—< ; » RTOS Lele rs whee Bn tatbn Brera tees Tess betes Sue brenersts Stats rartaeteont : eases siepccssseerea ap eh- wee ete > 2433 ae ae =] ettesett eee raeseet 5, Sie: see tba “en eee ee | Tea “ocr ets ¢ babel es <5 Salas Slower i be Bis ~ z ato Tether we} Pi ap ie ta © E mt 3 We inphe te eee Shen eee papas BS cs ag - Ss Reitei ts Seo ee - a) ee ar ss ea 3 frontispiece to Ann & Mag Nat. Hist. S.3.Vol.6 THE ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, INCLUDING ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, ann GEOLOGY. | (BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE ‘ ANNALS COMBINED WITH LOUDON AND CHARLESWORTH’S ‘MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. ) CONDUCTED BY -PRIDEAUX JOHN SELBY, Ese., F.LS., CHARLES C. BABINGTON, Ese., M.A., F-R.S., F.L.S., F.G.8,, JOHN EDWARD GRAY, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.LS., V.P.ZS. &e., AND VOL. VI.—THIRD SERIES. ov LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS. SOLD BY LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.; PIPER AND CO.;5 BAILLIERE, REGENT STREET, AND PARIS; LIZARS, AND MACLACHLAN AND STEWART, EDINBURGH: HODGES AND SMITH, DUBLIN: AND ASHER, BERLIN, 1860. **Omnes res create sunt divine sapientie et potenti testes, divitiz felicitatis humane :—ex harum usu bonitas Creatoris; ex pulchritudine sapientia Domini; ex ceconomia in conservatione, proportione, renovatione, potentia majestatis elucet. Earum itaque indagatio ab hominibus sibi relictis semper estimata; a veré eruditis et sapientibus semper exculta; malé doctis et barbaris semper inimica fuit.”— LINNZUS. * Quelque soit le principe de la vie animale, il ne faut qu’ouvrir les yeux pour voir qu'elle est le chef-d’ceuvre de la Toute-puissance, et le but auquel se rapportent toutes ses opérations.”—BruCKNER, Théorie du Systeme Animal, Leyden, 1767. a eo Letind «pa ake te als Mee By Le powers Obey our summons ; from their deepest dells The Dryads come, and throw their garlands wild And odorous branches at our feet ; the Nymphs That press with nimble step the mountain thyme And purple heath-flower come not empty-handed, But scatter round ten thousand forms minute Of velvet moss or lichen, torn from rock Or rifted oak or cavern deep: the Naiads too Quit their loved native stream, from whose smooth face They crop the lily, and each sedge and rush That drinks the rippling tide: the frozen poles, Where peril waits the bold adventurer’s tread, The burning sands of Borneo and Cayenne, All, all to us unlock their secret stores And pay their cheerful tribute. J. Taytor, Norwich, 1818. . FLAMMAM. ae. PF CONTENTS OF VOL. VI. [THIRD SERIES. ] NUMBER XXXI. Page I. Note on the Structure and Terminology of the Reproductive System in the Corynide and Sertulariade. By Prof. ALLMAN. ...... 1 Il. On the Tribe Colletiee, with some Observations on the Structure of the Seed in the Family of the Rhkamnacee. By JoHN Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. ......0eeee Me bie sD Laces ebudehenaeyecesh 5 III. On certain Musical Curculionide ; with Descriptions of two new Plinthi. By T. Vernon Wo.uasToNn, M.A., F.LAS. «2.0.0... 14 IV. Mollusca Japonica: New Species of Odostomia. By ARTHUR AMEE Firth: GOS. a cccotess vecacicaccdscsehesensssscecenncvscsees Veakewonveeee 20 V. On the Occurrence of Spiders and their Webs in Coal-pits. By Be EMV EIU... ccaccapavcccdccsecessensesdetvpersescessesuccesvcsoees 22 VI. Description of a new Pentacrinite from the Kimmeridge Clay of Weymouth, Dorsetshire. By Witu1am H. Baity, F.G.S. (With O PIAMGG). Vivecscecdscycoucarses cl takancaness’ Mati y svvapecvecrebucuestedaneuesss 25 VII. On a new Species of Solarium from the Upper Greensand, near Dorchester. By W. H. Bairy, F.G.S. (With a Plate.) ......... 28 VIII. On the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera. By W. K. PaRKER, M. Micr. Soc., and T. R. JONES, F.G.S. .........ccccccscecssees 29 IX. Note on Carduella cyathiformis. By Prof. ALLMAN ......... 40 X. Description of a new Helix; and Notice of the Occurrence of Planorbis glaber, Jeffr., in Madeira, By the Rev. R. T. Lowe, M.A. (With a Plate.) eecceseseaes OOS SHEE eee ETE HHHHSHEEH AHS HEHEHE EH ESE EEE EHH ESE wooses 42 XI. On a new Species of Black-fish found on the Coast of Cornwall. By Dr. ALBERT GUNTHER .............cessscescecnscsccscscsscncccsonsconens 46 XII. On Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera. By T. VeRNoN VE RE een a ncuhnaen cans Wedvbsisbotpananevel eos eb ooerses 48 iv CONTENTS. Page XIII. Notes on Dunlopea. By Dr. E. Percevan Wrieut, F.L.S., Lecturer on Zuology, Dublin University .........::.sseeseseesseeeeeees seoee 04 New Book :—Cybele Britannica; or, British Plants and their Geogra- phical Relations, by Hewett Cottrell Watson. ....00--secesscseeeee 56 Proceedings of the Zoological Society ......... cop eecees seeecescesesess OO—Z9 Observations on the Corymbose Madrepores, by M. A. Valenciennes ; Note on some Parasites of Iulus terrestris, by M. d’Udekem; On a new Species of Bird (Chloronerpes sanguinolentus), by Fe tas OCUMUER, DA. co scerccvccccsccoccescnaneenninnenuee pektccuanpaaes 79—80 NUMBER XXXII. XIV. On Recurrent Animal Form, and its Significance in Systematic Zoology. By CurHsertr CoLLtincwoop, M.B., F.L.S. &e. ...... 8h XV. Observations on two new Species of Chiton from the Upper Silurian ‘ Wenlock Limestone’ of Dudley. By M. L. pz Kontnck, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Belgium. (With a Plate.) 91 XVI. Notes on the Subgenus Corilla, H. & A. Adams; and on the Group Plectopylis, Benson; also on Pollicaria, Gould, and Hybo- cystis, Benson. By W. H. BENSON, Esq. ooc...scosssceessesccersceeees 98 XVII. On Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera. By T. Ver- NON WOLLAGTON, M.A., B.D.S. oc cepcisccccccepsccsoaspeunpaeumeene 100 XVIII. Notes on the Animals of certain Genera of Mollusca. By ArtTuurR Apams, F.L.S. &e. ....... scieasispemawesice seus anp emeenen teeta 109 XIX. Description of a new Species of Cassowary living in the Menagerie of the Babu Rajendra Mullick at Calcutta. By Epwarp Buiytu, Curator of the Royal Asiatic Society’s Museum, Caleutta ... 113 — XX. On the Cyclostomas of Madeira belonging to the Genus Cras- pedopoma of Pfeiffer; with Descriptions of four new Madeiran and one new Canarian Species. By the Rev. R. T. Lowe, M.A. ......... 114 XXI. Mollusca Japonica: New Species of Aclis, Hbala, Dunkeria, &e. By ARTHUR ADAMS, F.L.S. ee. ...cccccssoscrcccccsscsveveoscvosees 118 XXII. Synoptical List of the British Species of Teredo, with a Notice of the Exotic Species. By J. Gwyn Jerrreys, Esq., F.R.S. 121 Proceedings of the Zoological Society .......... dine sibendebdnssinth 127—150 On Alepidosaurus, a Marine Siluroid Fish, by Dr. A. Giinther; On the Origin of Species, by J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S. ; On the Habit of Notopteris Macdonaldii, Gray, by John MacGillivray, Esq.; Pentacrinus Fisheri seessceccessccvesesees Sesinn ee eed este ot 150—152 CONTENTS. Vv Page NUMBER XXXIIlI. XXIII. Some Account of the “ Chaparro” of Fuerteventura, a new Species of Convolvulus. By the Rev. R. T. Lows, M.A..............4. 153 XXIV. On a new Species of Agelacrinites, and on the Structural Relations of that Genus. By E. J. Coapman, Professor of Minera- logy and Geology in University College, Toronto .........++esssssesesees 157 XXV. On the Genera Peltogaster and Liriope of Rathke. By Prof... W. LItJIBBORG. (With @ Plate.) ie iscs es cies cd sek esstds ccveesecvees 162 XXVI. On the Calyceracee. By Joun Mizrs, F.RS., F.LS. &. 174 XXVII. Characters of new Land-Shells from Burmah and the Andamans. By W. H. BENSON, Esq. ...ccccsccsccccscoessssccsceccecceee 190 XXVIII. On the Bitentaculate Slug from Aneiteum. By Dr. J. E. RAT, Pie Vk dette MUO wepnetennele capeistsansosesdiececsescanassececcacce 195 XXIX. On the Nudibranchiate Mollusca inhabiting the Estuary of the Dee. By CurHspert CoLLINGwoop, M.B., F.L.S. &c. .......+ 196 XXX. On two new Species of Shells from Cambojia. By LovELL ee ERC En, Fhe kc ds Canbedans cecaanocdaph gids daeadsasdeteesenccas ec POR New Book :—Archaia; or, Studies of the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures, by J. W. Dawson, LL.D., ONG ie COOe wesc sncaueki es BAN GEMaG kn eta Grune rs Ob Co crraer we Uriaac tee ticscaseke 205 Proceedings of the Royal Society ; Zoological Society ......... 208—217 On some new Species of Mammalia and Tortoises from Cambojia, and on Rusa japonica, a new Species of Rusa Deer from Japan, by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. ;’On the Origin of Species, by Prof. Agassiz ; Note on the Fox of Japan, by Arthur Adams, WL iv Cia) Oa Nash's oo cc dec deaeece dee sdsacentaacubeuay'e 217—232 NUMBER XXXIV. XXXI. On the different Animals known as Wild Asses. By Epwarp Buiytu, Curator of the Royal Asiatic Society’s Museum, CM ee ehh eel) EL cean eee eiwse ce CalWhesabedeccveces 933 XXXII. Descriptions of new Genera and Species of Tenthredinide in the Collection of the British Museum. By FreprErick SmiTH . 254 XXXII. Descriptions of Freshwater Shells collected in Southern — India by Lieut. Charles Annesley Benson, 45th M.N.I. By W. H. PMR ANG ne cciceinay denen cuhyhadeeneee ius «tee dane’ denunsehae seasiaphie'as 257 XXXIV. On the Genera Peliogaster and Liriope of. Rathke. By Prof, W. LILJEBORG. .....0.s0008 poaumUveHUUasieccvervesls ues veunesveceeneds 260 vi CONTENTS, Page XXXV. On the Arrangement of the Land Pulmoniferous Mollusca into Families. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. ...cccsseseeeeees 267 XXXVI. On some new Genera and Species of Fishes collected by Drs. Keferstein and Heckel at Messina. By Prof. Kaup. (With a PIRG cciseneh cessmbuienseaage vepabials Kets esate ties eves sabe amaseelh@nina iia Mla aaL 270 XXXVII. Mycological Investigation upon Fermentation. By M. TLERMANN FLOPPIMANN | .cccecc coocccccccceccevts ces vaseusnepissnenes nenLauae 273 XXXVIII. On the Calyceracee. By Jonn Miers, F.RS., Fe ao a civans coe dee nceeesaeeseus +6 eee RNMMMR Ee yeaN Wu) aL Tk aon ean 279 XXXIX. On the Animal of Umbonium vestiarium. By ArtHuR PTA DEB, FAS. Cw vec ccsseccscccececconexs squalene subiasbbpuns ieanee 288 XL. Notice of an undescribed Peculiarity in Teredo. By J.Gwyn JEFFREYS, Esq., F.R.S. ......0ccccccscsccsecseaeseeaveheabece nse Daseedioeetlss 289 New Book :—Flora of Cambridgeshire; or, a Catalogue of Plants found in the County of Cambridge, by C. C. Babington, M. A., PLTC.G., BLLIS.....0.....+00000000 hon stns dell engin mnIMMnI Eas bs gaa bon aire 291 Proceedings of the Royal Society ; Geological Society ; Zoological PICT cn son os osss0s.0ievasjoovese sg seeeeea dowd aed
>. \ \ CG hi N\ \ \ KG WS ipi55
TM Td 9 PA 2S UT IN SER yy UU
Mr. R. T. Lowe on a new Madeiran Helix. 43
glens of the inner mountain mazes and recesses of the island,—
reduced perhaps, as in the case of the abundant Porto-Santan
fossil, H. coronata, Desh., and of the rarer H. Lowei, Fér., to a
few individuals surviving in a single spot.
Except the discovery in July 1855, by Mr. Wollaston and
myself, in Madeira, of living H. tiarelia, Webb, and of .a single
live example of H. Lowei, Fér., in 1857, by Sr. J. M. Moniz, in
the Ilheo de Cima, off Porto Santo, this fine new Helix is by far
the most important and interesting addition made of late years*
to the Madeiran Helicological fauna, whose treasures are thus
proved to be by no means exhausted. My first impression, on
its discovery, was indeed that of utter astonishment how so large
and striking a species could have escaped previous detection. It
was found alive, on the 17th and 18th of April last, in a single
spot, on the surface of the somewhat moist, loose, friable, black
vegetable mould, amongst tufts of grasses, ferns, &c., on a steep,
dry, sunny bank clothed with shrubs of Vaccinium and Heath
(Erica arborea, L.), mixed with a few scattered trees of Laurus,
at the foot of perpendicular crags, along the new Levada called
the Levada da Fajaa dos Vinhaticos, about three miles below its
source in the bed or stream of the Ribéiro do Fayal, a little
_ below the top or ridge on the 8.W. slope of the great lateral
spur or buttress through which the principal or longest tunnel
has been perforated. Searching here for common sylvan species
with my Portuguese attendants, the first example was discerned
by one of them, José Rodriguez of Machico, whose good fortune
was almost simultaneously shared by the rest of us; for, though
apparently quite local, and confined here to a short and narrow
band of a few yards wide, reaching down the mountain-side
some fifty yards or more, it seemed tolerably abundant on the
spot; and a reward of at first a pistreen (10d.), and then a
bit (5d.) for each example, soon procured a fair supply of living
specimens. In association with it, I found H. actinophora, H.
bifrons, and Vitrine abundantly. H. membranacea and erubes-
cens also occurred more sparingly.
In the first moments of surprise at the sight of these examples
lying on the black mould of the bank, under dead leaves amongst
the grass and herbage, I imagined that I had either found some
extraordinary new Cyclostoma of the discoidal group typified by
C. planorbula, Yam., or discovered at last the long-desired
recent shell of H. Delphinula. Presently undeceived as to the
former notion by the protrusion of the animal, I perceived almost
as soon the untenableness of the latter; for, though in size and
general aspect, no less than in the open spirally-grooved umbi-
* H. coronata, Desh., was discovered alive by Mr. Wollaston in 1848,
44, Mr. R. T. Lowe on a new. Madeiran Helix.
licus, and some other peculiarities of sculpture, H. delphinuloides
is allied to H. Delphinula, it is a truly distinct species; and the
fact that one so large and remarkable has remained so long un-
discovered in Madeira only gives, as before observed, fresh vigour
to the hope that the real H. Delphinula, in a living state, will
even yet reward the diligent researches of some explorer of the
more retired glens and interior recesses of that apparently in-
exhaustible and wondrous field, the inner ravine and mountain
region of Madeira. The locality of the present nearly connected
species suggests the probability that, like so many others of the
Canical fossil shells, H. Delphinula also was a sylvan species,
and that it is consequently to be looked for m the higher forest
regions of the island.
Group Coronaria, Lowe.
Helix delphinuloides, Lowe. Plate III. figs. 1-3.
T. latissime et perspective umbilicata, orbiculato-discoidea, tenui+
uscula, subpellucida, pallide testaceo-carnea v. livido-purpurascens,
seepe subcretaceo-plumbea v. griseo-violascens albida, junior acute
dentato-carinata, supra concinne crenatim radiato-plicatula et seepe
undatim oblique fiexuoso-striolata, subtus spiraliter sulcato-costata
eleganterque clathrato-cancellata ; spira convexo-depressa, plani-
uscula; anfract. 6-63, planatis (nec contabulatis), ad suturam
denticulato-marginatam antice impressam eequaliter radiato-plici-
feris, ultimo (aliquando subbicarinato) cylindrico (carina antice
evanescente) costis spiralibus pluribus distinctis (unica supra,
4 vy. 5 infra carinam majoribus) sulcato-cingulato costellisque
annularibus striolisque intermediis creberrimis tenuissimis trans-
versis exquisite decussato-cancellato, antice valde deflexo soluto
producto; umbilico omnino aperto, patulo, largo, profundo, ad
‘ apicem usque pervio, spirali; apertura relevata, expanso-tubze-
formi, ineequaliter subcirculari ; peristomate circinato-producto,
undique relevato-disjuncto, expanso-reflexo, margine tenui, acuto,
subflexuoso-plicato, intus ineequaliter subsulcato.
Diam. maj. 15-17, min. 13-14, alt. 6-9 mill.; anfr. 6-63 mill.
Hab. ad terram inter gramina et herbas in declivibus dumosis ad
basin rupium convallis Ribéiro do Fayal dictee Maderee ad alt.
4000 fere ped.
Animal a true Helix: yellowish brown; sides of foot pale
cinereous ; the whole with a warm pale sienna tint. Tentacles,
and a line backwards from the base of each, blackish ; the upper
pair rather long.
Averse to move, but not slow or timid when once in motion.
When quiescent, the pointed yellowish-brown tip of the foot
appears within the mouth of the shell; but when disturbed, the
animal retracts itself far back within. When brought down to
Funchal, the animals all died in three or four days.
Mr. R. T. Lowe on a new Madeiran Helix. 45
In the paler violet-grey or chalky-whitish-shelled examples,
the animal is much paler than in the brownish flesh-coloured
or purplish-shelled individuals.
Shell rather thin, light, and fragile; opake, but pellucid when
held up to the light; of a uniform peculiar dull-brownish
flesh-colour or livid purplish, sometimes, even in living exam-
ples, of a pale violet-grey or lead-colour or chalky-white, en-
tirely without lustre or polish. Shape planorbiform, orbicular,
depressed, with the spire flattened and but slightly convex,
sharply keeled whilst young, but either without any keel or ob-
scurely double-keeled when adult, the keel minutely but not
regularly toothed in the young shell. The sculpture is very
elegant and complex: above, the volutions are regularly and
distinctly, but not strongly, plaited at their upper edge with
short, equidistant, oblique ribs radiating from the suture about
half-way across their breadth; beneath, they are very regularly
and strongly ribbed and grooved spirally, the somewhat broad
or flattened ribs being also beautifully cancellated by regular,
sharp, equidistant, annular or transverse finer riblets. Whilst
there is only one larger or more prominent spiral rib above the
evanescent keel on the last volution, there are usually about
eight or ten below it ; and sometimes the uppermost of these is
stronger and a little remote, and separated by a broader or
deeper groove from the rest below, forming a sort of secondary
lower keel. Again, on the upper side the volutions, and espe-
cially the last, are often marked with flexuose or zigzag, very
oblique waved striz, as in H. Delphinula; and on both sides
they are found, under the lens, to be covered with excessively
fine and thickly crowded, close-set, transverse striw, passing
along the annular and across the spiral ribs and their inter-
stices. Thus, in well-developed individuals, there are four di-
stinct systems of sculpture, viz. the spiral and annular ribs,
and the flexuose and microscopic striz.
In shape and general aspect, H. delphinuloides bears a marked
resemblance, as already mentioned, to some of the flattened
discoidal Cyclostomata, and in colour it is often very like C. ele-
gans, Mill. The large, open, spiral, beautifully grooved and
cancellated umbilicus recalls to mind that of the marine genera
Solarium and Delphinula, Lam. ; and itis as much with reference
to this analogy as to its affinity with Helix Delphinula, Lowe,
that I have named the species.
H. delphinuloides is at once distinguished from H. Delphinula
by wanting the sharp, thin, broad, projecting, rim-like keel ; by
its flattened discoidal shape, and wider, shallower umbilicus :
and from its much nearer ally, the Desertan fossil, H. coronula,
Lowe, it differs in being more than twice as large; in the flat-
46 Mr. R. T. Lowe on Planorbis glaber in Madeira.
tened, not coronated spire ; in the keel of the volutions not being
strongly plicate-toothed and raised above the sutural line; in the
volutions not being flattened above the keel ; and lastly, in their
less remote and strong, not tooth-like, radiating ribs or plaits.
I am indebted to Mr. Edmund Leacock of Madeira, a young
and zealous entomologist, for several examples of a Planorbis
found by him in a tank in Dr. Lister’s beautiful and richly-stored
garden at Funchal, where I understand the same shell had
been previously obtained by Mr. J. Y. Johnson. These exam-
ples belong unquestionably to P. glaber, Jeffr. (levis, Ald.) ;
and, like Helix aspersa, Mill., in another garden at Funchal,
the species has been doubtless introduced within the last few
years from Portugal, where Dr. Bocage, Director of the Lisbon
Museum, finds abundantly, in stagnant water, tanks, &c., every-.
where, a shell precisely identical. Examples from Cintra, kmdly
communicated by this able naturalist, who is at present actively
engaged in studying the very imperfectly explored Molluscan
fauna of his country, perfectly agree with these Madeiran speci-
mens, one of which is remarkable for exhibiting faint traces
of spiral striee towards the peristome on the under or lower and
more concave side of the shell,—#invalidating so far the specific
difference, which has been, indeed, already called m question
(see Gray’s Man. p. 260; though compare also Forbes and
Hanley, Brit. Moll. iv. 151), between P. glaber, Jeffr., and P.
albus, Mill.
Lea Rectory, June 12, 1860.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE III.
Fig. 1. Helix delphinuloides, upper side; fig. 2, under side of the same;
fig. 3, seen in profile.
XI.—On a new Species of Black-fish found on the Coast of Corn-
wall. By Dr. AtBert GUNTHER.
Tue genus Centrolophus (or the Black-fish of British ichthyo-
logists) comprises fishes which evidently are inhabitants of the
open sea, living in the Mediterranean and in the European part
of the Atlantic, between lat. 30° and 58° N. They fall only
occasionally into the hands of zoologists, which circumstance
will account for the lateness of the discovery of a new European
species.
The specimen on which I have founded the species was found
thrown on shore near Polperro, in the month of February of
the present year, during rough weather, and was stuffed and
sent to the British Museum. Fortunately Mr. Couch had
Dr. A. Giinther on a new Species of Black-fish. A7
previously drawn a pencil sketch of the fish, which he kindly
communicated to me as soon as I had informed him that the
specimen was different from the other known species. It was
evident from this sketch that the head of the specimen had been
deformed by stuffing, but that the elongated form of its body is
a natural character. The chief difference, however, from Centro-
lophus pompilus is in the increased number of the anal rays,
which amount to thirty in the present specimen, while they
vary between twenty-three and twenty-five in all the specimens
of C. pompilus which have hitherto been examined. I have
therefore no doubt about its specific distinctness, and propose to
call it Centrolophus britannicus, not because I think it is confined
to the British seas, but because it has been observed first on the
British coast. The characters by which the three species of
. Centrolophus may be readily distinguished are, shortly, the
following :—
Centrolophus britannicus. The height of the body is one-fifth
of the total length; dorsal fin with 45, anal with 30 rays.
Centrolophus pompilus. The height of,the body is one-fourth
of the total length; dorsal fin with 39-4], anal with 23-25
rays.
eentevalopiie ovalis. The height of the body is one-third of
the total length ; dorsal fin with 40, anal with 24-27 rays.
A further question arises, whether our new species has not
been indicated by one of the earlier writers, or whether it has
been confounded under the numerous denominations considered
as synonyms of C. pompilus. The circumstance that the four
specimens of the Black-fish observed on the British coast, and
proved to belong to the genus Centrolophus, have been found on
the coast of Cornwall, might lead to the unfounded supposition
that the fish is pecuhar to this part of England. I think it
receives explanation from the fact that the ichthyology of Corn-
wall has been worked out more compietely than that of any other
part of the south coast of Britain,—first by Borlase, from the
papers of Mr. Jago of Hast Looe, and afterwards by so excellent
and indefatigable an observer as Mr. Couch. Jago observed
two of the four specimens caught together in one net; and the
accurate figure given by Borlase*, and the statements of the
relative measurementst, of the distance of the commencement
of the dorsal fin from the snout, &c., afford ample proof that
those two fishes were not the C. britannicus, but belonged to the
* Borlase, Nat. Hist. of Cornwall, p. 271, pl. 26. fig. 8.
+ Mr. Couch (Yarr. Brit. Fish. 2nd edit. i. p. 180) appears to have mis-
understood Jago’s description, in which the fish of thirteen inches is repre-
sented as three-fourths of an inch broad. Jago intended to give a state-
ment of the horizontal width, and not, as Mr. Couch thinks, of the depth
of the body.
48 Mr. T.V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
true C. pompilus. They became, in the works of systematic
authors, the Black-Ruffe of Pennant, Perca nigra of Gmelin,
Holocentrus niger of Lacépéde. The two other specimens which
fell into the hands of Mr. Couch, and which were described by
him in Yarrell’s work, were also C. pompilus, as is evident from
the number of the fin-rays stated*.
With regard to Centrolophus morio, Lacép. (Mr. Couch had
marked his sketch with the name of Centrolophus morio?),
Cuvier has examined the typical specimen to which Lacépéde had
given that denomination. He found it entirely agreeing with
C. pompilus, especially with regard to the number of the fin-
rays; and there is not the slightest doubt that C. morio, lke
C. lparis, Risso, is a nominal species, and synonymous with
C. pompilus.
Finally, Centrolophus crassus, Cuv. and Val., if at all different
from C. ovalis, cannot be confounded with our new species,—
having the body as high as C. ovalis, and only thirty-nine rays
in the dorsal fin. |
Two other British specimens of the Black-fish are mentioned
in Yarrell, Brit. Fish. 3rd edit. p. 250: one came under the
observation of the Rev. George Gordon, at Lossiemouth (Moray
Firth), the other under that of Mr. Rudd, at Redear. No other
information with regard to these two fishes has been preserved.
XII.—On Additions to the Madeiran Coleoptera.
By T. Vernon Wot taston, M.A., F.L.S.
[Continued from vol. v. p.459.]
Fam. Tenebrionide.
Genus GNATHOCERUS.
Thunberg, Act. Holmiens. 47 (1814).
The present genus is identical with what I have hitherto cited
as Cerandria,—Thunberg’s name of Gnathocerus, which until
lately appears to have been lost sight of by entomologists,
having the priority in point of date. Hence the common Ce-
randria cornuta must be quoted as the Gnathocerus cornutus.
Another species, detected by myself during the spring of 1859,
has been added to our fauna since the publication of my last
paper, which I conclude to be coincident (if indeed it be pos-
sible to draw any conclusion at all from such meagre descrip-
tions as those of Fabricius) with the Trogosita mazillosa of the
‘Systema Eleutheratorum.’
* Yarr. Brit. Fish. 2nd edit. i. p. 182.
Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 49
Gnathocerus maxillosus ? Fab.
G. lineari-elongatus, pallide rufo-ferrugineus, subnitidus ; prothorace
subconvexo, subquadrato, subtilissime punctulato; elytris punctato-
striatis, antennis pedibusque rufo-testaceis.
Mas mandibulis elongatis, angustis, curvatis, falcatis, porrectis ; fronte
bituberculata, ad latera paulo subrecurvo-ampliata.
Long. corp. lin. 14-1}.
Habitat Maderam, sub cortice arborum laxo in ipsa urbe Funcha-
lensi, Junio ineunte a.p. 1859 a meipso repertus.
Trogosita maxillosa? Fab. Syst. Eleuth. 1. 155 (1801).
G. rather smaller, narrower, and more linear than the G. cor-
nutus, being of almost equal breadth throughout,—the prothorax
being less expanded anteriorly, and the elytra with their sides
more strictly parallel; also usually a shade paler than that spe-
cies, but with much the same sculpture. Head of the females a
little more rounded anteriorly than is the case in the G. cornutus,
and rather less elevated and expanded before the eyes (which,
unlike those of that insect, project perceptibly beyond this deve-
loped lateral portion) ; head of the males likewise with this lateral
portion scarcely more expanded than in the opposite sex (instead
of immensely dilated, as in the cornutus), and with two central
horn-like tubercles on the forehead (which are smaller and more
medial than those of the cornutus, and not touching at their
base the inner margin of the eye): also with the mandibles in
the males greatly elongated, porrected, and incurved, but very
much narrower and more sickle-shaped than those of the cor-
nutus, and not so evidently re-curved towards their apex. Pro-
thorax squarer than in the G. cornutus, being less expanded in
front, and therefore straighter at the sides, and with the hinder
angles less obtuse. Hlytra with the sides perfectly parallel,
instead of a trifle diverging posteriorly as in that species, and
somewhat more deeply striated. Limbs (particularly the an-
tenne) usually a shade paler than those of the cornutus.
Several specimens of the present Gnathocerus were captured
by myself (and subsequently, in the ‘same locality, by Mr. Be-
wicke) beneath the dead, loosely attached bark of the Plane-trees
in the Praca da Rainha, in Funchal, at the beginning of June
1859. Like the G. cornutus, it has doubtless been imported
into the island, but seems to have naturalized itself even more
completely than that species. Judging from two short observa-
tions in Lacordaire’s recent volume on the Genera of the Hetero-
mera, in the ‘ Suites & Buffon’ (“ Les mandibules du male sont
beaucoup plus gréles que chez la cornuta ;” and, “une seule es-
péce est décrite, la Trogosita mawillosa, Fab., Syst. Kleuth. i. 155,”
besides the cornutus), 1 conclude that it is in all probability co-
incident with the Fabrician 7. mazillosa, and have cited it
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. vi. 4
50 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
accordingly ; nevertheless, if it should prove hereafter to be di-
stinct from that insect, I would propose for it the trivial name
of falcatus—in allusion to its narrow and sickle-shaped mandi-
bles, which (inter alia) immediately distinguish its male sex from
the corresponding one of its ally. It would seem that the female
is the scarcer sex of the two; for out of the twenty-one exam-
ples from which the above description has been compiled, seven
are females and fourteen males. And, indeed, the same appears
to obtain in the G. cornutus also, since, of eleven Madeiran exam-
ples now before me, three only are females.
Fam. Opatride.
Genus Haprus.
(Dej. Cat.) Woll., Ins. Mad. 502 (1854).
Hadrus Paive, nu. sp.
H. oblongus, niger, subtiliter et crebre granulatus ; elytris substriatis,
levissime et subtilissime pubescentibus.
Long. corp. lin. 4-44. 3
Habitat Maderam orientalem, in illa prominente litoris calcaria ad
Porto da Cruz, sub lapidibus juxta mare jacentibus, d. 18 Jan.
1859, copioseinveni. Species valde distincta, et in honorem Baronis
ejus Lusitanici ‘‘ Castello de Paiva’? a me amica mente citata.
H. oblong (being of almost the same outline as the H. alpinus),
black, almost free from scales, and rather more coarsely, and
less closely, granulated all over than the H. alpinus, but not near
so coarsely as the cinerascens. Head with the clypeus expanded
into a lateral angle in front of the eyes, as in the latter species,
instead of bemg rounded-off, as in the former one. Prothorax
of the same shape as that of the cinerascens, being a trifle more
expanded anteriorly than in the alpinus, and not quite so broadly
flattened at the sides. Elytra very obsoletely striated, but rather
more perceptibly so than in the alpinus, and, under a high
magnifying power, beset with an excessively short, minute, and
distant fulvescent pile. Antenne and tarsi obscurely piceous.
As will be perceived from the above description, the present
Hadrus is intermediate in its features between the H. alpinus and
cinerascens (though remarkably distinct, and never merging into
either of them)—combining the general outline of the former
with the angulated clypeus of the latter; whilst in the relative
coarseness of its sculpture (though not in its precise character) it
is about midway between the two. In the pubescence of its
elytra, also, which is very delicate and obscure, it is intermediate
between the totally unclothed H. alpinus and the rather more
evidently (though very minutely) setulose and roughened surface
of the H. cinerascens. It was detected by myself, on the 18th of
a
Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 51
January 1859, in abundance, beneath stones, close to the shingly
beach of the low calcareous promontory at Porto da Cruz, in the
east of Madeira proper; and I have great pleasure in dedicating
it to my excellent friend the Bardo do Castello de Paiva, to whose
kindness I am indebted for much valuable assistance in procur-
ing for me, at various times, specimens of Madeiran Coleoptera,
and whose botanical researches, both in Madeira and the Cana-
ries, are already well known.
Fam. Staphylinide.
(Subfam. ALEOCHARIDES.)
Genus TAcHYUSA.
Erichson, Kaf. der Mark Brand. i. 307 (1837).
Tachyusa maritima, u. sp.
T. depressa, minute punctulata, subopaca, nigra et dense cinereo-
pubescens ; capite transversim subquadrato ; prothorace late cana-
liculato, postice angustiore ; elytris vix picescentioribus ; antennis
pedibusque dilnte testaceis, illis gracilibus, apicem versus vix
obscurioribus.
Long. corp. lin. 14.
Habitat Maderam, rarissima; im salinis lapidosis juxta mare ad
Sanctum Vincentium, inter lapillos velocissime cursitantia, duo
specimina mense Decembri a.p. 1858 collegi.
T. depressed, dull-black, minutely punctulated, subopake,
and densely clothed with cinereous pubescence. Head trans-
versely subquadrate, being straightly truncated behind, and with
the forehead slightly channeled down the centre. Prothorax a
little narrowed posteriorly, and with a wide, but not very deep,
channel down its disk. Hlytra just perceptibly more picescent
than the head and prothorax. Abdomen rather more shining.
Antenne slender, and a little longer than the head and pro-
thorax ; testaceous, being but very slightly more obscured to-
wards their apex. Legs diluted testaceous.
Two specimens of the present very distinct Tachyusa were
captured by myself, during December 1858, below high-water
mark, on the shingly beach at Sado Vicente, at the exact point
(close to the chapel-rock) where the stream empties itself into
the sea. It would appear to be the representative of the 7’.
uvida of more northern latitudes, being somewhat intermediate
between that species and the 7. sulcata. It is, however, rather
smaller than the former, with its antennz shorter, more slender,
and (together with the legs) paler, and its head is not quite so
long ; whilst from the latter it recedes (inter alia) in being con-
siderably larger and with altogether longer limbs,—the antennal
4x
52 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
joints, moreover, being much less, transverse, and the legs of a
paler hue.
(Subfam. TacHyPoriDEs.)
Genus Hypocyprvs.
Mannerheim, Brachél. 58 [script. Hypocyphtus] (1831).
Hypocyptus reductus, v. sp.
H, acuminato-obovatus, convexus, niger, nitidus, pubescens ; pro-
thorace ad latera angustissime diluto; elytris valde abbreviatis,
singulatim oblique truncatis ; antennis pedibusque piceo-testaceis,
illarum articulo ultimo longitudine reducto.
Long. corp. lin. 4.
Habitat Maderam, in ipsa urbe Funchalensi a meipso semel lectus.
H. obovate, being rounded in front and acuminated behind,
convex, black, shining, scarcely perceptibly punctulated (even
beneath the microscope), and sparingly clothed with a fine, de-
cumbent, cinereous pile. Head transverse, and somewhat acu-
minated between the eyes. Prothorax and elytra of the same
breadth at their point of junction: the former with its hinder
angles acute and produced, and with its extreme lateral edge
narrowly diluted in hue; the latter very short, and each of them
obliquely truncated behind. Antenne but very slightly incras-
sated at their apex, and with their ultimate joint shorter and
rather more obtuse than in the ordinary Hypocypti, rufo-testa-
ceous at the base; their apical portion, as well as the femora
and tibie, darker, or more piceous. Tarsi pale testaceous.
A single example of the present Hypocyptus was taken by
myself from beneath a piece of board which was lying on the
damp earth in the garden of the American Consulate, in the
very centre of Funchal. From the circumstances of its capture,
one might have imagined that it was in all probability a chance
specimen which had been accidentally imported into the island,
did not its decided specific divergence from the European Hypo-
cypti tend to an opposite conclusion. Apart from minor features,
the concolorous apex of its abdomen, in conjunction with the
structure of its antennee (which are somewhat slenderer and less
clubbed than those of its more northern allies, and have their
terminal joint shorter and more obtuse), will at once serve to
characterize it.
Genus Myceroporvus.
Mannerheim, Brachél. 73 (1831).
Mycetoporus Johnsoni, n. sp.
M. rufo-testaceus, nitidus; pectore abdomineque (ano plus minus
ferrugineo excepto) obscurioribus; oculis parvis; prothoracis
Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 58
punctis apicalibus a margine anteriore valde remotis ; elytris con-
vexis brevibus, punctorum seriebus fere obsoletis ; antennis palli-
dioribus, apicem versus minus incrassatis.
Long. corp. lin. l- vix 14. |
Habitat Maderam editiorem sylvaticam, sub truncis prolapsis et
cortice arborum laxo, passim. Species M. prono, Er., affinis, sed
ab eo, nisi fallor, certe distincta, et in honorem cl. J. Y. Johnsoni,
armigeri, scientiee naturalis in Madera cultoris periti, citata.
