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THE ANNALS
AND
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY,
INCLUDING ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, ann GEOLOGY.
(BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE ‘ANNALS’ COMBINED WITH LOUDON AND CHARLESWORTH 'S ‘MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. )
CONDUCTED BY
CHARLES C. BABINGTON, Esa., M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., JOHN EDWARD GRAY, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.LS., F.Z.8. &c., WILLIAM S. DALLAS, F.L.S.,
AND
WILLIAM FRANCIS, Ph.D., F.LS.
it
} PAP AAR AAP PAPER DPD ADAP ¥
ROR OS EOL Re RS / , { 2 4205 ~“lona| Museum
LONDON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS.
SOLD BY LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER}; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.; KENT AND CO., BAILLIERE, REGENT STREET, AND PARIS? MACLACHLAN AND STEWART, EDINBURGH }
HODGES AND SMITH, DUBLIN: AND ASHER, BERLIN.
1871.
‘“«Omnes res create sunt divine sapientis et potentix testes, divitix felicitatis humanz :—ex harum usu Jonitas Creatoris; ex pulchritudine sapientia Domini; ex ceconomia in conseryatione, proportione, renovatione, potentia majestatis elucet. Earum itaque indagatio ab hominibus sibi relictis semper sstimata ; a veré eruditis et sapientibus semper exculta; malé doctis et barbaris semper inimica fuit.”—Linnavs.
Quel que soit le principe de la vie animale, il ne faut qu’ouvrir les yeux pour voir qu’elle est le chef-d’ceuvre de la Toute-puissance, et le but auquel se rappor- tent toutes ses opérations.’—Bruckner, Théorie du Systéme Animal, Leyden, 1767,
oe eee eo we oo © © Lhe sylvan powers Obey our summons; from their deepest dells The Dryads come, and throw their garlands wild And odorous branches at our feet; the Nymphs That press with nimble step the mountain-thyme And purple heath-flower come not empty-handed, But scatter round ten thousand forms minute Of velvet moss or lichen, torn from rock Or rifted oak or cavern deep: the Naiads too Quit their loved native stream, from whose smooth face They crop the lily, and each sedge and rush That drinks the rippling tide: the frozen poles, Where peril waits the bold adventurer’s tread, The burning sands of Borneo and Cayenne, All, all to us unlock their secret stores And pay their cheerful tribute.
J. Taytor, Norwich, 1818.
CONTENTS OF VOL. VII.
[FOURTH SERIES. ]
NUMBER XXXVII.
I. A Descriptive Account of three Pachytragous Sponges growing on the Rocks of the South Coast of Devon. By H. J. Carrmr, ES tea o ama 92) Dt Be Rn eae, eR any Cee a ares
II. Reply to Dr. Sclater’s Paper in the ‘Annals’ on Testudo chi- lenssties by Dr td. Hy GRAY, WRI. CC: « sjs:4 05s sini eta. ies
IfI. Additional Evidence of the Structure of the Head in Ornitho- saurs from the Cambridge Upper Greensand; being a Supplement to ‘The Ornithosauria.’ By Harry G. Srevey, F.G.S., Assistant to Prof. Sedgwick in the Woodwardian Museum of the University eCumibiinee. (Er lagoan le, we EELS 4) ard. o'. erate ec tigate «/o bra oi de aiae
IV. Note on Dorvillia agariciformis. By W. SavituE Kent, F.Z.S., F.R.M.S., of the Geological Department, British Museum ..
V. List of Coleoptera received from Old Calabar, on the West Coast of Africa. By ANDREW MuRRAY, F.LS. .......0.:eeeeee
VI. On Saurocetes argentinus, a new Type of Zeuglodontide. By Dr Heawann bunmrnnren. (Plate By ere sec ccs ec cceees 6 vas
VII. Observations on the Species of Atax parasitic upon our Freshwater Mussels. By Emit BESSELS ..........00eeceseeves
VIII. The Tertiary Shells of the Amazons Valley. By Henry Woopwarp, F.G.S., F.Z.8., of the British Museum..............
Notes on Arctic Zoology, by Dr. Robert Brown, M.A., F.R.G.S. ; On Recent and Fossil Corals, by E. Ray Lankester ; Dredging in the Gulf of Suez, by Robert M‘Andrew; On the Structure of the Crania of Reptilia and Batrachia, by Prof. Cope; On the Embryology of Limulus polyphemus, by A. 8S. Packard, jun. ; On the Stipules of Magnolia and Liriodendron, by Thomas Meehan ; On a remarkable Myriopod, by Dr. A. 8. Packard, jun.
Page
64—72
NUMBER XXXVIII.
IX. Description of a considerable portion of a Mandibular Ramus of Anthracosaurus Russelli; with Notes on Loxomma and Arch-
iv CONTENTS.
Page achthys. By AuBpany Hancocr, F.L.S., and THomas ATTHEY. (RAN e gies rs a aajeueta «sche le ia ste bash sn \on'¥ 4 a eee 5 ao mare
X. On Foraminifera from the Gulf and River St. Lawrence. By G. M. Dawson ..... pis fe ister EW gato a arn eh Mlary Hele ad's) o cn ss paren 83 XI. Outline of some Observations on the Organization of Oligo- cheetous Annelids. By E. Ray Lanxester, B.A. Oxon. ¢....... 90
XII. The Tertiary Shells of the Amazons Valley. By Henry Woopwarp, F.G.S., F.Z.S., of the British Museum. (Plate V.) .. 101
XII. On Agulhasia Davidsonii, a new Palliobranchiate Genus and Species. By Wiri1am Kune, Se.D., Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in Queen’s College, Galway. (Plate XI. figs. 1-8.) .. 109
XIV. On Fossil Sponge-spicules of the Greensand compared with those of existing Species. By H. J. Carrer, F.R.S. &e.
Perr AE Es) ors a, anlar, win cl pr aid citi sTs oe,» Ch ohane Nata an OO 112 XV. On a new Species of Marginella from South Africa. By Pa vaRRar,, (Plate XL, fp S on haces cas srcdule ociee. «ae 141
XVI. Notes on the Structure of the Crinotdea, Cystidea, and Blastoidea. By E. Bruures, F.G.8., Paleeontologist of the Geolo- picalnsanveyrot Canads 25.d.40.5 shin Said aaa aes vo J Gd be ees 142
XVII. On a Species of Arenaceous Foraminifer (?) from the Carboniferous Limestone of Devonshire. By Epwarp Parrirt,
Hag. (Plate XE figs. 9-12.) yw ca cnaee g Werte she Rh ia aig 158 XVIII. Reply to Dr. Gray on Testudo chilensis &e. By P. L.
Ser aver, Phy MSs 3; $i! in icles cp yagu ln ateeleemen ava GieeG 161 XIX. On Ateles Bartletti. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &. ...... 163 XX. Description of a new Species of Butterfly of the Genus
Paphia. By Ospurr Satvin, MLA., FLLAS., &e. 20. ..0cescccceee 165
New Books :—Natural-History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham. Vol. HI. Part 2.—Cardiff Naturalists’ Society, Report and Transactions, 1868-69.—Geology, by Prof. John Morris, F.G.S. &¢., and Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S. &c. First Series. —A Manual of Zoology for the use of Students, with a general Introduction on the Principles of Zoology, by Henry Alleyne Nicholson, M.D. &c.—Advanced Text-Book of Zoology, for the use of Schools, by H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D, &e....... 166—169
On the Assumption of the Adult Form by the Genera Cyprea and Ringicula, and by certain Species of the Genus Astarte, by Searles V. Wood ; Observations on the Invertebrata of Massa- chusetts, by Alfred Bell, Esq.; On Oligochzetous Annelids, by E. Ray Lankester ; Abdominal Sense-organs in a Fly, by Dr. A.S. Packard, Jun. ; On the Carboniferous Flora of Bear Island, by Professor Oswald Heer, F.M.G.S.; The Caudal Styles of Insects Sense-organs, ¢.e. Abdominal Antennw, by Dr. A. S, A RIEL epee iss diay Rave] Jos. «lal cute ss caehaleheel eens 171—176
CONTENTS. Vv
Page NUMBER XXXIX.
XXI. On Saccammina Carteri, a new Foraminifer from the Car- boniferous Limestone of Northumberland. By Henry B. Brapy, PSs EG eee tate MOLES ase RPE a Slate ele ee aoe nk aes 177
cf XXII. On Melobesia unicellularis, better known as the Coccolith. Py EE Me AEB RY HERES. O50. isiigls ssi vie ish ators o: oad ninco sluts aia aoe gies 184
XXIII. A few Remarks on Dipterus and Ctenodus, and on their Relationship to Ceratodus Forsteri, Krefft. By Atpany Hancock, F.LS., and Toomas AtrHry. (Plates XIII. & XIV.) .......... 190
XXIV. Catalogue of Zygopine, a Subfamily of Curculionidae, found by Mr. Wallace in the Eastern Archipelago. By Francis P. Pascog, F.L.S. &e., late Pres. Ent. Soc. (Plates XV. & XVI.) 198
XXV. Ceratodus, and its Place in the System. By Dr. ALBERT
Se Erne ne aA ate els te shale d einde abalels web ves teal wae oe 4 se 222 XXVI. On anew Genus and Species of Hydroid Zoophyte ( Clado- CORUNEMTIDECOEL ) Wo DSW oz TROT CHS ISG 4-4. nice nee ei saeoeeeare netsh 227
XXVII. Note on a Freshwater Species of Ceratium from the Lake of Nynee (Naini) Tal in Kumaon. By H. J. Carrer, F.R.S. &e.. 229
XXVIII. On Insects inhabiting Salt Water. By A.S. Pacxarp,
SUERTE eet hae eALtrapel c Mhatave, Snr oWelae atest oad Es eerna in ereeaia ate Gam 230 XXIX. Descriptions of three new Species of Asiatic Birds, By eT, VAseeunt VWVAT DEN; ELn9s.< oh. '5' sick wots Uae eames 241
New Book :—Natural History of the Azores, or Western Islands, by fF .,.Du Cano Godman. 6.8, 1B L825: GoCosi8: tisselsiiys'< as Ee, 242
The late Adrian Hardy Haworth, by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e. ; On the Adult Form in the Genera Cyprea and Ringicula, and in certain Species of the Genus Astarte, by J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S.; On Stredon- metamorphoses &c., by E. D. Cope; Note on the Infusoria flagellata and the Spongia ciliate, by Prof. H. James-Clark, Kentucky University .......... 244—247
NUMBER XL.
XXX. Descriptions of some new or little-known Species of Oaks from North-west America. By Ropert Brown, of Campster, A.M., Ph.D., F.R.G.S., President of the Royal Phys. Soc., Edinburgh.... 249
XXXI. On two new Species of Birds from Moupin, Western Pucclnen: hy, ARMAND DAVID aaitan a ick seeds sue ade see Ben 256
XXXII. On four new Species of Asiatic Birds, By ROBERT SEMI mses tye sig gia tid era manent Rig eee ee Vek «eae Sat 257
vi CONTENTS.
Page XXXIII. Catalogue of Zygopine, a subfamily of Curculionidae, found by Mr. Wallace in the Eastern Archipelago. By Francis P, Pascor, F.L.S. &c., late Pres. Ent, Soc. ......2.ssercceseees 258
XXXIV. Note on Prof. Cope’s Interpretation of the Ichthyosaurian Head. By Harry G. Serxey, F.G.S., Assistant to Prof. Sedgwick in the Woodwardian Museum, University of Cambridge .......... 266
XXXV. On two undescribed Sponges and two Esperiade from the West Indies; also on the Nomenclature of the Calcisponge Clathrina,
Gray. By H. J. Carrer, F.R.S. &c. (Plate XVIL) .......... 268 XXXVI. On the Claspers of Male Lizards (Saurt). By Dr. J. E.
Ra DA MCT ESS RE: -e clog hid S'c's Sw dies co veh baad he aera ese? Fey 283 XXXVI. Sketch of a Natural Arrangemement of the Order
gongianss. By W. T DARG oes cc sei cectey ss ncnccedtedusran 286 XXXVIII. Additional Notes on the Skeleton of Dioplodon sechel-
lense. By Dr. J. HE. Gray, FRG. &C. oc. ccccccscnscsenssennes 291
New Books:—Recherches anatomiques et physiologiques sur les Champignons, par J. B. Carnoy.—General Outline of the Orga- nization of the Animal Kingdom, and Manual of Comparative Anatomy, by Thomas Rymer Jones, F.R.S. &c. Fourth ou
292—296
Proceedings of the Royal Society .....ssssescesccccevsees 297—302
On a new Species of Three-toed Sloth from Costa Rica, by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.; On a new Form of Sponge, by Prof. Ehlers ; On the LRotatoria of the Neighbourhood of Tubingen, by S. Bartsch ; On the Blood and Blood-corpuscles of Insects and some other Invertebrata, by Dr. V. Graber; On the Structure of the Renilla, by A. Kolliker; Observations on Urnatella, a Genus of Ciliated Polyps of the Family Pedicellinidee, by Prof. Leidy ; Note on transversely striated Muscular Fibre among the Gaste- ropoda, by W. H. Dall; On Bud-formation in Gymmnocladus and other Plants, by Thomas Meehan; On the Flowers of Aralia spinosa, L., and Hedera helix, L., by Thomas Meehan ., 3802—315
NUMBER XLI. XXXIX. On a Specimen of Diplograpsus pristis with Reproduc- tive Capsules. By Joun Hopxinson, F.G.S., F.R.M.S........... 317
XL. On Spore-cases in Coals, By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S, 321
XLI. On the Limits and Classification of the Ganoids. By Dr. SD PCRMMIN gf nae ois a6. 0 Sind Su ae av. 6:h sn 04 Ma ee MRED paws 829
XLII. On a new Species of Lemur from Madagascar, and on the Changes of Lemur macaco, Linn, By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c,., 389
—
CONTENTS. vii
Page XLII. Description of a new Species of the Family Pittide. By DOH GOULD, PR Be Gees vcrsie 0) aie. s eos ne oe. wo Rt ities iaete 340
XLIV. On some points in the Myology of the Chimpanzee and others of the Primates, By ALEXANDER MACALISTER, Professor of the
Zoology and Director of the Museum, University of Dublin........ 341 XLV. Contributions to the Crag-Fauna. Part I]. By ALFRED BSRET aie talelate eicsieta'e se ne 0's caine iy aie e'uisieiw sinieie'sicqa ssp] b ii bble 6 01s, sini 97s 3 XLVI. Physico-chemical Investigations upon the Aquatic Arti- culata. By Fé&rrx PLATEAU. Part 1. wc. cece eee e nec e eens 362 XLVI. On the supposed Legs of the Trilobite Asaphus platy- cephalus. By Prof. JAMES D. DANA .occeeecceeceeerereeeeeres 366 XLVIII. Notice of a new Australian Ziphioid Whale. By G. Knrerrt, F.L.S.; with a Note by Dr. J. E. Gray, FBS. ........ 368
New Books :—The Honey-Bee: its Natural History, Physiology, and Management, by Edward Bevan, M.D.; revised, enlarged, and illustrated by William Augustus Munn, F.R.H.S. &e.—British Insects: a Familiar Description of the Form, Structure, Habits, and Transformations of Insects, by E. F. Staveley —An Intro- ductory Text-book of Zoology, for the Use of Junior Classes, by H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 1
369—3
Proceedings of the Royal Society.......cssesseevccereeesseeees 372
Note on the Ichthyosaurian Head, by H. G. Seeley, F.G.S.; Le Jélin
of Adanson, by Dr. O. A. L. Morch; On the Action of the so-
called Poisonous Shadow of various Tropical Plants, by Prof.
Karsten; A new Genus of the Eolidide, by Prof. Salvatore
Trinchese; On the Entozoa of the Dolphins, by M. H. Gervais 388—392
NUMBER XLII.
XLIX. On the Base (Pelvis) of the Crinoidea brachiata. B PET Gt PSE REOE S yioigiaic cities ov olsja pal eivcies view Sole te oibiy esis maine 5 .. 393
L. Descriptions of new Species of Butterflies from Tropical America, By Ospert Satvin, M.A., FVLS., &e. oe. cece e eee 412
LI. The Descendence-Theory considered from some special points Glwcw,. oy W. VELTMANN Cae. sete cera ene onset ees h ence 417
LIL. On Amphipleura pellucida and Surirella gemma as Test- objects. By J. J. Woopwarp, Assistant Surgeon, U.S, Army.... 423
LUI. Notices of British Fungi. By the Rey. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S., and C. E. Broomr, Eq, F.LS. (Plates XVIII, UES ee OS AOL, Pens ste Pateert scien vee ells. o's ce e's cae care seers 425
Vill CONTENTS.
Page LIV. On the Structure of the Actinie# and Corals. By Prof. A. ER EDINES <5-020+5:o-seeie anata ncatacatersta'eare-e'e'starererasie's Sore irda tone ew ee Be 437
LV. On the Development of Echinorhynchus gigas. By Prof. A. SCHNEIDER oieecsescesesseeceeceeeces foe kits AW. ies eee 44]
Proceedings of the Royal Society........scccecececsesncceeeees dd
Discovery of the Animal of the Spongiade confirmed, by H. J. Carter, F.R.S. &e.; On Testudo Phayrei and Scapia Falconeri, by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.; Note on the Habitat of Diadema octocula, by A. G. Butler, F.L.S. &c.; Note on Chlamyphorus truncatus, by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.; On the Development of the Leaves of the Sarracenia, by M. H. Baillon; Note on the Malar Bone in the Skulls of Manide, by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e.; On Marine Bryozoa, by Prof. E. Claparéde; On the Order of Deve- lopment of the Dentition of Sloths (Bradypus), by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.; Note on Asaphus platycephalus, by J. D. Dana
445—451
PLATES IN VOL. VII. PuaTE I, Saurocetes argentinus. LL {Structure of the Head in Ornithosaurs.
IV. New Species of Pachytragous Sponges. #
V. Tertiary Shells from the Valley of the Amazons. VI. Anthracosaurus Russelli. vu. |
ae ae Sponge-spicules from the Greensand. 2%
XI. Agulhasia Davidsonii—New Species of Arenaceous Forami- nifer.—New Species of Marginella.
XII. Saccammina Carteri.
Xty. } Remains of Ctenodus.
Oy fZyeopine from the Eastern Archipelago.
XVII New Sponges and Esperiade. XVII.
Xx |New British Fungi.
XXI.
THE ANNALS
AND
MAGAZINE+-OF NATURAL HISTORY. [FOURTH SERIES. ]
Ce eeaenceaseaverss per litora spargite muscum, Naiades, et circiim vitreos considite fontes: Pollice virgineo teneros hic carpite flores: Floribus et pictum, dive, replete canistrum. At vos, o Nymphe Craterides, ite sub undas; Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et et pouelnd Ferte, Dew pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo.”’
Cen ee 7S Rr CNiPap hens CNannadioed Bult
No. 37. JANUARY 1871.
I.—A Descriptive Account of three Pachytragous Sponges growing on the Rocks of the South Coast of Devon. By H. J. CarTER, F.R.S. &e.
[Plate IV.]
THE term applied by Aristotle to those compact sponges which were “ very hard and rough,” and grew upon the rocks near the shore, was tpayou. Hence the term “ pachytragous”’ in the title of this communication—a word which I should not have introduced had there been any other previously employed to designate generally the order to which the three sponges about to be described belong.
Under the head of “ Pachytragie ”’ I would include for the present all the ‘ Corticatee”’ of Dr. Oscar Schmidt (Die Spong. Adriat. Meeres, 1862, p.81) and all those designated Te- thyadex and Spherospongia respectively by Dr. Gray (“ Notes on the Arrangement of Sponges,” Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1867, p. 540 &c.).
It may be questioned hereafter how far the chondroid species of which Tethya lyncurium is a type, together with its repent or incrusting allies, should not be grouped together with Schmidt’s Chondrilla nucula, &c.; but as regards the term *¢ Spherospongia,” of which Pachymatisma Johnstonia is the first example in Dr. Gray’s ‘‘ Notes,” recent observations on the habitat of this sponge seem undoubtedly to point out the necessity of its suppression altogether.
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vii. 1
2 Mr. H. J. Carter on three Pachytragous Sponges
Thus I find that it is only when a portion of Pachymatisma is torn from its natural place of growth, and becomes free in the sea, that it assumes a spheroidal form. Spreading hori- zontally in its natural habitat, on inclined surfaces, in the most sheltered bowers of the shore-rocks, it rises more or less into obtusely rounded eminences, which give to its sur- face a deeply undulated form. This surface; too, as is well known, is incrusted with a cortical layer or zone of globular crystalloids, which, although thickest on its free side, is never- theless continued all round the sponge, and frequently extends some distance into the mouths of the larger exhalant apertures or oscules; while the exhalant system of canals is also more or less horizontally developed, and not radiating, in accordance with the mode of growth of the sponge. Hence, when a por- tion becomes detached from its natural habitat and free in the sea, it soon surrounds itself entirely with the thick incrusta- tion; while, its excretory canal-system and general structure continuing as before internally, it can have no radiated ar- rangement of the latter, however much its form may become spheroidal externally. The same applies to the Tethyade, of which 7. cranium is the type. Thus it may be observed, in my description and illustrations of 7. arabica (Annals, vol. iv. p. 1, 1869), that I found specimens of this species growing in a fixed hemispherical and in a free subspherous form respec- tively. But, as the fixed form has a radiating structure, so, when a portion has been detached from the rock (for it may be assumed always to commence life in a fixed form), it retains this radiated structure in the spheroidal one. ‘Then, as the spheroidal form is accidental in both the free specimens of Pachymatisma Johnstonia and Tethya arabica, we cannot pro- perly call them “subspherous sponges.” ‘This, too, may be the case with the Geodide and Tethyade generally.
The only true instance of a spheroidal sponge is seen in Tethya /yncurium and the like, where the sponge grows into this form on a pedicel,—and here not always, as some of the specimens of this sponge which grow on the rocks of this place demon- strate. At the same time it should be remembered that this is not a Tethya, if we are to regard 7’. eranium as typical of the T'ethyade ; and hence Dr. Gray has very properly adopted Nardo’s name of “ Donatia”’ for this genus (4. c. p. 541).
Still it may be asked how it is that the spharotal specimens of Tethya lyncurium, when east upon the shore, always pre- sent a facet from which the pedicel has been broken off, while no such indication of previous attachment appears on the sub- spherous specimens of Tethya proper, Geodia, and Pachyma- tusma (see my illustrations, ‘ Annals,’ /. ¢.),
From the South Coast of Devon. 3
This, it seems to me, may be explained in the following way, viz. :—the heavy chondroid nature of Tethya lyncurium, and the rapidity with which the chondroid material is pro- duced (for when two or three living specimens are placed in sea-water in contact, they become so firmly united together in twenty-four hours that force is required to tear them asunder), might cause the Tethya, when broken off from its pedicel, to sink to the bottom directly, and at the same time to quickly unite itself to the first fixed rock with which it might come into contact, while the lighter nature of the Tethyade proper and the Geodide, together with their inability to unite themselves so quickly to foreign objects, might lead to their drifting about in the sea, until they render themselves independent of their position by fortifying themselves all round with their peculiar structures, and finally assume the subspherous form.
