in what manner the fusion of the two
heads was elfected. In some cases the two heads appear to
remain distinct.

3. One of the most remarkable monstrosities is that presented
by some embryos with a single head, two separate bodies, and
one or two tails. These are formed in the following manner ; —
the ridge of the blastoderm, which has the form of a gaping
button-hole, produces a single cephalic tubercle, but the forma-
tive j)i-ocess goes on in the whole circumference of the margin,
each half of wliich acquires a chorda dorsalis and a nervous cord,
and soon exhibits the divisions of the vertebrae. When the
cephalic tubercle is short and only gives rise to the true head,
each of the two bodies is furnislied with two auditory capsules,

Ann. May. iW. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 4

50

On Double Monstrosity in Fishes.

two pectoral fins and a heart ; but when this tubercle is more
elongated, the anterior part of the body is simple, and bears two
eyes, two auditory capsules and a single heart, and the body is
terminated posteriorly by two short branches.

4. This organization of the ridge of the blastoderm into a
double embryo seems to explain an extremely curious form
which only occurred once in M. Lereboullet^s observations. This
consisted of a simple embryo, bearing on the right side of its
body a small tubercle, directed backwards, and terminated by an
auditory capsule and an active heart. The production of this
form is accounted for by the resorption of the parts of the body
posterior to the heart in one of the embryos, and M. Lereboullet
has witnessed the complete disappearance of one of the bodies
in other instances.

5. In another egg the ridge of the blastoderm exhibited two
contiguous tubercles, of which one had the ordinary form of the
cephalic tubercle, whilst the other was smaller and irregular.
The former alone acquired a fuiTow and gave rise to an embryo,
on one side of which the smaller tubercle was borne.

6. Occasionally bodies furnished with three heads make their
appearance. One of these is described by M. Lereboullet. It
was a double embryo, composed of two bodies united behind,
but quite free in front. One of these bodies was of the normal
form; the other bore two heads, of which that on the left was of
the normal form and furnished with two eyes, whilst that on the
right only bore the right eye, the union of the two heads being
effected at the point where the left eye ought to have been. This
singular embryo was still in the egg when described ; it had two
hearts, one common to the two principal bodies, situated at their
bifurcation, the other placed in the angle of union of the two
heads.

M. Lereboullet explains the formation of this anomalous crea-
ture in the following way. He considers that two fillets have
been formed, one of which has been terminated by two cephalic
lobes and acquired two furrows (as described under 2.), whilst
the other has remained simple. These two embryos have then
united posteriorly (as under I.), producing an embryo with one
tail, two bodies and three heads.

7. An extraordinary result was obtained when the develop-
ment of the eggs was retarded by a considerable diminution of
temperature. In this case the ridge of the blastoderm pro-
duced no embryo, but contracted gradually like the opening of a
bag, its substance becoming condensed and forming a mammil-
lated tubercle projecting from the surface of the vitellus. This
tubercle continued living, rose more and more from the surface,
acquired a Ungulate form, and at last constituted an elon-

Linnman Society. 51

gated body, narrowed in front, divided transversely into verte-
bral lamellse, without dorsal cord, or sensitive organs, but fur-
nished with a heart, of which the contractions were sometimes
very lively.

These observations, as M, Lereboullet well observes, appear
to prove that the generally received opinion that double monsters
are produced by the fusion of two embryos is perfectly correct,
whilst that which attributes a separate vitellus to each of these
embryos is not founded in fact. He considers that his observa-
tions, with those of Valentin, show that there is only a single
germ, but that this, by becoming developed in two directions,
instead of one as in normal cases, gives rise to two more or less
distinct embryos. In his opinion the ridge of the blastoderm
{bourrelet blast odermique) plays a most important part in the
formation of the embryo, and in fact constitutes the true em-
bryonic germ, which is always simple and single, like the vitel-
lus which is covered by the blastoderm, but when its develop-
ment is deranged from its regular course, is capable of vegetating
like the substance of which the bodies of polypes are composed,
so as to produce various forms, which however, in their subse-
quent development, always show a distinct tendency to return
to the original type of the species.^^

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

LINN^AN SOCIETY.

December 5, 1854. — William Yarrell, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.

Mr. Ward, F.L.S., exhibited two sets of specimens of Asplenium
lanceolatum, from Jersey, both found growing on disintegrated
sandstone, exhibiting a striking difference between the growth of
the same species on an open sunny bank and in dense shade.

Mr. John Hogg, F.R.S., F.L.S., exhibited some scales, and a
piece of the scaly covering which was cut from the back of a large
fish found in the river Tees, in September of this year. He stated
that two fishermen observed a great fish — such as they had never
before seen — left by the tide on a sand-bank, in the estuary of tlie
river Tees. They described it as having the head of a salmon, with
the back-fin like that of a perch, erect, and somewhat spiny, and
the tail spreading and much curved. The colour they did not men-
tion, except that of the back, which was represented as being of a
purplish-black. They likewise particularly observed some large
scales on the front of the fish near the gill-covers, one of which Mr.
J. Hogg also exhibited, and which is of a very strong, bony texture.
From the account of this fish so given, Mr. Hogg conceived that it
could only have been a large Tunny {Thynnus vulgaris of Cuvier),
which had been stranded whilst in pursuit of herrings or other small

4*

5Z LinrKBan Society : —

fishes. MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes in their ‘ Hist. Nat. dea
Poissons/ tom. viii. p. 57, separated the Tunnies from the Mackerels
{Scomber), in consequence of the “remarkable disposition of the
scales on the thorax, which are larger and more unpolished than
the others, and form around that part a sort of corselet?” They
also describe the corselet of the Common Tunny thus : — “ Le corselet,
c’est-a-dire cette portion du tronc couverte d’ecailles plus grandes
et moins absorbees dans la peau, est considerable.” (p. 62.) This,
however, would seem to lead to an incorrect view of the smaller
scales on the back, which are, as it were, enclosed between two
skins, and are placed in a somewhat imbricated manner, resembling
the arrangement of the slates upon a roof, and cannot properly be
termed “ absorbees dan^ la peau.” Mr. Hogg showed the nature of
the piece of the external covering which the fishermen had cut off
the back ; the outside skin being of a dark, or nearly black colour,
and of a coriaceous sul^stance. The white scales, imbedded in it,
are similar to those forming the corselet near the gill-covers, but
they are much smaller, and so closely placed by one overlapping the
other, that they constitute a perfect defence against nearly every
kind of danger. The piece so cut off the back of the fish, which
was done with some difficulty, resembling a portion of a shield,
would seem to be (from the close disposition of the osseous plates
or scales enclosed between two skins) proof against large shot, or
even a ball from a musket. Both the external large plate-like scales
forming the corselet, and those, arranged in a slate-like manner, be-
tween the skins, are of an irregular, but somewhat round, or oval,
shape. When seen frorp the outside of the external black skin, the
plain parts between the extremities of four scales, present, by the
overlapping of their edges, a somewhat regular appearance, and are of
a nearly uniform size, viz. about half an inch in length, by a little
more than one-eighth of an inch in width, and they thus exhibit
much of a diamond pattern.

Mr. Hogg observed, that ichthyologists seem not to have described
this remarkable protection, presented by the thick skins, and strong
bony interlaminated scales, which is evidently a beautiful provision
of Nature to defend these fishes from the attacks of their enemies,
and especially those of their greatest foe, the sword-fish.

Read a paper “ On Decaisnea, a remarkable new genus of the
tribe Lardizabalece” by J. D. Hooker, Esq., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S.,
and Thomas Thomson, Esq., M.D., F.L.S.

The small family of Lardizabalece, which was first instituted
many years ago by Mr. Brown, and chara cterized by the distribution,
of the ovules over the whole surface of the ovary, was afterwards
admirably illustrated by M. Decaisne in a memoir in the ‘ Archives
du Museum.’ Though the peculiar distribution of the ovules has
always been justly regarded as the most striking characteristic of
Lardizabalece, it is by no means the only peculiarity of the order,
which maybe distinguished from all its near allies by a considerable
number of very striking characters, sufficiently proving the distinct-

53

Drs. Hooker & Thomson on the genus Decaisuea,

ness of the order even where the prominent characters of the in-
sertion of the ovules and the digitate leaves are absent. I'his is
remarkably the case in the plant to which the authors of this paper
called the attention of the Society, and of which a figure was placed
on the table.

This interesting plant, which was originally discovered in Bhotan,
by Mr. Griffith, is briefly referred to in his ‘ Itinerary Notes,’ under
the name of Slackia insignis, a name evidently imposed on a con-
viction that the many striking characters which it presents warranted
the establishment of a new genus, to which, however, no characters
were assigned. That name having (before the publication of these
‘ Itinerary Notes,’ in which it was only a manuscript designation,)
been applied by Griffith himself, in his ‘ Essay on Palms,’ to a genus
of that order, the authors proposed to designate the plant uow de-
scribed, Decaisnea, after the distinguished monographist of the group
to which it belongs, as the two genera of Orchidece which have been
so called have both proved to have had earlier names.

Decaisnea, Hf. Sf Thoms.

Sepala 6, lineari-subulata. Petala 0. Stamina in flore masculo mona'
clelpha, in hermaphrodite parva libera. Ovaria 3, lineari-oblonga"
Ovula placentis 2 filiformibus parallelis, suturae ventrali approximatis
sed ab ea discretis, inserta, indetinita, anatropa. FoUicuU pulpa re-
pleti. 5'ewma indefinita, compressa; testa laevi, nitida, Crustacea, atro-
fusca.

VvMiex Himalaicus erectus \ foliis alter nis^ pinnatis\ inflorescentia race-
wo.va, terminali ; floribus pallic/e viridescentibus.

Decaisnea insignis is a native of the temperate parts of the Eastern
Himalaya, at elevations between 8000 and 10,000 feet. As men-
tioned above, it was first discovered in Bhotan by Griffith. Dr.
Hooker’s specimens are from the interior of Sikkim. It is an erect
shrub, with large simply pinnated leaves, and a nearly simple trunk,
marked by large scars after the leaves fall away, as in many Araliacece.
The nearest analogy is no doubt with the section Mahonia, of the
genus Berberis, but the leaves of Decaisnea are soft and thin, not
rigid and prickly as in Berberis. The flowers are arranged in elon-
gated racemes, and closely resemble those of other Lardizabale<B.
Their colour is pale green, slightly tinged with purple tow^ards the
apex. The sepals are elongated to a subulate point, and there
are no petals. The stamens on the male flower are monadelphous,
and very like those of Stauntonia or Parvatia. In the fertile flower
the stamens are free and very small, but the anthers always contain
pollen, so that the flowers are rather polygamous than dioicous.
The most remarkable character is exhibited by the ovaries, which,
though externally not unlike those of Hollbollia, have the ovules
arranged in a double series along two elevated lines, one on each
side of the ventral suture, and not scattered over the whole surface
of the ovary as in all the other genera. The same arrangement is
preserved in the ripe fruit, which consists of three large follicles full
of an agreeably-flavoured solid ])ulp, dehiscing along the ventral

54

Linnaan Society : — >

suture, so as to expose to view the numerous shining black seeds, in
structure like those of Hollhollia.

The characters of this remarkable plant are so striking that no
lengthened detail is necessary. It will suffice to call attention to its
importance, as affording an indication of the value of characters in
the class of plants to which it belongs. An inspection of the figure
(which is intended to form one of the plates of Dr. Hooker’s ‘ Illus-
trations of Himalayan Plants’ now in preparation) shows that, not-
withstanding its remarkable alteration from the character which has
hitherto been considered as most essential to Lardizabalece^ it is an
undoubted member of that group. At the same time it illustrates,
by many points of structure, the relationship of that tribe to all the
surrounding orders. The proof which it affords that the apparently
very aberrant structure of fruit in which the ovules are scattered
over the whole surface of the ovarium, is compatible in the same
order with the normal structure, and is therefore reducible to it, and
as it were only a modification of it, is especially interesting, and
sufficiently, the authors trust, justify them in bringing the plate just
completed to the notice of the Society.

Read also observations “ On the Identity of Pinus hirtella and
Pinus religiosa of Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth.” By Berthold
Seemann, Esq., Ph.D., F.L.S.

Dr. Seemann states that a short time ago, when determining the
ConifercB gathered by himself in the western parts of Mexico, he
was glad to find that he had amongst them specimens of the Pinus
(Abies) hirtella ; but on comparing them with those named Pinus
(Abies) religiosa in the herbaria of Sir W. J. Hooker and Mr. Ben-
tham, he observed that the latter too, without exception, had hirteU
lous branches ; and again, on examining specimens of P. religiosa
growing in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, as well as at various
other horticultural establishments, he found that they did not differ
in any way from those of hirtella collected by himself. As the only
difference between P. religiosa and P. hirtella insisted upon by
writers on Qoniferce consists in the former having glabrous, the latter
hirtellous branches, he was forced to conclude that all the spe-
cimens of P. religiosa which he had seen in this country ought to
be called P. hirtella, unless it could be shown that P. religiosa had
(notwithstanding Humboldt’s, Bonpland’s, and Kunth’s description)
hirtellous branches. In order to ascertain this point, he addressed
a letter on the subject to Mr. George Gordon, at the Horticultural
Society’s Gardens at Chiswick, a gentleman of great practical ex-
perience, who, in a letter dated Chiswick, Nov. 11, 1854, kindly
replied, that “ having taken a good deal of interest and pains in the
matter, when Mr. Hartweg was collecting in Mexico, and begged
him to examine minutely Humboldt’s and Bonpland’s localities, and
see what their A. hirtella was, he did so, and could discover no
other species than the ‘ Oyamel,’ or Abies religiosa. He found
Abies religiosa, and carefully examined the same in various places
between 15° and 22*^ S. Bat.; but its chief range was about 19° and

Dr. Goppert on Fossil Palms.

55

at an elevation of 9000 feet. He found it on the ‘ Campanario,’ the'
highest point of the mountains of Angangues, 5 or 6 feet in dia-
meter, and 150 feet high; at other places very much smaller and
stunted, but still the same species ; and I have, as well as Hartweg,
after carefully examining all these facts, come to the decided conclu-
sion that both names, P. hirtella and P. religiosa, belong to the same
species ; and that the error arose from describing imperfect speci-
mens, and not having cones of A. hirtella to compare with the
‘ Oyamel’ of the Mexicans.”

Finding that Mr. Gordon’s opinion coincided so entirely with his
own, in order to settle the point definitively, Dr. Seemann requested
his friend Dr. Charles Bolle, at Berlin, to examine Humboldt and
Bonpland’s original specimens of P. religiosa, and to ascertain whe-
ther they had glabrous or hirtelloiis branches. In a letter just re-
ceived from that botanist, dated Berlin, Nov. 24, he says, — “ I con-
gratulate you upon your power of divination, for the authentic
specimens of P. religiosa in the Royal Herbarium have certainly
hirtellous branches.” We may therefore conclude that P. religiosa
and P. hirtella are identical, and consider the difference thought to
exist between them as entirely attributable to imperfect descriptions.
As the names were both given at the same time, it becomes a ques-
tion which of the two ought to be adopted. The name hirtella
might appear the most appropriate, as indicating a botanical cha-
racter ; but as that of religiosa is so much more diffused, and as the
plant is used in Mexico, on account of its elegant branches, for
ornamental purposes on religious festivities, Dr. Seemann determines
in favour of the name P. religiosa.

Read further “ Remarks on Fossil Palms.” By Dr. Goppert,
Professor of Botany in the University of Breslau.

These remarks are the result of a letter addressed by Dr. Seemann
to Dr. Go])pert, requesting to be favoured with a brief summary of
all that is known of fossil Palms, and they have appeared to
Dr. Seemann of so much interest as to induce him to lay them
before the Linnsean Society. The)’’ are as follows : —

“ During the last, and even the first quarter of the present century,”
says Dr. Goppert, “ so little was known of the structure of Palms,
and all that was known appeared so abnormal to the scientific men
of those days, that they were only too readily inclined to class with
the Palms almost all fossil plants presenting strange and anomalous
forms. This remark aj)plies with full force to Sigillaria and Lepi-
dodendron, genera belonging to the Palaeozoic formation ; and
startling as it may be, it cannot be very surprising to us, when we
consider that even in our own times notions equally erroneous
prevail to an almost incredible extent. For instance, a principal
share in the formation of coal is still ascribed by the generality of
geologists to the Ferns, although it lias been proved by me, by a
series of careful observations on numerous carboniferous formations,
that such can be claimed only for the Sigillarius and Stigmarias ; that
a subordinate share only is due to the Araucarias and Calamites, con-

56

Linncean Society: —

tained in the anthracite coal ; and a still less significant portion to
the Lepidodendrons, the Ferns, and the remaining members of the
flora of the Carboniferous period.

“ A diligent study of the extinct flora has demonstrated that the
Palms occur more rarely than was thought in the transition rocks
and the Carboniferous formation, and more frequently than was
believed in more recent formations. Generally speaking, we know
at present only trunks, leaves (both fan-shaped and pinnatisect),
and a few fruits of fossil Palms ; flowers have as yet not been
discovered, and the spathes collected have hitherto not been satis-
factorily proved to belong to the natural order under consideration.
These fragments, remnants of members of former creations, have
been distributed under nine genera and seventy-eight species. For
the trunks, there have been adopted the genera Palmacites, Brongn.,
and Fasciculites ; for the leaves, Flabellaria, Sternb., Zeugophy Hites,
Brongn., Phoenicites, Brongn., and Amesoneuron, Gopp. ; for the
spathes, Pal<Pospatha, Unger (founded, as has been stated, upon
doubtful materials) ; for the fruits, Baccites, Zenk, and Castellinia,
Massal. The genus Burtinia of Endlicher, placed by Unger among
Palms, belongs without a doubt to Pandanece, and is identical with
Nipadites.

“ Although our present imperfect knowledge of fossil plants
renders it an almost useless task to speak of the proportion which
the number of Palms bears to that of the other members of the
extinct flora, yet it may be remarked that, if the number of species
of the fossil flora is assumed to be 4000, — there are actually 3945
described, — Palms constitute about the eighty-fourth part of the
whole. In the transition rocks no remnants of Palms have as yet
been discovered ; in the Carboniferous formation five species have
been noticed ; in ‘ Kupfersandstein,’ or the Permian formation,
onl)^ two species have been collected ; in the secondary class of
rocks which succeeds (Keuper, Bimter-Sandstein, Muschelkalk, Lias-
Jura, and Wealden formation), none have been collected except
three species in the Cretaceous formation, especially in -Quadersand-
stein. The greatest number has been found in the Tertiary class of
rocks, viz. sixty ; twenty-nine of which belong to the Eocene system,
and thirty-one to the Miocene formation. The habitat of nine spe-
cies is unknown.

“ It will be seen from this synopsis that there was a geological
period when Palms were entirely wanting in the extinct flora, or
when, after their first appearance on the globe, they vanished again,
and after a lapse of time reappeared ; a state of things, which if
confirmed by future investigations, would certainly be highly curious,
and is one never before observed in a like manner in any large group
of plants. No species is common to two formations. Several spe-
cies show a remarkable degree of resemblance with those of the
flora now existing, especially some of those collected by Junghuhn
in Java, as for instance, Amesoneuron calyptro- calyx, Gdpp., A.dra-
cophyllum, Gdpp., A. fagifoliam, Gdpp., and A. anceps, Gdpp. But
it would be rather bold, perhaps injudicious, to attempt identifying

Dr. Kdox on the Food of certain Gregarious Fishes. 57

them, from the fragments hitherto collected, with those of the pre*
sent flora. The results hitherto obtained only entitle us to say, —
Palms make no exception to the rule generally received, that the
laws governing the vegetable kingdom were the same in all periods
of our earth’s history when plants existed ; and that the species of
Palms have a very local geological, as they have a very local geo-
graphical distribution.”

December 19. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

Read a Memoir “ On the Food of certain Gregarious Fishes.” By
Robert Knox, Esq., M.D.

Dr. Knox’s inquiries were commenced about thirty years ago, and
the results then arrived at were communicated to the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, in whose ‘Transactions’ a notice of the paper was
published. Since that period the observations have been repeated
on many occasions, and the author does not find it necessary to alter
or modify the statements which he originally made. His attention
was first directed to the fact, that in the stomachs of Salmon, fresh
from the recesses of the ocean, nothing is ever found except a small
quantity of a peculiar reddish substance, unlike anything known to
possess life. Practical fishermen agreed in the opinion, that the food
of the Salmon, w'hile resident in the ocean, was altogether unknown ;
neither could they give any satisfactory account of that of the Herring.
Having learned accidentally, that in a lake or lakes near Lochmaben
there existed in great abundance a small fish (the Vendace) which
could not be tempted by any bait, and whose food was entirely un-
known, he determined to visit Lochmaben, and make this fish, so
easily procured, the subject of his researches. Dozens of Vendace
were taken in nets, and immediately opened ; and their stomachs
were found crammed with thousands of Entomostraca, which were
immediately recognized on placing a portion of the contents of the
stomach under a strong lens. The species first discovered belonged
to the genus Lynceus ; but several other genera were subsequently
observed ; and in winter, that is to say, on the 14th of December
1832, several species of Cyclops, Miill., most abounded. The notion
that the Vendace dies immediately on being taken out of the water,
Dr. Knox found to be quite erroneous. It is by no means a very
delicate fish, and could easily be transplanted to other lakes ; but its
good qualities have been mucli exaggerated.

The author next enters into some detail on the distinctive charac-
ters of a number of Vendace, both males and females, caught partly
in the Castle Loch and partly in the Mill Loch, and which were
carefully examined by his brother with a view to their supposed
specific distinction. He treats as a delusion the idea that the males
live apart from the females in deeper water, for a single draw of
the net in the Castle Loch, in the j)resence of Mr. Murray and
himself, was found to produce nine females and six males, although
of forty taken in the Mill Loch at one time only two were males.

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Linnaan Society : —

Dr. Knox then turned his attention to the food of the Char, of
M^hich some fine specimens were obtained from Windermere ; and
the food of these, which also proved to consist of Entomostraca, was
exhibited to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The Char is a gre-
garious, deep -swimming fish, and shy of taking any bait ; but never-
theless it will rise to a fly, and the common food of the Trout may
be found in its stomach, although the author has not himself met
with it. It does not seem to feed so exclusively on Entomostraca,
although these unquestionably form the larger portion of its natural
food. The observations on this fish were several times repeated, and
always with the same results.

The Early-spring or Grey Trout of Lochleven form the subject of
the next series of observations. Dr. Knox had many years ago
remarked a distinction, which he is still disposed to believe may be
specific, although anatomical investigation has not hitherto confirmed
it, between the ordinary Trout of the lake and this, which is in the
highest condition at the end of December, and in the months of
January, February and March, a period in which all other descrip-
tions of Trout are worthless as food for man. On an examination
of these Trout in the month of January, they were found to be filled
with Entomostraca, which the author has always found to constitute
the food of the early spring Trout of Lochleven. During the
remainder of the year, the ordinary Lochleven Trout live on the
Buccinum and the common food of Trout, with which the lake
abounds ; they rise readily to a fly, and may be taken with worms
or minnows, or any of the ordinary bait used for Trout.

In regard to the Herring, which next formed the subject of
Dr. Knox’s investigations, the great difficulty was to obtain speci-
mens from the deep sea in fine order, and as remote as possible from
the spawning condition, inasmuch as when found near the coast the
Herring is either about to spawn or has already spawned ; and in
these states it is more or less of a foul fish, and the food taken by it
at these times is not to be regarded as its natural food in the ordi-
nary state. Of the hundreds and hundreds of deep-sea Herrings
examined with this view, the author remembers only three in whose
stomachs anything was found excepting Entomostraca of various
species. Of these three, one had been feeding on sand-eels, another
on what appeared to be small herrings, and the third on a small
shell-fish, apparently a Buccinum. When near the coast, and before
spawning, the Herring is frequently not feeding. The stomachs of
a great number of Herrings taken in the Frith of Forth in January
and February 1834, were found quite empty. After spawning, and
Mdiile still close to the shores, they seem to take to other food, such
as sand-eels and shrimps. This was the case with Herrings taken
oflf Dunbar in June 1831, at which time the stomach and intestines
were loaded with putrescence, and the fish worthless and insipid.
The author’s own repeated observations and those of his brother
confirm the fact, already well ascertained by practical men, that
shore-fisheries of fish whose habitat is the deep sea, seldom produce

Dr. Knox on the Food of certain Gregarious Fishes. 59

the fish in prime condition. Of this truth the deep-sea fisheries of
Cod and Haddock, as compared with those caught high in estuaries,
also afford good examples. A long series of observations, establishing
this position in regard to the Herring, are then given. And lastly.
Dr. Knox states that his friend and former pupil, Mr. H. D. Goodsir,
one of the enterprising companions of Sir John Franklin in his last
fatal expedition, having been requested by him to push the inquiry
to the utmost, that lamented naturalist undertook a series of excur-
sions in the fishing-boats, not only in the Frith of Forth, but also to
the fishing-ground near the Isle of May, and in the open sea. The
author transcribes one of Mr. Goodsir’s letters, dated “ Anstruther,
June 15, 1843,” in which he states, first, that “the Entomostraca
are at certain seasons the almost exclusive food of the Herring.
There can be no doubt that they follow shoals of these Crustacea
to prey upon them, for it is only when the latter make their a])-
pearance on this coast that the former are seen, and when the
food is most plentiful the Herrings are in best condition. It is
during the summer months also that we find the larvae of the more
common species of Decapoda, along with those of Balani, and occa-
sionally a minute shell-fish, among the contents of the stomach.
Secondly, it appears to be chiefly during the winter and spring
months that the Herrings take other kinds of food than the Ento-
mostraca ; during these months we find the stomach oftener empty,
and only occasionally filled wuth Crustacea, such as shrimps, &c. ;
in other cases with Entomostraca. Thirdly, as to Entomostraca
being the partial or exclusive food of other fish besides the Herring,
there can be no doubt that during the summer months, when the
shoals of Entomostraca, or what our fishermen term Maidre, are in
great abundance, they form the food of a great number of other
animals besides the Herring. The common Coal-fish is particularly
the species which, next to the Herring, preys on the Maidre. It
appears to me also that the shoals of Cetacea, which make their ap-
pearance in the Frith during the Herring season, are in pursuit of
the Maidre, and not of the Herring, as is most generally thought.”
To these facts, thus confirmed. Dr. Knox would especially call the
attention of M. Valenciennes ; they are most important to man in
regard to the Herring-fisheries, and explain certain oeconomic sta-
tistics bearing on the great fisheries of Holland, otherwise wholly
unintelligible. The naval power of the ancient Republic of Holland
was connected with, and based on, a deep-sea Herring-fishery ; while
the modern Herring-fisheries of France and England and the Scan-
dinavian States are shore- and boat-fisheries, of little value as a food-
producing employment, and of no value whatever in a naval point of
view. Dr. Knox concludes this branch of the subject with extracts
from the works of Sir Gilbert Blane, Dr. M‘Culloch, and Leeuwen-
hoek, showing the total obscurity in which the food of the Herring
was involved j)rior to the time when he first communicated the
result of his observations.

Lastly, the author proceeds to examine the question as regards

60

Linnaan Society.

the Salmon. From about midsummer, but more, especially with the
autumnal floods, Salmon and Sea Trout of various sizes begin to
rush up the freshwater streams and rivers, their object being clearly
to make their way to the place of their birth, there to provide for
the propagation of their species. From the time the Salmon enters
the fresh water it ceases to feed, properly speaking, although it may
occasionally rise to a fly, or be tempted to attack a worm or min-
now, in accordance seemingly with its original habits as a smolt.
But after first descending to the ocean and tasting its marine food,
it never again resorts to its infantile food as a constant mode of
nourishment. This great fact, well understood by fishermen and
anglers, has been placed by Mr. Young of Invershaw beyond all
doubt. Nothing is ever found in the stomach or intestines of the
fresh sea Salmon but a little reddish substance, and this Dr. Knox,
after a careful microscopic examination, concluded to be the ova
of some species of Echinodermata. Of the Salmon, while in the sea,
this is therefore the sole and constant food. Sea Trout also live on
it, but they readily take to other food even in the sea, such as
sand-eels, herring-fry, &c. The absence of this kind of food forms
an insurmountable obstacle to the preservation of Salmon and of
some kinds of Sea Trout in freshwater lakes. M. Valenciennes de-
scribes the Salmon as voracious, and states that its food consists of
fishes — Ammodytes Tobianus ; but Dr. Knox maintains that there
exists not a single fact in the history of British Salmon to support
this opinion. He refers to various fanciful theories suggested by
fishermen and others in regard to the marine food of the Salmon ;
and concludes by stating that in spring, as the spawn fish are
descending with the smolts, they may occasionally be tempted with
an artificial fly or lob-worm, but as to their feeding regularly in
rivers, Mr. Young’s experiments have negatived the assumption be-
yond all doubt.

With regard to the Entomostraca themselves, they are abundant
in the sea as well as in freshwater lakes ; and it is easy to see by
their remains in the limestone of Burdiehouse and of other quarters
that they played an important, perhaps the same, part in the oeco-
nomy of the ancient world as they do in this, serving as food namely
to countless shoals of gregarious fishes, which abounded then as
now in fresh and in marine waters. The Entomostraca of the
Southern Hemisphere differ seemingly from those of the Northern;
that they serve there also as the food of gregarious fishes was proved
by the author’s brother many years ago in respect of the so-called
Herring of the Bay of Islands. They vary considerably in size, and
seem to extend from pole to pole, consuming the organic remains,
which but for them might speedily infect the ocean itself.

The paper was accompanied by magnified drawings of the species
of Entomostraca found in the stomachs of the Vendace and of the
Herring.

Zoological Society,

61

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

February 14, 1854. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Notes on the Habits of Indian Birds. Part II.

By Lieutenant Burgess.

Family Strigid^.

Genus Urrua, Hodgs.

Urrua Bengalensis.

I have found this large Owl common on the banks of the large
rivers, as also amongst the low jungly hills and patches of brush-
wood in the Central Deccan. It appears to prefer the small bushy
ravines covered with high grass, which lead down from the high
banks into the beds of the larger streams and rivers. When seated
on the top of a bush in the dim twilight, it forms quite a formidable
object, the gloom making it appear larger than it really is. It
does not appear to be strictly nocturnal, as I met with one sitting
on the sandy shore of the river Bheema some time after the sun had
risen. I never found the eggs of this bird ; but I have been in-
formed, on good authority, that they make their nest at the foot of
bushes in the tall grass, and lay four white eggs. I kept three nest-
lings of this species for some time. When brought to me out of the
nest, they were covered with down of a chestnut colour, spotted and
streaked with dark brown. This Owl breeds during the months of
March and April.

Genus Noctua.

Noctua Indica, Frank.

This is a very common Owl in Western India, so much so that
every grove, and almost every large tree, appears to have some of this
clamorous family inhabiting its holes and crevices. It is a most
noisy bird, screeching and screaming ere the shades of evening draw
on, and becoming quite a nuisance to any one pitched under the tree
frequented by them. It appears to be very little incommoded by a
strong light, moving out of its hiding-place before the sun is down,
flitting backwards and forwards amongst the branches and from tree
to tree. In the month of June I saw a pair of these little Owls sitting
on the bare branch of a tree, with the brilliant morning sun shining
full on them ; in fact, they appeared to be sunning themselves. On
another occasion I shot a pair, sitting on a ledge of rock, in the full
blaze of the setting sun. If disturbed during the day, they fly about
with the greatest activity, uttering their squabbling note, and look
down on the intruder from above with eyes that appear in no way
incommoded by the light. In the stomachs of the last pair above
mentioned, I found the wing-cases and legs of beetles. This little
owl Ijreeds during the months of February and March, laying three or
four eggs of a pure white colour, nearly ly\ in. long and in.
broad. They lay their eggs in holes of trees.

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Zoological Society : —

Order II. Insessores.

Tribe Dentirostres.

Family Laniad^.

Subfamily Laniana.

Genus Lanius.

Lanius Hardwickii.

This handsome little Shrike migrates, I believe, from the Deccan
for the purpose of breeding, probably resorting to the thickets and
ravines of the Western Ghauts, and returning to the Deccan about
September. I could not find its nest when on the hills in the month
of October ; but I shot a young bird, which may probably be the
young of this species. I give a description of its plumage. Beak
rich deep brown ; chin and throat dirty brownish-white ; under
plumage and under tail-coverts white ; flanks dull grey ; white streak
passing from the beak over the eye and ear-coverts ; ear-coverts and
patch behind the eye dull black ; top of the head and nape of the
neck hrownish-grey, the feathers having very pale whitish ferruginous
tips ; feathers on the lower part of the neck and back are on their
basal half grey, and the remaining portion greyish-brown with light
tips. On the lower part of the back the feathers are very filmy and
thick-set, of a grey colour, with a dark band near their ends, and
tipped with white. Primaries hair-hrown ; bastard wing brown ;
greater coverts lighter brown with pale tips ; secondaries hair-brown ;
tertials paler brown, with light edges. Tail consists of twelve feathers ;
the two outer are white, with pale brown near the ends on the outer
webs. The next feather has also a dark spot near the tip on the
inner web ; the third feather is nearly blaek, with a white spot on
the inner web about half an inch from the end ; the remaining feathers
are of a black-brown, being nearly black on the inner webs ; lesser
coverts pale brown with light tips ; feathers on the thighs of a pale
grey-brown with white tips ; legs and feet lead-colour ; claws pale
brown ; the legs and claws have a white powdered look in several
places^ especially near the junction of the scales. This may perhaps
have been the young bird of the large rufous-backed Shrike, Lanius
erythronotus.

Lanius Excubitor. Large Grey Shrike.

This is very common in the Deccan. It is generally seen seated on
the top of small babool trees, or other thorny bushes, in open country,
and may be distinguished at some distance by its silvery-white breast.
When disturbed, it flies low to some neighbouring bush, on the top
of which it alights, uttering its harsh and grating cry. The Grey
Shrike begins to breed as early as January, as a boy brought me a
pair of nearly fledged young ones on the 2nd of February. They
almost, if not invariably build in a thorn bush, and generally well
into the centre. I subjoin a note penned at the time of finding one
of their nests : — “ l.ith May. Saw a pair of Grey Shrikes building

63

Lieut. Burgess on the Habits of Indian Birds.

in a place I never saw this species building in before, viz. on the
outside branches of the babool tree. The nest was composed of a
thorny twig or two of babool and thick bents of grass.” Another nest
was made in a thorny bush, about 5 feet from the ground, and close
to the stem of the bush ; it was composed of twigs of the thorn bush,
pieces of cotton and a piece of rag, with grass interwoven into it.
This nest contained three eggs. It is now in the Museum of the
Zoological Society. The eggs are a little less than an inch in length,
by a little less than in. wide, of a white ground, spotted and mot-
tled, especially at the large end, with grey and red-brown.

I believe that this Butcher Bird, like the last-mentioned, migrates
from the Deccan during the monsoon, returning about September.
It would form a very interesting subject for investigation, as to what
families of birds leave the Deccan during the monsoon, whither they
betake themselves, and for what purposes. I have frequently made
inquiries, but could not learn anything satisfactory on the subject.

Subfamily Dicrurin^.

Genus Dicrurus.

Dicrurus macrocercus. Drongo Shrike.

This bird is not much indebted to variety or richness of colouring
in its plumage, for bringing it into notice ; but its pleasant cheerful
note and active habits must have been remarked by all observers of
nature in India. Ere the peep of day it commences its pleasant
twitter, and from sunrise to sunset it may be seen, now sitting on a
bare spray watching for some passing insect, now perched on the
back of a browsing cow or sheep, and then off in an instant in pursuit
of a fly. I have seen one chase and capture a large white butterfly,
which it appeared to have some difficulty in swallowing when caught,
as it did not attempt to pull it to pieces, but was endeavouring to
bolt it entire. They appear to have great antipathy to crows, chasing
them with great vigour and boldness whenever one enters within their
domain. I subjoin a note, made at the time, of the curious flight of
these birds when hawking after flies. Saw one of them (Drongo)
perched on the outside branch of a tree hanging over a field of wheat ;
suddenly the Shrike descended close to the ears of corn on which the
flies had settled in the heat of the sun, and commenced a most
curious jerking flight up and down, as if it had been tossed uj) and
down on the waves of the sea. After performing this dancing flight
for some little time, it returned to its seat, and after remaining there
a short time, descended and repeated its jerking flight.” The
Marahta name is Kolsa, the word for charcoal, alluding I suppose to
its jet-black colour. The Drongo begins to build in the month of
May, and Dr. Jerdon mentions having found its nest as late as August.
I found its nest in a bush in a thick hedgerow ; it was composed of
roots, and contained three eggs of a rather reddish creamy-white
ground, spotted with red spots ; the egg is in. long by rather more
than broad. The food of the Drongo consists of insects, moths,
and butterflies.

64 Zoological Society : —

Genus Phcenicornis, Swains.

Phcenicornis Peregrinus, Vig.

I have not met with the nest and eggs of the small red bird, but I
believe the description given below is that of a young bird soon after
it had left the nest. 18th September 1849. Whole of the upper
plumage olive-green, mottled about the head with pale yellow, a large
spot of which is behind the eye ; tips of the lesser wing-coverts pale.
Primaries and secondaries dark, with pale edges ; breast and belly
pale whitish-yellow, with yellow streaks ; legs and feet pale lead-
colour ; claws soft, as also the edges of the beak.”

Genus Iora.

lORA TIPHIA.

I have never met with the nest or eggs of this handsome little bird ;
but Dr. Jerdon, in his Catalogues of Indian Birds, says, ‘‘I once, on
the west coast, in the month of September, met with a nest of this
species in the fork of a low tree ; it was more neatly and carefully
made than any other of the few nests I have seen in this country. It
contained young ones.” The Iora has a most wonderful power of
voice. At one moment it is heard uttering a low plaintive cry, at
the next a shrill whistle ; no one could have believed the notes to
have issued from the same throat. On the 29th of August, 1849,
I shot a female. The eggs in the ovaries were very large. The
gizzard contained the remains of a curious green insect, partly covered
with black hair. The tongue of this bird is furnished with two long
muscles, as in the woodpecker.

Genus Hjematornis.

H^matornis cafer. Common Bulbul.

This sprightly and truly Indian bird breeds during the months of
August and September. The first time that I noticed them building
in August was on the 1 1th, and I found a nest with one fresh-laid egg
on the 25th of September. They build in thick bushes in gardens.
I found two nests in my garden at Ahmednuggur, one built in a
guava tree, and the other in a mass of creepers. The nest is com-
posed of fine twigs, bound together here and there with cobwebs, and
lined with fibres. The nest I send is lined with the fibre of the
cocoa-nut picked off a cocoa-fibre mat. I observed the old birds
picking at the mat when it was put out of doors. I do not know
the number of eggs which their nest generally contains. The egg is

in. in length by a little more than wide, of a rich madder
colour, spotted and blotched with grey and madder-brown. The only
egg which I possessed is unfortunately broken ; but a drawing in my
possession, mosf accurately painted by my sister-in-law. Miss Gardiner,
gives it very correctly.

Mr. F. Moore on Birds from Northern India, 65

February 28, 1854. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Descriptions of some new and little-known species
OF Birds from Northern India, contained in the
Museum of the Hon. East India Company. By Fre-
deric Moore, Assist. Hon. Comp. Museum.

Fam. Merulid.e, Vigors.

Subfam. Myiotherina, Swains.

Genus Pnoepyga, Hodgs.

Syn. Microura, Gould (nec Ehrenb.).

1. Pnoepyga longicaudata, nobis.

Colour of the upper parts deep olive-brown, the feathers slightly
margined with black, and having blackish shafts ; wings and tail in-
clined to ferruginous brown ; upper tail-coverts long ; throat whitish ;
breast and sides of abdomen pale dusky ferruginous, the feathers
having pale centres and blackish margins ; centre of lower part of
breast and abdomen white ; flanks the same as the back ; vent and
under tail-coverts dark ferruginous ; bill dark horn colour, legs paler.

Length, 4^ inches ; of wing, 2 ; the tail is rounded, the central
feathers being 2^ inches long, and the outer 1|- inch ; bill to front,
through the feathers, | inch ; to gape, ; tarse, .

Hab. N. India.

Genus Brachypteryx, Horsfield, p. s. d.

2. Brachypteryx nipalensis, Hodgson.

Male : colour above a greyish cyaneous, or light greyish blue, as
are also the cheeks, sides of breast and flanks, and paling to greyish
white on the centre of the breast ; throat, middle of belly, vent and
under tail-coverts, streak over but not extending beyond the eye,
white. Female : ferruginous brown above, paling on the sides ;
throat, breast, belly, under tail-coverts and streak over the eye,
whitish, the feathers on the breast and sides fringed with brown ;
bill dark horn colour, legs paler.

Length, 4j- inches ; of wing, 2y ; tail, If ; bill to gape, f ; tarse, 1 .

Ilab. Nepal (No. 943, Hodgs. Catal.).

This species is allied to Br. cruralis, Blyth, but may readily be
distinguished by its smaller size, shorter tail, paler colour of the upper
parts, and by its white throat and belly.

Genus Callene, Blyth, Journ. A. S. Beng. p. 136 (1847).

Syn. Cinclidiumy Blyth (nec Gould).

Gen. Char. “ Bill shorter than the head, straight, slender, higher
than broad, the ridge of the upper mandible tolerably acute, and its
tip very slightly emarginated ; inferior gonys ascending for the ter-
minal half, imparting to the bill the appearance of a tendency to bend
upward ; naral apertures in the form of elongate-oval fissures in the
lateral nasal membrane, and partially imj)ended by the short semi-
Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 5

66

Zoological Society : —

reflected frontal feathers ; gape armed with a few small setse ; wings
and tail rounded, the 4th, 5th and 6th primaries equal and longest j
legs and toes slender, the tarsi smooth, unscutellate, and very long,
as is also the middle toe ; claws but moderately curved, and of little
more than mean length ; plumage light, soft and full, having a scale-
like appearance on the crown, breast and belly.”

3. Callene frontale, Blyth.

Syn, Cinclidium frontale^ Blyth, Journ. A. S. Beng. xi. p. 181,
xii. p. 954. t. p. 1010. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 301.

Callene frontale^ Blyth, Journ. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 136 ; Catal. B.
Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 178.

Ruticilla frontalis^ G. B. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 180.

Brachypteryx scapularis, Horsf. MS.

Hab. Nepal (No. 950, Ilodgs. Catal.).

Spec. Char. Plumage dark fusco-cyaneous, the rump dusky ;
flanks somewhat ashy, and middle of the belly slightly grey-edged ;
lores and immediately above the beak blackish, contrasting with a
bright caerulean forehead ; bend of the wing also cserulean, but less
bright ; and winglet, primaries and their coverts, secondaries and ter-
tiaries, dark olive-brown ; a white spot on the under surface of the
wing, beneath the winglet ; bill black ; legs dusky brown.

“ Length, 7f inches ; of wing from bend, 3f ; middle tail-feathers,
3^, the outermost f of an inch shorter ; bill to forehead nearly f, to
gape ^ ; tarse. If ; middle toe and claw, 1^^; hind toe and claw, f ;
the last, f .

“ This bird is reported to be a fine songster, and heard chiefly in
the evening.” — Blyth.

Subfam. Timalina.

Genus Trichastoma, Blyth.

Syn. Malacocinclaf Blyth.

Gen. Char. “ Bill as long as the head, rather stout, high, much
compressed, the tip of the upper mandible pretty strongly hooked,
but indistinctly emarginated, and its ridge obtusely angulated towards
the base, the remainder scarcely angulated ; gape but little widened,
and feebly bristled ; nostrils large and subovate, with oval aperture
to the front, a little removed from the base of the bill ; tarse of mean
length and strength, as long as the middle toe with its claw ; the
claws suited for perching, compressed, and moderately curved, that
of the hind toe rather large ; wings moderate, with the first primary
reaching to about their middle, the second much shorter than the
third, and the fourth longest ; tail rather short, weak and even, ex-
cept that its outermost feathers are a little shorter than the rest ;
plumage full and lax, the coronal feathers somewhat elongated and
of a spatulate form.”

4. Trichastoma Abbotti, Blyth.

Syn. Malacocincla Ahhotti, Blyth, Journ, A. S. Beng. xiv. p. 601
(1845).

67

Mr. F. Moore on Birds from Northern India.

Trichastoma Ahbottiy Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 462 ; Catal. B.
Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 147. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 259.

Malacopteron Abbotti, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, iii. App. p. 9.

Hab. Arracan (No. 919, Hodgs. Catal.).

Spec. Char. “ Colour above plain olive-brown, tinged with rufous
on the rump and tail ; the upper tail-coverts ferruginous brown,
under parts paler ; the throat and middle of the belly white ; the ear-
coverts, sides of the breast and flanks rufescent ; the lower tail-coverts
weak ferruginous ; bill horn-colour, paler beneath.

Length, 6 inches ; of wing, 3; tail, 2^; bill to gape, andtarse
the same.” — Blyth.

Mr. Blyth states Arracan to be the habitat of this bird. Speci-
mens have lately been presented to the Company’s Museum by B. H.
Hodgson, Esq., from Nepal, and by Capt. R. C. Tytler from Dacca.

Fam. SvLviADiE, Vigors.

Subfam. Saxicolina, Vigors.

Genus Nemura, Hodgson.

Syn. lanthia, Blyth.

5. Nemura Hodgsoni, nobis.

Male : colour of the upper parts purplish blue, brightening to vivid
ultramarine on the crown ; forehead, lores and sides of head, wings
and tail black, the two latter margined with blue externally ; on the
rump some of the feathers are tipped with white ; upper tail-coverts
blue ; lower parts yellowish ferruginous ; under wing-coverts, flanks
and under tail-coverts wdiite. Female : ferruginous brown, richer on
the rump ; wings and tail dusky, margined with ferruginous brown
externally ; lores, ear-coverts and under parts pale dusky ferruginous ;
under tail-coverts white ; bill black ; legs pale horn colour.

Length, 3fths of an inch; wing, 3|- ; tail, 1^; bill to front, f ;
to gape, ^ ; tarse, | an inch.

Ilab. Nepal (No. 949, Hodgs. Catal.).

Subfam. Piiilomeltna, Swains.

Genus Tarsiger, Hodgson.

6. Tarsiger superciliaris, Hodgson.

Male : above deep cyaneous ; vings brown, margined with cya-
neous and rufous on the shoulder, primaries also margined with rufous,
secondaries with cyaneous ; tail brown, margined with cyaneous ; a
white superciliary streak extending one inch and a half from the nares
to the back of the neck ; lores and checks black ; beneath rufous ;
centre of belly white. Female : olive-brown above ; wings and tail
brown, margined with rusty olive ; superciliary streak not so clear as
in the male ; beneath pale dull rufous ; centre of belly and shafts of
the underside of tail white ; bill black ; legs horn colour.

Length, .O-g- inches ; of wing, 3f ; tail, 2f ; bill to gape, f ; tarse, 1|.

Hab. Nepal (No. 924, Hodgs. Catal.).

r>*

68 Zoological Society i

Subfam. SylviAna, Vigors;

Genus Prinia, Horsfield, p, s. d.

7. Prinia cinereocapilla, Hodgson.

Crown of the head grey, the shaft and margin of the feathers being
darker ; naral and frontal plumes, a streak over and beyond the eye,
and the whole under parts rufescent, brightest on the flanks and
thighs ; lores and upper part of ear-coverts greyish ; nape, back,
rump and wings bright rufous brown, the tips of the latter dusky ;
tail the same colour as the back, paler beneath, with a terminal dusky
band and rufescent white tips ; bill black ; legs pale horn colour.

Length, 4^ inches; wing, ly®^; tail, 2; hill to front, f ; to gape, f ;
tarsus, f ; middle toe and claw, y’y ; hind ditto,

Ilab. Nepal (No. 890*, Hodgs. CataL).

Genus Suva, Hodgson.

8. Suva atrogularis, nobis.

Colour above dusky brown, in some specimens ashy brown ; edge
of wing at shoulder and under wing-coverts hufp ; primaries mar-
gined wdth huffish and secondaries with rufescent hrown ; a whitish
streak extending from the base of the lower mandible to the end and
under the ear-covert ; chin, throat, side of neck, breast and centre of
abdomen black, the feathers of the two latter broadly centred with
white; flanks and sides of abdomen mixed grey, brown and rufescent;
vent buff ; thighs huffy rufous ; tail paler than the back, and has no
perceptible terminal band ; bill horn colour, feet paler.

Length, 6y inches, including the tail ; wings, from If to 2 inches
in some specimens ; central feathers of tail from to 4, its outermost
being only 1 inch ; bill to gape, to front, height from chin to
front, yy ; width at chin, y^y ; tarsi, f .

Hab. Darjeeling; Nepal (No. 893, Hodgs. CataL).

A single specimen of this beautiful bird has been in the Museum
of the East India Company for a number of years, collected in Dar-
jeeling by F. T. Pearson, Esq. ; and B. H. Hodgson, Esq., has brought
home several examples from Nepal.

Genus Drymoica, Swains, p. s, d.

9. Drymoica nipalensis, Flodgson.

Above rufous brown ; wings dusky brown, the primaries exteriorly
and secondaries interiorly and exteriorly margined with bright rufous
brown ; tail rufous brown, paler beneath, and distinctly rayed, has a
terminal dusky band, the tips being pale but not white ; the whole
under parts rufescent, as in Prinia socialis, Sykes ; bill dusky horn
colour, paler below at base ; legs pale horn colour.

Length, to 5 inches; wing, Iff; tail varying from 2f to 3
bill to front, y\ ; to gape, ; tarsi, ff ; middle toe and claw, y®y
hind ditto, fy.

JIab. Nepal (No. 913, Hodgs. CataL).

Roijal Institution,

69

ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

April 20, 1855. — William Robert Grove, Esq., M.A., Q.C., F.R.S.,
Vice-President, in the Chair.

0)1 certain Zoological Arguments commonly adduced in favour of

the hypothesis of the Progressive Development of Aiiimal Life

in Time. By T. H. Huxley, Esq., F.R.S.

When the fact that fossilized animal forms are no lusus naturce^
but are truly the remains of ancient living worlds, was once fully
admitted, it became a highly interesting problem to determine what
relation these ancient forms of life bore to those now in existence.

The general result of inquiries made in this direction is, that the
fui’ther we go back in time, the more dilferent are the forms of life
from those which now inhabit the globe, though this rule is by no
means without exceptions. Admitting the difference, however, the
next question is, what is its amount ? Now it appears, that while
the Palaeozoic species are probably always distinct from the modern,
and the genera are very commonly so, the orders are but rarely dif-
ferent, and the great classes and suh-kingdo))is never. In all past
time we find no animal about whose proper sub-kingdom, whether
that of the Protozoa, Radiata, Annulosa, Mollusca, and Vertehrata,
there can be the slightest doubt ; and these great divisions are those
which we have represented at the present day.

In the same way, if we consider the Classes, e. g. Mammalia, Aves,
hisecta. Cephalopoda, Actinozoa, &c., we find absolutely no remains
which lead us to establish a class type distinct from those now
existing, and it is only when Ve descend to groups having the rank
of Orders that we meet with types which no longer possess any living
representatives. It is curious to remark again, that, notwithstanding
the enormous lapse of time of which we possess authentic records,
the extinct ordinal types are exceedingly few, and more than half of
them belong to the same class — Reptilia.

The extinct ordinal Reptilian types are those of the Pachypoda,
Pterodactyla, Enaliosaurea, and Labyrinthodonta ; nor are we at
present acquainted with any other extinct order of Vertebrata.
Among the Annulosa (including in this division the Echinodermata)
we find two extinct ordinal types only, the Trilohita and the Cys^
tidece.

Among the Mollusca there is absolutely )w extinct ordinal type ;
nor among the Radiata {^Actinozoa and llydrozoa) ; nor is there
any among the Protozoa.

The naturalist who takes a wide view of fossil forms, in connec-
tion with existing life, can hardly recognize in these results anything
but strong evidence in favour of the belief that a general uniformity
has prevailed among the operations of Nature, through all time of
which we have any record.

Nevertheless, whatever the amount of the difference, and however
one may be inclined to estimate its value, there is no doubt that the

70

Royal Institution : —

living beings of the past differed from those of the present period ;
and again, that those of each great epoch have differed from those
which preceded and from those which followed them. That there
has been a succession of living forms in time, in fact, is admitted by
all ; but to the inquiry — What is the law of that succession ? differ-
ent answers are given ; one school affirming that the law is known,
the other that it is for the present undiscovered.

According to the affirmative doctrine, commonly called the theory
of Progressive Development, the history of life, as a whole, in the
past, is analogous to the history of each individual life in the present ;
and as the law of progress of every living creature now, is from a less
perfect to a more perfect, from a less complex to a more complex
state — so the law of progress of living nature in the past, was of the
same nature ; and the earlier forms of life were less complex, more
embryonic, than the later. In the general mind this theory finds
ready acceptance, from its falling in with the popular notion, that
one of the lower animals, e. y. a fish, is a higher one, e. g. a mammal,
arrested in development ; that it is, as it were, less trouble to make
a fish than a mammal : but the speaker pointed out the extreme
fallacy of this notion ; the real law of development being, that the
progress of a higher animal in development is not through the forms
of the lower, but through forms which are common to both lower
and higher : a fish, for instance, deviating as widely from the common
Vertebrate plan as a mammal.

The Progression theory, however, after all, resolves itself very
nearly into a question of the structure of fish-tails. If, in fact, we
enumerate the oldest known undoubted animal remains, we find
them to be GraptoliteSi Lingulcej Phyllopoda, Trilobites, and Car-
tilaginous fishes.

The Graptolites, whether we regard them as Ilydrozoa, Anthozoa^
or Polyzoa (and the recent discoveries of Mr. Logan would strongly
favour the opinion that they belong to the last dmsion), are cer-
tainly in no respect embryonic forms. Nor have any traces of
Spongiadce or Foraminifera (creatures unquestionably far below
them in organization) been yet found in the same or contempo-
raneous beds. Lingulae, again, are very aberrant Brachiopodu, in
nowise comparable to the embryonic forms of any mollusk ; Phyl-
lopods are the highest Entomostraea ; and the Hymenocaris vermi-
cauda discovered by Mr. Salter in the Lingula beds, is closely allied
to Nebalia, the highest Phyllopod and that which approaches most
nearly to the Podopthalmia. And just as Hymenocaris stands be-
tw^een the other Entomostraea and the Podopthalmia, so the Trilo-
bita stand between the Entomostraea and the Edriopthalmia . Nor
can anything be less founded than the comparison of the Trilobita
with embryonic forms of Crustacea ; the early development of the
ventral surface and its appendages being characteristic of the latter,
while it is precisely these parts which have not yet been discovered
in the Trilobita, the dorsal surface, last formed in order of develop-
ment, being extremely well developed.

Mr. Huxley on the Progressive Development of Animal Life. 71

The Invertebrata of the earliest period, then, afford no ground
for the Progressionist doctrine. Do the Vertebrata ?

These are cartilaginous fish. Now Mr. Huxley pointed out that
it is admitted on all sides that the brain, organs of sense, and repro-
ductive apparatus are much more highly developed in these fishes
than any others ; and he quoted the authority of Prof. Owen to
the effect that no great weight is to be placed upon the cartilaginous
nature of the skeleton as an embryonic character. There remained,
therefore, only the heterocercality of the tail, upon which so much
stress has been laid by Prof. Agassiz. The argument made use of
by this philosopher may be thus shortly stated : — Homocercal fishes
have in their embryonic state heterocercal tails ; therefore, hetero-
cercality is, so far, a mark of an embryonic state as compared with
homocercality ; and the earlier, heterocercal fish are embryonic as
compared with the later, homocercal.

The whole of this argument was based upon M. Vogt’s examina-
tion of the development of the Coregonus, one of the SalmonidcB ;
the tail of Coregonus being found to pass through a so-called hetero-
cercal state in its passage to its perfect formf. For the argument
to have any validity, however, two conditions are necessary: — 1.
That the tails of the SalmonidcB should be homocercal, in the same
sense as those of other homocercal fish. 2. That they should be
really heterocercal, and not homocercal, in their earliest condition.
On examination, however, it turns out that neither of these con-
ditions hold good. In the first place, the tails of the Sahnonidce,
and -v ery probably of all the Phjsostomi, are not homocercal at all,
but to all intents and purposes intensely heterocercal ; the chorda
dorsalis in the Salmon, for instance, stretching far into the upper
lobe of the tail. The wide difference of this structure from true
homocercality is at once obvious, if the tails of the SalmonidcB be
compared with those of Scomber scombrus, Gadiis ceglefnus, &c.
In the latter, the tail is truly homocercal, the rays of the caudal fin
being arranged symmetrically above and below the axis of the spinal
column.

All M. Vogt’s evidence, therefore, goes to show merely that a
heterocercal fish is heterocercal at a given period of embryonic life ;
and in no way affects the truly homocercal fishes.

In the second place, it appears to have been forgotten that, as
M. Vogt’s own excellent observations abundantly demonstrate, this
heterocercal state of the tail is a comparatively late one in Coregonus^
and that, at first, the tail is perfectly symmetrical, i, e, homocercal.

In fact, all the evidence on fish development which we possess, is
to the effect that Homocercality is the younger, Heterocercality the
more advanced condition : a result which is diametrically opposed
to that which has so long passed current, but which is in perfect
accordance with the ordinary laws of development ; the asymmetri-

* Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrata, pp. 146-7.

t Von Hiir had already pointed out this circumstance in Ci/prinus, and
the relation of the foetal tail to the ])ermanent condition in c:\rtilaginous
fishes. See his “ Entwickelungsgeschichte der Fischc,” p. .36.

72 Botanical Society of Edinburgh : —

cal being, as a rule, subsequent in the order of development to the
symmetrical.

The speaker then concluded by observing that a careful considera-
tion of the facts of Palaeontology seemed to lead to these results : —

1. That there is no real parallel between the successive forms
assumed in the development of the life of the individual at present,
and those which have appeared at ditferent epochs in the past ; and

2. That the particular argument supposed to be deduced from
the heterocercality of the ancient fishes is based on an error, the evi-
dence from this source, if worth anything, tending in the opposite
direction.

At the same time, while freely criticising what he considered to be
a fallacious doctrine, Mr. Huxley expressly disclaimed the slightest
intention of desiring to depreciate the brilliant services which its
original propounder had rendered to science.

BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

April 12, 1855. — Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair.

The following papers were read : —

1. “On Placentation,” by John Cleland, Esq. See ‘Annals,’
vol. XV. p. 336.

2. “ Notes on the Flora of the neighbourhood of Castle Taylor, in
the county of Galway,” by A. G. More, Esq., of Trinity College,
Cambridge.

The author enters into a detailed account of the indigenous flora
of that part of Ireland, contrasting it with that of other parts of the
United Kingdom. The district is rendered interesting from its form-
ing part of the singular limestone-country of the West of Ireland, the
surface broken and rocky, and but slightly elevated above the sea-
level : nevertheless several subalpine species are to be found in it,
such as Bryas octopetala, Saxifraga hypnoidesy Hieracium cerin-
thoidesy Arbutus Uva-ursi, Juniperus nana.

He then arranges the produce of his district and the classes defined
by Watson, and enumerates the more interesting or peculiar plants
present or absent in each case. He points out the folloAving species
as seen hy him, but not marked as Irish in ‘Babington’s Manual’: —

Cardamine sylvatica.

Viola stagnina.

Spiraea filipendula.

Geum intermedium.
Myriophyllum alterniflorum.

Hieracium cerinthoides.
Epipactis media.
Potamogeton lanceolatus.
Alopecurus agrestis.
Lolium italicum.

3. “ Notes on the Flora of the Bass Rock,” by Prof. Balfour.

4. “Notice of Plants collected during a trip to Loch Lomond in
July 1854,” by Prof. Balfour.

5 “ Register of the Flowering of Spring Plants in the Royal
Botanic Garden, as compared with the four previous years,” by
Mr. M‘Nab.

Prof. Gregory on British Freshivater Diatomacese. 73

May 10. — Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair.

Mr. P. S. Robertson exhibited germinating plants of the following
species of Coniferse, to show the remarkable variation in the number
of their cotyledonary leaves : —

Pinus nohilis ; normal number of cotyledons 6, varying with 4, 5,
and 7.

Pinus Sabiniana; 14, 15, 16 prevailing numbers; variations
13, 17, 18, 19.

Pinus Jeff reyi \ prevailing numbers 9 and 10, varying with 7,

8, 11.

Abies Hookeriana ; usual number 4, varying from 3 to 5.

“ Pinus Beardsleyi ; prevailing numbers 6 and 7, varying with 3,
5, 8, 9, and 10. This species occasionally produces two perfect
plants from one seed.

Thuja Craigana {Libocedrus decurrens) ; usual number 4,
varying from 1 to 4.

“ Cryptomeria jayonica ; usual number 3, varying from 2 to 4.

“ Pmus La?nbertiana ; usual number 14, varying with 10, 12,
and 13.

Pinus ?nonticola ; usual numbers 8 and 10, varying with 6, 7,
9, 11.”

The following papers were read : —

1. ‘‘On some new species of British Freshwater Diatomaceae,
with remarks on the value of certain specific characters,” by Prof.
Gregory.

After some remarks on the distribution of Freshwater Diatoms,
the author proceeded to consider the value of certain specific
characters.

Species, among Diatoms, are generally distinguished by the follow-
ing particulars, viz. the form ; the structure, where anything re-
markable occurs ; the length of the individual frustule, within the
usual limits ; the arrangement and number of the striae, where these
are visible, as well as their nature, whether moniliform or continuous,
narrow or broad, close or distant, &c. ; and frequently the aspect of
the median line, if present, and of the nodules at its centre and
extremities.

The form or outline. — This varies so much, that, if we were guided
by it, we should make many false species, as is shown by the fact,
that these forms pass by gentle gradations into each other. This
kind of variation occurs, for example, in Navicula lacustris, of which
two very different forms occur ; but there is a third which is precisely
intermediate. It is seen also in Navicula elliptical some forms of
which are oval, but of different proportions, others are constricted.
Navicula dubia is believed to belong to the same species as N. am-
phigomphus and N. dilatata, and by some ])ersons, all the three are
united to N. firma. It is certain that all four agree in having
the side lines, but they all differ in outline. Navicula lepida, a new
species,^ exhibits three varieties, differing in form. But the most
remarkable example is found in Navicula varians.

74 Botanical Society of Edinburgh : —

The number of strice. — In some species, perhaps in many, this
character is by no means constant. In Navicula varians, I find that in
the smaller individuals there are often 24 to 26 striae in 1 -1000th of an
inch, while in the larger there are only 1 4 to 1 6, and this in indivi-
duals of the same type of outline. Smith describes Finnularia di-
vergens viith. 1 1 striae in 1-1 000th inch, while I find it more frequently
with from 22 to 26 in 1-1 000th inch — the arrangement, which is
peculiar, being the same in both. A very striking example occurs
in N. elliptica, which, as we have seen, also varies in form. The
species, as described by Kiitzing, has very coarse striae, even coarser
than appears by any of the figures. But in a variety to which I have
directed attention, and which I regarded on this account as a distinct
species, till I found a gradual transition to the first-named type, the
striae are so very much finer, being about three times more numerous,
that the aspect of the frustule is totally changed. In comparing
examples of the extreme types in regard to striation, I took indivi-
duals of equal size, and I found in one very coarse striae ; in the other,
striae so fine as not to be easily seen unless the valve was placed in
the most favourable position with reference to the light.

The appearance of the median line and nodules. — In the coarsely
striated variety of N. elliptica, there are lines on each side of the
median line, forming a double cone, of which the bases meet near the
centre. But in the finely striated variety, these lines are parallel to
the median line ; only bending outwards round the central nodule.
This assists in giving a very different aspect to the two forms, which
yet are connected by a graduated chain of transition forms.

We have then, if we consider only the three characters of form or
outline, number of striae, and aspect of medial line and nodules,
evidence that great variations may occur in any one of them. Nay,
in N. elliptica and N. lepida, variations occur in all three together.
In such cases as these last, it is difficult to define the species by these
characters in the usual way, and we have apparently no resource but
to state the fact of the tendency to vary in one or more of these
points, as one of the specific characters. In N. varians the arrangement
of the striae is always the same, as it is also in Pinnularia divergenSy
and many others ; but in N. elliptica even this fails, for the striae are
highly radiate in the coarsely striated form, and nearly parallel in
that with finer striae.

Enormous variations in size occur, even in the same type of form.
If Pinnularia megaloptera be referred to P. lata, we have a variation
in length from about 20 ten-thousandths of an inch to nearly 80.

The distribution of Diatoms over the world is one of the most
remarkable points about their history. Not only do we find, if we
examine a gathering from any part of the world, that most of the
forms are identical with those of our own waters ; but in tracing
these minute organisms through the latter to the earlier sedimentary
rocks (and it is said that they occur in the lower Silurian strata, the
oldest in which any organic remains occur), we find still the greater
number of species to be the same as those of the present day.

Ehrenberg, in his last great work on the distribution of microscopic

Dr. Balfour on Megacarpsea polyandra. 75

forms over the earth, both in the present period and in past geological
times, has shown that in all soils in which plants grow. Diatoms are
present, often in considerable quantity, and in great variety. He
ascribes to them a great part in the formation of such soils, and it is
probable that by their life and growth they extract much silica from
the water in which they live, and transfer it at their death to the soil.
The sediment of all rivers contains a considerable amount of Diatoms,
as, for example, the mud of the Nile and that of the Ganges, which
have formed the great Deltas of Egypt and Bengal.

2. Remarks on specimens of Megacarpcea pohjandra, Bentham,”
by Dr. Balfour.

The interest of the plant consists in its possessing a number of
stamens (from 12 to 15), quite abnormal in the order of Cruciferse,
to which it otherwise belongs ; and which might seem, taken alone,
to place it between that order and l^apaveracese ; but when these
extra stamens are viewed as developments of the glands which are
present in the Cruciferse on the disk or torus, between the petals and
the ovary and ordinary stamens, the plant may well be referred to
that order.

The genus 3Iegacarpcea was first discovered, I believe, by Fischer,
in the salt steppes and calcareous hills of Turkistan, in the neigh-
bourhood of the Caspian Sea ; and by Ledebour in Siberia ; and was
originally referred to Biscutella. Two species are described by
DeCandolle (Prod. i. 183), but so imperfectly, that till further in-
formation is obtained, it is impossible to determine whether the plant
before us, from the Himalaya, is identical with either of them,
especially M. laciniata from the Altai Mountains, or a new species
which is to bear the name of M. polyandra.

Megacarpcea (probably this very species) was next met with by
Dr. Hugh Falconer in the Highlands of Little Tibet, on the Husora
River, an affluent of the Indus, and in the same country by the late
Mr. J. E. Winterbottom, who described it to me as growing 6 to 8 feet
high on the Barzil Pass, upper glen of the Kishenganga River, between
Kashmere and Astor ; but neither of these botanists was, I believe,
so fortunate as to obtain the flowers, which were first seen by Capt. R.
Strachey in 1848, on a visit to the glacier sources of the Pindar
River in Kumaon, up to which date the existence of the plant in the
British Himalaya was unknown ; nor has it been discovered, so far
as I am aware, in any other of our provinces — at least those south of
the Sutlej River. Here it occurs in three localities, where the
climate resembles or approximates to that of Little Tibet, Turkistan,
and the other habitats, viz. extreme cold in winter, and extreme heat
and aridity in summer, conditions wliich have j)roved favourable to
the migration or presence of many other Tibetan and Siberian plants
on the dry northern slope of the Himalayan range, where a system of
vegetation is established in marked contrast with what [)revails on the
Indian face, which is annually for three months deluged with rain*.

* A very instructive example of the manner in wliich plants arc distri-
buted in distant regions of similar physical character is afforded by CallU

76 Boiamcal Society of Edinburgh : —

In Kumaon the plant occurs on the open sunny downs, at from
1 1,500 to 14,000 feet above the sea-level, where all arboreous vegeta-
tion has ceased. It is well known to the mountaineers by the name
of Roogee. They eat the pounded root as a condiment ; it has, like
the whole plant, a strong permanent odour and flavour, something like
horse-radish. The localities in which it grows are — 1. Champwa,
near the Kaphini glacier ; 2. near the Soondurdhoongee glacier, the
heads of the Pindar River ; and 3. at Ralim, on one of the spurs of
the snowy Panch — Choola Range, which bounds the next great valley
to the east. Here the Roogee flowers in May — June, and ripens its
fruit in September — October. The root is fusiform, a foot or more
in girth at the collar, and from 1 to 2 feet long, forked below ;
internally of light cellular substance, externally exhibiting very
numerous horizontal annular ridges. Several annual stems from
4 to 6 feet high. When young in winter protected by many erect,
rectangular, straw-like scales. Radical leaves spreading, from 2 to
2^ feet long, the exterior half occupied by 7 or 8 distant, distinct,
subopposite or alternate pinnse ; petiole dilated at the base ; cauline
leaves scattered, erect, pinnato-pinnatifid, about a foot long, with
10 to 12 segments, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, incised, the low^er
ones more or less separate, terminal more confluent. Flowers in
dense terminal and axillary leafy corymbs, shorter than the leaves ;
small, white or yellowish- white, with a sweet fragrance or strong
odour of horse-radish (according to taste), and much frequented by
bees, flies, &c. Peduncles and pedicels villous, the latter long and
one-flowered. Sepals 4, oblong, obtuse, coloured, from l-5th to
l-4th inch long ; petals alternate, oval, veined, half the height of the
sepals; stamens 12 to 15, hypogynous, erect, as long as the calyx,
and disposed in 2 or 4 sets. Ovary one, flat, obcordate, resembling
the silicle of Capsella Bursa-Pastoris, with 2 auriculate, 1 -seeded
cells ; stigmas 2, on a very short style. The silicle is about 1 J inch
by 1|^, one of the cells being abortive.”

gonum Pallasii. This, like the Megacarpcea, abounds in the Caspian province,
and equally, or much more, in the sandy deserts of Western India, between
the Jumna and the Indus rivers. The heat for many months annually is
extreme, and one is at first surprised to find a plant flourishing here, which
is also indigenous to the steppes of the Caspian, where the winter cold is
equally extreme. But, as is now well known, the Caspian and its deserts
occupy a deep hollow at the western end of a plain descending from the
sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes, and, as a consequence of this low' position
on the earth’s surface, possess a summer temperature as high as the winter
one is low', and perhaps equal to that of the Indian desert above referred
to. In the latter, during the months of April, May and June, when every-
thing else is burnt up, the CalUgonum, with its innumerable green leafless
twigs, covers the waste of sand-hills with a mantle of verdure, yielding a
favourite food to the camel, the proper beast of burden of the country. It
is known to the people by the name of Phoke, and under this designation
is first mentioned by Mr. Elphiu stone in his account of the kingdom of
Caubul. A species of Ephedra likewise occurs, which is also called by the
same name ; but the true plant is the CalUgonum, and neither Ephedra nor
Asclepias acida (the Soma plant) as some have supposed.

l)r. Balfour on Megacarpsea polyandra. 77

The following is a description of the plant taken from the speci-
men sent by Mr. Moore : —

MegacarpcBa polyandra, Benth. — Leaf sent by Mr. Moore about
a foot long — greatest breadth about 7 inches ; deeply pinnatifid — lobes
narrowish, tapering at the apex — toothed ; upper surface dark green
— ^under surface glaucous, covered with short hairs, many of which
are glandular. Similar hairs occur on the petiole, which is thick,
with ridges and grooves, flattened on the upper side and rounded
below. Flowers in compact racemose clusters, of a yellowish-white
colour, and having a strongish odour. Sepals whitish, with a yellowish
and purplish tinge in some places, rugose, deciduous, broadly ob-
ovate, and convex externally. Petals smaller than the sepals — ob-
ovate, tapering below — rugose. Stamens varying from 11 to 13,
some longer than others, but not apparently in any definite number ;
filaments thick — broader below. Anthers innate, two-lobed, yellow ;
green circle of glands round the base of the stamens, attached to a
broadish thick receptacle. Ovary transversely elliptical, with a short
style and large stigma — two-celled. Fruit a silicula, with the replum
across its narrow part. Seed brownish, about li inch in length,
and about the same in breadth — winged ; the wing nearly a quarter
of an inch deep — veined ; hilum straight or slightly curved, about
half an inch long.

3. “Lowest Temperature indicated by the Register Thermometer
(Fahr.), kept at the Botanic Garden, during April 1855,” by Mr.
M‘Nab.

Average lowest temperature for April 33f°.

4. “ Register of the Flowering of Plants in the Botanic Garden,
compared with the four preceding years,” by Mr. M‘Nab.

5. “Remarks on Mr. Moore’s notice of the effects of the late
winter at Dublin,” by Prof. Balfour.

6. “On the Disease of Finger and Toe in Root Crops,” by Sir
John S. Forbes.

7. “ Notice of the origin of the name Chenopodium Bonus Hen-
ricus,^^ by Mr. J. Hardy.

Lately, in turning over J. Bauhin’s ‘Historia Plantarum,’ I met
with the following, tom. ii. p. 965. — “Dodon. Gall, et Lat. in fol.
qui sub Tota Bona describit et depingit ; ait Bonum Ilenricum a
singulari quadam utili facukate vocari ; veluti et perniciosam quan-
dam plantam Malum Ilenricum appellant, de quo alibi dicendum.” I
have not the Latin copy of Dodonseus, but in the English translation
of Lyte, 1st ed. 1578, p. 561, this explanation is not given ; we have,
however, the English “ Good Henry,” being a translation of the
Dutch and German name. The term Bonus Ilenricus it appears
from Mentzel (Index sub Lapatli.) occurs in Brunsfel’s Herbal,
printed in 1532. I suspect, however, that it will be found in the
‘Herbarius’ of 1484, or the Ortus Sanitatis, as in an early Herbal
that I possess, without a date, but ])ublished by Egenolf, who is
said to have given an imi)roved edition of Cuba’s work, I find the
name Gut Heinrich over the figure of this plant. (This book of
Egenolf has no text, being merely coloured figures.) The English

78

Miscellaneous.

names are attached in MS. in a very old hand. “ Good King Harry ”
occurs for the first time in Gerard, who says it was so called in Cam-
bridgeshire (Johnson’s edit. 1633, p. 329). Malus Henricus seems
to have been Lathrcea squamaria.

MISCELLANEOUS.

NEREIS BILINEATA.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Weymouth, May 15, 1855.

Gentlemen, — I beg to draw your attention to a fact I have not
seen noticed in print. It is, that Nereis bilineata constructs a tube
for its domicile. Its usual habitat is the upper coils of any dead
whelk that may have been selected by a Pagurus for its domicile.
This Annelid is well known to the fishermen here, and by whom it is
much used as a killing bait for whiting. I was not aware of the
fact of its constructing a tube for itself until lately, when, on
breaking off the top coils, I found that the worm had constructed
a tube, with which it had lined its lodgings. The tube is perfectly
white, rather strong, and not attached to the whelk shell.

I am. Gentlemen, yours obediently,

William Thompson.

On a New Species of Thalassidroma.

By George Robert Gray, F.L.S. & F.Z.S.

A specimen of a Stormy Petrel, from the north-west coast of Ame-
rica, which has lately been kindly presented to the British Museum
by Miss Hornby, differs from all those that I am acquainted with.

In form it agrees best with Thalassidroma furcata, but the colo-
ration differs much in several particulars. Front, cheeks, throat,
collar round the hind part of the neck, breast and abdomen pure
white ; crown, hind head, a broad hand in front of neck, bend of
wing and lesser wing-coverts sooty grey ; upper part of back grey ;
lower part of back and tail ashy grey ; greater wing-coverts brownish
grey ; tertiaries and quills deep black.

Total length, 8^"; bill from gape, from front, 8^'"; tail

(outer feather), 3|"; tarsus, 1"; middle toe, 1".

I propose to give this species the appellation of Thalassidroma
Hornbyi, after Admiral Hornby, who obtained it during his com-
mand on the Pacific station, where he collected many interesting
animals for his brother-in-law, the late President of this Society. —
Proc. Zool. Soc., May 10, 1853.

On the Eggs q/Otogyps and Prosthemadera.

By H. F. Walter, Esq.

Mr. H. F. Walter exhibited specimens of the eggs of Otogyps 2i\\^
Prosthemadera novae seelandice from his own collection.

The egg of Otogyps was obtained by Herr Ludwig Parreyss of

Meteorological Observations. 79

Vienna from North Africa, and will therefore be that of O. nubicus
(H. Smith ; Bp. Consp. p. 10), if that species is really distinct from
the southern O. auricularis. The long diameter of this egg is 3*9,
the short diameter 2’8 inches.

The egg of the Parson-bird or Tui, 'Prosthemadera novce seelandice
(Gm.), was taken in New Zealand in 1852 by Dr. White. Its colour-
ing is somewhat different from that of the other Honey-eaters with
which we are acquainted, not presenting the usual rich red ground-
colour which is the general characteristic of the eggs of that family
of birds. The long diameter of this egg is 1*0, the short diameter
0*75 inch. — Proc. Zool. Soc.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR MAY 1855.

Chiswick. — May 1. Densely clouded : dry haze : clear. 2. Clear : sharp frost at
night. 3. Fine : densely overcast. 4. Cloudy and cold : frosty. 5. Excessively dry
air, with bright snn. 6. Fine. 7. Fine : overcast : boisterous at night. 8. Cloudy:
clear, with sharp frost at night. 9. Fine : rain at night. 10. Cloudy, 11. Cloudy
and fine : thunder-storm in afternoon : clear. 12. Cloudy and cold : very clear:
frosty. 13. Overcast : boisterous, with heavy rain at night. 14. Cloudy. 15.
Cloudy ; rain. 16. Cloudy: clear and frosty at night. 17 — 19. Very fine. 20.
Foggy: very fine 21. Overcast. 22. Cloudy. 23 — 25. Fine. 26. Very fine ;
hot and dry. 27. Slight haze : cloudy : rain. 28. Rain. 29. Cloudy : showery.
30. Cold showers. 31. Rain,

Mean temperature of the month 48°'88

Mean temperature of May 1854 50 *07

Mean temperature of May for the last twenty-nine years ... 53 *72
Average amount of rain in May 1*85 inch.

Boston. — May 1. Cloudy. 2. Fine. 3. Cloudy : rain and snow p.m. 4 — 6.

Cloudy. 7. Cloudy : rain a.m. and p.m. 8. Cloudy : rain, hail and snow p.m.
9. Cloudy. 10. Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 11. Cloudy: rain p.m. 12. Fine.
13. Cloudy: rain P.M. 14. Cloudy. 15. Cloudy: rain a.m. 16,17. Cloudy:
rain p.m. 18 — 20. Cloudy. 21. Cloudy : rain a.m. and p.m. 22. Cloudy. 23 —

28. Fine. 29 — 31. Cloudy : rain a.m. and p.m.

Sandwich Manse, Orkney. — May 1. Cloudy a.m. : clear, fine p.m. 2. Drizzle a.m. :
showers p.m. 3. llail-showers a.m. and p.m. 4. Cloudy a.m. : clear p.m. 5.
Cloudy A.M.: rain p.m. 6. Sleet-showers a.m. and p.m. 7, 8. Sleet-showers a.m. :
cloudy p.m. 9. Hail, frost a.m. : clear p.m. 10. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m, 11.
Clear A.M. and P.M. 12,13. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m. 14. Cloudy a.m. : clear
p.m. 15. Showers a.m. : cloudy p.m. 16. Cloudy a.m. : showers p.m. 17. Bright
A.M.: drops p.m. 18. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m. 19. Showers a.m. : cloudy p.m,
20. Bright a.m. : clear, fine p.m. 21. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 22. Small rain a.m.
and p.m. 23. Small rain a.m. : clear, fine p.m. 24, 25. Hazy a.m. and p.m. 26.
Drops A.M. : cloudy p.m. 27. Hazy a.m. and p.m. 28. Cloudy a.m. and p.m.

29. Bright a.m. : clear p.m. 30. Cloudy a.m. and p.m, 31. Clear a.m. and p.m.
This month has been remarkably cold, the mean temperature being lower than

that of any May during the twenty-eight years of my observations, — 4°'18 below
the average, and the first half of it was only about the average temperature of
March.

Mean temperature of May for twenty-eight previous years . 47°’99

Mean temperature of this month 43 ‘81

Mean temperature of May 1854 48 *39

Average quantity of rain in May for fourteen previous years 168 inch.

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THE ANNALS

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MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[SECOND SERIES.]

No. 92. AUGUST 1855.

Yl.-— Notes on Palceozoic Bivalved Entomostraca. No. 1. Some
Species of Beyrichia from the Upper Silurian Limestones of
Scandinavia. By T. Bupert Jones, F.G.S.

[With a Plate.]

Amongst the small bivalved Entomostraca found in the Lower
Palaeozoic rocks are several species of the genus Beyrichia ^ for
the elucidation of which we are chiefly indebted to MM. Kloden,
Beyrich, M^Coy, and Salter. The Beyrichice occur very low down
in the geologic series, though they are not the first to indicate
the Crustacean class in the fossiliferous rocks.

The carapace-valves of these little Crustaceans are usually ob-
long in shape, and rarely exceed th of an inch in length ; the
more typical forms have their surfaces embossed with two, three,
or more transverse ridges or isolated protuberances. Some spe-
cimens in their general contour and in the arrangement of the
inequalities on the surface of the valve ofier a distant resemblance
to a miniature human ear. Other varieties have smooth valves,
more or less indented by a transverse furrow which divides the
surface into two unequal parts.

The remains of Beyrichice are met with, both as calcareous
carapace-valves (by far most usually separate), and as casts of
single valves, scattered more or less abundantly in the substance
of the rock or on the planes of stratification. Not unfrequently
they have been distorted by the movements which the integral
parts of the rock have suffered in the process of partial meta-
morphism. The carapaces themselves, generally as single valves,
are frequently met with in the Upper Silurian rocks of Britain,
though not in the Lower Silurian ; and they abound in some of
the Upper Silurian rocks of Sweden. Yet our observations are
often necessarily limited to the casts of the exteriors and the
Ann. ^ May. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol, xvi. G

82 Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyricliise.

moulds of the interiors of these minute valves. The substance
of the valves being of the same thickness throughout, the in-
ternal casts represent with tolerable clearness the configuration
of the exterior.

The Upper Silurian limestones of Gothland and the south of
Sweden often abound in minute, symmetrical, semicircular, tri-
lobed bodies, which are the heads and tails of little Trilobites of
the genus Agnostus (particularly A. pisiformis). Together with
these occur other somewhat similar trilobed forms, which how-
ever are smaller, longer in proportion, and not symmetrical.
These are BeyrichicB.

Drifted fragments of these fossiliferous Scandinavian lime-
stones occur abundantly in the sands and gravels of Mecklen-
burg, Brandenburg, and Pomerania j and these blocks in their
weathered condition have yielded plentiful supplies of fossils to
the naturalists of North Germany. In 1769 C. F. Wilckens* * * §
figured specimens of Agnostus pisi for mis from this source, refer-
ring them with doubt to Trilobites (and proposing the removal
of Trilobites from amongst Mollusks to Insects). With these he
also figures a Beyrichia f {B. Wilckensiana, nobis), from Havel-
berg, without however arriving at any conclusion as to its true
nature.

L. von Buch in his ^ Recueil de Planches de Petrifactions re-
marquablesj,^ pi. 6, figures Beyrichi<je in a limestone block
from near Giistrow in Mecklenburg, and regards them as the
young of his Leptccna lata, a view quite incompatible with every
character of these creatures, as M. Kloden has well explained in
his 'Die Versteinerungen der Mark Brandenburg §.^

Kloden met with numerous specimens in weathered fragments
of the Scandinavian limestone from the gravels near Berlin ; and
he has given carefully executed (but evidently not quite correct)
figures of the valves of at least two species, in different stages of
growth, accompanied with a detailed description ||. This observer
remarked that these little fossils are not at all referable to the
heptcma which accompanies them, nor to any mollusk ; and,
guided by the apparently symmetrical, semicircular, three-lobed
form of some of the specimens, he was led to regard them as
being probably the cephalic and caudal portions of the carapace
of small Trilobites, and to assign them to the genus Battus
{■= Agnostus), although he figures and describes the unsymme-
trical contour and irregular distribution of the surface-lobes of

* Nachricht von seltenen Versteinerungen (8vo, Berlin), 1/69, pi. 7. f. 38.

t Op. cit. p. 77. pi. 7. fig. 39. These specimens have been confounded
by Dalman, Kloden, Burmeister, &c., with the foregoing.

X Fol. Berlin, 1831. These figures are too obscure for satisfactory re-
cognition as to their specific relations.

§ Berlin, 8vo, 1834. || Op. cit. pp. 112-119.

83

Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichise.

other specimens, and even shows the actually bivalved condition
of at least one example. This author refers all his specimens to
one species, under the name of Battus tuberculatus.

In 1843 Burmeister (Die Organiz. d. Trilobiten, p. 72) refers
M. Kloden^s figures, without any assigned reason and certainly
erroneously, to Odontopleura ovata.

In 1846, M^Coy, describing the Silurian fossils of Ireland*,
pointed out the really un symmetrical arrangement of the lobes
and furrows on these little bodies ; and, finding them to corre-
spond in pairs of dextral and sinistral valves, he rightly con-
jectured them to be the bivalved carapaces of Entomostraca. For
these animals he therefore established a new genus, Beyi'ichia,^
named from M. Bey rich, who also, in a work then lately pub-
lished f, had stated his belief that M. Kloden^s specimens were
not referable to any Trilobite, but to some small bivalved Crus-
tacean.

In 1851 J Prof. M^Coy further illustrated the genus, referring
it to the family “ Limnadiadse,^^ of the Phyllopod order of Ento-
mostraca j and remarking that several species of this genus
have been figured and described by Kloden, as varieties of his
Battus tuberculatus?^

Mr. Salter also has illustrated and described some British
species of this genus, in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey
of Great Britain, vol. ii. part 1, and in Appendix A. of ^ Descript.
Brit. Pal. Foss.^ above referred to. There are a few other pub-
lished notices of Beyrichice \ but we now have to confine our-
selves to an examination of the species from the Scandinavian
limestone, postponing for the present the critical notice of other
published species.

As M. Kloden^s figures were nearly all that we had in this
country for our guidance in the comparison of the Beyrichice, it
was desirable that we should be able to test by the examination of
good Scandinavian specimens the accuracy of these drawings and
of the specific determinations that have been made by their help.
Not long since Sir C. Lyell, when visiting Berlin, had the kind-
ness to mention to Prof. Beyrich my desire to have an oppor-
tunity of examining some well-preserved specimens of M. Klo-
den^s typical species ; and a liberal supply of limestone fragments
from the gravels of Prussia and Silesia, rich in Beyrichice, was
most courteously granted by Prof. Bcyrich and brought to En-
gland by Sir C. Lyell.

I now proceed to the results of the examination of these intcr-

* Synopsis of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland (4to, Dublin), p. 57.

t Ueber Einige bohmische Trilobiten, p. 47-

I Description of Brit. Pal. Foss, in Sedgwick’s Synopsis of the Classi-
fication of Ilrit. Pal. Rocks, 4to, Cambridge. Part II. Fasc. 1. p. 135.

C*

84 Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichise.

esting specimens. They consist of five fragments of a bluish-gray
limestone^ full of organic remains ; one of them from near Berlin,
and the others from the neighbourhood of Breslau. (I shall
refer to them as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5, for the sake of convenience.)
They difier somewhat among themselves in their lithological
characters and in their organic contents ; and no two of them
contain exactly the same set of Beyrichice. Nos. 1, 2, & 4 have
a weathered exterior of a whitish dun colour, in a more or less
friable condition. On fracture this whitish external portion of
the limestone exposes its fossils far more readily to the eye than
the inner crystalline limestone does ; and, indeed, the calcareous
cement having been decomposed, the innumerable Beyrichice aiid
other minute fossils start away in the breaking up of the mass,
and may be readily picked out of the debris. Nos. 3 & 5 are
rather darker in colour than the others, and have a rough con-
cretionary structure. The weathered surface of these is not more
friable than their interior, and the whole readily breaks up under
the hammer, numbers of the little fossils becoming disengaged
among the debris. All the fragments contain Leptcena lata.
Nos. 1, 2, 3, & 4 are rich in this fossil, some of them contain
fragments of heads of Trilob ites, and No. 1 abounds with Tenta-
culites. also. No. 5 is poorer in the Leptcena, &c., and contains
Encrinital remains. Each of the limestones contains abundance
of Cytheres or Cytheropsesj the description of which is postponed
for the present.

The relative distribution of these organic remains in each of
the specimens is shown in the following Table : —

Near Berlin.

Near Breslau.

Limestone Specimens, Nos.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Beyrichia Buchiana, n. sp

B. tiibermilfl.t.R, JClnd., sp

4:4=4:

4=4=4:

Var. nuda

^ ^

Var. antiqnata

4:

B. Dalmaniana, n. sp

4:

B. Maccoyiana, n. sp

4:

4:

B. Salteriana, n'; Sp. ...1

4=4:

B. Wilnlcpnsiana,^ Ti. sp.

4:4:4? ' .

4=4=4«

4=4=4:

Var. plicata i

4:4: . .

B. siliqna

4:

B. miindiila

4:

4:

4=4=

Cytheres

4c4e4i

^ ^ ijc

4=4:

4:

4=4=4=

Leptseha lata

4:4:

**

4=4:

4=4:

4:

Tentaculites

4:

Bnerinital remains ^

■

*

[The asterisks by their relative numbers denote the compai-ative abun-
dance of the fossils.] • •

85

Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinofvian Bfiyrichise.

The several forms of the Beyrichice obtained from the lime-
stone fragments are illustrated in Plate V., and I now proeeed
to their description (premising that the figures represent the
specimens magnified 4 diameters).

Class CRUSTACEA.

Subclass Entomostraca.

Order Phyllopoda ?

Family Limnadiad^ ?

Genus Beyrichia, M^Coy, 1846 (Synop. Sil. Fos. Iref^nd, p,57).

Generic characters. — Animal enclosed in a vertical bivalved
carapace. Carapace equivalved. Carapace-valves oblong; anterior
(cephalic) and posterior (caudal) extremities somewhat rounded ;
inferior (ventral) border semicircular ; superior (dorsal) border
straight. Valves wider at the caudal than at the cephalic extre-
mity ; more or less convex ; impressed with one or more trans-
verse furrows, commencing on the dorsal or hinge border, and
variously modifying the surface of the valve. Hingement not
known ; probably a simple adaptation of the thin dorsal edges
and their union by membrane.

Is/ Group : SiMPLiCES. — Surface of valve simple, almost uni-
formly convex, but impressed with one, usually short, vertical,
dorsal furrow on the anterior half of the valve, and (if extended)
dividing the surface of the valve into two unequal parts (the
anterior portion being the smaller). Valves either with simple
edges, or bordered (except on the dorsal edge) by a narrow flat-
tened rim ; in the first case the margin of the one slightly over-
lapping that of the other valve, when united ; in the second case,
the opposite flat borders coming in contact.

2nd Group : CoRRUGAXiE. — Surface of valve convex, impressed
with two vertical furrows, not reaching across the valve, but
marking out three unequal lobes on the surface and giving it a
crumpled appearance. The anterior furrow holds the same rela-
tive position as the single furrow in the Simpliccs.^^ The
valves arc bordered (on three sides) by a narrow depressed
margin.

3rc? Group: Jugos^e. — Surface of valve impressed with two
or three strong vertical furrows, extending from the back to the
ventral portion of the valve, and dividing the surface into three
or more unsymmetrical lobes, transverse ridges, or bosses, which
vary considerably in their size, mode of subdivision, and relative
position in different species, and, to some extent, in dificrent
stages of growth of individuals. The anterior, inferior, and pos-

86 Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichise.

terior margins of each valve are turned sharply inwards, the
angle so made being marked externally by a prominent ledge,
either slightly rounded or trenchant (and sometimes spiny),
forming a narrow depressed border along these three edges of
the external surface of the valve. These edges of the valves
close together by the marginal flange of the one valve being re-
ceived within that of the other, — somewhat like the fitting of the
lid and body of a circular snuff-box. United valves are very
rare ; one such specimen shows the ventral margin of the left
valve overlapping that of the right. There is no marked differ-
ence in the shape of the two valves; and the size of the valve
that is received within and overlapped by the other is very little
less than that of its fellow.

(JuGOSiE.)

1. Beyrichia BuchianUy nov. sp. PI. V. figs. 1-3.

Surface of valve impressed with three transverse furrows ; the
anterior and central ones reaching across the valve, and separated
by a narrow ridge ; the posterior furrow extending about two-
thirds of the width across, and bounded by a semicircular ridge.
In other words, the exterior of the valve presents three trans-
verse ridges ; the anterior is isolated, narrow, and slightly curved ;
the other two, occupying the posterior half of the valve, are
united towards the ventral border, and form a compressed semi-
circular or horse- shoe ridge, with its convexity downwards. The
posterior arm of this horse-shoe-shaped ridge is larger than the
other arm (or median ridge), and is sometimes indented by a
slight, short, oblique furrow on its outer ridge (fig. 2) ; and
sometimes it is tuberculated (fig. 3). The anterior and posterior
margins of the valve are also roughened with spinose tubercles
in old specimens.

This form presents a well-marked and simple pattern of the
surface, to which we can conveniently refer for comparison in
describing others. Only one of our limestone fragments affords
this species, and in this it occurs in great profusion, together
with B, Wilckensianaj TentaculiteSy and Leptcena lata,

A very similar limestone appears to have furnished the spe-
cimens figured in the ^ Recueil des Petrif. Remarq.,” and which
indeed are possibly referable to this species : — a coincidence
which has led me to dedicate this well-characterized Beyrichia to
the memory of M. von Buch.

2. Beyrichia tuberculata, Klbden, sp. PI. V. figs. 4-9.

Surface of valve embossed with three lobes or ridges. The
anterior ridge is usually divided more or less decidedly by a

87

Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichise.

transverse furrow into two oval bosses of unequal size, the lower or
ventral one being the largest and often becoming in the adult a
protuberance of great (relative) size, and so prominent as to render
the anterior part of the valve broader than the posterior (figs. 7
& 8). The central ridge is usually reduced to an oval boss,
isolated and placed rather obliquely. The posterior or largest
ridge is well developed, strongly curved, thick above and taper-
ing downwards and forwards, until it terminates nearly opposite
and near to the lower end of the central boss, with which it
sometimes shows an inclination to unite at a sharp angle. At
its thickest part, the posterior ridge is divided obliquely and
transversely, by two, slight, narrow, sinuous furrows, into three
parts, which vary in their distinctness in nearly every individual :
sometimes a third similar furrow again divides this ridge in its
ventral portion (fig. 8).

The surface of the valves is coarsely granulated, except in the
very young state.

This species difiers from B, Buchiana in its larger bulk, its
coarser aspect, its granulations, and especially in the disposition
of the surface-ridges. The same general arrangement of these
exists in both species, but in B. tuberculata they have a greater
development and are more subdivided; the horse-shoe ridge
especially of the one is broken up in the other species.

This is evidently the species illustrated by Klbden^s figures
20-23; and it is therefore the typical Beyrichia tuberculata.
The other figures (16-19) referred by this author to the young
state of the same species, belong to our new species B. Wilcken^
sianaj to be presently described.

B. tuberculata^ var. nuda. PI. V. figs 10, 11.

A smaller-sized variety of this species occurs plentifully in
another block of limestone. The surface is destitute of tubercles ;
and the ventral anterior lobe does not appear to attain the ex-
cessive growth that is seen in old specimens of the typical form.

B. tuberculata y var. antiquata. PI. V. fig. 12.

A large and unique left carapace- valve, from No. 5 lime-
stone, exhibiting the usual arrangement of the surface-lobes of
this species, except that the posterior ridge is not quite so largely
developed, has a perfectly smooth surface, and a trenchant
margin well armed with spines on the front, hind, and lower
borders of the valve. This spiny or denticulated condition of
the margin I liavc not met with in otlicr varieties of this species;
but it occurs in two figures (20, 21) of M. KlodciPs typical
form.

88 Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichise.

3. Beyrichia Dalmaniana^ nov. sp. PL V. fig. 13.

Anterior extremity of valve contracted^ so as to give an almost
triangular outline. Surface bearing five smooth rounded un-
equal protuberances or lobes ; two obliquely placed anteriorly,
two posteriorly, and one in the middle towards the dorsal border ;
the infero-posterior lobe is the largest. In the arrangement of
these five lobes some reference to that of the ridges in the pre-
ceding species can be recognized, the two anterior lobes being
the equivalents of the divided cephalic ridge in B. tuherculata ;
the posterior lobes representing the great caudal ridge, and the
central lobe being isolated and similarly placed in both species.
The narrow depressed border of the valve is slight but distinct.
The surface is smooth, with traces of very fine linear punc-
tations.

Only a right and a left valve were found (in No. 3. lime-
stone).

I have distinguished this rare and curious little Scandinavian
Beyrichia by the well-known name of one of the illustrious
palaeontologists of Sweden.

4. Beyrichia Maccoyiana^ nov. sp. PL V. fig. 14.

Carapace-valve nearly semicircular ; bearing three almost sym-
metrical rounded ridges. The anterior ridge broad, tapering
downwards and backwards, and disunited at its termination from
the others by a very slight depression. The middle ridge oval,
united below with the posterior ridge, but constricted at the
junction ; the two forming a compressed horse-shoe ridge. Sur-
face of valve punctate. The marginal depressed rim is broad,
prominent, and trenchant, especially on the ventral margin,
where it is marked by regularly placed, transverse, depressed
lines or strise equally on its upper and its under surface. This
breadth of the ventral rim gives rise to the peculiar semicircular
form of the valve.

The surface-lobes of this species have the arrangement of
those in B. Buchiana ; but, the furrows not being so deeply ex-
cavated, the ridges are fuller and less distinctly separate. The
punctation of the surface and especially the well-developed and
striated rim are the peculiar characteristics of this species.

B. Maccoyiana approaches some of Prof. HalLs* figures of
B, lata (Vauuxem sp.), a Beyrichia from the Clinton rocks of the
U.S.; but differences in the relative proportions of the ridges,
and especially the broad rim, sufficiently separate the two forms.

Three specimens of left valves are all that I have found (one

* Palfcoiitology of New York, vol. ii. pi. A. 66. fig. 10.

89

Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichise.

in No. 2. limestone, and two in No. 3.) ; and from their friable
condition the carapace appears to have been of an unusually de-
licate structure.

This rare and interesting species is named after Prof. M^Coy,
who founded the genus and devoted much labour to the eluci-
dation of the species of this and other allied forms of palseozoic
Entomostraca.

5. Beyrichia Salterianaj nov. sp. PI. V. figs. 15, 16.

Valves narrow oblong ; caudal portion wider than the cephalic ;
marginal rim of the anterior, inferior, and posterior borders uni-
form, well developed, and impressed with a series of shallow
pits along the ventral portion. Surface finely punctate ; divided
into three unequal subtriangular convexities or lobes, separated
by a very narrow forked or Y-shaped furrow. The posterior
lobe is the largest ; and the middle one, which is slightly in
advance of the centre^of the valve and is pushed up to the dorsal
border, is the smallest.

This species offers a strong contrast to B. Buchiana va the
width of the surface-lobes and the narrowness of the furrows ;
and it could scarcely answer to the name of ^^jugosa or ridged,
were it not that its system of furrows is equivalent to that of
B, tuber culata, which is at the opposite extremity of this group.

This small, but elegant and well-characterized species is nu-
merous in No. 5. limestone ; and I dedicate it with much plea-
sure to my friend Mr. Salter, Palaeontologist of the Geological
Survey, to whom we are indebted for much information on the
history of the Entomostraca of the Silurian rocks.

(CoRRUGATiE.)

6. Beyrichia Wilckensiana, nov. sp. PI. V. figs. 17, 18.

Carapace- valves contracted anteriorly, almost reniforrn. Sur-
face of valve smooth, highly convex, divided into three unequal
lobes by two short furrows, the anterior of which is near the
centre of the valve. The middle lobe, lying between the fur-
rows, is rounded, prominent, projecting over the dorsal edge,
and passes, by a narrow and sometimes constricted neck, into
the convex body of the valve with which the front and hind
lobes arc continuous. The middle lobe, though prominent, is
the smallest, and the anterior lobe is the widest, but depressed.
I’hc ventral part of the convex surface, where the lobes unite,
hangs over the narrow fiat rim of the inferior margin of the
valve, and is so])aratcd from it by a deep wrinkle, which dies out

90 Mr. T, R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichise.

on the flattened margins of the anterior and posterior dorsal
angles of the valve.

This form abounds in two of the limestones, and is evidently
referred to in Kloden^s figures 16-18; but it is still better
figured by Wilckens, after whom 1 have named this peculiar
species.

Beyrichia WilcTcensianaj \2ir, plicata. PL V. figs. 19-21.

In this variety the anterior dorsal angle is more acute, and
the central lobe more compressed, than in the typical form ; and
the dorsal portions of the anterior and posterior lobes are marked
by short faint vertical furrows, so as to appear pinched up into two
or three small projecting angular ridges or plaits. The wrinkle
or sulcus bounding the convex part of the valve is rather more
strongly marked also.

This variety does not occur with the foregoing, but is plentiful
in No. 1. limestone; and the specimens are usually smaller,
though some individuals attain the full size of the type.

Possibly Kloden^s figure 19. was taken from a specimen of
this variety.

7. Beyrichia siliqua^ nov. sp. PI. V. fig. 22.

Carapace-valve elongate, contracted anteriorly ; smooth ; con-
vex; divided into three unequal lobes by two shallow, rather
oblique furrows crossing the convexity of the valve. Posterior
lobe the largest. Marginal rim well developed on the ventral
border.

Two dextral valves only in one of the limestones represent
this well-marked species.

(SiMPLICES.)

8. Beyrichia mundulaj nov. sp. PL V. fig. 23.

Carapace-valves varying from oblong to nearly oval, convex,
smooth, punctated, and marked by a short distinct furrow near
the middle of the upper part ; the marginal depressed rim nar-
row and sometimes obscured on the ventral border by the con-
vexity of that part of the valve.

This occurs in three of the limestones, and from its small size
and general appearance is liable to be confounded with the
numerous Cythere-like forms so common in these Scandinavian
limestones. The specimens from No. 1. limestone are more oval
and convex than the others; those from No. 5. are well pre-
served, and interesting from their oblong shape, depressed mar-

Mr. T. R. Jones on Scandinavian Beyrichije. 91

gins, slight sulcus, and trace of central lucid spot in which
characters we have a near approach to Leperditia.

B. mundvla differs from B. simplex, Jones (Quart. Journ. Geol.
Soc. vol. ix. p. 161. pi. 7. fig. 7), chiefly in its having a propor-
tionally longer hinge-line, or dorsal border, and a narrower pos-
terior extremity, and in frequently presenting a depressed Leper-
ditia-like aspect of the valves, which we do not find in B. simplex.

The specimen here figured (fig. 23) is from the No. 1. lime-
stone, and is very convex and broadly oval in shape. The dorsal
border is, however, usually straight, two-thirds the length of the
valves, and from each of its extremities the margin has an oblique
direction downwards and outwards to about half the width of
the valve, where it meets the semicircular ventral border, and so
forms the more or less angular anterior and posterior extre-
mities of the valve, the former of which is somewhat narrower
and sharper than the latter. This outline, or an approximation
to it, is traceable in very many of the Beyrichice, but it is best
developed in the specimens of B, mundula above referred to,
from No. 5. limestone, in which the obliquity of the antero-
dorsal and the postero- dorsal angles of the carapace is as well
marked as in Leperditia, and is combined with a general de-
pression of the carapace-valves and other characteristics above-
noticed, which indicate a close relationship to the last-named
genus : — to this point we shall again refer in further descriptions
of the species of these genera.

Of the three groups of the genus, that of the Jugosce is well
represented in the Scandinavian limestones under examination.
To this group also belong —

Beyrichia Kloedeni, M^Coy.

complicata, Salter.

symmetrica. Hall.

lata, Vanuxem, sp.

Busacensis, Jones.

Bohemica, Barrande, MS.

The Corrugatce have here only two representatives (/h Wilck-
ensiana and B. siliqua). Possibly llalPs Cytherina spinosa may
be a Beyrichia of this type. An undescribed species from Busaco
belongs to this group, and, taken together with B. Bohemica,
affords a ])assagc into B. complicata of the Jugosce group.

The little B. mundula above described has many larger con-
geners among the Simplices, such as —

Beyrichia simplex, Jones,

Logani, Jones, MS.

strnngulula, Salter,

and several Bohemian forms collected by M. Barrande.

92 Dr. J, W. Griffith on the Conjugation q/’ Me Diatomacese.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE V.

[The figures represent the specimens magnified 4 diameters, with the

exception of 16 b.\

Fig. 1 a. Beyrichia Buchiana, Jones : right valve. 1 b. Ventral aspect of
the same valve. 2. Left valve. 3. Left valve of old specimen.

Fig. 4. Beyrichia tuberculata, Kloden, sp. : right valve (young individual).

5 a. Right valve. 5 b. Ventral aspect of the same vaNe. 6. Left
valve. 7 a. Left valve (old individual). 7 b. Ventral aspect of
the same valve. 8 a. Right valve. 8 b. Transverse section of
the right valve. 9 a. Left valve. 9 b. Ventral aspect of the same
valve.

Fig. 10a. B. tuberculata, var. nuda, Jones: right valve. 10 6. Ventral
aspect of the same valve. 11. Left valve.

Fig. 12. B. tuberculata, var. antiquata, Jones : left valve.

Fig.l^a. Beyrichia Dalmaniana, Jones: right valve. 13 6. Ventral
aspect of the same valve.

Fig. 14. Beyrichia Maccoyiana, Jones : right valve.

Fig. 15 a. Beyrichia Salteriana, Jones : right valve. 15 6. Ventral aspect
of the same valve. 16 a. Left valve. 16 6. Highly magnified
view of part of the border.

Fig. 17. Beyrichia Wilckensiana, Jones : Left valve. 18 a. Right valve.
18 6. Ventral aspect of the same valve.

Fig. 19. B. Wilckensiana, var. plicata, Jones : right valve of large indi-
vidual. 20 a. Right valve. 20 6. Ventral aspect of the same
valve. 21. Left valve.

Fig. 22. Beyrichia siliqua, Jones : right valve.

Fig. 23. Beyrichia mundula, Jones : left valve.

VII. — On the Conjugation of the Diatomacese.

By J. VF. Griffith, M.D., F.L.S.

.[With a Plate.]

The interest attached to the conjugation and the relation of
the forms to the species of Diatomaceje, will, I trust, render the
following remarks of interest to the botanist.

At the end of May of the present year, I was fortunate enough
to find the bodies delineated in PI. II. B. figs. 1-5, in a ditch
near Black wall.

The first which attracted my notice was that represented by
fig. 3, and which could not be referred to any known Diato-
macean ; it was composed of silex, i. e. indestructible by heat
and nitric acid. Upon further search, other of these bodies
were found (fig. 2) containing a frustule of a Navicular some
also with the valves of another Navicula (figs. 1 & 2) adherent
to the former. It was then evident that these bodies represented

Dr. J. W. Griffith on the Conjugation of the Diatomaceje. 93

a Navicula in a state of conjugation, and that the larger Navi-
cula was the sporangial frustule of the smaller, enclosed in a
siliceous sporangial sheath.

The siliceous sheath (fig. 3) is colourless, elongate, rounded
at the ends, and furnished with coarse transverse strise or de-
pressions, through which the line of fracture runs when the
object is crushed (figs. 1 & 2). Its length its variable, appa-
rently according to the stage of growth. The smallest was
jio of an inch, the parent frustules being very slightly sepa-
rated from each other, the form of the sheath more rounded,
and the transverse striae very few. The larger forms were from
rk to T^" ™ length.

The parent frustules (fig. 4, side view ; fig. 1 (below), front
•view), of which there were two, were brownish when dry ; linear
in front view ; almost linear in the side view, sometimes more or
less lanceolate, but always suddenly constricted near the ends,
which are produced. The valves have a medial line and central

and terminal nodules. The length of the parent frustules was

1 1 w

770 70 0 • .

The sporangial frustules (fig. 5, side view ; fig. 2, front view
.were also brownish when dry, and in side view of a linear form,
slightly narrowed towards the obtuse ends ; in front view, linear
and narrowed towards the obtuse or slightly truncate ends, and
slightly constricted in the middle; the medial line, with cen-
tral and terminal nodules distinct. The dimensions of the spo-
rangial frustules are those of the sporangial sheath.

The determination of the species I shall leave to those who
believe that the numerous hair-splittings of forms belonging to
Navicula constitute distinct species. But it is very clear that
the forms of the parent and sporangial frustules belong respec-
tively even to different sections of the genus Navicula as subdi-
vided by Kiitzing* * * § and Smith f.

It would be well perhaps for those who specially study the
Diatomacese to attend more to the relations of the forms and
structure of frustules to species than to the making out of the
minute markings existing upon the valves, which at present re-
ceive almost the whole attention. The observations made in the
former direction are exceedingly few, yet most important to the
point. Those of ThwaitesJ and Focke§ have shown that great
differences of size and shape may exist in forms of one and the
same species ; the subject of the present communication confirms
this result. Variation in the number of markings, as rays, dots,

* Kiitzing, Species Algarum, 1849.

t Rev. W. Smith, Synopsis of the British Diatomacese, i.

X Thwaites, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1847, xx., and jds. 4 & 22.

§ Foeke, Fhysiologische Studicn, 1853, Ilcft ii.

94 Dr. T. Wright on a new Genus of Fossil Cidaridse,

and surface-elevations, or even their absence or presence, is not
sufficient to distinguish species, as shown by Thwaites*, &c. and
Shadboltf. The observations of Ralfs J upon Himantidium are
very interesting in this respect, although unfortunately very
incomplete.

It may be remarked, that the surface of the valves of the
Navicula described above were covered with minute depressions,
invisible by ordinary illumination, but visible by oblique light
with the use of stops ; while the sporangial sheath was free from
markings, save the transverse strise.

The manner in which the unyielding siliceous sporangial
sheath enlarges in accordance with the growth of the sporangial
frustule is obscure, unless it ensue by the occasional ecdysis, as
it might be called, of the old sheath and the formation of a new.
In the earliest conjugating specimen observed of the above Navi-
cula, the sporangial sheath was of a rounded-oblong form, about
two-thirds of the size of the parent frustules, and situated midway
between them, both in regard to length and breadth, whilst
the full-grown sporangial frustule and sheath were twice the
length of the parent frustule (figs. 2 & 3), both the former being
of about the same size, and the latter situated near one end of
the sporangial sheath. It was noticed also, that all the spo-
rangial frustules were undergoing division, although contained
within their sheaths.

VIII. — On a New Genm of Fossil Cidaridse, with a Synopsis of
the Species included therein. By Thomas Wright, M.D.,
F.R.S.E.

Notwithstanding the many new generic sections introduced
into the classification of Echinoderms, by MM. Agassiz and
Desor, and the important light thrown by these savans on our
knowledge of the numerous species of this class contained in
European collections, still the progress of discovery renders it
imperative on palaeontologists to modify from time to time
many of the opinions put forward by these authors in their
‘ Catalogue raisonne.^ When the amount of real work done by
them is taken into account, in a field which was then compara-
tively unknown, the wonder is, not that mistakes or oversights
should have been committed, but that so much good work

* Annals, loc. cit.

t Shadbolt, Microsc. Journal, vol. iii.

X Ralfs, Annals, 1843, xii. on Fragilaria pectinaliSf R. (Himantidium
pectinale, Kiitz.) var. j3.

95

with a Synopsis of the Species included tJw'ein.

under the circumstances should have been attained, which will
bear the most severe criticism, and remain as it was left, a monu-
ment of the genius and industry of the authors.

In our memoirs on the Cidaridse of the Oolites, we have
figured and described three species, Goniopygus perforatus, Pe-
dina Ethendgii and Pedina Bakeri ; the true generic position of
these forms seemed to us uncertain at the time our papers were
passing through the press, as they exhibited characters which
did not assimilate with either of the generic divisions of the
^ Catalogue raisonne.^ Our materials did not then justify us in
proposing a separate genus for their reception ; the discovery,
however, of an interesting series of new congeneric forms has
now enabled us to rectify our determination, and propose the
genus Hemipedina for the group, to which we have added a
synopsis of the species included therein.

Hemipedina, Wright, 1855.

This new genus is composed of small, neat, and highly orna-
mented Urchins, much depressed on their upper surface, and
with a flat or slightly concave base. The ambulacral areas are
narrow and straight ; the pores in the poriferous zones are ar-
ranged in single pairs ; the interambulacral areas are in general
more than double the width of the ambulacral, with two, four,
or six rows of tubercles in general arranged abreast on the same
tubercular plate. The tubercles are perforated, and set on mam-
millary eminences with smooth uncrenulated summits ; one row
of tubercles in general only extends from the peristome to the
disc ; the other rows, when there are four and six rows in the
area, stop short at the equator, or between the equator and the
disc ; the intertubercular space on the upper surface of the test is
therefore in general wide, and covered with a small miliary gra-
nulation. The apical disc is large ; the genital and ocular plates
are expanded and foliated. The mouth-opening is of moderate
dimensions, and the peristome is divided into ten nearly equal-
sized lobes. The spines are long, slender, and needle-shaped;
those that are known, equal at least the diameter of the test, and
their surface is sculptured with delicate longitudinal lines.

Hemipedina is related to Diadema in having the pores ar-
ranged in the zones in single pairs and the tubercles perforated ;
but it is distinguished from Diadema by the absence of crenu-
lations on the summits of the mammillary eminences. It is
related to Pedina in possessing perforated and uncrenulated
tubercles ; but it is distinguished from that genus in having the
j)ores in the zones in single pairs {Pedina having the pores in
triple oblique pairs like Echinus), in having the elements of the

96 l)r, T. Wright sn a new Genus of Fossil Cidaridse^

apical disc more largely developed, and in the species being nearly
all small and depressed forms. Hemipedina is related to Echin-
opsis in possessing uncrenulated and perforated tubercles, with
the pores in pairs ; but it is distinguished from the latter by the
narrowness of the ambulacral areas, the depressed form of the
test [Echinopsis being high and inflated), the form of the mouth-
opening, and the deep decagonal lobes of the peristome (that of
Echinopsis being almost deprived of these incisions), together
with the greater size and development of the elements of the
apical disc.

Hemipedina, as far as we at present know, is composed of
Jurassic species, which commence in the lower Lias and extend
into the Coral liag, each stage possessing its own specific forms.
The following synopsis of the British species now before us will
be figured and described in detail in our Monograph on the
British Oolitic Cidaridse.

A. Species from the Lias.

Hemipedina Bechei, Wright.

Cidaris Bechei, Broderip, Geol. Proc. ii. 202.

Biadema Bechei, Agassiz, Morris’s Catalogue of British Fossils,
1st ed. p. 51 .

Test small, much crushed, and covered over with spines ; ambu-
lacra with two rows of tubercles; interambulacra with four
or six rows of tubercles ; spines long, slender and needle-
shaped, x%ths of an inch in length, with longitudinal lines on
the surface. This appears to be identical with the type-spe-
cimen in the Museum of the Geological Society.

Locality. — Lower Lias, Lyme Regis.

Coll. J. S. Bowerbank, Esq.

Hemipedina Boiverbankii, Wright, nov. sp.

Test crushed, 1 g^jth of an inch in diameter ; ambulacral areas nar-
row, with two rows of marginal tubercles rather smaller than
those in the interambulacra, a tubercle on every alternate
plate ; interambulacral areas wide, with six rows of tubercles
abreast, surrounded by a delicate scrobicular circle ; spines
shorter and thicker (l^^ths of an inch in length) than those of
H. Bechei, although the test is much larger, deeply sculptured
with longitudinal lines.

Locality. — Lower Lias, Lyme Regis.

Coll. J. S. Bowerbank, Esq.

with a Synopsis of the Species included therein.

97

Hemipedina Jardiniiy Wright, nov. sp.

Test small, much depressed ; ambulacral areas wide, with two
rows of marginal tubercles which extend from the peristome
to the disc ; interambulacral areas with two rows of tubercles
set near the poriferous zones, from eleven to twelve tubercles
in each row, a delicate scrobicular circle of granules around
each, and a naked intertub ercular space in the centre ; mouth-
opening small, situated in a depression ; peristome decagonal ;
base finely radiated in consequence of the size and regularity
of the interambulacral tubercles.

Locality. — Marlstone near Ilminster, Somersetshire, and Bre-
don Hill, Gloucestershire.

Coll, of the late H. Strickland Esq., and Hr. Wright.

Hemipedina Etheridgiif Wright.

Pedina Etheridgii, Annals of Nat. Hist. S. 2. vol. xiii. p.315.
pi. 1. fig. 5 a-d.

Test small, circular, depressed ; ambulacral areas narrow, with
six small perforate tubercles below, and a double row of mar-
ginal granules above ; interambulacral areas with two rows of
tubercles, seven in each row ; apical disc large and pctaloidal ;
mouth-opening small ; peristome decagonal ; lobes nearly
equal.

Locality. — Upper Lias, Ilminster.

Coll. Dr. Wright.

B. Species from the Inferior Oolite.

Hemipedina Baker ij Wright.

Pedina Bakeriy Wright, Annals of Nat. Hist. S. 2. vol. xiii. p. 312.
pi. 1 . fig. 4 a-c.

Test circular, depressed ; ambulacral areas very narrow, with two
rows of small tubercles set so far apart that they form a zig-
zag row ; interambulacral areas with two rows of rather large
prominent tubercles, five in a row ; apical disc with a ]>ro-
minent anal rim ; mouth-opening large ; peristome deeply
decagonal.

Locality. — Pea-grit, Inferior Oolite, Crickley Hill.

Coll. Dr. Wright : a single specimen.

Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi.

7

98 Dr. T. R. Wright on a new Genus of Fossil Cidaridse,
Hemipedina perforata, Wright.

Goniopygus ? perforatus, Wright, Annals of Nat. Hist. S. 2. vol. viii. .
p. 267. pi. 6. fig. 5 a-b.

Test small, circular and depressed ; ambulacral areas with two
rows of small tubercles which extend from the peristome to
the disc ; interambulacral areas with two rows of tubercles,
seven to eight in each row, three or four secondary tubercles
between the primary rows at the base ; surface of the plates
covered with numerous coarse miliary granules ; mouth-open-
ing large ; peristome rather deeply decagonal ; lobes nearly
equal in size ; apical disc large and foliated.

Locality, — Pea-grit, Inferior Oolite, Crickley Hill.

Coll. Dr. Wright.

Hemipedina tetragramma, Wright, nov. sp.

Test circular, y%ths of an inch in diameter ; ambulacral areas
narrow, with two marginal rows of small nearly equal-sized
tubercles extending from the peristome to the disk ; interam-
bulacral areas with two rows of primary tubercles, about four-
teen in each row, and two rows of secondary tubercles, ten in
each row, extending from the peristome to nearly the upper
surface; mouth-opening small, situated in a depression ;
peristome decagonal, unequally lobed.

Locality, — Pea-grit, Crickley Hill.

Coll. Dr. Wright.

Hemipedina Waterhousei, Wright, nov. sp.

Test small, pentagonal, rather inflated at the sides ; ambulacral
areas with two rows of small tubercles extending from the
peristome to the disc ; interambulacral areas with two rows of
tubercles, eight in a row ; scrobicular circles neatly defined ;
mouth-opening small ; apical disc narrow and prominent.

Locality. — Pea-grit, Inferior Oolite, Crickley Hill.

Coll. Dr. Wright.

Hemipedina Bonei, Wright, nov. sp.

Test small, pentagonal, depressed; ambulacral areas with two
marginal rows of close-set tubercles ; interambulacral areas
with one entire row and four short rows of tubercles, which
extend only as far as the equator ; tubercles of both areas
about the same size ; base flat ; mouth moderate in dimen-
sions ; peristome unequally decagonal ; apical disc absent.

Locality. — Pea-grit, Crickley Hill.

Coll. Dr. Wright.

99

with a Synojjsis of the Species included therein.

C. Species from the Great Oolite and Cornhrash,

Hemipedina Davidsoni, nov. sp.

Test much depressed, 1 inch in diameter ; ambulacral areas with
two rows of marginal tubercles very regular in their arrange-
ment throughout ; interambulacral areas wide, with two rows
of primary tubercles, fourteen in a row, and two rows of
secondary tubercles which extend beyond the equator, between
the former, and two rows of smaller tubercles between the
main rows and the poriferous zones, so that at the equator
there are six rows of tubercles abreast, whilst on the upper
surface there are only two rows ; mouth-opening small, in a
concave depression ; peristome decagonal and nearly equally
lobed ; apical disc absent.

Locality. — The sandy beds of the Great Oolite, Minchin-

nampton.

Coll. Dr. Wright : only one specimen known.

Hemipedina Woodwardii, Wright, nov. sp.

Test circular, much depressed ; ambulacral areas narrow, with
two rows of small tubercles below and extending as far as the
equator, diminishing to granules on the upper part of the
areas; interambulacral areas with two rows of rather large
primary tubercles, eight in a row, and two rows of secondary
tubercles, three to four in each row, which scarcely reach the
equator, the upper part of the intertubercular space being
filled with a small, abundant miliary granulation ; apical disc
large, anal rim prominent ; mouth-opening small ; peristome
decagonal, nearly equal-lobed.

Locality. — Cornbrash, Wiltshire.

Coll. British Museum, from Dr. Smithes collection ; Dr. Wright.

Hemipedina tuberculosa^ Wright, nov. sp.

Test elevated, subconoidal ?, the precise form unknown ; ambu-
lacral areas with two rows of basal semitubercles raised on
very prominent bosses diminishing rapidly in size into coarse
granules above ; interambulacral areas with two rows of large
tubercles set on very prominent bosses, with scrobicular circles
of coarse granules surrounding the areolas ; two rows of small
secondary tubercles close to the poriferous zones from the
peristome to the equator, and three or four at the base of the
intertubercular space; upper surface enveloped in the matrix;
apical aperture large.

Locality. — Coral Rag, Wiltshire.

Coll. British Museum.

7*

100 Dr. T. R. Wriglit on a new Genus of Fossil Cidaridse.
Foreign Species of the genus Hemipedina.

Hemipedina seriate , Wright.

Diadema seriate, Agassiz ; Leymerie, Mem. de la Societe Geologique
de France, tome ii. p. 330. pi. 24. fig. 1, 1839 ; Agassiz and
Desor’s Cat. raisonne des Echinides, 3 ser. tome vi. p. 348.

Test hemispherical, subglobose above, flat below; ambulacral
areas with two rows of tubercles nearly as large as those of
the interambulacra ; interambulacral areas with six rows of
tubercles abreast at the equator, diminishing to four and two
rows above ; a few secondary tubercles unequally distributed ;
mouth-opening small; peristome slightly decagonal.

Locality. — Inferior Lias, France.

Coll. M. Michelin.

Hemipedina Woodwardii, Wright.

This species occurs in the Cornbrash of the Marquise, near
Boulogne-sur-Mer. In one of the specimens before us the spines
are preserved ; the primary spines are not very long, scarcely the
length of the diameter of the test; the secondary spines are
short and needle-shaped ; the surface of both kinds is covered
with fine longitudinal lines.

Locality. — The Cornbrash near Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Coll. British Museum.

Hemipedina Nattheimense, Wright.

Echinopsis Nattheimense, Quenstedt, Handbuch der Petrefacten-
kunde, p. 582. pi. 49. fig. 37.

Locality. — White Jura, Nattheim.

Coll. British Museum. At this moment the specimen is not
at our disposal. We shall give a diagnosis of this species in our
Monograph.

Hemipedina Scemanni, Wright, nov. sp.

Test small, hemispherical ; ambulacra with two rows of tubercles ;
interambulacral areas with one row of primary and two rows
of secondary tubercles, the primary tubercles alternating with
the secondary tubercles, not placed abreast as in most of the
species ; tubercles of both areas nearly the same size.

Locality. — Coral Rag, Commercy, Meuse.

Coll. Dr. Wright : sent by M. Louis Soemann of Paris.

On some new or little-known species of Mammalia, lOi

IX. — Brief Notices of several new or little-known species of

Mammalia, lately discovered and collected in Nepal, by Brian

Houghton Hodgson, Esq. By T. Horsfield, M.I).

Early in the year 1853, B. H. Hodgson, Esq., late of the
Bengal Civil Service, presented to the Museum of the East
India Company, a large collection of prepared skins of Mam-
malia, chiefly from the higher regions of India, with duplicates
of most species. Many of these have already been communi-
cated to the public in a detailed catalogue prepared by Dr. John
Edward Gray, chief Zoologist of the British Museum, with the
title of ‘‘ Specimens and Drawings of Mammalia of Nepal and
Tibet, presented by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., to the British Museum,
December 10th, 1845.^'

Since Mr. Hodgson's return to India in 1 847, various new
and interesting species of Mammalia have been discovered by
him in Nepal, Darjeling, Tibet, and other parts of India near
the Himalayan range, which are not contained in the catalogue
above mentioned •, of these a concise description is now given,
with remarks on several other species hitherto imperfectly
known.

Of the numerous duplicates liberal distribution has been
made, under the orders of the Hon. Court of Directors of the
India Company, agreeably to the recommendation of Mr.
Hodgson, to the British Museum, the Derby Museum at
Liverpool, to several other English museums of natural history,
and also to the museums at Leyden, Frankfort and Heidelberg,
on the continent of Europe.

Of the family of Vespertilionidse the collection contains the
following species : —

1. Megaderma sciiistacea, Hodgs. J. A. S. xvi. 589, with a
figure.

Megaderma Lyra, GeoflF. apud Kelaart, Prodr. Faunae Zeylanicae, Mam-
malia, p. 11.

This species was discovered by B. II. Hodgson, Esq., in 1847,
in Sikim Tarai, and a very copious description of its form and
habits is given in vol. xvi. of the Journ. As. Soc. Beng. It
apj)cars to be the representative of the M. Lyra in the higher
regions of Bengal, and though very like that species, Mr.
Hodgson considers it clearly distinct, on account of its slaty
colour in the living state, and his figure represents it of that
tint. AVlicn dry it can scarcely be distinguished from M. Lyra :
this appears from tlie specimens set up in the Company's
museum. Dr. Kelaart, wlm found it in Ceylon, introduces it

102

Dr. T. Horsfield on some new or little-known

in his cataloo’ue as a synonym of that species, while he remarks,
that ‘‘ none of the specimens examined by us were of the dimen-
sions given by Mr. Hodgson.^^

Mr. Hodgson describes the colour of the fur for the most
part of a clear, deep slaty-blue above, and sordid buff below,
and that of the eye very dark. Females resemble males. The
expanse of the wings is 1 ft. 6 in. The dimensions are given
in detail at page 894.

2. Rhinolophus perniger, Hodgs. J. A. S. xii. 414, xvi. 896.
Rhinolophus perniger, Hodgs. apud Blyth, J. A. S. xiii. 484.

Discovered by Mr. Hodgson in the central regions of the
Sub-Himalaya, and described in vol. xii. of the Journ. As. Soc.
Beng. ; also briefly noticed by Mr. Blyth. As yet a rare
species in collections. According to comparisons made at the
British Museum, it resembles the Uh. trifoliatus.

3. Rhinolophus tragatus, Hodgson.

First described in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. iv. 699; Gray, Cat.
Mamm. Br. Mus. p. 22 ; Cat. Hodgs. Coll. p. 2 ; Blyth, Journ.
As. Soc. Beng. xiii. 484. A new subject in the Company's
museum.

4. Hipposideros armiger, Hodgs. J. A. S. iv. 699; Gray,

Cat. Mamm. Br. Mus. p. 24 ; Cat. Hodgs. Coll. p. 3 ;
Blyth, J. A. S. xiii. 488.

Although nearly allied to Rh. {Hipposideros) nobilis of Hors-
field, it deserves the rank of a distinct species. It is larger
than the Javanese species, and its peculiarities are pointed out
by Hodgson and Blyth.