Mycetoporus pronus, var. 8, Woll., Ins. Mad. 573 (1854).
M. like the M. pronus, but rather smaller, with the eyes more
minute, with the four transverse prothoracic punctures a little
further removed from the anterior margin ; and with the elytra
shorter and more convex, and with their three rows of longitu-
dinal punctures almost obsolete. The antenna, also, are rather
paler than in that insect, and not quite so incrassated towards
their apex.
I am now for the first time induced to regard what I have
hitherto considered as but a small state of the M. pronus as
in reality specifically distinct. A recent and more thorough
examination of it, with the advantage of a larger number of
specimens than I had hitherto been able to command, has con-
vinced me that it cannot be properly referred to that insect,—
of which, indeed, 1 had always considered it a very abrupt
and extraordinary variety; I have consequently removed it
therefrom, and have much pleasure in dedicating it to my
friend James Yate Johnson, Esq. (the accomplished editor of
Mr. White’s excellent ‘Handbook for Madeira’), whose care-
ful researches in various departments of the natural history of
the island are well known. Its distinctive features, which will
at. once separate it from the M. pronus, may be immediately
gathered from the above description.
(Subfam. QuEDIIDEs.)
Genus HreTeRorHoprs.
(Kirby) Steph., Ill. Brit. Ent. v. 256 (1832).
Heterothops minutus, nu. sp.
H. niger; capite prothoraceque angustulis, nitidissimis ; elytris pro-
thorace paulo longioribus, pubescentibus, picescentibus, apice
necnon abdominis apice distincte dilutioribus ; antennis gracilibus,
ad basin et pedibus dilute rufo-testaceis.
Long. corp. lm. 14-2.
Habitat Maderam australem, sub foliis marcidis in horto Bewickiano
prope Funchal captus.
H. narrow, and acuminated both before and behind (though
especially, of course, the latter), and black. Head and prothorax
54 Dr. E. P. Wright on Dunlopea.
highly polished: the former narrow and oblong, with a small
punctule on either side of the disk behind, and with about four
more on each side, placed in a longitudinal row from the inner
margin of the eye: the /atter a good deal narrowed or laterally
compressed in front, with the anterior angles somewhat deflexed,
and the hinder ones rounded off; with a large and rather deep
puncture towards either side on ‘the hinder disk, and with an-
other (rather smaller and more central) on each side of the fore-
disk, besides a few obscure ones on the extreme margins. Elytra
and abdomen much less shining, and more pubescent, than the
head and prothorax, being somewhat densely clothed with a
long, decumbent, and slightly paler pile, with a few darker and
erect hairs intermixed: the former less black than the rest of the
surface, being more or less obscurely piceous, and with their
apical margin rather brightly diluted in colouring, or rufo-testa-
ceous: the /atter with its apex and the extreme posterior edge
of each segment obscurely rufescent. Antenne rather slender
and fragile; their two basal joints and the legs diluted rufo-
testaceous.
Two specimens only of the present Heterothops have as yet
come under my observation, the first of which was captured by
myself, from beneath dead leaves and vegetable refuse, in Mr.
Bewicke’s garden at the Palmeira, above Funchal, in the spring
of 1859; and the second, I believe in the same locality, by Mr.
Bewicke himself. It will probably be found identical with a
species which I have taken abundantly in the Canary Islands,
and is most allied, at first sight, to the common European H.
dissimilis ; nevertheless its head and prothorax are distinctly
narrower than in that insect (the former being more oblong, and
the latter more laterally compressed in front, and with the discal
punctures more evident), its elytra are a trifle longer, and its
antenne are rather more slender and fragile, with their basal
joints more brightly testaceous. In their general facies, the
species of Heterothops very much resemble diminutive Philonthi
or Quedit; nevertheless, apart from less important differences,
the minute, subulated terminal jomt of their palpi will imme-
diately separate them from both of those groups.
[To be continued. }
XITI.—Notes onDunlopea. By Dr. HK. PEncevarWricut, F.L. S.,
Lecturer on Zoology, Dublin University. i
Dr. E. Percevat Wrieut exhibited to the Meeting* an annu-
lose animal, which had been taken in India by Mr. Dunlop, one
* Communicated by the author; having been read at the Meeting of the
Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Association on March 16, 1860.
Dr. E. P. Wright on Dunlopea. 55
of their Associate Members, and which he believed to belong to
a new order of the group Turbellaria,—the straight alimentary
canal and the absence of the anal orifice reminding one of the
Rhabdoccela; while the apparent absence of cilia, and the pecu-
liar worm-like form, give the animal a very Helminthoid ap-
pearance. Dr. Wright purposed to lay before the Linnean
Society a full account of this curious creature, when he would
fully discuss the question of its proper position among the An-
nuloida; for the present, he would propose to name the genus
after his friend A. Dunlop, Esq. It may be briefly characterized
as follows :—
DuUNLoPEA, nov. gen.
Body flattened, ribbon-like, transversely wrinkled, one por-
tion gradually tapering to a tail-like extremity, the other taper-
ing but slightly, and ending by projecting on each side, some-
what in the form of the head of the Zygena malleus. No eye-
dots or apparent anal orifice. Mouth (?) situated on the ventral
portion, about midway between the two extremities, in the midst
of a four- or five-lobed foliaceous appendage; strongly resem-
bling the branchie of Doris. Living in the earth, and crawling
in damp weather on the ground.
1. D. ferudpoorensis, n. sp.
So called after the district in which it was found. About
4 inches in length. Dorsal surface of a greenish-brown colour,
with a line of light yellowish-brown running longitudinally
along its central portion. Ventral surface of a lighter shade of
colour. Central portion and (?) oral tuft of a light yellow
colour.
2. D. Grayia, nu. sp.
This and the following species have been examined through
the kindness of Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, who, when he
saw the specimen of D. ferudpoorensis, at once recognized the
animal, and, after a search of a few moments, produced a
drawing of this species, which was discovered by Dr. Cantor
in China, and is alluded to in his Catalogue of the Plants and
Animals of that country. From the peculiar triangular head-
lobes, and the brownish colour of the body, marked with
56 Bibliographical Notice.
yellow, this species can be easily distinguished from the fore-
going one.
Dr. Cantor refers to a different species, found in 1836 by
Mr. Griffiths under stones in the Naga Hills, and to another
observed in Bengal (vide Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1842, vol. ix.
p- 277).
The woodcut, p. 55, is from a coloured drawing by Dr. Cantor
in the Collection of the British Museum. The original specimen
is also in the same collection.
8. D. Cantoria, n. sp.
This species, named after Dr. Cantor, who appears to have
been the first to draw attention to this curious form, is the
largest of the three species at present known. It was discovered
by Mr. Fortune, the well-known Chinese traveller.
In length it is more than double that of either D. Grayia or
D. ferudpoorensis ; and the expanded hammer-head-like portion
is exceedingly well marked.
There is something highly characteristic in the manner in
which the peculiar longitudinal band (which seems to be of a
different structure from the rest of the body) terminates towards
the hammer-headed extremity: m D. ferud-
poorensis it ends without expanding laterally ; in
D. Grayia it expands as shown in the previous
figure; while in D, Cantoria it terminates in
the manner here represented.
There appears to be no trace of this genus in the fine collec-
tion of annulose animals at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.
Full details, with carefully drawn-up specific descriptions, will
shortly be forwarded to the Linnean Society ; in the mean time
this brief notice may cause some attention to be paid to these
little animals, which doubtless are common on the continent
of Asia; and the author would be happy to receive specimens,
so that he may be enabled to complete his account of the
group. He is led to believe that, in addition to the localities
given above, they occur likewise in the neighbourhood of Kandy
(Ceylon) and near Calcutta.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
Cybele Britannica; or, British Plants and their Geographical
Relations. By Hewerr Corrreitt Watson. Vol. IV. Long-
man & Co. 1859.
Tue fourth volume of the ‘Cybele Britannica’ fitly concludes a work
whose value is already widely acknowledged, and will be yet more
evident when other branches of our fauna and flora shall have been
Bibliographical Notice. 57
brought into comparison with the Flowering Plants. Then may be
offered a sounder basis for explaining some of the phenomena of
geographical distribution, which in our times are so full of promise,
but whose existence has hitherto rather been made evident than
satisfactorily accounted for.
The ‘Cybele Britannica’ is an “opus per se,” as it is a model for
future operations. We English botanists may well claim that our
Flowering Plants have been better and more systematically explored
than those of any other country. It is true that M. Lecoq has given,
in ten royal octavo volumes, an account of the features of the flora
of a portion of France, including an outline of the general “area” of
each species ; but we do not fear a comparison between his book and
the English ‘Cybele.’ To say nothing of its lengthy disquisitions,
and too often fanciful theories, there is, in the French work, great
want of convenient tabular summaries. The plants of his own di-
strict ‘are not nearly so thoroughly investigated by M. Lecogq, in his
‘ Etudes ;’ besides, the very size and expense of the volumes places
them beyond the reach of most readers. Indeed, we do not feel at
all sure that the comparison with Mr. Watson’s work is fair to either
writer, since M. Lecoq avowedly addresses himself chiefly to the
general question, while Mr. Watson equally professes to give his
attention rather to local and particular details.
When treating of his species, M. Lecogq first discusses the aspect
and distribution of the order, then the statistics, range, &c., of the
genus—very interesting points, it is true, but somewhat out of place
in a local treatise. Then follows a kind of biography of each plant,
extending often over two pages, separate paragraphs being besides
devoted to—1. nature of soil; 2. altitude (often only approximately
given); 3. astatement of the entire or general range. Here the very
want of that precision which is so valuable a feature of the ‘Cybele’
is, in our eyes, the fault of the French author.
But we cannot help regretting that no place has been allotted by
Mr. Watson for a few words respecting the kind of soil * most favour-
able to each species—whether silicious, calcareous, argillaceous or
peaty, friable or compact ; for this is a point always of high interest
to the local observer, and one to which M. Jules Thurmann has re-
cently devoted two volumes ; Mr. J. G. Baker, too, has given a conve-
nient abstract, in the shape of a pamphlet, where the English plants
are arranged somewhat after the manner of M. Thurmann. We
must, however, confess that we feel some misgiving as to the adop-
tion of so difficult a terminology as that of the Swiss author. If
the harsh terms of “‘ Dysgeogenous”’ and ‘* Eugeogenous ”’ be fairly
represented by “compact”? and ‘“friable,’? we might hope to find
* Something, indeed, is to be gathered from the terms “ glareal,” “ ericetal,”’
“rupestral,” &c.; and, in most cases, mention is made of the attachment of a
species to a calcareous substratum, which often greatly influences the assigning
of plants to the ‘‘ Germanic” or South-eastern group, because it is on the east
side of England that the Chalk principally occurs. But the desideratum above
mentioned consists in the absence of a line regularly devoted to a statement of
the soil preferred by each species.
58 Bibliographical Notice.
the English names adopted where the terrible Greek compounds
would discourage any but an experienced classic. At the same time,
however true in the main or convenient may be M. Thurmann’s
method of classifying soils according to their relative friability, his
subdivisions seem to us rather consequences of the chemical nature
of the soil than to be themselves of the first importance. From what
is known of the inorganic constituents of plants, it is surely the
chemical ingredients which determine the presence or absence, rarity
or frequency of certain species, quite as much as the so-called ‘ me-
chanical” conditions. |
Mr. Watson has devoted a useful life and much conscientious
labour to his favourite branch of botany. Many of our readers will
remember the ‘Outlines of” and “‘ Remarks upon”’ the “ Geogra-
phical Distribution of British Plants,’’—short sketches that gave
high promise for the future, which promise is now amply fulfilled.
These two preliminary volumes were presently followed (in 1843) by
a more elaborate treatise, somewhat on the scale of M. Lecoq’s.
This third edition having proved too bulky, Mr. Watson, wisely fore-
seeing the hopeless length to which that work would have extended,
proceeded (in 1847) to try a shorter plan in the four volumes by
which his name has now become so generally known,—the ‘ Cybele
Britannica.’
Of our author’s fitness for his self-imposed task there can be no
question : we are fortunate in meeting with a writer who, united to a
rare judgment in weighing evidence, has a most happy method (all
his own) of condensing particulars. His results are expressed with
remarkable terseness ; and the caution observed in even suggesting
any general views, under the present imperfect data, contrasts very
favourably with the proceedings of many other writers on the subject,
who have been more ready to advance bold theories than to arrange
sober facts.
It is not our object to discuss the plan and arrangement adopted
by Mr. Watson, further than to say that we believe no smaller space
could have done justice to the author’s labours, since the remarks
that follow the statistics of each species in the three earlier volumes
of the ‘Cybele Britannica’ are so much to the point, and have
contributed in no small degree to our present improved knowledge
of the plants; still, we believe something might have been gained
by giving in each case the names of the botanists whose testimony
vouched for the occurrence of the plants in the several “ provinces”
or districts. Might we venture to suggest to future ‘‘ Cybelists,”
with the view of giving due prominence to the certainty or uncertainty
of the records, some such plan as the following :—
Suppose two lines to be given to the horizontal distribution of
each species, the upper will contain the numerals which represent
the “‘ provinces,” the second line will show the authorities, e. g.—
Vinca| Prov. 1 2 asine So Soba Wala yk alae
minor { Auth. Ho. Br. Wts. Bb. Lg. 0 Dv. 0 0.
By “‘ future Cybelists,” we wish it to be understood we mean those
Bibliographical Notice. 59
who in other classes of plants, and in the animal kingdom, shall in due
time follow in the track so ably marked out by Mr. Watson, and thus
at length give us a complete system of the distribution of the exist-
ing fauna and flora of Britain. Not that it is desirable to attempt
rash generalizations upon the range of any species within Great
Britain ; but we think an English naturalist will have done his duty,
and have done it well, when he has arranged, in a manner so ready
for reference, as many valuable details as those given in the ‘ Cybele
Britannica.’
A first step has already been taken towards tracing the range of
some of our Insects (Butterflies and Sphingina) through the same
eighteen districts as the Flowering Plants ; and we hope the system
of the ‘Cybele’ will soon become generally adopted by English
Faunists. Too much care cannot be exercised in strictly conforming
to the rules laid down by Mr. Watson; and, as was said before, the
mention of the authorities in each case will be a most desirable addi-
tion. It is hardly to be hoped that a similar exactness or fulness
of detail is to be obtained at once in the various classes; but if even
the horizontal range be carefully traced, it will be a great gain to the
philosophic naturalist. We could wish, for instance, that the accom-
plished author of the ‘ British Quadrupeds’ would, in his second
edition, devote two or three pages to a sketch of Mammal distribu-
tion, as this would afford an opportunity of comparing more strictly
the respective range of the so-called ‘‘faunas” and “floras” of
Edward Forbes, in part founded upon the ‘‘types”’ of Mr. Watson.
On this subject our author remarks (pp. § and 506 of vol. iv.) that,
although prepared to admit the possible soundness of Forbes’s idea
of a difference in age between the alpine and lowland floras, he does
not see the necessity of granting that there is any real distinctness
between the other “‘types.’”” The plants are collected into groups
only because they present a close resemblance in the direction of
their increase and decrease; and if this be suggestive of a migration,
it by no means equally indicates a difference of age and origin be-
tween the groups. It is often so difficult to assign a plant to any
one type, that Mr. Watson has been compelled to have recourse to a
double system of letters to indicate the species whose distribution is
of this intermediate or uncertain character. Moreover, considerable
changes have been made, since the appearance of the earlier volumes,
by removing species from one “type’’ to another. Thus the “ At-
lantic”’ has 9 added, and 18 removed, chiefly to the ‘‘ English” type.
The proportions and constituents of the “ Germanic”’ are still more
altered, no less than 43 species being added, and about 30 taken
away. The totals at present remain—127 for the “ Germanic”
against 69 for the ‘‘ Atlantic,” which thus becomes hardly more
than one-half as large as the former, instead of about equal, as esti-
mated in 1847. Mr. Watson also urges that the “types” are, after
all, little more than “‘ climatal arrangements,’ determined by actual
physical conditions: besides, it is well observed that it is easy to
divide into as many groups the flora of any country, yet the geolo-
gical history of each is utterly different. Such are some of the
60 Bibliographical Notice.
arguments advanced by Mr. Watson; and it must be allowed that
many of the theories advocated by other writers besides Forbes rest
too much upon negative evidence: this is especially true where use
has been made of geological data. Perhaps it may be wiser to adopt
the course recommended in the ‘ Cybele,’ to postpone for a while our
inquiries into the origin and age of species, and to collect hopefully
the materials for the future edifice, rather than attempt to rear it
upon an insecure foundation.
What we read in this volume of the distribution of the British
flora is no bad example of the different groups into which the plants
of a country may be subdivided according to individual fancy.
Forbes saw five main groups, which he considered distinct in age as
well as in character. Henfrey gives four, without touching upon the
question of age. Watson has six ‘‘ types,” with a seventh to be
added for the West Irish plants; and it also appears that the writer
who acknowledges the greatest number of groups is the one who is
least inclined to grant a distinctness in age.
Now, leaving out of question the alpine species, the actual features
of the British flora are not very different from what might have been
expected if the entire lowland vegetation were of uniform age. If we
have upon our western shores many of the local and characteristic
plants, is not the climate of the west coast quite exceptional as regards
Europe? If the so-called “Iberian” plants of the west of Ireland
were originally western species, peculiar to the outskirts of their
continent, would not the wasting of the land leave just such charac-
ters as we now find? As the sea advanced, so would the ‘ mari-
time”’ climate, and so would its appropriate plants be gradually driven
back upon their outposts, till they found a last refuge upon the
mountain slopes and shores of western Europe—more isolated, too,
as being most exposed to the inroads of the sea. Of whatever date
their origin, the species characteristic of the edge of a continent must
naturally be sought at its circumference. Mr. Watson has allotted
the species to their several ‘‘types”’ according to their distribution
within Great Britain only. Still it may be said, roughly, that we
should look among the “ Atlantic’? (even more, the ‘ Hibernian ’’)
rather than the ‘“‘Germanic,” to the western rather than to the
eastern side of Britain, for plants that may have once had their
‘metropolis’? in this country. We have thought it necessary to
give the more prominence to these considerations because it is so
much the fashion to adopt as an axiom the necessity of a different
epoch for every different “ flora,” that few care to incur the charge
of being unphilosophical by venturing to question the correctness of
this view.
But to return to the volume before us, the fourth of the ‘ Cybele
Britanifica.’ Its author thus speaks of the nature of his task :—
“So many subjects crowd upon the attention in commencing this
fourth volume, that it becomes really difficult to answer the questions,
as to which of those subjects are to be treated at any length, which
of them can be slightly noticed only, and which of them must be
passed over entirely. References to the works of other writers, where
Bibliographical Notice. 61
some of his topics are treated in detail, may often greatly assist an
author who desires to abbreviate or curtail; but such assistance
would here be vainly sought, no works available in this way being in
existence. The ‘Cybele’ must thus cite and arrange its own details,
regarded from the geographic points of view. And, indeed, only
details can have permanent value at present. Attempts at generali-
zation, so usually made in conformity with the groups of systematic
botany, can have extremely little value until those groups are made
more settled and uniform.” [But will this Utopian uniformity ever
come?| “It is to the distribution of species, not of groups, that
attention should be given at present, especially in a local treatise.
Hence the resort to lists of species in this volume, as condensed
summaries of details adapted for comparison and reference.” (Intro-
duction, p. 4.)
To extend our survey with equal exactness to the general range
of British plants would indeed be a Herculean task, and one from
which our author has wisely recoiled. It would require many years
and many Watsons to obtain any results that could be fairly com-
pared with those in the volume before us. But, as was said, the
work is accomplished in England: let us see the foreign botanists do
as much for themselves. Hence we are warned ‘(p. 10) that the
scope of the ‘Cybele’ ‘‘ must needs be confined to a view of the pre-
sent vegetation of Britain, and of the manner in which the compo-
nent species of that vegetation are now distributed within the area of
Britain itself, together with such inferences as may be drawn from
existing circumstances in regard to the probable origin of those spe-
cies here: that is, whether placed in Britain by natural causes, or
whether introduced by human agency.”
The details collected and examined in the three previous volumes
are so re-arranged and corrected in the fourth “as to convert the
individual and separated facts into collective and comparative expo-
sitions.” Though dry reading, the arrangement of the species into
tabular lists has been chosen as best adapted for reference, and be-
cause “thus the greatest amount of special and general facts can be
recorded in a condensed form, under different points of view, and can
thus be made ready for the use of Phyto-geographers whenever the
botany of other countries shall become portrayed in like manner.”
Mr. Watson is suspicious of general remarks : he tells us (p. 13)
that, unfortunately, the so-called ‘‘ general remarks” ‘‘ are in truth”’
too often “only remarks of the most vague and inexact kind. True
generalizations usually require much time and thought, combined
with a scrupulous regard to accuracy: true generalizations are in
consequence extremely rare.”’
In Chapter II. are discussed the terms Orders, Genera, and
Species, with the inevitable conclusion that the two former have
no abstract existence in nature (p. 27), but are conventional ideas
only, though of course ‘‘ bearing more or less accordance with the
realities of nature, in so far as they are intended to express and clas-
sify the facts of nature, if this is done only by dissevering a series or
chain at those points where the links are widest or least coherent”
(p. 17).
62 Bibliographical Notice.
The want of a uniformity of value in the several groups is stated
to be the bane of the botanical geographer: Orders are unequal,
Genera unequal; Species are unequal too (p. 44). (Here we are
tempted to ask, how should we expect mathematical proportions
where variety is as much the rule as unity is the law?) But
the species are in the worse predicament, that the little we know
of their distinctness and limits does not agree with our own defini-
tion: our conclusions are only inferences from data and proofs
equally incomplete (p. 28). We much fear that human knowledge
is doomed to remain imperfect in this particular. Such universal
experience, extending over a series of years sufficient for such
proof, is probably not within the reach of man. We commend
Mr. Watson’s definition of a species (p. 31), and his criticism on the
subject, to those who wish for a near approach to the desired goal.
The illustration given (pp. 48 & 279) of three grades of species is
very apt :—
1. Rubus fruticosus: a super-species (?supra- Linnean), or
ageregate.
2. R. saxatilis: a true species, or integrate.
3. R. discolor: a sub-species, or segregate (? infra-Linneean).
4. Veronica agrestis: a dimidiate species, 7. e. a species halved,
by the separation from it of V. polita.
The uncertainty (or want of fixedness) in species, as shown by the
varying opinions of different authors, and even by the successive
editions of the same writer, is sufficiently familiar to all those who
have made a serious study of botany; and if the inconsistencies in
the practice of authors are very clearly set forth (pp. 40, &c.), it is
only one more proof of the fallibility of human judgment, and of the
imperfection of our knowledge. May we hope that the rising genera-
tion of botanists, whose attention is thus called to a matter of no
slight importance, will be found ready to double their efforts to re-
move this imputation of inconsistency by the only means from which
there is no appeal—by a careful series of experiments and diligent
cultivation of the plants.
The permanence of species is another question discussed in this
chapter ; but as this lies at the very root of Mr. Darwin’s theory,
we need not do more than refer our readers to the many able
reviews and discussions which have so recently appeared upon the
‘Origin of Species.’
Chapter III. deals with the ‘introduced species,’’ a subject on
which no one can be more at home than Mr. Watson; for to him is
due very much of the progress recently made in this country in distin-
guishing strictly between such plants as are believed to be aboriginal
(7. e. prehuman natives of the soil) and those which are either sus-
pected or proved to have been imported by human agency.
We cannot help thinking that much yet remains to be done in the
way of curtailing the given range of many plants—truly native, may
be, in the south of England, but very unjustly reckoned indigenous
to the northern counties, Scotland, or Ireland. Nay, there are
Bibliographical Notice. 63
doubtless many species, hitherto reckoned native, which a stricter
and more philosophical inquiry may perchance reduce even below
the rank of “ denizens,’’—that being the term used by Mr. Watson
for cases of uncertainty. We may instance some of the “ colonists,”’
and wayside plants, such as Lepidium Smithii.
Alphonse DeCandolle is largely quoted, and his views are con-
trasted with Mr. Watson’s own, in a complete list of the species
which are distrusted in Britain, with the terms applied to them
in the ‘Cybele’ and the ‘Géographie Botanique.’ It would appear
that the Continental botanist is somewhat more inclined than our
author to give any doubtful case in favour of the suspected plant,
since, out of the whole 324, the ‘Cybele’ allows only 30 to be pos-
sibly native, whereas the ‘Géographie’ gives its verdict in favour
of 48.
It is to be remembered that Mr. Watson lays more stress upon the
right of private judgment, 7. e. upon the nature of the station where
the plant is found growing, than upon geographical considerations.
Contrary to DeCandolle, he places actual conditions of growth first,
range second and supplementary. The faculty of weighing evidence
is one most essential to the botanical geographer (p. 84) ; but it is
well remarked that this cannot be properly used when weighing book
against book only—often good against bad authority. Mr. Watson
justly observes that we should look to the competent local botanist
for the particulars of the nature of the locality, and too much care
cannot be exercised in this kind of observations. It should also be
remembered that the general “‘area”’ of a species is always somewhat
vaguely known: hence the danger of trusting to general works too
implicitly. A disputed poimt might more safely be referred to the
testimony of local floras. |
Sufficient attention has hardly yet been paid in England to a
strict and exact definition of the kind of localities affected by the
different plants (p. 94); yet this is a point of the utmost importance
towards distinguishing between natives and introduced plants. .
The opinions of different British botanists are contrasted by a
comparison between Watson, Babington, and Henslow, for Great
Britain; and between Henslow, Baker, and Gordon, for their respec-
tive districts of Cambridge, York, and Moray. These tables (p. 110)
possess unusual interest ; and we trust they will be carefully studied
by those who are engaged upon any local flora.
Chapter IV. is devoted to a general account of the physical geo-
graphy and climate of Great Britain ; but, though indispensable to
the right understanding of the future chapters, we do not think any
portion of it will require quotation: it must be read as a whole.
With Chapter V. begins the first table of distribution, of which we
reproduce a line, to show how much is here condensed :—
Anemone Long. Lat. Alt. Zones. Cou. Type.
nemorosa She: Man, 2 C.BU.. ae 2. dy 4, Di... Os 9 -By
which will be easily read as ‘“ Found in Ireland, in the west and east ;
in the southern, midland, and northern districts of Great Britain ; at
64 Bibliographical Notice.
coast level, ‘ascending’ and ‘upper’ stages of elevation ; in five out
of the six climatal zones,—7.e. in all except the highest. Occurs in
85 of the 112 vice-counties * or subdivisions ; belongs to the British
type of distribution, or the group universally spread throughout
Great Britain.” What must have been the amount of labour in the |
field no less than in the study requisite for the compilation of these
fifty pages! Feeling the difficulty in many cases of assigning a plant
precisely to any one of his “types,” Mr. Watson has here made use
of a second small letter, which indicates the other type to which the
distribution of the species most nearly approaches after that indi-
cated by the capital letter.
In Chapter VI. the species are arranged differently. Instead of
following each other in systematic order, they are placed according
to frequency, beginning with the most common, Ranunculus Flam-
mula, down to Epipogium aphyllum, only less rare upon the Conti-
nent than in Britain, where a few roots alone have hitherto been
discovered ; and this is no critical species, or likely to be mistaken
for any other plant.
The lines in this chapter run thus :—
Co. 26 Subprovinces. Ss. N.... W. Se. E. Bentham.
43. Sagina maritima. 11. 15. 9. 11. 6. procuméens.
(Occurs in 43 of the 112 counties and vice-counties ; in 26 out of the
38 sub-provinces ; in 11 of the 19 sub-provinces of South Britain ;
in 15 of the 19 sub-provinces of North Britain; in 9 of the 12 sub-
provinces of the West of England, in 11 of the 13 Scotch, and in
6 of the 13 comprised in the East half of England. Joined to S.
procumbens, as a variety only, in Mr. Bentham’s ‘ Handbook.’)
For comparison between local floras, we imagine this list should
be thus used :—After carefully checking off every species, we should
reckon up how many out of each Ist, 2nd, 3rd, &c., hundred are
present in our district, and how many absent. Thus the absence of
20 species out of the most common hundred might be a more re-
markable feature than the presence of 30 of the species between 800
and 900.
In Chapter VII. (“the areas of species’’) the plants are set in order
of latitude from south to north, commencing with such as are re-
stricted to Province 1 (Scilly, Land’s-end, &c.). There are three
subdivisions, into—1. Australs (or plants thinning out northwards) ;
2. General or ubiquitous species ; 3. Boreal and montane. A line
here is—
Sect. 5. Southward of 55° Lat. Temp. 48° Fahr. 8°8 Centigrade.
Views Githynica, | 16) 2. By tt) is a A Oh on en
From this list are to be deduced the characteristics of each county
* It will be easily understood that, by the use of this increased number of
districts, far greater accuracy is attained than if eighteen Provinces only had been
employed, as in the earlier volumes of the ‘Cybele.’ Still it is believed that the
data to be obtained are not as yet sufficient to warrant the use of any more than
eighteen districts for the other branches of our fauna and flora.
Zoological Society. 65
flora, as in the former, by reckoning up how many are absent, how
many present, out of each hundred or section.
Chapter VIII. is devoted to a detailed account of the altitudes
reached by the several species : first upon the Grampians ; secondly,
upon the mountains of the North of England (Lakes and York-
shire).
=
Length of the head and body, about .......... 6 0
ofthe tel, abont. oop ees ae 7. 30
Ol She BERG ae es Cee Oe ie cars gy:
EROT TOME GO BOE 6 onc eset nen sone Lie
FROM ROBE LO CV Oo es aie wares Saal ngalens 0 53
OF the CRT: CS5y uss nyse va oe ee ee LABS
preadth of the fa. o.46 ve ce chee eee eae I i
Length‘of the humerus ©). oo.) ss yao Pee 0 9
of thé Tore Wn fers Be
of the fore fo06 035. oS Scat ka ee
of the femur ik oe Baa
of the tibia oo. i vedas ober e eae ts 1 43
of the hind fo0e 0 7.. VAeea va e 0 10
Total length of skal iai.00 0 Uae ace ts i |
Breadth across the zygomatic arches .......... 0 10
From front of foremost incisor to back of last molar 0 8
Length of the nasal bones 225 5.... 0.0.02..." 0 8
of the zygoma from its evan root to
the front margin of the orbit . SG res og CMe
Breadth of the palate between the canines...... 0 2
between the two hinder molars.. 0 34
Length of the lower jaw ...............+..--. 1.6
Height from the posterior roi to the ‘ep. of the
coronoid process ..... ‘ 0 5
Length of the dental series in the lower j jaw . 0 8
The young have all the under parts and inner surfaces of the
limbs naked, and of a brownish flesh-colour. All the upper parts
dark grey, almost black ; the hairs short, shining, and adpressed.
Basal third of the tail of the same colour, aa similarly clothed with
fine hairs; terminal two-thirds pale flesh-coloured, dusted with ex-
ceedingly fine white hairs, scarcely visible without the aid of a lens.
Ears darkish flesh-colour, with both their surfaces well clothed with
short and fine hairs of a silvery-grey colour. Nails white.
Mr. J. Gould on Semioptera Wallacii. 75
~
J
-
Length of the head and body, about ......
3 6
———— of the tail, about ................ 3 0
DE ENG TRG 6 sles Ash dc macaialin auto ne es
Hab. Gualaquiza. Collected by Mr. Fraser, Dec. 1857.
Obs.—This species was first described by Mr. Waterhouse in his
excellent work on ‘Mammalia’*, but without a name, and was com-
pared with D. cinerea, from which it was observed to differ in having
the hairy portion of the tail of much less extent, in having longer
fur, and in being itself considerably smaller. The specimen examined
was a male, and included in that section of Opossums characterized
by a pouch ‘rudimentary or entirely wanting;” but the female
obtained by Mr. Fraser (evidently of the same species) unquestion-
ably possessed a complete pouch, as might be seen from an examina-
tiyn of the skin preserved in spirit; and Mr. Fraser’s note accom-
panying the specimen informs us that there were “ five young in her
pouch, each 3 inches long.”
This effectually disposes of the question as to its distinctness from
D. cinerea, and in fact removes it to the other section.
To D. noctivaga, Tschudi, it bears some resemblance, in which
species, as in D. Waterhousii, the fur on the base of the tail is of ex-
ceedingly limited extent, and both agree in having rather long fur,
although of adifferent colour. But D. noctivaga is the larger species
of the two, and is quite differently proportioned. Its muzzle is a
great deal longer than that of D. Waterhousii, and the ears are much
larger. Moreover the female is destitute of a pouch, and has in its
stead “ abdominal folds of the integuments.”’ ‘The eyes too, accord-
ing to Dr. Tschudi’s figure and Mr. Fraser’s note, are of a different
colour. :
_ Mr. Fraser’s note in full is as follows :—‘‘ 9 had five young in
her pouch, each 3 inches long. Nose, chin, and latter half of the
tail flesh-colour; ears black. Stomach contained bones of a small
mammal, hair, and a pulp containing a vegetable substance. Eyes
black. Xivaro name ‘ Juichma.’”’
I have named this animal after its original describer, as a tribute
to a zoologist who has in such an eminent degree extended our know-
ledge in this branch of natural history.
Notes on SeMiorpTERA WALLACII, GRAY, FROM A LETTER
ADDRESSED TO JOHN GOULD, Esa., F.R.S., py A. R. Wat-
LACE, Es@., DATED AMBOYNA, SEPT. 30, 1859.
“The Semioptera Wallacii frequents the lower trees of the virgin
forests, and is almost constantly in motion. It flies from branch to
branch, and clings to the twigs and even to the vertical smooth
trunks almost as easily as a Woodpecker. It continually utters a
harsh croaking cry, something between that of Paradisea apoda and
the more musical ery of Cicinnurus regius. The males, at short
* vol. i. p. 505.
76 Zoological Society :—
intervals, open and flutter their wings, erect the long shoulder fea-
thers, and expand the elegant shields on each side of the breast.
Like the other Birds of Paradise, the females and young males far
outnumber the fully plumaged birds, which renders it probable that
the extraordinary accessory plumes are uot fully developed until the
second or third year. The bird seems to feed principally upon fruit,
but it probably takes insects occasionally.
‘The iris is of a deep olive; the bill horny-olive ; the feet orange,
and the claws horny.
**T have now obtained a few examples of apparently the same
bird from Gi/olo; but in these the crown is of a more decided violet
hue, and the plumes of the breast are much larger.”
Notes ON THE YOUNG OF MENURA SUPERBA. By LupwiG
Becker, Esq., in A LETTER TO JOHN GouLD, Esaq., F.R.S.,
ETC., DATED MELBOURNE, VicTorRIA, Sept, 24, 1859.
“Tn the month of October 1858 the nest of a Lyre-bird was found
in the densely wooded ranges near the sources of the river Yarra-
Yarra. It contained a bird, which seemed at first to be an old one
in a sickly condition, as it did not attempt to escape; but it was soon
discovered to be a young bird of very large size as compared with its
helplessness. When taken out of the nest it screamed loudly ; the
note being high and sounding like ‘ tehing-tching.’ Ina short time
the mother bird, attracted by the call, arrived, and, notwithstanding
the proverbial shyness of the species, flew within a few feet of its
young, and tried in vain to deliver it from captivity by flapping her
wings and making various rapid motions in different directions
towards the captor.
AS 2
8
An
se:
ths ote
bs
I:
es
¢
~
Hullmandel & Walton Lith.
de Komnek del
a
=e
as
de Kon
Wri shtianus
1 Chiton Grayanus.
a :
Bw
Fig
and its Significance in Systematic Zoology. = 91
and anal aperture besides. But it must be borne in mind that
the anus in the Polyzoon does not open at the extremity of the
body opposite the mouth, as in the archetypal Mollusc, but, by
a sudden bend of the intestine, the anal aperture is brought into
the closest possible proximity to the mouth, so that, although
separate, they both open at the same spot. And let it not be sup-
posed that this detracts aught from their position as Molluscs ;
for in the highest Molluscs, viz. the Cephalopods, the same thing
takes place in a somewhat less degree. Here, again, is a structure
which implies great community of general habit. Lastly, there is
another most important community of habit between the Polypes
and Polyzoa, viz. that, although the Mollusca as a class are ovi-
parous, the Polyzoan Molluscs are, in addition, gemmiparous, like
the Polypes ; and this power is evidently the secret of the pro-
duction of those compound forms which the Polyzoa present in
common with Polypes. Hence we see that, with scarcely anything
in common except superficial characters, the habits of Polyzoa
and Polypes are nearly identical ; and to this fact | would look for
an explanation of their identity of form.
XV.— Observations on two new species of Chiton from the
Upper Silurian ‘ Wenlock Limestone’ of Dudley. By M. L.
De Konitncx, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences,
Belgium, &c.*
[With a Plate. |
On my last visit to England I had the opportunity of studying
a great number of new fossils, forming part of the magnifi-
cent collection of Mr. John Gray of Hagley, amongst which I
observed two species of Chiton, obtained from the Upper Silurian
beds of the neighbourhood.
Before entering into a detailed description of these species, it
would perhaps be useful to give a résumé of the paleontological
works which treat of species of a siniilar character to those form-
ing the subject of these observations.
Genus Curron, Linn.
Established by Linneus in 1758 for a small number of living
species, this genus for a long time had no representative amongst
fossils.