Again, the specimens of Tethya lyncurtum only come on shore in heavy storms, when these have occurred at spring- tides, and thus the waves at low water have wrenched them off their pedicels ; for it is only towards dead low-water mark that I have yet found them growing on the rocks. They therefore, from their tough chondroid nature, probably hold on when portions of Pachymatisma give way, and thus, only yielding to the heaviest gales, come on shore directly after they have become separated from their attachments, even be- fore they have time to sink into still water and become united again to some fixed object.
Such observations may account for the presence of the facet of attachment in Tethya lyncurtum, and for its absence in the subspherous forms of the 'Tethyade proper and the Geodide.
Lastly, I would take this opportunity of noticing that my description and illustrations of 7. /yncuriwm (Annals, 7. c.) are wholly fallacious where they point out the existence of inter- lobular grooves on the surface, except,for the dead state, since, in some specimens which I kept alive for a few days in sea- water, the chondroid substance increased to such an extent on the surface as not only to efface all the interlobular grooves, but, if any thing, to leave depressions over the centre of the lobules themselves, just in the opposite position to that which they have in the dried specimens. So much for describing objects of natural history im the dead state ; let us now direct our attention to the description of the three pachytragous sponges to which I have alluded in the Miving one.
Dercitus niger, mihi, n. var. Pl. IV. fig. 1. Massive, spreading, fixed, variable in thickness, followimg the sinuosities of the rock on which it grows; compact, hard, 1#
4 Mr. H. J. Carter on three Pachytragous Sponges
tough, resistant. Surface undulating, smooth, soot- or bottle- black, shining, puckered towards projecting points of the rock beneath. Dermal layer (figs. 1 a, 2 a) thin, colourless, transpa- rent, rugose, charged with minute bacillar spinous spicules ; presenting here and there large exhalant apertures (oscules), singly or in groups, with raised margin, crateriform, also mi- nute inhalant apertures (pores) generally all over the surface of the sponge, amidst the projecting points of the large spicules of the interior, and numerous circular, papillary eminences of a lighter colour, caused by the projection of certain cells (be- yond others) of the subjacent celluliferous layer. Celluliferous layer (4) cortical, thick, continuous all round the sponge, and often for a short distance into the mouths of the larger oscules, much thicker on the free surface than at any other part; co- vered by the dermal layer above, in contact with the next or spiculiferous layer internally ; composed of cells imbedded in a kind of sarcodal trama; cell (fig. 6) globular or oval, con- sisting of a cell-wall in which is contained a large transparent nuclear (?) body (a) and a small nucleolar (?) one (0), together with a great number of free cellules (c), in each of which is one or more black granules (d), the black granules collectively giving a black colour to the cell, and an intense black colour to the layer composed of them (fig. 16). Spiculiferous layer (fig. 2c) thin, composed of the large trifid spicules of the sponge densely packed together; in contact with the celluli- ferous layer externally, and with the body-substance of the sponge internally. Body-substance (figs 1c, 2d) composed of more or less areolar sarcode, which is in direct connexion with the pores, and traversed by the branches of the excretory canal-system, which, uniting together, finally terminate in their respective oscules ; charged more or less with the spi- cules about to be described, and a great number of’ the black cells (fig. 3c), which thus give it a dark tint, although always much lighter than that of the black cortical celluliferous layer. Spicules of three kinds:—1, trifid (fig. 3), large, stout, consisting of a straight, smooth, pointed shaft and three expanded arms, so much like a quadriradiate spicule, from the rays being so much like each other, that, but for the shaft being a little longer and straight, while the arms are slightly flexuous, the difference would be inappreciable; 2, minute bacilliform or fusiform spicule (figs. 3 a, 4), covered with spines, which are vertical in the centre, but become more inclined towards the extremities of the shaft; 3, minute tricurvate or bow-shaped spicule (figs. 36, 5), of hair-like thinness and equal in size throughout, except at the ends, which are slightly pointed and slightly turned up. The large trifid spicules are scattered
from the South Coast of Devon. 5
throughout the sponge, but chiefly brought together in the spiculiferous layer; the minute spinous one also, but chiefly confined to the dermal layer, and the tricurvate spicule con- fined to the body-substance.
Size variable; largest specimens found, about 4 inches in diameter and a little under an inch in thickness. Black cells variable, largest about 1-170th of an inch in diameter. Shaft of largest spicules about 1-80th inch long. Spinous spicule about 1-1200th inch long; tricurvate about 1-300th inch long. r Loc. Budleigh-Salterton, south coast of Devon, Straight
oint.
Hab. Fine red-sandstone conglomerate rocks of the New Red Sandstone series. About two-thirds below high-water mark and downwards; on inclined surfaces, deep in under the bowers of the rocks, never pendent from their under surfaces.
Obs. This sponge, if not the same, is closely allied to Hy- meniacidon Bucklandi, Bowerbank (Brit. Spong. vol. ii. p.226), but wrongly classed, as conjectured by the author in the fol- lowing passage at the end ot his description, viz. :—
“This sponge varies so widely from the ordinary structure of Hymeniacidon that I doubt much whether it should not be made the type of a new genus.”
Now there is no doubt in my mind about the matter, nor could there have been in Dr..Gray’s when he proposed a place for this sponge among his Tethyade (Notes, &c. /. c. p, 542, 1867) under the new name of ‘ Dercitus.”” Schmidt sub- sequently (Spong. Algier, p. 15, 1868) proposed the name of “ Pachastrella” for this genus in his Compaginee, finally placing it among his Corticate, 7. e. under Ancorinide, in 1870 (Spong. Faun. Atlantisch. p. 64); but he errs in his note to Dr. Bowerbank’s synonymy (p. 76), where he considers the presence of the tricurvate spicule “ accidental,” as may be seen by my description and illustrations; nor is Schmidt right in stating that this kind of spicule belongs to the character of his Desmacidine, if this remark means exclu- sively; for he himself has figured a tricurvate spicule as partly ‘characteristic of his Pachastrella connectens (Spong. Faun. Atlantisch. Taf. vi. fig. 5). Dr. Gray’s arrangement therefore claims priority ; and hence the name of “ Dercitus”’ for this genus.
The dried specimen, from Guernsey, which was sent to and described by Dr. Bowerbank under the name of Hymeniacidon Bucklandi was of a “dark purple colour” externally, and internally “light brown ;” and all that is stated of the speci- men that was sent to him, preserved in salt and water, from Torbay is that it was “almost as solid as a piece of boiled
6 Mr. H. J. Carter on three Pachytragous Sponges
bullock’s liver.” Now, assuming, in accordance with Dr. Bowerbank’s experience, that this is the best way to preserve sponges for description, we can hardly think that the colours of the wet were different from those of the dried specimen; or this would have been noticed.
Hence, as the species which I have been describing is jet- black when dry, and the body or internal substance inclining, if any thing, to dirty green, while the same colours are pre- sented by the portions which have been preserved in spirit and water, I cannot but infer that at least, as before stated, the black sponge which I have designated by the specific name of “niger” is a variety of Dercitus Buckland, and therefore deserving of this separate denomination.
But whether the reader chooses to admit this or not, he can hardly fail to see that, cat. par., there is a vast difference between the description of a sponge from “ the life,” and that of one which the author has only seen after death.
It is not difficult to find this sponge, because it does not grow, like many, on the under surface of the rock, but grows on its sides in deep bowers, sought for apparently by the sponge for protection from the waves. ‘Then, its black-velvet-looking appearance strikes the eye immediately; but the difficulty of getting at it, except in a more or less horizontal position, and its toughness and firm adherence, rendering it neces- sary to take off a portion of the rock on which it grows with hammer and chisel to obtain the whole of the specimen, make its collection by no means an easy task for a stiff old collector.
Perhaps the most remarkable point, after all, about this sponge is the presence of the celluliferous cortical layer and the characters of the cells of which it is composed—since, by their accumulation here, and being scattered through the substance of the sponge, they, although totally different in composition, do occupy a position exactly like that of the globular crystal- loids which form a crust round and are scattered generally through the substance of the Geodide. But of this more under “ General Observations.”
The puckered state of this sponge on the surface, while zn situ, seems to arise from contraction occasioned by the falling of the tide, or absence of water, when its substance becomes drawn towards the more prominent points of the rugged por- tion of rock beneath, over which it may be growing. But, whether this explanation be correct or not, the puckered radiating lines from particular points on the surface of the sponge are remarkable.
It is also worthy of remark that, although the sponges of
From the South Coast of Devon. 7
this order usually possess a large, acerate, long fusiform spi- cule in addition to the rest, there is none in Dercitus niger.
Stelletta, aspera, mihi, n. sp. Pl. IV. fig. 7.
Massive, spreading, fixed, variable in thickness, following the sinuosities of the rock over which it grows; compact, rough, and resistant. Surface undulating, even, asperous, of a light grey tint, sometimes cream-colour, occasionally green. Dermal layer (PI. IV. figs. 7 a, 8 a) colourless, thin, transparent, charged with minute, spinous, sub-bistellate spicules, present- ing here and there, though mostly in sheltered parts, groups of large exhalant apertures (oscules) of different sizes, whose orifices are not bordered by an elevated margin, but more or less contracted by a circular expansion of the dermal sarcode extended inwards like the so-called “ diaphragm” in Pachy- matisma ; also minute inhalant apertures (pores) scattered over the surface generally, but most evident in the vicinity of the oscules, amidst the projecting ends of the large spicules, which have the peculiarity of lying almost horizontally on the sur- face, and thus imparting to it the asperous character mentioned; in contact internally with the celluliferous layer. Celluliferous layer (figs. 7b, 84) so thin as to be hardly perceptible, except under an inch compound power, when, in many parts of the surface, the cells of which it is composed may be seen to be arranged in a tessellated manner under the dermal layer; and when portions are torn to pieces and placed under a quarter- inch compound power, the cells are found to be imbedded in di- stinct cavities (fig. 14 e), in akind of sarcodal trama (d) like that of Dercitus niger, and to correspond with them in composition in every particular but the black colour, those of the species under description being colourless. Cells (fig. 14) globular or oval, consisting of a cell-wall, in which is contained a large transparent nuclear (?) body (a) and a small nucleolar (?) one (J), itself apparently nucleated and attached to the larger one; also containing a great number of free cellules (c), each enclosing one or more colourless granules (f) ; cells not only congregated towards the surface, but scattered throughout the sponge generally, together with here and there a cell with black granules, or ‘black cell,” precisely like those of Deredtus niger ; celluliferous layer in contact with the dermal sarcode externally, and internally continuous with the body-sub- stance of the sponge. Body-substance (figs. 7c, 8c) cream- coloured, densely charged with large, long, acerate spicules, which so project, when it is torn to pieces, as to give it an echinated appearance and equally asperous feel; composed of
8 Mr. H. J. Carter on three Pachytragous Sponges
more or less areolar sarcode, which is in direct connexion with the pores, and traversed by the branches of the excretory canal-system, which, uniting together, finally terminate in their respective oscules; charged more or less with the spi- cules about to be described. Spicules of four kinds :—1, the largest (fig. 9), smooth, fusiform, acerate, slightly curved; 2, smooth, trifid (figs. 10 & 11), with shaft pointed at one end and furnished with three arms at the other, spreading horizontally in the opposite direction, slightly inclined forwards towards the long axis of the shaft, vase-like, each terminated by bi- furcation, which extends to a variable degree down the arm ; 3, minute spinous spicule (fig. 12), sub-bistellate—that is, where the spines are chiefly confined to the ends of the short shaft ; 4, minute stellate spicule (fig. 13), a little larger than the latter, with small body and long arms, which are incipiently spinous. The large acerate spicules are very numerous and scattered equally throughout the sponge; the trifurcate spicules chiefly confined to the surface, where, with the former, they lie almost horizontally (fig.8) ; the minute sub-bistellate spicules are chiefly confined to the dermal layer, and the stellate spicules to the body-substance of the sponge.
Size variable ; largest specimens found about 4 inches in diameter and about an inch thick. Cells variable, the largest about 1-170th of an inch in diameter. Largest acerate spicule about 1-10th inch long; longest shaft of trifid spicule about 1-30th inch ; minute sub-bistellate spicule about 1-2000th inch long, and stellate about 1-1000th inch in diameter.
Loc. Budleigh-Salterton, south coast of Devon. Straight Point.
Hab. Same as the foregoing species, viz. Dercitus niger.
Obs. This sponge possesses the spicule-character of Schmidt’s genus Stedletta, and has hence been so named; but the celluliferous layer has not, I think, been yet noticed or de- scribed, and hence it may be necessary hereafter to unite those sponges which possess it into a separate group, if not one also with a different appellation.
It answers somewhat to the description of Hceionemia pon- derosa, Bowerbank (Brit. Spong. vol. ii. p. 56) ; but there is no ‘‘ dark-purple”’ sarcode on the surface, nor is the surface ‘smooth ;” nor are the furcated ends of the trifid spicule recurved, as stated in the text and shown in the representation of the type specimen (vol. i. pl. 28. fig. 355). Nor can it be his “ Tethya muricata, MS.;” for there are no “ skeleton fasciculi,” the substance of the interior is all confused like that of Pachy- matisma, and the minute dermal spicule sub-bistellate, not “ elongo-attenuato-stellate,” like that of Dr. Bowerbank’s
from the South Coast of Devon. 9
figure 35. Nor is there any oo combination given by Schmidt like it.
It is frequently overgrown by other sponges, especially Halichondria panicea and H. simulans, Johnston. And in one specimen which I possess, where it "has been overgrown by a Microciona (Bk.), the areolar structures of the two sponges have grown so much into each other, that a section represents the same condition between the two as that which would be seen in making a section of the union between a shoot of one tree and another on which it is grafted.
When preserved in spirit, this sponge assumes a lead- colour—and when dried, a very light brown or dirty white. In the latter state it is much less compact than Dercitus niger, owing to the more open condition of its areolar structure and the larger size of the excretory canals, which are therefore much more evident than in the more compact structures.
How far the horizontal position of the spicules may be owing to its shore habitat, where it is exposed to the beating influence of the waves, I am not prepared to say; nor can this be determined until a*specimen of the same sponge is obtained from a deep-sea habitat, if any exist there, where it would be more at rest during development.
Nitric acid applied to the cell of the celluliferous layer, here as well as in Dercitus niger, causes the whole to contract slightly, and breaks down the cellules, but does not alter much the large nuclear (?) or small nucleolar (?) bodies.
Liquor potasse causes the whole to expand, breaks down the cellules, and allows them to run together in the form of several globular masses of oleaginous or albuminous-looking matter.
Iodine breaks down the cellules, but does not render the nuclear and nucleolar bodies more evident.
Thus these agents do no more than render the nuclear and nucleolar bodies more evident by breaking down the cel- lules. Perhaps, too, the nucleolus under nitric acid becomes a little more consistent or opaque.
Stelletta lactea, mihi. Pl. IV. fig. 15.
Massive, spreading, fixed, following and filling the cavities of deciduous small boring shells (Saxicave) and Annelids, which confine themselves to the surface of the sandstone rock in which they live, almost entirely concealed by overgrowths of small Cirripedes and Fuci, and communicating with the exterior only through the openings of the cavities mentioned, Dermal layer (figs.15 b, 16 4) thin, white, densely charged with
10 Mr. H. J. Carter on three Pachytragous Sponges
minute stellates; agglutinating to its surface minute rounded grains of sand, amidst which are situated the exhalant aper- tures (oscules) 7m the layer, without a raised margin, also the inhalant apertures (pores), somewhat smaller, scattered gene- rally throughout the exposed area; grains of sand (fig. 16 a) blackened by a pigmental layer, which also lines all the cavi- ties occupied by the sponge; in direct contact with the body- substance of the sponge internally. Body-substance (figs. 15 ¢, 16d) opalescent, soft, compact, composed of areolar sarcode traversed in all directions by the branches of the excretory canal-system, which, uniting, finally terminate in their respec- tive oscules ; charged more or less with the same kind of stel- lates as those in the dermal layer, together with minute sheaf- like bundles of acerate spicules (figs. 20 a, 22), which in certain directions reflect the light like the micaceous particles in gra- nite. Spicules of five kinds :—1, the largest (fig. 17) smooth, acerate, fusiform, slightly curved; 2, smooth, trifid (figs. 18, 19), with shaft pointed at one end and provided with three arms at the other, spreading horizontally in the opposite direction, more or less inclined forwards towards the long axis of the shaft, vase-like, straight or slightly flexuous, smooth, pointed ; 3, the same (fig. 19), with the ends of the arms more or less bifurcated ; 4, stellate spicules, with large body (fig.21,@) and short thick rays, or with long rays and hardly any body (4); 5, sheaf-like bundles of minute, smooth, acerate spicules lying parallel to each other (fig. 22). The large acerate spicules are more or less spread throughout the sponge; the trifid ones of both kinds chiefly confined to the surtace, where they are arranged vertically with their heads towards the dermal layer and their shafts internally (fig. 16 c) ; the stellates, although most numerous and packed together crust-like in the dermal layer, are also scattered throughout the body-substance; while the sheaf-like bundles of minute acerate spicules are entirely confined to the latter.
Size variable, depending chiefly upon the size of the exca- vations, the largest of which are seldom more than half an inch long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. Largest acerate spicule a little less than 1-20th of an inch long; longest shaft of trifid spicules about 1-30th inch; stellates about 1-2000th inch in diameter, and sheaf-like bundles of acerate spicules about 1-1000th inch long.
Loc. Budleigh-Salterton, south coast of Devon. Straight Point.
Hab. Cavities of the surface of sandstone rock made by Saxicave and Annelids; communicating with the exterior through their openings, obscured by overgrowths of Cirripedes
From the South Coast of Devon. 11
and Fuci; growing from two-thirds below high-water mark downwards.
Obs. I found this sponge by accident when chipping off a portion of the rock on which Grantia nivea was growing ; otherwise I should have passed it over; for, living in the cavities and under the overgrowths mentioned, it is almost impossible to see it until the rock is broken. Having once found its habitat, it was very easy to procure specimens after- wards ; for it is very abundant.
Although occupying the cavities of Saxicave, whose deci- duous shells are frequently present in the midst of the sponge, I could never find any indication on them of its having bored into them after the manner of the Clionide.
On breaking open the rock, the contrast between the opales- cent aspect of the sponge-substance and the black pigment that it secretes over the cavities which it occupies is very striking. By transmitted light, under the microscope, this pigment presents a dark brown colour, which to the unassisted eye is black; but the Jayer is never continued over the dermal sarcode, although the minute grains of sand and bits of shell agelutinated to it are thus more or less blackened. The der- mal layer, therefore, is always white, and particularly so in the dried state, from the number of stellates which it contains, while the rest of the substance in drying shrinks up into a gum-like consistence and colour. In spirit and water, how- ever, this retains its original bulk and compactness; but the opalescent aspect becomes changed to opaque lead-colour.
On account, perhaps, of its isolation and its existence in small portions while it remains én s¢twu in the rock, when frac- tured, those portions which are not much injured live for several days afterwards ; and thus, from their smallness, being easily brought under a high power of the microscope, the currents outward and inward of the oscules and pores respec- tively are as easily seen.
In the specimens which I have mounted in balsam, the variety of spicules is so great, and their abnormal forms so numerous, that it is not easy to find out those which are the staple ones. This variety, which is greater in some than in other specimens, I am inclined to think may be induced by the disturbing influence of the waves, from which the sponge seems to shelter itself as much as possible by growing solely in the excavations mentioned. Possibly, if it also grows in the deep sea, the quiet there may enable it to acquire larger dimensions, and to present a less variable development of the spicules.
It is desirable to add that in Stelletta lactea there are no cells like those of the “ celluliferous layer” in the two sponges
previously described.
12 Mr. H. J. Carter on three Pachytragous Sponges
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The chief point of interest, perhaps, in the foregoing descrip- tions is the presence of the peculiar cells mentioned in Der- citus niger and Stelletta aspera, corresponding in multiplicity, position, and general distribution, though not in, composition, to the globular crystalloids or little siliceous balls in the crust and body of the Geodide ; add to this their contents, which render them so much like reproductive agents, and, lastly, their occurrence in the two sponges mentioned, and not at all in the third, viz. Stelletta lactea. Nor do they exist in Pachy- matisma Johnstonia; but in the dried specimens of G'eodia gigas, presented to the British Museum by Dr. Oscar Schmidt, there are similar cells in abundance, together with the globular erystalloids.
Although analogous in multiplicity, position, and distribu- tion to the globular crystalloids in the Geodide, they not only differ from them, as just stated, in composition, by the former being cellular and albuminous, while the latter are solid and siliceous throughout (Annals, 1869, vol. iv. p. 16 &c., pls. 1 & 2. figs. 12 & 14), but also in size; for the largest crystal- loids are three or four times as large as the largest cells, and the latter much larger than the smallest or youngest crystal- loids, so that in these respects, viz. in composition and size, they cannot be confounded.
Formerly I thought that the colour of the sponges might be always sought for in the ampullaceous sacs (“‘ Wimperkérbe,” Schdt.), and therefore that the black cells of Dercitus niger might be ampullaceous sacs (Annals, 1870, vol. vi. p. 332) ; but the result of more particular examination subsequently, as given above, has caused me now to regard the latter more as reproductive agents.
I have also alluded (Annals, 7. c.) to the presence of ampul- laceous sacs in Cleodia gigas, Schdt.; but on examining these also again, now that I have become more intimately acquainted with the composition of the cells in Dercitus niger &c., I am led to conjecture that they also may be of the same kind as the latter, in which case, should I be right, we shall have an instance in this sponge where both the globular crystalloids and the cells occur together, and thence have to seek for the ampullaceous sac under some other form than that in Hali- chondria simulans (see Annals, /. c.), not only in Geodia gigas, but in Pachymatisma Johnstonia and in Stelletta lactea &e., where there is nothing of the kind like the ampullaceous sac of the Halichondria mentioned, so far as the larger size of its cellules and peculiar grouping go. The ampullaceous sac with
from the South Coast of Devon. 15
smaller and thus less-marked cellules may exist in all; but as yet I have not been able to substantiate this.
Of course, after having been dried, it is impossible to make out any thing in these cells so satisfactorily as in living ones ; and hence, although such cells are present in great abundance in their contracted state in the dried specimens of Geodia gigas mentioned (measuring about a 1000th of an inch in dia- meter and filled with a number of cellules), liquor potasse, although it causes the cellules to run together into one homo- geneous mass, does not yield any satisfactory demonstration of a nucleus under the addition of nitric acid, nor is the cell- wall well marked—two points in which the cell of Dercitus niger differs distinctly from the ampullaceous sac.
Hence the desirableness of examining these cells of G..gigas in the.recent state.
We too often content ourselves with describing sponges as well as other objects of natural history in their dried or dead condition; and although this is the only way in which they often come to us, yet we might as often repeat to ourselves as well as to others*under such circumstance the words of Hamlet to Horatio :—
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Too often the living state of such objects is disregarded when we have the opportunity of adding this s¢ne quaé non to their natural history. Describing the skeleton or dried speci- men of a sponge only is little better than making it a matter of mere curiosity ; and hence the want of general interest and comparatively little advancement which characterizes our knowledge of this more than any other division of the animal kingdom.