5. Vespertilio siligorensis, Hodgson.

Muzzle pointed, with a moustache on the upper lip. Ears
oval, slightly emarginate and somewhat pointed ; tragus elon-
gate, acute. Wing-membranes arising from the base of the
toes. Fur above uniform dark brown, below dark brown tipped
with pale brown. Membranes brown. Fore-arm 1 in. 3 lines.
Tibia 6^ lines. Longest finger 2 in. 4 lines.

Ohs. — Very nearly allied to, if not identical with, the V. mijsia-
cinus of Europe.

6. Vespertilio darjelingensis, Hodgson.

Very nearly allied to the former, but differing in having the
ears more emarginate, with a distinct lobe at their base ; in
having the tibia somewhat shorter, with the fur of the upper

103

species of Mammalia.

parts darker and tipped with chestnut, with a gloss somewhat
as in V. mystacinus, but lighter*.

7. ScOTOPHILUS COROMANDELICUS, F. CuV. Sp.

Vespertilio coromandelicus, Lesch. & Cuv. Nouv. Ann. de la Mus. Schinz.
S}^st. Mamm. p. 171.

Examined by R. F. Tomes, Esq,

8. Murina suillus, Temm. sp.

Vespertilio suillus, Temm. Monogr. ii. 224. t. 56. f. 456.

Murina suillus. Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1842, 259.

Identified by R. F. Tomes, Esq.

9. Barbastellus Daubentonii, Mem. Acad. Par. 1759, t. ii.

p. 8 ; Bell, Brit. Quad.

Barbastellus communis, Gray, Mag. Zool. and Bot. ii. 13.

Examined by R. F. Tomes, Esq., who considers it identical
with the European species, although somewhat darker in colour
from its preservation in spirits.

10. Plecotus homochrous, Hodgs. J. A. S. xvi, 894.

Mr. Hodgson, after giving a very copious description of this
new species of Plecotus, which he discovered in the central
regions of Sub-Himalaya, remarks: ‘^Nearly allied to auritus,
but differs therefrom by disunited ears, fewer molars, a flat inner
ear, shorter fur and nude ears, besides its more uniform colour.
The joints of the digits also difiPer, showing how little dependence
can be placed upon this mark, which yet Cuvier, Geotfroy and
Hamilton Smith make the corner-stone of the general classifi-
cation of the family

11. Plecotus darjelingensis, Hodgson.

Nearly allied to the former, but considered distinct by Mr.
Hodgson. The dimensions are the same in all points ; the
colour is deeper, inclining to blackish. The lobes of the ear are
spreading, with a small appendicule at the bases. The tragus
is narrow. The specimens of this and of the former are few
and not well preserved, and more materials are required for a
satisfactory discrimination.

12. Lasiurus Pearsonii, Horsfield, Cat. Mamm. E. I. C. Mu-

seum, p. 36; Blyth, J. A. S. xx. 524.

Noctulinia lasiura, Ilodgs. J. A. S. xvi. 896; fide Blyth, J. A. S. xxi. 343.
The specimen sent by Mr. Hodgson is not quite adult; in

* This uud the j)reeeding were examined and described at my request
by U. r. Tomes, Esej. — T. II.

104

Dr. T. Horsfield on some new or little-known

other respects it agrees with Mr. Pearson^s specimen from Dar-
jeling, from which the original description was made.

13. Nycttcejus nivicolus, Hodgson.

Colour of the head and body above uniform light brown, with
a slight yellowish shade; underneath, from the throat to the
vent, dark grey with a brownish tint, lighter on the sides of the
throat. Ears long, attenuated to an obtuse point, exceeding
half an inch in length.

The fur has the character of that of Lasiurus Pearsonii, being
delicate, very soft and silky both above and underneath. Entire
length 5 in., of which the tail measures 2; brachium If in.;
cubitus 2f in.; longest digit 4^ in.; tibia If in.; foot and
claws I in. ; ears f in. ; expanse 1 ft. 7 in.

This species resembles the Nycticejus ornatus described by
Mr. Blyth in vol. xx. of the Journ. As. Soc. Beng. pp. 517, 518,
but it is of larger dimensions, more uniform in its colouring,
and altogether destitute of the white spots and bands indicated
in the description of the N. ornatus, and of the tawny-red colour
on the membranes of that species. It has also some affinity to
the Nycticejus Tickelii, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xx. 157,
158, but its dimensions and proportions are different, and the
brighter maroon colour which spreads over the membranes, as
m Kerivoula picta, is entirely wanting in the Nycticejus nivi-
colus.

More specimens of this species are desirable to illustrate its
true character.

14. Pteropus Edwardsti, Geoffr. (Gray, Cat. Hodgs. Coll, p.3),

presents nothing peculiar.

Of the genus FeliSythc collection contains, besides the more com-
mon species, the following; — Felis C/hciff, Erxleb. Syst. Mamm.
p. 508. Leopardus Uncia, Gray, Cat. Mamm. Br. Mus. p. 41 ;
Cat. Hodgs. Coll. p. 5. Uncia Irhis, Ehrenb. sp. Gray, Ann. &
Mag. Nat. Hist. N. S. xiv. 394*.

* Dr. J. E. Gray has recently proposed that the Ounces, or Tortoise-
shell Tigers as they have been called, should form a particular group of
Cats, to which the name of Uncia may he attached. They are easily cha-
racterized by the great length and thickness of their cylindrical or rather
clavate tail, and the marbling of the colours on the fur. They are con-
fined to Asia.

1. Uncia Irbis. Felis Uncia, Schreber. F. Pardus, Pallas. Tibet.

2. Uncia macroscelis, Temm. Sumatra.

3. Uncia macrosceloides, Hodgson. India.

4. Uncia marmoratus. Felis marrnorata, Martin. F. Diardii, Jardiiic.
Penang.

5. Uncia Charltoni. F. Charltoni,G\n.y. F. Hodgs. MSS.

India, Himalaya. — Dr. Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1S51, xiv. p. 3IM.

species of Mammalia. 105

15. Felis uncioides, Hodgs. List of Mamm. presented to

E.LC. Mus.

The specimens received from Mr. Hodgson agree in all points
with those from Tibet presented to the Museum of the East
India Company by Capt. R. Strachey.

16. Felis macrosceloides, Hodgs. Coll., Journ. N. H. iv. 286.

Felis macroscelis, Hodgs. J. A. S. xi. 2/5.

Felis, n. sp., Tickell, J. A. S. xii. with a figure.

Although nearly allied to F. macroscelis, Temm., of the Ma-
layan Islands, l)r. J. E. Gray allows it the rank of a distinct
species, on account of its smaller size and some difference in the
markings. In a note on the specimen described by Mr. Hodg-
son in vol. xi. of the Journ. As. Soc. Beng. p. 276, Mr. Blyth
remai’ks, that this fine species originally discovered in Bengal
should also inhabit Tibet is a remarkable circumstance.”

Mr. Hodgson’s specimen is from Tibet; that described by
Lieut. Tickell is from the snowy range of Darjeling.

A figure of Mr. Hodgson’s specimen will be found in the
Illust. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853.

17. Felis murmensis, Hodgs. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 10,
varietas nigra.

Mr. Hodgson has recently discovered a very beautiful variety,
of a saturated brown or black colour, of which the collection
contains several specimens. In size and external character it
agrees exactly with the brown-red or bay species, first described
in the ^Proceedings of the Zoological Society.’ The lateral
marks on the cheeks, forehead and thighs are the same, and
also a slight whitish discoloration on the tip of the tail. It is
a very beautiful variety.

18. Felis Charltoni, Gray, Br. Mus.

Uncia Charltoni, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xiv. p. 394 (1854).

This is as yet a very rare species in collections. Besides the
original specimen discovered by Col. Charlton, and that for-
warded by Mr. Hodgson, none is enumerated in Catalogues of
Natural History. It is from the higher regions.

19. Paradoxurls strictus, Hodgson.

General colour grey, with a slight rusty shade ; two prominent
white spots on each side of the head, one beneath the eye oblong,
tending forward, one behind the eye larger, triangular, tending-
backward ; five continuous strij)cs, regularly defined and straight,
of a deep black colour, commencing on the neck, extend over
the whole length of the body, having on each side beneath an

106 Dr. T. Horsfield on some new or little-known

interrupted band of black spots. Abdomen grey. Tail exceed-
ing the body in length ; mixed grey and black at the base, the
terminal portion black, the colour increasing in deepness towards
the extremity. Legs black. Throat grey, with a medial black
stripe. Ears developed.

Length from the snout to the root of the tail 23 inches, of
the tail 25 inches.

This species appears nearly allied to Par. Palassii, described
by Dr. Gray in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 67, but it has jio
resemblance to the figure of that species given in Gray and Hard-
wickeds Illustrations of Indian Zoology, ii. fig. 8. Its distinctive
character requires further examination.

Five well-defined and regular black lines on the back are the
chief characteristic of this species ; hence the specific name.
Mr. Hodgson considers it to be new ; and from the comparison
made by Dr. Gray at the British Museum, it appears to be
distinct from Par. Palassii,

20. Paradoxurus quadriscrtptus, Hodgson.

General colour grey, with a slight rufous shade extending
over the whole of the body, over one-half of the tail, over the
forehead and the lower part of the ear. On the back and parts
adjoining, four well-defined continuous black stripes pass from
the neck to the rump, having a shorter interrupted band on
each side; the bridge of the nose in the middle, a well-defined
narrow streak from the canthus of the eye, the neck, the feet,
and the terminal part of the tail are black ; on the upper part
of the neck the hairy covering is slightly variegated black and
grey, the separate piles being grey at the base and black at the
tip. The fur is soft, lengthened and straggling.

The entire length of this species is 50 inches ; 26 of which
are occupied by the head and body, and 24 by the tail.

This species resembles the Paradoxurus Bondar in habit and
in the softness of its hairy covering, but differs essentially in
colour and in the four strongly marked black lines on the back.
The Bondar, according to the description of M. de Blainville
(Desm. Mamm.), is of a yellowish colour, with one prominent
black line on the back : the Par. hirsutus of Hodgson, which
is identical with the Bondar of Dr. Buchanan Hamilton, de-
scribed in vol. xix. of the ^ Asiatic Researches,^ is of a yellow
colour, and without lines on the body. According to the notice
of Dr. Gray, this species is not contained in the British Mu-
seum *.

* Dr. Gray states hi Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853, p. 191 : — “ 1 cannot see any
difference between these specimens and the P. nmsanga.^’

107

species of Mammalia,

21. Hy^na striata, Zimm.

The collection contains two imperfect skins, marked by Mr.
Hodgson Hycena virgata, List of specimens presented to the
East India Company. In Mr. Ogilby^s memoir on the Mam-
malogy of the Himalayas, in Royle^s Illustrations, &c., is the
following remark : the Hysena of India {Hycena virgata), a

native of the plains, sometimes ascends even to Simla.^^ The
skins have been compared with specimens of the striated species
at the British Museum and at the East India House, but present
no character to warrant a specific distinction. The multifarious
specific names with which this species is enumerated in books
on zoology have greatly perplexed its synonymy.

Besides the common Indian species of Vulpes bengalensis,
montanus and ferrilatus, the collection contains a specimen com-
monly indicated as Vulpes laniger, which is, however, a true
Lupus.

22. Lupus laniger, Hodgson.

The entire length of the specimen from the nose to the root
of the tail is 4 feet 4 inches; of the tail only 11 inches remain,
and its length cannot be determined accurately. The general
colour above is fulvescent inclining to sordid, deeper on the
back, which is slightly variegated by the admixture of black-
tipped hairs ; underneath pale grey. On the back the pelage is
close and formed into small tufts, on the sides dense and shaggy,
in accordance with the cold regions which it inhabits ; on the
head and nose it is greyish. The ears are large, pointed, and
covered externally with a dense brownish fur. The form of the
head is that of a common European wolf, rounded posteriorly
and tapering to the nose.

This animal must be considered specifically distinct from
the Canis Lupus of Elliot (Madr. Journ. Lit. x.), and from
the Canis pallipes of Sykes (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1831), to which the
name of Wolf is also assigned. It is a larger animal, and the
hairy covering is of a different character, besides other distinc-
tions which appear from the descri])tions. The black lines on
the front of the fore feet arc observed in both species. Mr.
Blythes remarks in his Report for September 1847, afford a
useful illustration of the Tibetan Wolf.

23. xMuSTELA STRIGIDORSA, IlodgSOlI.

A new species discovered by Mr. Hodgson in the Sikim Hills of
Tarai, and thus described by himself: — Snout to vent 12 inches;
head in.; tail only in.; tail and bair in. Jkdma 1| in.,
planta 2 in. Weight 7\ to 8 ounces. Intense brown, with the

108

Dr. T. Horsfield on some new or little- known

lips, head and neck inferiorly, and a dorsal and ventral stripe,
yellowish- white or pale aureous.

Remark, — Is a fourth larger than the Kathia or auriventei'y
and differs from it by the dorsal stripe and also by the ventral,
the latter in the Kathia being much wider and its colour richer.
Hab. Sikim (Hodgson MS.).

The specimen sent to the Museum agrees generally with this
description ; the brown colour has a shade of chestnut, and the
under part of the head, neck and breast are nearly white, with a
slight isabelline discoloration *.

24. Meles leucurus, Hodgson.

Taxidea leucurus, Hodgs. J. A. S. xvi.

Tum])hd of the Tibetans.

Tibetan Badger,

This interesting animal was first brought to the notice of Mr.
Hodgson by the receipt of a specimen from the neighbourhood
of Lassa, and a very copious description of it is given in
vol. xvi. of the Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., with a figure of the
animal, and details of its skull and feet comparative with
the allied quadrupeds. A specimen in a tolerable state of pre-
servation, with a separate skull quite perfect, has been presented
to the Museum. The comparison of this skull with one of the
European Badger has afforded the means of determining its
true generic character. The result of the examination made by
Dr. J. E. Gray, which illustrates this point, is given in a short
notice published in vol. xii. of the Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. N. S.
xii. 221 f.

The specimen sent agrees generally with Mr. Hodgson^s

* See also description by Dr. Gray in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853, p. 191.
t The Tibetan Badger of Hodgson.

“ Mr. Hodgson having sent to the India House a specimen with its skull
of his Taxidea leucurus (Journ. Asiat. Soc. xvi. 753, 1847), I have com-
pared the skull with that of the various Badgers in the Brit. Mus. Collec-
tion. I find all the Old-World Badgers {Meles) have a moderate-sized
triangular flesh-tooth, and a very large four-sided oblong tuberculous
grinder in the upper jaw, which is rather longer than broad, and the skull
is rounded behind. The nose of the Tibetan Badger or Tumj)ha, Meles
leucurus, is rather more tapering and more compressed than that of the
European Badger {Meles Taxus), which it most resembles. The Japanese
Badger {Meles Auakuma) differs from both in having a much shorter skull
and a short, rather broad nose.

“The American Badgers {Taxidce, Waterh.) have a verj" large triangular
flesh-tooth, and an equally triangular tubercular grinder in the uj)})er jaw
not exceeding the flesh-tooth in size. The skull is also much broader,
more de])ressed and truncated behind. Of this genus I only know a single
species, T. Labradoria.’^ — J. E. Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist. N. S. xii. 221. See
also Proc. Zool. Soc. 185.3, p. 191.

109

species of Mammalia.

original description. The upper parts are of a greyish-white
colour^ with a fulvescent shade which is deeper on the extremity
of the tail. The chin, throat, breast and extremities are entirely
black. In the hairy covering on the back, the separate piles
are nearly 3 inches long, white at the base one-half of their
length, with a black extremity, widely diffused and straggling,
giving the animal a rough and shaggy appearance. It bears
a great resemblance to the European Badger.

Mr. Hodgson has proposed that it should be formed into a
genus under the name of Pseudomeles.

In the Report to the Bengal Society for September (1854),
Mr. Blyth communicates some remarks on Indian Badgers. He
mentions the Tibetan Badger with reference to Mr. HodgsoiEs
description and figure in vol. xvi. of the Journ. Asiat. Soc. ;
while he indicates what he considers to be a distinct species,
with the name of Meles albogularis : comparatively with the
European Badger "it has smaller and much less tufted ears, a
shorter and much less bushy tail, and the fur shorter and
coarser.^^

The subject of Indian Badgers requires further examination.
An Indian Badger resembling the Meles leucurus is described
by Pennant in vol. ii. of Hist, of Quad. p. 16 {fJrsus indicus) ;
" Badger with a small head and pointed nose ; scarcely any
external ears; only a small prominent rim round the orifice,
which was oval ; colour of the nose and face, a little beyond the
eyes, black ; crown, upper part of the neck, the back, and upper
part of the tail, white inclining to grey; legs, thighs, breast,
belly, sides, and under part of the tail black. Five toes on each
foot, the inner small ; claws very long and straight. Length
from nose to tail about 2 feet ; tail 4 inches long ; hair short
and smooth

Dr. Shaw in his ' General Zoology ^ adds the following remark :
" Mr. Pennant is the first and only describer of this species, which
was brought from India, and was in the possession of the late
Mr. John Hunter. (It remains to be determined whether all the
Badgers hitherto indicated do not constitute local varieties of the
same species ? — T. H.)

Of the genera Lutra and Adnyx, the collection contains the
following representatives : —

25. Lutra chinensis. Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1836; Cat. Mamm.
B.M. 71 ?

Lutra tarayensis, Ilodgs. J. A. 8. viii. 819 ; Gray, Cat. II. C. p. 14.

26. Aonyx sikimensis, Hodgson.

This Mr. Hodgson considers to be a new species. It differs

110 Dr. T. Horsfield on some new or little-known

chiefly from the common Aonyx of India, which is found in
Bootan and Afghanistan, by a more clear brown colour, inclining
to chestnut, but the sjDecimen is not sufficiently perfect to afford
the means of an accurate description.

In the Summary Description of four new species of Otter,^^
Journ. Asiat. Soc. viii. 319, Mr. Hodgson remarks: One of

the most remarkable features of the mammalogy of Nepal is the
great number of distinct species of Otter characterizing it. There
are at least seven species, I believe, though not one of them is
numerous in individuals, — at least not in comparison of the
common Otter of commerce, which is produced in the neigh-
bourhood of Dacca and Sylhet.^^

In the Summary” Mr. Hodgson describes four species ; most
of these are rare in collections. In the Catalogue of Hodgson^s
collection. Dr. Gray enumerates four species from Nepal: Lutra
aurohrunnea, Lutra chinensiSf Lutra monticola, and Aonyx indi-
gitatus.

27. SoREX MURiNUs, Zimmerman.

Sorex myosurus, Pallas.

The Museum contains specimens of this species from Nepal,
Bootan, and other Indian localities; among these are several very
perfect specimens presented by Capt. R. C. Tytler. One of
these, as well as a single specimen of Mr. Hodgson^s last collec-
tion, are of comparatively larger dimensions, of a cserulescent
greyish colour, agreeing with the description of Sorex ccerules-
cens of authors ; while two specimens of a former collection, re-
ceived from Mr. Hodgson in 1845, are of a darker colour, brown,
and not caerulescent, resembling the S. murinus described by
authors. Much uncertainty still exists in the discrimination of
the species of Sorex, and the real character of many species
enumerated by authors remains doubtful, until, for instance,
ccerulescens, murinus, myosurus, serpentarius, nemorivagus, soccatus,
&c., be subjected to a careful examination of specimens in a
perfect state.

28. Sorex saturatior, Hodgson.

Colour uniform deep brown, inclining to blackish, with a very
slight rufescent shade. Fur short, with an admixture of a few
lengthened piles; when adpressed to the body smooth, but re-
versed somewhat rough and harsh. Tail cylindrical, long, and
gradually tapering to the point. Snout elongate, regularly at-
tenuated. Ears moderate, rounded.

Very nearly allied in habit and dimensions to Sorex Griffithii,
Horsf. Cat. Mamm. E. I. C. Mus. p. 134, the more lengthened

Ill

species of Mammalia .

and cylindrical tail forming the chief distinction. The character
of the fur is the same in both species.

Length from the tip of the snout to the root of the tail 5^
inches, of the tail 3 in.

29. SoREX CAUDATUs, Hodgs. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. N. S. hi.
p. 203 ; Cat. Mamm. E. I. C. Mus. p. 135.

Corsira ? caudata, Blyth, Mem. on Indian Shrews, J. A. S. 1855, p. 3/.

A true Sorex, as appears from the examination of the skull.
Judging from the number of specimens sent to the Museum,
this species appears to be common on the hills.

30. Sorex ? nemori vagus, Hodgs. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xv.
269 ; Coll. J. N. H. iv. 288 ; Gray, Cat. H. Coll. p. 10.

Sorex nemorivagus, ap. Blyth, P»Iem. on Ind. Shrews, J. A. S. 1855, p, 31.

A species by no means clearly determined. The specimens
sent defective.

31. Sorex pvGMiEus, Hodgs. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xv. 269;
Gray, Cat. H. Coll. p. 16.

“ Structure typical, save that no odorous glands were detected,
nor had the animal any musky smell.^^ — Hodgs. loc. cit,

32. Sorex leucops, Hodgson.

In Mr. Hodgson^s list, accompanying his present, this is
marked as a new species.

Colour uniform blackish-brown ; tail very slender and taper-
ing, exceeding in length the body and head together, terminating
with a whitish tip of half an inch long. It is named White-
lipped, but this character does not appear in the specimen sent.
It appears to be a distinct species, but further specimens and
examinations are required to determine its rank.

Length of the body and head 3 inches, of the tail 3J in.

The distinguishing character is the comparative length of the
tail and its white tip. It resembles the caudatus, but the colour
is darker, and the single specimen examined is not furnished
with the delicate hairs on the sides of the snout which exist in
the S>. caudatus.

Note. — The Sorex sikimensis, Hodgs. Ann. & Mag. Nat.
Hist., N.S., vol. hi. p. 203; Cat. Mamm. Mus. E. I. C. p. 136, has,
on a more accurate examination of its skull and other characters,
been determined to be identical with Corsira nigrescens jCvixy , Ann.
& Mag. Nat. Hist. x. 261. In the Catalogue of Hodgson^s Coll,
p. 17, Dr. Gray gives the following synonyms of this species: —
Sorex soccatus, Hodgs. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xv. 270, and

112 Dr. T. Horsfield on some new or little-known

Cat. Journ. Nat. Hist. iv. 288 j and Sorex aterrimus, Blyth,
Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xii. 1843^ p. 928 ? The latter spe-
cies is not enumerated in Blythes Memoir on Indian Shrews,
J. A. S. B. 1855 ; but the Corsira nigrescens is defined here
as Soriculus nigrescens, Blyth, with the synonym of Corsira ni-
grescens and Sorex sikimensis. The Sorex soccatus of Hodgson,
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., is enumerated by Mr. Blyth as a di-
stinct species.

33. Mus TARAYENSis, Hodgson.

Nearly allied to Mus hrunnusculus, Hodgs., Ann. & Mag. Nat.
Hist. XV. 267.

Colour of the body and head above dark brown, delicately
variegated with blackish and rufous hairs ; a very slight gloss on
the surface. Outer sides of the extremities rather darker. Under
parts from the chin to the vent, and inner parts of the extremi-
ties greyish -brown, with a rusty shade. Tail shorter than the
body, tapering to an abrupt tip. Head lengthened and com-
pressed ; muzzle gradually tapering to an abrupt tip.

Distinguishing character. — A dark brown surface with a slight
gloss. Head lengthened. Tail shorter than the body. Under-
neath rusty-grey.

Mr. Hodgson^s collection contains only a single specimen,
and further observations are required to confirm the distinctness
of this species.

34. Mus PLURiMAMMis, Hodgson.

Colour above brown, with a rufescent shade ; fur soft, con-
sisting of brown and rufous hairs intermixed in equal propor-
tions, forming a uniform upper surface ; a rather obscure band
extending from the gape over the cheek, terminating under the
ears, and the abdomen and adjoining parts rufous-grey. Head
proportionately short, muzzle abrupt ; ears moderate. Tail equal
in length to the body, tapering to a sharp point, and minutely
annulated.

Length of the head 2| inches, of the body from the neck to
the vent 5^ in. ; of the tail the same.

The distinguishing character, according to Mr. Hodgson, rests
on the number of teats, exceeding that of other species.

35. Mus MORUNGENsis, Hodgson.

Hairy covering of the body above minutely striated with
black and rufous hairs, nearly equally mixed, giving the animal
a blackish rufous aspect ; abdomen and extremities paler, rufes-
cent-grey. Body proportionately robust and stout ; head large

species of Mammalia. 113

and thick ; muzzle short and abrupt ; ears large and rounded j
tail cylindrical, gradually tapering to the point and delicately
annulated, equal in length to the body and head together. Fur
above soft; hairs more lengthened than in Mus plurimammis,
rufous and brown intermixed, the former predominant.
Dimensions. — Head IJ inch ; body 3 inches; tail 4^ in.
Distinguishing character. — A large truncated head, robust
body, long, tapering and minutely annulated tail. General
colour rufescent-black.

36. Arctomys tibetanus, Hodgs. J.A.S. xii. 409.

In presenting this animal to the Museum, Mr. Hodgson gave
us personally the following remark respecting the two species of
this genus described by him, and their respeetive specific names
and localities: — “The Bohac, Arctomys himalay anus, Hodgs.,
A. Bobac, Schreb., is found only in the higher regions of Tibet,
while the A. tibetanus, Hodgs., inhabits exclusively the lower
regions of Himalaya ; but inadvertently the respective locality
of the two species has been alternated in my descriptions.”

Among the Squirrels sent by Mr. Hodgson there are several
specimens of the Sciurus 31‘ Clellandii, Horsfield, Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1839, p. 152, which was discovered by J. McClelland, Esq.,
in his visitation to Assam as a member of the deputation on the
Tea-plant, and described in the Report of his contributions of
Mammalia and Birds to the Company's Museum. It is thus
described : —

Sciurus McClellandii, Horsfield. Supra fuscus fulvo tenuis-
sime irroratus notseo saturatiore; subtus ex sordido fulvo-
canescens ; dorso summo linea recta atra ; linea insuper utrin-
que lateral! fusca Iseto fulvo marginata, antice saturatiore, ad
oculos extensa, postice obsoleta in uropygio utrinsecus ap-
proximata ; cauda mediori subcylindrico-attenuata nigro ful-
voque variegata ; auriculis atris barba nivea lanuginosa insigni
circumscriptis ; vibrissis longis nigris.

In the specimens contained in Mr. Hodgson^s collection, the
colour on the upper parts is brownish-grey, with a slight rufes-
cent shade, rather deeper on the back, minutely grizzled with
brown and blackish hairs ; all the under-parts are fulvescent-
yellow : on the middle of the back from the neck to the rump
is a deep black stripe, and somewhat lower a brownish-black
stripe of the same extent, adjoining which, on each side, is a
yellowish -white stripe, eommencing at the tip of the nose and
extending along the sides to the rump, gradually narrower
towards its termination. Ears large, black exteriorly, delicately
Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 8

114 Mr. W. Clark on Assiminia Grayana and Rissoa anatina.

fringed with wliite on tke posterior border. Tail tapering, va-
riegated with black and rufescent hairs. Whiskers long and
black.

Dimensions. — Head 1^ inch; body 3 inches; tail 3 in.

This species, although provisionally arranged in the genus
Sciurus, resembles in its external habit, markings, attenuated
tail, and minutely fringed ears, the American genus Tamias, and
it remains for naturalists in the higher regions of India, who
may examine living specimens, to determine whether it has
cheek-pouches, by which Tamias is distinguished from Sciurus.

Mr. Hodgson^s collection contains a large supply of most of
the Indian Ungulata: many of these have been discovered, and
first described by himself, and are known to naturalists chiefly
by the copious details given in the Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, and by Hr. J. E. Gray^s Catalogue of the collection
presented to the British Museum. Among the subjects as yet rare
in collections may be mentioned Poephagus grunnienSj Linn.,
adult and one calf., Poi'cula salvania, Hodgs., and Budorcas tax--
icolor, Hodgs.* Of the latter, Mr. Hodgson has some three
specimens, on the whole in good preservation ; one of these is
exhibited in the Museum of the East India Company, one has
been presented to the British Museum, and one to the Museum
at Leyden. A very perfect specimen of the Cervus affinis of
Hodgson has also been sent, and is mounted in the Museum.
Whether this be reall}’’ a distinct species from Cervus Wallichii
of Cuvier remains still to be determined; the horns of both
agree in structure and subdivisions. Dr. Gray has given most
copious details regarding the various, multifarious synonyms
with which they are enumerated by authors (Cat. Mamm. Brit.
Mus. Part hi. Ungulata furcipeda, pp. 197 & 199).

X. — On the Assiminia Grayana and Rissoa anatina.

By William -Clark, Esq.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Gentlemen, Exmouth, 26th June 1855.

I BEG to present descriptions of two testaceous Gasteropoda,
which could not be obtained during the passage through the
press of my volume on the British Marine Testaceous Mol-
lusca. One of them, the Assiminia Grayana^ is of peculiar in-
terest, and has caused much discussion and difference of opinion

* These three interestiiig animals have been figured in the Illustrations
of the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1853.

Mr. W. Clark on Assiminia Grayana and Rissoa anatiua. 115

respecting the structure of the tentacula and eyes^ and its natural
position. The other, the Rissoa anatina, is a Rissoidean of the
group which is represented by R. ulva. Authors have men-
tioned both these animals, and the Rev. M. J. Berkeley has pub-
lished a valuable memoir and figure of A. Grayana^ in vol. v.
p. 429 of the ^ Zoological Journal but I have thought that the
addition of later notes on several unobserved points of this last
species, and in comparison with those of the genus Truncatellay
would be acceptable to some of your readers.

In vol. xii. p. 4 of the ^ Annals ^ for July 1853, and in my
work above mentioned, pp. 380-6, I have expressed an opinion
that the genus Assiminia is superfluous, and that its only spe-
cies would be handed over to the genus Truncatella. I have
been so impressed with this view, that I invited malacologists
residing in the neighbourhood of Greenwich to send me live spe-
cimens of the A. Grayana ; this request was inserted in the
^ Annals,^ but the appeal remained unsuccessful until this date,
when I had the good fortune to obtain the long-sought-for desi-
deratum, with an unexpected addition of the Rissoa anatina,
both in a living state, through the kindness of my friend John
Gwyn JeflTreys, Esq., of Swansea, who omits no opportunity nor
spares any personal exertion to add to his valuable contributions
to the molluscan branch of British natural history.

Truncatella Grayana^ nobis.

Assiminia Grayana^ auctorum ; Brit. Moll. vol. iii. p. 70. pi. 71.
figs. 3, 4 ; (animal) pi. H.H. f. 6.

Shelly a short strong cone of 6| tumid volutions, increas-
ing rapidly in bulk from the apex to the base, which are di-
stinctly but not deeply divided; each whorl is marked with a
somewhat irregular and confused rufous- brown and a yellow
spiral band, the former being the broadest, and situate at its
base ; the latter winds round the upper part, but in many ex-
amples the bands become so blended as to diflPuse throughout
the entire area the mixed hues of the two fasciae. The trans-
verse striae of increment are well marked, and also obsolete
rather coarse spiral lines may be detected. Aperture suboval or
pear-shaped ; peristome disunited ; outer lip sharp ; no umbilical
fissure ; the apex is pointed. Axis y%ths, diameter j\jth of an
inch.

Animal. — The mantle at the aperture of the shell is simple.
The muzzle is very short and broad, flat, expanded, and curved
at the end on each side, forming minute auricles with a central
cmargination or well-impressed sinuation, and furnished witli
raised elastic annular lines that enable the animal to effect a

8*

116 Mr. W. Clark on Assiminia Grayana and Rissoa anatina.

great protrusion of the neck and rostrum ; the latter organ in
every position is always borne much in advance of the foot ; it is
vertically cloven, and at the under part, in the centre, slightly
so, in a crosial direction, from whence the jaws or subcircular
arches of the lingual riband, supported by the buccal plates, are
almost momentarily exserted ; the oesophagean portion of the
riband springing from the stomach is short and of rissoid stamp.
The posterior part of the muzzle next the neck is suffused in
different individuals with all the phases of dark colour ap-
proaching to almost black, and with all the variations of the
most delicate cinereous hues ; the flattened or expanded anterior
curved terminal portion abruptly becomes white, and is shot
with the minutest points or flakes of a still intenser white. A not
very deep longitudinal groove, or two contiguous parallel lines,
are visible on the neck when moderately protruded, but these,
when greatly so, are lost ; they are generally supposed to act as
a conduit to the branchial water.

The dark tentacula spring from a minute mammilla, and
are very short, massive, and columnar at the base, becoming,
though still thick, somewhat spatulate and rounded at their
whitish terminations ; in the centre of this minute plateau,
at some little distance from the extremities, the large eyes
are immersed, and from the intensity of the black colour are
almost equally visible on the upper and lower surface ; this is
their natural position when the animal is on the undisturbed
march, but the instant it is disquieted, both the tentacula and
eyes assume various modifications of figure : for instance, when
the neck is greatly exserted, or the animal is in comparative re-
pose, in either of these opposite conditions they become much
contracted, especially at the tips, which are folded or withdrawn
into a minute hollow, out of which the eyes peep, and thus ap-
pear fixed at the extremities ; but, as we have shown, this is not
their true site, which here, and in all the Truncatellce, is at some
little, but distinct, distance from their final points.

Some authors have thought that the eyes are mounted on
pedicles, connate, and of the same length as the true tentacula :
this idea is wrong : we repeat their true position is an absolute
immersion in the tissue ; the tentacula are therefore strict vibra-
cula, and in nowise sustentacula. The white pupil mentioned
in my first account of Ti'uncatella was not detected in this spe-
cies. The animal on the march carries the tentacula nearly at a
rectangular divergence : this position is a marked characteristic
of the genus Truncatella.

Foot rather short, broad and fleshy, not auricled, but subqua-
drate in front, with a tendency to rounduess at the external
angles, without a central sinuation, and deeply and conspicu-

Mr. W. Clark on Assimiuia Grayana and Rissoa anatina. 117

ously labiated; when not in action rounded posteally, but in
full progression it assumes a broad lancet-shape, suddenly sloping
on each side to an obtuse termination ; there is no longitudinal
depressed line on the sole, and only a slight transverse crease is
visible when the posterior portion is drawn up to the advanced
one ; it carries on a distinct upper fuscous lobe, which is only
narrowly alated on each side, a light corneous pear-shaped
operculum, with a rather indistinct submarginal nucleus, the
spiral continuations of which show the fine oblique lines of in-
crement, as in the Littorin<2 and Rissoce, The animal is slow
and deliberate in progression ; its action is between that of Lit-
torina and Rissoa, not having the lateral oscillatory march of
the former, nor the perfectly steady advance of the latter. The
foot on the upper surface is of all the hues of lead-colour ; the
sole is pale bluish-w^hite, aspersed thickly with minute flakes of
an intenser white.

From the non-transparency of the shell, the character of the
branchia3 could not be well made out, and when examined after
extraction their delicate and minute structure suffered from col-
lapse. The neck has no appendages except the guide lines for
the branchial water, and the muzzle is altogether without them.
Verge long, slender, and falcate at the end.

It inhabits the Greenwich marshes in company with the Rissoa
anatina, and seems, like many of the littoral species, to enjoy a
kind of amphibious existence ; it is also nearly equally at home
in fresh ^vater, or in a mixture of salt, half of each. It feeds on
a common Ulva of the pools. I received the animals by post,
deposited in a small tin box in moderately moistened weed ; they
remained alive for some time, but they are constitutionally
sluggish.

The above minutes of this curious creature do not differ in
any essential character from my recorded descriptions of the
Truncatellce, and will justify the surmises I have expressed in the
earlier part of this account, that Assiminia is only a generic
synonym of the established genus Truncatella,

Rissoa anatina, auctorum.

Rissoa anatina, Brit. Moll. vol. iii. p. 134. pi. 87. f. 3, 4.

Rhell — of a light horn-colour, of 4-5 rounded tumid volutions,
with well-marked wrinkled striae of increment, as in Bithynia
ventricosa [Leachii, nonnull.), to which, in these respects, it bears
much resemblance, as well as in the entire peristome; the two
are also occasionally found in the same locality, with the colour
of their shells obscured by a similar black earthy deposit. This
circumstance is singular, as the TruncaUdla Grayana living with

1] 8 Mr. W. Clark on Asslminia Grayana and Rissoa anatina.

or near them is perfectly clean : perhaps the other two have

some difference of habitat. Axis /oths, diameter

inch.

Animal. — The mantle is simple, and the linear process seen at
that part which lines the upper angle of the aperture in Rissoa
ulvcBf and often in other Rissoce, is wanting. The muzzle is long,
subcylindrical, and armed with very contractile, dark, annulated
ridges, which allow of a great protrusion of the neck. The
buccal orifice is cloven vertically, and from it, almost without
cessation, the animal shows a pair of corneous jaws, to which the
short lingual riband proceeding from the stomach is united, and
both portions of the tongue are supported by a pair of red fleshy
plates, which are visible through the tenuity of the enveloping
tissue.

The tentacula are long, not much flattened, slender and mode-
rately pointed, of a very light ashy hue, quite smooth, divergent,
with rather large black eyes at the external bases, fixed on mi-
nute semicircular expansions ; at their lower half they are spa-
ringly studded with white, flaky, minute irregular blotches, and
sometimes a very fine cinereous line coasts their margins.

The foot is scarcely so proportionately long, slender, and con-
stricted below the auricles as in the usual run of the Rissoce ; it
is perfectly rounded posteally, but parts of the margin are some-
times notched ; anteally furnished with moderately large lateral
auricular expansions. The opercular lobe is distinct, and shows
at the junction of the foot with the body a whitish alated process
on each side, and carries a rissoidean suboval operculum of laxly
spiral rather indistinct turns, with an eccentric nucleus; the
curved lines of each volution are coarser, fewer, and less oblique
than in the generality of the Littorince and Rissoce, The upper
part of the main foot is of a darkish lead- colour, disposed in
close-set fine irregular lines ; the sole is either white, yellow or
palely cinereous, without a longitudinal depressed central line,
and aspersed thickly with minute pale-gray-coloured points or
flakes. The opercular lobe is without a caudal process, but it
may be observed, this is not an invariable adjunct of all Rissoce.

The character of the branchial plume in a young, almost
white horn-coloured shell was sufficiently apparent ; it consists
of a flat ordinary-shaped leaf deposited in the usual position in
the branchial vault, of 12 to 16 or even more coarse white strands ;
the transverse measure of the anterior ones and those nearest
to the pericardium being the shortest, whilst the central threads
arc gradually elongated. The intestine is rendered visible, by its
contents, through the filmy shell, — at least that length of it which
proceeds from the part of the animal enclosed in the second
volution to its debouchure as rectum on the right side. Verge ?

M r. W. Clark on Assiminia Grayana and Rissoa anatina. 119

- The animal continues lively for some days in a mixture of salt,
as well as in the fresh, or scarcely brackish water. These crea-
tures were received from Greenwich in company with the Trun-
catella Gi'ayana ; they are neither shy nor apathetic.

Though the shell of R, anatina resembles the Bithynia ventru
cosa {Leachii, nonnull.), and is found in company with it and
the Limneus palustris, L. truncatulus and B, impura, all of fresh-
water habitat, 1 am of opinion that the R. anatina, R, uIvcb and
R, ventrosa are essentially of marine organization, and inhabit
the salt and brackish estuaries as their natural localities, and
that the Bithynim and Limnei are mixed with them fortuitously,
— perhaps impelled into their districts by floods, and agreeably to
a well-known habit and law, live and even multiply and become
acclimated in localities that are not strictly natural to them.

In other words, I believe that both these tribes are eminently
distinct, the one being of marine, the other of freshwater habitat,
and that there is no connexion between them beyond that of
accident, chance acclimation, and the alliance which is conse-
quent on the proximity of their genera in most malacological
methods. It results from these views of ours, that the R. ana-
tina, R. ventrosa and R. ulvce are in their right places as the
Ulvan group of the Rissoideans.

It has been proposed to remove the above species to Littorina,
or Hydrobia, or Paludinella ; the two latter of these genera would
only be useless synonyms of Rissoa ; for the variations of the
malacology of the three species from the typical Rissoa^ are not
greater, perhaps not so great, as those of many of the animals
that form part of that genus, and if such differences are to be
held as of generic value, every admitted Rissoa must have its
particular genus and be itself the only species.

I have merely mentioned casually the localities of Truncatella
Grayana and Rissoa anatina, but the deficiency of the detail of
the habitats will be well supplied by presenting, by way of con-
clusion, a valuable letter from Mr. Jeffreys, which contains many
excellent remarks on these points.

^‘9 Montague Place, Bryanstone Square,
London, 25th June 1855.

Mv DEAR Sir, — Our friend Mr. Barlee told me that he had
not been successful in procuring for you specimens of the Assi-
minia Grayana, the animal of which you were desirous of exami-
ning. I went to Greenwich last Saturday, and have the pleasure
of sending you some lively examples of this curious molliisk, as
well as a few Littorina (?) anatina. The shell of the latter is

120 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered species of Araneidea.

closely allied to Bitkynia, but the operculum is that of Littorinaj
and the animal resembles Paludinella ulv<2.

“2nd July. — I again visited the Greenwich marshes yesterday
for the purpose of ascertaining the range of Littorina (?) anatina
and Assiminia Grayana, and to inform you more particularly of
their respective habitats. I found both of them more or less
distributed along the banks of the Thames, from a little below
Greenwich Hospital to the upper Pier at Woolwich, a distance of
about three miles. I met with them occasionally in the same
localities, but their habitats are somewhat different. The Litto-
rina inhabits muddy ditches and their banks, and it is gre-
garious. The other mollusk inhabits muddy places, but seldom
occurs under water. It is in countless profusion at and about
the roots of the water-flag, and is more generally dispersed than
L, (?) anatina. It is associated with Limneus palustris (our
tinctus) and L. truncatulus. The Littorina lives in company
with Bithynia impura and Leachii, as well as with the Assiminia,
I have little doubt that both kinds are also to be found on the
other side of the river in the Isle of Hogs, and perhaps below
Woolwich. The Assiminia has the same habit as Paludinella
ulvce, and seems to take its place on the brackish estuary of the
Thames.

“ I remain, my dear Sir, yours sincerely,

“ J. Gwyn Jeffreys.^^

“ Wm. Clark J Esq.^

Exmouth, Devon.”

I am. Gentlemen,

Your most obedient servant,

William Clark.

XI. — Desc7'iptions of two newly discovered species of Araneidea.

By John Blackwall, F.L.S.

Tribe OCTONOCULINA.

Family CiniflonidtE.

Genus Ciniflo, Blackw.

Ciniflo humilis.

Length of the female y^th of an inch ; length of the cephalo-
thorax ; breadth ; breadth of the abdomen ; length of
an anterior leg J- ; length of a leg of the third pair y’y.

The four intermediate eyes describe a trapezoid, the two ante-
rior ones, which form its shortest side, being much the smallest

Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered species 0/ Araneidea. 121

and darkest of the eight. The cephalo- thorax is convex, glossy,
compressed before, rounded on the sides, and has an indentation
in the medial line ; it is of a brown colour, with longitudinal
lines in the cephalic region, oblique streaks on the sides, and
lateral margins of a brownish black hue. The falces are conical,
vertical, armed with a few minute teeth on the inner surface,
and, with the maxillae, which are enlarged at the extremity and
slightly inclined towards the lip, have a pale brown hue. The
lip is dilated about the middle and truncated at the extremity ;
and the sternum is heart-shaped. These parts are of a dark
brown colour, the former being paler at the extremity. The
legs are moderately long, hairy, of a yellowish brown hue, with
brownish black annuli, and the metatarsi of the posterior pair
are provided with calamistra ; each tarsus is terminated by three
claws ; the two superior ones are curved and pectinated, and the
inferior one is inflected near its base. The palpi resemble the
legs in colour, but are without annuli. The abdomen is oviform,
thinly clothed with hairs, convex above, and projects over the
base of the cephalo-thorax : it is of a pale yellowish brown
colour, with a series of angular lines of a brownish black hue,
whose vertices are directed forwards, and whose extremities are
enlarged, extending along the middle of the upper part; this
series of angles is bisected by a brownish black, longitudinal
line, which is enlarged and somewhat triangular at its anterior
extremity ; the sides are closely reticulated with brown lines ;
two brown bands extend along the under part to a transverse
bar of the same hue, near the spinners ; and the sexual organs
are of a red-brown colour.

This small species of Ciniflo was captured by Mr. R. H. Meade
in Buckinghamshire in August 1854.

Family Linyphiid^.

Genus Neriene, Blackw.

Neriene affinis.

Length of the male |th of an inch ; length of the cephalo-
thorax ; breadth ; breadth of the abdomen y^^ ; length of
a posterior leg ; length of a leg of the third pair

The legs are provided with hairs, and have a bright yellowish
red tint ; the fourth pair is the longest, then the first, and the
third pair is the shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by three
claws ; the two superior ones are curved and slightly pectinated,
and the inferior one is inflected near its base. The palpi arc
long and resemble the legs in colour, but are somewhat paler ;
the humeral joint is slightly curved towards the cephalo-thorax.

122 Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on the Descent of Glaciers »

and the cubital and radial joints are clavate_, the former having
a coni cal j pointed process projecting at right angles from its ex-
tremity, on the under side, and the latter a very minute, bifid,
black apophysis at its extremity, in front; the digital joint is
small, oval, convex and hairy externally, concave within, com-
prising the palpal organs, which are moderately developed, not
very complicated in structure, and of a pale red-brown colour.
The cephalo-thorax is oval, convex, glossy, with slight furrows
on the sides converging towards an indentation in the medial
line ; the falces are powerful, subconical, vertical, convex at the
base, in front, divergent at the extremity, armed with teeth on
the inner surface, and have a conical tooth-like process near the
middle, towards the inner side, and numerous minute, pointed
prominences in front ; the maxilljs are convex at the base, en-
larged where the palpi are inserted, and at the extremity, which
has a pointed process on the outer side, and incline towards the
lip, which is semicircular and prominent at the apex ; and the
sternum is broad, glossy, and heart-shaped. These parts have a
reddish-brown colour, the lip and anterior part of the cephalo-
thorax being much the darkest. The four intermediate eyes
form a trapezoid, the two anterior ones, which constitute its
shortest side, being the smallest and darkest of the eight ; and
those of each lateral pair are seated obliquely on a small tubercle,
and are almost in contact. The abdomen is oviform, thinly
clothed with hairs, convex above, projecting over the base of the
cephalo-thorax; it has a dark olive hue, the under part being
the palest, and the colour of the branchial opercula is yellow ;
along the middle of the upper part there extends a series of
obscure, curved, grayish lines whose convexity is directed for-
wards ; and two indentations occur on each side of the medial
line, the posterior pair being rather the wider apart.

Two adult males of this species were received from Mr. R. H.
Meade in June 1855, one of which had been taken in the vici-
nity of Burton-on-Trent, and the other at Hornsea, near the east
coast of Yorkshire, in the preceding year.

XII. — Note on the Descent of Glacier s_.

By J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., E.R.S.

The different theories, propounded from time to time by so
many able observers of this singular phsenomenon, have been so
earnestly and plausibly argued, that it may be worth while to in-
quire if they cannot be reconciled with each other ; and, although
my knowledge of the subject does not enable me to do so, I
trust I shall not be considered presumptuous in offering a sug-

123

Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on the Descent of Glacier i

gestion wliich may be improved by some abler pen. My atten-
tion has been somewhat direeted to the question in consequence
of my having resided during a considerable part of last year in
Switzerland, the land of glaciers, where I had the good fortune
of making the acquaintance of that veteran geologist, M. de
Charpentier.

These theories appear to be five in number.

1st. That of De Saussure, who supposed that glaciers de-
scended solely by their own weight ; and this has been called
the Gravitation theory. His observations have justly had
the credit of being most accurate; and they extended over a
great number of years, and were conducted with much labour
and at considerable expense. They will be found in his ^Voyage
dans les Alpes,^ published in 1779.

2nd. That of De Charpentier, and adopted by Agassiz, which
supposed that the phsenomenon was caused by the surface of the
glacier being thawed during the day ; that the water thus pro-
duced percolated the porous material ; and that upon conge-
lation taking place at night the whole structure expanded in
every direction, naturally occasioning or accelerating a down-
ward movement in the direction of the slope. This is called the
“ Dilatation theory. It was first propounded by Charpentier
at a Meeting of the Helvetic Society held at Lucerne in 1834 ;
and it appeared in the 8th volume of the ^ Annales des Mines.^
It was afterwards (in 1841) published by him in a more elabo-
rate form under the title of ^ Essai sur les Glaciers.^ Agassiz^
memoir was read at a Meeting of the same Society held at Neu-
chatcl in 1837 ; and it was, I believe, published in their Transac-
tions. In his work entitled ^ Etudes sur les Glaciers,^ and pub-
lished in 1840, this theory is further developed.

3rd. That of Professor James Forbes, which attributed the
phsenomenon to the viscous or plastic nature of the glacier,
causing the descent suis viribus. This has been called in Ger-
many the “Pech^^ theory, and was published in 1843 by our
distinguished countryman in his work on Glaciers.

4th. That of Mr. Hopkins of Cambridge (mentioned by Pro-
fessor Forbes), who referred the motion of a glacier to the dis-
solution of the ice in contact with the rock; although Char-
penticr had previously instanced some striking facts to prove
that the glacier bed never thaws.

And 5th. The theory lately offered by the Rev. Henry Moseley
and published in the 7th volume of the Royal Society’s Proceed-
ings, which (assimilating a glacier to a sheet of lead) supposed
that the ])h3L‘nomcnon was owing to the heat of the sun, and
consccpicntly to an alternate expansion and contraction of the
material.

124) Bibliogi'aphical Notices.

Now the suggestion I would venture to make is, that the phse-
nomenon may be attributed to all and each of the forces above
mentioned ; and that the discrepancy of opinion between so
many experienced and trustworthy observers may arise from
their researches having been conducted at different seasons of
the year, in different states of temperature, on different soils or
kinds of rock (some of which retain or impart more heat than
others), at different heights above the sea-level, after the fall of
a greater or less quantity of glacier snow, at different degrees of
solar heat or radiation, or under many other different conditions.
Some of the theories are self-evident, and have been admitted to
a certain extent by their opponents. Perhaps the structure of
the material in various climates and at different heights may be
better known when the science of photography has been further
applied to it, as I cannot help thinking that the interesting and
kaleidoscopic forms of snow (taken by Mrs. Glaisher), which were
exhibited at the last soiree given by the Assistant Secretary of
the Royal Society, may throw some light on this vexed and diffi-
cult question.

It seems to me that the modi operandi of nature for the same
purpose are various, and that the inanimate and animated crea-
tion are governed by similar or analogous laws. An illustration
of this occurs to me in the case of certain marine mollusks and
annelids which perforate limestone and other rocks. This ope-
ration has been attributed by naturalists to many and different
causes : viz. to mechanical action, to a solvent power, to con-
tinual maceration of the material, as well as to the action of
siliceous bodies which are occasionally found in some of these
mollusks. The modern and better opinion, however, seems to
be, that all or more than one of these various methods are used
by the same species, and perhaps by the same animal, in effect-
ing its object, according to the nature of the material acted on,
the age of the individual, and other circumstances.

London, 13th July 1855.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Catalogue of British Hymenoptera in the Collection of the British
Museum. Parti. Apidce — Bees. By Frederick Smith, M.E.S.
London : Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1855. 12mo.

Amongst the many anomalies presented by the state of Entomology
in this country, the little attention paid to the interesting family of
the Bees is certainly none of the least. It is indeed singular that the
majority of our entomologists should confine themselves so religiously
to the study of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, the habits of which are

125

Bibliographical Notices.

generally obscure and often wholly uninteresting, whilst the insects of
the large order of Hymenoptera, which present so many points of in-
terest in the almost infinite variety of their oeconomy, attract scarcely
anybody’s attention. In the case of the Bees this is the more remark-
able, as we have for many years possessed a work upon the British
species of those insects (the ‘ Monographia Apum Angliae ’ of Kirby,
published in 1802), which has generally been regarded as a model of
an Entomological monograph, and which, notwithstanding the lapse
of more than half a century since its publication, still holds its place
as a standard work.

Nevertheless even in this neglected department of Entomology,
this interval of fifty years has added considerably to the list of Bri-
tish species, and shown that the learned author of the work above
mentioned, was, as might be expected, not unfrequently in error with
regard to the species knowm to him, and especially that in some cases
he has placed together as males and females of the same species
insects which are truly distinct, whilst in others the two sexes of the
same insect have been described as distinct species. Most of these
errors are now corrected, mainly by the exertions of Mr. Smith,
whose numerous and interesting papers on British Bees, published
in the ‘ Zoologist,’ have done much for the extension of our know-
ledge of this subject. The scattered nature of these notices, how-
ever, renders the appearance of the present little work particularly
welcome, as in it Mr. Smith has given in a systematic form the en-
tire results of his study of the British Bees, pursued assiduously for
more than twenty years, and in many instances with the advantage
of having corrected his previous notions by the more extended inter-
course with continental entomologists, which his present position at
the British Museum has opened up to him.

Although brought out as one of the series of Catalogues published
by the Trustees of the British Museum, this little book is certainly
far more deserving of the title of a monograph than a great majority
of the things that commonly make their appearance under that
name, many of which indeed are little more than catalogues ; — Mr.
Smith’s Catalogue contains full descriptions of all the genera and
species, accompanied by observations on their habits and oeconomy,
which are rendered particularly valuable by the author’s long expe-
rience, and will be found very interesting even to the general reader.
Of this the following account of the oeconomy of the Bees of the
genus Osmia may serve as an example, and the reader will find many
other passages of equal interest in other parts of the book : —

‘‘If I were asked,” says Mr. Smith, “which genus of bees would
afford the most abundant materials for an essay on the diversity of
instinct, I should without hesitation point out the genus Osmia. I
propose to notice in this place all that has occurred to me during an
attentive observation of their oeconomy for the last twenty years.
The most abundant species is Osmia hicornis ; its oeconomy is varied
by circumstances ; in hilly country, or at the sea- side, it chooses the
sunny side of clifi’s or sandy l>anks, in which to form its burrows ;

126

Bibliographical Notices.

but in cultivated districts, particularly if the soil be clayey, it selects
a decaying tree, preferring the stump of an old willow ; it lays up a
store of pollen and honey for the larvae, which when full-grown spin
a tough dark brown cocoon, in which they remain in the larva state
until the autumn, when the majority change to pupae, and soon
arrive at their perfect condition ; many however pass the winter in
the larva state. In attempting to account for so remarkable a cir-
cumstance, all must be conjecture, but it is not of unfrequent occur-
rence ; this species also frequently makes its burrows in the mortar
of old walls. Osmia leucomelana may be observed availing itself of
a most admirable, and almost ready, adaptation for a burrow ; it
selects the dead branches of the common bramble ; with little labour
the parent bee removes the pith, usually to the length of from five to
six inches ; at the end she deposits the requisite quantity of food,
which she closes in with a substance resembling masticated leaves, —
evidently vegetable matter ; she usually forms five or six cells in one
bramble-stick. The bee does not extract the whole of the pith, but
alternately widens and contracts the diameter of the tube, each con-
traction marking the end of a cell ; the egg is deposited on the food
immediately before closing up the cell ; it is white, oblong, and about
the size and shape of a caraway-seed : the larva is hatched in about
eight days, and feeds about ten or twelve, when it is full-grown ; it
then spins a thin silken covering, and remains in an inactive state
until the following spring, when it undergoes its transformations, and
appears usually in the month of June.

“ Osmia hirta burrows in wood, seldom in any other material ; the
same habit will be observed in Osmia cenea ; but I have observed this
bee more than once constructing its burrow in the mortar of walls,
and sometimes in hard sand-banks. Osmia aurulenta and O. bicolor
are bees which commonly burrow in banks, the latter being very
abundant in some situations, forming colonies ; but although it ap-
pears to be the natural habit of these species to construct tunnels in
hard banks, with great labour and untiring perseverance, still we
find them at times exhibiting an am.ount of sagacity, and a degree of
knowledge, that at once dispels the idea of their actions being the
result of a mere blind instinct, impelling them in one undeviating
course. A moment’s consideration will sutfice to call to mind many
tunnels and tubes ready-formed, which would appear to be admirably
adapted for the purposes of the bee — for instance, the straws of a
thatch, and many reeds ; and what could be more admirably adapted
to their requirements than the tubes of many shells ? So thinks the
bee ! O. aurulenta and O. bicolor both select the shells of Helix hor-
tensis and H. nemoralis : the shells of these snails are of course very
abundant, and lie half hidden beneath grass, mosses, and plants ; the
bees finding them in such situations, dispense with their accustomed
labour and take possession of the deserted shells. The number of
cells varies according to the length of the whorl of the shell selected,
the usual number being four, but in some instances they construct
five or six, commencing at the end of the whorl ; a suitable supply
of pollen and honey is collected, an egg deposited, and a partition

Bibliographical Notices. 127

formed of abraded vegetable matter ; the process is repeated until the
requisite number is formed, when the whole is most carefully pro-
tected by closing up the entrance with small pellets of clay, sticks
and pebbles ; these are firmly cemented together with some glutinous
matter, and the bee has finished her task.

‘‘We will now observe the intelligence of the bee under different
circumstances : she has selected the adult shell of Helix aspei'sa ;
the whorl of this species is much larger in diameter than that of
H. nemoralis or H. hortensis — too wide, in fact, for a single cell ;
our little architect, never at a loss, readily adapts it to her purpose
by forming two cells side by side, and as she advances towards the
entrance of the whorl, it becomes too wide even for this contrivance ;
here let us admire the ingenuity of the little creature ; she constructs
a couple of cells transversely ! And this is the little animal which
has been so blindly slandered as being a mere machine !

“ There is still another species of this genus whose habits are so
different to the rest, that our admiration of the ingenuity of these
bees is greatly increased when we consider its curious details and re-
flect upon the degree of care and foresight exhibited by the provi-
dent parent, — this is the Osmia parietina, a bee only found in the
northern parts of this country. This species selects the underside of
a slate or stone lying on the ground, and having a hollow space be-
neath ; to the stone the bee attaches the little balls of pollen. A stone
of this kind was found at Glen Almond, Perthshire, on the Grampians,
800 feet above the level of the sea, by Mr. J. Robertson, who, on
turning it up, observed a mass of cocoons ; although he was not
much acquainted with entomology, still he knew them to be the
production of some insect ; he presented the stone to the British
Museum, and it was placed in my hands for observation. The size
of the stone was 1 0 inches by 6 ; the number of cocoons attached to
it two hundred and thirty : when first discovered, about one-third of
them were empty ; this was in the month of November. In the
beginning of the following March, a few males made their appear-
ance, and shortly afterwards some females ; they continued to come
forth occasionally until the end of June ; at this time there remained
thirty-five undeveloped cocoons ; on opening one or two of them,
they proved to contain active larvae ; these I carefully closed, and left
the whole undisturbed until the following April, at which time, on
examination, they proved to be still in the larva state ; but at the
end of May they changed to pupae, and about the end of June began
to come forth perfect insects. This, then, was the result — a portion
of a deposit of eggs made in 1849 had been three years in arriving
at maturity : when found, one-third were developed ; the following
year a second brood came forth, and whilst in my possession a third.
In the first instance, the whole deposit was subject to the same
influences, and had produced larvae ; what was the cause of the
retarded development of the rest, it were vain to attempt to deter-
mine.”

There can be no doubt that this is one of the most valuable con-

128

Zoological Society : —

tributions to entomological literature that has been brought out by
the Trustees of the British Museum. It is illustrated with several
excellent plates engraved on copper by the author himself, contain-
ing figures of ail the genera, accompanied by carefully executed de-
tails. If we might suggest any improvement it would be, that
Mr. Smith would have rendered his work more generally acceptable,
had he given characters to the families and subfamilies into which
he divides the Bees ; for as it now stands, a beginner will perhaps be
somewhat at a loss to determine which of the principal groups will
receive a bee of which he may have taken specimens. This however
is but a passing objection, and we trust that the present work, which
is published at an exceedingly low price, may lead some of our young
entomologists to turn their attention to the uiteresting subject of
which it treats.

Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. Vol. I.

York, 1855.

We have recently received this interesting volume, containing A
selection from the papers relating to the Antiquities and Natural
History of Yorkshire, read at the monthly Meetings of the Society,
from 1847 to 1854,” and recommend it strongly to the attention of
our readers. By far the greater number of the papers here published
relates to Antiquities, and are of such a character as doubtless to at-
tract the attention of our Archaeological brethren. Amongst those
more especially interesting to the naturalist we may particularize the
observations on Zamia gigas, by Messrs. Yates and Williamson ; on
the Zoophytes of the Flamborough Chalk, by Mr. Charlesworth ; on
the Sclerotic ring of the Eyes of Birds and Reptiles, by Mr. Allis ;
as well deserving of perusal.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

February 28, 1854.— Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Notice of the species of the Genus Orthotomus of
Horsfield, with descriptions of a new species, and
OF THOSE HITHERTO KNOWN. By FrEDERIC MoORE,

Assist. Mus. East India Company.

Fam. Sylviad.e, Vigors.

Subfam. Sylviana, Vigors.

Genus Orthotomus, Horsfield.

Syn. Edeloy Lesson. — Sutoria^ Nicholson.

1. Orthotomus sepium, Horsfield.

Syn. Orthotomus sepimuy Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 166
(1820). Lath. Hist. iv. p. 265. Temm. PI. Col. 599. f. 1. G. R.

Mr. F. Moore on species of Ortliotomus.

129

Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 162. Blyth, Catal. B. Mus. A. S. Beng.
p. 145. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 282.

The Chiglet Creeper, Lath.

Chiglet of the Javanese, Horsf.

Hah. Java.

O. septum. — The forehead, lores, over the eyes and ear-coverts,
ear-coverts themselves, base of lower mandible and chin ferruginous,
palest on the sides and chin ; top of head, back and tail brownish
olive, having a greenish tinge ; wings dusky, broadly margined with
brownish olive ; throat and breast ashy black, the rest of the under
parts yellowish ; tail with a terminal dusky band, tipped with yellow-
ish ; thighs ferruginous ; bill brownish, paler below ; legs pale.

Length, \\ inches; of wing, ly^^; tail. If; bill to gape,
tarsus, |.

The above description is taken from Dr. Horsfield’s typical speci-
mens, contained in the Mus. East India Company.

2. Orthotomus atrogularis, Temminck.

Syn. Orthotomus atrogularis, Temm. PI. Col. Texte, 599 (1836).
G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 162. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 282.

Hah. Malacca; Borneo.

O. atrogularis. — “ The forehead, top of the head and occiput
bright brownish red ; the neck, the back and the wings of a grassy
green ; the tail of a yellowish green, marked near the end and on the
inner web with a narrow yellowish band ; the chin, throat, breast and
upper parts of flanks pure black, the sides of the abdomen yellowish ;
middle of the belly and abdomen white ; bill and feet brown. No
difference in the sexes.

^‘Length, 3^ inches.” — Temm.

3. Orthotomus flavoviridis, nobis.

The forehead, crown, round the eyes, and occiput ferruginous ;
back and rump yellowish green ; tail more dusky green ; wings
brown, broadly margined exteriorly throughout with yellowish green ;
chin, base of lower mandible, ear-coverts, centre of some of the feathers
of the throat and breast white ; lower part of the breast ash and white ;
centre of abdomen white ; throat and fore part of the breast black,
centred as above ; flanks yellowish ; extreme edge of shoulder of wing
yellow ; under part of tail yellowish, with a terminal dusky band,
tipped with yellowish ; thighs greenish ferruginous. Specimens
labelled “male.”

Length, 4 inches; of wing. If; tail, ly; bill to gape, y’y ; tarsus, y’y.

Hah. Malacca. In Mus. East India Company.

4. Orthotomus edela, Temminck.

Syn. Orthotomus edela, Temm. PI, Col. 599. f. 2 (1836). G. R.
Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 162, Blyth, Catal. B. Mus. A. S. Beng.
p. 144. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 282.

Motacilla septum. Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 313. Lath.
Hist. vii. p. 218 (nec Ilorsf. v. Lafres.).

Ann, Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi.

9

130 Zoological Society : —

Edela ruficeps^ Less. Cent. Zool. p. 212. t. 71 (1834) (nec Less.
Tr. d’Orn.).

Kachichi of the Malays of Sumatra^ Raffles.

Hah, Malayan peninsula ; Sumatra. In Mus. East India Com-
pany.

O. edela. — The forehead, lores and crown ferruginous ; the
entire lower parts whitish, but the sides of the neck slightly varie-
gated with clear ashy ; back of neck, back, wing-coverts and tail
greenish ; the wings ashy, but bordered with greenish ferruginous ;
the tail is regularly of one colour ; the bill and feet brownish.” —
Temm.

Length, inches ; of wing, If; tail, 1^; bill to gape, f ; tarsus,

5. Orthotomus ruficeps. Lesson.

Syn. Edela ruficeps, Less. Tr. d’Ornith. p. 309 (1831) (nec Less.
Cent. Zook).

Orthotomus sericeus, Temm. PI. Col. Texte, 599 (1836). G. R.
Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 162. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 282.

Hab. Malacca ; Borneo.

O. ruficeps. — The forehead, crown, occiput, lores and upper part
of ear-coverts bright ferruginous ; the chin, base of lower mandible,
lower part of ear-coverts and the rest of the under parts silky white ;
back, rump and wings deep ash ; tail bright ferruginous, at base ashy,
and with no terminal band ; thighs ferruginous ; fflll yellowish brown,
pale below ; legs pale.

Length, inches ; wing, 2 ; tail. If ; bill to gape, f ; tarsus,

The above description is from a specimen in the East India Com-
pany’s Museum. This species may readily be distinguished by the
bright ferruginous colour of the head, the tail also being of the same
colour, and by the bill being considerably longer and stouter (though
strictly typical) than in any of the other known species.

6. Orthotomus cineraceus, Blyth.

Syn. Orthotomus cineraceus, Blyth, Journ. A. S. Beng. xiv. p. 589
(1845) ; Catal. B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 144. Bonap. C. G. Av.

p. 282.

Orthotomus septum, Lafres. Mag. de Zool. 1836, t. 51 (nec Horsf.
V. Raffles).

Hab. Malacca.

O. cineraceus. — “ Upper parts pure ash-grey, without any tinge of
green ; forehead and sides of the head light ferruginous, palest on the
cheeks, and there is a slight tinge of the same upon the chin ; crown
tinged with olive-brown ; lower parts white, passing to light ashy on
the sides of the breast ; tail somewhat brownish, with terminal dusky
band, and whitish extreme tips to its outer feathers ; tibial plumes
rust-coloured ; the tarsi and toes red-brown ; bill dusky above, pale
beneath.

Length about 4|^ inches ; of wing, ly®o ; tail. If; bill to gape, f ;
tarse, f.” — Blyth.

131

Mr. F. Moore on species of Orthotomus.

A specimen in the East India Company’s Museum, from Malacca,
has the centre of the throat and the whole of the breast and flanks
lightish ash, paling to silky white on the centre of the belly ; the
under tail-coverts are also white ; wings brown, the primaries mar-
gined exteriorly with pale dusky ferruginous, the secondaries with
ashy olive ; extreme edge of wing, under spurious wing-coverts and
exterior margin of the latter ferruginous white, contrasting with the
ash on the breast ; under wing-coverts white. The wing and tarsus
are both an eighth of an inch longer. Other characters as in the
description above.

7. Orthotomus longirostris, Swainson.

Syn. Orthotomus longirostris^ Swains. Cent. p. 343 (1837) ;
Classic Birds, ii. p. 62. f. 135. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 162.
Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 282.

Hab. S.W. Australia {Sivains.). Malacca?

O. longirostris. — ‘‘ Cinereous ; sides of the body beneath cinereous,
the middle white ; head, chin and thighs ferruginous ; throat black ;
tail brownish, graduated, the latter with dusky black ends, tipped
with whitish ; bill and legs pale.

Length, inches; wing, \ tail, beyond 1; base, 1^^; bill to
gape, Y®o 5 tarsus, 3^.” — Swains.

This species differs from O. cineraceus in having a black throat,
and in the wing being three-tenths of an inch longer, the tarsus also
being longer by a quarter of an inch. Mr. Swainson has given S.W.
Australia as the habitat of this species, which must evidently be an
error.

8. Orthotomus cucullatus, Temminck.

Syn. Orthotomus cucullatus^ Temm. PI. Col. 599. f. 3 (1836).
G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 162. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 282.
Hab. Java; Sumatra.

O. cucullatus. — “Top of the head bright ferruginous ; neck, cheeks,
and the sides of the breast of a pure ash ; the neck in front, the
breast, and the middle of the belly are pure white ; the sides, the
thighs and the abdomen of a citron-yellow ; back and wings of a
greenish tint, the quills and tail margined with greenish ; upper man-
dible brown, the lower as well as the feet yellowish.” — Temminck.

9. Orthotomus longicauda, Gmelin.

Motacilla longicauda et sutoria, Gmel. S. N. L. i. pp. 954, 997.
Orthotomus longicauda, Strickl. Ann. N. II. xiii. p. 35. Blyth,
J. A. S. Beng. xiii. p. 377 ; Catal. B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 144.
G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 162. Tickell, J. A. S. Beng. xvii.
pt. i. p. 298. Hutton, J. A. S. Beng. xvii. pt. ii. p. 691. Bonap.
C. G. Av. p. 281. Layard, Ann. N. II. 1853, p. 262.

Sglvia longicauda et sutoria, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. pp. 545, 551;
Gen. Hist. vii. ]>p. 79, 119. Vieill. Erie. Mcth. p. 456.

Malurus longicaudus, Pearson, J. A. S. Beng. x. p. 644.

Sylvia guzuratta, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 554; Gen. Hist. vii. p. 129.

9*

132

Zoological Society : —

Orthotomus Bennettii et O. lingooy Sykes, P. Z. S. (1832) p. 90.
Lafres. Mag. de Zool, (1836) t. 52, 53. Jerdon, Madr. Journ. xi. p. 1 .
Hodgs. Cat. B. Nep. p. 63.

Orthotomus rujicapilla^ Hutton, J. A. S. Beng. ii. p. 504 (1833).

Orthotomus sphenurus, Swains. 2^ Cent. p. 343 (1838).

Orthotomus sutoriusy v. rujicapilluSy v. sphenurusy Hodgs. Gray’s
Zool. Misc. (1844) p. 82.

Orthotormis sutoria et O. patlay Hodgs. P. Z. S. (1845) p. 29.

Sutoria agilis, Nicholson, P. Z. S. (1851) p. 194.

The Indian Tailor Bird.

Phutki, of the Hindoos, Jerdon.

Tuntuni, of the Bengalese, Hamilton, Blyth.

Patia, or Leaf Birdy^ Nepal, Hodgson.

Hab. India generally ; Ceylon ; Burmese countries ; Malayan
peninsula ?

This species is too well known to require further description.

“ The Tailor Bird is tolerably common in most wooded districts, and
universally spread, frequenting cultivated ground, especially gardens,
groves of trees, and is also found in high jungle, in the more open
spaces. It lives in pairs or in small flocks, incessantly hopping about
the branches of trees and shrubs, peas and other vegetables, with a
loud reiterated note, and picking various insects (chiefly ants and
small larvse) off the bark and leaves, and not unfrequently seeking
them on the ground. It has the habit of frequently jerking up its
tail while feeding or hopping about, and at times (especially when
calling) it has the power of raising the feathers on the lower part of
the throat, and displaying on either side a small black stripe. This
has been noted by no one except Lieut. Hutton, who states, ‘ it is
only seen when the bird is in motion, and wholly disappears when in
a state of rest.^ It has various notes, one of which sounds like tweey
tweey tweey as mentioned by Col. Sykes, and another which is gene-
rally used when alarmed or angry, and sounds like chicky chicky chicky
chickyy chick. It is a familiar bird, and ventures close to houses,
but when observed becomes wary.” — Jerdon.

Dr. Nicholson says, “ It has a loud, short, and not unmelodious
song ; its general cry being ‘ wheet, wheety wheety often repeated ;
but its alarm cry is like ‘ cheertahy cheertahy cheertahJ ”

The following are a few observations on the structure of two speci-
mens of the nest of the Tailor Bird, found in the garden belonging
to Capt. Hearsey, by Lieut. Hutton : ‘‘The first was neatly formed
of raw cotton and bits of cotton threads, woven strongly together,
thickly lined with horse-hair, and supported between two leaves on a
twig of the Amaltsis tree (Cassia fistula). These two leaves were
first placed longitudinally upon each other, and stitched in that posi-
tion from the points to rather more than halfway up the sides with
a strong thread spun from the raw cotton by the bird, leading the
entrance to the nest at the point where they join the branch of the
tree. Both of these leaves were of course green and living. Subse-
quently, however, they were blown down by a high wind, and being
now withered, the nest appears enclosed between two dead leaves.

Mr. E. L. Layard on new species of Paludomus. 133

The second specimen was at tlie end of a branch of the Bhela {Seme-
carpus anacardium), about two feet from the ground, and constructed
of the same materials as the above, viz. raw cotton, cotton threads,
also a little flax, and lined with horse-hair alone ; the leaves were
stitched together partly with thread prepared by the bird, and partly
with spun thread ; and so well concealed was it, that even after Capt.
Hearsey had discovered it (by accident) he could scarcely find it
again to show to me. In it were found an egg and two young birds
nearly fledged. These I placed, with the nest, in a trap-cage, and
thus succeeded in capturing both of the old birds. The young birds
are similar in colours to the adults, except that they are paler and the
top of the head cinereous with a faint rufous tinge ; bill yellowish.
The eggs are white, spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with tawny
spots.’^

Further notices of the habits and nest of this curious bird are given
by the following authors, at the places above referred to, viz. Hodgson,
Sykes, Blyth, Layard, Nicholson, &c.

March 14. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

1. Observations on the Genus Paludomus of Swainson,
WITH Descriptions of several New Species, and the
Description of a New Species of Anculotus. By
Edgar L. Layard, F.Z.S., C.M.E.S. etc. etc.

A cursory survey of the genus Paludomus^ which Swainson many
years ago separated from Melania, at once satisfied me that several
genera or subgenera, differing in structure and habits, were united
together under one name by Mr. Reeve, in his monograph on the
genus in the ‘ Conchologia Iconica,’ where he describes the charac-
ters of the genus as follows : — “ Animal fluviatile, with a horny sub-
triangularly-ovate concentrically-striated operculum.”

Had Mr. Reeve been furnished with the operculum and a correct
account of the habits of each species, he never would have left the
genus as it now stands. I was not aware that Dr. Gray had sepa-
rated one division from it, until so informed by him when I intro-
duced the subject to the notice of the Zoological Society on a former
evening ; and I rejoice to find that my observations on the Mollusca
in their natural state confirm the views to which that learned zoolo-
gist has arrived, from the structure of the opercula.

This induced me carefully to examine the whole group ; and the
ample collection of Mr. Cuming, ever open to the investigator, my
own cabinet, particularly rich in this family, and my memoranda
taken in Ceylon, have furnished the results here presented to the
Sf)ciety.

1 j)ropose to separate the genus into four divisions, founded upon
the structure of the oi)crculum.

Tiie first I shall designate Paludomus, as, witli the addition of
the |)Osition of the nucleus in the operculum, the characters, as given
by Reeve, sufficiently describe that organ, and from its j)artiality to

134

Zoological Society : —

sluggish waters (two species being found in the marshy borders of
tanks or artificial lakes), it better suits the name than any of the
other divisions. A note of interrogation after a species implies that
I have not seen the operculum, but from the form I consider it to
belong to the division in which it is placed.

Genus 1. Paludomus, Swains.

Animal inhabiting gently-running or still water. Operculum homy,
subtriangularly ovate, with the apex superior and slightly inclined ;
concentrically striate ; nucleus subcentral, sinistral.

P. Icevis, Layard.

P. palustris, Layard.

P. chilinoides, Reeve.
P. phasianinus, Reeve.
P. acutus. Reeve.

P. hicinctus, Reeve.

P. constrictus, Reeve.
P. nigricans^ Reeve.

P. paludinoides. Reeve.
P. punctatus^ Reeve.

P. globulosus, Rejeve ?

P. decussatus, Reeve ?
P. Stephanus, Benson?
P. conicus. Gray.

P. hifasciatus, Reeve.
P. spiralis. Reeve.

P. pictus, Reeve ?

P. hacula. Reeve ?

P. ahbreviatiis, Reeve ?
P. clavatus. Reeve ?

P. Maurus, Reeve ?

P. rudis. Reeve?

Genus 2. Ganga *, Layard.

Animal inhabiting gently-running water. Operculum horny, sub-
triangularly ovate ; apex superior, slightly inclined, concentrically
striate ; nucleus subcentral, dextral.

6r. dilatata. Reeve. G. neritoides, Reeve ? G. olivacea, Reeve ?

Genus 3. Tanalia, Gray.

Animal fluviatile, delighting in the most rapid mountain torrents.
Operculum horny, subtriangularly ovate ; apex lateral, lamellated ;
nucleus lateral, dextral.

T. loricata, Reeve.

T. crinascens. Reeve.
T. (Brea, Reeve.

T. Layardi, Reeve.

T. undata. Reeve.

T. fimiculata. Reeve.

T. Gardneri, Reeve.
T. Tennentii, Reeve.
T. Reevei, Layard.
T. similis, Layard.

T. violacea, Layard.

Genus 4. Philopotamts, Layard.

Animal fluviatile, amphibious, delighting in rocky torrents. Oper-
culum horny, subtriangularly ovate ; apex superior, paucispiral ; nu-
cleus sub-basal, dextral.

Ph. snlcatas. Reeve. Ph. Thwaitesii, Lay. Ph. regalis. Lay.
Cingalese name for a river.

135

Mr. E. L. Layard on new species of Paludomus.

One characteristic habit, separating the whole of these species, as
far as I can ascertain, from Melania, is that they are constantly found
adhering to stones, or the submerged roots of trees and stems of
aquatic plants, which the Melanice never are ; neither do they burrow
in sand, as do the Melanice, though they often resort to a sandy
locality, perhaps for the purpose of breeding. The habit in Ph. sul-
catus of crawling several feet out of the water on the damp grass is
remarkable.

A few remarks on the various species in detail may prove not un-
acceptable.

Paludomus chilinoides. Reeve.

This is the commonest species of the whole tribe. It is found in
gently-running water generally, but often in paddy fields and other
marshy grounds to which these running waters have access.

The animal is blackish-mottled, forehead produced into an obtuse
point, slightly indented in the centre and fringed with red dots ;
tentacula two, acuminate ; eyes two, sessile, situated about one-fifth
of the distance up the tentacles.

I have taken the operculum of this species as the type of the
family ; it therefore needs no description.

Paludomus l^vis, Layard.

Shell oblong-ovate ; axis 1 1 lines, diam. 7 lines ; spire acute, ex-
serted, moderately long ; whorls rounded, not depressed round the
upper part, smooth. Colour olive-yellow, the lower whorls seldom
marked, but the upper always spotted with one or two rows of arrow-
headed dots ; apex bluish ; aperture white.

Operculum as in Pal. chilinoides.

Hah. Ceylon, in slow-running streams on the northern side of the
mountain zone extending into the flat country beyond Anarajahpoora.
I also obtained a few in a paddy field in the south of the island, near
the village of Heneratgodde. Mus. Cuming et Layard.

I think this may prove to be but a variety of Pal. chilinoides,
although the experienced eye of Mr. Cuming at once separated it
from that species. It is found in the same localities, and only differs
from it in wanting the depression round the upper part of the whorls
and in the colouring ; the mollusk is similar.

Paludomus palustris, Layard.

Shell ovate, thin ; axis 10 lines, diam. 6 lines ; spire exserted,
long ; whorls rounded, rather flat, spirally closely grooved with mi-
nute granular striae (visible under the lens). Colour of adult shell *
a rich yellow spotted with dark brown, the markings frequently run-
ning into wavy lines ; apex bluish ; a})erture white.

♦ In young shells the ground colour is almost hidden hy the dark markings,
and the aperture is found to be spirally marked with thin lines of the same
colour.

136

Zoological Society : —

Operculum nearly oval, the apex slightly inclined to the left ; con-
centric nucleus subcentral, sinistral.

Hab. The grassy margins of a tank at Anarajahpoora. Mus.
Cuming et Layard. •

Paludomus nigricans. Reeve.

Operculum as in Pal. chilinoides, Reeve.

Hab. Balcaddua Pass, mountain torrent, affecting the little pools
and not found in the rapids.

Paludomus constrictus. Reeve.

Operculum as in Pal. chilinoides^ Reeve, but with the apex very
much inclined to the left.

Hab. Kadaganava Pass, mountain streams. I have not taken it in
situ. Mus. Cuming et Layard.

Paludomus bicinctus. Reeve.

Operculum as in Pal. chilinoides. Reeve.

Hab. Balcaddua Pass, in the Mahavillaganga, shallow quiet places
on sand. Mus. Cuming et Layard.

Paludomus phasianinus. Reeve.

Operculum as in Pal. chilinoides. Reeve.

I cannot help thinking that this is but a geographical variety of
Pal. chilinoides, of which the Ceylon race will be the connecting link.
Seychelles type. Mus. Cuming. Ceylon var. Mus. Layard.

Paludomus paludinoides. Reeve.

Operculum as in Pal. chilinoides. Reeve.

Hab. Ganges. Mus. Cuming et Layard.

Paludomus decussatus. Reeve.

Operculum as in Pal. chilinoides.

Hab. Balcaddua Pass, mountain torrent, in company with Pa/, ni-
gricans, Reeve. Mus. Cuming et Layard.

Paludomus parvus, Layard.

Shell ovate ; axis 6 lines, diam. 4 lines ; spire exserted, moderately
lo]ig ; whorls slightly rounded, smooth. Colour dark olive-yello w
more or less marked with fine spiral brown lines ; aperture white.

Operculum as in P. chilinoides. Reeve.

Hab, Bombay. Mus. Cuming et Layard.

Paludomus globulosus. Reeve.

I am not quite satisfied that the opercula which I received with the
specimens of this shell presented to me, are really the proper oper-
cula of the species, but it probably belongs to this group.

I was told that the shells came from Rambodde Pass, between
Newera Elia and Kandy, but never saw it in situ, as I did not visit
that locality. Mus. Layard et Cuming.

137

Mr. E. L. Layard on new species of Tanalia.

Paludomus spiralis. Reeve.

I include in this group, from its resemblance to my Pal. palustris.
The only specimens I ever saw are in Mr. Cuming’s cabinet.

Paludomus dilatatus. Reeve.

Operculum concentric ; nucleus subcentral, dextral.

Hab. Ceylon, Rambodde Pass, mountain torrent. This species was
given to me along With. Pal. glob ulosus ; I therefore know nothing of
its habits.

Genus Tanalia, Gray.

Tanalia loricata. Reeve.

This species grows to its largest size in the Calloo ganga, above
Ratnapoora, where it is found in the most rapid foaming currents ad-
hering to rocks. It resorts to deep sandy pools and reaches at some
seasons, but apparently will not exist in a river devoid of rocks and
rapids. Most of the streams of the southern provinces answering to
this description contain it ; but I never met with it to the northward,
where the rivers become more sluggish.

The mollusk is almost black.

Tanalia crinascens. Reeve.

I doubt this being more than a geographical variety of the preceding
species ; and not being aware that it had been separated from it, did
not pay attention to the operculum, though it evidently belongs to
this group. I have only received the species from one locality,
Kadaganava Pass, between Colombo and Kandy ; but have interme-
diate varieties, on which half the spines are solid, as in loricata.,
half capped and hollow, as in crinascens.

T. ^REA, Reeve. T. Layardi, R. T. undata, R.

I seek in vain for sufficient distinction in these species to separate
them from loricata. Take a strongly-marked specimen of each, and
the division appears an excellent one ; place a hundred of each, and
the gradations are imperceptible.

As far as my recollection serves me, there is nothing different in
the animals ; but as I was not aware of the separation of ccrea and
Layardi, I did not closely scrutinize them ; however, of undata
dozens passed in review with careful survey.

They are found with loricata and the pseudo-variety crinascens
before mentioned ; and the opercula are undistinguishable, save that
tliose of (Brea having a wider aperture to fill, are larger and not
(piite so angular. I look upon them as varieties of loricata.

Tanalia Gardneri, Reeve.

Operculum not distinguishable, except in size, from that of lori-
cafa. In very large specimens the angle is often very great, and is
bent outward on the exterior side.

Hub. I found this species in a waterfall pool at Tambillichna,
below Ratnaj)oora ; also in the Calloo ganga, but only in the most
rapid current, mixed with loricata and the next species.

138

Zoological Society: —

Tan ALIA Tennentii, Reeve.

Operculum the same as in the preceding species, but, if anything,
always more angular.

Hah. as in T. Gardneri.

Tanalia Reevei, Layard.

Shell oblong ovate; axis 1 ~ inch, diam. 1 in. 2 lines. Spire exserted,
short. Whorls rounded, spirally corded with rather distant obtuse
ridges, longitudinally striated with well-marked close-set striae, the
great characteristic mark of the species. Aperture : outer lip edged
with deep purple-brown, columellar lip white. Colour a dark yellow-
brown, thickly marked with longitudinal, slanting, jet-brown wavy
bands.

Hah. The Calloo ganga, Ratnapoora.

I have much pleasure in dedicating this beautiful species to the
gentleman who has so extensively investigated this peculiar family.

Tanalia violacea, Layard.

Shell globose ; axis 6 lines, diam. 5 lines. Spire very short,
slightly exserted. Whorls rounded, ventricose, spirally grooved
with close-set, fine, minutely decussated striae (in one variety the
striae become ridges) . Colour a dark bluish-brown, almost amounting
to black, with darkish brown patches appearing in some specimens.
Aperture deep violet inside ; columella white, stained on the outside
edge with dark brown.

Hah. A small mountain torrent in a dense forest between Gilly-
malle and Pallabaddoola, towards Adam’s Peak, Ceylon,

Tanalia similis, Layard.

Shell rather globose ; axis 8 lines, diam. 6 lines. Spire short,
exserted. Whorls rounded, ventricose, spirally grooved with close-
set, fine, minutely decussated striae. Colour rich olive-yellow, pro-
fusely marked with longitudinal, wavy, dark lines, interrupted by
four or five fine transverse bands of the same colour. Aperture : the
dark markings of the shell show through, and are dimmed by a bluish
haze ; columellar lip white, stained on the outside edge with dark
brown, which runs round the outer lip in a thin band.

Hah. A mountain torrent at Kandangamoa, near Ratnapoora.

Tanalia flniculata. Reeve.

I never could find any species which answered to Mr. Reeve’s
description of this shell, until Mr. Cuming kindly lent me the type
specimen, when an hour’s immersion in soap and water showed that
the ‘^ jet-brown” was merely the accumulation of the freshwater algae
(which always cover this sluggish family) and the red cabooky dust
of “India’s utmost isle.” This cleaning revealed a bright yellow
epidermis, variegated with dark brown wavy lines, and the very
minutely striated structure of the shell ; and the specimen imme-
diately ranged itself with a series of a very variable shell, which I had
in vain endeavoured to reconcile with any published description.

Mr. E. L. Layard on new species of Philopotamis. 139

A more lengthened description of this species, which I shall still
call T. funiculata, Reeve, may prove acceptable, and prevent others
from experiencing the same difficulty which I have felt.

Shell oblong ovate; axis 13 lines, diam. 10. Spire exserted.
Whorls rather depressed round the upper part, spirally corded with
rather distant obtuse ridges placed at unequal distances, sometimes
with a thread-like ridge between two larger ones, the whole minutely
longitudinally striated. Colour a bright rich yellow, variegated with
closely set, dark brown, broadish, zigzag lines. Interior whitish ;
exterior lip faintly marked all round with purplish-brown, with fre-
quent dark brown spots ; columellar lip white, with the exterior
margin stained with a bright pale brown. This description is taken
from the original type shell ; in some examples the ridges are almost,
if not quite, obsolete ; the spire is hardly exserted, the zigzag lines
lost, and the aperture almost pure white ; one of these specimens
measures, axis 9^ lines, diam. 8 lines. In another, measuring, axis
1/ lines, diam. 14 lines, the strise are much coarser, and some of the
upper ridges present a decided indication of nodules ! The outer lip is
pretty deeply edged with dark brown, and the bright brown of the
columellar lip, though still present, is soon changed into a deep rich
hue.

The species is abundant in a mountain stream not far from Ratna-
poora, probably the very stream whence my lamented friend Dr.
Gardner procured the type specimen, as it is crossed by the high
road leading thither from Colombo ; and, as I have had opportunity
of witnessing, Dr. Gardner never failed to examine every stream he
passed.

Philopotamis sulcatus. Reeve.

Operculum ovoid ; apex slightly inclined, sinistral, paucispiral.
Nucleus sub-basal, dextral. Alollusk black ; forehead produced, as
in Paludomus chilinoides ; tentacles and eyes also the same.

Hub. Weyweldenia, a rocky rivulet. I found this species loc. cit.,
and I then remarked that vast numbers of them were crawling on the
wet grass on the banks of the stream. I subsequently found it at
Kandangamoa and in the Calloo ganga.

Philopotamis regalis, Layard.

Shell oblong ovate; axis 1 inch, diam. 9 lines. Spire exserted,
short. Whorls rounded, depressed at the upper part, spirally corded
with close-set slight ridges, longitudinally minutely striated, and
crowned with a single row of short, sharp, hollow, angular spines,
closely set. Colour yellowish-olive, painted with wavy, dark brown
longitudinal lines. Aperture pure white.

Operculum unknown, but most probably as in P. sulcatus.

llah. Stream in the Cnia Corle, Western province, Ceylon.

Philopotamis Thwaitesii, Layard.

Shell oblong ovate ; axis 13 lines, diam. 9 lines. Spire exserted,
short. Whorls almost carinated round the upper part, spirally
corded with iinecjual -sized, close, but irregularly set ridges, granulated

140

Zoological Society : —

or minutely striated. Colour yellowish-olive, painted more or less
with wavy, dark brown longitudinal lines. Aperture pinkish-white,
occasionally having the outer lip dotted with dark piiik-brown marks.

Hah. Same as P. sulcatus.

This is a rare shell, if really distinct from sulcatusy from which
and from regalis it may at once be distinguished by the shallowness
and irregularity of the ridges.

Anculotus CARINA.TUS, Layard,

Shell somewhat globose ; axis 5 lines, diam. 4 lines. Spire ex-
serted, short. Whorls inflated, rather square, sharply keeled round
the inferior angle, minutely longitudinally striated. Colour dull
olive, marked faintly with two or three broad bands of dark rufous-
brown, which are very apparent in the aperture ; columellar lip
white, stained with a light dash of the same rufous-brown on the
exterior margin.

Hah. Streams in the Mahakeshwar Hills, Bombay Presidency.
Mus. Cuming.

March 28. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Mr. Gould exhibited male and female specimens of a very rare
English Duck, described in 1847 by Mr. Bartlett, under the name
of Fuligula ferinoides. The specimens exhibited were lent to Mr.
Gould by M. Van den Bergh, of Rotterdam. Mr. Gould men-
tioned, that only three instances of the occurrence of the bird in
England are on record ; one of the specimens is in the collection of
J. H. Gurney, another in that of Mr. Doubleday, of Epping, and
the third in the museum of the late Earl of Derby, at Liverpool.

Characters of some New^ or imperfectly-described
Species of Tanagers.

By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., F.Z.S.

I have been collecting Tanagers for some time, with the view of
ultimately attempting a monograph of the family. But the forms in
many of the genera are so closely allied, and the limits of the family
itself at present so unsettled, that a larger collection of species, and
a much greater familiarity with the subject-matter than I have yet
had time to acquire, are requisite before such a monograph can be
satisfactorily completed. Puzzling indeed to ornithologists would
seem the question, ‘‘What is a Tanager?” as puzzling perhaps as to
political economists Sir Robert Peel’s celebrated poser, “What is a
pound?” My ideas on this point, that is, I mean, as to the posi-
tion and extent of the family or subfamily of Tanagers, coincide, I
believe, nearly with those of Mr. G. R. Gray.

A Tanager I consider to be a dentirostral Finch — to be distinguished
from other more typical Fringillidce by the presence of one or more
teeth or notches in the upper mandible (sometimes further developing
themselves into serrations, as in certain species of Euphonia and Ta-
chyphonus), and the culmen being always more or less indexed, never
straight. The colours of the group are generally very brilliant. They

141

Mr. P. L. Sclater on new sj>ecies of Tanagers.

feed on ripe fruit, some on insects, and perhaps in habits rather
resemble Sylviadce than true Fringillidce.

With these \dews, J keep among the Tanagers the Pityli and
Saltatoj'eSy excluded therefrom by certain modern systematists, and
retained among the FringillidcEy while the whole of what may be
termed the more typical portion of the group is removed far away to
the neighbourhood of the SylvicolincB.

Now I think it will be impossible to settle these, and other families
belonging to the South American Fauna, in a really satisfactory way,
until we know much more than we do at present of the habits and
customs of the animals of that vast continent. Unfortunately those
who have hitherto written upon the ornithology of that country have
in general had too little previous scientific knowledge of the subject.
Not, of course, that this makes them less accurate observers of facts,
but only less likely to hit upon the right facts to be observed. A per-
son previously well acquainted with the varied forms of South Ameri-
can ornithology by study of the European collections, so as to know
what points required looking up, would, 1 have little doubt, be in a
much more favourable condition for observing these animals in their
native haunts, and thereby solving many of those doubts which at
present so perplex the student of natural history. As, however, we
may perhaps have to wait some time before a determination of the
question “What is a Tanager?” can be arrived at in this manner,
I propose adopting as provisional limits for the family or subfamily,
nearly those given by Mr. G. R. Gray in his ^ Genera of Birds,’ ex-
cluding only the genera Pipilo, Embernagra, and Emberizoides^ which
appear to me to go better with Zonotrichia and its allied forms. To
show the arrangement I contemplate, I have formed a list* of the
genera and species, which may perhaps be useful for collectors to
mark off their duplicates or desiderata ; though, as a mere catalogue
of names, it is, of course, of no scientific value. Some of the many
lately- formed genera now used, I may hereafter find occasion to con-
solidate, the principle of subdivision having been carried to great
lengths in this as in other families.

My present list contains the names of 222 species, though I have
no doubt that many more remain to be discovered. These are all
believed to be real, not nominal species ; indeed I have myself seen
specimens of nearly the whole of them, and the ten or twelve I have
not personally examined I believe rest on good authority. The
names used are many of them taken from Bonaparte’s ‘Conspectus,’
his “ Note sur les Tanagras” in the ‘ Rev. et Mag. de Zool.’ for 18.51,
the ‘ Museum Heineanum’ of Cabanis, and my own papers in Sir
William .Tardine’s ‘Contributions.’

The Tanagers are essentially a South American family. Out of
the whole 222 species, 19.3 are from the continent south of the Isth-
mus of Panama, and the rest mostly cither from Central America or
Soutlicrn Mexico. Three or four only are peculiar to certain of the
West Indian islands, and three only, well-known members of the
genus Pyranga, extend as summer migrants into the United States of

* Tanagrarum Catalogus Specificus. Auctorc IMiilippi Lutley Sclater. j3asing-
stoke, 1851. 8 VO. 16 pp.

142

Zoological Society : —

North America. Through South America they range down to the Rio
de la Plata, but on the western coast I am not aware that they have
been observed nearly so far south. M. d’Orbigny met with but one
species * at all on the occidental slope of the Andes ; Tschudi men-
tions but three or four as occurring in the vicinity of Lima, on the
coast-region of Peru.

Subjoined are the specific characters of five species occurring in
my list, of which accurate descriptions have not yet been published.

1. Arremon axillaris, Sclater. A. supra olwaceo-viridis ;
capite atro ; superciliis productis albis ; vitta verticali et cer-
vice postica cinereis : suhtus niveusAaterihus cinerascentibus ;
macula utrinque cervicali vittam quasi imperfectam formante,
mentoque summo atris ; remigibus rectricibusque nigricantibus :
tectricibus alarum majoribus Jlavo-olivaceis, minoribus et axillis
Icete Jlavis : mandibula superiore nigra, inferiore fiava : pedi-
bus dare brunneis.

Long, tota 5*2, alse 3'0, caudse 2*0 poll. Angl.

Avis junior. Semitorque collari vix conspicuo.

Hab. In Nova Grenada.

Obs. Species Arremoni semitorquato maxime atfinis, sed hujus
axillis olivaceis, illius Isetissime flavis.

2. Ramphocelus dorsalis. Bp. MS. S Coccmeus : dorso
medio obscurius coccineo : alis caudaque nigris : rostro nigro,
mandibula inferiore basi Icete alba.

$ Fusco-brunnea : alis caudaque nigricantibus : uropygio et
ventre toto erubescentibus : rostro brunneo.

Long, tota 7*0, alse 3*2, caudse 3*2.

Hab. In imp. Brasiliensi.

Obs. R. brazilio maxime atfinis at dorso medio obscurius coccineo.

I should hardly have ventured to have separated this species from
R. brazilius, from which it only differs, so far as I can make out, in
the patch of darker colouring in the middle of the back ; but as the
Prince Charles Bonaparte has done so, and his MS. name has
attained wide circulation on the MM. Verreaux’s labels, I think it
best to give a published description of the grounds of the alleged
specific difference. However, M. Jules Verreaux, — a good authority,
— considers the two species truly distinct, and has assured me, if I
recollect right, that he has seen and shot them both frequently at
Rio and Pernambuco.

3. Buthraupis chloronota, Sclater. B. supra viridis ; pileo
ccerideo : alis caudaque nigris, illarum tectricibus minoribus
cceruleis ; majoribus et secondariis viridi limbatis : subtus
jlavus, crisso saturatiore : gutture toto atro : rostro pedibusque
nigris.

* The Tanagra striata, Gra., in the ravines of Palca in Peru, 18° S.L. M. d’Or-
bigny attributes a wide range to this species, which he says occurs besides in the
Banda Oriental, near Monte Video, at Buenos Ayres, near La Paz, and in the
provinces of Yungas, Sicasica, Cochambamba, Valle Grande, and Chiquisaca in
Bolivia. (Voy. p. 272.) But, quaere, does he not confound with T. striata,
Tschudi’s T. frugilegus ?

143

Mr. P. L. Sclater on new species of Tanagers.

Long, tota 8*8, alse 4*6, caudae 3*8.

Hah, In republ. Equatoriana.

Ohs, Affinis B, eximice^ sed major, dorso toto viridi nec uropygio
cseruleo.

I have seen only one specimen of this species, which was re-
ceived by the Freres Verreaux of Paris from Ecuador. It is closely
allied to B, eximia, but is larger in all its dimensions, nearly equalling
in size B. cucullata. Its distinguishing character is the uniform
green back, whence I have named it chloronota, I have examined
multitudes of B. eximia^ and invariably found the uropygium blue.

4. Euphonia concinna, Sclater.

E, hirundinacea. Bp. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 18.51, p. 156? —
E. affinis, Less. Rev. Zool. 1842, p. 1/5 ?

E. supra nigro-violacea valde purpurascens ; pileo summo flam :
infra gutture nigro-violaceo ; ahdoinine aurantio-flavo : cauda
suhtus immaculate nigra.

Long, tota 3*8, alae 2*2, caudse 1’4,

Hah. In Nova Grenada.

Ohs. E. chloroticcB similis, sed cauda subtus immaculata, fronte
latius nigro, dignoscenda.

This bird is one of the group so closely affine to E. chlorotica, but
may be distinguished from all of them (as E. melanura from E. vio-
lacea and its affines) by the absence of white markings on the exterior
rectrices. The middle of the belly is also of a brighter orange tint,
and the black front is broader than in E. chlorotica. A skin of this
species, received from the MM. Verreaux, is labelled E. hirundinacea,
Bp., and it is probably the species referred to by that name in the

Note surles Tanagras,” Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1851, p. 156. It is
not however the true E. hirundinacea. Bp. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837,
p. 1 17 ; for on examination of the type of that species, which is now
in the Derby Museum at Liverpool (labelled E. hirundinirostris /),
I found it coequal with the bird described by me (Cont. to Orn.
1851, p. 86) as E. laniirostris, which again is not the true lanii-
rostris of MM. de Lafresnaye and d’Orbigny, but a closely allied
species, called in the Baron de Lafresnaye’ s museum E.fortirostris.
This must, of course, for the future bear the first proposed specific
appellation hirundinacea, and will stand as follows : —

5. Euphonia hirundinacea. Bp.

Euphonia hirundinacea. Bp. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p. 117. — E,
laniirostris, Sclater, Cont. to Orn. 1851, p. 86. — E. hirundini-
rostris, Bp. in Mus. Derb. — E.fortirostris, Lafr. in mus. suo.

E. ceneo-nigra : capite summo antico et corpore toto suhtus flams:
rectricihus 2 utrimpie extimis late alho intus notatis : rostro
et pedihus nigris.

Long, tota 4*5, alse 2*5, caudae 1*5.

Hah. In Guatimala {Bp.) ; Chirique in Veragua {Kellett in Mus.
Brit.) ; Nova Grenada?

Ohs. E. violacecjc similis, sed seneo-nigra nec purpurascens ; rostro
robustiore.

144

Botanical Society of Edinburgh : —

BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

June 14, 1855, — Professor Balfour, President, in the Chair.

Professor Balfour stated that Pontederia elongata had been culti-
vated in the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, and distributed under
that name. It seems to be only a variety of P.crassipes, produced by
being grown in soil in place of water. The effect of this treatment
is to cause the inflated petioles to elongate and lose their globular
form. When the plants are put into deep 'water so as to float, the
roots being unable to reach the soil, they assume the proper form
of P. crassipes.

The following papers were read ; —

1 . Remarks on the Catamites and Sternbergia of the Carboni-
ferous Epoch,” by Dr. Fleming.

Dr. Fleming arrived at the following conclusions : — 1. That many
species have the original matter, now forming a thin film of coal,
smooth on the outside, or not exhibiting externally any traces of
joints or longitudinal ribs. 2. From the inside of their woody cylin-
ders, now converted into coal, diaphragms proceeded at regular, but
occasionally at irregular, intervals, dividing the inside of the hollow
stem into a series of chambers.

These partitions appear to have possessed a very loose texture
towards the centre, but become more dense in substance towards
their junction with the stem, and usually leave traces of coaly matter
at the sides. The jointed character of the casts of the inside, in
general all that is noticed by the geologist, is thus referable to the
dissepiments, and cannot be regarded as resembling the jointing of a
Calamus. 3. The inside of the woody cylinder, although smooth on
the outside, was grooved longitudinally in the spaces between the
partitions or on the walls of the chambers, and hence the rubbed
surfaces of the casts. 4. The stem, unlike Stigmaria and Lepido-
dendroUi had no woody axis, nor dense medullary sheath.

The author next exhibited specimens of Sternbergia, displaying,
like the Calamite, the external cylinder of coal with a smooth surface,
and giving no indication of the internal arrangements. The inside
exhibited diaphragms having the same origin as in the Calamite, but
less regularly disposed, frequently wanting, and giving to the surface
of the cast, not a distinctly jointed, but a transversely crumpled ap-
pearance. He concluded, by stating that, from the smooth surflice,
and thickness of the coaly matter into which the plant had been con-
verted, joined to its independent or detached condition in the rocks,
it could not be regarded as the remains of a discoid pith, hut, like
the Calamite, as a plant which had a hollow stalk, the cavity divided
into chambers by transverse partitions, the remains of which give to
the casts their characteristic appearance.

2. “ On the Dyeing Properties of Lichens,” by Dr. W. Lauder
Lindsay.

In this paper the author endeavours to direct public attention spe-

Prof. Harkness on Fossil Diatomaceae.

145

cially to the two following facts, viz. First — that, in our own country,
many native Lichens, which grow more or less abundantly, might,
with advantage and oeconomy, be substituted for the somewhat ex-
pensive and scarce foreign Roccellas and other dye-Lichens usually
employed in the manufacture of orchil, cudbear and litmus ; and,
secondly — that, in our colonies, and foreign countries to which we
have access, species valuable as dye-Lichens probably grow in abun-
dance— might be collected and transported easily and cheaply — and
thus become important and lucrative articles of commerce.

3. On Biatomacece found in a Sub-fossil state in Dumfriesshire,”
by Robert Harkness, Professor of Geology, Queen’s College, Cork.

In this paper, the author remarked ; — “ While examining the
boulder deposits which occur on the northern shore of the Solway
Frith last summer, my attention was directed to a locality about a
mile west of the mouth of the river Annan, where there is an inter-
esting association of indurated gravel beds, hill deposits, and peat-
bog, overlaid by the vegetable soil of the district. The boulder
gravel, which here is the lowest deposit exposed, consists of the ordi-
nary Silurian sandstone, mixed with the carboniferous grits, and a
few fragments of the Bunter sandstone of the neighbourhood. It
had a hardened nature, and in this respect bore considerable affinity
to many conglomerates. Above this bed of indurated boulder gravel
there is seen a silty deposit, which consists of beds of fine drab-
coloured sandy clay, having vegetable remains scattered through the
mass. These vegetable remains, when in such a condition that they
can be recognised, are, for the most part, fragments of Equiseta.
The contents of this silty deposit are, however, not confined to such
organisms as ordinary swampy vegetation. On submitting portions
of the silt to microscopic examination this substance is found to
afford many species of Diatomaceee, associated together in an inter-
esting manner. Professor Gregory states that the following forms
of Diatoms occur : —

Epithemia Hyndraanni.

Cymbella Scotica.

maculata.

Cosciuodiscus radiatus.

Cyclotella operculata,

Kutzingiana.

Campylodiscus cribrosus (?).

Tryblionella acuminata.

punctata.

marginata.

Surirella minuta.

nobilis (or biseriata?).

Navicula didyma.

ovalis.

rhomboides var {Gregory).

varians {Gregory).

This association of marine and freshwater forms indicates the oc-
Ann. ^ May. N. Hist. Scr. 2. F'd/. xvi. 10

Pinnularia major.

viridis.

acuta.

tenuis {Gregory).

Gomphonema tenellum.
Doryphora amphiceros (fine).
Synedra radians.

Nitzschia (sp.?).
Grammatoj)iiora marina.
Melosira sulcata.

distans.

Fragilaria virescens.
Odontidium mesodon.
Mcridion circularc.

Adman tliidium lanceolatum.

146

Miscellaneous.

currence of conditions of an estuary nature, and leads to the inference
that the circumstance under which the silt was deposited approached
such as now prevails at the mouths of rivers.

“The occurrence of marine forms of Diatoms in silt, puts us in
possession of another element, by means of which we are enabled to
ascertain the changes which have taken place in the physical geo-
graphy of the earth. It furnishes us with a means applicable in
many instances where other and more perfect organisms have disap-
peared, the siliceous skeletons of these minute bodies being capable
of resisting that agent by means of which the solid coverings of mol-
luscs are dissolved. Many of the raised sea-beaches, now affording
no shells, will probably he found to contain Diatoms, which will tell
of the conditions under which these raised sea-beaches were originally
deposited, and provide us with information concerning the circum-
stances which operated in the production of strata of this nature.”

Dr. Gregory alluded to the interesting fact that Diatoms had been
found by Ehrenberg in all fossiliferous rocks as far down as the
Silurian ; and that while the higher organisms exhibited striking dif-
ferences in the rocks of different epochs, there was, in the case of
Diatoms, a striking similarity.

4. “ Notice of the time of Flowering of certain Trees and Shrubs
in the Royal Botanic Garden during the past month,” by Mr. M‘Nab.

5. “ Notes on the Effects of last winter upon Plants in the Royal
Botanic Garden, Belfast,” by Dr. Dickie, Professor of Zoology and
Botany, Queen’s College, Belfast.

The lowest point to which the thermometer fell during the month
of February 1855 was on the 15th, viz. 13° F. In 1845, on March
5th, the thermometer in the Botanic Garden indicated 10° F., lower,
than in 1855. The injury to the plants, however, in 1855, was
greater, because in February last a generally low temperature, with
east and north-east winds, prevailed during two weeks.

6. “Account of the Origin and of some of the Contents of the
Museum of Economic Botany attached to the Royal Botanic Garden
of Edinburgh,” by Professor Balfour.

MISCELLANEOUS.

On the Organization of the Pedicellate Glands of the Leaf of
Drosera rotundifolia. By M. A. Trecul.

There are some plants certain organs of which are capable of
executing very remarkable movements under the influence of a
mechanical excitement. Amongst these are the leaves of Mimosa
pudica and sensitiva, and of Bioncea muscipula, the stamens of Ber-
beidSi &c. The Drosera has been classed with the plants which pos-
sess this singular property. It is generally supposed that as soon as
a fly or other insect, attracted by the viscous juice secreted by the

Miscellaneous.

147

glanduliferous hairs which cover the surface of the leaf, settles upon
it, the hairs stiffen and curve towards those of the opposite side, so
as to form a sort of net under which the little creature remains im-
prisoned. It is certain that we often find one or more insects
struggling or dead under the hairs of this leaf, and this, I believe, is
the best proof that we possess of the excitability and movements of
the hairs in Drosera. I think however that these hairs are not ex-
citable, and that they are incapable of performing the movements
attributed to them. I have often endeavoured to irritate them, but
have never succeeded in observing anything which would indicate the
L^ast degree of excitability, although I have been placed in circum-
stances very favourable for these experiments ; for after a recent shift-
ing of the Orchideous plants at the Museum, a great many specimens
of Drosera grew up amongst the Sphagnum employed in this ope-
ration, and there were for a long period leaves of all ages in the con-
servatory, so that I was enabled to experiment upon organs at differ-
ent degrees of development. Nevertheless, I never perceived the
least inflexion which was not occasioned by the pressure which I
employed.

It appears to me that the following is the cause of the capture of
insects by the leaves of Drosera. During their development these
leaves are rolled in upon themselves, the margins of the limb are
curved towards the centre, and the hairs have the same direction.
In growing, the limb spreads by degrees and the hairs also stiffen
successively from the circumference to the centre. If, before the
whole of the hairs have become stiff, some insect comes to suck the
viscous juice which exudes from their glands, it presses into the
space which they leave between them at the centre of the leaf, and
becomes entangled in the mucosity. The growth of the leaf con-
tinues nevertheless, the incurved hairs arc straightened one after the
other, but the unfortunate insect dies before they become quite
straight.

The glands which secrete the viscous matter above mentioned are
deserving of the attention of botanists from their interesting struc-
ture, which has not yet been sufficiently studied. Meyen gives the
most detailed description of them in his memoir ‘ Ueber die Secretions-
Organe der Pflanzen but this description, although apparently mi-
nute, is notwithstanding very incomplete. It may be resumed as
follows : — “ The glands of Drosera are elliptical and pedicellate ; a
spiral vessel runs up the pedicel and penetrates into the gland.”
Meyen adds in his ‘ Physiology’ (p. 478), that the gland, like the
j)edicel, consists of a very compact cellular tissue. Let us now see
whether this is the structure of the secreting organs. We shall soon
see that the form of the glands of the margin of the leaf oi' Drosera
rotundifolia has not even been indicated. In fact Meyen has only
described the elliptical pedicellated glands, and yet he speaks of mar-
ginal and central glands ; i)ut he only distinguishes their inccpiality
ol size : he has seen only that they are longer than the others, but
has not noticed that their organization is different.

10*

148

Miscellaneous.

The marginal glands which form the fringes of the leaf have a
very different form from those of the surface. In the marginal
glands, the substance of the pedicel seems to expand at the apex into
an elegant oblong cup, at the bottom of which the carmine-coloured
glandular tissue is spread. The central glands on the contrary are
simple papillae of a more or less rounded, ovoid or elliptical form, the
outer ones being of a more or less red tint, whilst those nearest to
the middle of the limb are colourless.

The structure both of the central and marginal glands is very re-
markable, for it is not merely a single spiral vessel that exists in the
gland, but a voluminous group of large reticulated cells occupies the
centre of the organ. These reticulated cells have expanded meshes
in the colourless central glands of the leaf, but the meshes of those
nearest the margin are narrow. The middle of the marginal glands
is also occupied by a considerable group of similar cells.

The pedicels of the marginal glands are dilated at the base and of
a green colour ; they become insensibly narrower, their green colour
becomes paler and passes to rose in the upper part which supports
the gland, which is elongated and attenuated at the base. These
pedicels are composed of an epidermis, a coloured parenchyma, and
a vascular system. 1. The epidermis is formed of long cells, which
become shorter from the base of the pedicel to its apex ; they are
colourless at the base of the organ, tinged with rose colour at its
upper part. In many cases the epidermic, or rather superficial
utricles, were furnished with grains of chlorophyll on the wall con-
tiguous to the green parenchyma : this is a fact to which I would
call the attention of anatomists. Some small stomata are most fre-
quently scattered between the epidermic cells towards the dilated
base of the pedicel, and some may even be found at a considerable
height upon it. There are also some small eminences, or short,
simple or bifurcated hairs, scattered on its surface. 2. The green
parenchyma is also composed of elongated cells, which contain a pro-
portion of chlorophyll equal to that of the tissue of the leaf itself.
This parenchyma goes on diminishing^ with the diameter of the
pedicel, so that towards the top it only consists of one or two series
of cells surrounding the vascular axis ; the green matter also dimi-
nishes in the interior of the cells, and at last is even sometimes
replaced by the rose colour. 3. The vascular system is usually com-
posed of single central bundles, but towards the base of the pedicel
there are sometimes two bundles distant from each other which unite
higher up. Each bundle is composed of two or three trachese of
great delicacy, often having two spiral fibres at a little distance and
turning in the same direction.

This is the structure of the pedicels of the marginal glands. If we
examine that of the glands themselves, from their posterior to their
anterior face, that is to say, from the surface corresponding with the
lower surface of the leaf to that which corresponds with the upper, we
find the elements arranged in the following manner. First, there is
an epidermis of colourless or rose-coloured cells, then a layer of cells

Miscellaneous.

149

containing chlorophyll of a pale green or nearly yellow colour ; —
these two parts form the oblong and slightly coneave cup already re-
ferred to, at the bottom of which the vascular system, considerably
increased, is placed. Lastly, these vessels or reticulated cells are
covered by utrieles of a carmine red colour. They form on the sur-
face of the cup, with the vascular cells which they enclose, a promi-
nent oblong gland, which is very elegantly bordered by the periphery
of the cup.

The order in whieh these elements are presented, is not without
analogy with that which rules the arrangement of those of the stem
of a Dicotyledonous plant. Thus, in this respect, we may compare
these marginal glands (as has been done with leaves) to a segment of
the stem of a plant ^vdth two cotyledons. Thus at the exterior of the
gland there is an epidermis as in the segment of stem, and then a
layer of cells with green matter, representing the herbaceous en-
velope ; then the vessels as in a stem ; and lastly, the rose-coloured
cellular tissue of the gland represents the pith. This comparison is
the more just, as the glands whieh fringe the leaf are, so to speak,
only the termination of the delicate teeth of the latter represented by
the pedicels, just as the marginal glands of the stipules of roses ter-
minate their mueh shorter teeth and even their nervures. — Com'ptes
Rendus, 25th June 1855, p. 1355.

On a new Organ observed hi Callitriehe (C. platycarpa, ^c.).

By M. A. Chatin.

The organs for which I propose the name of cystise give a whitish
appearance to the lower surface of the leaves in Callitriehe^ where
they exist in immense number. Under the lens they appear like
brilliant points, but the microseope shows that each cystia is a small
utricular apj)aratus presenting a closer esemblance to a doctor’s cap*.

The cystiae are usually formed of eight cells, enlarged at their
apical or free portion, and united in a common, narrow circular base,
inserted into the larger, irregular cells of the epidermis. Towards
the middle and upper parts the cystia is adorned with ribs, like some
Cucurbitaceous and Eu])horbiaceous fruits (especially that of Hura
crepitans).

These organs are at first filled with a liquid, which is often replaced
by gases (oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid) tow^ards the period of
rtowering. The liquid usually contained in these organs contains
tloating granules, which sometimes attach themselves to the walls,
and wliich are, for the most j)art, rendered brown by iodine. The
cystim when filled with gas serve as floats ; their presence coincides
with the absence of ])neumatophora in the tissue of the leaves.

J'be organogeny of the cystiee is peculiar. Each of them, like the
stomata, arises from a cell which is distinguished by its small size
and its rounded form from the large twisted cells which constitute
the epidermis. Like that of the stomata, the original cell of the

* The peculiar structure in (|uestion was ricscribed ' y Dr. Lankester in 1850;
sec .In7i. Nat. Wat. vol. vii. S. 2. j>. 123. — En.

150

Miscellaneous.

cystise is soon divided by a septum, and if at this moment it did not
rise above the epidermis, it would be impossible to say decidedly
whether it was a cystia or a spiracle in course of development. But
afterwards the two cells of the cystia each divide into two others,
forming four cells, which by a further subdivision are converted into
the eight elements composing the perfect organ.

All the stomata of the lower surface of the leaves, and those of the
stalk, give place in this manner to cystise, whilst the transformation
only takes place in the minority of those placed on the upper surface
of the leaves. Thus nature makes use of an organ already existing to
form a new apparatus. — Cornptes Rendus, 18th June 1855, p. 1291.

description of a new Tanager of the Genus Calliste.

By Philtp Lutley Sclater, M.A.

Calliste venusta, Sclater. C. Icete cceruleo-viridis : intersca-
pulio alis caudaifie nigris, eodem viridi limbatis : fronte, loris,
gula sinnma et auchenio nigris : pileo lateribusque capitis flams :
ventre medio crissocpie pal tide ochraceis : rostro nigro : pedibus
pallidis.

Long, tota 4*5 ; alse 2*5 ; caudae 1*5 poll. Angl.

Hab. In Nova Grenada et in rep. Equatoriana provincia Quixos.

I have been acquainted with this pretty Calliste for some time,
but have always considered it as the xanthocephala of Tschudi, and
have described it as such in my “ Synopsis of the genus Calliste'’'* in
the Contributions to Ornithology. But having lately had the oppor-
tunity of examining Tschudi’ s type specimens in the Neuchatel Mu-
seum, I find that his Callospiza xanthocephala is not this bird, but
the same as my Calliste I amprotis (Cont. to Orn. 1851, p. 65). That
species closely resembles the present, but may be distinguished by its
orange cap and brilliant golden-yellow ear-coverts.

The extreme inaccuracy of Dr. Tschudi’s figure, which looks more
like this species than the other, must be my excuse for committing
this error, in which however I am not alone, as even in the Berlin
Museum (where Tschudi’s types ought to be known) I have observed
the present bird called xanthocephala.

Mr. Gould’s collection from Quixos contained examples of this
species. M}’’ own specimens are from Santa Fe di Bogota. — Proc.
Zool.Soc., Nov. 14, 1854.

On the Spermatophora of the Crickets. By C. Lespes.

In the Crickets the ejaculatory canal does not turn back as in
nearly all insects to form the penis. During copulation, which is
accompanied by some singular manoeuvres, the male introduces into
the vulva of the female the extremity of a small apparatus which
contains a drop of the seminal fluid. This spermato])hore consists of
a small horny vesicle, and of a slender, flattened appendage ; the
latter is the only part that penetrates into the vulva. In the course
of a few hours the female drops the whole apparatus.

As soon as the male has lost one of these spermatophora, a new

Meteorological Observations. 151

one takes its place. It may easily be seen at the extremity of the ab-
domen by raising the dorsal plate which terminates it, and this repro-
duction may be observed repeatedly upon the same male.

The spermatophore is produced hy an appendage of the genital
segment, — the ventral plate of this segment being flattened posteriorly
and converted into a twisted glandular plate. When the spermato-
phore is formed, the vesicle is expelled from the secreting apparatus,
and takes its place between two fleshy palettes, by which it is sup-
ported at the moment of copulation. It remains in this position for
a longer or shorter time, but if the male is prevented from copulating
he will after a time allow it to drop. — Comptes Rendus, 2nd July
1855, p. 28.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR JUNE 1855.

Chiswick. — June 1. Overcast. 2. Cloudy and fine : very clear. 3. Fine :
cloudy : overcast. 4. Heavy clouds : very fine. 5. Cloudy : fine. 6. Hot and
dry; rain. 7. Very fine. 8. Cloudy: very fine. 9. Showery. 10,11. Very
fine. 12. Very fine : clear at night. 13. Slight haze. 14. Overcast : rain. 15.
Cloudy; fine: rain. 16. Fine: showery: overcast: heavy rain. 17. Cloudy:
slight showers. 18. Clear: cloudy: rain. 19. Overcast and fine. 20. Light
clouds : fine ; clear : frosty at night. 21. Clear and fine. 22. Fine : very dry air.
23. Overcast. 24. Very fine. 25. Cloudy and fine. 26. Overcast : very fine.
27. Dry haze : very fine. 28 — 30. Very fine.

Mean temperature of the month 57°‘98

Mean temperature of June 1854 56 *93

Mean temperature of June for the last tw^enty-nine years ... 60 *39
Average amount of rain in June 1’89 inch,

Boston. — June 1. Cloudy : rain a.m. 2. Cloudy, 3, 4. Fine. 5. Cloudy. 6.
Fine. 7. Cloudy: rain a.m. 8. Cloudy. ,9. Fine: rain p.m. 10. Fine: rain
with thunder p.M. 11. Fine. 12, 13. Cloudy. 14. Rain a.m. and p.m. 15. Cloudy:
rain A.M. and P.M, 16. Fine. 17, 18. Cloudy: rain p.m. 19,20. Cloudy. 21,
22. Fine. 23—27. Cloudy. 28—30. Fine.

Sandwich Manse, Orkney. — June 1. Bright a.m.: rain p.m. 2. Damp a.m. :
foggy P.M. 3. Hazy a.m. : cloudy p.m. 4. Hazy a.m. : clear p.m. 5. Bright a.m. :
clear p.m. 6, Rain, thunder a.m. : drops p.m. 7. Foggy a.m. : cloudy p.m.
8. Bright, fine a.m. : foggy p.m. 9. Showers a.m. : showers, foggy p.m. 10.
Cloudy A.M. : clear p.m, 11. Bright a.m.: cloudy p.m. 12. Rain a.m. and p.m.
13. Foggy A.M. and p.m. 14. Clear a.m. and p.m. 15. Cloudy a.m. : clear p.m.
16. Showers A.M. : drops p.m. 17. Drizzle, showers a.m. and p.m. 18. Bright
a.m. : drizzle, showers P.M. 19. Clear a.m. and p.m. 20. Cloudy a.m. : small
rain P.M. 21. Foggy a.m. and p.m. 22. Foggy a.m. : bright p.m. 23. Bright
a.m. and p.m. 24. Bright a.m. : bright, rain p.m. 25. Rain a.m. and p.m. 26.
Drops a.m. : rain p.m. 27. Bright a.m. ; clear p.m. 28. Clear, fine a.m. : bright,
fine P.M. 29, 30. Bright, fine a.m. and p.m.

Mean temperature of June for twenty-eight previous years . 52°*78

Mean temperature of this month 52 -23

Mean temperature of June 1854 52 *86

Average quantity of rain in June for fifteen previous years . 2 21 indies.

Meteorological Observations made by Mr. Thompson at the Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, near London-,
by Mr. Veall, at Boston; and by the Rev. C. Clouston, at Sandwich Manse, Orkney.

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THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[SECOND SERIES.]

No. 9.5. SEPTEMBER 185.5.

XIII. — Observations on the Genera Pachybdella {Diesing) and
Peltogaster {Rathhe)^ two animal forms parasitic upon the
abdomen of Crabs. By Professor Steenstrup*.

In tlie most recent systematic work on the Worms, Intestinal
Worms and the lower division of the great Articulated series in
general, Diesing^s ^ Systema Helmintlmm ^ (1850, vol. i. p. 434-
435), we find amongst the Bdellidea, in the suborder Monaco-
tylea, subtribe Cej)halohdellida, a new genus Pachybdella, esta-
blished upon a parasitic animal discovered some years before
by Rathke under the abdomen of the common Crab, Carcinus
Manas, and described by him under the name of Peltogaster
Carcini-\. Diesing himself appears to have had no specimens of
the animal before him, but to have merely drawn up his generic
and specific characters from Rathke’s descriptions and figures,
which again are founded upon two specimens of this remarkable
parasite, one of which was obtained from the Norwegian coast,
the other from the Black Sea. Neither Rathke’s description
nor his figures, however, furnish a sufficient notion of the
structure of the animal to enable us to arrive at any definite
conclusion as to its systematic position, or as to the group,
whose characteristic marks it might have lost in consequence of
its parasitic existence. It is only from the circumstance that
Rathke refers the animal to the genus Peltogaster, which had
been recently established by him, and of which he has more
fully described another species J (P. Paguri, Rathke), from the ab-
domen of the Hermit Crab, that we learn that this author would

* From Wiefrmanii’s Arcliiv. 185.5, No. 1. p. 15.
t Nova Arta Aead. Csrs. Leop. Car. 1845, tom. xx. ]>t. 1. ])]>. 241-2 J!>.
X Fartly in the same paper, p. 245-247, and partly in the Neiiest. Sclir.
der Nat. Ges. in Danzig, 1842, l>d. ii. p. 10.5-1 II.

Ann. ying. X. Hist. Scr. 2. Vol. xvi. 1 1

154 M. Steenstrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster.

place the genus Pachyhdella amongst the Vermes, accepting this
class in its widest sense. In this class, however, Pathke has given
his genus no determinate place ; he only thinks that these ani-
mals are by no means to be arranged with the Bdellide or Trema-
tode worms, of which we are at once reminded by the form of
their bodies, the pits with which they attach themselves, and their
parasitie mode of life ; he would rather regard them as transition
forms from the ^Porms to the Actinice and the Radiated animals
most nearly allied to these. Thus, according to his view, the
pit with which these sac-like parasites attach themselves to the
abdomen of the crab, is only a sucker, from which no tube leads
into the body of the animal ; and the other opening, which exists
at the free extremity of the body, is a mouth, which leads into a
large cavity, serving at once as a digestive cavity and for the
development of the ova, — a double office which he considers to
be proved by the extended observations which he was enabled to
make upon the P. Paguri, but which we must admit with the
author is something very peculiar and hitherto unheard of in
the case of a worm.^^

Our knowledge of Diesing’s so-called genus Pachyhdella is
however fortunately not confined to the scanty information,
welcome as it may be in every respect, which Rathke has fur-
nished upon the individuals found and examined by him ; other
statements are extant, which, although they have hitherto been
overlooked, are deserving of every attention, as they throw a
light upon the distribution and systematic position of this
parasite.

With regard to the occurrence and diffusion of Pachyhdella, I
will refer to the sac-like parasite found by Bell under the abdo-
men of Carcinus Mcenas and Portunus marmoreus from the Bri-
tish Channel, and which he has described in such a manner,
that there can be no doubt he had a Pachyhdella before him.
On the first-mentioned crab he appears to have found the parasite
only oceasionally, but it occurred in considerable numbers on
the other. This author, who only refers to the parasite en pass-
ant, regards the pit by which it attaches itself as the oral aper-
ture, and the other orifice, which Rathke considers to be the
mouth, as the anus. Bell consequently ascribes a complete di-
gestive canal to the animal. The parasites which occurred upon
Carcinus Manas were so similar to those which Bell found in
greater abundanee upon Portunus marmoreus, that he does not
appear to have felt any doubt as to the identity of the species.

1 can prove the occurrence of Pachyhdella not only in the
Channel, but also in the Mediterranean, from several individuals
in the Zoological Museum of this University (Copenhagen). In
the year 1848 I received a few Crustacea from the former locality.

M. Steenstrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster. 155

from M. V. Prosch, a ship-surgeon^ and amongst these was a
Portunus hirtellus, under the abdomen of which there was a very
large sac, which I took to be a Lernaeid parasite, without how-
ever being able to refer it to any known form of the family of
Lernseidje. I have since, however, recognized in it a form ap-
proaching so closely to Pachybdella Carcini, that it could only
be distinguished therefrom by a few immaterial points in the
outline of the body, and the wrinkling of the hinder opening.
From a specimen of Carcinus Mcenas, taken by Captain Svenson
on the ‘‘ Black banks in the North Sea, I obtained a very large
individual of a form exactly agreeing with P. Carcini, Rathke ;
and I have since found three other individuals, resembling the
first, in a bottle containing several specimens of Portunus hir-
tellus from the Mediterranean.