It was not until the year 1802 that the first species of fossil
* Translated by W. H. Baily, F.G.S., Acting Paleontologist to the
Geological Survey of Ireland, from the ‘ Bulletins de l’Académie Royale
des Sciences, etc. de Belgique,’ 26"° année, 2™° sér., t. iti, 1857.
92 M.L. de Koninck on two new Species of Chiton
Chiton was discovered by Defrance, and described by Lamarck*
under the name of Chiton grignoniensis, that name being derived
from a locality long celebrated for the great number of fossils
found there in deposits belonging to the Calcaire grossier of
Paris, that is to say, to the middle beds of the Tertiary formation.
In 1884 M. Conrad made known a species (C. antiquus) from
the Tertiary formation of Alabamat.
In 1836 M. Puzos and M. le Comte Duchastel{ found some
remains of Chiton in the Carboniferous formation of the environs
of Tournay ; these fragments enabled Count Miinster to establish
a new species, which he described and figured in 1859 § under the
name of Chiton priscus.
This discovery was considered of some importance by palzon-
tologists, who were far from expecting to find species of this
kind in paleozoic strata; nevertheless, in the latter part of the
year 1840, M. Guido Sandberger announced the probable exist-
ence of the genus Chiton in the Devonian limestone of Villmar |].
In 1842 the same geologist added two new species, under the
names of C. subgranosus and C. fasciatus, to the list which he
then published of Devonian fossils from the same locality]; one of
these species is probably identical with that which M. fF. Roemer
has mistaken for Bellerophon expansus, Sow.**, and which was
named C. cordiformis by M. Sandberger in 1845.
In 1843 I described three new species of Chiton}+t}, procured
from the Carboniferous formation of Belgium, to which in
1845 M. le Baron de Ryckholt added some others discovered by
himself in the same formation{{. That savant made known at
the same time the existence of a Chiton from the Tertiary forma-
tion of Italy—a species we owe to the researches of M. Can-
traine, Professor in the University of Ghent; it is described
by him under the name of C. subapenninus in the second part of
the ‘Malacologie Méditerranéenne et Littorale.’ It may, however,
prove identical with that from near Turin, published in 1847 by
M. Michelotti under the name of C. miocenicus §§.
* Annales du Muséum, t. iu. p. 309.
+ Morton, Syn. of Organic remains, Appendix, p. 6.
{ This species is published by M. Deshayes in the new edition of the
‘ Histoire nat. des Anim. s. Vertébres’ of Lamarck, t. vil. p. 490.
§ Beitrage zur Petrefaktenkunde, 1. p. 38.
| Neues Jahrb. fiir Mineral. und Geol. 1841, p. 240.
@ Ibid. 1842, p.399. These names were replaced in 1853 by those of
C. corrugatus and sagittalis, without M. Sandberger having given a reason
for so doing (G. & F. Sandberger, ‘ Die Versteimer. des Rhein. Schichtens.
in Nassau,’ pp. 238, 239).
*%* Neues Jahrb. fiir Mineral. und Geol. 1845, p. 439.
++ Descript. des anim. fossiles du terr. carb. pp. 322, ete.
tt Bulletins de l’Académ. de Belg. t. xii. 2™° partie, pp. 45, ete.
wy
§§ Descript. des foss. du terr. mioc. de l’'Italie, p. 132, pl. 16.f.7.
From the Upper Silurian ‘ Wenlock Limestone’ of Dudley. 98
Before the publication of the work of M. de Ryckholt, Mr.
King had already announced the occurrence of a Chiton found b
Mr. Loftus in the Permian formation near Sunderland*, and
described later under the name of C. Loftustanus+,—on this side,
M, Philippi having made known two other species (C. siculus,
Cray, and C, fascicularis, Linn.) from the tertiary strata of
icily t.
Altes these discoveries, Mr. Salter in 1846 added another and
much more remarkable example, that of a species of Chiton from
the lower beds of the Silurian strata of Ireland. That author
proposed on the occasion a new genus, under the name of Helmin-
thochiton, for the purpose of receiving the palzeozoic species§ ;
but as it is not distinguished by any essential character from
the ordinary genus Chiton, it can merely serve to denote a section
of that genus.
Tn 1848 Mr. Searles Wood described and figured, in his mag-
nificent Monograph on the Mollusca from the Crag of England,
three fossil species of Chiton, one of them being new (C. strigil-
latus), and the two others identical with species living in our
seas at the present day (viz. C. fascicularis, Linn., and C. Rissot,
Payr.||).
About the same date M. Eudes Deslongchamps, to whom
science is indebted for a great number of excellent works on
the Jurassic fossils of the environs of Caen, discovered in the
Bathonian beds of Langrune the posterior or anal plate of a
species of Chiton, which he obligingly dedicated to me{/—this
being the first discovery of the genus in Secondary strata, although
their probable existence in strata of that age was some time
before predicted by him **,
In 1852, M. Terquem added a new link to the chain uniting
the paleeozoic Chitons to those of the present epoch, by the
discovery of a new species (C. Deshayesii) in the middle Lias of
Thionville t+.
Finally, M. F. A. Roemer described and figured in 1855 anew
* Ann. & Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1844, vol. xiv. p. 381.
Tt Monogr. of the Permian Foss. of England, Pal. Soc. 1849, p. 202.
{ Enumeratio Molluse. Sicil. t.ii. p. 85.
§ Synopsis of the Silur. foss. of Ireland by Sir R. Griffiths, p. 74; and
Quarterly Journ. of Geol. Soc. of London, vol. iii. pp. 48, &e.
|| Monog. of the Crag Mollusca, pt. 1. pp. 185, &e. Besides these three
species, Mr. Wood had also announced three others, which he considered
to be new, in his Catalogue of Crag Mollusca published in 1842 (Ann. &
Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. ix. p. 460); but these he appears to have since
abandoned.
{1 Mém. de la Soc. Linn. de Normandie, t. viii. pp. 156, &e.
** Descript. des Anim. foss. du terr. carb., p. 321.
TT Bullet. de la Soc. Geol. de France, 2™° sér. t. ix. pp. 386, ete.
94: M. L. de Koninck on two new Species of Chiton
species of Chiton (C. levigatus*), obtained from the upper part
of the Devonian strata near Grund, and figured another to
which he did not give a name, but which I propose to designate
under that of C. tumidust.
The following is a list of all the species of fossil Chitons
known up to the present time, with an indication of the geolo-
gical series in which they have been observed, and the locality
from which they were obtained} :—
Upper Tertiary.
. Chiton siculus, Gray. Sicily.
—— fascicularis, Linn. Sicily; Sutton.
— Rissoi, Payraudeau. Sutton.
strigillatus, Wood. Sutton.
farietiarnc Michelotti. Turin.
subapenninus, Cantr. ?
. —— subcajetanus, Poli (ex fide D’Orb.). Turin.
. -—— transenna, Lea. Virginia.
NO 7 Bw
Lower Tertiary.
. Chiton antiquus, Conrad. Alabama.
. —— grignonensis, Lamk. Grignon.
Great Oolite or Bathonian.
10. Chiton Koninckii, Eudes Deslongch. Langrune.
lias.
11. Chiton Deshayesii, Terquem. ‘Thionville.
owe «7
Trias.
12. Chiton? Cottai, Geinitz. Bunter Sandstone.
13. , Sp. §
Permian.
14. Chiton Loftusianus, King. Durham.
15. —— Howseanus, Kirkby. Durham |.
: Saab pee a und H, v. Meyer, Paleontographica, t. v. p. 36, pl. 7.
g.8 a,b.
T Ibid. pl. 7. fig. 9 a, &.
~ To this list of M. De Koninck’s I have added others since discovered,
so as to make it complete up to the present time.—W. H. B.
§ When at the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association in September
1859, I was shown by Mr. Charles Moore, of Bath, some plates of Chiton
obtained by him, with other very interesting fossils, from the Trias forma-
tion near Frome, Somersetshire. This will therefore add an additional
species to the doubtful one included in the above list.—W. H. B.
|| In 1856 this Permian species was discovered at Tunstall and Hum-
bleton Hill, Durham, and was described in 1857 by Mr. J. W. Kirkby ;
in March 1859 he also described, in the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Geologi-
cal Society of London, the four following additional species. One of these
he doubtfully refers to Chiton proper; the others he considers to belong to
from the Upper Silurian ‘Wenlock Limestone’ of Dudley. 95
16. Chiton ? cordatus, Kirkby. Durham.
17. Chitonellus Hancockianus, Kirkby. Durham.
distortus, Kirkby. Durham.
antiquus, Howse,sp. Durham.
Carboniferous Limestone.
20, Chiton concentricus, De Kon. Visé.
(—— gemmatus*, De Kon. Visé.
, var. mosensis, De Ryckh.
21.4 —— ——, Viseticola, De Ryckh.
—— ——, legiacus, De Ryckh.
, eburonicus, De Ryckh.
22. Chiton priscus, Minster. Tournay.
23 nervicanus, De Ryckh. 'Tournay.
24, turnacianus, De Ryckh. Tournay.
25. —— Mempiscus, De Ryckh. Tournay.
26. —— (Chitonellus), cordifer, De Kon. Tournay.
27. thomondiensis t, Baily. County of Limerick.
28. —— Burrowianus{, Kirkby. Settle, Yorkshire.
And probably three or four other species from that locality.
Upper Devonian.
29. Chiton levigatus, Fr. Ad. Roemer. Grund.
30. tumidus, De Kon. Grund.
| Middle Devonian.
Chiton corrugatus, G. & F’. Sandberger. Villmar.
3] cordiformis, G. Sandberger.
") —— priscus, G. Sandberger ; non Miinster.
Sandbergianus, De Ryckh.
32. Chiton sagittalis, G. & F. Sandberger. Villmar.
—,n.sp. Plymouth (Geol. Surv. Collection).
the genus Chitonellus; the one he calls Chitonellus antiquus, having pre-
viously been mistaken by Mr. Howse for a Calyptrea, was named by him
Calyptrea antiqua.—W. H. B.
* M. A. d’Orbigny, in his ‘Prodrome de Paléontologie,’ t.i. p. 127,
has proposed to change this name into that of subgemmatus, under the
idea that there already exists a Chiton of that name, described in 1825 by
M. De Blainville. This, however, is an error.—L. De K.
T In April 1859 I made known, in a paper read before the Geological
Society of Dublin, the discovery of the plates of a Chiton of larger dimen-
sions than any previously met with (plates belonging to several indivi-
duals were obtained), from the Carboniferous Limestone of Lisbane; since
then I myself collected other plates of a similar species in a cutting at
Rathkeale, on the Limerick and Foynes Railway. This species I described
by the above name of Chiton thomondiensis (vide Journ. of the Geol.
Soc. Dublin, vol. viii. pt. 2. p. 167).—W. H. B.
+ In a note to Mr. Kirkby’s paper (Journ. of the Geol. Soc. of London,
vol. xv. p. 610), and a further communication with which I was favoured
by him, he mentions the fact of an additional discovery by Mr. J. H. Bur-
row, of an interesting series of plates of Chitons from the Carboniferous
or Lower Scar Limestone of Seitle in Yorkshire. These plates he believes
to belong to five species, which he could not identify with any of the
Belgian species described by Baron Ryckholt and Professor De Koninck ;
one of them he has named Chiton Burrowianus, after the discoverer.—
W.H.B.
96 M. L. de Koninck on two new Species of Chiton
Upper Silurian.
33. Chiton Grayanus, De Kon. Wenlock Limestone, Dudley.
34. —— Wrightianus, De Kon. oe ss 5
Lower Silurian.
35. Chiton (Helminthochiton) Griffithii, Salter. Cong, co. Galway.
On an inspection of this list the result is, that, notwithstand-
ing the number is relatively small when compared with that of
recent species, the existing genus Chiton is represented in almost
all the series of sedimentary rocks, and that hitherto the Creta-
ceous and Triassic are the only formations in which there have not
been discovered any traces*. I have no doubt that this gap will
soon be filled, as it is not very probable that these animals,
whose appearance on our globe dates so far back in geological
time as the Lower Silurian, continuing through all the other
formations up to the present day, should have been unrepre-
sented in these two geological periods. ‘The same list, again,
demonstrates that, after the Tertiary, it is the Carboniferous
strata which contain the greatest number of species, and that it
is the intermediate strata which have furnished the fewest +.
I shall now proceed to give descriptions of the two new species
of Chiton which form the principal subject of this notice. With
the specimens of one I have been aided by Mr. John Gray of
Hagley, by whom it was discovered, and of the other by Dr.
Thomas Wright of Cheltenham, well known for his investigations
upon the fossil Echinoderms of Great Britain.
1. Chiton Grayanus, De Koninck. (PI. II. fig. 1 a, b, ¢, d.)
The dorsal cerames, or intermediate plates of this species,
which are the only ones with which I am acquainted, are formed
of two lateral parts, perfectly plane, of a nearly square form, and
united together by an angle a little more than a right angle.
The dorsal carina is most developed; the anterior part of each
plate is slightly crenated ; the test appears to have been very
* Mr. Charles Moore’s discovery of Triassic Chitons in British strata
was made since the publication of Professor De Koninck’s paper. See
note § on page 94.
+ While this article was in the press, Mr. Charles Moore has favoured
me with the additional information of his having found examples of the
genus Chiton in the following formations in England, in which they had
not hitherto been observed, viz. :—
Bradford Clay ; Hampton, near Bath : a single plate.
Upper Lias; near Ilminster: about a dozen separate plates, all belong-
ing to one species.
And in the Triassic beds near Frome, before alluded to, where the plates
ofa small and not uncommon species occur.—-W. H. B.
from the Upper Silurian ‘Wenlock Limestone’ of Dudley. 97
thin. Their external surface is ornamented by a very great num-
ber of fine parallel striz or lines of growth; on the lateral and
anterior sides of each plate, and between them, there are ex-
tremely thin ribs covered with small granulations. Each of
these plates appears to have undergone a suspension of develop-
ment at about the middle of its growth; this interruption is indi-
cated bya striation much larger and deeper than the others, which
are all nearly equal in strength. The median and lateral areas are
very nearly equal, and divide each side of the plate into two parts.
It is probable that, if this species was furnished with
apophyses, they were very small, as I have not been able to
discover any trace of them on the various specimens I had the
opportunity of examining.
Relations and Differences.—This Chiton presents a greater
similarity with C. priscus, Munster, and C. Mempiscus, De Ryckh.
It differs from both, however, by the lateral margin of its plates
being more even, by the slight thickness of its test, by the ab-
sence of apophyses, and especially by the fineness and great
number of strize covering its surface.
Dimensions.—Length of the dorsal plate about 12 milli-
metres; breadth of each side 10 mm., which gives for the com-
plete animal an approximate length of from 80 to 90 millimetres,
and a mean breadth of 16 to 18 mm.
Locality.—This species has been discovered by Messrs. Gray
and Fletcher in the Upper Silurian ‘ Wenlock limestone,’ near
Dudley. .
2. Chiton Wrightianus, De Koninck. (PI. II. fig. 2 a, 4, c.)
The form of the dorsal plates of this species is subtriangular,
the posterior edges making very nearly a right angle. The
lateral angles are rounded, and the anterior edge is very sinuous.
All the plates are supplied with a well-marked median carina,
and appear to have been without apophyses. The surface is
covered with a small number of deep equidistant strie. The test
is slender. The median area is larger than the lateral one.
Relations and Differences.—This Chiton very much resembles
C. Loftusianus, King, but differs from it in the regularity of the
strize of the median and lateral areas, and by the more marked
sinuosity of the anterior edge of its plates.
Dimensions.—The length of each dorsal plate is about 8 milli-
metres, and the breadth 12 mm.
Locality.—This species was found by Mr. Gray with the pre-
ceding one ; it is, however, scarcer than even that.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE II.
Fig. 1a, Chiton Grayanus, De Kon., nat. size, with fragments of four
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol, vi. 7
98 Mr. W.H. Benson on the Subgenus Corilla,
dorsal plates, from the collection of Mr. Gray; 1 6, a plate,
seen from the anterior side; 1 ¢, half plate, enlarged; 1 d, com-
plete specimen, hypothetically restored and slightly enlarged.
Fig. 2 a, Chiton Wrightianus, De Kon., nat. size, showing two dorsal
plates compressed; 20, dorsal plate, seen on the posterior side ;
2¢, restored specimen, taking as a base the Chiton Loftusianus,
XVI.—Notes on the Subgenus Corilla, H. & A. Adams; and on
the Group Plectopylis, Benson; also on Pollicaria, Gould, and
Hybocystis, Benson. By W. H. Benson, Esq.
Wiru reference to the group Plectopylis, published in the
‘Annals’ for April last, I have received from Mr. Augustus A.
Gould of Boston, U.S., a sheet containing ‘ Shells of the North
Pacific Exploring Expedition,’ with a proposed amended descrip-
tion of Messrs. H. and A. Adams’s subgenus Corilla.
‘*‘ Subgen. Corilla, H. & A. Adams (emendatum).—Testa planor-
boidea, plerumque sinistrorsa, plus minusve distorta, arcte spirata,
subtus concava; fauce in fundo denticulis compressis fere occluso,
quorum uno szepe ad aperturam producto ; peristomate incrassato,
reflexo.”
Mr. Gould adds a new species from Hong Kong, C. pulvinaris,
G., with “ denticulis in fauce ad 9, haud productis” among the
characters of the aperture. This shell he states to be ‘ almost
precisely of the size and shape of H. refuga, Gould; but that is
reversed, and has a lamina running to the aperture.”
Mr. Gould informs me that in a more extended paper he has
gone more fully into individual peculiarities. This was pub-
lished, he further states, in 1859. I have not had the good
fortune to meet with it; and for more than six months have
been in vain endeavouring to get a copy of a paper on Siamese
shells, published several years earlier at Boston.
Now the subgeneric character, “fauce in fundo denticulis
compressis fere occluso,” seems to provide for the retention of
Helix Rivoli and H. erronea, which the characters of Plectopylis
absolutely exclude from my group, and leave in Messrs. Adams’s
original subgenus Corilla, as they are furnished only with spiral
lamellz, and have no pylaic barrier. On the other hand, the
character “ planorboidea”’ would ignore H. plectostoma and H.
Pinacis, in which the pylaic barrier is present.
Messrs. Adams’s typical species of Corilla are H. Rivolit and
its congeners; and Helix plectostoma had been referred to a
distinct group. Plectopylis was designed to unite shells pre-
viously referred to different subgenera (although allied by the
presence of pylaic barriers), and to separate species destitute of
and on Plectopylis, Pollicaria, and Hybocystis. “99
that feature, and still belonging to Corilla with reference to its
original typical characters. |
The description of Corilla, with the addition of the pylaic
plication, will only tend to confusion, and must necessitate the
formation of another group for Messrs. Adams’s typical forms ;
while it is evident, from Mr. Gould’s description, that he had then
no knowledge of the affinity of species not referable to the Pla-
norboid group; and it would also appear that he was unac-
quainted with the existence of internal series of pyle. In
short, Mr. Gould’s description of Corilla is calculated to include
all Messrs. Adams’s species, adding a feature characteristic of a
portion only, and, thus altered, is still hampered with the acci-
dental Planorboid character. Such a subgenus would comprise
species not truly Plectopylaic; and others which are really so,
but not Planorboid in form, would be inadmissible.
In the same paper is described a large and interesting species
of the restricted genus Alyceus—A. Pilula, Gould, from Hong
Kong. Another species has lately been described from Java—
A. Jagori, Von Martens. The characters given of these two
species will not permit their assignment with certainty to any
particular one of the three sections proposed in the ‘ Annals’
for March 1859, A third species, A. exul, Bl., assignable to
the section Charax, was found during the past year in the Nil-
gherry range, by Mr. W. T. Blanford, as well as a singular
new Diplommatina. Neither of these two genera had previously
occurred to the southward of the Ganges. In the same rich
locality, Mr. H. F. Blanford had, in a former year, discovered a
most curious little Cyclostomaceous genus (Opisthostoma, Bl.), a
specimen of which he has kindly communicated to me. These
new Nilgherry shells were destined to appear in the ‘Journal of
the Asiatic Society of Calcutta’.
I may here note that I have lately ascertained that the shell
which I published in the ‘Annals’ for March 1856, under the
name of Megalomastoma gravidum, was described in the ‘ Pro-
ceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History’ for July in
the same year, as Cyclostoma Pollex, Gould. Mr. Gould pro-
ceeded, in the same paper, to propose for that shell, in conjunc-
tion with Rhaphaulus Chrysallis, Pfr., and M. (Hainesia) Myersi,
Haines, a new group, “ probably generic,” with the designation
of Pollicaria. This name, if published within a moderate period
after its submission to the Boston Society, has priority in point
of time to my generic term Hybocystis, proposed in the ‘Annals’
for August 1859 for H. gravida alone, after an examination of
_ the animal and operculum. The true structure of the shell of
Rhaphaulus Chrysallis (discovered by Mr. H. Adams) was made
known in the ‘Annals’ for April 1856, in sage year also
100 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
Pfeiffer proposed his section Haznesia in the ‘ Mal. Blatter’ for
September.
The following are the remarks published by Gould on Cyclo-
stoma Pollex, with the characters of Pollicaria :—
“This singular shell may possibly be Cyclostoma Chrysalis, Pfr.,
but is larger and destitute of lines and indentations. That shell
is said to come from Arva [probably Ava]. Megalomastoma
Myersii, Haines, is another species of the same type, but less
distorted and more cylindrical. These shells, coming from the
same region, to which many others will doubtless hereafter be
added, I regard as constituting a natural group, probably generic,
for which I would propose the name Pollicaria. Shell sub-
perforate, chrysalidiform, ventrally flattened; spire secund ;
aperture subcircular, truncate posteriorly within the peritreme.”
Cheltenham, June 29, 1860.
XVII.—On Additions to the Madetran Coleoptera.
By T. Vernon Wotzaston, M.A., F.L.S.
[Concluded from p. 54. ]
(Subfam. XaNTHOLINIDES.)
Genus XANTHOLINUS.
Dahl, Encycl. Méthod. x. 475 (1825).
Xantholinus Hesperius? Erich.
X. niger (vix subeenescens), nitidus; capite utrinque parce punctato,
ad basin truncato; prothorace punctorum serie laterali subcurvata
. impresso; elytris latera versus obsolete subseriatim punctatis,
margine apicali testaceo; antennis tarsisque fusco-ferrugineis,
illarum articulo primo (et interdum tertio), femoribus tibiisque
piceis.
Long. corp. lin. 22-32.
Habitat Maderam australem, a DD. Park et Moniz benigne com-
municatus.
Xantholinus Hesperius ?, Erichs., Gen. et Spec. Staph. 329 (1839).
X. like the X. linearis, but with the head a little more abruptly
truncated behind (though not quite so suddenly as in the X.
punciulatus), and much more sparingly punctured, and with the
frontal sulci a little longer, wider, and deeper,—the inner ones,
moreover, being a trifle less curved, and the outer ones carried
further back on to the forehead, from the front margin of the
eye. Prothorax with a longitudinal row of about nine punctures
on either side of its disk, and with the lateral ones fewer than in
the X, dinearis, and with an evident tendency to be arranged in a
Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 101
curve (though not so decidedly so as those of the X. punctulatus).
Elytra finely punctured, as in the X. linearis, but with a very
obscure tendency to be disposed, towards the lateral margins, in
longitudinal rows; their apical edge somewhat translucid and
testaceous. Antenne and tarsi brownish-ferruginous; the basal
joint of the former (and sometimes, apparently, the third also),
as well as the femora and tibiae, piceous.
_ The present Xantholinus, which in some respects (as will be
seen) combines the characters of the X. punctulatus and linearis,
but which may be at once known from them by, inéer alia, its
more remotely punctured head and the testaceous apical margin
of its elytra, appears to agree sufficiently well with the descrip-
tion of the X. Hesperius (from Spain and Portugal) as given by
Erichson, to justify its being referred to that insect. Never-
theless I should state that it does not precisely accord with the
diagnosis; and hence I have assigned it to the X. Hesperius
with a query, being unwilling to multiply species unnecessarily
in a somewhat obscure group. I have detected a single specimen
of it amongst some old insects which were taken by Mr. M. Park,
about two or three years ago, near Funchal; and a second was
communicated to me by Senhér Moniz, during the winter of
1859.
Genus LEPTACINUS.
Erichson, Kaf. der Mark Brand. 1. 429 (1837).
Leptacinus linearis, Grav.
L. niger, nitidus ; capite utrinque dense et profunde punctato, ad
basin recte truncato; prothorace seriebus dorsalibus circa 9-punc-
tatis ; elytris dilutioribus, latera versus seriatim punctatis; anten-
nis piceis; pedibus piceo-testaceis.
Long. corp. lin. 12.
Habitat Maderam ; quinque specimina ad S. Antonio da Serra nuper
deprehensit Dom. Bewicke.
Staphylinus linearis, Grav., Col. Micropt. 43 (1802).
Gyrohypnus suicifrons (Kby.), Steph., Il. Brit. Ent. v. 260 (1833).
Leptacinus linearis, Kraatz, Nat. der Ins. Deutsch. ii. 649 (1857).
L. black and shining. Head and prothorax highly polished :
the former straightly truncated behind, deeply and distinctly
punctured at the sides (but not roughly so, the punctures
being well-defined), and with the frontal sulci deep and distinct :
the latter with a longitudinal row of about eight punctures on
either side of its disk, and with about five or six (besides some
scattered ones near the anterior angles) arranged somewhat in a
curve towards either edge. Elytra diluted in colouring (being
more or less piceous, and still paler towards their outer apical
angles), finely punctured, the punctures being disposed in rows
102. Mr. T. V. Wollaston. on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
towards the lateral margins. Antenne brownish-piceous, being
a little brighter at their base. Legs piceo-testaceous, with their
tarsi pale.
Except in its comparatively diminutive size, the present insect
bears a considerable primd facie resemblance, in its general con-
tour and posteriorly-truncated head, to the Xantholinus punctu-
latus. Nevertheless, apart from the great differences of its
punctation (which may be gathered from the above diagnosis),
the generic characters of the Leptacini will of course at once
separate it; and amongst these, the subulated apical joint of
the palpi is perhaps the most apparent. Its discovery in Ma-
deira is due to Mr. Bewicke, who has recently forwarded me five
specimens which he captured, during the past summer, beneath
hay-stack rubbish, at S. Antonio da Serra. I should, add that
one of the Madeiran examples has likewise been carefully exa-
mined by Mr. Janson, who agrees with me in referring it to the
Staphylinus linearis, Grav.
(Subfam. StapHyLINIDEs.)
Genus PHILONTHUS.
(Leach) Steph., Ill. Brit. Ent. v. 226 (1882).
§ I. Prothorax seriebus dorsalibus e punctis quatuor compositis.
Philonthus thermarum, Aubé.
P. angustus, niger; capite subquadrato; prothorace picescentiore ;
elytris testaceo-piceis, apicem versus paulatim dilutioribus, parce
et distincte punctulatis ; antennis fuscis, basi pedibusque pallidis.
Long. corp. lin. 14.
Habitat Maderam australem ; duo specimina prope urbem Funcha-
lensem tempore vernali A.p. 1859, a meipso detecta.
Philonthus thermarum, Aubé, Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de France (2i*me série),
viii. 316 (1850).
P. small, narrow, and black. Head and prothoraz highly
polished ; the former rather long and subquadrate, being straightly
truncated behind ; the /atter more piceous than the head, and
with a longitudinal series of four (or sometimes, apparently,
five) punctures down either side of its disk, and with a few scat-
tered ones between them and the edges. EHlytra paler than the
head and prothorax, being more or less testaceo-piceous, and
paler behind than in front; sparingly, but distinctly, punctu-
lated. Antenne brown; their base and the legs testaceous.
Two examples of the P. thermarum, Aubé, which agree pre-
cisely with British ones in my possession, were captured by my-
self, beneath vegetable refuse, near Funchal, during the spring
of 1859. Their minute size, narrow outline, subquadrate head,
and diluted elytra, in conjunction with the four (or sometimes
Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 108
five) punctures down either side of their prothoracic disk, will
at once distinguish them from the rest of the Madeiran Philonthi.
In more northern latitudes, the species generally occurs about
hotbeds,—under which circumstances it was discovered by M.
Rouzet in Paris; and I have myself taken it in similar positions
in England.
(Subfam. PapERIpEs.)
Genus Scorzvus. :
Erichson, Gen. et Spec. Staph. 604 (1839).
Scopeus subopacus, n. sp.
S. angustus, nigro-piceus, subopacus; capite prothoraceque dense
alutaceis, fere pilis carentibus, illo subrotundato-quadrato ; elytris
dense et minute punctulatis et pilis brevibus demissis cinereis
vestitis; antennis rufo-testaceis, apicem versus fuscescentibus ;
pedibus infuscato-testaceis.
Long. corp. lin. 14.
Habitat Maderam, una cum precedente a Dom. Bewicke detectus.
S. narrow, blackish-piceous, and nearly opake. Head and
prothoraz densely alutaceous, but scarcely punctured, and almost
free from pile: the former roundish-quadrate (beimg truncated
behind, but not very abruptly so), and with the eyes rounded,
and rather small: the /atter oblong, and rather acuminated in
front. Elytra closely and minutely punctulated all over, and
(together with the abdomen) more evidently pilose than the
head and prothorax—being clothed with a fine and very short,
decumbent, cinereous pubescence. Abdomen concolorous, even
the extreme apex being scarcely more diluted in colouring than
the rest of the surface. Antenne reddish-testaceous at their
base, but browner towards their apex. Legs brownish-testaceous,
being unequally infuscated all over.
The unique example from which the above description has
been compiled was detected by Mr. Bewicke, who captured it
(along with the last species) beneath hay-stack refuse at S. An-
tonio da Serra, during the summer of 1859. It has much the
appearance of a small dark Lithocharis; but the generic cha-
racters of Scopeus, which mainly consist in its more robust legs
(especially the anterior pair) and its small tricuspid corneous
ligula, will, apart from the diminished bulk of the species which
compose the group, readily distinguish it. Judging from the
description, it seems somewhat allied (particularly in its opake
surface) to the L. infirmus, Erichs., from Egypt; nevertheless
its uniformly dark hue and the densely alutaceous (but appa-
rently unpunctured) sculpture of its head and prothorax are of
themselves sufficient to separate it therefrom.
104 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
Genus LitHocHarRis.
(Dejean) Boisd. et Lacord., Faun. Ent. des Env. de Paris,
i, 431 (1835).
Lithocharis brevipes, n. sp.
I. fusco-picea, subopaca, densissime et subtilissime punctulata ;
capite subtriangulari piceo-nigro, oculis parvulis; prothorace
subquadrato ; elytris paulo magis fuscescentioribus ; antennis pe-
dibusque infuscato-ferrugineis, illis graciusculis, tarsis brevibus.
Long. corp. lin. vix 14.
Habitat Maderam australem; in horto Bewickiano prope Funchal
exemplar unicum deprehensi.
L. like the LZ. ochracea, but rather smaller and narrower, more
opake, still more closely and minutely punctulated all over, and
more densely pubescent. Head not quite so black as in that
species (or a trifle more piceous) ; also rather smaller, less con-
vex, and more triangular, and with the eyes not nearly so large.
Eilytra somewhat browner, or more diluted, than the rest of
the surface, and very densely pubescent. Limbs darker than
in the LZ. ochracea: the antenne, also, more slender; and with
the apical joint shorter, and less acuminated at its tip : and the
legs more abbreviated, particularly the tarsi, which are (compa-
ratively) very short.
The present insect is a good deal allied to the European L.
obsoleta ; nevertheless its rather shorter and more slender antennze
(with their smaller terminal joint), together with its more tri-
angular head and more piceous hue, and the less broadly dilated
front tarsi of its male sex, will, apart from minor differences, at
once separate it therefrom. Judging from the diagnosis, it
seems quite distinct, in many points, from the L. obscurella,
Krichs., from Sardinia, though in its general size and aspect it
may possibly approach that species. The only specimen which
[ have as yet seen of it was captured by myself, during the spring
of 1859, from beneath vegetable refuse, in Mr. Bewicke’s garden
at the Palmeira, above Funchal.
Genus SunIvs.
(Leach) Steph., Ill. Brit. Ent. v. 274 (1832).
Sunius equivocus, n. sp.
S. piceo-ferrugineus ; capite rotundato-oblongo; prothorace rufo-
ferrugineo; elytris antennisque dilute testaceis; pedibus pallido-
testaceis ; scutello majusculo.
Long. corp. lin. 14.
Habitat Maderam australem, a Dom. M. Park captus.
S. piceo-ferruginous, Head, prothorax, and elytra almost free
Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 105
from pubescence—the first and second being also subopake, and
densely, roughly, but not very decidedly punctured: the first
roundish-oblong ; the second a little more rufescent than the
head, being strictly rufo-ferruginous ; the ¢hird a little less opake,
more deeply, distinctly, and less closely punctured, and (toge-
ther with the antenna) of a dull diluted-testaceous hue. Scu-
tellum rather larger than in the other Madeiran Sunii. Ahdomen
pubescent. Legs pale testaceous, but infuscated in parts.
The single specimen described above was captured, about two
years ago, by Mr. M. Park, near Funchal. As will be gathered
from the diagnosis, it differs from the other Madeiran Sunii in
many important particulars, though combining to a certain ex-
tent the characters of them both; and, indeed, at first sight it
has somewhat the general aspect and colouring of the Mecogna-
thus Chimera: nevertheless, apart from minor differences, its
comparatively immensely developed elytra and scutellum, and
less basally-constricted abdomen, will at once distinguish it from
that insect.
(Subfam. OxyTELipEs.)
Genus TRoGoPpHL@Us.
Mannerheim, Brachél. 49 (1831).
Trogophleus ewilis, n. sp.
T. angustus, niger, subnitidus; capite prothoraceque minutissime,
creberrime et eequaliter subpunctulatis (an potius alutaceis?), hoc
in disco postico obsolete longitudinaliter bi-impresso; antennis
basi fusco-ferrugineis ; pedibus dilute testaceis.
Long. corp. lin. 4.
Habitat Maderam australem, a Dom. M. Park semel lectus.
T. minute, narrow, black or piceous-black, slightly shining,
and delicately pubescent. Head and prothorax most closely,
minutely, and equally subpunctulated all over, the punctules
being very indistinct, and scarcely separable from minute gra-
nules (so that, perhaps, the surface might be almost regarded as
subalutaceous instead of punctured): the former less prominent
or thickened behind the eyes than in the 7. corticinus, so that
the latter project sensibly beyond the hinder rim (which is
scarcely the case in that species); the datter of much the same
shape as in the 7. corticinus and bilineatus, but with the longi-
tudinal foveze more obscure, being subobsolete. Hiytra a trifle
more picescent than the head and prothorax, and a little more
evidently punctulated (though much more finely so than in the
other species). The basal half of the antenne dull brownish
ferruginous. Legs diluted testaceous,
106 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
The present insignificant little Trogophleus, a single specimen
of which I have found amongst some insects collected by Mr.
M. Park near Funchal, is apparently as small as the minute 7.
simplicicollis, with which, in its very dense and fine sculpture, it
nearly agrees. Nevertheless its paler limbs and totally different
prothorax (which is not narrowed behind as in that species, nor
free from longitudinal furrows) will of themselves at once sepa-
rate it therefrom; whilst from its still nearer ally, the 7. corti-
cinus, it is easily distinguished by its smaller size and closer and
very much finer punctation, as well as by its more obsolete
prothoracic foveze, and by the paler hue of its legs and the basal
half of its antenne. |
2
| (Subfam. OMALIADES.)
Genus PHILORHINUM.
Kraatz, Nat. der Ins. Deutschl. ii. 966 (1858).
Philorhinum humile, Erichs.
P. lineare, depressum, pubescens, nigrum; capite, prothorace elytris-
que paulo dilutioribus, dense eequaliter punctatis; antennarum
basi pedibusque dilute testaceis.
Long. corp. lin. lL.
Habitat Maderam, a Dom. Bewicke ad 8S. Antonio da Serra zestate
1859 repertum.
Arpedium humile, Erichs., Gen. et Spec. Staph. 860 (1840).
myops, Haliday, Entomologist, 187 (1841).
humile, Redt., Fauna Austr. (edit. 2), 246 (1857).
Philorhinum humile, Kraatz, Nat. der Ins. Deutschl. ii. 966 (1858).
P. linear, depressed, black, slightly shining, and clothed with
a short, decumbent, cinereous pile. Head, prothorax, and elytra
rather more piceous, or diluted in colouring, than the abdomen,
and densely, deeply, and equally punctured throughout: the
first subtriangular, with the eyes prominent, and the second
transverse-subquadrate, being nearly equally rounded at the
sides. Antenne fusco-ferruginous towards their apex; their
base and the /egs diluted testaceous.
The abbreviated elytra, leaving five segments of the abdomen
visible, and the elongated basal joint of the hinder feet, will
of themselves at once distinguish the genus Philorhinum from
its immediate allies. The single individual described above,
identified by Mr. Janson with the common European P. humile,
with which it appears in every respect to agree, was de-
tected by Mr. Bewicke at 8. Antonio da Serra (in Madeira
proper) during the summer of 1859. In the English specimens
which I have examined, the males seem to have their antenne
a trifle longer than those of the females, and with the apical
Mr. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera. 107
joint less abbreviated; and the Madeiran example (a female)
seems to coincide in this respect with the corresponding sex of
more northern latitudes.
Genus ANTHOBIUM.