I am not, however, yet satisfied with my examination of the cells of Dercitus niger and Stelletta aspera, although partly made in the living state; for I cannot yet fully comprehend the nature of the nucleus in respect of its large size, resem- blance to an aqueous cavity, and indisposition to change its appearance under the application of chemical agents.
In short, we have yet much to learn about this cell before we come to its real import; meanwhile its notice adds another feature to the Pachytragous Sponges, some of which possess analogous elements, as the globular erystalloids or little sili- ceous balls in the Geodide, akin to which are the siliceous disks of a like nature in Stelletta discophora, Schdt.; while others possess neither cells, globular crystalloids, nor disks, as Stel- letta lactea.
14
Mr. H. J. Carter on three Pachytragous Sponges.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV.
N.B. Figures 3, 9-11, and 17-19 are all drawn to the same scale, viz. 1-24th to 1-1800th of an inch; and figures 4, 5, 12, 15, 21, and 22, also to the same scale, viz. 1-6th to 1-6000th of an inch, to show their rela- tive sizes respectively.
Fig. 1. Dercitus niger, n. var.: section of a portion, natural size, show-
Fig.
Fig.
Fig. Fug. Fig.
‘Ug.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig. Fig.
Fig. Fig.
Fig.
2
OO
ing surface (a), black cortical layer (b), and body-substance (c) presenting truncated ends of excretory canals.
The same, diagram section, much magnified, showing dermal layer charged with minute spinous spicules (a), black cortical layer composed of cells (6), layer of trifid spicules (c), body- substance (d) less densely charged with the trifid spicules, together with minute tricurvate or bow-like spicules, and black cells.
The same, trifid spicule with minute dermal spinous (a) and tri- curvate (b) ones, together with black cells (c), all relatively magnified.
. The same, dermal spicule, greatly magnified. . The same, tricurvate spicule, greatly magnified, on the same scale. . The same, black cell, still more magnified, showing large sub-
circular nuclear (?) body (a), small nucleolar (?) body (6), mi- nute globular cellules (c), charged respectively with one or more black or dark-brown granules, which collectively give the dark colour to the cell, and the latter collectively the intense black colour to the cortical layer; d, separate cellule.
. Stelletta aspera, n. sp.: section of a portion, natural size, show-
ing surface (a), cortical layer (b), and body-substance (c), pre- senting truncated ends of excretory canals.
. The same, diagram section, much magnified, showing dermal
layer charged with minute sub-bistellate spicules (a), cortical layer of cells (6), body-substance (c) charged with large acerate, trifid, furcate, and minute stellate spicules, of which the former are most aggregated towards the surface, where they are inclined so much as to be almost horizontal.
. The same, large acerate fusiform spicule; viewed from above,
straight ; but slightly curved when viewed laterally: a, real length.
N.B. For convenience, this spicule has been drawn from that point of view in which it appears straight, as the curved form, when slight, is so difficult for an engraver to etch truthfully ; also, to make this easier, its sides have been drawn with a rule, diminishing equally from the centre to the extremities, which is not the case with this nor, indeed, with most spicules, which diminish more abruptly towards the ends than in any other part. These observations will apply also to the representation of the large acerate spicule in the next species.
10. The same, trifurcate spicule, lateral view: a, real length. 11. The same, trifurcate head, of larger size, where the rays are more
deeply furcated, end view: a, end of shaft; 0, central canal, bifurcating like the arms.
12. The same, dermal spicule, much more magnified. 13. The same, stellate spicule of the body, magnified on the same
scale.
14. The same, three cells of the cortical layer, less magnified than
fig. 6, the same as those of Dereitus niger, only colourless, show-
Dr. J. E. Gray on 'Testudo chilensis. 15
ing large, transparent, subcircular, nuclear (?) body (a), small
nucleolar (?) body (4), minute globular cellules charged with
one or more colourless granules (¢c), sarcodal subfibrous trama in which the cells are imbedded (d), cavity of the same in which the cell is situated (e), separate cellule much more magnified
). £
p. This figure is taken from cells in a portion of the sponge which had been placed in spirit and water, where the cellules were much broken down and the nucleolar body appeared not only to be nucleated itself, but to be in contact with the nuclear body.
Fig. 15. Stelletta lactea, n. sp.: fragment of sandstone rock, showing three portions of the sponge in the excavations made by Saxicave respectively (a a a), natural size ; dermal surface bearing minute grains of sand (d), body-substance (c), black pigment lining the cavities occupied by the sponge (d).
Fig. 16. The same, diagram section, much magnified, showing rounded grains of sand adhering to the dermal layer (a), dermal layer densely charged with minute stellates (b), zone of trifid and trifurcate spicules which have their heads in contact with the dermal layer (c), body-substance (d) charged with acerate, trifid, and stellate spicules, together with the sheaf-shaped bundles of minute acerate ones.
Fig. 17. The same, acerate fusiform spicule, straight in this point of view, but slightly curved when viewed laterally : a, real length.
Fig. 18. The same, trifid spicule, lateral view: a, real length.
Fig. 19. The same, trifid form with furcate extremities.
Fig. 20. The same, portion of body-substance greatly magnified, showing the stellates (a), the sheaf-like bundles of minute acerate spi- cules (6), and the large acerate fusiform spicules.
Fig. 21. The same, stellates of the dermal layer, much magnified : a, with large body and short rays; 6, with small body and long rays.
Fig. 22. The same, sheaf-like bundle of minute acerate spicules of the body-substance, magnified, on the same scale.
I1.—Reply to Dr. Sclater’s Paper in the ‘Annals’ on Testudo chilensis d@c. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c.
In reply to Dr.Sclater on Testudo chilensis &c., in the ‘ Annals’ for December 1870, p. 470, I have only to observe that for the accuracy of the habitat of the animals which I described as coming from the Zoological Society, I am solely dependent on the information which I obtained from that institution; and in the case of the tortoise, I took particular trouble, as the discovery of another tortoise in America was a matter of in- terest. This being the case, whatever inaccuracy there may be in the habitat is no fault of mine, but that of Dr. Sclater and his subordinates.
It is much to be regretted that an accurate record is not kept of every animal as it is received by the Society, stating how it was obtained, and giving the details of its habitat,
16 Dr. J. E. Gray on Testudo chilensis.
which is open to the inspection of the Fellows of the Society and other scientific visitors, and should be communicated especially to‘the person who is asked to give the name to the animal to be inserted in the secretary’s list of accessions pub- lished from time to time in the ‘ Proceedings.’ As both I and others are asked to undertake this office, to save the sécretary the trouble of determining for himself the names of the ani- mals, I am often so dissatisfied with the habitat that I obtain with the specimen, that, when I have sent an account to the Society, I have more than once left a blank in the manuscript, that the history of how and where the specimen was obtained might be inserted by the secretary. All this uncertainty would be obviated if an accurate register, such as I have indi- cated, were to be seen at the Gardens. Such a register is kept of all the specimens received into the British Museum; and as it is made at the time, any inaccuracy must be occasioned by want of care on the part of the person who communicates the facts.
Dr. Sclater will perhaps allow me, as an original member of the Society, who has taken a great deal of interest in its ma- nagement, to state that the history of the specimens was for- merly much better recorded when the secretary of the Society was an honorary officer, and it could only have a claim to his leisure, than it is now when we have a liberally paid secretary with a number of paid subordinates under him.
I consider the above a sufficient answer to his note; but as his paper contains other observations, I will make a few fur- ther remarks.
Early in July there were brought to the Museum three spe- cies of tortoises to be named, as is the usual practice with animals of that class. They were particularly interesting to me, and I asked whence they came. On the 7th of July I sent to the Society a communication entitled ‘‘ Notes on three Species of Tortoises living in the Society’s Gardens,” in which I stated that “there are at present living two species of land-tortoises and one of a more terrestrial Terrapin, which Mr. Bartlett assures me came direct from Chili.” bne would have thought that this statement would have exonerated me from the charge of giving a wrong habitat to these tortoises, as I received the account from a subordinate of Dr. Sclater, who, I was informed, was absent on the Continent. As the paper would not be read until its meeting in November, and as it contained a new species, I sent a short diagnosis of the species to the ‘ Annals,’ that there might be no doubt as to the date of its publication, leaving the details of the paper to be read before the Society.
Near the end of October, happening to turn over the paper
Dr. J. E. Gray on Testudo chilensis. 17
of Dr. Strauch on the distribution of tortoises, I observed, under Testudo sulcata, that that species was said to be found in various parts of South America by D’Orbigny, Burmeister, and others, and [had no doubt that they had obtained the tortoise which I had described as Testudo chilensis. I sent a short note stating how I had obtained the information, for insertion in the No- vember Number of the ‘Annals’ (see vol. vi. p. 428). At the same time I sent the synonyma, with references to the works in which they were described, to the Secretary of the Society, with a request that it should be added to my paper which was to be read on the Ist of November. And there can be no doubt that it was from the paper sent to the Secretary of the Zoological Society and to the ‘Annals’ that Dr. Sclater ob- tained all the information which appears in his paper in the ‘Annals’ for December. And thus it was that he found out that the “new Chilian tortoise’ had been “ known to four or five previous writers,’ who by-the-by confounded it with a species with which it has no alliance, the one being a typical Old-World tortoise, and the other belonging to a group pecu- liar to the New World, which Agassiz considers a very distinct genus, under the name of Xerohates.
Upon the day (Nov. 30) that I received the ‘Annals’ con- taining Dr. Sclater’s paper, I received from Dr. Sclater the proof of my communication of the 7th of July; so that if Dr. Sclater was only urged by “the special interest which he takes in the correct determination of the animals kept in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London,” he had the opportunity of correcting the erroneous information according to his idea, which was sent to me by one of his subordinates, in the original paper, either by informing me of the right habitat and history of the tortoises, to insert in the paper, which I would have thankfully acknowledged; or he could have made the correction in the form of a note from himself, as editor of the ‘ Proceedings,’ communicated under his own name.
Scientific men ought to be much indebted to Dr. Sclater for the trouble he has taken in writing to Dr. Peters, Dr. Philippi, and others respecting the habitat of this tortoise, a kind of labour which he seems only to undertake after I or some other person have described the species. Unfortunately my occupations are so multitudinous that I cannot devote so much time to the determination of the habitat of a single species which has so extensive a distribution in South America; but in this case the trouble seems to have been thrown away ; for instead of having only negative evidence, we have positive facts within reach (and, indeed, the following statement given me by Dr. Giinther,
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vii. 2
18 Dr. J. E. Gray on Ateles Bartlettii.
which was communicated to Dr. Sclater at the meeting of the Zoological Society when the paper was read, and before Dr. Sclater’s paper in the ‘Annals’ was put in type) proves that the tortoises were obtained near Santiago on the coast of Chili.
Dr. Giinther states :—‘‘ Hr. Weisshaupt, who brought a col- lection of Chilian animals, stated that he was in the habit of collecting personally live specimens on or near the sea-shore, about twenty miles south of his place of residence, and that he obtained the tortoises brought by him on one of these ex- cursions. He was asked by me to obtain more specimens, live or dead, together with lizards and frogs, which he may meet with at the same time. I mentioned this already at the meeting of the Zoological Society on November 1st.”
These remarks apply equally well to the observations on Ateles Bartlettti. 1 have only to observe that I considered Ateles variegatus of Natterer, figured in Reichenbach’s Atlas, figs. 15 & 16, to be the same as Ateles melanochir of Desmarest. But it is very difficult to make out the species of this genus from short descriptions, and I must leave the question to be settled by future zoologists; but I consider that I have done good service in figuring so fine a species—only remarking that itis the Secretary of the Society, and not I, that is responsible for the colouring of the plates, as they were not even submitted to my inspection before publication ; but in this case it is very like the specimen: and Herr vy. Pelzeln’s observation shows that the A. variegatus of Natterer is a very variable species ; for he says that in some specimens the yellow is continued over the upper surface of the limbs, of which there is not the slightest indication in the male which I described; and I could not procure from the Society any habitat for the female, which I am now informed came from the Hon. A. Gordon, who obtained it from the upper part of the Caura river, a southern confluent of the Orinoco.
In this case I am charged with two faults.
First. I have named as a new species a monkey which Dr. Sclater thinks was named and very briefly described thirty years ago, in a miserable compilation; but I do not think that he has proved his case: and surely he should not complain of a person giving a new name to a species already described ; for in the very paper in which he makes the charge he has given a new name to a tortoise which I had described and named 7’ chilensis, because he has a theory, founded on nega- tive evidence, that, though the specimen came from Santiago, it is not a native of Chili, and therefore he proposes to call it T. argentina, in ease his theory should prove correct ; and I think I have shown that there is no likelihood of the new name
Dr. J. E. Gray on Ateles Bartlettii &c. 19
being required. He has given the “ temporary denomination ”’ of Canis lateralis to a jackal which is evidently the Canis adusta of Sundevall; he is even doubtful of this case himself, but fears that he may lose the opportunity of naming a species. Again, if the monkey is really Ateles variegatus of Natterer, why did not Dr. Sclater make the requisite correction when I described and figured it in the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Society in 1867? especially as he says it was described, in 1842, in a “most ordinary book of reference.”
Secondly. I have done wrong because, having received the specimen of Ateles, which agrees in all respects with the spe- cimen described as A. Bartletti’, except in being white where that species was yellow, I did not name it as a new species, but, finding that one specimen was a male and the other a female, I was willing to believe that they were sexes of the same species, or at least to wait to consider it otherwise until more specimens were submitted to my examination. Dr. Sclater says that it is not like the female at Vienna, and therefore it is not a female of A. Bartlettii. [ven if it is not, may it not be a variety of that sex? At any rate, I am not willing to give another name, which Dr. Sclater is perfectly at liberty to do if he thinks it necessary.
This rage for giving names to doubtful species is the great bane of what is called zoology, and is destroying the scientific part of the study, reducing it to mere names instead of know- ledge of the things, and is hable to all manner of abuses. Thus one of the royal princes brought home a deer from that general entrepdt Singapore, and presented it to the Gar- dens; and Dr. Sclater, in great haste (not even waiting until the horns had been properly developed), has briefly de- scribed and named it Cervus Alfredi, in a genus already overloaded with nominal species. A shell-dealer has a large number of specimens of Cones, evidently the young of much larger species, which have not yet arrived at their proper form or colouring, which are not saleable, and describes them and other abnormal specimens of common shells as new species, thus rendering them valuable in the eyes of some collectors, as being the types of species described in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ they conceiving that the Society thereby gives authority to the assertion of their being new species.
Some day, and I hope soon, such species must be erased from our lists, which they now uselessly encumber, or they will render the science unworthy of the name
Dr. Sclater objects that in my short notice of the species I simply say “ received”’ by the British Museum. As a Fellow
2%
20 Mr. H. G. Seeley on the Structure of
of the Society, jealous of its scientific reputation, I thought it better than saying that “the British Museum has just pur- chased from the Zoological Society the dead body of an animal which was for some weeks living in their Gardens,” which would have been the truthful statement; and it appears that Dr. Sclater was himself ashamed of this statement; for he says that it was “sent” to the British Museum, without saying that it was sent for its specific name to be determined, and for pur- chase. But all the animals which the Museum receives from the Zoological Society (established. for the cultivation and extension of zoological science) are purchased; and when the Society was badly off for funds, this was a fair source of in- come, of which I do not complain.
Ill.—Additional Evidence of the Structure of the Head in Ornithosaurs from the Cambridge Upper Greensand ; being a Supplement to ‘The Ornithosauria” By Harry G. SEELEY, F'.G.S., Assistant to Prof. Sedgwick in the Wood- wardian Museum of the University of Cambridge *.
[Plates II, & III]
To the anterior end of the snout and the back of the brain- case belong nearly all the fragments of Pterodactylian skulls hitherto collected from the Cambridge Upper Greensand ; and although the snouts are numerous, they never extend backward beyond the denticulate part of the palate or to the narial apertures ; while the back part of the head never reaches so far forward as to include the frontal bones; so that the great middle region of the skull, the seat of the orbits and nares, which transforms its characters with successive groups in reptiles, mammals, and birds, remains unknown. And before the general structure of the head can be illustrated by detailed comparisons in this Cretaceous Ornithocheiroid family, we must learn the condition and form of the bones called frontal, nasal, Jachrymal, maxillary, malar, vomer, palatine, pterygoid, postfrontal, and the proximal end of the os qua- dratum. And if one were a believer in the old morphological doctrine that a like conformation of bone in extinct and living animals warrants the presumption of their having had a like grade of organization, it were hard, with these Ornithosaurian snouts before us, and all the vertebrate province assembled, for us to seek their similars from, to pronounce a sure judg-
* Communicated by the Author, being the first part of a paper read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, May 30, 1870.
the Head in Ornithosaurs. 21
ment on their kindred; for there is no snout among living animals like the Pterodactyles’. ven the extinct animals which are already known manifest no signs of kindred. If among the Teleosauria a like progressive enlargement of the first three teeth and then a narrowing of the jaw is seen to show again a character of many Ornithocheiroid jaws, it is but a solitary resemblance; and the Teleosaur’s snout, with its terminal single nostril, is in no other way a counterpart. If Ichthyosauria as invariably have the nostril far back from the end of the snout, it in no other way resembles Ptero- dactyles’ ; for the premaxillary bones are separate and dense in tissue, and have no sockets, but only a simple groove for teeth. If, in triangular dagger-shape and bone-texture, some of the species recall birds, still birds have no teeth, even the imma- ture parrots showing but evanescent enamelled specks ; while other species end their jaws in a bulbous truncate way, which among birds is never seen. And if we seek for a denticulate jaw among lizards, we shall not find the bird-like elongation of snout, or its Teleosaur-like widening or flattening of palate, and not typically socketed teeth. Yet to birds (and lizards) it approximates best, but in such obscure ways as to stand apart with an individual isolation which would admit of its kindred being reptiles, or mammals, or birds, without amazement to the osteologist. It is not a nose that leads.
Similarly, if only the back of the skull had been found, itwould have been more a matter of scientific taste than of scientific fact to have said whether it showed stronger similitude to tooth- less birds like the heron, or a toothless mammal like Myrmeco- phaga or the foetal Orycteropus*. Therefore to one who would consider these Cambridge exuvie in the old morphological way, estimating the affinities bone by bone and adding them together to get the total affinity, there is room for considerable doubt and justifiable difference of opinion about the restoration of the head and its resemblance to that of other animals.
I have now an opportunity of lessening that doubt by the discovery of the frontal bone. (Pl. II. fig. 1.)
The specimen is referred to an Ornithosaurian because it possesses the peculiar thin, dense, and smooth bone charac- teristic of the class, which has been found in no other fossils of the Cambridge Greensand ; and it is identified as the frontal bone because it resembles the bone so named in certain rep- tiles, birds, and mammals, and is not like any other element of the skeleton. ‘The fossil is broken both in front and be-
* The occipital condyles are not preserved with the adjacent bones in Cambridge fossils, and the auditory region is filled with phosphate of lime.
22 Mr. H. G. Seeley on the Structure of
hind, but is free from investing phosphate, and so shows both the external and cerebral surfaces. Hxternally (fig.1) the part preserved is straight from front to back, with a mesial groove which deepens as it extends anteriorly, so that the two lateral halves of the bone are convex, the anterior groove apparently existing to receive the nasals or premaxillary bone. The outermost lateral parts of the frontal are flattened and directed downward behind, where they widen so as to be inclined to each other at nearly a right angle; they look upward, outward, and slightly forward, rounding into the upper part of the bone. The extreme length of the specimen is 1} inch. Owing to breakage, its greatest width from side to side is at a quarter of an inch from the hinder termination of the bone, where it measures ? inch; and then it contracts from side to side in a parabolic curve, which in passing forward approxi- mates nearer to the upper surface of the bone, till the width at the anterior breakage is § inch; the bone is V-shaped at the broken end in transverse section.
The external surface shows two or three impressed lines parallel to the mesial groove.
Seen from the side (fig. 2), the slightly concave inferior longi- tudinal outline of the bone is nearly parallel with the straight superior longitudinal outline, the depth of the bone from above downward in front being more than } inch, and the depth behind being =, inch. The concave lateral outline seen from above (already described) in this view runs diagonally from the front upper corner to the back lower corner of the bone. The long triangular posterior part above this line is the lateral region of the frontal already referred to as bent downward. The anterior subtriangular part below the line is concave from back to front, and concave from above downward in front, where the two sides of the bone meet at the base so as to form in transverse outline a V-lke shape. In the anterior part of this concave area are two small oblong per- forations for vessels.
Seen from below (fig. 3), the surface divides into three distinct portions :—(1) the two external concave strips last referred to, which widen and converge in front. Within these there is (2) a long triangular smooth area with slightly concave lateral margins. The area is slightly concave in length, and deeply concave from side to side. Anteriorly there are in it two large ovate perforations for the passage of vessels; posteriorly the lateral margins are flattened, so that the sharp lateral boundary is there obliterated. And (3) this median triangular area is excavated behind by two semicircular cavities, making it spear-shaped: the cavities are divided by a median smooth
the Head in Ornithosaurs. 23
space more than } inch wide; they extend some distance forward into the bone; one is excavated for 2 inch; each measures 1 inch from side to side. Seen from behind, their outlines are triangular ; they are lined with smooth dense bone- tissue. ?
Such is this remarkable fossil. A fragment of a second specimen has been placed in my hands by the courtesy of M. R. Prior, Esq., of Trinity College; but as it displays no new structure, I merely mention that it indicates a bone twice as large as that just described, and is perforated on the under- side by foramina which are enormously large in proportion, and which are accompanied by many small accessory fora- mina. On the underside of neither specimen is there any indication of division into separate frontal elements, though externally both show indications of median lateral division.
Now as to the significance of the bone. Its outline recalls the frontal bone of Crocodiles (Pl. II. fig. 4). I figure for com- parison the frontal bone of a Crocodile from the upper part of the Tertiary series in the Isle of Wight, Crocodilus Hastingie. Externally the Greensand fossil differs in the deep median groove, in the smooth unpitted surface, and chiefly in the la- teral parts being directed downward, while in Crocodiles the lateral parts are directed upward. In the Ornithosaur the bone is proportionally longer; and the cerebral part being broken, the resemblance is not so close as it seems to be,
On the interior aspect the concave lateral parts of the Or- nithocheirus are seen to be represented by similar but deeper concave regions in the crocodile (PI. II. fig. 4) ; for they are the upper and inner boundaries of the orbits. Between them is a similar triangular concave area, less well-defined ante- riorly in the crocodile because the orbital margins do not converge and meet in front. But here the resemblance ends; for when the bones are compared posteriorly, the crocodile shows no sign of the remarkable excavations seen in the Ornithosaur*.
Among birds the form of the bone is approximated to more closely (Pl. Il. fig. 5). There is externally the same smooth surface, the same sort of downward direction of the hinder lateral parts, sometimes the same antero-posterior straightness and mesial depression. These latter characters are not well seen in the common Gallus domesticus, and might be better matched in other birds; yet, as the most accessible type, I here contrast (Pl. II. fig. 5) the inner side of the frontal bones in that animal with what is seen in our fossil, premising that,
* In serpents the frontal covers in the cerebral hemispheres in front.