If the preceding statements would lead to the supposition
that this form of parasite is by no means to be reckoned amongst
the greatest rarities of these seas, this appears still more di-
stinctly from some observations which I found in Cavolini’s
memoir upon the Development of Fishes and Crustacea, on
reading it through last autumn with a very different object.
From this I found that Cavolini had not only known and figured
these animals, but that he had had them in quantity, and, as it
ap])ears from his figures, several species of them, found under the
abdomen of two species of crabs, which are called Cancer de-
pressus, Fabr., and C. verrucosus, Forsk., in his memoir. These
sacs are found both upon the males and females ; they are repre-
sented under the abdomen of the males of both species (tab. 2.
figs. 1 & 14), and under that of the female of the former (fig. 13).
They occur so commonly, that the fishermen are generally of
opinion that the eggs of the crabs are contained in them. The
form represented under the tail of the C. verrucosus in Cavolini^s
fig. 14, so closely resembles the P, Carcini figured by Rathke,
that it might be taken for the same species ; that represented in
figs. 1 & 13 on Cancer depressus rather resembles the one above
mentioned from Pagurus hirtellus, but Cavolini states that the
opening at the narrow end has only four knots or teeth, whilst
my specimens had at least twice that number (8-10). The com-
])arison of the outline of the animal with that of the fruit of
Thlaspi Bursa-pastoris is very characteristic, but shows that his
specimens must have been somewhat longer in proportion than
those which 1 obtained from Pagurus hirtellus.

Frf>m the above observations it is sufficiently evident, that
these Pachyhdella-Yike parasites are not only more abundant
than has been supposed, but that several species of them occui',
according to the various s[)ccies of crabs upon which they live.
But still more important consequences result from Cavolini^s

11*

156 M. Steeiistrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster.

investigations. He has traced the development of the eggs
which fill these sacs in such enormous quantities, and ascer-
tained that the young proceeding from the sacs from both spe-
cies of crabs are of the same kind, and that the young is a true
Crustaceous animal. He finds a resemblance between these
young animals and the Cancer paludosus of Muller (Zool. Da-
nica, tab. 48), but at the same thinks that they must be ap-
proximated to the Monoculus Telemiis of Linngeus*. On tab. 2.
fig. 15, Cavolini figures a portion of the eggs taken from ^‘the
sac^^ that is the Pachybdella, under the abdomen of the crab
which he calls Cancer verrucosus \ they are still immature, and
are united by mucous threads into chains. Fig. 16 «. represents
the mature egg with the developed embryo within it, and
fig. 16 c, the embryo just after its exclusion from the egg, with
three distinct pairs of swimming feet, provided with bristles. It
cannot be denied that this embryo is exceedingly like that of
many Entomostraca, and we might therefore be induced at first
to regard the Pachyhdella as a kind of Lernseid animal. But as
I must leave it to future observers, who may have the opportu-
nity of collecting these animals in large quantities, to give a
conclusive answer to this question, and only propose in the fol-
lowing pages to indicate some remarkable relations between the
Pachyhdella and other forms of Crustacea, I will only add here,
that Cavolini, notwithstanding the experiments which he made
with this view, did not succeed in tracing the further changes of
this embryo, and that he, in accordance with the spirit of his
time, did not suppose that the young animal itself might be-
come converted into the sac in which the eggs were found,
but rather that it was developed into a Crustacean, which after-
wards fastened this ovisac under the abdomen of the erabs.

From CavolinFs observations, however, it appears that Pachy-
hdella is undoubtedly a Crustaeean, and one which is gradually
brought into its sac-like form in consequence of its parasitic
mode of life.

Even if we admit Diesing’s separation of the original contents
of Rathke’s genus Peltogaster, — according to which the shorter
and broader form with the sucking pit at one end of the body,
which occurs under the abdomen of crabs, will form a peculiar
genus under the name of Pachyhdella, and this we may be so much
the more inclined to do, as it appears from the preceding state-
ments that there are several species exceedingly closely allied to
it in external appearance, — w^e should certainly establish no

* The Monoculus Telemus, Linn,, which Linnaeus himself says is “ ge-
neris etiamnum tluhii,” is very clearly from his diagnosis and description
the Jlyalo'a tridentofa of Forskiil.

M. Steenstrup on the genera Pacbybdella and Peltogaster. 157

more than a generic or subgeneric division^ as tbe other balf of
tbe original contents of tbe genus appears to be so closely allied
to this, and only to dilfer in tbe more elongated form of tbe
body_, in tbe position of tbe sucking pit further from the extre-
mity, and almost under the middle of tbe body, and in tbe resi-
dence of tbe animal under the abdomen of a species belonging
to another family of Crustacea {Pagurus Bernhardas) . If there-
fore Pachybdella has proved to be a true Crustacean, analogy
leads us to regard Peltogaster in tbe same light.

However, we need not perhaps rest entirely upon this conclu-
sion, as there are certainly direct observations in existence that
tbe young of the Peltog aster sacs found under the abdomen
of tbe Macroura and Anomura (?) are Crustacean in form. Thus,
Diesing has not noticed that Kroyer, in bis Monograph of tbe
Northern species of Hippolyte, has briefly mentioned tbe para-
sites by which they are infested, and especially certain sac-like
creatures, which must undoubtedly be referred to the animals
now under consideration*. In the fourth section of the Mono-
graph, which bears the title of Ein Paar Bemerkungen iiber
Schmarotzerthiere auf Hippolyten,^^ the author, after describing
some other parasites, continues as follows (p. 56) : — “ Lastly,
under the abdomen Hippolyte pusiola, I discovered an enig-
matical parasite (tab. 5. fig. 110«) which it is difficult to refer to
its right position, — nay, its structure appears so simple, so com-
pletely destitute of all organs, that one might perhaps easily be
led to regard it, not as an independent animal, but as a mere
pathological phsenomenon, a swelling or excrescence on the Hip-
polyte-\. It evidently forms a new genus, which on the one
hand appears to have some analogy wdth the Lernseidse, and on
the other possesses an external affinity to some Hirudinese and
intestinal worms. Of this form I know several species : 1 found
one of a whitish colour and of considerable size, in abundance
on the abdomen of Pagurus pub escens near Spitzbergen ; another,
smaller and of an orange-red colour, occurred on Pagurus Bern-
hardus in the Kattegatt ; the third, which occurs on Hippolyte
pusiola, is nearly of a globular or oval form, of a wdiite colour,
and about 2 lines in diameter. Of 25 specimens of H. pusioluy
eight bore these parasites under the abdomen ; some specimens
had two, and upon one I found no less than three of them. I
propose to describe these more fully on some other opportunity.^^

* This is also noticed by Loven in his annual Reports.

t “ I should perhaps not have ventured to mention this creature decidedly
as a distinct animal, if I had not seen tlie eggs rush out on opening a spe-
cimen ; these, when examined under the microsco])e, exhibited fully deve-
loped young, consisting of an anterior body and an abdomen or tail, the
atter ])rovided with swimming feet or bristles,” &c. — Kriiyer.

158 M. Steenstrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster.

I am not aware that Professor Kroyer has since published
anything upon this subject ; but from the preceding it is evident,
that at least the two first-mentioned vermiform species are true
Peltogastri, and that the third must also be placed very near
this genus, notwithstanding the difference in the form of the
body, appears from the fact that Kroyer places them all in
one and the same genus. If the interesting observation upon
the young given by Kroyer in the preceding note applies to all
the three species, it becomes a positive observation of the
Crustacean nature of the vermiform Peltogastri ; but if it
applies only to the third and last form — to which, as is evident
from the text, the note in which the observation is given par-
ticularly belongs, — -it is at any rate a new confirmation of the
opinion that these sac-like structures, filled with eggs, which
occur under the abdomen of the long-tailed crabs, are them-
selves to be regarded as Crustacea.

Even if it may remain doubtful to which of the smaller natural
divisions of the Crustacea the genera in question are to be re-
ferred, the above-mentioned observations upon the form of the
young show distinctly that they are Crustaceous animals ; so that
it is evident they cannot be represented in our systems as her-
maphroditic animal forms. As long as it is not universally
admitted that the separation of the sexes, or unisexuality, is a
general rule (not to say, law) in nature, and that in our science
it must not be admitted that any single animal possesses an
opposite sexuality or hermaphroditism, without a scientific proof
of this abnormal behaviour with regard to this particular
animal, the opponent of hermaphroditism, which is still ascribed
to a good many animals, must find himself in this position, —
that the sexual relations of the less known and uninvestigated
animal forms are adopted from the relations of those animals
which are most nearly allied to them, and which have been sub-
mitted to a closer examination in this respect, although innu-
merable examples of the uncertainty of this procedure are suffi-
ciently well known. Thus, as long as the two genera of parasites
under consideration could be regarded as Hirudinoid animals,
we were under the necessity of supposing them to be herma-
phrodites, although this point was not only not proved, but had
never even been investigated, but because all the Hirudineje were
regarded as hermaphrodites. But if we now know that these
animals are Crustacea, and agree that all the Crustacea — with
the exception of most of the forms belonging to the group of
Cirripedia, to which they can scarcely be referred — are to be
regarded as animals with separate sexes, these parasites must
also be considered from analogy as unisexual animals. To show
this, and to prove that it was far from right to seek in these

M. Steenstrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster. 159

fixed parasitic forms for representations of hermapliroditism,
was the principal object of the preceding remarks^ in which I
have endeavoured to give a better view of our knowledge of
these parasites.

As, however^ we have been directing our attention to these
shapeless and somewhat enigmatical Crustacea, I will not omit,
in conclusion, touching upon the question as to the positive
systematic position which they may possibly occupy, in order to
remind the reader of one or two remarkable circumstances,
which perhaps may not be without their value in the solution of
this problem.

Thus, it is known that in his Peltogaster Paguri, Pathke
found some (eight) small Crustacea, scarcely one line in length ;
they were in the large cavity which occupied the greater part of
the body of the animal, and contained an extraordinary quantity
of developed eggs, so that this observer regarded the cavity as a
combined digestive and hatching organ. That this cavity, to
which the opening at the free end of the body forms an entrance,
certainly serves for the latter purpose, we know with certainty
from Cavolini^s observations; and these small Crustacea were,
therefore, contained in an ovisac (Bruthohle) together with ova
in course of development. In the work above quoted, Rathke
has described and figured these Crustacea under the new sy-
stematic name of Liriope pygmcea ; but, remarkably enough, has
regarded this new genus as a form of the Amphipoda, — I know
not for what reason, for the characters given do not appear to me
to indicate that relation, nor do the figures remind one of an
Amphipode. We are rather struck with the great resemblance
of the young of the Isopodous genus Bopyrus to these small
Liriopce, and at least one cannot doubt for a moment that the
form in question is Isopodous. They appear to differ in no
essential points from the larvae of the Bopyri which are known to
us, especially from the observations of Kroyer and Rathke ; they
are only more elongated than the previously described larvae of
the Bopyridae. Now, as it is well known that the Bopyri are
parasitic under the carapace or abdomen of other Crustacea, we
might suppose the relation between the Liriopce and the Pelto-
gaster in which they were found, to be of this nature : that the
former, instead of serving, as supposed by Rathke, for the
nourishment of the Peltogaster, led a parasitic life like other
Bopyridae, in the ovisac of the latter, whieh, as we are now aware,
is a Crustaceous animal. There are, however, other circum-
stances which sufficiently prove that the relation may be quite
of another nature.

In the above-mentioned memoir of Cavolini, which is so rich

160 M. Steenstrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster.

in excellent observations, we find a representation of a very
remarkable irregular mass (fig. 19), which was quite full of more
or less developed ova. It was found in a crab, attached by one
end to the inner wall of the stomach, and with the opposite ex-
tremity somewhat squeezed in between two of the partitions, which
indicate the limits of the lateral parts of the original rings of
which the carapace is composed. In fig. 18 mn, Cavolini has
represented the ova contained in this mass in various degrees of
development, and in fig. 18 7’ r, two embryos just after their
exclusion from the egg. Cavolini compares these embryos with
the Onisci squilliformes described by Pallas, and confers upon
them this name. We cannot help seeing that the embryos thus
described and figured, are so very closely allied to Rathke^s
Liriope, that they could not be distinguished without difficulty,
and we are consequently led involuntarily to compare them with
the larvae of Bopyrus. The form of the young larvae, therefore,
shows, that this irregular, ovigerous mass is in all probability
not only a transmuted parasitic Crustacean, but that it also
belongs to the family of the Bopyridae, only it is more shapeless,
or, as we might say, more monstrous than any other developed
form of that family, more even than the Peltogastri and Pachy-
hdellre, and consequently this parasite is something more than an
Epizoon; for it was attached to an internal organ, like an
Entozoon, or intestinal worm, and especially like the extraor-
dinary mollusk Entoconcha mirahilis, discovered by J. Muller in
Synapta digitata^.

We have now got the following facts together : — The Bopy-
ridse are known only as parasites upon the higher Crustacea, —
the less irregular species of the genus Bopyrus occurring under
the carapace of the long-tailed Crustacea [Macrura)^ and the
most irregular, with which Rathke has even formed a separate
genus, under the abdomen of the same animals. The latter
forms consequently agree essentially, both in their residence and
external conditions of life ^ with Peltogaster and Pachybdella, which,
as we have seen, live under the abdomen of Paguri and Crabs
[Brachyura). Moreover, they approach these two parasites to a
certain extent even in their form. Thus they differ from the
more regular species of the genus in having the limbs, with the
exception of the anterior pair, completely lost on one side of the
animal; and the cavity for the reception of the eggs, which
occurs so universally amongst the Isopoda, instead of being
formed of several equally developed plates, is here composed
principally of a single plate, which has been developed at the

* See Annals, 2nd Series, vol. ix. pp. 22 and 10.3, ,Tan. and Feb. 1852.

M. Steenstrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster. 161

expense of the others, and forms by itself a spacious pouch with
a large opening. From this we might say, that they form a sort
of transition to Peltogaster and Pachybdella, whose ovisacs might
perhaps be represented as resulting from a further development
of the single large lamina of Bopyrus, and whose feet must then
be considered as having disappeared at once from both sides of
the body. To this may be added Rathke^s observations, who
found the Liriopce, resembling the larvae of Bopyrus, amongst
the eggs in the ovisac of Peltogaster Paguri, and Cavolini^s
observation of the development of Liriope-Wkii larvae from the
eggs contained in an irregular sac, which cannot properly be
placed far from Pachybdella and Peltogaster ; and the question
then forces itself upon us, whether we must not suppose that
there is an actual and close relationship between these two
parasites and the Bopyridae, and especially whether we must not
admit the existence of a more intimate connexion between Pelto-
gaster Paguri and its Liriope, than that the latter is parasitic in
its ovisac.

Supposing Peltogaster and Pachybdella to be Bopyridae, the
Liriopce might either be regarded as the more advanced larvae of
the Peltogaster in which they were found, or as the young state of
the male parasite, for it is well known that the males of the
Bopyridae are very different from the females and live as parasites
upon them. None of these suppositions can however be proved
at this moment, unless we are in a position to recognize a re-
markable resemblance between the larvae of the Bopyridae and
the Crustacean embryos, which Cavolini and Kroyer have found
in our parasites. Neither the short notices given by both these
authors, nor the figures published by the first, are sufficiently per-
fect for this purpose ; but on the other hand, they do not appear
to stand in the way of such an opinion. The feet with swim-
ming bristles, mentioned by both and represented in CavolinFs
figures, may very well represent the abdominal feet of a Bopyrus ;
and even the circumstance that no mention is made of the tho-
racic feet which are so characteristic of the Bopyridse, cannot be
taken positively as a proof that they were not present, as they
might have been so pressed under the belly, that they would
only become visible on more careful examination. It even ap-
pears from CavolinFs statements about the projecting branchial
larninfc, seen when the animal was observed from beneath, that
he must have seen something, which might be regarded either as
these feet, or perhaps as the branchial laminae of the Bopyridae;
nay, we cannot exactly understand how Cavolini can have com-
pared his young animals with 0. F. Miiller^s figure of Cancer
paludosus, unless they had possessed such feet, or presented quite

162 M. Steenstrup on the genera Pachybdella and Peltogaster.

different forms from tbe one in which he has figured them.
Prom the similarity to the Cancer paludosus we might almost be
induced to suppose, that his figure represents the animal con-
tracted into the bowed form in which it lies in the egg, and which
it may probably have retained for some moments after exclu-
sion,— and the resemblance to the larva of a Cirripede or of
some other Entomostracan, might have been produced in this
manner.

All this however lies, as I have already said, beyond the ob-
ject which I had proposed to myself in the present communica-
tion, and only furnishes indications which I recommend espe-
cially to the notice of those naturalists, who for the study of the
lower animals have lately so often visited the coast of the Medi-
terranean, where these remarkable parasites must, according to
the preceding observations, be not uncommon*.

Postscript.

Some time since I was informed, by a letter from Dr. Creplin
of Greifswald, that Professor 0. Schmidt had given a figure and
short description of the larva of a Pachybdella in a periodical
called ^ Das W eltall ^ for 1854 (No. 3. p. 19), but I have only just
(December 1854) been able to obtain this journal. Prom the
figure given by Schmidt, which agrees closely with Cavolini^s
fig. 16 c. referred to by me, it certainly appears that the young
animal is extremely like the larva of an Entomostracan ; and this
renders still more remarkable the relation above referred to be-
tween the Liriopce of the Peltogastri, which resemble the larvse of
BopyruSf and the Liriope-\\\i.Q young of Cavolini^s extraordinary
parasite (figs. 17 & 18 r 7'). Moreover SchmidPs observations
prove that Pachybdella is not only common but even abundant
at Wangerooge, and it also appears that Schmidt has collected
single specimens of Pachybdella = Peltogaster on the Dalmatian
coast.

t The Peltogastri which I have been able to examine, for three of which
I am indebted to the Zootomical Museum of this University, and for a
fourth to Professor J. Muller of Berlin, have unfortunately furnished me
with no explanation of the structure of the embryos, as none of them pre-
sented eggs with developed larvae. This was also the case with the speci-
mens of Pachybdella,

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichise.

163

XIV. — Notes on Palaozoic Bivalved Entomostraca. No. II. Some

British and Foreign Species of Beyrichia. By T. Rupert

Jones, F.G.S.

[Continued from p. 92.]

[With a Plate.]

In my former notice of Palaeozoic Bivalved Entomostraca An-
nals/ No. 92, p. 81, &c.) the Beyrichice of Sweden and Gothland
only were treated of ; and I now propose to illustrate the British
species, as far as my materials will allow, as well as some foreign
species which I have had the opportunity of studying. I owe
much to Mr. Salter for his friendly advice and assistanee in the
examination of these little fossils, and I have much pleasure in
acknowledging his kindness ; Mr. Morris also has kindly aided
me j the Portuguese specimens have been lent to me by Mr. D.
Sharpe j and to Sir R. Murchison I am indebted for permission
to use and to illustrate the specimens in the Museum of Prac-
tical Geology in Jermyn Street, which form the largest portion
of the series. I ought here also to repeat my thanks to Prof.
Beyrich and Sir C. Lyell for the Scandinavian specimens above
mentioned ; for without them I could not have entered upon the
subject, and because a part of the materials of this notice also is
derived from that source.

Like the Scandinavian species, the forms now described also
represent the three groups into which I divide the genus accord-
ing to the surface-divisions of the valves ; — and they are de-
scribed in the same order.

The figures in PI. VI. represent the objects magnified 4 dia-
meters, as in Plate V.

Referring to my former communication for the generic cha-
'racters, I proceed to the description of the several species.

(JUGOS^.)

I. Beyrichia complicata, Salter. PL VI. figs. 1-5.

Mem. Geol. Survey, 1848, vol. ii. pai4 I. p. 352. pi. 8. fig. 16 ;
Brit. PaljEOz. Foss. Cambridge, 1851, part 2. fasc. 1. p. 136
(M^Coy^s descript.) pi. 1 E. fig. 3; ibid. 1852, fasc. 2. Appen-
dix A. p. ii. (SaltePs descript.).

Surface of valve depressed, deeply furrowed, and bearing three
sharply defined ridges, which are usually united by a connecting
ridge along the ventral margin. Anterior ridge largest, pear-
shaped ; middle ridge narrow, club-shaped : these two ridges,
somewhat curved and pointing obliquely downwards and back-
wards, are frequently less distantly separated than the middle
and posterior ridges arc. The hindermost ridge is variously

164

Mr. T. E/. Jones on Beyrichise.

modified by a transverse depression on its thickest part, usually
forming an oblique indentation on its inner (anterior) side, and
producing a bifurcation of tlie ridge. In the figures in pi. 18 of
the ^ Mem. Geol. Survey^ (above referred to) the artist has in-
advertently made the small inner branch of the posterior ridge
uniformly continuous with the produced upper part of the ridge ;
a condition, however, almost arrived at sometimes by the inden-
tation on the broad part of the ridge (compare fig. 3).

I have not seen the carapace-valve itself of this species ; but,
judging from the aspect of the casts and impressions it was pro-
bably smooth. All the figures are from casts. Figs. 1-4 are
selected from a number of drawings illustrative of the variations
of outline, and of the disposition of the ridges. Figs. 1 and 2
may be regarded as the typical form.

In a young specimen from Harnage (fig. 5) the anterior fur-
row (dividing the fore and middle ridges or lobes) is seen to be
shorter than that between the middle and hinder lobe ; and the
indentation on the upper part of the last ridge is vertical and
distinct. This specimen is very interesting, as it shows that
in the young state this species (so strongly ridged in the adult
state) is scarcely removed, except by its well-defined marginal
rim, from the merely crumpled condition of the Corrugates.
With this young individual several adult specimens occur, which
retain the vertical bifurcation of the posterior lobe, as is also seen
in Prof. M'^Coy’s figure, Cambridge Pal. Foss. pi. 1 E. fig. 3
(which is better matched by our fig. 5 than by the others) ; in
other respects they resemble our fig. 1.

Figs. 1 and 2 are from artificial casts of impressions in dark
siliceous micaceous Llandeilo flagstone, from LI an Mill (two
miles east of Narberth, Haverfordwest district). Figs. 3 and 4
are from internal casts in a dark calcareous Llandeilo flagstone
of the same locality. The specimens are very abundant in the
shelly bands of the flagstone and scattered over its divisional
planes, together with the remains of Trilobites, Leptsena, Encri-
nites, &c. (In the Museum of Practical Geology.)

Fig. 5 is from a soft greenish-yellow argillaceous and mica-
ceous bed of the lower Bala rocks at Harnage, near Shrewsbury ;
and occurs with a few older individuals, several specimens of
B. bicornis, and a vast number of minute specimens, described
further on under the heads of B. strangulata and B. simplex ; —
together with palliobranchiate and other Bivalves*, — nearly all
in the state of casts, on the surface of a divisional plane of the
rock. (In the Museum of Practical Geology.)

* Harnage, from whence many of tliese specimens are described, is a
rich locality in the Lower Llandeilo (or Bala) flags ; Trilobites, including
Alenus, are found there. — J . W. S.

165

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyricliise.

The black Bala flagstone of Abermarcliant (in the Museum of
Practical Geology) contains specimens of B. complicata in which
the furrows are not so deeply excavated as in the Llan Mill
specimens. Hence the ridges are broader and less steep, the
connecting ridge along the ventral border more distinct, and the
aspect of the valves approaches that of some of our Corrugata ;
thus making the passage still less difficult between our B. Ribei-
rianaj Barrande’s B. Bohemica, and the typical B. complicata.
There is here and there on the Abermarchant specimens some
slight evidence of a granulated surface.

B. complicata, var. clecorata. PI. VI. fig. 6.

Accompanying the broad-ridged form of B. complicata in the
Abermarchant flagstone (Mus. Pract. Geology), is an impression
of the valve of a variety of this species, which has a semicircular
outline, a finely granulated surface, and a broad, depressed,
sloping marginal rim, which was crested by a continuous series
of fine projecting spines. The ridges are disposed in much the
same manner as those in fig. 5 and in M‘^Coy^s specimen above
referred to, the bifurcation of the posterior ridge being vertical ;
the furrows are very strongly marked ; the middle ridge is some-
what crenulate, and the anterior lobe is impressed by a slight
indentation along its thickest part.

Beyrichia complicata is a characteristic Lower Silurian form ;
its localities above alluded to are — Llan Alill, near Narberth;
Harnage, near Shrewsbury ; and Abermarchant. Prof. M'Coy
mentions as localities for this species —

Llanfwrog, near Ruthin.

Cwra of the Cymmerig, E. of Bala.

Hill N. of Moel Uchlas, Montgomeryshire.
Tregib, S. of Llandeilo.

Coed-y-Bedw, Bala.

Selattyn Road, S. of Llangollen.

Brjn Eithin, Penmachno.

Mynydd Mawr, Caermarthenshire.
Mathyrafal, S. of Meifod.

Pen-y-Park, Llanfyllin.

> Upper Bala.

J

Pont-y-Meibion, two miles S. of Llansantfraid, on T

the Ceiriog. I Lower Bala.

Milltir Cerrig, Llangynnog, Montgomeryshire. J

2. Beyrichia Kloedeni, M^Coy. PI. VI. figs. 7 & 9.

Synops. Sil. Foss. Ireland, 1846, p. 58 (woodcut figs.) ; Brit.
Pal. Foss. Cambridge, 1851, part 2. fasc. 1. p. 135. ])1. I E.
fig. 2. Agnostus tubercutatus, Sil. Syst. 1839, p. 604. pi. 3.
fig. 17 (non Battus tvberculatus, Klodcn). Beyrichia iuberculata,

166

Mr. T. li. Jones on Beyrichise.

Salter, Mem. Geol. Survey, 1848, vol. ii. part 1. p. 352. pi. 8.
figs. 14, 15, and B. gihba, ibid, p. 352. pi. 8. figs. 17, 18. B.
tuberculata, Siluria, 1854, p.234 (woodcut 45, 4), pi. 34. fig. 21.

Surface of valve convex, divided into three lobes; the hind
and front lobes both large, pyriform, but somewhat variable in
their relative proportions ; the ventral extremity of the anterior
lobe extending below that of the posterior lobe; the middle lobe
small, oval, and frequently united w'ith the posterior lobe by a
narrow dej)ressed curved neck ; marginal rim distinct.

The surface sometimes smooth (fig. 7), and sometimes granu-
lated (fig. 9).

Messrs. Salter and M^Coy have given several figures of this
species, most of which accord generally with the above descrip-
tion, except that for the most part the anterior and posterior
lobes are made to appear continuous along the ventral part of
the valve. M^Coy^s figure 2, pi. 1 E. Brit. Pal. Foss, is an in-
teresting exception to this condition ; and it differs from our
specimens in having the anterior lobe much reduced in width.
SalteFs figures 17 and 18. pi. 8. Mem. Geol. Surv. are excep-
tional also in the angular production of the ventral border ; these
are from the Middle or Upper Silurian series at the Slate Mill,
S.W. of Haverfordwest.

MUoy also mentions \}oc. cit. p. 136) a well-marked variety,
having a long central ridge continued to the ventral* border
from the Bala schist at Dermydd Fawr, near Craig Bronbanog,
N.W. of Corwen.

Fig. 6 is an artificial cast of an impression in calcareous flag-
stone (in the Museum of Practical Geology), which contains
numerous specimens of this species, chiefly on the divisional
planes, with remains of Trilobites, Leptseua, &c., and belongs to
the Wenlock shale of Tynewydd, S. of Llandovery. Fig. 9 re-
presents the exterior of a well-preserved specimen (in Mr. Mor-
rises collection) from the Wenlock limestone of Lincoln Hill,
near Dudley.

In addition to the above-mentioned localities for this species
Sir R. Murchison f gives Tilestone (Upper Ludlow), Lodge
Bank, Downton Mr. Salter mentions VYoolhope (Wenlock
limestone) ; and Prof. MUoy enumerates Underbarrow, Kendal,
AV estmoreland (Ludlow Rocks) ; Cowan Head, Kendal (Upper

* In the comparison of the species here described, with the descriptions
by Prof. M‘Coy, it should be observed that I regard as the dorsal border
that which M‘Coy describes as ventral, and vice versa.

t This species “ is very abundant from the base of the AVenlock shale to
the highest Ludlow stratum, and is a good index of Upper Silurian rocks,
though found sometimes in the upper division of the Caradoc.” — Siluria,
p. 236.

167

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichise.

Ludlow) ; Llanfair Road, W. of Welchpool (Wenlock shale) ;
[Gael* Fawr, Montgomeryshire (Upper Bala) ?] ; and the sand-
stone of Boocaim and the slates of Cappacorcogne, Cong, County
Galway.

B. Kloedeni, var. antiquata. PI. VI. fig. 8.

Pig. 8 represents a very fine dextral valve, clearly referable to
this species, but differing from the typical form in its greater
proportional length and squareness, — the relative shortness of
the anterior lobe, — the greater development of the marginal
rim, which has its outer edge furnished with strong spines, —
and especially in the finely punctated surface of the valve. I
found this specimen in a calcareous nodule, containing Grapto-
lites and Orthoceras siihgregarium, from the Wenlock schists in
the road-cutting about half a mile from Montgomery towards
Garth Mill.

B. Kloedeni, var. torosa. PI. VI. figs. 10, II, 12.

Accompanying specimens of the typical form (fig. 9) in soft
light brown micaceous shale of the Upper Ludlow series, from
Frith quarry, Stapleton, near Presteign, are numerous indi-
viduals of B. Kloedeni in which the anterior and posterior lobes
are each divided into two knobs, which with the central boss
make the valve 5-lobed (figs. 10, 11). The infero-anterior lobe
attains in the larger specimens a great (relative) size, and over-
hangs the ventral border. The valve is more quadrate, and the
marginal rim is better developed, than in the usual smaller
3-lobed form.

The specimens occur as impressions on a divisional plane of
the rock. (Mus. Pract. Geol.)

In greenish clayslate from the lowest beds at Wooltack, Pem-
broke (Mus. Pract. Geol.) occurs an imperfect impression of a
very large individual of this variety. The anterior lobe is oblique
and subdivided into three tubercles, the lower one large and
overhanging the ventral border, the other two decreasing rapidly
in size upwards. The central lobe is represented by two trian-
gular knobs, and the posterior lobe appears to be pyriform and
curved, but is not well preserved.

This variety may be the result of age, especially as the greater
development of the isolated lobes appears to accompany increase
of the size of the valve. Still there appears to be a want of an
intermediate stage between the forms represented by figs. 9
and 10.

At first sight, fig. 12 appears to bear a close resemblance to
Klbdeids fig. 22 (pi. 1. Verstein. Mark Brandenburg, &c.) ; but

168

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichise.

I think that the resemblance is not real. I can trace no exact
counterparts in the two figures ; our specimen is imperfect pos-
teriorly, and it seems to me probable that Kloden's specimen
also was not quite perfect. Under the circumstances, I prefer to
consider the two specimens as very old individuals of their
respective species.

3. Beyrichia lata^ Vanuxem, sp. PI. VI. fig. 13.

Agnostus latus, Vanuxem, Conrad^s Report Geol. New York;
and Vanuxem, Geol. New York, p. 80 etseq.

Beyrichia lata, Hall, Palaeontology of New York, vol. ii. p. 301.
pi. A 66. figs. 10 a-e.

Surface of valve divided into three unequal ridges or lobes ;
posterior lobe largest, broad, its ventral portion curved forwards
to meet the constricted neck of the middle lobe ; anterior lobe
smallest, depressed, forming a narrow oblique ridge which is
scarcely separated at its lower end from the advanced extremity
of the hinder lobe. Marginal rim well developed, uniform.

Tlie specimens here described, and referred to the B. lata
figured by Prof. Hall, are dispersed in great numbers, together
with fragments of Trilobites, in the ferruginous (weathered) por-
tion of a compact sandstone or quartzite, from a locality three or
four miles south of Utica, New York State, and marked “ Hud-
son River Group All trace of the carapace itself has disap-
peared, and the casts and impressions afford no good evidence
either of a smooth or an ornamented state of the surface of the
carapace-valves. (In the Museum of Practical Geology.)

Prof. Halit describes his specimens (wUich are from the fer-
ruginous rocks of the Clinton group of the State of New York J)
as having on one valve a subcentral ridge, and on the other a
subcentral and corresponding depression. But, guided by Mr.
Halts figures and by the specimens before me, I think that this
description cannot be applicable ; and that it has arisen from the
relatively great breadth of the subcentral furrow, between the
middle and hinder ridges or lobes, and from the sometimes
almost obsolete condition of the anterior ridge.

* Most probably incorrect.

t With regard to the BeyrichicB of the New York State, Prof. Hall re-
marks {loc. cit. p. 301), that “we have three or four species of Beyrichia
in our successive groups, beginning with the Clinton group.”

X “ In the ferruginous shale associated with the iron ore at Wadsworth’s
quarries, and in the ferruginous sandstones below, at New Hartford, Oneida
County ; in numerous localities in the same position farther west, and in
the green shale of the group at Sodus aud Rochester.” — Hall, op. cit. p. 301.

Mr. T. R. Jones 07i Beyriciiise. 169

4. Beyrichia Bussacensis, Jones. PL VI. fig. 14.

Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ix. p. 160. pi. 7. figs. 5, 6.

Surfaee of the valve depressed, smooth, bearing three well-
defined, transverse, slightly curved, narrow, separate ridges ;
posterior ridge close to the posterior margin, and curving down-
wards and forwards until it meets and runs into the marginal
rim of the ventral and anterior borders. Marginal rim well
developed, and raised into a narrow continuous ridge, which in
old specimens is one and the same with tlie posterior ridge
and its extension forward.

In the majority of adult specimens (for instance, fig. 5. pi. 7.
Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ix.), the posterior ridge is placed
close to the posterior margin ; but in the young state (fig. 6. loc,
cit.) and in the specimen here figured (fig. 14) a shallow de-
pression occurs behind this ridge.

In young individuals the marginal rim is not so strongly
developed, and the valve is rather less quadrate in outline.

This characteristic species occurs in great numbers on the
divisional planes of Lower Silurian schists from near Coiujbra
(Serra de Mucela, and Porto de Louza in the Serra de Bussaco),
Portugal, which form part of the collection made by Senhor C.
Ribeiro and described by Mr. D. Sharpe, Quart, Journ. Geol.
Soc. vol. ix. pp. 135 et seq.

(Corrugate.)

5. Beyrichia Ribeiriana, nov. sp. PI. VI. fig. 15.

Carapace-valves contracted anteriorly, convex, impressed to-
wards the dorsal border by two short, broad furrows, the hinder
of wdiich is largest and subcentral. The convexity of the valve
forms a broad curved posterior lobe, a narrow short, oblique
middle lobe, and an oblique anterior lobe; the last two near
together, and forming a short angle, with the aj)ex ])ointing
downwards and backwards; and all three lobes continuous with
the convex ventral ])ortion of the valve. The j)osterior lobe is
frequently indented on its broad dorsal extremity. ^larginal
rim indi.stinct.

The younger specimens may be described as presenting a
nearly semicircular convex lobe, parallel with the ventral border
and bounding a subcentral pit or furrow ; tlie extremities of the
two arms of the lobe being each, but une([ually, impressed by an
oblicpicly vertical indentation.

This interesting foi-m (wdiich 1 have named after Senhor C.
Ann. May. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vnl. xvi. 12

170

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichiae.

Ribeiro, who brought these Portuguese fossils to light) occurs
plentifully, as casts, with B. Bussacensis in the Porto de* Louza
schist. When examining these schists in 1853, I overlooked
this species, regarding the casts as crumpled specimens of a
large variety of B. simplex. The corrugations of the surface,
however, are quite constant and peculiar, as well as the outline of
the valves, which differs from that of B. simplex. I have already
mentioned [supra, p. 91 & p. 165) that B. Bohemica (in which
the lobes are much more pinched up and ridge-like) forms a
passage from this species to B. complicata.

6. Beyrichia affinis, nov. sp. PI. VI. fig. 16.

Carapace-valve depressed ; nearly semicircular, but obliquely
acute at one extremity (anterior). Surface of valve, if regarded
as 2-lobed, may be described as being divided into two parts by
a deep and broad central indentation ; the anterior part of the
valve forming a somewhat convex, pyriform, curved lobe, taper-
ing downwards and backwards ; the other portion of the surface
subdivided by a short furrow on its dorsal part and forming a
depressed, bifurcated, Y-shaped lobe, the anterior arm of which
is more prominent than the other, and constitutes a middle lobe,
if the valve be regarded as 3-lobed, — in which case, besides the
pyriform, curved, anterior lobe, there are two less prominent
lobes, which are near together, occupying the broad (posterior)
half of the valve, and are separated from the anterior lobe by a
broad central pit ; the middle lobe small, but well defined ; pos-
terior lobe larger, but depressed, curved. Marginal rim distinct,
especially on the posterior border.

This little Beyrichia is essentially different from any other
that I have seen, although it is not without points of resem-
blance to some of the above-mentioned forms, such as B. Klcedeni
and B. Ribeiriana ; and hence I propose to distinguish it by the
name of B. affinis.

It is represented by the cast of a single valve in a Lower
Silurian dark-coloured schist from Waterford, Tramore. (In the
Museum of Practical Geology.)

7. Beyrichia Barrandiana, nov. sp. PL VI. fig. 17.

Carapace-valve nearly semicircular ; surface divided by a sub-
central furrow into two unequal lobes; the smaller lobe is pyri-
form, tapering downwards ; the other triangular and subdivided
by a faint vertical furrow, and its largest portion, occupying the
middle of the valve, gradually rises towards the ventrai border

171

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichise.

until it is elevated into a strong conical projection or spine. The
marginal rim is well defined, and was furnished with a series of
thin projecting spines.

This well-marked and peculiar species is established on a
distinct impression (somewhat squeezed obliquely by the cleavage-
structure of the rock), discovered by Mr. Salter in the Lower
Llandeilo schist of Mynydd Garw, Beddgelert, N. Wales. (In
the Museum of Practical Geology.)

I have dedicated this Beyrichia — the earliest, so far as yet
known, of the genus, and one of the most peculiar — to M. Bar-
rande, of Prague, whose indefatigable and extensive researches
in the palaeozoic rocks of Bohemia will have comprised the study
of the BeyrichicE and their allies, as well as the larger and more
important groups of organic life, some of which M. Barrande has
already so elaborately and lucidly illustrated.

(SlMPUCES.)

8. Beyrichia strangulata, Salter. PI. VI. fig. 18.

Brit. Pal. Foss. Cambridge, part 2. fasc. 1. p. 136 (M^Coy^s
descript.), pi. 1 E. figs. 1 «, \ b and fasc. 2. Appendix A. p. ii.
(Salterns descript.).

Carapace-valves subquadrate, convex ; impressed at or near
the dorsal border, and towards the narrow (anterior) end of the
valve, by a short, vertical, subcentral furrow ; the anterior side
of the furrow rising up in a low rounded knob or tubercle.

The marginal rim is very broad, convex, divided from the
body of the valve by a deep narrow furrow, and is seldom well
preserved. From Mr. Salter’s observations (he. cit.)^ the mar-
ginal rim would appear to be broader at the antero-inferior, than
at the posterior border of the valve. Prof. M^Coy says tliat the
marginal rim is often wanting, having been broken away.

B. strangulata is abundant in the Upper Bala calcareous
schists at Coniston Waterhead, Lancashire.

The foregoing description of the typical specimens is not
quite ap])licable to any of the forms that I have next to notice.
Still I see no good reason for regarding as distinct s])ecies the
individuals represented by figs. 19- 22 ; for, although neither of
them exactly corresponds with the above description, yet there
are some important characters common to all, especially the
uniform convexity of the viilve, and the single dorsal sulcus. On
the other hand, there is a considerable, though not an unlimited,

12*

172

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichise.

variation in the shape of the valve ; and, what appears to me to
be of more importance, the marginal rim is in one variety highly
developed (as in the type), and in others it is absent ; nor do I
find any reason to suppose that these latter individuals have lost
their rims accidentally.

B. strangulata, var. u. PL VI. fig. 19.

Valve much less quadrate than the typical form ; dorsal furrow
faint, extending across two-thirds of the width of the valve (an-
other but very faint impression occurs on the anterior part of the
valve, but amounts to little more than an undulation in the ge-
neral convexity of the surface) ; marginal rim strongly developed
at the infero-anterior border, and tapering off posteriorly.

Fig. 19 is from a unique cast in Lower Silurian fossili-
ferous schist from Robeston Wathen, Pembrokeshire. (Mus.
Pract. Geol.)

B. strangulata, var. Q. PI. VI. figs. 20, 21.

Carapace- valve (adult) narrow- oblong, with the ends rounded
and the anterior extremity contracted ; surface coarsely pitted ;
dorsal furrow short and deep, in the middle of the anterior half
of the valve ; anterior side of furrow slightly elevated in some of
the casts, but not in the impression made by the outside ; no
trace of marginal rim.

Four specimens of this form occur (as casts or impressions) in
dark-coloured fossiliferous schist, of Lower Silurian age, from
Sholes Hook, Haverfordwest. (Mus. Pract. Geol.)

The cast and impression of a young individual (fig. 21) ac-
companies the foregoing. It is proportionally broader and
shorter ; nearly semicircular, but obliquely acute anteriorly ; the
sulcus is well defined, and its anterior edge is raised (in the
cast) ; the surface appears to be smooth ; there is no marginal
rim.

B. strangulata, var. 7. PI. VI. fig. 22.

Cast of carapace-valve very small ; convex ; narrow-oblong,
narrower in front than behind; dorsal furrow short, strongly
marked, and accompanied by an anterior tubercle ; no marginal
rim.

From Harnage, Shrewsbury ; and accompanies B. complicata
(fig. 5) and others: see p. 165.

AVith regard to B. strangulata and its varieties above men-
tioned, 1 would observe that M. Barrandc’s collection of the

173

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichise.

Siltuian Eutornostraca of Bohemia (now in the British Museum)
comprises several forms closely allied to this group.

9. Beyrichia bicor?iis, nov. sp. PI. VI. fig. 23.

Carapace-valves flattened ; impressed with a distinct, short,
subcentral, dorsal pit-like furrow; a small semicylindrical tu-
bercle rises up on either side of the furrow. Marginal rim well
developed, sloping, and crested by a narrow continuous ridge.
The carapace-valves, in one or two rare well-preserved specimens,
are smooth ; but in various stages of dissolution the surface puts
on a deceptive pitted, reticulated, or carious aspect.

The well-defined outline, raised border, and bi-tubercled sur-
face, with its deep subcentral notch, suflSciently characterize this
interesting little species. It is from the Harnage rock before
mentioned. (Mus. Pract. Geol.)

10. Beyrichia seminulum, nov. sp. PI. VI. fig. 24.

Carapace-valves convex, almost symmetrically semicircular ;
coarsely punctate ; impressed with an almost central dorsal fur-
row, extending across one-third of the width of the valve. Mar-
ginal rim distinct, uniform.

I met with this neat little species in the Weidock schists of
the Town Hill, Montgomery, as casts and impressions, in com-
pany with casts of B. Kloedeni.

II. Beyrichia simplex, Jones. PI. VI. fig. 25.

Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1853, vol. ix. p. I6I. pi. 7. fig. 7.

Carapace-valves convex, smooth, somewhat ovate; posterior
half of the valve much broader than the anterior ; ventral border
rounded ; anterior and posterior borders obtusely angular ; dorsal
border somewhat angular, formed partly of the straight hinge-
line (which is about half the length of the valve), and partly of
the obliquely rounded upper margins of the two extremities.
Dorsal furrow slight, subcentral, towards the anterior extremity.
Marginal rim indistinct.

This species was established on numerous specimens, constant
in form and character, aceompanying B. Bussacensis in the
Lower Silurian schists of Serra de Bussaco and Serra de Mucela,
near Coimbra, Portugal.

B. simplcx’i var. ? PI. VI. figs. 26, 27.

Figs. 26 and 27 represent small individuals, wliicli, with
other similar but somewhat variable forms, occur in numbers in

174

Mr. T. Ef. Jones on Beyrichise.

the Harnage rock already frequently referred to. For the most
part, they much more nearly approach B. simplex than B. stran-
gulata, — their only other ally. If fig. 22 — one from amongst
this crowd of minute individuals in the Harnage rock (and
which, like others of the Simj^lices, have been hitherto regarded
as Cytherince) — be placed in the same category with figs. 26 and
27, we can but see what a difference of form these little asso-
ciates present.

Probably in mere casts of the external coverings of such mi-
nute animals, and with such general simplicity of outward form,
we should not expect to arrive at exact specific determinations.

12. Beyrichia mundula, Jones. PI. VI. figs. 28-31.

Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 2. No. 92 (Aug. 1855), p. 90.
pi. 5. fig. 23.

Since writing the description of this Scandinavian species
[loc. cit.)y I have met with several very well-preserved specimens
in the limestone No. 5 [vide supra, p. 84), some of which ex-
hibit the well-marked marginal rim and striato-punctate surface
(fig. 29 h). The generality of the individuals have a marked
straightness of the hinge-line (about two-thirds the length of the
valve), and a decided obliquity of the upper part of the margins
of the extremities, and frequently a conspicuous angularity of
the extremities themselves. In the specimens which have these
characters most strongly marked, the valves have a tendency to
be depressed towards their margins, and to lose the impression
of the dorsal sulcus (figs. 30 & 31) ; thus resembling the cara-
pace-valves of Leper ditia, — a genus which 1 hope to treat of in
my next notice of the Palaeozoic Bivalved Entomostraca.

In the subjoined Table I have arranged the Beyrichiee so as
to indicate the geological distribution of the genus and its three
subdivisions, as far as the species above described will permit.
The few other species known in the United States, already re-
ferred to (p. 168), and the Beyrichiee collected by M. Barrande
and now to be seen in the British Museum, are all the species
of which I am cognizant, with the exception of some l^ower
Silurian specimens of the Simplex group from Canada, which
have been collected by Mr. W. E. Logan, and will, I trust, form
part of the materials for a future notice on the Palieozoic Bivalved
Entomostraca of Canada.

175

Mr. T. R. Jones on Beyrichiae.

Table of the Beyrichi^.

Lower

Silurian.

Upper

Silurian.

References.

' Simplices : —

Page

Bevrichia simplex

! *

173

simplex, var. ?

1 *

1/3

*

171

strangulata, var. a,

172

strangulata, var. /3

*

172

strangulata, var. y

*

172

173

Corrugatae : —

170

*

169

170

Jugosae : —

i

Beyrichia Bussacensis

1

1 *

169

complicata

1 *

163

complicata, var. decorata

! *

165

[ Simplices : —

Beyrichia mundula

*

90 & 174

spminiilnm

W ilclf0n<si?infi ,

*

89

IVilckensiana, var. plicata

*

90

Corrugatae : —

Beyrichia siliqua

*

90

Jugosae : —

lipyrichia Snlteriaria

89

lata

* ?

*

Afnppnviana

*

88

. Oalrnaniana.

%

88

. tiiherciilata

86

tuberculata, var. nuda ...

*

87

tuberculata, ?;ar.antiquata

*

87

Kloedeni

*?

*

165

Kloedeni, var. antiquata

*

167

1

Kloedeni, var. torosa ...

*

157

Ttiiptiiann

1

86

1

EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI.

Fi(j. 1. Beyrichia complicata, Salter (typical form): right valve. 2, Left
valve.

Fiy. 3. B. complicata : right valve. 4. Left valve.

Fig. 5. B. complicata (young) : right valve.

Fiy. T). B. complicata, var. decorata, Jones: right valve.

Fiy. 7- F. Kladeni, M‘Coy : right valve.

Fiy. H. B. Klfpdeni, var. antiquata, Jones : right valve.

Fiy. 9 B. KUpdeni, M‘Coy : right valve.

176 On the Heart and Circulation in the Pycnogonida3.

Fig. \0. B. Kloedeni, var. torosa, Jones: left valve. 11. Right valve.
12. Left valve.

Fig. 13. B. lata, Vanuxera, sp. : right valve.

Fig. 14. B. Bussacensis, Jones : left valve.

Fig. 15. B. Ribeiriana, Jones : left valve.

Fig. 16. B. ajinis, Jones : right valve.

Fig. 17. B. Barr andiana, Jones', left valve.

Fig. 18. B. strangulata, Salter : left valve.

Fig. 19. B. strangulata, var. u : right valve.

Fig. 20. B. strangulata, var. : left valve. 21. Right valve (young).

Fig. 22. B. strangulata, var. y : left valve.

Fig. 23 a. B. hicornis, Jones : left valve. 23 b. Ventral aspect of the
same valve.

Fig. 24. B. seminulum, Jones : left valve.

Fig. 25. B. simplex, Jones : right valve.

Fig. 26. B. simplex! : right valve. 27. Right valve.

Fig 28. B.mundula, Jones; right valve. 2d a. Left valve. 29 b. Ven-
tral aspect of part of the same valve. 30. Left valve. 31. Left
valve.

XV. — On the Heart and Circulation in the Pycnogonidse.

By Dr. A. Krohn*.

[With a Plate.}

The opinion of Quatrefages that the Pycnogonidse are destitute
of a heart, has been contradicted by Zenkerf, who has succeeded
in recognizing this organ in Nymphon gracile. Zenker disco-
vered it in the position where analogy would lead us to expect
to meet with it ; he describes it as a very delicate sac, furnished
with ramified muscular fibres; its outlines may be most clearly
distinguished in the neighbourhood of the last pair of legs. I
had recently an opportunity, whilst examining a Phoxichilus
(probably P. spinosus), of convincing myself most decidedly of
the existence of the heart. I am thus enabled to furnish more
exact details as to its form and structure.

The heart is a sac, of proportionably very large size, which is
placed, as in all the Arthropoda, in the back, above the intestinal
canal ; it is seen to extend from the hinder margin of the last
thoracic segment to the middle of the foremost one (PL VII. fig. 7).
Whether it terminates at this point, or extends beyond it, must
remain undecided, as further observations are prevented by the
tubercle which rises on this part, upon the apex of which the
four eyes are situated. The heart is divided into three chambers
by two pairs of deep lateral notches or constrictions ; the hinder

* From Wiegmsum’s Archiv for 1855, p. 6.
t Muller’s Archiv, 1852, p. 383.

177

M. Valenciennes on the Gorgonidse.

chamber is smaller than the middle, and this than the anterior
one. The latter is very considerably enlarged immediately be-
hind the above-mentioned tubercle, and is no doubt in free
communication with the cavity of the body or the interstices
{lacunce) between the organs, and this is very probably the case
also with the hinder chamber. In the bottom of each notch
there is an opening for the entrance of the returning blood, so
that there are four such apertures, arranged in pairs. From
this description it is evident that the heart of the Pycnogonidse
agrees essentially in form and structure with that of the higher
Arachnida.

The circulation goes on pretty rapidly in a distinctly marked
course, and if the nutritive duid contains a sufficient quantity
of blood-corpuscles, may be easily observed. The chambers of
the heart contract simultaneously. At each diastole, the blood
returning from the organs is taken up by the heart through the
four lateral openings and driven forwards at each systole. In
this manner a small portion of the blood reaches the proboscis,
whilst the greater part takes its course in the form of a consi-
derable stream towards the abdomen. From this principal cur-
rent, lateral streams are given off to the legs ; these pass down
one side of the respective legs and up the other, so as to return
at last to the heart.

In conclusion I must remark, that Van Beneden has already
observed a regular circulation of the blood in the legs of Nym-
phon^. He could not discover the heart, and according to him,
the impulse is given to this current of blood in the extremities
by a peculiar, rhythmically contractile membrane, situated within
the base of the legs. But as it is now certain that the blood
circulates in all parts of the body by the action of the heart
alone, we may very justly doubt the existence of any such ar-
rangement as this in the legs of the Pycnogonidse.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE VII.

Firj. 7. Sketch of the heart of Phoxichilus. The numbers 1-4 indicate
the several thoracic segments ; a, proboscis ; b, abdomen ; c, the
four eyes ; d, d, d, d, the legs ; e, e, the stomach with its lateral
cjEca ; f, intestine ; y, tlie anterior, h, the middle, and i, the
hinder chamber of the heart ; k, k, the constrictions of the heart.

XV I. — Abstract of a Monograph of the Family Gorgonidaj.
By M. Valenciennes.

M. M ilne-Edwards has shown that the animals of the class
of Polypes belong to two great orders. One of these, called
Anthozon (Zoanthaircs), includes those animals which more or
* I'Voricp’s Noti/cn, xxxvii. p. 7-.

178

M. Valenciennes on the Gorgonidse.

less resemble the Actini(B so abundant on the coasts of all seas,
characterized by their simple, conical, hollow tentacles, and by
the numerous ovigenous lamellie which rise in their internal
cavity. The second order, to which M. Milne-Edwards has long
since given the name of Alcyonia — fixing the zoological meaning
of this word, borrowed from Pallas, which has been applied by
other authors to the most dissimilar creatures — includes those
polypes in which the mouth is surrounded only by eight pin-
nated tentacles, and in which there are only eight internal ova-
rian lamellae ; each tentacle is a conical tube, furnished on each
side with shorter, filamentous secondary tentacles, which are
inserted on the primary tentacle in the same manner as the
barbs of a feather upon the stalk. All these polypes are united
posteriorly to a common sarcoid body, forming true compound
animals. This soft tissue, which is often gelatinous in its ap-
pearance, is consolidated by numerous calcareous concretions,
entirely composed of carbonate of lime, and possessing deter-
minate forms in each species, but often very difierent in difi*er-
ent species, and also frequently exactly similar in very distinct
species belonging to ditferent genera. They must not be con-
founded with the spicules or acicules which also exist in the
tissue of several parts of the polypes, prineipally round the oral
orifice, or near the cells through which the body of the isolated
animal is exserted. To these bodies I give the name of sclerites.

The masses produced by the aggregation of the Alcyonia are
as varied in their form as the polypidoms of the Anthozoa, which
have received the general name of Madrepores. The compound
Alcyonia are sometimes protected by a simple epidermic scleren-
chyma, without any solid internal parts ; but sometimes there
exists an axis, which is variable in its nature, form, and chemical
composition.

Amongst the families established in this order by MM. Milne-
Edwards and Dana, the family to which the latter has given the
name of Gorgonidce, and which has been divided by Milne-
Edwards into several subfamilies, includes the species united by
Pallas in the genus Gorgonia.

A work which I have long been occupied with, upon the nu-
merous species of Sponges, has led me to compare their spicules
with the sclerites of the Gorgonidce, The examination of these
corpuscles has enlarged the sphere of my observations, and some
new researches have become the basis of a new classification of
these zoophytes.

All my predecessors, with the exception of M. Milne-Edwards,
only describing the Gorgonidce from dried specimens, have
founded their characters upon the arrangement of the divisions
of the more or less delicate branches of what they call the axis of

179

M. Valenciennes on the Gorgonidie.

the Gorgonice, and upon the form and arrangement of the cells in
the friable envelope of the branches^ to which they give the name
of cortex. M. Milne- Edwards has ascertained that this enve-
lope, when examined upon living animals, is composed of a sort
of contractile parenchyma, which is rendered arenaceous by the
quantity of calcareous molecules contained in it. His extended
knowledge of the organization of the polypes, has shown him
the relations which exist between the envelope and the axis ; and
in order to render his idea more intelligible he has given the
name of sclerenchyma to the external portion from which the
extensible bodies of the polypes issue, and of sclerobase to the
concealed portion, which he still regarded as composed of a
horny matter.

It appears from what I have just stated, that a Gorgonia is a
body formed by the union of numerous polypes upon a common
body, enveloped by an arenaceous sclerenchyma surrounding
another dendroid secretion, the sclerobase ; just as a Veretillum
is composed of numerous polypes protruded from a soft fleshy
sclerenchyma. The sclerenchyma of the Gorgonidce contains
numerous sclerites. These, which are often microscopic, but are
sometimes as much as 2 millimetres in length and consequently
visible to the naked eye, occur in all the genera of this family.
The following are some of the principal forms : —

1. The corpuscles have two small circles of tubercles at a
distance from one another on a short axis ; the tuberculate ex-
tremities resemble a small branch of cauliflower. These occur
in Junceella juncea, sur cuius and elongata, Gorgonella sulcifera,
Cteriocella pectinata, Rhipidigorgia umhraculum, cribrum, arenata,
&c., and in the common coral of the Mediterranean.

2. Other sclerites are fusiform, with four or six circlets of
tubercles. These occur in Pterogorgia simplex, Plexaura virgea
and petechizans, Phycogorgia foliata, Rhipidigorgia reticulum,
Gorgonella cauliculus, &c.

3. A third form is that of the clubbed sclerites, in which a
single extremity is dilated, and furnished with ridges, like some
ancient maces. These are found in Gorgonia crinita, papillifera

placomus, Gorgonella betulina and ceratophyta, Plexaura ho-
momalla, pensilis, parvula, &c.

4. A fourth and new form is seen in the muricated sclerites
with four or several points, and entirely covered with spines,
which occur in Plexaura auruntiaca, Plexaurella dichotoma, Gor-
gonia vermiculata, &c.

5. A fifth form consists of larger or smaller scales, more or
less covered with sm;dl spines, "i’liesc arc found in (xicocellu
rerticdluris and ptumalihs, Primiioa hpadiferu and anlarcticu, Gor-
gonia funyifera, &c.

180 M. Valenciennes on the Gorgonidse.

These sclerites exhibit the most agreeable colours : some are
white and transparent like a fine crystal of Iceland spar^ others
violet like amethyst, others red or yellow. Their transparency
has led to the supposition that these corpuscles were composed
of small crystals, but M. Senarrnont after the examination of
several sorts has been unable to recognize any crystalline form
in them, and does not hesitate to say that they are not crystals.
Their similarity in such different species of Gorgonidce proves
that these sclerites cannot be employed in characterizing the
genera, as has been supposed by some very excellent zoologists :
they can only be taken into account in the diagnosis of the
species.

The sclerenchyma thus formed is perforated with cells, which
sometimes project from the surface like small warts, whilst in
other species they are pierced as though with the point of a
needle. These cells are sometimes margined with a small ex-
pansion which may be called a lip ; other species have the cells
surrounded by small scales.

A second organ, the study of which is of great importance, is
the axis or sclerobase. A fact first established by my researches
with the aid of M. Fremy, is, that this axis, notwithstanding its
external appearance, does not consist of horn like that of the
claws and hoofs of the Mammalia or the horns of Ruminants. It
is a substance sui generis^ which however approaches more closely
to horn than to the chitine of the articulated animals. It is
insoluble even in hot solution of potash, brought to the greatest
possible concentration by boiling. Some species give up a por-
tion of their colouring matter to muriatic acid; others yield
nothing. I have met with some sclerobases which became soft,
and even began to dissolve in this acid. It is therefore a new
substance peculiar to the Gorgonidce, like the conchyoline of the
Mollusca, of which the shells of the genus Pinna furnish such
large and fine specimens. I think we may designate this sub-
stance by the name of corneine, on account of its resemblance to
the material of the hoofs and nails of the Mammalia. The ana-
lyses made by M. Fremy prove that it is isomeric with horn.

The sclerobase does not consist of corneine alone in all the
species of Gorgonidce. In a great number of species the axis
contains a considerable quantity of carbonate of lime. Several
species possess an axis which gives a very brisk effervescence
with muriatic acid. This physiological fact is very important in
the classification of the Gorgonidce, and not less so in explaining
the way in which the membranes of the polypes assist in the
formation of the sclerenchyma and sclerobase. Those species
with a calcareous sclerobase, which I unite under the name of
Gorgonellacece, have the body prolonged into the common sarcoid

181

M. Valenciennes on the Gorgonidje.

mass, and are protected internally by a delicate membrane,
which secretes a plate of corneine covered with carbonate of
lime. The polypes in adding to their common body secrete
fresh plates composed of calcareous matter and corneine, and by
treating these axes with an acid which removes the lime, the
superposed membranes are separated from each other. When
the internal membrane, which is often thick, as in some Plex-
aurce and Eunices, only deposits corneine, the sclerobase is
composed entirely of homogeneous layers of this substance ;
these have often been regarded as ligneous axes by observers who
recognized in their lamellar structure a certain appearance of
concentric layers like that of the ligneous layers of vegetables,
although in reality there is no resemblance between the organi-
zation of these sclerobases and vegetable tissues.

These investigations have led me to revise the classification of
these polypes and to arrange them as follows : —

Family I. Gorgonace^e.

Axis not effervescing with muriatic acid.

Genus Gorgonia. Cells opening upon a small tubercle of the
sclerenchyma, projecting from the stalk.

Sp. verrucosa, placomus, lAwn., graminea, palma,
Pall., and 11 other species.

Genus Plexaura. Cells opening by a simple hole pierced in
the sclerenchyma, without projections or lips.

Sp. virgulata, Lamk., sanguinea, Lamk., rosea, Lamk., fla-
vida, \j?im'k.,flexuosa, Lamk., homomalla, Lamk.,/n«Z^e7z>,
Lamk., vermiculata, Lamk., multicauda, Lamk., alba,
Lamk., laxa, Lamk., petechizans, Pall., and 13 other
species.

Genus Eunicea. Cells placed in tubular prominences of the
sclerenchyma, and opening under a sort of lip.

Sp. plantaginea, Lamk., mammosa, Lamk., and G other
species.

Genus Pterogorgia. Cells opening in scries on the two sides
of a compressed stem.

Sp. anceps, Ehr., and 3 other species.

Genus Phycogorgia. Sclerobase dilated into membranous la-
rninui like a Fucus; sclerenchyma covered with cellular pores.
Sj). /weer/ff, Val. (Mazatlan.)

Genus II ymenogorgia. Sclerenchyma dilated into foliaccous
laminae, supported on a sclerobase with simple, branched,
rounded, slender, separate stems.

Sp. quercifolia, Val. (Guadaloupc.)

]82

M. Valenciennes on the Gorgonidse.

Genus Phyllogorgia. Sclerenchyma with foliaceous expan-
sions; branches of the sclerobase with frequent anastomoses.
Sp. dilatata and foliata, Val.

Genus Rhipidigorgia. Branches of sclerobase rounded, fre-
quently anastomosing to form a flabelliform network.

Sp. umbraculum, Lamk., flabellumj Linn., and 6 other
species.

Family II. Gorgonellace^.

Axis effervescing with muriatic acid.

Genus Junceella, Val. Stems straight, covered with polypi-
ferous cells scattered upon the sclerobase.

Sp. junceay surculus, vimen, elongata, calyculata and hystrixy
Val.

Genus Ctenocella, Val. Sclerobase forming straight rods,
pectinated on one side only of the principal stem.
pectinatUy NdX. (China.)

Genus Gorgonella, Val. Sclerobase much divided, forming
fine branches.

Sp. violaceay Lamk., sarmentosa, Lamk., and 3 others.

I have extended my researches to other polypes of different
families, and they have given me the opportunity of observing
several facts which have escaped previous observers, and which
will serve to rectify some faulty diagnoses. The coral-fishers
agree in saying that the extremities of the branches of coral are
soft when first taken from the sea, and that they only become
hard by desiccation. The truth of this may be ascertained by
examining coral preserved in spirits.

On dissecting the Melitcea ochracedy Lamk., the parenchyma
of the sarcoid envelope of the common body is seen to extend
along the stems, and between the calcareous masses, of which
the articulations of the sclerobase are composed. But it is in-
correct to say that this sclerobase is composed of a series of
joints separated by a corky tissue : it is the desiccation of the
parenchyma that renders the separation of the joints too easy.
Lamarck only examined dried individuals.

The sclerites of the MelitcBce are small, scarcely measuring
from 0*08 to 0*10 of a millimetre. They are smooth, cylin-
drical, rounded at both ends, and of a fine orange colour. These
are mixed with others, of a longer form, and pointed at the two
extremities; their colour is yellow and they measure 0*15 of a
millimetre. With these sclerites I have seen others much smaller,
measuring only 0*04- to 0’06 of a millimetre, of a fine orange-
yellow colour, and furnished with two whorls of tubercles.

183

Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiininia.

The articulations which separate the calcareous pieces of the
sclerobase of Isis, consist of corneine. The sclerites of Isis are
0*18 to 0‘20 mill, in length, with a swelling at each extremity;
they are of a fine white colour.

The substance of the axis of Pennatula phosphorea has been
analysed by M. Fremy. It contains a considerable quantity
of phosphate of lime with the carbonate of lime. These are
the only Radiated animals containing phosphate of lime, and
this pecularity was the less expected as the axis of Virgularia
and Pavonaria contain only carbonate of lime.

XVII. — On the Genus Assiminia.

By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Gentlemen,

In the preceding Number of the ^ Annals ^ Mr. Clark thinks he
has proved that Dr. Leaches genus Assiminia is only a species
of Truncatella of Risso. Mr. Clarkes description proves the con-
verse of his position. Truncatella should have a subcylindrical
shell with a slender tapering tip, which falls off when the shell
approaches adult age ; hence the name of the genus : Assiminia
has a broad conic shell with an acute tip which does not fall off;
if it is to be a species of the same genus, the name of the latter
ought to be changed.

The foot of Truncatella is small and peculiarly formed, and the
eyes of all the species, according to Mr. Clarkes observations, are
large with a white iris ; now this is not the case with Assiminia,
and yet Mr. Clark regards it as a Truncatella.

Every naturalist has the right to restrict his genera as he
pleases. I have only to observe that Mr. Clarkes notions on this
head are not those usually held by modern zoologists, and this
must ex})lain the proposed union ; it is not so extraordinary as
that of the species which he has combined together under the
generic name of Murex in his late work, species which are by
other authors referred to six distinct families. If we were to ex-
tend the views of Mr. Clark as applied to the British Mollusca
to the exotic species, that is to say to the Mollusca known, many
of our genera would contain from 500 to 700 species, which cer-
tainly would not facilitate the study of these animals. But the
whole of Mr. Clarkes theory is so o])poscd to sound logic, that I
shall not proceed further.

1 am. Gentlemen, yours truly,

J. E. Gray.

184 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Law which has regulated

XVITI. — On the Laio which has regulated the Introduction of
Nero Species. By Alfred R. Wallace, F.R.G.S.

Every naturalist who has directed his attention to the subject
of the geographical distribution of animals and plants, must
have been interested in the singular facts which it presents.
Many of these facts are quite different from what would have
been anticipated, and have hitherto been considered as highly
curious, but quite inexplicable. None of the explanations at-
tempted from the time of Linnseus are now considered at all
satisfactory ; none of them have given a cause sufficient to ac-
count for the facts known at the time, or comprehensive enough
to include all the new facts which have since been, and are daily
being added. Of late years, however, a great light has been
thrown upon the subject by geological investigations, which
have shown that the present state of the earth, and the organisms
now inhabiting it, are but the last stage of a long and uninter-
rupted series of changes which it has undergone, and conse-
quently, that to endeavour to explain and account for its pre-
sent condition without an}’ reference to those changes (as has
frequently been done) must lead to very imperfect and erroneous
conclusions.

The facts proved by geology are briefly these : — That during
an immense, but unknown period, the surface of the earth has
undergone successive changes ; land has sunk beneath the ocean,
while fresh land has risen up from it; mountain chains have
been elevated; islands have been formed into continents, and
continents submerged till they have become islands ; and these
changes have taken place, not once merely, but perhaps hun-
dreds, perhaps thousands of times : — That all these operations
have been more or less continuous, but unequal in their progress,
and during the whole series the organic life of the earth has
undergone a corresponding alteration. This alteration also has
been gradual, but complete ; after a certain interval not a single
species existing which had lived at the commencement of the
period. This complete renewal of the forms of life also appears
to have occurred several times : — That from the last of the Geo-
logical epochs to the present or Historical epoch, the change of
organic life has been gradual : the first appearance of animals
now existing can in many cases be traced, their numbers gradu-
ally increasing in the more recent formations, while other species
continually die out and disappear, so that the present condition
of the organic world is clearly derived by a natural process of
gradual extinction and creation of species from that of the latest
geological periods. We may therefore safely infer a like grada-
tion and natural sequence from one geological epoch to another.

185

the Introduction of New Species.

Now, taking this as a fair statement of the results of geolo-
gical inquiry, we see that the present geographical distribution
of life upon the earth must be the result of all the previous
changes, both of the surface of the earth itself and of its inha-
bitants. Many causes no doubt have operated of which we must
ever remain in ignorance, and we may therefore expect to find
many details very difficult of explanation, and in attempting to
give one, must allow ourselves to call into our service geological
changes which it is highly probable may have occurred, though
we have no direct evidence of their individual operation.

The great increase of our knowledge within the last twenty
years, both of the present and past history of the organic world,
has accumulated a body of facts which should afford a sufficient
foundation for a comprehensive law embracing and explaining
them all, and giving a direction to new researches. It is about
ten years since the idea of such a law suggested itself to the
writer of this paper, and he has since taken every opportunity of
testing it by all the newly ascertained facts with which he has
become acquainted, or has been able to observe himself. These
have ail served to convince him of the correctness of his hypo-
thesis. Fully to enter into such a subject would occupy much
space, and it is only in consequence of some views having been
lately promulgated, he believes in a wrong direction, that he
now ventures to present his ideas to the public, with only such
obvious illustrations of the arguments and results as occur to
him in a place far removed from all means of reference and
exact information.

The following propositions in Organic Geography and Geology
give the main facts on which the hypothesis is founded.

Geography .

1. Large groups, such as classes and orders, are generally spread
over the whole earth, w’hile smaller ones, such as families and
genera, are frequently confined to one portion, often to a very
limited district.

2. In w'idely distributed families the genera are often limited in
range ; in widely distributed genera, well-marked groujis of
species are peculiar to each geogra[)hical district.

3. When a group is confined to one district, and is rich in spe-
cies, it is almost invariably the case that the most closely
allied species are found in the same locality or in closely ad-
joining localities, and that therefore the natural sequence of
the species by affinity is also geographical.

4. In countries of a similar climate, but separated by a wide sea
or lofty mountains, the families, genera and species of the

Ann. ^ Mag. N. /fist. Ser. 2. I Vi/. xvi. 13

186 Mr. A. E. Wallace on the Law which has regulated

one are often represented by closely allied families, genera
and species peculiar to the other.

Geology.

5. The distribution of the organic world in time is very similar
to its present distribution in space.

6. Most of the larger and some small groups extend through
several geological periods.

7. In each period, however, there are peeuliar groups, found no-
where else, and extending through one or several formations.

8. Species of one genus, or genera of one family occurring in the
same geological time are more closely allied than those sepa-
rated in time.

9. As generally in geography no species or genus occurs in two
very distant localities without being also found in interme-
diate places, so in geology the life of^a species or genus has
not been interrupted. In other words, no group or speeies
has come into existence twice.

10. The following law may be deduced from these facts : — Every
species has come into existence coincident both in space and
time with a pre-existing closely allied species.

This law agrees with, explains and illustrates all the facts
connected with the following branches of the subject : — 1st. The
system of natural affinities. 2nd. The distribution of animals
and plants in spaee. 3rd. The same in time, ineluding all the
phsenomena of representative groups, and those which Professor
Forbes supposed to manifest polarity. 4th. The phsenomena of
rudimentary organs. We will briefly endeavour to show its
bearing upon each of these.

If the law above enunciated be tnie, it follows that the natural
series of affinities will also represent the order in which the
several species eame into existence, each one having had for its
immediate antitype a closely allied species existing at the time
of its origin. It is evidently possible that two or three distinct
species may have had a common antitype, and that each of these
may again have become the antitypes from which other closely
allied species were created. The effect of this would be, that so
long as each species has had but one new species formed on its
model, the line of affinities will be simple, and may be repre-
sented by placing the several species in direet succession in a
straight line. But if two or more speeies have been indepen-
dently formed on the plan of a common antitype, then the series
of affinities will be compound, and can only be represented by a
forked or many-branched line. Now, all attempts at a Natural
classification and arrangement of organic beings show, that both

187

the Introduction of New Species,

these plans have obtained in creation. Sometimes the series of
affinities can be well represented for a space by a direct pro-
gression from species to species or from group to group, but it
is generally found impossible so to continue. There constantly
occur two or more modifications of an organ or modifications of
two distinct organs, leading us on to two distinct series of spe-
cies, which at length differ so much from each other as to form
distinct genera or families. These are the parallel series or re-
presentative groups of naturalists, and they often occur in dif-
ferent countries, or are found fossil in different formations.
They are said to have an analogy to each other when they are so
far removed from their common antitype as to differ in many
important points of structure, while they still preserve a family
resemblance. AYe thus see how difficult it is to determine in
every case whether a given relation is an analogy or an affinity, for
it is evident that as we go back along the parallel or divergent
series, towards the common antitype, the analogy which existed
between the two groups becomes an affinity. We are also made
aware of the difficulty of arriving at a true classification, even in
a small and perfect group ; — in the actual state of nature it is
almost impossible, the species being so numerous and the modi-
fications of form and structure so varied, arising probably from
the immense number of species which have served as antitypes
for the existing species, and thus produced a complicated branch-
ing of the lines of affinity, as intricate as the twigs of a gnarled
oak or the vascular system of the human body. Again, if we
consider that we have only fragments of this vast system, the
stem and main branches being represented by extinct species of
which we have no knowledge, while a vast mass of limbs and
boughs and minute twigs and scattered leaves is what we have to
place in order, and determine the true position each originally
occupied with regard to the others, the whole difficulty of the
true Natural System of classification becomes apparent to us.

We shall thus find ourselves obliged to reject all those systems
of classification which arrange species or groups in circles, as
well as those which fix a definite number for the divisions of each
group. The latter class have been very generally rejected by
naturalists, as contrary to nature, notwithstanding the ability
with which they have been advocated ; but the circular system
of affinities seems to have obtained a deeper hold, many eminent
naturalists having to some extent adopted it. We have, how-
ever*, never been al)le to find a case in which the circle has been
clos(;d by a direct and close affinity. In most cases a ])alpable
analogy has been substituted, in others the affinity is very
obsoire or altogether doubtful. The complicated branching of
tlie lines ol affinities in extensive groups must also afford great

13*

188 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Law which has regulated

facilities for giving a show of probability to any such purely
artificial arrangements. Their death-blow was given by the
admirable paper of the lamented Mr. Strickland, published in
the ^ Annals of Natural History/ in which he so clearly showed
the true synthetical method of discovering the Natural System.

If we now consider the geographical distribution of animals
and plants upon the earth, we shall find all the facts beautifully
in accordance with, and readily explained by, the present hypo-
thesis. A country having species, genera, and whole families
peculiar to it, will be the necessary result of its having been
isolated for a long period, sufficient for many series of species to
have been created on the type of pre-existing ones, which, as well
as many of the earlier-formed species, have become extinct, and
thus made the groups appear isolated. If in any case the anti-
type had an extensive range, two or more groups of species
might have been formed, each varying from it in a different
manner, and thus producing several representative or analogous
groups. The Sylviadee of Europe and the Sylvicolidce of North
America, the Heliconida of South America and the Euploeas of
the East, the group of Trogons inhabiting Asia, and that pecu-
liar to South America, are examples that may be accounted for
in this manner.

Such phsenornena as are exhibited by the Galapagos Islands,
which contain little groups of plants and animals peculiar to
themselves, but most nearly allied to those of South America,
have not hitherto received any, even a conjectural explanation.
The Galapagos are a volcanic group of high antiquity, and have
probably never been more closely connected with the continent
than they are at present. They must have been first peopled,
like other newly-formed islands, by the action of winds and cur-
rents, and at a period sufficiently remote to have had the original
species die out, and the modified prototypes only remain. In
the same way we can account for the separate islands having
each their peculiar species, either on the supposition that the same
original emigration peopled the whole of the islands with the
same species from which differently modified prototypes were
created, or that the islands were successively peopled from each
other, but that new species have been created in each on the
plan of the pre-existing ones. St. Helena is a similar case of a
very ancient island having obtained an entirely peculiar, though
limited, flora. On the other hand, no example is known of an
island which can be proved geologically to be of very recent
origin (late in the Tertiary, for instance), and yet possesses
generic or family groups, or even many species peculiar to itself.

When a range of mountains has attained a great elevation,
and has so remained during a long geological period, the species

189

the Introduction of New Species.

of the two sides at and near their bases will be often very dif-
ferentj representative species of some genera occurring, and even
whole genera being peculiar to one side only, as is remarkably
seen in the case of the Andes and Rocky Mountains. A similar
phsenomenon occurs when an island has been separated from a
continent at a very early period. The shallow sea between the
Peninsula of Malacca, Java, Sumatra and Borneo was probably
a continent or large island at an early epoch, and may have
become submerged as the volcanic ranges of Java and Sumatra
were elevated. The organic results we see in the very consi-
derable number of species of animals common to some or all of
these countries, while at the same time a number of closely
allied representative species exist peculiar to each, showing that
a considerable period has elapsed since their separation. The
facts of geographical distribution and of geology may thus mu-
tually explain each other in doubtful cases, should the principles
here advocated be clearly established.

In all those cases in which an island has been separated from
a continent, or raised by volcanic or coralline action from the
sea, or in which a mountain-chain has been elevated, in a recent
geological epoch, the phsenomena of peculiar groups or even of
single representative species will not exist. Our own island is
an example of this, its separation from the continent being geo-
logically very recent, and we have consequently scarcely a species
which is peculiar to it ; while the Alpine range, one of the most
recent mountain elevations, separates faunas and floras which
scarcely differ more than may be due to climate and latitude
alone.

The series of facts alluded to in Proposition 3, of closely allied
species in rich groups being found geographically near each
other, is most striking and important. Mr. Lovell Reeve has
well exemplified it in his able and interesting paper on the Distri-
bution of the Bulimi. It is also seen in the Humming-birds
and Toucans, little groups of two or three closely allied species
being often found in the same or closely adjoining districts, as
we have had the good fortune of ])ersonally verifying. Fishes
give evidence of a similar kind : each great river has its peculiar
genera, and in more extensive genera its grou])s of closely allied
species. Jbit it is the same throughout Nature; every class and
order of animals will contribute similar facts. Hitherto no
attcrnj)t has been made to explain these singular phajnomena, or
to show how they have arisen. Why arc the genera of Palms
and of Orchids in almost every case confined to one hcmisj)here?
W hy are the closely allied species of brown-backed Trogons all
found in the Fast, and the grccn-backcd in the West ? Why
are tlie Macaws and the Cockatoos similarly restricted ? Insects

190 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Law which has regulated . 71

furnish a countless number of analogous examples the Go-
liathi of Africa, the Ornithopterw of the Indian islands, the Heli-
conidce of South America, the Danaidce of the East, and in all,
the most closely allied species found in geographical proximity.
The question forces itself upon every thinking mind, — why are
these things so ? They could not be as they are, had no law re-
gulated their creation and dispersion. The law here enunciated
not merely explains, but necessitates the facts we see to exist,
while the vast and long-continued geological changes of the
earth readily account for the exceptions and apparent discre-
pancies that here and there occur. The writer^s object in putting
forward his views in the present imperfect manner is to submit
them to the test of other minds, and to be made aware of all the
facts supposed to be inconsistent with them. As his hypothesis
is one which claims acceptance solely as explaining and connect-
ing facts which exist in nature, he expects facts alone to be
brought to disprove it ; not a-priori arguments against its pro-
bability.

The phaenomena of geological distribution are exactly analo-
gous to those of geography. Closely allied species are found
associated in the same beds, and the change from species to spe-
cies appears to have been as gradual in time as in space. Geo-
logy, however, furnishes us with positive proof of the extinction
and production of species, though it does not inform us how
either has taken place. The extinction of species, however,
offers but little difficulty, and the modus operandi has been well
illustrated by Sir C. Lyell in his admirable ^ Principles.^ Geo-
logical changes, however gradual, must occasionally have modi-
fied external conditions to such an extent as to have rendered
the existence of certain species impossible. The extinction
would in most cases be effected by a gradual dying-out, but in
some instances there might have been a sudden destruction of a
species of limited range. To discover how the extinct species
have from time to time been replaced by new ones down to the
very latest geological period, is the most difficult, and at the
same time the most interesting problem in the natural history
of the earth. The present inquiry, which seeks to eliminate
from known facts a law which has determined, to a certain de-
gree, what species could and did appear at a given epoch, may,
it is hoped, be considered as one step in the right direction
towards a complete solution of it.

Much discussion has of late years taken place on the question,
whether the succession of life upon the globe has been from a
lower to a higher degree of organization ? The admitted facts
seem to show that there has been a general, but not a detailed
progression. Mollusca and Radiata existed before Vertebrata,

191

the Introduction of New Species.

and the progression from Fishes to Reptiles and Mammalia_, and
also from the lower mammals to the higher, is indisputable. On
the other hand, it is said that the Mollusca and Radiata of the
very earliest periods were more highly organized than the great
mass of those now existing, and that the very first fishes that
have been discovered are by no means the lowest organized of
the class. Now it is believed the present hypothesis will har-
monize with all these facts, and in a great measure serve to
explain them ; for though it may appear to some readers essen-
tially a theory of progression, it is in reality only one of gradual
change. It is, however, by no means difficult to show that a
real progression in the scale of organization is perfectly consistent
with all the appearances, and even with apparent retrogression,
should such occur.

Returning to the analogy of a branching tree, as the best
mode of representing the natural arrangement of species and
their successive creation, let us suppose that at an early geolo-
gical epoch any group (say a class of the Mollusca) has attained
to a great richness of species and a high organization. Now let
this great branch of allied species, by geological mutations, be
completely or partially destroyed. Subsequently a new branch
springs from the same trunk, that is to say, new species are
successively created, having for their antitypes the same lower
organized species which had served as the antitypes for the
former group, but which have survived the modified conditions
which destroyed it. This new group being subject to these
altered conditions, has modifications of structure and organiza-
tion given to it, and becomes the representative group of the
former one in another geological formation. It may, however,
happen, that though later in time, the new series of species
may never attain to so high a degree of organization as those
preceding it, but in its turn become extinct, and give place to
yet another modification from the same root, which may be of
higher or lower organization, more or less numerous in species,
and more or less varied in form and structure than either of
those which preceded it. Again, each of these groups may not
have become totally extinct, but may have left a few species,
the modified prototypes of which have existed in each succeeding
j)criod, a faint memorial of their former grandeur and luxuriance.
Thus every case of a})parent retrogression may be in reality a
progress, though an interrupted one : when some monarch of
the forest loses a limb, it may be rc])laccd by a feeble and sickly
substitute. The fon^going remarks a})pear to apply to the case
of the Mollusca, which, at a very early period, had reached a
high oi'gaiiization and agreat development, of forms and s})c-
eies in tlie Testaceous Cephalopoda. In each succeeding age

192 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Law which has regulated

modified species and genera replaced the former ones which had
become extinct, and as we approach the present sera but few
and small representatives of the group remain, while the Gaste-
ropods and Bivalves have acquired an immense preponderance.
In the long series of changes the earth has undergone, the
process of peopling it with organic beings has been continually
going on, and whenever any of the higher groups have become
nearly or quite extinct, the lower forms which have better
resisted the modified physical conditions have served as the
antitypes on which to found the new races. In this manner
alone, it is believed, can the representative groups at successive
periods, and the risings and fallings in the scale of organization,
be in every case explained.

The hypothesis of polarity, recently put forward by Professor
Edward Forbes* to account for the abundance of generic forms
at a very early period and at present, while in the intermediate
epochs there is a gradual diminution and impoverishment, till
the minimum occurred at the confines of the Palaeozoic and
Secondary epochs, appears to us quite unnecessary, as the facts
may be readily accounted for on the principles already laid
down. Between the Palaeozoic and Neozoic periods of Professor
Forbes, there is scarcely a species in common, and the greater
part of the genera and families also disappear to be replaced by
new ones. It is almost universally admitted that such a change
in the organic world must have occupied a vast period of time.
Of this interval we have no record ; probably because the whole
area of the early formations now exposed to our researches was
elevated at the end of the Palaeozoic period, and remained so
through the interval required for the organic changes which
resulted in the fauna and flora of the Secondary period. The
records of this interval are buried beneath the ocean which
covers three-fourths of the globe. Now it appears highly pro-
bable that a long period of quiescence or stability in the physical
conditions of a district would be most favourable to the existence
of organic life in the greatest abundance, both as regards indi-
viduals and also as to variety of species and generic groups, just
as we now find that the places best adapted to the rapid growth
and increase of individuals also contain the greatest profusion
of species and the greatest variety of forms, — the tropics in
comparison with the temperate and arctic regions. On the
other hand, it seems no less probable that a change in the

* Since the above was written, the author has heard with sincere regret
of the death of this eminent naturalist, from whom so much , important
work was expected. His remarks on the ])resent ])aper, — a subject on
which no man was more competent to decide, — were looked for with the
greatest interest. Who shall supply his place ?

193

the Introduction of New Species.

physical conditions of a district, even small in amount if rapid,
or even gradual if to a great amount, would be highly un-
favourable to the existence of individuals, might cause the
extinction of many species, and would probably be equally
unfavourable to the creation of new ones. In this too we may
find an analogy with the present state of our earth, for it has
been shown to be the violent extremes and rapid changes of
physical conditions, rather than the actual mean state in the
temperate and frigid zones, which renders them less prolific
than the tropical regions, as exemplified by the great distance
beyond the tropics to which tropical forms penetrate when the
climate is equable, and also by the richness in species and forms
of tropical mountain regions which principally differ from the
temperate zone in the uniformity of their elimate. However
this may be, it seems a fair assumption that during a period of
geological repose the new species which we know to have been
created would have appeared, that the creations would then
exceed in number the extinctions, and therefore the number of
sj)ecies would increase. In a period of geological activity, on
the other hand, it seems probable that the extmetions might
exceed the creations, and the number of species consequently
diminish. That such effects did take place in connexion with
the causes to which we have imputed them, is shown in the case
of the Coal formation, the faults and contortions of which show
a period of great activity and violent convulsions, and it is in
the formation immediately succeeding this that the poverty of
forms of life is most apparent. We have then only to suppose
a long period of somewhat similar action during the vast un-
known interval at the termination of the Palaeozoic period, and
then a decreasing violence or rapidity through the Secondary
period, to allow for the gradual repopulation of the earth with
varied forms, and the whole of the facts are explained. We
thus have a elue to the increase of the forms of life during
certain periods, and their decrease during others, without re-
course to any causes but those we know to have existed, and to
effects fairly deducible from them. The precise manner in which
the geological changes of the early formations were effected is so
extremely obscure, that when we can explain important facts by
a retardation at one time and an acceleration at another of a
process which we know from its nature and from observation to
have been unequal, — a cause so sim})le may surely be preferred
to one so obscure and hypothetical as polarity.

I would also venture to suggest some reasons against the very
nature of the theory of Ih’ofessor Forbes. Our knowledge of
the organic world during any geological e])Och is necessarily
very im))erfect. Looking at the vast numbers of species and
groups that have been discovered by geologists, this may be

194 Mr. A. R. Wallace on the Law which has regulated

doubted; but we should compare their numbers not merely with
those that now exist upon the earth, but with a far larger
amount*. We have no reason for believing that the number of
species on the earth at any former period was much less than at
present; at all events the aquatic portion, with which geologists
have most acquaintance, was probably often as great or greater.
Now we know that there have been many complete changes of
species ; new sets of organisms have many times been introduced
in place of old ones which have become extinct, so that the
total amount which have existed on the earth from the earliest
geological period must have borne about the same proportion to
those now living, as the whole human race who have lived and
died upon the earth, to the population at the present time.
Again, at each epoch, the whole earth was no doubt, as now,
more or less the theatre of life, and as the suecessive generations
of each species died, their exuviie and preservable parts would
be deposited over every portion of the then existing seas and
oceans, whieh we have reason for supposing to have been more,
rather than less, extensive than at present. In order then to
understand our possible knowledge of the early world and its
inhabitants, we must compare, not the area of the whole field of
our geological researches with the earth^s surface, but the area
of the examined portion of each formation separately with the
whole earth. For example, during the Silurian period all the
earth was Silurian, and animals were living and dying, and
depositing their remains more or less over the whole area of the
globe, and they were probably (the species at least) nearly as
varied in different latitudes and longitudes as at present. What
proportion do the Silurian districts bear to the whole surface of
the globe, land and sea (for far more extensive Silurian districts
probably exist beneath the ocean than above it), and what portion
of the known Silurian districts has been actually examined for
fossils ? Would the area of rock actually laid open to the eye
be the thousandth or the ten-thousandth part of the earth^s
surface ? Ask the same question with regard to the Oolite or the
Chalk, or even to particular beds of these when they differ consi-
derably in their fossils, and you may then get some notion of
how small a portion of the whole we know.

But yet more important is the probability, nay, almost the
certainty, that whole formations containing the records of vast
geological periods are entirely buried beneath the ocean, and
for ever beyond our reach. Most of the gaps in the geological
series may thus be filled up, and vast numbers of unknown and
unimaginable animals, which might help to elucidate the affinities
of the numerous isolated groups which arc a perpetual puzzle to

[* See on this subject a paper by Professor Agassiz in the ‘ Annals ’ for
November 1851. — Ed.]

195

the Introduction of New Species.

the zoologist^ may there be buried_, till future revolutions may
raise them in their turn above the waters^ to afford materials for
the study of whatever race of intelligent beings may then have
succeeded us. These considerations must lead us to the con-
clusion^ that our knowledge of the whole series of the former
inhabitants of the earth is necessarily most imperfect and frag-
mentary,— as much so as our knowledge of the present organic
world would be, were we forced to make our collections and
observations only in spots equally limited in area and in number
with those actually laid open for the collection of fossils. Now,
the hypothesis of Professor Forbes is essentially one that assumes
to a great extent the completeness of our knowledge of the whole
series of organic beings which have existed on the earth. This
appears to be a fatal objection to it, independently of all other
considerations. It may be said that the same objections exist
against every theory on such a subject, but this is not neces-
sarily the case. The hypothesis put forward in this paper
depends in no degree upon the completeness of our knowledge
of the former condition of the organic world, but takes what
facts we have as fragments of a vast whole, and deduces from
them something of the nature and proportions of that whole
which we can never know in detail. It is founded upon isolated
groups of facts, recognizes their isolation, and endeavours to
deduce from them the nature of the intervening portions.

Another important series of facts, quite in accordance with,
and even necessary deductions from, the law now developed, are
those of rudimentary organs. That these really do exist, and in
most cases have no special function in the animal (Economy, is
admitted by the first authorities in comparative anatomy. The
minute limbs hidden beneath the skin in many of the snake-like
lizards, the anal hooks of the boa constrictor, the complete series
of jointed finger-bones in the paddle of the Manatus and whale,
are a few of the most familiar instances. In botany a similar
class of facts has been long recognized. Abortive stamens,
rudimentary floral envelopes and undeveloped carpels, are of the
most frequent occurrence. To every thoughtful naturalist the
question must arise. What are these for ? What have they to
do with the great laws of creation ? Do they not teach us
something of the system of Nature ? If each species has been
created indc])cndently, and without any necessary relations with
pre-existing s})ecics, what do these rudiments, these apparent
im})crfections mean ? There must be a cause for them ; they
must be the necessary results of some great natural law. Now,
if, as it lias been endeavoured to be shown, the. great law which
has regulated the peopling of the earth with animal and vege-
table life is, that every change shall be gradual ; that no new

196 Dr. T. Wright on some new species of Hemipedina.

creature shall be formed widely ditfering from anything before
existing ; that in this, as in everything else in Nature, there shall
be gradation and harmony, — then these rudimentary organs are
necessary, and are an essential part of the system of Nature.
Ere the higher Vertebrata were formed, for instance, many steps
were required, and many organs had to undergo modifications
from the rudimental condition in which only they had as yet
existed. We still see remaining an antitypal sketch of a wing
adapted for flight in the scaly flapper of the penguin, and limbs
first concealed beneath the skin, and then weakly protruding
from it, were the necessary gradations before others should be
formed fully adapted for locomotion. Many more of these
modifications should we behold, and more complete series of
them, had we a view of all the forms which have ceased to live.
The great gaps that exist between fishes, reptiles, birds and
mammals would then, no doubt, be softened down by inter-
mediate groups, and the whole organic world would be seen to
be an unbroken and harmonious system.

It has now been shown, though most briefly and imperfectly,
how the law that Every species has come into existence coin-
cident both in time and space with a pre-existing closely allied
species” connects together and renders intelligible a vast number
of independent and hitherto unexplained facts. The natural
system of arrangement of organic beings, their geographical
distribution, their geological sequence, the phsenomena of repre-
sentative and substituted groups in all their modifications, and
the most singular peculiarities of anatomical structure, are all
explained and illustrated by it, in perfect accordance with the
vast mass of facts which the researches of modern naturalists
have brought together, and, it is believed, not materially opposed
to any of them. It also claims a superiority over previous
hypotheses, on the ground that it not merely explains, but
necessitates what exists. Granted the law, and many of the
most important facts in Nature could not have been otherwise,
but are almost as necessary deductions from it, as are the elliptic
orbits of the planets from the law of gravitation.

Sarawak, Borneo, Feb. 1855.

XIX. — On some new Species 0/ Hemipedina from the Oolites,
By Thomas Wright, M.D., F.B.S.E.

Since the publication of our paper in the August Number of
the ^Annals and Magazine of Natural History,^ on the new
genus Hemipedina and the Synopsis of the species included

Dr. T. Wright on some new species of Hemipedina. 197

therein, our friend S. P. Woodward, Esq., has kindly sent us
three new English forms of this group, one found in the cal-
careous grit of Berkshire, and two in the Kimmeridge clay of
Bucks ; our friend Thomas Davidson, Esq., has likewise com-
municated a figure of one found by M. Bouchard Chantereaux
some years ago in the Kimmeridge clay of Boulogne-sur-Mer ;
we lose no time therefore in recording these additions to the
Oolitic fauna, at the same time returning our hearty thanks
to the kind friends who have so liberally communicated the
specimens.

A. Species from the Calcareous Grit.

Hemipedina Marchamensis, Wright, nov. sp.

Test large, and depressed ; ambulacral areas narrow, with two
rows of marginal tubercles, nearly as large as those of the
interambulacra, extending regularly and without interruption
from the peristome to the apical disc, and separated by a zig-
zag line of small granules down the centre, the areas retain-
ing a nearly uniform width throughout ; poriferous zones form
a slightly waved line, from every three pairs of pores being set
slightly oblique to the line of the zones ; interambulacral areas
four times the width of the ambulacral, with eight rows of
tubercles at the equator, each tubercular plate supporting
four nearly equal-sized tubercles abreast ; bosses prominent ;
areolas surrounded w'ith incomplete circlets of small granules ;
mouth-opening less than one-third the diameter of the test ;
peristome unequally decagonal; five jaws, in situ, each jaw
having two broad flat central ridges, and two oblique mar-
ginal ridges with two intervening depressions ; teeth long, and
obliquely truncated at the points.

Dimensions. — Transverse diameter inches; height
inch ?

Localitij. — The calcareous grit of Marcham, Berks.

Coll. The lion. R. Marsham.

B. Species from the Kimmeridge Clay.

Hemipedina Morrisii, Wright, nov. sp.

Form and size unknown ; test small ; ambulacral areas with two
rows of regular prominent marginal tubercles gradually dimi-
nishing in size from the base to the apex of the areas, and
separated by a zigzag line of small granules down the centre ;
poriferous zones slightly waved ; pores large, the pairs sepa-
rated by thin septa ; interambulacral areas more than three

198 Dr. T. Wright on some new species of Hemipedina.

times the width of the ambulacra!, with six rows of tubercles
at the equator, each plate supporting three nearly equal-sized
tubercles abreast ; bosses prominent ; areolas surrounded by
incomplete circlets of small granules.

Spines referred to this species long, round, slender, and sculp-
tured with delicate longitudinal lines ; articulating cavity small,
with a smooth rim ; head thick, with a thin prominent finely
milled ring ; body long, much more slender than the head.
Locality. — Kimmeridge clay, Hartwell, Bucks.

Coll. Professor Morris.

Hemipedina Cunning tonii, Wright, nov. sp.

Form unknown, upwards of an inch in diameter; ambulacral
areas with two marginal rows of very small tubercles rather
irregular in their mode of arrangement ; poriferous zones
nearly straight ; interambulacral areas three times the width
of the ambulacra], with two rows of tubercles situated on the
zonal half of the tubercular plates, leaving thereby a wide in-
tertubercular space which is filled with 8 to 10 rows of small
granules; the bosses large and prominent, and the tubercles
of a proportionate size; areolas surrounded by a complete
circlet of small granules the same size as those filling the
middle of the areas.

Locality. — Kimmeridge clay near Aylesbury. Collected by
Professor Morris.

Coll. British Museum.

Foreign Species from the Kimmeridge Clay.

Hemipedina Bouchardii, Wright, nov. sp.

Test large, depressed ; ambulacral areas with two rows of re-
gular marginal tubercles extending without interruption from
the peristome to the apical disc, and separated by a median
zigzag line of small granules ; poriferous zones straight ; inter-
ambulacral areas three times the width of the ambulacral, wuth
ten rows of tubercles at the equator, each tubercular plate hav-
ing five tubercles abreast ; areolas surrounded by circlets of
small granules; spines slender, sculptured with longitudinal
lines.

Dimensions. — Transverse diameter 2y"\j inches ?

Locality. — Kimmeridge clay, Boulogne-sur-Mer. Collected
by ]M. Bouchard Chantereaux.

Coll. M. Bouchard Chantereaux at Boulogne.

In the present state of our knowledge it would be premature

Short Biographical Notice of the late Dr. Johnston. 199

to suggest subdivisions, but it is clear that we have two distinct
types in the genus Hemipedina : 1st, those with two rows of
large tubercles, and a wide intertubercular granulated space in
the middle of the interambulacral areas; and 2nd, those with
four, six, eight or ten rows of nearly equal-sized tubercles in
these areas at the equator.

XX. — Short Biographical Notice of the late Dr. Johnston of
Ber wick-up on- Tweed.

Not a twelvemonth has elapsed since our scientific public had
to mourn the premature death of one of the most distinguished
and amiable of its members. Cut off at an age when most men
are but beginning to distinguish themselves, at a period of his
life when he might have been expected to have even exceeded
his previous admirable performances, and at the moment of his
attaining a position in which his talents and kindliness of dispo-
sition might have exerted a most beneficial influence upon the
rising generation of naturalists, the death of Edward Eorbes pro-
duced a unanimous feeling of heart-felt regret amongst all who
had received profit from his works, or enjoyed the pleasure of
his personal acquaintance.

Scarcely nine months after the remains of Professor Forbes
were carried to the tomb, we have again to lament the loss of
another of the most distinguished naturalists of our country.
Dr. George Johnston of Berwick-upon-Tweed ; and although
the light of this eminent man has not been extinguished at its
noon, like that of the late Professor of Natural History at Edin-
burgh, he was still so far from the traditionally allotted period
of human existence, and his most recent writings showed that
the freshness and originality of his mind were so far from being
impaired, that none could have anticipated that he was so soon
to be taken from amongst us.

But it is not only as an eminent naturalist that Dr. Johnston
has a claim upon the regard of the readers of the ^ Annals,^ — he
possesses another title to their attention : from the first establish-
ment of this Journal he was one of its conductors, and to the last
moment of his existence he took an active interest in its pro-
gress. On this account, therefore, as well as from the interest
which must necessarily attach to the history of a man of such
great and varied attainments, we cannot allow his death to jiass
without consecrating a few pages to his memory, by recording
the leading events of his quiet but eminently usciul life.

Dr. .lolmston was born at Simprin in Berwickshire on the
20th of July 1797. His father was a farmer, and was descended
from a family, many members of which were well known on the

2Q0 Short Biographical Notice of the late

borders as eminent agriculturists. Whilst he was still a child
his father removed to Ilderton, near Wooler, in Northumberland,
and here his earliest years were spent. His father died early,
and Mrs. Johnston carried on the business successfully after his
decease.

George Johnston, the subject of the ])resent notice, was sent
to school first in Kelso, and afterwards to the Grammar School
of Berwick, where he was under the tuition of Mr. Gardiner, a
teacher of some celebrity, who died at a very advanced age only
a few months before his gifted pupil. From Berwick he went to
the High School at Edinburgh, and in* the year 1812 or 1813
commenced his medical studies in that city as a pupil of the
celebrated Dr. Abercrombie. During his stay in Edinburgh he
lived with Dr. Macrie, the distinguished historian and biographer
of John Knox, who was a distant relation of his.

At the conclusion of his apprenticeship he became a member
of the College of Surgeons, and afterwards visited London for
the sake of hospital practice. Here he also studied under the
celebrated anatomist Mr. Brooks. On his return to the North
he commenced practice at Belford, a small town in Northum-
berland, where he met with the amiable and accomplished lady
whom he afterwards married, and to whose ready pencil so many
of his subsequent works are indebted for most of their illus-
trations.

In the year 1819 Dr. Johnston took his degree as Doctor of
Medicine, and soon afterwards became a Fellow of the College
of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He then removed to Berwick, where
he established himself as a physician and speedily became one of
the leading medical men in that town. Here he remained, de-
voting himself with unremitting application to the duties of his
profession, until his death, which took place on the 30th of July
last, at the age of 58.

The immediate cause of Dr. Johnston^s death was paralysis,
but he appears to have been indisposed for a considerable time.
About two years ago, when visiting some patients in the country,
he was exposed to a heavy shower of rain, which caused a severe
cold, followed by general debility, from which he never entirely
recovered. Some weeks since, he w as advised to seek repose and
relaxation from the anxious duties of his profession at the well-
known Bridge of Allan, and it was here, about a fortnight before
his death, that he exj)crienced the attack under wdiich he finally
succumbed. He w^as removed to his residence in Berwick, where
he shortly afteiwvards fell into a state of unconsciousness, wdiich
lasted with but few and brief intervals until, on the morning of
the 30th July, he calmly passed from the scene of his labours.

Upon Dr. Johnston^s scientific merits w^e need scarcely dw^ell

201

Dr, Johnston of Berwick-upon- Tweed.

at any great length. His published works, which must be well
known to our readers, are all of the highest excellence, and some
of them, although limited to British natural history, have been
hailed as standard works upon the subjects of which they treat,
even in distant countries.

Dr. Johnston was, however, essentially a British naturalist.
Inspired by an ardent love for the beautiful district in which he
was born and in which his boyish days were passed, he early
devoted his attention to the investigation of the natural objects
which this presented to him in profusion ; and it is probably to
this concentration of his energies upon one particular object,
that he has been enabled, in the midst of the arduous and en-
grossing duties of a large medical practice, to do so much good
service to science, and to raise an enduring monument to his
own talents and perseverance.

His researches were by no means confined to a single branch
of natural history, but Botany and the study of the marine
Invertebrate animals occupied the greater part of his attention.
One of his first works is a Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed, pub-
lished in 1829 and 1831, and about the same time he com-
menced a series of articles called Illustrations in British Zoo-
logy in ^Loudon^s Magazine of Natural History/ In the same
periodical he also published a Natural History of the Mollusca
in an epistolary form, which was the foundation of the admi-
rable ^ Introduction to Conchology/ published many years after,
in 1850. The ^ History of British Zoophytes,^ which has passed
through two editions, and the ‘ History of British Sponges/ are
further contributions to the zoology of this country, whilst his
last published work, the ^ Botany of the Eastern Borders,^ is un-
doubtedly the most charming botanical work in our language.
At the time of his death Dr. Johnston had just completed a
Catalogue of the British non-parasitical Worms for the British
Museum, which will shortly be published by the Trustees of
that establishment.

In the accuracy of his observations and the clearness with
which he describes them, he is probably without a rival amongst
British zoologists since the days of Montagu ; whilst, by a happy
geniality of mind, he was enabled to invest sul)jects, apparently
the driest in the world, with a peculiar charm, which renders
many of his scientific works and jjapers interesting even to the
general reader. The kindliness of disposition which is almost
a necessary concomitant of this tone of mind, rendered him uni-
versally beloved in the scene of his professional labours ; and, to
use the words of a writer in the ^ Berwick Advertiser,^ He
never visited a house for the first time in his medical capacity
which he did not leave as a friend.^^ This general popularity

Ann. ^ May. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 14

202 Short Biographical Notice of the late Dr, Johnston.

was employed by him for the advancement of his favourite
science_, and he was the founder and first President of the Ber-
wickshire Naturalists^ Club, an association which has already
given to the world some valuable papers upon the natural history
of that district, and which has served as the model upon which
similar societies have been established in other parts of the
country, from the united labours of which we may expect great
advantage to the progress of British zoology. In fact, both
from his published works and the manner in which his per-
sonal influence was employed, we cannot but regard Dr. John-
ston as one of those to whom natural history will be most in-
debted for its advancement in this country. He took great
interest in the establishment and progress of the Mechanics^
Institute in his town, and delivered many highly successful
lectures there, not only on different, branches of natural history,
but also on the local traditions and antiquities of the Eastern
Border, which had occupied a considerable share of his attention.

Another circumstance, which doubtless contributed greatly to
his popularity amongst his neighbours, was the active part which
he most unexpectedly took in public business during the stormy
period of agitation in favour of Municipal and Parliamentary
Reform, which intervened between the years 1830 and 1835.
Well known as the accomplished physician and the studious phi -
losopher, he appears rather to have astonished the good people of
Berwick by a display of judgment and practical ability for which
they probably had not given him credit. He speedily, however,
took a prominent place in the politics of his native district, and
was elected one of the members of the first Town Council in
1835. In this position he remained until the year 1850, and
in the course of that period was three times elected to the office
of Mayor, and twice to that of Sheriff. He was also for ten
years an Alderman of Berwick. In public life he exhibited the
same love of truth and kindliness of disposition which characterized
him in private, and as a man of science ; his judgment appears
to have been greatly relied on by his colleagues, whilst his tact
and good-nature enabled him to command constant respect and
affection.

The best proof of this is to be found in the universal regret
of his fellow-townsmen at the decease of one whom they justly
regarded as the most distinguished ornament of their town.^^
The Mayor and Members of the Corporation, the Town Council
and the members of the medical profession all followed his re-
mains to the grave ; the shops were closed during-the ceremony
of interment, and a great crowd of the townspeople assembled to
witness the performance of the last rites over the body of one
who had for many years been the object of their love and
respect.

Bibliographical Notices.

203

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

The British Flora, comprising the Fhcenogamous or Flowering Plants
and the Ferns. The 7th edition, with Additions and Corrections,
&c. By Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H., D.C.L. &c. &c.,
and George xA. Walker Arnott, LL.D. &c. &c. Longman
and Co. 18.o5. Pp. 618.

Having reviewed at considerable length the sixth edition of the
‘ British Flora,’ we do not think it necessary to say much about the
seventh. The plan of the w'ork is unchanged, as are also for the
most part the principles and opinions of its authors ; nor have the
last five years been by any means fruitful of discoveries in British
botany. The remarks on species have frequently been abbreviated ;
many doubts have been more cautiously worded, and the imaginary
grounds for them judiciously suppressed. Nearly every page still
reminds us that we have to do with men more conversant with books
and herbaria than with living uncultivated nature, who prefer tradi-
tion to observation, have a morbid horror of whatever is difficult to
discover or to describe, and look down with something very like
contempt on the habitual study of the vegetation of our own islands.
But we are glad to recognize likewise sundry indications of an in-
creasing disposition to do justice to the present race of botanists :
and occasionally, as before, the Authors’ extensive knowledge has
enabled them to throw light on difficult questions, especially of syno-
nymy. It is a pity that they have not examined more carefully the
records of English periodical and other works. This remark applies
particularly to the distribution of plants. They give so many loca-
lities that the omission of others in different districts destroys the
value of their information as far as botanical geography is concerned.
Mr. H. C. Watson’s ^ Cybele Britannica ’ alone (mentioned, by the
way, in the Introduction) would have supplied many untoward
omissions. We may mention in particular the case of the Cumber-
land habitat for Lychnis alpina, respecting which the old sceptical
observation remains, though Mr. Daniel Oliver (Cyb. Brit. hi. 160)
has lately verified its genuineness. Perhaps their rashness in dealing
with the foreign distribution of plants as bearing on questions of
British nativity may be excused by the comparative neglect with
which this interesting subject has been treated : but it is strange
that they do not see, as we formerly pointed out (vi. 383), that their
argument against the nativity of Thesium humile would be equally
valid against that of T. humifiisum ; and this is by no means a solitary
case. On the subject of hybrids, their extreme anxiety to repudiate
new species has led them into a curious inconsistency. ' In the
Introduction (p. x.), Linnaeus’s maxim that no permanently fertile
hybrids can be produced between truly distinct species is adopted,
apparently on the authority of his ipse dixit ; and from this maxim,-
in conjunction with Dr. Bell Salter’s experiments respecting the
supposed (ieum intermedium, the s{)ccific identity of G. rirale and
(i. urhunum is deduced : whereas we are still told, in a note to the

14*

204

Bibliographical Notices.

genus Rabus (p. 1 22), that the Authors “ are almost quite convinced ”
that the modern British supposed species (of the fruticose section)
are ail mere varieties approaching on the one side to R. idceus^
on the other to R. saxatilis, with both of which many fertile and
permanent hybrids may have been formed, and are still forming.
Can it be that the next edition will exhibit Raspberries, Blackberries,
and Stoneberries (if we may coin a name) as the a, /3, and y of one
capricious bush ? Surely this is carrymg zeal against neomaniacs
rather too far. In one case however we cannot refuse assent to the
Authors’ suspicions of hybridity ; — we mean, that of the British
Rwnex pratensis : we have met with it in many places, but always
sparingly, and in company with both R. cnspus and R. obtusifolius.

It may be well to subjoin a few remarks on different species. The
descriptions of the “varieties” of Thalictrum minus are considerably
amended ; but our Authors have an unhappy knack of omitting the
most important characters of species which they wish to combine :
thus in this case they do not allude to the direction of the branches
of the panicle. A remark about Ranunculus hederaceus becoming
R. coenosus near Glasgow through an artificial rise of temperature
deserves attention ; but we suspect the true R. coenosus was not seen
there at all, — a solution applicable to many other cases. Of plants
formerly combined, Fumaria parviflora and Vaillantii, Jjinaria re-
pens and sepium (Alim.), Sparganium natans and minimum, Triti-
cum junceum and laxum are separated with greater or less degrees of
doubt. Poly gala austriaca, [Hypericum anglicum or hircinuni],

Achillea tanacetifolia, [Cicendia Candollei], Salix acutifolia, Epi-
pogon Gmelini, Potamogeton trichoides, Naias flexilis, Gymnogramma
leptophylla, and Polypodium alpestre appear for the first time, some
of them of course under a similar qualification : by some strange
carelessness. Allium tricpietrum and Carex brizoides are altogether
omitted. The confusion among the Violce is not yet quite removed :
it is satisfactory to learn that our Authors meant by V. lactea in the 6th
edition solely the plant which they now follow Mr. Babington in calling
V. stagnina ; but they are quite mistaken in supposing that what
that gentleman calls its ‘ rhizoma * is altogether caused by the soil,
for the narrow-leaved var. lancifolia of the allied species grows by
its side with stems altered and elongated by the soil and yet quite
different. New but unsatisfactory arguments are introduced to de-
fend the misapplication of the name V. canina : if by that name
Linnseus wholly or chiefly meant Smith’s V. favicornis, its English
origin has nothing to do with the matter ; it would be mere English
obstinacy to suppose that our popular vernacular usage is to give
the law to continental science. We confess we should not be un-
willing to see the name (in its Latin form) dropped altogether. The
short synopsis of Rubi, exhibiting Dr. Bell Salter’s views five years
ago, is reprinted verbatim in the body of the work. The account of
the Hieracia has been revised and enlarged with the aid of notes and
specimens from Messrs. Backhouse and Baker, but is still merely
provisional : we gladly echo the wish that the former gentleman may
speedily publish a full account of his views. The Authors “ think

205

Royal Society,

there cau be no doubt that Rotamogeton fiahellatus, Bab., is what
Cbamisso and Schlechtendal consider the common form of P. pecti-
natus is it impertinent to ask whether they have ever seen
Mr. Babington’s plant at all ? Again, have they any reason to be-
lieve that Carex Bavalliana has been again found near Bath ? It
seems unquestionable that the former station was destroyed long ago,
but it is here spoken of as if still existing. Once more, may we sug-
gest that the remarks on the varieties of Asplenium Jilix-foemina re-
quire correction ? there is now an inextricable confusion of the pre-
sent and the former wording.

We ought not to close this notice without again bearing witness to
the richness of knowledge and courtesy of tone which distinguish
the ‘ British Flora.’ It may not be of absolute authority on contro-
verted questions ; but, besides acting as a useful check on those
whose faults are of an opposite tendency, it supplies a large fund of
valuable information not otherwise accessible.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ROYAL SOCIETY.

April 26, 1855. — Sir Benjamin Brodie, Bart., V.P., in the Chair.

“ Some Observations on the Ova of the Salmon, in relation to
the distribution of Species ; in a letter addressed to Charles Darwin,
Esq., M.A., V.P.R.S. &c.” By John Davy, M.D., F.R.SS. Lond.
& Edinb.

In this paper the author describes a series of experiments on the
ova of the Salmon, made with the intent of ascertaining their power
of endurance under a variety of circumstances without loss of life,
with the expectation suggested by Mr. Darwin, that the results might
possibly throw some light on the geographical distribution of fishes.

The details of the experiments are given in five sections. The
results obtained were the following : —

1 . That the ova of the Salmon in their advanced stage can be ex-
posed only for a short time to the air if dry, at ordinary tempera-
tures, without loss of life ; but for a considerable time, if the tempe-
rature be low, and if the air be moist ; the limit in the former case
not having exceeded an hour, whilst in the latter it has exceeded
many hours.

2. That the vitality of the ova was as well preserved in air satu-
rated with moisture, as it would have been had they been in water.

.‘3. That the ova may be included in ice without loss of vitality,
provided the temperature is not so low as to freeze them.

4. 'I’hat the ova, and also the fry recently produced, can bear for
some time a temperature of al)out 80° or 82° in water, without
materially sufiering; but not without loss of life, if raised above 84°
or 85°.

5. 'I'hal the ova and young fry arc sj)cedily killed by a solution

206

Royal Society ; —

of common salt nearly of the specific gravity of sea-water, viz. 1026;
and also by a weaker solution of specific gravity 1016.

Finally, in reference to the inquiry regarding the distribution of
the species of fishes, he expresses his belief that some of the results
may be of useful application, especially those given in the second
and third sections ; inferring, that as in moist air, the vitality of the
ova is capable of being long sustained, they may during rain or fog
be conveyed from one river or lake to another adhering to some part
of an animal, such as a Heron or Otter, and also during a time of
snow or frost ; and, further, that other of the results may be useful
towards determining the fittest age of ova for transport for the pur-
pose of stocking rivers, and likewise as a help to explain the habitats,
and some of the habits of the migratory species.

“ Brief sketch of the Anatomy of a new genus of pelagic Gaste-
ropoda, named Jasonilla.” By John Denis Macdonald, Esq., R.N.

This communication refers to a remarkable genus of pelagic Gas-
teropoda, characterized, like Macgillivraya and Cheletropis, by the
presence of ciliated cephalic appendages, but having, as in the pre-
sent instance, a beautifully transparent, cartilaginous and perfectly
symmetrical shell. The author has seen but one species, which was
frequently taken between Port Jackson and the Isle of Pines.

The shell resembles that of Argonauta in shape, is less than one-
eighth of an inch in diameter, and the little animal, when fully re-
tracted, occupies but a small portion of its cavity. The margin of
the mantle is of considerable thickness, containing loosely-packed
cells, similar to those of the middle or operculigerous lobe of many
Pteropods, About eight ciliated arms, identical in character with those
of Macgillivraya, &c., encircle the head, including the mouth, which
is furnished with two massive lateral jaws bearing sharp prominent
dental processes on the anterior border, and with a pair of simple
tentacula having a dark ocellus at the outer side of the base of each.
A well-formed foot arises by a narrow pedicle from the under surface
of The body, immediately behind the ciliated collar. The creeping
disc is elongated in form, subquadrate in front, and tapers off gradu-
ally towards the posterior extremity. The latter part, correspond-
ing to the operculigerous lobe of other species, is speckled with
little clusters of dark pigment-cells, disposed so much after the
manner of those of the ciliated arms as to lead to the impression that
it is one of the same series, or whorl of organs, to use botanical
phraseology. A pectinate gill extends beneath the mantle, along
the anterior third of the dorsal region, lying, as in most cases, in
advance of the heart. The visceral mass of the body, though elon-
gated, Is but slightly curved upon itself, not exceeding half a turn.
The lobules of the liver, distended with large amber-coloured oil-
globules, may be distinctly seen through the transparent outer enve-
lope and shell. Single spherical otolithes are contained in the
acoustic sacs, and the lingual ribbon is lengthy and flexuous, pre-
senting a row of uncini on each side, with a series of minute
denticulations, pointing backwards on their anterior and posterior

Dr. Carpenter on the genus Orbitolites. 207

borders. The uncini of opposite sides interlock with one another
so closely as to conceal the rudimentary segments of the rachis
almost completely. The shell is cartilaginous, transparent, planor-
bicular, and perfectly symmetrical, presenting four rows of minute
conical tuberculations on its convex or dorsal surface. The gyri of
the involute nucleus are so curved as to leave a central perforation ;
the mouth of the tube encroaches considerably on the last whorl,
and the outer lip is deeply notched between the two lateral rows of
tubercles. The author has named the species Jasonilla WLeayiana.
The paper is accompanied with illustrative figures.

June 14 The Lord Wrottesley, President, in the Chair.

“ Researches on the Foraminifera. — Part I. General Introduction,
and Monograph of the Genus Orbitolites ^ By William B. Car-
penter, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. &c.

The group of Foraminifera being one as to the structure and
physiology of which our knowledge is confessedly very imperfect,
and for the natural classification of which there is consequently no
safe basis, the author has undertaken a careful study of some of its
chief typical forms, in order to elucidate (so far as may be pos-
sible) their history as living beings, and to determine the value of
the characters which they present to the systematist. In the pre-
sent memoir, he details the structure of one of the lowest of these
types, Orbitolites, with great minuteness; his object having been,
not merely to present the results of his investigations, but also to
exhibit the method by which they have been attained ; that method
essentially consisting in the minute examination and comparison of
a large number of specimens.

The Orhitoliie has been chiefly known, until recently, through the
abundance of its fossil remains in the Eocene beds of the Paris
basin ; but the author, having been fortunate enough to obtain an
extensive series of recent specimens, chiefly from the coast of
Australia, has applied himself rather to these as his sources of in-
formation ; especially as the animals of some of them have been suf-
ficiently well preserved by immersion in spirits, to permit their cha-
racters to be well made out.

As might have been anticij)ated from our knowledge of their con-
geners, these animals belong to the Rkizopodous type ; the soft body
consisting of sarcode, without digestive cavity or organs of any kind ;
and being made up of a number of segments, equal and similar to
each other, which are arranged in concentric zones round a central
nucleus. This body is invested by a calcareous shell, in the sub-
stance of which no minute structure can be discerned, but which
has the form of a circular disk, marked on the surface by concentric
zones of closed cells, and having minute pores at the margin.
Starting from the central nucleus, — which consists of a pear-shaped
mass ot sarcode, nearly surrounded by a larger masS connected with
it by a peduncle, — the development of the Oibitolite may take j)lace
cither upon a simple, or upon a complex type. In the former (which

208

Royal Society ; —

is indicated by the circular or oval form of the cells which show
themselves at the surfaces of the disk, and by the singleness of the
row of marginal pores), each zone consists of but a single layer of
segments, connected together by a single annular stolon of sarcode ;
and the nucleus is connected with the first zone, and each zone with
that which surrounds it, by radiating peduncles proceeding from this
annulus, which, when issuing from the peripheral zone, will pass out-
wards through the marginal pores, probably in the form of pseudo-
podia. In the complex type, on the other hand (which is indicated
by the narrow and straight -sided form of the superficial cells, and
by the multiplication of the horizontal rows of marginal pores), the
segments of the concentric zones are elongated into vertical columns
with imperfect constrictions at intervals ; instead of a single annular
stolon, there are two, one at either end of these columns, between
which, moreover, there are usually other lateral communications ;
whilst the radiating peduncles, which connect one zone with another,
are also multiplied, so as to lie in several planes. Moreover, be-
tween each annular stolon and the neighbouring surface of the disk,
there is a layer of superficial segments, distinct from the vertical
columns, but connected with the annular stolons ; these occupy the
narrow elongated cells just mentioned, which constitute two super-
ficial layers in the disks of this type, between which is the interme-
diate layer occupied by the columnar segments.

These two types seem to be so completely dissimilar, that they
could scarcely have been supposed to belong to the same species ;
but the examination of a large number of specimens shows, that
although one is often developed to a considerable size upon the
simple type, whilst another commences even from the centre upon
the complex type, yet that many individuals which begin life, and
form an indefinite number of annuli, upon the simple type, then take
on the more complex mode of development.

The author then points out what may be gathered from observa-
tion and from deduction respecting the Nutrition and mode of
Growth of these creatures. He shows that the former is probably
accomplished, as in other Rhizopods, by the entanglement and draw-
ing in of minute vegetable particles, through the instrumentality of
the pseudopodia ; and that the addition of new zones probably takes
place by the extension of the sarcode through the marginal pores,
so as to form a complete annulus, thickened at intervals into seg-
ments, and narrowed between these into connecting stolons, the
shell being probably produced by the calcification of their outer por-
tions. And this view he supports by the results of the examination
of a number of specimens, in which reparation of injuries has taken
place. Regarding the Reproduction of Orbitolites, he is only able
to suggest that certain minute spherical masses of sarcode, with
which some of the cells are filled, may be gemmules ; and that other
bodies, enclosed in firm envelopes, which he has more rarely met
with, but which seem to break their way out of the superficial cells,
may be ova. But on this part of the inquiry, nothing save observa-
tion of the animals in their living state can give satisfactory results.

209

Mr. J. G. Jeftreys on British Foraminifera.

The regular type of structure just described is subject to nume-
rous variations, into a minute description of which the author next
enters; the general results being, that neither the shape nor dimen-
sions of the entire disk, the size of the nucleus or of the cells form-
ing the concentric zones, the surface-markings indicating the shape
of the superficial cells, nor the early mode of growth (which, though
typically cyclical, sometimes approximates to a spiral), can serve as
distinctive characters of species ; since, whilst they are all found to
present most remarkable differences, these differences, being strictly
gradational, can only be considered as distinguishing individuals.
It thus follows that a very wide range of variation exists in this
type ; so that numerous forms which would be unhesitatingly
accounted specifically different, if only the most divergent examples
were brought into comparison, are found, by the discovery of those
intermediate links which a large collection can alone supply, to be-
long to one and the same specific type.

After noticing some curious monstrosities, resulting from an un-
usual outgrowth of the central nucleus, the author proceeds to in-
quire into the essential character of the Orbitolite, and its relations
to other types of structure. He places it among the very lowest
forms of Foraminifera; and considers that it approximates closely
to sponges, some of which have skeletons not very unlike the cal-
careous net- work which intervenes between its fleshy segments. Of
the species which the genus has been reputed to include, he states
that a large proportion really belong to the genus Orbitoides, whilst
others are but varieties of the ordinary type. This last is the light
in which he would regard the Orbitolites complanata of the Paris
basin ; which differs from the fully-developed Orbitolite of the
Australian coast in some very peculiar features (marking a less com-
plete evolution), which are occasionally met with among recent
forms, and which are sometimes distinctly transitional towards the
perfect type.

The author concludes by calling attention to some general prin-
cij)les, which arise out of the present inquiry, but which are appli-
cable to all departments of Natural History, regarding the kind and
extent of comparison on which alone specific distinctions can be
securely based.

June 21. — The Lord Wrottesley, President, in the Chair.

“ Notes on British Foraminifera.” By J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq.,
F.Il.S.

Having, during a great many years, directed my attention to the
recent Foraminifera which inhabit our own shores, I venture to offer
a few observations on this curious group, as Ur. Carpenter, who has
favoured the Society with an interesting and valuable memoir on
the subject, seems not to have had many oj)portunities of studying
the animals in the recent state.

Kather more than twenty years ago I communicated to the Lin-
nscan Society a j)apcr on the sulqect, containing a diagnosis and
figures of all the species. This i)aper was read and ordered to be

210

Royal Society : —

printed in the Transactions of that Society ; but it was withdrawn
by me before publication, in consequence of my being dissatisfied
with D’Orbigny’s theory (which I had erroneously adopted), that
the animals belonged to the Cephalopoda ; and my subsequent ob-
servations were confirmed by the theory of Dujardin. I have since
placed all my drawings and specimens at the disposal of Mr. Wil-
liamson of Manchester, who has given such a good earnest of what
he can do in elucidating the natural history of this group, by his
papers on Lagena and the Foraminiferous mud of the Levant.

The observations which I have made on many hundred recent and
living specimens of various species, fully confirm Dr. Carpenter’s
view as to the simple and homogeneous nature of the animal. His
idea of their reproduction by gemmation is also probably correct ;
although I cannot agree with him in considering the granules which
are occasionally found in the cells as ova. These bodies I have fre-
quently noticed, and especially in the Lagenoe ; but they appeared
to constitute the entire mass, and not merely a part of the animal.
I am inclined to think they are only desiccated portions of the ani-
mal, separated from each other in consequence of the absence of any
muscular or nervous structure. It may also be questionable if the
term “ova” is rightly applicable to an animal which has no distinct
organs of any kind. Possibly the fry may pass through a metamor-
phosis, as in the case of the Medusa.

Most of the Foraminifera are free, or only adhere by their pseudo-
podia to foreign substances. Such are the Lagena of Walker, Nodo-
saria, Vorticialis and Textularia, and the Miliola of Lamarck. The
latter has some, although a very limited, power of locomotion ; which
is effected by exserting its pseudopodia to their full length, attach-
ing itself by them to a piece of seaweed, and then contracting them
like india-rubber, so as to draw the shell along with them. Some
of the acephalous mollusks do the same by means of their byssus.
This mode of progression is, however, exceedingly slow ; and I have
never seen, in the course of twenty-four hours, a longer journey than
a quarter of an inch accomplished by a Miliola, so that, in compari-
son with it, a snail travels at a railroad pace.

Some are fixed or sessile, but not cemented at their base like the
testaceous annelids. The only mode of attachment appears to be a
thin film of sarcose. The Lobatula of Fleming, and the Rosalia and
Planorbulina of D’Orbigny belong to this division.

Dr. Carpenter considers the Foraminifera to be phytophagous, in
consequence of his having detected in some specimens, by the aid
of the microscope, fragments of Diatomacece and other simple forms
of vegetable life. But as I have dredged them alive at a depth of
108 fathoms (which is far below the Laminarian zone), and they are
extremely abundant at from 40 to 70 fathoms, ten miles from land
and beyond the range of any seaweed, it may be assumed without
much difficulty, that many, if not most of them, are zoophagous, and
prey on microscopic animals, perhaps even of a simpler form and
structure than themselves. They are in their turn the food of mol-
lusca, and appear to be especially relished by Dentalium Entale.

211

Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on British Foraminifera.

With respect to Dr. Carpenter’s idea that they are allied to
sponges, I may remark that Polystomella crispa (an elegant and not
uncommon species) has its periphery set round at each segment with
siliceous spicula, like the rowels of a spur. But as there is only one
terminal cell, which is connected with all the others in the interior
by one or more openings for the pseudopodia, the analogy is not
complete, this being a solitary, and the sponge a compound or
aggregate animal.

I believe the geographical range or distribution of species in this
group to be regulated by the same laws as in the Mollusks and other
marine animals. In the gulf of Genoa I have found (as might have
been expected) species identical with those of our Hebridean coast,
and vice versd.

In common with Dr. Carpenter, I cannot help deploring the ex-
cessive multiplication of species in the present day, and I would in-
clude in this regret the unnecessary formation of genera. Another
Linnaeus is sadly wanted to correct this pernicious habit, both at
home and abroad.

The group now under consideration exhibits a great tendency to
variation of form, some of the combinations (especially in the case of
Marginulina) being as complicated and various as a Chinese puzzle.
It is, I believe, undeniable, that the variability of form is in an in-
verse ratio to the development of animals in the scale of Nature.