(Leach) Steph., Ill. Brit. Ent. v. 335 (1832).
Anthobium torquatum, Marsh.
A. rufo-testaceum; scutello, pectore, abdomine antennarumque
apice nigricantibus; elytris testaceis, amplis, ad apicem inte-
viorem in foeminis singulatim acuminatis, in maribus postice
truncatis.
Long. corp. lin. vix 1.
Habitat Maderam australem, a Dom. Bewicke prope Funchal semel
lectum.
Silpha torquata, Marsham, Ent. Brit. i. 127 (1802).
Anthobium torquatum et mucronatum, Steph., Ill. Brit. Ent. v. 339 (1832),
scutellare, Erichs., Gen. et Spec. Staph. 895 (1840).
A. rufo-testaceous, slightly shining, and sparingly clothed
with a short, decumbent, cinereous pile. Head very finely and
minutely punctulated, and with a large, round, and deep punc-
ture on either side of the forehead behind ; its extreme posterior
portion, or neck, slightly darker. Prothorax still more finely
and lightly punctulated, the punctules being scarcely perceptible,
even beneath a high magnifying power ; transverse, and rather
straightened at the sides, the hinder angles being nearly right
angles, and the anterior ones rounded off; with a dorsal line
down the centre. Hlytra much more coarsely punctured ;
ample, and rather dilated posteriorly, covering nearly all the
upper surface of the abdomen; a shade paler than the head and
and prothorax, being testaceous; their apex truncated in the
males; but in the females each elytron is separately produced,
or acuminated, at its inner apex. Scutellum piceous, free from
pile, and coarsely alutaceous. Abdomen black. Antenne and
legs testaceous ; with the apex of the former darker.
The single specimen described above is, like the last species,
due to the researches of Mr. Bewicke, who captured it in his
garden at the Palmeira, above Funchal. I have no hesitation
in referring it to the common European A. torquatum, with
which in most respects it agrees precisely; its antenne, how-
ever, are perhaps just: perceptibly shorter than is the case in
more northern latitudes, and the punctules of its prothorax
(which is a Jittle less rounded at the sides) are, if possible, even
still more obscure. Such trifling differences, however, are
scarcely worth noticing, since the msect bears all the essential
features of the species with which I have identified it.
108 Mr.T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera.
Such are the additions to the fauna—49 in all (exclusive, of
course, of the Apotomus Chaudoirtt and the Chrysomela onychina,
which are merely old species under new names)—which our
combined researches have brought to light during the past year
and a half in Madeira. As may be gathered from the above
statements, of these 49, 21 * were detected by myself, 16 by
Mr. Bewicke, 4 by Senhér Moniz, 4 by Mr. M. Park, 3 by
Mr. E. Leacock, and one by the Rev. R. T. Lowe; and it may
be interesting to remark that the families into which these
accessions distribute themselves are as follows :—-Staphylinide 13;
Curculionide 8; Lathridiade 7 ; Colydiade and Tomicide 4: each ;
Carabide 2; and Silphide, Trichopterygide, Mycetophagide,
Dermestide, Bostrychide, Cisside, Attelabide, Bruchide, Halti-
cide, Tenebrionide, and Opatride, 1 each. In my last paper on
the additions to our Catalogue, written in October 1858, and pub-
lished in the ‘ Annals’ for the following December, I brought
up the list of then detected forms to 593; so that, when further
augmented by the 49 of this present paper, the Madeiran
Coleoptera, as hitherto observed, amount to no less than 642
well-defined species.
Before closing these remarks, I may just state that the names
of the following 18 species, as cited in my last Catalogue, will
have, in accordance with the law of priority, to be changed,—
subsequent inquiries having proved them to be identical with
species previously described. Thus, for Dromius arenicola Woll.,
read D. patruelis, Chaud.; for Pristonychus alatus, Woll., read
P. complanatus, Dej. ; for Anchomenus pallipes, Fab., read A. al-
bipes, Fab. (the Carabus pallipes of the ‘ Mantissa Insectorum ’
being, as I am informed by Dr. Schaum, an American insect of
the genus Taurus); for Harpalus litigiosus, Dej., read H. tene-
brosus, Dej.; for Dactylosternum Rousseti, Woll., read D. abdo-
minale, Fab.; for Monotoma spinifera, Woll., read M. spini-
collis, Aubé; for Microchondrus domuum, Woll., read Symbiotes
domuum, Woll. (the genus Microchondrus being identical with
Redtenbacher’s Symbiotes) ; for Haltica subtilis, Woll., read H.
procera, Redt.; for Haltica Salicaria, Payk., read H. ventralis,
Illig.; for Longitarsus lutescens, Gyll., read L. atricapillus, Dufts. ;
for Longitarsus excurvus, Woll., read L. Echiu, Meg.; for Gleo-
soma velox, Woll., read Moronillus ruficollis, Jacq.-Duv.; for
Autocera laticeps, Woll., read Cnemeplatia laticeps, Woll.,—the
genus Autocera being, according to Dr. Kraatz, identical with
Cnemeplatia of Costa.
* Of these 21, however, there are two which cannot strictly be called
recent discoveries, although necessarily treated as additions to our fauna,
—namely, the Longitarsus abdominals (which I had inadvertently mixed
up amongst my specimens of the L. nubigena, collected in 1855), and the
Mycetoporus Johnsoni (which I had hitherto regarded as a mere state of
the M, pronus).
Mr. A. Adams on the Animals of certain Mollusca. _ 109
XVIII.—Notes on the Animals of certain Genera of Mollusca.
By Arruur Apams, F.L.8. &e.
Genus VoLutHaRrpA, Fischer.
M. Fiscuer, in his ‘ Journal de Conchyliologie,’? 1855, p. 85,
describes a genus under the name of Volutharpa, from the shell
only. When at Hakodadi, I found the Bullia Perryi of Jay,
and refer it to M. Fischer’s genus ; and further north, at Aniwa
Bay, Saghalien, I met with Bulla ampullacea of Middendorf,
and believe it to form another species of the same genus. I
procured by the dredge one living specimen of the latter species
from a depth of 17 fathoms. The animal is like Buccinum, of a
white colour sparsely sprinkled with black on the head, foot, and
siphon. The tentacles are broad, close together at the base, and
rather short, with the eyes on the outer side, near the middle.
The siphon is thick and short, and the foot is fleshy, and simple
behind. The operculum is subcircular, with concentric strive of
growth ; and the nucleus is within the margin, at the fore part.
Thus the simple foot and the possession of eyes remove it from
the genus Bullia, and the form and texture of the shell from
Buccinum. The operculum is different from that of Pseudoliva
or Gastridia, and the shell is without the tooth at the fore part
of the outer lip. The natural position of the genus is between
Buccinum and Pseudoliva.
Species of Volutharpa.
f Deshayesiana, Fisch.
Senna Bf _ampullacea, Midd. (Bullia).
“Perryi, Jay .
Limneeana, 4. Ad. (Bullia).
Genus Naricina, Gray.
The animal of this genus resembles that of Morvillia or
Limneria; and the genus should be removed from the family
Naticide to that of Velutinide. The tentacles are short and
rather flattened, with the eyes at their outer bases. The mantle
lines the shell, and is thickened at the edge, but is not produced
beyond, and does not cover the margin of the shell, as it does
in Marsenina and Velutella. The foot is small and oblong, auri-
culate on each side in front; and there is no operculum. The
male organ is large and compressed, and is situated at the outer
base of the right tentacle.
csaeasddiians Sphered in a radiant cloud; for yet the sun was not.’
We have already rejected the hypothesis that the primeval night
proceeded from a temporary obscuration of the atmosphere ; and the
expression ‘ God said, Let light be,’ affords an additional reason, since,
in accordance with the strict precision of language which everywhere
prevails in this ancient document, a mere restoration of light would
not be stated in such terms. If we wish to find a natural explana-
tion of the mode of illumination referred to, we must recur to one
or other of the suppositions mentioned above, that the luminous
matter formed a nebulous atmosphere slowly concentrating itself
towards the centre of the solar system, or that it formed a special
envelope of our earth, which subsequently disappeared” (p. 88).
The various points which are usually supposed to be antagonistic
to each other in the two records are examined seriatim, and, as it
seems to us, in most instances answered satisfactorily. According to
the Hebrew narrative, ‘‘all the earth’s physical features were per-
fected on the fourth day, immediately before the creation of animals’’
(p. 196); and geological discovery, in which animals play the first
part, carries us back to an epoch corresponding with the beginning
of the fifth day, which “day,” or eon, would appear “to include the
whole of the Paleeozoic and Mesozoic epochs of geology.” But in
the Mosaic epitome it will be remembered that plants are stated to
have made their appearance on the third day, and thus to have pre-
ceded animals in the order of succession; so that ‘‘ we are shut up
to the conclusion that the flora of the third day must have its place
before the Paleozoic period of geology.” ‘‘ But that there were
plants,’ continues our author, “before this period, we may infer
almost with certainty from the abundance and distribution of carbo-
naceous matter in the form of graphite in the Azoic or Laurentian
Bibhographical Notice. 207
rocks of Canada; but of the form and structure of these plants we
know nothing” (p. 168).
Many interesting suggestions bearing on controverted points might
be adduced from the pages of this treatise, did space permit. Thus,
in discussing the exact meaning of the Hebrew word ‘min,’ Dr.
Dawson remarks, ‘A very important truth is contained in the ex-
pression ‘after its kind,’ 7. e. after its species ; for the Hebrew ‘ min,’
used here, has strictly this sense, and, like the Greek dea and the
Latin species, conveys the notion of form as well as that of kind. It
is used to denote species of animals in Leviticus i. and xiv., and in
Deuteronomy xiv. and xv. We are taught by this statement that
plants were created each by itself, and that creation was not a sort
of slump-work to be perfected by the operation of a law of develop-
ment, as fancied by some modern speculators. In this assertion of
the distinctness of species, and the production of each by a distinct
creative act, revelation tallies perfectly with the conclusions of natural
science, which lead us to believe that each species is permanently
reproductive, variable within narrow limits, incapable of permanent
intermixture with other species, and a direct product of creative
power” (p. 163). And, again, whilst drawing a distinction between
the expression to “create” and simply to “form” or ‘“ make,” he
adds: ‘‘We may again note that the introduction of animal life is
marked by the use of the word ‘create,’ for the first time since the
general creation of the heavens and the earth. We may also note
that the animal, as well as the plant, was created ‘after its kind,’ or
‘species by species.’ The animals are grouped under three great
classes,—the Remes, the Tanninim, and the Birds; but, lest any
misconception should arise as to the relations of species to these
groups, we are expressly informed that the species is here the true
unit of the creative work. It is worth while, therefore, to note that
this most ancient authority on this much controverted topic connects
species on the one hand with the creative fiat, and on the other with
the power of continuous reproduction” (p. 192).
In like manner, in his 16th chapter (on the “ Unity and Antiquity
of Man’’), Dr. Dawson once more reverts to the same subject : “‘ The
species is not merely an ideal unit; it is a unit in the work of crea-
tion. No one better indicates than Agassiz does the doctrine of the
creation of animals; but to what is it that creation refers? Not
to genera and higher groups: they ewpress only the relations of
things created ;—not to individuals as now existing: they are the
results of the laws of invariahbility and increase of the species ;—
but to certain original individuals, protoplasts, formed after their
kinds or species, and representing the powers and limits of variation
inherent in the species,—the ‘potentialities of their existence,’ as
Dana well expresses it. The species, therefore, with all its powers
and capacities for reproduction, is that which the Creator has made,
—His unit in the work, as well as ours in the study... .. The limits
of variability differ for every species, and must be ascertained by
patient investigation of large numbers of specimens, before we can
confidently assert the boundaries in some widely distributed and
208 Royal Society :—
variable species ; but in the greater number this is not difficult, and
in all may be ascertained by patient inquiry ” (pp. 285, 289).
With the above quotation we must conclude our brief notice of Dr.
Dawson’s able and interesting work, merely remarking that, if he
has not in all instances succeeded in entirely satisfying the minds of
critics, he has at least offered more intelligible solutions of the greater
mass of supposed ‘“ difficulties” than have been hitherto arrived at—
and such, we might add, as may be readily accepted without doing
unnecessary violence to either Scripture or science.
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
ROYAL SOCIETY.
June 14, 1860.—General Sabine, R.A., Treasurer and V.P.,
in the Chair.
“Researches on the Foraminifera.”’—Part IV. By W. B. Car-
penter, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.L.S. &e.
The author in this communication brings to a conclusion that
series of inquiries into the structural and physiological characters of
typical forms of Foraminifera, which he had been induced to work
out for the sake of turning to the account of Zoological science the
valuable collections made by Mr. Jukes in the Australian Seas and
by Mr. Cuming in the Philippine. |
The first genus now treated of is Polystomella, the smaller and .
simpler forms of which have long been known, and of which the
structure, so far as it can be elucidated by the examination of such
specimens, has been already described with great-care and accuracy
by Professor W.C. Williamson. But in the comparatively gigantic
and highly developed Polystomelle of the Australian and Philippine
series, a feature exists which is scarcely discernible in the humbler
forms previously examined—that feature being the extraordinary
development of the canal-system. A spiral canal runs along the
inner margin of either surface of every whorl; from this canal a
series of arches is given off, of which one passes down between every
two adjacent segments, uniting it with the other spiral canal ; whilst
another set of straight branches passes directly towards the surface
of the shell, through the thick caleareous deposit which covers in the
depressed centre of the spire, and which extends as far as the last-
formed spire. From the connecting arches, successive pairs of diverg-
ing branches proceed at frequent intervals ; these, in the last whorl,
make their way to the surface of the shell, and (when the shell is
newly formed) open close on either side of the septal band, though,
as the shell increases in thickness by subsequent deposit, the increased
divergence of the branches separates their mouths from each other,
and it very commonly happens that the two contiguous branches
diverging from different arches meet and open by a single external
pore half-way between the septal bands. When, however, one whorl
Dr. W. B. Carpenter on the Foraminifera. 209
has been surrounded by another, this radiating canal-system of the
inner whorl does not usually continue itself directly into that of the
outer (though such a continuation is not unfrequently seen), but
the diverging canals for the most part terminate in the stolons of
communication between the segments of sarcode that occupy the
chambers of the outer whorl. ,
The evidence afforded by the distribution of the canal-system in
Polystomella is decidedly confirmatory of the view expressed by the
author on a former occasion, that this peculiar set of inosculating
passages is related to the formation and nutrition of those solid
calcareous layers which strengthen and connect the proper walls of
the chambers, and to which he has given the designation of the
‘intermediate skeleton.”
This view derives strong confirmation from the still more extensive
distribution and greater importance of the canal-system of Calcarina,
a genus of which Mr. Cuming’s Philippine collection affords a most
remarkable series of illustrations. This type may be considered as
closely allied to Polystomella in the disposition and mode of com-
munication of its chambers, save that the spire is generally more or
less inequilateral. Its ‘intermediate skeleton” is, however, much
more developed ; aud it extends itself into a variable number of pro-
longations, sometimes simply club-shaped, sometimes more or less
ramifying, which radiate in different directions from the central body,
giving it somewhat the appearance of a spur-rowel, whence its
generic designation. (An approach to this configuration is occasion-
ally presented by the common Polystomella crispa, as also by
some other species of Polystomella.) Now the independence of the
intermediate skeleton and of the spiral system of chambers is curi-
ously shown by the disproportionate development which they respect-
ively exhibit the one to the other, and by their occasional complete
disconnexion,—the spire altogether departing from its usual course,
and (as it were) running wild, whilst the intermediate skeleton
with its prolongations still presents its ordinary configuration. ‘The
nutrition of the intermediate skeleton seems to,be provided for by a
system of large canals, freely inosculating with each other, which
originate on the sides of the chambers, and are continued through
the whole thickness of the intermediate skeleton, some of them pass-
ing directly to its nearest surface, whilst others are continued to the
terminations of its radiating prolongations.
It is not a little remarkable that a Foraminiferous organism should
present itself so extremely resembling the preceding as to be easily
mistaken for it, and yet essentially differing from it in its plan of
structure. This is the case with a type of which some remarkable
specimens occur in Mr. Cuming’s collection, and of which some
smaller examples have been kindly put into the author’s hands by
Dr. J. E. Gray. As it seems to be identical with the body described
by Montfort under the designation Tinoporus baculatus, it may be
right to retain that name, although it had been abandoned under
the impression that it was a mere synonym of Calcarina. The
structure of this body will be better understood after the description
210 Royal Society.
of a simpler form, which seems to be generally diffused through the
seas of warmer latitudes, but of which the most remarkable examples
present themselves in Mr. Jukes’s Australian dredgings. Its shape
is extremely variable, being sometimes an almost perfect sphere, in
other cases resembling the lower half of a sugar-loaf, whilst in other
cases again it is a very irregular depressed cone. It seems originally
to have grown attached to zoophytes, corals, &c., since it frequently
presents indications of such former attachment, though it is rarely
to be met with otherwise than free. It is, moreover, very closely
allied in structure to the body which has been termed Polytrema
miniaceum, under the belief that it was a Polyzoan Coral, but whose
Foraminiferous affinities have been already perceived by Dr. Gray,
who has proposed for it the generic name of Pustulipora.
In the commencement of its growth, this organism seems closely
to resemble Planorbulina, being formed of an assemblage of cham-
bers arranged on one plane, spirally towards the centre, but irregularly
clustered towards the circumference ; each chamber communicating
by single large septal orifices with the two contiguous chambers of
the same row, whilst its walls are perforated with numerous large
pseudopodian foramina. This first-formed plane, however, is after-
wards covered-in above and below by numerous successive layers of
similar cells, which are piled one upon another in very regular rows ;
the original spiral type of growth being altogether lost in these super-
posed layers. In this mode the organism comes to present a near
relationship to the fossil genus Orditoides *,—the principal difference
being that the superposed layers are not so completely differentiated
from the original median layer in Tinoporus as they are in Orbitoides.
Now in Tinoporus baculatus we often find columns of solid shell-
substance interposed between the angular partitions of the piles of
superposed cells, just as they are in Ordbitoides, their summits being
visible on the surface as projecting tubercles; these columns are
perforated with pseudopodian canals, which are extensions of the pores
in the walls of the chambers over which they lie. And the peculiar
stellate projections which give to this species so much the aspect of
a Calcarina are for the most part formed of a similar growth; for
though the chambered structure is continued for a short distance as a
conical protuberance into the base of each, yet this cone is invested
and extended by a sheath of solid shell-substange, which is perforated
by pseudopodian tubes extending through it from the chambers.
The last type of Foraminiferous structure described in this com-
munication is one which appears to furnish a highly interesting link
of connexion between Foraminifera and Sponges. Its nature was at
first entirely misunderstood, the specimens in Mr. Cuming’s collec-
tion having been supposed, not only by Mr. Cuming, but by other con-
chologists, to be shells of a sessile Cirripede. Their external resem-
_blance might readily justify such an inference, since they are irre-
gular cones, apparently composed of distinct valves, attached by a
spreading base to the surface of shells or corals, and having a single
* See the author’s account of the structure of that genus in the Quarterly
Journal of the Geological Society, vol. vi. 1850, p. 32.
Zoological Society. 211
orifice at theirapex. A careful examination of the interior structure,
however, makes it evident that the shell is multilocular, and that it
is formed upon the type of the Helicostégue Foraminifera, closely
resembling Globigerina in the commencement of its growth; the
supposed ‘valves’ being the walls of the outer whorl, the chambers
of which are very large, and are partially subdivided by incomplete
septa. All the principal chambers communicate by orifices of their
own with a sort of central funnel which leads to the external orifice ;
and thus their relation to it is very much that of the separate orifices
of the chambers of Globigerina to its umbilicus. The cavities of the
chambers are occupied by a spongeous tissue, which contains sili-
ceous spicules; and although the possibility that this spongy sub-
stance may be parasitic must not be lost sight of, yet reasons are
iven which seem to render it almost certain that this is the proper
body of the organism, on which Dr. Gray, who first discerned its
true affinities, has conferred the generic name of Carpenteria.
The author concludes with some general observations upon the
mutual affinities of the “typical forms ” of Foraminifera whose struc-
ture he has now elucidated ; and he sums up the evidence which his
examination of them has furnished in regard to the very wide range
of variation which seems especially to characterize this group,—
avowing his conviction that the only classificatiou of it which can
approach to a really natural arrangement, will be one founded upon
the idea of ‘‘ descent with modification’ as the means by which an
almost infinite variety of special forms has been evolved from a few
fundamental types.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
May 8, 1860.—E. W. H. Holdsworth, Esq., F.L.S., in the Chair.
ON AN APPARENTLY New Species OF PARADISE-BrirRpD.
By Wiuu1AM Goopwin.
I beg permission to introduce to your notice a Bird of Paradise,
which I believe to be either altogether unknown, or at least hitherto
undescribed.
I have interested myself for many years in this branch of Orni-
thology, and possess in my own collection twenty-nine specimens, re-
presenting all the different species known up to the present time,
with the exception of Semioptera Wallacit. I have had opportunities
of inspecting the fine collections of these birds sent to England by
that energetic and able naturalist Mr. Wallace, and have searched
in vain for any specimen similar to that which I have now the
honour of introducing to the meeting. I therefore conclude it to
be in all probability an entirely new and undescribed species.
The bird now before you, which I believe to be the female, came
into my possession about twenty years ago, together with another,
which I have no doubt is the male bird. This latter specimen is
now in the British Museum.
I received them both from Mr. Bartlett, and we then agreed in
212 Zoological Society :—
considering them as a young male and female of the Paradisea
papuana ; but the numerous specimens which I have examined in
the collections of Mr. Wallace, consisting of males, females, and
young of the latter bird, have now convinced me that they belong
to an entirely distinct species.
The male (now in the British Museum) is smaller than the Para-
disea papuana, the length from head to end of tail being about
9 inches, bill 14 inch, wings from shoulder to tips barely 73 inches,
tail 53 inches. Feathers on the head and shoulders yellow; back,
tail, and wings dark chestnut-brown; the coverts of the wings
edged with yellow; the two central tail-feathers have naked shafts
15 inches in length, terminating with elongated webs 3 inches long ;
the throat has a small patch of golden green, which surrounds the
base of the bill ; the lower parts, with the exception of a small patch
of brown under the throat, white; side feathers somewhat elongated
and soft. |
Female: length from head to end of tail about 9 inches, bill
1} inch. Forehead, throat, sides and top of the head dark chocolate-
brown, shading to a dingy yellow and cinnamon colour ; tail-coverts
tinged with yellowish-brown ; tail cinnamon-brown, 44 inches long,
the two middle feathers narrow, pointed and curved, 4} inches in
length ; the whole of the under parts from the throat white ; side
feathers soft ; legs and wings imperfect.
, Mr. Bartlett informed me that these birds came to England with
other skins of Birds of Paradise, viz. the Clouded (P. magnifica),
Golden-breasted (P. aurea), and the Ptilorhis magnifica. 5
The locality was unknown to him, and is probably one which Mr.
Wallace has not yet visited. Should he continue his researches, he
may yet be fortunate enough to meet with this species.
In conclusion, I beg to propose that the bird now brought under
your notice be named Paradisea Bartlettii, in recognition of the
valuable services rendered by Mr. Bartlett to the lovers of ornitho-
logical science by his-very careful researches and numerous observa-
tions. ) at
Notes on Two Strutuious Birps NOW LIVING IN THE
Society’s Garpens. By Puinie Lurury Scuater, M.A.,
SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY.
At the last meeting of this Society I announced that we were ex-
pecting to receive two additional examples of Struthious birds for
the Menagerie, which I had reason to believe would prove to be
distinct from any of the seven then existing in it. I now have the
pleasure of informing the meeting that these birds have arrived in
good health and condition, and that an accurate examination of them
has convinced me, as well, I believe, as every one who has paid them
a visit, that they really belong to independent species. We are now
therefore the fortunate possessors of no less than nine different species
of this important group, of which, until lately, but four were known
to exist in the whole world in a recent state.
The newly arrived birds I allude to are examples of the Emeu
Mr. P. L. Sclater on two new Struthious Birds. 213
of Western Australia (Dromeus irroratus, Bartlett), and the Casso-
wary with the throat-wattles divided and far apart, which I have
proposed to designate Casuarius bicarunculatus.
The Emeu of Western Australia may, as was pointed out by Mr.
Bartlett, when he first described it at a meeting of this Society in
May 1859, be easily distinguished from the well-known Eastern
bird by its spotted plumage. On comparing the feathers of the
two species together, the mode in which this spotting is produced is
clearly apparent. The feathers of D. irroratus are barred alternately
with silky white and darkish grey throughout their length, terminating
Fig. a.
in a black tip margined posteriorly with rufous. Those of D. Nove
Hollandie are uniform blackish-grey from the base to the extre-
mity, which is black with a broad subterminal band of rufous.
On comparing the two living birds together, we find D. irroratus
generally of a much more slender habit. The tarsi are longer
and thinner, and the toes longer and much more slender. The
tarsal scutes are smaller. The irides are of a pale hazel, instead of
a reddish brown asin D. Nove Hollandia.
214 Zoological Society :—
The example of D. irroratus in the Gardens of the Zoological
Society of Amsterdam was brought by a Dutch vessel from Albany,
King George’s Sound. I have reason to believe that our specimen
is from the same locality. As Mr. Bartlett’s original skin of D.
irroratus was obtained in the interior of Southern Australia, the
range of this Emeu must be supposed to extend over the western
portion of Australia into the latter colony, where it probably inos-
culates with D. Nove Hollandie*.
} He
NUN | |
| i ai i
Th
Fig. d.
With regard to the Casuarius bicarunculatus, I am unable at pre-
sent to give any particulars concerning its true habitat, though in
all probability it is the representative of the Common Cassowary of
Ceram (Casuarius galeatus) in one of the Molucca group or adjoin-
ing islands. The specimen which we possess is still quite young.
The casque is not developed. Except as regards the complete sepa-
ration of the two neck-wattles, as indicated in the drawings now ex-
hibited, of which fig. a represents the front view of the fore-neck
* Two additional specimens of the Spotted Emeu (both immature) have since
been received by the Society from Swan River. In this stage of plumage the
bird is decidedly darker than its near ally, D. Nove Hollandia.
On new species of Birds from Guatemala. 215
of the Common Cassowary, and fig. 0 the corresponding part of the
new species, this bird might well pass as a rather bright-coloured
variety of the Casuarius galeatus. But I have little doubt that the
bird, as it grows older, will develope further differences, and that,
when adult, it will be readily distinguishable by other characters
from the common species.
May 22, 1860.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair.
CHARACTERS OF ELeven New Species or BirDs DISCOVERED
BY Osspert SALVIN IN GUATEMALA. By Puizuie LuTriey
ScuaTER, M.A., SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY; AND OSBERT
Satvin, M.A., F.Z.S.
1. PoLIopriLA ALBILORIS.
Cerulescenti-cinerea, pileo nigro, loris albis: remigibus alarum
nigricantibus ; primariis cinereo, secundariis albo latiore mar-
ginatis: caude rectricibus tribus utrinque lateralibus albo, gra-
datim decrescente, terminatis, ceteris nigris, quarta utrinque
extima albo terminata: subtus alba, cinerascente lavata :
rostro nigro: pedibus obscure plumbeis.
Long. tota 4°3, alze 1°9, caudee 2:0.
Hab. In rep. Guatimalensi in valle fi. Motagua.
Oés. Affinis P. leucogastre ex Brasilia, sed loris albis facile nota-
bilis.
2. DENDRG@CA CHRYSOPARIA.
Supra nigra, dorsi plumis ad margines aurescentibus: superciliis
et capite toto laterali lete aureo-flavis, vitta angusta per oculos
transeunte nigra: alis nigricantibus, albo bifasciatis, secun-
darus quoque albido limbatis: cauda nigra, rectricum trium
utrinque lateralium pogono interno partim albo: subtus alba
gutture toto et maculis laterum utrinque nigris: rostro pedi-
busque obscure corneis.
Long. tota 4°5, alee 2°5, caudee 2°4.
Hab. In reip. Guatimalensis provincia Veree Pacis, inter montes.
Obs. Inter D. virentem et D. Townsendi media, ab utraque dorso
nigro, abdomine pure albo et capite laterali fere omnino aureo distin-
guenda.
3. HyLOPHILUS CINEREICEPS.
Flavicanti-olivaceus : pileo toto et nucha cinereis: ciliis oculo-
rum et corpore medio subtus albis: lateribus et crisso pallide
flavicanti-viridibus, rostro corneo, mandibula inferiore albicante :
pedibus plumbeis.
Long. tota 4°1, alee 2'1, caude 1°8.
Hab. In prov. Veree Pacis regione calida.
Obs. Affinis H. thoracico, Temminckii, ex Cayenna, sed fronte
pileo concolore et pectore albo distinguendus.
216 Zovlogical Society :—
4, GLYPHORHYNCHUS PECTORALIS.
Brunneus, secundariis extus, uropygio et cauda rufis : superciliis,
lateribus capitis et gula pallide ochracescenti-rufis, plumarum
marginibus angustis brunneis: subtus dilutior, pectore maculis
elongatis, plumarum scapos cingentibus, notato: remigibus
nigris, macula magna quadrata in pogonio interiore pallide
ochracea occupatis : rostro nigricanti- haha pedibus nigris.
Long. tota 5:5, alee 2°8, caudee 2°7.
Hab. In prov. Veree Pacis regione calida.
Obs. Assimilis G. cuneato ex Brasilia, sed statura majore et ma-
culis pertains dignoscendus.
5. Tease ANABATINUS.
Thamnistes genus novum ex familia Formicariidarum, Thamno-
philo generi affinis: characteres generales Thamnophili habet, sed
rostro crassiore, basi latiore, et ptilosi anabatina differt.
Typus. T. anabatinus.
3. Vix olivascenti-brunneus, subtus dilutior: cauda ferrugineo-
rubra unicolore : alis extus rufescentibus : macula magna inter-
scapulart plumarum basin occupante lete aurantiaco-rubra,
margine subapicalt nigra: superciliart striga indistincta et cor-
pore subtus pallide ochraceis, unicoloribus: rostri mandibula
superiore nigricante, inferiore pallide cornea : pedibus mig’
2. Mari similis, sed macula interscapuli nulla.
Long. tota 5°6, alze 2°7, caudze 2°3, tarsi 7°5.
Hab. In prov. Vere Pacis regione calida.
6. PLATYRHYNCHUS CANCROMINUS.
Platyrhynchus cancroma, Sclater, P. Z. 8. 1856, p. 295, et Ibis,
1859, p. 445.
Similis P. cancromati ex Brasilia, et ab illo vix satis diversus, sed
gula pure alba et cauda breviore distinguendus.
Hab. In prov. Vere Pacis regione calida, et in Mexico Merid.
statu Veree Crucis.
7. TYRANNULUS SEMIFLAVUS.
Olivaceus: pileo cinerascente: fronte et superciliis albis: alis
caudaque fuscis olivaceo limbatis: subtus pure flavus : rostro
et pedibus nigris.
Long. tota 32, alee 1°8, caude 1°2.
Hab. In prov. Verve Pacis regione calida.
Obs. Affinis Tyrannulo elato et T. nigricapillo, et plerumque
eadem forma, sed corpore subtus flavo, maculis alaribus nullis et
cauda paulo breviore distinguendus.
8. HeTeEROPELMA VeER#-PacIs. |
Olivaceum unicolor, supra infraque ad medium pectus rufo aut
On'new Species of Birds from Guatemala. 217
ochraceo lavatum : alis caudaque fuscescentibus, extus rufescen-
tibus: rostro corneo: pedibus plumbescentibus.
Long. tota 6°3, alee 3-5, caudee 2°5.
Hab. In prov. Vere Pacis regione calida.
Obs. Affine H. virescenti ex Brasilia, et statura eadem; colore
H., turdino magis appropinquans ; attamen ab utroque sane diversum.
9. LipAUGUS HOLERYTHRUS.
Rufescenti-brunneus unicolor, subtus clarior : remigum parte in-
terna et primariorum apicibus fuscescentibus: rostri pallide
cornet basi albicante: pedibus obscure corylinis.
Long. tota 8°3, alee 4°2, caude 3°8.
Had. In prov. Verze Pacis regione calida.
Obs. Affinis L. unirufo ex eadem patria, et pictura eadem, sed
crassitie minore facile dignoscendus.
10. Pronus HAMATOTIS.
Viridis : pileo rubiginoso-flavo : hujus plumarum marginibus an-
gustis et regione auriculari coccineis: gutture obscure plumbeo:
subtus viridis, pectore aureo lavato: lateribus sub alis late coc-
cineis: remigibus nigris, primarits supra fulvo anguste lim-
batis ; secundarits supra et alis omnino subtus cerulescentibus :
rectricum basibus intus coccineis, caude apice cerulescente :
rostro fiavescenti-albo : pedibus rubellis.
Long. tota 8°5, alee 5°8, caudee 3°6.
Hab. In prov. Veree Pacis regione calida.
Obs. Species lateribus coccineis ab aliis hujusce generis speciebus
primo visu diversa.
11. CoRETHRURA RUBRA.
Lete rufa, subtus medialiter dilutior : gula albicantiore : pileo
toto et lateribus capitis saturate cinereis: remigibus et rectri-
cibus cum uropygio obscure fusco-nigris : rostro nigro : pedibus
olivaceis. :
Long. tota 9°0, alee 3°25, caudee 1°7, rostri ab angulo oris 0°8,
tarsi 1°3.
Hab. In provincia Vere Pacis.
MISCELLANEOUS.
On some new Species of Mammalia and Tortoises from Cambojia.
By Dr. Joun Epwarp Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S.
Tupaia frenata. “|
Browy, minutely dotted with yellow; chin, inner side of limbs, and °
and under side of body and tail yellow-brown. Head rather elongate,
with a black streak from the end of the nose to the ear, enclosing
the eye, edged above and below with a distinct yellow line to the
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. vi. 15
218 Miscellaneous.
upper and lower side of the ear, and the lower streak having a very
\ narrow black streak beneath it; shoulder-streak none. Length of
head and body 5 inches, of tail 4 inches.
Hab. Cambojia (M. Mouhot).
Trionyx ornatus.
' Back (of young animal in spirits) brown, with large unequal-
' sized, irregularly disposed, black, circular spots. Head olive, with
symmetrical small black spots on the chin, forehead, and nose ;
throat and sides of neck with large, unequal-sized, irregular-shaped,
but nearly symmetrically disposed yellow spots. Legs olive yellow,
spotted in front. Sternum and under side of margin yellow ; sternal
callosities not developed.
Hab, Cambojia (M. Mouhot).
The species is very distinct in its colouring from the young of any
of the other Indian species; and the colouring of the young animal
forms one of the best characters of the species of the genus. It is
most like the young of 7. gangeticus; but the dorsal spots are solid,
not rings, and the head is olive, dotted with black.
Geoemyda grandis.
Shell oblong-elongate, dusky brown. Back keeled. Vertebral plates
elongate; the first urn-shaped, bluntly keeled; the fourth and fifth
vy sharply keeled. Hinder edges strongly serrated. Nuchal plate di-
ve stinct. Sternum truncated in front, deeply notched behind (of male
very deeply concave). Head large. Claws very sharp and strong.
Length of shell 16 inches, width 11 inches.
Hab. Cambojia (M. Mouhot).
M. Mouhot sent also specimens of Testudo elongata, Geoemyda
spinosa, Emys crassicollis, and of three other species of Emyde ;
but the three latter are so young as not to be fit to describe, or to
,. Uigginin if they are the young of already known species.
are,
By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.ZS.
Mr. J. Wilks has lately presented to the Zoological Society a pair
of Deer from Kanegawa in Japan; they are widely different from
any species that has hitherto come under my observation, and may
be entered in the Catalogues as
Rusa Japonica (Japan Rusa Deer).
Size of a small Axis Deer. Both male and female are dark brown
with unequal and rather irregularly disposed round white spots ;
the series of spots on each side of the dark vertebral line close and
regular, forming two parallel lines. Legs, shoulders, and thighs brown,
not spotted. Anal disk and tail, and back edge of thighs, white ;
disk moderate, black-edged, especially above ; the tarsal gland, three-
quarters up the leg, large, dark yellow. Horn small, normal. The
Miscellaneous. 219
male with a dark ashy-brown neck, with a mane of longer, more
rigid, standing-out hair. Female hornless. |
Like Hyelaphus porcinus, but more slender and graceful in all its
parts, and higher on its legs, like an Axis Deer; much darker than
the Axis; it has no oblique white streak on the haunches, and the
male is maned like the Indian Rusa.
The male has shed his horns since his arrival in the Gardens.
They are short, not more than 10 or 12 inches long, and in form
rather like those of the Axis Deer, but they scarcely seem the
full-sized horns of the species. Perhaps they were developed in
confinement.
It may be Rusa lepida of Sundevall, but that is described as being
scarcely as large as a Roe-buck; the tail black, white beneath, and
with a white spot on the face, which I cannot see in this Japanese
species. The male is not described as maned. 2
BY
al
Prof. Acass1z on the Origin of Species.
We copy from the advance sheets of Agassiz’s third volume of
‘Contributions to the Natural History of the United States’ the
following paragraphs relating to the origin of species, which has lately
attracted much attention, in consequence of the publication of Darwin’s
book on that subject.
Individuality and Specific Differences among Acalephs.