24 Mr. H.G. Seeley on the Structure of
as the fossil is broken behind, this comparison does not de- termine exactly the resemblance and difference between the bones, The lateral orbital spaces are larger and better-marked in the bird, and similarly approximate mesially ; but while in the bird the eyes abut against the front of the brain, in the Ornithosaur they are removed further forward, and conse- quently the triangular space which comes between and behind the orbits in Ornithosaurians is in front of them in birds; and in these animals the bone which I have previously named the ethmoid bone (the orbito-sphenoid of Prof. Owen) is of such shape as would fit on to that space. Finally, the frontal of the bird is largely excavated behind to cover the cerebrum. From the divergence of the excavations in the Ornithosaur frontal, it is clear that they are not for the cerebrum, but for the olfactory lobes in front of the cerebrum, which lobes, when developed, are commonly divided. And if any one will compare the figure of this bone here given with fig. 3, pl. 11 of my book on the Ornithosauria, where is shown the suture of the parietal bones from which the frontals have come away, it will be evident that a considerable piece is wanting from the back of this frontal bone, which, like the bird’s frontal bone, is thereby proved, when perfect, to have partly, if not largely, covered the cerebrum. Here, then, with much and close resemblance to the bird, are substantial differences, in an enormous and unbirdlike development of olfactory lobes (with seemingly a covered channel for the olfactory nerve, rare among birds), in evidence of a largely developed and backwardly placed ethmoid and more anterior orbits. Still the resemblance to birds is a true coincidence of functional plan up to a certain point, and altogether different from the resemblance to the bone in the crocodile, which in this point is the most like of reptiles.
If the bone be compared with the frontal of mammals, pro- bably the bird-like rodents, such as the guinea-pig or rabbit, offer the closest similarity of form: the rabbit is to be pre- ferred for comparison. But here, though the general form of the bone would be sufficiently like to admit of comparison, it will be seen that the eye is situated altogether at the scde of the fore part of the cerebrum and large olfactory lobes, which extend between the orbits; and then the condition of the softer parts of the ethmoid is very different from and not com- parable with the condition of the ethmoid in birds, and unlike any known condition in Ornithosaurs. In the interior of the cranial cavity of the rabbit, the development of the olfactory lobes comes much nearer to the ornithosaurian than any thing seen in birds. Yet olfactory lobes are as much a feature of
the Head in Ornithosaurs. 25
reptilia and lower animals as of mammals; only in the reptile* they are not closed-in in front by*bone, while in mammals they are. But in no sense, except in form, can the olfactory lobes of this specimen be called mammalian ; for they obviously never sent filaments direct to supply the olfactory sense, but apparently forwarded the olfactory nerve in a closed tube. Thus in not passing through the ethmoid, but through the frontals, the olfactory lobes approximate towards birds’, but differ from all birds’, so far as I am aware, in their great size.
I conclude, then, that the frontal bone under consideration is only closely comparable with birds’, and that it diverges from birds’ in ways which are not paralleled in other animals.
Elsewhere I have described and figured all the cranial structures of Ornithosaurians which the Woodwardian Museum containsT; and I propose now, with the notice of an additional imperfect bone which may be the maxillary, to point out ex- actly how much is known of the Ornithocheiroid brain and skull, and how they resemble and differ from those of other animals—only remarking that the results arrived at can be but of a general nature, since the specimens are few, imper- fectly preserved, of different sizes, and obviously belong to two or more genera, each bone perhaps pertaining to a different species.
First, then, to reconstruct the brain. The materials are a transverse section of the brain-case in front of the optic lobes, a natural mould of the upper part of the brain showing the form of the cerebrum and part of the cerebellum, and an indi- eation of the optic lobes on the under surface, an ethmo- sphenoid bone apparently closing in the brain in front, and part of a frontal bone closing the brain in above; so that, with very unimportant and small parts, the structure of the brain-case is now known.
I suppose the form of the brain-cavity to indicate with ap- proximate accuracy the form of the brain, in which case the Pterodactyle’s brain must have been very like what is here drawn (PI. II. figs. 6,7); for in only one or two points is there likelihood of error: the cerebellum may be here made too long, and the depth of the cerebrum may be made too little; for there is evidence that it is nearly as deep as it is long.
When the brain is seen from above (fig.6), there is no diffi- culty in recognizing it as an evident modification of the avian outline, chiefly remarkable for the enormous size of the cerebral and olfactory lobes, and the small size ofthe cerebellum, by which
* Serpents not excepted. + ‘The Ornithosauria.’
26 Mr. H. G. Seeley on the Structure of
that organ shrinks away from the optic lobes. Still the dif- ferences are only of proportion of parts, and not peculiarities of arrangement. But when the brain is seen from the side, it shows characters which are altogether peculiar to it, in the development of the under part of the cerebrum, by which that part of the brain attains a larger size than any thing seen in birds, and more in accord with the highest mammals than with other animals. Here, of course, the question arises, Is it certain that the parts have been correctly determined (in dealing with such material the question is inevitable), and that what have been called optic lobes are not lateral lobes of the cerebrum, so that, after all, the animal may be a mam- mal? I can only reply that when the Pterodactyle’s skull is compared with the bird’s skull, the correspondence of the parts called optic lobes is very close. They are sunk deep into the alisphenoid and squamosal bones, so as to be covered by the thinnest possible film of bone externally, as in birds; a sharp bony ridge divides them from the cerebrum, as in birds; they are as prominent and subhemispherical as in birds, and they are situated almost as in birds; while I fail to find this bony definition of outline in the encasement of the similarly placed
art of the mammalian cerebrum; so that I have no doubt at all that these parts of the brain are accurately described by the lettering in the description of Plate II. Every facility is offered at the Woodwardian Museum for the examination of the specimens.
And the conclusion which follows from the facts detailed is that these Ornithosauria, while having a brain moulded upon the bird-type, attained to a condition of cerebral development which would raise them, so far as evidence from the brain went, above birds. In fact, this brain, if brain-form is worth any thing in classification, proves that these animals must take rank immediately above birds, in the same natural group with them.
Now it will be attempted to reconstruct the Ornithocheiroid skull in which this brain was lodged* ; and to this end follows a description of what may be regarded as the maxillary bone. (PUM, figs! i, 2:)
Like all Pterodactyle bones, it is fractured. It is a sub- triangular squamous bone, flat externally in antero-posterior direction, perfectly smooth, and very slightly convex from above downward, 13 inch long at the palatal border. Above this fractured border is an impressed area less than } an inch
* The best general restoration of the Ornithosaurian skull is Prof.
Owen’s, given in pl. 27 of his memoir in the Palzeontographical Society’s volume for 1851.
the Head in Ornithosaurs. 27
wide, margined above by a convex line most impressed be- hind, and showing at intervals foramina like those seen on the maxillary bone of many of the lizards. In front is seemingly the lower and back part of a perforation which, on the hypo- thesis of the Bone being maxillary, would be the left narial vacuity, showing on its inner side an impressed ovate space. On the upper part of the posterior lateral margin is an angular notch, which may be merely due to fracture or may be the anteorbital or middle hole of the skull. The least distance be- tween these notches is about $ inch. Internally (fig. 2), between the sides, the bone is convex and rapidly thickens from little more than card-thickness at the palate to nearly 2 inch at a height of 1} inch from the palate. Externally at about this height the bone rounds upward and inward for a quarter of aninch, and then is truncated, with a small piece of rough surface which looks obliquely outward and forward when the external surface is vertical. On this surface and on a trun- cated continuation upward of the narial boundary may have rested the nasal bone.
Putting the several known bones together, they appear to indicate a cranium of such a form as is here drawn (PI. IIT. fig. 3), the light parts only being known, and. the shaded parts put in to complete the outline. Certain black lines running through the shaded parts indicate possible boundaries of bones.
In completing the outlines I have rather followed the au- thority of German specimens than my own ideas. [or in- stance, behind the orbit and between the frontal and squamosal is a four-cornered space, representing the region in which the postfrontal bone should be applied to the brain-case. The diminutive representative of this bone is apparently seen in many natatorial birds, such as the goose, between the frontal, squamosal, and alisphenoid bones; and in the immature stru- thious skull Mr. Parker’s researches have made its existence evident. In birds the rudimentary bone has no other con- nexion; but in German Ornithosaurians it is usually of a tri- angular form, and sends one limb to the quadrato-jugal bone. And this is a point in which all birds differ from Ornitho- saurians ; for, from the downward direction of the quadrate bone in birds, the quadrato-jugal and malar bones are removed from all relation with the bones of the upper part of the head. Yet seeing that in the Cambridge Ornithosaur the quadrate bone had an articular connexion with the skull, it is inconceivable that the quadrato-jugal should have had a wide union with the postfrontal bone. But if the post- frontal bone is obliterated, and the quadrato-jugal and malar
28 Mr. H.G. Seeley on the Structure of
bones reduced to a rod which united the distal end of the quadrate bone with the palatal margin of the maxillary bone, then there would be nothing to distinguish that part of the Ornithocheiroid skull from the bird’s skull. And hitherto no evidence has been found of the existence of either this bone or the malar in Cretaceous genera.
In another point of some importance there is a lack of evi- dence : no trace has been found of the existence in Cambridge fossils of the middle hole of the skull between the orbit and narine; and as the perforation does not exist in the Ornitho- saurs Pterodactylus longicollum and P. Kochi, I have not outlined it in the diagram.
So that, to state the case of these Ornithosaurs separately, on the evidence at present known, it is found that the only points in which the skull differs from that of birds, are in the vertically expanded quadrato-jugal bone and the apparent expansion of the ethmoid to close in the front of the brain. Yet these characters, though minor in kind, are a wide diver- gence from birds, the latter one being seemingly unparalleled among Vertebrata, and the former implying an expanded squamose malar bone, and probably a developed postfrontal. Therefore there is reason to anticipate that in these bones Cambridge Pterodactyles will be found to approximate towards other Ornithosaurs, and, like them, to diverge from birds. It may then be appropriate to examine into their bearing on the animal’s affinities.
In the first place, so far as can be judged from published figures, there is no absolutely conclusive evidence in any Pterodactyle whether the malar bone has a distinct existence ; it might even be united to the maxillary, or, with less im- probability, to the quadrato-jugal. Perhaps the strongest evidence for its separate existence is offered by the Cam- bridge specimens, where the quadrato-jugal appears to form part of the basal margin of the orbit, and clearly receives a bone in front which must also have entered into the orbit, while apparently nearly the whole of the maxillary is oc- cupied in forming the back of the nostril, and there is no reason for suspecting that it extended back to the orbit; so that the existence of a separate malar bone is highly pro- bable. And although no one can be more convinced of the fallacy of reasonings founded on imperfect knowledge of facts (the arsenal of erroneous ideas), I think that the existence of this malar bone may, on the evidence, be assumed.
It is evident, then, that by the existence of a quadrate and quadrato-jugal, these animals differ from mammals, where sometimes, as among ruminants, the malar unites with the
the Head in Ornithosaurs. 29
(downward and forward process of the) frontal behind the eyes, and completes the orbit. The malar bone by itself, if distinct, might be compared to the mammalian malar.
In lizards malar, quadrato-jugal, and postfrontal bones exist, but their relations are different from what is seen in Ornithosaurs. The lizard quadrate is commonly vertical, and the quadrato-jugal is attached to its proximal end, while the orbit is completed after the mammalian plan by the (post-) frontal and malar, and the quadrato-jugal does not penetrate the suture between these bones, as it does in Ornithochetrus.
In Crocodiles there is still the same series of bones, with the malar and quadrato-jugal squamous: but they do not come near to Pterodactyles ; for the quadrate is directed back- ward, while in all Ornithosaurs it is directed forward; and the quadrato-jugal, although attached throughout its length to the quadrate, does not enter into the orbit, but into the tem- poral fossa, and it cannot be said similarly to divide the post- frontal and malar bones.
In the Rhynchocephalia, typified by Sphenodon, there is but one bone between the maxillary and the vertical quadrate ; and that bone Dr. Giinther names the malar. But at the back of the orbit the postfrontal and malar bones are separated by a bone named by Dr. Giinther the quadrato-jugal, which meets the squamosal behind, but is entirely separated from the quadrate bone; so that among none of the types which are correctly called reptiles is the resemblance to our Ornitho- saurians very close.
In birds it is certainly more distant, owing to the rod-like form which these bones take; but if the bones had assumed a squamous character, and united with the upper boundary of the orbit, the skull in these matters would be essentially avian. Accordingly, with such wide divergences from all other ani- mals, coupled with its own peculiar characters dependent upon the forward direction of the quadrate bone, and the uncertainty about the precise condition of the bones in Ornithocheiride, I find a difticulty in arriving at any more definite conclusion than that the general relation of these bones is more like what is seen in reptilian types than among birds and mammals. But in no reptile is there a similar condition, and perhaps the nearest reptile type is Sphenodon.
No Ornithosaurian hitherto figured displays the true struc- ture of the palate. The most instructive specimens are those figured in the well-known memoirs of Goldfuss and Quenstedt. And as Prof. Quenstedt’s description of the skull in his Ptero- dactylus suevicus makes known some points which do not ap- pear in Von Meyer’s general account, I translate what is said
30 Mr. H. G. Seeley on the Structure of
upon the subject in the special monograph ‘ Ueber Pterodac- tylus swevicus * :—
“The head, 5 inches 10 lines (Paris) long, has suffered somewhat through pressure, and might therefore be considered inferior in some respects to that of [P.| crasstrostris. Also all the teeth have fallen out; I have vainly endeavoured to trace their alveoli. It is noteworthy that the points of several of the teeth appear to be cut off. The fang and crown can be recognized; and the enamel is not in ridges, but only in wave- like folds.
“The lower jaw, 4 inches 5 lines long, displays the lower surface in a way hitherto unequalled. ‘The symphysis alone measures 1 inch 8 lines, and is 6 lines wide behind. The symphysis proves how accurately Miinster has expounded the lower jaw. Its surprising resemblance to the upper beak of a water-fowl was calculated, however, to lead any one to Wag- ner’s different interpretation}. There is no trace whatever of a suture in the symphysis; and no nerve-pores, found so nu- merously in birds, can be seen at the foremost extremity. The indents further back appear to be chiefly due to pressure. A transverse section shows clearly that the whole symphysial region is parallel to the upper surface. The part which is arched over is made up of several elements, although it is diffi- cult to obtain a true conception of their outlines. In continua- tion of the dentary bone (1) lies the superangular bone (4), with the angular bone (2) continuous with them on the inside. The thickened articular bone, at the proximal end, cannot be mistaken ; its small hindmost continuation was somewhat larger in the living animal. Although one fancies one sees the hollow of the articulation, it is to be presumed that it did not lie on that side, but underneath, on the side which is averted from the eye.
“'The upper jaw, again, has infront very much the form of a beak; but, unfortunately, the anterior end has suffered from a forcible twisting. The bone is therefore seen from above in front; and the further back it goes the more it is seen from the side. ‘The nasal bones are well defined, and as the front end of the bone near them is perforated like the lower jaw, it seems as if the entrance to the nostril had been here, as is the rule with birds. In that case the aperture, which occurs fully 2 inches behind the extremity of the jaw, would have nothing to do with the anterior nares. In the forward part of this hole lie two bones, similar to each other (16), which become thinner further back: they are the vomers. On the hind part of the
* 4to (Tubingen), 1855, pp. 38-40. + Akademie zu Miinchen, vi. p. 156.
the Head in Ornithosaurs. 81
nasal bone hangs down a triangular bone (2), which recalls to mind in a lively way the lachrymal bone in birds. But as there is a very strong process (19) of the jugal bone rising up towards it, the eye-hole may perhaps have been thus closed in front. The*skull then would have had three holes, as was first so excellently demonstrated by Goldfuss :—the nostrils, supposed to be isolated in the anterior end; the middle, elon- gated, triangular hole; and the cavern of the eye. This latter is well defended on the hinder side by an elevated ridge of the frontal bone. I could not find the sclerotic circle of the eye in it; but several bones, which I have exposed as much as possible, are lying scattered in the eye-hole, as follows: the slender bone at the top (6), which is prolonged under the lachrymal bone, may be the sphenoid; the two triangular bones (25) are the pterygoids; in front of them les a similar bone with three concavities (22), which from its position is to be regarded as the palatine bone. A sure foundation is found in the uncommonly strong quadrate bones (26) ; the left one is still in its natural position, but the right one lies in the hollow of the eye, with its articular surface facing the process of the jugal bone. ‘The head measures only 4 inches from the arti- cular surface of the left quadrate to the extremity of the beak; and one is therefore led to suppose that the lower jaw must have projected somewhat more than the upper jaw. The occiput, however, extends backward in a remarkable median crest, which has not previously been figured in any species: it might easily be overlooked, from its thinness ; but its exist- ence cannot be doubted. Including it, the whole length of the head amounts to 5 inches 10 lines. Above it les a fractured bone, which can only be interpreted as the parietal bone. As the head has also suffered somewhat from the twist already mentioned, one is also able to see at the upper margin frac- tured pieces from the right side. At first I thought of ex- posing these also, but now think it more prudent to leave them alone for the present.”
I have reproduced this passage because the specimen to which it relates shows the bones of the palate better than any other species, and not because Prof. Quenstedt’s interpretation seems to me accurate. ‘The numbers upon the bones in the figure are those used by Cuvier; but I would suggest the fol- lowing modified interpretation, as in accord with the fuller knowledge gained since the monograph was written. If the small anterior depressions are correctly identified as nares, about which I entertain no doubt, then the bone marked 3 is evidently the nasal. This identification is probable, because the teeth are limited to the extremity of the snout, and entirely
32 Mr. H. G. Seeley on the Structure of
in front of the nares; from which circumstance the inference may be made that the premaxillary bone did not extend far backward, and formed the front of the nostril; so that, with the toothless maxillary forming the side border, the nasal bones might well close it behind. The bone marked 7, though named frontal in the text, would, from the number, seem to be intended for the parietal; it appears to me to cor- respond in function, by making the upper border of the orbit, with the frontal bone. The bone 8, evidently intended for the supraoccipital, seems to me, both from the figure and a cast of the original specimen, to be the entire side of the cerebral region pressed flat. I should interpret it as con- sisting of the parietal bone in the upper part, and of the squamosal in the lower part, which gives attachment to the quadrate and malar bones. The little bone (23) just above the proximal ends of the malar and quadrate, is probabl intended for the squamosal; from the analogy of all other Ornithosaurs and lizards, I should rather name it the post- frontal. And with regard to the palatal bones, if they in any way resemble those seen among birds and lizards, they must certainly have a different naming from that detailed. I think the bone 22, regarded as the palatine, would be better iden- tified as the lachrymal. The triangular bones (25) may well be the pterygoids, as Quenstedt names them. ‘The angle of the triangle at one end of the long side would meet the qua- drate ; one of the short sides of the bone would unite mesially with the similar side of the other pterygoid bone; and both would have their other short sides looking backward, while the angle at the other end of the long side would meet the palatine bones in front. Considering the position of the latter bones in birds and reptiles, I have no hesitation in identifying the long slender bones marked 16 as the palatine bones. The small bone (6) named sphenoid I should rather identify as the right quadrato-jugal.
This interpretation enables me to offer a restoration of the Ornithosaurian palate (PI. II. fig. 8), which can only be recon- structed on the basis of the bird’s palate; for the form and relations of the pterygoid and palatine bones are very similar to what is seen in many natatorial birds.
It will be impossible, on compasing the figures, to discover any character, in which the Ornithosaur cannot be paralleled by birds, which would separate it as more than a different and not distantly allied genus, both the forms and arrangement of | the bones being paralleled in many natatorial birds. Yet too much stress must not be laid upon these important characters in the way of affinity, because lizards also approximate to-
the Head in Ornithosaurs. 33
wards birds in the plan of their pterygoid and palatine bones, though there is nothing so typically bird-like in their form, arrangement, and proportions as in the Cycnorhamphus.
Another point necessary to a knowledge of the skull is the composition of the lower jaw. And although only the dentary and articular ends are known in the specimens from the Cam- bridge Greensand, I propose to examine how much they really make known. First, there is the dentary bone, which never shows any indication of being composite: although numerous specimens have been examined, there is never the slightest trace of a median suture. The bone, in the only example which is at all perfect*, has the palatal surface much longer from back to front than the inferior surface, the dentary bone being comparatively small, not extending further back than do the teeth, and being underiapped throughout the greater part of its short length by other elements of the lower jaw. There is no direct evidence whether any of the Greensand species had the bone prolonged backward beyond the sym- physis.
The largest fragment of the articular end at present known (Woodwardian Museum, J. c. 12. no. 1) has been figured by Prof. Owen in his Monograph on P#. simus, published by the Paleontographical Society, 1860. It is broken in front, and shows on the upper part of the inner surface an area from which a bone has come away. This bone, which did not reach up to the superior border of the jaw, I think may have been a backward process of the dentary element. From front to back the exterior surface of this portion of the jaw is convex, and the interior surface concave (as much so as is usual among water-birds), suggestive of a median approximation. Another and small fragment (Woodwardian Museum, J. c. 12. no. 4) exhibits another sutural surface, which demonstrates that a straight suture, parallel to the inferior margin, and looking obliquely outward and upward, divided the lower angular bone from the upper surangular bone: the angular bone is the broadest from side to side; it is flattened underneath ; and a concave channel runs along its inner surface from behind forward ; the surangular bone is much the deeper from above downward, especially on the exterior surface, and some distance in front of the articulation it is compressed from side to side; so that while the limit of the bones is only marked by a slight groove externally, internally the strong projecting ridge of the angular bone gives the sur- angular an appearance of being deeply excavated. This bone
* Ornithosauria, pl. 12. fig. 1. Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vii. 3
34 Mr. H. G. Seeley on the Structure of
contributes the anterior boundary to the articular surface for the quadrate. The articular bone in its anterior part rests upon the angular bone, but behind the articulation the speci-: men is fractured. In passing backward the depth of the jaw becomes much less as it nears the articulation; here the bone widens and extends inward precisely as in birds: the heel behind the articulation is of varying length and form.
In every respect this structure is like that of a bird*, if we except the want of evidence of the existence of the opercular bone; but as it is possible that the interior surface which I have attributed to the dentary bone may be for the opercular bone, the correspondence may be more perfect than I have supposed it to be. If there were only four elements in the lower jaw, the whole arrangement would be very like that seen in turtles.
If, now, we endeavour to form a conception of the Ornitho- cheiroid head in its structural resemblances to other animals, we see that the entire skull, so far as known, is formed after the manner of birds in every region, except in the malar, quadrato-jugal, and postfrontal bones, which, though of the reptile’type, are not similarly placed in any reptile, and must therefore be regarded as an Ornithosaurian modification of the bird’s skull. The lower jaw may be Avian or Chelonian. The teeth must be regarded as Ornithosaurian, curiously com- bining Reptilian and Mammalian characters.
