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MY HEPATICAS.—-One of the interesting things for the botanist or the gardener to do at this time of year, is to remove to some spot in his garden a few of the most attractive wild plants which abound in our woods, swamps and fields. Last year, I removed some plants of blood-root, tooth-wort, spring beauty, phlox, squirrel corn, several species of violets and several varieties of hepaticas. These are near the house and are a constant source of delight to the children, visitors, members of the household, and I hardly need add to the person who transplanted the flowers. These were removed as they were found with a little earth about the roots.

Two or three plants of the hepatica were chosen for the pure white of their flowers, others for their delicate pink color, others for the large size of their flowers, others for the deep blue of the flowers; still others were selected for their double flowers. This spring the hepaticas are all true in their peculiarities. One of the blue varieties has already begun to sport. One stem bore two flowers near the top and another three. On a much larger scale I am collecting plants for a wild garden on the bank of a brook and a small pond near the green-house. Here we have a variety of soil from pond to muck or dry sand; from perpetual shade to a full exposure of the bright sun. Here are ferns and grasses, some shrubs and some of the most interesting hardy wild plants. It is a favorite spot for all who live at the College.-W. F. Beal, Michigan Agricultural College.

BOTANICAL NOTES.-The Botanical Gazette for April, contains, among other articles, bryological notes by C. H. Austin; new species of Colorado fungi, by C. H. Peck; late Rhode Island flowers, by W. W. Bailey; Coniferæ of the Crestines, by T. S. Brandegee. The bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for March contains descriptions of new species of North American Uredinei, and an interesting table showing the dates when the leaves fall, by N. L. Britton, who states that "the female in dioecious plants appears to hold its foliage longer than the male." Caruel's New Botanical Journal (Italy x, No. 2), contains an article on the floral structure and affinities of various monocotyledonous families.

In the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science are two important papers, one by S. H. Vines, on Researches into the Nature. of Lichens, and a very important paper, well illustrated, by J. C. Ewart, on the life history of Bacillus anthracis.

ZOOLOGY.1

HELIX CHILIOWEENSIS Lewis.-I have lately had the pleasure, after a pedestrian excursion of nearly one hundred miles, over the roughest of mountain roads, to collect this rare species in its normal habitat.

1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A.

This shell is held by Mr. Binney, if I mistake not, to rank only as a variety of the H. diodonta Say. In this Mr. Binney is following, no doubt, closely in the line of recent zoological testimony; but if this species is to be held as a synonym, it will be difficult to convince any fair-minded student of our shells, that, under the same law of interpretation, H. major. Binney, is not a synonym of H. albolabris Say, as held by Mr. Bland; or that Zonites subplanus Binney, is other than a variety of Z. inornatus Say; or Z. capnodes Binney, anything but a variety of Z. fuliginosus Griffith. A "general resemblance" in the "jaws" and "linguals" of certain groups, so vague as to render the expression "jaw as usual in the group" sufficiently definite, makes a very convenient post about which to lash the whip of synonyms; but there are other characters, which only the collector can know, that ought, it seems to us, to be taken notice of in all our accounts with authors who have written upon species.

The writer first found the large variety of H. diodonta several years ago in Whitley County, Kentucky. He has since collected it in numerous localities of the Carboniferous sandstone region of South-eastern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee, and it has never failed, in a single specimen, to exhibit its normal characters, save in the single particular of size. While shells have been found nearly double the dimensions of Maine specimens received from Mr. Allen, and nearly treble those of New York examples from Dr. Lewis, none have ever been seen, at all approaching, in this particular, the smallest specimens of H. chilhoweënsis. The latter shell has nearly one whorl more than the H. diodonta; it has no tooth on the lower third of the peristome, and at least one-half the specimens which I have collected want the parietal tooth. My largest specimen measures 39 mill. in diameter and 20 mill. in height. There is very little variation in the size of the specimens which I have seen. The animal is slender, quite sluggish in movement, and not timid as is the case with H. diodonta. The surface is roughened with irregular, reniform tubercles, the tentacles are very long and delicate, and the foot attenuate and keeled posteriorly.

