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brated for their quality: the inhabitants import the raw material. There are very few sheep, horses, or horned cattle. The climate is good, and the inhabitants long-lived.

such bends that a discharge will take place from thence. As the water in that cavity may only attain the necessary height in consequence of periodical falls of rain, it will follow that corresponding increases in the total quantity of water discharged can only then take place.

For the amusement of young persons, several philosophical toys have been constructed, in which the effects are produced by means of concealed siphons. The siphon is sometimes placed within a figure in the middle or on the edge of a cup, and sometimes between its exterior and interior sides. Such are Tantalus's Cup and the siphon fountain.

SIPHONA'RIA. [SEMIPHYLLIDIANS, vol. xxi., p. 218.]
SIPHONIA. [SPONGIADE.]

Siphnus was celebrated among the antients for a sort of stone mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist., xxxvi. 22), of which drinking-cups were made, which was easily carved, and hardened afterwards by boiling oil. This was a species of talc, according to Fiedler, who gives further particulars relating to the geology of the island. Tournefort was shown the situation of one gold-mine, but could not discover the entrance. Fiedler gives an account of one near Agia Sosti. The antiquities of the island are few. On the south side, at Porto Plati Gallo, are the remains of an old Greek town. Tournefort speaks of a temple sacred to Pan near the castle, which is also noticed by Carpacchi, and of several SIPHONIA, a genus of plants of the natural family of marble sarcophagi with good sculpture. There are also Euphorbiaceae, consisting of two species, but one may be Greek inscriptions, which are given by him and Fiedler. only a variety of the other. This is celebrated as being the The Greek coins of Siphnus are very numerous: they are tree which yields the large quantities of caoutchouc, called of gold, silver, and copper. The types on them are the Cahuchu by the native Americans, annually imported from head of Apollo (there was a town called Apollonia in Siph- Para in South America. The genus has been named Sinus, according to Stephanus Byz., 'Arolwvia), the Chi-phonia, from the Greek word siphon (oipov) a tube, from the mæra, head of Bacchus, and a dove with wings spread. The purposes to which caoutchouc is applied; but it was origi coins struck under the emperors have Pallas on the reverse. nally called Hevea by Aublet, and the name was changed Kastron is a castle built apparently when the Venetians first by Richard from its similarity to Evea. The species, or occupied the island. Various buildings bear the arms of the South American caoutchouc, was named S. Cahuchu from Gozzadini family, three of whom were still living there in its Indian name Cahuchu. The same plant was first called the time of Tournefort. Jatropha elastica by the younger Linnæus; so that it is known and referred to by three names, and in some works these are considered to indicate distinct plants. Aublet has figured the plant, and Jussieu the details of its inflorescence.

SIPHON (σipwv), a tube or pipe. This machine, which has been described in the article HYDRAULICS, was probably invented in the second century B.C., by Hero of Alexandria, who, in the Spiritalia,' or Pneumatics, mentions its employment for the purpose of conveying water from one valley to another over the intervening ground.

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In order that a fluid may issue from that branch of a siphon which is on the exterior surface of the vessel containing it, it is necessary, as has been stated in the article above mentioned, that the extremity of the branch should be below the surface of the fluid in the vessel; but it may be observed that there is an exception to the rule when the interior diameter of that branch is very small; for example, when it is less than 1-10th of an inch, the interior diameter of the branch in the vessel being considerably greater. For if such a fluid as water or wine be introduced into a bent tube having one branch only very small, and the open ends be uppermost, the top of the fluid in the more slender branch will, by the effect of capillary attraction, stand higher than the top of that in the other branch. It would follow therefore, that if the bent tube were inverted, and the orifice of its larger branch were placed under the surface of the fluid in a vessel, the fluid would begin to issue from the other branch, though the orifice of the latter were a little above the level of that surface.

The effect of a siphon may be produced by capillary attraction alone; for if a piece of cotton cloth have one of its extremities in a vessel of water, and part of it be made to hang over the edge of the vessel, the water will be attracted along the threads of the cloth, and will descend from thence in drops, provided the extremity of the part thus hanging over be below the surface of the water in the vessel.

