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festooned lines, the basal portions of which, taken together, seem to form 3 triangles surmounting each other, the apices deficient; behind these the central line has a series (four) of small crescents arching backwards. From the external angles of the festooned lines dark patches run outwards and backwards. Beneath concolorous; 4 parallel festooned lines running down the middle and converging towards the spinnerets. Legs greenish, very hairy, the two anterior coxa and femora [hips and thighs]

castaneous.

Habitat, Kent.

I have never seen more than two males, and, of course, am unacquainted with the female. It bears the closest resemblance in its generic characters to Arànea and Agelèna, but differs in the eyes being nearly equal, in the length of the lip, and in the maxillæ dilated at the apex: the palpi, too, differ considerably. From Clubiòna, to which the ap

pearance of the maxillæ would carry us, it is easily separable by the size of the eyes, the greater curvature of the rows, the lip, mandibles, and palpi, and, above all, the great length of the legs. It weaves, in the corners of unfrequented buildings, a coarse irregular net with a recess, in which it awaits its unlucky prey. When at rest, it is usually supported by the legs, as represented by the outline p; and then the tibiæ, standing perpendicularly, present the appearance of a series of columns.

In examining the insect minutely with a magnifying power of about 30, I was struck with the appearance presented by the hairs about the claws: these (the tip of one is seen at 7) were very stiff, spine-like, and serrated along the edges, especially at the apical extremity (¿), and nearly all arose from the under surface of the tarsus, enveloping the claws (see ƒ). A single claw is figured at g, to show its form, and the pectinated teeth, thirteen or fourteen in number. I found that, along the whole legs, the hairs had more or less of this appearance (); the serræ, however, diminishing in sharpness as I approached the body; and among these, and lying close to the limb, were other finer downy hairs, from the sides of which proceeded alternate secondary hairs: a representation of one of these is given (n). The leg itself is shown at h and i, the latter being the tarsus. The discovery of these anomalies (anomalies from anything I had before observed) induced me to examine other portions of the body; and I found that some of the hairs, or rather spines, jutting out from the mandibles, had hairs differing from the former: from these innumerable little processes proceeded in a spiral direction, as seen at k, being most strongly marked towards the tip of the spine. On the palpi the spines were merely serrated (see o), and only on the last three joints. I could not find any elsewhere. On the exterior portions of the maxillæ, both kinds of hairs or spines were detected; but along the inner edge, the tufts were found to have hairs quite flat and smooth until within a little of the apex, where they became plumed mostly on one side alone. The longer curved ones at the extremity of the maxilla were exactly similar: they are represented at e, and a few detached have this portion represented at m. A singular appearance also presented itself in a row of sixty-eight minute blunt teeth extending the whole length of the curved extremity of the maxilla: two of these, highly magnified, are shown at e'. I now recollected having once before observed teeth similarly situated, but I have forgotten in what species; but it would seem likely, if detected in a few, to offer characters which might be appropriated for

generic distinctions; at any rate, directing attention to these points may, perhaps, lead to some curious particulars in allied genera. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

London, September 14. 1833.

C. M.

IN the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, vol. iii. (completed with the number for December, 1833), p. 104. 187. 344. 436., several newly discovered British and three exotic species of spider are described in great detail, and some new genera constituted of them, by J. Blackwall, Esq. F.L.S. The names applied to them are these (by B. we mean Blackwall): - Tribe Inequitèlæ Lat. Mandúnculus B. ambiguus B.; Neriène B. marginata B., rubens B., cornùta B., bícolor B., and rufipes B.- Tribe Orbitèlæ Lat. Linýphia Lat. minùta B., lutèola B., marginàta B., annùlipes B., and fuliginea B.; Néphila Leach Turneri B., exotic. Tribe Tubitèlæ

Lat. Savígnia B. frontàta B.; Walckenàëra B. acuminata B., cristàta B., and cuspidata B.; Téxtrix B. ágilis B.; Agelèna Walckenaër brúnnea B.; Clubiona Lat. saxátilis B., and párvula B.; Drássus Walckenaer nitens B., and sylvestris B.- Tribe Territèlæ Lat. Mýgale Walckenaër élegans B., exotic; Ctenìza Lat. spinòsa B., exotic.-J. D.