Having examined thousands (I may say myriads) of these elegant
organisms, I am induced to suggest the following arrangement : —

1. Lagena (Walker) and Entosolenia (Williamson).

2. Nodosaria and Marginulina (D’Orb.), &c.

3. Vorticialis (D’Orb.), Rotalia (Lam.), Lobatula (Flem.), Globi-
gerina (D’Orb.), &c.

4. Textularia (Defrance), Uvigerina (D’Orb.), &c.

5. Milio/a (Lam.), Biloculina (D’Orb.), &c.

This division must, however, be modified by a more extended and
cosmopolitan view of the subject, as I only profess to treat of the
British species. To illustrate MacLeay’s theory of a quinary and
circular arrangement, the case may be put thus.

Lagenadae.

The first family is connected by the typical genus Lagena with
the second, and by Entosolina witli the fifth ; the second is united

212

Linrusan Society : —

with the third through Marginulina ; the third with the fourth
through Glohigerina ; and the fourth with the last through Uvige-
rina.

Whether these singular and little-known animals are Rhizopodes,
or belong to the Amceba, remains yet to be satisfactorily made out.

London, June 18, 1855.

LINN.EAN SOCIETY.

January 16, 1855. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

Read, an extract from a Letter, addressed by the Rev. William
Henry Hawker to the President, dated “ Horndean, Hants, Dec. 11,
1854.” After referring to his previous discovery of Asplenium fon-
tanum in the neighbourhood of his place of residence, Mr. Hawker
proceeds as follows : —

“ My discoveries of the past year are not altogether without
interest. Last year I paid a visit to the English Lakes, and had the
good fortune to find Polystichum Lonchitis growing near Ulleswater.
I brought away one plant and sent a frond to Newman, who, how-
ever, does not mention it in his new Edition. This year (in July)
I went to the Lakes again and had the pleasure of confirming the
above discovery ; and, moreover, on my mentioning it to other col-
lectors, a search was instituted, which has resulted in its turning up
in several new localities in that district, e. g. Helvellyn, Fairfield,
&c. This fern has never before, I believe, been found in the Lake
country. Whilst there this year I went a few days’ botanical
ramble with Mr. Clowes of Windermere, and on one of these days,
whilst clambering on a terrific precipice, I had the delight to find
Aspl. septentrionale growing in such quantity, that I took away I
suppose between 60 and 70 plants and left more than 100, and
here right amongst them I found 2 plants of Asplenium germanicum !
A guide was with me, who found close by Woodsia Ilvensis growing
in some quantity. Three good things were they not, to be growing
on a spot only a few yards square ? It was on an outcrop of iron
ore, which seems to me always to be a good ‘ matrix’ (?) for ferns.
This took place not many miles from Scaw Fell, though not on it. It
was of course plain that the locality had never been before visited
by a botanist. Mr. Clowes found Euphorbia Cyparissias growing on
Whitbarrow Fells in great quantity. I have gathered it on the
mountain limestone of Somersetshire near Wells, and I should think
it will prove to be a true native ; on the continent it is the com-
monest of weeds, especially where there is limestone. I followed
your advice about keeping the Helix Pomatia till the spring, when I
fed them up and kept them till impregnated, and then turned them
out. I’he dry summer was rather against them, but I dare say they
are all right, though I have not searched for them since. 1 have
found another rare shell in the Ashford woods, Clausilia Rolphii — I
think about its fifth or sixth locality in England.

213

Mr. J. Hogg on the common Tunny.

“ Last September and October I took a rapid run on the continent
up the Rhine, — Heidelberg, Baden Baden, Basle, Soleure, Bern,
Interlaken, the Simmenthal, Vevay, Geneva, over the Jura to Dijon,
Fontainebleau, Paris, and home. The season was late ; flowers mostly
over, and deciduous ferns killed down, so that on the Alps I did not
gather Woodsia alpina as I wished. I found on the Jura in one spot
my idiVO\iriX.Q Aspl. fontanum. In the Pine forests of the Alps and
Jura, Polystichum Lonchitis grows in the most wonderful luxuriance ;
I have dried some fronds 22 inches long ! Its appearance is quite
beautiful ; I dried a good deal and brought away some live roots.
Aspl. septentrionale too abounded on the alpine rocks. I found Helix
obvoluta at Heidelberg at the foot of the walls of the Castle amongst
grass, and also at Thun in a wood. Helix Pomatia was very com-
mon and abundant everywhere.”

Read also a Letter addressed to the Secretary by John Hogg,
Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c., dated “ Stockton-on-Tees, December 27th,
1 854,” of which the following is an extract : —

“ Since my return home, I have had an opportunity of learning
more particularly respecting the large fish which was stranded last
September in the Tees Bay ; and I have now not the least doubt
that it was a common Tunny, and that too of a large size. One of
the fishermen who had seen the fish, on cutting it said — the flesh
looked like highly salted bacon, i. e. red with salt or saltpetre. He
described it in size as ‘ being pretty well on to 60 stone,’ which at
8 lbs. to the stone (meat weight) would give 480 lbs. The only
freshly killed Tunny I ever saw was at Palermo ; it was a good-sized
fish and was carried on the shoulders of two strong fishermen, the
one walking a few feet before the other. Pennant describes in his
‘ Brit. Zook’ (edit. 1812), vol. hi. p. 362, one which was caught at
Inverary in 1769, as weighing 460 lbs. This then would probably
be somewhat less than the Tees fish ; and this is further shown by
the following fact —Pennant says the tail ‘ measured 2 feet 7 inches
between tip and tip ’ of its crescent-form. I yesterday measured the
tail of the Tees fish, which gave 2 ft. 8j inches from tip to tip, thus
having l^inch more in the width of the crescent-tail than Pennant’s,
and consequently most likely it was the larger of the two. The
fisherman had well preserved the tail, and it presents a beautiful
specimen of a crescent, and very perfect, each half corresponding in
a very accurate manner with the other. It is covered with a thick,
nearly black skin, and quite smooth. I counted the caudal rays, and
at first I made nineteen on one side and eighteen on the other ; but
on re-counting them I am more satisfied that they are equal, i. e.
eighteen on each side or in each half. Between them 1 noticed most
distinctly ‘ a cartilaginous keel between the sides of the tail,’ as
described by Cuvier in his generic characters of his genus Thynnus.
Moreover, the fisherman (who is a very sensible man and a good
bird-stufl'er) on being shown Mr. Yarrell’s figure of the Common
Tunny, immediately recognized it and pronounced it at once to be
the same fish.”

214

Linncean Society : —

Read, in conclusion, an “ Extract from a Memoir on the Origin
and Development of Vessels in Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledo-
nous Plants.” By Dr. Francisco Freire Allemao of Rio de Janeiro.

Dr. Allemao states that in 1849 he commenced a series of micro-
scopical observations on several points of vegetable anatomy, and in
particular on the origin and development of vessels in the roots of
plants. In 1851 he read before the Vellozian Society of Rio de
Janeiro a memoir in which the most important facts observed by him
were shortly stated, w^hich memoir he revised and published in 1852,
as the third of his “ Botanical Exercises,” in the ‘ Trabalhos da So-
ciedade Velloziana,’ p. 101. In the following year he pursued his
investigations into the growth of vessels in germinating seeds, and
extended them to the next stage in the development both of dicoty-
ledonous and monocotyledonous plants. This inquiry is not yet
completed, but Dr. Allemao transmits the extract communicated by
Mr. Miers, together with a portion of the illustrative drawings, with
the view of ascertaining whether his observations are really, as he
believes them to be, new to science, and whether they are sufficiently
exact.

The drawings represent first, a young plant of Sida carpinifolia,
but little developed, showing the epigeal cotyledons still enveloped
in their seminal integuments. The caulicle (radicle) is linear and
without ramification. Seen under the microscope the nervures of
the cotyledons are found to be composed solely of tracheal vessels,
two of which constituting the midrib are continuous with those of
the caulicle, which are four in number, distinct, entire, straight,
parallel, and equidistant, descending more than half the length of
the caulicle, the lower portion of which does not yet exhibit any
vessels, nor does its radicular bulb show any tendency to form roots.
In a somewhat more developed stage, the nervures of the cotyledons
have their tracheae considerably increased ; the gemmule is seen
under the form of a cellular tumour without vessels ; the four
trachesR of the stem descend parallel to each other as far as the
radicular bulb, and thus constitute the medullary sheath ; no root-
lets are yet observable. A further stage of development exhibits the
same plant after the formation of rootlets, and the development of
one of the leaves of the gemmule. In this stage the cotyledons
have acquired a larger number of nervures ; the nervures of the
primordial leaf consist only of tracheae, two of which forming the
midrib descend by the stem to meet the four cotyledonary tracheae ;
in the stem or primary merithal (radicle of authors) these tracheae
are as yet solitary for two-thirds of the upper portion of their length,
but in the lower third they are accompanied and invested externally
by dotted ducts. At the limit between stem and root where the
rootlets are given off, the tracheae of the stem terminate, and we see
the commencement of the dotted or ligneous vessels, which begin to
ascend in bundles through the stem outside the tracheae and to de-
scend, unaccompanied by tracheae, through the roots and their rami-
fications.

From his investigations Dr. Allemao infers, first, that the tracheae.

Dr. Allemao on the Origin of Vessels in Plants. 215

which are the first vessels formed, derive their origin in the stem
from the vital point in which the leaves originate, whence they ascend,
forming bundles in the leaves, of which they constitute the nervures,
and whence they descend through the stem to form the medullary
sheath. Secondly, that roots do not exist in the embryo, but are
formed in the young plant when, freed from its seminal envelopes, it
penetrates the earth. [This is, however, subject to some exceptions
in cases where the roots begin to sprout while contained within the
seed.] The radicular bulb which is destined to produce them bears
some analogy with the gemmule, and may be considered as a primary
spongiole, through which the plant absorbs nutriment prior to the
production of roots. Thirdly, that the fibrous, ligneous or reticu-
lated vessels are formed posteriorly to the appearance of the tracheae,
their origin being at the vital point from which the roots proceed,
whence they ascend in bundles through the stem until they reach
the extremity of the nervures of the leaves, being always external to
the tracheae, and whence they descend through the root as far as the
extremities of its ramifications, leaving almost always in its centre a
kind of canal filled with cellular tissue, which is a true pith, and com-
municates with the herbaceous envelope by means of medullary rays,
but is not enclosed by tracheae in dicotyledonous plants. Tracheae
are to be found, however, in the roots of nearly all monocotyledonous
plants, or if absent, their place is supplied by mixed or scalariform
vessels. In this exposition of his views Dr. Allemao has gone beyond
what appears on the face of the drawings sent, and has, he is aware,
repeated several well-known facts; what he believes to be new in
them is the extension of two vascular systems in opposite directions,
and their increment at their respective extremities ; in other words,
the projection upwards and downwards of fibres or vascular bundles.
Fourthly, that the radicular branches, as appendicular or radiated
organs, are in their origin perpendicular to the fibres of the stem,
and not continuous with them, contrary to the theory maintained
by Gaudichaud.

The same facts are demonstrated in monocotyledonous plants by
microscopical observations on the young rooting bulbs of Fourcroya
gigantea. A longitudinal section passing through the centre of the
bulb shows, on repeated and careful dissection, that the bulbous
mass is formed of rather dense cellular tissue filled with a viscous
lymph, the cells of which contain much fecula and a large quantity
of raphides or solitary prisms. Of the numerous sheathing and con-
centric leaves, the central one, in its earliest development, is com-
posed only of very fine cellular tissue ; the one next in succession
outwards is still cellular, but beginning to receive tracheal ramifica-
tions, which are the upper extremities of numerous simple tracheae
forming a crown around the vital point which Dr. Allemao regards
as the limit between stem and leaves. These tracheae are very
slender, vermicular or fusiform, with a curvature in the middle, the
convexities of which look towards the centre ; extending uj)wards
they penetrate the leaves in great number running parallel to each
other, and j)assing downwards they cross and become external to

216

Linncean Society : —

the interior bundles taking a flexuose direction. In the succeeding
leaves there are no simple trachera, but numerous tracheae form
bundles running parallel to each other as far as the extremities of
the leaves, and giving off lateral and transverse branches which
anastomose in a very beautiful manner. These vascular bundles
also descend as far as the base of the bulb. Above they are formed
entirely of tracheae ; lower down the tracheae are accompanied on
the outer side by dotted vessels, which extend upwards to penetrate
the leaves and downwards to communicate with the root. In the
roots the vascular system is composed of a certain number of bundles,
parallelly disposed with admirable symmetry, among which are seen
dotted and scalariform vessels, but no true tracheae. A great number
of microscopical observations made on various plants under different
circumstances have confirmed these views, which Dr. Allemao con-
siders unquestionable.

The paper was accompanied by a series of notes by Mr. Miers,
in which, from his knowledge of his antecedent researches, published
in the Proceedings of the Vellozian Society, he states it to have
been the object of Dr. Allemao to test the validity of the theory first
propounded by Du Petit-Thouars, and more recently modified and
supported by Gaudichaud, which maintains, contrary to the views
of Mirbel and others, that all the woody fibres of the stem proceed
from the nascent leaf-buds and thence descend to the radicular ex-
tremity of plants. Dr. Allemao believes that his observations in no
degree tend to support this theory. He takes as an example the
Cucurhita Pepo, in which the dotted vessels are extremely large and
conspicuous. In this plant no reticulated vessels are found in the
last-formed leaves or in the internodes near the termination of the
stem, although they exist in the lower and older leaves. He ob-
served spiral vessels only in the stems and leaves as low as the 9th
or 10th axil from the extremity of each branchlet ; from that point
as low as the 14th and 15 th axils, other vessels are observed in the
stem only ; but below this point he found them in the stem, and
more especially in the leaves, proving, as he believes, that all reticu-
lated and dotted vessels ascend through the stem before they find
their way into the leaves, in the progress of their growth upwards.
He thinks that the formation of a circular tumour in the trunk of
dicotyledonous plants above the line of a ligature tightly tied around
it may be accounted for by reasoning on the facts which he con-
ceives himself to have established, viz. that in the development of
the vascular fibres of the stem, there always exists a vital centre from
which they extend themselves in two opposite directions. This
vital centre may be fixed, moveable, or accidental ; fixed in woody
fibres, moveable in tracheae, and accidental in all adventitious forma-
tions. If, for instance,. we take a cutting of any young branchlet,
in which no natural bud is distinguishable, and plant half of it in the
ground, several adventitious vital points make their appearance, the
lowermost of which give out rootlets, and the uppermost leaf-buds.
In this case, vital points or centres make their appearance in the vital
zone of the cutting, which would never have existed in the natural

Dr. Allemao on the Origin of Vessels in Plants. 217

condition of the branch. Applying this fact to the case of the liga-
ture, he thinks it evident that the cambium or elaborated sap, or
whatever may be the source of the tumour deposited between the
wood and the bark, must assuredly proceed from the leaves towards
the root, and meeting with this obstacle, becomes accumulated there ;
its tendency to organize itself not being distributed, a zone of adven-
titious or occasional vital centres soon appears in that point, whose
two forces are quickly manifested ; the ascending fibres continue to
extend themselves without impediment, while those which should
have descended, unable to overcome the impediment presented to
their further progress, continue to grow, twisting and interlacing
themselves, so as to form a tumour.

Mr. Miers then refers to the differences which Dr. Allemao be-
lieves to exist between his theory of the evolution of each fibre in
opposite directions upwards and downwards, and that of Gaudichaud,
in respect to which he thinks there must be either a misprint or a
complete misapprehension of the views of Gaudichaud, who clearly
traces the source of each bud, not from the point of external growth
(as Dr. Allemao seems to infer), but from the seat of its origin
around the medullary sheath, at the noeud vital or point of de-
parture of each independent ascending and descending system of
vascular fibre. The origin of numerous distinct bud-formations
around the medullary sheath, and the extension of ascending spiral
vessels and of corresponding descending dotted vessels from each of
these separately, are maintained throughout by Gaudichaud in his
“ Recherches Generales” as an essential part of his theory, and mi-
nutely demonstrated in his figures, both in monocotyledonous and
dicotyledonous plants. He even forcibly quotes the same circum-
stances of the intumescence of a stem produced by a ligature, and
the germination of an apparently budless stem, in support of his
views ; between which and those of Dr. Allemao, Mr. Miers is con-
sequently unable to perceive any essential difference.

Mr. Miers further quotes, from early works of Mirbel, the proof
that; as long ago as 1802 and 1809, he accurately depicted and de-
scribed the origin and formation of similar vessels in germinating
seeds of Nelumbo and of the Common Haricot ; and refers to plates by
him in the 5th and 13th volumes of the ‘ Annales du Museum,’
showing the ascending system of spiral vessels in the plumule and
cotyledons, and the descending system of dotted vessels in the
radicle.

Dr. Allemao further states, that although the “ bolbo radicular ” is
always the chief growing point of the radicle, he observed, in Euphor-
biacecBy four other cruciform branches, on the same horizontal plane,
proceeding from this radicle. The same fact was described more
than forty years ago by Auguste de St. Hilaire (yVnn. du Mus. xix.
p. 457) in the germination of a Ranimculaceous plant {Ceratoce^
phalus). In this, besides the main shoot, growing in the same way
as an ordinary exorhizal root, five other branching rootlets are
shown to be produced on one plane, from the collar of the young
root, which make their appearance through lacerations of the ex-
Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol.xvi. 15

218

Linncean Society,

ternal coat. Their earliest indication is in the form of tubercles,
through the investing covering of which these rootlets burst a pass-
age, in all respects similar to the coleorhiza in the germinating em-
bryos of Monocotyledonous plants. The coleorhiza is sometimes
extended to some distance along the rootlet, but in other cases it
forms merely a swelling round its base. The same appearance,
although far from general, was observed by St. Hilaire in the ger-
minating embryos of numerous other exorhizal plants, as Myosurus,
Plantago, Valerianella, Urtica, Senecio, Sonchus, Calendula, Matri-
caria, Veronica, Phaseolus, Medicago, &c. In Tropceolum the radicle,
although exorhizal, exhibits a kind of valve-like opening for the exit
of the plumule, which has been called a coleorhiza : and a somewhat
similar appearance is said to occur in the germination of the seed of
Viscum album ; this, however, Mr. Miers apprehends can refer only
to the coleorhizal mode of bursting of the attenuated expansion of
the thin covering of the albumen which is spread over the growing
radicle.

Dr. Allemao, Mr. Miers adds, here considers the radicle of the
embryo as forming part of the caulicle or stem, and the root as ori-
ginating in the subsequent growth of the embryo, after it is released
from its integuments, and produced by the expansion of the obtuse
extremity of the radicle, which he calls the “gommo and Gaudi-
chaud the radicular bulb. This view was taken by Turpin nearly
twenty years ago, and represented by him, in the germination of
Solanum tuberosum (Mem. Mus. xix. p. 19. t. 1), where all the radi-
cular portion of the embryo is referred to the tigelle or ascending
system, while the true root is represented as beginning from its
sprouting point in the radicular bulb. It has not, however, been
generally countenanced, and Mr. Miers states that he cannot per-
ceive that it has any advantages ever the more generally received
theory which regards the radicle as an elementary root, commencing
from the point of union of the cotyledons and their junction with
the plumule. On the contrary, it is disproved by numberless facts,
and more especially by one to which he lately called the attention
of the Society, in the germination of the embryo of Xanthochymus, as
figured by Dr. Roxburgh ; in which (in addition to the principal root
thrown out at the base of the seed, at the point which Dr. Allemao
would call the radicular bulb) another secondary root is seen pro-
ceeding from the summit of the nucleus out of the ascending collar
or tigelle, immediately below the scales, which appear to be minute
cotyledons, showing that the main body of the nucleus or radicle
belongs to the descending system of the root. It is more natural,
Mr. Miers thinks, to conclude, in the case cited by Dr. Allemao,
that the main descending shoot, growing out of the radicular bulb,
and also the subsequent coleorhizal rootlets, are productions of that
axile portion of the radicle, which Mr. Miers has called the neorhiza ;
and under this point of view he considers it easy to account for the
coleorhizal character of the secondary rootlets in the germination of
Ceratocephalus, as described by St. Hilaire. A very singular example
of this sort of production is shown by Klotzsch, in the germination

219

Botanical Society of Edinburgh,

of the seeds of Pistia (Ueber Pistia, Berl. 1853, plate 1. f. C.D.E),
where the many secondary rootlets, or branches of the neorhiza,
force their way through the epirhizal covering of the main root, ex-
tending it as a coleorhiza, in the form of a long cylindrical tube,
which at length breaks away, leaving a long sheath in the form of a
thimble, covering the extremity of each growing rootlet, and which
probably thus performs the functions of a spongiole.

BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

Thursday, 12th July 1855. — Professor Balfour, President, in
the Chair.

The following papers were read, viz. —

1 . “ On the Introduction of the Cinchona Tree into India.’’ By
Thomas Anderson, M.D., H.E.I.C.S.

The author gave an account of the peculiar character of the
country inhabited by the Cinchona tree, and showed that similar
districts existed in India where this valuable tree may be successfully
growm. He also showed, by the great quantity of the bark that is
used, that much profit must result to the cultivators.

2. “ On the presence of Diatomacese, Phytolitharia, and Sponge
Spicules, in Soils which support Vegetation.” By William Gregory,
M.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Chemistry.

Ehrenberg, in his late work, ‘ Mikrogeologie,’ has stated that in
specimens of soils from all parts of the world, he has found many
microscopic organisms ; he divides these into Siliceous and Calcareous,
the former including I)iato7nacecey Phytolithai'ia, and Polycystina,
as well as Sponge spicules, the latter minute Mollusks and other
shells. The present observations are confined to the siliceous organ-
isms, and among these, chiefly to the Diatomacece, with Phytolitharia
and Sponge spicules, the soils examined being such as are connected
with fresh water, in which the Polycystina do not occur.

Many of Ehrenberg’ s observations were made on the small por-
tions of soil found adhering to dried plants in herbaria, and I requested
Professor Balfour to supply me with such portions of soil. By his
kindness I obtained upwards of sixty such specimens, almost all of
which were of very small bulk, on an average not exceeding that of
a pinch of snuff, and sometimes less. Of these a certain number
consisted chiefly of earth, with some half-decayed vegetable matter,
and many contained hardly anything but decaying vegetable matter,
with a mere trace of earth. Of course, the latter are not fair speci-
mens of soil; but I have subjected all to the same treatment, namely
boiling with nitro-muriatic acid, washing, straining througli gauze,
and examining the fine insoluble residue. This, of course, contained
all the siliceous matter present, but it also contained much organic
matter, of a brown or red colour, insoluble in acids, which, if neces-
sary, might be destroyed by ignition, when it would leave a trifling
ash.

16*

220 Botanical Society of Bdinhurgh : —

In every case I found Biatomacece in the residue, as well as Phyto-
litharia. Sponge spicules, apparently of freshwater sponges, were
less frequent, but occurred in many. In a few cases, where the acid
caused effervescence, there was calcareous matter present, but in most,
this was not the case.

Of course, in those cases in which the proportion of earth was
small, the residue consisted chiefly of the insoluble organic matter,
through which, however. Diatoms and Phytolitharia were scattered,
in greater or smaller proportion.

In the cases where the proportion of earth was larger, the residue
was much richer in Diatoms and Phytolitharia, hut almost always
contained also the dark insoluble organic matter. In several, the
proportion of Diatoms in the residue was so large, that it had the
appearance of a regular Diatomaceous gathering, after boiling with
acids. The most remarkable soils in this respect were one from the
Sandwich Islands, one from Lebanon, one from the roots of a German
moss, and one from Ailsa Craig.

It is to be noticed, however, that Biatomacece were found in every
case, without exception, and that in all, their proportion to the whole
non-calcareous earthy residue was considerable, and often large. In
many of those where the proportion of earth was smallest, there was
no siliceous matter in the residue, except Biatomacece and Phyto-
litharia.

The soils examined were from various and distant localities ; there
were about twenty from the Andes, several from Brazil and other parts
of South America, a few from North America, a few from the West
Indies, one from the Sandwich Islands, one from New Zealand, a few
from India, one from Lebanon, a good many from Germany, some
from France, a few from Spain, and some from Britain.

The great majority of the species of Diatoms in all these were
found to coincide with our British forms, but a good many species
occurred in the exotic soils which have not yet been found in Britain,
and most of these not even in Europe, but which have been figured
by Bailey, Ehrenberg, Kiitzing, Rabenhorst, &c.

K good many were observed, which, so far as I know at present,
have not yet been figured or described. Lastly, a certain number of
species, lately found by Smith, Greville, and others, as w^ell as by
myself in Britain, and some of which are scarce, have occurred in
these exotic soils. Among these I may name here, Navicula scuteh
hides, W. Sm. (Lebanon), Orthosira spinosa, W. Sm., Grev. (Andes,
Germany), Cymhella turgida, W. G. (Sandwich Islands), and Navi-
cula varians, W. G. (various soils).

Of such species as are unknowai to Europe, I shall only mention
here Terpsinoe musica, one of the most striking of known forms,
which I found in the first soil I examined, which w^as from Brazil.
It is accompanied by Nitzschia scalaris, a fine form, which occurs iu
Britain, but is far from frequent here.

I am satisfied that a close examination of such specimens of soil,
which are often thrown away in putting up specimens in herbaria,
will bring to light many new forms, and supply us with many ex otic

221

Prof. Gregory on Diatomacese in Soils.

and rare species. It is very desirable that collectors of plants should
preserve a little of the earth adhering to their roots, and in this way
copious materials w’ould be obtained.

The above observations entirely confirm Ehrenberg’s statements as
to the distribution of the Diatomace^. They furnish evidence of the
fact that these organisms are far less affected by climate and tempe-
rature than larger plants or animals ; since many of the very same
species are found in every latitude and in every country. For example,
such common forms as Aclmanthidium lanceolatum, Achnanthes
exilis, Gomj)honema tenellum, G.constrictnm, G. cajpitatiim, Cocconeis
Placentula, C. Pediculus, Cocconema lanceolatum^ C. cymbiformey
Synedra radians, Navicula ellijptica, N. rhomboides, Pinnularia
viridis, P. major, P. oblonya, P. borealis, Siirirella biseriata, S.
ovata. Meridian circulare, M. constrictnm, Cymbella maculata,
C. scotica, C. cusjyidata, Epithemia turyida, Ep. Argus, Iliman-
tidium Arcus, H. gracile, II. rnajus, Odontidiuni mesodon, Dia-
toma tenue, D. vulgare, Nltzschia linearis, N. amphioxys. Me--
losira varians, and many others actually occur in every part of the
world from whence these soils have come ; and there is absolutely no
difference between the exotic and the British forms.

Ehrenberg specifies two species, namely Pinnularia borealis (P.
latestriata, W. G.) and Eunotia amphioxys (^Nitzschia amphioxys,
W. Sm.), as having been found by him in almost every instance. My
results confirm this. In no one case have both of these been absent,
and in at least nine-tenths of these soils both are present. They are
often the predominant forms, and in a few cases almost the only
forms present. Gomphonema tenellum and Achnanthidium lanceo-
latum are found in a large majority of these soils.

I am disposed to agree in opinion with Ehrenberg, that the micro-
scopic organisms found in soils contribute materially to the increase of
the soil. This is true both of the siliceous and calcareous forms.
The Diatomacece live in moist earth. They obtain silica from the
water, and at their death their shells are added to the soil. Where
many are present, this process of transference of silica from the rock
to the soil goes on very rapidly. We have so far evidence that they
live in these soils, that we find them there very often in the state
of self-division, which is not observed in old accumulations of the
dead shells.

The peculiar capacity of the Diatomacece for resisting climatic
changes, whereby the same sj)ecies can live and thrive as well in the
Arctic circle as under the line, corresponds well with the results of
the study of the same organisms in the fossil state. In Ehrenberg’s
‘Mikrogeologic ’ will be found very fine figures of the Diatoms occur-
ring in the different forms of Bcrgmehl, Tripoli or polishing slate,
Kieselguhr, pumice, and other volcanic rocks, mountain limestone,
ainl)cr, &c., and it will be seen that by far the greater number of the
species are (piite identical with recent ones. Microscopic organisms
have been found so low down as the green sand of the Silurian
system ; but they rather belong to the Poly that amia. The earliest
Diatoms, geologically speaking, as figured by Ehrenberg, agree in

222

Zoological Society : —

every point, as far as the great majority of the species is concerned,
with those now living in our waters, and forming deposits which will
become rock at some future time.

It was supposed that most of the species in the much more recent
Bergmehl were no longer to be found living ; but most of them
have been since found. I myself have lately found two species of the
Lapland Bergmehl to be still in existence, namely Eunotia octodon
and Synedra hemicyclus ; and Eunotia incisa, which occurs both in
the Lapland and the Mull earths, has been found recent by me in a
dozen British gatherings. Yet all these forms were supposed, not
long since, to be exclusively fossil. We cannot say that there are
no species exclusively fossil, but so many that have been thought so
are daily found living, that it is probable the rest may be so found
too, and at all events, a very large proportion of the forms in the
oldest fossil deposits are absolutely identical with the forms of the
present day.

I have only further to mention, that although so many species are
universal in their habitat, some appear to be local. Thus, Terpsinoe
musica does not occur in Europe, nor has it yet been found except in
America, and, I think, in Australia.

Some species are decidedly Alpine ; for example, Orthosira spinosa,
which Professor Smith found on the Mont d’Or in Auvergne, and
Professor Balfour on the Grampians. It occurs also in nearly every
soil from the Andes.

3. ‘‘On the Effects of the Severe Frost of last winter on Plants
in the neighbourhood of Sligo.” By the Right Hon. John Wynne,
of Haslewood.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

April 11, 1854. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Descriptions of two New Species of Pucrasia.

By John Gould, F.R.S. etc.

Mr. Gould having recently found in the rich stores of the East
India Company, at their house in Leadenhall Street, a new species
of Pheasant, of the same form but remarkably different from the
Pucras Pheasant, took the earliest opportunity, with Dr. Horsfield’s
permission, of bringing it under the notice of the Society. This fine
bird, of which two specimens have been sent to the East India Com-
pany from Kafiristan by Dr. William Griffith, may be at once recog-
nized by the uniform chestnut colouring of its mantle, breast and
flanks, which has suggested the specific name of

Pucrasia castanea.

Forehead, cheeks, chin and lengthened portion of the crest dark
shining green ; hinder part of the head and the shorter portion of the
crest dull sandy-buff, the two colours blending on the occiput ; on
each side of the neck an oval patch of white ; lanceolate feathers of
the neck, both above and below, breast and flanks, deep chestnut ;

Mr. J. Gould on two new species of Piicrasia. • 2^

feathers of the upper part of the back black, stained with chestnut
on the outer web and margined with grey ; lower part of the back
and rump grey, fading into white on the edges, and with a narrow
streak of blackish-brown down the shaft ; wing-coverts dark brown,
largely edged with greyish and ashy-brown ; primaries brown on the
inner margins, cream-white on the outer ones ; feathers of the lower
part of the abdomen brownish-black, edged with whitish ; under tail-
coverts chestnut, with a black line down the centre, and fringed with
white at the tip ; upper tail-coverts ashy-grey, with a broad mark of
blackish-brown down the centre, but not extending to the tip ; tail-
feathers black, the central ones broadly margined with grey freckled
with black, the remainder fringed with whitish at the tip ; bill black ;
feet horny-brown.

Total length, 23 inches; wing, 9f ; tail, 10^; tarsi, 2f.

Hab. Kafiristan.

Remark. — This species is altogether a stouter and larger bird than
Pucrasia macrolopha.

Mr. Gould further remarked that, upon a careful examination and
comparison of the Pheasants from Nepaul, which have usually been
considered as identical with the P. macrolopha., with true examples
of that species, he found them to differ so considerably, that he felt
justified in characterizing the Nepaulese birds as distinct, under the
name of

Pucrasia Nipalensis.

Forehead, cheeks, chin and lengthened portion of the crest deep
shining green ; hinder part of the head and the shorter portion of the
crest buff, with lighter shafts, the two colours blending on the occi-
put ; on each side of the neck an oval spot of white ; feathers of the
sides and back of the neck and upper part of the back brownish-
black, with a narrow mark of rich chestnut down the centre, and
edged with rufous or whitish ; feathers of the lower part of the back
brownish-black, with white shafts and edges ; wing-coverts brownish-
black, with white shafts and margins ; scapularies broadly margined
with deep reddish-buff ; primaries brown on the internal web, deep
buff on the outer ; tertiaries pale chestnut, mottled with black along
the shaft and towards the edge, which is sandy-buff ; throat, centre
of the breast and abdomen rich chestnut ; flank-feathers brownish-
black with white shafts, bordered on each side by a very fine line of
chestnut, and narrowly edged with grey, the markings becoming
larger and j)aler behind the thigh ; under tail-coverts lively chestnut,
with an oval spot of white at the tip of each ; centre tail-feathers ru-
fo»is, stained with black near the shaft, the remainder black on the
inner web and at the tip, the outer webs chestnut, which colour curves
round into and occupies a portion of the internal web near the tip ;
all fringed with white at the tips ; bill black ; feet horny-brown.

Total length, 20| inches ; wing, 8} ; tail, 9 ; tarsi, 2|.

Hub. Nepaul ami Bhutan.

Remark. — In size this bird is the smallest of the three species of

224

Zoological Society : —

the genus, but it is by far the most highly coloured and beautifully
marked ; the mantle, the sides of the neck and the flank-feathers
are conspicuously striated with black, chestnut and grey ; the same
parts in the other species being sombre in comparison.

Specimens are contained in the collection at the British Museum,
in that of the East India Company, and, Mr. Gould believes, in that
of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris.

April 25. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Notes on the Habits of some Indian Birds. Part III.

By Lieut. Burgess.

Family Merulid^.

Subfamily Timalin^.

Genus Tim alia.

Timalia Malcolmi, Sykes. Large Babbler.

This Large Babbler, though not generally so common, I believe,
as T^imalia grisea, I have shot in the Deccan in the districts near
the city of Ahmednuggur. It is gregarious in its habits, flying about
in flocks of eight or ten. It lives much on the ground, seeking its
food, which consists of grasshoppers, beetles, black and white ants,
and other insects, under large trees and hedgerows, scratching up
and turning over the dead leaves with its strong claws. It also feeds
on grain ; the stomach of one which I examined contained bajocee
seeds and the remains of black ants, of another the remains of black
and white ants. This fact, I think, accounts for the habit of these
birds, of scratching amongst the decayed leaves round the trunks
of large trees, where both the black and white ants are sure to
be found ; indeed it is almost impossible to find a large tree with-
out a colony of the former round its roots. I am not certain whether
the nest and eggs in the Museum of the Zoological Society, marked
as those of the Greater Thimalia, belong to this bird, or to Timalia
grisea ; but as I procured two or three specimens of the Large
Babbler and not one of T. grisea^ I think that there is every pro-
bability that the nest and eggs belong to this species. I believe
that birds of the genus Tim^ia breed twice during the year, as I
have found their nests in the months of May and October. The
nest brought to me in the month of October was found in a tuft of
high grass in a boggy piece of ground ; it contained four eggs of a
uniform rich blue, in. in length by nearly in. in width. The
number of eggs does not exceed four. The nest above-mentioned
was composed of coarse matted grass at the bottom, and finer bents
on the sides, lined also with bents of grass ; it was loosely put together.

There are the nest and eggs of another sjiecies of Timalia in the
Museum of the Zoological Society ; but not having put the bird off
her nest, I am unable positively to assert to what species they belong.
I believe, from the smallness of the eggs, that they probably belong

Mr. F. Moore on a new Indian Swallow.

225

to Thnalia hyperythra or T. hypoleiica ; but this point requires
further investigation.

Subfamily Oriolin.e.

Genus Oriolus.

Oriolus aureus, Gmel. Indian Oriole or Mango Bird.

This is common in the Deccan, frequenting banian trees and topes
of mangoes, whence its name. These birds are particularly fond of the
fruit of the banian, or Indian fig ; the gizzard of one which I shot
was full of the seeds of this small fig. The Indian Oriole begins to
breed in the month of June. A pair of these birds built their nest
on the small forked branches of a flowering tree in my garden at
Ahmednuggur. The nest was composed of various fibrous substances,
amongst which pieces of hemp appeared to predominate ; with this
two of the branches were bound together ; some fragments of part of
a letter which had been torn up and thrown away were inserted ;
the handwriting on the paper I easily recognized as that of a lady at
the station. The nest, in its position, and in the manner in which
it was attached to the boughs, was much like that figured by Mr.
Yarrell in his work on British Birds as the nest of the Golden Oriole.
The nest, I believe, contained four eggs, of a white ground with claret-
coloured spots. This nest, with the eggs, and a pair of the old birds,
are in the possession of the Zoological Society.

Notice of a New Indian Swallow.

By Frederic Moore, Assist. East Ind. Comp. Museum.

The subject that I beg to lay before the Meeting this evening, is
a new form belonging to the family Hiru7idinidce, lately collected in
Nepal and presented to the Museum of the East India Company by
B. II. Hodgson, Esq., which is allied to, but certainly distinct from,
the genus Chelidon, and for which the following anagrammatic name
is proposed.

Delichon (nov. gen.).

Gen. Char. Bill short, thick, robust, gape rather wide, the cul-
men rounded, the nostrils basal, lateral and rounded. Wings rather
long, with the first quill the longest. Tail short, and emarginated or
nearly even at the end. Tarsi longer than the middle toe, and clothed
with plumes. Toes long and clothed with plumes, the inner shorter
than the outer ; the claws moderate and curved.

Type, D. Nipalensis, Ilodgs. n. sp.

Spec. Char. Top of the head, chin, cheeks, ear-coverts, nape, back,
upper and under tail-coverts, fine glossy black ; wings black, paler
beneath, the upj)er coverts fringed with glossy hlack, the under coverts
dusky black ; tail black, fringed on the external webs with glossy
black ; a band of white across the rump ; throat, breast, abdomen,
lower part of flanks and vent white, upper part of flanks black ; tarsi

226 Zoological Society : —

and toes covered with white plumes ; claws pale flesh-colour ; bill
black.

Length from tip of the bill to the end of the tail, 3f inches ; of
wing, 3f ; of tail. If ; bill to front, ; to gape, ; height from
chin to front, f ; breadth at front, ; tarse, iV 5 middle toe and
claw, -2®o ; hind toe,

Hah. Nepal. (No. 963. Hodgs. Catal.)

This interesting bird differs from the type of the genus Chelidon
by its smaller and more robust bill and by its shorter and even tail ;
the wings also are shorter. From the genus Cotyle it is at once di-
stinguished by its plumed feet.

Notice of some New Species of Birds contained in the
Museum of the Hon. East India Company.

By Frederic Moore, Assist. East Ind. Comp. Museum.

Family Merulid^, Vigors.

Subfamily Timalina, Vigors.

Genus Pyctorhis, Hodgson (1844). Chrysomma (Blyth),
Hodgson (1845).

1. Pyctorhis eongirostris, Hodgson.

Forehead, crown, nape, back, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail
rufous-brown, deepest on the crown, wings and tail, the last being
distinctly rayed ; chin, throat, base of lower mandible, middle of
belly and vent white ; ear-coverts, sides of the neck and breast pale
rufescent, brightening on the flanks, thighs and under tail-coverts ;
under wing-coverts also rufescent ; bill black, yellowish beneath at
base ; legs pale horny.

Length, 8f inches ; of wing, 2f ; tail, 3f ; bill to frontal plumes, f ;
to gape, 1 inch ; height from chin to front, tarse, 1 inch ; middle
toe and claw, ; central and lateral ditto, y’y ; hind ditto,

Hah. Nepal. (No. 892. Hodgs. Catal.)

This bird may be distinguished from Pyct. sinensis (better known
under the name of Thnalia hypoleuca) by its larger size, by the
lengthened bill, the rufescent colour of the under parts, and by the
absence of white before the eye. It may possibly be the species no-
ticed by Mr. I. W. Frith, in the ' Journ. As. Soc. Beng.’ xiii. p. 3/0,
as being found in Bengal, which he states “ differs from the common
species in being about half larger.”

I may here notice, in connexion with this genus, that Mr. Hodg-
son, in ‘Proc. Zool. Soc.’ 1845, p. 24, refers his genus Pyctorhis only
to sinensis, and not to the bird named rujifrons, which is there
described as an Actinodura, it being synonymous with the species
previously described by Mr. Gould under the name of Actinodura
Egertoni.

Mr. F. Moore on some new species of Birds. 227

Family Sylviad^e, Vigors.

Subfamily Sylviana, Vigors.

Genus Horeites, Hodgson.

2. Horeites major, Hodgson.

Above olive-brown, ruddier on the wings ; tail rounded, more of a
dusky-brown, with the outer webs fringed with olive-brown ; cap red-
brown ; a yellowish-ferruginous superciliary streak, extending over
the ear-coverts ; upper part of the latter ruddy-brown, lower ashy ;
throat, sides of neck, centre of breast and abdomen ashy-white ; sides
of the breast and flanks olive-brown ; bill dark horn- colour, yel-
lowish at base beneath ; feet also yellowish.

Length, 5 inches ; of wing, 2y ; tail, 2^, outer feather \ an inch
shorter than the middle ; bill to front, f ; to gape, f ; tarsus, ^ ;
middle toe and claw, inner ditto, outer ditto rather more than
^ an inch.

Hab. Nepal. (No. 946. Hodgs, Catal.)

This species may easily be distinguished by its greater size,
and larger bill, the wings being much longer, though rounded as in
the other species, and by the nearly total absence of ash-colour on
the under parts ; the feet also are much longer and stronger.

Genus Abrornis, Hodgson.

3. Abrornis poliogenys, Blyth.

Culicipeta poliogenys, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 441 (1847).

Rhipidura poliogenys, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, hi. App. p. 12.

Hab. Darjeeling, Nepal. (No. 920. Hodgs. Catal.)

Head and nape, base of lower mandible and ear-coverts dark ash-
grey, the loral feathers tipped with greyish-white ; round the eye a
clear white ring ; back, rump and shoulders bright olive-green ; wings
dusky black, margined with olive-green, the greater coverts tipped
with whitish-yellow ; throat greyish-white, the rest of the under parts
clear yellow ; tail dusky on the six central feathers, which are mar-
gined with olive-green, the three outer being greenish-dusky on the
terminal half of the outer web, the basal half with the whole of the
inner web being white ; upper mandible blackish horn- colour, lower
yellowish ; feet yellowish horn-colour.

Length about 4 } inches ; of wing, 2 inches ; tail, 1 1 ; bill to
front, ; to gape, y an inch ; and tarse the same.

“This species is nearly allied to Abrornis xanthoschistos, Hodgs.,
from which it differs in having the cheeks and ear-coverts, with the
feathers commencing from the base of the lower mandible, of the
same ash-grey colour as the head, and the throat greyish-white, in-
stead of these parts being bright yellow as in that species.”

4. Abrornis affinis, Hodgson f.

This species is closely allied to A. poliogenys, but differs from it in
t No. 920*, to distinguish it from 920 of Mr. Hodgson’s Catalogue.

228

Zoological Society.

having the lores, base of lower mandible, lower portion of the ear-
coverts, and the chin and throat, the same bright yellow as the rest of
the under parts ; the feathers of the crown are pale shafted, which
is not the case in poliogenys ; the tail is pale dusky, the two outer
feathers only being white on the apical portion of the inner web, the
basal portion of which is dusky ; the outer web in both is pale dusky
green ; the other ten are fringed with greenish on the outer web. The
wing in affinis is a quarter of an inch longer, but has the same mark-
ings ; the tarsus is also longer by a tenth of an inch. Other charac-
ters agree in both species. The bill in this and poliogenys is broader
than in A. ocantlioschistos, Hodgson.

Hab. Nepal. (No. 920*. Hodgs. Catal.)

5. Abrornis albogularis, Hodgson.

Forehead, lores, over and under the eyes to nape, and ear-coverts
brightish ferruginous, the crown being dusky ferruginous, passing
to yellowish olive-green on the back and shoulders ; the rump
yellowish ; wings black, margined with the colour of the back ; tail
pale dusky greenish, edged exteriorly throughout with yellowish-
green ; throat and base of lower mandible white, the feathers black
at base ; breast bright yellow ; abdomen white, vent yellowish ; bill
horny, paler beneath ; feet pale horny ; the rictorial bristles black,
strong, nearly as long as the bill.

Length, 3^ inches ; of wing, If ; the first quill f an inch shorter
than the second ; third y^^hs longer than the first ; fourth, fifth and
sixth nearly equal, the fifth being the longest ; tail. If inch ; bill to
frontal plumes, fV; togape, y®y; tarsus, y®y; middle toe and claw, ^ ;
hind ditto, f ; tarsus and hind claw strong.

Hab. Nepal. (No. 936. Hodgson’s Catal.)

On the Genus Modiolarca.

By Dr. John Edward Gray, F.R.S., P.B.S., V.P.Z.S. etc.

In the Synopsis of the British Museum for 1840, pp. 144, 1.55,
I established a family of bivalve shells under the name of Crenellidady
for the genera Crenella and Modiolarca., taking the character of the
family from the animal of Modiola trapezina, the type of the genus
Modiolarca^ the only one that had then come under my examination.
The following were the characters given : —

“ The family of Crenellidcc chiefly dilfers from the former {Myti~
lidcB) in the mantle lobes being united together so as to leave only
two posterior holes for the entrance and exit of the water, and a slit
for the foot and beard. The hinge-margin is denticulated at each
end, and the umbo is nearly central.”

Shortly after, Mr. Alder described the animal of the British Cre-
nella nndulata, and found that the mantle was nearly as much open
as that of the Modiolce, and complained of the inaccuracy of the
description ; the fact being, that the two genera had very different
animals, and that Crenella had been wrongly referred to the group,
and taken as the patronymic of it.

Miscellaneous,

229

I have lately had an opportunity of verifying my description of
the animal of Modiolarcuy and find that it exactly agrees with the
above character, and that it has a very peculiar-formed foot, most
resembling that found in some Arcidce, wdiich caused me to call the
genus Modiolarcd^ .

The following is a more particular description of the animal of the
genus, which must be considered as the type of a peculiar family,
called

Modiolarcad^.

Crenellidce, Gray, 1810.

Genus Modiolarca, Gray, 1840.

Mantle lobes united. Siplional apertures two, distinct ; anal mo-
derate ; branchial very large, inferior, simple edged ; pedal aperture
small, basal, subanterior. Gills four, thick, dependent, subtrigonal,
truncated in front, narrow, produced and united together behind.
Lips four, moderate. Palpi obsolete. Foot oblong, base truncated,
low^er end lanceolate, acute in front, with a subposterior, central cavity
for the byssus.

Shell equivalve, oblong, thin ; umbo subanterior. Hinge-teeth
none, or rudimentary. Cartilage linear, external. Periostraca
polished, hard.

The animal lives attached to floating sea-weed.

Modiolarca trapezina\=Modiola trapezina, Lamk. Hist. A. s. V.
n. 17. ed. 2. vii. 24 ; Delessert, Icon. t. 13. fig. 7; Hanley, Cat. Re-
cent Shells, 237.

MISCELLANEOUS.

MONSTROSITY OF ANTIRRHINUM MAJUS.

In a garden at Brixton I observed many spikes of the common
Snapdragon, Antirrhinum majvs, with larger and much brighter-
coloured flowers than the rest. The flowers were divided to the
base into five separate lobes, the upper lip of the common form of
the flower being formed of two, the lower lip of three ; the upper
lobes were inequilateral, the upper side very straight, and the outer
one curved with an enlarged end somewdiat like the wing of a papi-
lionaceous flower, and they were one- coloured and slightly twisted ;
the three lower lobes were equilateral, lanceolate, variously con-

* Two genera have been made out of this word. Dr. Beck wlien in this
country made a note that I had called the genus Modiolarca ; hut he appeared to
have read it Modiolaria, and that name has been used for it. The latter name
is now chiefly used for the more oblong Crenellcc.

t Since the above was read, I find that M. Valenciennes has considered this shell
as the type of a new genus, P fiascolicama (see Gay’s Chili, 1854); and Mr. Gould
has, more lately, formed a genus for it, under the name of Gaimarda. — J. E. Gray.

230

Miscellaneous.

torted and variously coloured, the limb very bright orange or red
or white, and the claw yellow and bearded within. The stamens and
other parts of the flower were of the usual form and number. On
some spikes a few of the flowers were only slit to the base along the
centre of the upper side, somewhat like the flowers of the genus
Lobelia ; and in another spike, some of the flowers had the upper
and lateral lobe of each side united, the slits being between the two
upper and on each side of the lower central lobes. The white variety
of the plant offered the same modifications. — J. E. Gray.

Notice of the Horns and Skull of the Arnee.

By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., P.B.S., V.P.Z.S. &c.

Colonel James Matthie has lately presented to the British Mu-
seum the skull and horns of an Arnee or Buffalo, killed by him near
Fezpoor, Central Assam, on the 8th of April, 1842.

The horns are of a very large size, as proved by the accompanying
measurement, being nearly as large as the separate horns without a
skull, in the British Museum, which formerly formed part of Sir
Hans Sloane’s Collections, and were described and figured by him
in the Philosophical Transactions for 1727, no. 397, p. 222, f. 23.
These horns are 78 inches, or 6 feet 6 inches long.

The dimensions of Colonel Matthie’ s specimen are as follows.

according to his measurement.

ft. in.

“ Length of the skull from occiput to nose 2 4

Length of the horns round the outside of them and

across the forehead 12 2

Length of line from tip to tip of the horns 6 8

Circumference of right horn at base 1 8|^

„ „ left horn at base 1 8

Width across the forehead 0 11

“ The horns do not exactly correspond in length and shape.”

The occipital portion of the skull is very much developed, to give
enlarged attachment to the muscles of the neck for the support of
the horns.

I may observe, that the Arnee of Anderson, Bee, 1792 (the Bos
arne of Kerr, ‘Animal Kingdom,’ 336. t. 295, copied into ‘Shaw,
Zoology,’ iv. p.400, t. 210), is only a large horned variety of the
common Buffalo, with horns nearly regularly curved from the base.
The horns presented by Colonel Matthie, on the other hand, are
nearly straight for great part of their length, and only curved at the
end. In this respect they agree with the horns in the British Mu-
seum, which Mr. Doyle, whose name is “ given to a sort of stuflfe
worn in summer,” discovered in a cellar in Mapping, and which he
gave to Sir Hans Sloane for his kindness in attending him in sickness.
These are described by the latter in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions ’
for 1727, no. 397, p. 222. f. 23; and re-described and figured by

Meteorological Observations. 231

Colonel Hamilton Smith as those of Bos Arnee in Griffith^ A. K. iv.
t. 201. f. 2, 3.

Dr. Hook read a lecture on Mr. Doyle’s horns at Gresham College,
and thought they were probably those of the Sukotyro or Siicotaria,
described by Nieuhoff in his ‘Voyages and Travels in the East’ as
found in Java. He compares the horns to the tusk of the elephant,
which they somewhat resemble. Dr. Shaw thought otherwise, and
formed a genus for NieuholF’s animal, making a figure of it from
his description (see General Zool. i. 226. t. 65). Illiger considered
it more probably a Babyrusa. See Illiger ^ Genera Mam. 100. —
Proc. Zool. Soc. Jan. 23, 1855.

METEOKOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR JULY 1855.

Chiswick. — July 1. Very fine. 2. Heavy clouds : slight rain. 3, 4. Very fine.
5. Clear : hot and dry. 6. Foggy: very fine. 7, 8. Very fine. 9. Hazy : very
fine ; thunder, lightning and rain at night. 10. Fine : cloudy : very fine. 11. Con-
stant and very heavy rain from early in the morning till night. 12, 13. Very fine.
14. Cloudy: verj'fine. 15. Cloudy and fine: rain. 16. Cloudy: heavy rain at night.
17. Fine: cloudy. 18. Very fine. 19. Rain. 20. Very fine. 21. Exceedingly
fine. 22. Very fine. 23. Slight fog : sultry : rain. 24. Rain : cloudy. 25. Rain.
26. Densely overcast : constant and very heavy rain. 27. Overcast : heavy clouds
and showers. 28. Cloudy : heavy showers. 29. Very fine. 30. Slight haze : very
fine : overcast : rain at night. 31. Heavy rain : showery : clear and fine at night.

Mean temperature of the month 62°-99

Mean temperature of July 1854 61 ’59

Mean temperature of July for the last twxnty-nine years ... 63 *12
Average amount of rain in July 2*428 inches.

Boston. — July 1 — 4. Fine. 5 — 7. Cloudy. 8. Fine. 9. Cloudy. 10, 11.

Cloudy : rain a.m. 12. Fine. 13. Cloudy. 14. Rain and hail a.m. 15. Fine.
16, 17. Cloudy: rain a.m. and p.m. 18. Cloudy. 19, 20. Cloudy: rain, with
thunder a.m. and p.m. 21 — 23. Cloudy. 24, 25. Rain a.m. and p.m. 26. Fine :
rain P.M. 27. Cloudy : rain p.m. 28. Fine: rain p.m. 29,30. Fine. 31. Rain
a.m. and p.m.

Sandwich Manse, Orkney. — July 1. Damp a.m. : showers p.m. 2. Showers a.m. :
drops P.M. 3. Rain a.m. : damp p.m. 4. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m. 5. Cloudy
A.M. : fog P.M. 6. Bright, fine a.m. : clear, fine p.m. 7. Bright, fine a.m. and
P.M. 8. Bright, fine a.m. : clear, fine p.m. 9. Clear, fine a.m. : vapour, fine p.m.
10. Hazy a.m. : clear, fine p.m. 11. Fine a.m. and p.m. 12. Bright, fine a.m. :
fine, fog P.M. 13. Fog a.m. : fine, fog p.m. 14. Fog a.m.: thunder showers, fog
P.M. 15. Fog A.M. : show*ers p.m. 16. Rain a.m. : showers p.m. 17. Damp a.m. :
cloudy P.M. 18. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 19. Bright a.m. : hazy, fine p.m. 20.
Bright A.M. : clear, fine P.M. 21. Clear a.m.: drops p.m. 22. Cloudy a.m. and
P.M. 23. Cloudy A.M. : showers P.M. 24. Bright a.m. : fine, fog p.m. 25. Cloudy
a.m. : fine, fog P.M. 26. Rain a.m. : fog p.m. 27. Rain, fog a.m. : showers,
thunder and lightning, clear p.m. 28. Bright a.m. : fine, drops p.m. 29. Rain
A.M. : damp p.m. 30. Cloudy a.m. : fine, vapour p.m. 31. Cloudy a.m. : fine p.m.

Mean temperature of July for twenty-eight previous years . 55°*08

Mean temperature of this month 59 *19

Mean temperature of July 1854 55 *25

Average quantity of rain in July for fifteen previous years... 2 41 inches.

Meteorological Observations made by Mr. Thompson at the Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, near London*
by Mr. Veall, at Boston; and by the Rev. C. Clouston, at Sandwich Manse, Orkney.

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T HE ANNA I. S

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[SECOND SERIES.]

No. 94. OCTOBER 1855.

XXI. — The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. By
Dr. Alexander Braun, Professor of Botany in the Univer-
sity of Berlin, &c.* Translated by Chas. Francis Stone.

Part I. — Introduction and HisTORYt.

In Organic Nature the two principal phienomena, in which the
shifting scenes of Life are unfolded, are individual development
and individual propagation. Through them the intricate course
of Nature, and its living chain of organized beings, are refreshed
and renewed. Every new generation seems to bring back the
old form ; still, to the investigator who looks deeper into the
graves of the past, a slow, but certain, progress reveals itself even
in this apparently identical succession. If Nature is to be for us
something more than a labyrinth of varied and intricate phseno-
mcna ; and if, in the apparent disorder, the hidden threads of the
connexion are to become visible, we must first of all separate
and compare the different spheres of life, placing them higher or
lower according to their rank. The starting-points which Nature
offers for such a purpose are, the Individual and the Species]
whose reciprocal relations, however simple they may at first
appear, when followed out to particulars lead to difficulties which
demand an accurate examination];. From the botanist such an

* From the Transactions of the Royal Prussian Acarlemy of Sciences
for 185.3. — Reprinted from Silliraan’s American Journal for May 1855.
t I have omitted the author’s brief introductory remarks. — Transl.

;}; Should any one be inclined to doubt that the nature of the vegetable
individual needs a further discussion, I would beg him to turn to the latest
works on Botany and compare the passages which treat of the plant’s in-
dividuality. I take Kutzing’s Grundzuge der phil. Botanik (2nd Part), as
we have a right to demand from a work that lays claim to philoso[)hical
Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 1 G

234 Dr. A. Braun 07i the Vegetable Individual,

examination is particularly demanded ; as the vegetable ideal pre-
sented to us by the science in its earlier stages has been obscured
by conceptions obtained from the animal kingdom having been
transferred to Botany, though based upon the mistaken assump-
tion that plants possess the same independent individuality as
animals, the same organs with equally well-defined functions,
and the same mutually dependent relations of the vital activities.
And the investigations of late years, forsaking the old views
more and more, have arrived at no well-defined conclusions, and,
particularly as regards vegetable individuality, seem to lead
more to negative than to positive results. After all, this should
not surprise us ; for even a superficial investigation shows rela-
tions in plants which will hardly harmonize with the common
conceptions of individuality, and which require a careful review.

In the whole realm of organic nature, we know of not a single
species of which any one individual is a perfect representative :
on the contrary, we see each species adding generation to gene-
ration, by multiplying the individuals in time and space, until
its day has ended, whether from internal or external causes. In
this particular, the species resembles the individual itself ; having
its allotted age, though measured by days of a higher order, and
its appointed cycle of life, — in which the individuals appear as
members occupying a certain time and place, — resembling the

development, a fundamental discussion of this subject, since it is the
ground-work of the whole science. The first two paragraphs under the
heading “ Das Pflanzenindividuum als Organismus,” read as follows : ‘‘ By
individual we here mean a single vegetable body not organically connected
with a similar vegetable body. Vegetable individuals have the power of
developing the general phaenomena of vegetable life by themselves, unas-
sisted by any other individual of the same species. It is the nature of an

organism to consist of members The possession of members is the

first, as well as the most essential condition of the existence of the vege-
table individual.” Not, one of these assertions is true of vegetable indi-
viduals, either in the broader or the narrower signification of the term. To
say nothing of the connexion in which the individuals appear which are
successively developed by shoot-formation, the coalescence of stocks which
were originally separate is no rarity. Are the pines of the pine-forest no
individuals, because, as Gbppert has shown, they are connected with each
other by their roots? Do the filaments of Zygnema cease to be individuals
when they copulate ? Are the cells of Hydrodictyon and Pediastrum, ori-
ginally separate, no longer individuals when they have joined themselves
into a net or a star ? To refute the second assertion, we may refer to
dicecious plants ; to refute the third, we refer to the one-celled Algae
and Fungi, a part of which, at least, are of such a character that we can by
no means ascribe to them an organization in the usual acceptation of the
term. However, we may regard it as an improvement, that Kutzing’s
' Grundziige ’ treats of the vegetable individual at all ; for the earlier ma-
nuals do not even mention this important subject, but commence their ac-
count of plants with descriptions of the root, stem and other organs, or, as
it has been preferred of late years, of the cells and vesicles.

235

Dr. A. Braim on the Vegetable Individual.

successive relative forms through which the individual passes.
For the oi’ganic individual does not manifest itself in one single
permanent form, but in a succession of forms, now gradually
connected, now broadly interrupted ; and these last, especially
in plants, may attain to an independence which gives them the
character of a subordinate species. To this analogy between in-
dividuals and species it may be objected, that, in most cases, a
very remarkable metamorphosis is connected with the successive
forms of the individual, while within the sphere of the species
the consecutive members continue to have essentially the same
character*. But, however important this fact may be, still we
may assert of the individual as well as of the species, that it com-
pletes the cycle of its existence in a succession of subordinate
generations, while, on the other hand, we may affirm of the spe-
cies, that, like the individual, it exhibits a determinate cycle of
developmentf. In comparing the processes of propagation with
the process of the formation of the individual, cell-formation,
which lies at the foundation of both, reveals the intimate con-
nexion which exists between the small and the great spheres of
development ; while the numerous cases which admit of a double
explanation (since they may be ascribed with almost equal justice,
to the inferior cycle of development of the individual, or to the
su])erior one of the speeies) establish the close relationship of
both. The above-mentioned circumstance, that the cycle of de-
velopment does not present as graduated a progress in the spe-
cies as it does in the individual, seems to suggest that the most
reliable view of the analogy between the species and the indi-
vidual is that in which the species is not compared with the
whole cycle of the individuaPs successive development, but with
the single steps of the metamorphosis (which of course has its
own subordinate members), and in which the species itself is re-
garded as an inferior “ momentum ’’ of a still more compre-
hensive cycle of development ; but to determine this would lead
us too far from our subject J. In a word, the relation of the in-
dividual to the species is that of an inferior cycle of development
to a superior : the individual is a member of the species. How-
ever, although they are under one and the same specific law, all
the members of the species are not identical : a single member
only represents the idea of the species more or less incompletely;
and certain members, or series of members, are thus reci))rocal

* Those of the forms and properties whicli persist through the sueeessive
generations determine the speeies. Link, (irundlehren der Kraiiter-
kunde, vi. p. 11.

t The species is an individual of a higher rank (higlicr power). Li)d<,
1. c. p. 1 1.

+ Cf. the Autlior’s work on Veriiingung (1819), note to ]). 344.

IG*

236 l)r. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual,

complements. The regular relations here brought to view will
form the principal subject of the present investigation. But we
must first carefully determine the sphere of the individual. The
individual shall not and may not be considered by itself : it must
be viewed in the successive generations to which it belongs.
This succession may be similar or dissimilar^ simple or compli-
cated by divisions, continuous or graduated by cyclical changes.
It is by this that the phsenomena of fissiparous and alternate
generation may be explained. It^ is only by a consideration of
these relations that the nature of the individual itself, as a sub-
ordinate sphere of the species^ development, can be rightly com-
prehended, and that the single individuals in their worth and
importance, in their relations to each other and to the whole
realized cycle of the species, can be understood.

Preliminary Remarks on Vegetable Individuality : different views
in regard to it.

We must determine what constitutes the vegetable individual,
before we can investigate its relations to the whole cycle of ge-
neration of the species. But it is this determination itself which
presents so many difficulties ; and these difficulties become the
greater, the further we push our investigations. Individuality in
plants seems as obscure and ambiguous, as in animals (at least
in their higher orders) it appears clear and simple ; so that, as
Steinheil remarks, it escapes us just when we are upon the point
of seizing it*; and investigators might even conclude that we
can realize no other individuality than that which is manifested
in the totality of the species. The first obstacle to our compre-
hending the vegetable individual as a single sphere of conforma-
tion, as a morphological whole, is the disconnected and separate
character which obtains in the most heterogeneous modifications
of vegetable organisms. For nowhere in the vegetable kingdom
do we perceive that indissoluble connexion, and those pervading
reciprocal functions, which in the animal kingdom we are accus-
tomed to associate with the idea of an individual organism.
Nevertheless, by starting from a comparison with animals we
get an apposite point of departure for a comprehension of the
plant’s individuality. Among the higher animals, the individual
appears as a member of a race produced by sexual generation ;
and this very test may be applied to plants, except in the very
lowest forms, to which sexual generation does not apply at all,

* “ Dans chacun de ces organes nous nous croyons an premier aspect sur
le point de saisir I’individualite normale, et partout elle nous eehappe.”
Steinheil, De ITndividualite vegetale (1836), p. 9.

237

Dr, x\. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

or not positively. AVitliout at present discussing the question
whether the vegetable individual thus conceived is truly ana-
logous to the animal individual, we may here state, that this
conception carried out to its consequences, involves the assump-
tion that all the plant-stocks produced, not by sexual generation,
but by any mode of vegetable division, are not individuals, but
only parts of the primary individual to which they owe their
origin; as Gallesio has in fact contended*. Botanists have often
asserted that it is the individual t alone, which is reproduced by
slips (branches, buds, tubercles, &c.), and their opinion coincides
with this view. Still, how are we to distinguish plant-stocks of
such an origin, from those derived from seeds ? The former
take root, ramify, blossom, ripen their fruit and seeds, just as
the latter do, so that in a physiological sense they are complete
individuals J. For example, let us cast a glance at the weeping-
willow {Salix Babylonica). It is well known that this tree,
which was originally brought from the banks of the Euphrates,
is always propagated by slips ; for with us it never bears seeds —
not because our climate is unfavourable, but because in our
gardens there is no fructifying male tree §. According to Lou-

* Gallesio, Teoria della Riproduzione vegetale (1816), a work, wliieh I
am Sony to say I have not been able to consult myself. Huxley (u])on
Animal Individuality, in the Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. June 1852), hold-
ing corresponding views, regards all the animals which spring from an egg
by non-sexual increase, as one individual, or, as he exju’esses it, as a repre-
sentative of the individual by successive coexisting separable forms ; — re-
gards as such, for example, the sum total of all the Aphides, produced in
successive generations, by non-sexual increase, from the first “nurse”
which sprung from the egg. If we assume with Bonnet that one nurse
encloses one hundred voung Aphides in the tenth generation (and accord-
ing to Kyber they often reach even a higher number), the series would
amount to much more than a billion (1,010,101,010,101,010,101). Those
who regard sexual reproduction as the criterion of individuality must ad-
mit this as a j)erfectly legitimate consequence of their view.

t “ Gemmae individuum continuant cum semina speciem pro])agcnt.”
Link, Elem. Phil. Botan. ed. 2. vol. i. ]). 882. “ Continuant,” in anti-

thesis to “ propagent,” cannot be mistaken. Again, Endlicher and Unger,
Grundziige der Bot. p. 85, say : “ In these cases {i. e. when the buds drop
off) the bud-formation is a true propagation, by which the individual is
multiplied ; though we must distinguish this mode of ])ropagation from
that of generation, by which the species is reproduced.” Here the meaning
is obvious, though the expression is j)erfectly paradoxical ; for how can we
imagine that the individuals are multiplied without the s])ecies being re-
produced ? I have elsewhere attempted to show what is here meant, bv
representing non-sexual propagation as a proj)agation subordinate to the
cycle of sexual reproduction (cf. Verjungung, pp. 26, 2/)-

X In many cases the ex])eriencc(l gardener can distinguish them, hut
certainly not in all ; in some the difference is very remarkable : c. r/. in
Araucaria: raiseil from branches.

§ 'Phis has the advantage of avoiding the disagreeable seed-down. For
the same reason, it is said, in China they cultivate the male tree only.

238 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

don (Arboret. Brit.), the weeping-willow was sent to England
in 1730, by a French merchant named Vernon. It was planted
in Twickenham Park, whence it spread rapidly over England and
the continent. The tree, from which the first slips that were
brought to Europe were taken, was most probably a cultivated
one itself, raised from a slip. However this may be, could the
descent of all our weeping-willows be traced, it would undoubt-
edly lead us back to a willow, a female willow, grown in its na-
tive country from a seed. And so, on this account, we are to
regard all the beautiful weeping- willows of our gardens and our
cemeteries— and surely they are perfect trees — not as individual
stocks, but as the disjecta membra of a primary trunk, now hid-
den in mythical darkness ! In other cases this primary trunk
is known with perfect certainty. It can be proved by history
that many hybrids and varieties have been produced in one
single exemplar; though they now ornament our gardens far
and wide, having increased by means of slips, as they do not
bear seeds. This was the case of the famous Cytisus Adami,
which sprung, shortly before the year 1825, from the mingling
of C. jmrpureus and C. Laburnum. The single parent-stock,
preserved in the garden of the celebrated Adam in Paris, has
long since disappeared ; but its scions and scions^ scions have
grown up into fine trees in half the gardens of Europe*. In
the view just stated, they all form but one individual ! To sup-
port such a view, its partisans adduce the fact of certain indi-
vidual particularities being preserved (in dioecious plants espe-
cially the gender), when propagated by slips. In general this is
true, and for practical gardening, e. g. for the cultivation of the
finer kinds of fruit, of the greatest importance ; but exceptions
are not rare ; among which the well-known re-division of Cytisus
Adami into its two primary stocks is one of the most striking
and remarkable. In our gardens the rule is, that from slips the
weeping-willow produces female trees ; still some exceptions
may be noted here. Napoleon^s grave in St. Helena is shaded
by a weeping-willow, which has become the subject of scientific
discussions. It was supposed to belong to a species [Salioo
Napoleonis) indigenous to that island; but LoudoiFs exhaustive
researches show that it is descended from our weeping-willows,
one of which was carried from England to St. Helena in 1810.
Branches of this Salix Napoleonis were brought back to England,
and to the astonishment of botanists they bore male flowers.
Since up to that time no male weeping-willows had been seen in
England, a change of gender must have been produced through

* Cf. Verjiingung, pp. 3.'f7 suid xi. In another place T shall coinmuni-
rate the history of this hybrid, which has since been investigated.

239

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

vegetative increase. A similar case Las also occurred in Ger-
many. In the Grand-ducal Gardens at Schwetzingen there is a
weeping-willow, which, although a descendant from the common
parent tree of all European weeping-willows, has changed its
gender to such a degree, that we not only find on it the most
heterogeneous stages of transition from female flowers to male
ones, but on many branches purely male catkins are produced*.
Besides these cases, a curled variety of weeping-willow, Salix
crispa or S. annularis of the gardens, is known ; which, as it is
a mere garden plant, has probably been produced by slip-propa-
gation. If it be true that we sometimes obtain varieties with
hanging branches from several kinds of trees by grafting the
slips inverted, we should have one of the most remarkable ex-
amples of the production of a singular peculiarity by non-sexual
increase. But even if such exceptions did not exist, and if in
every case a series of peculiarities which are extinguished in
seminal propagation were continued by grafting, yet we cannot
perceive how we can seriously refuse an individual existence to
such stocks as these, produced, it is true, by non-sexual propa-
gation, but still completely separated externally, developing in
different places and under the most dissimilar relations, and ex-
hibiting subordinate differences indefinitely, though with certain
similar characteristics. But if we were to make any concessions
on this point, we should be carried irresistibly on to others.

Most of the modes of non-sexual propagation thus far consi-
dered agree in this particular : that some shoot of the plant,
whether it be undeveloped (eye, bud), or developed (branch,
sucker, layer, &c.), is separated from the parent-stock by natural
development itself, or by artificial means. As the nature of the
separable part is not changed by the separation, it is no great
step to attribute individuality to the shoot (or as it is commonly
called, the bud), even when it is not separated from the stock.
Each single j)lant-stock could then be no longer regarded as an
individual in the usual meaning of the term, but as a united
family of individual shoots ; — a view which seems to be of high
antiquity; as passages are found in Aristotle f and Ilippo-

* This tree was first observed by C. Sebimper in 182/. Some remarks
upon it may be found in Spenner’s Flora Friburgensis, vol. iii. j). lObl.

t Cf. Wimmer, Phytologia3 Aristoteliere Fragmenta, §§ 23-28, b() et
1 13. I e.annot diseover that explicit acknowledgement of the individuality
of slioots or buds, wbieb is said by Schultz (Anapbytose, p. 2-4) to be found
in .\ristotle, either in Scludtz’s (juotations, or even in Wimmer’s complete
collection of the passages in Aristotle referring to plants. It is true that
.Vristotle repeatedly speaks of the oivisibility of ))lants; says that separated
parts of plants njay continue to exist; that on this account many trees may
spring from a single source ; that many plants arc ])ropagate<l by slij)s
‘ uno (TnapayfuiTcjv (t7r()(fiVT(i'npev(vu), and by lateral bud-formation (to)

240 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

crates* which are interpreted in this sense. In later times_,
this view has been more or less advocated, especially by De la
Hiret, Linnaeus, Darwin J, Batsch, Goethe, Boper, Schleiden §,
and others.

But, even in this narrower view of vegetable individuality, the
same difficulty meets us ; for the shoot itself is divisible, and new
stocks may be produced by its parts ; i. e. by the members of the
stem and its leaf or leaf-whorl 1|. Besides, the several members
of the shoot are not contemporaneous creations, but, developing
successively out of and over each other, they constitute a suc-
cessive generation, composed of divisions each of which repeats
essentially the same form, each of which may be compared to the
embryonic plant originally developed in the seed, and consisting
of its stemlet with one or two leaves (cotyledons). Thus the
shoot itself came to be regarded as a succession of individual
vegetable member's, built up one above the other, like the stories
of a house. The earliest traces of this view may be found in
Darwin^s ‘ Phytologia ^ ^ ; it was developed at a later period in
various ways and with various modifications: e.g. by Agardh**,

Trapa^Xao-Taveiv), e. g. the bulbous plants ; but he does not state his
opinion of the parts which develoj)e after such a separation, and explains
the plnenomena in general, by saying that the vegetable soul of plants
{dpcTTTiK^ is simple in actuality (eVreXe;(eia), though multiple in

capacity {dvudpei).

* According to Moquin-Tandon, Teratologic, p. 5.

t Hist, de I’Acad. Roy. des Sciences, 1708, p. 233. De la Hire regards
all the branches as new plants proceeding from hidden ovules. Myriads
of these ovules, he thinks, exist between the bark and the wood ; more or
less of them come to maturity, according to circumstances.

.f Darwin, Phytologia (1800), p. 1. If a bud be torn from the branch
of a tree, or cut out and planted in the earth . . . . ; or if it be inserted into
the bark of another tree, it will grow and become a plant in every respect
like its parent. This evinces, that every bud of a tree is an individual ve-
getable being, and the tree therefore is a family or swarm of individual
plants . . . .”

§ P shall consider the views of these authors more at large in the next
section.

II I adduce this point in connexion with the history of the views held by
botanists in regard to vegetable individuality, in the terms in which it
has been usually expressed ; further on I shall show that this view needs
qualification. The individual members of the stem cannot exj)and into a
new stock by direct development, like the se])arated shoot ; they have this
property only by being connected with a lateral sprout, by means of the
eye which they bear, or have the power of })roducing. This view naturally
brings us back to the shoot as the individual.

U P. 9 ; where even the single well-defined stem-members of different
herbaceous plants are described as so many buds, and hence as so many
individuals.

** Agardh, Essai de reduire la Physiologic vegetale a des principes fon-
damentaux, 1829 (Ann. des Sci. Nat. tom. xvii. p. 8(1).

241

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

Engelmann* * * §, Steinlieilf and GaudichaudJ — the last of whom
calls the member of the shoot elevated to the rank of an indi-
vidual vegetable being, the phyton/^ and ascribes to it not only
a stem and leaves, but even a root, by which he imagines it is
connected with the preceding phytons, as the first phyton (the
embryonic plant) is connected with the ground. Steenstrup §
and Forbes || employ a similar view for their comparison of
alternate generation in plants with that in the lower animals.

But this restriction of vegetable individuality could not stop
here ; for even the members of the shoot, the phyta or sto-
ries,^^ are themselves too complex organisms not to present sub-
ordinate divisions, which, like the whole member, possess a cer-
tain independence, and under certain circumstances may even
give birth to new stocks. Although botanists have attempted
to view the petiole as the lower part of the leaf^, or vice versa,
the leaf as the upper part of the petiole** (so as not to be com-
pelled to divide the phytons of the structure themselves into re-
latively independent members), this much at least is certain (and
it is the important point here), that each of these two parts is
capable of producing new growths by itself ; yes, this capacity is
enjoyed even by different determinate or casual parts of either
member. It is well known that the leaf of Bj'yophyllum produces
sprouts in every notch on its edges, while on the other hand,
caducous leaves of many bulbous plants [e. g. Eucomis regia
according to Hedwig, Orniihogalum thyrsoides according to Tur-
pinft) produce new plants in the form of bulblets on any portion
of the whole of the upj)cr sin face. The petiole itself under cer-
tain circumstances has the power of producing the so-called ad-
ventitious buds, not only on the portions determined by the po-
sition of the leaf (leaf-axil), but sometimes on any other portions;
a power enjoyed by the root in many cases. Hence parts of
plants, otherwise most dissimilar, when they contain cambium,

* Engelmann, De Autliolysi (1832), p. 12.

t Steinheil, L’lndividualite dans le Regne vegetale. 183G.

f Gaudicliainl, Reclierchcs sur rOrgaiiographie, la Physiologic ct I’Or-
ganogenie des Vegetaux. 1841.

§ Steenstrup, On Altcnnite Generation (1842), j). 128. As this im-
portant little work may he sujiposed to be in every one’s hands, I refrain
from quoting this interesting jiassage.

11 Forbes, On the Morphology of the Reproductive System of Sertu-
larian Zoophytes, &e.. Ami. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. xiv. (1844), p. 385.

^ Ernst Mayer, Die Metamoiqdiose der Ptlanze und ihre Widersacher.
Linmra, 18.42, ]). 401 .

** Iloehstettcr, Aufliau der Graspflanze. (Wiirtemberger Jahreshefte,
1847 and 1848.)

ft Of. Treviranus, Pllanzenphysiologie, where several e.\ain|)les are ad-
duced.

242 Dr. A. Braun o?i the Vegetable Individual.

may have the power of reproducing the plant*. This is the
foundation of the Schultz-Schultzenstein-ian doctrine of ana-
phytons ; viz. those vegetable members which, even when sepa-
rated from the plant, continue to live, bud, and developef/^ and
which are hence regarded as the individuals proper, as the true
elementary forms or morphological elements ; and it is by various
combinations of these that the organs (commonly so-called), root,
stalk and leaf, are formed, by the repetition of which the whole
plant is built up and indefinitely renewed.

But where are the limits of the anaphytons ? How shall lines
be drawn to include all the buds of the root, stalk and leaf, from
which new formations may spring? Aub. du Petit-Thouars J,
who had already developed doctrines similar to those of the ana-
phyton-theory, attempts to draw the line between individuals by
means of the cellular tissue, regarding every vascular bundle as
an individual, since it has in itself, and independently of all
others, the means of its growth, its preservation, and the repro-
duction of new bundles. But it is difficult to perceive how, in
such a view, the labyrinth of anastomosing bundles (not less
complicated in the majority of petioles than in most reticulated
leaves) can be disentangled and resolved into separate indivi-
duals, and why the same independence and the same rank should
not be allowed to the parts of the vascular bundles. And how
shall we regard the lower plants, which have no fibres at all ?
If our conclusions are to be anything more than mere arbitrary
assumptions, we must go still farther; and we shall find no
halting- place till we reach the cell, the true seat of every reno-
vation in the plant, the starting-point of all non-sexual increase §,

* Aristotle himself says that plants possess the power of reproducing
“ stalk and root” in every one of their parts (Travra^rj yap koI pi^av
Ka\ Kav\ov bvvapLv. Vit. long, et brev. c. 6. p. 467).

t Schultz, Die Auaphytose (1848), and System der Morphologie (184/).
The passage quoted is taken from his later work, Verjiingung in Pflan-
zenreich (1851). The remark made above, when treating of the members
of the petiole, holds good here. The so-called anaphyta can by no means
grow into new plants themselves ; on the contrary, the new plant is pro-
duced as a germ, which is not identical with the anaj>hytons.

J Essais sur la Vegetation consideree dans le developpement des
bourgeons (1809), cf. e.g. p. 174. “ C’est done le bourgeon en qui reside
toute I’energie vegetale ; aussi le regarde-t-on depuis longternps comme un
individu .... D’apres les principes que j’ai developi)es dans mes prece-
dens memoires, il faut aller plus loin, car je crois que chaque fibre vege-
tale cst un individu, puisqu’elle a en soi, iiidependamment des autres, les
moyens d’accroissement, de conservation et de re})ro<luction.”

§ Earlier investigations into the origin of adventitious buds had made it
probable that, in its formation, each new shoot arises from a single cell.
The first convincing proof of this fact was given by Ilofmeister (Ver-
gleichende Untersuchung u. s. w. der Coniferen, p. 94), in Equisetum. The
pro]iagating cells on the foliage and edges of the leaves of Liverwort, which

243

Dr. A. Braun 07i the Vegetable Individual.

as it is of sexual propagation*. The cell has a better right to
be considered as the vegetable individual than any other subor-
dinate member of the plant ; when connected with other cells it
still continues to be an independent sphere of formation, sharply
defined and, in youth at least, completely isolatedf. Before the
universal law of cell-formation was known, and before botanists
had succeeded in reducing all the elementary organs of plants
to cells, Turpin hit upon the idea of seeking the vegetable indi-
vidual in the cell ; though his views did not rest on as solid a
foundation as Schleiden’s assertion, that ^^in a scientific point
of view, the cell is the vegetable individual

The most reliable authorities have agreed that new cells can
never be formed externally to, but only within, other cells already
formed §, so that cell-multiplication must be regarded as a pro-
pagation, while all the cells of the mature plant must be re-
garded as the progeny of the first embryonic cell. Besides, each
and every plant is at first a cell ; and there are single- celled plants
ill the strictest sense of the term, in which the first formation of
new cells is that destined to reproduction ; i. e. the germinating
cells or spores II . Again, there are other plants in which the
cell-generations contained between the first generation (which
s])rung from spores) and the last (itself returning into spores)
separate from each other, so that all the cells belonging to one
cycle of vegetable development are segregated, and live com-

develo])e into new plants, have long been known. The spores of the Crypto-
gainia belong here, as they are eells originating and developing non-
sex nally.

* Pollen-cells, and the embryonic utricle and germinating cells, — as
well as those of the archegoniuin of the higher Cryptogamia.

t Malpighi himself (Anatom. Plant, 1()75) calls cells utriculi, or sacculi,
though he distinguishes the wood and bast-cells as ^^JibrcB,” the vascular
cells as ^‘Jistulee,” and the cells containing milky saj) as “ vasa specialia.”
As early as 1805, Link (Homer’s Archiv, iii. p. had expressed himself
very exjdicitly in regard to the isolated ])osition and the inde})endence of
cells : “ Qufcvis cellula sistit organon ])cculiare, nullo hiatu nee poris con-
spicuis ])racditum in vicina organa transeuntibus. Conspicies non raro cel-
lulam rubro colore tinctam inter reliquas virides.”

t Schleiden, Grundzuge, Ite Aufl. 1842, vol. ii. p.4 [Eng. trans. (184!>),
p. 127 T.].

§ Cf. Schleiden, Grundzuge, i. ]). 2(57 [Eng. trails. ]). 103 T,] : “ The
process of the jiropagation of cells, by the formation of new cells in their
interior, is a universal law in the vegetable kingdom.” Mold, Anat. und
Phys. d. vcg. Zcllc, 1851, p, .5.4 : “ Cell-fonnation in plants takes ])lace
only in the cavities of older cells, not between or upon them.” Sehaeht,
Die Pllan/.enzellc (1<^52), p. 17 : ” 'I’he formation of new vegetable cells
always takes place in the interior of eells already formed.”

II E. g., Ascidiiim, ('hj/l ridium, Codio/iiini. (a genus lately discovered in
Heligoland), Sciadiiun, Ilijdrodicti/mi (the last two with “colonial form-
ation ”).

241 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual,

pletely independent of each other * * * §. The importance of the cell
as an individual seems to be decided by these facts ; that of the
entire plant, as a superior whole composed of individual cells,
seems to be settled, and a firm foundation for the doctrine of
vegetable individuality to be gained. But let us try to obtain a
clearer view of some of the most important of these facts. The
view which regards all cell-formation as a process of reproduction
rests upon observations of the formation of free daughter-cells,
(blastidia) in the contents of the mother-cells (matrices), — the
so-called /rcc, or endogenous^ cell-formation. Schleiden, who dis-
covered this process, and Karstenf^ the mmst decided and original
of his followers, regarded endogenous formation as the universal
law of cell-formation. By this view the whole doctrine was
turned in a wrong course, from which it could only be gradually
recovered by the discovery, or rather the farther investigation,
of another mode of cell-formation, which Nageli designated as

wandstandige,^^ Unger as merismatic,^^ and Mohl as “cell-for-
mation by division of the primordial utricle.^^ But even at this
day the misconception caused by generalizing the view that new
cells are formed within old ones, has not been entirely removed.
I have already J called attention to the fact that cells are divided
which have no cell-wall, which is often the case among the
Algae §. In several genera in which numerous spores are formed
in one mother-cell, its entire contents first divide into two parts
(the so-called daughter-cells), which, without first secreting a
cell-wall, immediately divide again into two ; and this process
may be repeated over and over ||, according to the number of
spores which are to be formed (8, 16, 32, &c.). In the second
and subsequent divisions there is no formation of new cells in
old ones, of daughter-cells in mother-cells, and hence no repro-
duction, in the sense of one or more individuals being produced
in an old one. The entire mother-cell is converted into two
filial cells ; the filial cells are nothing but the mother-cell divided.
And this is essentially the case in every cell-formation by division ;
for the wall of the mother-cell (within which the division gene-
rally takes place) certainly is not the living mother-cell, but

* Many Palraellacese, Desmidiacese, and Diatomeae. Cf. Braun, Ver-
jungiing, p. 132 et seq.

t H. Karsten (De Celia Vitali, 1843) emphatically rejects every mode
of cell-formation by division and by sprouting, and asserts that every cell
originates at its first appearance as a dot-like utriculus ; regarding all form-
ations found in the contents of the cell as cell-brood.

X Cf. Verjiingung, ]). 24,5.

§ E. g.. Protococcus (viricUs), Characium, Pediastriim, Ulothrix, Vn-
feromorpha, Ulva, &c., during the process of spore-formation.

II Nageli (Monocellular Algae, p. 28) calls such cell-generations “ transi-
tory generations.”

245

Dr. A . Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

merely its cast-ofF garment, its perishing shell. Cell-formation
by division (called the merismatic or wandstandige is
that which obtains through the whole realm of vegetative deve-
lopment ; while free cell-formation occurs only in fructification.
Thus, the same phsenomenon, which, regarded as endogenous
cell-formation, seemed so favourable to the importance of the
cell as the vegetable individual, when more justly comprehended
only brings us back to the divisibility of the vegetable organism,
repeated in the most heterogeneous spheres. But still more :
even the cell whose contents are not converted by division into
new cells, but remain simple, presents phfcnomena which can
hardly be reconciled with their view by those who regard such a
cell as an individual, isolated in space and independent in time.
In the genera Vaucheria^ Bnjopsis, Caulerpa, and other related
Algse in the family of Siphonia, we find such cases, examples of
the most extraordinary kind of cell-formation. The single cell,
which forms the vegetable organism of these plants, has in fact
a development which may continue indefinitely. Certain parts
of the elongated stem-like cell shoot forth into branches which
lengthen by an independent terminal growth, without separating
from the cavity of the maternal trunk by any partition. The
principal trunk of the cell is either creeping, with an indefinite
terminal growth, though dying off from behind {Caulerpa pi' o~
lifer a *), or it is upright and deciduous, while the sucker-like
branches, club-shaped at the ends, and filled with a denser con-
tents, are perennial {Vaucheria tuberosa-\). In both cases the
branches separate from the dying trunk, closing up at the
bottom ; and thousands of new trunks may thus be produced
without any proper cell-formation. Thus the cell leads us back
to the point from which we started at the tree ; and, as we could
not refuse individuality to the ramifications of the tree, neither
can we refuse it to the ramifications of the cell. Hence we can-
not regard the cell as an absolutely single being, completely iso-
lated and indivisible. Shall we penetrate still further into the
anatomy of the cell itself, in the hope of possibly finding a valid
vegetable individual ? All that we discover here is, first, the
vesicles, spherules and gi’anulcs in the contents of the cell (amy-
lum, chlorophyll and other pigrncnt-vcsicles, spherules of fat,
and, finally, the granules of the viscous cell-contents, whose
chemical nature it is difficult to determine) ; and secondly, the

* Cf. Xiigeli’s important paper on this plant (Zeitschrift fiir wissen. Bot.
i. p, 134), e8])ecially the exposition of the above-mentioned relations he-
ginninf' p. 15S.

t A new species from the vicinity of Lake Nenenl)crg in Switzerland,
remarkable for its pnredy furcated ramifications, with constrictions at tin*
Ijottom of the branches, as w( 11 as for the clnb-shape«l suckers at the ends.

246 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

fibres, which compose the cell-membrane according to the old
view advanced by Grew and lately revived by Meyen* and
J. Agardh f. These parts, it is true, have often been regarded
as the elementary forms % of plants, or their primary indivi-
dualized bodies § ; the attempts, however, to represent them as
the true and real vegetable individuals are not numerous ; and
they astonish us by their daring rather than entice to imitation.
Turpin, who commenced by considering plants to be composed
of different kinds of individual cells, which he compared with
various lower plants (especially the Algse-genera Protococcus and
Conferva), afterwards expanded his views, so as to regard the
cells themselves as individuals of a second rank ; while he consi-
dered the true primary individuals to be the granules of the cell-
contents, from which, in his opinion, the cell (cell-wall) is formed
by agglomeration ||. Mayer of Bonn, basing his theory upon
molecular motions, considers the smallest granules of the cell-
contents as individuals possessing animal life (biospheres), which
build up plants for their dwellings. “ Like hamadryads these
sensitive monads inhabit the secret halls of the bark-palaces we

* Meyen, Pflanzenpliysiol. i. p. 45; answered by Mohl, in his Ver-
inischte Schriften, p. 314.

t J. Agardh, De Cell. Veg. fibrillis tenuissimis contexta (1852). Not-
withstanding the importance of the author’s new investigations, they still
need a more searching examination, as some points directly contradict
well-ascertained facts, e. g. the direct transition of the fibres from the
outer to the inner layers of the cell-wall. The whole theory of the forma-
tion of cells by the uninterrupted growth of fibres cannot be admitted in
view of the undoubted independence of the formation of the cell-wall from
the contents. Mohl is certainly right in regarding the fibrous division
and divisibility of many cellular tissues as a mere structural relation of the
membrane (which in other parts is continuous) ; and he thinks it depends
upon the peculiar mode of agglomeration of the molecules. As such mole-
cules of the cell -wall are invisible, I think it preferable to regard it as de-
pendent upon a regular change of the relations of density.

X Kutzing, Phil. Bot. i. p. 125, 129, does not regard the cell as the
elementary form of plants, but as a complicated structure itself, and pre-
ceded by many other more simple forms, wdiich he comprehends under the
name of “molecular tissue,” and w^hich, he says, present in themselves
many lower vegetable forms ; — plants which are not even cells !

§ Unger, Grundz. d. Anat. u. Phys. der Pflanzen, p. 4. The cell is re-
presented as the “ elementary vegetable organ but the vesicles, fibres
and granules within it are further distinguished as very minute, “indivi-
dualized ” bodies.

11 Turpin, “ Sur le nombre deux” (Mem. du Musee, xvi. 182/, p. 305) :
“ Ainsi des individus globuleux, rapproches simplemcnt contigus, formeiit
la membrane de la vesicule Individu du tissu cellulaire, le filament Iiidividu
du tissu tigellulaire, et la membrane cuticulaire Individu. Des agglome-
rations de ces derniers constituent les Individualites, provenantcs des
bourgeons developpes, et enfin, celles-ci achevcnt V hidividualite composee
d’un arbre.”

247

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

call plants, and here silently hold their dances and celebrate
their orgies

Farther than this we cannot go : if we did, we should have to
leave specific vegetable life, and, instead of investigating its most
minute spheres of formation, the visible eells, vesicles, granules
or monads, turn to the invisible individua f of brute matter, so
as to consider plants as phsenomena of appellant and repellant,
coherent and incoherent atoms. If we must understand by an
individual, a being perfectly simple and indivisible, this is our
last refuge, in which we may indeed reach an individual, but not
a vegetable individual ; for this would then be identical with the
material individual common to all corporeal existence. But, even
if we could give up all hopes of a specific vegetable individual,
doubt would still linger round these physical individuals ; for even
the existence of the universal primary particles of bodies — the
material individuals, the atoms, — is not conclusively established.
No eye has seen them ; w^e do not even think of considering them
as objects of direct perception ; we only accept them as an hypo-
thesis, to eke out our theories of motion and of chemical affinity ;
and to enable us to compute their relations. The question might
easily be asked, whether the same phaenomena may not be as
well explained by assuming the continuity, expansibility, and
penetrability of matter. However this may be, the question con-
cerning the existence of atoms certainly lies beyond the limits of
botanical investigation ; and if the existence of vegetable indi-
viduals depends on this question, the botanist must despair of
proving it. Thus the question at which we have now arrived is
this : can we speak of individuals in botany ? and this is identical
with another: are plants mere products of the operations of
matter (z. e. of a substance self-moving, uniting and separating
by an innate force), and hence non-entities, or mere phasnomena
resulting from, or produced by, the blind forces of nature ; or
may we ascribe to plants an independent existence in nature,
notwithstanding their connexion with the external w^oiid ?

If what we call plants are nothing but complex chemical and
physical processes, we can no longer speak of their individuals
and species in the sense the w^ords usually bear ; for the mere
phsenomena of the operations of the ])iimary substance, which
have no other efficient princi])lc than the forces of this sub-
stance, cannot be regarded as self-existent beings, or as peculiar
(specific) kinds of these beings, or as single (individual) modi-
fications of them. This is, in fact, the result tow^ards which the

* Mayer, Sujmlemcnte zuin Lelirc vom Krcislauf (183/), p. 41). I ;mi
acquainted uith Mayer’s views tlirougli Meyen’s Pflan7.cn])liys. ii. p. 25d.
t Cicero calls tlie atoms “ individua.”

248 Dr. A. Bi aun on the Vegetable Individual,

later physiological investigations are hastening, grounded on the
positive results of investigations in the physical sciences. Even
vegetable physiology cannot resist this tendency of science, al-
though it struggles more or less against these conclusions *.
The operations by which plants, and all organic beings, form
and preserve their organisms, were formerly ascribed to peculiar
vital forces ; but the physiology of our day would recognize in
the vital functions of the organism the same forces by which the
processes of inorganic nature are performed. Thus physiology
becomes physics and chemistry, or, according to the usual con-
ception of the physical and chemical processes themselves, the

mechanics ” of organic nature in the most comprehensive mean-
ing of the term mechanics. And thus the life of the enchanter
is unveiled, who had seemed to be the immediate cause of his
own works ; the lofty partition-wall between organic and inor-
ganic nature falls, and one common foundation is laid for inves-
tigating all material processes in eveiy realm of nature. This
important result is reached : the existence of the higher orders
of natural phsenomena, which had been regarded as the peculiar
realm of Life, is referred to the same natural causes (the same
material substance and the same kind of forces) by which the
lower orders, those of inanimate ” nature, have their being and
perform their functions. Still further conclusions may be at-
tempted, and it is in the nature of scientific progress that these
attempts should be made. As physical forces seem to be every-
where indissolubly connected with matter, and as a fixed regu-
larity displays itself in their operations, men were found bold
enough to consider the totality of natural phsenomena as the re-
sult of original primary substances, cooperating with determinate
forces, according to the laws of a blind necessity ; — a natural
mechanism revolving in its endless orbit f.

Though this view seems to explain all the phsenomena of na-
ture from one principle, in fact it precludes any real explanation

* Even Scbleiden, the most prominent and most decided of the repre-
sentatives of this tendency, seeks to counterbalance the deadening effects
of the purely materialistic view by an aesthetic one (Die Pflanze und ihr
Lehen ; last lecture, D. ^sthetik der Pflanzenwelt).

t As far as concerns natural history these \>iews are developed, e. g. in
both of Mohlschott’s works, D. Physiol, des StoflPwechsels in Pflanzen u.
Thieren (1851), and D. Kreislauf des Lebens (1852) ; in the last-mentioned
work we find such sentences as these : “ The miracle of nature is the inter-
change of matter, the first cause of physical life,” p. 83. “ Creative omni-
potence means the relations of matter,” p. 258. “ The hinge round which

the wisdom of the present day is turning is the doctrine of the interchanges
of matter,” p. 363. — The doctrine, that the universe is the play of attra-
hent and repellant atoms, belongs, after all, to the “ wisdom ” of the past,
professed by Democritus and Epicurus.

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 249

of them, that is, when exclusively applied to their solution. That
which is eternally necessary can only be conceived as eternally
carried out ; and thus any real event becomes an absurdity. If
the mechanical (physical and chemical) forces of nature are
necessarily active, then if any motion is to take place, the first
impulse, the proximate cause, cannot be explained by the nature
of the motion ; it must be another principle above necessity ; and
this is true not only of nature as a whole, but also of every par-
ticular motion in nature as well. Thus not only the first impulse,
but the universally apparent final cause, remains an inexplicable
riddle in the doctrine of blind necessity. Hence the insuffi-
ciency of the physical theory, compared with the teleolo-
gical *, ” is peculiarly obvious in the realms of organic nature,
where the final cause of each particular life appears so distinctly.
The advocates of the physical view perceive this ; but they ex-
plain the fitness of means to ends in nature as a whole, and in
its individual parts, by supposing matter, with its blind forces,
to have been created by an intelligent Beingf. But we can
regard this as a germ of an explanation only in proportion as it
is also granted, that the intellect of the Creator lies not only be-
hind and without nature and her processes of development, but
that, as if incorporated in nature, it is taken into the destiny of
each created being, in proportion to its individuality. But this
again presupposes the admission of a substantiality of nature fit
for such an hypothesis; — a substantiality not grounded on mere
matter, like a blind force; but which, on the contrary, must
comprehend matter as subordinate to itself, and must realize
itself through matter : — an assumption which modifies the phy-
sical view essentially, and would seem to be a modification of
some ideal, or teleological theory.

Without underrating the great importance which the physical
view possesses for vegetable physiology, still we must confess
that we cannot find in it the key to a conception of vegetable
individuality ; for, after all, this must be sought for, not in the
external conformation, but in the essence of the plant, determined

* Cf. Schwann, Microscoj)ische Untersuch ungen fiber die Ueberein-
stiramung in der Structur u. d. Wacbsthura d. Thiere u. Pflanzen (1839),
especially p. 221-225; on the other side, Eschricht, D. Physische Leben
(1852), in sections ii. and iii.

t “ The fitness of means to ends, in every organism, even a superior de
gree of this individual fitness, cannot be denied ; but in this (the physical)
view, the cause of the fitness does not consist in the fact that every organ-
ism is produced by an individual force tending towards a certain end, but,
like the cause of the fitness of means to ends in the organic world, that
matter is the creation of an intelligent Being.” Schwann, 1. c. p. 221, and,
in almost the same words, ]). 224.

Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Scr. 2. Vol. xvi.

17

250 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

from within. This leads us from the last negative results to an
historical view of the attempts at a positive explanation.

It is evident from the foregoing review that, if we would not
give up all hope of conceiving plants as beings, realized in indi-
vidual conformations, we must not allow so great and decisive an
importance to the external divisibility of their organism as has
been usually done. We must seek a decision in the essential
concatenation of all the steps in the plant^s development forming
one whole, according to one idea. This is the tendency of the
concluding remark of Nageli, to which he is led by the relations
of growth and propagation in Caulerpa, when he says, that in-
divisibility of form is not an element essential to individuality —
which, indeed, must be constructed upon a new, and somewhat
less material basis. Link calls attention to this same unity,
which is expressed in the whole development of the plant, and
which forms the essence of its individuality, in the following true
words : We cannot recognize an individual unless we are con-

vinced that it remains the same in different periods of its exist-
ence*.^^ Now the question is just this : how can we perceive
such a oneness of essence amid these changes of form and mate-
rial ? How do we perceive that, with all its divisibility, the
plant remains after all really one and the same individual ?

Every development presents a succession of phsenomena, which,
while they present themselves in a regular order, also show un-
mistakeably a point of departure, an end, and a course between
the two advancing after a fixed plan, and which indicate a com-
mon internal principle f. They point to an internal vital prin-
ciple J common to the whole succession ; — to a principle which

* Link, Elem. Phil. Bot. ed. 2. p. 11.

t Du Petit-Thouars, Z. c. p. 234 : L’individu est un etre dont toutes

les parties sont suhordonnees a un principe unique d’existence.” Link,
Elem. Phil. Bot. ed. 2. p. 3 : “ Nos individuum vocamus, quod ab uno
eodemque principio interno determinatum est, ad idealem potius quam ad
realem respicientes divisionem.”

Spring, Ueber d. Begriffe v. Gattung, Art u. Abart (1838), p. 55. “ It
is this indwelling principle which makes the individual; and in natural
history, every body is an individual in as far as it really exists as a single
being, whose existence is determined by a peculiar indwelling vital prin-
ciple.’’ Spring afterwards distinguishes the systematical and the physio-
logical individual : in the former one phase of the development is com-
prehended, in the latter the whole metamorj^hosis. The physiological in-
dividual comprehends an assemblage of forms, which might be regarded by
a casual observer as so many systematical individuals. Still, a true system-
atist must protest against such a purely subjective distinction of system-
atical and physiological individuals. However much the embryos of
Mosses resemble Confervae, or the larva of an insect resembles a worm, a
true systematist will not se])arate the young individual fi’om the developed

251

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

must be conceived of, not only as an idea which guides the whole
process, or as a force determining the specific type of this plastic
succession, but also as a living essence, comprehending the idea
as its internal determination, and the force as the means of its
realization ; — an essence which precedes and shapes the external
existence; as intentions precede and determine acts*. If, in ac-

one ; and genera which are founded upon our ignorance of their successive
development, as Protonema, Lepra, Sclerotium, &c., must be given up by
the systematist himself. True, w^e shall be called upon at a later point in
this inquiry to decide, whether a sphere of development which really be-
longs to the individual can present itself to us so divided that the divisions
themselves attain to the importance of subordinate individuals.

* Aristotle describes the internal essence of plants as a “ plastic soul ”
{OpeTTTLKj) yj/v^r}, Tov ^avTos (TwpaTos alrla Kai dpxb)’ fi'f* Wimmer, Phytol.
Arist. Frag. c. iii. De PI. Vita atque Anima. The charge of anthropomorphism
has been made against such a view', which attempts to conceive of nature
as a chain of essences, both in the reciprocal relations of her forces, and in
her internal developments ; but, if man himself is a member of nature, if
he is the highest member in the order of natural beings, that member
w'hich presents the most complete unison of all the phases of life in nature,
— then all his knowledge of nature must be connected with his knowdedge
of himself. However meanly we may estimate this knowledge at the pre-
sent stage of psychological science, still it is sufficient to assure man of his
ow'n “ ego.” And if man is justified in regarding himself as a human being,
by analogy he is justified in regarding his relations, the animals, in the
same manner, as animal beings ; plants as vegetable beings ; and every
single animal, every single plant, as an individual being (even though in-
cluded in a higher entity). To attain a unity of idea in Natural History,
man must apply this idea farther down in the scale of nature, and must
regard minerals, even the elements themselves, as beings of their owm
kind. But the materialist will reply. Individual beings are only the ele-
mentar}- substance : all other beings, so called, are formed by a temporary
composition and cooperation of these. But who has seen these elements
of chemical combinations, as elements, or has proved their existence in any
way ? But even if they should exist as such, is it not conceivable that a
higher being should include the low’er beings? We say, hydrogen and
oxygen form water ; but it would do as well to say, water forms itself out
of hydrogen and oxygen. The elements do not form the plant ; the plant
forms its body out of the elements. We may declare both these views to
be hypotheses ; but of hj'potheses that is preferable which is nearest to
man, — I would almost say, most necessary to man’s nature, when he pro-
ceeds from the data of his own existence. Shall the elements have a
stronger claim to be acknowledged as real existences than man himself?
Or will any one say that it is a more daring hypothesis to assume that man
thinks ; that brutes move themselves ; that plants themselves produce the
determinate form of their organism, than to su])pose that elementary sub-
stances in their connexions and cooperations produce the phaenomena of
tliought, voluntary motion, and typical conformation ? But after all, is it
not true that the elementary substance is everywhere present? that without
it none of the j>h8enomena just mentioned can occur? Certainly this is so ;
the higher stages cannot be realized without the lower, which enable them
to exist ; but these higher stages can never be explained by, and compre-
hended in, the lower. No one, as yet, has shown even the shadow of a
possil)ilitv of explaining, from the things themselves merely, why the ele-

17*

252 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

cordance with this idea^ we regard external development as the
revelation of the internal essenee, which exhibits its purport in
the processes it undergoes in connexion with the world without
it, and whose realization is thus produced by a determinate
sphere of activities, necessary for such a realization, then, vice
versa, we may infer the essential unity of each particular sphere
of development from the complete unity of the functions rela-
ting to this realization. This leads us to the attempts made at
a physiological determination of the vegetable individual. The
usual definition, and one entirely in accordance with the physio-
logical point of view, is that an individual is a perfect represen-
tative of the character of the species, possessing all the functions
necessary to the continuance of the species. Now if we would
conceive of a physiological individual, in the broadest meaning
of the term, we should certainly be compelled to demand that
our conception should be such as to exhibit not only single
phases, but all the phases of the specific life during its entire
development ; that it should realize all the capabilities of the
specific being, and thus present to us the whole plan, the whole
destiny of the species. If we examine the preceding conclusions
from this point of view, it will be evident that single cells can-
not be such individuals ; for, although the whole construction of
the plant and all the functions of its life are carried on by means
of the cells, still, viewed as a connected whole, the cells are only
single stones, single elements, in the great mechanism of the

mentary particles form a mineral kingdom, a vegetable kingdom, an animal
kingdom, and man. And why do they not fulfil their task after an eternal,
immutable manner, since such a fulfilment is one of their necessary, eter-
nal, and immutable properties ? Why have they succeeded in composing
man only in the most recent geological epoch ? Why have they not from
eternity produced in man’s brain the theory of their actions, and thus, in
accordance with their eternity, eternally manifested and glorified them-
selves ? The most industrious investigations into the relations of the phy-
sical world promise us a deeper insight into the regular connexions of all
the parts of nature; into the cunning mechanism which carries on and
upholds all natural life. Still, a key to the interior of this structure, and an
admission to the essence of plastic nature in her operations, cannot be found
by our investigations, if, by presumptuous hypotheses, they debar us from
the higher realms of development, especially those of organic nature and
of human life. Flesh and blood are hypotheses ; but mind is truth, says a
well-known writer ; and Des Cartes could find a proof of his own existence
and of that of the world around him in his mind alone. It would be a
strange contradiction, if the investigation of the most distant realms into
which the human mind can penetrate should rob us of what is nearest and
surest, the intellectual ego itself, the starting-point of all investigations.
But he who has not recognized the foundations of the spiritual world in
nature itself, must of consequence deny their existence in man, if he w ould
not lose, in an inexplicable dualism, the hope of obtaining coherent views
of nature.

253

Dr. A . Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

organism. Any single member of a plant (as the internode and
leaf) corresponds no more to such a physiological individual than
does the cell ; for plants undergo their metamorphoses in their
successive members j and the various processes of their preser-
vation, reproduction and propagation are connected with the
various steps of these metamorphoses. Nor can it be the shoot ;
for that usually does not embrace all the steps of the metamor-
phosis; besides, the functions are variously distributed in the
shoot; and in many cases, this takes place for the reciprocal
completion of the functions. Besides, whatever is characteristic
in ramification and in growth depends upon the combined shoots,
and without these it is impossible to conceive of trees, for in-
stance. Then we come back to the whole plant-stock ! Nay,
farther ; we cannot stop at the plant-stock ; for the single stocks
are far from being perfect representatives of all the phases and
tendencies of the specific life. I would refer to the division ac-
cording to gender, or the modes of fruetification, which is often
made in botany; the dioecious and trioecious* relations, and
farther, to the varieties, especially to those whieh do not possess
essential organs and functions, which belong to the species as
such ; e. g. those varieties which never bear blossoms (ball-
acacias), or which never produee fruit (congested blossoms), or
which never perfect seeds (currant-grape, cultivated bananas and
bread-fruit trees). Besides, no stock is exactly similar to an-
other : we ascertain only the limits of the possible relations of
the specific form by a comparison of many stocks. As in ani-
mal physiology the solution of the problem of the life of many
animals depends upon their social relations (societies composed of
couples or of flocks, or of self-governing states), so in vegetable
physiology it depends upon characteristic physiological traits
whether plants live singly and dispersed, or in societies. For
example, in considering the life of turf-mosses, we must deter-
mine whether they grow in great sods or in carpets ; and of
grasses, whether they form meadows ; or of trees, forests. Even
the relations of geographical distribution, which are discovered
by a comparison of all the stocks, depend upon the physiological
character of the plants : plants of sensitive and inflexible eonsti-
tutions are found only within narrow limits ; while plants of
adaptive and pliant constitutions are more widely distributed,
become migratory plants, and by degrees spread over almost all
j)arts of the earth, if their seeds possess the necessary properties.

* Tri(Eciou8 plants arc exceedingly rare among Phanerogainia [Cera-
tonia, some kinds of Rhus), bnt are more common among the Crypto-
gam ifc ; j)erhaps we may mid the Floridie. In Polifsiphonia violacea I
have found three kinds of stocks mixed, and iti the same stage of develo})-
ment in the same place (upon the same thread in Chorda FHum).

254 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

From these considerations, and many others which might be
adduced, it is obvious that there are no determinate limits to a
purely physiological conception of the vegetable individual ; and
that we may expand the definition of the individual until it
coincides with that of the species itself.

How then can we steer a middle course, between the mor-
phological view, which results in indefinite subdivision, and the
physiological, which ends in indefinite expansion ? The physio-
logical view has shown that none of the divisions or spheres of
formation, which have been regarded as the individual ones, fully
realizes the idea of the species ; and that each needs the others
to render this idea complete. The morphological view has
shown, in the same manner, that there are subordinate and com-
prehensive spheres of development, none of which exhibits com-
plete independence, since all appear in unequal degrees, as more
or less perfect members of the entire succession of the specific
development. If we would discover the individual under such
circumstances, we must not demand of it all that belongs to the
species ; for this is completely represented only in the totality of
the individuals, not in any single individual. We must answer
this question : Which member of the graduated potential series
in the sphere of development subordinate to that of the species
deserves pre-eminently the title of individual ? And we shall be
compelled to reply : That which exhibits the most complete in-
dependence and definiteness. Good use has decided in regard
to man (and the higher animals), and it justifies itself by the
fact, that what is usually termed an individual undoubtedly pos-
sesses great organic independence : and this is true both of its
subordinate spheres [i. e. the members of the organism, down to
the cells) and of those by which the individual is comprehended
(family, state, race, &c.). By means of comparison and analogy,
the signification of the more doubtful spheres of development
among the lower animals and plants may receive some new light
from such a view. I propose to attempt this in the second part
of this investigation, but now I will only subjoin a few general
remarks.

In the conception of individuality, there are two elements ; that
of multiplicity and that of unity. Each development exhibits
multiplicity ; but this multiplicity is not equally subordinate to
the unity in every development. The more complete this sub-
ordination, the more perfect is the individuality ; for it is only
this subordination to the unity which binds up the multiplicity
of the conformation into an indivisible organism. The less com-
plete the subordination, the more perfect will be the independ-
ence of the parts, and the more indefinite will be the indivi-
duality of the whole. If we apply this view to plants, whatever

255

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

is dubious in our conception of vegetable individuality will be
explained. Successive development, we may say, is the peculiar
nature of plants, which, beyond the power exhibited in the pro-
cess of formation and propagation, possess no higher vital power ;
while in animals the process of the formation of the body ap-
pears only as an operation preparatory to its connexion with a
higher vital activity. For animals, in addition to their powers
of external manifestations, have a power of internal vital com-
prehension, which expresses itself in the life of the soul (by
which animals possess an internal centre, from which the organ-
ism is governed and regulated). It is the soul alone which con-
nects in indivisible unity, and for reciprocal services, the pro-
ducts of the plastic power, and gives to the organism of animals
the character of a definite individuality. Among plants the case
is different : plants in their operations are active solely in one
direction, externally — are split up, so to say, in the process of
external conformation, so that the parts appear less connected,
as compared with the plant as a whole more independent, and
more divisible among themselves. Thus the vegetable organism
is a dividual, rather than an individual; a multiplicity* rather
than a unity ; i, e. a whole whose parts hold the same relation
to eaeh other as individuals to each other, but which present
spheres as indivisible as the whole itself. This is the doctrine of
the relative f individuality of plants, whieh Steinheil has espe-
cially noticed. According to this doctrine, different orders of
vegetable individuals, as it were different powers of individuality,
are distinguished. In the same manner DeCandolle J distin-
guishes the cell-individual {Vindividu cellulaire, in which he
has been preceded by Turpin) ; the bud-individual {Vindividu
bourgeon, after Darwin) ; the slip-individual [Vindividu bouture) ;
the stock-individual, or the vegetable individual [Vindividu vege-
tal penes quern est jus et norma loquendi) ; and the embryo-
individual [Vindividu embryon), which, in accordance with the

* “ Planta est multitudo.” Engelmann, Ue Antholysi, p. 12.

t Steinheil, 1. c., especially p. 4 and p. 17 : “ Les vegetaux ne peuvent
arriver a I’individualite ahsolue; ils se presentent a nous dans un etat,
qu’on peut designer par le nom d’individualite relative ; ce qui distingue
cette partie de la creation du regne mineral, ou I’individualite est nulle, et
du regne animal, ou elle est presque toujours ahsolue.”

+ l)eCandolle, Physiologic Veget. j). 957. The author does not attach
much importance to his division, as he says he has assumed it for conve-
nience of ex])ression, and to avoid the usual confusion of language. His
son .Vl|)honse DeCandolle considers it quite an arbitrary matter which part
of the plant we call the individual : “ Les vegetaux sont evidemment des
etres composes : main juscju’ou veut-on les decomposer, pour que les elc-
mens s’appellent des individiis ? C’est une chose arhitraire, (pii depend de
I’idee par laquellc on se laissc domincr” (after Steinheil, p. h).

256

Mr. J. Lycett on the Subgenus Limea.

meaning in which Gallesio used the term, comprehends all that
proceeds from one germ, even if multiplied by division. Since
the slip-individual is essentially the same as the bud-individual
[i. e. shoot-individual), we have four degrees of individuality, in
which at least one more might have been easily inserted, between
the cell and the shoot-individual), i. e. the member or “story
individual (Gaudichaud^s phyton). With this view Schleiden^s
division is connected : he distinguishes the cell as the plant of
the first order ; the shoot as that of the second, which he calls
the simple plant (a term borrowed from C. F. Wolf, who used it
in the same sense) ; the whole stock as that of the third order,
which he designates as the composite plant By a searching in-
vestigation into the shoot, I shall endeavour to decide whether
all these relative individuals can be considered individuals with
the same justice; or whether, after all, one of them does not de-
serve the title pre-eminently, corresponding to the animal indi-
vidual. In either case Goethe^’s words may be applied with per-
fect justice to plants and their individuality : —

Freuet euch des wahren Scheins,

Euch des ernsten Spieles ;

Kein Lebendiges ist Bins
Immer ist’s ein Vieles.

Herder, in speaking of the works of the Creator, says : “ Every
one of Thy works Thou makest one and perfect, and like itself
alone.^^

This sentence presents the other aspect of existence, by which
the multiform is one ; and every unity in the one-sidedness and
incompleteness of all single manifestations, is after all a perfect
whole. These words lead us to the internal essence of things,
referring us at the same time to the primary ideas, which Nature
comprehends and realizes in Life.

[To be continued.]

XXII. — Note on the Subgenus Limea, Bronn.

By John Lycett, Esq.*

The present note is intended to direct attention to a peculiarity
connected with the external surface of Limea^ trivial in its zoo-
logical importance, but which is calculated from its persistency
to be a useful aid to the palaeontologist in the absence of hinge
characters.

* Read to the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Club, August 28th, 1855.

On some Brachiopoda found on the Coast of Norway. 257

The subgenus Limea has hitherto been distinguished from
Lima solely by the presence of a series of parallel teeth upon
each side of the hinge-plate, a feature which cannot be ascer-
tained in the majority of specimens ; and the only British species
of Limea hitherto described has so little in its general aspect to
separate it from the young condition of Lima duplicata (a shell
which is associated with it iii the same beds), that any clear ex-
ternal distinction which can be ascertained between them is
worthy of notice, more especially when it will also be found to
characterize Limea as a subgenus.

It is in the auricles that the distinctive feature resides, and it
is immediately connected with the hinge-plate beneath : it will
be found that the radiating lines which usually ornament the
surfaces of the auricles in the Pectens and Liinse also exist in
Limea, but that in the latter they abruptly disappear towards the
outer angle of each auricle, leaving a small triangular smooth
area, which is traversed transversely downwards and inwards by
a few elevations ; these are placed immediately over and corre-
spond to the grooves which separate the teeth upon the hinge-
plate. In all well-preserved specimens this kind of surface is
visible upon one or both of the auricles, its distinctness depend-
ing upon the condition of the specimen with reference to fossi-
lization and the greater or less prominence of the internal
featm*es.

Limea duplicata is abundant in the shelly oolite of Leck-
hampton Hill ; there is also another more ornamented but un-
described species higher in the same formation, and found at
many localities in the upper flagstones of the Cotteswold Infe-
rior Oolite. The peculiarity of the auricles is observable equally
in both these species.

XXIII. — Notes on the Brachiopoda observed in a Dredging Tour
with Mr. Andrew on the Coast of Norway, in the summer of
the present year. By Lucas Barrett, F.G.S.*

In the course of our cruise we met with four species of Brachio-
])oda, belonging to three out of the four recent families of those
shells. Fresh specimens of one or more of these were obtained
almost daily for two months, and as during that time we were
within the Arctic circle, enjoying perpetual sunlight, the oppor-
tunity of watching their movements was extremely favourable.

1 . Terebratulina caput -serpentis. This sj)ecies shows more of

* (’ouiimmicfited by the Author, having; been read at the Meetitjj^ of the
British Association at (ilasgow, Sept. 18, 1855.

258 On some Brachiopoda found on the Coast of Norway.

itself than any other, and protrudes its cirri further; it was met
with everywhere, in small numbers, in 30 to 150 fathoms, often
attached to Oculina. The cirri on the reflected part of the arms
are shorter than those on the first part, as shown in the wood-
cut. The cirri were almost constantly in motion, and often ob-
served to convey small particles to the channel at their base.
When placed in a small glass of sea water the valves gradually
opened. Individuals remaining attached to other objects mani-
fested a remarkable power and disposition
to move on their pedicles. Detached speci-
mens could be moved about without causing
the animal to close its valves. If any of the
protruded cirri were touched, the cirri were
retracted and the valves closed with a snap,
but soon after opened again. When the
oral arms are retracted the cirri are bent up, ^
but are gradually uncoiled and straightened
when the shell is opened, before which the
animal has often been observed to protrude
a few of its cirri and move them about, as if to ascertain if any
danger threatened. Only on one occasion a current was observed
to set in on one side between the two rows of cirri. I had
been attempting to ascertain the existence of currents, by in-
troducing small quantities of indigo into the water surrounding
the animal with a camePs-hair brush; three times the water
was forcibly drawn in, and particles of indigo were seen to
glide along the groove at the base of the cirri in the direction
of the mouth.

2. Waldheimia cranium occurred on several occasions between
Vigten Islands and the North Cape, in 25 to 150 fathoms, at-
tached to stones, Balani, &c. ; only once in plenty at Omnsesoe.
This species belongs to the division of Terebratulidse with a long-
loop, and the oral arms are so fixed to the ealcareous ske-
leton as to be incapable of motion, except at their spiral ter-
minations : it has been supposed that these conjoined spiral
ends could be unrolled, like the pro-
boscis of a butterfly ; but I never saw
any disposition of the kind manifested.

This species is more lively than caput-
serpentis, moving often on its pedicle,
also more easily alarmed ; the cirri are
not protruded beyond the margins of Waldheimia cranium.
the valves ; when the shell is closed

they are bent up. No currents were detected, though fre-
quently sought for.

M. R. Leuckart 07i the Young States of some Annelides. 259

3. Rhynchonella psittacea was moderately abundant in the
extreme north, from Tromsoe to the North Cape, in a living state,
in 70 to 150 fathoms water. Dead valves

were found at Hammerfest in mud. I found
Rhynchonella very difficult to examine, the
animal being extremely timid and closing
its valves on the slightest movement. The
coiled arms are extended, so that the cirri
when unbent come as far as the margin of Rhynchonella psittacea.
the shell. I have frequently seen this spe-
cies with its valves open, but it never protruded its arms.

4. Crania anomala, Mull,
sp., was met with between
Drontheim and Tromsoe, at-
tached to stones, shells, &c.,
in 40 to 150 fathoms water;
the cirri are protruded, but
not the arms, beyond the mar-
gin of the shell. The valve
opens by moving upon the
straight side as on a hinge,
without sliding the valve.

Crania anomala, Miill. sp.

XXIV. — On the Young States of some Annelides.

By R. Leuckart *.

[With a Plate.]

In his copious Observations on the Anatomy and Development
of some Invertebrate Marine Animals, Busch has figured (pi. 8.
tigs. 1-4) the larva of an Annelide of unknown origin, which is
particularly remarkable in many respects, and especially from
its possession of strong spines and fringes of cilia upon the in-
dividual segments. In the spring of 1853 I not unfrequently
took similar larvae from the surface of the sea near Nice and
Villa Franca. The stage of development in which they occurred
agreed pretty well with that observed by Busch, at least in most
of the specimens : younger larvae were never found, but some
occurred which had proceeded a little further, and these proved
their increased development especially by the partial or even
complete loss of the above-mentioned spines. When the tem-
porary nature of this peculiar apparatus of bristles was esta-
blislied, it was tolerably easy, by the consideration of the other

* Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from Wiegmaim’s Arebiv, 1855,

260 M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides,

characters, to ascertain the pedigree of our larva, or at all events
its nearest allies. These, in my opinion, are to be found in the
family of the Aricice, and indeed in the group with two long
tentacular cirri {Aricice NaidecB, Oerst.; Spioidea, Grube), pro-
bably amongst the species of the genus Spio or Nerine.

Before setting forth the reasons in favour of my supposition,
we must first of all get a good notion of the larva itself ; espe-
cially as Busches statements do not take up every point, and are
also erroneous in this respect, that he treats the dorsal surface
of the worm as the ventral surface, and vice versa.

The most developed individuals that occurred to me (FI. VII.
fig. I) measured 2^ lines and were of a brownish colour. They
were rather slender, about of a line in width anteriorly,

tapering towards the hinder extremity and flattened on the back,
so that the height of the body (fig. 3) was scarcely more than
half its breadth. They swam, at least so it appeared to me,
almost exclusively by the action of the circlets and rows of cilia,
the arrangement of which has already been described by Busch.
As soon as they were interrupted in their movements, they rolled
themselves up into a flat spiral and sank to the bottom.

The segments of the body (fig. I) had already attained a con-
siderable number (about fifty). They exhibit a very uniform
structure, but gradually decrease in development from before
backwards. The head consists of a short, broad, nearly qua-
drangular tubercle, which is but indistinctly separated from the
first segment of the body, and bears, between the rounded ante-
rior angles, a short tentaculiform process (frontal tentacle) of
a conical form. The upper surface of the head is furnished with
four black ocelli placed at a considerable distance from the
median line, and standing in a line which is but slightly curved
backwards. The posterior and inner eyes are the largest, and
are sometimes divided on one side into two spots placed close
together. No refractive media could be found in them. At each
side of the head there is a very considerable tentacle (a tenta-
cular cirrus) which arises from the angle between the head and
the protuberant upper lip, and curves backwards like a horn
over the first segment. Where this meets the upper lip, the
latter bears a tuft of long cilia, which Busch has regarded, cer-
tainly correctly, as the remains of the crown of cilia.

The anterior segment of the body is produced forwards at the
ventral surface almost to the base of the frontal tentacle (fig. 2),
and here forms a lip-like protuberance in front of the mouth ; this
is the upper lip already mentioned, which at the same time marks
the boundary between the buccal segment and the head. Even
without this process the first segment of the body is the longest,
although on the back it only measures about one-third of its

M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides* 261

width. The next following segments certainly yield but little
to this in length, but the later ones from about the middle of the
body diminish rather rapidly to a considerable extent. On each
of these segments four pedal tubercles (fig. 3) may be distin-
guished (not two, as stated by Busch) ; two of them are dorsal
and two ventral, they are placed on the nearly perpendicular
lateral surfaces, and have the form of slight, but very distinctly
marked elevations. The bristles of the two pairs of pedal tuber-
cles are of different forms ; the dorsal tubercles contain edged
capillary bristles (fig. 4), the ventral ones on the contrary ex-
tended uncini, the ends of which (as shown in fig. 5) form two
unequally developed teeth. As is usually the case under such
circumstances, the capillary bristles are the longest. The num-
ber of bristles diminishes gradually towards the hinder extre-
mity ; on the anterior segments it amounts to six or seven, on
the posterior ones only to two or three. Above the dorsal pedal
tubercle there rises a slender cirrus, clothed with short cilia ; the
length of this is however constantly less than that of the bristles,
even in the anterior half of the body.

The segments are further distinguished by the peculiar ciliary
lobes or combs described by Busch (figs. 2 & 3), which are
situated on the ventral surface and occupy about the middle of
the space between the ventral pedal tubercles and the median
line. The cilia of which these are composed agree in size and
development with the remains of the ciliary wreath, at least on
the anterior segments, but they gradually diminish considerably
both in size and number as we proceed backwards. In front
I not unfrequently counted twelve or even more hairs, standing
regularly close together in a transverse line ; on the hinder seg-
ments there were only from six to eight. The two first segments
of the body form an exception to this, as they are quite destitute
of these ciliary combs, but instead of them are covered on the
ventral surface with a uniform soft coat of cilia.

The last segment of the body is destitute of bristles, but is
considerably broader and longer than the preceding rings. It
forms as it were an annular protuberance around the anus, and
is margined with a circle of powerful cilia.

Of internal organs the intestinal canal alone could be distin-
guished ; it exhibits a very great development in our animal.
Its commencement forms an oesophagus, without a protrusible
proboscis or any armature ; but with fieshy walls, which arc
dilated on each side into tolerably wide eajca in the second, third
and fourth segments. In the fiftli segment the stomach com-
mences; it contains a greatly developed, yellow glandular layer,
by which it is very clearly distinguished even at the first glance
from the oesophagus ; although it a])pcars otherwise to be only

262 M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides.

a direct continuation of the latter. This appears also, especially
as the stomach possesses the same lateral cseca as the oesophagus ;
these indeed gradually diminish posteriorly and entirely dis-
appear about the second third of the body, but at the same
time (with the exception of the first csecum) appear very much
longer and more considerable than the corresponding processes
of the oesophagus. The glandular layer of the stomach is lost
upon the intestine, where it is replaced by a greater development
of the muscular membrane. The muscular walls, as in the oeso-
phagus, are marked with black pigment spots.

The preceding description only applies exactly, as has been
said, to the most developed specimens of our worms ; the younger
ones are not only smaller and furnished with a less number of
segments (35 to 50), but are also particularly distinguished by
the toothed bristles or spines described by Busch. Where these
spines were still most completely retained, I observed in the
first place a strong tuft on each side of the first segment of the
body, inserted upon the dorsal surface behind the tentacular
cirrus (fig. 2), and consisting of three or four, or sometimes only
two very large shafts, which were armed with short spine-like
teeth, and extended nearly half the length of the body. The
other segments bore similar, but very much shorter spines, which
were also upon the dorsal surface above the dorsal cirrus (fig. 3),
but never more than two together. The length of these spines,
on the anterior segments at least, might be about equal to the
breadth of the segment to which they belonged, but they gra-
dually diminished in length posteriorly, as Busch has already
stated. Similar organs were never found between the pedal
tubercles.

It is difficult to suppose that the loss of the spines in the
larger specimens is only accidental. For this, the number of the
spineless individuals was too large. Moreover the spined spe-
cimens universally exhibited the greatest variety in the number
of their spines and in the presence of these upon the individual
segments. Sometimes the spines of the anterior segment were
wanting, whilst the others were still uninjured ; sometimes it was
the latter that were absent to a greater or less extent. Occa-
sionally specimens were found (like fig. 1) which only possessed
a few (two or three) spines on some particular spots of their
bodies.

Under such circumstances I have no hesitation whatever, as
indeed has already been observed, in regarding these remarkable
appendages as a temporary adornment. But it is probable that
these spines do not constitute the only provisional organs of our
larvae. The circles and combs of cilia may also doubtless be
placed in the same category, for the developed Annelida, as far

M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Amielides. 263

as we know with certainty, are always destitute of such appa-
ratus. It is true that Quatrefages professes to have observed
some small Annelida with permanent tufts of cilia, but the ani-
mals in question are still but imperfectly known, — still less have
they been ascertained to be fully developed species.