The phenomena presented by springs of water are explained by supposing that the rain which is absorbed in the earth occasionally finds its way by small channels to some interior cavity, and from thence by other channels, which may be considered as natural siphons, to an orifice on a lower level at the surface of the ground. At this orifice it issues in a stream of water, which continues to flow till the surface of the water in the cavity has descended below the tops of the vertical bends in the channels: the water then ceases to flow till the rains again raise the water in the cavity above those bends. But it sometimes happens that a spring, without ceasing to flow, discharges periodically greater and smaller quantities of water in given times; and this is accounted for by supposing the existence of two cavities either unconnected or communicating with one another by small channels. The channels leading from one of these cavities to the point of efflux are supposed to be below the level of the water in both cavities, so that the water flows through them continually; but if the channels from the other have vertical bends, so that they act as siphons, and at the same time these channels carry off the water in them faster than it can flow from the first cavity to the second, it will be only when the water in the latter cavity is above the level of all

Siphonia elastica is a tree fifty to sixty feet in height, common in the forests of Guiana and Brazil, and which has been introduced into the West Indies. Condamine frequently mentions it in his voyage down the Amazon. Caoutchouc [CAOUTCHOUC] is the milky juice of the plant which exudes on incisions being made, and solidifies on exposure to the air. Aublet states that a deep incision is first made into the wood near the bottom of the tree, another is then made longitudinally from the upper parts of the tree down to the first lateral and oblique incision, others are also made along the stem, which terminate in the longitudinal one, and the milky juice which exudes from all is collected in a vessel placed at the original incision. He also states that the nuts are edible, and Mr. Morney says that a caterpillar, which spins a tough coarse kind of silk, feeds on the leaves.

SIPHONI FERA, M. D'Orbigny's name for an order of testaceous Mollusks, consisting of the families Spirulidæ, Nautilidæ, Ammonitidæ, and Peristellidae, according to the arrangement of M. Rang. The latter family comprises the genera Ichthyosarcolites and Belemnites.

SIPHONOBRANCHIA'TA, M. De Blainville's name for the first order of his first subclass of Mollusks, Paracephalophora dioica. He describes the Siphonobranchiata as possessing organs of respiration constantly formed of one or two pectiniform branchia, situated obliquely on the anterior part of the back, and continued in a cavity, the superior wall of which is provided with a tubiform canal more or less elongated and attached to the columella; and arranges under the order the following families:- SIPHONOSTOMATA; ENTOMOSTOMATA; and Angyostomata.

The Angyostomata are described as differing very little from the other families as far as the animal is concerned, and as possessing a very large subventral foot, which can be folded together longitudinally for the purpose of being withdrawn into the shell.

The aperture of the shell of the family is described as being more or less notched anteriorly, generally very narrow, but always much longer than it is wide, and the columella as being straight or nearly straight.

The operculum is rudimentary in a certain number of genera, and entirely null in others.

The genera arranged under the Angyostomata are Strombus, Conus, Terebellum, Oliva, Ancillaria, Mitra, Voluta, Marginella, Peribolus, Cypræa, and Ovula.

SIPHO'NOPS, Wagler's name for a genus of Cæcili

oïdians.

The first suborder of the Batrachians, the Péromèles of MM. Duméril and Bibron, consists but of one family, the Ophiosomes (snake-bodied Batrachians) or Cæcilioidians. Their round elongated form, without either tail or feet, approximates so closely to that of the serpents, that the

greater number of authors have arranged them in the order |
Ophidians, acknowledging at the same time the anomalies
which they present, and observing that they ought to form
a very distinct group. [SERPENTS, vol. xxi., p. 281.]

The characters which lead to the classification of these reptiles into one family, and to their separation from all others, are, 1st, a body extremely extended in length, and of a cylindrical shape; 2nd, the absence of limbs or lateral appendages proper for locomotion; 3rd, a skin naked in appearance and viscous, but concealing between the circular folds which it forms many rows or rings of flat, delicate, imbricated scales, with free and rounded borders, resem

Scales of Cecilia albiventris.

bling those of the greater part of the fishes; 4th, the rounded orifice of their cloaca situated below, very near the posterior extremity of the body, which is sometimes truncated, as it were, and rounded; sometimes obtusely pointed, as in the genus Typhlops; 5th, their head, as in all the Batrachians, is articulated to the spine by means of two distinct and separate condyles; 6th, their lower jaw moves upon the cranium without any separate articular bone, and the two branches which form it are short and very solidly soldered together towards the symphysis of the chin.