ART. IV. Illustrations in British Zoology. By GEORGE JOHNSTON M. D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

It is known to naturalists in general that Peyssonel, a physician of Marseilles, who had travelled into Barbary and the Levant, was the first who distinctly published the animal nature of coral and of other lithophytes; an opinion which, however true, gained no proselytes, until Abraham Trembley, a native of Geneva, had discovered the Hydra and its wonderful properties; and Bernard de Jussieu and Ellis had demonstrated the existence of similar polypes in a great number of the lithophytes and zoophytes of the European shores. Since that time it has been believed that the little tenants of every zoophytical production, and all the little creatures which are found embedded in any common gelatinous mass, are polypes identical in structure, or nearly so, with the Hydra; and, in this belief, many fleshy and fibrous productions which were known or imagined to be a common matrix of a numerous colony, were unhesitatingly arranged together in the same class, under the denomination of Alcyonium. The structure of a few of these was ascertained, and seemed to confirm the propriety of this classification; for there could be no doubt that the inhabitants of the Alcyonium digitàtum of Linnæus were truly polypes; and this was the best known and most easily examined species. Nor were the observations of

Schlosser, or of Gærtner, whose name is immortalised by his work on seeds, sufficiently precise or distinctly announced to invalidate the received notions; so that we may safely assert that, previously to the year 1815, no naturalist had even suspected that the individuals of the compound Alcyònia possessed any more complicated organisation than zoophytes in general.

At the commencement of the year just mentioned, Savigny read to the French Institute a memoir which at once overturned the established opinion, and which, while it forms, from the newness and importance of its matter, an epoch in the history of invertebrate animals, was also of great utility in directing the attention of naturalists to a department which had lain long uncultivated. By a series of the most delicate dissections, exhibited in engravings of equal delicacy and beauty, Savigny proved that very many of the compound Alcyònia possessed inmates whose structure was such as to give them a claim to be enrolled in the class Mollúsca: and the claim, although still disputed by many, has been allowed by the most illustrious naturalist of modern, perhaps of any, times. Savigny, at all events, showed that these minute creatures were organised very differently from the gelatinous polype or hydra; and that, instead of a simple stomach for its only viscus, they had both thoracic and abdominal viscera, two separate apertures for these viscera, special organs of generation, and, in some, he thought, vessels and traces of a circulating system were by no means equivocal.

Of the productions which were the subject of Savigny's dissections and enquiries, there are several species in the British seas, which the reader will find enumerated in Dr. Fleming's history of our native animals; and I believe that the two to be figured for the present series of Illustrations are additions to his list. They had, when recent, so much resemblance to a fig, that it was not doubted that one of them, at least, would prove to be identical with the Alcyonium ficus of Ellis; but a closer examination showed the contrary. The naturalist, however, will not find, in our rude dissections and figures, the various organs exhibited with the clearness and definiteness they have in the engravings of Savigny: what the artist saw was correctly drawn, and, if they are found sufficient for specific discrimination, my object is accomplished. It may merely be remarked, that, in one, I could perceive, in the large thoracic cavity, traces of a netlike structure on the walls, similar to some of those figured by Savigny, and sufficient to convince me of his general accuracy; but they are not shown in our figure, as the appearances were

not sufficiently distinct to be drawn by one unfamiliar with anatomical researches.

A, The common masses, of the natural size, on a small stone.
B, A single animal removed, and much magnified.

Description. Common body subglobose or papillary, gelatinous, of a clear honey-yellow colour marked on the upper surface with white and brown specks from the contained animals; orifices circular, protuberant, plain, and entire. Animals distinct, scattered irregularly, each in its proper cell, perpendicular, about two lines long. Branchial aperture (a) divided into 6 equal short segments; the sac (b) large, white, netted on the sides with minute square meshes, which, however, are very obscure; oesophagus (c) narrow, entering laterally at the upper side of the stomach (d), which is large, yellowish brown, and mottled; intestine (e) dark-coloured, wide, flexuose, recurved and winding up at the side of the branchial sac; anal aperture (f) elongate, linear, entire, lateral, and near the mouth; ovary (g) white, cellulose, at the base of the intestine, with a long white tubular canal running up and along the middle of the intestine, and terminating in the branchial cavity. Differs from Aplídjum fìcus in having the apertures in the common envelope entire, whereas, in the A. ficus they are distinctly cut into 6 equal rays. See Ellis, Corall. tab. 17. fig. B, C, D. Hab. Affixed to old shells, &c.

from deep water in Berwick Bay.