The morphological phenomena discussed in the preceding section
naturally lead to a consideration of individuality and of the extent
and importance of specific differences among the Acalephs. A few
years ago the prevailing opinion among naturalists was, that while,
genera, families, orders, classes, and any other more or less compre-
hensive divisions among animals were artificial devices of science to «¢ 9
facilitate our studies, species.alone had a real existence in.nature. © —
Whether the views I have presented in the first volume of this work |
(p. 163), where I showed that species do not exist in any different °
sense from genera, families, &c., have had anything to do with the
change which seems to have been brought about upon this point
among scientific men, is not for me to say ; but, whatever be the
cause, it is certainly true that, at the present day, the number of
naturalists who deny the real existence of species is greatly increased.
Darwin in his recent work on the ‘ Origin of Species,’ has also done
much to shake the belief in the real existence of species; but the
views he advocates are entirely at variance with those I have
attempted to establish. For many years past I have lost no oppor-
tunity of urging the idea that while species have no material existence,
they yet exist as categories of thought, in the same way as genera,
families, orders, classes, and branches of the animal kingdom.
Darwin’s fundamental idea, on the contrary, is that species, genera,
families, orders, classes, and any other kind of more or less compre-
hensive divisions among animals, do not exist at all, and are altogether
15*
220 Miscellaneous.
artificial, differing from one another only in degree, all having origi-
nated from a successive differentiation of a primordial organic form,
undergoing successively such changes as would at first produce a
variety of species; then genera, as the difference became more exten-
sive and deeper; then families, as the gap widened still further
between the groups, until in the end all that diversity was produced
which has existed or exists now. Far from agreeing with these views,
I have, on the contrary, taken the ground that all the natural divi-
sions in the animal kingdom are primarily distinct, founded upon
different categories of characters, and that all exist in the same way,
that is, as categories of thought, embodied in individual living forms.
I have attempted to show that branches in the animal kingdom are
founded upon different plans of structure, and for that very reason
have embraced from the beginning representatives between which
there could be no community of origin ; that classes are founded upon
different modes of execution of these plans, and therefore they also
embrace representatives which could have no community of origin ;
that orders represent the different degrees of complication in the
mode of execution of each class, and therefore embrace representatives
which could not have a community of origin any more than the
members of different classes or branches ; that families are founded
upon different patterns of form, and embrace representatives equally
independent in their origin ; that genera are founded upon ultimate
peculiarities of structure, embracing representatives which, from the
very nature of their peculiarities, could have no community of origin ;
and that, finally, species are based upon relations and proportions that
exclude, as much as all the preceding distinctions, the idea of a
common descent.
As the community of characters among the beings belonging to’
these different categories arises from the intellectual connexion which
shows them to be categories of thought, they cannot be the result of
a gradual material differentiation of the objects themselves. The
argument on which these views are founded may be summed up in
the following few words :—species, genera, families, &c. exist as
thoughts, individuals as facts. It is presented at full length in the
first volume of this work (pp. 137-168), where I have shown that
individuals alone have a definite material existence, and that they
are, for the time being, the bearers not only of specific characteristics,
but of all the natural features in which animal life is displayed in
all its diversity,—individuality being, in fact, the great mystery of
organic life.
Since the arguments presented by Darwin in favour of a universal
derivation, from one primary form, of all the peculiarities existing now
among living beings have not made the slightest impression on my
mind, nor modified in any way the views I have already propounded,
I may fairly refer the reader to the paragraphs alluded to above as
containing sufficient evidence of their correctness, and I will here
only add a single argument, which seems to leave the question where
I have placed it.
It seems to me that there is much confusion of ideas inthe general
Miscellaneous. 221
species do not exist at all, as the supporters of the transmutation
theory maintain, how can they vary? and if individuals alone exist, ||
how can the differences which may be observed among them prove
the variability of species? The fact seems to me to be, that, while
species are based upon definite relations among individuals which
differ in various’ ways among themselves, each individual, as a distinct
being, has a definite course to run from the time of its first formation
to the end of its existence, during which it never loses its identity
nor changes its individuality, nor its relations to other individuals
belonging to the same species, but preserves all the categories of
relationship which constitute specific or generic or family affinity, or
any other kind or degree of affinity. To prove that species vary, it
should be proved that individuals born from common ancestors change
the different categories of relationship which they bore primitively
to one another. While all that has thus far been shown is, that there
exists a considerable difference among individuals of one and the
same species. This may be new to those who have looked upon every
individual picked up at random, as affording the means of describing
satisfactorily any species ; but no naturalist who has studied carefully
any of the species now best known can have failed to perceive that
it requires extensive series of specimens accurately to describe a
species, and that the more complete such series are, the more precise
appear the limits which separate species: Surely the aim of science
cannot be to furnish amateur zoologists or collectors with a recipe for
a ready identification of any chance specimen that may fall into their
hands. And the difficulties with which we may meet in attempting
to characterize species do not afford the least indication that species
do not exist at all, as long as most of them can be distinguished, as
such, almost at first sight. I foresee that some convert to the trans-
mutation creed will at once object that the facility with which species
may be distinguished is no evidence that they were not derived from
other species. It may be so. But as long as no fact is adduced to
show that any one well-known species, among the many thousands
that are buried in the whole series of fossiliferous rocks, is actually
the parent of any one of the species now living, such arguments can
have no weight ; and thus far the supporters of the transmutation
theory have failed to produce any such facts. Instead of facts we
are treated with marvellous bear, cuckoo, and other stories. “ Credat
Judeeus Apella!”’
Had Mr. Darwin or his followers furnished a single fact to show
that individuals change, in the course of time, in such a manner as
to produce at last species different from those known before, the state
of the case might be different. But it stands recorded now, as before,
that the animals known to the ancients are still in existence, exhibiting
to this day the characters they exhibited of old. The geological
record, even with all its imperfections, exaggerated to distortion, tells
now, what it has told from the beginning, that the supposed inter-
mediate forms between the species of different geological periods are
imaginary beings, called up merely in support of a fanciful theory.
statement of the variability of species so often repeated lately. If f
i
i
229 Miscellaneous.
The origin of all the diversity among living beings remains a mystery
as totally unexplained as if the book of Mr. Darwin had never been
written, for no theory unsupported by fact, however plausible it may
appear, can be admitted in science.
It seems generally admitted that the work of Darwin is particularly
remarkable for the fairness with which he presents the facts adverse
to his views. It may be so; but I confess that it has made a very
different impression upon me. I have been more forcibly struck by
his inability to perceive when the facts are fatal to his argument,
than by anything else in the whole work. His chapter on the
Geological Record, in particular, appears to me, from beginning to
end, as a series of illogical deductions and misrepresentations of the
modern results of Geology and Paleontology. I do not intend to
argue here, one by one, the questions he has discussed. Such argu:
ments end too often in special pleading; and any one familiar with
the subject may readily perceive where the truth lies, by confronting
his assertions with the geological record itself. But since the ques-
tion at issue is chiefly to be settled by paleeontological evidence, and
I have devoted the greater part of my life to the special study of the
fossils, I wish to record my protest against his mode of treating this
part of the subject. Not only does Darwin never perceive when the
facts are fatal to his views, but when he has succeeded by an ingenious
circumlocution in overleaping the facts, he would have us believe
that he has lessened their importance or changed their meaning. He
would thus have us believe that there have been periods during which
all that had taken place during other periods was destroyed,—and this
solely to explain the absence of intermediate forms between the
fossils found in successive deposits, for the origin of which he looks
to those missing links; whilst every recent progress in geology
shows more and more fully how gradual and successive all the
deposits have been which form the crust of our earth.—He would
have us believe that entire faunee have disappeared before those were
preserved, thé remains of which are found in the lowest fossiliferous
strata; when we find everywhere non-fossiliferous strata below those
that contain the oldest fossils now known. It is true he explains
their absence by the supposition that they were too delicate to be
preserved; but any animals from which Crinoids, Brachiopods,
Cephalopods, and Trilobites could arise, must have been sufficiently
similar to them to have left, at least, traces of their presence in the
lowest non-fossiliferous rocks, had they ever existed at all.—He
would have us believe that the oldest organisms that existed weré
simple cells, or something like the lowest living beings now in exist-
ence ; when such highly organized animals as Trilobites and Ortho-
ceratites are among the oldest known.—He would have us believe
that these lowest first-born became extinct in consequence of the
gradual advantage some of their more favoured descendants gained
over the majority of their predecessors ; when there exist now, and
have existed at all periods in past history, as large a proportion of
more simply organized beings, as of more favoured types, and when
such types as Lingula were among the lowest Silurian fossils, and are
Miscellaneous. 223,
alive at the present day.—He would have us believe that each new
species originated in consequence of some slight change in those that
preceded ; when every geological formation teems with types that
did not exist before.—He would have us believe that animals and
plants became gradually more and more numerous; when most
species appear in myriads of individuals in the first bed in which
they are found.—He would have us believe that animals disappear
gradually ; when they are as common in the uppermost bed in which
they occur as in the lowest or any intermediate bed. Species appear
suddenly, and disappear suddenly, in successive strata. That is the
fact proclaimed by paleeontology. ‘They neither increase successively
in number, nor do they gradually dwindle down; none of the fossil
remains thus far observed show signs of a gradual improvement or of
a slow decay.—He would have us believe that geological deposits
took place during the periods of subsidence ; when it can be proved
that the whole continent of North America is formed of beds which
were deposited during a series of successive upheavals. I quote North
America in preference to any other part of the world, because the
evidence is so complete here that it can only be overlooked by those
who may mistake subsidence for the general shrinkage of the earth’s
surface in consequence of the cooling of its mass. In this part of
the globe, fossils are as common along the successive shores of the
rising deposits of the Silurian system as anywhere along our beaches ;
and each of these successive shores extends from the Atlantic States
to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The evidence goes even further ;
each of these successive sets of beds of the Silurian system contains
peculiar fossils, neither found in the beds above nor in the beds below,
and between them there are no intermediate forms. And yet Darwin
affirms that “the littoral and sub-littoral deposits are continually
worn away as soon as they are brought up, by the slow and gradual
rising of the land, within the grinding action of the coast-waves ”’
(‘Origin of Species,’ p. 290).— He would also have us believe that the
most perfect organs of the body of animals are the product of gradual
improvement, when eyes as perfect as those of the Trilobites are
preserved with the remains of these oldest animals.—He would have
us believe that it required millions of years to effect any one of these
changes ; when far more extraordinary transformations are daily going
on, under our eyes, in the shortest periods of time, during the growth
of animals.—He would have us believe that animals acquire their
instincts gradually ; when even those that never see their parents
zperform at birth the same acts, in the same way, as their progenitors.
—He would have us believe that the geographical distribution of
animals is the result of accidental transfers; when most species are
so narrowly confined within the limits of their natural range that
even slight changes in their external relations may cause their death.
And all these, and many other calls upon our credulity, are coolly
made in the face of an amount of precise information, readily acces-
sible, which would overwhelm anyone who does not place his opinions
above the records of an age eminently characterized for its industry,
and during which that information was laboriously accumulated by
crowds of faithful labourers.
224, Miscellaneous.
It would be superfluous to discuss in detail the arguments by which
Mr. Darwin attempts to explain the diversity among animals. Suffice
it to say that he has lost sight of the most striking of the features,
and the one which pervades the whole, namely, that there runs
throughout Nature unmistakeable evidence of thought, corresponding
to the mental operations of our own mind, and therefore intelligible
to us as thinking beings, and unaccountable on any other basis than
that they owe their existence to the working of intelligence ; and no
theory that overlooks this element can be true to Nature.
There are naturalists who seem to look upon the idea of creation
(that is, a manifestation of an intellectual power by material means)
as a kind of bigotry, forgetting, no doubt, that whenever they carry
out a thought of their own, they do something akin to creating,
unless they look upon their own elucubrations as something in which
their individuality is not concerned, but arising without an interven-
tion of their mind, in consequence of the working of some “ bundles
of forces”? about which they know nothing themselves. And yet
such men are ready to admit that matter is omnipotent, and consider
a disbelief in the omnipotence of matter as tantamount to imbecility ;
for what is the assumed power of matter to produce all finite beings,
but omnipotence? And what is the outcry raised against those who
cannot admit it, but an insinuation that they are non compos? The
book of Mr. Darwin is free of all such uncharitable sentiments
towards his fellow-labourers in the field of science ; nevertheless his
mistake lies in a similar assumption, that the most complicated system
of combined thoughts can be the result of accidental causes; for he
ought to know, as every physicist will concede, that all the influences
to which he would ascribe the origin of species are accidental in their
very nature, and he must know, as every naturalist familiar with the
modern progress of science does know, that the organized beings
which live now, and have lived in former geological periods, constitute
an organic whole,’ intelligibly and methodically combined in all its
parts. As a zoologist, he must know in particular, that the animal
kingdom is built upon four different plans of structure, that the
reproduction and growth of animals take place according to four
different modes of development, and that unless it is shown that these
four plans of structure and these four modes of development are
transmutable one into the other, no transmutation theory can account
for the origin of species. The fallacy of Mr. Darwin’s theory of the
origin of species by means of natural selection may be traced in the
first few pages of his book, where he overlooks the difference between
the voluntary and deliberate acts of selection applied methodically
by man to the breeding of domesticated animals and the growing of
cultivated plants, and the chance influences which may affect animals
and plants in the state of nature. To call these influences ‘‘ natural
selection ’”’ is a misnomer which will not alter the conditions under
which they may produce the desired results. Selection «implies
design ; the powers to which Darwin refers the origin of species can
design nothing. Selection is no doubt the essential principle on
which the raising of breeds is founded, and the subject of breeds is —
Miscellaneous. 225
presented in its true light by Mr. Darwin; but this process of raising
breeds by the selection of favourable subjects is in no way similar to
that which regulates specific differences. Nothing is more remote
from the truth than the attempted parallelism between the breeds of
domesticated animals and the species of wild ones. Did there exist
such a parallelism as Darwin maintains, the difference among the
domesticated breeds should be akin to the differences among wild
species, and afford a clue to determine their relative degree of affinity
by a comparison with the pedigrees of well-known domesticated races.
Again, if there were any such parallelism, the distinctive character-
istics of different breeds should be akin to the differences which exist
between fossil species of earlier periods and those of the same genera
now living. Now let any one familiar with the fossil species of the
genera Bos and Canis compare them with the races of our cattle and
of our dogs; and he will find no correspondence whatever between
them, for the simple reason that they do not owe their existence to
the same causes. It must therefore be distinctly stated that Mr.
Darwin has failed to establish a connexion between the mode of
raising domesticated breeds and the cause or causes to which wild
animals owe their specific differences.
It is true Mr. Darwin states that the close affinity existing among
animals can only be explained by a community of descent, and he
goes so far as to represent these affinities as evidence of such a -
genealogical relationship ; but I apprehend that the meaning of the
words he uses has misled him into the belief that he had found the
clue to phenomena which he does not even seem correctly to under-
stand. There is nothing parallel between the relations of animals
belonging to the same genus or the same family and the relations
between the progeny of common ancestors. In the one case we have
the result of a physiological law regulating reproduction, and in the
other, affinities which no observation has thus far shown to be in any
way connected with reproduction. The most closely allied species of
the same genus, or the different species of closely allied genera, or the
different genera of one and the same natural family, embrace repre-
sentatives which at some period or other of their growth resemble
one another more closely than the nearest blood relations ; and yet
we know that they are only stages of development of different species
distinct from one another at every period of their life. The embryo
of our common freshwater turtle (Chrysemys picta) and the embryo
of our snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) resemble one another
far more than the different species of Chrysemys in their adult state ;
and yet not a single fact can be adduced to show that any one egg
of an animal has ever produced an individual of any species but its
own. A young snake resembles a young turtle or a young bird
much more than any two species of snakes resemble one another ;
and yet they go on reproducing their kinds, and nothing but their
kinds. So that no degree of affinity, however close, can, in the pre-
sent state of our science, be urged as exhibiting any evidence of com-
munity of descent, while the power that imparted all their peculiari-
ties to the primitive eggs of all the species now living side by side
226 Miscellaneous.
could also impart similar peculiarities with similar relations, and all
degrees of relationship, to any number of other species that have
existed. Until, therefore, it can be shown that any one species has
the ability to delegate such specified peculiarities and relations to
any other species or set of species, it is not logical to assume that
such a power is inherent in any animal, or that it constitutes part of
its nature*. We must look to the original power that imparted life
to the first being for the origin of all other beings, however myste-
rious and inaccessible the modes by which all this diversity has been
produced may remain forus. The production of a plausible explana-
tion is no explanation at all, if it does not cover the whole ground.
All attempts to explain the origin of species may be brought under
two categories: viz. Ist, some naturalists admitting that all organized
beings are created, that is to say, endowed from the beginning of
their existence with all their characteristics ; while, 2nd, others assume
that they arise spontaneously. This classification of the different
theories of the origin of species may appear objectionable to the
supporters of the transmutation theory ; but I can perceive no essen-
tial difference between their views and the old idea that animals may
have arisen spontaneously. They differ only in the modes by which
the spontaneous appearance is assumed to be effected; some believe
that physical agents may so influence organized beings as to modify
* them ; this is the view of De Maillet and the ‘ Vestiges of Creation.’
Others believe that the organized beings themselves change in con-
sequence of their own acts, by changing their mode of life, &c. ; this
is the view of Lamarck. Others, still, assume that animals and plants
tend necessarily to improve, in consequence of the struggle for life,
in which the favoured races are supposed to survive; this is the view
lately propounded by Darwin. I believe these theories will, in the
end, all share the fate of the theory of spontaneous generation so
called, as the facts of Nature shall be confronted more closely with
the theoretical assumptions. The theories of De Maillet, Oken, and
Lamarck are already abandoned by those who have adopted the
transmutation theory of Darwin ; and unless Darwin and his followers
succeed in showing that the struggle for life tends to something
beyond favouring the existence of certain individuals over that of
other individuals, they will soon find that they are following a shadow.
* The difficulty of ascertaining the natural limits of some species, and the mis-
takes made by naturalists when describing individual peculiarities as specific, have
nothing to do with the question of the origin of species; and yet Darwin places
great weight, in support of his. theory, upon the differences which exist among
naturalists in their views of species. Some of the metals are difficult to distinguish,
and have frequently been mistaken, and the specific differences of some may be
questioned ; but what could that have to do with the question of the origin of
metals, in the minds of those who may doubt the original difference of metals ?
Nothing more than the blunders of some naturalists in identifying species, with
the origin of species of animals and plants. The great mischief in our science
now lies in the self-complacent confidence with which certain zoologists look
upon a few insignificant lines, called diagnoses, which they have the presumption
to offer as characteristics of species, or, what is still worse, as checks upon others
to secure to themselves a nominal priority. Such a treatment of scientific subjects
is unworthy of our age. :
Miscellaneous. 227
The assertion of Darwin, which has crept into the title of his work,
is, that favoured races are preserved, while all his facts go only to
substantiate the assertion that favoured individuals have a better
chance in the struggle for life than others. But who has ever over-
looked the fact that myriads of individuals of every species constantly
die before coming to maturity? What ought to be shown, if the
transmutation theory is to stand, is that these favoured individuals
diverge from their specific type; and neither Darwin nor anybody
else has furnished a single fact to show that they go on diverging.
The criterion of a true theory consists in the facility with which it
accounts for facts accumulated in the course of long-continued investi-
gations, and for which the existing theories afforded no explanation.
It can certainly not be said that Darwin’s theory will stand by that
test. It would be easy to invent other theories that might account
for the diversity of species quite as well, if not better than Darwin’s
preservation of favoured races. The difficulty would only be to prove
that they agree with the facts of Nature. It might be assumed, for
instance, that any one primary being contained the possibilities of
all those that have followed, in the same manner as the egg of any
animal possesses all the elements of the full-grown individual; but
this would only remove the difficulty one step further back. It
would tell us nothing about the nature of the operation by which the
change is introduced. Since the knowledge we now have, that similar
metamorphoses go on in the eggs of all living beings, has not yet
put us on the track of the forces by which the changes they undergo
are brought about, it is not likely that by mere guesses we shall
arrive at any satisfactory explanation of the very origin of these beings
themselves,
Whatever views are correct concerning the origin of species, one
thing is certain, that as long as they exist they continue to produce,
generation after generation, individuals which differ from one another
only in such peculiarities as relate to their individuality. The great
defect in Darwin’s treatment of the subject of species lies in the total
absence of any statement respecting the features that constitute
individuality. Surely, if individuals may vary within the limits
assumed by Darwin, he was bound first to show that individuality
does not consist of a sum of hereditary characteristics combined with
variable elements not necessarily transmitted in their integrity, but
only of variable elements. That the latter is not the case, stands
recorded in every accurate monograph of all the types of the animal
kingdom upon which minute embryologieal investigations have been
made. It is known that every individual egg undergoes a series of
definite changes before it reaches its mature condition; that every
germ formed in the egg passes through a series of metamorphoses
before it assumes the structural features of the adult; that in this
development the differences of sex may very early become distinct ;
and that all this is accomplished in a comparatively very short time,
extremely short, indeed, in comparison to the immeasurable periods
required by Darwin’s theory to produce any change among species ;
and yet all this takes place without any deviation from the original
228 Miscellaneous.
type of the species, though under circumstances which would seem
most unfavorable to the maintenance of the type. Whatever minor
differences may exist between the products of this succession of
generations, all are individual peculiarities, in no way connected with
the essential features of the species, and therefore as transient as the
individuals ; while the specific characters are for ever fixed. A single
example will prove this. All the robins of North America now living
have been for a short time in existence ; not one of them was alive a
century ago when Linneeus for the first time made known that
species under the name of Turdus migratorius ; and not one of the
eee Wan observed by Linnezeus and his contemporaries was alive when
the Pilgrims of the ‘ Mayflower’ first set foot upon the Rack of Ply-
mouth. Where was the species at these different periods? and where
is it now? Certainly nowhere but in the individuals alive for the
time being ; but not in any single one of them, for that one must be
either a male or a female and not the species; not in a pair of them,
for the species exhibits its peculiarities in its mode of breeding, in
its nest, In its eggs, in its young, as much as in the appearance of
the adult ; not in all the individuals of any particular district, for the
geographical distribution of a species over its whole area forms also
. part of its specific characters*. A species is only known when its
whole history has been ascertained; and that history is recorded in
the life of individuals through successive generations. The same
kind of argument might be adduced from every existing species, and
with still greater force by a reference to those species already known
to the ancients.
Let it not be objected that the individuals of successive generations
have presented marked differences among themselves; for these
‘differences, with all the monstrosities that may have occurred during
these countless generations, have passed away with the individuals,
as individual peculiarities, and the specific characteristics alone have
been preserved, together with all that distinguishes the genus, the
family, the order, the class, and the branch to which the individual
belonged. Moreover, all this has been maintained through a succes-
sion of repeated changes, amounting in each individual to the whole
range of transformations through which an individual passes, from
the time it is individualized as an egg, to the time it is itself capable
of reproducing its kind, and perhaps with all the intervening phases
of an unequal production of males and females, of sterile individuals,
of dwarfs, of giants, &c. &c., during which there were millions of
chances for a deviation from the type. Does this not prove that
while individuals are perishable, they transmit, generation after
generation, all that is specific or generic, or, in one word, typical in
* We are so much accustomed to see animals reproducing themselves, genera-
tion after generation, that the fact no longer attracts our attention, and the mystery
involved in it no longer excites our admiration. But there is certainly no more
marvellous law in all Nature than that which regulates this regular succession.
And upon this law the maintenance of species depends; for observation teaches
us that all that is not individual peculiarity is unceasingly and integrally repro-
duced, while all that constitutes individuality as such constantly disappears.
Miscellaneous. 229
them, to the exclusion of every individual peculiarity, which passes
away with them, and that therefore, while individuals alone have a
material existence, species, genera, families, orders, classes, and
branches of the animal kingdom exist only as categories of thought in
the Supreme Intelligence, but, as such, have as truly an independent
existence and are as unvarying as thought itself after it has once been
expressed ?
Returning, after this digression, to the question of individuality
among Acalephs, we meet here pheenomena far more complicated than
among higher animals. Individuality, as far as it depends upon
material isolation, is complete and absolute in all the higher animals,
and there maintained by genetic transmission, generation after genera-
tion. Individuality, in that sense, exists only in comparatively few
of the Radiates. Among Acalephs it is ascertained only for the
Ctenophoree and some Discophorze. In others, the individuals born
from eggs end by dividing into a number of distinct individuals. In
others still, the successive individuals derived from a primary one
remain connected to form compound communities. We must there-
fore distinguish different kinds and different degrees of individuality,
and may call hereditary individuality that kind of independent
existence manifested in the successive evolutions of a single egg, pro-
ducing a single individual, as is observed in all the higher animals.
We may call derivative or consecutive individuality that-kind-of
independence resulting from an individualization of parts of the pro-
duct of a single egg. We have derivative individuals among the
Nudibranchiate Mollusks, whose eggs produce singly, by a process of
complete segmentation, several independent individuals. We observe
a similar pheenomenon among those Acalephs the young of which
(Scyphistoma) ends in producing, by transverse division (Strobila),
a number of independent free Meduse (Ephyree). We have it also
among the Hydroids which produce free Medusee. Next, we must
distinguish secondary individuality, which is inherent to those indi-
viduals arising as buds from other individuals, and remaining con-
nected with them. This condition prevails in all the immovable
Polyparia and Hydraria: and I say intentionally, in the immovable
ones ; for, in the movable communities, such as Renilla, Pennatula,
&ec., among Polyps, and all the Siphonophore among Acalephs, we
must still further distinguish another kind of individuality, which I
know not how to call properly, unless the name of complex individu-
- ality may be applied to it. In complex individuality a new element
is introduced, that is not noticeable in the former case. The indi-
viduals of the community are not only connected together, but, under
given circumstances, they act together as if they were one individual,
while at the same time each individual may perform acts of its own.
As to the specific differences observed among Acalephs, there is as
great a diversity between them as between their individuals. In some
types of this class the species are very uniform,—all the individuals
belonging to one and the same species resembling one another very
closely, and exhibiting hardly any difference among themselves,
except such as arises from age. This identity of the individuals of
230 Miscellaneous.
one and the same species is particularly striking among the Cteno-
phoree. In this order there are not even sexual differences among
the individuals, as they are all hermaphrodites. In the Discophoree
proper a somewhat greater diversity prevails. In the first place, we
notice male and female individuals; and the difference between the
sexes is quite striking in some genera, as, for instance, in Aurelia.
Next there occur frequent deviations among them, in the normal
number of their parts,—their body consisting frequently of one or two
spheromers morethan usual, sometimes even of double the normalnum-
ber, or of a few less. And yet, year after year, the same Discophoree
reappear upon our shores, with the same range of differences among
their individuals. Among Hydroids polymorphism prevails to a greater
or less extent, besides the differences arising from sex. Few species
have only one kind of individuals. Mostly the cycle of individual
differences embraces two distinct types of individuals, one recalling
the peculiarities of common Hydree, the other those of Meduse ;
but even the Hydra type of one and the same species may exhibit
more or less diversity, there being frequently two kinds of Hydre
united in one and the same community, and sometimes even a larger
number of heterogeneous Hydre. And this is equally true, though
to a less extent, of the Medusa type. Yet among Siphonophoree
there are generally at least two kinds of Meduse in one and the
same community. But, notwithstanding this polymorphism among
the individuals of one and the same community genetically connected
together, each successive generation reproduces the same kinds of
heterogeneous individuals, and nothing but individuals linked together
in the same way. Surely we have here a much greater diversity
of individuals, born one from the other, than is exhibited by the
most diversified breeds of our domesticated animals; and yet all
these heterogeneous individuals remain true to their species, in one
case as in the other, and do not afford the slightest evidence of a
transmutation of species.
Would the supporters of the fanciful theories lately propounded
only extend their studies a little beyond the range of domesticated
animals, would they investigate the alternate generations of the
Acalephs, the extraordinary modes of development of the Helminth,
the reproduction of the Salpze, &c., they would soon learn that there
are in the world far more astonishing pheenomena, strictly circum-
scribed between the natural limits of unvarying species, than the
slight differences produced by the intervention of man among do-
mesticated animals, and perhaps cease to be so confident as they
seem to be that these differences are trustworthy indications of the
variability of species. For my own part, I must emphatically declare
that I do not know a single fact tending to show that species do vary
in any way, while it is true that the individuals of one and the same
Species are more or less polymorphous. The circumstance that
naturalists may find it difficult to trace the natural limits of any one
particular species, or the mistakes they may make in their attempts
to distinguish them, has nothing whatsoever to do with the question
of their origin.
Miscellaneous. 231
There is another feature of the species of Acalephs which deserves
particularly to be noticed. All these animals are periodical in their
appearance, and last for a short period in their perfect state of
development. In our latitude most Medusze make their appearance
as Ephyree, early in the spring, and rapidly enlarge to their full size.
In September and October they lay their eggs, and disappear; the
young hatched from the eggs move about, as Planule, for a short
time, and then become attached, as Scyphistomes, and pass the
winter in undergoing their Strobila metamorphosis. The Ctenophoree
appear also very early, and lay their eggs in the autumn, passing the
winter as young, and growing to their full size towards the beginning
of the summer. Among the Hydroids there is more diversity in
their periodicity. Hydraria are found all the year round; but the
Medusa-buds, the free Medusze, and the Medusaria make their ap-
pearance in different seasons in different species. Some bring forth
Medusa-buds and free Medusze or Medusaria during winter; others
(and, in our latitude, this is the case with by far the largest number
of the Hydroids) produce their Medusa-brood in the spring; a few
breed later, in the summer or in the autumn; so that, notwithstand-
ing the regularity of their periodical return, Acalephs may be studied,
in some condition or other, during the whole year.
When considering Individuality and Specific Differences as mani-
fested in the class of Acalephs, I have taken an opportunity of show-.
ing, upon general grounds, how futile the arguments are upon which
the theory of transmutation of species is founded. Having now
shown that that class is circumscribed within definite limits, I may
be permitted to add here a few more objections to that theory, based
chiefly upon special grounds connected with the characteristics of
classes. If there is anything striking in the features which distin-
guish classes, it is the definiteness of their structural peculiarities ;
and this definiteness goes on increasing, with new and additional
qualifications, as we pass from the class characters to those which
mark the orders, the families, the genera, and the species. Grant-
ing, for the sake of argument, that organized beings living at a later
period may have originated by a gradual change of those of earlier
periods, one of the most characteristic features of all organized beings
remains totally unexplained by the various theories brought forward
to explain that change—the definiteness of their respective groups,
be they ever so comprehensive or ever so limited, combined with the
greatest inequality in their numeric relations. There exist a few
thousand Mammalia and Reptiles, and at least three times their
number of Birds and Fishes. There may be twenty thousand Mol-
lusks ; but there are over a hundred thousand Insects, and only a few
thousand Radiates. And yet the limits of the class of Insects are as
well defined as those of any other class, with the single exception of the
class of Birds, which is unquestionably the most definite in its natural
boundaries. Now, the supporters of the transmutation theory may
shape their views in whatever way they please to suit the require-
ments of the theory instead of building the theory upon the facts of
Nature; they never can make it appear that the definiteness of the
characters of the class of Birds is the result of a common descent of
232 Miscellaneous.
all birds; for the first bird must have been brother or cousin to
some other animal that was not a bird, since there are other animals
besides birds in this world, to no one of which any bird bears as
close a relation as it bears to its own class. The same argument
applies to every other class; and as to the facts, they are fatal to
such an assumption, for geology teaches us that among the oldest
inhabitants of our globe known, there are representatives of nine
distinct classes of animals, which by no possibility can be descendants
of one another, since they are contemporaries.
The same line of argument and the same class of facts forbid the
assumption that either the representatives of one and the same order,
or those of one of the same family, or those of one of the same genus,
should be considered as lineal descendants of a common stock ; for
orders, families, and genera are based upon different categories of
characters, and not upon more or less extensive characters of the
same kind, as I have shown years ago (vol. i. pp. 150-163), and
numbers of different kinds of representatives of: these various groups
make their appearance simultaneously in all the successive geological
periods. There appear together Corals and Echinoderms of different
families and of different genera in each successive geological forma-
tion ; and this is equally true for Bryozoa, Brachiopods, and Lamelli-
branchiata, for Trilobites and the other Crusffcea, in fact for the
representatives of all the classes of the animal kingdom, making due
allowance for the period of the first appearance of each; and at all
times and in all classes the representatives of these different kinds of
groups are found to present the same definiteness in their charac-
teristics and limitation. Were the transmutation theory true, the
geological record should exhibit an uninterrupted succession of types
blending gradually into one another. The fact is, that throughout
all geological times each period is characterized by definite specific
types, belonging to definite genera, and these to definite families,
referable to definite orders, constituting definite classes and definite
branches, built upon definite plans. Until, therefore, the facts of
Nature are shown to have been mistaken by those who have collected
them, and to have a different meaning from.that now generally
assigned to them, I shall consider the transmutation theory as a
scientific mistake, untrue in its facts, unscientific in its method, and
mischievous in its tendency. — Silliman’s American Journal for
July 1860.
Note on the Fox of Japan. By Arruur Apams, F.L.S.
The Fox of Japan is quite a ‘distinct species from that of China,
specimens of which I procured on the banks of the Wusung River,
near its junction with the Yang-tze-kiang. The Japanese species,
four skins of which were obtained by Mr. Bedwell from Niegata in
Niphon, has black ears lined with white, and a black spot on the
upper surface near the base of the tail. The fur on the neck and
back is ferruginous, and is much softer and longer than that of the
Foxes of Europe and China ; and the brush is also longer and thicker.
—Proc. Zool. Soc. March 27, 1860.
THE ANNALS
AND
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
[THIRD SERIES. ]
No. 34. OCTOBER 1860.
XXXI.—On the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
By Epwarp Brytx *.
Ar least four distinct species—if the Dshiggitai or Kyang
(Equus hemionus of Pallas) be considered to differ specifically
from the Koulan or Ghor-khur (E. onager vel E. asinus onager
of Pallas)—have been confounded under the general denomina-
tion of “wild Asses ;” and two of the four have likewise been
designated “wild Horses”—a name to which they are less
entitled, as all agree in exhibiting the few structural distinctions
that characterize the Asinine sub-group apart from the Equine
or Caballine.
The systematic names bestowed by Pallas are so far unfortu-
nate that they do not apply to the particular species which were
known by them to the ancient Greeks and Romans—one of
which latter has only recently been discriminated by Professor
Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, by the name Equus hemippus. This
(from its habitat) is necessarily the Hemionus vel Hemippus, or
“wild Mule” of the ancients; whilst their Onager, as the name
implies, refers as clearly to the veritable wild E. Asinus, which
to this day, as formerly, exists in numerous troops in north-east
Africa, if not also in the southern parts of Arabia and the island
of Socotra. The Hemippus of modern nomenclature is the
representative of the present group in Syria, Mesopotamia, and
the northern portion of Arabia, where it is designated by Col.
Chesney the “wild Horse,” as distinguished from his “ wild
Ass” of Southern Arabia; and it is the species figured in Wag-
ner’s ‘Saugethiere’ (1856), pl. 33, by the erroneous name of
Equus asinus onager of Pallas, from a living individual formerly
in the Knowsley menagerie.
It should be especially noted that the great naturalist Pallas
described his E. hemionus from personal observation of the ani-
* From the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1859.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. vi. 16
234 Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
mal; whereas he describes his 4. onager only at second-hand,
having never seen a specimen. Had he personally inspected
the latter, it is exceedingly doubtful if he would have recognized
the two as distinct species, or have considered the western ani-
mal to be the real Onager or aboriginal wild Ass. In his account
of the Dshiggitai he remarks :—“On ne doit pas le confondre
avec ’Ane des steppes nommé Koulan par les Kirguis occiden-
taux; les détails que je me suis procurés sur ce dernier m’ont
convaincu quwil étoit Pane sauvage, ’Onagre des anciens. Le
Koulan se tient par troupeau dans les landes montagneuses de la
Tatarie occidentale, comme le Dshiggitai dans les déserts de la
Mongolie*.”’ Curiously enough, we at present know the Dshig-
gitai or Kyang more as a mountain animal, in the elevated wilds
of Tibet, and the Koulan or Ghor-khur more as an inhabitant
of the sandy desert.
The late Professor H. Walker referred the Tibetan Kyang to
Equus hemionus of Pallas; and the Ghor-khur of this country
is even more satisfactorily referable to E. onager of Pallas,
figured by Gmelin; but Professor Walker committed the extra-
ordinary mistake of figuring and describing an Indian Ghor-
khur for a Kyang+, so that the alleged distinctions which he
has pointed out are valueless. However this mistake originated,
there is no doubt whatever of the fact. The animal was pro-
cured and sent down to Calcutta by the late Mr. Thomason,
Governor of the N. W. Provinces, who was just in the position
to obtain a Ghor-khur from the western deserts, but scarcely a
Tibetan Kyang. No doubt it was sold to him as a Puharia or
“ mountain ” Ghor-khur ; for this epithet is continually applied
by the natives of India to any creature foreign to their own
province, as the experience of readers who have been in the
habit of purchasing animals in this country will readily testify.
By what route it reached Mr. Thomason we are uninformed, as
also how it came to be accompanied by a Himalayan pony, from
which it was inseparable; but having compared Dr. Walker’s
figure and description with stuffed specimens of undoubted
Kyangs, and with three living undoubted Ghor-khurs now in
Calcutta, the conclusion here arrived at is irresistible.