In the Serpents the occipital bone presents, below the vertebral hole, a single articular eminence, or condyle; and the structure and disposition of the jaws will be remembered by those who have referred to the article SERPENTS. The brevity of the jaws, and their construction in the Cæcilioïdians, reduce the aperture of their mouth to a very small diameter.

The bodies of the vertebræ of the Cæcilioïdians are doubly excavated into cones, instead of being concave before and convex behind. Their tongue is large, papillose, fixed by its borders upon the gums in the concavity of the jaw, and not protractile, nor forked, nor susceptible of entering into a sheath. The disposition and structure of their teeth are noticed in the article SERPENTS and more fully detailed in this.

dyles, the presence of lungs and nostrils which open distinctly within the cavity of the mouth, and the entire absence of branchiæ, remove these animals from that class. ORGANIZATION.

Skeleton. The cranium presents above a single vaulted piece, in which no trace of orbits is perceptible. The lower jaw is not articulated with the skull by an intermediate bone, as in the birds, lizards, and serpents, but nearly as it is in the mammals, without however there being the slightest trace of a zygomatic bone. The branches of the lower jaw are joined anteriorly by a true suture, as in the lizards.

Professor Owen states that the teeth are implanted in a single row upon the maxillary, intermaxillary, and palatine bones, the upper jaw being thus provided with two semi-elliptical and sub-concentric series; that there are also two rows of equal-sized teeth on the premandibular bones of the lower jaw in certain species: the Cæcilia, he remarks, is the last example in the ascending survey which he has taken of the dental system of this disposition of teeth, which was so common in the class of fishes.

'There are, writes the Professor, twenty teeth in the anterior or outer premandibular row in the lumbricoïd and white-bellied Cæciliæ, and ten or twelve of much smaller size in the second row. There are twenty teeth in the outer row of the upper jaw, of which six are supported by the intermaxillaries, and sixteen in the inner or palatine row. All these teeth are long, slender, acute, and slightly recurved. In the rostrated Cæcilia the first two teeth of the maxillary and premandibular series are longer and stronger than the rest they are succeeded by small and recurved teeth; the median margins of the palatal bones are bristled with small teeth; the second row in the lower jaw is represented by two small recurved teeth on the internal border of the premandibular bones. In the modification of the dental system presented by this species may be perceived & retention of the Batrachian type. The annulated Cæcilia (Siphonops annulatus) has the maxillary and palatine teeth strong, pointed, and slightly recurved. In the glutinous and two-banded Cæcilia (Epicrium), the teeth are slender, acute, and more inclined backwards, thus approaching nearer to the ophidian type; in the latter species (Epicrium -Rhinatrema-bivittatum) the palatal series, instead of ranging concentrically with the outer row, is chevron-shaped with the angle turned forwards and rounded off. The teeth of the Cæcilia are sub-transparent; their intimate structure corresponds with that of the frog's tooth; but their mode of implantation resembles that of the teeth of the Labyrinthodonts, the base being anchylosed to the parietes of a shallow alveolus.' (Odontography.)

