206 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP. 



bramble, with angular prickly stems of a light red 

 colour, abundantly furnished with aciculae, &c, all 

 shorter than the prickles ; the leaflets are of a light 

 grass-green colour, finely serrated and of an oval 

 form ; panicle in shape, like that of radula ; rachis 

 wavy ; petals obovate, pinkish ; sepals lanceolate, 

 with a long, leafy point. Rare : outskirts of Worm- 



169. Ditto of 

 if. discolor. 



. 170. Leaf of R. ccvsius. 



ley Wood, Broxbourne. Allied to this is R. pallidas 

 (or rosaceus), also a trailing but more prostrate 

 bramble than hystrix ; with bright red stems, and 

 leaves of a lighter green and of a different shape ; 

 leaflets obovate acuminate, the terminal one some- 

 what cordate ; the panicle simple and racemose ; 

 petals white ; sepals ovate, not leaf-pointed. Harrow 

 Weald Common. On Hampstead Heath and on the 

 sandy heaths adjoining the Basingstoke Canal there 

 is a trailing bramble, with an open panicle of pink 

 flowers, remarkably leafy, pointed sepals, and leaflets 

 green on both sides, which would seem to be R. 

 blffxami* The stems are much less setose than in 

 any other species of this section. 



/'. T/ansilion of prickles into aciczdce, seta, and 



hairs, gradual. Type, R. Kahtevi. — Stems trailing, 

 terete ; abundantly furnished with prickles aciculae, 

 setae, and hairs of unequal lengths : this bramble is 

 not very common ; at any rate, we have only gathered 

 it in Broxbourne woods : the prickles are slender and 

 patent ; the leaflets obovate, coarsely dentate, and 

 scarcely acuminate ; somewhat cuneate ; pale green 

 beneath and hairy on the veins ; panicle, with short 

 leafy corymbose branches ; sepals ovate, attenuated, 

 and reflexed from the fruit ; petals white, obovate. 

 R. fusco-ater differs considerably from the preceding 

 plant : it occurs sparingly on Harrow Weald Com- 

 mon, and is equally unfrequent. The stems are dark 

 purple, bluntly angular, and prickles declining ; the 

 leaves ovate acuminate, the basal ones oval ; the 

 toothing of the margins subpatent on the stem leaves, 

 finely serrate on those of the flowering branches ; 

 leaflets coriaceous, rugose, dull green above, paler 

 below ; the panicle long, leafy, narrow, with very 

 short few-flowered branches ; rachis wavy ; petals 

 pinkish, obovate ; sepals ovate acuminate, reflexed ; 

 thickly beset with dark purple setae. R. nemorosus, 

 or dumetorum [dvuersifolius of the London Catalogue), 

 is a form of corylifolius intermediate with this section 

 and the cccsii. The leaves are variable, of the same 

 character as regards imbrication, but the stems, and 

 especially the rachis pedicels and sepals, are abun- 

 dantly furnished with setae ; the petals, 

 however, are obovate and not contiguous ; 

 not narrow, as in R. glandulostis ; and the 

 sepals not furnished with a long acumen, 

 as in that species. It is also of frequent 

 occurrence in hedges. 



[To be continued.) 



THE LAND AND FRESHWATER 

 SHELLS OF TASMANIA. 



By W. F. Petterd. 



ALTHOUGH the descriptions of many 

 species of the Conchological Fauna 

 of Tasmania have appeared scattered 

 through various scientific publications, I 

 do not think a brief and condensed sketch 

 of what is up to the present known concerning the 

 land and freshwater shells of this island will be 

 altogether an unacceptable contribution to the 

 columns of Science-Gossip, for I feel assured it 

 must number many among its readers that take an 

 interest in Conchology. My design in writing the 

 present paper is not to enter into elaborate and ex- 

 haustive details of the description and distribution of 

 the various species, but to give a general idea of the 

 land and freshwater shells of this far-off land. Tas- 

 mania is situated about 120 miles south of the south- 

 eastern corner of the Australian continent ; it is 165 

 miles average length and 155 average breadth, and, 

 exclusive of adjacent small and numerous islands 

 and indentations, has about 700 miles of a coast-line 