* Voyages de Pallas, iv. p. 305 (French edition, 1793). In p. 309 I
observe a statement which is worthy of especial notice, as being made b
Professor Pallas. The existence of the pouch of the Great Bustard (Otis
tarda) is denied by Professor Owen, though asserted by the Hon. Walter
Elliot tobe a characteristic of the Great Bustard of India (Hupodotis
Edwardsii). Of the former, however, Pallas thus writes: “ Cet animal a
un petit trou sous la langue, qui sert d’ouverture 4 une bourse aqueuse,
qui est de la grosseur d’un ceuf d’oie, et qui pése souvent plus de trente
livres. On ne connoit point ici la Petite Outarde.”
+ Journ, Asiat. Soc. xvii. pt. 2. p. 1, pl. 1.
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 235
While identifying the Kyang with the Dshiggitai, however,
Professor Walker little imagined that he was making the same
mistake that he considered M. Frédéric Cuvier and others to
have done, in referring the Ghor-khur also to H. hemionus. I
find that the Ghor-khur accords to the minutest particular with
the Koulan or Z. onager of Pallas, figured by Professor Gmelin
from an occasional variety bearing a short humeral stripe (which
is not rare also in Indian specimens of either sex*), from the
presence of which the identity of this animal with the true Ass
has been generally, but erroneously, inferred. Of the two indi-
viduals then at St. Petersburg, which are described by Professor
Gmelin, it may be remarked that his male only had the shoulder-
stripe, and his female not a trace of it; and he was informed
that individuals had been seen with a second shoulder-stripe.
This I have myself observed in the domestic Ass, and even a
third and fourth, more or less developed—the additional ones
being of variable length, and given off along the back as far as
the loins,—though it is very rarely that more than a single stripe
occurs, and I have seen only one domestic Ass without the
shoulder-stripe. Many of our Indian donkeys have also well-
defined transverse bars on the limbs, which are permanent for
life (not, as described by Professor T. Bell, peculiar to the foal) ;
they are often black and strongly contrasting, placed rather
distantly apart, and they vary much in length. It is remark-
able that some races of horses also have the same markings.
The well-known “ eel-back dun” of England is so named from
its black dorsal stripe bearing a supposed resemblance to an
eel; the Indian Kattyawar (or rather, Cutch Horse) has gene-
rally, in addition, the shoulder-stripe and Zebra-markings on the
limbs black and very distinct and conspicuous; and the same
may be observed of many of the Shan ponies from the indepen-
dent states north of Burma, many of which are brought annually
to Maulmein, and not a few thence to Calcutta. I have seen
one of these, of the pale drab colour usual in the Ass, with the
cross and the stripes on the limbs deep black and most conspi-
cuous, the dorsal stripe being continued down the tail just as in
the Asinine series; yet in all other respects it was a handsome
robust pony, with copious equine mane and tail, showing no
approximation whatever to the Asinine group in its structure or
voice. ‘Those who believe that the domestic Horse is a com-
pound species derived from a plurality of aboriginal races may
* Jacquemont notices such a specimen, which he saw in Barrackpore
Park (Voyage dans l’Inde, i. 170; vide also Journ. Asiat. Soc. xxvi. 240).
In Pallas’s ‘ Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,’ which I have seen since penning
the above, there is a coloured figure of EL. onager, but much too rufous in
the particular copy to accord with the description. a
1
236 Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
well infer that they perceive, in the markings described, indica-
tions of certain of those races*,
In some examples of the Ghor-khur (as that figured by Dr.
Walker, from a drawing from life by Dr. Cantor+), there are no
traces whatever of markings on the limbs; others show slight
traces, more or less distinct, chiefly at the joints; and others,
again, have the entire limbs strongly marked: but the stripes
do not resemble those often seen in domestic donkeys, or in the
races of Horse referred to; in general they are wavy lines of
fawn, often more or less crossed or reticulate, but in some more
regular and Zebra-like, upon observing which I remembered the
description in Bell’s ‘ Travels in Tartary ’ (i. p. 224) of the “ wild
Asses” found in the country of the Tzulimm Tartars, “the hair
of which is waved, white and brown, like that of a tiger:” he
“had scen many of their skins.” So far as the limbs are con-
cerned, this description is quite intelligible with reference to
many Indian examples of the Ghor-khur.
It would appear that these limb-markings are never seen in
the Kyang; but a narrow black ring adjoining the hoof would
seem to be constant in this animal, as was first pointed out to
me by Major. Robert C. Tytler, the proprietor of the three
Ghor-khurs now in Calcutta. This mark is also more or less
developed in the Ghor-khur, but is by no means conspicuous
in either race. In two stuffed specimens of the Kyang, old and
young, in the Society’s museum, there is no black shoulder-
stripe, but in place of it the coat is there distinctly of a deeper
shade of hue, so that the stripe is faintly indicated, as is best
seen from a moderate distance. The same is observable, when
especially looked for, in an unmounted skm. In one only of
Major Tytler’s three Ghor-khurs there is a small narrow black
* Tt does not follow, because the hybrid offspring of the Horse and Ass
is mostly infertile (the male mule perhaps always), that distinct species of
the Equine or Caballine group, or of the Asinine group, respectively, should
not produce a prolific intermediate race, hybrid with hybrid. In the Lon-
don Zoological Gardens there was formerly a triple hybrid, the sire of
which was a Quagga, and the dam a cross between the Ass and Zebra.
The curious animal figured by Col. C. H. Smith, in his volume on the
Solidungula in the ‘ Naturalist’s Library,’ under the name Asinus hippagrus
(vel equuleus), appears to me to be a Chinese hinny, or offspring of the
Horse and she-Ass. Its stripes might have been derived from either
parent, if not (and very probably) from both of them. Col. Smith also
figures what he terms an “eel-back dun” from the Ukraine, with the
humeral cross-stripe, but no limb-markings; in the text, however, he
repeatedly alludes to those markings as occurring sometimes in the “ eel-
‘yack dun” race.
+ Journ. Asiat. Soe. xvii. pt. 2. p. 1, pl. 1. This published figure is
bad, whatever the drawing may have been. There is no anatomy about it,
and the grace and beautiful contour of the creature are not at all pourtrayed.
The head in particular, and the haunch, are exceedingly ill-represented.
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 237
line, on one side only of the animal, where the cross occurs in
some individuals. In another Ghor-khur, which I saw in the
Surrey Zoological Gardens, there was an incipient cross-stripe
about an inch long, on one side, and still less (the merest indi-
cation of it) on the other side. In the individual which Jacque-
mont saw in Barrackpore Park, he remarks that there was “ une
ligne noire transversale sur les épaules.”” Whether this cross-
stripe is ever seen in the Hemippus remains to be ascertained.
Sir R. Kerr Porter describes a “ wild Ass” without even the
dorsal stripe; and as he completed his sketch of it from a
second individual which he killed, our incredulity should there-
fore abate somewhat, even though his account remains uncor-
roborated to this day. All other observers seem to agree in
describing the Persian wild Ass to have the usual longitudinal
dorsal streak. Thus in Morier’s ‘Second Journey through
Persia’ (ii. p. 201) we read, “The wild Ass is of a light mouse-
colour, with a dark streak over its shoulder and down its back,”
which may imply that a cross-stripe was also observed. Porter,
however, states, ‘‘ The mane was short and black, as was also a
tuft which terminated his tail; no line whatever ran along his
back, or crossed his shoulders, as are seen in the tame species.”
Such an animal does not appear to have been met with by any
other person! Prof. St.-Hilaire suspects that it will yet prove to
be a distinct species. As an example of the vague misuse of
names in which many authors indulge, it may here be remarked
that in Kinneir’s ‘ Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire’
(p. 42) these animals are actually styled “Zebras or wild
Asses |’?
The voice of Major Tytler’s Ghor-khurs is a loud, shrieking
bray. It is decidedly different from that of an animal which [
heard in the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, which also was
a distinct bray, but much less harsh and discordant than that of
a donkey. This animal was probably a Hemippus; and Prof.
Is. St.-Hilaire remarks that the voice of the Hemippus is notably
different from that of the ‘“ Hémione,”’ meaning the Ghor- khur.
Also that “le draire de nos Hémiones indiens, si lon veut se
servir pour eux de ce mot, différe considérablement du braire de
VAne, soit domestique, soit sauvage*.” When and where the
distinguished Professor heard the bray of the wild Ass does not
appear on the record; but the probability is that it differs little,
if at all, from that of the domestic animal.
The Kyang, according to Major A. Cunningham, “ neighs
like a horse ;” and I suspect that it was upon his authority that
Dr. Walker asserted the same, and that he had never heard the
* Comptes Rendus, December 31, 1855, p. 1224.
238 Mr. KE. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
voice of the Ghor-khur which he described. Again, M. Hue
remarks of the Kyang’s voice, that “le hennissement qu’ils font
entendre est vibrant, clair et sonore*.”? On the other hand,
Moorcroft asserts that “ his cry is more like braying than neigh-
ing};” and in an admirable letter, signed “ Norman Leslie,”
which appeared in a late No. of the ‘ Frieud of India’ news-
paper, giving an account of a Tibetan tour and of the sport
obtained in the course of it (including the “bagging” of a
noble specimen of the wild Yak), the following passage occurs
relative to the Kyang, which is well worthy of citation :—
“As the spectator stands on the elevated land by the water-
shed, he sees to the north the course of the Sutlej running from
east to west through a table-land which is 14,000 feet high and
intersected with ravines; the Himalayas to the south look but
an ordinary range of hills, scarcely so elevated in appearance as
the range beyond the Sutlej which bounds the view, and in
which to the eastward the peak of Kylas rises conspicuous. On
the plains between the ravines herds of Kyang feed; they are
more asinine than equine in appearance, are of a light red colour,
with white belly and legs, and have the hog-mane stripe down
the back, and tail of an ass; the head is disproportionately
large; and they bray instead of neighing.”
I have also been assured by actual observers, familiar with
the voice of the Kyang, that it is “as much like neighing as
braying ;” but this I do not comprehend. It must surely be
either one or the other. A neigh is a tremulous expiration only;
a bray consists of alternate expirations and inspirations. And
there can be little doubt that the Kyang will prove to resemble
the other asinine quadrupeds in braying and not neighing,
notwithstanding the highly respected testimony of Major
Cunningham f. :
The resemblance of the two animals is indeed exceedingly close,
again notwithstanding the assertion to the contrary by Major
Cunningham, Dr. Hooker, and others—greater even than that
of either of them to the Hemippus, which has a conspicuously
smaller head and shorter ears. The size and figure of the two
* Souvenirs d’un Voyage dans la Tatarie, le Thibet, et la Chine, ii. 221.
+ Moorcroft’s Travels, 1. 443.
{ I have never heard the voice of the Quagga from which that species
derives its name. That of the Ghor-khur is considered by Major Tytler to
resemble exceedingly the ery of a mule. The truth might, indeed, be ana-
tomically determined. Thus Cuvier remarks of the Ass: “Sa voix rauque
(appelée braire) tient & deux petites cavités particuliéres du fond de son
larynx.” (R.A. i. 253.) Pennant, following Pallas, remarks of the Tshiggetai,
that “their neighing is deeper and louder than that of the Horse,”’—a de-
scription which most assuredly cannot be reconciled with the shrieking
bray of the Ghor-khur.
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 289
would seem to be absolutely alike, with a heavy but well-formed
head, longish ears, rather a short neck, and body and limbs of
exquisite ¢ournure, indicative of extraordinary fleetness. I have
not seen the living Kyang or Djiggetai; but the croup is di-
stinctly higher than the withers in the living Ghor-khur or
Koulan. The colour of the Kyang is much deeper and more
rufous than that of the Ghor-khur, and there is considerably
more of white about the latter. The Ghor-khur is of the isabel-
line or sandy hue of most animals of the desert, but with a
distinct rufescent tinge; its dorsal stripe would seem to be ge-
nerally much broader than in the Kyang, though varying in
breadth in different individuals; but it may be remarked that
this stripe varies much in width in the domestic Donkey, at
least in the diminutive Indian race of Asses, being in some in-
dividuals of the latter quite as broad as in any Ghor-khur: this
mesial stripe, however, seems to be broader down the tail in the
Kyang, and is continued down to the black terminal tuft ;
whereas in the Ghor-khur (perhaps with exceptions) the line is
narrow on the tail, and terminates at some distance above the
tuft. Again, in the Ghor-khur the dorsal stripe (which in both
is of a dark chocolate-colour rather than black) is more or less
conspicuously bordered with white (as likewise in the Hemippus),
and this white extends broadly and very conspicuously towards
the tail and along the hind margin of the buttocks, where, in
the Kyang (as also, I since find, in some Ghor-khurs), the hue
of the upper parts is only moderately diluted. Again, there is
a much stronger tendency in the Ghor-khur for the white of the
under parts to extend upwards from the flanks, in some so much
as to join that. bordering the broad dorsal streak, thus insu-
lating the isabelline hue of the haunch; and the zebra-markings
of the limbs, common (though not invariably present) in the
Ghor-khur, have been denied to be ever traceable in the Kyang,
and they certainly are not so in three skins of the latter under
examination. In conformity with the general tendency to the
extension of the white, as before remarked, that of the muzzle
also reaches higher in the Ghor-khur than in either the Kyang
or Hemippus; and lastly, the humeral cross, when apparent,
shows itself differently, being faintly visible in full development
and placed very forward in the Kyang, while in the Ghor-khur,
when it does occur, it is a black cross more or less developed,
though never probably to so great an extent as in the true
Ass.
Moorcroft, alluding to the Quagga, remarks that the Kyang
is “ without stripes ” (evidently meaning such as the Quagga ex-
hibits), “‘ except a reported one along each side of the back to the
tail. These were distinctly seen in a foal, but were not distin-
240 Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
guished in adults*.” In the Asiatic Society’s stuffed speci-
mens, especially when viewed from some distance, the duli
ruddy-brown or rufous-chestnut hue (approaching to bay, espe-
cially on the head) of the upper parts becomes gradually but
distinctly darker on the flanks, to where it abruptly contrasts
with the white of the belly; and in an adult the jowl and sides
of the neck are white, reaching nearly up to the mane at the
setting-on of the head, whence the brown above gradually widens
backward to the shoulder; the white of the under parts also
ascends above the e/bow-joint, and posterior to the very dull
indication of the shoulder-cross, which is not darker than where
the body-hue contrasts with the white of the flanks. The stuffed
foal is generally a trifle darker, and a little different in the rela-
tive extension of its shades,—the dorsal stripe being also less
sharply defined, though only in consequence of the hair being
longer. No doubt individuals vary more or less, like individual
Ghor-khurs.
Comparing the hoofs together, the only difference that I can |
perceive consists in the fact that the Kyang-skins before me are
those of wi/d animals, with the hoofs duly worn by constant ac-
tion; whereas those of a Ghor-khur, belonging formerly to a
captive individual, are much less worn, and accordingly are not
so shapely. The limb-bones present no difference whatever. In
the skulls the only diversity that I can perceive may be fully
accounted for by disparity of age. We have the skull of a ma-
ture female Kyang, with its last molars long in wear; and this
corresponds with Major Cunningham’s figures of the skull of a
male Kyang+. With these I compare that of an adolescent
inale Ghor-khur, with the penultimate molars just coming into
wear, the last being enclosed within their sockets, the two fore-
most deciduary premolars (on each side above and below) about
to be replaced, and a medial pair of permanent incisors (above
and below) just passing through the gums. A Horse at this
stage of development would be reckoned as 24 years old. At
this particular age, I can perceive no further difference than can
be accounted for by mcomplete development on the part of the
immature Ghor-khur f.
Having thus elaborately compared them, it is impossible to
* Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, i. 443.
+ Ladak, &c., pl. 6, p. 195.
t Since the above was in type, the Asiatic Society has received from
Major Lumsden, late in charge of the Kandahar Mission, an imperfect
skin and a skull of an adolescent male Ghor-khur from the vicinity of
Kandahar. Its last molars were just coming into wear, corresponding to
about four years old in the Horse. The skin shows the short summer
vesture, and is of the same cream-colour or light isabelline hue as Major
Tytler’s three living specimens—the true desert colouring ; and this hue
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 241
agree with Dr. J. D. Hooker when he asserts that the Kyang
“ differs widely from the ‘ wild Ass’ of Persia, Sindh, and Belu-
chistan,” although “ undoubtedly the same as the Siberian ani-
mal.” He adds that ‘it resembles the Ass more than the Horse,
from its size, heavy head, small limbs, thin tail, and the stripe
over the shoulder [!]. The flesh is eaten, and much liked. The
Kyang-lah mountains are so named from their being a great
resort of this creature*.” Trebeck’s remarks on the figure of
the Kyang, as quoted by Cunningham, apply alike to either
race. The accomplished botanist cited would most assuredly
not recognize as distinct species two plants from different re-
gions which differed so very slightly from each other as the
Ghor-khur and the Kyang differ in the animal kingdom. In-
deed, so far as I can discover, the difference is only in colouring,
and this merely a difference of shades of hue and the relative
extension of them +!
suffuses the caudal region, which in Major Tytler’s animals is conspicuously
much whiter: the mesial dark line is very slight, almost evanescent, down
the tail, in which respect all the Ghor-khurs differ from all the Kyangs
under examination; and this stripe is not broader upon the croup than in
an ordinary Donkey : there are no traces of markings on the limbs. The
skull is unfortunately abnormal, bemg unsymmetrical and curiously de-
viating from the straight line—to the left at the occiput, and to the right
at the muzzle. The nasal bones are more compressed than in the Kyang-
skull; but this difference does not exist in Major Tytler’s younger Ghor-
khur-skull, nor certainly in his three living animals, so far as a judgment,
can be formed on careful examination of them. There is an obvious
deformity in the shape of the lower jaw, the rami of which approximate
almost to contact underneath for a considerable portion of their length,
and not quite symmetrically.
The only equine skull in the Calcutta Medical College is catalogued as
that of a Horse; but it exhibits the true asinine contour, and is nearly as
large as that of the adult Kyang. I do not think that it is a mule-skull,
but rather that it belonged to a fine specimen of the large Levantine race
of domestic Asses, which is occasionally met with in the north-west of
India, chiefly beyond Delhi. Had it been the skull of a wild animal, it
would probably have been registered as such; and moreover, as a general
rule, there is a considerable quantity of dark incrustation on the teeth of
wild grazing animals, which I think is never very observable on those of
domestic beasts : in the present instance, this is exhibited by the skull of a
wild Kyang and that of a wild Ghor-khur under examination, and in no skull
of domestic Horse or Ass, nor in the dubious Medical College specimen.
* Himalayan Journal, ii. 172.
_ + Vide a subsequent notice of the Ghor-khur, p. 242, where individuals
are noticed of a very dark colour! But the Dshiggetai, as described by
Pallas and Pennant, does not quite satisfactorily agree in colouring with
the Tibetan Kyang! ‘Le poil est d’un jaune rembruni, assez clair.
Le nez et Pintérieur des membres sont d’un jaune roux ” (Pallas, Voyage).
Pennant also, translating from the German, writes: “‘The colour of the
upper parts of the body a light yellowish-grey, growing paler towards the
sides. Buttocks white, as are the inside of the limbs and belly.” This
colouring really applies better to the Ghor-khur.
242 Mr. KE. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
As regards the geographical distribution of the Kyang or
Djiggetai, it does not appear that aught has been added to our
knowledge since the time of Pallas; and the same may be re-
marked of the distribution of the Ghor-khur or Koulan, except-
ing that the proper habitat of the Hemippus has to be subtracted
from that of the Koulan, and the supposed migratory habits of
the latter are not confirmed by subsequent observation. In the
depth of a Khiva winter, this animal was observed in numerous
herds near the western extremity of Lake Aral, by Major James
Abbott, who remarks that he “ascended some high land covered
with snow. Wind scarcely endurable. We every day see herds
of wild Asses, and flocks of the Saiga Antelope. I counted
800 wild Asses in a single herd *.” According to Lieut. Irwin,
it is “ common in Persia, the western parts of Khorassan, and
the plains of Turkistan, from which he extends north into the
Russian dominions and the centre of Asia. A few are kept by
the Ymacks, more for curiosity than use+.” Southward, they
are still numerous in the parched and rugged deserts of Belu-
chistan, which, however, are scarcely hotter than the country
about the Aral in summer: there are many of them in the Pdt
or desert between Asni and the hills, west of the Indus, above
Mithur-kote. ‘In this desert,” remarks a recent writer, “ they
are to be found wandering pretty well throughout the year; but
in the early summer, when the grass and the water in the pools
have dried up from the hot winds (which are here terrific), the
ereater number (if not all) of the Ghor-khurs migrate to the
hills for grass and water. Some are probably to be found in
the hills throughout the year, for among them are sandy plains
of greater or less extent. The foaling season is in June, July,
and August, when the Beluchis ride down and catch numbers of
foals, finding a ready sale in the cantonments for them, as they
are taken down on speculation to Hindustan. They also shoot
great numbers of full-grown ones for food, the ground in places
in the desert being very favourable for stalking. .. . Some are
beautifully striped on the legs; many are mottled. J have seen
one or two of a very dark colour. They have not generally the
stripe on the shoulder, though I think I have seen some with it
slightly marked{.” Eastward of the Indus, this animal appears
to be fast verging on extermination ; and I am assured that one
herd only is left in the Bikdnir desert, where the foals are often
run down; and Major Tytler’s specimens are from this locality.
There are still a few also in the Runn of Cutch$. “The wild
* Narrative of a Journey from Herat to Khiva, &e., i. 23.
+ Journ. Asiat. Soc. viii. 1008.
t India Sporting Review, n. s. ii. 172.
§ From information obtained by Major Tytler, it appears that the
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 243
Ass of Cutch and the north of Guzrat,” remarked Col. Sykes
in 1885, ‘‘is not found further south in India than Deesa, on
the banks of the Bunnas river, in lat. about 23° 30! ; nor have
I heard of it to the eastward of the 75° of longitude on the
southern side of the Himalaya. In Cutch and northern Guzrat
it frequents the salt deserts and the open plains of the Opur,
Jaysulmir, and Bikanir.” Again, Masson, in his ‘ Narrative of
a Journey to Kalat’ (published in 1848), remarks that “ the
Ghor-khur, or ‘wild Ass,’ was formerly to be found on the
Dasht Giran, and in Ghurgh’ina, but has disappeared of late
years. It is still occasionally seen about Kharfn. It also
ranges the plain of Dalbanding, on the road from Nushké to
Jalk. South-easterly of Kaldt, it is said to be found on the
Pat of Shikarpur, between Tambu and Rojan.”
To the west of the range of the Ghor-khur lies that of Asinus
hemippus, or true Hemionus of ancieat writers,—the particular
species apostrophised in the book of Job, and, again, that noticed
by Xenophon. There is a recent account of it by Dr. A. H.
Layard, in ‘Nineveh and its Remains’ (p. 3824). Returning
from the Sinjar, he was riding through the desert to Tel Afer,
and there he mistook a troop of them for a body of horse, with
the Bedouin riders concealed! ‘The reader will remember,”
he adds, “that Xenophon mentions these beautiful animals,
which he must have seen during his march over these very plains.
He faithfully describes the country, and the quadrupeds and
birds that inhabit it, as they are to this day, except that the
Ostrich is not now to be found so far north*. ‘The country,’
Bikanir herd consists at most of 150 individuals, which frequent an oasis
a little elevated above the surrounding desert, and commanding an exten-
sive view around, the animals being exceedingly shy, and making off on
discerning an object of suspicion, however distant. There is a low range
of hills, several miles off, in which is a watercourse, dry during the hot
season; but at the head of this, about a mile into the interior of the hills,
there is a perpetual spring, to which the Ghor-khurs resort to drink during
the night, maintaining the most vigilant caution. Once only in the year,
when the foals are young, a party of five or six native hunters, mounted on
hardy Sindh mares, chase down as many foals as they can succeed in tiring,
which lie down when utterly fatigued, and suffer themselves to be bound and
carried off. ‘In general, they refuse sustenance at first ; and about one-third
only of those taken are reared, but these command high prices and find a
ready sale with the native princes. The profits are shared by the party,
who do not attempt a second chase in the same year, lest they should
scare the herd from the district, as these men regard the sale of a few
Ghor-khurs annually as a regular source of subsistence.
* According to Chesney, Ostriches are still “found in the great Syrian
Desert, especially in the plain extending from the Haouran towards Jebel
Shammar and Nedja; some of them are found in the Haouran itself, and
a few are taken almost every year even within two days’ journey of Da-
mascus,” &e. (Journal of the Euphrates Expedition, 1. 558.) It is well
244 Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
says he, ‘ was a plain throughout as even as the sea, and full of
wormwood; if any other kind of shrubs or reeds grew there,
they had all an aromatic smell; but no trees appeared. Of
wild creatures, the most numerous were wild Asses, and not a
few Ostriches, besides Bustards and Red Deer (Gazelles), which
our horsemen sometimes chased. The Asses, when they were
‘pursued, having gained ground on the horses, stood still (for
they exceeded them much in speed) ; and when these came up
with them, they did the same thing again ; so that our horsemen
could take them by no other means than by dividing themselves
into relays, and succeeding one another in the chase. The flesh
of those that were taken was like that of Red Deer, but more
tender.’ (Anab. lib.i.¢.5.) In fleetness,” continues Dr. Layard,
“they equal the Gazelle ; and to overtake them is a feat which
only one or two of the most celebrated mares have been known
to accomplish. The Arabs sometimes catch the foals during
the spring, and bring them up with milk in their tents. They
are of a light fawn-colour, almost pink. The Arabs still eat
their flesh.” This will of course be the animal seen by Mr.
Ainsworth at the foot of Taurus, and observed by him among
the lower hills*.
It cannot be doubted that this Asinus hemippus is the Meso-
potamian and Arabian “ wild Horse” of Col. Chesney, as distin-
guished from his “ wild Ass” of the southern deserts of Arabia.
In Mesopotamia, this author remarks, “we did not obtain a
single specimen, although the Arabs engaged to bring one;
they brought a skin, however, of a light brown colour, without
stripes, and having a mane [! dark streak ?] all along its back.
This is more probably the wild Horse.”! Again, treating on
the animals of Arabia, he remarks: “ The wild Horse, the wild
Dog [Lycaon pictus ?], and a kind of wild Cow [ Oryx beatricis,
Gray ?] inhabit the country adjoining the district of Joff, be-
tween Tolink Sanou and Kedrush; and to the south of these
places the wild Ass [Asinus vulgaris ?] is found in great num-
bers. The Sheraraét Arabs hunt them, and eat their flesh, but
not before strangers.” Elsewhere he remarks that “the Ass is
known that Ostriches commonly accompany, at the present day, the troops
of Quaggas and Dauws in South Africa.
The remnant of the Ostrich race in Syria requires close examination.
From some eggs in Major Tytler’s possession, I am strongly inclined to
suspect the existence of a second species of Ostrich. These eggs are
smaller than the ordinary Ostrich egg, and have a much smoother and
more polished surface, with the pores scarcely perceptible. In the ordinary
Ostrich egg the pores are particularly conspicuous.
Ostrich feathers, wheresoever obtained, are numerous among the Kurds,
who adorn their spears with them.
* Travels in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea, p. 3.
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses, 245
probably the original animal of its kind [i.e. species domesticated |
in the country; for it is first mentioned in connexion with this
part of the world (Gen. xu. 16; Exod. iv. 20), and it was after-
wards considered as a royal animal*.” Here at least two species
are indicated, which are likely to be the Asinus hemippus and
the genuine A. vulgaris in its aboriginally wild state; and the
wild Asses of the island of Socotra may be presumed to be no
other than the latter. They are noticed by the late Lieut. Well-
sted, R.N., who remarks, “‘ Amidst the hills over Tamarida, and
upon the plain contiguous to it, there are a great number of
Asses, which were described to me as different from the domestic
Ass; but, after repeated opportunities of observing them, I could
find no reason for such a distinction. The introduction of
Camels,” he remarks, ‘ having superseded the necessity of em-
ploying them as beasts of burden, they are permitted to stray
where they please, and now wander about in troops of ten or
twelve, evincing little fear unless approached very near, when
they dart away with much rapidity.”- It is more likely that
they are truly aboriginal.
The genuine wild Ass would, however, appear to be chiefly an
inhabitant of North-east Africa, where considerable troops of
these animals still exist, as described by ancient authors ; and,
being of prehistorical antiquity, it does not appear upon what
grounds the late Prince of Canino pronounced them to be the
descendants of domestic Donkeys, like those (for certain) in the
hotter parts only of America; for it may be remarked that it is
only in a hot climate that the Ass has returned to wildness +,
and the domestic Ass is said to thrive only in a warm climate,
and to be reared with difficulty even in Norway. To this sub-
ject, however, I propose to return in the sequel. |
Whether or not inhabiting the southern parts of the peninsula
of Arabia (which our friends at Aden should endeavour to ascer-
* Col. C. H. Smith remarks that the Ass is “‘ repeatedly mentioned in
the Pentateuch before the Horse is noticed,—as in the sacrifice of Abra-
ham, in his visit to Egypt, where he received presents from Abimelech, and
in the spoils of Shechem—where Asses are mentioned with other cattle,
but the Horse is not mentioned.” The Horse is supposed to have been
introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos. In Assyria it was reclaimed at the
period of the oldest monuments, as abundantly demonstrated, by the
discoveries of Layard and others, since Col. Smith wrote.
+ Azara notices, of those which have gone wild in South America, and
especially about Santa Fé de la Vera Cruz—where he states that the in-
creasing population was fast destroying them (and may have done so by
this time)—that those which he saw “appeared to be somewhat larger
than the domestic Asses of Paraguay, but smaller than the common Asses
of Spain; nor does that large race,”’ he adds, “‘ which is there used for the
breeding of mules, exist in these parts. They also appear to have larger
and stiffer ears than in my native country.”
246 Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses.
tain), and also the island of Socotra, it is quite certain * that
great troops of wild Asses, properly so-called, exist not only in
the sandy deserts, but upon the mountains of North-east Africa ;
and it appears that a specimen was not long ago added to the
Paris Museum, and was there designated “1l’Onagre d’ Abyssinie.”
It was presented by M. Degoutin, French consul at Massoua,
and (remarks Prof. Isidore St.-Hilaire) “est certaimement un
Ane sauvage.” It belonged, he tells us, to one of those troops
which wander about the deserts of North-east Africa, the exist-
ence of which was long ago indicated by Atlian, and which are
mentioned also by Leo Africanus in the sixteenth century, and
by Marmol in the eighteenth century.
“The wild Ass,” remarks the latter author, “is grey. There
are a number of them in the deserts of Lybia, Numidia, and the
neighbouring countries. Their pace is so fleet that only a barb
can come up with them. In our days,” continues M. St.-Hilaire,
“these troops have been met with in various localities by different
travellers—among others, by M. Caillaud, in Nubia; and to all the
testimony already published may be added ‘trois documents in-
édits,’ respectively by M. Botta (formerly travelling naturalist for
the Paris Museum, and now consul at Jerusalem), by M. Trémaux
(architect), and by M. Gouzillot (Coptic Patriarch in Abyssinia).
“The first observed, in Sennaar, a multitude of wild Asses in
troops, which were very distinct, according to the spoils obtained,
from other animals designated wild Horses [A.° hemippus?],
which inhabit the opposite coast of the Red Sea, in Arabia. The
second, in 1848, remarked them in the desert of Naga, in Nubia ;
their coat was of a palish grey, and the ears were longer than
those of the Hemione [A. hemippus?|, but shorter than in the
tame Ass[?]. Lastly, M. Gouzillot, who passed six years in
Abyssinia, has assured us of the existence of Onagers in count-
less herds on the mountains.” :
These are of course the wild Asses noticed by Col. C. Hamilton
Smith, as occurring “on the Nile, above the cataracts; and
abundant on the upland plains, between the table-hills below
Gous Regun and the Baber-el-Abiad, in Atbara. (Vide ‘ Voyage
on the Baber-el-Abiad,’ by Adolph Linaud ; and Hoskins’s ‘ Tra-
vels in Ethiopia.’)” According, also, to Sir J. Gardner Wilkin-
son, they are “‘common in the districts of the Thebaid +.”
Hoskins met with them in the small desert immediately below
the fifth cataract. ‘This desert,” he remarks, “is sandy, with
quartz and flinty slate disseminated. We saw for the first time
three wild Asses, which had been browsing among the acacias
near the Nile. There are great numbers of them in the coun-
* Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1835, p. 202.
+ Domestic Manners of the Ancient Egyptians, iii. 21.
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 247
try; but the peasants very seldom succeed in catching or de-
stroying them. 61 33
Out of a great number of individuals I only met with two
which showed the course of the intestine. |
Leptocephalus brevirostris, Kaup, Apod. Fish. fig. 15.
A specimen from Messina exhibits all the characters of that
figured by me, except that it has a rather more pointed head and
a somewhat longer tail.
Body 48, tail 21 mill. in length
Tilurus trichiurus, Kaup.
Unfortunately my figure, given at pl. 16. fig. 5 of the ‘ Apodal
Fishes,’ is drawn from a specimen in which the tail was de-
fective. The hair-hke point, which measures 18 mill. in length
from the anus, is usually lost when several individuals are sent
in the same bottle. In this case the tails are so twisted together
that, in separating them, a portion of the filament with the apex
is lost, especially from the point at which it becomes blackish.
If the black apex of the tail be quite perfect, it forms at the
extremity a coil, which is drawn up in the form of a screw, in a
gelatinous mass. With the highest magnifying power, I was
unable to ascertain the true nature of the apex of the tail (which
is as large as a pin’s head) and of its envelope. Is the capillary
portion with the coil a prehensile tail? Is the gelatinous mass
animal mucus, or does it consist of animals which the caudal
extremity seizes and surrounds voluntarily or accidentally ?
These questions can be cleared up only on the spot and by the
examination of many individuals.
Genus Porosproncuvs, Kaup, u.g. PI. ITI. fig. D.
Dr. Heckel has furnished the Berlin Museum and myself
with specimens of an excessively} small and nearly linear fish,
which was taken near Messina. It is so remarkably novel a
form, and possesses such abnormal characters, that I should be
surprised if it had escaped the Italian ichthyologists. Its cha-
racters are as follows :—
Diagnosis. Head and guttural sac large. Hyes rather large,
M. H. Hoffmann on Fermentation. O78
placed towards the extreme angle of the mouth. Teeth wanting.
Pectoral fins wanting. Body linear, with a filiform caudal extre-
mity. Dorsal and anal fins of equal length; the former com-
mences above the end of the guttural sac, and exhibits one more
strongly developed and elongated ray; the anal runs up to the
aperture of the guttural sac. The anus must also open into this
aperture. Body naked, with no trace of scales.
I do not know where to place this form, to which I give the
name of Porobronchus linearis (Pl. III. D). Its place is perhaps
in the vicinity of Saccopharynz, Mitch., which certainly does
not belong to the Apodes, and, like the above genus, forms the
-commencement of some new family, or of one which is not yet
well established.
The specimens described are in the Collection of the British
Museum.
XXXVII.—Mycological Investigation upon Fermentation.
By M, Hermann Horrmann*.
A.tHoucH the phenomenon of fermentation long since attracted
the attention of observers, its origin was still involved in con-
siderable obscurity, and various hypotheses, amongst others that
of spontaneous generation, had been invented to explain it. In
order to solve this problem definitively, M. Hoffmann undertook
a series of experiments, of which he gives an account in the
‘ Botanische Zeitung’ of Berlin for 1860, Nos. 5 & 6.
1. If the juice extracted from some vegetables be examined by
the microscope, it is found to contain here and there, not only
cells similar to yeast, but also spores of Mucedine (such as
Cladosporium, Stemphylium, &c.), some of which have even
begun to germinate. These would be sought in vain in the
interior of the fruits furnishing the juice under examination ; so
that it is extremely probable that they are derived from their
surface.
Boiling water kills the germs of yeast-cells. Hence, if goose-
berries, before being crushed, be immersed for four to ten seconds
in boiling water, it is only after the lapse of four days that a fer-
mentation with evolution of gas makes its appearance in the
expressed juice, and then but feebly. If gooseberries be placed
for three-quarters of an hour in cold water, and agitated from
time to time, the water, when decanted, will be found to contain
a small quantity of ferment, which may be employed as yeast,
and which will evolve carbonic acid with a solution of sugar.
When the surface of a gooseberry is scraped with a blunt knife,
* Translated from the ‘ Bibliothéque Universelle,’ 1860, p. 337, by
W.S. Dallas, F.L.S.
274, M. H. Hoffmann on Fermentation.
and the matter removed is examined by the microscope, the
same spores which occur in the expressed juice of the fruit are
recognized, mixed with impurities of all sorts ; the brown spores
of Stemphylium and Cladosporium, and colourless fragments of
Oidium, Monilia, Torula, &ce. If the matter scraped off be placed
in distilled water, and protected from all access of dust from
without, there will be at the end of twenty-four hours dense
groups of germinating filaments, and numerous cells of yeast in
every stage of budding and fragmentation, and with all the
varieties of form which characterize the yeast of the juices of
fruits. Infusoria are also frequently met with. The expression
yeast is therefore a collective denomination, and not the name of-
a species of plant.
2. The cells of yeast from beer or spirit in fermentation are
generally more similar than those of vegetable juices which have
undergone no boiling; nevertheless they are not ‘only round or
oval, but also cylindrical. To ascertain what they really are, two
methods may be adopted. The first, which has already fre-
quently been employed, consists in cultivating yeast, and exa-
mining what forms of plants it gives origin to. This is the
method employed by Kiitzing, who obtained from it some Sporo-
tricha and a Mucor. The second, in which the yeast is pro-
duced directly by means of the fungi which are presumed to be
its cause, was employed by M. Bail; he made use of Ascophora
elegans, a species of Mucor, and Penicillium glaucum; and M.