Professor Owen observes that in the extinct family of the Labyrinthodonts [SALAMANDROIDES], the Batrachian type of organization was modified so as to lead directly from that order to the highest form of reptiles, viz. the loricate or crocodilian Saurians; that some of the existing edentulous genera of the Bufonidae [FROGS] connect the Batrachian with the Chelonian order, and that the family founded upon the Linnean genus Cæcilia forms the transition to In the junction of the vertebræ there is an entire differthe ophidian reptiles. The characters,' says the Professor, ence from that of the lizards and serpents, and a perfect 'which retain the Cæcilia in the Batrachian order are gene- approximation to that of the perennibranchiate batrachians rally known, and may be briefly enumerated as the double and fishes. All the bodies of the vertebræ are hollowed, . occipital condyle, the biconcave vertebræ, the smooth mu- both before and behind, by tunnel-shaped cavities, in which cous integument with minute and concealed scales, and the ligamentous fibres are implanted; they are not really artibranchial apertures retained by the young some time after culated, but placed one upon the other. Their superior their birth. In the fixed tympanic pedicle, and the anchy-spinous processes are like those of the Amphisbæna and losed symphysis of the lower jaw, the Cæciliæ are also far those in the neck of birds, in other words, depressed so as to removed from the typical ophidian structures; but the teeth, present only a slight carina. Each body of a vertebra is in their length, slenderness, sharp points, wide intervals, furnished below with an apophysis curved backwards, and and diminished number, begin to exhibit the characters of forked forwards for the reception of the eminence of the the dental system of the serpent tribe.' (Odontography.) preceding vertebra. On the sides is seen a small projection, on which one of the bifurcations of the rib is applied, for the other and longer fork rests upon an inferior eminence. The ribs are short, straight, directed backwards, and triangular, forked as in the birds, and united to the vertebræ very nearly in the same manner.

The characters above set forth show the connection which these reptiles have with the Batrachians; but there is one striking feature, metamorphosis, which is not yet quite satisfactorily made out. Muller indeed states that he had observed young Cæciliæ whose neck was furnished with small branchial fringes, as will be hereafter more particularly noticed.

The departure in a degree of the Cæcilioïdians from the Batrachians is marked by the presence of small scales; by ribs which are forked at their vertebral extremity, and much more distinct than in the genus Pleurodeles; by the absence of a sternum; and especially by the form and structure of the mouth, the aperture of which is small, the lower jaw being shorter than the upper, and the teeth long, sharp, and generally curved backwards.

The Cæcilioïdians resemble many species of the osseous fishes of the division of the Muraenidae in the form and structure of the skeleton, the articulation of the jaws, the mode of implantation of the teeth, &c.; but the mode of junction of the head with the spine by means of two con

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Respiratory System.-In Cæcilia lumbricoidea the rudiment of a lung only has been observed; and Meyer, who made this observation, and recognised also scales under the folds of the skin, conceives that these animals are species between the two orders of reptiles which he indicates under the name of Ophisaurians on account of the existence of the ribs and the presence of the single lung. Müller announced the existence of branchial holes in a young Cæcilia (hypocyanea) preserved in the Museum of Natural History at Leyden. He noticed an aperture of the size of a line on each side of the neck, at some lines' distance from the extremity of the buccal slit. This aperture was much wider than it was deep, situated in the yellow stripe which exists on the sides. The edge of the hole was rough (âpre), and in the interior were observed black fringes, which appeared

to be fixed to the horns of the os hyoides, or branchial arcs; but they did not project beyond the external orifices. The holes themselves are in free communication with the buccal cavity. It must be remembered that this observation was made without dissection. The specimen is four inches and a half in length, whilst an adult individual, which showed no trace of holes, was more than a foot long.

Generation.-Mayer thinks that he observed two intromittent organs in the Cecilia. See further the remarks at the end of this article.

SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT.

The position assigned to the Cæcilioïdians will be found in the articles REPTILES and SERPENTS. We will only here add that Müller proposes for them the name of Gymnophids, his first order of naked amphibians. The second order consists of the Derotremes, the third of the Proteïdians, the fourth of the Salamandrines, and the fifth of the Batrachians. Tschudi arranges the Cæcilioïdians between the Pipas and Salamanders, adopting the three genera of Wagler, who placed them between the Amphisbence and the Batrachians.

Geographical Distribution of the Suborder.-America, Asia, and Africa.

Genera.-Cæciliu, Siphonops, Epicrium, Rhinatrema.

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Siphonops. (Wagler.)

Generic Character.-Head and body cylindrical; muzzle short; maxillary and palatine teeth strong, pointed, and a little recurved; tongue large, entire, adhering on all sides, with a surface hollowed into small vermiculiform sinkings. Eyes distinct through the skin. A fosset or false nostril in front of and a little below each eye.

MM. Duméril and Bibron remark that the species of this genus generally have the muzzle shorter than the Cæciliæ, which gives their mouth the air of opening less under the head. The fossets or false nostrils are placed not under the muzzle, but under the eyes, a little more or less forward. The skin which covers the eye is sufficiently transparent to enable the observer to see that organ through. The border of their nostrils and false nostrils are without the least rudiment of a tentacle. Their teeth resemble those of the Cæcilia; but their tongue, whose surface is furrowed with small vermiculiform sinkings, has no hemispherical protuberances.