The points in which the Cambridge head certainly differs from other types are not important. hey consist, if my iden- tification is right, in the brain being closed by a bony mass in front, which extends forward partly between the orbits. This structure has not been figured in any of the true Pterodacty- lidee, and does not appear to be constant in the Ramphorhyn- chide, and seemingly is equally inconstant in Cambridge genera. But in the one specimen in which such a mass occurs it is very wide from side to side, is anchylosed with what I interpret as the fore part of the sphenoid, and furnishes the authority for the convex mammal-like under part of the brain ; and the bone also resembles the preorbital part of the ethmoid in the duck and in many birds. This resemblance is, indeed, so close that, but for the detailed correspondence of the base of this fossil specimen (Ornithosauria, pl. 11. fig. 7) to the base of the sphenoid in the back of an Ornitho-
* In ‘The Ornithosauria’ it is stated (p. 92) that the six elements of the lower jaw may be counted on each side. It would have been more accurate to have said five; for the separation of the coronoid from the articular is not well made out.
ies Haid: dv Omanaies, 35
saurian skull, I should have adopted it. And still it is a point that requires additional evidence to pronounce upon decisively. Should the bird-like interpretation (to which, from the forward position of the orbits &c., I least incline) eventually prové tenable, it would take away the evidence for the anomalous cerebral characters which have already: been dwelt upon, and bring both brain and brain-case into a more absolute conformity with birds than I have felt justified in assuming. Still no such bone has ever been found in Ptero- dactyles, and at present there is no proof that it existed.
The only other point in which Cambridge specimens appear to differ from those of Germany is the squamous character of the quadrato-jugal bone*.
I come to the last word about the skull, not because our knowledge is completed, but because there are no more bones. New specimens in time will fill in the lacunze which have been indicated, and modify our doubtful determinations; but so much of the skull is now known that no specimens can unsettle or invalidate its avian affinities. And if a contro- versy nearly as old as‘modern zoology thus ends, it is because the more philosophical and severe science of our time has taught us to find an animal’s place in nature by study of the common plan on which it is built, rather than in the old mor- phological way, which would predicate an entire organism from the form of a quadrate bone or a caudal vertebra. And the result gives strength to an old law of Cuvier’s, which hitherto has never failed—that the pneumatic skeleton is always asso- ciated with avian organization. So that henceforth, just as we infer from the double-fanged tooth the lungs and heart, and brain and reproduction, of a mammal for the animal to which it belonged, so now we may infer for the animal which had limb-bones with pneumatic foramina the organization and systematic grade of a bird. Side by side with birds, the Ornithosauria are a monument of the faithfulness of Nature to her laws, and a new pledge to the student that she never will betray the heart that trusts her.
* A new genus appears to be constituted by some (three) portions of jaws from the Cambridge Greensand. Unfortunately, the extremity is nos percent They have the ordinary dagger-shaped snout, but appear to
e entirely destitute of teeth. I provisionally name the genus Ornitho- stoma.
Another unnamed generic type is typified by Pterodactylus longicollum, P. rhamphastinus, and the two species included under the name of P. Kochi. In this genus the middle hole of the skull is entirely wanting. For it I suggest the name Diopecephalus,
3%
36 On the Structure of the Heal in Ornithosaurs.
EXPLANATION OF PLATES II. & IIL.
Puate II.
Fig. 1. Upper surface of the anterior part of the frontal bone of an Orni- thosaur.
Fig. 2. The same fragment, seen from the side.
Fig. 3. Interior aspect of the same specimen.
In these figures o marks the upper boundary of the orbit, and ol the region occupied in the fragment by the olfactory lobes.
Fig. 4. The corresponding interior aspect of the frontal bone of Crocodilus Hastingie. .
Fig. 5. Interior view of the frontal bones of a chicken. The shaded part marks the cavity occupied by the fore be of the cerebrum—a part which is not preserved in the fossil, fig. 3.
Fig. 6. Restoration of the form of the cerebral cavity in the Ornithosau- rians from the Cambridge Upper Greensand; outline, seen from above.
Fig. 7. ree form of the cerebral cavity of an Ornithosaur, seen from the side.
In these figures a marks olfactory lobes; 6, cerebrum ; ¢, optic lobes; d, cerebellum. A dotted line is introduced between c and a, which would give the cerebrum a form more like that of a bird, and which possibly may prove to be its true shape.
Fig. 8. Restoration of the palate of the Ornithosaurian Cycnorhamphus suevicus (Quenst.): Bo, basioccipital; s, sphenoid; Q, quadrate bone; ga, quadrate articulation; Pt, pterygoid; JP, palatine ; V, vomer; Pm, premaxillary; Mx, maxillary; m, malar.
PuaTeE III, Portion of a bone supposed to be the maxillary bone of an Ornithosaur.
Fig. 1. External appearance. Fig. 2. Interior appearance.
m is towards the maxillary border; na, a surface (perhaps articular) towards the nasal bone; x, part of the boundary of the nasal aperture. The inner surface of the bone is a good deal invested with phosphate of lime.
Fig. 3. Diagram side view of the Ornithocheiroid cranium, the shaded parts being at present unknown: s, squamosal; P, parietal ; F, frontal; @, quadrate bone; QJ, quadrato-jugal; M, maxillary; PM, premaxillary; p, dentary, A, articular end of lower jaw; N, nostril; 0, orbit.
Fig. 4. Copy from Prof. Quenstedt’s figure of the head of Cycnorhamphus suevicus: 5, nasal bones; 7, frontal; 8, parietal and squamosal bones; 28, postfrontal; 26, quadrate; 6, quadrato-jugal; 19, malar; 2, lachrymal bone; 22, lachrymal bone; 25, pterygoid ; 16, palatine.
From this specimen is made the restoration PI. II. fig. 8.
Mr. W.S. Kent on Dorvillia agariciformis. 37
IV.—Note on Dorvillia agaricifofmis. By W. SaviLe Kent, F.Z.8. &e., of the Geological Department, British
Museum.
7 At the November meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society, I described, under the above title, a new deep-sea sponge re- cently purchased for the British Museum by Dr. Gray, which description, with a plate (pl. 66) illustrative of its structure, has subsequently appeared in the December Number of the ‘Monthly Microscopical Journal.’
At the time, I observed that some of the spicules figured greatly resembled those of Pheronema; and being derived from so great a depth, it was not unreasonable to suppose that spicules of that last-named form had become asso- ciated with it. Fuller examination has further strengthened me in this idea; and I now feel satisfied that none of the hex- radiate forms, in addition to figs. 12 & 14, are referable to Dorvillia, having simply become entangled with it during contact with examples of other species.
Making these deductions, it will become evident that Dor- villia is a representative of the true Tethyide, its affinities with which have already been recognized in consequence of the highly developed triradiate character of the spicules and the remarkably firm consistence of its sarcode.
Since the publication of its description I have seen the yet unpublished plates of a form Prof. Wyville Thomson pro- poses to name T%siphonia agariciformis, taken in one of the earlier expeditions of the ‘ Porcupine,’ which plates have been sent by that gentleman to Dr. Gray only within the last few days. Dorvillia and this will probably prove to be identical ; and had I been favoured with a sight of these plates in time, I should certainly have withheld its description. I would nevertheless remark that a brief but speedy notice of the most interesting forms collected, preparatory to the excellent and elaborate monographs in course of construction, would serve to efface the present feelings of fear and trembling with which one proceeds to describe any new accessions, while at the same time it would conduce greatly to satisfy the hopes long deferred with which zoologists on all sides are expectantly awaiting an account of the immense amount of material the late expeditions have afforded.
The plates of Tisiphonia here alluded to seem to include, as its young condition, Prof. Perceval Wright’s Wyville- Thomsonia Wallichii, described in the ‘ Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science’ for Jan. 1870; and though Dorvillia is the first full account published, Prof. Wright’s name, in the
38 Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar.
event of its proving identical, is perhaps entitled to precedence. Dr. Oscar Schmidt, on inspection of Prof. Wyville Thomson’s plates, is inclined to refer it to his genus Stelletta, from the ordinary forms of which it differs only by its possession of long depending fascicles of anchoring-spicula, which he re- gards as merely special developments enabling it to adapt it- self to the soft oozy condition of the bottom at the great depths at which it has been taken.
V.—List of Coleoptera received from Old Calabar, on the West Coast of Africa. By ANDREW Murray, F.L.S.
[Continued from vol, vi. p. 482. ] TECTON*.
Broader in front than behind; clothed with a close pile. Head large, broad, and with a wide space between the antenne, which is not hollowed; slightly prominent on the vertex, inflexed and cut straight, slightly raised from small antenniferous tubercles. Clypeus transverse. Labrum sub- quadrate. Eyes almost bifid, large. Antenne starting from the division between the upper and under part of the eyes, nearly of the length of the body, not robust, and nearly of equal thickness, except the first article ; with eleven elongate and subequal articles. Thorax widest in front, of the breadth of the head, constricted near the base, and without any lateral spine; but a trifling elevation may be distinguished behind the middle. Scutellum large. Elytra subcylindrical, scarcely broader than the thorax, slightly attenuated towards the base. Abdomen with five segments. Legs short; tibia subtriangular in the middle, moderately emarginate.
M. Chevrolat regards this genus as the representative in Africa of the American Oncideres. In respect that it is some- what allied to Prosopocera, it may be so, for that genus is the true representative of Oncideres; but I feel much doubt as to the proper place of this genus. It by no means strikes me as so close to Oncideres as M. Chevrolat supposes.
Tecton quadrisignatum, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. Zool. 1855, p. 185. Pl. IIT. fig. 9.
Pilo dense cervino cinereoque indutum; lineolis fusco-nigris duabus in thorace et in elytris basi extensis; capite longi- tudine antice carinato posticeque sulcato; thorace cum
* From réxrwv, a carpenter, + Of vol. vi. of the ‘Annals,’
Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 39
lineola nigra oblique posita in angulo postico, antice recto,
postice leviter bisinuato versus latera, in dorso obsolete
costata ; scutello semirotundato; elytris mediocriter punc- tatis, goed lineolis leucopheis spe obliquis versus apicem, lineolaque fusco-nigra intra humerum basi; pedibus brunneis, tarsis pallidis.
Long. 94 lin., lat. 34 lin.
Densely clothed with a uniform fawn- and ash-coloured pile, with a brownish-black linear patch at the external base of the thorax, continued on to the base of the elytra for a short space ; head longitudinally carinate in front, and sulcate behind; thorax straight in front, slightly bisinuate behind towards the sides, obsoletely costate on the back; scutellum large and semi- rounded ; elytra moderately punctate, with some paler oblique lines towards the apex; legs brown, tarsi pale.
Very rare. Only three specimens received.
PROSOPOCERA.
This genus is another of the remarkable evidences of close affinity between the species of Old Calabar and Brazil. It is undoubtedly the representative of the Brazilian genus Onc?- deres, one of the new species now described (P. Hy?) having the appearance and yellow-flecked colouring of that genus in a more marked degree than any of the hitherto described spe- cies. It might be a question, indeed, whether it and P. picti- ventris, which most resemble Oncideres, should not be made a distinct genus: but I think it would be an error, as indi- cating a greater departure from the other Prosopoceras than really exists. Not having seen the males of all the species, I cannot say whether they have a horn on the forehead or not ;
“but I am inclined to think that in the majority of cases it will be found that they have not; for although the horn appears to be always present in the Senegal species, P. cornifrons, even there it is of variable dimensions ; and in the Old-Calabar equivalent of P. cornifrons (P. ocellata), although sometimes present, it is absent in the great majority of male specimens ; and in none of the other species have I seen any ; and although I have supposed them to be all females, some of the specimens have certainly longer antenne than the others, and may perhaps be males. With regard to this horn, it is a noteworthy point, corroborative of the affinity of the genus with Oncideres, that various species of the latter have likewise projecting horns on the forehead. In them the horns project, one on each side, from the inner side of the base of the antenne; while in Pro- sopocera it is a single horn, projecting in the middle, lower
40 Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar.
down than the antenne; but the horn, although single, is obviously composed of two horns soldered together; and it seems very plain to me, coupling it with the other points of resemblance, that it is the same tendency to produce horns on the forehead which we see in Oncideres that is also present in Prosopocera, but that the horns have taken a slightly different position and form.
1. Prosopocera ocellata, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1857, p. 76.
Grisea, lateribus thoracis infra pectoreque niveis; in elytris ante medium quatuor notulis ocellaribus nigro-velutinis albo cinctis, prima parva marginali, secunda dorsali obliqua ad maculam albicantem et obliquam margine juncta.
Mas. Capite cornu plus minusve protenso.
Long. 10-14 lin., lat. 34-4 lin.
Fem. Capite, fronte transversim et semicirculariter impresso.
Long. 10-12 lin., lat. 34-4 lin.
Head grey, occasionally armed in the male with a projecting horn, which is very variable in form, in the largest speci- mens sinuate, toothed on the margins, grooved in the middle, and double-keeled longitudinally. This horn is more fre- quently absent than present.
I have a specimen which looks so much stouter and more obese than the others, that at first I thought it might be di- stinct ; but I can see no other difference, except that the mar- ginal black spot of the elytra is in it larger than that on the disk, which is not the case in any other specimen I have seen, the marginal spot being usually only half the size of the others.
One of the commoner species of Longicorns from Old. Calabar.
2. Prosopocera myops, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1855; p: 185. Pl Ute. 8":
Fusca, mandibulis oculisque (fulvo limbatis) nigris; capite rotundato, anguste (inter antennas cruciatim) sulcato; tho- race subtransverso, quater stricto, antice recto, fulvo, dense setoso, postice profunde sinuato, spina laterali brevi acuta ; elytris, prasertim dorso, cinereo infuscatis, maculis duabus ocellaribus nigris ante medium; pectore cum vitta laterali albida.
Long. 16 lin., lat. 5 lin.
M. Migneaux’s figure in Pl. II. renders further description unnecessary. Rare. * Of vol. vi. of the ‘ Annals,’
Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 41
3. Prosopocera dorsalis, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1858, p. 306.
Sunillima P. myopt, Chevr., sed differt praecipue colore obscu- riore elytrorum, macula dorsali albida magis extensa, valde angulata, in medioque marginis ocellis quatuor atris. Ci- nerea; mandibulis oculisque (flavo limbatis) nigris; capite anguste sulcato, inter antennas arcuatim impresso nigroque signato; antennis corpore paulo longioribus, ? parce pilosis; thorace fusco, inequali sulcis tribus transversis (primo valde sinuato), in basi infraque flavo, spina laterali brevi acuta; elytris brunneo-cinereo fuscoque disperse vel con- nexe variegatis, plaga magna dorsali media albida versus latera angulata, maculis ocellaribusque quatuor anticis nigris, prima albo cincta infra humerum, secunda pone medium elytri in limbo anteriore macule dorsalis.
Long. 16 lin., lat. 5 lin.
This species so much resembles P. myops that at first sight one would take it,for a variety. It differs nevertheless in several points, which seem of specific value: its elytra are shorter and broader ; the dorsal mark is larger and whiter, and more angular on the side; and, lastly, it has four ocellated black spots, while P. myops has only two ; besides, the place which the dorsal mark occupies is more elongate, rounded, and of a more regular form than in P. myops. Head of a yellowish ash-colour, with some small distant punctures ; the longitudinal line is in the form of a slender ridge from the base to the im- pression between the antennz and a narrow groove beyond it. Eyes black, surrounded by a yellow circle, which is double behind them. Antenne a little longer than the body, brown, slightly pubescent. Thorax transverse, straight in front, narrowly bordered with yellow, bisinuate and yellow behind, with three transverse grooves: the first is deeply sinuate and arched in the middle; the dorsal impression is in the form of a horseshoe; its colour above is obscure brown, and below yellowish white. Scutellum semirounded, brownish. Elytra sinuate at the base, convex, each rounded at the apex, adorned with four ocellated, silky, black marks, which are surrounded with a yellowish circle, and placed before the middle—the first on the edge of the margin below the shoulder, the second towards the middle of the elytron and a little towards the inner side, resting at its extremity on the anterior edge of the large white dorsal patch. Body below ash-coloured ; breast having a yellow line on its lateral and posterior sides.
Unique. In my collection.
42 Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar.
4. Prosopocera Fryt.
Magna, lata, supra subdepressa; pube cinereo-fusca induta; elytris flavido sparsis; capite lato, anguste (inter antennas transversim subarcuatim) sulcato, juxta oculos impresso ; oculis maximis, antice depressis, superne fere bifidis, superne flavido limbatis ; antennis corporis vix longitudine ; thorace transverso, longitudine latiore, quater stricto, antice margine flavido, dense setoso, postice bisinuato, spina laterali brevi acuta; disco carinis convexis transversis lenticuliformibus tribus, quarum duabus anticis utrinque et tertia postice medio positis ; elytris thorace latioribus, ad basin ante humerum arcuatim productis, suboblongis, subdepressis, lateribus de- clivis, humeris tuberculis asperatis, apice rotundatis, ad suturam rectangulatis et ibi denticulatis, flavido irregula- riter transversim adspersis, guttis flavidis prope medium et circa humerum confluentibus: subtus flavido dense vestita, pectore lateribus cinereo et flavido sulcis transversis sub- alternatim indutis ; mesosterno et metasterno omnino fla- vidis ; abdomine medio cinereo, lateribus et segmentorum marginibus plus minusve cinereis, ceteris irregulariter fla- vidis ; pedibus cinereis.
Long. 13-14 lin., lat. 5 lin.
A large, broad, wide-fronted, subdepressed species, clothed with a short pile of light cinereous brown, with a slight greenish tint; the head and thorax, elytra and underside more or less covered with yellowish fawn-coloured markings. Head broad, narrowly longitudinally sulcate down the middle, and with a somewhat arcuate, transverse, deeper groove between the antenne ; a depressed margin extends along the inner side of the eyes, which are very large, depressed in front, and almost cut in two near the top by the emargination on which the antenniferous tubercle stands; above they are mar- gined with yellowish pile. The antenne are scarcely the length of the body, and are stouter than in the other species of the genus; the first three articles are cinereous, like the ground-colour of the body, the remainder fawn-coloured, like the markings on it. Thorax transverse, broader than long, with four transverse grooves, which extend along to the breast ; that in front is very bisinuate, and the two behind at the base are regular and even; the other in the middle spreads out and encloses three lenticular transverse ridges—two before (of which one is on each side of the middle line) and one behind in the middle; the anterior margin is densely fringed with yellowish pile ; the lateral spine is short, but acute; the anterior margin is nearly straight, the base gently bisinuate. Scutellum mode-
Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 48
rate, slightly elongate, semirounded. Elytra suboblong, sub- depressed, broader at the base than the thorax, with the shoul- ders projecting forward and roughened with tubercles, rounded at the apex to the suture; the sutural angle rectangular and toothed, the surface irregularly and pretty closely sprinkled with specks of ochraceous fawn-colour disposed somewhat transversely, which become slightly confluent around the shoulder, and form a slightly larger, irregular, not very marked patch in the middle; it is flecked with ochraceous fawn-colour, exactly as in Oncideres. Below, the breast has somewhat alternate, subtransverse, converging stripes of yel- low and cinereous following the ridges and grooves, which are continued from the upperside of the thorax. The meso- sternum and metasternum are entirely fawn-coloured. Ster- num with a short, stout, triangular projection, the apical sides of which are slightly raised, and smooth and glabrous. The abdomen has the margins of the segments (except the first, which is entirely fawn-coloured) cinereous; in the centre a longitudinal broad space is cinereous, passing into fawn- coloured on each side; and beyond it the stigmata and more or less of the sides are cinereous, with a greenish tinge. The legs are moderate, and of the same cinereous colour.
Only two specimens received, apparently females.
This species is the transition link between Oncideres and the other forms of Prosopocera, on the one hand, and between the latter and Sternotomis on the other ; the upperside reminds one very much of Oncideres, and the underside particularly of Sternotomés, the disposition of the colours and the pale-greenish cinereous being very much what was to be seen in some species of that genus. It is a fine species, worthy to be dedi- cated to my friend Mr. Alexander Fry, who first drew my attention to the remarkable affinity between Oncideres and Prosopocera.
5, Prosopocera? pictiventris, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1857, p. 78.
Latiuscula, brevis, griseo nigroque variegata; thorace (trans- verse et profunde bistricto sulcis duobus anticis rotundatis, foveola media impresso, obtuse spinoso), scutello elytrisque basi et in longitudine postice cervinis, pectore abdomineque nigris, albo-fimbriatis ; antennis brunneis, breviter cinereo annulatis et vix corpore longioribus.
Long. 8-9 lin., lat. 2 lin.
Subcylindrical, short, stout, thick, dark grey. Head blackish, with a short grey pubescence and a close granular puncta-
44. Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar.
tion ; it is broad, cut vertically in front, and slightly convex, not deeply hollowed between the antennz. Palpi ferruginous. Clypeus broad, straight. Eyes brown, distant, deeply emar- ginate on the upper two thirds. Antenne scarcely longer than the body, brownish, ringed with ash-colour at the base of the articles. Thorax transverse, broad, straight in front and be- hind, but broadly and briefly advanced upon the scutellum, faintly grooved on each side, and very deeply double-grooved across towards the centre; on the edge of the first groove are two round spaces, and a deep spot is situated in the middle, near the second groove; the lateral spine is almost obtuse. Scutellum yellowish red, not very broad, semirounded. Elytra all along the base, a little beyond on the side, longitudinally from the middle to the apex of each of a yellowish red, trans- versely blackish behind the base, griseous on the middle, with the margin a little ash-coloured; they are broader than the thorax, obtusely rectangular beyond the shoulder, each nar- rowly rounded at the extremity, and with a rather fine and regular, although distant, punctation. Legs reddish brown, short; thighs tolerably thick, hollowed only at the extremity (to receive the knees), of the length of the tibie ; intermediate tibie obliquely incised at the middle, on the outside; tarsi moderate, first article conic, second triangular, third narrowly lobed. Claws simple, rather strong. Breast white, with the posterior half and all the abdomen of a dull black margined with white on the sides of the body and on the posterior mar- gin of the last segments. Sternum narrow, arched longitudi- nally, truncate and adherent in front, truncate but raised behind.
Only one specimen of this insect has been received, and it is of doubtful sex; for the abdomen is depressed as in the males, and the antenne are short, as in the females. Its ap- pearance was exceedingly like a squat Oncideres of small size. M. Chevrolat, to whom I gave it, referred it with doubt to the genus Prosopocera. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find it in his collection, now in the British Museum, so am unable to say more as to its generic identity.
GELOHARPYIA, J. Thoms., Lac. Geloharpyia Murrayt. PI. III. fig. 7*. Sternotoris Murrayi, Chevy. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1855, p. 184. Valde affinis St. amene, Westw. Parce punctata, nigro-holo- sericea, maculis duabus anticis lineaque superciliari in ca~ pite, lineis tribus longitudinalibus (linea dorsali medio * Of vol. vi. of the ‘ Annals.’
Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 45
attenuata, postice ampliata) in thorace, duabus maculis magnis subanguliformibus duabusque minutis suturalibus in elytris, pectore et abdomine lateribus virenti-albidis.
Long. 15 lin., lat. 5 lin.
