488 Dr. E. F. Kelaart on new species of Ceylonese Mollusca. 



-t from pet, and the result is pe — just as long or just as short 

 in one case as the other. 



The same power of accenting the first syllable is " particularly 

 the case in those words in which the vowel i can assume the 

 power of y. Latin scholars are divided as to the proper ac- 

 centuation of mulieres, Tulliola, and others : though custom is 

 in favour of muli'eres, mulHeres appears to be more correct/' Be 

 it so. Let mulieres be mulyeres. What becomes, however, of 

 the fourth syllable ? The word is no quadrisyllable at all. What 

 is meant is this ; — not that certain quadrisyllables with two 

 short vowels in the middle are difficult to accentuate, but that 

 they are certain words of which it is difficult to say whether 

 they are trisyllables or quadrisyllables. 



For all practical purposes, however, words like Cassiope are 

 quadrisyllables. They are, in the way of metre, choriambics ; 

 and a choriambic is a quadrisyllable foot. They were pro- 

 nounced Cassiope, &c., by English writers of Latin verses — 

 when Latin verses were written well. 



Let the pronunciation which was good enough for Vincent 

 Bourne and the contributors to the Musse Etonenses be good 

 enough for the entomologists, and all that they will then have 

 to do is not to pronounce cratagum like stratagem, cardamines 

 like Theramenes, and vice versa. Against this, accent will ensure 

 them — accent single-handed and without any sign of quantity — 

 Cardamines, Theramenes, cratch gum, stratagem. 



L. — Descriptions of new and little-known species of Ceylonese 

 Nudibranchiate Mollusks. By Dr. E. F. Kelaart*. 



[Concluded from p. 304.] 



Fam. TritoniadsB. 



Genus Melibcea, Rang. 



Animal elongated, with a narrow channeled foot and long 

 slender tail; sides of the back with pairs of tuberculated 

 lobes, easily deciduous. Tentacles cylindrical, retractile into 

 long trumpet-shaped sheaths. Head covered by a lobe-like 

 veil. Sexual orifices behind right tentacle ; excretory behind 

 first gill on the right side. — Woodward, 



Melibcea viridis, Kel. 



Animal gelatinous, transparent, of a greenish vitreous colour. 

 Body covered with hairy filaments. Head small, nearly cir- 



* From the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 

 for 1858. 