Hoffmann states that he cannot but confirm the results obtained
by these experiments.
The observations of M. Hoffmann were made on a large scale
in breweries, and on a small scale in cultivations of small por-
tions of yeasts. In the breweries, large tufts of Penicillium
glaucum make their appearance on the yeast which has been
thrown out ; Penicillium breve, Corda, and Ascophora elegans, are
also seen, but in smaller quantities. By cultivation on a small
scale, taking all possible precautions to prevent the access of
spores from without, M. Hoffmann has observed the development
of the fungi above mentioned, together with Periconia hyalina.
His experiments were made by pouring a few drops of water into
a test-tube inclined obliquely, placing in it a few fragments of
fresh yeast, and stopping the mouth of the tube with wadding to
prevent the access of any impurities from without. He soon saw
the yeast produce mycetoid filaments.
To ascertain that beer-yeast is only the product of these little
Fungi, which are so common everywhere and in all climates,
M. Hoffmann placed in one of his tubes a solution of sugar,
which does not ferment by itself, together with spores of Peni-
cillium glaucum, shook the whole strongly, and then placed the
M.H. Hoffmann on Fermentation. 275
tube in as oblique a position as possible. The spores, which
contain air, and are therefore specifically very light, rose as
usual; but instead of meeting the air, they came in contact with
the wall of the tube, and often remained immersed in the fluid.
The tube was agitated once a day ; and as early as the second or
third day a mycelium was developed around the spores, and at
this point, and then only, an evolution of gas commenced. From
this time the tube had to be shaken more frequently. This ex-
periment, modified in many different ways, proves that the de-
velopment of the gas is intimately connected with the vegetation
of the Fungus. In course of time the liquid becomes acid, and
the evolution of gas ceases. If it be examined by the microscope,
besides a few fructiferous filaments (in their atypic state), it is
found to consist of mycetoid filaments and spores in various
stages of germination, besides a great many yeast-cells in all
phases of development.
A fermentation of greater or less strength may be produced
not only with the spores of Penicillium, but also with those of
other Fungi. M. Hoffmann succeeded in setting up fermenta-
tion in fresh wort, in grape-sugar, cane-sugar, and boiled goose-
berry juice, by adding to the fluids spores of Ustilago carbo,
Ascophora mucedo, and Stachylidium pulchrum, and also by
utting in rose-leaves infected by Phragmidium incrassatum, and
Uredo Rose, and finally by means of Torula fructigena, Pers.
The dust collected on books also produces fermentation. The
liquid at first contains yeast and a greater or less number of
Bacteria ; finally, Penicillia or Ascophore are developed on its
surface. |
The yeast thus artificially produced has all the physical and
chemical properties of the ordinary yeast of the juice of raw
fruits. M. Hoffmann has even made leaven with yeast produced
by means of the Fungi of the Rose. On the other hand, he
never succeeded in producing fermentation or the formation of
yeast by means of fresh spores of Agaries or Boleti, From this
it follows that all Fungi cannot assist in the production of yeast.
This property appears to depend upon their capacity of forming
conidia by their filaments of germination, and also perhaps upon
the fact of their having been produced upon parts of plants in
good health, or dead or dying. M. Hoffmann is inclined to think
that this property of decomposing and penetrating deeply into
the surrounding fluids is due especially to the mycetoid fila-
ments. } !
And now the question presents itself, what part do Fungi and
Infusoria take in the decomposition and putrefaction of organized
bodies ? | Hi
If certain Fungi (and Infusoria) alone possess the property of
276 M. H. Hoffmann on Fermentation.
decomposing liquids containing sugar, and evolving gas, or, with
the addition of oxygen, of causing the corruption and putrefac-
tion of other organic liquids, then, by protecting these liquids
from the Fungi, we should be able to preserve them in an incor-
ruptible state. On this point Schréder has made a series of re-
markable experiments, from which it appears that the dust of the
atmosphere is in almost all cases the cause of the decomposition
of organic liquids which have been boiled. He has, however,
half abandoned the suspicion which he entertained that the
spores of Fungi played an important part in this, on observing
that when the liquids had been heated the spores no longer
induced decomposition ; and he has arrived at the result that the
dust only produces this effect when the materials have been pre-
viously in contact with the free air. M. Hoffmann, on the con-
trary, believes that decomposition may be produced by means of
the spores of Mucedinee (supposing that they are not killed
thereby), by placing them for an hour in the midst of liquids
heated to 214° F.
Organic liquids, such as broth, saccharine solutions, glue-
water, boiled apples, honey and water, &c. placed in test-tubes
well closed with a cotton plug, and boiled for an hour, remained
intact for three to eight months, notwithstanding the excessive
heat of the summer of 1859. But the result of the following
experiment was very different :—Before pushing in the plug of
cotton, an iron wire of moderate strength was passed through
it; to the lower extremity of this was attached a small glass
tube, two inches long, closed at both ends, contaming dry spores
of the Fungus on which the experiment was to be made. A
second iron wire, placed by the side of the former, was attached
to the lower part of the small tube; when the liquid in the test-
tube had been boiled, and become cool, this served to break the
two extremities of the small enclosed tube, and thus place the
spores in contact with the liquid surrounding them. If these
spores belonged to Penicillium glaucum, they rose to the surface,
and in a few days covered it with a thick carpet of Penicillium.
With the spores of Ustilago carbo and Stachylidium pulchrum,
or dried beer-yeast, fermentation does not occur, or is produced
very feebly, because the dried spores rise and float on the sur-
face. If, in place of a small closed tube, an open tube be em-
ployed, the boiling vapour alone is sufficient to kill the spores,
and in this case the liquid undergoes no alteration. Thus,
although such experiments cannot be performed without some
of the spores contained in the atmospheric dust arriving at the
liquid, they would be killed by the boiling.
It has long been known that the dust of inhabited houses
contains spores. If an organic liquid which has been boiled be
M. H. Hoffmann on Fermentation. O79
placed in a narrow-necked bottle and left unstopped, its surface
is covered in a few days with tufts of Mucedinee, arising from
the spores which have fallen from the air. Protecting these
liquids from these spores is the object of the methods of pre-
servation of Appert and others. ‘The above experiments fur-
nish a fresh proof that spontaneous generation must be placed
amongst dreams.
The following experiment proves that, notwithstanding the
free action of the air, there is no formation of Infusoria, Fungi,
or Bacteria when measures have been taken to prevent the
liquid from containing any germs of these organisms. AAA A> € SIDe.C.Sowerby; se.
THE ANNALS
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
| (THIRD SERIES.] | . |
~ No. 35. NOVEMBER 1860.
XLI.—Remarks on the so-called Woody and Vascular Fascicult
of Ferns. By Grorce Octiviz, M.D.*
[With two Plates. |
In a former communication (Annals, Dec. 1859) I have referred
to a common feature in the rhizomes of Ferns, namely, that the
- yascular bundles form a curious netted cylinder, dividing the
cellular matrix of the stem into a central or medullary, and a
peripheral or cortical region. To the dark-coloured. tissue
which, in dense woody bands or in some other form, is frequently
present in the substance of the stem, constituting one of its
most remarkable features, I made only a passing allusion, as I
found that its arrangement (unlike that of the vascular tissue)
varied so much in different species as to require a more particular
examination of its modifications than I was able to undertake
at the time. Since then, I have re-examined a considerable
number of rhizomes with special reference to the disposition of
this tissue, as well as of the vascular bundles.
In regard to the former, I have not been able to arrive at any
conclusion which could be reduced to the form of a general ex-
pression. Still I have thought that a short notice of the actual
structure and arrangement of the tissues in the species examined
might be worth recording, as I cannot find that any systematic
observations have yet been made on these pointst. Considering
* Communicated by the author, having been read in part at the Meeting
of the British Association at Oxford, June 1860.
+ My attention has since been directed by the Rev. W. W. Newbould to
some ‘ Hints on a new Character in Ferns,’ with illustrative figures, by the
Rev. W. A. Leighton (Phytologist, n. s., i. p. 256). The author confines
his remarks to the petioles of a few species, and does not always very
distinctly state the part of the petiole examined, which may account for
some apparent differences between his description and that here: given
Ann. § Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. vi. _ 21
314 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
how unsatisfactory all the systems of classification are which
have been proposed in this order, these particulars may possi-
bly have a certain value, as increasing the store of facts bear-
ing on the general organography of the group, from which
it is to be hoped that some botanist may yet draw materials for
a more natural method of arrangement than any which has yet
been brought forward. The peculiarities, too, in these points,
are in some cases so striking that they appear worth recording
as specific characters *.
A brown-coloured principle is very extensively distributed in
the organization of Ferns. It is particularly conspicuous in the
sporangia and other parts of fructification, and in the epidermis
of the stem, and the ramenta or scales with which it is clothed ;
and it is so characteristic of the group, that it communicates a
peculiar rusty tint to the vegetation of districts in which (as in
some parts of New Zealand) Ferns form a prevailing feature.
It is probably identical with the brown principle which occurs
in other foliaceous Cryptogamia, particularly in the stems and
capsules of Mosses; and, whatever may be its chemical relations
—a point on which I can say nothing,—it at least resembles the
woody matter of phanerogamic plants in being deposited in the
interior of cells, in concentric pitted layers, on the inner aspect
of the first-formed wall of cellulose. The tissues in which it is
deposited often acquire great hardness, but are deficient in the
toughness of true wood; on drying, especially, they become very
brittle.
This brown matter is very constantly met with in the epider-
mic cells of the Fern-stem. The hardening of the cortical layer
in these plants, as in arborescent endogens, is even more neces-
sary for the support and defence of the stem than the accumu-
lation of the layers of bark in exogenous trees, on account of the
occasional deficiency of hard tissues in the interior of the rhi-
zome. Generally, however, there is a certain limited amount of
internal induration also ; for we find that particular tracts of the
(see a criticism by Mr. Moore, Phytol., n.s., i. p. 378). There is a still
greater indefiniteness about the sectional views in Mr. Francis’s ‘ Analysis
of the British Ferns.’ Another reference given me by the same gentleman
(Duval Jouve, ‘ Etudes sur le Pétiole des Fougéres,’ im Billot’s ‘ Archives
de la Flore de France,’ pp. 50-149) I have been unable to verify, though I
have made inquiry for the work in the principal libraries in London. I
have not had access to the works either of Mohl or others of the German
botanists who have discussed the structure of Fern-stems, so that I cannot
say how far they may have gone over the same ground.
* Tn this connexion I may refer to the great similarity in the disposition
of the dark tissue in the petioles of Scolopendrium vulgare and of Ceterach
officinarum (Grammitis Ceterach), once referred to the first-mentioned
genus.
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 315
parenchyma become the seat of such a deposit, so that a section
commonly shows the pale tissue of the stem relieved by a dark
pattern of the indurated cells, as well as by the cut ends of the
vascular bundles, which are generally of a whiter colour. This
induration of the parenchymatous cells is sometimes not attended
by any alteration in their form, the resulting tissue somewhat
resembling that of the shells of nuts. In certain cases, however,
the cells become elongated into fibres ; and we find every variety
of brown tissue, from one of short cells like those of the husky
structures of the higher plants, to long fusiform fibres, undi-
stinguishable, except in colour, from the wood of the Phanero-
gamia. The wood-like tissue generally occurs in cords or bands,
either surrounding the vascular bundles or interposed between
two sets of fasciculi. In the denser fibrous bands the cells be-
come so filled up with brown matter that only a small central
cavity is left, as in the duramen fibres of the harder woods ; but
in the less indurated tracts the cells (both prosenchymatous and
parenchymatous) have frequently a large central space filled
with starch-grains, like those of the pale-coloured cellular matrix
of the stem. Starch-grains, it may be observed, occur in a
similar way in the woody fibres of the ivy, and probably in those
of Banksia and a few other plants, though this arrangement is
not usual among Phanerogamia.
The disposition of the tracts of indurated tissue differs very
much, as I have already remarked, in different species. There
are some instances in which the brown deposit appears to be
confined to the layers of cells forming the cuticular investment
of the rhizome and of the bases of the petioles near their origin
from the rhizome. This is the case, more or less distinctly, in
all our Polypodies, in the majority of the species of Asplenium,
and in Polystichum aculeatum, Lastrea Filiz mas, and Adiantum
Capillus Veneris.
The deficiency is most marked in the nodulated stems of the
common Polypody; their peculiar fragility is due to the soft
watery parenchyma in which the minute and straggling vascular
bundles are imbedded. In most of the other species there is,
more or less, some compensating provision. Thus in Polypodium
Dryopteris, and still more in P. Phegopteris, the parenchyma is
much denser, and has a decidedly dark or brownish tinge. In
Asplenium Filiz foemina, there is no such dark tinge in the fresh
parenchyma, but it has a peculiar hardness, from the thickness
of the walls of its component cells. In Lastrea Filiz mas, again,
the vascular bundles have a brownish tint, and a degree of tena-
city which allows them to be dissected out with more ease than
in any other of our Ferns.
We find, too, that in many of these species the brown sub-
21%
316 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
stance, which is deficient in the rhizome, makes its appearance in
the petioles as sheaths of dark tissue round the vascular fasci-
culi. In Asplenium lanceolatum, in which there is no dark sheath
of this kind, the scalariform vessels and cambium-layer of the
fasciculi become themselves the seat of a deposit of dark sub-
stance, by which they are not merely tinged brown as in L. Filiz
mas, but the cavities of the vessels are more or less filled up.
The induration is confined, so far as I have observed, to the
fasciculi near the base of the petiole, not extending either up-
wards towards the frond, or downwards into the rhizome.
In all the species, indeed, now mentioned, the dark tracts
stop short just above the origin of the petioles from the root-
stock ; but there are others in which they pass some way into
the substance of the latter, accompanying the vascular bundles
to their junction with the netted cylinder, and even bordering
some of the anastomosing fasciculi by whose interlacement the |
cylinder is formed, so that they appear as dark spots in a trans-
verse section of the rhizome.
Thus in Scolopendrium vulgare, in which we find in each
petiole two vascular fasciculi, ranning into one above in the
midrib of the frond, these are accompanied, from their origin
in the rhizome, by dark lines on their outer margins. In the
petiole itself, a little above the base, other dark lines appear on
the inner margins of the fasciculi, gradually expanding, as they
ascend, into two half-sheaths, which become united by their
convexities as the fasciculi approach, and finally stop short at
the point of junction of the latter, while the outer marginal
lines run far on, along the midrib of the frond. The general
arrangement of these parts is illustrated in Plate VI. figs. 1, 2, 3.
In Ceterach officinarum (Scolopendrium Ceterach, Grammitis
Ceterach). the two fasciculi:of the petiole are accompanied, from
their origin in the netted cylinder, by three dark lines—two on
the outer margins, and one median, the latter at first somewhat
on the upper or inner aspect of the petiole, but gradually in-
sinuating itself between the fasciculi, so as to form two half-
sheaths united by their convexities, as in the last species. Higher
up in the petiole, where the fasciculi unite into a single vascular
cord in the midrib of the frond, the median tract of dark tissue
comes to lie on its upper surface, the others continuing to run
along its lateral margins.
In Lastrea Oreopteris the petiole has two fasciculi of scalariform
vessels, and on the inner margin of each (that lying next to the
axis of the stalk) a chain of dark-coloured cells—sometimes
continuous, sometimes interrupted. The two chains unite be-
low, like the sides of the letter V, just above the junction of the
vascular bundles of the petiole with those of the netted cylinder
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 317
of the rhizome. A horizontal section of the rhizome shows these
tracts in section as dark spots on the contiguous margins of such
of the vascular bundles as have been divided a little above the
point of convergence (PI. V. fig. 6).
In Asplenium Ruta muraria, instead of these dark lines, we
have, near the base of the petiole, a complete sheath of brown
tissue surrounding the single central vascular fasciculus (Pl. V.
-fig.8). In the rhizome, the sheaths of the petiolar fasciculi be-
come reduced to dark lines on the outer and inner margins of
the vascular bundles which go to join the netted cylinder ; and
on a horizontal section, they are represented bya series of black
spots on each side of the interrupted circle formed by the cut
extremities of these bundles, but most distinctly on the inside.
In Asplenium Trichomanes the arrangement is somewhat similar,
but the dark sheaths round the petiolar fasciculi appear to be
mainly derived from the brown cortex or tegumentary invest-
ment of the bases of the petioles.
But the darker spots seen in a horizontal section of the rhi-
zome are not always due to the prolongation downwards of the
lines of brown tissue belonging to the petioles. In Lastrea dila-
tata there occur in the medullary parenchyma (that is, inside
the circle formed by the netted vascular cylinder) numerous
isolated fusiform nodules, with their long diameter parallel to
the axis of the rhizome. Each nodule consists of a few short
cells placed end to end and filled with a very dark, almost black
deposit (Pl. V. fig. 7)*. This species has its petiolar fasciculi
ensheathed with dark tissue, as in its congener L. Filiz mas ; but
these sheaths disappear near the base of the petiole, and there
is no connexion between them and the nodules in the centre of
the rhizome.
The nodules in L. dilatata may be considered as an example
of the first degree of induration in the rhizome; in the species
which remain to be noticed the amount of dark tissue is much
more considerable. In Pieris aquilina and Allosorus crispus
there are continuous bands or cords running the whole length
of the stems; and in Blechnum boreale, Osmunda regalis, and
Hymenophyllum, the dark tissue really makes up the principal
mass of the rhizome.
In Péeris aquilina the creeping rhizome is invested. by a villose
integument of a hard leathery consistence, formed of rounded
cells indurated by the dark deposit. In the pulpy and lubricous
parenchyma immediately underneath, there is a series of vascular
* The allied species or variety L. Fenisecii, which, I am informed by
Prof. Balfour of Edinburgh, is remarkable for the dark colour of the cen-
tral part of the rhizome, probably owes this peculiarity to the great deve-
lopment of these dark nodules.
318 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
bundles corresponding to the netted cylinder of other Ferns,
though, from the way in which the stem is drawn out longitu-
dinally, the reticulations are represented only by long wide slits
formed by the irregular anastomosis of the bundles. Inside the
more external layer of parenchyma containing these bundles are
two dark bands, of a hard woody nature, running the whole
length of the rhizome,—one on its upper, and the other on its
under aspect. The former is flat; the latter, which is broader,.
is turned at the edges, like the sides of a boat; so that the two
together partially enclose the axis or central portion of the stem,
consisting of soft white parenchyma, like that on their exterior.
But the great peculiarity of the rhizome of P. aquilina, in which
it differs from all our other Ferns, is the occurrence of a second
vascular system in this central region, consisting of two bands
or broad. fasciculi lying immediately on the inner aspect of the
woody tracts (Pl. VI. fig. 7). The fasciculi are in the main di-
stinct from each other, and from those of the outer series, though
there is an occasional communication by anastomosing fibres.
In the same way the two woody bands are generally quite di-
stinct, though here and there they may become fused together
for a space, on one or both sides, so as in the latter case to form
a complete rmg round the medullary parenchyma and the vas-
cular fasciculi imbedded in it. This occurs at points where
several fronds are given off in close proximity—a circum-
stance which affects the disposition of the tissues of the stem,
both woody and vascular, in consequence of these branching out:
to form the corresponding tissues of the petioles. In the petiole
the main tract of dark tissue forms a plaited band, having a
T-shaped section,—the perpendicular lamina, which lies towards
the inner aspect of the petiole, arising mainly from the upper
band of the rhizome, and the fluted transverse lamina from the
lower. These central plates, along with subsidiary and more
superficial tracts, arising in the petiole itself, serve partially to
ensheath the numerous fasciculi of vessels which are derived
from both the vascular systems of the rhizome, outer and inner
(Pl. VI. fig. 8). The brown tint and woody character of the
plates disappear in the upper part of the petiole, their tissue
merging into the general parenchyma of the part. The paren-
chyma of the rhizome, both medullary and cortical, is also
marked occasionally with interrupted strize of brown tissue,
like those occurring in the medullary parenchyma of Lastrea
dilatata, but much more attenuated, and of very considerable
length. |
In Allosorus crispus (Cryptogramma crispa) there is a perceptible
tracery of dark tissue round the several fasciculi of the netted
cylinder ; but the principal accumulation is along the axis of the
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 319
stem, nearly the whole of the parenchyma within the vascular
circle being converted into’a hard woody core, of a deep brown
colour, which is continued through all the ramifications of the
rhizome (PI. VI. fig. 6). It is as if the two longitudinal tracts
of the Braken stem were fused into a solid central cord, to the
obliteration of the intervening parenchyma and vascular bands.
The induration of the stem reaches its maximum in the genera
Blechnum and Osmunda. In the former, even in the petioles,
near their origin from the rootstocks, the dark cortical layer
becomes so much thickened at the expense of the pale paren-
chyma, that the latter is reduced to a thin sheath investing the
vascular fasciculi; and the same arrangement prevails through-
out the whole rhizome, which consists, from its exterior to its
centre, of hard tissue, formed of dark fusiform cells, except only
a thin stratum of pale parenchyma surrounding the cambium-
layer of the fasciculi of the nettéd cylinder (Pl. V. fig. 5). Even
the interstices of the latter are occupied in the centre by the
dark material; so that, as compared with some of the rhizomes
which have been described, the white and dark substances seem.
to have changed places: instead of the vascular bundles and
their sheaths forming a dark network on a pale field, we have
here a general dark ground marked by a pattern of light reticu-
lations. This great development of the indurated brown tissue
gives to the rootstock of Blechnum a very remarkable hardness
as compared with others in which the pale parenchyma is the
sole or preponderating element. In this respect Blechnum and
Osmunda are peculiar among our Ferns, though at the same
time they differ from each other in one or two important
points. 7
In Osmunda the vessels of the petiole are all collected into
a single voluminous bundle, crescentic in horizontal section,
with the concavity towards the common axis of the plant. A
band of parenchymatous brown tissue, with a similar crescentic
curve, lies in the concavity of the vascular bundle, separated
from the scalariform vessels by the cambium-layer of the fasci-
culus. The general parenchyma of the petiole is also marked
on all sides with fusiform striz of brown tissue, like those before
described as occurring in the rhizome of Péeris aquilina (PI. V.
fig. 2). The cuticular layers of cells form a very tough investment
—green above, but passing at the lower part of the petiole into
a dark brown. Towards the base it is covered on the exterior
with a soft whitish film, forming lateral wings, by which the
bases of the petioles overlap each other, as they become crowded
upon the rhizome. This film becomes brown and chaffy when-
ever it is left exposed. The bases of the petioles are at first
somewhat dilated, and then taper away to their connexion with
320 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
the rhizome, and their infernal dark tissue disappears, while the
cortical is much thickened and, by fusion with that of the neigh-
bouring petioles, forms a mass of dark-brown prosenchyma on
the exterior of the rhizome, very hard and tough, and of such
thickness as to make up the great bulk of the stem,—the only
other constituents being a slender medullary tract of pale tissue,
in which the vascular cylinder is imbedded, and a cuticular film
of white spongy substance, derived from that investing the bases
of the petioles (Pl. V. fig. 1). It is the thick and tough cortical
layer of dark indurated tissue that gives the tenacity to the stem
which is so remarkable in this species, and is probably connected
with the great age and size it occasionally attains. |
In this toughness of texture, and in the preponderance of
dark tissue on which it depends, there is a great resemblance
between the stems of Osmunda and Blechnum, notwithstanding
the larger dimensions of the former; but they differ in this—
that the induration extends to the medullary region of Blechnum,
where we find a dense axial column of dark tissue; while in
Osmunda the axis, though reduced to slender dimensions, is di-
stinctly formed of a pale parenchyma consisting of delicate cells
with less than the usual amount of starchy deposit in their in-
terior. The thick cortical layer of dark substance which sur-
rounds it is marked on a horizontal section with white spots,
indicating the points of passage of the vascular bundles of the
petioles and rootlets.
Another point of difference is, that in Osmunda the vascular
cylinder has not (at least to the naked eye) the beautiful netted
appearance so common in the rhizomes of Ferns, from the close-
ness with which the component fasciculi are set together. Hach
fasciculus has the same crescentic section as in the petiole; and
a transverse division of the stem shows about eight crescents
placed in a circle near the outer margin of the pale medulla,
with their concavities all turned inwards, and encircled in turn
by the thick cortical layer of dark tissue. The vascular cylinder
as a whole forms a cord of some thickness, cellular within,
where the medullary parenchyma is not separated from the ves-
sels by any cambium-layer, and fibrous externally, without any
apparent interstices, but imbricated with the fasciculi given off
to the petioles. On microscopical examination, a real interlace-
ment of the vascular bundles may be detected ; but it may be
observed at the same time that the whole cord is surrounded by
one continuous cambium-layer on its exterior, which dips par-
tially between the several fasciculi, but never passes through the
vascular circle to form an internal investment. to the component
bundles, as in other Ferns. Hence, while it is not difficult to
dissect off from the vessels the stratum of pale parenchyma in-
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 821
terposed between them and the dark cortical portion of the stem,
it is hardly possible to separate the vascular coat in the same
way from the delicate cellular tissue of the medulla which it in-
vests. (Pl. V. fig.3; compare with fig. 4.)
The rhizomes of Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense and H. Wil-
soni are of interest from presenting a transition to the type of
stem characteristic of the Lycopodiacez, as there is but a single
vascular bundle, lying in the axis of the bristle-like rhizome
(Pl. VI. fig. 5). This central fasciculus contains four or five
scalariform vessels, surrounded by a cambium-layer. Round
this, again, there is a thin stratum of pale parenchyma, and a
cortical layer of brown tissue, fibrous and much indurated inter-
nally, but loose and chaffy on the exterior. The transition-cha-
racter of the stem is of the more interest that we have in it
all the essentials of the rhizome of Osmunda. We have only to
conceive the stout caudex of the latter drawn out till it is reduced
to the thread-like dimensions of the rhizome of Hymenophyllum,
to have a complete transformation of the one into the other ;
for when the vascular cord of Osmunda is reduced to the dimen-
sions of that of Hymenophyllum, its cellular pith necessarily
disappears, as a single series of vessels of the ordinary thickness
must come to occupy its whole diameter.
In all the stems noticed above, with the dark tissue much
developed, and particularly in Osmunda regalis, Blechnum boreale,
Pieris aquilina, and Allosorus crispus, there is a very remarkable
contrast between the hardness of the coloured tracts and the
great softness and delicacy of the pale parenchyma and of the
vascular bundles (especially in their cambium-layer). The close
juxtaposition of tissues of such different powers of resistance
adds much to the difficulty of obtaining thin sections for micro-
scopical purposes. The permanency of these tissues is in pro-
portion to their hardness. Thus in the rhizomes of the com-
mon Braken, after long exposure the cortical layer and the two
internal bands of dark substance are sometimes the only parts
left, the pale parenchyma and the vascular bundles having all
disappeared by the process of natural decay. And when this
dark substance forms the main element, as in Osmunda and
Blechnum, the whole rootstock has a like protracted duration, as
has been already observed of the former species.
In connexion with this subject, the question suggests itself,
whether the hard. brown tissue now referred to (or pheenchyma, as
it might be called) corresponds to the proper wood of the higher
or phanerogamic plants? There is some difficulty in answering
this question, arising principally out of the ambiguity of the
term “woody tissue.” I do not see any reason to doubt that in
many of the higher plants there are hard parts, commonly called
322 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
woody, which may in all essential points be compared with those
of Ferns, and which really owe their induration to a deposit in
the cells of ligneous matter undistinguishable from that of the
true wood of the stem—such as the veins of leaves, nut-shells,
and various husky tissues. But between the dark tracts of the
rhizomes of Ferns and the proper wood of the stems of Phanero-
gamia, there are at least two points of difference, both of con-
siderable importance :—
1st. Unlike the woody tissue of the stems of the higher plants,
the cells of the dark-coloured tracts of the Fern, even when they
assume a distinctly fibrous character, never occur in the same
fasciculus or layer with the vascular tissue, but are always sepa-
rated from the ducts by the cambium-layer which encircles each
vascular bundle,—and this even when in the closest relation, as
in the sheath of dark tissue round a fasciculus.
2nd. The hard tissues of Ferns, even when they put on most
distinctly a woody character, do not seem to be formed out of a
superincumbent layer of cambium-cells, like the true wood of
the phanerogamic stem, but simply by an induration of the
parenchyma, with occasional elongation of its cells. Hence,
while the vascular bundles—lubricated, as it were, by their cam-
bium-coat—may with a little pains be dissected clean out of the
cellular tissue of the stem, the coloured tracts adhere so inti-
mately to the surrounding parenchyma, that, with every care, the
denuded surface has a rough or villose appearance, from adhering
particles.
I have found these points constant in all the British Ferns I
have examined ; and I have reason to believe that they hold also
in Tree-ferns, though my opportunities of examining the latter
have been too limited to allow me to speak very positively on
this point.
It may be observed, further, that while the woody fibres of the
ribs of leaves and of their footstalks in all Phanerogamic plants
are continuous with those of the stem or trunk, the dark lines
of the petioles of Ferns are rarely to be traced into those of the
rhizome. Among our native species, the Braken (Pteris aquilina)
is perhaps the only instance.
The variability in the development and disposition of these
dark tissues seems of itself an argument in the same direction,
as tending to assimilate them rather to the capsular indurations
and the husky tissues generally of the higher plants, which we
observe to vary much, even in allied species*, than to the true
stem-wood, which possesses so constant and uniform a structure.
Mr. Berkeley takes the same view of the relations of the
* Compare, for instance, the fruit of the Apple, Pear, and Mountain
Ash, and, more strikingly, of the different suborders of Rosaceze.
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 323
masses of dark tissue.» In his remarks on the structure of the
stems of Ferns, in his ‘ Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany’
(p. 515), he states distinctly that the hard tracts belong to the
parenchyma, and do not correspond to the proper wood of the
Phanerogamia. The latter he considers to be represented by
certain pale fibres, occurring in the substance of the vascular
bundles. I have recognized such fibres distinctly enough in two
species of Tree-fern which I have lately examined. They form
a sort of surface-coating to the fasciculi, exterior to the scalari-
form vessels, and immediately within the cambium-layer, This
is just the position occupied by the pleurenchyma of the Endo-
genous stem; but in themselves these fibres have none of the
characters of woody tissue. They appear to be portions of the
cambium-layer which have undergone an imperfect conversion
into vascular tissue. The transformation seems to take place by
the clustering of the minute cambium-cells into long fusiform
masses, which then become invested by a cell-wall, on whose
inner surface the scalariform markings are developed, by a deposit
of cellulose at particular points, pari passu with the disappear-
ance of the original cells of the cluster-enclosed by it. I think
I have observed all stages of this transition—fusiform masses of
cellules, pale granular fibres, and tubules or elongated cells,
differing from the scalariform vessels of the fasciculus only in
their smaller diameter and fainter markings.
In most of our indigenous species I have been unable to re-
cognize any distinct fibrous coating to the vascular bundles,
though the inner stratum of the cambium-layer has certainly at
times an appearance of faint longitudinal striation, and the sca-
lariform vessels on the exterior of the fasciculus are generally of
smaller diameter and less distinctly marked than those within.
The striated layer comes nearest to the characters of a real fibrous
tissue in the netted cylinder of Polystichum Lonchitis and Cysto-
pteris fragilis, and in the mdurated petiolar fasciculi of Tricho-
manes radicans and Asplenium lanceolatum. In P. Lonchitis and
A. lanceolatum some of these cambium-fibres make a still closer
approach to those of woody tissue, by the deposit of a brown
sclerogenous matter in their interior. In Botrychium Lunaria
similar fibres occur, and the vessels are rather annular than
scalariform.
That the woody fibres of plants generally differ from the ducts
or vessels only in being a less-differentiated form of cambium-
tissue, is a view which was very distinctly laid down by Schleiden*,
and one which derives some support from the replacement of
ducts by punctated woody tissue in the Coniferee, and from the
occurrence in some species of various intermediate forms, such
* Principles of Botany, bk. 2. c. 2. § 26.
324: Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
as the woody fibres of the Lime and the*Yew, which are marked
in the interior with a spiral thread.
Not that woody fibres of any kind are themselves to be
regarded as elements in progress of conversion into vessels or
ducts, or as in any sense in a transition state. Both fibres and
vessels are equally ultimate forms, though it may be surmised
that, according to the energy of the developmental process, the
result is either simple woody fibre or some of the varieties of
vascular tissue. The transformation, according to Schleiden,
takes place progressively from within outwards in the fasciculi
of Endogenous plants, but in Ferns simultaneously throughout
the whole of that portion of the cambium-tissue which is to
undergo conversion.
A summary is here subjoined of the more prominent characters
of the petiole and rhizome in the species which have been enu-
merated, and a few others. It was my wish to have included
all the well-defined species of our flora; but in a few cases I
have not been successful, after every exertion, in obtaining rhi-
zomes in a state fit for examination. The notice could not have
been made even so complete as it is, but for the kind assistance
of some friends, among whom I have especially to tender my
thanks to Professors Balfour of Edmburgh and Dickie of Belfast,
Mr. L. Squire of Falmouth, the Rev. W. Gregor of Macduff, and
Mr. Beverley and Mr. Roy, Sen., of Aberdeen. All the descrip-
tions have been verified by the examination of fresh specimens.
Polypodium vulgare.
The petiole has three or more fasciculi, derived from the
netted cylinder of the creeping rhizome, which acquire sheaths
of dark tissue, and finally run into one central bundle as they
ascend towards the frond.
The rhizome consists of pale tissue, invested by a brown cuti-
cular layer.
Polypodium Dryopteris.
The petiole has two fasciculi running the whole length of the
frond, with sheaths of dark tissue.
The rhizome as in the last species, though less tertuous and
much more attenuated.
Polypodium Phegopteris.
The petiole has two fasciculi running into one above the base,
and without dark sheaths.
The rhizome as in the former species, except that the general
tissue (as well as-that of the lower part of the petiole) has its
cells somewhat elongated, and of a decided brown tint.
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 325
Polypodium alpestre.
The petiole has two flattened fasciculi, without dark sheaths,
which, as they pass upwards, run into one of a horseshoe sec-
tion, with the convexity towards the back of the stalk.
The rhizome is of pale tissue, with a brown cuticular layer,
and occasionally with a faintly-marked stratum of darker cells
surrounding the fasciculi of the netted cylinder*.
Polystichum Lonchitis.
The petiole has two large lateral fasciculi, and one or more
intermediate, of smaller size, sparingly anastomosing with each
other and with the former; all without dark sheaths.
The rhizome has the fasciculi of the netted cylinder indurated
in places by the conversion of part of the cambium-coat into
fibres with an internal brown deposit; but there are no dark
tracts in the general parenchyma.
Polystichum aculeatum.
The petiole has numerous fasciculi invested with dark sheaths,
and sparingly connected by slender transverse branches.
The rhizome, at the origins of the petioles, has deep indenta-
tions running into the interstices of the netted cylinder. The
whole substance is of pale tissue, except the cuticular layer.
Lastrea Filix mas.
The petioles as in the last species.
The rhizome is of pale tissue (except a brown cuticular layer),
thick and fleshy, with the netted cylinder deeply imbedded in °
its substance; the vascular fasciculi and their cambium-coat
have a brownish tint.
Lastrea dilatata.
Petiole and rhizome as in the last species, except that the
rhizome has numerous isolated fusiform nodules, of a very dark
tissue, in the parenchyma within the netted cylinder.
Lastrea Oreopteris.
The petiole has two fasciculi, and a tract of dark tissue on the
inner margin of each, meeting its fellow at the point where the
fasciculi are connected with the netted cylinder of the rhizome.
The rhizome is of pale substance, with a cuticular layer of
brown tissue ; and a transverse section shows dark spots in the
line of the netted cylinder, at the points of convergence of the
tracts of the petioles.
* These characters apply in some degree to all the specimens which
have been shown me as of this species, though differing considerably in
the general appearance of the fronds. >
326 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
Lastrea cristata.
The petiole has two large lateral fasciculi, and three smaller
intermediate, the latter running into one upwards; all with dark
sheaths. )
Lastrea Thelypteris.
The petiole has two flattened and plaited fasciculi, somewhat
resembling those of Athyrium Filiz feemina, but with dark sheaths.
They unite above into one of a horseshoe section, as in Poly-
podium alpestre.
The rhizome is long, and creeps horizontally. The fasciculi
of the vascular cylinder which lie towards the upper surface are
thicker than those on the lower. The substance is of pale tissue,
with a brown cuticular layer.
Athyrium Filia feemina.
The petiole tapers from a swelling near the base to its point
of connexion with the rhizome; it has two fasciculi, without
dark sheaths, which acquire the form of fluted bands, in the
dilated portion of the petiole.
The rhizome is indented as in Polystichum aculeatum, and is
formed of pale but dense and thick-walled cells, with a cuticular
layer of brown tissue.
Athyrium fontanum.
The petiole has two fasciculi running on into the midrib of
the frond, without dark sheaths.
The rhizome has no dark deposit in the parenchyma, but the
scalariform vessels have a decided brown tint.
Asplenium marinum.
The petiole has a single central fasciculus, without a dark
sheath. |
The rhizome is of pale tissue, except the cuticular layer.
Asplenium Adiantum nigrum.
Petiole and rhizome as in the last species, except that the
former has two fasciculi at the base, which coalesce as they
ascend towards the frond.