It has a habit of greatly flattening and spreading its foot, especially after full-feeding, and will in that condition, remain for hours upon smooth surfaces of planed boards, pebbles or lettuceleaves, evidently in calm enjoyment of its meal, having, in this respect, the exact habit of the European H. pomatia L. It inhabits the dense thickets and Kalmia jungles of the Jellicoes, and is rare, even in its native habitat.

The great size of this shell, and that of other species of wider range found with it, offers an argument controverting the prevailing opinion that limestone regions only are favorable to molluscan life.

These shells are found in the carboniferous sandstone mountains

of Tennessee; and among their northern radices or foot-hills in Kentucky, I several years since collected the largest specimens, which I have ever seen, of several common Ohio species. It is fair to remark, however, that the shells are fewer in numbers, both of species and specimens, though so enormously developed in size. Exceptions exist, nevertheless, in both cases. During the present excursion I took specimens of H. tridentata Say, measuring 25 mill. in diameter, and specimens of Z. inornatus Say, (subplanus?) measuring 23 mill. Associated with these, however, was a variety of the H. hirsuta Say, with which all southern collectors are familiar, much dwarfed in size, rounded, and approaching in form the H. maxillata Gould. The H. stenotrema Fer. from the same locality is very large, and very abundant, as is also the small variety of H. hirsuta. Very large specimens of Z. sculptilis Bland, were found, measuring II mill. in diameter.

Associated with these shells was, also, the very rare H. wetherbyi Bland. But one living example of this shell was taken when the species was discovered. To this one Mr. George S. Huntington afterwards added two or three living specimens which he collected in the foot-hills of the Jellicoes. To these the present excursion has added a very few. This species is distributed, so far as traced, through the carboniferous sand hills of southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, but occurs only rarely, at the foot of cliffs under leaves, or deeply buried under well-rotted logs. The shell is often coated with a mass of sticky dirt, made up of earth and the mucus secreted by the animal, which it is impossible to remove, unless after thorough soaking, without stripping the epidermis from the shell. The animal is blueish-black and finely granulated; the tentacles are very slender and the foot attenuated and sharply keeled behind. This interesting species will probably remain rare in collections, if we may judge fairly, after various endeavors to find it in greater numbers; and the more especially, because a vicious custom prevails in that country of firing the woods every Spring, to consume the leaves fallen from the trees, and encourage a scanty growth of grass upon which the half-starved stock of the idle inhabitants subsists. Only in sheltered nooks that the fire-fiend never reaches, and in the region of springs and mountain brooks are the molluscs safe. But even under these discouraging circumstances, the Jellico range offers a wide field for future discovery. We found here, growing luxuriantly with the Kalmia, the beautiful Lygodium palmatum Schwartz, the Epigaa repens L., the Gaultheria procumbens L. and other plants common in more northern mountain regions. Species of rare Coleoptera are not uncommon, and no doubt many new species, in all departments of zoology, await the explorer who may have the courage and endurance to summer in the foot-hills of the Jellicoes.-A. G. Wetherby.

NOTICE OF THe Spiders of THE "POLARIS" EXPEDITION.-The spiders collected by Dr. Bessels during the Arctic Expedition of the "Polaris," are, as might have been expected, very few in number, only four species (in eight examples) having been brought home. Of these four species two belong to the genus Erigone, one to Lycosa, and one to Trochosa; only one, a small Erigone, appears to be new to science, the other Erigone, as also the Lycosa belong to species that seem to be rather widely spread in the Arctic regions. The Trochosa must for the present be left undetermined, the example being undeveloped, and in a very bad state of preservation. All the examples are from West Greenland, and, with exception of the Lycosa, which bears the locality: "Foulke Fiord" (at about 78° 20′ lat.), they were all collected at Polaris Bay (about 81° 30' lat.). The two species of Erigone, and probably also the Trochosa, are new for Greenland.

In a former paper1 I have stated that the number of the species of spiders up to that time observed in Greenland, were probably eighteen, described or mentioned partly by O. Fabricius in his Fauna Groenlandica, and partly by myself. L. Koch has since published a new Greelandian Lvcosa, L. aquilonaris; and Cambridge has lately, besides several other species from the Arctic parts of America, etc., described three new species: Dictyna borealis, Erigone whymperi and Linyphia turbatrix from Greenland, in which part of America, accordingly, twenty-five different species of spiders have hitherto been found. For five of these species, however, only the genera to which they belong have been indicated, for one (Ar. notata O. Fabr.) both the genus and the species are uncertain. The number of tolerably well known Greenland spiders is, therefore, as yet only nineteen.5

The species of the Polaris Expedition are as follows:

1. Erigone pschychrophila Thor.

Syn. 1872. Erigone psychrophila Thor., om Arachnider från

'Om några Arachnider från Grönland, in Öfvers. af Vet.-Akad. Förhandl., XXIX (1872).

Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt in den Yahren 1869 und 1870, etc., II Band, Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse, I Abtheil, p. 400-403.

3 On some new and little known spiders from the Arctic Regions, in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 4 Ser., XX (1877).

Thanatus formicinus? Cambr. and Th. arcticus Thor. are probably the same species.

5 These nineteen species are: Epera diademata (Clerck), Tetragnatha Grænlandica Thor., Linyphia turbatrix Cambr., Erigone psychrophila Thor.. E. whymperi Cambr., E. penessa Thor., E. frigida id., E. vaginata id., E. spetsbergensis id., E. modesta id., Steatoda bipunctata (Linn.), Dictyna hamifera Thor., D. borealis Cambr., Thanatus arcticus Thor., Lycosa Grænlandica id., L. glacialis id., L. aquilonaris L. Koch, Trochosa insignita Thor., and Epiblemum scenicum (Clerck). Of these species Epeira dia lemata, Steato la bipunctata and Epiblemum scenicum are taken upon the authority of 0. Fabricius. "Ar. rufipes Linn." of that author is probably a collective name for several of the above named and other Erigones; the true E. rufipes (Linn.), Sund. has not, as far as I know, been found in Greenland.

Spetsbergens o. Beeren Eiland, in Öfvers. af Vet.-Akad. Handl., XXVIII (1871), p. 689.

Syn. 1877. Erigone psychrophila Cambr., on some new and little known Spid. fr. the Arctic Regions, loc. cit., p. 278, Pl. VIII, Fig. 4.

Of this remarkable spider three full grown males and two females were captured at Polaris Bay, June 3, 1872.

2. Erigone penessa, n.-Black, with palpi and legs blackish-yellow, mandibles yellowish, longitudinally striped with black; parscephalica elevated, strongly convex transversely, lateral eyes not contiguous, anterior laterals largest of the eight, oval and oblique, area occupied by the middle eyes (of which the anterior are slightly smaller than the posterior, and separated by a very small interval), rather longer than broad, much broader behind than in front; vulva consisting of a shallow transversal fovea, limited behind by a brown shining costa narrowing from the extremities towards the middle, and slightly curved forwards. ad. Length

nearly 3 millim.

Female.-Cephalothorax inversely ovate, shining, rather shorter than tibia and patella of the fourth pair, moderately rounded in the sides of the pars thoracica, rather strongly narrowed and slightly sinuated at the pars cephalica; the forehead is rounded, and its breadth equals about two-thirds of the breadth of the pars thoracica; the cephalic furrows are strongly marked; the pars cephalica is elevated and transversely very convex, and provided with several short hairs between the eyes, and a longitudinal row of three longer hairs behind. Seen in profile the back of the ccphalothorax rises gradually from the hind margin to the hinder part of the pars cephalica, the back then becoming somewhat sloping forwards, and very slightly convex; a slight depression is seen between the pars cephalica, and the pars thoracica. The front row of eyes is seen from before, nearly straight, but slightly curved upwards; the hind row is curved forwards. The four central eyes occupy an area slightly longer than broad behind, and much broader behind than in front; the lateral eyes of either side are separated by a very distinct interval (not contiguous), and placed on a protuberance. The anterior lateral eyes are the largest of the eight, oval and obliquely posited; the anterior centrals appear to be a little smaller than the posterior eyes; they are prominent, only separated by a very small interval, and their distance from the margin of the clypeus is double as great as their diameter; the interval between them and the anterior lateral eyes is somewhat greater than the diameter of these last named eyes. The intervals between the four posterior eyes, which are very nearly of the same size, are nearly equal, and at least half again as great as the diameter of an eye. Sternum large and broad, convex towards the margins, shining, sparingly spread with fine hairs. Mandibles somewhat ovate, nearly double as thick as the fore

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