If we leave these bristles out of the question, there remains a
slender worm, with an eye-bearing cephalic tubercle, and two
tentacular cirri, with a simple (not protrusible) unarmed oeso-
phagus, slightly developed dorsal cirri, and differently formed
simple bristles in the pedal tubercles, which are also but slightly
prominent. Of course many changes take place in this animal
before it arrives at its perfect development and sexual maturity,
but these will hardly be of great importance ; they will probably
be confined to the enlargement of the tentacular and dorsal
cirri.

If we consider this proved, there can be little doubt as to the
systematic position, or, which is the same thing, the origin of
our animal. Our worm is one of the so-called Dorsihranchiata,
and indeed belongs to the family of the Aricice^ as circum-
scribed by Oersted (Wiegmann^s Archiv, 1841, i. p. 103). The
existence of a single pair of tentacular cirri refers it to the group
of Aricice NaidincEj and the uniform structure of all the indi-
vidual segments of the body places it under the genus Nerine
or Spio. M4thout a knowledge of the mature form, it is difficult
to decide to which of these two genera the worm belongs ; this
will depend especially upon the subsequent condition of the
apical segment, which in Nerine is provided, as is well known,
with a sucker-like circle of papillse.

Of the two genera above mentioned, we know at present in
the ^Mediterranean only a single representative, and that but
imperfectly — the Lumhricus cirratulus of Delle Chiaje. At the
moment I have unfortunately no opportunity of consulting the
Memoir in which this worm is figured (tab. 64. fig. 16), and
must therefore leave it undecided whether our larva may be
referred to this species.

The developed Spiones and Nerince live in mud, where they
form regular passages and tubes ; the free pelagic life of our larva
is therefore subsequently, probably after the loss of the cilia,
exchanged for another and very different residence.

If, however, further proofs of the derivation of our larva
from a Spioid Annelide be required, we need only refer to the

* For comparison of the form of the bristles I may refer here to my de-
scription of Leucodore rnutica (Wiegm. Arch. 1849, i. p. 200). With regard
to the structure of the oesopliagus I may also mention tlie genus Aonis,
which, according to my observations (Wagner’s Zoot. ii. ]). (iO?), in this
respect agrees most closely with our larva.

264 M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides.

similarity existing between it and the supposed larva of Leucodore
ciliatay figured by Oersted (Consp. Annul. Danic. tab. 6. fig. 96).
It is true that I have rot this figure by me at present, but as
far as I can remember, exactly the same powerful bristles occur
in this, which so remarkably characterize our larva in the first
period of its life, and these are also exactly similar in arrange-
ment and development. I am not certain whether Oersted has
recognized the peculiar structure of these bristles, but I scarcely
think he can have done so, as otherwise I should hardly have
approximated to it a larva with simple (permanent) bristles
which I found in Heligoland, as was the case in the papers
which I published in conjunction with Frey (p. 99).

Similar temporary bristles occur however in other Annelidan
larvje, and even in some which are considerably removed from
our animals. I will not refer to the larva figured by Busch
(tab. 7. figs. 5 & 6) as an example of this, as its derivation is still
entirely unknown, and it might possibly be nearly allied to our
Spio. But I may recall the fact that Quatrefages has described
an exactly similar structure in the larva of the genus Hermella
(Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1848, vol. x. p. 153). It is true that there
are no observations as to the subsequent shedding of these
bristles, but nevertheless there can be no doubt upon the point,
for the developed Hermella are destitute of them, as I know
from my own observations. These bristles have nothing in
common with the palese afterwards possessed by the animal.

So much for the spinous Annelidan larva from Trieste and
Nice and its genetic relations, which, I hope, have been pretty
correctly recognized. Let us now pass to another larva, also
discovered and described by Busch, which is figured on tab. 9.
figs. 1-8 of the work above quoted, and which has a great re-
semblance to the Mesotrocha sex-oculata of the same observer.

We have recently obtained information as to the origin of the
latter from Muller (Monatsber. der Berl. Akad. 1854, p. 395).
We now know that it is the larva of the Chatopterus Norvegicus,
discovered by Sars. With this information we may probably
explain the second Mesotrocha, found by Busch at Trieste. It
may probably prove to be the larva of the Chatopterus perga-
mentaceus {fTricoelia variopedata, Ren.), found at Trieste, of which
I have given a more exact description in Wiegmann^s Archiv
for 1849, p. 340. On a previous occasion (Gott. Gel. Anz.
1852, p. 857) I expressed the opinion that we might perhaps
suppose the Annelidan larvae of the Mesotrocha type to be the
descendants of a Serpula, or of some other worm in which the
segments of the anterior part of the body were distinguished, as
in Serpula, from the other segments by the form, structure and
position of the pedal tubercles ; and, in fact, this supposition

M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides. 265

appears now to be eompletely justified, although the determi-
nation of the species was incorrect.

The connexion between the Mesotrocha of Trieste and the
Chcetopterus pergamentaceus is rendered in the highest degree
probable by the structure of the bristles. The same forms
which Busch has figured from the segments before the circlet
of cilia in his Mesotrocha, have also been observed and described
by me on the anterior part of the body of our Chcetopterus,
Even the peculiar broad bristles which Busch found i\pon the
fifth segment of his larva reappear in the mature worm (but on
the fourth segment), only they are less distinctly serrated, and
occur in greater number, — as indeed the number of bristles in
general is much more considerable in the mature state.

If we are once convinced of the identity of Mesotrocha and
Chretopterus, it becomes easy to refer the two forms to one
another, and thus, even without direct observation, to obtain
a tolerably complete view of the metamorphoses of the animal
in question.

I have shown, as above quoted, that Chcetopterus is fur-
nished, like the other Annelida, with a true cephalic tubercle.
In the developed state this part is certainly very rudimentary,
so that it might previously have been overlooked; but in the
larva it is very greatly developed, and appears produced over
the mouth into a disc, like an upper lip*. To this upper lip in
the larva a bilobed lower lip is opposed, the two lobes of which
only require to be fused together to form the peculiar labial
apparatus of the mature animal. The two tentacles placed in
our larva at the sides of the mouth also occur in Chcetopterus,
according to my observations, although much less developed in
proportion, and, to a certain extent, aborted, like the cephalic
tubercle and the eyes.

The segments which in the larva intervene between the head
and the circlet of cilia form (together with the head) the fore-
body of the mature animal. But their number still requires
increase; Busch only counted nine segments, whilst in my
worms there were twelve or thirteen. The new segments are
evidently formed at the hinder extremity of the fore-body ;
that is to say, between the fore- and middle body, as suffi-
ciently appears from the position of the above-mentioned ser-
rated bristles ; this, as far as I know, is the only instance of the
kind amongst the Annelida. With the last segments of the
fore-body, Mesotrocha is also destitute of the large wing-like

* From the formation of the head in the larva, it is established beyond
a doubt that Sars has really, as I formerly stated, taken the back of Ck(c-
topterus for its belly.

Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi.

18

266 M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelidas,

appendages, which, according to my view, are produced by the
metamorphosis of the last pedal tubercles of that part of the
body, as also of the uncini which I have indicated on its last
two segments.

The second division of the body in Mesotrocha, which com-
mences with the circle of cilia, represents the middle and hinder
parts of the body of our Chatopterus, but apparently requires a
still greater increase for its complete development, as Busch only
counted eleven segments in this part of his larva, whilst in the
mature state more than double the number occurs. When,
however, Busch denies the possession of setose feet to this divi-
sion of the body, he probably only had the subulate bristles of
the anterior part of the body in his eye, for the eleven pairs of
rudimentary feet with longish oval bodies ” which are inserted
in them, undoubtedly represent setose feet, and are probably
the first indications of the ventral tubercles furnished with
uncini. Busch even states, that the inserted bodies are den-
ticulated, as I have found to be the case with the uncini of
Chcetopterus. It is interesting also that these ventral pedal
tubercles possess a bilaterally symmetrical distribution on all
the segments, whilst in the anterior segments of the middle part
of the body they are subsequently, as is well known, fused into
a single median organ. The dorsal tubercles which occur on
the abdomen of the mature Chcetopterus appear to be developed
subsequently.

My regarding the segments lying behind the circles of cilia
as representing both the middle of the body and the abdomen
of Chcetopterus, arises from the observation of Busch, that the
dorsal surface of these segments is gradually produced on each
side, close to the median line, into a tolerably long and vibrating
process. Busch considers these processes to be branchiae, and
concludes accordingly that Mesotrocha is the larva of a Dorsi-
branchiate Annelide ; he consequently assumes that these pro-
cesses are persistent in their original form, whilst in my opinion
(which however is only founded on the supposed identity of
our larva with the ChcetojAerus of Trieste) they are gradually
converted, by growing together in the middle, into the scale-like
appendages which communicate to the segments of the middle
of the body, and also, although much less rem^arkably, to the
first segments of the abdomen, their well-known lenticular
or conical form. The development of these processes com-
mences close behind the rings of cilia, and gradually extends
thence backwards, — how far has not yet been observed. The
oldest larvae of Mesotrocha which presented themselves for exa-
mination, exhibited these processes fully developed only on the
first four segments ; consequently, exactly on those segments

M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides. 267

which are subsequently converted into the middle body, and
which, as is well known, present by far the largest appendages.

The mature Chcetopterus lives in a free tube formed by itself.
In this respect it is not without interest that we learn from
Busch, that the larvse observed not unfrequently exuded a
slimy mass in the last days of their existence, with which they
attached themselves to the side of the vessel in which they
were kept.

I regret that during my residence in the Mediterranean I had
no opportunity of becoming acquainted, by my own obser-
vations, with these interesting larvse, which appear to possess
rather a wide distribution. In this case it is probable that many
other points of resemblance with the structure of Chcetopterus
would have been discovered. But in Nice the larvse of Anne-
lides are generally rarities, at least it was so while I was there.
Except the spinose forms above described, only a few were dis-
covered, and these mostly at a time when my attention was taken
up with other investigations. Amongst these few there is how-
ever one upon which I may add a few words, although, properly
speaking, the name of larva is no longer applicable to it, as it
scarcely exhibits any traces of its provisional organs. It is a
young Alciope {A. Raynaudii), which I took up one day in the
Bay of Villa Franca with a number of Firoloides, amongst which
it was swimming about*.

The beautiful, transparent little animal (PI. VII. tig. 6) mea-
sured lines, and its body consisted of three distinctly sepa-
rated regions, — the he^d with the neck, the true body, and a
tail, — although the mature animal, as is well known, exhibits no
trace of any such division f. The middle region was by far the
largest of these divisions ; it measured about three lines in length
and nearly a fourth of this in breadth ; it was broadest in the
middle and gradually diminished a little towards the extremities,
especially in front. In this middle region eight segments were
distinctly to be recognized ; they resembled those of the mature
animal in every respect, so that I need not describe them parti-
cularly. But I may observe, that the bristles of the first pair of
pedal tubercles were very much shorter and less numerous than
those of the others, and especially the hinder ones, which were
the most developed in every respect. The neck was considerably
narrower than the foremost segment to which it was attached,
and probably measured scarcely a third of the greatest breadth
of the middle region. It was as long as broad, and exhibited
three segments, or rather three pairs of segmental appendages,

^ * I also met with Alciopc Candida several times in the Bay of Villa
Franca.

t See Krohn, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1845, n. 171.

18*

268 M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides.

which certainly were greatly inferior in size to the corresponding
appendages of the middle of the body, and were further distin-
guished from these by the absence of bristles, and of the black
glandular pigment- spots, which, as is well known, are placed on
the segments beneath all the other pedal tubercles. The append-
ages of the two hindmost pairs were cleft, that is to say, they
each consisted of a dorsal and ventral eirrus, which however both
possessed the same cylindrical form. The foremost segmental
appendage on the contrary was perfectly simple, and appeared
in the form of a small, stumpy cirrus, which projected close
behind the eyes of the animal. The anterior part of the neck
bore a distinct range of eilia, running round behind the eyes and
mouth, which appears, from the observations of Krohn, to be
persistent on the ventral surface. The head had already acquired
exactly its future form and structure, but I could not succeed in
distinguishing the central frontal tentacle, which, however, is but
slightly marked even in the perfect animal. The globular eyes
project on either side but little beyond the neck ; it is well
known that in A. Raynaudii they by no means attain the same
colossal dimensions as in Candida. Close to the mouth, and
underneath the eyes, a very eonsiderable tubercle stands out
right and left, a kind of an upper lip, between the lobes of
which an elongated disc-like lower lip projects from behind.

The caudal portion of the animal forms a narrow, stump-like
appendage, which at its root is scarcely half so broad as the
preceding terminal segment of the middle region of the body,
gradually tapers to its apex, and is about 1 line in length (rather
less than more). Microscopic examination shows that this tail
is annulated ; a number of narrow segments may be distin-
guished in it, which gradually diminish in size and develop-
ment posteriorly. The foremost segments already possess the
future dorsal feet with their bristles and black glands ; these
characteristics are gradually lost by the posterior ones, until
about the last fourth of the tail, which forms an undivided mass
with a rounded apex. I distinguished eleven distinct caudal
segments (with bristles), and behind these two or three other
indistinct (without bristles), which were just separated from the
apical piece.

Regarding the internal structure I can say nothing that has
not already been mentioned by Krohn. The nervous system is
very distinct, at least as far as the middle of the tail, where it
gradually withdraws itself from observation in consequence of
the increasing opacity of the substance of the body. The anus
lies at the extreme apex of the tail, so that the intestine passes
through the entire length of the body. But it is only as far as

M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Armelides, 269

the root of the caudal appendage that it possesses the structure
described by Krohn. Beyond that point it narrows suddenly to
about a fourth of its previous width, and then proceeds in the
form of a thin straight tube to the anus. The only vessel
obseiwed was the pulsating dorsal vessel. Lateral glands are
deficient.

The changes through which the worm has to pass before it
returns to the perfect form of its parent, are of two kinds. In
the first place the neck will gradually shorten and disappear,
with the exception of its segmental appendages*, so that the
head will appear to sit immediately upon the first pair of setose
feet. The segments of the caudal appendage then gradually in-
crease in number and become developed so completely, that at
last the difi’erence between them and those of the middle of the
body is lost. The temporary existence of this distinction perhaps
indicates, that a state of rest intervenes between the formation
of the middle region and that of the posterior segments, during
which the plastic processes are entirely confined to the develop-
ment of the parts already formed. The formation of the poste-
rior segments of the body as here exhibited, presents so remark-
able a resemblance to the reproduction of the body after muti-
lation, that I should not have regarded our worm as a normal
stage in the development of Ale. Raynaudiiy if its small size, the
structure of the neck, and especially the presence of a range of
cilia behind the head, had not sufficiently indicated that it was
au immature and undeveloped creature.

Supplementary Notice.

Long after I had sent the preceding sheets to the press, the
* Magasin de Zoologie^ for the year 1843, with a paper by Qua-
trefages upon some new Annelides from Normandy, which had
hitherto escaped my notice (and which is not even mentioned in
Grubers Monograph), came accidentally into my hands. At pi. 3.
fig. 7. of this work, a Spioid Annelide is figured under the name
of Malacoceros longirostris, which from its appearance and the de-
scription annexed may probably be the mature state of the spinous
larva observed by Busch and myself. The formation of the
cephalic tubercle especially is perfectly similar, and it is from

* Krohn only mentions four tentucuhir cirri on each side in A. Rny-
nnndii, but leaves it uncertain whether these re|)iesent the appendages of
two or four segments. This p(hut may perliaps be settled by my observa-
tions. On the other hand it must still remain undecided, whether th
small foremost cirrus gradually disap)>cars or has been overlooked by
Krohn.

270 M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some AnnelideS.

this also that Quatrefages has derived the name of his species.
The length of the developed animal is from 2^ to 3 inches, — that
of the two tentacular cirri, 9 lines. The only thing that might
perhaps be urged with reason against the identity of the two
animals, is the circumstance that the first segment of the body,
according to Quatrefages, is destitute of the dorsal pedal tubercle ;
but with regard to this point of difierence I should be rather in-
clined to suppose that there is an error of some kind. Eyes are
wanting in the developed animal, as in many other mature
worms (and Mollusca) which possess those organs in their young
state. The distinction which appears in this respect between the
larvse and the mature animals, only shows that Quatrefages has
established his new genus Malacoceros without sufficient reason,
for the want of eyes is the only character by which it is distin-
guished from Nerine.

The difference of habitat appears to be of no consequence,
especially as our larva has a tolerably wfide distribution. I cer-
tainly do not know where Busch observed his specimens ; but
J. Muller states (Arch, fiir Anat. 1854, p. 92) that he has found
it at Marseilles. Muller however only speaks of a very “ similar
larva, but, apparently, merely because his specimen wanted the
long spines of the first segment. It is with reason that J. Miiller
also points out the great similarity that exists between the
large spine-like bristles of our Nerine larvse and the strong
bristles of the singular Mitrarice. I think that this circum-
stance may even justify us in supposing that the tufts of bristles
in Mitraria are also mere larval organs. At any rate it seems
to me that Mitraria is scarcely anything but the larva of an
Annelide with a provisional apparatus of bristles, as indeed
Muller himself has lately indicated (loc. cit. sup.). It is much
to be regretted that Quatrefages could not follow the develop-
ment of his Hermella-\divv^ for a longer period ; we should then
probably have obtained further data for the elucidation of the
species of Mitrarice. I will not however assert directly that the
Mitrarice are actually larvse of Hermellce, for that would be going
too far with our present knowledge, although the elongated capi-
tate bristles, which J. Miiller has described, together with the
ordinary spines, in the species observed by him, remind one un-
mistakeably of the forms of the peculiar palese of the Hei'mellce.

As regards Mesotrocha and its metamorphosis into Chccto-
pterus, M. Miiller has given his interesting observations upon
this subject in full in the Archiv fiir Anat. und Physiol. 1855,
p. 1. In connexion therewith ]\1. Miiller also mentions the
larva discovered by Busch, the relations of which to Chcetoptcrus
pergamentaccus I have endeavomed to pmve, and expresses his
()j>inion that it does not belong to the genus Chcetoptcrus itself,

M. R. Leuckart on the Young States of some Annelides. 271

but to some other, unknown, but very nearly allied worm. Since
I have become better acquainted with the metamorphosis of the
Mesotrocha sexoculata from Miiller^s statements, I must now
agree with him entirely in this opinion. The course of deve-
lopment of Mesotrocha, w^hich I took as the basis of my argu-
ments, and could only deduce from the comparison of Meso~
trocha with the mature Chcdopterus, certainly agrees in general
with this proeess as observed by Muller ; but I was wrong in
supposing that the lentieular processes of the middle segments
of the body were produced by a fusion of the lateral dorsal ap-
pendages which occur in the larva described by Busch. The
remarkable form of the segments in question is the result rather
of a peculiar development of the bodies of the segments, without
the participation of any segmental appendages, as indeed I had
previously assumed, in opposition to the assertion of Audouin,
in my description of Chcetopte't'us pei'gamcntaceus. On the other
hand, M. Muller was able to convince himself, that the large
wing-like processes on the last segments of the anterior part of
the body in Chcetopterus appeared at first only as simple dorsal
processes, and it is remarkable that, like the dorsal processes of
Busches larva, they are immediately behind the circle of cilia,
which, as is well known, is double in Mesotrocha sexoculata. It
is possible therefore, that in the worms like Chcetopterus, for a
knowledge of the larval state of which we are indebted to Busch,
four or more such appendages occur on each side instead of- a
single one ; and it is also possible certainly, that the dorsal pro-
cesses of the larva may really, as supposed by Busch, become
gradually developed into branchise.

From the statements of M. Miillcr, it also appears that the
characteristic distinctions between the two species of Chcetopterus
at present known are by no means of such a decided nature as
one might perhaps have concluded from the difference in their
size, and as was presupposed by me in the preceding analysis.
Tliis applies especially even to the structure of the bristles, which
appear to be essentially similar in the two species, so that in my
pa|)er the name of C. norvegicus might be substituted throughout
for C. pergamentaceus with equal right.

Under these circumstances I can of course only bespeak some
consideration for my statements, in as far as they may place be-
yond a doubt the relations of the larva described by Busch to a
(still unknown) form of the family of the Chsetopteridse.

272

Mr. W. Clark on the Genus Assiminia.

XXV. — Observations on the Genus Assiminia.

By William Clark, Esq.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Gentlemen, Norfolk Crescent, Bath, Sept. 11, 1855.

In your September Number, 1855, p. 183, Dr. Gray has con-
troverted my opinion, that the so-called genus Assiminia, em-
bracing the single species A. Gray ana, belongs to the Trunca-
tella of Risso,

He says, Mr. Clarkes description proves the converse of his
position and observes, that Truncatella should have a subcy-
lindrical shell with a slender tapering tip, which falls oif when
the shell approaches adult age ; hence the name of the genus :
Assiminia has a broad conic shell with an acute tip which does
not fall off ; if it is to be a species of the same genus, the name
of the latter ought to be changed.

The foot of Truncatella is small and peculiarly formed, and
the eyes of all the species, according to Mr. Clarkes observations,
are large, with a white iris ; now this is not the case with Assi-
minia, and yet Mr. Clark regards it as a Truncatella.^^

It appears by the first part of Dr. Gray^s remarks, that he has
adopted the old conchological generic base for Truncatella from
a particular species : that definition has long been disused, and
did not even conchologically satisfy the requirements of science
when M. Philippi wrote; — as proof, that eminent naturalist, in the
2nd part, p. 133, of his ‘ Enumeratio Molluscorum Sicilise,^ thus
remarks on the animal of Truncatella : —

“ Tale animal testas tantopere diversas habitat, at vix ac ne
vix quidem characteres illis communes in venire possumus, sub-
cylindricas nempe, apice demum decollatas, globoso-conoideas,
imo discoideas. Illi quibus hanc ob causam nomen Truncatella;
non placet, nomine Choj'istoma a De Cristophoris et Jan pro-
posito utantur, ne novo nomine scientiam jam nominibus gra-
vatam onerent.^^

And Philippi illustrates these views by four figures, tab. 24.
f. 2, 3, 4, 5 ; three of them differ from Dr. Gray^s definition by
their contours and by their apices never becoming decollated ;
the 4th greatly resembles the outline of the so-called A. Gi'ayana ;
indeed, so much so, that it might pass for it, if the description
and size did not somewhat differ ; but notwithstanding this dis-
crepancy, 1 almost think the figure (the outline size having
perhaps being accidentally omitted) may be intended to rc})re-
sent our Truncatella Gray ana.

These extracts show that Dr. Gray^s conchological generic clia-

On the Morphology of the Organs called Lenticels. 273

racter of Truncatella applies to only one species, and is therefore
partial, untenable, and contrary to authorities.

We now come to a later epoch, when malacology has fur-
nished an essential generic character for Truncatella which no
other British mollusk has yet been found to possess, that is,
the immersion of the eyes in the tissue (instead of being placed
on pedicles as is usually stated) at the superior and nearly ter-
minal points of the short, strong, divergent, almost rectangular
tentacula : this structure stamps the so-called A, Gray ana a
Truncatella, and is that of every other British species of the
genus.

Dr. Gray then terminates his reasoning with a malacological
obseiwation, that I have described the Truncatellce of my work
on the British Marine Testaceous Mollusca as having a white
iris (? pupil), and that I had not observed in A. Grayana a
similar appearance, on which account he seems to throw a doubt
of its being a Truncatella, I do not understand the logic of
this the point in question is a mere specialty ; one may with as
much reason say that a man with a red iris or pupil, for example
an albino, is not of the genus Man, because he has not the
usual dark or grey iris ; so, it is equally absurd to infer that
A. Grayana is not a Truncntella, because the white iris or pupil
was not detected.

Dr. Gray concludes by stating, that my notions are not those
usually held by modern zoologists, and pronounces the whole of
my logic unsound. I am not surprised that my logic should
not find favour with one who considers that a genus must be
restricted in the number of its species, however similar these
may be in every essential character ; and am sorry to learn, on
Dr. Gray's authority, that such notions are held by modern
zoologists, of which I was not before aware.

I am. Gentlemen,

Your most obedient Servant,
William Clark.

XXVI. — On the Morphology of the Organs called Lenticels.

By M. E. Germain de Saint-Pierre*.

The name of lenticular glands was given by Guettard, and that
of lenticels by P. DeCandollc, to certain organs belonging to the
bark of a great number of plants, which apj)car at the surface of
tlie epidermis in the form of little brownish elevations or rugo-
sities of an oval or elliptical form.

' l'’rom tiic Coin))les Rendus, iVijgust 1?0, 1865, p. 305.

274 M. E. Germain de Saint-Pierre on the Morphology

The opinion of Guettard (1734) that these organs formed an
apparatus of seeretion, was combated by DeCandolle (1826), who,
as well as E. Meyer, believed that the lenticels were the rudi-
ments of the adventitious roots. M. Hugo Mohl in his turn
(1832-1836) has shown that DeCandolle’s opinion was ill-
founded, and ascertained that the production of the lenticels is
analogous to that of cork, with this difference, that cork is the
result of the hypertrophy of the suberose layer of the bark, and
that the lenticels are produced by the hypertrophy of a deeper
layer, the herbaceous layer. Lastly, M. Unger (1836) thought
he recognized a sort of analogy between the lenticels and the
soridia of the Cryptogamia, the utricles of cellular tissue which
constitute the corky mass of the lenticel appearing to him to be
analogous with the spores or propagula. The same observer
regarded the lenticels as the result of a deformation of the sto-
mata ; and Du Petit-Thouars, who had given an analogous opi-
nion, considered them to be intended for effecting a sort of com-
munication between the external air and the cellular or amy-
laceous layer of the bark. The great diversity of opinion in
so many distinguished observers, regarding a structure appa-
rently so simple and so accessible to study, determined me to
undertake some new researches, a summary of which I laid before
the Societe Philomatique in 1849 ; 1 have since continued my
series of observations upon this subject, and now lay the results
before the Academy. I have chosen for the subjects of my obser-
vations three trees in which the lenticels present essential differ-
ences of form, — namely the Birch [Betula alba), the Elder (8'«w^t-
bucus nigra), and the suberose variety of the Elm [Ulmus cam-
pestris) .

In the Birch the first state of the lenticel is an epidermic
gland of very simple structure. During its period of vitality
(on the young branch) this gland secretes a gummy resinous
matter ; it then dries, splits up and becomes destroyed, leaving
in its place a brownish fissure through which the subjacent cel-
lular tissue protrudes. It is this cellular tissue which constitutes
the adult lenticel, and M. Unger, who examined these glands,
did not follow their development as far as the true lenticular
period. In this particular case, it cannot be denied that the
name of lenticular glands applied by Guettard to the lenticels is
correct ; but it can only apply at the period when the prepa-
ratory organ of the lenticel exists alone, and when the leuticellar
mass does not yet exist.

On the epidermis of very young branches of the Elder, we
may observe stomata and epidermic elevations or short hairs
with broad bases. The stomata do not undergo any ulterior
change of form ; they arc merely obliterated in ]U’oportion as the

275

of the Organs called Lenticels.

epidermis dries and grow old ; but I have never seen them pass
to the state of lentieels. On the other hand, in the short hairs
already mentioned, and whieh are, properly speaking, elevations
or pouehes of the epidermis, the following faets may be ob-
served : the upper part of the short hair, or the eentre of the
obtuse epidermie process, dries up and becomes destroyed at a
certain time, and there soon remains nothing but the base,
which is of an oval or elliptical form, and the margins of which
are composed of a delicate membrane with lacerated edges ; in
place of the hair a narrow fissure only is then seen. It is
through this fissure that the eruption of subepidermic cellular
tissue of which the adult Icnticel is composed, takes place ; the
quantity of cellular tissue protruded soon enlarges the original
fissure by tearing it, and the origin of the lenticel is no longer
recognizable ; subsequently the increase in the length and dia-
meter of the branch and the consequent distension of the epi-
dermis become fresh causes of deformation, and the lenticel, after
having been torn in a vertical direction, becomes enlarged hori-
zontally. The cellular mass of suberose appearance which pro-
trudes through the epidermic fissure in the form of a double
cushion, and of which the outer layer becomes brownish by de-
siccation, appears to me to be composed, not of the herbaceous,
or deep cellular layer, but of the suberose or subepidermic cel-
lular layer.

In the suberose variety of the Elm, the first development of
the lenticels takes place as in the Elder, but the excessive hyper-
trophy of the subepidermic cellular tissue soon disguises its len-
ticellar origin. In this tree I have followed all the transitions
between the first elevation of the epidermis, the lenticellar hernia,
and the corky masses which afterwards cover the bark with their
anastomosing channels. In this tree, as in the preceding, nu-
merous microscopic preparations have always showed me a per-
fect continuity between the lenticellar hernia and the suberose
layer of the bark, with this difference, that in consequence of
the direction of the expansion, the cells of the protruded portion
are perpendicular to the bark instead of being parallel to it, as
in the normal suberose layer.

From these observations it results that I regard the lenticels
not only as a formation analogous to cork, but as one completely
identical in origin and in tissue : the difference between the two
productions consists only in the intensity of the hypertrophy,
which is generally feeble in the produetioii of lenticels and very
intense in that of cork, which is nothing but exaggerated lenti-
cellar production.

'flic maceration in water, or inscition in moist earth, of
branches covered with lenticels, has convinced me, like M.

276 On the Morphology of the Organs called Lenticels.

Molil, that the adventitious roots are only accidentally produced
on points occupied by lenticels, and that these roots commence
their appearance externally by an elevation of the epidermis,
which presents the appearance of a young lenticel and is con-
verted into a coleorhiza by the passage of the root, but that this
elevation, which never becomes a suberose lenticel, is without any
analogy with the lenticular elevation.

True lenticels had only been noticed on woody stems, but
I have ascertained their existence not only upon some herba-
ceous stems, and on rhizomes or underground stems, but even
on the surface of roots, both of trees and herbaceous plants
{Betula alba, Dahlia variabilis, Mirabilis Jalapa, &c.), and fre-
quently on the petioles of leaves (as in the Elder). Finally, I
have ascertained that the rugosities which are commonly seen
on the surface of the epidermis of some fruits, on the bark of
Melons for example, are merely lenticels more or less deformed,
and that most of the punctures which exist on the surface of
Apples and Pears are lenticels incompletely formed, by the de-
struction of an epidermic elevation and the desiccation of the
subjacent cellular tissue.

The lenticel therefore is not an organ without analogy with
other known organs ; in its first state it passes by insensible
gradations to the epidermic productions known under the names
of hairs, thorns, and glands. During the following period, after
the destruction of the epidermic elevation, it is formed by the
hypertrophy of the superficial cortical cellular tissue, a hyper-
trophy which appears to be determined by the contact of the
subepidermic cellular tissue with the external air. This hyper-
trophy differs neither organically nor physiologically from the
suberose production of the Cork Oak. The form of the hernia
or lenticellar cushion is determined by the epidermic fissure
which serves it as a mould ; its form is usually that of a button-
hole with thick edges which throw shreds of epidermis out-
wards : this form resembles that of the stomata, but it appears
to me that the analogy between the stomata and the lenticels is
confined to this resemblance.

The physiological function of the lenticels appears to me to
consist simply in causing the commencement of fissures in the
epidermis. In consequence of the growth of the tree in height
and diameter these fissures become long clefts, extending either
in a vertical or horizontal direction, and facilitate, by loosening
the bark, the increase of the diameter of the tree.

Bibliographical Notices.

277

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

J Manual of Marine Zoology for the British Isles. By Philip

Henry Gosse, A.L.S. Part I. London: Van Voorst. 1855.

12mo.

Amongst the host of blind guides that are continually making their
appearance, professing to clear up the mysteries of nature to the
uninitiated, it is some satisfaction to us to have to record the publi-
cation of the present little work, — a work written with a definite and
intelligible purpose, which is carefully and intelligently carried out.
Mr. Gosse states, and we can readily believe him, that he has often,
in the course of his investigations, felt the want of a manual which
should give, in a succinct form, the characters of the genera of
British animals, so as to enable the student to determine on the spot
something more than the general alliances of any animal that might
occur to him. As nobody else appeared inclined to undertake the
task, he has set to work himself, and we have here a portion of the
result of his labours, embracing the invertebrate animals as far as the
Annulosa; the Mollusca and Vertebrata being reserved for a second
part.

It is not only to the beginner that such a work as this is of value ;
the more advanced student of nature will find it of the greatest
advantage, as, from its very small bulk, he can easily carry it in his
pocket in his rambles along the shore, so as to ascertain at once the
nature of the objects he meets with, and thus probably refresh his
memory as to what has been, or remains to be, observed with respect
to their habits and economy.

Upon these latter subject the work of course contains little beyond
generalities ; the author has contented himself with working out the
characters of the groups down to the genera, referring in every case
to the larger works which have served him as guides in the different
branches of his subject, and to which the student is referred for more
extended information. To each genus is appended a list of the
known British species, accompanied by an excellent outline figure on
wood of one species. To the eye, on a cursory inspection, these
figures constitute one of the most refreshing features of the book, —
accustomed as we are to the continual recurrence of the same wood-
cuts in almost every popular work on natural history. The present
part contains figures of three hundred and forty species, of which a
great majority are original, and more than half of these drawn from
living specimens.

In the execution of the work Mr. Gosse appears to have laboured
carefully and conscientiously ; the characters are given in clear and
intelligible language, and we should think that the merest tyro would
have no difficulty in working out most of the animals which he is
likely to meet with on our shores. The Infusoria and Entozoa, how-
ever, are entirely omitted ; the former from the uncertainty existing
as to what are really Infusoria, and what embryonic forms of higher
animal forms, and the latter because, to use Mr. Gosse’s words,

278

Zoological Society : —

“ though some of them live in marine animals, their proper sphere is
not the water or the land, but the living tissues of other creatures :
they have a world of their own.” It must be admitted that these
excuses are plausible, but we think by no means satisfactory ; and the
omissions in question only add to our regret, that instead of devoting
his book exclusively to the marine zoology of these Islands, INIr.
Gosse has not given us a manual of British animals, a work which
(at least if the Insects were omitted) would have occupied but little
more space.

In the classification adopted there is, of course, nothing new ; but
Mr. Gosse has put the ordinary views on this subject into a very
simple and intelligible form. The most objectionable point in this
respect, the separation of the Cirrhopods from the Crustacea as a
distinct class, may perhaps conduce somewhat to this simplicity ;
but we cannot agree with Mr. Gosse in “ believing that the diversity
between the groups is quite as great as that which subsists between
the Crustacea and the Arachnida, or between the Arachnida and the
Insecta.”

For the explanation of the technical terms, Mr. Gosse has appended
a glossary, which is certainly capable of great improvement. Thus,
we are told that Bilateral ” means “ having a right and a left side
that “Capsules” are “bladder-like vessels;” that “Cirri” are
“fleshy, unjointed threads ;” that a “Sac” is “a bag;” and there
are several other instances of the same kind, some positively incorrect,
others unsatisfactory, and a few trivial and unnecessary.

On the whole, however, it is rarely that we meet with a book con-
taining so little to find fault with, and we look forw ard with pleasure
to the appearance of the second part.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

May 9, 1854. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Description of a New' Species of Humming Bird,

FROM Quijos. By John Gould, F.R.S. etc.

Mr. Gould exhibited a Humming Bird, lately received from Quijos,
which is very nearly allied to Threnetes leucurus, but which differs
from that species in its larger size, and in having those parts of the
tail-feathers of a deep fawn-coloured hue which are white in T. leu-
cnrus; precisely, in fact, the difference which occurs between La-
fresnaya favicaudata and L. Gayi. For this bird Mr. Gould pro-
posed the name of

Threnetes cervinicauda.

Head, all the upper surface, upper wing-coverts, two central tail-
feathers, sides of the neck, breast and flanks shining olive-green ;
w'ings purplish-brown ; lateral tail-feathers deep faw n-colour, stained

Mr. P. L. Sclater on Birds from the Republic of Ecuador. ?^79

on the apical half of the outer margin and the tip of the outer feather
with, dark brown ; a crescent of the same, but of a much paler hue,
at the tip of the next ; a still fainter mark of the same colour near
the tip of the external web of the third ; and a nearly obsolete mark,
of a similar tint, in the same situation on the fourth ; lores and ear-
coverts brown ; on the chin and throat a lengthened triangular mark
of black, bounded on either side by a narrow line of greyish-white,
and below by a broad hand of deep sandy-bulF crossing the throat ;
centre of the abdomen greyish-buff ; under tail-coverts olive, narrowly
edged with greyish-buff ; bill black, with the cutting edge of the
upper mandible and the basal three-fourths of the under one pearly-
white ; feet yellow.

Total length, 4f inches ; bill, l^^g. ; wing, 2f ; tail, 1|^.

Hab. Quijos, in Ecuador. -

List of a Collection of Birds received by Mr. Gould,

FROM THE PROVINCE OF QuiJOS IN THE REPUBLIC OF

Ecuador. By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A.

Among the many novelties in ornithology lately received by
Mr. Gould from different parts of the world, is a small but valuable
collection of birds from the province of Quixos, or Quijos, in the
republic of Ecuador. This country, which lies on the eastern slope of
the Andes, where the Rio Napo and other adjoining tributaries of the
mighty Amazon take their rise, is a very interesting locality to those
who study South American ornithology, being intermediate between
New Grenada — whence so many new forms have lately been sent to
Europe — on the one side, and the wood regions of Peru and Bolivia,
where Von Tschudi and D’Orbigny pursued their laborious researches
in natural history, on the other.

Mr. Gould having most liberally placed this collection in my hands
for examination, I have drawn up a complete list of the species as far
as I can determine them satisfactorily, in order to show the character
of the ornithology of this country— observing that Mr. Gould is ex-
pecting fresh consignments from the same quarter, which will doubt-
less much further increase our knowledge of the fauna of this highly
interesting region.

Hirundinid^.

1. Acanthylis albicollis (Vieill.).

llirundo albicollis, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. xiv. 524 (1817).

Ilirundo collaris, AVied, Reise nach Bras. i. p. 75 (1820), et
Beit. z. Nat. iii. p. 344.

Acanthylis collaris, Gray’s Gen. i. p. 55. sp. G.

This fine spine-tailed Swift seems generally distributed over the
northern portion of the continent. It was observed by Prince Max.
of Neuwied in many provinces of Brazil, by Schomburgk in British
Guiana, and SirAVilliam Jardine has examples transmitted by Professor
Jameson from the vicinity of Quito. Mr. Gosse has recorded its ap-
pearance ill Jamaica.

280

Zoological Society : —

Trogonid^.

2. Trogon melanopteruSy Sw. (Gould’s Mon. pi. 10, 11).

3. Calurus auriceps, Gould.

BuCCONIDiE.

4. Bucco macrorhynchusy Gm.

5. Bucco collarisy Lath.

6. Malacoptila fusca (Gm.).

Galbulid^.

7. Galbula chalcothorax, Sclater, sp. nov.

G. Icete cupreo-viridis ; capite ccerulescente ; pectore Icete molaceo ;
macula gulari triangulari alba : ventris plumis basi nigrican-
tibuSy apice albis ; rostro pedibusque nigris.

Long, tota 8‘3, also 3*3, caudse 3*5, rostri 1*5.

Obs. Similis G, leucogastrcBy sed major et pectore violaceo-cupres-
cente.

This is an immature bird of a species closely resembling G. leuco-
gastruy but of larger size and with a bright violet or purple tinge on
the breast, which does not appear in examples of the older species.

CcEREBIN^.

8. Bacnis cayana (L.) (PI. Enl. 669. fig. 1).

9. Bacnis angelicay De Fil. (PI. Enl. 669. fig. 2).

10. Bacnis atricapilla (V.).

Trochilid^.

Mr. Gould has himself determined the species of TrocMlidce that
occur in the present collection, as also the Trogons and Toucans.

11. Phaethornis striigularisy Gould (Mon. Trochil. viii. pi. 15).
A new species allied to P. intermedia.

12. Phaethornis superciliosus (Linn.)?

13. Threnetes cervinicauduy Gould.

A new species resembling T. leucurusy but with the tail-feathers
fawn-coloured where they are white in the other species (see p.278).

14. Thalurania viridipectusy Gould.

15. Chrysuronia cenone (Lesson).

16. lolcema Schreibersi (Bourc.).

Mr. Gould has made a new generic name for this bird, which has
been placed by Prince Charles Bonaparte in his ‘ Conspectus Trochi-
lorum ’ among the Campylopteri.

17. Cceligena typicuy Bp.

18. Gouldia Langsdorfi

Dendrocolaptin^.

19. Xiphorhynchus procurvus (Temm.) (PI. Col. 28. fig. 4).

20. Bendrornis guttata (Licht.).

Nasica guttatuSy Lafr. Rev. Zool. 1850, p. 385.

These are both Brazilian forms.

Mr. P. L. Sclater on Birds from the Republic of Ecuador. 281

MENURINiE.

21. Scytalopus griseicollis (Lafr.).

Merulaxis gHseicoUis, Lafr. Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 103.

A Bogota bird.

Mniotiltin^e.

22. Setophaga ruticilla (L.).

This North American species is one of the few Passeres of that
countr}" that extend all through Central America into the northern
portions of the southern continent. It is included by Schomburgk
among the birds of British Guiana.

23. Myiodioctes canadensis (L.).

Described f"om Bogota by the Baron de la Fresnaye as a new spe-
cies under the name of Setophaga nigrocincta (Rev. Zool. 1843,
p. 292), but, as afterwards acknowledged by the same author, quite
identical with North American specimens.

24. Sylvicola Blackhurnicje^ juv.

Also a common U. S. species.

TuRDINiE.

25. Turdus minimus^ Lafr. (Rev. Zool. 1848, p. 5).

The Prince Charles Bonaparte has reunited this bird to the minor
of the U. S., from which M. de la Fresnaye considered it distinct.

Formicariinjs.

26. Thamnophilus stellaris, Spix ? (Av.Bras.ii. p. 27. pi. 36. fig. 2).

^ cinereus : pileo dorsoque summo et medio nigris, hujus pennis

hasi niveis : alarum tectricibus apice maculis rotundis, albis.

$ supra pallide cinerea : subtus brunnea, lateribus cinerascenti-
bus : alis externe rufis.

Long, tota 5*2, alse 3*0, caudse 1*6.

This is a typical Thamnophilus with a strong thick bill. There are
several examples of it in the Paris Museum in different states of plu-
mage, and it was from examining them that I was enabled to decide
that the female above described (which is in my own collection)
belongs to this species.

27. Cymhilanius lineatus (Leach), .

28. Formicivora ccerulescens (Vieill.), Menetr. Mon. t.6. fig. 1 & 2.
p. 499 (?).

29. Pyriglena quixensis (Cornalia).

Thamnophilus quixensis^ Corn. Vert. Syn. p. 12*.

P. atra, (tbdomine cinerascente : tectricibus alarum maculis rotun-

♦ Dr. Cornalia’s paper, which is little known in this country, is entitled “ Ver-
tebratorum Synopsis in Museo Mediolauensi exstantium (piae per novum orbem
Caietanus Osculati collegit annis 1846, 47, 48 speciebus novis vel minus cognitis
adjcctis necnon descriptionibus at(jue iconibus illustratis : Modoetiic 1849.”

Arm. Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. V(U. xvi. 19

282

Zoological Society : —

dis, albis terminatis : dor si plumis laxis, elongatis, basi albis :
rectricibus apice albis.

Long, tota 4*5, alse 2*1,

30. Pyriglena rufiventris (Cornalia).

Thamnophilus rufiventris^ Corn. Vert. Syn. p. 12.

P. atra, abdomine Icete castaneo : alarum tectricibus maculis ro-
tundis, albis terminatis: dor si plumis laxis, elongatis, basi albis:
rectricibus graduatis, harum extimis apice albis ; rostro pedi-
busque nigris.

Long, tota 4*5, alae 2*1, caudae 2*0.

I have little doubt that I have correctly referred these two birds
to the species described by Dr. Cornalia, the types of which I had
an opportunity of examining through his kindness when last at
Milan. Although they closely resemble one another, except in the
colouring of the belly, there is so much difference in the form of the
bill in the two specimens in this collection, that I think it hardly pos-
sible that, as suggested by Dr. Cornalia, the variations between them
can be due to age or sex, and I believe them distinct, though nearly
allied species. I have placed them in the genus Pyriglena, with the
type of which, P. domicella, they agree in several respects ; particu-
larly in the lax and elongated feathering of the lower back — a curious
structure occurring in several groups of birds, Pycnonotus, Philen-
toma, &c., and which has not yet, as far as I am aware, been fully
explained. In this same genus I should also place that peculiar form,
the Myiothera nudiceps of Cassin (Proc. Ac. Sc. Phil. 1850, p. 106),
Pyriglena nudiceps, mihi, of which Mr. Gould has a specimen from
Panama, and the MM. Verreaux have lately received examples from
Santa Martha in New Grenada,

There are several other birds of this family in the collection that I
cannot make out. A modern monograph of the group would be a
great addition to our knowledge of South American ornithology.

31. Conopophaga aurita (Linn.) (PI. Enl. 822).

Agrees with Cayenne specimens.

Tyrannin^.

32. Pyrocephalus rubineus (Bodd.), PI. Enl. 675. fig. 1.

33. Todirostrum ?, .

34. Tyrannula phcenicura, Sclater, sp. nov.

T. Jlavo-olivacea : dorso imo et ventre Jlavissimis : capite nigro-
cinerascente, crista media jlava utrinque nigra : fronte lorisque
albis : gula cinerea : alis nigricantibus, tectricibus majoribus et
secondariis rufescente limbatis : cauda unicolore dare rufa.

Long, tota 4*0, aim 2*5, caudse 1*7.

Obs. — Similis T. ornatce, Lafr. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1853,
p. 57, sed cauda dare rufa et secondariis rufescente marginatis sane
di versa.

35. Elania cayennensis (Linn.).

Mr. P. L. Sclater ua Birds from the Republic of Ecuador. 283

T.enioptertn^.

36. Copurus filieau da (Spix).

Tityrin^.

37. Tityra marginata (Licht.).

Ampelid^.

38. Pipreola Sclateri (Cornalia).

Euchlornis Sclateri, Corn. Jard. Cont. to Orn. 1852, p. 133.
pi. 101 ; Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1853, p. 104. pi. 4.

Dr. Cornalia, to whom I owe many thanks for the honour he has
done me in calling this elegant bird after my name, rightly insists on
the claims of priority of De Filippi’s genus Euchlornis over Lafres-
naye’s Pyrrhorhynchus. But both these names must, I think, give
way to Swainson’s term Pipreola, established in 1838 (Animals in
Menag. p. 357), the type of which, his P. chlorolepidota, seems
closely allied to D’Orbigny’s Ampelis viridis. I was rejoiced to see
this bird in the present collection, as it clears up a mystery about
its habitat, which Dr. Cornalia supposed to be Peru or Bolivia. But
I have now no doubt that the type specimen in the Museo Civico at
Milan, whieh is the only other I have seen, came, as the present,
from the province of Quixos, and was probably collected there by
the enterprising Italian traveller Osculati.

39. Pipreola Riefferi (Boiss.).

Ampelis Rief'eri, Boiss. Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 3.

40. Laniisoma arcuatum, Swains.

This generic name of Sw'ainson’s must be used as prior by several
years to Ptilochloris of the same author. M. de la Fresnaye has re-
cently reunited his Ptilochloris remigialis to the type species arcuata,
but I am sure that there are two birds confounded under this name,
though I have not yet seen enough specimens to enable me to distin-
guish them accurately. The P. rufo-olivaceus and virescens of La-
fresnaye, described in the Revue Zoologique, 1838, p. 238, do not, 1
think, belong strictly to this genus. They have both been pre-
viously named by Prince Maximilian of Neuwied,the first as Muscicapa
turdina, Beit. hi. 817, the second as Muscicapa virescens, ib. p. 802.

41. Pipra Isidori, Sclater, Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1852, p. 9;
Cont. to Orn. 1852, pi. 100. fig. 1. p. 132.

42. Pipra coronata, Spix, Av. Bras. ii. pi. 7. fig. 1.

(P. cyaneocapilla, Hahn. P. herhacea, Spix, ii. pi. 8 a. fig. 1 $ .)

I believe Spix’s name is prior to Hahn’s. The Pipra herbacea of
the former (of which I have seen the type in the Munich Museum) is
certainly a female of this species.

43. Pipra leucocilla, Linn.

44. ChiromachfBris gut turosa (Desm.) Tang. & Man. pi. 58.

I have my doubts whether this bird is really se])arable from Pipra
manacus, as made out in Bj).’s Consp. [). 171.

19*

284

Zoological Society : —

Garrulin^.

45. Cyanocorax yncas, Bodd. (PI. Enl. 625. Corvus yncas^ Bodd.,
Corvus peruvianus, Gm.)

Sturnid^.

46. Cacicus persicus (L.).

47. Gymnomystax mexicanus (Linn.) (Bp. Consp. p. 431).

Tanagrin^.

48. Arremon spectabilis, Sclater, sp. nov.

A. supra aurescenti-olivaceus : capite nigrOy vitta verticali cinerea :
superciliis albis : axillis IcBtissime croceis : subtus albus ; mento
summo et torcpie gutturali nigris ; later ibus cinerascentibus ;
rostro Jlavo.

Long, tota 5*8, alse 2*8, caudse 2’ 5.

This beautiful Arremon appears to me to be quite new. It conies
nearest perhaps to the A. aurantiirostris of Lafr. (Des Murs, Icon.
Orn. pi. 55), but that has a very broad pectoral band, this a narrow
one. Besides, the deep saffron, almost chestnut colour of the bend of
the wing is of itself sufficient to distinguish it from all the other
species of the genus.

A seeond example of this bird is in a collection lately received by
Sir William Jardine from the same locality.

49. Pyranga ? $ .

A bad skin of a female or immature bird.

50. Ramphocelus ? .

A female of one of the species allied to R. jacapa.

51. Tachyphonus luctuosus, D’Orb. & Lafr.

52. Tanagra coelestisy Spix, Av. Bras. ii. p. 42. pi. 55. fig. 2.
Readily distinguished from the other Bishop Tanagers by the silky

white bar across the wing. A rare bird in collections. In the Paris
museum are examples collected by MM. Castelnau and Deville at
Pontobamba in June 1847.

53. Calliste Parzudakii (Lafr.).

54. Calliste Schranki (Spix).

55. Calliste xanthogastra, Sclater.

56. Calliste gyroloides (Lafr.) $ .

57. Calliste cyanicollis (D’Orb. & Lafr. ).

58. Calliste thalassina (Strickl.).

59. Calliste xanthocephala (Tsch.).

60. Euphonia xanthogastra, Sund.

Capitonid^.

61. Eubucco Bonrcieri (Lafr.).

62. Eubucco Hartlauhi (Lafr.).

63. Capito peruvianus (Cuv.).

Mr. F. Moore on the known species of the genus Accentor. 285

CUCULID^.

64. Piaya cayana (Linn.) (PI. Enl. 211).

PSITTACID^.

65. Fsittacula passerina, Spix?

Agrees with Bogota specimens.

' Ram PH ASTI DAi.

66. Pteroglossus castanotis, Gould.

67. Pteroglossus Jlavirostris, Fraser.

68. Andigena nigrirostris, Waterhouse.

Rallid^.

69. Corethrura cayennensis (Gm.) (PI. Enl. 368).

May 23, 1854. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Notice of all the known species of the genus Accen-
tor, WITH THE DESCRIPTION OF AN UNCHARACTERIZED SPECIES

FROM Nepal. By Frederic Moore, Assist. Mus. East
India Company.

Family Sylviad^, Vigors.

Subfamily Accentorina, Vigors.

Genus Accentor, Bechstein.

1. Accentor alpinus, Gmelin.

Motacilla alpina, Gmel. S. N. L. i. p. 957.

Sturnus moritanus, Gmel. S. N. L. i. p. 804.

Sturnus collaris, Scop. Ann. i. p. 131. no. 192. Gmel. S. N. L. i.
p. 805. Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 323.

Accentor alpinus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. hi. p. 700. Eyton,
Cat. Brit. B. p. 13. Macgill, Hist. Brit. B. ii, p, 258. Gould,
Birds of Eur. t. 99. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 187 ; Catal.
Brit. B. in B. M. p. 64. Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 130.
Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 305.

Le Fauvette des Alpes, Buifon.

The Alpine Accentor, Eyton ; Yarrell.

Ilab. Europe.

2. Accentor nipalensis, Hodgson.

Accentor nipalensis, Hodgson, J. A. S. Beng. xii. p. 958 (1843) ;
Gray’s Zool. Misc. 1844, p. 83 ; P. Z. S. 1845, p. 34 ; Cat. B. of
Nepal, }). 71. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. }). 187. Blyth, J. A.
S. Beng. XV. p. 42. Bonap. C. Gen. Av. p. 305.

Accentor cacharensis, Hodgs. P. Z. S. 1845, p. 34.

The Nepal Accentor, Gray.

JIah. Nepal.

286

Zoological Society : —

A. nipalensis. — “ Newly-moulted adults have the upper parts nearly
as in A. modularise but the dark colour predominating, and the stria-
tion of the head and neck obsolete, or nearly so, these parts, with the
ear-coverts and breast, being of an almost uniform dark brownish-
grey ; throat white, spotted with dusky- black, which forms two
cross-bars on each feather, their extreme tips being greyish ; belly
and flanks bright dark ferruginous, mingled with the hue of the
breast along the middle of the former ; under tail-coverts dusky,
tinged with ferruginous, and laterally margined with white ; the
feathers of the back are greyish-brown, with broad dark centres, or they
may be described as blackish, with brown lateral margins, tinged with
ferruginous towards and upon the scapularies ; wings dusky-black, the
tertiaries broadly margined with ferruginous, the other large alars
slightly so, and all having a spot of this colour at the extremity of
their outer edge ; wing-coverts having a white spot at the tip of
their exterior webs, and the small feathers near the bend of the wing
coloured like the head ; tail brownish-black, tipped with brown, the
terminal spot of the inner web of each feather successively more
albescent to the outermost ; upper tail-coverts long, and brown with
a dark central streak ; bill dusky, the lower mandible yellow except
at tip ; legs reddish-brown. In worn plumage, the margins of all
the feathers have more or less disappeared, and what remains of
them is faded in hue ; the conspicuous white spots on the wing-
coverts, and ferruginous margins of the tertiaries, being completely
abraded, the former leaving a semicircular sinus, as if artificially cut
away. The young have the clothing plumage of the usual flimsy
texture, the under parts coloured like the back, with no ferruginous
on the belly, the spots on the wing-coverts are larger and less purely
white ; and the ferruginous on the scapularies and wing-coverts
dingy.”

Length about 7 inches ; of wing 3f inches ; tail 2f ; bill to gape
|ths ; and tarse ^ths of an inch.

This species appears to represent A. alpinus on the Kachar region
of Nepal.

3. Accentor variegatus, Blyth.

Accentor himalayanus^ , Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xi. p. 187.

Accentor variegatuSe Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xii. p. 958 (1843) ;
Cat. B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 131. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i.
{). 187. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 305.

Accentor alpinuSy Vieill. Gal. des Ois. t. 156 (nec Gmel.).

The Variegated Accentor.

Hah. Sikim ; Kasouli ; Nepal (No. 964, Hodgson’s Catalogue).

A. variegatus. — Forehead, crown, occiput, neck, shoulder of the
wings, and rump dingy grey-brown, with an inconspicuous lightei*
greyish eye-streak ; throat and fore-neck white, with small round
spots disposed as in alpinus ; ear-coverts streaked with fulvescent, and

* This name was changed to variegatus by Mr. Blyth, as tlie other Indian
snr>cies of this genus are also found in tlie Himalayas.

Mr. F. Moore on the known species of the genus iVccentor. 287

small loral and infra-orbital feathers tipped with fulvous-white ; gorget
brown, more or less tinged with rufous, which latter brightens on the
lower breast, flanks, and sides of the belly, the feathers being laterally
edged with white, and some having dark streaks on the flanks pos-
teriorly ; lower tail-coverts white, with lanceolate central dusky spots ;
wings intricately mottled, having the anterior range of coverts dusky-
black with white tips, the next or great range fulvescent-grey
exteriorly at base, and dusky-black for the remainder with slight
whitish tips ; primaries edged with grey, secondaries with brown,
and tertiaries with fulvous ; scapularies and interscapularies rufous-
brown, mottled with large black terminal spots on the middle of each
feather ; tail dusky, having a large white spot at the tip of the inner
web of each feather ; bill black ; legs pale reddish.”

4. Accentor modularis, Linn.

Motacilla modularise Linn. S. N. i. p. 329.

Accentor modularis, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. iii. p. 617. Eyton,
Cat. Brit. B. p. 13. Macgill. Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 2,51. Gould, B.
of Eur. t. 100. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 187 ; Catal. Brit.
B. in B. M. p. 65.

Sylvia modularis. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 511 ; Gen. Hist. vii.

p. 20.

Tharrhaleus modularis, Kaup, Naturl. Syst. i. p. 137.

The Hedge Accentor. Selby. Yarrell.

llah. Europe.

5. Accentor rubious, Temm. et Schlegel.

Accentor rubidus, Temm. et Schleg. Faun. Japon. Av. p. 69. t. 32.
Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 305.

The Japan Accentor.

Hah. Japan.

This species is closely allied to the common A. modularis, Linn.

6. Accentor montanellus, Pallas.

Motacilla montanella, Pallas, It. iii. p. 695. Gmel. S. N. L. i.
p. 968.

Accentor montanellus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. iii. Temm.
Man. d’Orn. ed. 2. p. 251. Lath. Gen. Hist. vii. p. 15. Eyton,
Cat. Brit. B. p. 13. Macgill. Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 251. Gould,
Birds of Eur. t. 101. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 187.

Sylvia montanella. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 526 ; Gen. Hist. vii.
p. 90.

Spermolcyus montanellus, Kaup, Naturl. Syst. i. p. 152.

I Accentor Temminckii, Brandt, Bull. Sci. Acad. Imp. St. Petersb.

The Mountain Accentor. Gould.

Hah. Eastern portions of Europe and Asia.

7. Accentor RURECucomES, Hodgson, n. sp.

Accentor ruheculoidcs. — Forehead, crown, nape, ear-coverts and
chin brown; infra-orbital feathers tipped with whitish ; throat, sides

288 Zoological Society : —

of neck, and shoulder of wings dingy grey -brown, the feathers of the
throat blackish at base ; back and rump ferruginous, centred with
dusky ; wings dusky, margined exteriorly with ferruginous ; lesser
and greater wing-coverts tipped with white ; tail dusky, margined
exteriorly with pale ferruginous ; breast and fore part of flanks ferru-
ginous, the latter streaked with dusky ; belly white, tinged with fer-
ruginous on the flanks posteriorly, vent, and margins of the under
tail-coverts ; the latter centred dusky. Bill blackish ; feet pale
reddish.

Length 6 inches ; of wing 3 ; tail ; bill to front ^ths ; to gape
\ inch ; tarse f .

The Robin Accentor.

Hah. Nepal (No. 970, Hodgson’s Catalogue).

This fine undescribed species was lately presented by B. H. Hodg -
son, Esq., to the Museum of the Hon. East India Company.

(S. Accentor strophiatus, Hodgson.

Accentor strophiatus, Hodgs. J. A. S. Beng. xii. p. 959 ; Gray’s
Zool. Misc. 1844, p. 83 ; P. Z. S. 1845, p. 34 ; Cat. B. of Nepal,
p. 72. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 187. t. 51. Blyth, Cat.
B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 131. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 305.

The rufous-breasted Accentor, Gray.

Hah. Himalayas.

A. strophiatus. — “ Upper parts much as in A. modularis, but the
colours brighter and more contrasted, and the crown and neck uni-
form with the back ; a broad eye-streak, the first of which is white
to beyond the eye, surmounting a ferruginous streak continued back-
w ard to the occiput ; a semicircle of the same surrormds the dusky
ear-coverts, and the entire breast is also ferruginous ; throat white,
with dusky spots, forming a line descending from each angle of the
lower mandible; belly and lower tail-coverts white with dusky streaks;
wdng-feathers dusky, margined wdth ferruginous, with an albescent
spot at the tip of each covert ; tail brownish, with dull rufous outer
margins ; bill black ; legs reddish-brown.”

Length about inches ; of wing 2^ to 2^ ; tail 2^ to 2-j ; bill to
gape fths ; and tarse yfths of an inch.

9. Accentor immaculatus, Hodgson.

Accentor immaculatus, v. nipalensis, Hodgs. Gray’s Zool. Misc.
1844, p. 83 ; P. Z. S. 1845, p. 34 ; Cat. B. of Nepal, p. 71 et
App. p. 153.

Accentor mollis, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xiv. p. 581 (1845) ; Cat.
B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 131. G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, hi. App.
p. 8. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 306.

The unspotted Accentor.

Hah. Nepal ; Sikim.

A. immaculatus. — “Upper parts a rich brown, passing into pure
dark ash-colour on the head and neck, and mto maroon on the
scapularies and tertiaries, and less deeply on the hind part of the
l>ack ; coverts of the secondaries pure dark-grey, those of the pri-

Mr. F. Moore on the known species of the genus Accentor. 289

maries, with the winglet black, as also the primaries, these last having
their miemarginated portion externally bordered with pale-grey ; tail
greyish dusky ; frontal feathers to above the eyes margined with
white, the lores blackish, and the entire under parts slightly em-
browned deep ash-colour as far as the vent, which is pale and tinged
with ferruginous, the under tail-coverts being deeper ferruginous, and
the hind portion of the flanks dark ferruginous ; bill blackish ; feet
fleshy grey ; iris straw-colour.”

Length about 6 inches ; tail 2\ ; wing 3^ ; bill to frontal feathers
^ths ; and tarse f of an inch.

10. Accentor Huttoni, Moore.

Accentor atrogularis, Hutton (nec Brandt?), J. A. S. Beng. xviii.
p. 811 (1849). Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 131. Bonap.
C. G. Av. p. 305.

Hutton’s Accentor.

Hah. Simla; Afghanistan. In Mus. East Ind. Company.

A. Huttoni. — ‘‘ General colour above brown, the feathers centred
dusky, more rufescent on the back, greyer on the nape, rump and
upper tail-coverts ; crown darker ; a broad line above the superciliar
streak, with the ear-coverts and throat dusky-black, the latter di-
vided from the ear- coverts by a pale line proceeding from the base
of the lower mandible, and this with the entire supercilium and
the breast, of a uniform light rufescent sandy hue ; belly whitish,
the flanks streaked with dusky ; wing-coverts slightly tipped albes-
cent, forming slight cross-bands. Bill dusky, yellowish towards
gape, and feet pale.” ‘‘Irides brown.”

Length 6 inches ; of wing 2|-ths ; tail 2\ ; bill to gape j^ths ;
and tarse fths of an inch.

11. Accentor Altaicus, Brandt *.

Accentor Altaicus^ Brandt, Bull. Sci. Acad. Imp. St. Petersb.
(1841 ?). G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 187. Bonap. C. G. Av.
p. 306.

The Altaic Accentor.

Hah. Siberia.

12. Accentor atrogularis, Brandt.

Accentor atrogularis, Brandt, (nec Hutton ?), Bull. Sci. Acad.
Imp. S. Petersb. (1841 ?). G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 187.

The Black-throated Accentor.

Hah. Siberia.

“ The species of this genus,” remarks Mr. Yarrell, in his admi-
rable work on British 15irds, “are very limited in number, only
five, I believe, being at present known ; two are figured in this work
as belonging to England, two others are found in the north and east

* Not having been so fortunate as to examine the descriptions of Dr. Brandt’s
species, I am unable to describe them in this notice.

290

Zoological Society.

of Europe *, and a fifth has been received from the Himalaya moun-
tains.” The discovery of six distinct species in India, which have
mostly been collected in Nepal by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., one from
Japan, and the two described by Dr. Brandt, making in all twelve
species, is accordingly no small accession to the known species of
this interesting genus.

June 13, 1854. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

On the Genus Mulleria, Sow^erby, or
Acost^a, d’Orbigny.

By Dr. John Edward Gray, F.R.S., P.B.S., V.P.Z.S.

M. d’Orbigny has very kindly transferred to me the specimens
of the shells which he described, in the ‘Rev. et Mag. ZooL’ 1851,
under the name of Acostcea Guaduasana, and which he had received
from Rio Sero near Guadual (Rio Magdalena) in Bogota. The ex-
amination of the specimens proves the truth of the supposition which
I formerly expressed, that Mr. Sowerby’s genus Miilleria was de-
scribed from an imperfect specimen of this shell which had lost its
umbones, with the young free state of the shell attached to them,
in the manner so characteristic of this genus.

The series of specimens consists of a pair, not in a very perfect con-
dition, and without the produced umbo of the attached valve, like
the specimen described by Mr. Sowerby, but in a less worn con-
dition, four specimens of the attached valve, and several of the free
upper one.

The series of attached valves is curious, as showing the very dif-
ferent state of the umbo, the manner in which the free valves
are modified before one of the valves becomes fixed ; also the man-
ner in which the upper free valves separate from the free part by a
natural crack, when the free valves become united together by their
edges, forming a shelly tube. In two of the specimens this crack
takes place almost immediately behind the posterior end of the sym-
metrical free shell ; in two of the others, the hinder part of the
free shell is dilated into a triangular irregular portion before the
hinder older part of the upper valve separates from the young one ;
in one of these the triangular tube thus formed is narrow and elon-
gate ; in the other, broad, forming a nearly equilateral triangular
cavity under the umbo of the attached valve.

In three of the five specimens the shell is attached by the outer
surface of the right valve, and in the other two by that of the left
valve ; the three specimens attached by the right valve exhibit all
the three variations in the form of the umbo, viz. the absence of the
free shell, the small, and the large and much dilated state of it.

There can be no doubt, as far as one can undertake to determine
from the examination of the shell alone, of the affinity of this genus

* One of which species is in all probability the so-called Accentor Calliope of
Tcmm. V. Calliope Camtschatkensis, Gmcl., which, certainly, has no affinity to
Accentor.

Linnaan Society.

291

with Etheria, from which it appears only to differ in the very small
size, or indeed in the total absence of the anterior adductor muscle.
Like Etheria, the lower valve is rather attached to the stones and
shells to which it is affixed, by inequalities in the form and surface
of the shell, than by any real attachment of the substance of the shell
itself, for the attached valves are covered with a continuous periostraca.

As all attached shells have a free young state, as may be seen by
examining the umbones of Arcinella, Chama, and other attached bi-
valves, the young of Etheria are doubtless free, and there is nothing
peculiar in the young of Miilleria being free ; but there is a great
peculiarity in the young shell becoming united into a tubular case,
and one of the valves, after the other has become attached, separating
itself from its younger part by a natural caries or crack.

LlNN^AN SOCIETY.

February 6, 1855. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

Mr. Westwood, F.L.S., exhibited some cocoons and living chry-
salides of the Eria Silk- worm of India, viffiich feeds on the castor-oil
plant, which he had received from the Governor of Malta through
Dr. Templeton ; this being the species, the introduction and culti-
vation of which in Malta, Italy, and the South of Europe was now
attracting so much attention in those countries, as proved by the
numerous communications presented within the last few months to the
Academie des Sciences at Paris by Marshal Vaillant, French Minister
of War, and by MM. Milne-Edwards, Guerin-Meneville, Isidore
GeolFroy Saint- Hilaire, Dumeril, Montagne, &c. An extract was
read, communicated by Major-General Hearsey, from the “ Journal
of the Asiatic Society,” on the peculiarities of the silk of this species,
the natural history of which, as well as of the Tusseh Silk-moth of
India, formed the subject of an excellent memoir by Dr. Roxburgh in
the “ Transactions of the Linnaean Society,” vol. vii. On examining
the cocoons, Mr. Westwood had observed, that, unlike those of the
common Silk-worm and most other moths which were of an entire,
oval form, these cocoons were open at one end, which was protected
by a series of converging elastic threads (like the mouth of a rat-trap),
a peculiarity which had been long observed in the cocoons of the
common Emperor Moth, Saturnia pavonia minor. This peculiarity,
which had also been noticed by M. Dumeril, had been supposed to
have for its object the introduction of air to the interior of the
cocoon, and also the prevention of the ingress of parasitic Ickneu-
rnonidcB, &c. Neither of these hypotheses were however considered
by Mr. Westwood as conclusive ; he thought rather that it was con-
nected with the discharge of the fluid which most insects emit im-
mediately after arriving at the perfect state. The circumstance is
however of some practical importance in the Eria Moth, as it allows
the egrc.ss of the j)crfect insect without injuring the thread of the
cocoon, as is the case when the common Silk- worm Moth of the
mulberry is allowed to escape from its cocoon. It is not, however,

292

Linnaan Society : —

of so great a practical importance as might be at first supposed, as
the silk-growers never allow the cocoons intended for winding to
produce the moth ; still those cocoons, which were set aside in order
to obtain the perfect insects for breeding from, would also remain
uninjured after the escape of the moths.

March 6. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

Mr. Syme, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of Ophioglossum vulgatum,
L., from Swanbister, Orkney, together with a large series of speci-
mens from other localities ; and comparing them with an extensive
series of specimens of Oph. Lusitanicum from various distant locali-
ties, came to the conclusion, in common with several recent bota-
nical writers, that these two supposed species are in reality merely
varieties of one and the same specific type.

Mr. N. B. Ward, F.L.S., exhibited on the part of Mr. Maxwell
T. Masters, Sub-Curator of the Fielding Herbarium at Oxford, an
abnormal stem of a species of Dipsacus, on which the following ob-
servations, by Mr. Masters, were read : —

“ The specimen was received from Mr. Smith of Witney in Ox-
fordshire, to whom it had been given by a blanket manufacturer of
that town. From the presence of some small prickles on the remains
of the leaves, Mr. Baxter, jun.', the Curator of the Oxford Botanic
Garden, suggested that it might be the stem of a Dipsacus. Great as
is the dissimilarity between this abnormal specimen and the natural
appearance of a Teazel-stem, the* subsequent testimony of the donor
confirms Mr. Baxter’s opinion. Moreover, if the explanation here
offered be correct, there is little difficulty in supposing it really to
have been a Teazel-stem. It has unfortunately been broken, but its
general appearance, when it came into our posse.ssion, is shown in
the accompanying sketch. It then measured about 21 inches in
length, and as the specimen seems to have been broken off pretty
close to the ground, its original height must have been much less
than that of an ordinary Teazel. At the base it is of a cylindrical
form ; soon, however, the stem becomes, as it were, twisted on itself,
and is then flattened out laterally. A cross section of it at this
point would therefore be ovoidal in outline. This portion of the
stem is hollow ; traces of the pith adhere to its inner surface. The
greatest breadth is about 2y inches ; the breadth, however, gradually
diminishes towards the upper part, where the cylindrical form is
resumed. The branches, or flower-stalks, are placed one over the
other in a line following the spiral curvature of the stem. Some of
the branches have been broken off, and indications of several abortive
branches are plainly visible. Remains of leaves occur at the base of
one or two of the upper branches, and on these are small prickles,
such as are found on a Teazel-leaf. The epidermis has for the most
part peeled off, showing the course of the woody fibres in a spiral
direction all the way up the main stem, but taking an opposite
direction from that formed by the line of branches. In the lateral
branches the course of the fibres is straight. 'I’he obliquity of the

Mr. P. H. Gosse on Peachia hastata.

293

spiral MS greatest in the lower part of the stem, diminishing as the
stem expands laterally, and again increasing towards the upper part,
where the stem resumes its cylindrical form. When the course of
the fibres is traced from the base of any of the branches, the spiral
will be found to terminate about the base of the second branch
above that from which the line started. If each turn of the spiral,
in this abnormal specimen, be considered to represent an internode,
then the opposite and alternate arrangement of the branches of a
Dipsacus would seem to be indicated. Should this view be correct,
it would have an important bearing on that theory which ascribes
the opposition of leaves to the absence or non- development of in-
ternodes, for here, where the internodes are developed, the arrange-
ment is alternate. The position of all the branches in a line one
over the other is accounted for by the spiral course of the fibres of
the stem. And thus, if we conceive the fibres of this specimen un-
twisted and made to assume a vertical direction, and at the same
time imagine the absence of internodes, the result will be the oppo-
sition of the branches and the alternate position of the pairs of
branches as regards the side of the axis from which they proceed. At
the dilated portion of the stem the growth was probably much more
rapid than at the lower part, which, from its more solid and firmer
structure, may be conceived to have offered some resistance to the
lateral expansion of the stem. In so doing it may have been the
cause of that twisting of the stem upon itself, which, it will be
observed, begins at the point where the change of form also com-
mences.”

The communication was accompanied by a sketch of the monstro-
sity described in it.

March 20. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

Read a “ Description of Peachia hastata, a new genus and species
of the Class Zoophyta ; with observations on the Family Actiniadce
By Philip Henry Gosse, Esq., A.L.S.

The specimens on which Mr. Gosse founds his new genus, Peachia,
were discovered by the Rev. Charles Kingsley in the months of
January and March 1854, in the vicinity of Torquay. Mr. Gosse
gives an elaborate description of the animal, both in reference to its
external and internal structure, together with a particular account
of its habits, derived from the communications of Mr. Kingsley as
well as from his own observations. He considers that the j'ossession
of an excretory orifice to the body is a character of sufficient im-
portance to separate it from Actinia, and to constitute a new genus,
for which he proposes the name of Peachia, as a tribute to the zeal,
industry and success with which marine zoology has been studied
by Mr. Charles W. Peach. He is also led to this selection of a
name, because he thinks it probable that a minute species, described
by Mr. Peach under the name oi Actinia chrysanthellum, may belong
to the same genus. 'I'lie following arc the characters, generic and
specific, of the animals in (juestion : —

294

Linn^an Society . —

Peachia, Gosse.

Cornua ulujigatuni, subcylindricuni, pyrif’ornie, v. f'usifornie, ditreniatuni,
liberum ; tentaculis paucis, brevibus (disci diametruni liaud superanti-
bus), crassis, conicis, uniseriatis ; oviductu in tuberculum papillosum
desinente.

1. Peachia hastata, corpore roseo lineis sequalibus pallidis, tentaculis
12 albo-hyalinis seriebus 2 parallelis macularum sagittatarum brun-
nearum notatis, disco circulis duobus macularum brunnearum V-for-
mium cincto, oviductus papillis numerosis aggregatis.

2 ? P.? cHRYSANTHELLUM, coi'pore cylindi'ico albido lineis inaequaliter latis,
tentaculis brunneo-annulatis.

Mr. Gosse considers the principal interest of this form to consist
in the decided approach which it makes to a higher type than that
of Actinodermata, assisting, together with the genus Edwardsia of
M. Quatrefages, to diminish the interval between the Actinice and
HolothuridcB. Of the genus Edwardsia he observes that there are
two British species, one of which was described and figured by him-
self, in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ for Sept. 18.53, under the
name of Scolanthus callimorphus , which genus he is now convinced
ought to be abolished ; and the other, described in a letter from Mr.
Kingsley, appears to be identical with Edwardsia Beautempsii, Quatr.

The author then proceeds to remark on the importance of still
further dividing the large remainder of species, which, even after the
separation of the genera already constructed from it, still remain
united under the name of Actinia. After discussing the principles
on which he conceives that this division may be most properly
founded, he goes on to establish the following generic types, adding
after each the names of the British, and of some of the exotic species
belonging to it.

Sagartia, Gosse,

Actinice basi adhaerentes ; tentaculis conicis facile rctractilibus ; sphcsrulis
marginalibus nullis. Corpus everrucosum, filamenta capsulifera e poris
emittens ; Jilis urticantihus brevibus, pilorum fascicule dense armatis.

Sp. Brit. — Act. viduatu (=anguicoma. Price), Troglodytes, Aurora,
Candida, rosea, nivea, venusta, parasitica, Beilis, Dianthus ; forte etiam
A. aurantiaca ei pulchella, Jord.

The following exotic species, figured by Mr. Dana in the Zoophytes
of the American Exploring Expedition, seem to be referable to this
genus, viz. A. Primula ; the beautiful decor ata and Fuegensis, both
allied to our Beilis ; and Achates, reticulata and Paumotensis, which
are evidently allied to Dianthus.

Bunodes, Gosse.

ActinicB sphaerulis marginalibus nullis ; corpus verrucosum ; cute coriaced,
missilibus nullis ; urticantihus longis siinplicibus ; ten-
taculis plerumque crassis, conicis, obtusis.

Sp. Brit. — A. genwiacea, Thallia, clavata, crassicortiis, monile (forte
crassicornis junior) ? Clirysoplenium ?, alba ?, miniata ?

Of exotic species, A. Diadema, pluvia. Gemma, Artemisia of Dana’s
Zoophytes, probably belong to this genus.

295

New Localities foi' rare British Plants.

Actinia, L. {pars).

Sphcerulce capsuliferce ad disci marginem seriatae ; coryii/s evernicosum,
poris jilamentisque missilibus destitutum ; cute laevi.

Sp. Brit. — A. Mesemhryanthemum, margaritifera, Chiococca.

Of exotic species, A. Tabella and graminea of Dana are here re-
ferable.

The following British species are of doubtful position, viz. A. coc~
cinea, intestinalis, biserialis and vermicularis. The very curious A.
biserialis has a close parallel in Dana’s Rhodora ; and these may
perhaps form together another genus when more is known about
them. A. intestinalis and Vermiculum show, in their slender
lengthened form, an approach to the free condition of Peachia, &c.

Mr. Gosse next exhil3its in a tabular manner one of the modes in
which the British non-coralligenous Actiniadce may be artificially
distributed ; and under the head of each genus comments on its
structure, limits, and affinities, concluding his paper with a diagram
intended to express, as nearly as such a representation can, the varied
consanguinities and cross- alliances of the group.

The paper was illustrated by figures of Peachia hastata ; and by
magnified representations of the thread- cells and threads of several
species of Sagartia.

April 3. — T. Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

The following letters were read : —

“12 South Frederick Street, Glasgow,

“ Dear Sir, 22nd March, 1855.

“ At Dr. Hooker’s suggestion I send you, for the herbarium, two
specimens of a rare British plant (Hierochloe borealis^, which, after
having been erased from the list, was rediscovered near Thurso by
Mr. Robert Dick, who states that it flowers so early in the year as
May and the beginning of June, disappearing soon afterwards ; so
that there was no wonder I and others could not find it in Don’s
station, Glen Kella, Angusshire, as botanists seldom go there before
the end of July.

“ I am, dear Sir, yours truly,

“ R. Kippist, Esq.” “ Wm. Gourlie.”

The specimens forwarded with this letter were marked as gathered
by Mr. Robert Dick, at “Thurso, Caithness, May 1854.”

“ Cedar 4'errace, llenwick, Worcester,
“ Mv Dear Sir, March 21st, 1855.

“ In the account of the Meetings of the Linnean Society which
have met my view, I have seen no notice of a very interesting addi-
tion to the British Flora which was made in 1854 in this neighbour-
hood, on the confines of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, though
strictly within the latter county. The plant I allude to (a specimen
of which I enclose for the inspection of the Society) is the pretty little
Orchid, Kpipogium aphyllum, which was never liefore, that I am

296

Miscellaneous.

aware of, met with in England, and has not been alluded to as a
probable native in any of our local or general floras.

It was first noticed in July of last year (1854), by Mrs. Anderton
Smith, then staying at Tedstone Rectory, and other specimens were
afterwards gathered by her husband, who communicated with me on
the subject, and indicated the place where Mrs. Smith first gathered
the plant. The locality has quite a subalpine aspect, the Sapey
brook there running in a deep glen shadowed on all sides by lofty
trees, and near the spot a little water-fall gurgles over the massive
sandstone rocks. It was the felling of some of these trees that
brought the plant to light. I have also to mention another locality
for the Neottia or Spiranthes aestivalis, hitherto, I believe, only found
in England in the New Forest, Hampshire'; but the last autumn a
specimen of the Spiranthes /estivalis was shown to me, which was
gathered by Mr. George Jordan of Bewdley, on the confines of the
great bog in Wyne Forest, Worcestershire. I have been careful to
examine the plant gathered by Mr. Jordan, and to visit the spot
where it was found, so that the information may be relied on, and
thus the range of the Spiranthes (estivalis is extended in England.
This it may be interesting to note.

“The enclosed specimen can be exhibited at the next Meeting of the
Society, if the plant has not been previously brought before their
notice as a native of Britain. It is the only one I at present
possess ; but if the Linnean Society has not a British specimen in
their collection and you think it may be any way advantageous to
botanical science, or be useful for metropolitan botanists to examine,
I will with pleasure permit the retention of it for the Society.
Otherwise please return it to me at your leisure after it has been
examined.

“ I remain, my dear Sir, yours very truly.

“ R. Kippist, Esq.” “ Edwin Lees.”

The specimen of Epipogium, which (in compliance with Mr. Lees’
kind permission) has been placed in the herbarium of the Society,
is stated on the ticket to have been “ gathered in a woody dingle
on the banks of Sapey Brook, Tedstone, Herefordshire, about a
mile and a half south of Clifton-on-Teme, Worcestershire ; July
1854,”

MISCELLANEOUS.

SibbalcT s Drawings of Scottish Animals.

By the late Dr. George Johnston.

There is a small quarto volume of original drawings with the title
“ Piscium et Aquatilium leones, a Joanne Alexandra ad vivum
depictce. Anno Domini m.dcc.vii,” preserved in the Library
of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The drawings
were undoubtedly made for Sir Robert Sibbald, and a few'

Miscellaneous.

297

of them have been engraved to illustrate his hook on Whales, and his
Natural History of Scotland. On the inside of the board of the
volume there is written — ‘‘ Hie liber olim viri docti D. Roberti Sib-
baldi Eq. Aur. fuit, et multorum variorum apud nos piscium icones
contiiiet.” The title is written within a square border, very neatly
ornamented. In the centre of the top there is a clam-shell with a
figure of Neptune, his trident, and horses ; and on each side a clas-
sical Dolphin. To the right, a figure of the Sepia is suspended over
an upright figure of the Loligo sagittata, with a Crab between ; and
on the left, the Sturgeon and the Tusk make the border, with the
Turritella terebra as a piece of separation.

Folio i. A characteristic figure of the Scad or Horse-Mackerel. —
Fol. ii. Piscis in lacu Mabano seu vandosus and “ a Whale cast in
at Rosyth castle.” The Vendace is very unlike the figure of that fish
in Yarrell ; nor can I identify the whale with any figured in Bell’s
work on the Mammalia. It appears to be a species of Beluga. —
Fol. iii. Balaenoptera Physalus. — Fol. iv. xV Sperma Ceti Whale.”
Two figures, viz. a side and a back view. There is written on the
paper — “Whale at Moryfurth, Feb. 23, 1/03. Side, but it did lay
halfe vpon the side that one Ey and a little of the bellie was sanded.
57 foots long, and 5G round, booth under and all the skin blackish blew
werie smooth and as thick as a bull’s and all white fat within and nixt
the skin.” — Fol. iv. A rude figure of Coronula diadema: a better figure
of the Vendace : and “a horse markrett” — which is something I
cannot decipher. — Fol. v. A whale cast in at a place which is ille-
gible. The whale is Baloenoptera Physalus, and is about 50 feet
long. — Fol. vi. Probably a species of Hyperoodon. It is called a
North-Caper. — Fol. vii. Fig. sup. Scorpio marinus nostras = the long-
spined Cottus, Yarrell. Fig. med. Galcus lccvis= Acanthias vulgaris
or Dog-Fish. Fig. inf. Cataphractus nostras=Aspidophorus curo-
pseus. — Fol. viii. A repetition of the figure of the Beluga? — Fol. ix.
Fig. 1. The Cat-fish. (2) Gymnetrus Banksii ! (3) Galeus nostras

=The Dog-fish. (4) Gobius maculis undatis nostras=the unctuous
Sucker. (5) Aculeatus marinus major nostras = the Fiftcen-spined
Stickleback. — Fol. x. A good figure, and appears to represent the Cook
Wrasse of Yarrell. — Fol. xi. The Hiatula = the Balkan Wrasse.
— Fol. xii. The Bonnet Flooke. This is the Holibut. — Fol. xiii. A
very rude and unfinished figure of a “ Salmon Stour ” ? “ taken in
Sanda in Orkney.” The figure is one of the Tunny. There is, on
the same folio, the figure of a Tusk without the head, as it is salted.
— Fol. xiv. Teeth of the Spermaceti Whale — “ Dentes Balcna3 macro-
ccj)hal0e.” — Fol. xv. “Loligo,” viz. L. media; and Raia vulgaris =
the Common Skate. — Fol. xvi. “Polyjius nostras,” viz. = Eledone
vcntricosa. — Fol. xvii. “Sepia nostras” = Sepia officinalis. Both
this and the preceding are excellent figures. — Fol. xviii. Loligo sagit-
tata : good. — Fol. xix. A Fossil Nautilus. — Fol. xx. Fossil Nautilus,
two sj)ccics. — Fol. xxi. “ Vulva marina, suj)ina fascies ” = an Ascidia.
“ Favus marinus ” — The ovisacs of the Fusus anti(pius on a stone
covered witli a Serpula. — Fol. xxii. “The llar])cr (h\ab ” = Ilyas
Ann. May. N. Hist. Sci*. 2. Vol. xvi. 20

298

Miscellaneous.

araneus. ‘‘A shore Crab,” but it is really Portunus depurator. —
Fol.xxiii. Fig. sup. Perhaps Nymphon giganteum. Fig.med. ‘‘Cancer
araneus ” = Stenorynchus Phalangium. Fig. inf. The Common Crab.
— Fol. xxiv. “ Scolopendra marina nostras ”= Aphrodite aculeata. —
Fol. xxv.“ Loligo nostras” = L. sagittata. — Fol. xxvi. “ The Lugg ”
= Arenicola piscatorum. “ Urtica rarior sphaericus,” a species of
Medusa unknown to me. — Fol. xxvii. Four unfinished sketches of a
Medusa, probably the M. cruciata ; and three equally rude figures of
Lobularia digitata. — Fol. xxviii. The claws of the Norway Lobster
(Nephrops norvegicus) ; and a “ chela Astaci monstrosa.” — Fol. xxix.
“ Canis carcharise Icon rudior” — so rude as to be beyond specific
identification — “Stella echinata” = Ophiocoma rosula. — Fol. xxx.

Gurnadus griseus ” =the Grey Gurnard. — Fol. xxxi. The Tunny :
a good figure. — Fol. xxxii. The Tusk : a finished drawing. —
Fol. xxxiii. “ Gurnardus griseus ” — the Grey Gurnard again. —
Fol. xxxiv. “Trachurus” — viz. the Horse-Mackerel. — Fol. xxxv. A
figure probably of the Cook Wrasse.

The only other figures are copies of those which have been en-
graved for the Scotiae Prod. Nat. Hist, and for Sibbald’s other works,
more especially his little volume on Whales.

CLAUSILIA ROLPHII.

Some of the “ new localities ” for British plants and shells, dis-
covered by the Rev. W. H. Hawker and given in the last Number of
the ‘Annals’ (p. 212), are so remarkable, that I was glad to see one
which I could confirm from personal observation ; viz. the station for
Clausilia Uolphii (^plicatula^ Drap.) in Ashford Woods, where 1 met
with it fifteen years ago, when collecting with Mr. Wm. Harris,
F.G.S., of Charing. — S. P. Woodward.

HELIX ASPERSA.

A curious specimen of the common Garden Snail has been sent me
by Miss A. Hodgson of Ulverstone. It is an adult shell with a
second, half-grown individual, fixed to its spire and partly imbedded
in the suture of the body-whorl. The winter door (^epiphragm)
remains in the exposed part of the small shell’s aperture, showing
that it had died during the first hybernation, whilst its neighbour had
survived, and not getting free from the incubus of the empty house
of the deceased, had partially enveloped it in the course of its growth
to maturity. — S. P. Woodward.

Descriptions of some New Species of Birds.

By the Viscount Du Bus de Gisignies.

1. Vireosylvia frenata. V. supra flavido-cinerca ; pileopure cine-
reo ; superciliis ad nucham productis et genis dilute fulvescentibus ;
subtus albida; hypochondriis dilute flavido-cinerascentibus ; gula
utrinque stria atra a basi mandibulae descendente marginata; remigibus

Miscellaneous.

299

et rectricibus fusco-cinereis, flavicante extus limbatis ; tectricibiis
alarum iiiferioribus et crisso flavidis. Rostro et pedibus fuscis.

Total length 19^ ceiitim. (nearly 8 inches).

Hab. Ocaha, New Granada.

A typical species, with the bill rather long, straight, and com-
pressed ; it presents a close resemblance to V. olivacea, Linn., but is
easily recognizable by the blackish streak which passes down each
side of the throat from the base of the mandible.

2. Cyanoloxia concreta. Mas. C. caerulescenti-nigra ; fronte, su-
perciliis et genis paulo dilutioribus ; humeris cyaneis ; alls et cauda
nigris ; tectricibus alarum superioribus et remigibus secundariis caeru-
lescente limbatis. Rostro et pedibus nigricantibus.

Total length 15^ centim. (about 6 inches).

This bird was killed at Playa-Vicenti in Mexico. In its coloration
it approaches Loxia cyanea, Linn., and is nearly of the same length,
but is more robust, and the bill and feet are much stronger. It also
appears to be distinct from Coccohorus cyano'ides, which I only know
from the short description published by Lafresnaye in the ‘ Revue
Zoologique’ for 1847.

3. Pyrenestes personatus. Mas. P. saturate fuscus ; capite,
absque occipite, et tectricibus caudse superioribus coccineis, niten-
tibus ; pectore coccineo tiucto ; rectricibus duabus intermediis supra,
caeterarum pogonio externo obsolete coccineis. Rostro nigro ; pedi-
bus fuscis.

Total length 14 centim. (about 5|- inches).

Hab. Senegal.

This is the second species of the genus, supposing P. eoccineusy
Cass., to be the same as P. ostrinus ; it is still more typical than the
latter. It has the bill thicker in proportion, and the tooth of the
lower mandible more developed.

4. Poliospiza canicapilla. P. supra, cum lateribus capitis, fusco-
cinerea ; pileo fusco-nigricante et albido vario ; subtus cinerea ; super-
ciliis, gutture, ventre et crisso albidis ; remigibus et rectricibus ob-
scure fuscis, cinerascente extus limbatis. Rostro et pedibus cinereo-
fulvis.

Total length 12 centim. (about 4f inches).

It closely approaches Serinus tristriatus and xanthopyyiuSy Riipp.,
which inhabit Abyssinia. This new species inhabits Senegal.

5. Quelea capitata. Q. supra brunnea, plumis singulis albido-
fuscescente marginatis ; capite pure sanguineo, mento et gutture
nigris, sanguineo maculatis ; subtus dilute fuscescens ; hypochondriis
brunneo variis ; ventre albido ; remigibus et rectricibus flavicante
extus limbatis. Rostro brunneo, mandibulm basi dilutiorc ; i)cdibus
rubro-fuscis.

Total length 11^ centim. (about 4j inches).

Hab. Senegal.

If the colours of the head were not sufficient to distinguish this

20*

300

Miscellaneous.

species, I should have considered it identical with Euplectes erythrops,
HartL, with which I am not acquainted in nature, but which is de-
scribed and figured with care in the second volume of the ‘ Abhand-
lungen’ of the Natural History Society of Hamburg, 1852. This
bird has only a little; red round the base of the bill and above the
eyes, whilst the new species has the whole of the head of a fine uni-
form blood-red, and the throat and front of the neck are spotted with
red and black.

Nor is it likely that the dilferenee between these birds is sexual,
as Ilartlaub gives descriptions of both sexes of his E. erythrops^ and
states that the female is yellow where the male is red.

6. Chrysomitris xanthoyastra. Mas. C. nigerrima subnitens ;
speculo lato alarum, rectricum basi, exceptis duabus intermediis, et
abdomine cum hypochoudriis et crisso aureo-flavis. Rostro caeru-
lescenti-nigro ; pedibus brunneo-nigris.

Total length 9 centim. (about inches).

Hah. Ocaua, New Granada.

This is one of the smallest species of the genus. In its colour it
resembles the Carduelis atrafMs^ D’Orb., but differs in its size, which
is about one-fourth less. — Bull, de V Acad. Roy. de Belgiquey xxii.
p. 150-152, ] 855.

The Operculum q/ Diplommatina. By Capt. Thomas Hutton.

The operculum of Diplommatina folliculus having been overlooked,
from its small size and hidden position, in the original description,
Mr. Benson was inclined to doubt its existence, but afterwards cor-
rected his former opinion. Captain Hutton formerly believed it
might be a clausium, attached to the shell by an elastic ligament :
he has recently most kindly written me a note, in which occurs
the following passage, setting this question at rest : “ Having placed
my specimens upon some wet and withered oak leaves (Q. incana),
which the animal prefers to anything else, I waited, magnifier in
hand, to decide the knotty point of operculum or no operculum,
and lo ! when the animal came forth, I saw the little shield-like oper-
culum carried horizontally upon the hack of the animal^ and not
attached to the shell. When the animal is just coming out of the
shell, the appendage is plain with the aid of a glass, but not so easily
seen when in full motion, as it lies upon the back of the animal, just
under the shell, and is thus in a measure hidden.” — J. E. Gray.

Note on the Aphyllanthes monspeliensis, and the new Family of the
Aphyllanthaceee. By M. Parlatore.

The Aphyllanthes monspeliensis is a plant which has the aspect of
a little rush, or rather that of the Dianthus prolifer \ it grows abun-
dantly in the stony, sterile parts of the basin of the Mediterranean,
in the south of France as far as Nice, in Spain, Portugal and Algeria,
'rhis ])lant was first described and figured by Pena and Lobel, who
did not fail to notice a certain resemblance between its flowers and

Miscellaneous,

301

those of a Dianthus^ and who described them as borne within a glu-
maceous involucre. From this same resemblance, G. Bauhin placed
the Aphyllanthes in his section Caryophijllus sylvestris, under the
name of Caryophyllus cceruleus monspeliensis.

Tournefort established the genus Aphyllanthes, placing it in the
class of Liliacece, and considering the involucre as a scaly and nearly
tubular calyx ; he gave a plate containing an analysis of the flower
and even of the capsule. Linneeus retained the genus Aphyllayithes,
and in the first editions of his ‘ Genera Plantarum,’ it is placed beside
the genus ; for Linnaeus regarded the Aphyllanthes as nearly
a rush, saying in the observations upon this plant, Juncus esset si
corolla careretr

In the ‘ Genera Plantarum ’ of Antoine-Laurent de J ussieu,
Aphyllanthes is arranged in the first section of the order of Junci,
in which we also find the genera Eriocaulon, Restio, Xyris, and
Juncus, each of which has since been raised to the rank of a family.

DeCandolle continued to regard the Aphyllanthes as a plant
belonging to the family Juncece, although with him this family had
not the same limits as with Jussieu. This opinion has been followed
by several recent botanists, — as by Ventenat, Bartling, Reichenbach,
and others.

Labillardiere having discovered the genus Borya in New Holland,
arranged it also amongst the Juncece, as it is allied to Aphyllanthes',
but Mr. Robert Brown, in his celebrated ‘ Prodromus,’ whilst re-
marking that the aspect of Borya is that of a rush, indicated the
differences existing between the testa and albumen of the seeds and
those of the Juncece ; this led him to arrange Borya in the family
of the Asphodelece, which, with him, includes a great part of the
Asphodel! and Asparagi of Jussieu.

Eiidlicher, in his ‘Genera Plantarum,’ Aphyllanthes, Borya,

Johnsonia, Laxmannia, and a new genus which he calls Alania, at the
end of the Liliacece, considering them as genera allied to the xVsphodcls
{genera Asphodeleis affinid) ; tins has been followed by Kunth and
Schnitzlein ; and the latter has formed for these j)lants a tribe of
Liliacece which he calls Juncopsidece. Thus, three different opinions
now exist as to the family in which the Aphyllanthes shoidd be
placed : according to one of these it is a rush ; according to another,
an Asphodel ; and the third approximates it to the Asphodels or the
Lilies, according to the extension given to the limits of the great
family Liliacece.

Few have, however, carefully studied the Aphyllanthes mons-
peliensis in tlie living state, at least to judge from the ])ublished
figures and descriptions, which are j)artially false. In the researches
upon the monocotyledonous plants, which I have followed for several
years, 1 have examined the Aphyllanthes, which presents a singular
structure, especially in the parts of the flower. The most remarkable
characters of the plant are the following : —

1. A rbizome with braiicbes in the form of lealless stems.

2. Solitary flowers, or flowers united two or three together, borne
at the a|)cx of the branches, and accompanied by scale-like bracts.

302

Miscellaneous*

3. A scaly involucre proper to each flower, composed of five bracts
united together to a great extent so as to form a tubular calyx, and
persistent after flowering, when it envelopes the capsule.

4. A pedunculated flower in the interior of this involucre ; its
perigonium is formed of six membranous, petaloid leaflets, arranged
in two rows, and furnished with a pretty long claw, as in the Sile-
nacece.

5. The aestivation of these leaflets of the perigonium is imbricated,
and they cover each other at the tips.

6. Six stamina arranged in two rows, of which the external are
the shortest ; they are inserted by filiform filaments upon the throat
of the perigonium, and the anthers are bilocular and introrse.

7. Ovary stipitate, trilocular, with a single ovule in each cell.

8. Ovules amphitropal, reversed, inserted towards the middle of
the inner angle of the cell.

9. Stigmata trifid ; each division furnished with a large lobe
below.

10. Capsule rostrated, splitting into three valves (loculicido-tri-
valve), with a single seed, furnished with a crustaceous testa and a
fleshy perisperm, and containing an axile embryo, half the length of
the perisperm.

From these characters it appears to me that we must regard this
plant as the type of a new family, to which I propose to give the
name of Aphyllanthacece.

This family approaches the Juncece in the characters of the organs
of vegetation, and the Liliacece in those of the organs of reproduction,
so that it appears to form the passage between these two natural
families of plants. Nevertheless it differs essentially from both,
in the presence of an involucre which persists after inflorescence,
and in the imbricated aestivation of the leaflets of the perigonium,
even of those of the outer row, which is valvate in the Juncece and
Liliacecey the leaflets of which have the apices perfectly free, even in
those species in which the leaflets cover each other slightly at the
margins. In AphyllantheSy on the contrary, the leaflets of the peri-
gonium cover each other at the tips, so that a form of hud is
produced different from that of the Liliacece and Juncece.

In other respects the Aphyllanthacece differ principally from the
Juncece in the membranous and petaloid nature of the leaflets of the
perigonium, which wither and fall after inflorescence ; in the crusta-
ceous testa of the seed, and especially in the embryo, which is
situated in the axis of a fleshy perisperm of double its length. In
the Juncece the leaflets of the perigonium are glurnaceous and rarely
subpetaloid, but always persistent ; their seeds have a membranous
testa and enclose a small embryo, which only occupies the base of
the perisperm.

Besides the characters already indicated, the Aphyllantliacece also
differ from the Liliacece in the characters of the vegetation, and in
the singular structure of the flower, which presents a distinct resem-
blance to that of a Silenaceous ])lant, whence is partly derived that
resemblance to a Diant bus noticed even by the older writers.

Meteorological Observations. 303

The establishment of this family appears to me to acquire greater
importance, as some at least of the genera Borya, Alania, Johnsonia,
and Laxmannia, must be referred to it ; these are genera allied to
Aphyllanthes, which, in the characters of their vegetation, resemble
either the Juncece or the Cyperacece, and which have their petaloid
flowers accompanied by scale-like persistent bracts, the two superior
of which are opposite, almost like the glumes of the GraminecB, and
are sometimes bifid or trifid, bidentate or tridentate at the apex.
These flowers are also disposed in groups or heads, which, after
flowering, present a great resemblance to the heads of Chcetospora or
Xyris after their petals have fallen. — Comptes Rendus, 27th August
1855, p. 344.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR AUG. 1855.

Chiswick. — August 1. Very fine. 2. Very fine: heavy rain. 3 — 5. Very fine.

6, Overcast. 7. Very fine. 8. Rain : thunder : heavy rain. 9. Cloudy and fine ;
clear at night. 10. Foggy, with heavy dew ; very fine : slight haze : very fine.
11. Slight haze: very fine. 12. Overcast: fine: clear. 13. Very fine. 14.
Cloudy and fine. 15,16. Very fine. 17. Slight fog : very fine. 18. Very fine.

19. Very fine: slight rain at night. 20. Slight rain : cloudy and boisterous, 21.
Fine : clear and windy. 22. Very fine. 23. Very fine : much sheet and forked
lightning at night. 24 — 26. Very fine. 27. Very fine : cloudy at night. 28,
29. Very fine. 30. Very fine: clear at night. 31. Very fine.

Mean temperature of the month 61°’63

Mean temperature of Aug. 1854 60 *55

Mean temperature of Aug. for the last twenty-nine years ... 61 *98
Average amount of rain in Aug 2*446 inches.

Boston. — Aug. 1. Fine : rain a.m. 2 — 4. Fine. 5, 6. Cloudy. 7. Cloudy:
rain a.m. and p.m., wdth thunder. 8. Cloudy : rain a.m and p.m. 9. Rain a.m.
10. Fine. 11. Cloudy. 12. Cloudy : rain a.m. 13. Fine. 14. Cloudy. 15 — 18.
Fine. 19. Fine: rain a.m. 20. Cloudy: rain a.m. 21,22. Cloudy. 23. Cloudy:
rain a.m. and p.m. 24. Fine. 25. Fine : rain p.m. 26 — 28. Fine. 29. Cloudy.
30,31. Fine.

Sandwich Manse, Orkney. — Aug. 1. Cloudy a.m.: fine, fog p.m. 2. Rain a.m.:
fine, cloudy p.m. 3. Clear a.m. : fine, drops, thunder and lightning p.m. 4. Rain
A.M. : drizzle, showery p.m. 5. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m. 6. Clear a.m. and p.m.

7. Rain a.m. : showers p.m. 8. Rain a.m. : drizzle p.m. 9. Drizzle a.m. : clear,

vapour P.M. 10. Hazy a.m. : damp p.m. 11. Cloudy a.m. : showers p.m. 12.

Cloudy A.M. *. damp P.M. 13. Showers a.m.: cloudy p.m. 14. Bright a.m.:

cloudy P.M. 15. Drizzle A.M. : cloudy p.m. 16. Cloudy a.m. : rain p.m. 17.
Cloudy A.M. and p.m. 18, 19. Cloudy a.m. : cloudy, thunder and lightning p.m.

20. Show’ers A.M. : rain p.m. 21. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m. 22. Showers a.m.

and p.m. 23. Showers, bright a.m. : clear p.m. 24. Cloudy a.m. : rain p.m.
25. Clear a.m. and p.m. 26, 27. Rain a.m. : cloudy p.m. 28. Clear a.m. :
showers P.M. 29. Bright a.m. : clear p.m. 30. Drops a.m.: clear, drops p.m.
31. Cloudy A.M. and p.m.

Mean temperature of Aug. for twenty-eight previous years ... 54°*99

Mean temperature of this month 56*10

Mean temperature of Aug. 1854 55 *06

Average quantity of rain in Aug. for fifteen previous years ... 2*95 inches.

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THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[SECOND SERIES.]

No, 95. NOVEMBER 1855.

XXVII. — Notes on some new or little-known Marine Animals,
By Philip Henry Gosse, A.L.S.

[With a Plate.]

(Fascis III.)

Class ARACHNIDA.

Order Acarina. Fam. Trombidiad^.

Genus Pachygnathus (Duges).

P. notops (mihi). PI. VIII. figs. 1-4.

Body flat, sinuated, pointed behind, black ; one eye on the
back ; legs equal, the first and second remote from the third and
fourth, hairy ; the last joint the longest.

Description. — Length ^yth of an inch. Body lozenge-shaped
or somewhat 7-sided, with sinuations at the origin of the limbs ;
it is hyaline and colourless at the margins, but the interior is
almost filled with a flesh of deep blue-black hue, perfectly opaque,
and of defined, subregularly-sinuous outline. In the centre of
the back, just behind the head, is a bright ruby-like round eye,
placed in front of the opacity, and between the first legs (fig. 1).

The head, formed by a great lip, projects in front and carries
two small palpi, thick at the base, conical, and pointed. Below,
the lip is divided longitudinally (fig. 2), each half being slightly
incurved and pointed, the two divisions approaching in a pincer-
like manner. Under slight pressure, there were projected be-
tween the palpi two slender styles (fig. 3), which doubtless

Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 21

306 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals.

represent the mandibles ; and hence I am not sure whether the
species should not range under the genus Raphignathus of
Duges.

The legs are about equal and alike ; the fourth and sixth
joints are large and swollen ; the seventh is the largest and
tapers abruptly at the middle, like a claret bottle ; the tip forms
a little round disk, whence diverge a pair of curved hooks, with
plain edges, but two-toothed at the tip, or rather having a pro-
minent tooth over the tip (fig. 4). All the joints are well fur-
nished with straight bristles, the sixth having one much longer
and stouter than the rest. The limbs are set in two series, the
first and second originating close together, but remote from the
third and fourth, which are also contiguous to each other.

Several specimens of this little Mite, I have found in one of
my older vessels of sea-water. They climb up the glass sides,
among the flocculent vegetable matter that is deposited on the
glass. I afterwards found it among bushy sea-weed at Ilfra-
combe, in August.

The specific name is from vcGro?, the back, and the eye.

Pam. Oribatad^e.

Genus Halacarus (mihi).

H. ctenopus (mihi)*.

I found another specimen of this marine Mite in one of my
aquaria, among weed from Ilfracombe. It was j jth of an inch in
length, the body opaque or only subpellucid white, tinged in-
ternally with pale red ; the median white line very conspicuous.
Strongly conspicuous also were two lateral black eyes, which ex-
actly agreed with those of H. rhodostigma, and a third orbicular
eye also black, close behind the rostrum. Neither of these eyes
was visible in the specimen I before examined. The shape of
the body agreed more with that of H. rhodostigma, and, as in
that species, the anus here was papillary and terminal. This
specimen appeared to be a male.

A single Vorticella of a rather shallow bell was attached to the
body, and the limbs carried several perhaps of the same

species. They had a cylindrical body set on a very slender
stem ; the body cut into very distinct annuli, and bearing on its
two anterior angles pencils of short capitate setae (PI. VIII. fig. 6).
Total length -y^Q-th of an inch.

* See Ann. and Mag, Nat. Hist, for July 1855.

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 307

Class CRUSTACEA.

Order Podophtiialma. Pam. PALiEMONiD^E.

Genus Hippolyte (Leach).

H. spinus (Sowerby).

A single specimen of this interesting ^Esop Prawn, obtained
by me while dredging on the oyster-bank off Ilfracombe, in
August last, enables me to mention its colours in a living state.
It was about |ths of an inch long.

The carapace, with the rostrum, and all the organs of the head
are opaque white; the abdomen is dull purplish-red, except the
summit of the third segment, which is white ; the swimming-
plates of the tail and half of the penultimate segment are white ;
the legs ringed with white and red. The surface of the abdomen
is beset with a few scattered erect hairs.

Order Edriophthalma. Earn. Corophiad^.

Genus Unciola (Say).

U. irrorata (Say).

Of this rare American Crustacean, which has not hitherto
been recognized in Europe, I obtained a specimen at Weymouth
between tide-marks in April last. Its colour was wholly white.
It lived in one of my small vases for a week or two, manifesting
no noticeable peculiarity of manners, except that it delighted to
hide among the bushy sea-weeds.

Earn. Asellid^.

Genus Tanais (M.-Edw.).

T. Savignyi (Kroyer).

This minute species, now first recognized as British, I obtained
also at Weymouth, in coralline from tide-marks. Both this and
the preceding I have figured in my ' Manual of Marine Zoology,^
figs. 246 & 256.

Earn. Pranizadai:.

Genus Praniza (Leach).

P. coeruleata (Montagu).

I took a specimen parasitic on a young Cottus hubalis in a
rock-pool at Ilfracombe, in August. The mouth of the Crus-
tacean was so firmly imbedded in the cheek of the fish, that it

21*

308 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals.

could not be detached without considerable effort ; at length I
picked it off with a needle, and observed that the muzzle of the
Praniza was furnished with minute divergent filaments. The
colours during life were frecklings of umber-brown on a pellucid
ground, except the whole of the 'enormous penult segment of
the thorax, which was filled with a core (so to speak) of rich
grass-green, appearing bluish in some aspects, set in a pellucid-
white exterior. The eyes, which were black, were remarkable
for the fewness and great size of their facets ; which, notwith-
standing the minuteness of the insect, were distinctly visible
with a low-powered pocket-lens.

The animal was sluggish, though apparently unhurt, when
detached from its victim.

Otto obtained P. branchialis (Nov. Act. xiv. 348) from the
branchiae of Phycis furcatus ; and this is the only instance that
I know of in which this genus has been proved to be parasitic.
Mr. Westwood, however, suspected it (Ann. Sci. Nat. xxvii. 326),
from his having found P. Montagui among Caligidce from Shet-
land.

Fam. Sph^romad^.

Genus N^sea (Leach).

N. bidentata (Leach).

When alive its ground colour is dark chocolate-brown, pro-
duced by a pattern of lines on a pellucid body, studded with
symmetrical spots and dashes of pale “ king^s yellow the con-
trast of hues producing a handsome result. This species I have
obtained both at Weymouth and at Ilfracombe.

The following Crustacea are perhaps worthy of being men-
tioned as occurring to me at Weymouth. Corophium longicome
is numerous in the shallow salt-water ditches at the upper end
of the Backwater. Anthura gracilis occurred in sea-weed ; and
Nebalia bipes I found in a hollow beneath a stone off the jetty at
a low spring tide.

Class ANNELIDA.

Order Ch^etopoda. Fam. Nereids.

Genus Crithida (mihi).

Antennae five, very large, viz. a frontal pair which are bulbous
at base, and two-branched, and three occipital ones, which are
very thick, tapering to a blunt point, and long : a pair of ten-
tacular cirri on the head y two large eyes : feet ovate, very move-

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 309

able, each with a filiform cirrus above, a pencil of short bristles,
and a second pencil of long straight convergent bristles.

C. thalassina (mihi). PI. VIII. fig. 5.

Length ^th of an inch ; colour of some specimens a lively pel-
lucid sea-green, of others pale orange or fawn-brown : all the
members colourless.

The head is distinct, with two large conspicuous eyes, of a
very dark red hue. The front of the head, which is slightly
two-lobed, bears a pair of porrected antennae, the basal portions
of which are large and bulb-like, giving rise to two diverging
filaments, of which the interior is the shorter, and is often much
convoluted. Between these antennae and the eyes are two
minute horn-like proeesses, which may perhaps be considered a
supplementary pair of antennae, in which case the total number
is seven. Immediately behind the eyes are three large antennae
(two lateral and one medial), which taper to a blunt point, and
are more than half as long as the body ; they are directed back-
wards, and are generally more or less curled and convoluted. A
tentacular cirrus springs from the base of each lateral antenna.

Segments twenty-five, exclusive of the head. Each is fur-
nished with a pair of feet, of which the first three are smaller
than the rest, and stand out transversely. All the rest point
backwards (but are very free and mobile), and are of a long-oval
shape, diminishing regularly to the tail. Both these and the
anterior series carry a superior cirrus, which is filiform, wrinkled,
but not moniliform, and a little longer than the foot itself.
Both series have also a pencil of short bristles, and the posterior
series have in addition a second pencil, which is straight, con-
vergent, twice as long as the foot, and direeted obliquely back-
wards. The ovate feet in regular distichous arrangement, with
these long pencils, have a very striking resemblance to an ear of
barley with its grains and awns ; a resemblance which I have
commemorated in the generic appellation, from KpiOrj, barley,
and eZ8o9, likeness. The ultimate and penultimate segments are
minute, and are destitute of cirri and bristles.

Some half-dozen of these little worms were dipped from the
surface of the Bristol Channel near Ilfracombe, on a calm after-
noon in August last. They swam with excessive agility by a
rapid horizontal undulation of the body, in which the long pen-
cils reflected prismatic rays. The moment this undulatory move-
ment ceased, they usually bent themselves into a crescent or
circle.

The genus reminds one of loida of the late Dr. Johnston, but
is widely remote from it; the bifid antcnnic arc very pcxMiIiar.

310 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals.

The minuteness of the animal forbade my determining the nature
of the proboscis, or the form of the bristles.

Pam. Auricomad.e ?

Genus Crossostoma (mihi).

No distinct head; no eyes; upper margin of mouth set with
numerous cirri ; segments thirty, of which the anterior ones are
furnished witli bristles, feet, and superior cirri ; inferior cirri
from the fourth segment to the tail ear-like, cleft ; eight ten-
tacles on the second and third segments ; tail furnished with a
pair of minute styles.

C. Midas (mihi). PI. VIII. figs. 7-12.

Body 1 1 inch long, ^th of an inch wide in front, tapering to
tail, subcylindrical, flattened beneath, plump and glossy (fig. 7).
Mouth opening somewhat beneath, with a retractile lip, the
upper margin of which is fringed with numerous radiating cirri,
which are curled, white, slender, ciliated, and apparently tactile,
as they are frequently applied to the ground in an exploring
manner (figs. 7, 8). Immediately above this fringe are two oval
or reniform disks, which appear to occupy the place of eyes, but
are not coloured.

The body is composed of thirty segments, which are very
distinct beneath, but, from the plumpness of the body above, the
annulation is almost obsolete there. Each segment, as far as
the eighteenth, is furnished, on each side, with a small cylin-
drical foot (fig. 10), which bears, above, a minute superior cirrus,
and is perforated at the tip to project a pencil of bristles, which
are long, slender, straight blades, drawn off to a fine point,
slightly curved (fig, 12). The pencil of the first segment is much
graduated, and is of the colour and appearance of burnished
gold; those of the second and third segments are minute, and
these segments themselves are as it were fused together. They
give origin above to eight tentacles, which form a group of four
on each side, comparatively short,'but graduated in length, thick,
c}dindrico-conical, obtuse, with a dark core; these organs are
suberect, projecting and diverging (figs. 8, 9).

At the fourth segment commences a series of organs, which
continues to the tail. They appear to be the inferior cirri of the
feet, but are separated by a distinct interval from the bristle-
bearing tubercles (fig. 10). In form they resemble the human
ear, at least as far as the middle of the body, whence they gra-
dually become more and more wart-like. They have a longitu-
dinal fissure near the tip, the orifice of which is protected by a

Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 311

series of minute, close-set, transverse bristles, which impart to
these organs under the microscope some resemblance to the lips
of a Cowry shell. 1 could detect no cilia on these ear-like
organs, but the tentacles and the fringing cirri of the mouth are
richly ciliated.

The ultimate segment is furnished with a pair of slender
diverging fleshy filaments (fig. 11).

The colours of this worm are beautiful. The back is purplish-
red, passing into lilac, with a fine pearly gloss, the whole thickly
studded with white specks. The head, the mouth-fringe, and
the whole under-parts are white. The tentacles are translucent
yellow-olive, with a black core at the base, gradually lost, the
surface marked with transverse lines and dashes of opake white.
The first pencil of bristles (as has been said above) is golden.

The animal inhabits a tube about twice its own length and
thickness ; but its diameter appears greater than it is, from its
manner of construction. It is made of small fragments of shell,
minute bits of slate, &c., affixed, not by their surfaces, but edge-
wise, so that the whole presents a peculiarly rugged bristling
appearance, yet not devoid of neatness. Slender filaments of
sea- weed, coralline, &c. project here and there ; — and while a
large flat stone ballasts the posterior extremity, the anterior is
protected by a small limpet shell, which has been seized entire,
and most ingeniously fastened so as to form a dome over the
animaPs head when partly protruded (fig. 8). Somewhat similar
porticoes I have seen in the tubes of Caddis worms, which in-
deed this structure closely resembles; and the same object is
attained by a large species of Sahellaria common on the Devon-
shire coast, which constructs a flat portico of the common sub-
stance of the tube. In all cases it is a beautiful instance of ani-
mal providence, as well as architecture.

I did not, however, find that, with all this attention to com-
fort, the worm was particular as to which end of his dwelling he
made his sally-port ; for after having used the porticoed extre-
mity awhile, which of course was the front door, he suddenly
appeared (having turned himself meanwhile in some mysterious
manner) at the back-door, which thenceforth he persisted in
using all the while I had him. He was not at all shy; he would
retreat, indeed, if touched, but was j)resently out again. Ilis
habit was to protrude a fourth, or even half of his body from the
tube, and remain curling and twining the mouth-fringe of cirri,
every instant twitching one or other of the tentacles, and as it
were striking the water with them, as a crab docs with its inner
antennaj.

The specimen was taken at Ilfracombe, under a stone at low
water, in August; and lived some days in captivity.

312 Mr, P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals.

The generic name is from Kpoarao<^, a fringe, and crro/na, the
mouth ; the specific alludes to the fable of the long-eared Phry-
gian king.

Fain. Sabellad^.

Genus Protula (Griibe) .

P. Dysteri (Huxley).

I obtained this beautiful and interesting species at Ilfracombe,
both from deep water, and from the sides of perpendicular rocks
at extreme low tide. I had prepared drawings and a memoir of
it for publication, supposing it to be new ; but I find that my
friend Mr. Huxley has described it far better than I could, in the
'Edinb. New Phil. Journ.^ tor January of the present year. I
had the pleasure of repeating most of his observations, and in
particular that of the fissiparous increase of the species.

Class TURBELLARIA.

Order Planariea. Tribe Rhabdoccela.

Genus Convoluta (Oersted).

C. paradoxa (Oersted).

This little worm I met with in April of the present year at
Weymouth, crawling out of tufted weeds from low water. But at
Ilfracombe in July it occurred in far greater abundance, crowd-
ing the branches of the common Coralline and Ceramium. The
manner in which the lateral edges of the body are rolled over, so
as to form an imperfect cylinder, with an oblique orifice ante-
riorly, renders it a highly curious form. In their movements the
little creatures were very active; crawling swiftly along the
branches, and especially about the terminal filaments, frequently
two or three on the same tip, with a smooth gliding progress,
much like that of an Eolis or Doris, but more nimble. They
frequently raise the fore parts, and occasionally almost the whole
body, adhering only by the posterior portion, and then explore
the surrounding water, as a caterpillar throws its head about at
the tip of a twig. Then they often glide off into the free water,
and swim with exactly the same sort of motion as they used on
the weed.

Having immersed several of them in fresh water, with a view
to killing them before placing them in spirit of wine for preser-
vation, I found that in a very few moments they were dissolving,
by the commingling of their exterior surface with the water, so
as to present only undefined and incoherent masses of mucus.

313

Mr. R. Warington on the Aquarium.

Class ZOOPHYTA.

Order Actinoida. Fam. Lucernariad^e.

Genus Lucernaria (Muller).

L. campanulata (Lamx.),

A specimen of this species was obtained at Ilfracombe in
August, by the Rev. Sir Christopher Lighten, who kindly gave
it to me. It was about 1^ inch in height, of a dull chocolate
hue, in parts tinged with olive ; in form a deep goblet with the
cup slightly bell-shaped, the stalk slender, and the foot wide and
thick : the groups of tentacles were contracted while I had it,
the globose heads being crowded together, with no appearance
of their slender pedicels. Between the tentacled eminences the
spaces were rounded, and seemed as if the integument were a
little turned over like a rim.

It was found attached to a sea-weed, but soon detached itself,
and never afterwards adhered to anything : the only motion I
observed in it was an occasional spasmodic bending-in of one or
other of the tentacle-groups. After a day or two it became
offensive, without losing its form, and was evidently dead and
decaying.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII.

Fig. 1. Pachygnathiis notops, magnified, dorsal surface.

— 2. Ibid, the lip viewed from beneath.

— 3. Ibid, the palpi and styliform mandibles.

— 4. Ibid, an unguis.

— 5. Crithida thalassina, magnified.

— 6. Acineta, parasitic upon a marine Mite, magnified.

— 7. Crossostoma Midas, nat. size, out of its tube.

— 8. Ibid, magnified, viewed laterally, with a portion of its tube.

— 9. Ibid, magnified, viewed dorsally, anterior portion.

— 10. Ibid, a foot from near the middle.

— 11. Ibid, the posterior extremity, and caudal styles.

— 12. Ibid, a pencil of bristles.

XXVIII. — On the Injurious Effects of an excess or want of Heat
and Light on the Aquarium. By Robert Warington, Esq.

Temperature is a point requiring great attention in carrying-
out successfully the prineiples of a permanent aquarium. The
mean temperature of the ocean is estimated to be about 56° Fahr.,
and this, under ordinary cireumstances, does not vary more than
about 12° throughout the different seasons of the year. The
causes of this etjuilibriurn will be readily understood when we
take into eonsidcration the effects that must be })roduced by the

314 Mr. R. Warington on the Aquarium.

continued flux and reflux of the tides, and by the enormous
streams of water which must be flowing from the Arctic regions
from yearns end to yearns end in one constant current, and
which, by their movement, must necessarily cause other currents
to flow in and take their place, thus forcing, as it were, the
heated surface-water of the tropical seas towards the colder
regions of the globe. Again, the whole surface of the earth,
submersed below the ocean, is protected by this fluid coating
from the effects of the cooling influences of radiation on the one
hand, and from contact with the currents of the atmosphere on
the other ; and hence we perceive an always existent cause for
the maintenance of a steady, equable temperature by the waters
of the ocean throughout the year.

Many of the inhabitants of the sea are very sensitive to
changes of temperature, and we find that a few degrees of
variation will cause them rapidly to move their position and
seek some cooler or warmer spot as the case may be. In the
ocean it will be evident that the creatures have the power
readily to effect this under ordinary circumstances, by seeking
deeper water not liable to be affected by atmospheric influ-
ences, by partially or entirely burying themselves in the sand
or shingle, or by shielding their bodies under the protecting
shadow of the rocks or growing vegetation. In arranging the
rock-work in the interior of the aquarium, therefore, great care
should be taken to keep these points in view, and to afford as
much protection as possible to the creatures from the cooling
influences of radiation on the one hand, and from the heat of
the suffs rays on the other.

From my own experience I find that the range of tempe-
rature should not be below 50° Fahr., nor above 70°; within
these limits all appears to progress healthily, but beyond these
points many of the creatures are rapidly affected. During
the last long-continued and severe winter, it was found very
difficult, in an ordinary sitting-room having a south aspect
and a good fire maintained throughout the day — the tanks being
also screened at night by a blind, — to prevent the powerful
cooling effects from radiation on a clear frosty night ; and
on three several occasions, marking exactly the three severest
frosts that we experienced during the winter, the thermometer,
immersed in -an aquarium containing about thirty gallons of
water, fell as low as 45° Fahr. The Shrimp and Crab tribes,
and the Crustaceans generally, are especially affected by these
changes, and on each of the three occasions alluded to, one
or two individuals perished ; the larger-sized Prawns, as Palce-
mon serratuSj appeared to suffer more readily than the P. squilla,
although this might arise from the smaller ones being able

Dr. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration. 315

to find a shelter from the radiation by concealing themselves
more completely among the rock-work or vegetation. Anthea
cereus is also very sensitive to considerable variations of tem-
perature, falling from its foot-hold to the bottom of the tank
apparently dead.

Excess of heat and also strong sunlight are likewise to be as
carefully guarded against, and I may state as an evidence of this,
that on a particularly hot day during the summer of 1854, being
absent from home, the servant omitted to screen a small case
from the sun^s rays during the hottest period of the day, and on
my return I found every creature dead. It contained an Anthea
cereus, Actinia dianthus, two specimens of Athanas nitescens, and
several others.

Too much light has also the effect of rapidly propagating
several of the minute animalcules of a green colour, as the
Euglena and its congeners, which under this influence multiply
so rapidly as to render the whole water of a grass-green hue ;
this will at times subside to the lower part of the tank as
evening approaches and disappear in the shingle bottom, but
immediately the morning light shines strong upon the aquarium
it will rise like a thin green cloud and diffuse itself throughout
the whole of the water. Although this animalcular growth is
not unhealthy, yet it causes the aquarium to present a very
unsightly appearance, and prevents all observation on the habits
of the inmates. The want of light, I need hardly observe,
causes the rapid decay of the vegetation, and the products
arising from this change are highly poisonous to animal life, the
whole contents of the aquarium becoming of a black colour, and
very soon of an offensive odour.

Apothecaries’ Hall, Sept. 11, 1855.

XXIX. — On the Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration and on the
Structure of the Organs of Breathing in Invertebrate Animals.
By Thomas Williams, M.D. Lond., F.L.S., Physician to tlie
Swansea Infirmary.

[With a Plate.]

[Continued from vol. xiv. p. 262.]

Gasteropoda.

It is now })roposed to inquire into the structure of the organs
of breathing in tliat multitudinous group of mollusks which lies
above the Lainellibranchiata, constituting literally a great sub-
kingdom ; it will be impossible within the limits of this memoir

316 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

to do more than to illustrate types and plans of structure by
special reference to a few familiar examples. Little account will
be rendered of those classes with reference to which no personal
opportunities have occurred to the author for instituting original
investigations.

The Pteropoda are thus first excluded.

In proceeding to the study of the respiratory system of the
Gasteropod mollusks, there present themselves a few questions
which must be preliminarily considered.

In the conchiferous orders of this class^ the shell is not simply
and exclusively intended to shield and protect from external
violence the soft body of the animal ; it is a means by which the
animal maintains between itself and the surrounding medium a
certain fixed and important relation. The soft parts are tied to
the shell only at certain limited points (PI. IX. fig. 2 b). The
mode of connexion differs in difierent orders, but not in families
and genera. The point or line of attachment [b) is the pivot
upon which the motions of the body of the animal are performed.
Locomotion, in which the animal as well as the shell effect a
change of place, is accomplished by means of the foot. The
movements of the animal within the shell, the latter being fixed,
considered with respect to its immediate well-being, assume a
far greater importance than that of progression. In all shelled
Gasteropods, the shell, whatever be its figure, whether univalve
or multivalve, spiral, tubular or conical, circumscribes a chamber
which is larger in size than the body of the animal which it
serves to lodge. The difference in sectional area in the case of
the spiral Univalves betw^een the solid coil of the contained body
and the hollow coil (fig. 2 «, a, a, a) of the containing shell, in-
dicates a space which in all instances is filled with water : it is
water w^hich occupies this space even in the land Helicidae. In
the Patelloid and Chitonoid families (fig. I «, 5) a chamber cor-
responding to this space is bounded above by the hollow apex of
the shell, below by the dorsal surface of the animal ; it is closed
behind and open anteriorly. When the occupant extrudes itself
from this eoned chamber, a spacious open cavity is generated at
the apex of the shell, into w^hich through an opening in the edge
of the mantle (Z>), situated above the head of the animal, w^ater
or air rushes. In the Pissurellidse, in which the apex of the
shell is perforated, the surrounding element in part enters into,
and escapes from, according as the inmate emerges from or retires
into its shell, the space at this orifice, the edge of the mantle
consequently being adherent nearly all round. This is a point
of generic difference between the Patellidse and Fissurellidje.
The layer of water intervening between the animal and the shell
is in direct contact w'ith that n'gion of the body in w'hich the

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 317

viscera are enclosed. The interior surface of the chamber of the
shell is so nacreous and polished, and the corresponding portion
of the animal is so serous and smooth, that every condition
which can affect the facile motion of the one surface upon the
other is thus secured. From this circumstance the mind is led
forcibly to the idea, that this arrangement has really nothing-
more than this mechanical purpose for its object. It might be
supposed, from the intimate contact thus effected between the
external element and the visceral cavity, that the former might
incidentally enter in considerable quantities by endosmosis into
the latter, and thus replenish the diminishing volume of the
nutritive fluids. In order to determine this latter point, and
whether the water in the chamber of the shell (fig. 2 «, a) were
capable of fulfilling an accessory part in the office of respiration,
it became necessary to ascertain by actual observation two
doubtful points of structure, viz. whether the membrane cover-
ing that portion of the body of the animal which is enclosed
within the shell be ciliated, or otherwise favourably organized
with a view to such an office ; and secondly, whether the circu-
lating fluids beneath this membrane were disposed conformably
with such an intention.