Geographical Distribution of the Genus.-Two species only are known, both American.

Example, Siphonops annulatus (Caecilia annulata, Auct.).

Description. Muzzle very short, very thick, very much rounded, hardly less than the back of the head. Nostrils opening on the sides of the muzzle, entirely at the end, and a little upward. False nostrils placed below each eye, and very slightly forward. Diameter of the body a sixteenth or seventeenth of its total length: it is rather strong, and perfectly cylindrical, of the same size throughout its extent. There are from eighty-six to ninety annular folds, slightly and equally separated from each other; these cease a little in front of the vent, so that the skin of the terminal extremity of the body, which is rounded, offers no wrinkles.

MM. Duméril and Bibron state that in no individual could they discover scales in the thickness of the skin, where they probably exist, as in the other Cæciliæ, but doubtless much smaller and more difficult of exposure, on account of the extremely close tissue, which renders it as it were coriaceous. Colour olive or bluish-ash, but, in all, the circular folds have a white tint.

Locality.-Cayenne and Surinam.

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b

1.

Head of Cæcilia lumbricoides.

a, seen in profile: b, mouth open, to show the tongue, the teeth, and the interual orifices of the nostrils. (Dum. and Bib.)

Geographical Distribution of the Genus.-Of the four species, one is Asiatic, one African, and two American. Example, Cæcilia lumbricoidea.

Description.-The longest and most slender of the whole family, its length being more than ninety times the diameter of its body measured towards the middle. MM. Duméril and Bibron state that individuals fifty-three centimetres long have the thickness of a stout goose-quill; cylindrical; its body however being rather smaller in its last part than its first, excepting at the extremity, where it is always a little convex. The muzzle is wide and rounded; the maxillary and palatine teeth are rather long, sharp, a little sessile backwards, and separated from each other. The tongue adheres to all parts in the concavity formed by the submaxillary branches; its surface exhibits small vermiculiform folds and furrows, and there are two hemispherical convexities, corresponding to the internal orifices of the nostrils, which are great and oval. The external nostrils are two very small lobes situated on each side of the end of the muzzle, under which are seen two very small apertures, upon a portion of the border of each of which there seems to be a small tentacle. MM. Duméril and Bibron were unable to perceive the eyes through the skin, which is perfectly smooth over the whole head; that which envelopes the body is scarcely marked with circular folds, except at the posterior extremity, that is to say, at about the twenty-secondth of the length of the body, where there are from twelve to fifteen. When these folds are raised, large but delicate scales are discovered, bearing much resemblance to those of the carp, forming one or two verticillations, in the composition of which they show themselves to be very distinctly imbricated. The vent is situated under the terminal extremity of the body, which is rounded. The colour is of a brownish or olive tint.

Locality.-Surinam. P. C., No. 1365,

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1, Siphonops annulatus very much reduced. a, head and neck seen in profile; b, mouth open, to show the tongue, the teeth, and the internal orifices of the nostrils; c, terminal extremity of its body seen below. (Dum, and Bibr.)

Epicrium. (Wagler. Ichthyophis, Fitzing.) Generic Character.-Head depressed, elongated; muzzle obtuse; maxillary and palatine teeth of loose texture (effilées), sharp, and couched backwards. Tongue entire, with a velvety surface; eyes distinct through the skin, a fosset (with a tentaculated border?) below the eye, near the border of the upper lip. Body subfusiform, with numerous circular folds close-set one against the other. (Dum. and Bibr.)

Example, Epicrium glutinosum; Cæcilia glutinosa, Linn. : the only species known.

