74 Miscellaneous. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



ALCHEMILLA FISSA, A. CONJUNCTA, AND A. ARGENTEA. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 

 Gentlemen, — I observe in the ' Flora Danica,' pi. 2101, published 

 in 1834, a good representation of Alchemilla fissa, the same plant 

 which was published last year by Mr. Babington in vol. x. of the 

 'Annals of Natural History' under the name of ^. conjuncta, and 

 which I gathered in the Faroe Islands in 1821, and printed in my list 

 of the plants of those islands in 1835 under Don's name, A. argentea. 



The specimen figured in ' Fl. Dan.' is stated to have been gathered 

 in the Faroe Islands by Dr. Forchammer, whom I accompanied in a 

 tour of those islands in 1821, on my return from which by Copen- 

 hagen in the same year, I submitted the herbarium which I had col- 

 lected to Professor Horneman (editor of 'Flora Danica'), and gave 

 him various specimens, amongst others some of this plant, which he 

 at that time, I believe, considered only a variety of A. alpina. 



The description given in the ' Flora' is — " Alchemilla fissa (Schum- 

 mel) fol. reniform. 7 — 9-lobis, lob. profundis, obovatis, inciso-serratis, 

 basi integerrimis, corymbis terminalibus. Mertens et Koch, Flor. 

 Germ. i. p. 830 ; Schummel in Centur. Silesiac. 9. n. 2 ; Sturm, Fl. 

 Germ. fasc. 5Q; Horneman, Fl. CEconom. ed. 3. p. 802 et Suppl." 



It appears therefore, that if Don's specific name A. argentea is not 

 to be retained, Schummel's A. fissa has the claim of priority. 

 I remain, Gentlemen, yours faithfully, 



Oxford, June 8, 1843. W. C. Trevelyan. 



On the Affinities of Glareola torquata. By E. Blyth, Curator to the 



Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 

 Having had the good fortune to procure alive a specimen of this 

 bird, I was able at a glance to perceive its true affinities, which here- 

 tofore had constantly puzzled me, in common, I believe, with every 

 student of zoology who has bestowed attention on the classification 

 of birds. Linnaeus arranged this bird as Hirundo pratincola ; and 

 Baron Cuvier included its genus among his Echassiers, or Stilt-birds, 

 viz. the Grallatores, or " Waders " of modern English systematists ; 

 remarking — " Nous terminerons ce tableau des echassiers par trois 

 genres qu'il est difficile d'associer a d'autres, et que Ton pent con- 

 siderer comme formant separement de petites families." The three 

 genera adverted to are, Chionis, Glareola, and Phtenicopterus ; which 

 are associated also by M. Temminck in his heterogeneous assem- 

 blage of odds and ends, styled by him Alectorides. Now, of these 

 three genera, the first, or that of the Sheathbill {Chionis), has been 

 satisfactorily referred by M. de Blainville, on anatomical data, to the 

 immediate proximity of Hcematopus, an association of which the pro- 

 priety is readily seen when once suggested*; and on similar data I 



* Allied to Chionis are the remarkable genera Aitagis, d'Orbigny, and 

 Tinochorus, Vieillot, from the South American Cordilleras, and the anatomy 

 of these equally refers them to the same systematic station. Vide 'Zoology 

 of the Voyage of the Beagle ' under Captain Fitzroy. 