The great bulk of the soft parts, the abdomen proper
(fig. Qdjd; fig. 4 h, c), by which the coil of the shell is filled, con-
sists of the liver, a portion of the stomach and intestinal canal,
and the reproductive organs. They are invested by a mem-
brane which is the continuation of the mantle. The membrane
here becomes thinner and smoother, assuming the characters
of a serous structure ; it is not adherent at any point to the
shell. On the inferior aspect of the body it is drawn up into a
frenum, in the layers of which are enclosed muscular fascicles.
It is by means of this contrivance that the animal is enabled
to coil itself firmly round and to grasp the columella (fig. 2 c).
Although this coat has a serous aspect, it is the continuation of
the fibrous mantle which forms the vault of the respiratory
chamber (fig. 3 A-«, & fig. 3 B-«). If by a very careful dis-
section this covering be removed from the viscera underneath,
the nature of its connexions with the latter will be readily seen.
It nowhere leaves an open space between it and the solid organs
which it invests. It is, on the contrary, so intimately united to
them, that numerous fibrous threads and bands descend from its
internal surface, penetrating into the substance of the viscera
and becoming continuous with their stromatous fibrous struc-
ture. It is inseparably identified with the serous tunica propria
of each viscus. The latter cannot be said to exist as an inde-
pendent structure. In no single species of the Prosobranchiata
(M.-Fdw.), or the shelled Pulmonifera, is it provided with ciliary

318 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

epithelium. This is actually the case in the freshwater Limneids^
the most highly ciliated of this order. In no single species is
there discoverable a S2:>ace of any description, or a layer of chan-
nels or vessels of any sort between it and the invested abdominal
organs. It is therefore certain that the abdominal segment of
the body in the conchiferous Gasteropods can lend no aid what-
ever in the function of breathing. The porcellaneous interior
surface of the shell is totally devoid of all organic covering; its
polished surface is well adapted for the ready motion of the soft
abdomen, covered also by its finely polished membrane, in its
coiled chamber. The nacreous internal layers of the shell answer
another important end : they render the shell water-proof ;
that is, the water which is drawn into the abdominal cavity,
through the space at the mouth of the shell between the thoracic
chamber and the edge of the latter, cannot escape by exosmosis
or evaporation through the texture of the shell. The aperture
of the shell being closed, by the operculum and thoracic expan-
sion of the mantle, the water in the spire cannot escape. It
constitutes a permanent reservoir. In this position it answers
important purposes. It prevents the drying of the delicate ab-
dominal membrane. It preserves the vital organs underneath in
the required condition of moistness. It obviates the exhaustion
of the nutritive fluids by evaporation. But more than all, it
is capable, by a slight movement backwards of the animal, of
being pushed forward into the cavity of the anterior shell-coil,
and thence it may be drawn into the branchial chamber. In
the littoral families of Univalves this is not a useless function
when they are left on the dry rock by the recession of the tide.
In the land Helicidse it subserves also a similar end. This fluid
in the Cyclobranchiata is lodged in the hollow of the apex or
vault of the shell (fig. I a) resting on the back of the animal.
In this order the border of the mantle is deficient at the point
{b), which corresponds with the back of the neck of the animal.
It is by this orifice or passage that the water is drawn into the
cavity {a). The character, the extreme dilatability and uses of
this cavity may be advantageously studied in the common
Patella. It is capable under certain circumstances of receiving
and retaining a large volume of fluid. But the furthest limits
(c) to which it may be distended without rupture are best shown
by the injection of coloured size. By steadily continued force,
the fluid thrown in will slowly thrust the mollusk out of its
shell (i). It forms a fulcral point upon which the animal bears, in
the act of fixing its shell to the rock. This dorsal chamber in
the Chitonidse is very small. In the Fissurellidae the perforation
at the apex of the shell opens into the cavity ; the latter cannot
therefore act on the mechanical principle above explained. But

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 319

since these mollusks are seldom out of the water^ this mode of
action can scarcely at any time be put in request. They fix
themselves by the action of the foot alone. By the undulating
motion of this organ, the water between it and the surface of
the stone is pressed out. The soft parts within the shell are
then subject to the uncounterbalanced pressure of the superin-
cumbent column of water which operates through the orifice at
the apex of the shell. In the case of the Patella, it is by the
shell that the atmospheric pressure is borne. The vacuum is
formed, not by the extrusion of the water from the roof of the
shell, but by the adaptation of the foot to the surface of contact.
Hydrostatic or atmospheric pressure, as the case may be, becomes
thus a considerable assistant force, but it does not, as commonly
supposed, constitute the only and exclusive mechanism by which
these mollusks cling to the rock.

These observations therefore justify the total and uncon-
ditional exclusion of the abdominal region of the body in the
Conchiferous Univalves from the office of aerating the fluids.
Neither the investing membrane nor the distribution of the
blood underneath sanctions this idea.

This conclusion is not opposed to the views first stated by
Milne-Edwards, in his celebrated essay Sur la Circulation chez
les Mollusques

* Annales ties Sciences, 3 S6-. tom. viii. 1847. Nowhere does this
distinguished obseiwer describe an abdominal cavity in the Mollusca.
Nothing in this class in the adult state exists which can be compared to the
free, undivided visceral cavity of the Echinoderms and Annelids. Here
this space is occupied by an independent fluid, the chylaqueous. In Mol-
lusca such a fluid does not exist. The cavity therefore is not requu’ed.
Milne-Edwards chiefly insists upon the fact, that the venous system is de-
ficient or imperfectly developed in this class. “ Dans tons les Mollusques
dont la structure nous est connue, les vaisseaux sanguins manquent en
partie, et une portion plus ou moius considerable du cercle circulatoire se
trouve constituee par de simples lacunes.” In another place he observes —
“ Mais dans la tete, je voyais toujours I’injection s’extravaser et remplir
une grande cavite ou se trouvent loges le cerveau, les glandes salivaires, le
])harynx, et tous les muscles de la bouche.” Again, he speaks in Ilaliotis
of “ une communication libre et normale entre la grande artere du corps et
la cavite cephalique ou se trouvent loges les ])rincipaux centres nerveux et
toute la portion anterieure de I’appareil digestif.” He then states that this
“ cavite cephalique ” is filled with arterial blood. In a still more definite
manner he thus describes the only “ cavity ” for the reception of fluid
which exists in the Molluscan organism : — “ Effectivement, je me suis
assure que, chez ce grand Mollusque Gasteropode, I’artere aorte, parvenue
an point ou le canal digestif se recour>)C pour descendre de la face supe-
rieure du bulbe jfliaryngien dans la cavite abdominale, debouche dircctement
dans une vaste lacune, dont les parois sont formecs en ])artie j>ar les tegu-
ments communs de la tete, et cn partie par les muscles et les tuniques du
pharynx jointes k des lames de tissu connectif etendues transversalemcnt
au (levant de la cavitd abdominale, lacune dont I’inttn’icnr est occupc.

320

Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

The spacious sinuses and lacunse developed in the course of
the venous half of the circulation are not said by this author to

comme je I’ai deja dit, par la masse charnue de la bouche, les glandes sali-
vaires, les principaux ganglions du systeme nerveux, et un grand nombre

de brides musculaires et fibreuses.” Mais un fait qui, au premier

abord, paraitra plus singulier encore, c’est que, tandis qu’une portion de la
cavite generale vient completer I’appareil vasculaire, I’artere aorte remplit
des fonctions analogues a celles de la cavite abdominale^ car elle loge dans
son interieur une portion de I’appareil digestif.’’ It does not clearly ap-
pear from the observations of M. Quatrefages, in his memoir “ Sur la Cavite
generale du Corps des Invert^res” (Ann. des Sci. 3 Ser. tom.xiv. 1850), that
he has specially considered this point. He does indeed in one place positively
state, that the “ abdominal cavity in the Acephalan and Gasteropod Mol-
lusks is a part or segment of the circulatory system” : — “ Chez les Mol-
lusques Acephales, proprement dit, I’existence de la cavite generale est

encore plus completement deguisee Les Mollusques Gastero-

podes presentent souvent quelque chose de semblable. Toutefois, chez
ces derniers la cavite generale est presque toujours tres reconnaissable,
surtout dans la partie qui correspond au pied.” Here no distinction is
attempted between the true peritoneal cavity, such as it exists in the
Radiated aad Annulose classes, and those lacunae or vascular dilatations
such as Milne-Edwards first described in the structure of the Mollusca.
This point is one of great zoological as well as homological interest. If in
the Mollusca the circulatory system is peripherically nothing but a ramifica-
tion of the peritoneal cavity, it is only a chylaqueous system plus a heart.
But if it can be proved that the peritoneal space is obliterated in these mol-
lusks, and that the venous lacunae of Milne-Edwards are parieted, contrac-
tile, dilated vessels, that is, segments of the fluid system, situated in the inter-
stices of the solid organs, every reason will have been overthrown for sup-
posing that the apparatus of the circulation in the mollusks is nothing but
a ramified development of the peritoneal cavity. In all animals below the
Mollusca, the system of the perivisceral chamber is dedicated to a distinct
and separate system of nutritive fluids. Its parietes in all cases are non-
contractile — almost always ciliated at some point or other of its extent —
while the fluid contents are invariably circulated by the action of externally
situated muscles. These are peculiarities which appear to isolate this
system almost completely from the circulatory apparatus of the Mollusca ;
in other words, they seem to prove that it partakes more fully of the cha-
racters which belong to the maturely developed circulation of the Verte-
brated animal, than of those of the rudimentai^ chylaqueous system of the
Radiate and Annulose classes. If the arterial half of the circulation of
Mollusks be likened to the blood-proper system of Annelids, and the
venous half of the former be taken as the representative of the perivisceral
cavity in the latter, the homology of the molluscan fluid-system would be
established ! Siebold observes — “ In Nudibranchs, Cyclobranchs, Scuti-
branchs, Tectibranchs, Pectinibranchs, and Pulmonata, &c., these venous
canals are only lacunae excavated in the muscular walls of the body, and
are without proper walls, as Meckel has pretended is the case with those of
Aplysia-,"’ and Souleyet (Comptes Rendus, xx. p. 81, note 3) remarks,

“ que le systeme veineux des Mollusques n’est pas toujours forme par des
vaisseaux distincts, mais qu’il se compose en grande partie de ces canaux
creuses dans I’epaisseur ou dans I’interstice des organes.” And it has been
supposed by Prof. Owen and others, that the heart-like dilatations which
occur at various j)oints in the circulation of the Cephalopods, are lined

321

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals.

consist of the abdominal cavity, portioned off in order to aid in
the circulation of the fluids. Whatever may be the embryonic
significance of these roomy dilatations of the blood-channels in
this class, it is quite certain that in very few instances are they
situated external to and around the viscera (a position invariably
occupied by the chylaqueous fluid), and therefore in the space
bounded by the peritoneum and immediately underneath the
external covering *. By the fact of their situation, these parts
are then excluded from all participation in the office of breathing.

The preceding facts affect the present inquiry in the following
manner : — They prove that the organization of the posterior or
abdominal portion of the body in the Conchiferous Gasteropods,
that part which is lodged within the shell, is not adapted for the
admission of w^ater into the interior of the animal, either for the
supply of an aquiferous system or for the replenishing of the
nutritive fluids. They prove, independently of other evidence,
that the water with which the spire of the shell is filled, and in
which floats the corresponding portion of the animal, cannot
penetrate in any manner into the body ; that it cannot be viewed
as a reservoir whence is drawn the contents of a water-vascular
system — if such a system has a real existence in these animals ;
that, in fact, it can only act in a mechanical sense by enabling
the tenant to vary the specific weight of his house, to move

internally with a mucous membrane, like that which invests the branchial
chamber. These and other facts drawn from the adult anatomy of the
Mollusca, prove that, whatever argument may be drawn from embryonic
development, that the open spaces, lacunae, &c., which arise in the venous
segment of the system, ought not too readily to be explained as merely
cut-off })ortions of the perivisceral or peritoneal cavity.

If the spacious cephahc and pharyngeal lacunae, first defined by Milne-
Edwards, be not, in an embiyonic sense, spaces cut off from the general
cavity of the body, they must ah origine be j)arts of the vascular system.
For the present this subject must remain an open question ] that is, it
cannot at present be confidently stated whether the circulating system of
Mollusca form a distinct and independent system in the organism, or
whether it be only a modified adaptation of the peritoneal cavity, or
whether it be a fusion of both. To solve such doubts by an easy reference
to the eml)ryological relations of the ])arts were unsatisfactory. Two parts
may have a common j)oint of departure in the process of development, and
yet they may stand very remotely apart in their ultimate structure and
puq>osc. Ilow little cxplanative it is, for instance, to remark, that the
‘ blood-proper ’ system of the Annelids and the tracheal system of Insects,
being develo])ments of the tegumentary, e))idermal layer, are therefore
homologous anatomically, and analogous in office ! This, however, is not
the occasion for the full discussion of this subject.

* It sliould be stated, however, that in the lowest Mollusca, as exem-
plified by Firoldides and Ailanta, the space between the integuments and
the viscera is described by some observers ns forming a constituent arc of
the fluid-system.

Ann. i Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. VoL xvi.

22

322 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

readily to and fro in his chamber, and to shield the soft segment
of the body from injury. It is not improbable that the layer of
water thus placed between the body of the mollusk and the shell,
may materially assist in the excretionary process as described by
Mr. Huxley, by which the latter is formed. It may add fluid
to, or dissolve the excreted material furnished by the surface of
the mantle, and adapt it to the internal surface of the shell.
The limited ligament (fig. 2 b) by which the animal is organi-
cally united to its shell, places it beyond doubt that the latter
can be formed by no other process.

By a few general observations, one department of the sub-
ject has been thus disposed of. No reference will hereafter be
made to this subject, namely to the relation which subsists be-
tween the abdominal segment of the body in Gasteropods and
external circumstances. It is extraordinary how in this class of
mollusks the most active forces of life are developed and spe-
cialized in the thoracic region, and how comparatively passive
are those parts which are bounded by the limits of the abdo-
men ! Circulation and respiration are functions which belong
to the former division. Large chylopoietic viscera are a resultant
phsenomenon. Thoracic development is a dynamic expression of
an organic power. Without it, other results could not follow.
It is the sign of power — without which the vegetative processes
could not be sustained. Between the Acephala and Cephalophora
there is this striking difference : — In the former the mouth is
placed in the respiratory cavity, in the latter it is the anal ori-
fice. In the former the alimentary and respiratory chambers are
confounded, in the latter the breathing and the cloacal cavities
are identified. This is a wide mark between the Lamellibranchs
and the Gasteropoda.

The higher the animal in the scale of life, the more vigorous
are the dynamic active powers. Thus, in the Gasteropod mol-
lusks as compared with the Acephala, the physiologist expects
an increment of vivifying force. How is it accomplished ? By
a more fully developed heart, impelled by the vital battery of a
more highly organized cephalic ganglion, by a more actively
endowed thoracic apparatus, by respiratory movements of a
higher muscular character, and by branchial or pulmonary
systems of incomparably more intricate workmanship.

In looking upwards along the line of the Cephalophora, it will
be seen that the head as a detached member, as a distinct clas-
sificatory character, appears long before the respiratory organs —
ex. Pteropoda, Heteropoda, Apneusta, and many Nudibranchs.
Though the Encephala discover several marked signs of supe-
riority as measured by the standard of the Acephala, it is well

323

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals.

determined that in the scale stretching between the Patellidse and
Cephalopods, the nervous and circulatory systems display few
evidences of advancement.

In the lowest Gasteropod the heart is as perfect in structure
as in the highest Cephalopod. When the branchial organ is
symmetrically developed, the heart has two auricles. This is the
case in Chiton, Fissurella, Fmarginula, Haliotis, Tethys and
Janus, and less completely in the Eolidse. In all other Gaste-
ropods the auricle is single. The position of the heart depends
upon that of the respiratory organs. It is situated on the right
side of the back in the Pulmonata, most Tectibranchiata, and
the dextral Pectinibranchiata, and in all the Limacidse ; it is on the
opposite side in the sinistral Gasteropods, Ancylus and Haliotis ;
it is to the left of the dorsal median line in Carinaria, Clio,
Hyalcea and Cleodora ', and near the hinder end of the body in
Firola and Atlanta. In Dentalium, Tritoma, Scyllaa, Phyllidea,
it is on the dorsal median line. The heart is furnished with a
distinct pericardium in all Gasteiopods, save the Apneusta,
where it is not clearly defined. In all those genera whose
branchial organs are symmetrical, the ventricle and aorta are
directed forwards, but in the turbinated genera they are directed
backwards.

Between the heart and respiratory organs in this class two
relationships are discernible. In the first the heart is placed be-
tween the head and the branchiae — Prosobranchiata (M.-Edw.) ;
in the latter, between the tail and the branchiae — Opistho-
branchiata.

In all, there is between the branchiae and the heart a most
intimate juxtaposition. In all families the heart is systemic. In
no siiigle species is it pulmonic or branchial. In all, the auricle
or auricles receive the blood immediately from the respiratory
organ. The heart in the testaceous Gasteropods, spiral and
otherwise, is always placed at the posterior end of the branchial
cavity, or in other words, is fixed at that extremity of the
branchise farthest from the entry of the aerating fluid. In Den-
talium this rule is not broken, because here the water enters at
the posterior instead of at the anterior orifice of the mantle.

The same general observations apply to the nervous system.
Souleyet first explained that the parts which by their constancy
and fixity constitute the essential centre of this system in the
Mollusca, are always grouped around the oesophagus. The
others should only be regarded as different degrees of develop-
ment of these central j)ortions, and this is proved by their degra-
dation or disappearance in proportion as we descend in animals

22*

324 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

of this series*. The primary ganglia always exist ; many of the
local parieto-spl an clinic may be absent. The latter in size bear
relation to the organ or part to v/hich they furnish nerves.
Those connected with the branchiae vary with the latter organs.
In the Mollusca, therefore, a part of the peripheric structures
may acquire increased development, while the central systems
remain unchanged.

Physics of the Respiratory Chamber in the Cephalophora.

In the Cephalophora the organs of respiration assume variable
positions as regards the rest of the body. They lack the topo-
graphical constancy of these organs in the Lamellibranchs. As
in the latter class, in the Cephalophora they consist essentially
of developments of the tegumentary system. They are elaborated
productions of the mantle. Although they may vary in struc-
ture and position, this relationship to the mantle is never radi-
cally affected. A brief review of the space or chamber in which
the branchiae are enclosed, will enable us to enter more detailedly
into the regional anatomy of these organs.

The respiratory chamber (fig. 1 /) in the Cyclobranchiata is
but imperfectly defined. It is for the most part a grooved cir-
cular fossa between the edge of the foot and the border of the
mantle (fig. 1 h) ; but the branchiae are not the less a develop-
ment of this structure. If in the Patelloid and Chitonoid forms
the edge of the mantle were prolonged and introverted, a channel
would be defined in which the branchiae wmuld be enclosed.
Wherever these organs are placed, some provision, such as a
groove, is made for the efficient play of the physics of the bran-
chial process.

The direction of the main aerating currents is from before
backwards, and transversely on the branchial leaflets. The
cavity which circumscribes the branchiae in the Fissurellidae com-
mences at the neck and extends some distance backwards along
the sides. It receives water though the vertical fissure, placed
between the pedicles of the branchiae ; it escapes expiratorily at
the lower and posterior border. In Emarginula the respiratory
cavity of the mantle is situated at the back of the neck. In the
Haliotidae this cavity is similarly formed. Patella, Acmaa,
Pileopsis and Calyptrcea are the cervico-branchiate patelloid
forms with a single non-symmetrical branchia. Fissurella,
Emarginula, Puncturella and Haliotis are in the same cervico-
branchiate category, but having two branchial leaves. [Clark.)

Thus in the same family how striking are the generic varia-

* Comptes Rendus, 1843.

325

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals.

tions in this one particular ! The structure of the organs con-
tained in these variously located chambers will be found to differ
no less remarkably.

In the Pleurobranchiata the furrow for the branchia is situated
between the foot and the lateral free border of the mantle. It
differs in no essential respect in character and locality from that
of the Fatellidae. This crypt or fossa has a higher position on
the side in the Aplysiadse. The mechanics of this cavity follow
the same principle in all. The water-currents bear in an inward
and backward direction under muscular and ciliary agency.

In the Pectinibranchiata (fig. 3 A, 3 B) a distinct and well-
defined thoracic chamber exists («, a). It is situated on the
antero-dorsal region of the animal, and fills the anterior coil of
the shell. It is overvaulted by the mantle. It does not form a
closed cavity as in the Pulmonifera (figs. 4, 5, 6). It opens in
front by a fissure extending from the right angle to the left.
Behind, it is closed by the adhesion of the mantle to the edge of
the diaphragm-like (fig. 4 b) partition between this chamber and
the abdomen, thence the mantle is prolonged in a thinner form
over the latter region. In this water- breathing order of mol-
lusks this chamber is not exclusively specialized to the office of
respiration. In every family it contains the termination of the
intestine. It is thus at once respiratory and cloacal. In its
walls, at a point differing in different families, is situated the
heart, and a system of glands of complex formation. The
branchiae form only a small integral constituent. In the physics
of this cavity one plan prevails throughout the Pectinibranchiate
order. The branchiae occupy a point in the chamber opposite
to that taken up by the rectum. The former are to the left, the
latter lies on the extreme right. It is on this side also that all
the other excretory ducts terminate. The water- currents are
excited and sustained by the muscular action of the parietes of
the chamber. This force, which repeats itself in a regulated
order, constrains the water to move in a fixed and determinate
direction. It enters first at the left side, through the siphon
(fig. 3 B, arrows), if this appendage be present — through the
fissure directly, if it be absent. This pure stream impinges im-
mediately upon the branchiae. At this point, by means of an
exquisite concert of muscular and ciliary forces, the mass of
water thus received is divided into as many vertical sheets or
secondary columns as there are s])aces between the branchial
leaflets. As the cartilaginous edges of these laminae are ]>ro-
vided with muscles, and the fiat surfaces of each are strewn with
cilia (as will be afterwards described), the water is subdivided
again into myriads of invisible streamlets. Issuing from tlu‘
interlaminar spaces where its course is slow, tlie dis})crsed

326 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

columns reunite, assume a more rapid course, passing over the
surface and between the folds of the mucous glands,” under
the character of effete and deoxygenated water, and sweeping
the termination of the intestine, and finally escape at the ex-
treme right eleft [b) of the respiratory chamber, mechanically
bearing on its current all the refuse products of the cavity. It
will be anticipating, what will afterwards be studied more mi-
nutely, to enter further at this place into the details of this
most beautiful arrangement.

The thoracic cavity of the aquatic and terrestrial Pulmonifera
(figs. 4, 5 & 6) is mechanically arranged on the plan of that of
the Pectinibranchiata. Though in some genera, as in Parma-
cella^ Testacella and Onchidium, it may assume a posterior posi-
tion on the back, it is not changed in mechanism or in anato-
mical structure. In all other families of this order it occurs on
the back near the head. In those species whose shell is sinistral
the orifice is situated on the left side, in all others on the right.
Under the former circumstances the respiratory movements of
the parietes of the cavity are reversed. The pulmonary cavity
of the air-breathing Gasteropods, relatively to the bulk of the
body (fig. 4 a, h), is larger in dimensions than the branchial
chamber of the Pectinibranchs. This difference is explained
by the difference between air and water, but, as will hereafter
be shown, it is due in reality to the comparatively rude and
imperfect provision which has been made in the instance of
the Pulmonata for the necessities of breathing. Here, the an-
terior fissure of the branchial cavity, so characteristic of this
part in water-breathing Gasteropods, is accurately closed. The
cavity communicates with the exterior by means only of a single
orifice, which, for the most part, is situated on the right side.
This orifice, in families of aquatic habits, is prolonged into an
infundibulum (figs. 4 & 6 «, «).

The acts of inspiration and respiration are remarkably slowly
performed. So spacious is this chamber in the Planorbidse
(fig. 6 c)y Limneadse (fig. 4 a, b), and Helicidse, that a supply of
aireapableof sustaining life for a considerable time under water,
or in an irrespirable medium, can be stored.

The normal muscular movements of respiration are most
satisfaetorily studied in Helix aspersa, previously carefully, and
without injury to the soft parts, removed from its shell. It will
be seen that the volume of air drawn in by the inspiratory act is
driven by the slow vermicular movement of the parietes (arrows
in fig. 4) from right to left, chiefly along the roof. If the air
is long retained, it repeats the same orbit. During the act of
expiration the walls of the whole of the dorsal and lateral regions
of the body simultaneously contract, and the breathing-chamber

Respiration in Imertebrate Animals* 327

collapses in a most remarkable manner. It is during the ex-
piratory act that the faecal excreta are expelled, and this takes
place through one and the same orifice. In this character the
Pulmonata are strikingly distinguished from the Pectinibran-
chiata. In the latter, the pure current entering the breathing-
chamber is scrupulously separated from that which is about to
be expelled. When water and not air is the medium of respi-
ratic , this is a constant feature in the history of the Cepha-
lophora.

This circumstance is still more beautifully and perfectly ob-
served in the physics of breathing as exemplified in the Cepha-
lopod mollusks (fig. 7). It has already been explained, that so
completely and intimately is the body of every Invertebrate
animal surrounded and apparently penetrated by the external
element, that not only is it profusely admitted into the digestive
and respiratory organs, but, as for example in tubicolous Worms
and testaceous Cephalophora, its contact with the entire exterior
of the body is secured by express provisions.

In the Cyclobranchiata, as formerly described, a water-reser-
voir occupies the concave apex of the shell : the abdominal coils
of the shells of all Univalves constitute a similar receptacle.
The same rule is recognized in the organization of the Cepha-
lopods. In this class, in a given time, a considerable volume of
water traverses the branchial chamber. The respiratory actions
of the mantle and the funnel are rapid and powerful.

In the Nautilus, Ammonite, and other testaceous Cephalo-
pods, the base of the branchial recess of the mantle is continuous
with the siphuncle. In this manner the external element is ad-
mitted directly into the abdominal segments of the shell, therein
chiefly to subserve mechanical purposes. If the respiratory
chamber in the shelled Gasteropods were perforated at its pos-
terior border, opening thus into the spiral spaces of the shell,
the water occupying this portion in these families would stand
in the same relation to that of the branchial cavity as it does in
the case of the Nautilus.

In those orders, chiefly the Dibranchiata, which are devoid
of an external shell, the respiratory chamber is larger and more
prolonged into the spaces between the vital organs than in those
in which this appendage is ])rcsent. Octopus^ Loligo, or Sepia,
afford the best opportunity for witnessing the mechanical actions
of breathing. The anterior edge of the mantle is separated from
the side of the body by a broad open fissure (fig. 7 b, and in-
going arrows). This fissure within the mantle assumes the
character of a canal which leads back along the floor (c) of the
branchial cliarnbcr as far as the attached or cardiac base of the
gills {d). Along this canal uj) to this point the water enters as

328 Dr. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration.

a broad single column (fig. 7, arrows). It is then suddenly
deflected forwards into the interior of the gills (e), which, in
Octopus and Sepia, form hollow conical organs, in Loligo and
the Calamary a hollow semicylinder. In the former during the
moment of inspiration a copious column of water rushes up
the hollow axis of the gill j in the latter families, along the
inferior concavity. These currents are directed by a most
complexly coordinated series of muscular actions. From the
interior of the branchiae the water is compressed by a muscular
power resident in the branchiae themselves. It issues in as
many streams as there are perforations between the ultimate
pinna of the organ. These streams regather themselves and
flow backwards again in the direction of the base of the gills,
leaving the branchial hearts and other large blood-channels
situated in that region ; then driven forwards by the expiratory
collapse of the entire mantle, the water in form of a single
column enters the base of the funnel (/), through which it
finally leaves the cavity as an excretory and expiratory cur-
rent [a).

The author will explain on another occasion how much that
is old and how much that is new is contained in these observa-
tions. In succeeding papers they will be supported by a large
mass of anatomical details of great interest, and hitherto, he
believes, unknown to naturalists.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX.

Fig. 1. An imaginary vertical section through the shell and body of Patella
athletica. a, water-cavity in the roof of the shell, capable of
being enlarged to the dimensions of h and c. e, giils ; f, fringed
edge of the mantle ; g, g, edge of shell ; i, foot ; j, anus, termi -
nating in the chamber above the mouth.

Fig. 2. A longitudinal section of the shell of Buccinum undatum, showing
the abdominal spires, a, a, a, a, which are filled with water and
with the abdomen of the animal, b. denotes the ligament by
which the animal is attached to the columella, c.

Fig. 3 A. Male animal of Buccinum undatum taken out of its shell. At
b. is shown the mode in which the penis is carried in the branchial
chamber a.

Fig. 3 B. The same animal with the penis withdravMi from the branchial
chamber. On the left is the siphon through which, as indicated
by the arrows, the water enters the chamber (a), describing therein
a circuit marked by the arrows ; it escaj)es at the right cleft b.
Fig. 4. The animal of Lymneus stagnalis taken out of its shell. The
arrows define the pulmonary chamber and the circulation per-
formed by the air under the vermicular action of the walls, b. is
the posterior limit of the thoi-acic chamber ; c. marks the solid
abdominal portion of the body, and a. the respiratory and defe-
catory siphon.

Fig. 5. Umax maximus in outline, n. denotes the respiratory and dcfe-

329

Rev. H. Clark on a new species of Spider.

catory orifice. The ai’rows define the position and the boundaries
of the breathing-chamber.

Fig. 6. Planorbis corneus, Lamk., taken out of its shell, a, respiratory
siphon ; b, space embracing the mantle ; c, outline of pulmonary
chamber ; d, rf, abdominal segment of the body.

Fig. 7. Plan of branchial chamber of Sepia officinalis, a, expiratory siphon ;

b. and arrows, inspiratory fissure ; c, bottom of the branchial
cavity ; d, plan of the hollow cones of the branchiae ; e, the open
hollow bases of the branchiae by which the water enters the inte-
rior of the organ.

[To be continued.]

XXX. — Notice and Description of a New Species of Spider. By
the Rev. Hamlet Clark, M.A., Curate of All Saints, North-
ampton.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Gentlemen, Northampton, Oct. 16, 1855.

Mr. Blackwall has for many years selected your Magazine
as the medium for communicating to the public his many dis-
coveries in British arachnology ; this is my reason for applying
for admission into the same pages of an additional species which
appears to be new to our lists.

I am. Gentlemen, faithfully yours,

Hamlet Clark.

Salticus Blackwallii.

Length 4 lines ; length of cephalothorax ; greatest breadth
1 ; length of posterior legs 2J ; of second pair 2].

LegSj especially the anterior pair, robust, setaceous ; on the
inferior surface of tibise and metatarsi of first and second pairs
two rows of sessile spines ; legs ochraccous, on the upper sur-
faces an irregular row of black spots ; the fourtii pair is longest ;
the second pair slightly shorter than the third. Tarsi termi-
nated by two black curved claws. Palpi ochraccous. Cephalo-
thorax large, convex, somewhat quadrate, rounded at the sides
and base, slightly pubescent ; the anterior part, where the eyes
arc seated, black ; the sides and posterior part ochraccous, with
black spots and radiating irregular lines converging to the
centre ; lateral and posterior margins narrow and black ; frontal
margin clothed with longish yellow hairs. Fakes short, vertical,
siibeonical, marked with a short black streak on the outer side.
Maxillce straight, short, enlarged and rounded at the extremity,
))iarked with dark spots on the inner margin. Lii> oval, base and

330 Mr. R. Warington on the Habits of the Stickleback.

sides black. Sternum oval, narrower at anterior than at pos-
terior extremity, ochraceous, with broad black margin. Abdomen
elongate, oval, slightly pubescent, pale dull ochraceous, with
numerous blackish short lines or spots ; on the sides these spots
rauge themselves in longitudinal lines ; on each side of the upper
medial line is a broad longitudinal band composed of confluent
black spots, approximating to each other towards each extre-
mity, where they meet; the spots on the under surface are
fewer and more minute ; down the medial line extends a narrow
band composed of more distinct spots, some of which are con-
fluent. Sexual organs black. Branchial opercula pale yellow.

I found a single adult female of this large and handsome
species at Southport, Lancashire, during the last week of Sep-
tember ; it was sunning itself on a gate close to the shore on
the south side of the town : it appears to be new to science. The
name by which I have designated it will commend itself to all
your readers. My esteemed relative and friend Mr. Blackwall
has for many years devoted himself to the study of this Order,
and the result of his unassisted labours is simply this : — twenty-
five years ago I suppose from forty to fifty species were all that
were known as recorded indigenous representatives of this Order ;
we can now boast of a catalogue comprising two hundred
AND FORTY-SEVEN. I rcjoice to find that others are ac-
actively following where he has so long led ; for there is little
doubt but that this our present list, however in itself creditable
to science and honourable to him, will be still further increased.

XXXI. — Observations on the Habits of the Stickleback (being
a continuation of a previous paper). By Robert Waring-
TON, Esq.

During the early part of the last summer I had the good for-
tune to observe the whole progress of the various stages in the
breeding of the Three-spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus leiurus,
which will therefore enable me to complete the notice already
published on this subject in the ^ Annals and Magazine of
Natural History’ for October 1852.

In the account there given, the observations extended |to the
completion of the nest by the male fish, and it is my intention
in the present communication to carry on the details of the pro-
gress from that point, premising that the water was the same
which had been employed for the original experiments of 1849,
and that the fish contained in the aquarium consisted of three
Stickleback, one male and two females, two Tench, and a Gold-
fish.

Mr. R. Warington on the Habits of the Stickleback, 331

The position selected by the male fish for the construction of the
nest was between two plants of Vallisneria spiralis, at the point
where the leaves spring from the root, and directly in front of a
fragment of limestone which rose behind the plants and acted
as a protecting background to the position. The nest being all
prepared, exactly as before described, although by another indi-
vidual, the eggs were deposited, I presume, during the night of
May 8th : this was judged of, not from observance of the act of
spawning, but from the altered appearance of the female fish
evidencing that she had shed her spawn, from the immediate
change made by the male fish in the arrangement of the mate-
rials forming the nest, and, likewise, the violent repulsion of
the female from the neighbourhood of its position, to which pre-
\dously he had been as assiduous in driving her.

From this period the nest was opened more to the action of
the water, and the vibratory motion of the body of the male fish,
while hovering over its surface, caused, as before described, a
current of water to be propelled across the surface of the ova ;
this action was repeated almost continuously. The apparent
luminosity of the body, if I may so term it, also decreased, and
in this state all continued without change until the 18th of May,
making a period of ten days. After this date the whole nest
was destroyed, and the materials of which it had been composed
thrown aside, with the exception of a few wiry stems of a de-
cayed water moss, and a space cleared around the spot of about
3 inches in diameter ; the mud or sand at the bottom being
carefully removed with its mouth and carried in this manner to
some distance, leaving the rounded stones of the gravel clean
and free from any obstruction around them.

Watching carefully for a short time, to understand what all
this busy alteration indicated, I at last had the pleasure of ob-
serving, by the aid of a long-focused pocket-lens, some of the
young fry, — of course most minute creatures, fluttering up-
wards here and there, by a movement half swimming, half leap-
ing, and then falling rapidly again upon or between the clean
pebbles of the shingle bottom. This arose from their having
the remainder of the yelk still attached to their body, which,
acting as a weight, caused them to sink the moment the
swimming effort had ceased.

Around all this space above mentioned, and across it in every
direction, the male fish, as the guardian, continually moved. And
now his labours became still more arduous than they had been
before, and his vigilance was taxed to the utmost extreme, for the
other fish, three of them some twenty times larger than himself,
as soon as they |)erccivcd that the young fry were in motion, used

332 Mr. R. Warington on the Habits of the Stickleback.

their utmost endeavours, continuously, to pounce upon the nest
and snap them up. The courage of this little creature was cer-
tainly now put to its severest test, but nothing daunted he drove
them all off, seizing their fins, and striking with all his strength
at their heads and at their eyes most furiously. All the assist-
ance that could possibly be afibrded him was of course rendered,
short of actual interference, by keeping them pretty well fed, in
order to allay, if possible, their voracity. Another circumstance,
which appeared to add greatly to the excitement that he was
constantly subjected to, arose from the second female fish,
being in spavm, endeavouring most pertinaciously to deposit her
ova in the same locality, and hence rushing frequently down
towards the spot ; but the male fish was ever on the alert, and
although he did not strike at her in the furious way he attacked
the larger ones, yet, he kept continually under her, with the
formidable back spines all raised erect, so that it was impossible
for her to effect her apparent object.

The care of the young brood, while encumbered with the
yelk, was very extraordinary, and as this was gradually absorbed
and they gained strength, their attempts to swim carried them to
a greater distance from the parent fish ; his vigilance, however,
seemed everywhere, and if they rose by the action of their fins
above a certain height from the shingle bottom, or flitted beyond
a certain distance from the nest, they were immediately seized
in his mouth, brought back, and gently pufiTed or jetted into
their place again. This was constantly occurring, the other fish
being continually on the watch to devour these stragglers, and
make a savoury morsel of these Lilliputian truants. Indeed, the
greater number of the whole brood must have fallen a prey to
their voracity, as it was only some three or four that reached a
size to place them beyond the power of these destroyers.

As soon as the young fry could swim strongly the parent fish
gradually relinquished his duties, although a constant watch
appeared to be still quietly maintained on their motions as they
swam about near the surface of the water and among the float-
ing leaves of the Vallisneria and Lemna. It is a curious circum-
stance, that, very soon after these young Stickleback were left
unmolested by theii’ companions, both the parent fish disap-
peared, and I presume have died in some hiding-place among
the rock-work ; as though, their allotted functions, namely the
propagation of their species, having been completed, their period
of existence must terminate.

Apothecaries’ Hall, Sept. 11, 18.^5.

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

333

XXXTI. — The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. By

Dr. Alexander Braun, Professor of Botany in the Univer-
sity of Berlin, &c.* Translated by Chas. Francis Stone.

[Continued from p. 256.]

Part II.

As I attempted to show in Part I., whatever seems arbitrary
and indefinite in the existing views of what constitutes the Ve-
getable Individual has its ground in the nature of plants them-
selves, which in their realization are resolved into a plurality
which they are not capable of reducing to as complete a unity
as animals are. As we ascend in the natural kingdoms, indivi-
duals increase in importance, until they reach their most perfect
independence in Man. Hence, if we would appreciate them
justly in the lower departments, in which their character is less
definite, we must try to comprehend the less perfect structures
by starting from the more perfect ones : to appreciate vegetable
individuals we must start from a comparison of animal indivi-
duals. From this point of view we perceive at once that the cell
cannot be regarded as the proper individual in plants, otherwise
it would have to be considered in the same manner in animals.
Cell-formation is a property common to plants and animals : but
in animals it appears far more obviously as a subordinate ele-
ment in the organization of the whole body, than it does in
plants ; since the animal cell, in most cases, is not so independ-
ent, nor so determinate, nor so permanently isolated as the vege-
table cell. For this reason, too, it is rarer to find the animal cell
considered as the proper animal individual, although Schwann
has shown that animal cells are analogous to vegetable cells, and
may be as justly considered individual organisms as they. Yet
as mere curiosa we might adduce the somewhat similar assertion
of Gaillon,'that “ men and animals are properly masses of Infu-
soria and Oken^s doctrine of generation, a synthesis of Infu-
soria,^^ might, jjerhaps, be interpreted in the same sense. The
stories of the axes, the internodes with their leaves, might
claim to be compared with the animal individual with more jus-
tice than the cell, especially if leaf-formation really took place,
as the defenders of such doctrines have rci)resented ; that is, if
every successive leaf were ])roduced as a new structure out of the
old one (out of its base which becomes the internodc), and if the
whole stem were thus merely a concatenation of leaves shooting-
out of and growing above each other. But this is not so : the
rudiment of the stem as an uninterrupted growth (“ conti-

* Reprinted from Silliman’s American Journal for September 1855.

334 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

nuance ’’) is formed before the leaves, while the latter, emerging
as developments of the upper surface of the stem, are evidently
members dependent upon and belonging to the axis, and form-
ing with it one whole. Hence the structure of the internodes
may be more aptly compared with the lateral structure of the
animal body, and that of the leaves with its terminal structure.
Thus we arrive at the shoot; and we must investigate the
question, whether it should be considered as what corresponds
best with the animal individual, or whether we must ascend still
farther, up to the whole plant-stock.

The Shoot as the Vegetable Individual.

The first and most common view is that which considers the
individual in plants, as in animals, to be merely each single spe-
cimen, i. e. each representative of the species which appears to
be one whole from the connexion of its parts. To some extent
this view is correct, for in a forest of trees of the sam^e genus and
species, in a meadow, or in a corn-field, each single tree, each
stock of grass or of grain, appears as a single member of its
species, as each single beast does in a flock of animals forming
a community. But the question arises whether these individual
beings, regarded as such in this superficial way, can each be
considered individuals in the same sense. When the flocks or
societies of animals are numerous, as in an apiary, each hive or
swarm will appear as an individual member of its species, and
the more so in proportion to the closeness of the connexion be-
tween the members of such a community. Many flocks of ani-
mals whose members are organically connected during life, have
until lately been considered to be individual animals ; and even
when the separation of the individuals is more complete, such
conceptions are to a certain extent justified as long as the com-
munity is really a natural growth — when in fact it consists of
members of one single stock — and we are not surprised to find
that the oldest history of the human race describes the family
itself, and the tribe which springs from it, as one person, named
after its patriarch. As regards the plant-stock, even a superficial
examination shows us peculiarities which will hardly allow us to
consider it as an individual in the precise meaning of the term,
and which calls upon us carefully to consider whether it is to be
regarded as such an individual, or merely as an individual in the
broader sense, — as one united family. Even our feelings aroused
by the sight of the most ramified plant-stocks, — especially by
a tree with its numerous branches, with the thousands of
blossoms and fruits which it bears, and the numberless buds
through which it will deck itself again in the following year with

335

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

leaves and flowers — excite the presentiment that this is not one
single being, one single life, comparable with the animal or the
human individual, but rather a world of united individuals which
have sprung from each other in a succession of generations, and
although they do not separate, going through their particular
cycles of existence, — here dying off, there reproduced, and thus
building themselves up in uninterrupted succession into a family-
tree, perennially laden with an increasing posterity. That such
a view, so consistent with our healthy natural feelings, is corro-
borated by scientific investigation, I hope to show in the follow-
ing observations.

Comparing plants with animal individuals, it is at once evident
that the tree loses annually flowers and fruit, — the highest and
noblest structures which vegetable life produces, — to generate
them again in the following period of vegetation. Even the
whole dress of the tree, even its foliage when compared with the
trunk and branches, is only a superficial growth periodically
dying oflP, and reproduced by the succeeding generation : in
the paradoxical words of Schleideii*, ^‘No tree has leaves.
The leaves, in fact, never grow out of the woody portions of the
tree, but only on its herbaceous extremities, which grow upon
the woody stem as upon a ground formed by the process of vege-
tation. This common ground, namely the woody stem, which is
almost lifeless in comparison with the herbaceous parts engaged
in active growth, is annually covered with a vigorous sheath
under the protecting bark, and this sheath is the ground of the
nourishment of all the vegetating herbaceous extremities. This
sheath is the so-called cambium^ a layer of active, living tissue,
which, contemporaneously with the lignification of the herba-
ceous extremities of the branches, becomes a new woody layer,
united to the old trunk in the form of an annual ring — to be
covered in its turn in the following period of vegetation with a
new layer, which, again, will be the immediate supporter of the
new generations. The history of the grand development of na-
ture on the surface of our globe presents an analogy which may
perhaps serve to set this relation in a clearer light. The suc-
cessive geological formations superposed during the course of
countless ages, present, buried in their depths, the traces of as
many formations of the organic world, each of which carpeted
the then superior stratum of the earth with a new life, until it
found its own grave in the succeeding formation, when a new

* Beitr., p. 152, where the following view of the arboraceous stem, as a
common ground bearing many individuals, is develoi)ed ; but this whole
view, after all, needs to be corrected by a precise limitation of its meaning
by what follows it.

336 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

uprising of organic life took its place. In the same way the stem
of a tree is a multistratified ground, in whose layers the history
of earlier growths is legibly preserved. The number of the
woody layers indicates the number of the generations which have
perished, i. e. the age of the whole tree : a distinct annual ring
is the monument of a vigorous season, an indistinct one of a bad
season, a sickly one (which is often found among healthy ones)
indicates the unhealthiness of the foliage of that particular year.
The practised woodman can decipher many facts of the past in
the layers of the trunk, e. g. a good season for foliage or for seed,
damage by frost or by insects, &c.

Essentially the same relations as those seen in the tree, or the
shrub, are to be found in the subterranean perennial growth of
j)lantce redivivce (hQvhdiCQOMS perennials), whose subterranean stem
(rhizoma), like the stem above the surface, emits annually a new
generation of herbaceous growths ; whose stalks however, unlike
those of the tree, do not lignify and form a part of the common
supporter, but die off wholly, or mostly, at the close of the season
of vegetation.

The relations indicated above compel us to recognize a suc-
cession of generations in trees, shrubs, and perennial herbs ; and
thus our first idea of them as individuals is necessarily modified.
Another remark may be made here which confirms our idea thus
modified. Natural death closes the life of the individual*. The
development of the life of individuals in organic nature has a
goal, an acme ; after it has attained this goal its course draws to
an end. This is not the case in the tree and the perennial herb.
True, the tree is destroyed by time ; but this seems to result more
from external, and in part mechanical causes, than from any in-
ternal decrepitude. The more numerous the generations which
the tree builds up, one above the other, the greater is the distance
of the growing extremities from the source of their nourishment :
the thicker the supporting trunk, the thinner is the layer of
cambium which connects the new shoots with the extremities of
the root by which the nourishment is absorbed. This increased

* Cf. Schleiden, Beitr. p. 151. ^‘The idea of individual life necessarily
implies as its distinguishing characteristic individual death, preconditioned
in the organization itself.” Although this remark is not universally true in
many respects, yet 1 have adopted it for the light it is calculated to throw
on the nature of the tree. For the very reason that natural death is the
result of a determinate conclusion of the development, those shoots (vege-
table individuals) which have no such conclusion frequently undergo no
death at all except that of some of their parts : but this is a concomitant of
animal life itself (casting the skin, moulting, and the organic changes in
the body). Cf. on this point Roeper, Linnaea, 1826, p. 439, and the fol-
lowing remarks on Paris, Lysimachia nummularia, Adoxa, &c., and the
])receding ones on Caulerpa.

337

Dr. A. Braun oji the Vegetable Individual.

difficulty of communication between the upper and lower extre-
mities is probably the cause of the decrease of vigorous growth
after the plant has arrived at a certain age. But in most cases
external casualties are superinduced^ which accelerate the termi-
nation of the tree^s life. It is injured by wind and weather, the
decay of the injured part spreads through the whole organism,
various fungi fix themselves upon the tree, and are especially
fatal when they attack the roots. Oftentimes the tree breaks
down under the weight of the productions of its own vital
powers, the luxuriance of its fruit. These statements are corro^
borated by the cases of trees of unusual age, now so well known
through DeCandolle’s investigations. One of the examples ad^
duced by him shows in particular, that those trees whose branches
have been prevented from breaking down by props or supports
attain to a great age. I refer to the celebrated Linden in Neu-
stadt on the Kocher, which, as early as 1229, was the cause of
the town being called ^^Neustadt an der grossen Linde (Neu-
stadt of the great Linden), whose wide-spreading branches were
supported already in 1408 by sixty-seven stone pillars, and thj^s
number was afterwards increased up to more than one hundred*.
The hoary tree still flourishes, having survived its many scientific
admirers, among whom was my predecessor, to whom botany is
so greatly indebted, who visited and described it a few years ago
(in 1849t). Natural supports are more efficacious in preserving
trees than even artiticial ones; since they not only prop the
branches, but conduct nourishment to them by a shorter road,
as is actually found to be the case in llhizophora Mangle, in
various species of figs [Banyan, &c.], and other tropical trees,
whose branches high in air send down strong roots into the
earth. A similar example nearer home, though indeed on a
much smaller scale, is found in the Juniper us Sabina. Its
branches, which spring from a low stem, curve down to the
earth, strike numerous roots, and raise themselves again, so that
the comparatively feeble stem may carry a creeping ci*own of
considerable extent, like a thick wood continually sj)reading^ and
which may continue to flourish in its parts, even when the com-
munication between the original supporter and nourisher of the
whole colony and the succeeding new growths, which arc con-
.stantly receding from it, has finally ceased. A remarkable spe-
cimen of this tree stands in the Royal ihjtanical Garden at
Schbneberg, which, if not as old as the garden itself, which was
laid out in 1079 under the great Elector, Frederic William, ccr-

* DeCamlolle, Physiol. Veg. ii. ]>. JiHS.

t Link, Kriiinemngcn an die grosse Linde bci Neustadt am Kocher
( Flora, 18.50, no. 8).

Ann. 6^' Mag. N. Hist. Scr. 2. Vul. xvi.

23

338 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

tainly dates as far back as GleditscFs time, and his directorship
commenced in 1 744. The main stem is not more than 33 inches
in circumference at eight inches above the ground, close under
the place where the first branches originate : the centre-piece of
the crown which belongs immediately to the stem is only 9 feet
high, and has been dying ofi* during several years, while the
maximum diameter, from S.W. to N.E., of the hundred-rooted
crown, which has spread out over the ground by the declination
of the branches, measures 35 feet : the entire circumference of
the crown, which amounts to about 100 feet, would be still more
considerable if it had been permitted to spread on every side,
and if the branches on the N.E. side had not been removed at
an early day.

What has just been said of trees admits of no doubt as regards
perennial herbs [plantce redivivce) with subterranean creeping
stems or stolons. Such plant-stocks as those of the well-known
Paris, Anemone nemorosa, Convallaria majalis, Asperula odorata,
are undoubtedly exposed to none but a casual death *. All
plants which renew the cycle of vegetative life repeatedly and
without any determinate limits to their existence, and which I
would hence call anabiotic, cannot therefore be considered simple
individuals f.

At first sight the case seems to be different in the, haplobioticX

* The same relations of great unlimited age are found in polyps which
form stocks. Cf. Ehrenberg, Abh. d. Akad. for 1832, p. 382, 420, where,
among others, stocks of Mseandrise and Faviaj are referred to, lai’ger than
a cord of wood — which may readily be supposed to have been seen by
Pharaoh.

t I pass over the further question, intimately connected with this sub-
ject, whether the composite plant-stock itself, with all its subordinate ge-
nerations, with all its possible divisions, — viz. the individual in the most
comprehensive sense (in which Gallesio conceived it),— has not a determinate
term of life, though not easy to be ascertained, on account of the narrow
space of time accessible to our direct experience.

;|; DeCandolle calls anabiotic growths polycarpic, and haplobiotic growths
monocarpic, terms which are useless from their ambiguity. With an equally
inappropriate choice of terms, he divides the first (Phys. A^eg. ii. p. 73)
into caulocarpic and rhizocarpic, according as the stem which produces the
fruit is permanent, or dies off down to the root ; but the latter in fact never
takes place in perennial growths ; for in such cases the life of the plant-
stock is preserved, not by the mere root alone, but by a subterranean jmr-
tion of the stem. It is one of the most remarkable confusions which a
want of true biological ideas has engendered, that DeCandolle should have
regarded the simplest and most natural circumstance in the plant’s life, —
its death after having attained the goal of its develojiment, — as an un-
natural, and to some extent casual occurrence, — as a kind of sickness com-
parable to the succumbing of the mother in childbed, which he accounts
for by the ra})aciousness of the flowers and seeds. Roeper, however, in a
note to his translation of the above work, justly remarks that there are
annuals with double flowers which die off to the ground although they

Dr. Ji. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 339

plants,, which terminate their existence at the end of the simple
process of development, with the formation of flowers and fruit j
and this they do whether they exist one year, as Adonis astivalis
and autumnalis, Nigella, Papaver Phceas, Prig er on Canadensis^ ^
or for two years, as (Enothera and Verbascum, or for many yearsf,
as Agave (Century-plant), the East Indian Corgpha, and the
IMexican Fourcj'oija%, which suddenly puts forth its flowers only
after 400 years of extremely slow growth, and ends its life with
the formation of its first and long-deferred fruit. The develop-
ment of these plants, when compared with that of the first-men-
tioned anabiotic plants, seems at first to comprise only one gene-
ration, and to depend upon the development of one individual.
But here, too, a closer examination shows conditions incompatible
with the nature of the simple plant (the individual). One con-
stituent element in the idea of an individual is, that the parts of
the organism are essentially connected ; yet the stock of annuals
themselves presents a multitude of parts which bear no essential
relation to the whole plant. This is true of a large part of the
ramifications, of branches which may exist in one case and not
in others, and which are proved to be unessential by the planCs
losing no essential function when deprived of them. For even
when the plant does not produce them, it can fully consummate
the object of its individual life : it can produce flowers and fruit.
A glance at the examples just now adduced, Nigella, Papaver
Rhceas, Adonis, &c., will make these statements obvious. The
branches of these plants, each of which, like the stem, is crowned
with flowers and fruit, are evidently only unessential repetitions
of the simple plant, absolutely identical with the main stem, and

produce no seeds. We may convince ourselves beyond a doubt that the
dowers, on the contrary, are much less rapacious than the vegetative parts
of the plant, — that they even shut themselves off from the afflux of too
copious nourishment ; for many plants develope vegetative branches close
under the terminal flower, as e. g. Stellaria media^ Datura, Mirahilis, &c.
In such cases the flower-stalk, wdiich cuts itself off from almost all farther
afflux of nourishment, remains slender, while the ])ortions of the stem
directly beneath, and the branches which spring from it, gorged with
succulent matter, enlarge more and more, and attain a most dispropor-
tionate size.

* These plants, like other annuals which germinate in the autumn, are
usually reckoned among biennials; but this is a mistake, for, like our
winter corn, they are pluntce annuoi hiemales. So, too, many vernal plants,
as Teesdalia, Erophila, Cardamine hirsuta, Spergula Morisonii, and many
weeds of the winter corn, e. g. several species of tares, Bromus secalinus
et aff.

t Corgpha umhracuUfera. Cf. Ilheede, Ilort. Mai. iii. ])1. 1-12, This
is also the case in the j)alm geiiera j\ltdroxylon and Eugeissona, according
to Martins (Hist. Palm. i. j>. 108).

X On Fourcroya longceva, cf. Zuccarini in the Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. xvi. 2.
p. C()G, and pi. 48.

23*

340 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

hence to be ranked as equal to it in importance, i. e. equally
to be viewed as particular individuals, and with as much reason
as in zoology we concede individuality to the branches of the
coral-stock (polypidom), which are now universally acknow-
ledged to be individuals, and which offer an analogy of decisive
importance for ascertaining the nature of the branch in vege-
tables. In view of this analogy, Ehrenberg regarded plants as
aggregations of individuals* * * §.

We can now turn back, and apply what has been shown to
be the case in the annual herb, to the shrub and the tree, each
of whose annual generations now appears, more distinctly than
before, to be, in their peculiar connexion, not one individual, but
a world of individuals developing in the same period of vegeta-
tion and upon the same stem. To this intent many of the early
botanists have expressed rhemselves, as I stated in the introduc-
tion. Thus, B. Batsch, e.g., says of branches, that they shoot
forth from the stem ^^as if they were so many plants rooted in
itf and Goethe J : ‘‘ Lateral branches may be regarded as par-
ticular plantlets which arc rooted upon the maternal stem, just
as this stem is upon the earth.” Among moderns, Unger, at
the close of his investigations into dicotyledonous stems, says,
“ . Buds and the branches they develope are individual plants,

which live by preying upon the maternal stem§.” Similar
expressions are used by Schleiden || ; they are most definite in

* Abh. d. Akad. 1835, p. 24?. “ Hence a polyp-stock is a mass of

animals. We have no satisfactory eompreliensive expression for our idea
of a plant. What an individual is, remains still unknown; most of them
are evidently aggregates of individuals which may be compared with coral-
stocks.” The origin of coral-stocks is minutely described by Ehrenberg
in the Abhandl. for 18.32, where he makes the following remarks : — “The
coral structure is neither a mere structure composed of many animals
arbitrarily conjoined, as Ellis supposed; nor one single animal with many
heads, or with simple furcations, as Cavolini maintained ; nor a vegetable
stem with animal flowers, a.s Linmeus expressed it ; it is a body of
families, a living tree of consanguinity ; the single animals belonging to it,
and continually developing upon the primary ancestor, are entirely iso-
lated within themselves, and ca})able of complete independence, although
unable to achieve it.”

t Bot. fiir Erauenzimmer, pp. 15, 16.

X Versuch d. Metani. d. Pfl. zu crklaren, p. 51). The words “ just as”
in the passage quoted imply too much, and remind us of Du Petit-Tliouars’
unfounded doctrine of the formation of the woody layers of the stem by the
‘ roots ’ of the buds which penetrate it.

§ Ueber d. Ban u. Wachsthum des Dieotyledonenstammes, p. 177.
Here, too, “ preying ” is too strong a term.

II Grundz. ii. p. 1. “New identical individuals develope u])on the ma-
ternal stem by continuing the growth,” &c. Here the ex])ression “ con-
tinuing the growth” is iinpro])er, for the shoot does not “ continue ” the
growth at all, but is a new growth from a ncu- rudiment.

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

341

Roeper^s works*. Linn sens expressed the same thought in the
words “ gemmoi totidem lierheed’ And I am thus led to make a
particular remark_, which is intended at the same time to modify
in some degree what I said before in relation to the annually
renewed generations of trees. It is indeed true that branches
of trees and perennial herbs, especially in temperate climates,
first appear as buds; and in a more extended sense we call in
general every young branch a bud, even if its parts are not, as
they usually are, compactly arranged and folded together; still,
all buds are not the rudiments of branches. Lateral buds arc
the only ones from which branches originate, and therefore they
alone arc to be regarded as new lines of development, — as indi-
viduals. Terminal buds, on the contrary, are nothing but still-
undeveloped parts of the (relative) princi})al axis : they are mere
continuations and augmentations of the individual already ex-
isting, and are not to be regarded as commencements of a new
onef. Hence, only those trees which produce no terminal
buds, as the Linden, Willow and Elm, develope new individuals
and nothing else at each renewal of vegetation ; while, on the
contrary, those which do produce terminal buds also, as for
example the Oak and Poplar, bear a mixed annual generation,
which consists partly of new individuals, partly of old ones
reawakening and continuing their development with renewed
vigour.

I have already remarked how unessential the ])rcsence of
branches is in many plants. A comparison of stocks grown on
a rich soil with those of a poor one shows what license is given
to plants in regard to producing branches, and how different
the appearance of specimens of the same species thus becomes.
Plants grown on a poor soil arc often called dwarfs ; but

* Otrmis gemma solitaria aut ejnsdem eontinuatio immediata et per-
])endicularis (eaulis, ramus, ramulus, ties) individuum vegetabile vocatur.’’
This is the most definite descri])tion I know of ; for in tliis passage not
only the branches so called, but also every arbitrary shoot, even when it is
merely a flower, is acknowledged to be a particular individual. Besides
what I have stated in the text in regard to the appearance of terminal
buds, I have only to remark, against the word “ gemma,’’ that in its
growth every shoot does not enjoy a peree])tible state of gemmation, i. e.
a state of rest in which its parts are folded together. The term ‘bud’ is
a{)})lieablc to but one state of a shoot or of its parts, and therefore cannot
be a suitable exi)ression for what is to be regarded as the vegetable in-
dividual.

t Kutzing (I’hil. Bot. ii. ]>. Hfi) aptly ex])resses these relations by
calling the terminal bud the continuation of the “ series of formations;”
lateral buds, beginnings of a new “ series of generations.” In contradic-
tion with these terms, however, he calls the bud an “ organ ” as long as it
is connected with the natural individual, — a term ina])])lieable to the bud as
it is to the dcvelojicd branch, of which it is the adolescent state.

342 Dr. A, Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

unjustly^ for they present the most normal development of all
essential parts, dispensing with everything that is unessential,
and are much less inclined to malformations than the lusty
giants of the rich soils. Not unfrequently we find diminutive
specimens of Erythraa pulchella s. ramosissima which are branch-
less and perfectly simple, as they terminate with a flower after
four or five pairs of leaves. More vigorous specimens produce
two branches out of the axils of the highest pair of leaves, which
after a single pair of leaves terminate in the same manner with
a flower ; and branches of the second order may be also emitted
from the axils of the two leaves preceding this flower ; and so
on. In the first order of ramification the number of flowers
amounts to three, in the second to seven, and so on ; in the
seventh, which is not unfrequently attained, it amounts to 127 !
Here, if we would consider the stock or specimen as the indi-
vidual, and the flower as the superior termination of the vege-
table organism, comparable, say, to the head of the animal, this
variation in the number of the flowers would be as astounding
as if we were to learn that an animal might have 3, 7, 15, 31,
73> or 127 heads, according to circumstances. The same thing
occurs in Radiola linoides. Erigeron Canadensis, which often
grows to the height of a man and bears as many branches as a
tree, presents dwarfed specimens scarcely two inches high and
of a perfectly simple form*. After developing two early de-
ciduous cotyledons it presents about 13 leaves on the stem,
which are followed by a terminal capitulum of 21 involucral
bracts and about 34 flowers. One middle-sized specimen about
three feet high presented nearly 100 branches of the first order,
out of which branches of the succeeding orders proceeded, to-
gether bearing about 2000 heads, and hence (reckoning the
head at 34 flowers) 68,000 flowers f.

I may here remark, that such unessential branches may be
separated and reared independent of their parent stem ; on
which fact depends propagation by artificial divisions, which is
so variously employed in horticulture. The most remarkable
case of this artificial division is recorded by Miller : in the year
1766-67, he obtained 500 stocks of winter rye, by dividing one
stock and repeating the operation three times ; these 500 stocks
emitted 21,109 spikes, bearing together 576,840 grains. Nature

* Not counting the florets, which also are properly so many branches.

t Similar cases occur in most annuals. The forms of Bromus mollis
and racemosus with simple spikelets instead of rich panicles are well
known ; less known and less remarkable are the depauperate specimens of
UinhellifercB with one single unifloral umbel, some of which of Scandix
Pecten are in my possession. I have also specimens of Solanion nigrum,
one and a half inch high, with a solitary terminal flower.

343

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

herself, as well as art, in various ways may effect such an inde-
pendent separation of developed branches or of undeveloped
buds, and this too either above or beneath the ground. Pro-
pagation of the Strawberry by its runners ; of the Potato and the
Helianthus tuberosus by their tubers ; of bulbous plants by their
bulbs; of the Garlic by the bulblets formed in the process of
flowering, and falling off* like seeds; of the varieties of the
beautiful Achimenes by the amentaceous or the strobilaceous
deciduous shootlets, are well-known examples of this process ;
and thousands of others might be adduced*.

The gardener can not only separate individuals, but unite
them upon one stem. This is true not only of individuals of
the same species, but even of those of different species ; some-
times even of different genera of the same family. The Lilac is
not unfrequently grafted upon the Privet [Ligustrum), the Pear
upon the Mountain Ash {Sorbus Aucuparia)y the Peach upon the
Almond. By the insertion of a bud (inoculation), or of a deve-
loped sproutlet (grafting), we are thus enabled to pluck different
kinds of roses from the same bush, to gather different kinds of
fruit from the same tree. It would evidently be a contradiction
in this case to consider the whole tree, or the whole bush, as the
individual ; for we should then give the name to a compound of
several species, or even of several genera.

In attempting to comprehend the vegetable individual in its
simplest form, we have thus far spoken of unessential branches
only, and have endeavoured to show that they cannot be regarded
as mere parts of the individual. But there is another kind of
branches, those which are essentially requisite for the attainment
of the end of vegetation, — for the formation of flowers and fruit.
These occur in all plants which possess no terminal buds, and

* I will only adduce a few more of these examj)les, which might be
multiplied indefinitely. Besides the Garlic {Allium sativum), in many other
species of Allium, e.g. A. oleraceum, carinatum, vineale ; Lilium bulbiferum,
tiyrinum, humile, and other species ; Gayea Jistulosa, Ficaria ranunculoides,
Dentaria bulbifera, Saxifraya bulbifera and cernua, Cicuta bulbifera,
Polyyonum viviparum, Beyonia bulbifera, diversifolia, and other species,
Remusatia vivipara, Cystopteris bulbifera — biuls fall off above the ground
(as bulblets). In Stratiotes aloides rosette-like developed axillary shoots
separate close to the base. The sei)aratioii of lateral shoots in Lemna is well
known ; and it occurs in a similar manner in Pistia, by the separation of
thin-stalked lateral rosettes, and in Hydrocharis in the separation of pecu-
liar winter-buds. When the inferior leaf-formation is gorged with sap,
bulblct-likc buds form from the axils of the root-leaves (froiides fundi) in
Saxifraya yranulatu and many exotic si)ecies of Oxalis, in the same way
as the bulb-brood of monocotyledonous bulbous })lants. Inferior leaf-
buds which are placed on tlie ends of their .stolons become free by the
death of the runners in Fjpilobium paluslre, Lycopus Viryiuicus, &c., and
swell out and form little lumj).s. Cf. on this subject Wydlcr (Flora, 1853,
p. 17-24).

344 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual,

which must hence necessarily have some branches in order to
attain the end of their existence. This is the case with the
Evening* Primrose, Larkspur, Orehidea, &c., whose lateral flowers
are just such essential branches. If we demand that the indi-
vidual should be a complete representative of the characters of
the species, as is implied in the usual view, then we must add
to the principal axis such branches as these, — without which
the process of vegetation is not concluded, and on which, in fact,
the most essential and characteristic parts of the plant make
their appearance, — and eall these, parts of the same individual.
In this sense Schleiden^s view of the simple plant might perhaps
be justified, although, as he starts from different premises, he
does not consider mere floral branches as particular individuals.
He says, If nothing but organs of reproduction, or flowers,
spring from the bud, we still call the plant a simple one*.'’^

Here, however, we arrive at a contradiction, which shows us
that we cannot carry out the idea of the vegetable individual
with the requisite definiteness in this way, since we thus regard
essentially similar branches, now as individuals in themselves,
now as mere parts of individuals. As I have already remarked,
Schleiden allows individual importance to branches which arc
identical t with the main axis ; those on the contrary which
produce flowers alone, and in this respect differ from the main
axis, he regards as mere parts of the simple individual. This
distinction when analysed is perfectly nugatory ; since it only
lays down two extremes, between which there is an infinite
number of gradations. Strictly speaking, there are no branches
which are perfectly identical with the main stem, as is evident
from the fact that no branch begins with cotyledons, as the
main axis does J. Besides, the foliaceous leaves on the branch
are almost always fewer than those on the main axis, and gene-
rally fewer in proportion as the point is higher where the branch
originates. The arrangement of the leaves on the branches,
also, often differs from the arrangement on the main axis, as
e. g. in most of our broad-leaved trees, — in the Elm, Hazel,
Chestnut, Linden, &c., in which the phyllotaxis on the main axis,
and often at a later peried in the so-called water-shoots ”
(Wasserschossen), is spiral or decussate, v/hile on the branches
it is, on the contrary, distichous. In Alnus viridis the phyl-
lotaxis is tristichous on the main axis, and distichous on the

* Gi’undz. ii. p. 4. t Ibid.

J The basilary cotyledons of the branches, indeed, have been compared
to cotyledons. This coin})arisou is ]iartly justified in view of the com-
mencement of phyllotaxis on the branch ; which often resembles that on
the main axis, wliile in regard to form and consistency almost all resem-
blance disaj)pears.

345

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable IndividuaL

branches. On the main axis of Cypresses and Thuja there are
three- to four-leaved v horls ; on the branches the pairs of leaves
are nearly decussate ; this is also the case in Lysimachia vulgaris.
In the same way in Equisetum, the number of the ramcal vcrti-
cillate leaves is always inferior to that of the cauline ones. While
thus on the one hand the vegetative branches are nowhere
entirely similar to the stem from which they spring, on the
other hand it appears that those branchlets which seem to bear
flov/ers only are usually more numerous than they seem to be;
since in most cases one, two, or even more small leaves (bractlets)
are present beneath the flower, which may easily escape notice
on account of their diminutive size, although their existence may
be often ascertained with certainty even in those cases in which
they are not visible when the flower has reached its complete
development*. If we are to deny individuality to those buds
(branches) only which are composed of a flower alone, as a strict

* In fact, all the constant lateral flowers of Primulacece, Cruciferce,
CapparidecB, Resedaceae, Balsaminecc, Orchidece, never have any bractlets.
Among monocotyledonous plants in many cases there is only one bractlet ;
among the dicotyledonous there are generally two. Gesneriucece have
generally three ; Empeirum and Santalurk have four, Eriostemon five ;
Polemoniacecc, Cuscutecp, and other plants with panicled inflorescence, an
indeterminate number. We possess the following means of showing the
existence of su])pressed bractlets: — 1. The position of the ])arts of the
flower relatively to the axis of origination from which the lateral flowers
spring. 2. Analogy. 3. The study of malformations. 4. Observations
of the flower’s development. The first criterion can be applied only where
we can determine the succession of the parts of the flower. The ])osition
of the parts of a lateral flower depends, in fact, upon determinate laws of
rameal origination ; when they do not harmonize with these laws, we must
conclude that preceding leaves have been suppressed. In this waj, c.
we can explain the very eommon position in the 2-5th arrangement of
the calyx with the second sc))al posterior, by supposing two bractlets
according to the fixed law, while it cannot be exjdained without these
bractlets. Analogy aids us most by confirming our conclusions, as e. g. in
the families Scrophularinece, Labiafce, &c., in which many genera ])resent
distinct bractlets, while others appear to be without them. In monstrous
flowers (in cases of anfholysis and chlorysis), sometimes without any other
malformation, bractlets otherwise imperce])tible aj)pear in an abnormal
growth. Not unfrequcntly in Digitalis purpurea, which in its normal
state presents no bractlets, but in which we inferred their original existence
from aestivation and the position of the calyx relatively to the axis, I have
found bractlets developc(l in the most heterogeneous degrees, esj)ecially on
the lowest flowers of the raceme of cultivated specimens. C. Schini])er
and myself have both observed the same fiict in Tropccolum majus, which,
like most s])ecies of this genus, presents no trace of bractlets in the normal
state. We have seen them in the form of very small, white, subulate
leaves, about in the middle of the flower-stalk, wliile the flower remained
unchanged in all other respects. Their existence, however, was already
indicated by the ])osition of the quincuncial calyx relatively to the axis, as
well as confirmed by analogy, for Tropreolum ciliatnm., R. et P. (Pdj)]). ct
Eudl. Nov. Gen. t. .^8), in its normal development has two round and

346 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

interpretation of Schleiden^s language demands^ we should have
to draw a most unnatural and often impracticable line of demar-
cation between branches which, physiologically speaking, are
perfectly homologous (floral branchlets which really have no
bracts), and those which bear imperceptible or even suppressed
(abortive) bracts. If, on the other hand, we would reckon the
latter also among the branches which are not individuals, then
it may be contended that there is such a series of gradations in
regard to number and vigour in the leaves which precede the
rameal flower, that it is impossible to draw a dividing line even
in this manner.

The above-mentioned distinction between unessential and
essential branches seems to afiPord a better stopping-place, no
matter whether the branch bears nothing but a flower or not.
We might say, all essential branches must be regarded as in-
dividuals since they repeat the process of speciflc development
laterally, and can become independent plants, as layers, whether
natural or artificial. Those branches, on the contrary, which
appear as necessary members in the line of development which
is advancing towards flower and fruit, and which therefore com-
plete the series of formations belonging to the species, and with-
out which the plant is either unable to eke out its vegetable life
or to accomplish propagation, must be regarded as m.embers of
one and the same history of development. Let us take a case
where the main stem bears only proper leaves, branches of the
first order only bracts, and those of the second order only flowers
and fruit, as is really the case in Plantago, Melilotus, Veronica
officinalis and Chanuedrys here it is evident that these three
divisions cannot be isolated ; that all three must necessarily be
present in order that the specific life may attain a complete
representation in one individual*.

Notwithstanding the importance of this discrimination be-

prettily ciliated bractlets on the flower-stalk. I have mentioned the history
of development last, not to disparage study, but because the morphology
must be rightly understood beforehand by means of comparisons of de-
veloped structures, and because in its present stage the development is
incapable of giving us reliable information in regard to all the leaves
w^hich are present in the germ, though they may not develope. To know
wdiat parts then exist, we should have to be able to distinguish the leaf
as a cell or a group of cells before it rises to view' above the surface of
the stem.

* [But w hy assume (as here and supra) that the species must attain a
complete representation in a single individual in vegetables ? — since this
is bv no means the case in the higher (unisexual) animals, where there is
no doubt as to what corporeally constitutes the individual, — that is, in the
very cases wdience w'e derive our idea of individuality, and the standard of
cornparison which our author is endeavouring to apply to the case of
plants. — Asa Gray.]

347

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable IndividuaL

tween essential and unessential branches, it cannot, when ana-
lysed, establish a distinction which will enable us to decide
upon their importance as individuals ; for even those branches
which appear unessential, in relation to the formation of flowers
and fruit, may yet be essential to the plant in other relations :
as when they appear as characteristic elements of the vegetable
structure, or when they play any important part in the oeconomy
of the plant, as I have shown in extenso elsewhere*. Nay,
more ; one and the same branch, as to whose nature there seems
to be no doubt, may appear either as essential or as unessential,
according to circumstances. When those branches which con-
duct the structure to a higher stage of its development appear
in great numbers, on a principal axis, as e. g. in indeflnite
racemose or spicate inflorescence, the lateral branchlets appearing
as flowers are then indeed, generally speaking, necessary to the
plant^s full completion of the series of formations, and in this
sense essential ; but their number is immaterial as regards this
completion ; and this the plant itself shows in producing either
a larger or a smaller number of them ; sometimes the number is
reduced to onef. Therefore, properly speaking, only one lateral
flower is essential ; and we may arbitrarily consider any one of
the number to be this essential one. Hence each of them may
be regarded indifl’erently as essential or unessential. This is
not the case in those racemes and spikes which possess a ter-
minal flower, as is the case in many Campanulaceee, e.g. in Cam-
panula rapunculoides. Here, all the lateral flowers are unessen-
tial j yet if the terminal flower is cut ofi", the lateral branchlets
which bear the flowers at once become essential. Such a change
is not always artificial, for it often happens naturally, as there
are plants in which the terminal flower may be either present or
absent. Agrimonia Eupatoria and Campanula rapunculoides
are examples of this variability J.

* Veijungung, p. A\ et seq.

t E.g. not uiifrequently in the raceme of Lathyrus odoratus.

J Agrimonia Eupatoria bears usually one si)ike without any terminal
flower ; in weak specimens, a terminal flower not imfrecpiently makes its
appearance, which opens before the upper lateral flowers. This has been
observed by Wydler (Hot. Zeit. 1844, ]), G42). In Campanula rapuncu-
loides the caseis jus^ the contrary : its looser spikes are usually terminated
with a flower, while denser ones end in a coma of bracteal leaves, without
any terminal flower. Dictarnnus resembles Agrimonia ; while Triglochin
(especially Tr. maritimum) on the other hand imitates Campanula. Even
in plants in which the essentiality of the lateral position of the flower is
expressed by their zygomorphic development, terminal flowers make their
appearance in some cfises ; they then resemble Peloricc. This is the case
in Linaria, Orohanche, and a Digitalis purpurea rnonstrosa (described by
Vrolik, Flora, 184 1, No. 1), which proi)agatcs by seeds, and is now widely
disseminated in our gardens.

348 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable TndividuaL

We can cut this Gordian knot only by deciding to consider
every branch as an individual^ however appearances may be
against it^ provided that we have other grounds sufficient to
regard branches as individuals. The genesis of branches justifies
us in so doing ; for each branch is not a direct continuation late-
rally, is not a development belonging to the stem (like the leaf),
but is a new formation ; like the main axis itself, it has its own
centre of formation, with its peculiar development. Branch and
stem, main axis and lateral axis, differ therefore only in their
origin and relative position ; but they are essentially of the same
nature ; they are united in the idea of the shoot. The stem is
the primary and principal shoot of the whole plant ; the branch
is a lateral shoot in reference to the main shoot ; but it can itself
become a relatively main shoot, and the stem of a succeeding
generation of shoots in its turn. As far, then, as we are justified
in speaking of vegetable individuality at all, we must hold fast
to the individuality of the shoot : the shoot is the morphological
vegetable individual — is that form or that part of its specific
realization wffiich is analogous to the animal individual, if any
part is.

In zoology we give the name of individual to every whole
which is controlled and bound together from one vital centre.
Since such an internal domination of the organism as that which
characterises animal life is wanting in plants, whose existence is
a process of growth directed externally alone, we can only de-
mand, as the criterion of vegetable individuality, that the indi-
vidual shall be formed in direct continued development from one
centre, and thus, in accoi’dance with its origin, shall, in all its
parts, belong to one centre. Now this is the character of the shoot.
Its centre of formation has been known since C. F. Wolff^s
celebrated Theoria Generationis (1759) under the name of
punctum vegetationis it is what is called in common life
the heart ” of the plant, or, at the first appearance of the
lateral shoot, the “ eye.^^ The whole future of the j^lant slumbers
unseen within it ; leaf after leaf arises out of it, step by step, at
a measured pace, prescribed by law, until (in case the shoot is
destined to conduct the develo])ment thus far) the series con-
cludes with the last formation, that of the carpels, which close
over the dying point of vegetation and form the fruit. In this
progress the centre, always keeping the lead, is ever advancing,
rising more and more, and leaving behind it an axis arrayed with
the organs already formed. Hence we may designate the vege-
table individual as the sum of the parts belonging to one axis. Just
as the body of the animal has only one trunk and one head, the
shoot has but one axis and one apex. As the trunk of the ani-
mal has a second extremity opposite to the terminating head, and

349

Dr. A . Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

gradually dwindling down till it forms the tail, so the perfect
shoot has a second extremity opposite to that which terminates
with the most perfect structure (the fruit), and dwindling down
to an indeterminate end, the root, by means of a punctum vege^
tationis turned downward*.

But it will be objected : is not the vegetable shoot indefinitely
divisible ; can we not cut it up into an arbitrary number of pieces,
each of which is capable of reproducing the whole plant in its
turn ? Were this the case, the pluenomcnon would not be with-
out its parallel among the lower animals. But this is not the
case. The supposed divisibility of the vegetable shoot, at least
in perfect plants (the Phanerogamia), to which I am now alluding,
is a delusion, which rests simply upon the fact that the form-
ation of new shoots has been confounded with a reproduction
of the shoot as such. As the injured shoot has the faculty of
producing new shoots, so the parts of the divided shoot have
also this faculty in many cases ; but this is no recompletion of
the shoot itself; the fragment of the old shoot can continue to
develope in one single case only — when, in fact, it bears the apex
of the axis with the point of vegetation. Let us examine this case
more closely. If a shoot is divided transversely, under certain
circumstances the upper part, on which the punctum vegetationis
(^^ the heart ”) is still remaining, may continue the development ;
but the lower part is nothing but a stump, and continues to be
a stump which can never eomplete itself by a terminal shoot,
and which never fails to die if it is not nourished by lateral
sprouts formed before, or sometimes after, the division took
j)lace, and thus kept alive by its posterity. This cannot be
called divisibility, in the usual meaning of the term ; the v/hole
pha3iiomenon, on the contrary, strongly reminds us of the capa-
city animals possess of losing the less essential caudal extremity

* Aristotle, on the contrary, considered that the root, being the imbibing
organ, was the i>art of tlie plant which coiTcs})onds to the upper part, to
tlie head and moutli of tlie animal ; and he regarded the stem as the infe-
rior part. He found the cause of this topsy-turvy position of plants in tlie
necessity under which they labour of di’awing their nourishment from the
earth, as they are inea])able of moving from place to place. In this respect
he compares j)lants to mussels (ua-TpaKodepfui), which also have their heads
turned downwards. Cf. Wiinmer, Phyt. Arist. Frag. 5G-C)5. This compa-
rison of the root w ilh the animal’s head is however, morphologically speak-
ing, inverted; for a.s the highest stratum of the s))inal cord (the sensorial
portion) attains its maximum state of develoj)inent in the head of animals,
it can only be comi)ared to that extremity of the plant’s axis in which the
highest and noblest part of the plant is exhibited. Besides, the peculiar
and striking characteristic of the animars head, its involved structure ter-
minating the organism, is by no means to be found in the root end of the
plant ; but it is seen in the opposite end which terminates with dower and
fruit.

350 Dr. A. Brami on the Vegetable Individual.

without any cessation of life. In favour of this view the fact
may be adduced, that a similar phsenomenon occurs in the nor-
mal process of development of plants and animals. As there
are animals which may spontaneously lose the posterior extremity
of their body during the course of their development, as e, g.
Cercaria, Comatula^ Frogs, &c., so there are also numerous
plants in which the posterior extremity gradually dies off, and is
cast aside, during the course of growth, while the anterior end
of the shoot, which bears the punctum vegetationis^ continues to
unfold ; as is seen in the growth of many Mosses, especially of
Peat-mosses ; in the creeping and climbing root-stochs of Ferns
and Aroidece ; in the long creeping stems of Liy&imachia nummu-
laria ; the little subterranean creeping root-stocks of Paris ; in
most plants which possess a radix preemorsa, as e.g. Succisa pra-
tensis, the perennial species of Flantago, in Tormentilla^ &c., with
which the perennial bulbs of Monocotyledonous plants agree in
all essential respects ; and finally, this is especially remarkable
in Utricularia and in Selaginella increscentifolia, whose apices
only form close buds, and last through the winter, while all the
remaining parts of the shoots perish. If the shoot is indivisible
transversely, it is still less so longitudinally. There is not a
single case to prove that a shoot longitudinally divided can as
such continue to develope ; nor do we know of a single case where
such a longitudinal division takes place spontaneously. What
has been usually described as a bifurcation of the stalk depends
in the Phanerogamia in every case upon a true ramification
which takes its rise laterally close under the apex, as I have
have already described it in the case of Erythrcea pulchella. As
a normal formation no immediate division of the stalk occurs
among Phanerogamia ; for the phsenomenon known as fascia-
tion,^^ which might be adduced here, is always a monstrosity*.

* Fasciation depends upon a real division of the punctum vegetationis
into two parts of equal importance ; in the simplest case it produces a
simple division into two parts. Here neither of the two parts can he re-
garded as a branch of the other. If repeated bifurcations follow each
other in the same plane and in unbroken connexion, the well-known
“ ribbon and fan ’’-like forms arise, which however usuall}^ end at last in
single apices. Very rarely more than two parts lying in diiferent ])lanes
are produced by the division of the punctum vegetationis, a case which I
have noticed in the capitula of Composites. The rarest phaenomenon which
bears upon our subject is the annular fasciation, in which an annular border
arises from the simple point of vegetation, of which I shall speak more at
large in the following Part, when I compare the relations of grow th in the
Ciyptogamia. A division of the individual corresponding to fasciation in
phanerogams, and to dichotom)^, its homologue, in many cryptogams, also
occurs in the animal kingdom, as appears especially in many genera of
corals, e. g. Caryophyllia, whose stocks are formed in this manner exclu-
sively, and in Astrcea and Favia, in which it appears in conjunction with

351

Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual.

The stalk, or axis of the shoot, is hence indivisible in the higher
plants, in the same sense that the body of the higher animals is
indivisible*. The only phsenomenon which might be described
as a division of the stalk is leaf-formation. This, however, is
not a division into new stalks, but a formation of subordinate
parts belonging essentially to the stalk, as it were an eradiation
of the stalk itself, which may be aptly^compared to the formation
of the extremities in the animal body. We may therefore justly
describe the shoot, or the vegetable individual, as an indivisible
axis, — as an axis with its appurtenant radii which are inseparable
from, and regularly arranged by, its own development. With
the first appearance of the branch a new axis is formed, and a
new system of subordinate radii appears. However completely the
branch may contrive to interweave itself with the trunk during
the course of its development, it always owes its origin to an
accessory point of vegetation which developes into a particular
axis. The vegetable individual thus presents in its nature a cer-
tain analogy to the mineral individual, — the crystal, — as well as
to the animal individual ; for the crystal is determined by the
relation of its parts to one and the same system of axes. As
soon as this system of axes holds another position there results
another individual, which may be distinguished even when two
or more individual crystals intersect, so as to form twin crystals,
or stellate crystals.

In the preceding considerations on the indivisibility of the
axis, I described the leaves as its radiations, — as members of
the stalk, and belonging essentially to it, — and I attempted to
distinguish the leaves from the branches, by considering the latter
as new axes. But how are leaves and branches distinguished in
their genesis ? Are not the branches as much radiations or
lateral members of the stalk as the leaves ? It would lead me too
far from my subject to make a fundamental critical investigation
into this question, and to examine the existing views of the mode
of formation of leaves and branches, especially as investigations
into this subject have not been com])lete enough to enable us to
obtain reliable results. I can therefore only allow myself a few
hints in this place. The leaf originates in the earliest period of

shoot-formation (f^emmation), as was shown hy Ehrcnberg (Ucitriige, &c.,
Ahh. (ler Akad. 1832, p. 242). Ehrcnberg explains the form of DceduUncB
as a result of incomplete termination of the individuals in gemmation ; in
a})])earaiice it resembles tlie cockscomb-like forms of faseiation as they occur
in a remarkable way in some monstrous Cacti of the genera Mammillaria
and Echinocactus, as well as in Cdosia cristata, well known as an orna-
mental jdaiit.

* [Some criticisms upon this may be given at the close of the whole
memoir. — A. G.]

352 Di’. A. Braun on the Veyetahle Individual.

the formation of the stalk ; and its rudiment is contemporaneous
with the first stages of the formation of tissue in the punctum
vegetationis. A leaf can never be formed at a later period from
the developed axis. It is a necessary consequence of the manner
in which the leaf originates, that an absolute dividing line cannot
be drawn between leaf and axis ; for the subsequent position of
the leaves upon the organism affords no standard of appreciation,
especially as most of them do not mark the basis of the leaf, which
loses itself in the axis. Earlier, before the extension of the axis
begins, the rudiments of the leaves are always closely pressed to-
gether, so that they apj)ear as a peripherical development of the
axis itself, occupying the whole upper surface, and dividing it
into clearly defined planes, which may be recognized even in the
developed state, in those plants whose foliaceous pulvini are di-
stinctly marked, as e. g. in many Ferns, most acerose plants, in
Cacti, and particularly in Nymphaa and Victoria, where the puU
vini may be distinguished even in the interior of the axis. The
])rimitive vascular system of the axis enters directly into the
leaves, and ramifies there ; while the woody layers of the stem,
which are found later, have no connexion with the leaves. With
branches the case is totally difi’erent. In their origin and deve-
lopment they always succeed the leaves ; and even at a much later
period, when the leaves have been long cast ofi‘, shoots may
originate in places where, at an earlier period, no trace of a rameal
rudiment, or of an eye, was to be found. If we now consider
the axillary shoots, — i. e. those branches whose position is pre-
determined by the situation of the leaves, — at an early period
we shall find their rudiments, even though they develope very
late or not at all, in the form of a circular and slightly promi-
nent gibbosity, which may be compared with the apex of the
axis ; or rather, it is an accessory punctum vegetationis forming
near the apex. The circumstance of the epidermis of the axillary
shoot being a continuation of that of the stem, is explained by
the early date at which it originates ; for this takes place at a
time when the surface of the axis has not yet lost its flexibility.
The eye is shown to be an independent centre of vegetation by
its subsequent internal and external conformation; for it not
only dcvelopes leaves upon its surface, and this too with an in-
dependent coriimcncemcut of its phyllotaxis, but even in its
interior the first system of vascular fibres seems to be formed in-
dependently of that of the main axis ; as originally it lies upon
it, and afterwards becomes intimately blended with it by later
layers of tissue. Notwithstanding the intimacy with which later
formations of woody tissue unite branch and stem, still, accord-
ing to Unger^’s investigations, no immediate influence is exerted
by the branch upon the conformation of the stem, since the stem

353

Br. A. Braun on the Vegetable Indwidual.

owes none of its essential parts to the branches*. This inde-
pendence of the branches is shown still more decisively in adven-
titious shoots^ whose position is not predetermined by the leaves.
Originating at a later period, they take their rise, not from the
surface but from the cambium layer, — the internal tissue which
preserves the faculty of producing new growths. Hence, if they
would come to the light of day they must break through the bark.
Their origin has been particularly described by Treculf. W. Hof-
ineister, however, as I have already remarked, succeeded in
tracing it in Equisetum back to the first cell, a cell in the interior
of the stem. As is the case with axillary buds, such adventitious
buds sometimes remain undeveloped for a long time (ten years
and more) without losing their vital activity ; a fact to which
attention has lately been called by C. Schimper;|:, in a Report on
Exostoses. When this is the case they not unfrequently de-
velopc into spherical or conical wood-kernels, which continue to
exist without any connexion wdth the ligneous body of the ma-
ternal stem ; this is especially the case in Beeches and Poplars.

The individual nature of the shoot is confirmed not only by
the mode, but by the place of its origin. While the organs of
the individual organism — the leaves of the plant — occupy a
position determined with geometrical accuracy, shoots, on the
contrary, can arise out of almost any part of the plant, — wherever
indeed any cambium exists ; and they may be even enticed by
art, out of places where they do not usually appear. There arc
shoots from the stem, the root, and the leaves. In herbaceous
stems they appear in situations determined by the leaves (in the
axils of the leaves), while they may be found anywhere on old
woody stems § as adventitious buds, or on any part of the lig-
nified roots of most dicotyledonous woody growths, and even on
some monocotyledonous ones, as in Umbraculiferai\\. Shoots
appear less frequently on the roots of herbaceous ])lants^. Shoot-
formation from leaves has often been discussed and described in

* Unger, Ueber den Ban des Bicotyledonen-Stamines (1840), ))p. 05, 06.

t Reclierches sur I’orig. des bourg. adv. Ann. des Sc. Nat. viii. (1847)

p. 208.

X In Sept. 1852, in the Versaminliing dcr Naturforscher in Wiesbaden.

§ Rarely scattered shoots appear on the herbaceous stein, and espe-
cially on the first internode under the cotyledons, as Roeper (Eniiin.
Eupliorb. 1824) first showed in Euphorbia, and Bernhardi in the germ
of Linarice. A sjieciinen of Begonia manicata dipetaJa, cultivated in our
[ Berlin] Botanical Garden, which is probably the same species as the
B. phyllomaniaca of Martins, presents the case of a plant which produces
a multitude of shootlets in the whole leaf-region ; they arise from the sapjiy
stem which is not yet hardened, soon after the fall of the leaves.

II According to Rhecde, Corypha umbraculifera sends forth root-shoots
when the stem dies off, after the fruit has rijiened.

II I have often observed them in Liiiuriavulyaris, Helichrysum areuarium,

Ann. May. N, Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 24

354

Bibliographical Notices.

regard to many plants, especially Bryophyllum, Cardamine pra-
tensis^ Drosera, Malaxis paludosa, &c. A fine example of this is
shown by a Chelidonium majus var. laciniatum reared by Bern-
hardi in the Botanical Garden at Erfurt, from whose leaves floral
bractlets arose, partl}^ unifloral, partly multifloral, without any
preceding leaves*. Shoots may be allured by the gardener out
of most leaves which do not wither too soonf* Finally, the
little budlets in whose bosom the germ of the new plant is
formed and developed, and which we call seeds, are a kind of
shoots, which in most cases owe their origin to leaves (carpels),
out of which they spring (on the margins, v/hich unite to form
the placenta), or more rarely, out of their whole inner surface.

[To be continued.]

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Gl aliens ; or the Wonders of the Shore. By Charles Kingsley.
Cambridge : M‘Millan. 185.5. 12mo.

The relief of the hapless individuals who feel themselves compelled
to pass a certain number of weeks every summer out of town, without
knowing in the least what to do with their time when away from
their accustomed haunts, is the object which Mr. Kingsley has pro-
posed to himself in the publication of this little book, which in our
opinion is one of the most charming amongst the many admirable
popular works on Natural History that have appeared of late. It
may be defined, and we trust that the Reverend author will not be
offended at the expression, as a Sermon on the Advantages of the
Study of Natural History, but written in such a style and adorned
with such a variety of illustration, that we question whether the most
unconcerned reader can peruse it without deriving both pleasure and
profit from his labour.

At the outset, as was to be expected, our author expatiates upon
the great superiority of the study of Natural History over all the
other sources to which mankind generally resort for their amuse-
ment, and here we think he has been betrayed by his zeal into a
slight indiscretion ; not that he has placed his favourite studies upon
too high a pedestal, but he has treated those from which he wishes
to wean his readers with too little consideration. In Mr. Kingsley’s

Rumex AcetoseUa, Ajuya Genevensis, Jurinea PollicJiii, Nasturtium syU
vestre et pyrenaicum. According to Wydler, they often appear in Viola
sylvatica.

* I may add to the examples I have given of shoot-formation taking
place out of the leaves, one which I observed in June 1853, in Levisticum
officinale. I found, in fact, in several species of this Umbellifer, one or
more, frequently two, shoots in the points of division of the leaves, which
after producing a few weak leaves bore a small umbel.

t Kirschleger (Flora, 1844, No. 2) notices a fine example of this in Glox^
inia speciosa.

Bibliographical Notices, 355

A-iew, all the lighter amusements of life are frivolous and vexatious ;
like the original Shepherd in Pickwick/’ he regards them all as
“wanities;” and although this maybe true in the abstract, we question
whether it would not have been a more successful way of carrying
the war into the enemy’s country, to have treated these little weak-
nesses with more tenderness, rather than to insinuate that when once
a man has put his hand to the plough of science, it becomes in a
manner his duty to eschew all his previous amusements.

To compensate for this somewhat disrespectful view of what, to
many, constitute the chief business of life, Mr. Kingsley certainly
lays before his readers in a most attractive form the gratifications to
be derived even from a dilettante study of the great book of Nature.
Scarcely a branch of Natural History but has some of its most pleasing
features put forward in the pages of this charming little volume,
and although many of these are conveyed in hints, they still produce
a sufficiently distinct impression upon the mind to awaken a desire
for further information on the mysteries concealed by the half-raised
veil.

Few subjects could be better adapted for the author’s purpose than
that expressed in the title of his book, — The Wonders of the Shore.
On the shores and beneath the waves of the ocean dwell myriads of
creatures whose very existence is unknown to the great mass of the
public, as indeed was that of many of them until very lately even to
the scientific naturalist. The remarkable forms, the beautiful colours,
and the singular histories of these creatures render them objects of
the highest uiterest ; whilst the imperfect state of our knowledge of
many of them, resulting from the difficulties presented to investiga-
tion by the very conditions of their existence, may raise hopes even in
the beginner, that before he has long prosecuted his studies in marine
Zoology, he may be rewarded, if not by the discovery of new species
(which by the way Mr. Kingsley appears to think one of the most
ecstatic occurrences of life), at least by the observation of some new
facts, which, by supplying the deficiencies of our previous knowledge,
may be of still greater scientific importance.

Of the scientific merits of ‘ Glaucus ’ we need say but little. The
book, as we arc told at its commencement, is an amplification of an
article contributed by the author about a twelvemonth ago to the
North British Review, on Mr. Gosse’s recent contributions to British
Marine Zoology. The strictly zoological portion of the book is con-
sequently to a great extent composed of extracts from the works of
that naturalist, a circumstance which gives rather a peculiar character
to the book when regarded as an indej)endent publication, although
legitimate enough in the pages of a review. There is, however, an ad-
mirable and most amusing original account of the habits of the Spider
Crab {Maia t^(iv.inado')^ and of the multitude of zoo])hy tes which that
crustacean usually carries about with him, and we regret that its
length prevents our transferring it to our pages, as an illustration of
our autlior’s mode of dealing with such subjects. We must content
ourselves with adding, that, for the assistance of those who may be
induced by the perusal of his book to take up the study of marine

24*

356

Linnaan Society : —

Zoology, — and we hope his disciples may be numerous, — Mr. Kingsley
has given a description of the dredge and dredging, and of the mode
of forming an aquarium, the former extracted from Mr. Gosse’s
‘ Devonshire Coast.’

We regret, however, to see such a faulty list of works recommended
to the beginner in Zoology as that with which Mr. Kingsley con-
cludes. Several of our best English works, even on Marine Zoology,
such as Forbes’s British Starfishes, and the British Mollusca of Forbes
and Hanley, are entirely omitted ; and we are told that for Ornitho-
logy, there is no book after all like dear old Be\vick” ! — a statement
that will be rather surprising to the possessors of Yarrell’s ‘British
Birds,’ a work which is not even mentioned.

AYe are also sorry to see that Mr. Kingsley has fallen into the
common cant of talking about “ closet and book naturalists,” “ big-
word mongers,” “ synonym makers,” and the like. This practice,
which has become almost universal amongst our popular writers,
arises, as a general rule, from their knowing little or nothing of the
real nature of the things which they take upon themselves to censure,
and if they were called upon to lay down rules by which the evils
they cry out about might have been avoided, we suspect they would
find themselves somewhat at a loss. These writers either don’t
know, or won’t say, that it is the abuse of these things that is inju-
rious and absurd, and their readers are of course unable to make
the distinction. For this very reason, however, these tirades do all
the more harm, as they beget in the mind of the beginner a feeling
of contempt for the only means by which he can be sure of obtaining
information.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

LIXN.EAN SOCIETY.

May 1, 1855.— Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

Read a paper entitled, “ Notes on the White Secretion of the
Flata limhata, and on its relation to the Insect White AA^ax of China.”
By Dr. Charles Murchison, formerly of the Bengal Medical Service.

The author’s observations were drawn from an insect which he
had found in the month of April 1854, in the jungles in the neigh-
bourhood of Rangoon, specimens of which were exhibited to the
Society. This insect was observed adhering in clusters to the
leaves and twigs of various species of plants in the jungles, impart-
ing to them a beautiful snow-white appearance. On endeavouring
to secure one of the leaves with the adhering insects, a number of
l^erfect hemipterous insects furnished with four "wings, and a little
larger than a common house-fly, were observed to spring by sudden
jerks in various directions, leaving the white matter still adhering to
the leaf. On close inspection, this white matter was found to
consist of a number of insect- cases, each furnished with six legs,

Dr. C. Murchison on the White Secretion o/Flata limbata. 357

and with a dense tuft of white pectinated appendages adhering to
the dorsal and lateral aspects of the posterior segments. These
appendages were about two-thirds of an inch in length, and in the
fresh state spread out in all directions from the tail, some of them
curving upwards and forwards towards the head. They were
extremely fragile, the slightest touch reducing them to a fine white
powder, with which the whole body of the insect was thickly
bestrewed. Distinct from these there were on each insect two
smaller tufts of straight white filaments, exhibiting under the
microscope the ordinary characters of the hairy appendages found
upon insects, with a tendency to split up at their distal extremities.
These insect-cases were evidently the remains of pupal stage of
the more perfect insect which had sprung away. The author then
proceeded to show the identity of this insect with Flata limbata,
originally described and figured by Sir George Staunton in his
account of Lord Macartney’s ‘ Embassy to China ’ (vol. i. p. 353),
as the source of the Chinese Insect-wax, and afterwards by Mr.
Westwood in his edition of Donovan’s ‘Insects of China’ (p. 40.
pi. 17), and in the ‘ Gardener’s Chronicle’ for July 1853.

After considering the importance of the Chinese Insect-wax, in
an economical point of view, and enumerating the several uses,
medicinal and economical, to which it has been applied in this
country and in China, the author proceeded to mention the various
sources to which the substance had been attributed. He quoted the
statements of Sir G. Staunton and others already alluded to, which
referred it to the white secretion of the Flata limbata. He then
alluded to the detailed observations on the subject which have been
recorded by Capt. Hutton of the Bengal Service in the Asiatic
Society’s Transactions (1843), in which that gentleman had endea-
voured to prove, that the substance formed by the Flata limbata
presented very different properties from those of the Chinese wax.
He showed, however, that Capt. Hutton had confounded the viscid
excretion of the insect with the white secretion originally described
by Sir George Staunton, and which in its properties is really almost
identical with the Chinese wax.

He then observed, that in the Rej)orts of the Juries of the Great
Exhibition of 1851, the Chinese Insect- wax was said to be the
produce of the male Coccus ceriferus. This insect, however, had
been shown by Dr. James Anderson to yield the “white lac” of
Madras, a substance which j)resciited very different chemical rela-
tions from those of the Chinese wax, being, as shown by Dr. Pear-
son, soluble in alcohol and jether, and of higher specific gravity than
water.

The author then reviewed the elaborate paj)er on the subject of
the Insect-wax published in the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal ’ (A])iil
1853) by Mr. D. Hanbury, in which that gentleman had endeavoured
to show that the substance was the production of a species of Coccus
hitherto undescribed. His conclusions were drawn from specimens
of the crude wax, as scra])cd from the tree, transmitted to him by
William Lockhart, Esq. of Shanghae, in which were a number of

358 Linncean Society : —

full-grown bodies of a female Coccus, as well as pieces of stick in-
crusted with wax, and with the insects still in situ. This insect
had been named by Mr. Westwood Coccus sinensis, and afterwards
Coccus Pela. Mr. Hanbury’s description and figures were shown
to agree for the most part with the accounts and figures given by
Chinese authors of the mode of production of the Insect-wax of
China, and which had been translated into French by Du Halde and
M. Stanislas Julien. Mr. Hanbury, however, apparently misled
by the arguments of Capt. Hutton, concluded that the Flata limbata
could not produce the Chinese wax.

The author then proceeded to consider the physical characters and
chemical properties of the Chinese wax of commerce, and to com-
pare with them those of the waxy matter of the Coccus Pela, described
by Mr. Hanbury, and of the white secretion of the Fhta limbata,
exhibited to the Society.

1 . The physical and chemical properties of the wax of commerce
w’ere shown to have been ably investigated by Mr. B. C. Brodie,
Mr. Ure, and Dr. Maskelyne of Oxford. It was described as occur-
ring in circular cakes of various dimensions, often about a foot in
diameter, 3 or 4 inches thick, and perforated in the centre. In
structure it closely resembled spermaceti, being of a brilliant white,
and of a sparkling, highly crystalline appearance. It differed, how-
ever, from spermaceti in being harder, more brittle and pulverizable,
and presenting a more fibrous character of crystallization. Under a
low magnifying power it was seen to consist of a mass of irregularly
shaped crystalline tabular scales. Its specific gravity was *965, and
its melting-point had been stated by Mr. Brodie to be 181°*4 Fahr.,
and by Mr. Ure to be 196°, the melting-point of pure white wax
being only 155° Fahr. When melted, it became transparent and
colourless, and again opake white upon cooling, and was then seen
to consist of acicular crystals for the most part arranged in a stellate
manner. It was but very sparingly soluble in either alcohol or
sulphuric ^ther, and did not saponify with the solution of caustic
alkali. It dissolved, however, with great facility in naphtha, out of
which fluid it might be crystallized. It was combustible and made
good candles, for which purpose it was largely used in China, and
to a smaller extent had been employed in this country by Mr. Samuel
Childs. The investigations of Mr. Brodie relative to the proximate
and absolute analysis of the Chinese wax, as published in the ‘ Trans-
actions of the Royal Society ’ (1848), were then considered.

2. The characters of the crude wax furnished by the Coccus Pela
were then enumerated. As forwarded to Mr. Hanbury by Mr. Lock-
hart of Shanghae, it consisted of the crude wax as scraped from the
tree, along with a number of full-grown bodies of the Coccus Pela,
as well as pieces of stick incrusted with the w^ax, and with the
insects still in situ. The crude wax itself formed around the branch
a white, soft, fibrous, velvety coating of from one- to two-tenths of
an inch in thickness, and when scraped off, occurred in whitish,
flattened, curled, or generally irregular masses, the largest pieces
about half an inch in length. These masses exhibited no crystalline

Dr. C. Murchison on the White Secretion of Flata limbata. 359

structure, but were fibrous-looking, and so soft as to retain the im-
pression of the finger. It presented peculiar microscopic characters,
which had been described and figured by Mr. Quekett in an appendix
to Mr. Hanbury's paper published in the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal.*
When examined with a power of 250 diameters linear, it was “ found
to consist of a series of short filaments or cylinders, some of which
are straight, but others more or less curved ; within each cylinder is
a tubular cavity, extending throughout its whole length. The dia-
meter of the cylinders is on an average ^ pth of an inch, whilst
that of the tube within varies from ysVo^h to f-yo-o^h.” Mr. Quekett
had found similar tubular filaments in the cocoons of the Cochineal
insect. The specific gravity of the crude wax had not been ascer-
tained, but the melting-point of a purified wax obtained from the
crude substance had been shown by Mr. Hanbury to be 182°’ 75 Fahr.
It did not dissolve, or at all events but very sparingly in alcohol,
aether, or solution of caustic alkali, but it dissolved readily in naphtha
and vegetable oils, uniting with the latter to form a solid white mass.
When melted, it formed a clear, colourless liquid, which became
opake white on cooling, and was then found to have lost its tubular
structure, and to be composed of acicular crystals arranged in
stellate masses, like those produced by the commercial wax when
similarly treated. From these characters, as well as the evidence
of Mr. Lockhart of Shanghae, Dr Murchison thought that there was
good reason for coinciding with the conclusion arrived at by Mr.
Hanbury, that the Coccus Pela is a source of the commercial wax.

3. The characters of the white appendages of the Flata limbata
were then considered. Close inspection showed that these appen-
dages were of two sorts. First, there was on each insect a small
tuft or brush of minute white hairs, adhering firmly to either side of
the insect’s body, and distinguished from the great bulk of the white
appendages by their smaller size, greater slenderness, less opacity,
and greater strength, admitting of being handled with perfect im-
punity. These filaments under the microscope presented the
ordinary characters of the hairy aj)pendages often found on insects,
with a remarkable tendency to split up at their distal extremities.
The greater bulk of the white appendages were thicker, longer, and
more opake than the preceding. They were but loosely attached to
the surface ol the insect’s body, and extremely delicate and fragile,
so that the slightest touch with the point of the finger reduced them
to a fine white powder, and hence was explained the fact, that the
leaves and branches upon which these insects occur, become com-
pletely whitened by a white j)owdery substance in the manner de-
scribed by Sir G. Staunton. On microscopic examination they pre-
sented a beautiful appearance of spiral structure. When one of the
appendages was compressed with care between two glass plates, and
examined under a power of 250 diameters, it was found to consist
of a mass of spiral threads, with their long axes running in the same
direction. The slightest friction the surfaces of the glass plates
broke up these threads into fragments more or less minute, and if
the friction was continued, they were almost entirely converted into

360

Linnaian Society : —

granular matter. The threads differed from the cylinders found in
the crude wax of the Coccus Pela in not being tubular, and in their
diameter measuring on an average only -g-oVo^^ inch, or about

one-half. Attempts were made to trace the mode of connexion of
these filaments Muth the insect's body, but owing to their extreme
delicacy and fragility this was found impossible. The integument,
however, to which they were attached was found to be perforated
by a number of circular openings, having a distinct double outline,
the diameter of the inner circle exactly corresponding with that of
one of the filaments. Hence it seemed probable that the spiral
threads, which were evidently a secretion, had issued from these
circular openings. What was the chemical nature of this white
secretion ? A small portion, placed on a glass slide and melted over
the flame of a spirit-lamp, became a transparent, colourless drop,
which on cooling became opake white, and was then found to have
lost its original structure and to have become crystalline. The
crystals consisted partly of irregularly- shaped fragments, and also
contained, especially when the cooling had been conducted slowly,
acicular crystals arranged in stellate masses as in the case of the
two substances already described. The melting-point, as far as could
be ascertained with the small quantities experimented on, was
between 190° and 200° Fahr. The substance floated in water, and
was perfectly insoluble in this fluid, and but sparingly, if at all,
soluble in alcohol, sulphuric aether, or solution of caustic alkali,
whereas in naphtha it dissolved readily, as also in vegetable oils,
forming with the latter a white solid substance. From these cha-
racters there could be little doubt that the white secretion of
the Flata limbata was of a waxy nature, and also very similar in its
properties to the Chinese Insect- wax of commerce.

The author concluded as follows : —

“The Flata limbata occurs in great abundance in China, and also
in some parts of India, and 1 believe, from the facts above stated, that
there is nothing improbable in the original statement of Sir George
Staunton, that it may be a source of the Insect-wax of commerce.
That it is the sole source, as was once believed, I think is disproved
by the arguments which Mr. Hanbury has brought forward in favour
of the Coccus Pela. That it is one source, however, qf the Insect-
wax employed for economical purposes by the Chinese, I think is
rendered highly probable by the following considerations : —

“ 1. We have seen that the Flata limbata secretes a waxy matter
in considerable quantity.

“2. This waxy matter resembles closely in its characters and
chemical relations the Chinese insect- wax of commerce.

“ 3. The Flata limbata is known to be very common in many parts
of China.

“ 4. Sir George Staunton, when travelling in Cochin China, found
that it was generally believed that the white matter secreted by the
Flata limbata formed the white wax of the East, and he adds, ‘ It is
asserted on the spot, to have the property, by a particular manij)ula-
tion, of giving in certain proportions with vegetable oil such solidity

Mr. T. Bell on the Leucosiadse.

361

to the composition, as to render the whole equally capable of being
moulded into candles.’ The truth of this statement I have myself
verified.

“ 5. It has been stated by Dr. Macgowan (Journal of Horticult.
Soc. of India, vol. vii. p. 164), that the annual produce of the Insect-
wax in China is not far from £400,000 ; and when we consider the
very small quantity yielded by an individual insect, whether the
Coccus Pela or the Flata limbata, it would appear probable that the
substance may be obtained from several insects, of which no doubt
the Coccus Pela is one, and probably the Flata limbata is another.”

The paper was illustrated by specimens of the insect in its natural
state adhering to the leaf, and also by numerous preparations,
illustrative of the microscopic appearances and chemical relations, of
the waxy matter both of the Coccus Pela and Flata limbata. The
specimens of the Flata limbata adhering to the leaf have since been
deposited in the Museum of the Royal Gardens at Kew. Micro-
scopical delineations of appearances seen in the secretions both of
Flata limbata and of Coccus Pela, and of the spiral threads and white
hairs of the pupa of Flata limbata, also accompanied the paper.

June 5. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair.

Read the first of a Series of Memoirs, entitled “ Horse Carcino-
logicae, or Notices of Crustacea. I. A Monograph of the Leuco-
siad(B, with observations on the relations, structure, habits and dis-
tribution of the family, a revision of the generic characters, and
descriptions of new genera and species.” By Thomas Bell, Esq.,
V.P.R.S., Pres. L.S.

The author commences this paper with remarks on the distinct
limitation of the Leucosiadce, and the absence of any obvious osculant
forms by which to associate them closely with neighbouring groups
of the Oxystomata, and the no less striking want of any distinct re-
presentation of this family within the limits of other members of
the same great group. He refers, however, to a probable affinity in
the structure of the type of the Pinnotheridoe, which has hitherto
been overlooked. The apparent approximation of the genus Oreo-
phorus to the Calappadcc is also suggested, and a corresponding
tendency to a lateral expansion of the carapace pointed out in the
genera Lithadia, Nursia, Phhjxia and Ebalia.

The history of the progressive knowledge of the family from its
first detection by Fabricius as a distinct group is then given. The
author enters at some length into the consideration of the nature of
specific characters in general, and the necessity of adopting such as
are tangible and certain ; and after deprecating the use of such as are
merely comparative between different species, he urges the import-
ance of giving, in all cases when a new species is described, such a
definition as shall point out as briefly as may consist with clearness
and certainty the points of distinction from all those which are
already known, and a description so full as to enable the future ob-
server to ascertain whether any individual afterwards examined is

363

LinncBun Society : —

new, or identical with the one so described. Specific characters, the
author says, should always be either absolute, or derived from
points of comparison within the individual itself.

After a general view of the structure, it is shown that from a low
degree of development of the organs subserving the functions of rela-
tion, these animals are necessarily slow and circumscribed in their
locomotion, and dependent for their safety from injury upon external
means of protection.

In referring to the distribution of the family, it is shown that
every genus, without exception, is restricted to its own geogra-
phical limit ; and this is true to such an extent, that there is no in-
stance of one species of any genus inhabiting the old world, and
another of the same genus being found in the new.

The systematic portion of the paper consists of the characters of,
and observations on, all the genera whether new or previously known,
and characters and descriptions of every known species. Five new
genera and no less than thirty- six new species are described. The
following are the generic and specific characters as given in the
paper ; —

Genus Leucosia. Testa ovato- orbicularis, subglobosa, Isevis, polita ;
fronte subproducto, fossulas antennarias tegente. Grhita fissuris ti’ibus.
Fossce antennaries obliques, apertse. Pedipalpi externi caule exteriore
lateribus parallelis, recto vel subcurvo, apice obtuso ; caule interiore
acute triangulari. Pedes antici crassiores, longitudine mediocres,
brachiis ad basin et ad latera tuberculatis. Abdomen mans, in non-
nullis speciebus, segmentis omnibus primo et ultimo exceptis— in aliis
tertio cum quarto et quinto cum sexto ; feemineB a tertio ad sextum
coalitis.

1. Leucosia Urania, Herbst. Testa subglobosa, antice producta, fronte
rotundato; brachiis triedris, supra ad basin tuberculis paucis; sinu
thoracico usque ad latera regionis hepaticas antice attingente, granis
raarginato.

2. Leucosia craniolaris, Linn. Testa ovato-rhomboidea, fronte tridentato ;
brachiis serie tuberculorum ad latera et tuberculis duobus tantum ad
basin.

3. Leucosia ohtusifrons, De Haan. Fronte rotundato, sinu thoracico an-
tice circulari, tuberculis circumscripto ; brachiis ad latera et ad basin
tuberculatis, manibus longioribus quam latioribus, serie granorum ad
marginem interiorem.

4. Leucosia unidentata, De Haan. Fronte unidentato; sinu thoracico
antice circulari, tuberculis perlatis circumscripto ; brachiis facie supe-
riore seriebus binis tuberculorum.

5. Leucosia rhomb oidalis, De Haan. Testa rhomboidali, antice producta,
multo longiore quam latiore; brachiis basi utrinque dense tomentosis,
lateribus tuberculatis, supra plerumque lasvibus.

6. Leucosia longifrons, De Haan. Testa subglobosa, fronte producto, in-
tegerrimo ; sinu thoracico antice elliptico, granis non cincto ; brachiis
ad latera tuberculatis, et granulis paucis ad basin.

7. Leucosia orbicularis. Bell. Testa orbicuiari, fronte lato, brevissimo,
bidentato ; sinu thoracico nullo ; sterno antice granulate.

Mr. T. Bell on the Leucosiadse.

363

8. Leucosia pallida, Bell. Fronte tridentato, ultra orbita producto; sinu
thoi-acico in sulco brevi pvofundo antice terminato ; granulis paucis
supra insertionem pedum anteriorum; manibus utrinque carinatis laevi-
bus ] digitis inermibus.

9. Leucosia ohscura. Bell. Testa suborbiculari ; rostro minute tridentato ;
sinu thoracico angustissimo ; manibus longioribus quam latioribus
utrinque carinatis, laevibus; digitis inermibus.

10. Leucosia marmorea, Bell. Fronte minute tridentato, dente medio
longiore ; sinu thoracico antice brevi, linea semicirculari granulata
terminato ; brachiis ad basin et ad latera tuberculatis ; manibus mar-
gine interno granulato.

11. Leucosia punctata, 'BoW. Testa impresso-punctata ; fronte subemar-
ginato; brachiis supra omnino granulatis.

12. Leucosia affinis, Bell. Testa antice angustala, fronte producto, sub-
emarginato ; manibus utrinque carinatis ; brachiis antice tumidis, Isevis-
simis, politis,

13. Leucosia hr evimana. Bell. Testa subrhomboidali ; fronte emargi-
nato ; margine lateral! hand granulato ; manibus seque longis ac latis.

14. Leucosia margaritacea. Bell. Testa multo longiore quam latiore,
Isevissima, margaritacea ; sinu thoracico margine Isevi ; brachiis supra
tuberculis albis, rubro-cinctis.

15. Leucosia ocellata, Bell. Testa rhomboidali ; fronte bid'entato ; re-
gione gastrica maculis quatuor parvis rubris signata, quorum binae an-
teriores ocellatae.

16. Leucosia Whitei, Bell. Testa rhomboidea ; fronte producto, minute
tridentato ; regionibus hepatica et branchial! granulis tribus vel quatuor ;
brachiis tomentosis, tuberculis magnis omnino instructs.

17. Leucosia hoimatosticta, Adams & White, “ Thorace trapezoidal!
supra vald^ convexo, post angulum latero-anteriorem incisura pro-
funda, maculis multis sanguineis obsito.”

18. Leucosia Cumingii, Bell. Testa suborbiculari, margine lasvi ; sinu
thoracico incisura inter regiones hepaticam et branchialem terminato;
regionibus branchialibus valde tumidis.

19. Leucosia pulchella. Bell. Testa aeque longa ac lata, margine laevi,
tenui, subreflexo ; brachiis supra et infra omnino tuberculatis ; pedi-
palpis externis antice paulo angustatis.

20. Leucosia pliglloclieira. Bell. Manibus latioribus quam lougioribus,
utrinque lamellatis ; pedibus omnibus posterioribus articulo penultimo
lato, compresso.

Genus Ilia, Leach. Testa subglobosa, postice dentibus quatuor armata,
quorum utrinque una compressa ad regionem intestinalem, et una
conica ad brachialem ; fronte bifido. Orbita supra bifissa. Pedipalpi
externi caule exteriore recto, apice obtuso. Pedes antici longissimi,
manibus contortis, antrorsiun angustatis.

1. Ilia nucleus, Linn. Testa minute et conferte granulosa, granulis ma-
joribus distantibus instructa.

2. Ilia riigulosa, Roux. Testa glabrd, sparsim granulosa, antice laevi.

Genus PEiisErnoNA, Leach. Testa ovalis sen orbicularis, dcpressa, den-
tibus tribus ad partem posteriorem armata, regionibus pterygostomianis

364 Linncean Society : —

angulatis. Orhita trifissa. Fosses nniennaricB traiisversse. Pcdipalpi
externi caule exteriove paulo dilatato sensim angustato, ad apicem in-
terne truncate. Pedes robusti, testa baud bis longiores ; reliqui

articulis ultimo et penultimo compressis. Abdomen marts segmentis a
tertio ad (\m\\i\\m,—fo3min(S a quarto ad sextum, coalitis.

1. Persephona Gnaia, Bell. Testa ovata, sparsim tuberculata, angulo
pterygostomiano obtusissimo, spina media postica lateralibus paulo
superiore.

2. Persephona Lichtensteinii, Leach. Testa orbicular!, angulo pterygo-
stomiano dentiformi, margine lateral! unidentato, spinis posticis mqua-
libus, medio cum lateralibus triangulum aequilateralem designante.

3. Persephona orbicularis y Bell. Testa orbiculari, angulo pterygostomiano
in tuberculo abrupte producto ; spinis posticis sequalibus, angulum fere
rectum designantibus.

4. Persephona Edwardsii, Bell. Testa orbiculari, antice subproducta,
angulo pterygostomiano obsolete ; spina postica media lateralibus
multo altiore.

Genus Leucosilia, Bell. Testa globosa, fronte dentibus binis divergen-
tibus terminata; regione intestinali unidentata. Orbita tritissa. Fosses
antennaries obliqum in dentibus frontis excavatm. Pedipalpi externi
caule exteriore subeurvo, obtuse. Pedes antici robusti, longitudine
medlocres. Abdomen maris segmentis otio 4to ^to coalitis, penultimo
unidentato ; fesmines late ovatum, vald6 convexum.

Sp. unica, Leucosilia Jurinii, Saussure.

Genus Myra, Leach. Testa ovato-globosa, postice tridentata. Orbita
profunde trifissa. F'osses antennaries obliquse. Pedipalpi externi caule
exteriore dilatato. Pedes antici longissimi, graciles, manibus rectis.

1. Myra fugax, Fabr. Testa subglobosa, medio elevata, non carinala;
spina postica media lateralibus bis longiore ; spinis lateralibus com-
pressis.

2. Myra offinis, Bell. Testa ovato-globosa, spinis posticis brevibus, sub-
sequalibus; pedibus anticis testa vix bis longioribus ; manu digitis tertia
parte longiore.

3. Myra carinata^ Bell. Testa ovata, minute granulata, medio carinata,
spina postica media lateralibus ter quaterve longiore, spinis lateralibus
acute conicis.

4. Myra elegans, Bell. Testa bis longiore quam latiore (spina postica
non inclusa), margine anteriore setoso.

5. Myra m.ammillaris,^e\\. Testa ovata, glabra, tuberculis parvis elevatis
sparsim instructa ; dentibus posticis brevissimis, rotimdatis.

Genus Myrodes, Bell. Testa ovata, rostro emarginato terminata, pos-
tice dentibus tribus, quarum media longior, armata. Orbita trifissa.
Fosses antennaries fere longitudinales. Pedipalpi externi caule exte-
riore subeurvo, baud dilatato. Pedes antici testa vix longiores ; ma-
nibus pyriformibus baud longioribus quam latioribus ; digitis tenuibus,
valde elongatis, curvis, apice aduncis.

Sp. unica, Myrodes eudactylus, Bell.

Genus Philyra, Leach. Testa orbicularis, depressa, inermis, fronte epi-
storaate breviore. Orbita supra aperta, tritissa. Fossa> antennaries fere

Mr. T. Bell on the Leucosiadee.

365

transversae, Pedipalpi cxterni caule exteriore dilatato. Pedes antici
mediocres ; octo posteriores tarso compresso lamelloso. Abdomen maris
hastato-lanceolatuin \foemince articulo ultimo angusto, producto.

1. Philyra scabriuscula, Fabr. Testa depress^, granuloso-scabra, fronte
epistomate multo breviore ; brachiis tuberculatis ; manibus ad mau-
ginem iuteriorem lineis duabus granulatis.

2. Philyra glohdosa, Fabr. Testd globosa, Isevi, margine laterall gvaiiu-
lato ; fronte vix epistomate breviore ; brachiis granulatis.

3. Philyra porcellana, Fabr. “ Testa globosd, minute punctatd ; fronte
epistomate parum breviore, margine granulate ; brachiis cylindricis
tuberculatis ; manibus lasvibus inflatis.”

Hanc speciem non vidi — a praecedente anne distincta?

4. Philyra Pisum, De Haan. “Fronte epistomate parum breviore ; re-
gionibus pterygostomianis medio angulatis ; tliorace granulato ; chelis
in maribus tlioracem dimidio superantibus; digitis in longitudinem 5-
siilcatis margine interno denticulatis.”

5. Philyra platycheira, De Ilaan. “Parva, regionibus pterygostomianis
medio angulatis ; fronte epistomate pariim breviore; chelis in maribus
thorace bis longioribus; digitis valde depressis, laevibus, margine interno
integerrimis.”

6. Philyra IcBvis, Bell. Testa, corpore, pedibus omnino laevibus.

7. Philyra Adamsii, Bell. Testa glabra, regionibus partim et linea lon-
gitudinali granulatis ; margine posteriore utrinque bituberculato.

8. Philyra punctata, Testa orbiculari, Icevi, punctata; angulo pte-

rygostomiano obsolete ; brachiis triquetris.

9. Philyra carinata, Bell. Testa partim granulosa, inter regiones car-
diacam et branchialem leevi, medio carinata; manibus lineis duabus
granulosis.

10. Philyra macrophthalma, Bell. Testa ovata, minutissime granulata ;
pedunculis oculorum elongatis ; abdomine maris angusto, lineari.

Genus Eualia, Leach. Testa rhomboidalis vel sulihexagona; fronte
producto, emarginato. Orbita bifissa. Fosscc antennarice tecta?, obliquae.
Pedipalpi externi ad marginem cpistomatis extendentes, caule exte-
riore margine externo recto, caule interiore acuminato. Pedes antici
breves, crassi ; posteriores ungue forli styliformi terminati.

1. Ebalia Pennantii, Leach. Testa granulata, eminentia cruciformi ;
margine latero-anteriore bilobato ; abdomine maris segmentis a tertio
ad sextum conflueiltibus.

2. Ebalia Bryeri, Leach. Testa minute granulata, margine latcrali in-
tegro, subvevoluto, posteriore bilobato ; regione cardiaca bilubcrculata,
branchiali utrinque tuberculo uno ; brachio hand bis longiore quam
latiore.

3. Ebalia Cranchii, Leach. Testa granulata, carinata, tuberculis quinque ;
margine latero-anteriore fere integro ; brachio ter longiore quam latiore.

4. Ebalia granulosa, Edw. Testa granulosd, tuberculis sex; margine
latero-anteriore bilobo.

Genus Piii.yxia, Bell. Testa rhomboidca, tuberculis tribus postice in-
structis. Orbita supra emarginata, bifissa. Eossce untennaria; cum
orbitis communicantes. Antennulcc clongata', porrectm. Pedipalpi

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Linncean Society,

extern), caule exteriore lato, margine externo curvo, antic^ angustato ;
caule interno segmento penultimo lateribus parallelis, ultimo triangu-
lari. Abdomen in utroque sexu segmentis a tertio ad sextum coalitis.

1. Phlyxia crassipes, Bell. Testa subcarinata ; rostro quadrate, quadri-
dentato ; pedibus anticis testa plus quam duplo longioribus; braebiis
rotundis, medio tumescentibus.

2. Phlyxia lamhriformis, Bell. Testa carinata ; rostro triangular!, emav-
ginato ; margine latero-anteriore inciso, latero-posteriore acute carinato.

3. Phlyxia Icevisy Bell. Brachiis triedris ; testa Isevi, margine lateral!
unidentato.

Genus Lithadia, Bell. Testa rhomboidea, rudis; regionibus gibbosis ;
rostro bifido, resupinato. Orhita supra et extrorsum aperta. Fossce
antennarice obliquae. Pedipalpi extern) caule exteriore ensiformi ob-
tuso ; interiore lanceolate, exteriore longiore. Pedes antic) robust!,
rudes, tuberculati. Abdomen maris segmentis tertio, quarto et quinto
coalitis.

Species unica, Lithadia Cumingii, Bell.

Genus Oreophorus, Riippell. Testa tuberosa, postice supra pedes dila-
tata. Fossce antennariae obliquae. Pedipalpi extern) caule exteriore
arcuato, apicem versus sensim angustiore. Pedes anteriores longi, ro-
bust! ; octo posteriores subaequales, scuto dorsali reconditi.

1. Oreophorus horridus, Riipp. Testa subtriangulata, regionibus branebi-
alibus fortiter et oblique carinatis; cbelis mediocribus; manu digitis
longiore.

2. Oreophorus reticulatus, Adams & White. Testa subpentagona, reti-
culata ; digitis maximis, manu bis longioribus.

3. Oreophorus nodosus, Bell. Testa nodosa, margine undato ; manu tu-
mida, ad margines carinata, bisulcata, digitis longiore.

Genus Nursia, Leacb. Testa polyedra, fronte producto. Orbit a ex-
trorsum aperta. Fosses antennarics transversae. Pedipalpi extern)
caule exteriore curvo, dilatato, antice et postice obtuso ; caule interiore
margine interno recto, articulo penultimo quadrato, ultimo triangular!.
Pedes antic) digitis deflexis. Abdomen maris articulo penultimo apice
processu dentiformi instructum.

1 . Nursia pUcata, Herbst. Testa utrinque 4-dentata, medio tuberculis
tribus triangulum delineantibus, postice linea elevata transversa tuber-
culum gerente ; fronte 4-dentato.

2. Nursia abbreviata, Bell. Testa orbicular!, margine undato, linea ele-
vata longitudinali, altera transversal! decussate ; fronte integro.

Genus Nursilia, Bell. Testa latior quam longior, margine polygono,
fronte producto. Orbita bifissa, extrorsum aperta. Fosses antennarics
obliquae. Pedipalpi extern) epistoma superantes, caule exteriore
curvo, medio dilatato ; interiore elongate, margine interno arcuato.
Abdomen fesmines valde convexum, articulo ultimo inter bases pedipal-
porum externorum producto.