Description.-The diameter of the body taken near the middle is the twenty-second or twenty-third part of the total length. There are about three hundred and twenty-five folds, rather uniformly approximated. Those which occupy the two first thirds of the length of the trunk do not completely surround it, that is to say, they do not descend so as to meet under the belly. These same folds of the two first thirds of the length of the trunk are remarkable for brea VOL. XXII.-H

ing on a point of their circumference, so as to form, each of
them, a very open chevron, the summit of which, directed
forwards, is found placed on the medio-longitudinal line of
the back. The other folds of the body, those, namely, which
surround the last third of it, form complete rings. The
scales which these folds hide are small, numerous, delicate,
transparent, subcircular, and offering on their superior sur-
face a small figure in relief, representing a net with quadri-
lateral meshes. A yellowish band extends to the right and
left all along the body, from the muzzle to the anal extre-
mity: above and below the tint is slate-colour.
Locality.-Java and Ceylon.

Rhinatrema. (Dum. and Bibr.)

Generic Character.-Head depressed, elongated; muzzle obtuse; maxillary and palatine teeth of loose structure (effilées), sharp, and couched backwards. Tongue entire, of a velvety surface. Eyes distinct through the skin. No fossets, neither under the muzzle nor below the eyes. Body subfusiform, with numerous circular folds.

Example, Rhinatrema bivittatum; Cæcilia bivittata, Auct.: the only species.

Description.-Head a little elongated and slightly depressed, bearing some resemblance in form to that of certain Ophidians, particularly of the Coronella. The teeth very loosely constructed (effilées), and very much couched backwards; the second row above, instead of forming a curved line like the first, makes an angle rounded at its summit. The diameter of the middle of the trunk is one twenty-sixth of the total length of the body, round which there are three hundred and forty perfectly annuliform folds. There exists a small conical tail. The folds of the skin may be easily raised by a point; and a great number of circular transparent scales, with a surface relieved by projecting lines, forming a sort of net. There is a large yellow band on each side of the body; the submaxillary branches, whose border is brown, are of the colour of the lateral bands, as well as the margin of the cloaca, and a small longitudinal stripe upon the tail.

Locality.-Cayenne?

Pleurotoma. (Lam.)

Generic Character.-Animal?

Shell fusiform, slightly rugose, with a turriculated spire; aperture oval, small, terminated by a straight canal more or less long. The right lip trenchant and more or less incised. Operculum horny.

A. Species in which the incision is a little behind the middle of the lip, and the tube of considerable length. Example, Pleurotoma Babylonia.

Description.-The shell fusiform-turreted, transversely carinated and belted, white, with black-spotted belts, the spots quadrate; whorls convex; tube or canal rather long. Locality.-The East Indian Seas and the Moluccas.

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Lam.)

Example, Pleurotoma auriculifera.

(Genus Clavatula,

Rhinatrema bivittatum. a, its scales.

MM. Duméril and Bibron terminate their account of the Cæcilia with the following information.

Pleurotoma auriculifera.

This genus has been taken on different bottoms at depths varying from eight to sixteen fathoms.

Lamarck characterises 23 living species of Pleurotoma, and 30 fossil, the latter mostly from Grignon. Defrance makes the number of fossil species 95.

Mr. G. B. Sowerby has described in addition 36 living M. Leperieur, during his stay at Cayenne, having procured species collected by Mr. Cuming, M. Deshayes one, and a living Cæcilia, which he placed in a vessel filled with Dr. Turton one. (Synopsis Testaceorum; Zool. Proc., &c.) water, he saw it bring forth, in the space of some days, from M. Deshayes in his tables makes the number of living spefive to seven young, perfectly similar to their mother. Upon cies 71, and the number of fossil (tertiary) 150. Of these this MM. Duméril and Bibron observe that the Cecilia, in he records Pl. Cordieri, Caumarmondi, Vulpecula, craticuspite of their bearing a greater resemblance to the Batra-lata, and a new species as both living and fossil (tertiary). chians than to the other reptiles, must be ovoviviparous. The fecundation of their germs must be effected in the interior of their body; and their metamorphoses must take place in the body of their mother, as in the case of the Black Salamander of the Alps. [CECILIANS.]

SIPHONOSTO'MATA, M. de Blainville's name for his first family of SIPHONOBRANCHIATA.