The figure by M. Migneaux in Pl. III. renders any further description unnecessary. It is a rare species, much prized for its beauty.
STERNOTOMIS.
1. Sternotomis imperialis,
Lamia imperialis, Fab., Westw. Arc. Ent. ii. 149, pl. 86. f. 3. Cerambyzx luteo-obscurus, Voet, Col. ed. Pz. iii. 20, 19, pl. 7. fig. ornatus, Oliv. Ent., Ceramb. pl. 4. fig. 24 c.
Lamia bifasciana, Fab. Ent. Syst. 1. 281.
I have taken this synonymy from Westwood’s ‘ Arcana.’ It differs entirely from that given by M. Chevrolat; but, on looking into the citations, I am satisfied that the above corre- sponds best with the descriptions and plates. M. Chevrolat doubtless rests his opinion upon a different estimate of the value of the variations of the species, or upon a traditionary knowledge of the types.
Not very rare. When it arrives in spirits, the green parts of this insect are of a lovely iridescent rose-red, slightly changing to green.
2. Sternotomis chrysopras.
Cerambyx chrysopras, Voet, Col. ed. Panz. iii. 21, 22, pl. 9. fig. 22; Schonh. Syn. Ins. vol. iii. p. 375. Sternotomis chrysopras, Westw. Arc. Ent. ii. 155, pl. 86. f. 1.
Rare.
3. Sternotomis Targavei (Reiche), Westwood, Arc. Ent. 1844, p. 154, pl. 86. fig. 2.
In Prof. Westwood’s figure, the apical portion of the elytra is figured green; but in my specimen it is yellow almost to the point.
This beautiful species is exceedingly rare.
QUIMALANCA, J. Thoms., Lac. Quimalanca regalis.
Sternotomis regalis, Fab. Sp. Ins. i. 217. Common.
46 Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar.
TRAGOCEPHALA, Cast. Hist. Nat. Col. i. 472.
1. Tragocephala Galathea, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1855, p. 184. Pl. II. fig. 6*.
Nigra, holosericea; vittis tribus croceis (una antica duabus lateralibus ad verticem) in capite, duabus lateralibus in thorace ; elytrisque (tertia parte nigra) croceis; abdomine (nigro trifariam maculato) pedibusque cinereis ; femoribus partim nigris; capite rotundato, omnino anguste sulcato ; thorace longiore quam latiore, bistricto, lateribus angulariter dentato.
Long. 8-9 lin., lat. 2-24 lin.
Black, velvety, with three orange-coloured stripes on the head (one in front, two on the sides), and two lateral ones on the thorax; sides of thorax angularly toothed. Scutellum black. Elytra orange-coloured, with the apical third black. Abdo- men checquered black and ash-coloured, middle and sides alter- nating in colour. Legs with the thighs black, which may be partly due to the pile being rubbed off, except the under ridge and a patch below at the apex and base, cinereous; tibiz and tarsi reddish, with cinereous pile.
Unique. One specimen in my collection.
2. Tragocephala senatoria, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1858, p. 56.
Nigra, holosericea; capite vittis viridibus duabus decussatis usque ad basin thoracis in margine laterali productis; scu- tello flavo; elytris ochraceis, puncto humerali, vitta com- muni ante medium abbreviata (includente maculam viridem subquadratam, ultra scutellum postice fere cruciformi), dimi- dia parte apicali (notulis tribus viridibus signata, duabus transverse positis, tertia virguliformi infra fere ad maculam interruptam juncta) nigris; thorace infra et abdomine viri- dibus (vitta lata longitudinali, punctoque in utroque seg- mento nigris) ; pedibus partim viridibus ; pectore ochraceo.
Long. 9-10 lin., lat. 83-34 lin.
This species much resembles in its coloration 7. Guerinit, White (7. scenica, Dej.), but it differs in the design on the elytra. Head velvet-black, with two longitudinal green lines which start from the exterior angle, course along the eyes, are united between the antennz, and are prolonged along the sides of the thorax to its base. Mandibles green on the side, black and smooth at the point. Antenne of the length of the body, black. Thorax velvet-black, straight in front, shortly
* Of vol. vi. of the ‘Annals.’
Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 47
-sinuate behind, with a deep emargination before the scutellum ; two transverse grooves in a straight line start from the lateral -angle, which is sharp and flattened. Scutellum rounded, green- ish. Elytra of an ochre-colour with a greenish tinge and with a humeral black spot and a broad common band of the same colour, terminating before the middle; it commences square (and has at its centre, behind the scutellum, a small oblong green spot), withdraws a little further on, and gives out on each side before its termination a small direct branch; the posterior half is also velvet-black; its anterior margin ad- vances angularly to the front near the suture; towards the middle and the centre of its extent are two square, green, little drops, which are placed on a transverse line, and of which the exterior is a little largest; another green mark, in the form of a thick comma, is situated behind, and is almost united to the internal droplet. Underside of thorax (except the breast, which is ochreous) and abdomen green; middle of the latter marked longitudinally with a broad shining black band, and on each of the segments a small transverse black stroke. Legs partlywreen, appearing black onthe denuded parts. Unique. In my collection.
3. Tragocephala chloris, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1858, p. 57.
Affinis certe 7. nobil’, Fab., sed distincta. Atra, holosericea ; capite flavo vel viridi, macula occipitali trigona, fascia arcuata inter, et lineola lata post oculos nigris, punctulis nigris quinque aut sex ordinatis in margine, sulco angusto longitudinali; thorace viridi-flavo, lineis longitudinalibus tribus nigris; dorsali latissima, duabus infra ex adverso oculis; elytris fasciis transversalibus duabus integris viri- dibus, prima infra basin, versus marginem attenuata, ante- rius per punctum humerale nigrum, et retro per ramulum obliquum nigrum, secunda versus medium posita, angulata supra ad medium, dein oblique flexa secundum suturam ; ultra notulis duabus, transverse dispositis, laterali viridi interna albida, macula ovali transversa viridi ante apicem, notulaque albicante in imo suture; corpore infra flavo; in pectore lineola laterali nigra, et in utroque segmento abdo- minis maculis tribus nigris, mediis quadratis ad liimbum posticum, sed lateralibus ad iimbum anticum adnexis; pe- dibus flavescentibus, femoribus versus medium nigro macu- latis tibiisque extus nigro limbatis. Varietas, prima fascia elytrorum in sutura late interrupta.
Long. 9-10 lin., lat. 2-22 lin.
48 Mr.A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar.
This species is very near 7. nobilis. Of a fine velvet- black, adorned with bands and spots, which were at first of a fine delicate green, but which day by day became yellower. Head yellow, with a large triangular black patch on the occi- put, also an arched line between the antenne, and a large band behind the eyes, all black; five or six black spots are disposed in a line towards the sides. Antenne a little shorter than the body in the females. Thorax green or yellow, marked with three black longitudinal lines, the dorsal very broad, and the other two facing the band behind the eyes. Scutellum shining black, half-rounded. Elytra a little broader than the thorax, and rather more than twice and a half its length, each regularly rounded ; they have two entire transverse bands of a fine green: the first is situated behind the base, and retreats on the side by a black humeral spot placed before it, and behind it by an oblique straight black branch, which proceeds towards the front, but which is separated from it; the second is situated about the middle of their length, its an- terior margin proceeds angularly towards the middle, is emar- ginate on the posterior margin, and is recurved obliquely to- wards the suture; a little behind are two small drops placed on a transverse line; the outer one is green, the inner white ; thereafter there is a regularly oval transverse green spot at an equal distance between the two small marks and the extremity; finally a small white line is placed on the apical border of the suture. Body below yellowish green. Breast with two small black lines, the one, transverse, behind the shoulder, the other, longitudinal, near the anterior margin. Abdomen with three black spots on each segment, those in the middle square, resting on the posterior margin of the segment, while those on the sides rest on its anterior mar- gin. On the fifth segment these spots are united to each other by the base. Legs yellow; thighs spotted with black about the middle; tibize bordered with black on the exterior side.
The 7. nobilis, F., differs from this species, first, by its head having two black lines situated one on the internal margin of each eye; secondly, by the absence of two black lines on the thorax; these are replaced by a black spot; thirdly, by the two yellow bands of the elytra, which are joined to each other on the side, as well as a small external line which also joins the second band; fourthly, by the middle black line of the abdomen, which is narrower and otherwise marked.
Very few specimens received.
Mr. A. Murray on. Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 49
Nov. genus vel subgenus (Z'ragon).
4. Tragocephala ( Tragon) signaticornis, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1855, p. 521.
Alata, punctafa, cinerea obscura nigro varia; ore, oculis an- tennisque (articulo septimo albo) nigris; thorace postice acutius spinoso; elytris singulatim quinque maculis trans- versalibus nigris, una basi, duabus ante duabusque post medium.
Long. 8 lin., lat. 34 lin.
This species is removed from most of its congeners by its cylindrical form, its antenne of a regular thickness and sharp at the tip, and its thorax with a spine a little more pointed and placed further back. It is of an obscure ash-grey sprin- kled with black, impunctate. Head broad, square, slightly inclined, convex above; longitudinal groove narrow. Palpi, mandibles, and eyes black. Antenne black ; first article ash- coloured below ; apex of the sixth, base of the eighth, and the whole of the seventh white. Thorax a little longer than broad, straight in front and behind, and transversely four- grooved. Scutellum moderate, semirounded, black, marked with a grey line. Elytra impressed with small points, broader than the thorax, with projecting shoulders, which are black on the outside, convex, parallel, shortly rounded at the apex, with the sutural termination rectangular; they are dark grey sprinkled with black; each elytron has five transverse black patches,—ong on the middle of the base, two before and two behind the middle, and the two interior are more advanced than the two exterior. Prosternum scarcely raised behind. Mesosternum regularly raised, rather broad. Abdomen com- posed of five segments, the last the largest, and grooved in a cruciform manner. Pygidium broadly emarginate. Legs rather close to each other, unarmed.
M. Chevrolat suggests that this species should probably constitute a new genus.
Unique. Given to M. Chevrolat. I have not, therefore, the materials for characterizing the genus further than indicated in the above details taken from M. Chevrolat’s description.
5. Tragocephala (Tragon) jaguarita, Chevr. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1855, p. 552. Alata, punctata, minuta, cinerea; mandibulis, oculis tarsisque apice nigris; thorace transversim quadristriato, maculis quinque vel septem obsoletis et nigris, in lateribus posticis
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vii. 4
50 Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar.
acute spinoso; elytris singulatim cum circiter triginta ma- culis nigris subrotundatis transversimque dispositis. Long. 4 lin., lat. 14 lin.
Greyish ash-coloured. Head finely and irregularly punc- tate, square, slightly convex and slightly inclined, rounded on the front, narrowly grooved. Labrum very large, transverse, square, covered with ash-coloured hairs, but smooth and black at the base. Mandibles and eyes black. Antenne ash- coloured, with the third article long, three quarters black (re- mainder wanting). Thorax as long as broad, straight at the extremities, with four transverse grooves ; some punctures on the disk, with five to seven obsolete black patches; lateral spine behind the middle, rather broad at the base, bent at the apex. Scutellum semirounded. Elytra a little broader than the thorax, projecting and rounded on the inner side of the shoulder, parallel, rounded at the apex, ash-coloured, and bearing about thirty rounded black spots of different sizes and generally disposed in transverse bands; their punctation is tolerably strong, numerous, and regular. Legs simple; tarsi with the penultimate and last article black. Body below uni- form grey. Abdomen of five segments; the fifth and the first the longest, the fourth the shortest. Prosternum ash-coloured. Mesosternum shield-shaped, widened at the base, gibbous in the middle.
Unique. This should probably belong to the same genus as the preceding.
ACRYDOCEPHALA, Chevr., Lac. *
Acrydocephala bistriata, Chevy. Rev. et Mag. d. Zool. 1855, p. 287.
Pilis brevibus griseis dense vestita; palpis, oculis et dimidia parte apicali mandibularum nigris ; capite trisulcato, nigro bilineato, supra anguste et profunde emarginato bicornuto ; thorace vittis tribus latis nigricantibus, punctis raris; scu- tello nigro; elytris modice et sat crebre punctatis, oblique bistriatis usque ad dimidiam partem anteriorem nigtis cinereo irroratis et apice recte truncatis, vitta lata media nigra et nitida in abdomine, triangulari in pectore.
Long. 73-8 lin., lat. 24 lin.
Densely clothed with short grey pile; head trisulcate, with two black lines narrowly and deeply emarginate, and with two horns. Thorax with three broad blackish stripes and a few punctures. Scutellum black. EHlytra black and mode- rately punctate, obliquely bistriate on the anterior half, spec-
Dr. H. Burmeister on Saurocetes argentinus. ol
kled with cinereous, and with the apex truncate. Below with a broad black shining stripe in the middle. Only one specimen. In my collection.
* ANCYLONOTUS, Cast., Lac.
Ancylonotus tribulus, Fab. Syst. El. ii. 281.
This well-known African species does not seem to be so common at Old Calabar as elsewhere on the west coast. It has only come once or twice.
[To be continued. ]
VI.— On Saurocetes argentinus, a new Type of Zeuglodontide. By Dr. HERMANN BURMEISTER.
[Plate I.] *,
THE public museum of Buenos Ayres has lately received the under jaw of a very interesting fossil mammalian, which I beg leave to desctibe, under the above denomination, as an entirely new type belonging to the curious tribe of Zeuglodon- tide. This specimen was generously presented to the mu- seum by Dr. D. Manuel Montes de Oca, Professor of Physiology in the Medical Faculty of Buenos Ayres. That patriotic gentle- man having noticed the great interest taken by me in it when looking over his valuable collection, offered me the opportunity of examining the bones and describing them for the benefit of science, which I am glad to acknowledge here with well-merited thanks.
Respecting the locality where the fossil was found, M. Montes de Oca could say nothing; he received it from one of his patients, who brought him the bones, broken as they are, from the interior of the country, as a. contribution to his col- lection. But the adherent remains of the formation in which the bone was discovered prove very clearly that the fossil was taken out of a sandy bed of the great Tertiary formation on the shores of the river Parana, which D’Orbigny has named the ‘ Formation patagonienne.” ‘This formation, described by Darwin, D’Orbigny, Bravard, and myself*, is chiefly a marine deposit mixed with beds of freshwater deposition, wherein are found many bones of freshwater fishes (Siluride), of Crocodilide, and even of terrestrial Mammalia. We have in the museum of Buenos Ayres bones of all these animals,
* Reise durch die La Plata-Staaten, tom. i. p. 410 (Halle, 1861, 8vo) ; Anales del Museo Publico de Buenos Aires, tom. i. p. 114. 4#
52 Dr. H. Burmeister on Saurocetes argentinus.
and also the occipital part of a skull, which has so much resemblance to that of Anoplotherium grande (Blainville, Ostéogr. pl. 8) that we may infer the existence of this Tertiary form in South America during the Later Tertiary epoch. Bravard, in his ‘Monografia’ of the formation (Parana, 1858, p. 45), mentions the same genus, represented by a first molar tooth of the animal; and I must confirm his discovery as very probable by the part of the skull in my hands, which, unfortunately, has no teeth, but only the occipital, parietal, and the mastoid portion of the temporal bone complete.
Marine Mammalia are rare. Bravard describes some por- tions of a whale (Balena dubia, p. 34) as the only marine mammiferous animal known to him. I had the good fortune to find, during my residence in Parana, the tooth of an Otarta (Reise, i. 481) in a bed of sandy clay exactly like the adherent portions of the formation on the lower jaw now to be described ; and therefore [ may assert with good reason that my Sawro- cetes must be of the same epoch and from nearly the same locality.
The fragment of the lower jaw is the middle portion of the whole, containing the hinder part of the two united half-jaws and the beginning of the two articular branches, which are broken off, as is also the whole front of the jaw. The remain- ing portion, shown in PI. I. fig. 1, of half the natural size, from the left side, is on this side 15 inches long and 24 inches high at the highest region of the jaw, before the separation of the two articular branches, but only 1? inch at the beginning, under the first tooth. On the right side the articular branch is broken off; but a somewhat longer portion is well preserved, so that the whole length is 3 inches more—say 18 inches. But as a piece of the jaw is wanting on this side, I could not figure the right branch in its true position, and have given a separate figure of it (fig. 4) from the outside, also of half the natural size. The closed anterior portion of the jaw is 11 inches long and 14 inch broad at the tip, but 24 inches at the hinder part. Its transverse figure is an equilateral triangle with outwardly curved sides and a rounded inferior edge; the interior is entirely of compact osseous substance, with only two small open channels at the lower part. These two open channels (canales alveolares) are separated by a very thin osseous septum (fig. 2), which, like the channels themselves, rises much higher behind, so that each channel expands into a large open cavity in the interior of the two articular branches of the jaw in the same manner as in the lower jaws of the Delphinide, to which this lower jaw seems to have been very similar in construction, and especially to that of Pontoporta as
Dr. H. Burmeister on Saurocetes argentinus. 53
it is figured in my ‘ Annals of the Public Museum of Buenos Ayres,’ tom. i. pl. 26. fig. 2.
The superior part of the anchylosed portion of the jaw con- tains the alveoles for the teeth, whereof there are on the left side twelve, and seven on the right, wanting the hinder por- tion of this side of the jaw before the separated articular branch. Each alveole reproduces completely the figure of the roots of the teeth; it is, like them, divided at the lower end into two branches, and united by a very small short passage with the alveolar channel in the interior of the jaw (fig. 2). As some of the alveoles are open in the broad portion of the right side of the jaw, I could see the whole figure of them very clearly, and distinguish well the small and very short passage leading into the open channel of the interior of the jaw. In this hinder region of the anchylosed portion of the jaw, where the alveolar channel is much larger, even the tips of the roots of each tooth pass into the channel, so that they are seen like protuberances on the superior, larger side of the channel.
The upper surface of the anchylosed portion of the jaw be- tween the teeth is moderately convex, with a median im- pressed line as the remains of an anterior suture which has united the two half-jaws to each other. On the opposite or lower surface no trace of suture is visible in the anterior por- tion of the jaw; but it is sufficiently conspicuous at the hinder end, before the separation of the two articular branches. ‘The outside of the jaw is peculiarly wrinkled, and furnished with a very well-marked furrow on each side along the lower region (see fig. 1), which is narrower and deeper at the anterior end. From this furrow the wrinkles begin in an oblique direction, ascending from behind forwards, and growing somewhat smaller and less strongly marked. 'The furrow does not continue fur- ther back than to the end of the anchylosed portion, vanishing here completely. But the two articular branches have also similar but more horizontal wrinkles on the outside, as shown in figs. 1&4. It is worth notice that some of the Delphinide, like Pontoporia (see my figure, /. c.), have the same furrow on the anchylosed portion of the under jaw.
With respect to the teeth, the generic character of the ani- mal is founded on the circumstance that all the teeth are of the same form, and not different, like those of Zeuglodon or Basilosaurus. In a paper published at Halle in 1847*, I have shown by figures that Zeuglodon has at least three dif- ferent forms of teeth :—one with single crown and root; a second with a great conoidal crown to which are attached one
* Bemerkungen tiber Zeuglodon cetoides, Owen, Basilosawrus, Harlan, Hydrarchus, Koch, &e. 4to, with figure. Halle: Schwetzke & Sohn,
54 Dr. H. Burmeister on Saurocetes argentinus.
or two smaller cones, and a subdivided root on the end; and a third class of large molars, with two great equal roots and a higher compressed crown of from six to nine conoidal knobs, of which the central one is the most prominent and highest. It seems probable that the first class of teeth with the single crown were the foremost, the second the following on each side (corresponding to the false molars), and the third class the true molars of the hinder end of the series. In our Sawro- cetes no such difference occurs; all the teeth are of the same form, corresponding in structure rather to the second class of the teeth of Zeuglodon than to the first and third. Every tooth has a single conoidal crown, somewhat curved backward and compressed on both sides, covered, like the teeth of Zeu- glodon, with a distinct layer of enamel, irregularly wrinkled on the external surface, as may be seen in fig. 3, which shows one tooth of the natural size*. Below the crown is a small and narrow cingulum, corresponding to the part of the tooth enclosed in the gum and outside of the jaw; a similar cingu- lum is also seen in the second class of teeth of Zeuglodon (see my cited account, fig. 7). Below this cingulum begins the root, enclosed in the alveole of the jaw, like a turnip, at first somewhat thickened and soon after more compressed from the sides, descending in the interior of the jaw, with two branches separated only at the end, which diverge somewhat from each other. ‘The first or anterior is always somewhat thicker, but shorter ; the second longer, thinner, and more prominent, is ge- nerally accompanied by another small knob at the beginning. The whole tooth is 2 inches high, of which the crown measures 8 lines, the cingulum 14 line, and the root 15 lines. All the nine teeth present in the jaw (namely, six on the left side and three on the right side) are of the same figure, without any difference except in size, the posterior teeth being somewhat smaller, as is also the case in the teeth-series of the living Delphinide.
The portion of the articular branch of the right side figured in Pl. I. fig. 4 begins with the alveole of the last tooth, and is from that pomt 5 inches long. Under the alveolar groove the piece is 23 inches high, and 14 inch broad, enclosing an open channel 14 inch high and ? inch broad. From this point the jaw enlarges more and more behind, so that the fragment ter- minates with a height of 33 inches and a width of 12 inch, with an open cavity in the interior 2? inches high and 13 inch broad. The osseous substance forming the branch is much thicker at the anterior than at the hinder end, measuring there
* In the plate the figure of the tooth is erroneously stated to be half the natural size.
La
—_—
M. E. Bessels on Species of Atax. 55
on the upperside more than half an inch, and on the hinder end less than a quarter of an inch. The interior is entirely open, with a smooth surface; the outside has the same im- pressed wrinkles as the anchylosed part of the jaw on the exte- rior surface, but much smaller wrinkles on the interior, where the two branches are united to each other. Here the structure of the surface is finer, and the bone more delicate. As a part of this surface is broken off, I cannot ascertain the extent of the opening of the alveolar channel, which was on this side of the articular branch. The only particular character which I see here is the presence of a sharp edge on the lower border of the branch, beginning a little behind the alveole of the last tooth, and increasing in elevation behind.
Finally, comparing the known part of the animal with the lower jaw of Zeuglodon, there is no doubt that Sawrocetes was an animal of much smaller size. Supposing that the broken tip of the lower jaw was 7-8 inches long, and the wanting end of the articular branches 5-6 inches, we may presume that the whole lower jaw had an extent of 30-32 inches; and in this case the whole skull may have been 38-40 inches or 34 feet long, preter propter. If that is true, the whole ani- mal (if it had the figure of a dolphin like Pontoporia) may have been 15-16 feet long, as we know from my description that the skull occupies one fifth part of the entire body ; or if we judge from the elongated figure of the lumbar vertebrae of Zeuglodon that Sawrocetes had an analogous configuration, its total length may have been no more than 20 feet.
VIL.— Observations on the Species of Atax parasitic upon our Freshwater Mussels. By Emit BEsses*.