Species unica, Nursilia dentata, Bell.

Genus Arcania, Leacb. Testa subglobosa, spinis seu tuberculis elevatis
plurimis armata. Orbita supra et extrorsum aperta. Fossce antennarics
longitudinales. Pedipalj)) extern) caule exteriore recto, linear!, apice
interiore emarginato-truncato ; caule interiore gradatim acuminate.

Zoological Society. 367

Pedes antici gracillimi. Abdomen marts lanceolatum, segmentis a tertio
ad sextum coalitis.

1. Arcania Erinaceus, Herbst. Corpora atque membris dense spiiiosis,
spinis spinulosis.

2. Arcania ll-spmosa, De Haan. “ Thorace spinuloso, spinulis obtusis,
ambitu 11-spinoso, spinis acutis simplicibus ; brachiis granulatis, digitis
manibus longioribus.”

3. Arcania novem-spinosa, Adams & White. “ Thorace Isevi, granuloso,
marginibus latero-anterioribus spinis duabus, latero-posterioribus spinis
duabus, posteriore spina longa recta.’’

4. Arcania septem-spinosa, Bell. Testa paulo latiore quam longiore,
tuberculata, margine spinis septem tuberculatis armato, lateral! iitrin-
que reliquls longiore.

5. Arcania tuberculata, Bell. Testa paulo longiore quam latiore, omnino
tuberculata, margine spinis novem tuberculatis instructo ; brachiis gra-
nulatis, manibus laevibus.

6. Arcania gracilipes. Bell. Testa granulosa, tuberculis quindecim supra,
et tribus ad marginem posteriorem instructa ; pedibus anticis tenuis-
simis.

7. Arcania IcBvimana, Bell. Testa granulate, tuberculis numerosis di-
stinctis, ad marginem spinis novem simplicibus armata; manibus
glabris.

Genus Iphis, Leach. Testa rhomboidalis, transverse, angulis rotundatis,
utvinque spina longissima horizontal! armata ; fronte emarginato.

Species unica, Iphis sepiemspinosa, Fabr.

Genus Ixa, Leach. Testa elliptico-rhomboidalis, processu utrinque sub-
cylindrico a regione branchial! producto; regionibus sulco profundo se-
paratis. Orbita supra bifissa. Pedipalpi externi caule exteriore lato,
interiore longiore. Pedes filiformes.

Species unica, Ixa cylindrus, Fabr.

Read also, a “ Notice of a species of Carabideous Insect, Helluo
(^Acanthogenys) myrmecophilus , Westw., found together with its
larva, in Ants’ nests in Ceylon, by G. FI. K. Thwaites, Esq.,
F.L.S.” By J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. This paper was
accompanied by figures of the larva and imago states of the insect.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

June 27, 1854. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Descriptions of three new species of Titmice.

By Frederic Moore.

Fam. Piprid;e, Vigors. Subfain. Pariana.

Genus O rites, Mochring.

1. OiuTES? leucogenys, Moorc.

Colour above grey, tinged with pinkish on the rump : before the eye
and a broad streak over it black, j)assing to mixed black and grey
on the nape ; the centre of the head dusky reddish-isabelline ; base

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Zoological Society

of lower mandible, below the eyes, ear-coverts and sides of the neck
white ; chin and throat jet-black ; abdomen pale pinkish-isabelline ;
wings dusky and having an isabelline tinge, the winglet and coverts
of the primaries black ; the primaries and secondaries fringed
externally with grey ; axillae white ; tail dusky, tinged with isabelline,
the outer feathers graduated and obliquely tipped externally with
white, the centre feathers margined with grey. Bill black; feet
yellowish-brown.

Length 4^ inches ; of wing 2|-th ; of tail ; the three outer
feathers graduated, the middle pair y^ths shorter than the next ;
bill to frontal plumes j^ths ; to gape y^ths ; height from chin to
front y^yths ; and tarse y^ths of an inch.

Hab. Afghanistan. In the ]\Iuseum of the East India Company.
“ Found in pairs, in the woods above Balu Chughur, at 4000 feet
elevation. Irides straw-colour.” Griffith, MSS. Notes.

This species is allied in colour to O. jouschistos, Hodgson, from
which it may at once be distinguished by its broad, thick and higher
bill, by its wffiite cheeks and ear-coverts, and by its black chin and
throat ; and from O. erythroceplialus, Vigors, by its larger size, by
the absence of the white superciliary streak, white chin, black ear-
coverts, &c. On the habits of the latter species I beg to quote the
following remarks made by Capt. Hutton, in ‘ Journ. A. S. Bengal,’
1848, p. 689. He says, ‘‘It is common at ^lussooree, and in the
hills generally throughout the year. It breeds in April and May ;
the situation chosen is various, as one taken in the former month at
Mussooree at 7000 feet elevation, w'as placed on the side of a bank
among overhanging coarse grass ; while another taken in the latter
month at 5000 feet, was built among some ivy turning round a tree,
and at least 14 feet from the ground. The nest is in shape a round
ball with a small lateral entrance, and is composed of green mosses
warmly lined with feathers. The eggs are five in number, white
with a pinkish tinge, and sparingly sprinkled with lilac spots or
specks, and having a well-defined lilac ring at the larger end. Dia-
meter ^ X y®g- in.”

2. Orites (?) GLAUCOGULARis, Gould, MS.

Colour above greyish-ash ; crown black, with a broad pale-buff
line extending down the centre ; forehead and lores isabelline ; base
of lower mandible, ear-coverts, chin, breast, and middle of belly buff
colour ; rump, upper tail-coverts, flanks and sides of belly pinkish-
isabelline, brightening to ferruginous on the vent and under tail-
coverts ; throat of a silvery or bluish-ash ; sides of the neck below
the ear-coverts whitish ; wings brownish-black, coverts and speculars
quite black, primaries and secondaries margined with greyish-white ;
axillae and edge of shoulder white ; tail black, the four outer feathers
obhquely across both webs white. Bill black, and thick as in O.
leucogenys ; legs dark browm.

Length 4^ inches ; of wing 2ith ; tail 2^ ; its outermost feather

Mr. F. Moore on some imperfectly known species of Birds. 369

1 inch shorter ; bill to frontal plumes 5

tarse ^ths of an inch.

Hah. China. In the collection of John Gould, Esq.

3. Orites (?) NivEOGULARis, Gould, MS.

Forehead white, passing to buff-brown on the back of the head,
nape, and fore-part of the back, and thence to the tail grey, tinged
with isabelline on the rump ; lores, over the eyes and ear-coverts
black, passing into the brown on the nape ; ear-coverts blackish
anteriorly and brownish-buff posteriorly, and somewhat striped
longitudinally with white ; base of lower mandible, chin, throat,
fore-part of breast, and sides of the neck to the nape behind the ear-
coverts snowy -white, and contrasting with a brownish band which
runs from the nape across the middle of the breast ; the lower part of
the breast with the abdomen pale pinky-isabelline passing to white
in the middle of the belly : wings brown, margined mth greyish-
white, coverts and speculars blackish : tail dusky-black, margined
externally with greyish-white, its outermost feathers white on the
outer web. Bill black, longish, <nid slender as in 0. jouschistos,
Hodgson ; feet yellowish.

Length 4^ inches ; of wing 2^ ; tail 2fths, its outermost feather
-i- inch shorter ; bill to frontal plumes x^ths to y^ths ; tarse ^ths
of an inch.

Hah. N. India. In the collection of John Gould, Esq.

Remark. — These three new species, together with O. erythro-
cephaluSy Vigors, and 0. jouschistos, Ilodgs., will, I believe, upon
further examination, prove to form two separate divisions, distinct
from the genus Orites ; the species named erythrocephalus, leuco-
genySy and glaucogularis forming one division, and jouschistos with
niveogularis the second.

Notice of some imperfectly-known species of Birds

CONTAINED IN THE MuSEUM OF THE IION. EaST InDIA COM-
PANY. By Frederic Moore.

Fam. Merulid^, Vigors.

Subfam. Brachypodina, Swaiiison.

Genus Ixulus, Hodgson, P. Z. S. (1845) p. 23.

1. Ixulus occipitalis, Blyth.

Siva occipitalis, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xih. p. U37. (1844.)

Ixulus occipitalis, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xiv. j). 552. xvi. p. 448;
Cat. B. Mus. A. S. Beng., p. 100.

Hah. Sikirn, Nepal. (No. 955, Hodgson’s Catalogue.)

“ Colour dull brownish olive-green above, the shafts of the dorsal
and scaj)ular feathers jiale ; below much lighter ajid rufescent, the
throat whitish, the feathers of the fore-neck having dark shafts :
crown, nape, and lower tail-coverts ferruginous-brown, which also
Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist, Scr. 3. Vol. xvi. 25

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Zoological Society : —

tinges the flanks ; coronal feathers considerably elongated, and the
occiput beneath the crest white ; bill black ; legs yellowish-brown.

“ Length about 5 inches ; of wing 2\ ; tail 2 ; bill to gape i^ths ;
and tarse -|-ths of an inch.”

A single specimen only of this species was collected in Nepal by
B. H. Hodgson, Esq.

2. IxuLTJS CASTANiCEPS, Moore, n. sp.

Colour above dull brownish-olive, the shafts of the dorsal and
scapular feathers pale ; crown dark-chestnut, and subcrested, the
frontal plumes short and scaly, and having pale margins, the occiput
paler chestnut ; behind the eyes whitish ; ear-coverts chestnut ;
wings blackish, the secondaries and tertiaries with pale shafts ;
axillse white ; tail black, the three outer feathers graduated, and
tipped obliquely externally with white, the next white at the extreme
tip only, and the rest entirely black ; the whole underparts of a dirty
ruddy- white colour ; bill reddish-brown ; legs yellowish.

Length Sf inches ; of wing 2^-^ ; tail 2\ ; its outermost feather
|-ths less ; bill to front y^ths ; to gape ^ ; and tarse f of an inch.

Hab. Afghanistan.

This species is at once distinguished by the white tips to the tail-
feathers.

Genus Stachyris, Hodgson, J. A. S. Beng. 1844, p. 378.

3. Stachyris ruficeps, Blyth.

Stachyris ruficeps, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 452 (1847) ;
Catal. B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 150. Bonap. C. G. Av. p. 332.

The rufous-headed Stachyris.

Hab. Sikim ; Nepal. (No. 923, Hodgson’s Catalogue.)

“ Allied in form and size to St. pyrrhops, but having the crown
light ferruginous, and the chin and middle of the throat white, with
slight black central streaks to the feathers ; rest of the upper parts
plain olive, and of the lower whitish, with a fulvous tinge on the
sides of the neck and breast ” [in some specimens the crown and
nape are bright ferruginous, and the whole under-parts pale ferru-
ginous]. Bill and legs pale horn-colour.

Length inches ; of wing 2yth ; tail 2 inches ; bill to frontal
plumes ; to gape -j^ths ; and tarse |ths of an inch.

Fam. PiPRiD^, Vigors.

Subfam. Leiothrichina.

Genus Leiothrix, Swainson.

4. Leiothrix cinerea, Blyth.

Minla cinerea, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 449 (1847).

Leiothrix cinerea, Blyth, Catal. B. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 100.

The grey Leiothrix.

371

Lieut. Burgess on the Habits of Indian Birds,

Hah. S. E. Himalaya ; Nepal. (No. 671, Hodgson’s Catalogue.*)
“ Colour olive-grey above, tinged with green ; beneath white,
tinged on the flanks wdth ashy, and showing some yellow along the
middle of the abdomen ; a broad yellowish-white supercilium, and
over this a black one ; the coronal feathers margined with black, and
the cheeks mingled black and white ; orbital feathers subdued white ;
wings and tail without markings, the tertiaries edged with grey, and
the secondaries with very faint dull yellowish. Bill yellowish-horny
above, paler beneath, legs yellowish.”

‘‘ Length inches ; of wing 2^; tail 1|; bill to gape nearly fths ;
and tarse f of an inch.”

Allied in form and size to L. castaniceps.

Notes on the Habits of Indian Birds. Part IV.

By Lieut. Burgess.

Family SvLviADiE.

Genus Thamnobia.

Thamnobia fulicata. Indian Robin.

This bird is well known in the Deccan, and is found not only about
villages, walls and outhouses, but is also common on low stony hills.
Dr. Jerdon says that ‘‘its familiar habits have gained for it its name
of Indian Robin.” It breeds during the months of March, April
and May, building its nests in holes of walls and rocks, as also
in hollows under tussocks of grass. I subjoin some notes on the
subject : — ‘‘May 9, 1850. When passing outside the wall of a town,
an Indian Robin flew off the w^all and hovered before me, uttering a
sharp hissing cry. Knowing by her manner that she had a nest near,
I searched in the wall and found the nest, composed of rotten grass
and straw, and some threads of w^oollen cloth ; the nest contained
three young ones, quite unfledged ; their skin was of a black-lead
colour.” — “March 19, 1851. Found in a hole in the rocks the nest
of the Indian Robin, containing two eggs.” — “March 27, 1851.
Found the nest of the Robin, containing two eggs, built at the foot
of a little tuft of grass, in a hole amongst the roots.”

The egg of thi« bird is of a very j)ale dusky blue spotted all over
with light browm, and a few purjdish spots here and there ; length
rather more than inch, by j^ths in width.

Dr. Jerdon says : “ I have twice seen the nest of this bird ; once,
built among a heap of large stones raised from a lioury, and the bird
made its nest during the time the well was being blasted, and con-
tinued the process of incubation till the young ones were hatched,
when it was accidentally destroyed. On the other occasion it had
built its nest in a hole inside the wall of a house. It has four
eggs, light dusky bluish colour, spotted with purplish brown.”

* No. 887 of Mr. Hodgson’s Catalogue was attached to this bird, which number
was previously used for Loxia himalayana ; the above number being unoccupied,
it is retained for the present species.

25*

372

Zoological Society

Genus Prinia.

pRINIA INORNATA, SykeS. CoMMON WrEN WaRBLER.

I believe that the nest and egg herewith forwarded, are the
liest and egg of this little Warbler, though, not having shot the
bird from her nest, I cannot say so positively. I think, however,
that Dr. Jerdon’s observation, though it differs in not mentioning
the spots on the eggs, partly corroborates it. He says : “ I once
procured the nest of this species ; it was open at the top, neatly
enough made of grass well interwoven, without any lining, and fixed
in a low bush very near the ground ; it contained four blue eggs.”
The nest which I forward was found in the midst of some low jungle
shrub, about a foot from the ground, during the monsoon. The egg
is a little less than -j^ths of an inch in length, by rather more than
-j^^ths in width, of a rich blue ground, blotched and spotted with two
shades of red-brown and pale purple.

Tribe Conirostres.

Family Corvidae. Subfamily CoRviNiE.

Genus Corvus.

Corvus splendens, Vieill. Common Indian Crow.

All the noise and impudence of the tribe appear to be concentrated
in the Common Indian Crow. They abound, I believe, in every part
of the Indian continent ; and when to their number is added their
thievish character, some idea may be formed of the nuisance they
are. There is, however, a redeeming point in their character, viz.
that they are very efficient scavengers. An offieer of the Bombay
army told me an anecdote illustrative of their sagacity, which he
himself witnessed. Som.e crows had been sitting near a young dog,
watching him whilst engaged with a bone. Having apparently con-
certed the plan, one of them alighted, stepped up and took a peck
at the dog’s tail; the dog, irritated, made a snap at the bully;
on which a comrade, who appears to have been ready, made a dash
and went off with the prize. He told me that he had seen another
crow coolly walk off with a bit of bread, having acfually taken it out
of the hand of a child who was eating it. No one who has not been
in India can form an idea of the noise which these crows make. In
the morning, in Bombay, the tops of some of the bungalows are
covered with them, squabbling and chattering, and it is reported that
these blaek gentry are not proof against the seducing influence of the
pots of toddy hanging up in the cocoa-imt trees. The juice of these
trees is harmless before the sun is hot, but if taken after, has a deci-
dedly inebriating effect. The common Crow begins to build at the
end of x\pril, forming its nest of stieks. It lays four eggs, of a dull
greenish-blue, blotched and spotted with greenish-brown and grey,
in. in length by rather more than 1 inch in width. The eggs,
however, differ in size and colour.

Mr. J. Gould on a new species of Momotus.

373

CoRvus CULMINATUS, Sykes. Large Black Crow.

Less numerous, and of less intrusive and impertinent habits than
the last. It breeds at the same time, and lays the same number of
eggs as the Common Crow of India. The eggs are of a pale blue
dashed and spotted with olive and grey, 1 inch and rather more than
^ths of an inch in length, by 1 inch and rather more than ^ths of
an inch in width. The eggs of this Crow also vary in size and colour.

Family Sturnid^. Subfamily Sturninjl.

Genus Pastor.

Pastor Tristis, Temm. Common Myna.

This sprightly talkative bird is common in Western India. It
lives in small flocks, and is a close attendant on cattle, walking
amongst them with a cheerful upright gait, its head inclined, now on
this side now on the other, watching for insects, all the while talking
and muttering mth its peculiarly smooth and oily note. It is a great
favourite with the natives, who keep numbers of them in cages. The
Myna breeds during the month of May, making its nest in the holes
of trees and buildings, also in stacks and ricks. It lays as many as
six eggs, of a pale blue colour, 1 inch and rather more than ^ths of
an inch in length, by y%^1^s of an inch in width. Eggs out of the
same nest differ in size.

July 25, 1854. — John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair.

Description of a New Species of Momotus.

By John Gould, F.R.S. etc.

Mr. Gould exhibited a species of Momotus, which he had had in
his collection for many years, and which he believed to he entirely
new to science. It is most nearly allied to the Momotus Mexicanus,
hut differs from that species in its much larger size, in the deeper
chestnut-colour of the head, and in having a greyish-white mark
under the eye, in lieu of the rich blue one observable in M. Mexica-
nus. These differences induce Mr. Gould to consider it to he distinct ;
in which opinion he was greatly confirmed by finding other examples,
precisely similar in colour, in the fine collection of the late Earl of
Derby, now in Liverpool. He therefore projiosed for it the name of

Momotus castaneiceps.

Crown of the head very deep chestnut, gradually blending on the
back of the neck into the reddish grass-green of the back and wing-
coverts ; primaries and secondaries bluish green on the extern.al web
and next the shaft on the internal web, the remainder of the feathers
being brownish-black, largely margined with bufly-yellow at the base,
and with black shafts ; upper tail-coverts and tail bluish-green, the

374

Zoological Society : —

latter with black shafts, and the spatulate terminations of the two
centre feathers largely tipped with black ; lores and lengthened ear-
coverts black, the latter bounded above by a narrow line of blue ;
beneath the eye a narrow streak of greyish- white, bounded above by
a finer streak of blue ; under surface very pale green, becoming of a
still paler and more bufiy hue on the vent ; on the centre of the
breast a few lanceolate pendent feathers of a deep velvety black,
narrowly bordered with pale blue ; bill black ; feet brownish-black.

Total length, 15|- inches; bill, 2; wing, 5^; tail, 8f ; tarsi, 1^.

Hab. Guatemala.

On the Anatomy of the Great Anteater
(Myrmecophaga jubata).

By Professor Owen, F.R.S., Y.P.Z.S.

Professor Owen read a paper on the Anatomy of the Great Ant-
eater {Myrmecoj)haga jubata). The animal dissected was a full-
grown female ; it was received at the Gardens September 29, 1853,
and died July 6, 1854. It weighed 62 lbs. ; the weight of the brain
was 3 oz. avoir. The nipples were two in number, post-pectoral in
position ; the vulva and vent opened by a common cloacal aperture.
The integument was thick ; well-developed dermal muscles attached
it to parts of the skeleton : the extent and attachments of these were
described. The position of the viscera on opening the abdominal
cavity was detailed. The intestmal canal is supported by one broad
fold of peritoneum, as in reptiles. A long narrow continuous gland
extends along the base line of the mesenteric part of the fold, and a
parallel series of detached glands along the mesocolic part. Other
modifications of the peritoneum were described in relation to the
support and connection of other viscera. The stomach consisted of
two parts, a cardiac or membranous, and a pyloric or muscular part.
The cardiac part is a subglobular cavity, measuring when distended
9 inches in its longest diameter, 7 inches in depth from the cardia,
to the left of which the ca'sdty bulges about 4 inches. The circum-
ference of the cavity is 18 inches. The pyloric part is 3 inches in
both longitudinal and vertical diameter, 2^ inches across ; its mus-
cular part is so thick that it may be called a gizzard : it has not how-
ever the thick callous epithelial lining of a true ornithic gizzard.

The lining membrane of the stomach, as compared with that of the
oesophagus, becomes more vascular and is furnished with a thinner epi-
thelium at the cardiac orifice ; but the huing membrane for some
distance from that orifice, and between it and the entry to the gizzard,
is smoother and covered by a thicker layer of epithelium than in the
rest of the cardiac cavity, where the ordinary vascular villous gastric
surface prevails : the one modification passes insensibly into the other.
YTien fully distended, the cardiac cavity is smooth ; as it contracts,
the lining membrane falls into rugae, very minute and irregular near
the cardia, thicker and larger at the greater curvature, and assuming
a longitudinal direction as they approach and converge towards the

Prof. Owen on the Anatomy of the Ch'eat Anteater, 375

entry to the gizzard : at this part the folds were ten in numher. In
the distended stomach of the female Anteater the transverse diameter
of the aperture was 1 inch 3 lines ; its vertical diameter from 3 to 4
lines ; the distance from it to the cardia, 3 inches.

In the smaller male Anteater, subsequently dissected, the gizzard
was 2 in. 3 lines in length and 2 in. 9 lines in depth.

Vertically and longitudinally bisected, the cavity of the gizzard
appeared as a gently bent canal about a line in diameter, suddenly
expanding near the pylorus to receive a valvular prominence from
the upper muscular wall, which projected tow^ards that opening. The
vertical thickness of the muscular wall above the canal w^as 1 inch
10 lines, below the canal 1 inch.

In the female Anteater Prof. Owen dhdded the gizzard, previously
injected and distended with alcohol. When the gizzard was divided verti-
cally and transversely the cavity presented a crescentic figure, with the
horns directed upwards, on each side a large fleshy protuberance which
descended into the cavity. On the lower part of the protuberance
are three or four thick angular longitudinal ridges, which fit into the
interspaces of similar ridges along the lower part of the cavity. The
epithelium of the protuberance is thicker than that of the rest of the
cavity, concealing in a greater degree, but not wholly, the vascula-
rity of the subjacent injected membrane : the cellulo-vascular layer
uniting the mucous wdth the muscular coats is most abundant at the
walls of the gizzard opposite the protuberance. The thickness of the
muscular wall, from the upper part of the gizzard to the bottom of
the protuberance, is 2 inches, that of the lower w^all of the gizzard
G lines : the difference of thickness here, as compared with the same
part in the smaller Anteater’s stomach, is due to the more contracted
state of the gizzard in the latter animal.

On exposing the pylorus from the duodenal side, it presents the
form of a crescentic aperture 1 inch in diameter, but reduced to a
transverse figure by the pressure of the upper protuberance against
its inferior thickened ridge : the mucous membrane of both parts is
produced into longitudinal wavy rugae. A second pylorus might be
described where these rugae abruptly terminate and where the smooth
surface of the duodenum begins : this aperture presents a full oval
form, 1 inch 2 lines by 9 lines, when that intestine is distended.

The length of the animal, from the muzzle to the vent, was 4 feet
7 inches; the length of the head, 14 inches; of the tail, 33 inciies.
The length of the intestinal canal was 34 feet, the small intestines
measuring 30 feet. The ileum, with a circumference of 1 inch 9 lines,
rapidly expands at its termination to form the colon, without any
caecal beginning of the latter gut. This presents a circumference of
9^ inches near its commencement, and gradually decreases to a cir-
cumference of G inches at the rectum. The inner surface of the first
half of the small intestines is smooth and even ; the last half, or
ileum, is characterized by a single continuous longitudinal fold of the
mucous membrane from 2 to 3 lines in breadth, extending along the
side of the gut opposite the attacliment of the mesentery. The modi-
fications of the colon and rectum were described.

376

Zoological Society : —

The weight of the liver was 28 oz. ; that of the spleen, 2 oz.
6 drachms ; that of the pancreas, 2 oz. : the form and structure of
these viscera and of the gall-bladder were described. The renal and
generative organs were next referred to.

The disposition of the pleura in the thorax, and the form and
structure of the thoracic viscera were detailed. A peculiarity was
noticed in the right auricle of the heart : the entry of the inferior
cava was guarded as usual by the eustachian valve, the homologue
of the posterior of the two semilimar valves which guard the com-
munication between the sinus and the auricle in the heart of Rep-
tiles ; in the great Anteater there is a narrower valvular fold or ridge
on the opposite side of the orifice of the inferior cava, answering to
the anterior valve in the Reptiles’ auricle, and a ridge is continued
from both valves in the x\nteater, towards the opening of the supe-
rior cava.

Of the salivary glands of the Anteater the submaxillary pair were
those most developed and modified to supply the unusual quantity
of adhesive saliva with which the long, slender and moveable tongue
is bedewed : these glands extended over the fore part of the neck
and chest, and were upwards of 16 inches in length and 2 inches in
thickness.

The parotid gland retained its ordinary proportional size and rela-
tive position. The sublingual gland was represented by an exten-
sively diffused thin layer of follicles, opening by many small pores
upon the inner surface of the mouth. The labial glands were small,
as were also the tonsils.

The muscles of the jaws were described.

The cavity of the mouth is susceptible of great dilatation, and pre-
sents the peculiarity of being extended far back beyond the root of
the tongue. The author accordingly defines, in his description, a
postlingual and a prelingual part of the mouth. A hard longitudinal
cartilaginous ridge projects downwards into the mouth from the inner
side of each ramus of the jaw. The author conceives that the ter-
mites may be crushed by the action or pressure of the tongue against
those callous ridges, which seem to occupy the place of teeth. A
fossa descends between the epihyals, which the author called the epi-
hyal pouch. The hyoid arch has no immediate connection with the
tongue, but is situated far behind the tongue, preser\*ing its usual
relations with the larynx.

The thyroid is ossified ; the cricoid and arytenoids are cartilaginous.

The total length of the nasal passages is 22 inches, the last 8 inches
being muscular and membranous, and extended backwards beyond
the base of the skull, where the canals terminate in most other
mammals.

The antero-posterior diameter of the base of the tongue was 3^
inches ; it rapidly diminishes to a cylindrical form, with a diameter
of 8 lines, and is thus continued for 18 inches, gradually decreasing
to its obtuse apex, which is 1 line in breadth. This long cylindrical
tongue is composed almost wholly of muscular fibres, and covered by a
smooth epithelium ; the only papillae are two fossulate ones {pajnllcB

377

Mr. P. L. Sclater on two new Tanagers.

vallatce) ou the dorsum, about 2 inches in advance of the frenum ;
the muscles of the tongue and their action ^Yere minutely described ;
also those of the larynx and pharynx.

The brain, which weighed only 3 oz., presented a narrow, elon-
gated, depressed form, the back part of the cerebral hemispheres
resting against, but not overlapping, the cerebellum. The hemi-
spheres showed a few symmetrical convolutions ; they were united
by a large corpus callosum : the olfactory lobes are very large and
hollow'. Many plexuses and other peculiarities of the vascular system
were noticed.

This memoir will appear, illustrated with numerous figures^ in the
Transactions of the Society.

Descriptions of Two New Tanagers in the British
Museum. By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A.

1. Chlorospingus melanotis, Sclater. C. supra nigro-plum-

beuSi dorso imo brunnescentiore : alls caudaque brunnescentibus,
illis penitus nigricantibus : loris et capitis latevibus cum regione
auriculari nigris : subtus pallide ochraceo-rufus, mento summo
nigricante ; ventre medio dilutiore : rostro nigro : pedibus

pallidis.

Long, tota 5*25 poll., alee 2‘5, caudee 2*25.

Ilab. in Nova Grenada. Mus. Brit.

Obs. Species rostro et forma Chlorospingo atropileo similis, sed ab
hoc et aliis hujus generis colore corporis inferi ochraceo-rufo facile
distinguenda.

This little species, of which there are two examples in the National
Collection, both apparently Bogota skins, differs from all its conge-
ners in the colouring of the low er surface of the body, which is of a
pale reddish buff, growing much whiter in the middle of the belly.
Above the plumage is lead-coloured, with a greenish tinge super-
induced towards the lower part of the back. The wings and tail are
brown, with slight greenish edgings ; the ear-coverts and whole side
of the face are black. In the second specimen, apparently not so
mature, there is a light-coloured spot on the front, just above the
nostrils. The bill of this species agrees with that of Chlorospingus
atropileus, (Lafr.), in size, but is rather straighter in form, as in
C.verticalisy (Lafr.).

2. Tachyphonus xanthopygius, Sclater. T. nigro-cinereus,
subtus dilutior: uxiHis et tectricibus subaluribus albis: dorso
postico citreo-Jiavo : rostro et pedibus nigris.

Long, tota 5*8, alac 3*1, caudae 2*5.

Ilab, in Nov. Grenada. Mus. Brit.

This bird seems intermediate between Tachyphonus and Vyranga,
and might be j)laced in eitlier of these grou{)s. The white axillary
feathers j>oint to the former genus, the yellow riinij) to the latter.
The bill, however, is more compressed than is usual ‘wxTyranga, and
agrees nearly with that oi Tachyphonus coronutus,{y\Qi\\.). The upper

378

Miscellaneous.

plumage has a mottled appearance, caused by the feathers being cen-
trally black and broadly edged with cinereous. In the middle of the
back is a perceptibly greenish gloss. The only examples I have seen
of this as of the former species are in the British Museum, where
Mr. G. R. Gray’s uniform kindness affords me every opportunity of
studying the collection under his care.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Bohemian Forests and Peat-bogs, By Dr. Hochstetter*.

The primitive forests on Prince Schwarzenberg’s domain, viz. at
Krumau, Winterberg, and Stubenbach, may at a considerable distance
be easily distinguished from the cultivated and regularly cut forests
by their irregular and angular outlines ; whilst the cupola-shaped
summits of the firs rise considerably above the pyramidal pine-tops.
Seen from an elevation, the difference between the primitive forest,
with its withered tops and somewhat scattered trees, and the compact
and verdant cultivated forest, is still more striking.

In some localities in the interior of the forests, the trees stand in
straight lines of 150 to 200 feet [= 155'55 to 207*4 English feet]
in length, as if planted so. Wherever the seeds do not find in the
deep vegetable soil a site favourable for germination, their growth is
exclusively confined to the roots and prostrate stems in a state of de-
composition. Long after these stems have completely rotted away,
their original length and situation are visible from the rectilinear
arrangement of the younger trees, growing in the mouldering sub-
stance of the decayed veterans. This growth of the young plant on
the decaying roots and stems serves also to explain the frequent
occurrence of trees supported above the ground by means of exposed
columnar roots, and, as it is termed, “standing on stilts.”

The age of the pines and the firs in the primitive forests reaches as
much as SOO to 500 years; the pines grow occasionally to 200 feet
in height, and contain 1900 cubic feet [= 2118*5 English cubic
feet] of wood in their stem alone. One of the finest of the firs, 30
feet [=31*11 English feet] in circumference at a man’s height,
stood in the Brandelwald, near Unter-Muldau ; it M^as lately blown
down, and it is estimated to contain 30 klafters [= 3012'03 English
cubic feet] of fire-wood. Besides pines and firs, the forests in ques-
tion contain beeches, maples, elms, birches, willows, and some, but
very few, yew trees.

At present the extent of Prince Schwarzenberg’s primitive forests is
estimated at 30,000 Austrian acres [= 42,500 English acres] ; and the
quantity of wood in them at 6^ millions of klafters [=652,606,500
English cubic feet] . A large portion of the wood from these forests
is consumed in the neighbourhood for the use of the glass-furnaces,

* From the Proceedings of the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna,
Jan. 23, 1855. Translated and communicated by Count Marschall.

Miscellaneous^

379

and for the fabrication of musical instruments and touchwoods ; but
the major part is floated to the lower countries for timber and for
fuel. Large quantities of the timber are sent annually to England
and Hamburg for ship-building.

Rapacious animals, as bears, wolves, and lynxes, were formerly very
abundant in the Rohmer- Wald, but have been exterminated. A
bear, the last of its race, is supposed to be still haunting the Jokus-
wald, near Salnau.

The beds of peat or bituminous turf, locally denominated “ Auen ”
or “ Filze,” may be considered in connexion with these old forests.
The whole upper part of the Moldau Valley, as far up as the neigh-
bourhood of Ferchenhaid, for an extent of 7 Austrian miles [=32*998
English miles], and with an average breadth of Austrian mile [=
1*1/8 English mile], is one continuous peat-bed, traversed by the
windings of the Moldau, whose waters assume a brownish tint by
dissolving the extractive substances of the peat.

In the mountainous parts the peat-deposits are more isolated, amid
surrounding forests. The dense vegetation of pumilous birches and
pines covering their surfaces attests their antiquity, and points to
their analogy with the primitive forests. Lakes occur in the centre
of the peat- beds near Innergefild and Ferchenhaid. A swimming
island, probably owung its origin to the central swelling and bursting
of the peat, is seen in the last-named locality.

Cultivation is busy converting the peat-beds into forests, meadows,
and arable-fields. These deposits, however, are of great importance
in the economy of nature, and it may become a question of national
economy how far this cultivation may proceed without injurious con-
sequences. The climatal and meteorological influence of the peat-
beds is the same as that of the forests ; they even act with more
energetic and concentrated effect. Ry acting as natural sponges in
periods when water is abundant, they attract the superfluous humi-
dity, and so prevent inundations. In seasons of drought they give
up their accumulated w'aters. They are the real water-reservoirs in
mountainous regions ; generally giving rise to the rivulets and rivers,
and keeping their water-level constant during every season.

OCCURRENCE OF DIODONTA FRAGILIS AT WEYMOUTH.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Weymouth, October 23, 1855.

Gentlemen, — I beg to record Weymouth as a habitat for that
very local Mollusk, Diodonta frayUis, having some short time since
picked up a living specimen on the sands in front of the Espla-
nade. It measures 1 J inch in width, and is in excellent condition.
I should have announced it before, but the fact was, it had been
placed in a draw’er with other shells to he examined, and I was not
aw'are of the j)rize I possessed until it was pointed out by my friend
Mr. II. Adams.

380

Miscellaneous.

I have also lately taken alive, attached to a piece of Eschara
foliacea by a byssiis, a fine specimen of Galeomma Turtoni.

Mr. Coode has also dredged a specimen of Tritonia (? Hombergii).
The following were my rough notes on its appearance : —

Tritonia (1 Hombergii) . A specimen 4 inches in length, taken
by Mr. Coode and Mr. Stanley in fifteen fathoms water, olf Lulworth.
Colour rnarble-hrown. Head-veil at times bilobed, at other times
entire. The margin of veil not fimbriated, but closely set with ten-
tacular points. Branchiae in about a dozen tufts on each side of the
back. Dorsal tentacles issuing from sheaths having their edges
jagged. It appears to me to be intermediate between T. Hombergii
and T. plebeia.^^

I am. Gentlemen, yours obediently,

William Thompson.

Description of a second species of the genus Procnias.

By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.iV.

I have seen several examples of Procnias in collections from New
Grenada, and have never doubted their being different from the Bra-
zilian species. But being aware that a second member of the genus
had been described by Dr. Cabanis in the Museum Heineanum under
the appellation Procnias Heinei, I applied that name to these birds
without much inquiry. Having lately, however, had the oppor-
tunity of examining the beautiful collection which contains the type
of Dr. Cabanis’ description, I find that I was in error in so doing.
The specimen there designated Procnias Heinei is a female or young
male of Calliste atricapilla, Lafr., and belongs therefore, according
to my ideas, to a different family of birds.

I therefore propose the name Procnias occidentalis for this new
species, which may be distinguished from the older one by its smaller
size, the less amount of black on the throat, and by the white belly
not extending nearly so high towards the breast.

Procnias OCCIDENTALIS, Sclater. P. Icete viridis : fronte an-
guste et lateribiis capitis cum mento gidaque nigris : ventre
medio crissoque albis : lateribus nigro radiatis : alts caudaque
intus nigric antibus.

Long, tota 5*0 ; alee 3*3 ; caudse 2*9 poll. Angl.

Hab. in Nova Grenada. — Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 14, 1854.

Descriptions of some New Species of Birds.

By the Viscount Du Bus de Gisignies.

1. Lanio auritus. Mas. L. nigerrimus, subtus nigro-fuliginosus ;
supercilio tenuissimo albo, pone oculos in penicillum auricularem
rubro-igneum prolongato ; humeris et tergo flavissimis ; tectricibus
alarum inferioribus, fasciculoque plumarum elongatarurn axillari can-
didis. Bostro et pedibus nigris.

Miscellaneous.

381

Fern. Nigro-fuliginosa, in dorso subvirescens ; subtus cinereo-arde-
siaca ; supercilio, penicilloque auriculari nullis ; tergo flavo ; tectri-
cibus alarum inferioribus, fasciculoque axillari candidis.

Total length 16^ centim. (about 6|- inches).

Hab. Columbia.

Only three true species of Lanio are yet known. The present bird
appears to me to be best placed in this genus, although, in some
respects, it diifers a little from the other species. It is distinguished
from these by a different coloration, and is especially remarkable
from the superciliary streaks, which are white at their origin near the
nostrils, become fiery-red on a level with the eyes, and extend back-
wards at the sides of the nape in the form of little tufts of somewhat
elongated plumes, which the bird probably elevates at pleasure.

2. Pipilopsis cristata. P. supra flavicanti-olivacea, uropygio pan-
him dilutiore ; capite cristato supra griseo, jugulo et genis griseo-
canescentibus ; pectore et abdomine laete croceo-flavis ; remigibus et
rectricibus bruimeis, olivascente extus limbatis. llostro corneo ;
pedibus fuscis.

Total length 17 centim. (about inches).

This species, a native of Columbia, has somewhat the colour and
form of Arremon 7'ubrirostris, Lafr., by the side of which, it appears
to me that it should be placed. It is larger and more robust, and
its head is adorned with a crest.

3. Buarremon latinuchus. B. supra obscure cinereus ; pileo toto
et cervice rufis ; lateribus capitis nigris ; subtus viridi-flavus, ventre
dilutiore, hypochoiidriis et crisso cinereo-flavidis ; alis et cauda sub-
nigris ; remiguni primariarum basi albida. Rostro nigro ; pedibus
fuscis.

Total length 18 centim. (about 7y inches).

This species, which I believe to be new, comes from Columbia and
Peru. It has all the characters of a well-circumscribed small group
of birds inhabiting those countries, including Arremon schistaceiis,
pallidinucJius and albofrenatus, Briss., and A. gutturalis, Lafr., as
well as Embernagra rujlnucha and albinucha, D’Orb. It will there-
fore form the seventh species* of this group, and is positively distinct
from all the others, altliough it presents a good deal of resemblance
to some of them, especially the A. pallidinuchus^ Briss., and the
E. rvjinucha, D’Orb.

Its particular distinction from the latter is the absence of the black
streak on the sides of the throat at the base of the u{)per mandible.
It differs from the first especially in having the red of the toj) of the

* .\11 the s])ceies above mentioned are ^vell known to me. But I regret
that I have not been al)le to j)roeure the Atlapetcs pileatus, Wagl., the type
of its genus, and the A. rubrical tis, (Jab., wliieh I have never seen, and
which, although natives of Mexico, would appear to belong to the same
genus as the seven speeies here iudieated. If this be the ease, the genus
Atlapetcs would now eonsist of these nine s])eeies.

382

Miscellaneous.

head bright and uniform, and instead of being narrower, it widens
in descending upon the nape and the back of the neck.

4. Nemosia torcpmta. Mas. N. supra, cum capite toto, niger-
rima ; semi-torque collari postico nitide flavo ; interscapulio medio,
tergo, jugulo, pectore et hypochondriis nitide virescenti-flavis ; abdo-
mine medio et crisso albidis ; tectricibus alarum minoribus et mediis
cyaneis ; remigibus et rectricibus nigris, caeruleo extus limbatis.
Rostro corneo, mandibulae basi pallida ; pedibus obscuris.

Total length 11^ centim, (about inches).

The native country of this pretty species is New Granada. It has
all the characters of the true Nemosi6B, but with a rather more slender
and very slightly arched bill. Its colours are brighter and resemble
the glossy and brilliant tints which adorn some species of the genus
Calliste, especially the C. cyanoptera, Sw.

5. Euphonia longipennis. Mas. E. nitens, viridis ; semi-torque
postico, uropygio et oculorum margine cyaneis ; interscapulio et tergo
cyaneo-maculatis ; abdomine cum hypochondriis et crisso leetissime
aureo-flavis ; remigibus rectricibusqiie nigris, viridi extus limbatis.
Rostro nigro, basi cserulescenti ; pedibus fuscis.

Fern. Interscapulio et tergo viridibtis, absque maculis cyaneis ;
uropygio dilute cyanescenti-viridi ; epigastrio et hypochondriis fla-
vescenti-viridibus ; ventre et crisso flavidis.

Total length J) centim. (about 3|- inches).

Hab. Antioquia, in New Granada.

This little Euphonia is so nearly allied to E. viridis, Vieillot, that
it is difficult to distinguish it, without comparing individuals of the
two species. However, it appears to me to be sufficiently charac-
terized by its small size, the difference between the two species being
at least a fifth, whilst its wings and tarsi are longer in comparison, as
they are of the same actual length as those of the other species.
Thus in repose, the point of the longest primary feather in E. longi-
pennis reaches the extremity of the tail, whilst in E. viridis it does
not attain half the length of the tail.

The Chlorophonia frontalis, Bp., is also very similar to the two
species above mentioned ; but it is less difficult to recognize, because
the forehead is always yellow, and the back is never blue.

6. Euphonia plumb ea. E. griseo-plumbea, viridi micans ; abdo-
mine et crisso aureo-flavis. Rostro albicante, apice corneo ; pedibus
cinereo-fuscis.

Total length 8^ centim. (about 3f inches).

Hab. New Granada.

This is one of the smallest, if not the smallest species of the genus.
It is very easily recognized by its uniform grey colour, except on the
belly. In this respect it resembles E. jama'ica, Linn., but differs
widely from it in its small size, and especially in the form and pro-
portions of the bill, which is slightly depressed, and presents a con-
siderable resemblance to that of E. chlorotica. — Bull, de V Acad. Roy.
de Belgique, 1855, vol. xxii. pp. 153-156.

Meteorological Observations. 383

Description of a new species q/* Petrogale.

By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. &c.

Yellow-legged Rock-Kangaroo, Petrogale xanthopus.

Pale brown, minutely grizzled ; chin and beneath white : streak
on side from the back of shoulder, and along the side of the face
under the eye, whitish ; dorsal streak narrow, brown ; legs, feet, and
tail bright yellow ; end of tail more bushy and varied with brown.

Australia (Richmond River ?)

This species has all the markings as in Petrogale lateralis, but
dilfers in being of a much paler and yellower colour, and in the
bright yellow colour of the legs and basal part of the tail. It is
about the same size as P. penicillatus, or rather between it and
P. lateralis.

There are two specimens of this species (male and female) pro-
cured by Mr. Strange. — Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 14, 1854.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR SEPT. 1855.

Chiswick. — September 1. Clear and fine : cloudy. 2. Cloudy. 3. Clear: slight
shower : fine. 4. Cloudy. 5. Fine : cloudy : clear and cold at night. 6. Clear :
cloudy. 7. Very clear ; cloudy : fine. 8. Dense fog : clear and very fine. 9. Very
fine. 10. Foggy: fine: very clear. 11. Very fine. 12. Slight fog : very fine:
clear : rain at night. 13. Rain. 14. Constant rain. 15. Uniformly overcast :
fine. 16. Overcast : clear and fine. 17. Rain : hazy : overcast. 18. Hazy: over-
cast. 19. Slight haze : fine. 20 — 22. Foggy in the mornings: very fine. 23.
Fine : cloudy : very clear. 24. Overcast. 25. Fine : cloudy : clear : frosty at
night. 26. Slight haze : very dry air : frosty at night. 27. Foggy : very fine :
loudy. 28, 29. Cloudy : rain. 30. Hazy : cloudy : rain at night.

Mean temperature of the month 56°*11

Mean temperature of Sept. 1854 56 *93

Mean temperature of Sept, for the last twenty-nine years ... 56 *98
Average amount of rain in Sept 2*503 inches.

Boston. — Sept. 1. Cloudy : rain p.m. 2 — 6. Cloudy. 7,8. Fine. 9, 10. Cloudy.
11,12. Fine. 13. Fine: rain a.m. 14 — 18. Cloudy. 19,20. Fine. 21,22.
Cloudy. 23. Fine. 24. Fine : rain a.m. 25. Cloudy. 26, 27. Fine. 28. Fine:
rain p.m. 29. Cloudy : rain a.m. 30. Cloudy.

Sandwich Manse, Orkney. — Sept. 1,2. Bright a.m.: cloudy p.m. 3. Cloudy

а. m. and p.m. 4. Bright a.m. : clear p.m. 5. Showers a.m. : clear p.m.

б. Drizzle a.m. and p.m. 7. Cloudy a.m. : showers p.m. 8. Clear a.m. : showers
P.M. 9. Bright a.m. : showers p.m. 10. Cloudy a.m. : showers, aurora p.m. 11.
Show'ers a.m. : cloudy, aurora p.m. 12. Rain a.m. : clear, aurora p.m. 13. Cloudy
A.M. : clear P.M. 14. Cloudy, hoar-frost a.m. : clear, aurora p.m. 15. Bright,
hoar-frost A.M. : cloudy p.m. 16. Showers a.m.: clear p.m. 17,18. Showers
a.m. and p.m. 19. Cloudy a.m.: drops p.m. 20. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 21.
Showers a.m. : drizzle p.m. 22. Damp a.m. : drizzle p.m. 23. Cloudy a.m. :
clear, fine p.m. 24. Clear a.m. : fine, cloudy p.m. 25. Cloudy a.m. : fine, drops
P.M. 26. Drops A.M. : fine, clear p.m. 27. Drops a.m. : cloudy p.m. 28. Drops
A.M. and P.M. 29. Rain a.m. : fog p.m. 30. Fog a.m. and p.m.

Mean temperature of Sept, for twenty-eight previous years ... 52'’*42

Mean temperature of this month 52 *74

Mean tctn])cralure of Sept. 1854 55 *07

Average (|uantity of rain in Sept, for fifteen previous years ... 2*81 inches.

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THE ANNALS

AND

MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.

[SECOND SERIES.]

No. 96. DECEMBER 1855.

XXXIII. — On the Batrachian Ranunculi of Britain,

By Charles C. Babington, M.A., F.R.S. &c.*

It is with much diffidence that I venture to attempt the eluci-
dation of the Batrachian Ranunculi of Britain, for the great
diffieulty of the subjeet neeessarily presses heavily upon the
mind. Also, it cannot be otherwise than disheartening to feel,
that however successful I may be in my own estimation and
even in that of my friends, and, that although my endeavours
may result in a close approaeh to the acquaintance with the
plants that has been attained in Sweden and Franee, it is certain
that several of the most eminent of the botanists of Britain will
consider that I have been wasting my time and retarding rather
than advancing science. Had the views of those learned men
been generally held by persons of equal seientihc rank in other
countries, I should have thought it my duty to adopt them ; but
as several of the most distinguished botanists of continental
Europe do not think that they are idling away their time by
catching at shadows,^^ when they expend it upon an earnest
endeavour to attain the most accurate possible knowledge of the
plants inhabiting their respective countries, I am led to the
belief that I am really doing well when trying distantly to follow
their example.

It has been justly remarked, that we have no good definition
of a sj)ecies amongst plants, and that it is hard or even impossible
to apply those which we j)Ossess. Until species can be defined,
each botanist is left to judge as best he can of what ought or
ought not to be so considered. In the case which is about to be

* Road to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Nov. 8, 1855.

Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Scr. 2. Vol. xvi. 26

386 Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi.

presented to the reader, I have been led, or rather driven to the
conclusion that the forms described below are species, by having
had most of them under my observation in a growing state for
several years, and finding them to continue constant in their
characters when raised from seed under varying circumstances
through successive generations : also, by remarking that they
not only possess permanent definable distinctions, but present
such differences at first sight as to enable the practised eye to
distinguish them easily. Surely, in such a case, the minuteness
or obscurity of the structure upon w'hich the technical character
is founded can be no just argument against the claims of the
plants to be considered as entitled to specific rank. Neither can
we accept as conclusive against them the fact that some eminent
botanist, such as Smith (Eng. Flora, hi. 55), has combined them
under two names ; or, Seringe “ long ago recorded his decided
opinion, that all were mere varieties of one species. Neither
Seringe (Melanges Botaniques, ii. 8 & 49) nor Schlechtendal
(Animadv. Bot. in Ran. 8), who is also used as an authority by
those who persuade themselves that all these plants form only one
species, appears to have had any knowledge of the characters that
are now employed in this group of plants ; and I think that no
botanist of the present day lays stress upon the hairiness or
smoothness of the plant or its capsules ; neither would plants be
considered as distinct solely on account of the presence or absence
of the broad fioating leaves. It is nearly certain that several of
the species (as I eonsider them) that are to be described pre-
sently (viz. R. heterophylliLSy R. Baudotiiy R. floribundus) would
each afford a series of forms, extending from a state in which
there are no capillarly- divided leaves to one consisting solely of
them, similar to that recorded by Schlechtendal under the name
of R. aquatilis. The existence of such series assuredly rather
tends to prove that there are several species of Batrachian
Ranunculi than that they are all of one species. Doubtless it
requires a considerable familiarity with the plants to enable a
person to refer all these forms to their proper species, and mis-
takes are very frequently made in attempting to do so. Also
innumerable errors and difficulties arise when names are required
to be given to scraps, such as are often collected and preserved
even by good botanists.

We are told that a series of specimens from all parts of the
world proves that there is only one species of Batrachian Ranun-
culus. Doubtless it w^ould be easy to form a series apparently
justifying such an opinion, but our success in so doing does not
seem necessary to prove the non-existence of several species ;
for it may, and I believe has, happened in many such cases that

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 387

the supposed connecting links are single specimens of distinct
species, which consist of multitudes of similar individuals in their
native districts, although only one or two may have been pre-
served in the herbarium employed for study. Let the living
plants be carefully examined in a country, such as Britain, where
they are numerous, and if, after an unprejudiced endeavour to
arrive at the truth, they prove undistinguishable, then let them
be combined. But if, as my observations lead me to believe, the
best known of them are quite constant in their form and habit,
it does not seem to be the pursuit of truth that leads to their
neglect, but rather the adherence to a preconceived theory. Take
as an example the R. circinutus : this plant inhabits the most
different situations, growing upon a muddy or gravelly bottom,
in swift streams or stagnant ditches and pits, in water or on
mud, and yet the well-known structure of its leaves is invariable.

Many years since it fell to my lot to attempt to controvert the
opinion then prevalent in England, that the R, aquatilis, R. cir-
cinatus diXidiR.fluitans formed one species (Ann. Nat. Hist. Ser. 1.
vol. hi. p. 225-230), and I showed conclusively, as I venture to
think, that the depth, motion, or stagnancy of the water in
which they grow has nothing whatever to do with the size,
shape or structure of the leaves, nor with the direction of them.
Of course certain slight alterations are the result of the circum-
stances in which the plants are placed, but they are not such as
to affect the characters upon which the species are founded. In
doing this I was performing little more than restoring to recog-
nition in this country species known to Ray, and defined and
named according to the Linnsean method by Sibthorp. On the
European continent several eminent men had already adopted
them. Since that date my attention has been often turned
towards these beautiful plants, and during the last few years I
have made them a special subject of study. Within the same
period, such men as Fries, Koch, Godron, Cosson and others,
have been led to think that the R. aquatilis required further sub-
division. Accordingly many attempts have been made to do so
with greater or less success, and it is a cause of much satis-
faction to me to find that, with a single exception, the British
species have already been detected and described in other coun-
tries. That those botanists should have arrived at different conclu-
sions, and even changed their opinions once or more, is certainly
not a valid excuse for neglecting the study in which they have
partially failed ; for in this, as in all other departments of know-
ledge, correct results are not usually attained until after many
attempts. Let it not be thought from these remarks that I
claim to have succeeded ; for all that I propose to myself is to

26*

388 Mr. C. C. Babingtou on the Batrachian Ranunculi.

make a small step towards success, and to place before those
who may follow up the study a few additional facts, or an im-
proved application of those already known.

In this group of plants we are not acquainted with any single
character which may safely be stated to be always deserving of
confidence ; but if a combination of several characters is em-
ployed, there will rarely be any serious difficulty in identifying
the supposed species, even when the structure of some of the
parts has undergone change. The look of the plant is generally
distinctive of the species j and the difficulties commence when
an attempt is made to draw up technical definitions, or to de-
termine the names from specific characters.” Such is found
to be the case in most groups of closely allied species inhabiting
the metropolis,” as it has been called, of extensive and dif-
ficult genera. We may call the plants varieties or hybrids, but,
until they are proved to be such, we are only avoiding a difficulty,
not stating a fact in science.

Having made these preliminary observations, I will now
endeavour to point out the characters upon which we seem to
have the most reason for placing dependence in preparing spe-
cific characters for the Batrachian Ranunculi.

It has long been known that the absence of hairs from the
receptacle, and of any submersed and filiformly- divided leaves,
distinguishes R. hederaceus and its more recently noticed ally,
R. coenosus, from the rest of our native species. It was pointed
out by Sibthorp, that the submersed leaves of R. circinatus and
R. fluitans had a different form from those of R. aquatilis, under
which latter name he included plants which I have failed in
reducing to less than eight species. In these latter plants (i. e.
the R. aquatilis of Sibthorp), the submersed leaves are formed
of repeatedly-dividing filiform or setaceous parts, which spread
in such a manner from their first division, where the leaf trifur-
cates, as to take the shape of a greater or less segment of a
sphere. These three divisions of the leaf are forked at very
short or more distant intervals ; they are fine or rather thick,
rigid or flaccid, and accordingly retain their direction when
taken out of the w^ater, or collapse so as to resemble a painter^s
pencil.

In all the species, the floating or emerged leaves have an out-
line which is nearly circular, or only forms part of a circle ; they
are divided more or less deeply into lobes, or quite to the top of
their petioles into leaflets; in some cases these leaflets have
partial petioles of a considerable length, and then the circular
outline of the whole leaf is not apparent. When the leaf is
formed of lobes or sessile leaflets, the outer margins of the lateral

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranuuculi. 889

lobes or leaflets, that is, the outer margins of the leaf, are either
straight from their base throughout a considerable part of their
extent, or their lower part is much rounded ; therefore the
leaflets are wedge-shaped or obovate.

In most of the species, the peduncles spring from the same
nodes as both the divided and submersed, and the flat and
floating leaves ; but in the plant called R. peltatus in this paper,
they are very rarely produced in the former situation ; so rarely,
as to have caused Fries to denominate the floating leaves folia
necessaria in that plant. The peduncles either about equal
the leaves or much exceed them, and then raise the flowers
considerably out of the water. They are either equally thick
throughout their length, or narrow more or less gradually to-
wards the flower.

The petals are either broad with many veins, or narrow and
usually few-veined. In the former case, the edges of contiguous
petals are close together, and often overlap ; in the latter, they
are usually distant, and give what I have called a star-like
appearance to the flower. As the flowers of the broad-petaled
species advance towards decay, they acquire a slightly similar
look j for the petals, which had originally a rounded form,
lengthen so much that their lower part becomes wedge-shaped,
and the flower rather star-like.

In two of our species, the stamens are so short as to be
exceeded by the pistils, but usually they conspicuously overtop
those organs.

Although the stigma varies in shape, it is not easy to apply
this difierence to the discrimination of the species, for it changes
its form as it acquires age.

Not much dependence should be placed upon the position of
the style, for apparently it generally forms a continuation of the
inner, or nearly straight side of the ovary.

The carpels differ much in shape, but usually form the half
of an ovate or obovate figure ; the inner or upper edge is usually
almost straight, but not always so, and then the carpel is often
nearly ovate or obovate. On these latter forms of carpel, the
persistent base of the style, or slight apiculus that represents it,
nearly terminates the diameter of the carpel ; but on the others
it usually is connected with the straight side, being placed at
its end, but forming an angle with it. The carpels are usually
compressed laterally, and their coats closely enclose the seed ;
but in some cases they are inflated in their up])cr part, or slightly
so throughout. These inflated carpels arc, therefore, broadest
at the end ; but in some of the species where they arc not in-
flated, a narrowing and flattening occurs at the end.

390 Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi.
Ranunculus^ Linn.

Section I. Batrachium. Fruitstalks arching. Carpels trans-
versely wrinkled. Petals white (with a yellow claw in all
our plants).

This section includes all the species which it is now proposed
to consider. It constitutes the genus Batrachium of Pries ; hut
I must be permitted to think, that there is no valid reason for
separating it generically from the other Ranunculi. R. scele-
ratus, although a true Ranunculus, has several points in common
with the Batrachia. It has minute seeds traversed by faint
transverse wrinkles, and when growing in water its lower leaves
float in a similar manner to those of the species of Batrachia,
and very closely resemble them.

Subsection A. Submersed leaves twice or thrice trifurcate
with filiform segments spreading in the form of a section
of a sphere, rarely wanting. Receptacle hispid.

1. R. trichophyllus (Chaix) ; submersed leaves closely trifurcate,
segments short rigid not collapsing into a pencil when taken
out of the water, no floating leaves, peduncles not narrowing
upwards about equalling the leaves, flowers small, pet. obovate
^-7 -nerved not contiguous evanescent, stigma oblong, recep-
tacle oblong, carpels ^-ovate laterally apiculate compressed.

R. trichophyllus, Chaix in Fill. Bauph. i. 335 ; Gren. et Godr. FI.
de Fr. i. 23.

R. pantothrix, DC. Syst. i. 235 (in part) ; Bert. FI. Ital. v. 575.
R. ceespitosus, Godr. in Mem. Nancy, 1839,30. f. 6 (the terrestrial
state).

R. capillaceus, Lloyd \ FI. de la Loire Inf . 5 ; Godr. FI. Lor. i. 15.
R. aquatilis v. pantothrix, Koch, Syn. FI. Germ. ed. 1. 11 ; Sturm,
Deutschl. FI. fasc. 67. t. 11 ; Fries \ Herb. Norm. ix. 27 (spe-
cimen).

R. heterophyllus var. succulentum. Fries, H. N. xi. 33 (specimen) ?
Batrachium trichophyllum, F. Schultz, FI. Gall, et Germ, exsic.
805 bis & 1203 ; Van den Bosch, Prod. FI. Batav. 5.

Stem floating, rooting at the lower joinings, obtuse-angled,
hollow. Submersed leaves with filiform segments diverging
slightly, and when mature so rigid as not to collapse when re-
moved from the water : middle branch at the first fork the small-
est. Petioles plane-convex, short. Upper leaves sessile. When
growing upon mud from which the water has retired, the seg-
ments of the leaves are very short and thick. Floating leaves
always absent. Stipules large, rounded, auricled, ^ or |rds
adnate. Peduncles falling short of, or slightly exceeding the
leaves. Buds globular. Flowers small, star-like. Sepals

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 391

ovate, very blunt, concave, green with a diaphanous margin.
Petals distant, white, wedge-shaped, slightly clawed and yellow
below, about twice as long as the calyx when full-grown.
Nectary round, scarcely at all margined or prominent; but
probably this structure is not constant, for I have seen, on what
is apparently a plant of this species, a prominent bracket-shaped
nectary. Stamens from about 10 to 15, exceeding the pistils.
Style prolonging the inner edge of the ovary, short, curved.
Stigma at first oblong, afterwards elongating. Carpels blunt,
a little hairy, and slightly narrowed at the end. Receptacle
nearly globose, as thick as the peduncle. Colour of the plant
dark lurid green.

This plant differs from R. heterophyllus by its small few-
nerved evanescent petals, globular receptacle, dark green
dense rigid small submersed leaves ; from R. confusus and
R. Baudotii by its short peduncles which are equally thick
throughout, its oblong not ligulate stigmas and globose recep-
tacle, deciduous small petals, and in other respects. R. flori-
bundus and R. peltatus are large-flowered plants that cannot be
confounded with it even when the former happens to want the
floating leaves. It differs from all the other species of the sub-
section by never having been observed to have floating leaves,
nor to show any tendency to produce them. Its nearest ally is
R. Drouetii. It is well marked by its stems, which float close
to the surface of the water, being furnished with small dense
rather closely placed dark green leaves, and small flowers which
only just rise out of the water. No species resembles it in these
respects.

Flowering in May and June.

R. trichojjhyllus is plentiful in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and
Suffolk, but is perhaps not very generally distributed through-
out the kingdom. R. Drouetii is probably often mistaken for it,
as is also the wholly submersed state of R. heterophyllus.

2. R. Drouetii (F. Schultz ?) ; submersed leaves rather closely
trifurcate, segments rather rigid but collapsing , floating leaves
(rare) tripartite with subsessile or stalked wedge-shaped bifid
leaflets, peduncles not narrowing and about equalling the
leaves, flowers small, petals obovate 5-7-nerved not con-
tiguous evanescent, stigma oblong, receptacle oblong, carpels
j-obovate sublaterally apiculate inflated at the end.

R. Drouetii, F. Schultz in Gren. et Godr. FI. de Fr. i. 24 ?

R. Godroiiii, Gren. in F. Schultz^ FI. Gall, et Germ, exsic. No. 1202
(specimen).

Stem floating, rooting from the lower joinings, very bluntly

392 Mr. C. C.Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi.

angular, hollow. Submersed leaves with filiform segments
which are rather short, diverge greatly at their trifurcations,
less so at the bifurcate divisions : middle branch at the first
fork the smallest. Petioles plane-convex, short. Upper leaves
nearly or quite sessile. Floating leaves very rare, tripartite j di-
visions stalked, bifid, wedge-shaped, the sides being very nearly
straight, except the outer side of the lateral ones, which is
slightly but decidedly rounded ; middle division much more
shortly stalked than the others, or very nearly sessile, usually
placed at an angle with the other divisions, and directed down-
wards, so as to be always submersed. These tripartite leaves
soon decay, and the plant produces beyond them a series of
filiformly-divided submersed leaves, similar to those that had
preceded them. Petioles of the tripartite leaves rather long,
nearly cylindrical. Stipules large, rounded, auricled, ^ to frds
adnate. Peduncles falling short of, or slightly exceeding the
leaves, from both kinds of leaves. Buds oblong. Flowers
small, star-like. Sepals ovate, very blunt, concave, greenish,
dotted with purple, especially towards the edge; the whole
margin diaphanous. Petals distant, white, wedge-shaped, yellow
below and slightly clawed, about twice as long as the calyx when
full-grown. Nectary round, scarcely at all margined or pro-
minent. Stamens fewer than 10, exceeding the pistils. Style
prolonging the inner edge of the ovary, short, cuiwed. Carpels
blunt, more or less hairy at the end, w'hich is a little inflated so
as to have a broad flat edge; base of the style small, rather
variable in position, not central nor truly lateral. Receptacle
oblong, as thick as the peduncle. Colour of the plant bright
green.

This plant agrees in so many respects with the descriptions of
R. Drouetii, and with specimens of that plant obligingly sent to
me by my excellent correspondent M. R. Lenormand, that I am
led to consider it as belonging to that species, notwithstanding
the occasional presence of floating leaves. When those leaves
are absent, the English plant appears to be identical with that
described as R, Drouetii by Dr. Godron. That botanist places
much dependence upon the style .... insere presque k Pex-
tremite du long diametre du pistil such is not the case in our
plant, nor is the rudiment of the style central upon the carpel
of the French specimens, on some carpels of which it somewhat
approaches that position, but upon others it is decidedly lateral.
There is similar variety in the position of the apiculus on the
carpels of the English plant.

The presence of flat floating leaves is an apparent objection
to the identification of the plants ; but I think that the widen-
ing of the divisions of some of the upper leaves, indicating an

Mr. C. C. Babin gton on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 393

approach to a floating leaf, such as is occasionally although
rarely found upon our plant, may be detected upon M. Lenor-
mand^s speeimens. Of this, however, I am not quite eertain.

I am much indebted to my friend the Rev. W. W. Newbould
for directing my attention to the floating leaves of our plant.

The R. Godronii (Gren.), specimens of which I have received
from Dr. F. Schultz, appears similar to our plant when it is
furnished with the floating leaves, but I am unable to see in
what other respects it differs from the typical R, Drouetii, I
cannot find any description of R, Godronii.

R. confervoides (Fries, H. N. xiii. 45) is closely allied to this
species, but has long slender peduncles. R. paucistamineus
(Tausch) may be a stronger form of R. confervoides.

R. Drouetii ean only be confounded with R. trichophyllus or
R. heterophyllus. From the former it is distinguished by its
bright green colour, collapsing leaves, inflated and very blunt
carpels, and much more lax habit ; from the latter by its very
peeuliar floating leaves, fewer-nerved and evaneseent petals,
inflated and minutely apiculate carpels, and nearly globose
receptacle.

Flowering in May and June.

I have received R. Drouetii from several places in Cambridge-
shire, Burnham in Norfolk, Byford in Herefordshire, and Hook
in Surrey.

3. R. heterophyllus (Fries) ; submersed leaves loosely trifurcate,
segments long collapsing, floating leaves subpeltate tripartite
with sessile or stalked wedge-shaped 3-5-lobed leaflets, pe-
duncles not narrowing scarcely exceeding the leaves, flowers
large, petals broadly obovate-euneate 7-Q-nerved not con-
tiguous persistent, stigma oblong, receptacle conical, carpels
4 -ovate laterally pointed.

R. heterophyllus, Fries, Summa, 140, & Herb. Nortn. ii. 32 (spe-
cimen).

R. aquatilis a. pseudo-peltatus, Godr. in Mem. de Nancy, 1839,
p. 2.5. f. 5 c &

R. aquatilis var. pantothrix. Fries, Herb. Norm. ix. 27 (specimen).
R. aquatilis, Eng. Bot. t. 101.

Batrachium heterophyllum, Fan den Bosch, Prod. FI. Batav. 8.

Stem floating, rooting from the lower joinings, prominently
but irregularly angular, hollow. (A plant apparently referable
to this s])ccies which grew in shallow water has a solid stem.
Much stress has been laid upon such a difference, but it seems
of little consequence.) Submersed leaves two or three times
trifurcate, afterwards bifurcate ; segments filiform, rather rigid.
At the first fork the branches are divaricate and the middle one

394 Mr. G. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi.

is tbe smallest, at the succeeding forks they are more and more
approximate. Petioles semicylindrical, short. Upper submersed
leaves sessile. Floating leaves usually flat, with bifid leaflets,
each segment deeply lobed ; when they rise out of the water, as
is frequently the case, they form a nearly or quite circular disk ;
their outer edge is usually straight from its base, but occasion-
ally is slightly rounded from thence. Stipules broad, adnate
nearly throughout. Peduncles from both kinds of leaves. Buds
globular, or slightly depressed and obscurely pentagonal . Flowers
becoming star-like. Sepals ovate, very blunt, convex, brownish
green towards the top with a dark irregular edge, yellowish at
the base, the whole margin diaphanous. Petals sometimes with
more than nine nerves, white, yellow below, fully twice as long
as the calyx. Nectary round, very prominent, bracket- shaped,
so as to open nearly at right angles to the plane of the petal.
Stamens many, exceeding the pistils. Style prolonging the
inner edge of the ovary, curved. Stigma straight. Carpels
blunt with a large apiculus, slightly hairy at the end, inner
edge nearly straight.

When the floating leaves are not produced, the plant is simi-
lar in all other respects. Both states are frequently to be found
in the same place.

The differences between this plant and R. trichophyllus and
R, Drouetii have been already pointed out. Its collapsing leaves
distinguish it from the four following species. Its uniformly
thick and short peduncles separate it from R. confusus, R, Bau-
dotii and R. peltatus ; its wedge-shaped leaflets from R. confxisus,
R. floribundus and R. peltatus. In swift streams it sometimes
much resembles R. fluitans, but has not the structure of that
plant.

Flowering from May to July ; rarely flowers may be found in
April and August.

I have obtained this plant from Cambridgeshire, Leicester-
shire, Chichester, the River Lea near Hertford, Battersea in
Surrey, and Pangbourn in Berkshire. I believe it to be pretty
generally distributed.

4. R. confusus (Godr.) ; submersed leaves loosely trifurcate, seg-
ments long rather rigid not collapsing, floa,ting leaves long-
stalked subpeltate subtripartite with sessile obovate 3-5 -lobed
segments, peduncles slender narrowing gradually exceeding
the leaves, flowers large, petals obovate-cuneate 7-9-nerved
not contiguous persistent, stigma tongue-shaped, receptacle
ovate-conical, carpels | -ovate compressed and narrowed up-
wards.

R. confusus, Godr. in FI. de Fr. i. 22.

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 395

R. Petiveri, Koch in Sturm, Deutschl. FI. fasc. 82. t. 2.

R. Petiveri a. minor, Koch, Syn. ed. 2. 13.

Stem floating, rooting at the lower joinings, roundish, hollow ;
the upper part, when flowering, often rising out of the water.
Submersed leaves two or three times trifurcate, afterwards bifur-
cate ; segments rather thick. At the first fork the branches
are nearly equal, long and divaricate, at the succeeding ones
more and more approximate. Intermediate leaves with fewer,
shorter and linear segments. Petioles semicylindrical, short.
Floating leaves flat, marked with brownish irregular spots ;
segments diverging, slightly combined at the base or sessile,
lateral ones much rounded at base externally ; outline of the
floating or emerged leaves scarcely more than a semicircle.
Petioles thick, semicylindrical. Stipules oblong, much adnate.
Peduncles very long, rising high out of the water, from both
kinds of leaves. Buds globular, but slightly depressed and a
little pentagonal. Flowers rather large, star-like. Sepals oblong,
blunt, convex, green, with a broad diaphanous margin. Petals
elliptic- cuneate or obovate, white, yellow and shortly clawed
below, 2 to 21 times as long as the calyx even when first ex-
panded, their lower half much lengthened afterwards. Nectary
shortly oval, strongly margined below, scarcely at all so above,
forming an acute angle with the plane of the petal. Stamens
about 20, exceeding the pistils. Style rather long, recurved
from near its base, prolonging the inner edge of the ovary.
Carpels ultimately rather acute, the inner edge nearly straight.
Persistent base of the style long and conical, nearly erect.
Receptacle as thick as the peduncle. Flowers strongly scented
like honey.

Differs from R. heterophyllus by its submersed leaves not col-
lapsing, its stem often rising out of the water, its long slender
and narrowing peduncles, and ligulate stigma ; from R. Baudotii
by the obovate segments of its floating leaves, slender peduncles,
half-ovate carpels compressed and narrowed at the top, and
stamens exceeding the pistils.

Flowering from June to September.

I have obtained this plant from near Chichester, Dunster
and Weston-super-Mare in Somersetshire, Stackpole and Tenhy
in Pembrokeshire, and the mouth of the Tees on both sides of
the river I believe. It seems to prefer the neighbourhood of the
sea, and does not object to slightly brackish water.

5. R. Baudotii (Godr.) ; submersed leaves closely trifurcate,
segments rather rigid not collapsing, floating leaves long-
stalked tripartite with sessile or stalked wedge-shaped 2-4-
lobed segments, peduncles thick narrowed at the top ex-

396 Mr. C. C.Babington on the Batrachian llanunculi,

ceeding the leaves, flowers moderate, petals 7-nerved not con-
tiguous persistent, stamens not exceeding the pistils, stigma
tongue- shaped, receptacle elongate- conical, carpels i-obovate
inflated at the end.

R. Baudotii, Godr. in Mem. de Nancy, 1839, p. 21. f. 4, and FI. de
Lorr. i. 12, and FI. de France, i. 21 ; Koch, Syn. ed. 2. 434.
Batrachium Baudotii, Van den Bosch, Prod. FI. Batav. 7.

Stem floating, rooting from the lower joinings, very bluntly
angular, with a shallow furrow on two sides, hollow. Submersed
leaves two or three times trichotomously divided into short filiform
segments, forking like those of R. confusus. Intermediate leaves
with fewer and linear segments. Petioles short or none.
Floating leaves flat ; divisions wedge-shaped regularly to their
base, 3-4-lobed, or often of many linear blunt segments. Out-
line of the floating or emerged leaves not more than a semicircle.
Petioles long. Stipules adnate nearly throughout. Peduncles
long, thick, from both kinds of leaves. Buds globular, de-
pressed (?). Flowers rather large, star-like. Sepals like those
of R. confusus (?). Petals white, yellow below, 2-2j times as
long as the calyx. Nectary shortly oval. Stamens 15-20.
Style long, recurved from its middle, prolonging the inner edge
of the ovary. Carpels very many (50-100 on each receptacle),
forming a globose mass. Inner edge often considerably rounded
near the top ; apiculus small. Receptacle thicker than the pe-
duncle.

Owing to neglect, the above description is imperfect in a few
particulars.

This plant is very nearly allied to R. confusus, with which species
I long confounded it. R. confusus appears to be always a more
slender and elongated plant, never to have stalked segments to
its floating leaves, nor the deep lobes often replaced by broad
linear blunt segments, nor the short stamens, nor the globose
clusters of many rather pointed carpels with inflated tops, of
this plant. Here also the segments are truly wedge-shaped, the
outer margins of the lateral ones appearing to be constantly
straight quite to their base. The narrowing long peduncles,
tongue-shaped stigmas, many and inflated carpels, and great
difference of appearance, separate it from R. heterophyllus.

I am much indebted to my liberal friend M. R. Lenormand
for authenticated specimens of this plant ; and Dr. F. Schultz
has identified with it a plant gathered by Mr. Syme at Guillan,
near Edinburgh, specimens of which the latter gentleman has
kindly given to me.

The R. marinus of Fries (Mant. hi. 51 ; Herb. Norm. ix. 28)
is closely allied to R. Baudotii ; but he is probably correct in

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 397

believing (Summa, 555) them to be distinct. In some respects
it seems more nearly related to B. confususj and I have suspeeted
that they may be identical.

Flowering from May to August ; but sometimes flowers may
be found in April.

R. Baudotii appears to delight in slightly brackish water.
I possess it from Edinburgh, Seaton Carew in the county of
Durham, Burnham in Norfolk, near Chepstow in Gloucestershire
and Monmouthshire, Shirehampton near Bristol in Gloucester-
shire, Dunster in Somersetshire, and near Cork (?).

6. R. flortbundus ; submersed leaves closely trifurcate, segments
rather rigid divaricate not collapsing, floating leaves long-
stalked subpeltate |^-trifid or 3-partite with sessile obovate
3-5-lobed segments, peduncles not narrowed scarcely ex-
ceeding the leaves, flowers large, petals obovate-euneate 9-
many-nerved not contiguous persistent, stamens many exceed-
ing the pistils, stigma tongue-shaped^ reeeptacle spherical,
carpels ^-obovate very blunt.

Stem floating, rooting from the lower joinings, bluntly angular,
hollow, often rising out of the water. Submersed leaves dark
green, two or three times trifurcate, afterwards bifurcate, seg-
ments rather short filiform ; intermediate primary subdivision
smaller. Petioles short, semiterete. Floating leaves convex,
divided more than halfway down ; lateral segments bifid, eaeh
lobe bicrenate ; middle segment' 3-crenate ; outer edge of the
leaf much rounded at the base. Outline of the floating or emerged
leaves forming about |rds of a eircle, but the rounded outer
bases often overlap. Petioles nearly eylindrieal. Stipules very
broad, with a free rounded end. Peduncles from both kinds of
leaves. Buds slightly depressed, slightly pentagonal. Flowers
star-like. Sepals ovate, greenish, with a diaphanous margin.
Petals at first nearly contiguous, afterwards distant, white,
clawed and yellow below, more than twice as long as the calyx.
Nectary ovate, its margin thickened all round and slightly pro-
minent below. Stamens 20-30. Style short, recurved, pro-
longing the inner edge of the ovary. Inner edge of the carpels
nearly straight. Receptacle as thick as the peduncle.

I am unable to identify this ])lant with any described speeies.
It is most nearly allied to R. peltatus^ with whieh I was much
inclined to have combined it. It differs from R.peltatus by its
deeply trifid ffoating leaves, dark green submersed leaves with
unequal segments branching at shorter intervals, peduncles not
narrowing u])wards, nor very long, nor almost solely springing
in company with the floating leaves (in R. jlorilmndus they
spring as frequently with the petioles of the submersed as of

398 Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi.

the floating leaves), the ovate nectary, and depressed buds.
From R. heterophyllus it may be known by its submersed leaves
not collapsing, its floating leaves (when tripartite) with sessile
segments, and not straight-sided, its ovate nectary, and depressed
buds ; from i?. confusus by its floating leaves being usually
convex, not spotted ; peduncles not long, slender, and narrowing
upwards ; carpels not compressed and narrowed upwards ; and
by its dark colour ; from R. Baudotii by the markedly rounded
base of the outer margin of its convex leaves, its peduncles not
narrowed towards their top, many-nerved petals, long stamens,
and much fewer carpels.

A Sicilian specimen from Prof. Gasparrini, which he named
R. aquatilis, appears to be R. floribundus.

Flowering from May to September.

I possess this plant from Hedon near Hull, Denver Common
in Norfolk, and a pit by the road-side near Legge^s Farm near
Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

It is the most beautiful of our species ; its large white flowers
being so numerous as to cover the places that it inhabits with a
sheet of bloom.

7. R. peltatus (Fries) ; submersed leaves loosely trifurcate, seg-
ments rather rigid divaricate not collapsing, floating leaves
long-stalked subpeltate nearly half-3-5 -fid with obovate 3-4-
crenate segments, peduncles narrowing gradually from floating
leaves and exceeding them, flowers large, petals round be-
coming obovate-cuneate 9-nerved contiguous persistent, sta-
mens many exceeding the pistils, stigma club-shaped, recep-
tacle ovate, carpels --obovate very blunt.

R. peltatus, Fries, Summa, 141, andSerS. Norm. xii. 48 (specimen).
R. aquatilis a. peltatus, Sturm, Deutschl. FI. fasc. 67. t. 7.

Stem floating, rooting from the lower joinings, bluntly angular,
hollow, often rising out of the water. Submersed leaves light
green, 2 or 3 times trifurcate, afterwards bifurcate ; segments
long, slender, filiform j primary subdivisions about equal.
Petioles short, semiterete. Floating leaves convex ; outer edge
of the leaf much rounded at the base. Outline of the floating or
emerged leaves forming about Jrds of a circle, but the rounded
outer bases often overlap. Petioles plane-convex. Stipules
adnate nearly throughout, rounded at the end. Peduncles long,
rising high out of the water, from the floating leaves ; very
rarely a peduncle springs with a submersed leaf. Buds globular.
Flowers very large, sweet-scented. Sepals ovate, diaphanous
except at the centre, where they are slightly green. Petals
quite contiguous, ultimately slightly separated by the lengthen-
ing of their lower part, white, clawed and yellow below, more

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 399

than twice as long as the calyx at their first expansion. Nec-
tary oblong, its margin slightly thickened all round and a little
prominent below. Stamens about 30. Style curved, short,
prolonging the inner edge of the ovary. Carpels not inflated ;
inner edge nearly straight. Receptacle small ; its shape is
rather doubtful, owing to the cultivated plant perfecting few
carpels, and its shape not having been observed in the wild plant
when fresh.

This plant differs from R. heterophyllus and all the other
species, except perhaps R. tripartitus, by its " necessary float-
ing leaves, for the presence of a flower springing in company
with a submersed leaf is extremely rare, with |^-trifid not tri-
partite nor wedge-shaped lobes, and by their being nearly
always convex; by its submersed leaves not collapsing; its long-
narrowed peduncles ; and petals contiguous except when about
to fall ; from R. confusus by its convex not tripartite floating
leaves, contiguous petals, J-obovate and very blunt carpels ;
from R, Baudotii by its convex not tripartite leaves with obovate
segments, narrowing peduncles, contiguous petals, long stamens
and short receptacle.

‘ Flowering from May to September.

I possess this plant from St. PieiTe in Monmouthshire, (where
it was first noticed as being a distinct species by the Rev. F. J.
A. Hort), Bream in Gloucestershire, and Hoveton in Norfolk.

Sturm^s figure quoted above represents the petals as not
being contiguous, but is doubtless intended for this plant.
Frieses specimen contained in the Herb. Normale is very im-
perfect, but leaves no doubt upon my mind of the identity of
our plant with it. A specimen sent to Fries, with the name of
R. peltatus attached to it, was stated by him to be correctly so
named.

8. R. tripartitus (D.C.); '^submersed leaves divided into capil-
lary segments collapsing,^^ floating leaves long-stalked sub-
peltate deeply trifid with cuneate-obovate 2-4-fid segments,
peduncles not narrowing falling short of the leaves, flowers
very small, petals oblong 3-nerved not contiguous, stamens
few exceeding the pistils, stigma small on a long subulate ter-
minal style with a slender base, receptacle globose, carpels un-
equally obovate much inflated with a nearly terminal point.

R. tripartitus, DeCand. PL Gall. liar. p. 15. t.49 ; Eng. Bot. Suppl.

t. 2946 ; Lloyd, FI. Loire, 4 !

R. tripartitus a. microphyllus, DeCand. Syst. i. 234.

Stem floating or creeping, rooting from the lower joinings,
slightly furrowed, rising out of the water. Submersed leaves
(which have not yet been observed in Britain) several times

400 Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi.

trifurcate; segments long, slender, filiform. Floatiug and
emerged leaves deeply trifid, forming about Jths of a circle ; the
lateral segments with 3, the central with 2-4 crenatures, the
outer edge of the lateral segments rounded in their upper half,
but straight below. Upper stipules free. Buds globular.
Sepals ovate, dark green tinged with purple, the whitish margin
diaphanous. Petals very small, slightly exceeding the sepals,
rather acute, narrowed into a claw, pinkish-white, yellowish
below, with 3 distant nerves. Nectary roundish, its border a little
thickened only below. Stamens 5-10. Style straight, placed
nearly upon the middle of the end of the ovary. Carpels very
blunt, glabrous ; inner edge rounded. Receptacle globose.

This plant and B. ololeucos (which has not as yet been found
in Britain) are distinguished by having very slightly adnate
stipules, much inflated carpels having a much rounded inner
edge, and minute stigmas. The slender base of the long
subulate deciduous style also is a mark of R. tripartitus. In
R. ololeucos the style is persistent, sickle-shaped, and thickened
at the base, the petals are much larger and wholly white (in all
our species of Batrachian Ranunculi they are more or less yellow
at the base), and the peduncles much exceed the leaves.

Flowering from May to August.

Mr. H. C. Watson discovered this plant on Esher Common in
Surrey. I have found it between Haverfordwest and Robeston
in Pembrokeshire.

It is probable that by descending the little streamlets in which
this plant has been found until they increase in size and depth,
the form producing submersed leaves will be found. My valued
friend Mr. Borrer has given to me a specimen grown in deep
water in his garden which has loosely twice trifurcate leaves with
long narrowly linear segments. Such leaves are found inter-
posed between the capillarly divided and the subpeltate leaves
of several of these Ranunculi, for instance in R. Baudotii, It is
scarcely necessary to remind botanists, that the form of the style
is not to be seen upon dried specimens, for it shrinks so much
as in the dry state to appear as if it were broadest at the base.
I possess a specimen, gathered by my friend Mr. F. Townsend
near Tunbridge Wells, which probably, but not quite certainly,
belongs to R. tripartitus. It appears to have grown in rather
deep water, but does not now possess any of the submersed
leaves. It has no petals remaining, and may be R. ololeucos.

Subsection B. Submersed leaves not like those of Sub-
section A. Receptacle hispid.

9. R. circinatus (Sibth.) ; leaves all submersed and sessile tri-
furcate with repeatedly and very closely forked rigid segments

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 401

all placed in one roundish plane not collapsing, peduncles
narrowing much exceeding the leaves, flowers large, petals
obovate many-nerved nearly contiguous persistent, stamens
exceeding the pistils, stigma cylindrical, receptacle oblong,
carpels ovate compressed rather acute.

R. circinatus, Sibth. FI. Oxon. 175; Reichenb. FI. excur. 719, et
Icon. FI. Germ. hi. Ran. t. 2 ; Fi'ies, Herb. Norm. ix. 29 (speci-
men) ; Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2869.

R. divaricatus, Schrank,’' Koch, Deutschl. FI. iv. 152, et Syn. FI,
Germ. ed. 2. 13 ; Godr. FI. Lor. i. 15, et FI. de Fr. i. 25.

R. stagnatilis, Wallr. Sched. Grit. 285.

R. aquations albus, circinatis tenuissime divisis foliis, floribus ex
alis longis pediculis innixis, Raii Syn. ed. 3. 249.

Stem submersed, ascending, branched, angular, furrowed,
hollow, rooting from the lower joinings. Leaves small, their
capillary brassy-green divisions repeatedly forked, but all lying
exactly in one plane, which is placed usually at right angles to
the stem and has a round outline. Stipules sheathing, ad-
pressed, not auricled. Buds obovate, depressed. Sepals ovate,
blunt, greenish, tinged with purple towards the tip, the margin
broadly diaphanous. Petals 2 or 3 times as long as the calyx,
about 9-nerved, white with a yellow claw. Nectary roundish,
small, rather strongly bordered below. Stamens 15-20. Style
prolonging the inner edge of the ovary. Stigma recurved, but
straight. Receptacle narrower than the peduncle both in flower
and when bearing carpels. Carpels ultimately rather acute,
and tipped with the recurved persistent style.

The structure of the leaves is sufficient to distinguish this
plant from all known Ranunculi.

Flowering from June to August.

This plant is not unfrequent. For its distribution in Britain
I may refer to Watson^s ‘ Cybele Britannica.^

From the remark of Messrs. Hooker and Arnott (Brit. FI.
ed. 7. p. 7) that they cannot believe this to be distinct from
the following ’’ {R. aquatilis, including the R. heterophyllus, R.
trichophyllus, R. confusus and R. Baudotii of this paper), I am
necessarily led to the conclusion that they have no practical
acquaintance with it, and perhaps have paid no attention to it
except when preserved in an herbarium. As I have on several
occasions received specimens of R. heterophyllus under the name
of R. circinatus, when the petioles were shorter than is usual and
the leaves small, I presume that it is not so generally known to
botanists as its distribution would have rendered probable. It
is so constant to its characters, that, even when the water has
dried up in its place of growth, it retains its distinctive structure
and grows and flowers in the air.

Ann. ^ May. N. Hist. Scr. 2. Vol. xvi.

27

402 Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi.

10. R. fluitans (Lam.) ; leaves all submersed about twice tri-
furcate with very long linear twice or thrice forked nearly
parallel segments, peduncles narrowing, flowers large, petals
broadly obovate many-nerved contiguous persistent, stamens
falling short of the pistils, stigma cylindrical, receptacle
conical, carpels obovate inflated much rounded at the end
laterally apiculate.

R. fluitans, Lam. FI. Fr. hi. 184 ; Reichenb. FI. exsic. 886 (speci-
men), et leones FI. Germ. hi. Ran. t. 2 ; Gren. et Godr. FI. de Fr.
i. 25 ; Van den Bosch, Prod. FI. Batav. 6.

R. peucedanifolius, Besf. Atl. i. 444.

R. fluviatilis, Sibth. FI. Oxon. 176 ; Wallr. Sched. 284.

R. sive Polyanthemo aquatili albo affine Millefolium Maratriphyllum
fluitans, Ray, Syn. 250.

Stem floating, very long, branched above, nearly round, hol-
low, wholly submersed. Leaves together with their petioles
often a foot in length. Segments thick. Petioles of the upper
leaves often short. Stipules broadly lanceolate, strongly aurieled,
l^-adnate. Sometimes at the end of the stem a few stalked
3-furcate leaves with short broad linear segments are found ; in
these leaves the middle segment is entire, the lateral ones are
simply forked ; they do not at all resemble the floating leaves
of the other species. When the seedling plant has been deserted
by the water, all the leaves are of this form. Bud shortly pyra-
midal, pentagonal. Peduncles thick, much shorter than the
leaves. Flower often semidouble. Sepals ovate, blunt, green,
bordered with purplish black and a broad diaphanous edge.
Petals 2-3 times longer than the calyx, slightly clawed, 9-15-
nerved. Nectary round, bordered slightly below. Stamens
many, short. Style prolonging the inner edge of the ovary.
Stigma straight, a little indexed at the top. Receptacle conical,
slightly pilose immediately after the flowers have fallen. Carpels
with a small lateral point.

The structure of the long whip-shaped leaves is sufficient to
distinguish this plant. It is also remarkable for the tendency
of the flowers to produce a second imperfect whorl of petals. It
does not change its form even when growing in stagnant water.

Not uncommon in rivers. Watson^s ^ Cybele ^ may be referred
to for its distribution in Britain.

Flowering in June and July.

The R. Bachii, Wirten (Schultz, Archives de Flore, i. 292 ;
Billot, Exsic. No. 1103 !), is a form of R. fluitans. The form of
the petals does not afford a constant character, neither does the
length of the peduncle. I have observed it in the River White-
adder in Berwickshire. It is much smaller in all its parts and
more elegant, but I cannot detect any other difierence. Mr.

Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 403

J. Lange has sent it to me from Denmark. It has sometimes
been mistaken for the R. marinus (Fries), with which it has
very little in common.

Subsection C. No submersed leaves. Receptacle not hispid.

11. R. coenosus (Guss.) ; leaves all roundish cordate with 3-5
rather deeply divided lobes which widen from their base, petals
exceeding the calyx, style terminal upon the ovate-conical ovary,
carpels unequally obovate with a terminal point.

R. coenosus, Guss. Prod. Suppl. 187,” and Syn. ii. 39 ; Godr. in
FI. de France, i. 19 ; Bab. Man. ed. 3. 7.

R. Lenormandi, F. Schultz in Flora oder Bot. Zeit. 1837, p. 727 ! ;
Walp. Repert. i. 34 ; Bab. Man. ed. 2. 6 ; Eng. Bot. Suppl.
t. 2930.

R. hederaceus j3. grandiflorus, Bab. Man. ed. 1. 5.

Stem floating or creeping upon mud, branched, nearly round
but with slight angles. Leaves not spotted ; lobes very blunt
and broad at the top, entire or with 1-3 notches. Petioles long,
terete-compressed. Stipules i-adnate, bluntly pointed, the
floral ones very broad. Peduncles not narrowed, nearly equal-
ling the leaves. Buds oblong. Flowers large. Sepals obovate,
concave, greenish, tinged with purple towards the tip, with a
diaphanous margin. Petals about twice as long as the calyx,
narrow, obovate, 5-nerved, white with a slight tinge of pink,
slightly clawed and yellowish below. Nectary round, bordered
below. Stamens 8-10, about equalling or a little exceeding
the pistils. Style nearly central upon the ovary (that is, the
upper edge of the ovary is nearly as prominent and rounded as
the lower edge) which narrows gradually into the style. Style
short, thick, and slightly curved outwards. Stigma oblong.
Receptacle spherical, naked. Carpels with their inner (upper)
edge much rounded towards the top, inflated, tipped with the
terminal although not always quite central style.

Flowering from June to August.

I possess this plant from near Coniston Lake in Westmore-
land, near Sheffield, Needwood Forest in Staffordshire, Charn-
wood Forest in Leicestershire, near Aberystwith in Cardiganshire,
near Swansea in Glamorganshire, near Haverfordwest in Pem-
brokeshire, near Llanberis in Caernarvonshire, Esher Common in
Surrey, Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Lucott Hill in Somerset, and
near Plymouth in Devonshire.

Messrs. Hooker and Arnott indirectly hint (Brit. FI. ed. 7.
p. 8) that near Glasgow this plant may be an altered state of
R. hederaceus, for “ it is principally met with in ditches where
the temperature is raised by warm condensed steam,” ^^and
where formerly R. hederaceus only occurred.” This seems to
require more ])roof than a simple statement affords. Wc want

27*

404 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

(1) to be rendered quite sure that R. coenosus is the plant that
now inhabits those ditches, and (2) that it was the true R. hede-
raceus alone that grew there formerly. I have most frequently
found R. coenosus in rather elevated situations, where no source
of artificial heat could affect it.

12. R. hederaceus (Linn.); leaves all roundish reniform with
3-5 shallow rounded lohes widening to their base, petals
scarcely exceeding the calyx, style prolonging the inner edge of
the ovary, carpels ^-oval or ^-obovate with a lateral point.

R. hederaceus, Linn. Sp. PI. 781 ; Eng. Bot. t. 2003; Reichenh.
Icon. FI. Germ. iii. Ran. t. 2.

Stem floating or creeping upon mud, branched, nearly round.
Leaves usually spotted; lobes separated by shallow notches,
widening gradually from their base to a narrow rounded end,
often broadly triangular, entire or rarely with a slight notch at
the top. Petioles long, semicylindrical. Stipules long, much
adnate, blunt, denticulate. Peduncles not narrowed upwards,
much falling short of the leaves. Flowers very small. Petals
about equalling or a little exceeding the calyx, narrow, 3-nerved.
Stamens 6-8. Stigma short, oblong. Receptacle spherical,
naked. Carpels compressed below, blunt and inflated above,
inner edge nearly straight, laterally tipped with the style or
pointless.

Flowering from June to September.

This plant is probably generally distributed, but as R. coenosus
is often mistaken for it, I may mention that I know of its ex-
istence at Inverarnan at the head of Loch Lomond, near Llan-
beris in Caernarvonshire, Lanwarne in Herefordshire, Needwood
Forest in Stafibrdshire, Tiptree Heath in Essex, Triplow and
other places in Cambridgeshire, near Haverfordwest in Pem-
brokeshire, Ninham in the Isle of Wight, and Bovey Heathfield
in Devonshire.

XXXIV. — On the Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration and on the
Structure of the Organs of Breathing in Invertebrate Animals,
By Thomas Williams, M.D. Lond., F.L.S., Physician to the
Swansea Infirmary.

[With a Plate.]

[Continued from p. 329.]

General and Minute Anatomy of Branchial Organs in the
Gasteropod Mollusks,

The author is not acquainted with any English or continental
researches on the subject of the present paper. While the

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 405

organs and the process of breathing in the Lamellibranchiate
classes have engaged the study of various able observers^ no
special attention has at any time been given to the minute and
ultimate anatomy of these parts in the higher Mollusca. General
views can only securely rest on correctly ascertained particulars.
The laws which govern the structure and functions of individual
organs of animals may be discovered with far greater certainty
by tracing the advancing phases of their histological elements
throughout the zoological series, than by following the mutations
which occur in the progress of their embryonic development in
one class. Comparative anatomy is still very deficient in such
information. The general anatomy of organs has been ably
written : their histological anatomy remains untold. The in-
formation to be drawn from the serial history of any given
structural element of any given complex organ is more calcu-
lated to illustrate the homology of that organ and the archi-
tectural design under which it has been built, than any know-
ledge which can be attained by a descriptive account of its
mere general conformation. The inmost constituent of struc-
ture may display greater invariableness of character than external
outlines and the gross configuration. It is only by such a serial
history that that which is essential to an organ can be eliminated
from those superadded and accessory parts which are separable
and non-essential. For instance, it is quite certain (see a memoir
on the Serial Histology of the Liver (under the title of the Phy-
siology of Cells) by the author, in Guy^s Hospital Reports for
1848), that the same idea of the liver cannot be acquired by
tracing the stages through which the organ passes in the em-
bryo of the mammal, as that which is obtained by exhibiting
consecutive pictures of the form under which it occurs in the
successive links of the animal chain. There is much that is
deceptive and fallacious in general resemblances and leading
analogies. The ultimate and the particular must be seized before
the comparison of general conditions can become correct and
complete. How far-sought and really worthless it were to assert,
that a single cell of the mammalian lung finds its counter-
part, its prototype, in the membranous vesicle on the dermal
surface of an Asterias, in which the ])rocess of respiration is
carried on ! In such an alleged analogy how many real deep
differences are ignored ! What a wide space is overleaped by
simplicity and ignorance ! How unsafe arc generalities in
science when unsupported by ultimate knowledge, by facts and
details ! On the other hand, how utterly valueless are figures,
facts, and j)articulars, unless they form the substratum of some
generality ! To a|)ply them to tin; maintcmancc of any theory
invests them with life, renders them mutually coherent. Aban-

406 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

doned to themselves they may be likened to grains of sand, be-
tween which there is no cohesion. These few preliminary remarks
are made, at once, in apology and explanation of the plan of
investigation which the author has adopted in these papers. He
has sought at the expense of great labour, and heavy cost in
several senses, to amass such a store of minute facts as will con-
stitute at another time the ground of an appeal in support of a
wide generalization. With this explanation he will now proceed
to complete the serial history of the organs of respiration in
Invertebrate animals.

In a former paper it was stated, in relation to the gills of the
Lamellibranchiata, that from the Tunicata to the highest mol-
lusk of this class, there prevailed a unity of structure which
acknowledged no single real exception. In every form of branchia
the blood-channels were straight, parallel, and non-communi-
cating ; that at the free border of the gill they returned upon
themselves in form of loops, and that thus the afferent layers of
vessels became separate and distinct from the efferent; that
whether these layers were two or four in number, the real
arehitecture of the organ remained unchanged*.

These fundamental facts will be found to pervade every variety
of gill to be found among the higher class of the Gasteropod
and Cephalopod Mollusca. In fact, wherever there is a sepa-
rately developed branchia within the range of the Molluscan
subkingdom, these principles of organic construction will receive
an illustration. But between the Lamellibranchiate and Gaste-
ropod gill, several important and striking differences exist. In
the former the blood-channels are of large bore ; they are capable
of carrying a voluminous column of fluid : such a fact implies
that in the organ of respiration in this class the fluids are not
minutely multiplied and subdivided, and that consequently the
contact between them and the external aerating medium is less
intimate and complete. Another interesting fact to be noted is,
that the corpuscles of the blood of the Lamellibranchiata are

* In the paper to which I refer, I promised to show that the apparently
rectangularly-arranged blood-channels of the branchiae of the Tunicata
were not real exceptions to the rule stated. In the collected volume of
these memoirs, it will be proved beyond doubt that the ultimate vessels
in the pharyngeal gills of these inferior mollusks are disposed in “ parallel,
straight, non-communicating order,” and that the crossing which takes place
between the larger and the smaller blood-channels is a mere appearance
depending upon the mode in which the gill is folded in the cavity. It will
then also be shown that the ultimate blood-vessels in the branchia) of the
Tunicata are bounded by hyaline cartilages which also define the channels,
precisely in the same manner as is done by the corresponding cartilages in
the gills of the higher Lamellibranchs.

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 407

considerably larger * than those of the blood of the Gasteropod
and Cephalopod mollusks. This difference flows naturally from
the greater diameter which the blood-vessels of the former pre-
sent as compared with those of the latter. On another occasion
and in another place, the author will show that the same differ-
ences of size distinguish the blood-corpuscles of the lower Crus-
tacea from those of the higher. This is either the consequence
or the cause of the disparities of calibre in the branchial vessels
which occur in these two sections of the same classes. They
are visible facts which bear most explanatively upon not only
the morphic, but upon the subtler organic and chemical differ-
ences which mark the nutritive fluids of a less highly orga-
nized animal from those of another of higher standard ; for it
scarcely admits of doubt that the vital standard, the nutritive
value of any given animal fluid, bears a direct ratio to the nu-
merical amount of its floating corpuscles. As in the animal
scale followed upwards, the floating globules of the blood become
smaller and smaller and more and more numerous, correlatively
the circulating channels gradually decrease in sectional area,
become more and more subdivided and multiplied, until at length
in the higher mammals the bore of the ultimate capillary exceeds
little the diameter of the individual blood-corpuscle. These
general views will serve to impart meaning to the minute ana-
tomical details which are now to follow.

The Tubulibranchiate genera, Vermetus, Dentalium, and Ma-
gilus, are commonly placed at the bottom of the Gasteropod
scale. For this disposition no reason can be drawn from the
position and general anatomy of the branchial cavity or from
the structure of the gills. M. Philippif gives a flgure which the
author has copied (PI. XI. fig. 1), in which the organs (« & b)
contained in the respiratory chamber are clearly exhibited. The
gills (a) are as perfectly pectinated, that is, they conform in
figure and structure with those organs in the higher Gaste-
ropods which are described as ^ pectinate^ gills t* They occupy

* The measurements upon which this general statement is based will
be published in the next paj)cr on the Blood in the ‘ British and Foreign
Med.-Chir. Review.’

t Enumeratio Molluscorum Siciliaj ; and Regne Animal, ])1. 62.

X The word ‘ pectinate,’ as will be subsequently shown, is anything but
descriptive of the real figure of the branchial laminaj of the Pcctini-
branchiata. To describe them as comb-like is to suggest a very false com-
parison. If the naturalist who first coined the word had isolated a single
leaflet from the gill of a Pectinibranch and defined its outline, such a word
never could have suggested itself. I'he same ridiculous disparity between
the thing and the name will be found to occur in other designations of
Orders. False titles like these — terms indeed constructed upon imperfect
knowledge — illustrate the difficulty which must ever attend the attempt to

408 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

the same position in the branchial sac, that is, on the roof, and
distant from the rectum {b). One border of the leaf is strength-
ened by a penknife-shaped cartilage, such as that which will be
defined in the Pectinibranchiates. The breathing crypt in Sili-
quaria anguina is depicted by Philippi as having the same con-
figuration. The branchiae diflPer but trifiingly from those of the
former genus. By this observer, these parts are sufficiently clearly
delineated in the two preceding Tubulibranchs to justify the
inference that the branchiae are formed precisely on the plan of
those of the Pectinibranchiata. So similar to that of the latter
order is the general cavity, so analogous the contained parts, so
identical in structure the branchiae, that it is difficult to conceive
why Vermetus should be called a Tubulibranch, and Buccinum a
Pectinibranch. In minute anatomy, the description which at
another time will be given of the branchiae of the latter will
apply also to those of Vermetus. When species, whose vital
organs are so similarly constructed, are placed at opposite extremes
of an extended scale, the anatomist may well exclaim, — how arti-
ficial, partial, and arbitrary is the classification of the mere
naturalist !

The Branchiae of the Chitonidce.

A Chiton has a carapace like an isopod Crustacean, a dorsal
vessel like an Annelid, bilateral symmetrical reproductive viscera
like an acephalous Mollusk, a head and foot like a patelloid
Gasteropod, a posterior anus like the Pissurellidse, and branchiae
like those of the brachyurous Crustacea ! Such manifold affi-
nities at once unite and sever this odd group from several most
dissimilar classes. Measured by the standard of its branchial
organs alone, it deserves a higher rank than that accorded to it
by the side of the Patellidae. The anatomical position of these
organs nevertheless allies the Chiton to the Patella. In both,
they are placed in the furrow between the border of the foot
and the edge of the mantle. But in structure they are totally
unlike. Imagination may indeed construct ideal analogies. If
a branchial cone (fig. 2) were placed on either side of the anal
debouchure in Chiton and then simply enlarged without change
of figure, the branchise of Fissurella (fig. 10) would be simu-
lated. They are organically difierent from those of Emarginula
(fig. 9) and Patella (fig. 5). In structural characters the gills
of the last two genera bear the same relation to each other

establish a true and natural terminological system in zoology before the
real structure of animals is made known. The mere naturalist can never
find himself in a position to construct a consistent “ terminology.” This
task, so important to the progress of knowledge, must be jointly under-
taken by the philosophic anatomist and the descriptive naturalist.

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 409

as that which subsists between those of Chiton and Fissurella*
The ultimate respiratory laminae in the last two are bilateral,
resting, that is, on either surface of a common axial plane. In
Emarginula and Patella they rise from one surface only of a
common basis. In Patella that basis is fixed, in Emarginula it
is free. The branchial system of Chiton is distributed and sub-
divided, that of Fissurella is centralized in place and united in
structure. In anatomical arrangement they are precisely the
same. It should however be remembered, while discussing the
generic affinities of the Chitonidse, that, according to Cuvier^s *
dissections, the branchiae in Chiton spinulosus (Linn.) are only
one-sidedly laminated, resembling the arrangement of the teeth
of a comb. By Forbes and Hanley f the branchiae in the British
families are defined as " forming a series of lamellce between the
mantle and the foot on each side.^^ By Mr. Clark those of
Chiton fascicularis are described as consisting of a cordon be-
tween the mantle and the foot, composed of fifteen oblique cord-
like, short, close-set, pale hrown filaments on each side This
description is calculated to mislead. The branchiae in the Chi-
tons are neither ^ lamellae ^ nor ^ filaments.^ They are complexly
construeted organs (PI. XI. figs. 2 & 3). Each ^ filament^ or
lamella ^ (Forbes) is a separate and distinct fabric. Not less so
than one of the cones of the gill in the Crab, or one of the pen-
knife-shaped processes of the branchia of the Fish. In number
these conules difler according to the species. A row of fifteen
occurs in Chiton fascicularis, of seventeen in C. cinereus, of only
ten in C. asellus, on each side of the body. They amount to
eighteen in Chiton discrepans, to twelve only in C. ruber, to
eighteen in C. quinquevalvis (Brown), and even to twenty-four
on either side of the body in C. marmoreus. Several other spe-
cies of Chitons are described in works on British Mollusca. In
all, the branchiae are overlooked. Numerous comparisons of the
young with the old would be neeessary to prove that in the
adult state of each species these organules are constant eha-
racters. If they are, in descriptions of species a correct account
of them, as regards number, size and position, should be in-
cluded. They are well known to vary in size, apparent form, and
in situation, relatively to the transverse median line of the body
in different species, but in plan of formation or design they pre-
sent no diversities. A branchia (figs. 2 & 3) in the genus Chiton
may be typieally described as a ])rocess of the mantle, consisting
of a wedge-shaped axis [U], from whose opposite plane surfaces

* Mem. 8ur les Mollusques ; and Regne Animal, pi. G8. vol. siir Ics Mol-
lusques.

t Rritish Mollusca, vol. ii. |). .‘^91.

1; British Marine Testaceous Mollusca, p. 24.9.

410 Dr, T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

project at right angles secondary laminse («, a, a), laid flatwise
the one upon the other from the base to the apex of the process.
The laminse (fig. 4 d ; figs. 2 Si 3 a, a, a) are largest at the root,
smallest and tapering at the further free end. Each leaf (fig. 4 d)
being attached only at one border, is capable of floating freely
in the water. This is a point of immense functional advantage.
The aerating current, however, is otherwise brought under mus-
cular control. The row of gills, being disposed in an angular
groove between two strongly contractile and extensile parts,
namely the edges of the foot and mantle, are mechanically
operated on by the current thus muscularly set in motion. Thus
the laminse are separated from one another.

The gills of Chiton are much more parenchymatous or fleshy
than those of Patella. They possess an obvious power of col-
lapsing and expanding. Muscular fibres are disposed variously
throughout the entire gill. Even the borders of the leaflets are
contractile (fig. 4 d) . But the axial plane, in which the two large
vessels (fig. 4 « & Z>) are lodged, is conspicuously fleshy and mus-
cular. By the fibres situated in this axis the whole process
may be shortened, and drawn strongly up towards the base.
This power may be given in order to protect the part, or to
quicken the circulation, or effectually to cleanse the gill of effete
water. Each branchial process carries in its central plane two
large vessels {a, b). They are connected with two main trunks
which run along the edge of the mantle. They are respectively
afferent and efferent. Thus far the apparatus is simple. The
circulation in the laminae is infinitely more complex (fig. 4).
Erom the main afferent vessel {a, arrow) of the branchial process
secondary branches (e) proceed. These latter run along the
attached border or root of each leaflet. A similar secondary
efferent vessel runs parallel to it on the other side of the same
border (e'). The two vessels are connected together by means
of the looped, parallel, ultimate blood-channels of the laminae
(c, c'). These latter are the true respiratory capillaries. They
form in the substance of the leaflet two layers of vessels. The up-
per loops into the lower layer at the free border {d) of the lamina.
Thus then the vital fluid flows, in horizontally parallel streamlets,
of extreme minuteness, along the upper aspect of a sheet, itself
flattened in the highest degree ; following the direction of the
loops, it curves round at the distal margin, returns in a similarly
distributed stratum along the inferior face of the lamina, and
reaches in the form of an arterial fluid the efferent vessel at the
fixed base. Although these ultimate blood- channels are un-
questionably separately walled conduits, they branch here and
there and unite with those in the neighboui’hood. This branch-
ing however so seldom occurs, that each vessel may really be

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 411

defined as maintaining its individuality from the beginning to
the end of its course. This fact identifies the branchiae of the
Chitonidse with the Molluscan type^ and severs them from the
Crustacean. This is an anatomical character of essential im-
portance*.

Although an ultimate leaflet from the gill of the Chiton has
precisely the same figure as the corresponding part of the gill
of a brachyurous Crustacean, its real structure is demonstra-
tively Molluscan. The microscope is thus enabled to prove, that
beneath an exterior general resemblance there lies hidden an
essential identity of organization. In the Chiton, as in all mol-
lusks, the branchial vessels are individualized channels bounded
by distinct walls. In the Crustacea the blood traverses wall-less
lacunose passages, and forms invariably only a single stratum in
its course. These facts are beyond question. They prove that
the Chitonidse are far more intimately allied to the Mollusk than
to the Crustacean. They establish a new principle in homology.
They prove that conformity in the last elements of structure
signifies more than the superficial analogies of outward form.

Another striking point of dissimilitude between the gill of the
Chiton and that of the Crab, is that in the former the whole
lamina, but most conspicuously the borders, is covered by a
comparatively dense ciliated epithelium. Cilia do not exist in the
Crustacea. It is possible that these vibratile appendages may
exist on the branchiae of Gasteropod Mollusks, and not on those
of Crustacea, because in the former the blood moving in the ulti-
mate vessels can be exposed to the agency of the aerating ele-
ment only on one side ; whereas, as formerly explained, in almost

* I would here confess to the naturalist who may perchance repeat
these observations, that no researches in which I have ever engaged have
required so much training of the eye, and familiarizing of the mind with
the appearances under study, as the ultimate characters of the vascular
apparatus of the gills in the Cephalo])horous Mollusca. Numerous diffi-
culties occur. The same doubtful point must be tested in very different
modes, in the recent and j)reserved specimens, and by aid of various che-
mical agents. In the Acephalous Mollusks, as in the Crustacea, the ulti-
mate blood-channels become unquestionable at the first glance. Not so in
the branchiferous Gasteropods. The vessels are smaller and covered with a
denser epithelium ; the tissue is contractile and softer, the parts of difficult
access, &c. ; but notwithstanding these difficulties, 1 believe that the real
and true anatomy of these parts is faithfully given in the present memoir.
It is the first occasion in comparative arnatomy on which an attempt has
been made to unravel the ultimate character of any part of the circulating
system of the Mollusca. I am disposed to attach im])ortance to what is
true of the branchiie in this sense, since it may hereafter j)rove of service
in deciphering the last vessels of other tissues and organs. I would only
in this place and at j)rcsent venture to observ'e, that the lacunar theory of
Mihie-Kdwards is incontestably in every sense more aj)plicable to the
Crustacea than to the Mollusca.

41.2 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

every Crustacean the extreme blood-passages are equally exposed
on both sides of a single current to the action of the surround-
ing medium. Thus the area of exposure being the same^ the
functional value of a Crustacean gill may be equal to that of a
Molluscan, albeit the circulatory system of the latter may be
incomparably more perfect and elaborate than that of the
former. A curious fact may here be mentioned^ as connecting
the branchial operations with the position of the cloaca : that in
the Chitonidse the effete current of water flowing in the respi-
ratory groove between the edge of the mantle and that of the
foot sets backwards towards the anus — in the Patellidse it sets
forwards, towards the common position of the mouth and anus.

To recapitulate : it may be stated that in flgure the gill of the
Chiton is the counterpart of that of the Crab ; in the ultimate
arrangement of its vessels it conforms with the type prevalent
throughout the branchiferous Gasteropods ; in its fleshiness, the
denseness of its epithelium, and in the presence of minute fol-
licles on its surface, it allies itself with the branchiae of the
Nudibranchs. Nothing is more easy than iQ prove the presence
of epithelium over the entire surfaces of the laminae. The
waving of the cilia is visible throughout the whole extent of the
surface. The cilia which are situated on the free margins (fig. 4 d)
are much larger, — supported by correspondingly larger cells than
those distributed over the flat face. Opportunities will after-
wards occur for considering the question, why, in the organs of
branchial breathing, ciliary epithelium should almost always
clothe even the ultimate vessels, and why they should be as con-
stantly wanting on the corresponding parts of the pulmonary or
air-breathing series.

Branchial System of the Patellidw,

It is proposed here to take the branchise of the genus Patella
as the type of those of the remaining genera of this order. But
it will be shown that the Fissurellidse, Emarginulidse, and Halio-
tidse, &c., differ strikingly both in the special and in the general
characters of the branchial system from the Patellidae. Though
there may exist other features which in the judgement of the
malacologist may justify the marshalling of these several genera
under one and the same order, estimated by the branchial appa-
ratus, the Patellidse ought unquestionably to stand apart and
alone. The author is deeply persuaded that minute ultimate
histological questions will some day in the history of science
exercise a far more potent sway over the minds of classifiers
than they have hitherto done. Unity and uniformity reign with
greater constancy in the small than in the great productions of

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 413

nature. The cell or the fibre, which the wondrous microscope
only can reveal to human ken, is no less fixed and invariable in
its structure than the huge bone or the stupendous brain.

In the Patella the heart stands in the geometrical centre of
the body. It is situated above and behind the head. It is not
perforated by the intestines as it is in the Bivalves. It is an
elongated sac dividing in front into two main pallial trunks.
These latter distribute arterial blood throughout the mantle *.
From the mantle and the viscera it returns into the branchiae
and thence into the heart, to be redistributed over the body.
This apparatus can be detected with perfect clearness in the
uninjected subject.

In Patella the branchiae (fig. 5 «, a) form a circle, which
is interrupted only by a small notch for the admission of
water. That is, the lamellae are neither deficient behind nor
before. The cordon is continued over that portion of the
margin of the mantle which is situated in advance of the head.
Thus, in Patella the branchiae neither arise from, nor are in any
way attached to, the neck of the animal. They are developments
of the mantle alone. This point is one of specific importance.
It proves that the figure used by the late Prof. E. Forbes was
unphilosophical, because unsupported by anatomy. He said that
the branchiae of Patella were really only those of Fissurella and
Haliotis, fixed to the mantle and extended all round, instead of
being free plumes as in the latter. But it is at once obvious,
that not only the branchiae themselves, but the anatomical rela-
tions of them are radically different in Patella and Fissurella and
Haliotis for example. If, indeed, the latter genera have no better
title to a rank in the Patellidan group than that which is fur-
nished by the branchiae, they should receive at once a summary
sentence of exclusion.

The branchial organ of Patella consists of a double row of
leaves (fig. 5 a, e) oblong in shape (fig. 8), standing vertically
on, and at right angles with the plane of, the mantle (fig. 5 c, c).
They constitute a special apparatus distinct from that papillose,
ciliated fringe (d) with which the extreme edge of the mantle is
ornamented. They extend over the entire circumference of the
pallial border. They are not attached to any part of the body
of the animal. The outermost row of leaflets (a) is a little larger

♦ So clear and water-like are the fluid contents of these vessels in a
fresh specimen, while expanding itself in the struggle to get out of its shell,
that they may most readily, but most erroneously, be mistaken for aqui-
ferous canals. As on a future occasion I shall have a great deal to say on
the ill-understood subject of the acpiiferous system of Mollusks, at jiresent
I only desire to indicate a source of misconception which has led many an
acute naturalist into error.

414 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

than the innermost (e). By a poetical stretch of fancy it might
be said that, being composed of two sets of laminae, though
situated on the same side of the same base, they may justly be
likened to the oppositely-placed laminae of the plumose free gills
of the other Patelloid orders. But such a comparison would be
indeed far-sought.

The branchiae of the vulgar Limpet, to the careless looker-on
on Nature^s marvels, appear so contemptibly familiar, that to
subject such objects to a grave and minute philosophical exami-
nation must prove a severe trial to his patience and common
sense. Alas ! how short is the range of human sight ! Beneath
the familiar exterior of these common objects there lies an un-
discovered machinery of startling beauty and perfection ! These
little organs will serve to unite the branchial systems of the two
great groups of Mollusks, the Acephalous and Encephalous.
Through their aid it will prove practicable to establish a unity
of branchial type coextensive with the entire Molluscan series.
They will convince the zoologist that Nature never changes either
the plan of her action, or the design of her architecture, by
senseless and ludicrous transitions. Her incomparable, unequalled
skill lies in adapting a single principle to the most varied ends.

Of the two rows of laminae in Patella as just stated, the inner
is composed of smaller leaflets than the more external. The
smaller and larger leaves occur alternately in the series. Both
are precisely the same in minute structure. Expert manipu-
lation is required in order to obtain a complete view of the gill-
processes in situ. The whole ring of the mantle to which they
are attached should be removed. Every portion of the loose
edge and fringe should then be cut away, leaving only so much
as will hold the laminse in position. A small segment of this
circle should be then placed in the cell of an object-glass,
floated with water and covered with a slip of thin glass. The
position of the laminse may now be changed at will, by slackening
or extending the portion beyond the edge of the glass.

It will now be remarked, that each lamina (fig. 8) is a separate
and distinct process, resting on, or proceeding from, a distinct
base ; that it is not a simple vertical sheet like the leaf of a book,
of equal thickness at every part, at the edge and at the base ;
that it is not, what seemed certain to the naked eye, a com-
pactly-structured single sheet. A far more intricate arrange-
ment discovers itself. First, each lamina, as it stands in its
place and unstretched, forms a concavo-convex outline (fig. 8).
It bulges out [a) like a sail in the wind on one side; it is hol-
low on the other [b) . This figure is due to the fact that the free
border (c) is denser and less extensile than the intermediate
membranous portion. Many advantages are secured by such an

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 415

arrangement. The individual laminse of the series mutually
support one another by a more exact and rapid adaptation of the
vis-a-vis surfaces. They are less liable to fold and wrinkle by
the rapidly varying degrees of distension to which they are
exposed by the action of the margin -muscles of the mantle. But
the free border of each leaflet is further so constructed as to
realize a great degree of elasticity (figs. 7, 6). On looking
sideways, that is, directly down upon the edge of the leaflet, the
eye discovers with perfect clearness an arched or vaulted outline
(fig. 7 c ; fig. 6 e) formed by the curving round of the blood-
channels of one half or layer of the sheet, in order to run into
those of the other half (fig. 7 a, e,h). It is by this method of
viewing the object that the anatomist may convince himself that
each gill-plate is really composed of two distinct and separated
layers (figs. 6 & 7 «, b), united only at the margin (c, c), in

exact accordance with the pattern of the single gills of the Lamel-
libranchiate Acephala.

The satisfactory determination of this point of structure is of
great importance in this inquiry. It possesses all the power of a
key as regards the after-stages of the investigation. So extra-
ordinaiy is the uniformity of the plan on which the respiratory
organs of the branchiferous Gasteropods are formed, that it may
be inferred with perfect certainty that what is clearly proved to
be true of one grade in the series will apply with essential
accuracy to all the others. Extremely difficult therefore though
it may be to unravel the minute structure of the gill-laminse
of Patella, from the key-like power of the information thus
only to be acquired, it is worthy of all the patience which the
student can command.

Two facts of structure are then determined: — 1st. That the
plate is composed of two layers ; 2nd. That those two layers are
united by a looped arrangement at the margin. Now it may be
proved with exact certainty, that each layer is composed of
straight or wavingly parallel channels (figs. 6 a, b, and 7 a, b) laid
on the same horizontal plane (fig. 6 a, as far as i), such that a
membrane is formed. Although these channels are far less indi-
vidually distinct than those of the gills of the Lamellibranchs,
they are unquestionably blood-vessels, united together into a
membrane-like series by delicate intervening fibres or mem-
brane. Various kinds of proofs might be adduced in support of
this interpretation.

The cilia follow the outline of each vessel (|jg. 7 a, b) in a
line-like manner. The vessels present a linear bulge like a tube.
They can be seen to be filled with rows of corpuscles, clearly
distinguishable from the fixed cells and epithclia which form the
solid substance of their walls. Traced carefully in the direction

416 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

of the distal margin, they become more and more separated
from one another (fig. 6 d). The interposed substance becomes
more and more pellucid, until at length at the margin the vas-
cular loops (c, c) stand out in unmistakeable eminence. So mi-
crocosmic is the mechanism however, that it is impossible by
direct view to state whether these vessels are separated by a
water-fissure, such as that which exists in the gills of the Lamel-
libranchs, or whether they are joined by an intervascular mem-
brane. In the former case, water would penetrate into the space
(fig. 7 e) between the two constituent layers of the lamina ;
in the latter this space would be entirely closed from the
external element. On a superficial view this point may appear
very insignificant. On a deeper insight it becomes pregnant
with functional and homological meaning. If the water could
find a ready entrance into the interlaminar space (fig. 6 e, g),
the column of blood flowing in each afierent and efferent blood-
vessel {a, b), that is, in the trunks bounding that space, would
be aerated on both sides, and the respiratory value of the organ
would at once be doubled. It is almost certain that it does not
and cannot. If the external water cannot and does not penetrate
into this interlaminar space, then it must be filled by the vital
fluid of the animal ; for the space exists beyond doubt. If this
latter supposition be true, it is quite certain that this fluid must
be distinct from that which circulates in the laminar or proper
branchial vessels. This doubt must for the present be left
undetermined. Whether it be soluble or not, enough of the
essential structure of the gasteropodan gill has been demon-
strated to establish between it and the branchiae of the Lamelli-
branchs an extraordinary resemblance ; not a mere outline-simi-
larity, but a closeness, almost amounting to an identity of con-
structive plan. If everything else in the patelloid organism
exhibited the same degree of similitude to the system of the
Lamellibranch as that which obtains in the branchial apparatus,
the naturalist would not hesitate to define the Patella at once as
the highest Acephalan and the lowest Encephalan. It must
however be admitted, that the judgement of the classifier should
not be swayed exclusively by special affinities. The question
now arises, if these minute branchial leaflets of Patella really
consist each of two layers, how are these layers tied together ?
They are fixed to one another by an intermediate system of
threads {trabecula;) crossing each other in such a manner as to
afford the mosUeffectual mutual support (fig. 6 A ; fig. 7^). The
points (fig. 6/; fig. 7 d) to which these connecting fibres or bands
(fig. 7/; fig. 6 h) are attached to the vessels are swelled into
nodules (fig. 7 d)^ which present a singular resemblance to the
fleshy nodules on the branchial bars of the Mussel. Of course

Res^piration in Invertebrate Animals. 417-

they are much less visible than they are in the latter case, but
in anatomical characters and relations they are in both cases
most remarkably analogous. Now the interval between the two
layers which is crossed by the threads just described, is indubi-
tably filled with some fluid. What that fluid is, it is impossible
at present to say.

The water-currents excited by cilia on the flat surfaces of the
branchial laminae set, from the fixed, in the direction of the free
boi der. The cilia which are distributed over the flat faces of
the leaflets are very much smaller than those which fringe
the margins. The exact position to which the former are at-
tached in relation to the lines of the blood-channels cannot
therefore be clearly defined. This, however, is an unimportant
point, since the aggregate action of the cilia, as indicated by the
setting of the current, may be easily proved.

The epithelium which lines the flat surfaces of the laminae
forms undoubtedly a continuous membrane. It is consequently
impossible that there can take place any water-currents between
the individual blood-channels, such as those which figure so
prominently in the mechanism of the Lamellibranchiate gills.
The water-passages being wanting, it results that, in this Gas-
teropod, the branchia is not penetrated by the aerating medium.
This fact should be regarded rather as a criterion of superior
than of inferior organization. It signifies an increasing subdi-
vision of the blood- streams. The blood-vessels being smaller,
and the parietes being less dense and cartilaginous, exposure to
the oxygenating medium on one side only suffices for the pur-
poses of respiration. It is important in this place to remark,
that if the interlaminar space of the branchial leaves of Patella
could be proved to be filled with water and not with blood, some
ground would be afibrded, as will again be shown, for supposing
that in these Mollusca the external water is actually admitted
into the penetralia of the organism, forming an aquiferous system^
and that it circulates like a nutritive fluid throughout the entire
body. This, however, is a fancy as yet at all events totally un-
supported by fact.

It is difficult to leave this part of the present inquiry without
once more drawing attention to the homologous significance of
the branchiae of Patella. They are composed of two layers of ves-
sels, opposed face to face, and joined at the margin. They are
invested by a ciliated epithelium which is restricted to the exterior
aspect of the organ. The constituent layers are separated by an
intermediate space. In these several items of mechanism these
branchiae approximate most wonderfully closely to the type
which is normal to the Acejihala. If there be no meaning in
this ayiproximation, there can be no unity in the organic system of

Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xvi. 28

418 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

nature, and the philosophic anatomist may indeed well abandon
his studies in despair. In conclusion it should be remembered,
that between a single leaflet of the gill of Patella and a single
lamina of the same form and figure, taken from any small bra-
chyurous Crustacean, the extremest difference exists. The Crus-
tacean gill is far less perfect, more rude in every sense, as a
purposive machinery. Carrying a single stream of blood, whose
corpuscles are considerably larger than those of Patella, and
which runs in irregular passages lying between two sheets of
epithelium tied together only by means of accidentally distri-
buted islets of fleshy tissue, it contrasts strikingly with the
double-vessel system with the contractile and highly ciliated
elements of which the Patellan gill is woven.

For reasons derived from other sources than those of the
branchiae, the genera Emarginula, Fissurella and Haliotis are
])laced by malacologists in the Patelloid group. The branchiae
of Emarginula (fig. 9 a, a) approach much nearer than those of
Fissurella (fig. 10 a, a) to the type of these organs as they exist
in Patella. The gills of Emarginula are attached to the base of
the cervical cavity (fig. 9 d) on either side of the outlet of the
intestine. They project forwards in form of tapering processes
{a, a) on either side of the head of the animal. They are chiefly
fixed at the base, but a slender membranous /renwm, proceeding
from the median line of each, connects them to that portion of
the mantle which covers the roof of the cavity of the shell in
which the head and rectum are situated. They are thus held in
one position. They possess notwithstanding a slight power of
expanding and collapsing. They are foliated only on one side
{a, a) of a base. They are more comb-like than plume-like. In
this particular of configuration they approach closely to the
branchiae oi Patella. If the latter were seated on a free instead
of a fixed base, the resemblance would be very near. Occupying
a position on either side of the notch [h) in the shell, the latter
should be regarded as playing as important a part in providing
a fresh current of water for the branchiae, as in conveying away
the excreta.

The ciliary movements observable in this region both in
Emarginula and Fissurella point to the same inference. Ex-
amined separately under the microscope, a single leaf taken
from the gill of Emarginula reticulata presents an outline not
unlike that of Patella. It is, however, more lancet-shaped.
In ultimate minute structure it corresponds exactly with the
aptellidan model already figured. Its vessels run in parallel
columns, looping at the free margin and covered by a ciliated
epithelium. The interlaminar space, so unquestionable in the
gill-leaf oiPatella (fig. 6 e), is here however much more contracted

419

Resph'ation in Invertebrate Animals.

and less distinguishable. In other words^ the layers arc so inti-
mately soldered together as almost to obliterate the intervening-
space. The layers nevertheless carry separate and distinct
planes of blood-channels. In Fissurella the organs of breathing
(fig. 10 a, a) consist of two plumose tapering processes («, a),
projecting forwards (when fully expanded) to a considerable
distance under the anterior vault of the shell. They are capable,
like the arms of a Brachiopod, of being coiled up on themselves.
They are distinguished from those of Emarginula in having a
double system of leaves. These gills therefore present rather a
pinnate than a pectinate figure. They stand at the sides of the
chamber, the roof of which is perforated by the opening at the
apex of the shell. This orifice admits fresh water into this space ;
it also conveys externally all refuse excretions. In the dispo-
sition of the vessels, in the character of the ciliary epithelium,
in the fact of two planes of vessels, the branchiae of Fissurella
conform to the standard of the Patel Ian gill.