The forms comprised under this family are principally to be found under the extensive genus Murex of Linnæus. All the known animals belonging to it are carnivorous and marine, and all are furnished with a horny operculum. The Siphonostomata are thus subdivided by M. de Blainville:

*No persistent bourrelet on the right lip,

In Europe the principal localities for the fossils are the calcaire grossier, the London clay, the contemporary beds near Bordeaux, and the Subapennine beds. Dr. Mantell notes an imperfect Pleurotoma in the blue clay of Bracklesham. Mr. Lea has described and figured eleven fossil species from the new tertiary at Claiborne, Alabama. Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison notice three species, prisca (?), fusiformis, and spinosa, from the Gosau deposit and its equivalents in the Alps; and Mr. Murchison records two species, Pleurotoma articulata and Pl. corallii, in the Silurian rocks. (Silurian System.)

Rostellaria. (Lam.)

This genus, in our opinion, belongs to the STROMBIDÆ, under which article it will be described.

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Generic Character.-Animal not differing much from Shell fusiform, often ventricose in the middle, rugose, thick, and with a very elevated spire; canal very straight and elongated; aperture oval; right lip trenchant, the left smooth. Operculum horny

a

Animal of Fusus. a, operculum.

A. Turriculate or subturriculate, but not umbilicated species.

Example, Fusus Colus (Murex Colus, Linn.). Description.-Shell fusiform, narrow, transversely furrowed, white, the apex and base rufous; whorls convex, nodulously carinated in the middle; canal long and slender; the lip sulcated within, and denticulate on the margin. Locality. The East Indian Ocean.

Lamarck records 37 living species of Fusus, and 36 fossil, nearly all from France, and principally from Grignon. Defrance makes the number of the latter 70, four of which are analogues from Grignon, and one from the Plaisantin.

M. Deshayes in his tables gives sixty-seven as the number of living species of Fusus, and 111 as that of the fossil species (tertiary): of these he records Fusi craticulatus, rostratus, strigosus, lignarius, sinistrorsus, Tarentinus, antiquus, brevicauda, carinatus, despectus, and Peruvianus, both living and fossil (tertiary). Dr. Mantell notes one species (longavus) from the blue clay at Bracklesham. Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison enumerate six species from the Gosau deposit and its equivalents in the Alps. Dr. Fitton notes Fusi clathratus, quadratus, rigidus, rusticus, and an indistinct species in the strata below the chalk. (Observations on the Strata between the Chalk and Oolite, &c., in Geol. Trans., 2nd series, vol. iv.) Mr. Lea records sixteen new species from the tertiary beds at Claiborne, Alabama, and one from Maryland. (Contributions to Geology.)

Generic Character.

Pyrula. (Lam.)

Shell pyriform, in consequence of the lowness of the spire; the canal conical and very long or moderate, sometimes slightly notched; aperture oval, rather large; columella smooth and bent; right lip trenchant.

Operculum horny.

A. Subfusiform species; the spire being slightly ele

vated.

Example, Pyrula carnaria. (Pyrula Vespertilio, Lam.; Fusus carnarius, Mart.; Murex Vespertilio, Gm.)

Description-Shell subpyriform, thick, ponderous, muricated anteriorly, of a rufous-bay colour; the last whorl crowned above with compressed tubercles; spire rather prominent; the sutures simple; canal sulcated and subumbilicated. Locality.-East Indian Ocean.

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Fusi have been found on bottoms of mud, sandy mud, and sand, at depths ranging from the surface to eleven fathoms.

Pyrula carnaria.

B. Species with a long and rather narrow tube; spire very short.

Example, Pyrula Spirillus.

Description.-Shell ventricose anteriorly, the canal very long, delicately striated transversely, white, spotted with saffron-colour; body-whorl abbreviated, carinated in the middle, flattened above, tuberculated below the middle; spire very much depressed, its apex mamilliferous.

Locality.-East Indian Ocean. Coasts of Tranquebar.
C. Species with a long and rather narrow tube, but sinis-
trorsal or left-handed, and with the indication of a
plait on the columella or pillar. (Genus Fulgur, De
Montf.)

Example, Pyrula perversa.

Description.-Shell sinistrorsal, pyriform, very ventricose, smooth, yellowish-white, ornamented with broad rufofuscous longitudinal lines; the last whorl crowned above with tubercles; the upper whorls tuberculiferous at the base; the canal or tube rather long and striated. Locality. The Antilles. Bay of Campeachy. D. Species more ventricose and delicate.

H 2

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