Ir is comparatively but a short time since the embryology of the Arthropoda received far less attention than this interesting branch of science really deserved; and yet, since the classical memoir of Weissmann upon the development of the Diptera, it may almost be said to have become a favourite study with zoologists. In the course of the last few years there have ap- peared a series of works upon this subject, such as Mecznikow’s embryological studies on insects and Dohrn’s on the embryonic development of Asellus aquaticus, whilst Kupffer subjected the folded lamina (Faltenblatt) discovered by Weissmann’ to a thorough examination, Claparéde promises us, in a memoir hereafter to be mentioned, further contributions; and quite
* Translated by W. 8S. Dallas, F.L.S., from» the ‘ Wiirttembergische naturwissenschaftliche Jahreshefte,’ 1869, pp. 146-152.
56 M. E. Bessels on the Species of Atax
recently A. Brandt has studied the developmental history of the Libellulidee and Hemiptera with special reference to the embryonal envelopes.
The Acaride, however, had not been taken up by any one in the manner required by the present state of science. For a considerable time I had taken pity upon these neglected crea- tures, and investigated the development of Atax, Phytopus, Tetranychus telarius, Sarcoptes, and some other forms. When I was on the point of publishing my results (I only waited for the beginning of May in order to fill up some deficiencies in the development of Phytopus), | was not a little surprised at finding in the last part of Siebold and Kdélliker’s ‘ Zeitschrift’ a memoir by Claparede*, elaborated in his usual masterly manner, which rendered the publication of the developmental history of those species which I had investigated in common with Claparéde almost superfluous, inasmuch as our results essentially agreed.
The development of Atax ypsilophorus, some points in which will be here indicated, was described in its broad fea- tures by P. J. van Beneden as early as the year 1848}. But precisely the most remarkable circumstances escaped that observer, otherwise so accurate; and this may be due to the fact that he probably made use of a different egg for the in- vestigation of each stage of development. In a letter which I sent to Van Beneden at the beginning of September 1868, I mentioned, en passant, that the results which I had obtained with regard to the development of Atax could not be brought into accordance with his. In connexion with a memoir upon the spherical organ in the Amphipodat (sent to press in No- vember 1868), | mentioned the occurrence “ of an embryonal envelope of extremely peculiar characters in the species of Atax from Unio and Anodonta,” and also the amoeboid cells found between this envelope and the embryo, which are called hemameebee by Claparede.
As has already been stated, my results agree with Clapa- réde’s in all the principal points. In the observation of the formation of the blastoderm, however, I have been rather more fortunate than the above-named naturalist, who was un- able to observe that process. How long after the deposition of the eggs the blastoderm makes its appearance, no one can
* * Studien an Acariden, pp. 445-546, + “Recherches sur lHistoire naturelle et le Développement de |’ Atax ypsilophora,” Mémoires de l’Acad. Roy. de ais tome xxiv, { “ Einige Worte iiber die Entwickelungsgeschichte und den morpho- logischen Werth der kiigelformigen Organe An Amphipoden,” Jenaische Zeitschrift fiir Medicin und Naturwissenchaften, Bd. v. Hft. 1. p. 98.
parasitic on Freshwater Mussels. 57
say with certainty, inasmuch as the deposition itself cannot be observed. In eggs which were taken from the branchiz of the Unio or Anodonta, and apparently had undergone no change after deposition, I usually detected the first traces of the blastoderm in from two to three days. It is formed insu- larly, as may be easily proved by opening an egg carefully in a solution of 1 per cent. of bichromate of potash. It is im- possible to ascertain the process of formation by the direct observation of the uninjured egg, on account of the dark colour of the yelk.
After the blastoderm has grown round the whole of the yelk, the embryonal envelope which Claparéde describes as the deutovum separates from it. This is produced in exactly the same manner as the larval membrane of the Crustacea, as observed by Van Beneden and myself in various species of Gammarus*. Claparéde was at first inclined to regard f this envelope as the homologue of the structure which in insects has received the unfortunate name of the “amnion ;”’ but he soon gave up this comparison. I, on the other hand, regarded the membrane in question in the Mites as homologous with the larval membrane of the Crustacea, and the latter as homo- logous with the ‘ insect-amnion,” for which I have elsewhere proposed the better name of “ protoderm.”
Shortly after the formation of the embryonal envelope, we see, between it and the blastoderm, the first amoeboid cells (hemamebe of Claparéde). In the memoir above cited I remarked that these cells ‘ are blood-corpuscles of quite ab- normal derivation.” In using this expression I had the cir- cumstance in my mind that they are formed from separated blastodermic cells, which, at the time of their production, are the sole cellular structures that we find in the egg. I did not then feel it necessary to say any thing more upon this point, as the publication of my original memoir was to be expected. I thought at first that the blood-corpuscles were all developed from separated blastodermic cells, and only afterwards, per- haps after the formation of the buccal orifice, passed through this into the embryo. As, however, I never saw any such migration of the cells, even after observing them for hours, I have given up this view, and now think that there is a further formative focus for them in the interior of the embryo.
My present opinion as to the hamamoebe is, that they really agree perfectly in form and behaviour with blood-corpuscles,
* FE. van Beneden and E. Bessels, “ Résumé d’un Mémoire sur le Mode de Formation du Blastoderme dans quelques groupes de Crustacés,” Bull. Acad. Roy. Belg. 2° sér. xxv. p. 448,
t+ Loc, cit. p. 97.
58 M. E. Bessels on Species of Atax.
but nevertheless cannot be regarded as blood-corpuscles. I see in them appurtenances of the embryonal envelope which Claparéde denominates the deutovwm. Whilst at the com- mencement of embryonal development of many insects a ce/- lular envelope separates from the blastoderm, and in some crustacea a larval skin, which is usually strwctwreless, in Atax a larviform structure first separates from the blastoderm, and shortly afterwards the contractile cells. This state of things, when regarded in this manner, furnishes an additional reason for regarding the embryonal envelope of Ata as the homo- logue of the protoderm of insects. % % # # %
In the course of his memoir Claparéde suggests the ques- tion whether Van Beneden has not perhaps fallen into an error in representing the parasites of Anodonta as derived from Unio, or whether the same animal is parasitic upon Anodonta in Belgium that lives in Unio at Geneva.
In an appendix to a letter sent by me to Van Beneden, which will be printed in the next number of the ‘ Bulletins de Académie de Belgique,’ Van Beneden remarks that he actually took the Atax figured in his work above cited from the branchie of Anodonte.
I will here briefly communicate a case of migration from one kind of mollusk to the other.
When I was making my investigations of the embryology of Atax, I wished not to have to procure fresh material con- stantly, and therefore placed some hundred specimens of Ano- donta cygnea, obtained from Esslingen, in a large well-trough with water running through it. As I also desired to study the natural history of the parasites of Unio, in about three months afterwards I procured a number of Uniones from the Enz, near Pforzheim; and these I kept ina tub. But as my stock gradually increased, I placed them, in about a fortnight, in the same trough with the Anodonte. About four weeks afterwards I perceived in an Anodonta the same species of Atax which I had previously detected only in Uniones; and from this time forward I frequently found Anodonte which contained from three to four mites of the other species.
By the great number of individuals which passed through my hands, I was enabled to discover a beautiful but rare di- morphism. Whilst the mites which live chiefly in Unio pos- sess five suckers on each side of the sexual orifice, those from Anodonta have from thirty to forty on each side. Moreover the two species are distinguished by their form and size, even on a superficial examination, so that any confusion between them is hardly to be suspected. But I found mites which, as far as
On the Tertiary Shells of the Amazons Valley. 59
form and size were concerned, agreed perfectly with the parasites of Anodonta, but instead of the great number, had only six suckers on each side. Are these to be regarded as a distinct species? I think pot. At any rate, we shall do better to regard this peculiarity as a case of atavism, especially as the two species are not widely distant. In any case the mite with five suckers on each side will have made its appearance earlier in the natural genealogical tree than that with from thirty to forty. But the form with six suckers is a reversion towards the primary form.
VITI.— The Tertiary Shells of the Amazons Valley. By HENRY WoopwarpD, F.G.S., F.Z.8., of the British Museum.
OF the great river-systems with which explorers have made us acquainted, that of the Amazons is perhaps the most re- markable, as it is also one of the largest in the world. The courses of nearly all the large rivers of our earth lie in a north and south direction; the Amazons, on the contrary, runs nearly west and east. Situated almost beneath the equator, it traverses the southern continent of America from the eastern slopes of the Andes to the North-Atlantic Ocean (nearly fifty degrees)—a distance, computed by its course, of upwards of 4600 miles. ‘Twenty great rivers, all of which are navigable, contribute their waters to its stream, which, under various names, drains considerably more than two millions of square miles of country. It is 40 miles wide where it enters the sea, whilst at 400 miles up stream, to which distance the tide ascends, it is still more than a mile in width*.
The stratified sandstones and clays observable in this great valley were attributed by Gardner to the Cretaceous series ; Spix and Martius described them as belonging to the Quadersandstein formationt (Upper Cretaceous). By the earlier observers, according to Lyellt, the stratified portions of this series were supposed to be of marine origin, and were successively referred to the Devonian, Triassic, and Tertiary epochs.
Our own countryman, Henry Walter Bates, who devoted eleven years to the exploration of the natural history of this region, has given us most graphic accounts, in ‘ the Naturalist on the Amazons,’ of the scenery, physical features, &ec., but does not dwell much upon its geology.
It was left to Prof. Agassiz, after his visit to Brazil (1865-
* Ansted’s Physical Geography, 1867, p. 160. t Hartt, ‘ Brazil,’ p. 484. } Principles, vol. i. p. 467.
60 Mr. H. Woodward on the Tertiary Shells
1866), to give to the geological world a new reading of this great and won- derful region.
It would be impossible, in the length of an article such as the present, to enter fully into Prof. Agassiz’s views ; but it is essential to give a summary of them, in order to point out in what degree the writer differs from them.
In Prof. Hartt’s recently published work* on Brazil, a résumé is given of a paper by Prof. Agassiz and Dr. Cou- tinhot from which we extract the fol- lowing description and section :—
“Prof. Agassiz thinks that the whole valley of the Amazons was formed at the end of the Cretaceous period, which has left traces of depo- sits in the province of Ceardé and on the Upper Purts. Here and there, whether by denudations or by anterior dislocations, one sees more ancient rocks. Thus Major Coutinho has found palzozoic Brachiopods in a rock which forms the first cascade of the Tapajos; Carboniferous fossils have been collected on the banks of the rivers Guaporé and Mamoré, in Matto Grosso ; and, finally, at Mandos, Cou- tinho has recognized slates or phyl- lades in a very inclined position, and beneath the formations of red sand- stone of the Amazonian valley.
“ Prof. Agassiz supposed that during the Tertiary period the Amazonian region was above water, and that the
sandstones and clays that now fill it are drift.’’
Annexed is a copy of the ideal section of these later deposits by Prof. 5 Agassiz :
W.
Mont Cupati.
Ideal Section of the Amazonian deposits.
Mont Ereré.
* Scientific Results of a Journey in Brazil, by Louis Agassiz. Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil. By Ch. Fred. Hartt. London, 1870. Triibner.
+ Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 2° série, t. xxv. p. 685.
of the Amazons Valley. 61
Of this section the following explanation is given :—
**T. Coarse sands (sable grossier), forming the base of the drift throughout, seen wherever the level of the water has uncovered the lower beds of plasticvelays.
“TT. The mottled plastic clay (argile plastique bigarrée) shows itself on a large scale along the sea-coast at Para, at the Island of Maraj6, Maranhéo, and here and there in the hollows along the course of the Amazons.
‘* TIT. Laminated clay in very thin beds, with frequent indications of cleavage. This deposit appears to be more considerable in the banks along the course of the Rio Solimées than in the lower part of the Amazons. It is in these beds at Tonantins, on the Rio Solimées, that M. Agassiz has found leaves of dicotyledonous plants which appear to be identical with species at present living in the valley of the Amazons*.
«TV. A crust of sandy clay, very hard, moulded in the inequali- ties of the laminated clay.
“V., VI., VII., VIIL, & IX. Sandstone formation,—sometimes regularly stratified and compact, especially in the lower beds (Y.), such as one sees on the borders of the igarapés+ of Mandos ; some- times cavernous and intermixed with irregular masses of clay (VI.), especially well developed at Villa Bella and at Mandos; at others all the characters of a torrential stratification (VII., VIII., & IX.). The deposits of this last nature are only seen in the elevated hilis of Almeirim, Ereré, and Cupati, and in the most elevated cl*ffs of the borders of the river, as at Tonantins, Tabatinga, Sao Paulo, and on the borders of the Rio Negro.
« X. The argilo-arenaceous unstratified drift, occupying all the inequalities of the soil resulting from the denudation of the sand- stone with torrential stratification. It is in this drift that MM. Agassiz and Coutinho have found true erratic blocks of diorite, a metre in diameter, at Ereré. This formation is never met with on the cliffs elevated several hundreds of feet in height. There is not a trace of it on the summit of the hills of Ereré.”
“The fact that the coarse sand No. I. appears throughout at the level of low water, that it follows the general slope of the valley, shows incontestably that the deposition of this
* “These leaves occur in a fine, soft, grey clay, resembling very closely the recent alluvial clays of Brazilian rivers; they are excellently pre- served. The leaf is partly carbonized; but it curls up from the surface on drying, and may be detached, leaving a beautiful impression of the vena- tion &c. (Ch. F. Hartt.)”
Sir Charles Lyell (Principles, vol. i. p. 466) speaks of these leaves as being found in bed II., in the delta of the Amazons on the island of Maraj6, whereas they really occur in Bed IIL., and more than 2200 miles up the Amazons.
+ The Indian name for small streams; literally, “canoe-path,” from agara, a canoe, and pés, a path.
62 Mr. H. Woodward on the Tertiary Shells
formation does not reach back to an epoch anterior to the excavation of the valley itself. The total thickness of the Amazonian drift does not exceed 300 metres (984 feet) ; it covers the whole basin of the Amazons, from the Andes of Peru and Bolivia to Cape Sao Roque; or, in other words, it is the most colossal drift formation known.
“ Professor Agassiz believes that the Beds I., IL, II. IV., or the coarse sands and clays, were deposited in a lake or sheet of fresh water occupying the valley of the Amazons, and sustaining on its surface a glacier descending eastward from the Andes, and furnished with a gigantic moraine in front stretching across the mouth of the valley and converting it into an inland freshwater lake. After the ice had broken up and become more or less disintegrated, and the waters of the lake had swollen, the sandstone formation V., VI., VIL. VIIL., IX. was laid down; then the barrier was burst; the waters of the lake, suddenly released, furrowed and wore down the sand- stone beds, sweeping them entirely away over an immense area, leaving only isolated hills, like those of Ereré, Obydos, Cupati, Almeyrim, &c., standing as remnants of the once uni- versal sandstone sheet. After this period of turbulence and denudation came on an epoch of quiet, and in the bottom of the diminished lake the clays (No. X.) were deposited, while ice-rafts floating on its surface dropped here and _ there boulders to be buried in the accumulating material. Then the moraine was destroyed; the drainage of the waters fur- rowed deeply those clays, and even cut through them into the sandstone below, in which the various channels of the system of the Amazons are excavated. Professor Agassiz believes that the great barrier stretched across the Amazonian valley far eastward of its present extremity ; and he has called attention to the similarity between the formations found spread over the coast of Maranhao and Piauhy and the Amazonian formations here described, showimg conclusively that these deposits were once continuous. It is his belief that the Ama- zonian formation formerly extended a hundred leagues out to sea beyond the present mouth of the Amazons. There can be no doubt that there is a rapid waste of land now going on along the sea-shores of the mouth of the Amazons and of the coast eastward for a long distance, a waste amounting to even so much as two hundred yards in ten years in the Bay of Braganza—or a mile in twenty, as on the coast near Vigia, where an island a mile wide disappeared in that time. Since the Tertiary period,” says Professor Hartt, ‘ at least, and, I believe, for the greater part since the drift, the whole Kastern Brazilian coast has suffered denudation by the sea to an im-
of the Amazons Valley. 63
mense amount, and a very wide strip of Tertiary rocks has been removed. I believe that these deposits once extended beyond the Abrolhos, and that south of Cape Roque the sea has cut them away for a mean width of fifty miles or more.”
Prof. Hartt adds:— At first I was disposed to regard the Brazilian formation in question as Triassic; but I soon found that it was underlain unconformably by Cretaceous rocks in Bahia, and I came to the only conclusion possible—that it was older than the Drift, and newer than the Cretaceous. I can see no reason, therefore, for considering the coast beds any thing but Tertiary, though they may be, and probably are, very late Tertiary. It has seemed to me that the fact of the occurrence on an open sea-coast of clays and sandstones pre- cisely similar to those occupying the lower plains of the Ama- zons, as at Pardé, and in fact tying in with them, relieves one of the necessity of looking to a freshwater origin for the Amazonian beds.”
These observations (coming as they do from one of Prof. Agassiz’s own travelling companions and the geologist of the expedition, who has extended his knowledge of the geology of the district by a subsequent visit to Brazil) are of consider- able importance. Whilst differing, however, from his chief as to the age and origin of these Amazonian beds, Prof. Hartt, like Agassiz, is a firm believer in the doctrine of “ glaciers under the tropics down to the present level of the sea.”
The only reason adduced by Prof. Agassiz for not regarding these formations as marine is the negative one, that he found no marine fossils in them. On the other hand, the only posi- tive evidence which he seems to have found in proof of the freshwater origin of this vast deposit is the occurrence of di- cotyledonous leaves in a single locality on the Rio Solimées, more than 2000 miles up the river.
The occurrence of erratic blocks of diorite ‘a metre in dia- meter ” in the unstratified drift X. is adduced as indubitable proof of glacial agency ; but the transporting-power of a river like the Amazons (several miles in breadth), swollen by rains and melted snows, may probably have sufficed. Or, as they occur elsewhere besides in the valley itself, they may quite as reasonably have been brought from the Antarctic by icebergs and dropped during the submergence of the eastern provinces.
On the 7th October, Prof. James Orton, of Vassor College, Poughkeepsie, New York, addressed a letter to the ‘Geological Magazine’ announcing that, in his late expedition across the continent, he had discovered a fossiliferous deposit at Pabos, and also that his correspondent Mr. Hauxwell, at his sugges-
64 Miscellaneous.
tion, had explored in other places on the Amazons, and found fossils in abundance near Cochaquinas, on the south side of the Marajion. ‘The shells,” writes Prof. Orton, “are all found in the coloured plastic clays*, which stretch unbroken from the foot of the Andes to the Atlantic.”.... He adds, “The forms are all very singular and unique; and from their extermination, especially of one genus (Pachydon) with all its representatives, we infer that the formation cannot be late Tertiary, and may be Miocene.
“‘'The species indicate fresh- or brackish-water life ; and the perfect preservation of the most delicate parts, some specimens retaining even the epidermis, shows a quiet lake or estuary. There certainly are no indications of a ‘ grinding glacier.’ ”
Under date of Oct. 10, 1870, Prof. Conrad publishes, “ én advance of the ‘American Journal of Conchology,’ descriptions of new fossil shells of the Upper Amazon,” some of which had been previously described and figured in the fourth volume of the same journal by Mr. Gabb. Having since had the opportunity of examining many hundreds of these shells sent home by Mr. Hauxwell to Mr. Janson (Museum Street), I venture to append a few notes thereon.
[To be continued. |
MISCELLANEOUS.
Notes on Arctic Zoology. By Dr. Roper Browy, M.A., F.R.G.S. (In a letter to Dr. J. E. Gray.)
4 Gladstone Terrace, Hope Park, Edinburgh, November 23, 1870.
My pear Srr,—I am at present working at the distribution of the Nort-west American faunas and floras, with a view to eventually producing a physical atlas of that region, and therefore venture to trouble you with this note to inquire if you have ever examined the skull of the Phocena from Queen Charlotte’s Islands, which the British Museum acquired from my collections ; and if so, whether it is identical with any species of porpoise from the Atlantic. I re- member that at the time (April 1868) you were inclined to believe that it was identical with P. communis. [I can see no difference in the skulls.—J. E.G.| If so, the fact would be rather interesting.
While I am at it, I may as well mention a few facts connected with arctic zoology, which you may find worthy of a notice in the ‘Annals.’ In a paper of mine on the arctic seals, in the ‘ Proceed- ings of the Zoological Society’ for 1868, p. 425 (also translated in Petermann’s ‘Geographische Mittheilungen’ for 1869), I discussed
* This is evidently Bed II. of Prof, Agassiz’s section.
Miscellaneous. 65
the species to which a seal called the “ ground seal” (probably a corruption of ‘ grown seal”) belongs, and hazarded an opinion that it might only be Phoca barbata, O. Fab. Since that paper was pub- lished, through the kindness of Mr. Charles E. Smith, the surgeon of Mr. Lamont’s yacht expedition to Spitzbergen in 1869, I have ob- tained skulls which leave no doubt of the soundness of that opinion. Phoca barbata must therefore be classed as an oceanic seal, and one of the species slaughtered by the sealers. Halicherus gryphus, O. Fab., I find to be a very common seal in the Hebrides. It is born yellowish white, but begins to get dark on the snout and flippers a day or two after birth. So abundant is this species of seal in the Hebrides that a friend of mine, Capt. M‘Donald, R.N., in one voyage of a few weeks in one of the fishery cutters, killed seventy. The same gen- tleman in April 1841 killed a walrus (Trichechus rosmarus, Linn.) on the East Heiskar, which adds one more to the recorded instances of this animal’s occurrence on the British coasts.
You may remember also that, in a paper on the Greenland mam- mals, in the same work (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 359), I expressed an opinion that the animal which the Greenlanders talk about under the name of “ Amarok” was not, as Fabricius supposed, the Gulo borealis, Retz., but only the Greenland dog run wild and returned to its pristine condition of the wolf. At that time, however, no specimen of this much-talked-about animal had ever been killed; but the winter after we left the country (1868-69), a commu- nication which I had recently from Greenland informs me that a real wolf (apparently C. occidentalis var. grisco-albus) had been killed at Godhayn in about 69° 14/N. A whaling captain whom I met last autumn (1869) in Copenhagen had himself seen the skin, and says that it is identical with the wolf found on the opposite shore of Davis Strait. This wolf is quite abundant there, and so troublesome to the natives, that I was informed, when on that coast in 1861, that the natives had been compelled to remove their villages from some quarters where it was very abundant, on account of its destroying their dogs. The wolf killed at Disco Island (Godhavn) in the winter of 1868-69 had probably crossed Dayis Strait on the ice; for the winter was a severe one, and the Eskimo about Pond’s Bay (on the opposite shore) declared that wolves had that winter been very abundant thereabout. The same very intelligent whaling captain (a man whom I have known many years) reminded me of a fact (which he recalled to my recollection) that I omitted to mention in my papers on the arctic mammalian fauna (which, curiously enough, he had read in Godhayn, in Greenland), viz. that not unfrequently the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus, linn.), is seen, four or five hundred miles from the nearest land, feeding on the carcases of seals killed by the sealers on the great floes, between Jan Mayen Island and Spitzbergen, in the spring of the year—a habit which it shares with its much more maritime cousin the white bear (Thalarctos mari- timus, Linn.). Though this plantigrade passes much of its time in the water, yet I need scarcely say that the author of an extraordinary
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vii. oy)
66 Miscellaneous.
paper, read to the British Association at Norwich, was vilely hoaxed when he gravely related, as part of his information derived from reliable individuals, that the polar bear will remain so long in the water as to allow of seaweeds growing on its back!