The branchial plume of Aemvea testudinalis extends to a great
distance beyond the limits of the shell. It is fixed to the neck
of the animal at the root of the right tentacle. It is bisymrae-
tricnlly foliated ; each lamina in its ultimate anatomy follows the
Patelloid type. The gills of Propilidium ancyloide consist of
two small feathery processes attached to the dorsal surface of
the neck of the animal. They incline in a parallel direction
to the right side of the cloacal cavity. They are free processes,
and furnished with a double series of leaves, supported by an
axial base, in which the afferent and efferent branchial vessels
are lodged.

In Puncturella noachina the gill is non-symmetrical. It occu-
pies a special and spacious chamber on the left side of the neck
and foot. It is a pinnate structure highly ciliated, the lamina
being large.

Judged by the structure and relations of the branchial system
exclusively, the Fissurellidm are undoubtedly placed in their true
serial position by Forbes and Hanley, namely intermedially be-
tween the Limpets and llaliotidae. They are Scutibranchiate.
This cannot be said of Acmcea and Propilidium. The branchia
here is not shielded by a fold of the mantle. Nor are they
Cyclobranchiate, for the branchial processes are free plumes. If
affinity is to be decided by structure rather than position, both
Acmcea and Propilidium should be classed with the Scutibranchs.

The branchiae in Haliotis (fig. II) are sufficiently large to
enable us to trace satisfactorily the distribution of the larger
blood-channels. They will suffice to illustrate the circulatory
apparatus of the gills in all the other Scutibranchs. The
authoi*^s account is drawn from an examination of a specimen

28*

420 Dr. T. Williams on the Mechanism of Aquatic

preserved in spirit, aided by the successful injections of Milne-
Edwards.* Haliotis tuherculata is a typical Scutibranch. The
branchise (tig. 11 a,d) are lodged in a spacious enclosure of the
mantle on the left side of the body. They are attached at the base
by means of the vascular trunks ; on the inferior surface to some
extent of their length, by means of a membranous frenum. They
are doubly laminose ; that is, between two parallel trunks
[b, b Sc, c, c), a vein and an artery, which run from the base to
the apex of each gill, there lie transversely two series of leaves
{a, a', a, a!) which are traversed by the blood of the afferent
vessel [b) on its path to the efferent vessel (c). Here again, as
in all the Gasteropod Mollusks, the gills are observed to conform
in general structure to those leafy piles which fill the thoracic
cavity of the Crab ; but how totally different in the minute parts
of their organization ! In Haliotis the heart (el is systemic. The
blood, freshly arterialized, returns directly from the branchiae
into the auricles (e?, d) ; from the ventricle (e) it is driven into
the systemic aorta (/). At the roots of the branchiae the
venous blood converges into capacious, but not lacunose, afferent
trunks {b, b), along which it is conducted to the branchial
laminae. The vascular system of the laminae (fig. 12) is the
same in every respect as that already described and figured in
Chiton and Patella.

Each lamina carries two layers of horizontally stratified, uni-
formly diametered tubes, united to one another laterally, and to
those of the opposite venous stratum by transverse threads.
Each leaflet consequently consists of two layers or planes of
blood-channels, joined together at the free margin, and covered
on their external surfaces by a ciliated epithelium. A thin film of
water moves wavingly from the fixed to the free borders : it is
sustained in motion by the vibration of the cilia. Such an arrange-
ment proves that not only the blood to be aerated, but the water
which aerates, is required in the act of respiration to be divided
to the utmost degree. As far as this inquiry has proceeded, it
must have been observed, that although the plumose or pinnate
form of gill is constantly adopted as the most convenient figure
in accordance with which to construct the respiratory organs
both in Mollusca and Crustacea, the resemblance never proceeds
beyond the exterior conformation and the disposition of the
larger vessels. Beyond and deeper than this limit the micro-
scope establishes an irreconcilable difference between the Crus-
tacean and Molluscan gill. It exemplifies the supreme value of
this instrument in zoological research. But apart from these
physical considerations, a chemical ground of dissimilarity be-

* Annales des Sciences Naturelles, tom. viii. 1847.

Respiration in Invertebrate Animals. 421

tween the branchiae of these two classes exists. The horny chi-
tinous epithelium of the Crustacean contrasts obviously with the
fleshy, soft, and ciliated covering with which the Molluscan
structure is invested. In the latter the blood-movement is aided
by muscular and vascular contractions. In the Crustacean the
flow of the blood is due almost exclusively to the action of the
heart, whose beats can be clearly read by the eye at the farthest
periphery of the circulation in the saltatory motion of the float-
ing corpuscles. In the walled contractile vessel of the Mollusk
no such evidence is discoverable.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE XL

Fig. 1. Respiratory chamber of Verrnetus elegans laid open, after Quoy.
a, branchiae ; 5, excretory ducts.

Fig. 2. A single branchial conule of Chiton much magnified and viewed
on its broad side, a, a, a, leaves ; b, base.

Fig. 3. The former viewed edgewise, showing the axis {b) and the lateral
leaves (a, a, a).

Fig. 4. A transverse section of the gill near the base, so as to exhibit the
main trunks artery («, arrow) and vein {b, arrow) in section.
e, e', secondary afferent and efferent trunks running along the
fixed border of the ultimate laminae {d, d'), in which the ultimate
vessels (c, c') are laid out, in parallel series.

Fig. 5. A portion of the mantle of Patella vulgata detached and magnified,
showing the gill-laminae, a, a, e, resting on a thickened ridge of
the mantle {b) ; d, tactile papillae ; c, c, line of the mantle.

Fig. 6. A portion of the free edge of one of the branchial leaves, viewed
j)artly sideways in order to display the space {e, g) by which the
sheets of vessels a, i and b are separated ; h. are the delicate
threads or trabeculce by which the component vascular layers are
held together ; /, the fleshy nodules to which the latter are
affixed.

Fig. 7 • expresses the course of a single ultimate branchial blood-channel
from the fixed border (a) of the lamina, round the free border (c),
back to the fixed border (6), proving the independence and con-
tinued individuality of the vessel ; e, the space circumscribed by
the loop (c) ; d,f, g. are the connecting thread and nodules.

Fig. 8. exhibits one branchial leaf of Patella in situ ; it has a vaulted
figure, a, convex part ; b, concave ; c, the thickened border ; d,
the row of fleshy nodules next to the free border.

Fig. 9. Outline sketch of the branchial system of Emarginula huzandi
fCuv.). a, «, branchiae foliated on one side only ; b, notch in the
shell ; d, base to which the branchiae are attached ; c, rectal
intestine.

Fig. 10. Outline sketch of the branchial system of Fissurella groeca.

а, «, branchiae foliated o'" both sides of the supporting axis ;

б, perforation in the apex of the shell ; c, rectum.

Fig. 11. Branchial and cardiac systems of Ilaliotis tubercula. a. a', «,

branchijc doubly foliated ; b, b, the afferent trunks ; c, c, the
efferent ; d, d, the double auricles ; e, the single ventricle the
aorta ; y, the rectal intestine.

Fig. 12. Transverse section of the former.

['!'() be continued.]

422

Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiminia.

XXXV. — On the Genera of Mollusca, and on the Genus Assiminia
in particular. By Dr. J. E. Gray, E.R.S. &c.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Gentlemen^

I AM induced to forward the following observations, occasioned
by Mr. Clarkes reply to my note on the genus Assiminia, more
on account of their general application, than as simply bearing
on Mr. Clarkes paper. Mr. Clark must, I think, be almost the
last remaining member of the Montaguan school of British ma-
lacologists who have done so much to increase our knowledge of
the Mollusca of our shores. Unfortunately, however, he is not, like
most of his colleagues, satisfied simply to describe and record the
structure and habits of the species falling under his own observa-
tion, but wishes, without taking the trouble to study those found
in other parts of the world than our own little island, to form
a system of his own ; to decide on the manner in which the Mol-
lusca of all the world should be arranged ; to give an ex cathedra
opinion as to the propriety and value of groups of species of
which he has probably only seen a single small and perhaps
aberrant example ; and to determine on the validity of a specific
distinction by the observation of a collection of small extent,
collected in a single locality. ^lalacologists must, however,
always be thankful for the labours of the describer of the animal
of Ccecum, Dentalium, and several other interesting genera, al-
though it may be permitted them to wish that he would not
publish his descriptions until he had made up his own opinions
as to the accuracy of hi§ observations, and not correct them, and
then have to correct his corrections back to his old statement, as
is to be found in more than one instance in his papers and work.

There can be little doubt that distinct kinds (or as we gene-
rally call them, species) of animals exist in nature. It is the
chief occupation of a naturalist to observe the external charac-
ters, the anatomical structure and the peculiarities in the habits
and manners of each of these kinds or species, and to compare
them with each other, both as individuals and as collected into
groups. It is equally indisputable that certain kinds, or species,
have important characters in common, and it has been the cus-
tom from the earliest times to collect such kinds as have such
common characters into groups, and to divide these great groups
into smaller and smaller groups by such characters as are common
to each ; and these groups, according to their relative irnportance,
have been called classes, orders, families, genera and subgenera ;
but few naturalists, I believe, regard the lower at least of these

423

Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiuiinia.

divisions as more than assemblages formed for general conveni-
ence, and not having any absolute existence in nature. I think
this is sufficiently proved by the facts, — first, that there still exist,
or have formerly existed, some species which are confessedly
intermediate between two or more of all these divisions ; and
secondly, that species which are placed together even in the
smallest groups frequently present some character which shows
either an analogical or a special affinity with the species of several
other groups. Naturalists have availed themselves of this
method of grouping animals together for several reasons, but
principally for the following purposes : —

1. To abbreviate the accounts of the different species or kinds.

2. To enable students, by the examination of a few striking
characters, to discover the name of the animal under examina-
tion.

3. To enable them to show the relations which the different
groups bear to each other and to the general scheme of creation.

If this course were not adopted, it would be necessary, in the
description of every animal, to describe at length every charac-
teristic of form, structure and habit, even those which are com-
mon to many thousands of kinds, instead of mentioning only
those which distinguish it from the few most nearly allied to it ;
repeating under every species what are now condensed in the
characters of the genera, families, orders and classes of animals,
which are as a matter of course considered to be common to all
the animals which make up each of these groups, and are under-
stood to be present in each of the species referred to them. It
is a further advantage of this system of classification by groups,
that the minute attention requisite to make out the characters
of these groups produces also great minuteness and nicety of
observation, which otherwise might not exist. In the same
manner, if this system of division did not exist, whereby to lessen
the labour of discovering the name of any animal, we should
have to go through the interminable operation of reading with-
out order the full descriptions of all the animals which have ever
been described, instead of first looking for the class, order,
family and genus of the species, and then comparing it with the
descriptions of the few species that comj)ose the smaller groups,
and are necessaiily most allied to it.

It has therefore been the custom to consider that person as
the best zoologist, who has been able, by the extent of his studies
and the analytical power of his mind, to seize on and neatly de-
scribe tlie most invariable characters of the different groups of
species, as by so doing he enables other naturalists to ac(piire
with greater facility the knowledge they recpiirc ; and the accu-
racy and minuteness of his own studies ought also to enable him

424

Dr. J.E. Gray on the genus Assiminia.

to form more correct views as to the affinities which exist between
the different species of the larger and smaller groups, and thus
obtain a more clear insight into the relations which the animals
bear to each other and to the rest of the creation.

In proportion as the number of animals known to naturalists
has increased, by the extension of the study, the more careful
researches of collectors, and the more minute examinations into
the structure and habits of the different kinds, the number of
groups into which they have been divided (whether called genera
or subgenera) have been and are continually increasing also.
For if the number of species in a group is inconveniently large,
the object in forming the group has been overlooked ; hence a
group containing 600 or 700 species is found to be of compara-
tively little use in Natural History, and I must consider that a
naturalist who proposes to reduce well-established groups, and
to refer the species to such large groups, is evidently retrograding
instead of advancing scientific objects. Such considerations
sufficiently prove that it is an advantage that a genus should

be restricted in the number of its species and there cannot
be a doubt that such notions are held (almost universally) by
modern zoologists,^' although Mr. Clark may not have been

before aware of it.

Every day^s experience confirms me in the opinion which I
have often expressed, that in the distinction of the larger and
smaller groups of Mollusca the characters derived from the ani-
mal, the shell and the operculum, which all have a mutual rela-
tion to each other, are of equal value and constancy, care being
taken to select such parts of them as depend on organic struc-
ture and are not liable to accidental variation. This care in
selection is equally necessary in relation to the animal, as it is
to the shell and operculum. Such was the idea of Lister and
Adanson ; but while some authors, like Lamarck, profess to
arrange the Mollusca according to the supposed structure of the
animal (but in fact took all their characters from the shell, as
only so few animals were known in their time),— others, as
Ferussac, have declared that the form of the shell should be dis-
regarded, and that no genus is good that is not founded on the
structure of the animal. By the remark of Dr. Philippi, ap-
pended to the part quoted by Mr. Clark, he appears to have
been of that opinion when he wrote the paragraph, though I
believe he has since modified it ; and Mr. Clark, in some of his

* I am aware there are some genera, as Conns in Malacology and Sola-
num in Botany, which contain very many species; but this arises fi-om
permanent characters not having yet been found by which they may be
divided, and not from any disinclination on the part of naturalists to divide
them.

425

Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiminia.

observations, appears to regard the shell as of minor importance,
the operculum as of still less, and the dentition, because it offers
many forms, as of none, in a generic point of view.

I believe these notions to have arisen from these authors not
having had sufficient opportunities of studying the animals with
the shells, or the operculum and teeth with them both, and of
seeing how thoroughly they depend on each other, and what
excellent and permanent characters they afford, both separately
and in combination with each other.

For these reasons, although the ancient authority of Dr. Phi-
lippi or even any more modern authority may be quoted against
me, I must persist that I cannot believe animals such as Trun-
catella and Assiminia should be placed together in the same
group, for the following reasons : —

Truncatella

1. Has a very short foot and
large lips, and walks like a

looping caterpillar.

2. Has large eyes furnished
with a broad white iris, sunk
into the superior and nearly
terminal point of short rectan-
gular tentacula.

3. Has according to Dr. Phi-
lippi a non-spiral opercu-
lum.

4. Has an animal which, in
its young state, forms a very
slender elongated shell, then
suddenly enlarges its diameter,
and when it has increased its
larger shell to a certain size,
suddenly withdraws its body
from the upper more slender
part, forms a septum across the
cavity behind it, and throws off
the slender tip, leaving a trun-
cated end.

5. The TruncateLlce live in
the sea.

Assiminia

1. Has moderate-sized lips
and a large foot, and walks like
a Littorina.

2. Has moderate-sized black
eyes on the top of short, nearly
cylindrical tentacula.

3. Has a distinctly spiral
operculum of few whorls.

4. Has an animal which forms
a conical shell, which gradually
increases in even proportion
from its birth to its death, and
always retains the shell of its
young state on the tip of the
older one.

5. The Assiminice live in
rather brackish water often far
from the sea.

Let it be understood, that these are peculiarities which do not
belong to a single species of each genus, as Mr. Clark a])pears
to believe, but to each ol the several species which form these

426

Dr. J. E. Gray on the (jenus xlssimiiiia.

groups. All the several Truncatellce found in general collections
of shells have these characters; and I have seen the animals of
four or five species of the genus Assiminia from different parts
of the vi^orld^ and there are in collections several species of shells,
which from their characters are believed to belong to the same
group.

I am amused at j\Ir. Clarkes quoting an opinion expressed by
my excellent friend Dr. Philippi in 1841, as a reply to my ob-
servation in 1855. I feel assured that if he were in this country,
he would be the first to repudiate such a use being made of his
name. He is undoubtedly the most enlightened of the con-
tinental conchologists. Since that period he has much extended
his knowledge of the animals of shells, and is now personally
engaged in examining the species found on the coast of Peru;
and in his most recent work he regards Assiminia and Trunca-
tella as distinct genera belonging to different families ! (See
Handbuch, 173, 263.) Thus his latest work contradicts Mr.
Clarkes views instead of supporting them.

At the same time I may observe, that the mere external forms
of the animals of several genera are exceedingly similar ; and
unless they are very particularly examined by a person well
versed with their peculiarities, what prove to be important cha-
racters may easily be overlooked, especially if the animals are of
a small size, such as can only be seen by the aid of a microscope.
For this reason I am not inclined to place much reliance on Dr.
PhilippPs determination as to the animal of the species which
he has referred to the genus, when he informs us that the animals
are all hyaline, that the shell of one of them, Truncatella litto-
rinUy is three-quarters of a line in length, and the discoidal
shell of the other, T. atomus, is scarcely a quarter of a line in
diameter, and that he was obliged to magnify it sixty diameters
to observe it.

I think 1 need only quote the various genera, to which those
who have examined the animal of the only British species of
Truncatella have referred it, viz. Cyclostoma, Paludina, and lastly
Rissoa (to which J)r. Philippi referred it even after he had
figured it), to show that naturalists who consider the animal as
the only basis of a generic character, are more unstable in their
opinions than those who regard the shell and operculum as of
similar value in a scientific point of view. I may add, to show
how comparatively imperfect was Dr. Philippics idea of this
mollusk, in the account of the animal quoted by Mr. Clark as
j)ublished in 1841, and again in 1844, that he considers it
necessary to point out how it difiered from the terrestrial genus
Cyclostoma, and the fluviatile Paludina, both belonging to very
different families according to his present views.

427

Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiminia.

Mr. Clark would have quoted his authorities more correctly, if
he had stated, — first, that Dr. Philippi referred his third species
(t. 24. f. 4) to the genus with a mark of doubt ! — as he never
examined the animal. It is the figure of this species which Mr.
Clark thinks may be intended to represent our Truncatella
Grayana” On this head it is only necessary to observe (and
showing, at the same time, the dependence to be placed in ]\Ir.
Clarkes quotation of synonyma), that as Dr. Philippi found this
species very frequently in the sea at Palermo, it is to be sup-
posed that he had observed it in all its ages ; and he describes
“ the shell as half a line high, and one-third of a line broad,
subturrited, blunt, the wEorls rounded, the last not ventricose^^ —
which does not very exactly fit our Assiminio Gh'ayana, as the
latter lives in brackish water, often at such a distance from the
sea, that, after rains, the ditches are nearly fresh — measures
one-third or more of an inch in length, is of a conic shape, acute
at the top, and with scarcely raised whorls, the last somewhat
angular in front. I could as soon believe that the littoral Fur-
pura Lapillus and the pelagic Buccinum undatum were the same
species, as they do not differ in more important characters; and
I feel assured that Mr. Clark proposes to unite in his work
many species from superficial examination and incorrect compa-
rison.

Secondly, Mr. Clark might also have stated, that Professor
Forbes and Mr. Hanley have removed one of the species (7".
atornus), which Dr. Philippi had described as belonging to the
genus Skenea; and that Air. Clark himself, in his ^Mollusca,^
}). 386, refers this species to the genus Truncatella with doubt !
And while on this species I may observe, that I must beg to
doubt the accuracy of Mr. Clarkes observation, when he states
that this species, which has a circular mouth to the shell and a
cylindrical body to the animal, has an operculum which is
precisely of the same grossly spiral character and sculpture as in
Truncatella Montagui and Truncatella littorea” — which have an
ovate mouth to the shell, and the body of the animal com-
pressed; such a combination of characters being directly at
variance with all my experience. I am assured that T. atornus^
on the contrary, has a circular multispiral operculum like Tro-
chuSf which, according to Mr. Clarkes most extraordinary theory,
ought to remove it from Truncatella to quite a different order
in his sexual system of Mollusca. It is to be regretted that Mr.
Clark observed the 0])crculurn of this species so superficially,
when he })rofesses to have been able to see a white pupil on the
eye of a dried specimen of the animal, which animal in its entire
state is scarcely a quarter of a line in diameter !

428

Dr. J. E. Gray on the genus Assiminia.

I adduced as one of the reasons proving that Assiminia is not
a Truncatella, that it had not the white pupil which Mr. Clark
has shown to be one of the characters of the group ; on which
Mr. Clark observes, I do not understand the logic of this ; the
point in question is a mere specialty ; one may with as much
reason say that a man with a red iris or pupil, for example an
albino, is not of the genus Man, because he has not the usual
dark or grey iris; so, it is equally absurd to infer that^. Gray-
ana is not a Truncatella, because the white iris or pupil was not
detected.^^ Surely Mr. Clark must know the difference between
an accidental lusus, like an albino man or woman, and a cha-
racter common to all the specimens of a species, and all the
hitherto-observed species of a group. The argument objected to
may be illogical and absurd,^^ though I own that I do not
think it so ; but at any rate I am not answerable for its use,
for in Mr. Clarkes ^ Mollusca,^ p. 386, occurs the following
passage, referring to Truncatella atomus : moreover, the eyes in

the dried animal are perfectly visible, and show the charac-
teristic white pupil of what may now be safely termed its con-
generic

In explanation of Mr. Clark’s pertinacity on this head, we
must bear in mind that his character as a soothsayer or prophet
is dependent on his proving that Assiminia is a Truncatella-, for
before he had seen the animal, at page 385, and again at page
521 of his ^Mollusca,’ he predicts, ^Uhat when the animal is
better known, it will belong to the latter genus.”

This is a good illustration of what I consider one of the prin-
cipal defects of Mr. Clark’s work. From some important ob-
servation, or from some a-priori theory, he picks up a crotchet,
such as that the water does not enter by the lower siphon of
the Bivalves, that the teeth are not good generic characters, that
all the animals with a multispiral operculum are unisexual, &c.,
&c. ; and forthwith he proceeds to examine specimens, appa-
rently not with the desire to discover if the idea is founded in
fact, but to prove the truth of it ; and it is astonishing how his
power of observation appears to adapt itself to his preconceived
theory, and enables him to see just what he wishes, though to
other observers the facts are clearly contrary. In the same
manner, it appears to me that when he reads a work, some of
the observations of the author seem to take possession of his
mind, and after a time he appears to forget that they are not
founded on his own observations, and puts them forth as his
own discoveries. Thus his new system itself is (unwittingly
perhaps) only copied from the works of Blainville and Leach,
and his referring the genera iSkenea and the elongated Cerithia

429

Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

to Rissoa, are derived from an observation of Loven, who did
not_, however, regard them as species of those genera, but only
intended to show that an affinity existed between them, as far
as the outer form of the animal was concerned.

I am. Gentlemen,

Your obedient Servant,

J. E. Gray.

XXXVI. — A feiv Remarks on the Brachiopoda.

By Thomas Davidson, Esq., F.G.S. &c.

[With a Plate.]

1 . On the Systematic Arrangement of Recent and Fossil
Brachiopoda.

Shortly after the publication of the General Introduction to my
work on ^ British Fossil Brachiopoda,^ to which Prof. Owen
and Dr. Carpenter each contributed most valuable chapters,
M. Deslongchamps and his son proposed to make a French
translation of the third chapter treating especially of Classi-
fication, which the Linnsean Society of Normandy had in the
most liberal manner offered to publish in the tenth volume of
their Transactions. About the same period I received a similar
offer from M. Suess and Count Marschall of Vienna with respect
to a German translation. But although highly flattered by such
liberal propositions, I felt that much could be done to improve
the original by corrections, as well as by considerable addi-
tions, both in text and illustrations. I therefore entirely revised
my English work, printed in 1853, before it went through the
process of translation, and owing to the exertions of my friends,
I am happy to say that both editions are now printed, and I
trust will be ready for issue by the end of the present year.

As stated in my English work, we are not yet in a condition
to offer a really complete and permanent classification of the
numerous species composing the class ; for to be able to do so
effectually, one would require to be still better acquainted with
the recent animals as well as with the interior of many obscure
fossil species ; and it is therefore of the greatest importance not
to allow ourselves to be led into proposing genera or subgenera
on trifling modifications or unimportant details which exist only
in certain abnormal forms*.

* For exaiTi[)le, the genus Seminula (M‘Coy) is founded on the more
developed state of the dental y)lates, while otherwise the shells in question
possess all the essential characters of Lhwyd’s original genus Terehratula.

The following is an improved Table of Families and Genera as published in the Foreign editions of my

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432 Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda,

This arrangement, although still imperfect in some respects,
will I hope be found to possess advantages over the one pub-
lished in 1853, being more simple and perhaps nearer to the
truth. In the first place, we have got rid of all the subfamilies ;
the genera are located into eight families; that of Calceolidce,
which formed the ninth, being suppressed, on account of the
great uncertainty still existing, as to whether or not Calceola is
a true Palliobranch. M. Suess seems to believe that it is not
so ; but as much doubt remains as to where the shell should be
located among the Mollusca, we have left the name provisionally
in the Table, and must refer the reader to the German edition
for more ample details on this point. Mr. S. P. Woodward, in
whose knowledge on all appertaining to the Mollusca the greatest
reliance may be placed, has also adopted eight families in his
excellent ^ Manual of the Mollusca,^ and the only difference in
opinion between us is whether the fourth family should be
termed Strophomenidae or Orthidae. I adopted the first name
simply on account of priority, but quite agree that my friend is
right when he states that the names of families should be formed
from those of the typical genera; the only question which might
arise in the present case being, which of Orthis or Strophomena
is in reality the typical genus.

Among the genera and subgenera we have proposed the fol-
lowing changes : —

1. Terebratulidae. Kraussia, Magas, Bouchardia and Mor-
risia have been placed among the subgenera of Terebratella,
as this last may be considered the great typical genus to which
the subgenera mentioned are more nearly related than to that of
any other group. Trigonosemus we have consented to erase on
M. Suess^s proposition, as it possesses all the essential internal
characters of Terebratella, of which it is only a synonym ; the
largely developed cardinal process of T. elegans is not found in all
the other forms which had been located with Trigonosemus, nor has
the beak always the peculiar shape of the last-named species. Lyra
(Cumberland) = Terebrirostra, D^Orb., appears to be composed
partly of shells belonging to Terebratella and perhaps Wald-
heimia, and as the greater or lesser length of the beak is of very
little generic importance among the Brachiopoda, that section
can be advantageously dispensed with. String ocephalus and The-
cidium have also been admitted into the present family, which
seems to be their most natural resting-place.

2. Spiriferidse. The changes we have made in this family con-
sist in re-establishing Prof. M^Coy^s genus Athyris as typified
by such shells as T. concentrica, lamellosa, &c., and adopting the
subgenus Merista, Suess, for T. Herculea, scalprum, tumida, and
other such shells. This last mode has been adopted by Mr. S.

Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

433

P. Woodward, — the name Spirigera, D^Orbigny, will therefore
require to be considered a synonym of Athyris ; but I must also
mention that continental palaeontologists seem more disposed to
prefer D^Orbigny^s denomination, on account of the zoological
contradiction attached to that published by Prof. M^Coy in
1844. It has also been found desirable to reduce the value of
Defrance^s genus (Incites by placing it among the subgenera
depending upon Athyris.

The family and place of the genus Koninckina (Suess) is to
my mind still uncertain ; some would place it among the Spiri-
feridae, others among the Strophomenidae ; but I prefer to leave
the question open for the present j and may say the same relative
to Dr. Sandberger^s newly proposed genus Anoplotheca, which
has been considered both by the author and by M. Suess to be
nearly related to Koninckina.

3. Among the Rhynchonellidae I can propose no changes.

4. Strophomenidae. To this family I have added Pander^s
genus PoRAMBONiTES, and placed Orthisina as a subgenus of
Orthis; but it may also perhaps be advisable to retain as a
subgenus of Orthis Prof. King^s section ^treptorhynchus for such
shells as 8^. pelargonatus, Schloth. ; — Leptcena filling a similar
position relative to Strophomena. The genus Davidsonia is
also admitted into this group ; and I must here express my re-
gret at not being able to coincide with my friend M. de Koninck,
who has in his last paper (1855) on the subject considered it as
a genus of the family Productidse : it does not possess the reni-
form impressions (supposed to be vascular) of the last-named
family, but agrees in this particular and in several others with
the Strophomenidae, among which it had been already located
both by Professor King and Mr. Woodward.

5. Productidae. Here I have effected no further change than
that of placing Strophalosia as a subgenus of Productus ; but
I must add, that I consider Prof. M^Coy greatly mistaken in
removing Strophalosia, Aulosteges and C/ionetes from the Pro-
ductidae, and placing them among the Strophomenidae ; nor can
I agree for the same reasons with M. Semenow, who has also
lately proposed to remove Fischer^s genus Chonetes, as had been
done by Prof. M^Coy before him. By following such a system
the clearly defined characters appertaining to the present family
are destroyed, and the great similarity of the interior, and parti-
cularly that of the reniform impressions, common to ProductuSy
AulostegeSy Strophalosia and ChoneteSy completely lost sight of,
as this last character has not hitherto been observed in any of
the shells which belong to the Strophomenidae. If those genera
or subgcnera require to be removed, Productus will require to

Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Scr. 2. Vol.w'i. 29

434 Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachioj)oda.

follow, and the family to which this last-named genus gives its
name be completely dispensed with.

In the sixth, seventh and eighth families we have made no
further changes than to entirely expunge D^Orbigny^s genus
Orbiculoidea, there existing at present no valid grounds for its
adoption.

It is difficult to see much order or interdependence in the suc-
cession of groups. It seems that the hingeless genera. Lingula^
OboluSj Crania, Discina and Productus, which commenced in the
earliest sera, soon attained their climax, since only three of them.
Crania, Discina and Lingula, have passed the limits of the
palseozoic age. They are also least unlike the Lamellibranchs
\e. g. Anomia, Hippurites, Spondylus). Of the hinged genera
those provided with calcareous spires were certainly developed
first, no example having as yet been found above the lower por-
tions of the J urassic strata ; while, on the contrary, the genera
provided with loops become important in the Jurassic period
and continue up to the present time. For in all the Palseozoic
epoch we are acquainted with but few species which possessed
loops, and until M. Suess^s discovery of the interior of T. Archiaci
no species with a long loop had been discovered, if we except
Stringocephalus.

Thus taking our present Table as a basis for our conclusions,
we find the genera and subgenera distributed in time as follows :

In the Silurian 20. In the Devonian 25. In the Carboni-
ferous 19. In the Permian 12. In the Triassic 12. In the
Jurassic 14. In the Cretaceous 12. In the Tertiary 10. In the
Recent 14.

These details vary but little from those published in 1 853, but
it is to be expected that future discoveries will still slightly
modify our statistics, as there are many obscure forms which
have hitherto resisted our investigation.

It would take up too much space to enter here upon the
numerous additions made to the two foreign editions, but we
cannot pass in silence the interesting discovery of the perfect
interior of that shell known under the name of Rhynchora David-
soni (De Koninck), and of which the Anomia spathulata of
Wahlenberg is another similar form, this last being the second
type of Dalman^s objectionable genus Rhynchora^. During the

* Dalman proposed his genus Rhynchora in 1827, with the following
diagnosis : — “ Smaller valve truncated at its base, larger valve with a nearly
straight? elongated beak : Rhynchora costata (Wahl.), Rhyn. spathulata
but it is certain that neither of those shells has a lengthened beak like
Lyra ; and if Dalman intended to refer his species to Cumberland’s genus
(as Hisinger would lead us to believe), he was there again in error, as it is
certain that they do not even belong to the group.

435

Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

minute and elaborate investigations made by M. Bosquet for
his fine work (now in the press) on the Brachiopoda of the Creta-
ceous beds of Maestricht and its vicinity, that able palaeonto-
logist discovered that the interior of the shell in question (apart
from its peculiar hinge-plate) was exactly similar to Magas, and
with his kind permission we have reproduced (in fig. 4) the
drawings kindly forwarded by the Belgian author. That the
genus Rhynchora should be expunged there can remain but
little doubt, since it was based on no valid characters, and those
which have been supposed to exist have proved incorrect.

We will now revert to the principal object of this communi-
tion, which was intended to call attention to certain interesting
observations published abroad, but which appear unknown to, or
to have been overlooked by British naturalists.

2. On the Claims to Priority in the discovery of the peculiar

function of certain Muscles in the opening and closing of the

Shell of Terebratula.

Prof. Sedgwick in pages xi and xii of his Introduction (Bri-
tish Palseozoic Rocks and Fossils, October 1855) still appears to
consider the merit of the above-mentioned discovery to be due
to Prof. M'Coy, since we find stated in the work quoted, \
avail myself, however, of this occasion to state why 1 believe that
Prof. M^Coy was the original discoverer of the jieculiar muscular
action on a leverage supj)lied by what he calls the ^entering
valve,^ which, in the absence of the cartilage, enabled the Bra-
chiopoda to open their shells ^in a manner unexampled in
Lamellibranch Bivalves (p. 191). He however admits that
Mr. Woodward had discovered and published this remarkable
fact (in his Manual) a year before Prof. M^Coy^s 2nd Fasci-
culus was out of the press, but seems to base the Profcssor^s
claims on the statement of his having found it out in 1848 or ^49,
and mentioned the circumstance to Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Morris,
but who nevertheless did not communicate on the subject with
any other person with whom I am acquainted. Knowing the
high value Prof. Sedgwick attaches to historical statements, and
his wish to see justice done to every one, I will add a few details
which 1 trust will help to clear up and terminate this subject.
It will not be necessary here to rej)eat what I published in the
Introduction to my work on British Fossil Brachiopoda, pp. 54
and 55, 1853, any further than to say that I believe it was there
demonstrated, that Prof. M‘Coy could not claim priority on this
point ; but at that period 1 was myself unacquainted with Ib-of.
Quenstedt’s still more ancient claims, which 1 found out shortly
after, while reading Dr. GratiolePs paj)er entitled ^^Notc sur les

29*

436 Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

muscles des Terdbratules, et en particulier de la Terebratula
australis^^ (Academic des Sciences, Paris, 11 July 1853), but
printed some short time after our Introduction had gone through
the press. My object not being to enter upon a detailed account
of the muscles, which have been fully described elsewhere, I
must refer the reader to the French author^s paper*; contenting
myself with reproducing in this place a translation of that portion
only which relates to the subject under discussion. After refer-
ring to the different opinions advanced by authors as to the
mode in which Terebratula open their shell. Dr. Gratiolet states
that all these hypotheses are more or less ingenious, but do
not satisfy a severe investigator. Prof. Quenstedt alone seems
to me to have arrived at the true explanation (Wiegmann^s
Archiv, vol. ii. p. 220, 1835). This able anatomist, founding his
views on very precise reasons derived from the mode of articu-
lation of the valves, was the first to point out two orders of
muscles, of which the one closed, while the other opened the valves.
Unfortunately Prof. QuenstedPs paper is both short and without
plates (this last statement is not strictly correct, since we
find three diagrammatic figures), so that the opinion of this
clever author did not make way, and is not even alluded to
in MM. Siebold and Stannius^s Manual, which is otherwise so
complete. This unjust forgetfulness has appeared to me worthy
of being noticed ; besides which, among the descriptions which
have been given of the muscles of the Terebratula, not one is to
my mind intelligible, and 1 have therefore deemed it useful to
revert again to a subject so interesting.^^ After having read the
above, 1 lost no time in procuring a copy of the paper so highly
spoken of by the French savant, and of which I now offer the
entire translation.

On the mode in which Brachiopoda open and close their Shell.

By Prof. Quenstedt f. PI. X. figs. 6, 7, 8.

Prof. Owen^s anatomy of several Terebratula has excited the
greatest interest J. In general we may place the utmost con-
fidence in the researches of that author, on account of his beau-
tiful works and investigations on other subjects. But when,

* In the explanation of the Plate I have reproduced the names given by
M. Gratiolet to the muscles, also those by Prof. Owen, and those used by
myself.

t Ueber das Oeffnen und Schliessen der Brachiopoden. Wiegmann’s
Archiv, vol. ii. pp. 220-222. pi. 4. f. 4, 5, 6, 1835.

Prof. Quenstedt means Prof. Owen’s first paper published in the
Transactions of the Zoological Society. 4to. Vol. i. \S35.

437

Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

in his theoretical considerations, he is of opinion that the elas-
ticity of the calcareous appendages [of Terebratula] is sufficient to
enable the animal to raise the reflected portion [of the loop] so as
to force open the opposite valve, it must be remarked, that he
has himself demonstrated that in the greater number of cases
this explanation is not applicable. I believe, moreover, that
in the instances indicated, the calcareous appendages had no
other function than to protect the soft internal organs, and that
they can hardly furnish the proper means of opening the shell.

If

we examine the non-perforated or ventral valve {dorsal of
Owen*) of any Terebratula whatever, we immediately remark that
the inner and incurved extremity of the beak {umbo) is entirely
hidden under the deltidium of the dorsal valve {ventral of Owen).
On opening the shell this extremity is deeply sunk (or hid)
under the deltidium, since the points of attachment on which
the ventral {dorsal) valve is moved are formed by the two lateral
teeth of the dorsal {ventral) valve ; these teeth are perfectly esta-
blished at the height of the auricular expansions, and correspond
with the sockets of the ventral {dorsal) valve. Since this point
of support is placed on each side towards the middle of the
beak, it follows, that a force applied to this beak must open the
valve as a lever would do. In effect we remark also at this ex-
tremity two well-defined muscular impressions, which lead us to
suppose the presence of muscles which must often have been
largely developed, so as to have transformed the extremity of
the beak into a large surface. These muscles direct themselves
from thence towards the large anterior impressions of the dorsal
{ventral) valve, and by the most direct road, without crossing
each other. These contractions must, therefore, have deter-
mined the opening of the shell, and it is with justice that they
have received the denomination of opening muscles {Oejfnungs-
muskeln). The double muscular impression situated on either
side of the dorsal line {septum) might be easily explained, inas-
much as each of the two opening muscles divided itself into two
bundles or branches in order to obtain a larger surface of
attachment.

“The closing muscles, on the contrary, direct themselves from
the ventral {dorsal) valve under the ))oint of support towards the
bottom of the beak, so as to produce the closing of the valves by
their contraction ; they also divide themselves each at its point
of attachment to the ventral {dorsal) valve into two branches.
Terebratuloi therefore possess two closing muscles and two opening

* Prof. Quenstedt makes use of the old system of calling the perforated
valve the dorsal one, &c. 1 have placed within brackets Prof. Owen’s (and
now [generally admitte<l) mode of denominatinf^ the valves.

438 Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

ones, each of which is divided into two bundles or branches after
leaving its points of attachment, towards the middle of the shell.
They unite the valves by direct means, and we find moreover
some muscles which intersect or cross each other, but these
last have rather for function the movement of the portions of the
body than those of the valves. The perfectly dried condition of
the muscles generally permits of these being distinguished in
specimens preserved in collections, and are so disposed that we
are enabled to follow their mechanism with the eye. This
mode of opening constitutes for the Brachiopoda a most suitable
and proper distinguishing character, and renders needless any
other more complicated definition for them.

'^If nature has thus meant to furnish the Terebratulce with
a mechanism so suitable, then Cuvier^s opinion that Lingula
opened its valves by means of these fleshy oral arms, using
them as a wedge, is no longer tenable. If things had so
operated, the arms would constantly find themselves in a con-
strained position from the compression of the valves, and would
become inconvenient organs. It seems to us much more evi-
dent, that both valves in the animal [Lingula) must not bear the
same denomination, since the dorsal [ventral) valve possesses (as
in Terebratula) a longer beak, and its sides present equally a
kind of auricular expansion, so that these are situated low
enough to allow that the ventral side may separate from the
dorsal one on the principles of a lever.

‘‘ Cuvier also expressly points out that we find at the summit
of the hinge a muscle which unites the valves in the most direct
manner : it is probably the opening muscle. On the contrary,
the two muscles which unite the valves towards the middle of
their length have for function the closing of the valves.

It is probable that in Crania and Orbicula [Discina) the
mechanism is more difficult to explain : however, it is certain that
it must be analogous, since those animals possess so many
analogies.^^

This evidence is so clear, that no comment will be required to
demonstrate that it is to Prof. Quenstedt the merit devolves of
having first discriminated and published what Prof. M^Coy now
claims — no doubt from not having been acquainted with the
paper of which we have given a translation ; but had even these
observations, published in 1835, not existed, I still maintain that
the claims of the author of the ^ British Palaeozoic Fossils ^ could
not be maintained.

I have added in Plate X. fig. 5. a reduced copy of the im-
proved diagram illustrating the muscular system in Terebratula
by Mr. Hancock, to help those who are not so familiar with the

439

Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

subject to better understand the position of the muscles than
can be made out in Prof. QuenstedPs diagrammatie figures. Be-
fore quitting the subject of the muscles, I may likewise remind
the reader, that Mr. Hancoek has objected to the hypothesis of
“ the sliding action oi protractor and retractor muscles;” he re-
gards the decussating muscle as a “ compensator for the want of
teeth at the hinge ; a means of keeping the valves opposite to
each other : he says, The valves would appear to be opened

somewhat in the manner of the Bryozoa by the aid of fluids.
The posterior adductor contracts, the anterior relaxes ; the fluids
are pressed forwards, the valves separate. The protrusion of the
arms will also help.” — Hancock, MS.

The justness of these remarks, at least in Crania, would appear
to be confirmed by Mr. Barrett’s observation, that the valve
opens by moving upon the straight side, as on a hinge without
sliding the valve.”

3. On the Sexes and Ova of the Brachiopoda.

In the first chapter of the Introduction to my work on the
British Fossil Brachiopoda (p. 21), Prof. Owen adds many in-
teresting observations he had made on the ^‘Generative System;”
it will therefore not be devoid of interest to give here a trans-
lation of what Prof. Oscar Schmidt has also published on the
same subject*.

“ From his examination of the animal of Terebratula pre-
served in spirits of wine. Prof. Owen arrived at the conclusion
that the sexes were separate, and lately M. J. Muller f has
brought forward a similar supposition. I had also become
certain of this point after my examination of the living Tere-
bratula which I obtained in the Oexfjord during my journey to
Norway in the summer of 1850, and I have already published
these observations in the second edition of my ^ Comparative
Anatomy,’ p. 314, 1852, as well as in p. 295 of my ‘ Manual
of Zoology,’ 1854. The sexual glands are found in the mantle,
and their shape varies according to individuals (PL X. fig. 9).
In the species of Terebratula examined by myself J the testicles

* “ Die neuesten Untersucliungcn iiber die Brachiopoden von Owen,
f Carpenter und Davidson, mit einigen Zusatzen.” (Printed in the Zcitsclirift
fiir die gesammtcn Naturwissenschaften, p. 327, pi- H, 12- May 1854.)

t “ See the reports of the meetings of the Naturforschende Freunde of
Berlin.”

J “ This species was often obtained by myself in the Oexfjord, and is
not mentioned in Loven’s ‘ Index der Scandinavischen Mollusken.’ From
the structure of the sliell it can hardly be distinguished from the IVald-
heiniia australis.

“ The Terebratula; from the sei)tentriomil shores of Norway, accortliug

4i0 Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

and ovaria resemble each other ; the zoosperms are in the shape
of a thread with a small head (fig. 10). Prof. Owen was likewise
able to observe the first commencement of the development of
the ova in the Lingula (fig. 15) ; the embryos^ first of an ellip-
tical shape, form a stem a little later, without any change
having been effected in the ulterior organization or develop-
ment. The embryos of the said Terehratula differ from this
very considerably (fig. 11) ; they resemble a Euastrum com-
posed of two unequal halves (for instance, the E. gemmatum or
ansatuMj Focke) ; the rounded portion seems to be the anterior ;
the posterior part is a little wider, and is prolonged into two
points. What is the following development ? In none of the
ovaries observed by myself— for it is there that the embryo is
found— was the development more perfect. Considering our
total ignorance relative to the development of Terehratula, every
observation must prove acceptable.^^

4. On certain calcareous Plates found in the mantle, oral arms,
and cirri of Terebratulina caput-serpentis.

In the same paper. Prof. Schmidt observes, that the mantle,
oral arms and cirri in Terebratulina caput-serpentis contain an
innumerable number of calcareous plates, generally flattened,
dilated and irregularly denticulated, situated in close vicinity
to each other, as seen in the examples figs. 12, 13 & 14. It is
easily conceived that these calcareous masses stiffen the parts
which contain them, and seem particularly to serve this func-
tion in the hollow cirri, thus preventing their sides from sinking
down. In the Norwegian Terehratula I examined they are not
to be found, nor have I obtained any in Terebratella dorsata-,
but further investigation conducted on a larger number of
species will show whether they are or are not peculiar to the T,
caput-serpentis”

We may here mention that M. E. Deslongchamps has ob-
served a somewhat similar occurrence in his new species of Mor-
risia, for we find stated in a note he has added to my description
of Morrisia (French edition) : Having placed in water during

several hours a Morrisia, which contained in its larger valve a
portion of its cirriferous arms, as well as their desiccated mem-
brane, we were able, after their immersion, to extend them more
than before : in placing these remnants under the microscope
we saw that they contained irregular scattered granulations

to M. Loveu, ave the Ter. (Rhynchonella) ps^7^«ce«, T. caput-serpentis, T.
cranium, and T. septigera. Mine answers better to T. septigera than to
the others, but it does not possess the characteristic septum in the smaller
valve.”

441

Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

touching each other by their angles_, but which left here and
there free spaces. After having dried up these remains of the
animal on the slide of the microscope, their granulations had
not changed in appearance, but seemed to us of a calcareous
nature : one may compare these membranaceous parts furnished
with calcareous granulations to the skin of certain star-fish, but
the granulations in Morrisia do not present regular shapes, nor
are they symmetrical in their arrangement.^^

These facts are of great value (as justly stated by M. Suess)
in helping us to understand that beautiful calcareous network
which is observed in the interior of many species of Thecidium.

5. Waldheimia septigera, Loven, sp. PI. X. f. 1.

Terehratula septigeray Loven, Index Moll. Scand. p. 29, 1846.

Waldheimia septigera. Catalogue of the Mollusca in the British
Museum, p. 59. 1853.

Shell inequivalve, tumid, ovato-triangular or somewhat ob-
scurely pentagonal, truncated in front; colour almost white,
subpellucid, smooth, marked only by a few lines of growth.
Beak moderately produced, slightly incurved and obliquely
truncated by a circular foramen of moderate dimensions, partly
completed by and separated from the hinge-line by a deltidium
in two pieces ; beak-ridges well defined. The smaller or dorsal
valve is not so deep as the opposite one, the convexity origin-
ating at the umbone continued by a gentle curve until it
attains about the centre of the valve, when the remaining half
declines more rapidly, and especially when approaching to the
front, producing a slight medio-longitudinal convexity, with a
moderate depression on either side ; the two lateral })ortions of
the valve presenting more elevated rounded curves. The larger
or ventral valve, on the contrary, is biplicated, the mesial con-
cavity corresponding with the median convexity of the opposite
valve. The simple attached reflected loop extends to about
three-quarters of the length of the shell; a median septum
exists along the bottom of the valve, whose presence is betrayed
by a dark line on the outer surface of the valve. Length 12,
width 9, depth about 7 lines.

Hab. Norway : Einmark.

Obs. This remarkable shell (named by Loven in his Index
Moll. Scand.) does not appear to have been hitherto figured or
sufficiently described. It seems rare, since the only cxamj)lc
with which I am acquainted, and from which the above de-
scription and illustrations arc taken, was originally in the
possession of Mr. Hanley, who, in the most liberal manner.

442 Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachio'poda.

added it to Mr. Cuming's unique collection of recent species.
Messrs. M^Andrew and Barrett have also informed me that
during their two months' dredging along the Norwegian coast
last summer they never had the good fortune of seeing it,
although much looked for, while Waldheimia cranium (fig. 2)
was obtained several times during that period. I therefore
thought it useful to figure this interesting form, which presents
more than ordinary interest on many accounts.

It appears the reverse of Terehratula biplicata, having the
biplication on the larger or ventral valve instead of on the dorsal
one, as in Brocchi's species. It also approaehes much in shape
to some fossil oolitic species, and especially to one termed Leu-
froyi by M. E. Guerange in his ^Bepertoire Palseontologique
du Dep. de la Sarthe" (1853).

It resembles also somewhat the figures of the Ter. septata of
Philippi (Mon. Sicil. ii. p. 68. t. 18. p. 7, 1844), and Prof. 0.
Schmidt moreover states that he believes he met with it during
his dredgings at Oexfjord in 1850.

6. Terebratella Spitzbergensisy Dav. 1852. PI. X. fig. 3.

A description of this shell was published in the Proceedings
of the Zoological Society of London for May 25, 1852, but the
illustrations were omitted. I therefore avail myself of this op-
portunity to repair that deficiency.

Shell ovate, slightly pentagonal, longer than wide; valves
almost equally convex; beak produced, incurved, and truncated
by a middle-sized foramen ; deltidium in two pieces, partly sur-
rounding the aperture ; beak-ridges not very sharply defined ;
smaller valve slightly depressed near the front ; surface smooth,
strongly punctate, and marked by a few concentric lines of
growth ; colour light yellow ; apophysary system composed of a
central longitudinal septum, extending to a little beyond half
the length of the shell, in the form of a narrow plate somewhat
elevated at its extremity, to which and to the hinge-plate are
attached the caleified riband-like reflected lamellae forming the
loop. Length 4, width 3, depth 2 lines.

Hab. Spitzbergen.

Obs. This small Terebratella seems distinguishable from all
the other recent forms of the genus, by its dimensions, regular
ovate shape, thinness of shell, and comparatively short doubly
attached loop, which does not exceed half the length of the
valve. I have hitherto been able to examine but one specimen,
presented by B. M^Andrew, Esq., to Mr. Cuming's collection.

443

Mr. T. Davidson on the Bi'achiopoda.

7. On a new species of Morrisia.

By Eugene Eudes Deslongchamps.

Morrisia Davidsoniy E. Desh. PI. X. figs. 20, 20 a, b, c, d.

Shell thin, subpellucid, of a light yellowish colour, varying in
shape, but generally transversely oval and irregular. Structure
largely punctate, exterior surface covered with small spinose
asperities, which are particularly visible near the edges of the
shell, and marked by lines of growth. Larger or ventral valve
convex, with a straight hinge-line and narrow area ) deltidium very
small, edging only the very small portion of the foramen exist-
ing in this valve. Smaller or dorsal valve almost fiat, assuming
the shape of the objects to which it lies in close contiguity, and
deeply notched at the umbo by a large circular aperture, which
constitutes by far the greatest portion of the foramen. Valves
articulating by means of minute teeth and sockets. Apo-
physary system consisting of two lamellae originating at the base
of the sockets, and united to a small elevated process or septum
which arises from near the centre of the valve. Length 3,
width 5 lines.

Hah. Found adhering to large specimens of the Caryophyllia
ramea, probably derived from the coral fisheries near Tunis.

Obs. This species is at once distinguished from the Morrisia
anomioides of Scacchi (fig. 19) by its larger dimensions, trans-
versely oval shape, and the flatness of its dorsal valve, as well as
by the minute spinose asperities which cover its surface ; the fora-
men in the present form also encroaches to a much larger extent
on the dorsal valve than on the ventral one, or than is the case in
Prof. Scacchi's species, which is, besides, almost circular, smooth,
with both valves moderately convex. In M. Davidsoni the
smaller valve is also at times very irregular, occasioned by the
shortness of the peduncle, which forces the shell to lie in close
contiguity with the objects to which it is moored, and take more
or less the impress of their irregularities.

From a superficial examination of the animal in its dried-uj)
condition, my father and myself were enabled to convince our-
selves, that in the species under description the oral arms seem
to be connected with the apophysary system by a kind of very
delicate calcareous network, reminding one of the descending
apparatus of Thecidium, which in some species is formed in its
uj)per portions by a calcareous network fi’eely susj>ended above
the visceral cavity. MM. O. Schmidt and Suess have already
recognized the tendency to a disposition somewhat similar in
the subgenus Terehratulina. This important fact will, in all
probability, at a futina; jaalod help to ideiitify the different parts

444 Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda.

of the calcareous processes in Thecidium with the corresponding
portions in the other genera of the family Terebratulidce.

I limit myself at the present moment to the simple announce-
ment of this point, not having as yet sufficiently studied the
question, but which I shortly intend to do more fully, when
entering upon the internal details of the apophysary system of
the Morrisia Davidsoni in a paper now in hand, and which also
relates to other new Brachiopoda to be published in the Memoirs
of the Linnsean Society of Normandy.

8. Description of a new species of recent Rhynchonella.

By S. P. Woodward, Esq., F.G.S.

Rhynchonella Grayi, n. sp. PI. N- fig. 16.

Shell light horn-colour, dull, trigonal, depressed j sides
rounded ; front truncated ; beak small, acute ; valves smooth,
obscurely marked by lines of growth, and strongly plaited near
the margin with four central plaits and three or four on each
side, the furrows obscurely striated ; margins of the valves sinu-
ated in front and strongly toothed ; foramen minute, completely
tubular. Long. 15, lat. 13, alt. 8 mill.

This interesting and at present unique shell was sent with
other natural-history objects from the Peejee Islands by J.
M'^Gillivray, Esq., Naturalist to the Surveying Expedition under
Capt. Denham of H.M.S. Herald. No particulars as to its
habitat have been received; it differs from both the known
species of living Rhynchonella (figs. 17 & 18) in its lightness of
colour, the others being black ; in the plication of the borders of
its valves, which reminds us of the fossil Rh. subplicata (Man-
tell) and Rh. lineolata, Phil. ; and especially it differs in having
a foramen quite separate from the hinge-line by the development
and union of the two elements of the deltidium, in this respect
agreeing with the ordinary adult condition of the fossil Rhyn-
chonellcB. Were it not for the remains of the pedicle and traces
of the mantle in its interior, we might have taken it for a plio-
cene fossil, being exactly similar in its colour and dull translu-
cency to the specimens of Rh. psittacea found in the Crag at
Norwich. The muscular impressions are like those of the type,
and the interior has traces of unsymmetrical vascular markings.

If only the recent species were known, the genus RJnjnchonella
might be thought a remarkable exception to the law of continuity
of generic areaSy but like many other widely scattered types, its
distribution is rendered intelligible by the knowledge of the
existence of so many fossil forms in the wide intervals between
the localities of the living species.

445

Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachio^oda.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE X.

Fig. 1. Waldheimia septigera, Loven, sp.

Fig. 2. cranium, Muller, sp.

Fig. 3. Terebratella Spitzbergensis, Dav.

Fig. 4. Magas (Rhynchora) Davidsoni, De Koninck, sp. Interior of the
dorsal or smaller valve, from drawings by M. Bosquet of Maes-
tricht. 4 a, longitudinal section of both valves ; p, pedicle mus-
cular impressions ; t, sockets.

Fig. 5. Waldheimia australis, muscular system, from an improved diagram
prepared by Mr Hancock.

A. Adductor {adductores longi, Ow'en), attached to the ventral
valve.

A'. Adductor {adductor longus posticus, Owen. Muscle adducteur
principal, Gratiolet).

A". Adductor {adductor longus anticus, Owen. Muscle adducteur
principal, Gratiolet).

R. Cardinal muscle {adductor brevis, Owen. Muscles diducteurs
principaux, Gratiolet).

R'. Accessory cardinal muscle {cardinales, Owen. Muscles diduc-
teurs accessoires, Gratiolet).

P. Ventral pedicle muscles (refractor iw/mor, Owen. Muscles du
pedoncule paire superieure, Gratiolet).

P'. Dorsal pedicle muscles {retractor superior, Owen. Muscles du
pedoncule paire inferieure, Gratiolet).

P". Pedicle sheath.

Z. Capsular muscle {capsularis, Owen).

M', mouth ; i, intestine ; L, loop ; L", reflected portion of the same.

Fig. 6. Dorsal valve of a Terebratula : a, the sockets ; b, the opening
muscles ; c Sf d, the muscular impressions. (Figs. 6, 7 & 8 are
taken from Prof. Quenstedt’s paper.)

Fig. 7. Ventral valve of the same Terebratula : a, the lateral teeth ; b, the
muscular impressions c Sf d, the two bundles of the closing
muscle (adductor). The letters correspond to those in fig. 6, so
that by the inspection of the following one —

Fig. 8. seen in profile — the mechanism of the opening and closing of the
valves may be easily understood.

Fig. 9. The male sexual glands of a Terebratula. Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
& 14 are taken from Prof. Schmidt’s paper.

Fig. 10. Spermatozoa of the same.

Fig. 11. Embry'O of the same Terebratula, magnified.

Figs. 12, 13 Sc 14. Calcareous structure (or plates) from the mantle and
brachial ciiri of Terebratulina caput-serpentis.

Fig. 16. Embr\ os removed from the ovarian cavity in the pallial sinus of
Lingula anatina : magnified 120 diameters (Owen).

Fig.M^. Grayi (Woodward). 16 c, enlarged.

Fig. 17. psittacea.

Fig. 18. nigricans-, these are the only three recent Rhynchonellce at

present known.

Fig. 19. Morrisia anomioides, Scacchi, sp. 19 a, enlarged.

Fig. 20. Morrisia Davidsoni, E. Deslongchamps. 20 a, b, enlarged.

20 c, d, enlarged views of the interior of the smaller or dorsal
valve, part of the lamellae being broken off ; /, foramen ; t, sockets ;
.M, departure of the crural lamellae ; n, broken lamellae attached
to the summit of the septum, s.

446

Mr. W. Clark on the Ph<Enomena of the

XXXVII. — On the Phcenomena of the Reproduction of the
Chitons. By William Clark, Esq.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

Gentlemen, Norfolk Crescent, Bath, November 1855.

The Chitons have long been a source of difficulty to naturalists
with respect to systematic position ; the most distinguished
names, Cuvier, Blainville, Milne-Edwards, and Prof. Forbes, are
at variance on this point, which to the present time has not
received a satisfactory solution. Cuvier alone considers them
true Mollusca ; Blainville refers them to the Annelidan Articu-
lata ; Forbes speaks doubtingly ; and Milne-Edwards admits that
they are Gasteropoda, but hesitates to acknowledge them Mol-
lusca.

I trust the following observations, though not so complete as
I could wish, will throw some light on their reproductive status
and natural position.

The present paper has originated in a suggestion of the late
Prof. Forbes and Mr. Hanley, who in their ^ British Mollusca,^
vol. ii. p. 390, trust that some active observer resident by the
coast will occupy himself with studying the development of the
Chitons, and endeavour to ascertain the form they assume in
their larval condition. Whoever does so will make an important
discovery, and do more towards fixing the true position of these
anomalous creatures than all cabinet examinations of them have
yet enabled us to effect.^^ And I have stated in my late wmrk
on the ^ British Marine Testaceous Mollusca,^ p. 248, that I
propose, if practicable, to carry out this idea, though the at-
tempt will be attended with uncertainties which need not at
present be alluded to.^^

Chiton cinereuSj Linnseus.

Chiton cinereus^ Brit. Moll. vol. ii. p. 402.

Chiton marginatuSy variorum.

On the 23rd July 1855, I obtained several examples of the
above species fixed on small pebbles from their natural habitat ;
these were carefully removed into saucers of sea-water and
sedulously examined every hour for many following days. In
the afternoon of the day of capture my attention was suddenly
attracted by observing one of the animals in the act of dis-
charging ova — not in volleys, but by one or two at every second
for at least 15 minutes, forming a batch of 1300 to 1500; there
were a thousand or more that remained in the ovarium, perhaps
not sufficiently maturated for parturition ; they were pale yel-

447

Reproduction of the Chitons.

low, and of subglobular form, being a little compressed or
oblate at what may be termed the axes ; each appeared about
100th of an inch in diameter. I may here remark that the
animal now mentioned was thejonly one that deposited ova.

The animal, previous to the exclusion of the ova, had moved
from the flat position it occupied on the stone to its edge, and
elevating by reflexion the posterior portion of the coriaceous
skin in which the valves are imbedded, poured out for several
minutes a continuous stream of flaky white matter like a fleecy
cloud, which proved of a glutinous nature, and probably pro-
ceeded from the organs which M. Cuvier and authors have con-
jectured to be a pair of symmetrical oviducts, but which they
failed to trace to an external outlet : I rather think that they
are glands, and that their use is to provide the material for the
capsule or membranous envelope that contains the mass of each
ovum, and also to entangle by its tenacity the congeries of ova
which followed its emission to prevent them being washed away
by the water, as when I attempted to remove one or two, I
found they were slightly retained by adhesion : it is probable
that the cloudy vapour when condensed into fluid serves for a
nidus until the young are prepared to emerge from their cells.
I did not succeed in ascertaining if the viscosity issued from an
organ, or pair of organs, or glands distinct from the oviduct : I
can only say that the ova as well as the thin smoke-coloured
matter were excluded from under the centre of the coriaceous
integument of the posterior terminal valve, in a similar manner
as I have described them to be discharged from the posterior
extremity of Dentalium.

I carefully inspected the ova throughout the 24th July ; they
remained inert at the bottom of the saucer; but on the morning
of the 25th I was greatly surprised to And that all had become
detached from their nidus, or position, and swam with great
vivacity through every part of the water, sometimes at the sur-
face, sometimes in the middle, and at others at the bottom ;
these minute objects moved with extraordinary speed, crossing
a large breakfast-saucer in 30 or 40 seconds.

As soon as motion had commenced, the ova lost the sub-
globular figure, and assumed that of a subclongated oval ap-
proaching the Chiton shape. It has already been stated that
each ovum was imbedded in a pale yellow membrane, but when
the rapid swimming action took place, only half of the animal
was liberated from the capsule, the anterior skin being reflexed
or withdrawn on the still adhering posterior portion, forming a
ridge that divided the animal into two sections. With a power
of 300 linear 1 could see the elements of the four anterior
valves, as well as the buccal depression and head : this very early

448 On the Phenomena of the Reproduction of the Chitons.

stage of development showed no metamorphosis that I could
perceive.

On the 26th July the animal was evidently more detached
from its cell, as the five anterior valves were distinctly marked
and the fringe margin was detected ; the three posterior valves
were still covered by the enveloping skin, but traceable through
the diaphaneity of the membrane. The animal still swam with
unabated vigour. On the 29th and 30th it had altogether cast
off* the embryonic covering and exhibited the complete form of
the Chiton. During these phases of development every point
posteally and anteally appeared destitute of accessories, except
the usual circumferential fringe ; no antennse, tentacula, eyes,
caudal appendage, articulated feet, bristles or filaments were
discoverable, nor any other exserted organ. At this period
nearly all natatory motion had ceased, the animal remained
apparently fixed at the bottom of the saucer, and only a slight
change of place was perceptible with a good lens.

The animal in its phase of rapid movement often rolled itself
into a ball, which led me to think there might be some alliance
between it and the crustaceous Articulata, particularly with the
Oniscus entomon, as I have often seen adult Chitons involve
themselves in a somewhat similar globular form. Notwith-
standing these traits of relationship with other tribes, it cannot
admit of doubt, from M. Cuvier^s dissections and our own de-
tailed account of the animal, that the Chitons are far nearer to
the Mollusca than to any other class ; for though we may observe
some traces of approach to certain sections of the Crustacea in
the segmental disposition of the hard parts, still this condition
does not obtain in the soft parts of the body, which are inarti-
culate or molluscan ; and we may add that the testaceous pieces
are not connected by articulation, but merely overlap each other.
The supposed relation to other divisions, the annelidan and cir-
ripodan Articulata, is still slighter, and does not with the former,
as to external organs, extend much beyond the marginal fringe,
which may have an equivocal assimilation with the feet, bristles
and tufts of hair of that vermiform tribe ; and with the latter
there is some community by the somewhat similar division of
the cone into distinct pieces.

These quasi alliances may perhaps induce us to admit that
the Chitons may be the immediate precursors or the stage of
transition from the Articulata to the Mollusca, which of course
takes precedence of all the divisions of the Articulata ; that is,
the order of natural position in the ascending scale should be :
Annelida, Crustacea, Insecta, Mollusca.

It is difficult to account for or explain the propelling power
of the rapid natation of the Chitons ; it may probably be due to

449

Mr. C. C. Babington on Linaria sepium.

the vermicular action of the body and foot, which is doubtless
much aided by the segmental disposition of the hard parts. It
is also possible that the fringed margin may act as a paddle, as
well as being subservient to a very opposite action, that of
increasing the tenacity of suctional adhesion. As to the bristles
that are sometimes seen at the sutures of each valve above the
margin, I believe they are accidental or ornamental, and have no
particular use in the animal oeconomy ; they only appear in one
British species, the C. fascicularis.

The singular fact of the almost instantaneous rapid natation
of the animal before it is even entirely freed from the capsule,
leads to a fair presumption that the oviparous germs of all the
bivalve and gasteropodous Mollusca have, as they emerge from
their larval condition, the power, for a limited time, of locomo-
tion, which is accorded them by nature apparently for the
purpose of seeking out and conveying themselves to their
respective peculiar habitats ; and w'e learn by the present case
that, as soon as a rapid locomotion has accomplished its objects,
it ceases, and the animal adopts the phase of progression that is
ordained for it.

I regret that circumstances prevented the examination being
carried on beyond the 31st July, but I cannot believe that, after
that time, any metamorphosis would have presented itself.
During the eight days of inspection no unusual aberrations of
form were visible ; nothing appeared but a gradual increase of
the organism until it had assumed the figure and attributes of
a completed Chiton, which, in the interval I speak of, had
attained the length of to breadth 4 jth of an

inch.

It appears, then, that M. Cuvier^s determination is correct,
that the Chitons are cyclobranchiate Mollusca.

I am. Gentlemen,

Your most obedient servant,

William Clark.

XXXVIII.— iVo/e on Linaria sepium, Allman.

By Charles C. Babington, M.A., F.R.S. &c.*

Early in the summer of 1855 I succeeded in obtaining seeds
of this plant from roots growing in the Cambridge Botanical
Garden which had been originally sent to it by Dr. Allman
from Bandon. These seeds were sown in a pot, and produced
many plants which flowered in the August and September
following. The produce thus obtained shows that my former

* Read to the Edinburgh Botanical Society, Nov. 8th, 1855.

Ann. May. N. Hist. Scr. 2. Vol.w\. 30

450

Bibliographical Notices.

idea concerning L. sepium is correct^ and that it is not a distinct
species, but a hybrid between L. repens and L. vulgaris. Four
forms were raised from the seeds of L. sepium : (1) L. sepium^
(2) a plant closely resembling L. repens , (3 and 4) slightly
differing forms of L. vulgaris.

L. repens is growing on the same bed in the garden as the
L. sepium from which these seeds were obtained, but L. vulgaris
grows in quite a different part of the garden. Similarly at
Bandon, I learn from Dr. Allman that L. repens and L. sepium
grow together, but L. vulgaris is not found within a mile of L.
sepium.

Since the above note was written, I have received from Ban-
don, through the kindness of Dr. Allman, a series of specimens
quite connecting L. sepium and L. repens which he had gathered
in their native place. The result derived from cultivation is
thus, to a great extent, confirmed by observation of the wild
plants.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the

British Museum. By G. R. Gray, F.L.S. London: 1855.

This is one of the latest and most valuable additions to the excellent
series of British Museum Catalogues now in course of publication.
It is, in fact, a new edition of Mr. G. R. Gray’s well-known ‘List of
the Genera of Birds,’ which has contributed so much to the reform of
ornithological nomenclature. During the eleven years which have
passed since the issue of the last edition of this work, great progress
has been made in ornithology as in other branches of natural science.
Books, pamphlets, and periodicals in all parts of the civilized globe
contain the labours of naturalists vying with each other for pre-
cedence in establishing new genera, new species, and new arrange-
ments among the members of the Class Aves ; and though there has
been some complaint, and not without foundation, that ornithology
has hitherto been rather a neglected branch of natural science, it
would seem that the present activity, if continued, bids fair to advance
our knowledge of this interesting subject to at least a par with that
of the other classes of the animal kingdom.

As regards however the genera of Birds, the subject of Mr. Gray’s
work, we fear that the ornithologists of the present day are advancing
rather too rapidly. Mr. Gray’s list of 1844 contained upwards of
1100 distinct types which had then been raised to the dignity of
genera. By the present work it appears that since then the number
has been more than doubled — those given in the present Catalogue
and Appendix amounting to no less than 2400 — and we believe that
since its publication many others have been created to swell the
list. Now, considering that, according to the most recent estimate.

451

Bibliographical Notices.

the known species of birds cannot be calculated to exceed 8000, it
seems that we have already split up the genera to such an extent
that they contain on the average only about three species apiece.
And as it is requisite that in any natural system the genera should
have as nearly as possible the same amount of difference inter se, and
these new genera have been created much more abundantly in some
groups than in others, it follows that, in order to reduce all the ge-
neric divisions to a uniform standard, a vast number of further genera
must be created, and we shall ultimately have not more than two or
perhaps one species in each genus.

Such a result would, w^e suppose, be condemned by every naturalist,
but it cannot be avoided if the present system is much longer pur-
sued. The fact is that a large proportion of the recently established
so-called genera are founded upon such slight differences, that it
would be quite impossible to draw up generic characters for them.
These modern genus-makers do not hesitate to coin a new appellation
for any two or three allied species that resemble each other in colour-
ing and form what may be called a homochroous group, without re-
flecting that each of the other numerous isolated idiochroous species
of the genus have equal claims to similar distinctive separation*.

But though it cannot be denied that style of colouring is often an
excellent guide to aflinities, we maintain that generic names are only
to be employed where there are real differences in structure, and not
where merely the plumage is dissimilar. The appellations applied to
these mmor groups should be either altogether unnoticed, or merely
placed in any arrangement of the species at the head of each group,
in the manner shown by Mr. G. R. Gray in the more lately pub-
lished Catalogues of the British Museum.

Even more lamentable than the rapid increase of these generic
subdivisions is the fact that many of them have received three or four
and even more synonymous appellations from different authors, and
some of them more than one from the same author ! In spite of the
‘ stern law of priority ’ now professed to be submitted to by the
whole scientific world, several individual writers seem to think little
of changing names that they have themselves imposed. Thus we
find Strophiolcemus (1853) and lolcema (1854) proposed by the same
author for the same genus of Trochilidce, Galbalcyrhynchus (1845)
and Jacamaralcyonides (1849) for the same genus of GalbulidcBy
Cyanopolius (1849) and Cyanopica (1850) for the same genus of
CorvidcEy and Chlorochrysa and Calliparcea in the same year for the
same genus of Tanagers, without any apparent excuse for the crea-
tion of the second names, unless it be forgetfulness that the first-given
had ever been proposed. It is to be hoped that Mr. Gray’s Catalogue,

* In resolving many natural genera into species, it will be found that
groups of threes or fours often show great similarity in j)lumage, and are
what may be called ‘ homochroous ’ {ofiux^fwos, similem colorem habens).
These are generally distributed over different geographical areas, and re-
present each other in their respective localities. Other individual sj)ccics
iiave peculiar colouring of their own, and may he termed idiochroous {’Ibios,
peculiaris, et color).

30*

452

Bibliographical Notices.

and the sight of the four or five thousand names contained in the
Index thereto, will render naturalists rather more careful in further
increasing the already too gigantic proportions of the ‘ Corpus Gene-
rum Avium.’

Another fruitful source of useless synonyms is, that there are still
one or two writers on ornithology who reject a generic name unless
it be formed classically and out of pure Greek or Latin. It is hard to
refuse one’s sympathy to those who recoil from such odious names as
Smithiglaux !, Kaupifalco ! !, Graydidascalus ! ! !, Corythaixoides ! ! ! !,
and Strigymhemipus !!!!!; but it has been now universally agreed
that barbarism is not sufficient excuse for superseding already esta-
blished names by new ones, and we fear that Dr. Cabanis’ and Pro-
fessor Reichenbach’s classical alterations of even such names as these
will be placed in all future catalogues of Bird-genera (as in Mr.
Gray’s) among the mass of useless synonyms. On the other hand, the
present work goes quite in the opposite extreme from those of the last-
mentioned writers. If, from the ignorance or mistake of the proposer
of a genus, the name happens to be wrongly spelt, there seems to be no
reason whatever why such an error should be retained in perpe-
tuum. That would indeed be unnecessary stickling for the law of
priority. Yet Mr. Gray appears to hold, that right or wrong we are
bound to adopt the spelling originally given by the proposer of the
genus, and to allow of no corrections or emendations even of faults
due to typographical errors only. Now it must be recollected, that
we profess to use the Latin language in our present system of nomen-
clature, and we ought to follow its rules as closely as possible. In
such names therefore as Thryothorus, Pycnosphys, Scotornis and the
like (where there is no doubt of what the creators of the names in-
tended by them), it seems ridiculous that we should be called upon
to continue such palpable errors as to write them Thriothoriis, Pyc-
nosphrys and Scortornis. Mr. Gray has — we think, unnecessarily —
increased his already sufficiently laborious undertaking by attempting
to quote every variety of reading to every generic name which the igno-
rance of authors or the mistakes of their printers have caused. Of
what good can it be to perpetuate the fact that somebody has been
stupid enough to write Nyctidromus Nyctydromus, and Oreotrochilus
Oriotrochilus 'I What benefit can we derive from being reminded
that Eulampis has been misprinted Culampis, and Selasphorus Selos-
phorus ? Surely it would have been better to have left such inaccu-
racies unnoticed and forgotten.

Again, we fear that confusion is likely to be caused by the intro-
duction of the French names which Mr. Gray has permitted in some
parts of his List, and which in some cases he seems to give a pre-
ference to over the corresponding Latin terms. It may be true that
M. Lesson was the first to indicate the genera Chrysuronia and Cross-
opthalmus under the French names Les Chrysures and Les Pica-
zores, but that is no reason why these last names should be intro-
duced into a scientific list of genera, where Latinity is or ought to be
a first condition to any claim for recognition. If we once open the
door to non-Latin names, we shall be deluged with those of Buffon,

Bibliographical Notices. 453

Azara, Levaillant, and a host of others, who established many very
excellent genera, but have necessarily lost the credit of their dis-
coveries owing to their having neglected to employ for the designa-
tion of them the one language recognized by the world of science.

There are one or two other points in which we think the principles
adopted by Mr. Gray in the present edition of his List do not work
well. In the preface it is stated that the synonymy commences with
the edition cf Linnaeus’s ‘ Systema Naturae ’ published in 1735. Now
Linnaeus had not at that time invented his binominal system, and it
is therefore neither correct nor necessary to commence our present
nomenclature from so early a period. The question, what edition of
the ‘ Systema Naturae ’ we ought to begin with, has been already
discussed in a previous review of a former edition of Mr. Gray’s book
in this Magazine *, and Mr. Gray has himself acknowledged, in the
preface to his List of LS44, that the invaluable 'principle'' of the
binominal system was not established before 1758; but in his pre-
sent work he always begins by quoting the edition of 1735, and seems
even to give that and the other earlier editions an occasional pre-
ference over the subsequent and more perfect publications. At the
same time he takes it for granted, that the first species on the list of
each of these editions was intended to be the type of the genus, — a
point which appears to admit of much argument. The adoption of
these principles in the present edition has caused some rather im-
portant changes in the types and names of certain well-known
genera ; changes in zoological nomenclature, where the maxim
‘ quieta non movere ’ ought to carry more than ordinary weight,
and in which, we think, other naturalists will be rather loth to fol-
low. For example, Alca is now" referred to the Puffins {A. arctica)
instead of the Great Auk, and Chenalopex \ (a term always hitherto
appropriated to the Anas cegyptiaca) is proposed to be used for the
Alca ini'penniSi as having been so applied by Moehring in 1752 ! The
type of the genus Tanagra is altered, because the T. episcopus
(alw-ays hitherto considered as such) does not stand first in Linnseus’s
list. Now the very fact that Linnoeus placed first one and then
another species at the head of his genera seems conclusive against
the necessity of invariably adoj)ting the first species as the type.
Indeed Mr. Gray has not ventured to carry out these rules through-
out to their legitimate result. Had that been done, be must have
used Strix for the Horned Owls {Bubo), and Falco for the Eagles
{Aquila), and besides that have introduced a variety of other equally
objectionable changes.

Again, although it cannot be questioned that the same name
ought not to he used in zoology for two different animals, and there
are also strong reasons for an alteration when names even closely re-
semble one another, Mr. Gray’s changes on these grounds occasionally
go beyond what seems absolutely necessary. Ilarpactes certainly
ought not to be liable to be mistaken for Arpaclus, or Lophura for
Lophgrus, and we hope therefore Mr. Gray will not he imitated in

See Mr. Striekland’s article in the ‘ Annals and Magazine’ lor 1851.

454

Bibliographical Notices.

his rejection of these names in favour of Hapalurus and Macartney a,
or in other similar changes.

We also regret that Mr. Gray has not thought fit to adopt the very
simple rule given in the British Association Committee’s Report for
the formation of the names of the families and subfamilies in idee and
incBy and from which a very desirable uniformity would have ensued.
As it is, we have Steatornince instead of Steatornithince, Bodagirinae
instead of Podagrmce, Coraciadee instead of Coraciidee, Araince (!)
instead of Arincs, and so on.

A catalogue of the unabbreviated names of the authors of the dif-
ferent genera, and of the chief works in which they have published
them, would have been a very useful addition to Mr. Gray’s List,
though one which would have doubtless involved a certain amount of
extra labour ; for even the professed ornithologist will be puzzled
to find the place where some of the names given in the List were
first promulgated. The fact is that certain authors are in the habit
of publishing names used by other persons only in MS., or for the
labels of Museum specimens, and which cannot therefore be recog-
nized previously to such publication. For example. Dr. Schiff of
Frankfort-am-Main, to whom several genera among the Biprince and
elsewhere are attributed, has, we believe, never published anything
on the subject of ornithology. Prince Bonaparte has, however, intro-
duced Dr. Schiff s MS. names into some of his recent lists of genera,
and they have consequently been included in Mr. Gray’s Catalogue.
It would have been better had Mr. Gray in this and similar cases
given the name of the publisher of the genus as well as that of the
supposed originator.

Lest the foregoing remarks should be thought to be rather in
blame than in praise of Mr. Gray’s book, it is right to conclude by
repeating the commendation bestowed upon it at the beginning of
our notice. We regard it as a most valuable contribution to natural
history, and quite indispensable as a work of reference to the student
of scientific ornithology. Mr. Gray deserves the warmest thanks
of all naturalists for the great labour he has bestowed upon the col-
lection of such a vast mass of materials from so many different
sources, and for the care with which he has reduced them into
arrangement. We may also repeat our hope that his book will not
only be a useful guide through the perplexing mazes of ornitho-
logical synonymy, but also have some effect in checking those natu-
ralists, who, instead of following Mr. Gray’s example and endeavour-
ing to assist others in clearing the way, are rather increasing diffi-
culties by useless additions to the already enormous catalogue of
Bird-genera.

Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Histological Series

contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Pre-
pared for the Microscope. Vol. ii. London. 1855. 4to.

The previous volume of this valuable work was devoted to the
structure of the harder tissues of plants and invertebrate animals ;

Bibliographical Notices. 455

the present one contains illustrations of the minute structure of the
skeleton of the vertebrate animals as developed by the microscope,
and is a catalogue of that not less valuable portion of the College
collection belonging to histology. The present volume bears the
similar impress of care and research as the former one, and like it,
if we may judge from the greater importance of the subject-matters,
will share the same complimentary fate, of being speedily out of print.
It is however to be hoped, that the Council of the College, under
whose auspices these volumes are prepared, will issue a new edition,
to which, we doubt not. Prof. Quekett can furnish many important
additions in vegetable and invertebrate structures, and which would
supply a desideratum to many investigators, who have not had the
good fortune to procure the first volume of the series. In speaking
of this work, it will be unnecessary, as well as useless, to enlarge
upon the value and importance of microscopical research. The
microscope has not only ceased merely to gratify our curiosity or
excite our wonder, but has become a source of high intellectual
amusement and of great practical value.

Time was,” says Prof. Owen in the recently published Lectures
on the Invertebrata, ‘‘ and not many years ago, in this country, when
that term. Microscopical Anatomy, was almost regarded as synony-
mous with the anatomy of the imagination ; but the numerous and
highly important discoveries which have been made and confirmed by
observers in almost every European state, by means of the greatly
improved microscopes at their command, have placed the value,
the indispensability, of that instrument to the anatomist, beyond the
necessity of vindication.”

This remark of the Hunterian Professor is not only corroborated,
but strengthened, in the publication of the volume before us, by his
colleague. Prof. Quekett. In a general notice, the value of this work
may be stated under two principal heads, — firstly, that of presenting
us with a series of terms of comparison of the differences which ob-
tain in the minute structure of the endo- and exo-skeleton of the four
classes of the vertebrate type ; and, secondly, in furnishing us with
numerous and accurate illustrations of the more important genera
and species in all those classes of Vcrtebrata.

Independently of the comparative value to the anatomist of the
variations existing in the minute structure of bone, or the tissues or
the dermal covering of different parts of the same animal ; the differ-
ences in the minute structure of the skeleton in the four classes be-
come more interesting when such are known to exist. That these
differences can be fully shown, it is oidy necessary to consult the
admirable plates appended to this volume, drawn as they have been
by an experienced artist, from the microscope, hy means of the
camera lucida. To those who, like the geologist, have always to
appeal to the comparative anatomist for the determination of the
remains of the fossil vertebrata, any further aid, especially when a
minute portion is concerned, as to the class-affinity of tlie fragment,
becomes of extreme value ; and this the microscope fortunately yields
us. Those who remem l)er the animated discussions respecting the

456

Bibliographical Notices.

mammalian affinities of the Stonesfield remains, of the Pterodactyles
of the chalk, or the Birds’ bones of the Wealden strata, will feel the
force of the above remark. And now, when every year bids fair to
unveil to us new, or hitherto unlooked-for, forms amidst the earlier,
or even earliest, scenes of the earth’s physical history ; and the old
coast-line or ancient estuary yields traces of footsteps belonging to
some unknown beast, perhaps seeking shelter from the storm (its
impress still remaining), or tracing its way on the rippled sands left
moist hy the receding tide — footsteps so numerous as to lead us to
infer some corresponding solid skeleton ; a fragment of bone might
guide us along the path of discovery, as to its nature.

Prof. Quekett has, as is well known, been already engaged on
some of these points of original investigation. In inquiries of such-
like character, this volume would be an indispensable requisite, con-
taining as it does a description of 945 preparations, of which 385
belong to the skeleton of Fishes, 103 to that of Reptiles, 60 to that of
Birds, and the remaining 397 to that of Mammalia. Of the most
important and striking specimens of these preparations, 432 have
been selected for representation, all of which, with but two excep-
tions, were drawn by means of the camera lucida. And with a view
of rendering the work more useful to the student, in comparing the
minute structure of the bones of the four great classes of animals,
the greater part of the sections have been drawn under two powers,
one of 95, the other of 440 diameters, it having been ascertained that
the size and arrangement of the lacunae are frequently of the greatest
importance in determining the true nature of fragments of recent and
fossil bone, when other characters are wanting. The numerous pre-
parations above noticed consist of sections of the tissue of the endo-,
exo-, and splanchno-skeletons of Fishes ; the endo- and splanchno-
skeletons of Birds ; and the endo-skeleton of Reptiles and Mammals ;
the term splanchno or visceral skeleton being applied to the hard
bony tissue found in certain viscera and organs of sense, as in the
heart of the Hog and most old Ruminants, and the eyes of Fishes and
Birds. A short introduction is given, in which the principal structures
of bone are enumerated and described, as the Haversian canals and in-
terspaces, the laminae, lacunae, canaliculi, &c. The body of the work
is chiefly occupied by elaborate descriptions of the figures ; a few
notes, however, explanatory of the principal points of interest, pre-
cede each division.

In describing the bone of Mammalia the minute structure is stated
to be nearly uniform throughout the whole class, each Haversian
system being surrounded by a series of concentric laminae with
lacunae placed between them, and giving ofi* numerous canaliculi in
a radiating manner. It is a remarkable fact, however, that those
Mammalia which resemble Birds in their habits or internal ana-
tomy, approach most nearly to these animals in the minute structure
of their bones ; such is the case in the Ornithorhynchus, Echidna,
Sloth, Kangaroo and Bat.

Copious details are given of that singular animal, the Lepidosiren,
forming the connecting link between Fishes and Reptiles. Fourteen

Lieut. Burgess on the Habits of some Indian Birds. 457

preparations are here described, which, together with four others
published in the previous volume, afford us an intimate knowledge
of the minute structure of the endo-skeleton of this interesting form.
Prof. Quekett states that the structure of its bone, as well as those
portions of its skeleton which do not become ossified, are more closely
alhed to the corresponding tissues of the Batrachia than to those of
any Fish yet examined ; and as it undoubtedly possesses many cha-
racters peculiar to Fishes, a subdivision of the order Batrachia has
been proposed for it, and that of Ichthyo-Batrachia appears to be
most expressive of its peculiar affinities.

To the anatomist, palaeontologist, and geologist engaged in micro-
scopical research, this volume is of inestimable value, superseding as
it does the necessity of obtaining a costly series of objects for exa-
mination and comparison. Few persons could have undertaken the
preparation of a work requiring so much labour and nice manipula-
tion of the numerous specimens illustrative of the various subjects,
with any fair chance of equivalent remuneration. By the publication
of this Catalogue, the Council of the College have afforded a boon
to microscopical science, prepared as it has been by an author who
has devoted so much time to, and prosecuted with such zeal and
success, the practical bearings of histology.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

July 25, 1854. — John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair.

Notes on the Habits of some Indian Birds. — Part V.

By Lieut. Burgess.

Family Sturnid^.

Subfamily Sturnin^.

Genus Pastor. '

Pastor Roseus, Temm. The Rose-coloured Pastor.

This bird visits the Deccan in immense flocks to feed on the grain
called which begins to ripen in the month of November, and

is cut about March. The arrival of these birds is uncertain, in some
years being earlier, in others later. On referring to notes made at
the time, I find that in the year 1848 the first Rose-coloured Pastor
was seen on the 28th of November, and the last on the 5th of April

1849. The first which I observed in the aiitumn of that year, was
on the 16th of November. In the year 1850, I saw a large flock as
early as the 21th of August ; I transcribe the note: “August 24,

1850. Saw a large flock of the Rose-coloured Starlings with their
broods to-day feeding in an open field, evidently on insects, as they
were constantly in ch.ase of them, flying.” I never saw this bird so
a rly as it was that year, and they arrived long before the jowaree
was ripe. This grain when ripe, and before it is ri]>e, is their stajflc

458

Zoological Society —

food. After it is cut and housed, I have observed them busily feed-
ing on the flowers of the leafless Caper, a shrub very common in
many parts of the Deccan, especially on the banks of the larger
rivers. I have made many, but hitherto ineffectual attempts, to
ascertain where these birds breed ; that they do breed somewhere on
the continent of India, there can be no doubt, as the young birds
which I saw on the 24th of August 1850, were in brown plumage,
and appeared as if they had not long left the nest. I was informed
by a clever and well-informed Mharatta, who seemed to have con-
siderable knowledge of the habits of various birds, that the Rose
Starling retires to the Ghauts to breed. On visiting those mountains
in 1849, I made many inquiries of the hill people, but was unsuc-
cessful in getting any information from them. However, I think
it very probable that these birds, after leaving the Deccan in March
and April, break up into pairs, and retire to the ravines and forests
in the Ghauts to breed. Like the common Starling, these birds con-
gregate in immense flocks before going to roost, and it is a curious
sight to watch their movements as they fly in clouds over their night
haunts. Towards sunset they begin to collect from the grain-fields,
and fly off in detached parties, at first containing only a few indivi-
duals. These soon amalgamate, and form large masses, which, as
they dash, now upwards and now downwards, now in circles, at
one time almost disappear, at another look like a rapidly passing
cloud. As soon as the sun is down, they retire to the babool
brakes that clothe the banks of the streams and rivers. These birds
collect in such numbers on the small bushes and trees on the out-
skirts of the grain-fields, as to make them appear as if loaded with
rich, rosy blossoms, and to make one wonder that the tree is not
broken down with their weight.

Family Fringillidze.

Subfamily Coccothraustin^, Swain.

Gentis Euplectes, Swain.

Euplectes (Bengalensis?).

I forwarded a paper on the nidification, habits, &c. of this little
bird, together with specimens of the skins, nests and eggs, in the
year 1852. The paper was read, and the specimens exhibited at the
meeting of the Society on July 27th, 1852. Repetition therefore is
needless.

Genus Amadina, Swain.

Subgenus Spermestes.

Spermestes Cheet, Sykes.

This is a very common little bird, living in flocks, to be found in
hedges and low bushes, and is, I believe, partial to those of the leaf-
less Caper, It breeds, I conclude, twice in the year, as I have found
its nest in the months of November and March. The nest in two

Lieut. Burgess on the Habits of some Indian Birds. 459

instances was formed of the flower-stems of the silk-grass, which is
abundant in the beds of streams ; it was lined with feathers and the silky-
seeds of the grass ; its shape was that of a hollow ball. The largest num-
ber of eggs I have found was six, but I see that Col. Sykes found as
many as ten. The eggs are very small and of a pure white colour,
rather more than i^ths of an inch long by ^ths of an inch wide.
These little birds are often to be seen on the ground picking up
grass-seeds, and so close together that several may be killed at a shot :
they do not take long flights, but merely from bush to bush. I saw
numbers of them in the leafless Caper on the banks of the river
Bheema.

Subfamily Fringillin^.

Genus Pyrgita, Swain.

Pyrgita domestica. House-sparrow.

Common enough in India. It breeds during the monsoon. I saw
them building in the month of August, and its habits, mode of
building its nest, &c., are similar to those of the Sparrow at home.

Pyrgita flavicollis, Frankl. Yellow-necked Sparrow.

Of the time of breeding or nesting habits I know nothing, but
Dr. Jerdon in his Catalogue says, “ It is said to breed in holes of
trees. The egg is of a greenish-white, much streaked and blotched
with purple-brown : I obtained one from the body of a female.”

Genus Emberiza.

Emberiza melanocephala, Jerdon.

This handsome Bunting is very common in the Deccan when the
grain crops are becoming ripe. The Patel or headman of the town
of Jintee, near the river Bheema in the Deccan, assured me that these
birds, or some of them, remain to breed in the thick babool copses
tliat clothe the banks of the river near that town, but I did not ob-
tain the nests or eggs. I believe that the greater part migrate much
about the same time as the Rose-coloured Pastor.

Subfamily Alaudin^.

Genus Alauda.

Alauda deva, Sykes.

I have some eggs which I believe to be those of this lark, though
on account of the similarity of the two or three sj)ecies that inhabit
the Deccan it is very difficult to state this positively. I obtained the
eggs on the 1 1th of September ; the nest was composed of a few stems
of grass collected together, and forming a very slight receptacle for
the eggs. Birds of this species breed twice during the year ; I have
obtained their eggs during the months of May, September, and Oc-
tober. They lay but two eggs, of a ])ale mottled brown colour,
with a band of the same round the larger end ; they are rather
more than ^ths of an inch long by nearly -j^oths of an inch wide.

460 Zoological Society : —

November 14, 1854. — John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair.

On the Bones of the Leg of Dinornis (Palapteryx)

STRUTHIOIDES AND THE PaeAPTERYX GRACILIS.

By Prof. Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S. etc.

In my memoir of 1843*, I described two femora of birds from
tertiary deposits in New Zealand, agreeing in size with that bone in
the Ostrich, and referred them to a species called Dinornis struthi-
oides ; one of these specimens however consisted only of the shaft ;
the other and more perfect specimen, figured in pi. 21. fig. 3, was
mutilated at both its extremities. I have since received, through
the kindness of the Rev. Mr. Colenso, M.A.f, and the Rev. William
Cotton, M.A., three entire specimens of femora, ranging between
1 1 and 1 2 inches in length, and the shaft of a fourth specimen, of
the same species, confirming very satisfactorily that species, and com-
pleting our knowledge of the anatomical characters of the bone.

The head is rather more than a hemisphere, more prominent than
in the Ostrich, and with a smaller proportion cut off, as it were, from
the upper and outer part, and roughened for the attachment of the
strong ‘ligamentum rotundum.’ From the upper part of the base
of the head, an almost flat, slightly concave surface ascends, expand-
ing, as it rises, to the broad semicircular ridge which crowns the great
trochanter. In the Ostrich that process does not rise beyond the
level of the head of the bone. In the Din. struthioides the upper
trochanterian platform is broader proportionally than in the Din.
casuarinusX^ The anterior surface of the trochanter is also extensive
through the continuation outwards of the great process : it is slightly
concave, sculptured by muscular impressions with intervening ridges,
and by a defined oval rough tract between the head and the base of
the trochanter. The outer convex expanded surface of the trochanter
is more strongly marked by the insertions of powerful tendons,
surrounding an irregular smooth tract near the centre of the surface.
The back part of the upper end of the femur in two of the specimens
presents two or three small holes leading into the superficial can-
celli, by which it is possible a little air may have been admitted to
these ca\4ties ; but this is a very feeble representation of the wide
orifice and canal at the same part of the Ostrich’s femur which con-
ducts directly to the large air cavity in the body of that bone.

The shaft of the entire femur of the Din. struthioides repeats the
characters described and figured in the memoir above cited. The
fore-part of the external condyle begins to rise from the level of the
shaft, about one-third from the distal end of the bone, and bends
outwards, forwards and downwards, increasing in breadth and con-
vexity, and forming the outer boundary of the characteristic broad
rotular surface. The convex fore-part of the inner condyle forming

* Zool. Trans, vol. iii. pp. 247, 249. pi. 21. fig. 3.

t The specimen contributed by this gentleman is cited in the table of admea-
surements. Zool. Trans, vol. iii. p. 329.

+ Ibid. pi. 46. fig. 2.

Prof. Owen on Bones of Dinornis and Palapteryx. 461

the inner boundary of that surface is shorter, and rises more abruptly.
The deep oval fossa, above the vertical broad groove for the fibula,
behind the outer condyle, is well marked. The orifice of the medul-
lary artery is at the middle of the back part of the shaft of the femur
in two of the specimens.

With regard to the metatarsus of the Dinornis struthioides, the
same satisfactory confirmation of the species has been received, as in
the case of the femur, by the addition of three specimens repeating
the characters of the original bone described at p. 240, and figured
in pi. 27. fig. 2. of my memoir of 1843. One of these specimens,
kindly sent to me by J. R. Gowen, Esq., F.G.S., Sec. H.S., was
discovered in the tertiary deposits at Waikawaite, Middle Island of
New Zealand, and has the two extremities more entire than in the
original specimen figured. The middle of the distal trochlea is im-
pressed by a shallow groove running its whole length, and becoming
more shallow as it approaches the contracted back part of the trochlea,
which terminates abruptly, projecting beyond the level of the back
part of the distal end of the bone.

A second of the additional specimens of the metatarsus of the
Din. struthioides was obtained by the Rev. AVm. Cotton, M.A., at
Tarawaite, in the North Island of New Zealand ; a third specimen
was discovered by Governor Sir George Grey, in a cave in the district
which lies between the river Waikate and Mount Tongariro, in the
North Island.

From the same cave Sir George Grey likewise obtained and very
liberally transmitted to me, with a most valuable collection of other
bones of Dinornis and Palapteryx, an entire tibia agreeing with the
portion of shaft, which, from the dimensions given at vol. iii. p. 329,
I was induced to refer to the Dinornis struthioides, differing in its
size and proportions from all the tibiae previously described and
referred to other species, but presenting similar relations of size to
the femur and metatarsus of the Din. struthioides, which the pre-
viously described tibiae have presented to the other bones of the leg
of the respective species to which those tibiae have been referred.

I conclude, therefore, that in the tibia transmitted with the meta-
tarsus of the Din. struthioides by Sir George Grey, I possess the
bone, which I have been so long desirous to obtain in order to com-
]dete the leg of the Din. struthioides. Like the metatarsus above-
cited, it is from the left side, and they appear to have belonged to the
same individual bird.

in. lin.

The length of this bone is 22 0

The breadth of the proximal extremity 5 G

The breadth of the distal extremity 3 2

The circumference of the middle of the shaft . . 5 0

The fibular ridge extends down 10 0

This ridge begins, as in the tibiae of other species of Dinornis, be-
low the expanded end of the tibia near the middle of its back part,
inclining to its outer side.

462

Zoological Society : —

In its slender proportions, and the relative positions of the pro-
cnemial and ectocnemial ridges, the tibia of the Binornis struthioides
agrees with that of the B. dromioides.

Bescription of the Bones of the Leg of the Dinornis gracilis.

The advantage of additional specimens, as confirming, by the repe-
tition of the same characters, a species previously defined, is still
greater in respect of the ground which they afford for the discrimi-
nation of a distinct but nearly allied species. Notwithstanding the
well-marked differences observable between the femur of the Binornis
struthioides and the Binornis gracilis^ I might have deemed them
due to differences of sex or individuals, had I not had evidence of the
fixity of the specific characters of the Binornis struthioides by the
successive arrivals of additional specimens of its bones. Attending
the hoped-for confirmation from such arrivals, it appeared to be
most prudent to refrain from announcing a new species of the rapidly
increasing family of the great wingless birds of New Zealand until
further confirmation might be obtained by corresponding differences
in the tibiae and metatarsi of the two species.

Having had the good fortune at length to obtain these additional
illustrations of the Bin. gracilis^ I no longer delay communicating
descriptions and figures of them to the learned Society, in whose
Transactions my former Memoirs have appeared and have been so
liberally illustrated.

Femur.

The following are the chief dimensions of this bone : —

in. lin.

Length 11 2

Breadth of proximal end in the axis of the neck . 3 10

Breadth transverse of distal end 4 0

Circumference of middle of shaft 4 8

A small portion of the upper ridge of the great trochanter has
been broken off : when entire, the femur of the Bin. gracilis presents
the average length of that of the Bin. struthioides, but it is more
slender in proportion, the head is smaller, and is supported by a
better-marked constriction or neck, especially at its under part. The
upper platform of the trochanter is narrower, the anterior border of
the trochanter not being extended so far forwards and outwards.
The angle between the upper and fore surfaces of the trochanter is
a right one, and they meet at a sharp ridge. The rough oval surface
between the head of the femur and the base of the trochanter is
smaller than that of the Bin. struthioides. The outer irregular sur-
face of the trochanter is of much less breadth in the Bin. gracilis.
The muscular impressions at the sides of the shaft meet and form a
longitudinal ridge along the back part of the middle third of the
shaft : they are separated by a tract of half an inch in the Binornis
struthioides, and terminate below in two tuberosities. The corre-

Prof. Owen on Bones of Dinornis and Palapteryx. 463

spending ridge formed by the meeting of the vasti-muscles along the
fore part of the shaft is shorter in Bin. gracilis than in Bin. stru-
thioides.

The most marked distinction, however, is presented by the distal
extremity of the bone, which is not only relatively less expanded in
the Bin. gracilis, but the rotular groove is narrower, and is bounded
laterally by condyloid eminences of more nearly equal length ; the
external one not rising so high up, nor describing the sigmoid curve
in descending, as in the Bin. struthioides. The rotular groove in the
Bin. gracilis is impressed by a transversely oval rough depression,
at its upper part, with sharp lateral borders ; which depression does
not appear in any of the femora of the Bin. struthioides. The
popliteal space is triangular and better defined in the Bin. gracilis ;
the fibular groove is shorter and less angular, and the rough deep pit
above it is smaller. The tibial surface on the inner condyle is rela-
tively smaller.

Tibia.

The same character is repeated on the proximal end of this bone,
where the surface applied to the inner condyle is absolutely smaller
than in the Bin. struthioides, although the entire bone, as shown in
the subjoined admeasurements, is longer in the Bin. gracilis : it is
also, as the name of the species implies, more slender in proportion
to its length.

D. gracilis.

in. lin.

The entire length of the bone is 23 6

The transverse breadth of its proximal end .... .5 2

The transverse breadth of its distal end 2 10

The circumference of the middle of the shaft . . 4 6

The fibular ridge extends down the shaft .... 9 6

But this ridge commences nearly 3 inches below the back part of
the proximal end of the bone, nearer the outer side than in the
B. struthioides : it is interrupted by an oblique smooth tract at the
point indicated in the admeasurement, where the medullary artery
penetrates the bone ; it then reappears about one inch and a half be-
low the interruption, and soon gradually subsides. This second lower
part of a fibular ridge is better marked than in the Bin. struthioides.
The relative size and position of the procnemial and ectocnemial
ridges are much the same as in the tibia of the Bin. struthioides and
Bin. dromioides.

Metatarsus.

The difference between the Bin. struthioides and the Bin. gracilis
is more obvious at first glance in a comparison of their metatarsi than
in that of the above-described bones ; especially to an eye accustomed
to the comparison of the metatarsi of the different species. The
superior length and slenderness of that bone in the Bin. gracilis
would at once prevent its being confounded with the metatarsus of the
Bin. struthioides.

464

Miscellaneous.

The following are the chief dimensions of the bone in question :
those of the extremities being approximative by reason of their worn
margins : —

D. gracilis.
in. lin.

Length of the tarso-metatarsus 13 0

Circumference at the middle of the shaft 4 3

Transverse breadth of proximal end 3 4

Transverse breadth of the distal end . . 4 3

Breadth of the middle of the shaft 1 7

Thickness or antero-posterior diameter of ditto . . 12

The depressed surface for the back toe is better marked than in
the Bin. struthioides.

MISCELLANEOUS.

SHROPSHIRE MOLLUSCA.

the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

58 Montagu Square, London,
12th Nov. 1855.

Gentlemen, — In the fourth volume of your excellent publication
(for 1840) is contained a contribution by Mr. Eyton, under the title
of An Attempt to ascertain the Fauna of Shropshire and North
Wales.” It may be interesting to your subscribers and readers in
that district, as well as to those naturalists who are desirous of
elucidating the question of geographical distribution, if Mr. Eyton’ s
list of Mollusca were made more complete ; and this I have had lately
the opportunity of doing, by a month’s residence in the picturesque
locality of Stretton in Shropshire. I subjoin a list of species then
found by me, but not mentioned by Mr. Eyton : —

Pisidium pulchellum.

Zonites alliarius, and var. alba.

crystallinus.

nitidus (Bomere).

nitidulus.

purus, and var. alba.

radiatulus.

Helix aculeata.

fulva.

fusca.

pygmsea.

Pupa umbilicata.

Vertigo edentula.

antivertigo.

pygmma.

substriata.

Clausilia nigricans.

Zua lubrica.

Physa fontinalis (Bomere).
Planorbis albus.

Limnseus truncatulus.
Carychium minimum.

Being altogether 22, in addition to 32 species of land and fresh-
water shells previously recorded by Mr. Eyton as Salopian. The
entire list of British species probably contains double the number.

or 108.

I may add, that I also found a single specimen of that local species,
Limnceus glaher^ at Bomere.

I am. Gentlemen, yours faithfully,

J. Gwyn Jeffreys.

Miscellaneous,

465

Arrested Development of the Tadpole of the Common Froy.

To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History.

British Museum, Nov. 21, 1855.

Gentlemen, — Not being aware if the arrested development of
the tadpole of the common Frog is of frequent occurrence, I have
forwarded you the following instance, should you think it worthy of
notice in the ‘ Annals.’

Early in the spring (about the latter end of March) I placed some
frog spawn in a glass containing Valhsneria and Confer vee, and in
due time I had a little colony of about two dozen tadpoles, most of
which gradually grew into frogs, with the exception of two indi-
viduals, whose further progress was arrested after having attained a
middling size ; their hind legs commenced budding, but made no
progress ; the fore legs were never developed. They were active and
lively during the summer, but in the autumn became sluggish,
moving but little about the glass, mostly lying in the Confervse,
seldom at the bottom. Their inactivity gradually increased until
their death. One died in the latter part of October, the other in
the second week of November.

I am. Gentlemen, yours obediently,

W. Davies.

List of Species of Mollusca obtained by Prof. Goodsir from

Spitzbergen. By R.

Terebratulina caput-serpentis.
Terebratella Spitzbergensis,

Dav.

Crania anomala (dead).

Astarte elliptica, Br.

crebricostata, Forbes.

Warhami, Hancock ?

Leda caudata.

pernula (ros^ra^«,Mart.).

M 'An DREW, Esq.

Yoldia navicidarisy Gould ?
Pecten Islandicus, var. (small
and thin).

Groenlandicus.

Dentalium, sp. hied.

Patella (Lepeta) caeca.
Cancellaria (^Admete) viridula,
O. Fabr.

Note. — This list is the more interesting since visits to Spitzbergen
have become so rare. Capt. Phipps enumerates the following spe-
cies in his 'Voyage towards the North Pole,’ Loud. 1774 : —
Ascidium rusticum and yelatinosum.

Syncecium turgenSy Phipps.

Clio helicina and limacina (Arctic Sea generally).

Chiton ruber.

My a truncata.

Saxicava arctica.

Buccinum undatumy var.

Turbo helicinus.

^ Srneerenberg Harbour.

Four other Spitzbergen shells arc mentioned by Dr. Win. Leach
in the Appendix to Sir John Ross’s ‘ Voyage of Discovery,’ ed. 2.
8vo, Lond. 1819. The specimens were probably obtained by Ca|)t.
Buchan, as a few Spitzbergen shells arc in the Museum cases with
his name attached : —

Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Scr. 2. Vol. xvi.

31

466 Meteorological Observations.

Pandora glacialis^ Leach (Brit. Mus.).

Macoma tenera, Leach {Tellina balthica, L.).

Crassina semisidcata, Leach (Brit. M.\x^.)= Astarte lactea, Brod.
and Shy.

Nicania Banksii, Leach. (Specimens answering to Leaches de-
scription are in the Museum cases ; the authors of the ‘ British
Mollusca have hesitated to include this with the smooth variety of
Astarte compressa, Mont.)

There is a tablet of small specimens of Crania anomala, labelled
“ Spitzbergen, Capt. Buchan,” which is now confirmed by Prof.
Goodsir’s specimens. The species does not range to Finmark on the
Norwegian coast.

Dr. Loven mentions Trophon scalariformis and ‘‘ Yoldia hyper-
borea ” as occurring at Spitzbergen j 2L\i^Saxicava arctica, Buccinum
glaciale^ and Fusus despectus and deformis have also been collected
there. — S. P. Woodward.

METEOROLOGICAL BSERVATIONS FOR OCTOBER 1855.
Chiswick. — October 1. Fine: showery: fine. 2. Foggy: cloudy : foggy : rain.
3. Dense fog : rain. 4. Densely clouded : heavy rain. 5. Fine : heavy rain. 6.
Very fine : cloudy : rain. 7. Fine : foggy at night. 8. Rain : very fine. 9. Foggy ;
very fine. 10. Fine. 11. Rain. 12. Cloudy and boisterous : rain. 13. Very
fine. 14. Foggy: cloudy. 15. Dense fog: fine. 16. Very fine: rain at night.
17. Rain, with fog. 18. Overcast: fine. 19. Light clouds and fine. 20. Fine :
cloudy: fine. 21. Cloudy. 22. Foggy : very fine : cloudy. 23. Foggy : uniformly
overcast. 24. Fine : clear : fine. 25. Cloudy and boisterous. 26. Very boisterous ;

overcast : fine. 27. Exceedingly fine. 28. Very clear : fine. 29. Rain : drizzly.
30. Constant heavy rain. 31. Rain : cloudy : rain at night.

Mean temperature of the month 50°*28

Mean temperature of Oct. 1854 48 *20

Mean temperature of Oct. for the last twenty-nine years ... 50 *00

Average amount of rain in Oct 2*686 inches.

Boston. — Oct. 1. Cloudy. 2. Cloudy : rain a.m. 3. Cloudy. 4. Rain a.m. and

r.M. : heavy thunder-storm. 5. Fine : rain p.m. 6. Fine. 7. Cloudy : rain a.m.
8. Foggy. 9. Cloudy : rain P.M. 10. Fine. 11. Rain a.m. and p.m. 12. Cloudy.
13. Fine, 14. Cloudy. 15. Foggy : rain p.m. 16. Fine. 17. Cloudy : rain a.m.

18. Fine. 19. Cloudy : rain p.m, 20. Fine. 21. Cloudy : rain p.m. 22. Cloudy.
23. Cloudy : rain a.m. and p.m. 24. Fine. 25, Cloudy. 26, 27. Rain a.m, and
P.M. 28, Fine. 29. Foggy : rain am. and p.m. 30,31. Rain a.m. and p.m.

Sandwich Manse, Orkney. — Oct. 1. Fog a.m. : clear p.m. 2. Drizzle a.m. :
damp P.M. 3: Showers a.m. : rain p.m. 4. Rain a.m. and p.m. 5. Clear a.m.
and P.M. 6. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m. 7. Rain a.m. and p.m. 8. Hazy a.m. :
drizzle p.m. 9. Cloudy a.m. : sleet-showers, aurora p.m. 10. Cloudy a.m. :
dry ; rain P.M. 11. Showers a.m. and p.m. 12. Showers a.m. : clear p.m. 13.
Fine a.m. : clear, fine, aurora p.m. 14. Fine, hoar-frost a.m. : clear, fine, aurora
P.M. 15. Fine, frost a.m. : clear, fine p.m. 16. Sleet-showers a.m. : clear p.m.
17. Showers a.m. : rain p.m. 18. Showers a.m. : sleet-showers, aurora p.m.

19. Drops A.M. : clear, fine p.m. 20. Rain a.m. : drizzle p.m. 21. Showers a.m. :
clear p.m. 22. Cloudy a.m. and p.m. 23. Rain a.m. : sleet-showers p.m. 24.
Hail-showers A.M. : sleet- showers p.m. 25,26. Rain a.m.: showers p.m. 27.
Snow-showers a.m. : clear, aurora p.m. 28. Clear, frost a.m. and p.m. 29. Cloudy
A.M. : hazy p.m. 30. Bright a.m. : clear p.m. 31. Bright a.m. : cloudy p.m.

Mean temperature of Oct. for twenty-eight previous years ... 47°*64

Mean temperature of this month 45 *72

Mean temperature of Oct. 1854 46 *39

Average quantity of rain in Oct. for fifteen previous years ... 5*08 inches.

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i68

INDEX TO VOL. XVI.

Abrornis, new species of, 227.

Accentor, on the species of, 287-

Acostsea, on the genus, 290.

Actiniadse, observations on some, 293.

Allemao, Dr. F. F., on the origin and
development of vessels in plants, 214.

Anatina suhrostrata, on the animal
of, 24.

Anculotus, new species of, 140.

Anderson, Dr. T., on the introduction
of the Cinchona tree into India, 219.

Animal life, on the progressive deve-
lopment of, in time, 69.

Animals, marine, on some new or
httle-known, 27, 305.

Annelides, on the young states of
some, 259.

Anomia ephippium, on the animal of,
23.

Anteater, on the anatomy of the
Great, 374.

Antirrhinum maius, on a monstrosity
of, 229.

Aonyx, new species of, 109.

Aphyllanthacese, note on the, 300.

Aquarium, on the injurious effects of
an excess or want of heat and light
on the, 313.

Araneidea, new British species of, 120,
329.

Arcania, new species of, 367.

Arnee, on the horns of the, 230.

Arnott’s, G. A. W., British Flora, re-
viewed, 203.

Arremon, new species of, 142, 284.

Assiminia, remarks on the genus, 114,
183, 272, 422.

Babington, C. C., on the Batrachian
Ranunculi of Britain, 385 ; on Li-
naria sepium, 449.

Balfour, Dr., on specimens of Mega-
carpaja polyandra, 75.

Barrett, L., on some Brachiopoda
found on the coast of Norway, 257.

Bate, C. S., on the homologies of the
carapace, and on the structure and
function of the antennae in Crusta-
cea, 36.

Bell, T., on the Leucosiadae, 361.

Beyrichia, new species of, 86, 169.

Birds, new species of, 65, 226, 279,
298, 369, 380 ; on the habits of
some Indian, 61, 224, 371, 457 ;
G. R. Gray’s Genera and Subgenera
of, reviewed, 450.

Blackwall, J., on two newly disco-
vered species of Araneidea, 120.

Books, new : — F. Smith’s Catalogue
of British Hymenoptera, 124 ;
Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philo-
sophical Society, 128 ; Hooker and
Arnott’s British Flora, 203 ; Gosse’s
Manual of Marine Zoology, 277 ;
Kingsley’s Glaucus, 354; G. R.
Gray’s Catalogue of the Genera
and Subgenera of Birds, 450 ;
Quekett’s Catalogue of the Histolo-
gical Series contained in the Col-
lege of Surgeons, 454.

Botanical Society of Edinburgh, pro-
ceedings of the, 72, 144, 219.

Brachiopoda, on some, found on the
coast of Norway, 257 ; on the sy-
stematic arrangement of recent and
fossil, 429 ; on the opening and
closing of the shell of, 436 ; on the
sexes and ova of the, 439.

Brach\q)teryx, on some species of,
65.

Braun, Dr. A., on the vegetable indi-
vidual, 233, 333.

Buarremon, new species of, 381.

Bunodes, on the genus, 294.

Burgess, Lieut., on the habits of In-
dian birds, 61, 224, 371, 457.

Buthraupis, new species of, 142.

Calamites of the carboniferous epoch,
on the, 144.

Callene, on some species of, 65.

Calliste, new species of, 150.

Callitriche, on a new organ in, 149.

Carpenter, Dr. W. B., on the Fora-
minifera, 207.

Carter, II. J., on the development of
gonidia (?) from the cell-contents
of the Characeae, and on the circu-

INDEX.

469

lation of the mucus- substance of
the cell, 1.

Cephalophora, on the respiratory
chamber in the, 324.

Chaetopterus, on the development of,
264.

Characeae, on the development of
gonidia (?) from the cell-contents
of the, 1 ; on the cu’culation of the
mucus-substance of the cell in the,
16.

Chatin, A., on a new organ observed
in Calhtriche, 149.

Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, on the
origin of the name of, 77-

Chitonidae, on the branchiae of the,
408; on the reproduction of the, 446.

Chlorospingus, new species of, 377-

Chiysomitris, new species of, 300.

Cidaridae, new genus of fossil, 95.

Ciniflo, new species of, 120.

Clark, Rev. H., on a new species of
spider, 329.

Clark, W., on the Assiminia Grayana
and Rissoa anatina, 114, 272; on
the phaenomena of the reproduc-
tion of the Chitons, 446.

Clausilia Rolphii, new locality for,
298.

Conchifera, on the animals of certain
genera of, 22.

Convoluta paradoxa, note on, 312.

Crickets, on the spermatophora of
the, 150.

Crithida, new species of, 308.

Crossostoma, new species of, 310.

Crustacea, on the homologies of the
carapace and on the structure and
function of the antennaj in, 36.

Cyamus, new species of, 30.

Cyanoloxia, new species of, 299.

Davidson, T., on the Brachiopoda,429.

Davies, W., on the arrested develop-
ment of the tadpole of the frog, 466.

Davy, Dr. J., on the ova of the sal-
mon in relation to the distribution
of species, 205.

Decaisnea, on the genus, 52.

Deliehon, characters of the new ge-
nus, 225.

Deslongchamps, E. E., on a new spe-
cies of Morrisia, 443.

Diatomaceai, new species of British
freshwater, 73, 145; on the conju-
gation of the, 92 ; on the ])resence
of, in soils, 219.

Dicrurus macrocercus, on the habits
of, 63.

Dinornis struthioides, on the bones
of the leg of, 460.

Diodonta fragilis, on the occurrence
of, 379.

Diplommatina, on the operculum of,
300.

Dipsacus, on an abnornal stem of a
species of, 292.

Drosera rotundifolia, on the organiza-
tion of the pedicellate glands of the
leaf of, 146.

Drymoica, on some species of, 68.

Entoraostraca, on palaeozoic bivalved,
81, 163.

Epipogium aphyllum, new locality
for, 295.

Euphonia, new species of, 143, 382.

Felis, new species of, 105.

Fishes, on the food of certain grega-
rious, 57.

Flata limbata, on the white secretion
of, 356.

Fleming, Dr., on the Calamites and
Sternbergia of the carboniferous
epoch, 144.

Foraminifera, researches on the, 207 ;
notes on British, 209.

Galbula, new' species of, 280.

Gasteropoda, on the anatomy of a
new' genus of pelagic, 206 ; on the
structure of the organs of breathing
in the, 315.

Gasterosteus leiiu’us, on the habits of,
330.

Gisignies, Viscount Du Bus de, on
some new species of birds, 298,380.

Glaciers, on the descent of, 122.

Glauconome rugosa, on the animal of,
23.

Gonidia, on the development of, in
the Characeaj, 1.

Gcippert, Dr., on fossil palms, 55.

Gorgonidae, monograph of the, 177.

Gosse, P. IE, on some new or little-
known marine animals, 27, 305 ;
Manual of Marine Zoology for the
British Isles, reviewed, 277 ; on
Peachia hastata, with observations
on the family Actiniadac, 293.

Gould, J., on two new species of
Pucrasia, 222 ; on a new sj)ecies of
humming-bird, 278 ; on a new spe-
cies of Momotus, 37.3.

Gray, G. R., on a new species of
Tlialassidroma, JS ; Genera and
Subgenera of Birds, reviewed, 450.

Gray, Dr. J. E., on the genus Assi-
rninia, 183, 422 ; on the genus

i70

INDEX.

Mocliolarca, 228 ; on a monstrosity
of Antirrhinum majus, 229 j on the
horns and skuli of the Arnee, 230 ;
on the genus Miilleria, 290 ; on a
new species of Petrogale, 383 ; on
the genera of Mollusca, and on the
genus Assiminia in particular, 422.

Gregory, Prof., on new species of
British freshwater Diatomacese, 73;
on the presence of Diatomaceae and
Phytolitharia in soils which support
vegetation, 219.

Griffith, Dr. J. W., on the conjugation
of the Diatomacese, 92.

Halacarus, description of the new
genus, 27 ; new species of, 306,

Hardy, J., on the origin of the name
Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, 77*

Harkness, Prof. R., on fossil Diato-
maceae, 145.

Hawker, Rev. W. H., on some rare
British plants, 212.

Helix aspersa, note on, 298.

Hemipedina, on the new genus, 95 ;
new species of, 196.

Herring, on the food of the, 58.

Hierochloe borealis, new locality for,
295.

Hippolyte spinus, note on, 307.

Hochstetter, Dr., on Bohemian forests
and peat-bogs, 378.

Hogg, J ., on some scales from the back
of a large fish, 51 ; on the common
tunny, 213.

Hooker, Dr. J. D., on Decaisnea, 52.

Hooker’s, Sir W. J., British Flora,
reviewed, 203.

Horeites, new species of, 227.

Horsfield, Dr. T., on some new
species of Mammalia, 101.

Humming-bird, new species of, 278.

Hutton, Capt. T., on the operculum
of Diplommatina, 300.

Huxley, T. H., on the progressive de-
velopment of animal life, 69.

lora tiphia, on the habits of, 64.

Ixulus, new species of, 370.

Jasonilla, on the anatomy of, 206.

Jeffreys, J. G., on the descent of gla-
ciers, 122; on British Foraminifera,
209 ; on Shropshire Mollusca, 464 .

Johnston, Dr., biographical notice of
the late, 199; on Sibbald’s Draw-
ings of Scottish Animals, 296.

Jones, T. R., on British and foreign
species of 13eyrichia, 81, 163.

Kingsley’s, C., Glaucus, or the Won-
ders of the Shore, reviewed, 354.

Knox, Dr. R., on the food of certain
gregarious fishes, 57-
Krohn, Dr. A., on the heart and cir-
culation in the Pycnogonidae, 176.
Lanio, new species of, 380.

Lanius Hardwickii and L. Excubitor,
on the habits of, 62.

Layard, E. L., on the genus Palu-
domus, with descriptions of new
species, and the description of a
new species of Anculotus, 133.
Lenticels, on the morphology of the
organs called, 273.

Lereboullet, M., on double monstro-
sity in fishes, 47.

Lespes, C., on the spermatophora of
the crickets, 150.

Leuckart, R., on the young states of
some Annelides, 259.

Leucosiadae, monograph of the, 361.
Leucosilia, characters of the new
genus, 364.

Lichens, on the dyeing properties of,
144.

Limea, note on the subgenus, 256.
Linaria sepium, note on, 449.
Lindsay, Dr. W. L., on the dyeing
properties of lichens, 144.

Linnaean Society, proceedings of the,
51, 212, 291, 356.

Lithadia, description of the new genus,
366.

Lucernaria campanulata, note on, 3 13.
Lupus, new species of, 107.

Lycett, J., on the subgenus Limea,
256.

M‘Andrew, R., on some species of
Mollusca, 465.

Macdonald, J. D., on the anatomy of
Jasonilla, 206.

Mammalia, on some new or little-
known species of, 101.

Masters, M. T., on an abnormal stem
of a species of Dipsacus, 292.
Megacarpaea polyandra, remarks on,
75.

Meles, new species of, 108.
Mesotrocha, on the metamorphoses
of, 264.

Meteorological observations, 79, 151,
231, 303, 383, 466.

Modiolarca, on the genus, 228.
Modiolarca trapezina, on the animal
of, 24.

Mollusca, on the anatomy of branchial
organs in the Gasteropod, 404 ; on
the genera of, 422 ; note on Shrop-
shire, 464; on some species of, 465.

INDEX.

471

Momotus, new species of, 3/3.

Monstrosity in fishes, on double, 47.

Moore, F., on the species of the genus
Orthotomus, 128; on some new
and little-known species of birds,
65, 225, 226, 367, 369; on the
species of the genus Accentor, 285.

More, A. G., on the flora of the neigh-
bourhood of Castle Taylor, 72.

Morrisia, new species of, 443.

Miilleria, on the genus, 290.

Murchison, Dr. C., on the white se-
cretion of the Flata hmbata, 356.

Mus, new species of, 112.

Mustek, new species of, 107.

Myra, new species of, 364.

Myrodes, description of the new
genus, 364.

Naesea bidentata, note on, 308.

Nemosia, new species of, 382.

Nemura, on some species of, 67-

Nereis bilineata, note on, 78.

Neriene, new species of, 121.

Noctua indica, on the habits of, 61.

Nolella, description of the genus, 35.

Nursia, new species of, 366.

Nursilia, on the genus, 366.

Nycticejus, new species of, 104.

Orbitolites, monograph of the genus,

207.

Oreophorus, new species of, 366.

Oriolus aureus, on the habits of, 225.

Orites, new species of, 367.

Orthotomus, new species of, 129.

Osmia, on the habits of the species of,
125.

Othonia, new species of, 33.

Otogyps, on the egg of, 78.

Owen, Prof., on the anatomy of the
Great Anteater, 374 ; on the bones
of the leg of Dinornis, 460.

Pachybdella, on the genus, 153.

Pachygnathus, new s})ecies of, 305.

Palapteiyx gracilis, on the bones of
the leg of, 462.

Palms, fossil, remarks on, 55.

Paludomus, new species of, 135.

Paradoxurus, new species of, 105.

Parlatore, M., on Aphyllanthes mons-
])eliensis, 300.

Patellidai, on the branchial system of
the, 412.

Peachia, on the genus, 2.94.

Peltogaster, on the genus, 153.

Persephona, new species of, 363.

Petrogale, new s])ccies of, 383.

Philopotamis, new species of, 139.

Philyra, new sj)ccics of, 365.

Phlyxia, new species of, 365.

Phcenicornis Peregrinus, on the habits
of, 64.

Phoxichilidium, new species of, 30.

Phytolitharia, on the presence of, in
soils which support vegetation, 219.

Pinus hirtella and P. religiosa, on the
identity of, 54.

Pipilopsis, new species of, 381 .

Placuna placenta, on the animal of, 23.

Plants, new habitats for rare British,
72, 212, 292, 295 ; on the origin of
vessels in, 214.

Plecotus, new species of, 103.

Pnoepyga, new species of, 65.

Poliospiza, new species of, 299.

Polyzoa, descriptions of new, 35.

Praniza caeruleata, note on, 307.

Prinia, on some species of, 68.

Procnias, new species of, 380.

Prosthemadera, on the egg of, 78.

Protula Dysteri, note on, 312.

Pucrasia, new species of, 222.

Pycnogonidae, on the heart and circu-
lation in the, 176.

Pyctorhis, new species of, 226.

Pyrenestes, new species of, 299.

Quekett’s, Prof., Catalogue of the His-
tological Series in the Museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons, 454.

Quelea, new species of, 29.9.

Quenstedt, Prof., on the mode in which
Brachiopoda open and close their
shell, 436.

Ramphocelus, new species of, 142.

Ranunculi, on the Batrachian, 385.

Respiration, on the mechanism of
aquatic, in invertebrate animals,
315, 404.

Rhynchonella, new species of, 444.

Rissoa anatina, note on, 117.

Robertson, P. S., on the germination
of some species of Coniferas, 73.

Royal Institution of Great Britain,
proceedings of the, 69.

Royal Society, ])roceedings of the, 205.

Sagartia, on the genus, 294.

Saint-Pierre, E. G. de, on the mor-
])hology of the lenticels, 273.

Salmon, on the food of the, 60; on
the ova of the, 205.

Salticus, new sj)ecies of, 329.

Schmidt, Prof. O., on the sexes and
ova of the Brachiopoda, 439.

Sciurus, new species of, 113.

Sclater, P. L., on some new or imper-
fectly described species of Tanagers,
140, 150, 377 ; on a collection of

4<72

INDEX.

birds from the Republic of Ecuador,
279 ; on a species of Procnias, 380.

Seemaun, B., on the identity of Pinus
hirtella and P. religiosa, 54.

Sibbald’s, Sir R., Drawings of Scottish
Animals, 296.

Silk-worm of India, on the Eria, 291.

Smith’s, F., Catalogue of British Bees,
reviewed, 124.

Solen javanicus, on the animal of, 22,

Sorex, new species of, 110.

Species, on the law which has regu-
lated the introduction of new, 184.

Spider, new' species of, 120, 329.

Sponge-spicules, on the presence of,
in soils, 219.

Steenstrup, Prof., on the genera Pa-
chybdella and Peltogaster, 153.

Sternbergia of the carboniferous
epoch, on the, 144.

Stickleback, on the habits of the, 330.

Suya, new species of, 68,

Syllis, new species of, 31.

Tachyphonus, new species of, 377-

Tadpole of the common frog, on the
arrested development of the, 465.

Tanagers, new species of, 140, 150,

377.

Tanais, note on a species of, 307-

Taualia, new' species of, 138.

Tarsiger, on some species of, 67-

Terebratella Spitzbergensis, descrip-
tion of, 442.

Terebratula, on the opening and
closing of the shell of, 435.

Terebratulina caput-serpentis, on cal-
careous plates found in the mantle,
oral arms, and cirri of, 440.

Thalassidroma, new species of, 78.

Thompson, W., note on Nereis bi-
lineata, 78 ; on the occurrence of
Diodonta fragilis, 379.

Thomson, Dr. T., on the genus De-
caisnea, 52.

Threnetes, new species of, 278.

Titmice, new species of, 367.

Trecul, A., on the organization of the
pedicellate glands of the leaf of
Drosera rotundifolia, 146.

Trichastoma, on some species of, 66.

Tritonia Hombergii, note on the oc-
cun-ence of, 380.

Tyrannula, new species of, 282.

Unciola, note on a species of, 307.

Urrua Bengalensis, habits of, 61.

Valenciennes, M., on the Gorgonidae,

177.

Vegetable individual, on the, in its
relation to species, 233, 333.

Vespertilio, new species of, 102.

Vireosylvia, new species of, 298.

Waldheimia septigera, description of,
441.

Wallace, A. R., on the law w'hich has
regulated the introduction of new
species, 184.

Walter, H. F., on the eggs of Otogyps
and Prosthemadera, 78.

Warington, R., on the aquarium, 313;
on the habits of the stickleback, 330.

Westwood, J. O., on the Eria silk-
worm of India, 291.

Wilhams, Dr. T., on the structure of
the organs of breathing in inverte-
brate animals, 315, 404.

Woodw'ard, S. P., on the animals of
certain genera of Conchifera, 22; on
a new locality for Clausilia Rolphii,
298 ; on Helix aspersa, 298 ; on a
new species of recent Rhyncho-
nella, 444.

Wright, Dr. T., on a new' genus of
fossil Cidarida3, 94 ; on some new
species of Hemipedina, 196.

Yorkshire Philosophical Society, Pro-
ceedings of the, re\'iewed, 128.

Zoological Society, proceedings of the,

61, 128, 222, 278, 367, 457-

END OF THE SIXTEENTH VOLUME.

PltlNTED BY TAYLOE AUD FEAJS'CIS,
BED LIOK COUET, FLEET STREET.

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