Asplenium lanceolatum.
The petiole has two (or sometimes three) fasciculi, uniting
above, as in the last species, without dark sheaths, but with the
vessels themselves and the cambium-layer of a brown colour,
most decided at the base of the petiole, and disappearing up-
wards.
The rhizome is of pale tissue, as in the last species, except
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 327
that the cells immediately surrounding the fasciculi of the netted
cylinder have a light-brown tint.
Asplenium viride.
The petiole has a single central fasciculus, without a dark
sheath.
The rhizome shows no dark tissue in its interior.
Asplenium Trichomanes.
The petiole has a single central fasciculus and a cortical layer
of dark substance, much thickened at the base.
The rhizome has the general parenchyma of a brownish tinge,
with a darker tissue (continuous with that of the petioles) form-
ing a cortical layer, and also partially ensheathing the vascular
bundles. The anastomosis of the fasciculi of the netted cylinder
is very close.
Asplenium Ruta muraria.
The petiole has a single central fasciculus, containing a double
vascular cord, and surrounded near the base with a sheath of
dark tissue.
The rhizome has the same general arrangement as in the last
species; only the dark tissue about the netted cylinder is less
marked, and is mainly derived from the sheaths of the petiolar
fasciculi.
Asplenium septentrionale.
The petiole has a single fasciculus, with a dark sheath at the
base.
The rhizome has also a thin stratum of dark tissue round the
fasciculi of the netted cylinder, as in the last species,—especially
on their outer side*.
Woodsia ilvensis.
The petiole has a single fasciculus, without a dark sheath.
The rhizome shows no dark tissue in its interior.
Cystopteris fragilis.
The petiole has two fasciculi, running into one about the
middle of the frond, without dark sheaths.
The rhizome shows no dark tissue internally, but the outer
stratum of the vascular bundles of the netted cylinder has a
distinctly fibrous character.
Adiantum Capillus Veneris.
The petiole has a dark glossy cortical layer, and a single fas-
* In decaying parts of the rhizome, the central parenchyma becomes
brown, presenting somewhat the appearance of the dark central tract of
Allosorus erispus,
328 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular
ciculus with a double origin from the netted cylinder, but with-
out any dark sheath.
The rhizome is of pale tissue, except the cuticular layer, and
one of brownish cells round the fasciculi of the netted cylinder.
Scolopendrium vulgare.
The petiole has two fasciculi uniting above in the midrib of
the frond, and separated below by two half-sheaths of dark
tissue, united by their convexities. Externally also the fasci-
culi are bordered by dark lines, which run down into the
rhizome.
The rhizome is of pale tissue, except the cuticular layer and the
lower ends of the outer dark lines of the petioles just mentioned.
Ceterach officinarum.
The petiole has two fasciculi, which unite above in the midrib
of the frond, and three lines of dark tissue, which run down
into the rhizome—two lateral, on the outer margins of the fas-
ciculi, the other median, forming two half-sheaths, united by
their convexities. :
The rhizome is of pale tissue, except the cuticular layer and
the inferior extremities of the petiolar lines just noticed. |
Pteris aquilina. |
The petiole has numerous anastomosing fasciculi derived from
the outer and inner systems of the rhizome, also a main central
plaited band of dark fibrous tissue (connected with those of
the rhizome), and some subsidiary tracts arising within the
petiole.
The rhizome has a white pulpy parenchyma, with a hard
cortical shell of dark tissue, and two longitudinal dark bands
within, separating an inner vascular system of two flat bundles
from a more external, which consists of numerous small fasci-
culi anastomosing sparingly to form an irregular wide-meshed
cylinder.
Allosorus crispus.
The petiole has a single fasciculus without a dark sheath, and
a double vascular cord.
The rhizome consists in part of pale tissue, with a brown
cuticular layer, but it contains also dark tissue internally—as a
central cord along the axis, and as faintly-marked sheaths
round the fasciculi of the netted cylinder.
Blechnum boreale.
The petiole has two fasciculi, imbedded in the pale tissue of
the interior, which towards the base is reduced to a mere sheath
and Woody Tissues of Ferns. 829
by the thickening of the dark cortical layer continuous with the
substance of the rhizome.
The rhizome is almost wholly composed of dark substance,
both externally and internally, the pale tissue forming only thin
sheaths round the several fasciculi of the netted cylinder.
Trichomanes radicans.
The petiole has a single fasciculus, without a dark sheath,
but with a fibrous development in the cambium-coat.
Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense and Wilsoni.
The petiole has a central fasciculus, surrounded by a dark
cortical fibrous layer, continuous with that on the exterior of the
rhizome.
The rhizome consists of a cortical coat of dark tissue (dense
and fibrous internally, loose and chaffy on its outer surface), and
of a layer of pale tissue surrounding the cambium-coat of the
single central fasciculus or vascular cord.
Osmunda regalis.
The petiole has a crescentic fasciculus, with a dark band on
its concavity, which looks towards the axis of the rhizome.
These structures are imbedded in a pale parenchyma. As the
petiole tapers to its connexion with the rhizome, the dark band
disappears, and the pale tissue is reduced to a mere sheath, by
the thickening of the dark cortical layer.
The rhizome has a thick layer of dark tissue externally, con-
tinuous with the cortex of the petioles, and a thin sheath of pale
tissue within, round the vascular cylinder and the fasciculi con-
necting it with the petioles. The vascular cylinder is solid,
having no obvious reticulations in its walls, from the closeness
of the fasciculi, and the absence of any cambium-layer between
their inner surface and the cellular tissue of the axis which they
enclose.
Botrychium Lunaria.
The petiole has two fasciculi, united at the base, without dark
sheaths.
The rhizome has a vascular cylinder with very few openings
or reticulations, and with a cambium-layer only on its exterior.
There is no dark tissue, except the cuticular investment.
Ophioglossum vulgatum.
Stem fistulose, with eight or nine fasciculi in the wall, without
dark sheaths.
In the following Table the species are arranged with reference
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. vi. 22
330 Dr. G. Ogilvie on the Vascular and Woody Tissues of Ferns.
to the external characters of the rhizomes, as explained in my
former communication on this subject (Ann. Nat. Hist. Dec.
1859).
Rootstock a stoloniferous rhizome.
Polypodium vulgare.
Dryopteris.
Phegopteris.
Lastrea Thelypteris.
Pteris aquilina.
Adiantum Capillus Veneris.
Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense.
—— Wilsoni.
Trichomanes radicans.
Rootstock a dichotomous caudex.
Polypodium alpestre.
Polystichum Lonchitis.
Lastrea Oreopteris.
rigida.
Cystopteris fragilis *.
Athyrium Filix foemina.
——— fontanum.
Asplenium Adiantum nigrum.
lanceolatum.
—— marinum.
Asplenium viride.
trichomanes.
— Ruta muraria.
septentrionale.
Woodsia Ilvensis.
Allosorus crispus.
Scolopendrium vulgare.
Ceterach officinarum.
Blechnum boreale.
Osmunda regalis.
Rootstock a right caudex (extending by a single terminal bud).
Polystichum aculeatum.
Lastrea Filix mas.
— dilatata.
Lastrea cristata.
Botrychium Lunaria.
Ophioglossum vulgatum.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
PLATE V.
Fig. 1. Cross section of the rhizome of Osmunda regalis, showing the
brown cortical substance and the pale tissue within, surrounding
the central vascular cylinder with its cellular pith, and a cambium-
layer only on its exterior: a@ a, origins of the petioles; 6, root-
lets.
(The outer tissue has been partially pared away, to fit the
specimen into the section instrument.)
Fig. 2. Cross section of a petiole near the base, showing the cut extremities
of the longitudinal filaments and of the crescentic fasciculus and
dark band. The asterisk in this and the other sections of petioles
marks the side next the rhizome—that which is uppermost when
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
the frond is laid on its back.
3. The central vascular cylinder of the rhizome of O. regalis dissected
out, showing the imbricated fasciculi going to the petioles.
4. A portion of the netted cylinder of Lastrea dilatata opened out,
showing the origin of the petiolar fasciculi.
5. Cross section of the rhizome of Blechnum boreale, showing the
great development of dark tissue in this stem. The outer series
of fasciculi (in pairs), aaa, belong to the origins of the petioles ;
* The other British forms of Cystopteris are questionable species ; but
if Mr. Newman is correct in assigning to C. montana a “ stoloniferous
rhizome ” (History of British Ferns, p. 97), this may perhaps be a good
species.
Mr. A. Adams on new Mollusca from Japan. 331
the inner, ccc, represent the section of the netted cylinder ;
b, origin of a rootlet.
Fig. 6. Cross section of the rhizome of Lastrea Oreopteris, somewhat fore-
shortened, with a portion of a petiole attached, showing the con-
verging tracts of dark tissue, a.
Fig. 7. Section of the rhizome of Lastrea dilatata along the axis, showing
the fusiform dark nodules in the medullary tissue: a a, fasciculi
of the netted cylinder in section.
Fig. 8. Cross section of a petiole of Asplenium Ruta muraria near the
base.
Puiate VI.
Fig. 1. Section of the petiole of Scolopendrium vulgare, along the axis,
showing the course of the dark tracts, like two converging lines
of railway.
Fig. 2. Cross section of the same, a little above the base.
Fig. 3. Cross section of the same, about the commencement of the lamina
of the frond. In the small fronds of Ceterach officinarum the
arrangement is somewhat similar.
Fig. 4. Cross section of the petiole of Athyrium Filia feemina at the base.
Fig. 5. Cross section of the rhizome of Hymenophyllum Wilsoni, showing
the brown cortical and pale medullary tissue, with the single
vascular fasciculus imbedded in the latter.
Fig. 6. Cross section of the rhizome of Allosorus crispus, showing the
central dark cord, and the sheaths round the fasciculi of the netted
cylinder. ‘ fet
Fig. 7. Cross section of the rhizome of Pteris aquilina, showing the outer
and inner series of vascular fasciculi, the two intermediate dark
bands, and the extremities of some of the longitudinal dark fila-
ments. .
Fig. 8. A corresponding section of the base of the petiole.
Fig. 9. Cross section of the petiole of Polypodium alpestre above the point
of junction of the two lateral fasciculi. The section below this
point is nearly as in fig. 4. These two figures would also repre-
sent in some degree the arrangement in Lastrea Thelypteris, if
the fasciculi were surrounded by a coat of dark tissue.
Fig. 10. Cross section of the petiole of Lastrea cristata near the base.
There is a similar arrangement in Polystichum aculeatum,
Lastrea Filiz mas, and L. dilatata, and also, with the exception
of the dark sheaths, in Polystichum Lonchitis.
The magnifying power is marked beside each figure.
XLII.—On some new Genera and Species of Mollusca from Japan.
By Artur Apams, F.L.S., &e.
Genus Zarra, A. Adams.
Testa acuminato-ovalis utrinque angustata, in medio tumida; anfrac-
tibus longitudinaliter plicatis, ultimo ad basin constricto. Apertura
linearis, angusta ; labio effuso, margine externo libero; labro mar-
gine acuto, postice subsinuato, in medio recto, subinflexo.
This little shell will constitute the nucleus of a group of Tur-
ride, of which several from deep water have been described by
D’Orbigny, and figured, I believe, in the last plate of Reeve’s
22%*
332 Mr. A, Adams on new Mollusca from Japan.
Monograph of Pleurotoma. They are small, mitriform, plicate
species, with a narrow-linear aperture, and with the last whorl
contracted at the fore part.
Zafra mitriformis, A. Adams.
Z. testa mitriformi, in medio incrassata, alba, fascia fusca obscura ad
suturas ornata, anfractu ultimo ad basin rufo tincto, et linea an-
gusta rufa transversa ad peripheriam circumcincto ; anfractibus 64,
planiusculis, longitudinaliter plicatis; plicis validis, obliquis, sub-
distantibus ; anfractu ultimo antice constricto et oblique sulcato.
Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms.
Genus RissoELia, Gray.
The little shells I propose to describe as species of this genus
agree with it as at present constituted, and all have the appear-
ance of being adult. They may, however, as may those also
from the British Seas, be the young of other genera. But until
we are in a position to demonstrate their real nature, or until,
by an examination of the animal, they are proved to be only a
transition state in the metamorphoses of some higher Mollusca,
it is desirable to record their existence in every sea investigated.
Numerous small shells, evidently nuclear whorls of known ge-
nera, have been rejected from my list, some being immature
Macrocheili and Odostomia, and others the embryonic state of
larger Gasteropods.
1. Rissoella omphalotropis, A. Adams.
R. testa conoidali, alba, opaca, profunde umbilicata; umbilico cari-
nula circumcincto ; anfractibus 3}, convexiusculis, suturis pro-
fundis, anfractu ultimo ad peripheriam vix angulato, transversim
obsolete exarato ; apertura subcirculari, antice vix producta; labio
rectiusculo, subincrassato.
Hab. Sado; 30 fathoms.
2. Rissoella vitrina, A. Adams.
R. testa conoidali, anguste umbilicata, solidiuscula, vitrea, pellucida ;
anfractibus 34, levibus, convexiusculis, ultimo rotundato, ventricoso,
suturis marginatis; umbilico angusto, simplici; apertura orbicu-
lari.
Hab. Tabu-Sima; 25 fathoms.
3. Rissoella vesicalis, A. Adams.
R. testa globoso-conoidea, rimate umbilicata, alba, semiopaca ; an-
fractibus 33, convexis, leevibus, suturis profundis, simplicibus, an-
fractu ultimo rotundato, ventricoso; apertura circulari; labio
brevi, rectiusculo, superne subdilatato.
Hab. Sado; 30 fathoms.
Mr. A. Adams on new Mollusca from Japan. 333
4. Rissoella minima, A. Adams.
R. testa perparva, umbilicata, leevi, nitida, subopaca ; anfractibus 33,
convexis, suturis profundis, anfractu ultimo ventricoso, ad_peri-
pheriam rotundato ; umbilico angusto, rimato ; apertura circulari.
Hab. Tsu-Sima; 26 fathoms.
5. Rissoella turgidula, A. Adams.
R. testa brevi, conoidea, anguste et profunde umbilicata, semiopaca,
nitida, alba; anfractibus 33, convexis, simplicibus, suturis pro-
fundis, anfractu ultimo turgido, ad peripheriam rotundato ; aper-
tura ovata; labio tenui, acuto.
Hab. Korea Strait ; 46 fathoms.
6. Rissoella mundula, A. Adams.
R. testa vix rimata, conoidali, tenui, alba, opaca; anfractibus con-
vexis, simplicibus, suturis profundis, anfractu ultimo amplo;
apertura ovata; labio tenui, antice subproducto.
Hab. Tsu-Sima; 26 fathoms.
7. Rissoella hydrophana, A. Adams.
R. testa conoidali, profunde umbilicata, alba, tenui, semipellucida ;
anfractibus 34, convexis, levibus, ultimo rotundato, ventricoso ;
suturis marginatis; umbilico patulo, striis radiantibus ornato.
Hab. Tabu-Sima; 25 fathoms.
8. Rissoella spiralis, A. Adams.
R. testa helicoidea, profunde et late umbilicata, tenui, pellucida ;
anfractibus 33, leevibus, rotundis, suturis profundis, anfractu ultimo
ad peritrema vix soluto; apertura semicirculari; labio rectius-
culo.
Hab. Sado; 30 fathoms.
Genus Syrnoua, A. Adams.
I discovered the type of this pretty little genus (S. gracillima)
in 1859, in the Sea of Japan; and since then I have obtained
some additional species from deep-water dredgings in the same
sea. They are all of small size, and seem to fall very naturally
into this group ; they are all banded, and of a vitreous texture,
by which, and their subulate or aciculate form, they are readily
distinguished from Odostomia, the species of which are white
and destitute of coloured markings. Syrnola, in fact, are small
slender Obelisci with a single columellar plait.
amit 1. Syrnola cinctella, A. Adams.
S. testa gracili, subulata, levi, nitida, semipellucida ; anfractibus 93,
planis, linea angusta transversa rufo-fusca ad suturas ornatis ;
suturis exaratis ; anfractu ultimo ad peripheriam subangulato, in
334 Mr. A. Adams on new Mollusca from Japan.
medio linea rufo-fusca circumcincto ; apertura subquadrata ; plica
parietali conspicua transversa ; labro simplici, acuto,
Hab. Korea Strait ; 46 fathoms.
2. Syrnola pupina, A. Adams.
S. testa subulata, in medio tumida, subopaca, nitida, longitudinaliter
substriata; anfractibus 83, planiusculis, fascia lata pallide fusca
transversa in medio ornatis ; ; anfractu ultimo elongato, ad basin
rotundato ; apertura oblonga, plica parietali obliqua; labro mar-
gine subrecto.
Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms.
3. Syrnola lepidula, A. Adams.
S. testa ovato-subulata, tenui, carneola, semipellucida, leevi, nitida,
longitudinaliter substriata; anfractibus 7, convexiusculis, fascia
angusta rufo-fusca transversa ad suturas ornatis; anfractu ultimo
elongato, ad basin rotundato; apertura oblonga; plica parietali
obliqua, tenuicula ; labro simplici, acuto.
Hab. Tsu-Sima; 16 fathoms. —
4. Syrnola teretiuscula, A. Adams.
S. og subulato-aciculata, sordide alba, leevi, nitida; anfractibus
3, planiusculis, suturis exaratis; anfractu ultimo elongato, ad
she dilatato, rotundato; apertura subquadrata; plica pee
conspicua, transversa ; labro simplici, acuto.
Hab. Tsu-Sima; 16 fathoms.
5. Syrnola mera, A. Adams.
S. testa aciculato-subulata, gracili, sordide alba; anfractibus 8, plani-
usculis, suturis impressis, anfractu ultimo ad basin subangulato ;
regione umbilicali callo circumcincta, excavata; apertura sub-
quadrata ; plica parietali transversa; labro simplici, acuto.
Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms.
6. Syrnola bizonalis, A. Adams.
S. testa subulata, tenui, alba, opaca; anfractibus 93, planulatis, in
medio zonula transversa pallide rufescente ornatis ; anfractu ultimo
elongato, zonulis duabus rufescentibus succincto; apertura ob-
longa; plica parietali tenuicula, obliqua, mediana ; labro simplici,
acuto.
Hab. Korea Strait; 46 fathoms.
7. Syrnola pyramidalis, A. Adams.
S. testa brevi, acuminato-conoidea, albida; anfractibus 7, planis,
longitudinaliter striatis, ultimo amplo, ad basin rotundato ; aper-
tura subquadrata ; plica parietali parva, transversa ; labro simplici,
acuto.
Hab. Tsu-Sima; 16 fathoms.
Mr. A. Adams on new Mollusca from Japan. 335
8. Syrnola vitrea, A. Adams.
S. testa acuminato-conoidea, alba, semipellucida, vitrea, nitida; an-
fractibus 5, planulatis, linea angusta transversa rufescente in
medio ornatis, suturis exaratis; apertura ovata; plica parietali
valida, mediana, transversa; labro intus transversim sulcato.
Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms.
9. Syrnola nitidula, A. Adams.
S. testa subulatim conoidali, vitrea, nitida, semipellucida, suturis
profundis ; anfractibus 73, planulatis, leevibus, in medio fascia.
rufa angusta transversa ornatis; apertura subquadrata, antice
subacuminata ; plica parietali valida, mediana ; labro intus sulcato.
Hab. Mino-Sima; 63 fathoms.
Genus Styitirerina, A. Adams.
Testa imperforata, ovato-conica, tenuis, levis ; anfractibus multis, su-
premis in stylum productis, nucleo sinistrali. Apertura subqua-
drata, antice integra; labio simplici, recto.
The genus Entoconcha of J. Miller, which is parasitic on
Synapta, also has “ the columellar margin straight ;” but the
form is described as being very different from Styliferina, there
being almost no spire, and the aperture being transverse and
semilunar. I have never seen a specimen of Entoconcha, which
is also said to be operculate. My shells were, unfortunately, in
the case of both the species, dredged dead, though perfect. I
examined dozens of the blue Asterine that came up with them,
but found no parasite, nor was I more fortunate with Spatangi
or Clypeasteres.
1. Styliferina orthochila, A. Adams.
S. testa imperforata, ovato-conica, pallide fusca, tenui, semiopaca ;
anfractibus normalibus 6, convexiusculis, leevibus, ultimo inflato ;
apertura subquadrata ; labio recto, antice in labrum Continuo; labro
arcuato.
Hab. Tsu-Sima; 26 fathoms.
This species was dredged from a bottom abounding in red
and blue Asterine, on which it may be parasitic.
2. Styliferina goniochila, A. Adams.
S. testa ovato-conica, imperforata, pellucida, vitrea, albida, tenui;
anfractibus normalibus 5, convexiusculis, leevibus, ultimo inflato ;
apertura subquadrata ; labio recto, antice in angulum productum
desinente ; labro arcuato.
Hab. Mino-Sima; 68 fathoms.
This species was dredged from a bottom containing large
if gr i,
BM,
336 Mr. A, Adams on new Mollusca from Japan.
quantities of fragments of dead Ophiuri, on which it may pos-
sibly be parasitic.
Genus Nrenontra, A. Adams.
Testa depresso-globosa, tenuis, imperforata; anfractibus rapide ac-
crescentibus. Apertura ampla, circularis ; peritremate duplicato,
externo tenui, acuto, in anfractum ultimum ascendente, interno in-
crassato, in labrum intus. continuo.
This little genus most nearly resembles Stomatella; but the
shell is very thin, and the aperture has an internal ledge, as if
for the operculum. Two specimens only were obtained, both
dead, and both wanting the opercula.
Niphonia pulchella, A. Adams.
N. testa leevi, pallide fusca, nitida, spiraliter lirata; anfractibus 23,
convexis, ultimo liris transversis majoribus quinque et multis mi-
noribus basalibus instructo ; regione umbilicali impressa; peritre-
mate margine acuto.
Hab. Off Mino-Sima. Korea Strait; 63 fathoms.
At®
@ Genus Frverua, A. Adams. Fille “©
Testa tenuis, pupoidea, imperforata, in medio tumida; anfractibus
transversim liratis, longitudinaliter plicatis, ultimo simplici. Aper-
tura ovali, peritremate interrupto; labro simplici, acuto, non re-
flexo aut incrassato.
This genus, which is founded upon a small shell allied to
Rissoa, will form a member of the family Rissoide.
Finella pupoides, A. Adams.
__.. F. testa tenui, pupoidea, imperforata, pallide fusca, fascia transversa
1.286.359 yufo-fusea in medio anfractuum, in anfractu ultimo fasciis duabus ;
anfractibus 74, convexis, transversim liratis, anfractibus supremis
longitudinaliter plicatis, in medio subangulatis, ultimo simplici;
apertura ovali; labro margine acuto, recto.
Hab. Tsu-Sima; 26 fathoms. Korea Strait; 46 fathoms.
Genus Minoxria, A. Adams.
Testa globoso-conoidea, late et profunde umbilicata; anfractibus
rotundatis, clathratis, suturis canaliculatis; anfractu ultimo ad
aperturam subsoluto; umbilico perspectivo. Apertura circularis,
intus margaritacea; peritremate continuo; margine recto, tenul,
acuto.
Minolia is very like Torinia in form and sculpture; but the
aperture is pearly within. It also resembles in form some
southern species of Margarita; but the texture, markings, and
sculpture of the shell are different. In sculpture also it resem-
On the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera. 337
bles the species of Ewchelus, and especially the subgenus Perrinia,
which I also dredged from deep water in the same locality. I
have named the genus from Mino-Sima, the little island near
Niphon, in the vicinity of which favourable circumstances en-
abled me to glean, by deep-water dredging, much fragmentary
knowledge of the malacology of the Japanese archipelago.
Minolia punctata, A. Adams.
M. testa helicoidea, macromphala, fulva, rufo-punctata; anfractibus
64, convexis, cingulis transversis granulosis, majoribus cum mi-
noribus alternantibus, rufo-punctatis ornatis, interstitiis lamellis
tenuibus obliquis pulcherrime clathratis; suturis canaliculatis ;
umbilico perspectivo, cingulis granulosis concentricis instructo,
interstitiis concinne clathratis.
This is another modification of the hollow spiral cone of the
Trochoid family ; the whorls are somewhat loosely rolled on
themselves, which causes the sutures to be very deep, and the
last whorl at the peritreme to be almost disunited from the
penultimate whorl. The red-brown spots on the beaded ribs,
and the exquisite clathrate sculpture of the surface, render
this one of the prettiest shells in the great family of Trochoid
Scutibranchs. In texture it resembles Enida Japonica and
Turcica monilifera, and, judging from the shell, it appears to be
more closely associated with the Zizyphinus group than with
Gibbula or Margarita.
Wei-hae- Wei, Shan-Tung, China,
April 15, 1860.
XLIII.—On the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera.
By W. K. Parker, M. Micr. Soc., and T. R. Jonus, F.G.S.
[Continued from p. 40.]
Part V. The Foraminifera enumerated by Denys de Montfort.
Denys pe Monrrort, being desirous to do justice as far as
possible to the elucidation of the “ Microscopic Shells” in his
systematic and illustrated work on Conchology*, introduced the
figures and descriptions of several Foraminifera into his book,
stating that he was far from pretending to have given all their
genera, but that he aimed at making some at least of their sin-
gular forms better known to naturalists (Discours préliminaire,
p. xxvii). To this end he figured some specimens apparently
* *Conchyliologie Systématique, et Classification Méthodique des Co-
quilles; offrant leurs figures, leur arrangement générique, leurs descrip-
tions caractéristiques, leurs noms; ainsi que leur synonymie en plusieurs
langues,’ 2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1808-1810.
338 Messrs. W. K. Parker and T. R. Jones on the
from his own collection, and selected from the Monograph of
Fichtel and Moll several of their so-called Nautili, and from
Soldani’s ‘Testaceographia’ some of his figured microscopic
shells; he produced modified figures of these, and classified and
named the whole according to his conchological system, arranging
most of them (genres 1i*—lxi®) as “ Coquilles univalves cloi-
sonnées, contournées en spirale,” and others (genres lxiiit —
Ixxxiiit) as “ Coquilles univalves cloisonnées, droites.” De Mont-
fort’s delineations of these Foraminifera and other Microzoa
were all drawn and engraved on wood by himself; and very
proper remarks does he make in his ‘ Discours préliminaire’
(p. viii) on the advisability of naturalists being their own
draughtsmen. In this case, however, we have but poor results ;
and, to say nothing of the execution of the cuts, we look in
vain for correct drawing as to the superficial sculpturing of
these little shells; whilst the attempt on the part of De Mont-
fort to give in one figure, placed obliquely, the features both of
surface and edge (shown in two views by Fichtel and Moll)
adds greatly to the general incorrectness and obscurity of the
figures.
Putting aside our author’s notions as to the Cephalopodous
nature of these little chambered shells, we may notice that he
was much struck by the fact of their extensive development and
distribution in the present seas, and their frequently enormous
accumulation in the fossil state in some of the limestones of the
Alps, Apennines, and other mountains (Disc. prélim. p. xxvii).
The beauty of these little creatures, their symmetry and elegance,
the neatness of their construction, their delicate colours, irides-
cence, and pearliness, strongly impressed De Montfort with a
love for these tiny bijoux of Nature’s workmanship, so lavishly
scattered among the sea-sand of every clime.
As results arising from De Montfort’s systematic handling of
the Foraminifera we have not much to point out. His generic
names are, for the most part, useless; since the several species,
varieties, and figured individuals of a genus have respectively
received a new binomial appellation at his hand. The specific
names proposed by him are also mostly unnecessary, being ge-
nerally duplicate to some former name. Occasionally, however,
his appellations are useful,—Peneroplis, for instance, having
been preserved ; and some of the trivial names are good for sub-
species and varieties. We may remark that, with regard to
some of the fossil forms (such as Alveolina, &c.), De Montfort
has collected many useful bibliographical references.
Writing subsequently to Lamarck (de la Marck in those days),
De Montfort refers to the early edition of the ‘ Syst. An. s. Vert.’;
Nomenclature of the Foraminifera, 339
he does not, however, notice the species figured and described in
the ‘ Annales du Muséum.’
1. Vol. i. p. 10. 3° genre. Phonemus. Le Phonéme tranchant.
This is referred by De Montfort to the Cristellaria Vortex of
Fichtel and Moll*; but it is not at all a copy of their figure. It
is more like a common Cristellaria Calcar.
2. Vol.i. p.14.4° genre. Elphidium. L’Elphide souflé. An
oblique figure intended to comprehend Fichtel and Moll’s views
of their Polystomella macella, var. 8. y
3. Vol.i. p. 18. 5° genre. Geophonus. Le Géopone jaune. In-
tended for Polystomella macella, var.a, F. & M.
4. Vol. i. p. 22. 6° genre. Pelorus. Le Pélore ambigu. In-
tended for Polystomella ambigua, F. & M.
5. Vol. i. p. 26. 7° genre. Chrysolus. Le Chrysole perlé. De
Montfort says that this is the Nautilus (Cristellaria) Crepidula
of F. & M.; but it is evidently meant for their Nautilus (Poly-
stomella) Faba.
6. Vol.i. p. 34. 9¢ genre. Pharamum. Le Pharame perlé. This
is intended for Cristellaria Calcar, Linn.; var. 6, F. & M.
7. Vol.i. p. 38. 10° genre. Andromedes. Androméde gauffrée.
This is intended for Polystomella strigillata, var. a, F. & M.
8. Vol.i. p.42. 11° genre. Sporilus. Sporulie pectiné. In-
tended for Polystomella strigillata, var. 8B, F. & M.
9. Vol. i. p. 46. 12¢ genre. Canthropes. Canthrope galet.
This was found in the shingle at Boulogne-sur-Mer; and is
stated to be figured of the natural size (2 inches in diameter).
It looks like a highly magnified, very flat Polystomella. Hxcept-
ing its superficial ornament, it has some resemblance to a large
Nummulite. It might be some complanate Coral, or other dis-
coidal fossil; it may even be inorganic.
10. Vol.i. p.66. 17° genre. Melonis Etruscus. This is the
Nonionina pompilioides, F. & M.
11. Vol.i. p. 70. 18° genre. Antenor diaphaneus. De Mont-
fort speaks of specimens of this shell having been found at
Borneo, both in the sea-sand and attached to the corallines in
deep water; and says that it has eight arms, two of which are
palmate! The shells, he says, are a line in diameter, and, when
fresh, diaphanous, smooth, of a rosy colour, and iridescent,
crossed by the more opake septal lines. He refers it (with
justice) to Soldani’s specimen in Testaceogr. i. pl. 33. fig. 5,
which is a dentately keeled Cristellaria Calcar from the Medi-
terranean. De Montfort adds, “ Nous observerons ici que les
* For an account of the species and varieties of Foraminifers enumerated
by Fichtel and Moll (‘ Testacea Microscopica,’ &c., 1803) see Annals Nat.
Hist. ser. 3. vol. v. pp. 98, 174, &e.
340 Messrs. W. K. Parker and T. R. Jones on the
coquilles microscopiques sont répandues dans les mers des deux
hémisphéres, et que de trés-fortes raisons font soup¢onner qu'il
n’est aucune profondeur qui en soit exempte, et leur multiplica-
tion y est prodigieuse.”
12. Vol. i. p. 94. 24¢ genre. Oreas subulatus. This is a modi-
fied figure of Cristellaria acutauricularis, ¥. & M.
13. Vol. i. p. 102. 26° genre. Jesites vermicularis. After a
figure by Soldani in Testaceogr. 1. pl. 30. fig. X. This is a
minute discoidal Serpula.
14. Vol. i. p. 106. 27¢ genre. Charybs plicatus. After Soldani’s
Testaceogr. i. pl. 29. fig. K. This also is a minute discoidal
Serpula.
15. Vol. i. p. 110. 28¢ genre. Cidarollus plicatus. After Sol-
dani, Testaceogr. i. pl. 36. fig. 8. A common variety of Rotalia
repanda, ¥. & M.; the same as R. pulchella, D’Orb. Modéles,
No. 71.
16. Vol. i. p. 114. 29° genre. Cortalus Pagodus. This may
possibly be a Rotalia ; but more probably it is a minute Gastero-
podous shell. Such a turbinate little shell is figured by Soldani,
Testaceogr. pl. 14. Vas. 95. X; but De Montfort’s reference to
Sold. Testac. pl. 86. Vas. 162. X. is quite wrong.
17. Vol. i. p. 122. 31° genre. Cibicides refulgens. After Sol-
dani, Testaceogr. 1. pl. 46. fig.o0. This is the Truncatulina
refulgens, D’Orb. Ann. Sc. Nat. vii. p. 279, No.5; Modeéles,
No. 77. In the plate of the ‘Testaceogr.’ to which both De
Montfort and D’Orbigny refer (the latter, however, quoting
“48” instead of “ 467’) are two very similar forms of two very ©
distinct species. One of these (fig. n 7) is a small and extremely
conical form of Rotalia repanda (from the Chalk it has been de-
scribed as R. Micheliniana by D’Orb., and as R. nitida by Reuss,
and there are several allied varieties, all of deep-sea habitats) ; the
other (fig. o 0), usually a somewhat larger shell, and still more
conical, is of totally different parentage ; it is an extremely con-
tracted form of Planorbulina farcta, inhabiting rather deep water;
and gentle gradations may be readily traced between this and
Truncatulina lobatula. The similarity of these two forms, at first
sight perplexing, has led D’Orbigny to question whether they be
the same or not. We may point out, however, that the extremely
smooth, glossy, flat, spiral surface in 7. refulgens, with its thick
septal walls, more translucent than the cell-walls (as well indi-
cated in Soldani’s figure), and its coarser pores, are important
diagnostics between this and fig.nn. The latter, with sulcate
septal lines on its spiral face, has a tendency to gibbosity on
this surface, and has often minute tuberculations, which help to
make it an opakely white shell, as compared with the glassy 7.
refulgens. Its alliances with R. repanda and its sub-variety R.
Nomenclature of the Foraminifera. 341
Menardii, D’Orb., are through numerous and more or Jess ob-
long varieties, as yet undescribed, from the very deep soundings
in the tropical parts of the Atlantic Ocean.
18. Vol.i. p. 126. 382° genre. Eponides repandus. After Fich-
tel and Moll. It is the Rotalia repanda.
19. Vol. i. p. 130. 33° genre. Storilus radiatus. From the
Persian Gulf and Leghorn. This is a Rotalian form, flat on one
side and strongly umbonate on the other. It is difficult to con-
jecture its identity with any known form, though it may be
meant to represent some large variety of Rotalia Beccarii, which
is extremely variable in its growth in different seas.
20. Vol. i. p. 134. 34¢ genre. Florilus stellatus. A bad draw-
ing after Fichtel and Moll’s figures of Nonionina asterizans.
21. Vol. i. p. 188. 35° genre. Polyxenes cribratus. After
Fichtel and Moll’s figure of Planorbulina farcta.
22. Vol. i. p. 142. 36% genre. Alolides squammatus. The figure
in Soldani’s ‘'Testaceographia’ (pl. 167. fig. v v) which De
Montfort has here copied, with fanciful modifications, is one of
Soldani’s “ Reteporzee muscipule minime.” There is no doubt
that Soldani’s specimen was a young and somewhat excentric
Orbitolites complanatus. Four or five other dwarfish and some-
what worn specimens are figured by Soldani in pls. 167 & 168,
with a want of his usual clearness of delineation, his notion of
the relations of these little Orbitolites (always small in the
Mediterranean, especially at Leghorn) not having been very
definite.
23. Vol.i. p. 146. 37° genre. Tinoporus baculatus, Modified
from the figure of Calcarina Spengleri, var.a, F. & M.; or, rather,
this is apparently a curious hybrid picture, consisting of a three-
spined Orbitolina*, according to its surface-ornament and its
vertical section, but outlined after a three-spined Calcarina
Spenglert (such as fig. e. pl. 15, im Fichtel and Moll’s ‘ Test.
Microse.’). The indication of an aperture (the broken newest
chamber in Calcarina) is also after Fichtel and Moll’s figure.
The sectional aspects in Montfort’s woodcut appear to have been
taken, the vertical (Orbitoline) from nature, the horizontal (Cal-
carine) from Fichtel and Moll’s fig. &, with the sectional feature
of the spine (also Calcarine) added from some other source.
Some stellate variety of Orbitolina spherulata may perhaps claim
the name of O. baculata, Montf.; but Montfort’s indefiniteness
may well lead us to drop the name altogether.
24. Vol.i.p.150. 38° genre. Siderolites calcitrapes (Sidero-
lites calcitrapoides, De la Marck. Syst. An. s. Vert. p. 376).
Maestricht. This is the Rotalia (Calcarina) Spengleri, Gmelin
* For an account of Orbitolina, see Annals Nat. Hist. ser. 3. vol. vi.
p. 29, &e.
342 Messrs. W. K. Parker and T. R. Jones on the
(see Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3. vol. i. p. 480 ; and vol. v. p. 174, &c.)
** Siderolites,” “ Calearina,” and “ Siderolina” (the last applied
by D’Orbigny to one of the varieties of C. Spengleri from Maes-
tricht) are synonyms. As the third name has also been given
to some of the star-shaped Orbitoline of the South Seas, it is
advisable, that we may avoid confusion, to retain “ Calcarina ”
as the name of the subgenus.
Calcarina Spengleri has the following synonyms :—Siderolites
calcitrapoides, Lamarck, S. calcitrapes, Montfort,