Finally, the recent discovery, by the German Polar Expedition (vide the 8th Report of the Bremen Committee recently issued), of the musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus, Gm.) in abundance on the east coast of Greenland, in about 75° north latitude, is a very interesting and rather suggestive fact. Hitherto it has only been very sparingly reported from the west coast, and then not south of Wolstenholme Sound, in 76° N. lat. It at one time appears to have been found more abundantly on the shores of Smith’s Sound; but there is no evidence whatever to lead to the belief that it does at present live, o ever did live, south of the glaciers of Melville Bay. It thus ap- pears that on both sides of the continent of Greenland the southern range of this huge arctic animal is limited by about 75° or 76° N. latitude.
Perhaps you may consider these notes worthy of preservation,
I have passed most of the autumn in Denmark, and everywhere heard congratulations that your health was again so good as to allow of your continuing your labours, so valuable to science. In this congratulation allow me to most heartily join, and to remain
Yours most faithfully and respectfully, Rozerr Brown. Dr. Gray, P.RS. Se.
On Recent and Fossil Corals. To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.
GrntrrmMEen,—I see in your November Number the following words by Mr. Kent :—‘I may quote this form, again, as evidence bearing out the truth of my assumption, disputed by Mr. Lankester in a previous number of this Magazine, that the Corals of the Paleozoic epoch were equally complex and highly developed with those peopling the existing seas.” There has been a little mis- understanding here. So far from having disputed this assumption, I was not aware that Mr. Kent had ever made it before. I will not now discuss it, but merely point out that this assumption, whether justified or not, is not identical with the assumption which I did dispute, viz. that the group of corals “had attained the very zenith of its development long before ” the Silurian epoch “ had commenced its decline.” The development of a group is not measured by the degree of skeletal complexity attained by one of its subordinate groups.
I am, Gentlemen, Yours truly, Nov. 25, 1870. E. Ray Lanxester.
Miscellaneous. 67
Dredging in the Gulf of Suez, To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.
GentLtemen,—My friend Dr. Gray having pointed out to me that my observations in my paper on ‘ Dredging in the Gulf of Suez” seem to imply that nothing had been done with the Echinoderms &e. which I presented to the British Museum, I beg to say that, so far from this being the case, Dr. Gray lost no time in naming the spe- cimens, though the list with his notes upon them was unfortunately mislaid, with other papers, in consequence of his illness,—also that the spare duplicates were promptly forwarded to the public museums of Edinburgh and Liverpool, in conformity with my request.
I beg that you will insert this explanation in your forthcoming Number, as nothing could be further from my intention than to impute neglect to Dr. Gray, from whom I have invariably expe- rienced the greatest kindness and willingness to render me assist- ance.
IT am, Gentlemen, Isleworth House, W. Your obedient Servant, Dec. 8, 1870, Rosert M‘Anprew.
On the Structure of the Crania of Reptilia and Batrachia. By Prof. Corr.
Prof. Cope communicated some results of his studies of the struc- ture of the crania of the orders of Reptilia and Batrachia, recent and extinct. He explained the characters of the Ichthyopterygia as follows :—
The quadratoyjugal (squamosal of Owen, ‘ Anatomy of the Ver- tebrata’) present ; postorbital (of Owen) present. The squwamosal (supratemporal of Owen) extending over the inner side of the pa- rieto-squamosal arch so as to conceal the parietal portion of it, to the anterior part of the temporal fossa, and in contact with its fellow of the other side. It sends down a columella to the pterygoid. It extends also for a remarkable distance downwards behind the os quadratum. ? Opzsthotic present. A distinct element exists behind the quadratum, which he thought might be the suprastapedial, otherwise called the incus, or hyomandibular, according to Huxley. The pterygoid prolonged backwards and expanded, in contact with the basioccipital, and extending from it to the quadratum. The posterior pair of elements of the superior face of the cranium being determined to be squamosals, the interpretation of the anterior ele- ments becomes simple. The rhombic element with fontanelle is parietal (frontal of Owen ‘ Anatomy of Vertebrata’) ; and the prece- ding pair are the frontals (nasals, Owen). The true nasals were shown to lie at the proximal end of the nares,
The structure of the suspensorial region in the Anomodont, Lys- trosawrus, was next pointed out. In this order there isno quadrato- jugal arch, and the zygomatic arch contains a very small postorbital.
#
68 Miscellaneous.
The sguamosal has an extraordinary development, and extends on the parieto-quadrate arch, and on the inner side of the temporal fossa on each side of the parietal. The parietal is not so far con- cealed as in Ichthyosaurus, but its posterior lateral process may be seen wedged in between the squamosal and the thin, plate-like opisthotic, which les external to the supraoccipital on each side. The opisthotic is the parietal of Owen, and the parietal branch of the squamosal is the mastoid of the same author.
This branch in Jchthyosaurus and Lystrosaurus is continuous with the zygomatic portion of the bone, though another element might have been originally coossified with it. The posterior portion of the squamosal is prolonged remarkably; it is applied to the posterior face of the quadratum, and extends to its articular extremity. The quadratum is a small bone of a plate-like form, in contact with the squamosal above and the (?) prootic inwardly and anteriorly. Supra- stapedial not distinguished. The parietal branch of the squamosal sends down a columella to the pterygoid. The prootic is a distinct though small bone, below and in front of the squamosal. The pre- sphenoid is plate-like, and much as in the Crocodilia.
Prof. Cope thought that the Anomodontia, one of the earliest (Triassic) types of Reptilia, are one of the best examples of a gene- ralized group among the Vertebrata. Thus the structure of the posterior part of the cranium is largely that of Ichthyopterygia, and partially that of Lacertilia; of the oral parts of the cranium, the prootic and mandible, of Testudinata. The vertebral characters are partly those of Ichthyopterygia, and the sacrum and rib-articulations those of Dinosauria. +The peculiar presphenoid is characteristic of Crocodilia, and the osseous interorbital septum of Rhynchocephalia.
The position of the posterior plate of the squamosal in Ichthyo- pterygia and Anomodontia seemed conclusive as to the homology of that element with the bone covering the cartilaginous quadratum in Batrachia Anura, and the osseous quadratum in Urodela and Dipnoi, called tympanique by Cuvier, and temporo-mastoidean by Dugés. This bone had been already homologized with the praoperculum of Teleostei by Huxley; and it is thought that its present determination in the Reptilia established the serial homology of the praeoperculum of the fish with the squamosal plate of the mammal.—Proc. Amer. Phil, Soc. vol. xi. No. 84.
On the Embryology of Limulus polyphemus. By A. 8. Packarp, Jun.
After a detailed description of the embryological history of the Limulus, the author concludes that before hatching it strikingly re- sembles Trinucleus and other Trilobites, a conclusion to which the whole account points. The Trilobites are therefore lower than the Xiphosura; the two groups should, on embryonic and structural grounds, be included perhaps in one order; and the former should therefore be removed from the neighbourhood of the Phyllopods and placed immediately next to Xiphosura. The organization
Miscellaneous. 69
and habits of Zimulus throw much light, on the probable anatomy and habits of Trilobites. The author infers that the eyes had a similar structure, that the circulation and the nervous system were alike, and that probably the genital organs were very similar in the two groups. He thence suggests that the eggs of the Trilobite were probably laid in the sand or mud and impregnated by the sperm- cells of the male floating freely in the water. The Trilobites probably lived by burrowing in the mud and sand, digging in the shallow palzozoic waters after worms and stationary soft-bodied Inverte- brates. —T'he American Chemist, Nov. 1870.
On the Stipules of Magnolia and Liriodendron. By Tsomas Merman.
An examination of the stipules of Magnolia affords some highly interesting facts, most or perhaps all of which are known to leading botanists, but which do not appear to be as generally known as they deserve to be; and these facts may have a more intimate bearing on many of the questions connected with the laws of development than is suspected. ;
In most species of Magnolia a scar peculiar to the genus exists on the petiole. This scar is elevated somewhat above the surrounding tissue, as if the matter forming it had been laid on the surface after the rest of the petiole had been formed. The green is not of the same tint as in the rest of the petiole, but it is always of the same tint as that of the leaf-blade. In Magnolia macrophylla the petiole and under surface of the leaf are grey ; the leaf-blade is pale green on the upper surface. The surface of the scar is pale green, corresponding to the surface of the leaf-blade. The whole appearance of the scar is such as if a portion of a leaf-blade had been grafted by its under surface on the petiole.
On the upper part of the scar next the leaf-blade are two small articulation points, where the membranaceous stipules finally parted from the leaf. Examining a leaf before these stipules have fallen, the main veins forming the skeleton of the stipules are found con- necting with these articuli, and, spreading out, diverge downward toward the base of the leaf. In separating at maturity from the petiole, they part first from the base, and last from their place of articulation. Their weakest hold is the point furthest away from what thus appears to be their source at the apex of the scar.
Magnolia Frazeri elongates its petiole beyond the stipule several inches generally. The leaf-blade then exhibits the auricle so well known in this species. The structure of this auricle is similar to the stipules in M. macrophylla or M. tripetala. The veins start out in nearly as close a fascicle as in these stipules, and they diverge and curve downwards just as these stipules do. Above these strong veins of the auricle are very weak veins, necessitating a very narrow blade portion there, until another set of strong veins push out and make the main part of the lamina.
If we press these auricles back against the petiole, and imagine a
70 Miscellaneous.
union with it, then a separation from the main leaf-blade, and a union of the edges of the separated auricle, both above and below, we have a sheathed stipule exactly as we find them, and we see how easily Magnolia Frazeri might be a pinnate leaf of five leaflets on the supposition that the stipular portions really have taken the course we suppose these auricles might take.
I suppose no one of experience in living plants doubts the possi- bility of the adhesion of some parts and the separation of others, so as to make new parts or organs. If such is desired, I would refer to the adhesion of the carpellary leaves by their backs in the cap- sules of Staphylea trifolia, and, for separation, to the pinnate leaf often formed out of an entire blade in Fravinus excelsior, hetero- phylla, and many other plants with entire leaves which often have pinnate ones amongst them.
It is scarcely possible, with these facts before us, to avoid the sus- picion that the stipules of Magnolia are not formed like the stipules of most plants, which are perhaps leaf-portions which have never been well developed, but rather are the tolerably well-developed side pinnules of a trifoliate or deeply auricled leaf, which in an early stage had adnated with the petiole and by their edges, and thus formed the stipular sheath we see. The suppositional case I have drawn from the auricles of MW. Frazeri is still better illustrated by leaves of some Ranunculaceous plants. For instance, Anemone penn- sylvanica. Lay the lower lobes fiat against the petiole, imagine the adnation by their backs, and cohesion of the edges, and we have the idea clearly.
It is difficult to conceive that these stipular sheaths could have been formed, in harmony with all the appearances we have detailed, in any other way; but ideas and possibilities are not as good as direct facts. These are furnished in good part in other ways.
In the East-Indian species /. fuscata the flowers are axillary, not terminal as in most other species. Three of the leaf-axils on the growth of last year produce flowers. The lowest flower is the weakest, the upper the strongest. The bracts which infold the flower-buds are of course transformed leaves; and here, in these weak flowers, where the tendency of the vital course is almost as near to foliar organs as to floral parts, we find these leafy-looking bracts are trifoliate. The central lobe is composed of a short petiole and a small oval leaf-blade. Sometimes this attempt of the lower axil to produce a flower proves abortive. The already formed petals die away. In such cases the two lateral leaflets die away also, and the little miniature ceriral leaf goes on and developes into one as large as the average on any part of the plant. But in the stronger flowers we find, just in proportion to their strength, the two lateral leaflets enlarge, and the central one diminish until at length it disap- pears, petiole and all. The laterals then adhere by their edges, become fleshy, and end in being petals. These are clearly seen to be formed out of the adnated lateral leaflets, which form the stipular sheaths in other cases, with the central of the trifoliate type absorbed. This observation, in addition to the use I wish to make of it, con-
Miscellaneous. 71
firms the views of some botanists, as I have learned from Professor Asa Gray, that it is by metamorphosis of the petiolar and stipular parts, rather than by modifications of the leaf-blade, that petals are formed.
From these facts we gather the certainty of a trilobate type of leaf and see the adnation of the edges; and only the dorsal adhesion to the petiole, which I have shown so probable as almost to amount to a certainty, is left to be established by actual fact.
This ternate division of the leaf is a marked character in Ranun- culacee ; and with this exposition of a ternate type in Magnoliaceze, its claim to a place in the Ranal alliance, strong as it always has been acknowledged to be, is still more strengthened.
It is impossible to suppose that a genus so closely allied as Lirio- dendron should be founded on a different type from Magnolia. We shall see that only very slight causes, which we can well understand, have made some of the chief foliar distinctions; and the few which we cannot prove from actual facts can be made almost certainties from parallel observations. The identity of type will in this way be manifest.
First, as to the premorse or cut-off appearance of the end of the leaf-blade. This all results from the stipular portions being adnate with the stem-axis, instead of being wholly on the petiole as in Mag- nolia. In the latter the stipules are carried along as the petiole advances, the leaf-blade cannot grow beyond, and so in vernation has to lie flat up against them. In Liriodendron, the stipules being fast to the main stem, the petiole carries the leaf-blade beyond them, over which it is bent until its apex is brought down in contact with the straight line formed by the union of stipule and stem. Here it is pressed as into a mould by the elongating petiole, and the form of the leaf which we see is the necessary result. These processes in Magnolia and Liriodendron can readily be seen on an examination of the buds at any time during the growing-season ; and to those who have no specimens the figure of the latter in Gray’s ‘Genera’ will easily give the idea. It may be here noted that those who look only to Mr. Darwin’s principle of natural selection to account for the laws of form, might be troubled by such cases as these. It is scarcely conceivable that a square-edged leaf-blade, as we find it in Lirioden- dron, is of any special benefit to the species; yet if this form is the consequence of some other act which is a benefit, the selection principle may still hold.
If the ternate type of leaf is probable in Liriodendron, as in Mag- nolia, the lower portion of the petiole, and lateral or stipular por- tions, must have adnated with the stem prior to the full development of the leaf. This view necessitates the idea that the leaf does not always originate at the node from which it seems to spring. I do not believe it does ; but I am well aware that in this I have opposed to me the weight of our best botanical authorities, from whom I would not yet dare to differ until I shall have the weight of more facts. I would only say that m the case of Liriodendron the appear- ances are much in favour of the belief that in an early stage the petiole clasped the stem, and for a considerable length ultimately
72 Miscellaneous.
became an integral part of its cortical system. The vessels which are seen connected in direct lines with the petioles below and above the node, as they are in existence before the leaf-bud has opened and the leaf-blade has had any chance to elaborate sap from the light or air, Just above supposed to be necessary before they could be formed, do not seem to originate at the node; while the fact that these vessels suddenly curve from the opposite side towards the supposed petiolar base is much more characteristic of an unfolding sheath than of a descending current of matter, which would most naturally go down in a straightish line. But that the petiole has really adnated with the stem in this way in Liriodendron seems most probable from the fact that on the opposite side from the leaf is often seen a ridge which could hardly be formed except by the meeting of two edges enclosing a stem, with a little to spare; and at other times there is a slight depression, as if the two opposite edges barely met. There seems to be every evidence short of an actual witnessing of the fact, that the petiole in Liriodendron became adnate with the stem, and in this way the two lateral sections (stipules) were brought into contact with the stem with which they united. This would bring them nearer the sources of nutrition, and enable them to assume a more leaf-like and permanent character than if on the petiole. They become rather primary than secondary leaf-organs ; and this is just what we see them to be.
Thus we may assume that J/agnolia has typically a ternate leaf- structure, that the stipules are the two Jateral lobes, which, by a peculiar process of adnation, became stipular sheaths after having been partially organized as leaf-blade, and that Liriodendron differs from Magnolia only in possessing a greater power of adnation.— Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. Oct. 1870.
A Remarkable Myriopod, By Dr. A. 8, Packarn, Jun.
While looking over a chip with Myriopods and Poduras on the underside, brought in from the museum grounds by Mr. C. A. Walker, I detected a lively little yellowish-white creature, which immediately suggested Sir John Lubbock’s Pauwropus. <A closer examination showed that it was indeed a species of Pawropus, very closely allied to P. pedunculatus, Lubbock, and intermediate in some respects between that species and P. Hualeyi, Lubbock. It may be called Pauropus Lubbockti, in honour of the original discoverer of this remarkable type of Myriopods. No more interesting articulate has been discovered for many years; and the occurrence of a species in America is worthy of note. It has but nine pairs of legs (three pairs when hatched), and in some points in its organization seems to be a connecting link between the Myriopeds and Poduride, the latter being true insects, probably degraded Neuroptera. Our species is yellowish white, and -03 of an inch in length. Mr. Walker assures me, after seeing this specimen, that he saw a similar one last May under the bark of an apple-tree in Chelsea, Mass.—Ame- rican Naturalist, vol. iv. Dec. 1870.
THE ANNALS
AND
MAGAZINE’ OF NATURAL HISTORY.
[FOURTH SERIES. ]
No. 38. FEBRUARY 1871.
1X.—Description of a considerable portion of a Mandibular Ramus of Anthracosaurus Russelli ; with Notes on Loxomma and Ayrchichthys. By AuBany Hancock, F.L.S8., and THOMAS ATTHEY. [Plate VI.]
In 1862 Professor Huxley made known the presence in the Lanarkshire coal-field of a large and powerful Labyrinthodont, to which he gave the name of Anthracosaurus Russelli*. This species was founded on a nearly perfect cranium ; and at the same time a vertebra and a rib supposed to belong to this Amphibian were also described. No further evidence of the existence of this formidable creature of the Carboniferous era was procured till Mr. Atthey obtained a large portion of an- other cranium belonging to it at Newsham. This interesting fragment was described, in the September Number of the ‘Annals,’ in 1869; and we gave in the same paper an ac- count of the anterior extremity of a mandibular ramus and of a large sternal plate, which we believed likewise to belong to Anthracosaurus.
We are not aware that any further account has appeared of the occurrence of remains of this rare Amphibian. It is there- fore with much pleasure that we are enabled, through the kindness of Mr. Ward of Longton, to describe a large fragment of a mandible belonging to this species. This specimen forms part of that gentleman’s well-known collection, and is from the new ironstone shale of Fenton. It is a portion of the posterior extremity; but the articular process is wanting. The fragment is 7 inches long, and measures nearly 4 inches from the alveolar border (Pl. VI. a) to the inferior margin (0). There is just two inches of this margin perfect ; and this is at the point where undoubtedly the ramus is deepest. The inner
* Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xix. p. 56,
Ann & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vii. 6
74 Messrs. Hancock & Atthey on a portion of
surface is exposed to view, and is concave longitudinally, the outer surface being a little convex, as is evident in the trans- verse section of the specimen in front. The bone, which is in a very perfect state of preservation, is composed of two paral- lel layers—an inner, the splenial plate (c), and an outer, the dentary piece (7)—and is stout, particularly at the alveolar bor- der, where it is an inch thick; thence it becomes gradually thinner to the longitudinal middle line; here it is scarcely more than } of an inch thick, and so continues to the inferior margin.
The upper surface of the alveolar border is slightly chan- nelled, and is almost straight; but within 34 inches of the posterior extremity it is bent a little downwards (e), and then, rising up considerably above the level of the border, is con- tinued backwards in a straight line (f') to the posterior extre- mity; this straight part is 14 inch long, and is bevelled off to a sharp edge. In front of the elevation the alveolar border has been torn, apparently by pressure, from the inner layer of bone, which at this part is pushed a little downwards.
The teeth are well preserved ; in all there have been twelve, nine of which are almost perfect, and, with the exception of the three posterior ones, are all of the same size. They are nearly an inch long, and at the base are upwards of a quarter of an inch wide; they taper gradually to the apex, which is a little compressed in the direction of the long axis of the jaw, and in the same plane has the sides slightly carmated, and is also rather suddenly bent inwards and backwards; but the recurving is probably, in part at least, owing to pressure. The crown is not perfectly cylindrical or, rather, conical ; it is a little flattened at the sides, and is therefore in cross section somewhat angulated; and at the base it is wider in the trans- verse than in the longitudinal direction of the jaw. The whole surface is covered with brilliant enamel, and is longi- tudinally grooved to within less than a third of the apex. The grooves are fine, rather distant, and the spaces between them are flattened, so that there is a tendency to a ridged appearance,
The teeth are clustered, and in this respect agree with those of the maxille. In the clusters the bases are in contact; and short spaces divide the clusters. The first tooth (g) is split longitudinally by the anterior fracture of the specimen, and very little of it remains: only a small piece of the base is per- ceptible; but a partial impression of the crown shows that it was as large as the others. The base of the second tooth is not far from that of the first, and is the first perfect one of the series, The third tooth has been removed for structural exami-
a Mandibular Ramus of Anthracosaurus Russelli. 75
nation; it stood apart, about a quarter of an inch from the second, and as far from the fourth tooth. The fourth and fifth are in contact, and are separated from the sixth by about a quarter of an inch; the sixth, seventh, and eighth are close together, and form the largest cluster of the series. Then fol- lows a space of upwards of a quarter of an inch, and the series is terminated by three teeth much smaller than the rest ; these are clustered, the first two being almost perfect, and the third (2) having almost entirely disappeared. ‘These three posterior teeth are placed just at the point where the alveolar border begins to rise, and are 24 inches from the hinder extremity of the specimen.
The mandible of Anthracosaurus is distinguished from that of Loxomma, the only known jaw with which it is likely to be confounded, not only by its greater size, but also by the massiveness of the bone. It is an inch deeper or wider than the largest mandible we have seen of the latter; and the bone is very much thicker. The form of the teeth likewise distin- guishes this species from Loxvomma: they have the crown much less compressed, and the trenchant margins are not nearly so much developed; towards the base, too, they are more cylindrical, or, rather, conical, though they are somewhat irregularly flattened and angulated at the sides. They are also much more uniformly of a size; in this respect they vary greatly in Loxomma, while we have seen that in the fragment before us the teeth are about the same length, with the excep- tion of the three terminal ones of the series. The internal structure of the tooth is also characteristic, and at once distin- guishes this species from Loxwomma.
Indeed the characters of the teeth of Anthracosaurus are very peculiar ; their thickness and angularity at the base, the delicate conical taper upwards, the incurving of the apex, its slight compression and the small development of the trenchant margins are the distinguishing features of this form, and at once enable us to determine the generic and specific identity of Mr. Ward’s interesting fragment. But had any doubt existed, the internal structure of the tooth would have removed it. In all these characters this specimen exactly agrees with Anthracosaurus Russell’; the Labyrinthodont structure in particular accords in every respect with the very clear de- scription given of it by Professor Huxley in the original memoir.
It is true that the teeth are stated to be ridged, while we have described them as grooved. This character, however, we pointed out, in