General Notes. 25 



The name of the Viscacha. 



In suggesting the name Viscaccica (Brandis, 1786, ex Molina) for "the 

 Viscacha" Mr. Rehn has confused two perfectly different animals. 

 Molina's "Viscaccia" is the Chilian Lagidium, while the Viscacha of 

 modern writers is the Argentine Lagostomus (using for the moment the 

 best known names for each). Furthermore, there is no need to drag in 

 the translator Brandis, as in the 1782 edition of his Saggio, (p. 307) Mol 

 ina himself properly describes and names "La Viscaccia, Lepus Vis- 

 cacia" by which term he clearly means the Lagidium of Chili. 



Lagidium viscacia Mol. \sprobably the proper name for the latter ani 

 mal, but the question is so intricate, partly owing to the confused use of 

 the two names Viscacha and Chinchilla for members of the three genera 

 Lagostomus, Lagidium and Chinchilla, and partly in the doubt as to 

 what animal the name Callomys Goff. will be applied to by eliminators 

 and others, that I do not like to risk making confusion worse confounded 

 by definitely asserting its validity. 



The pertinence of the generic name "Vizcacia" to the Argentine Vis 

 cacha has been shown by Mr. Palmer (Science, N. S., VI, p. 21, 1897), 

 though owing to the doubt* as to the date of its publication in Schinz's 

 Naturgeschichte, the following reference may be taken as the first: 

 Viscaccia, Schinz, Cuvier's Thierreich IV, p. 429 (1825). The difference 

 in the spelling should be noted. 



Curiously enough as a foretaste of the eternal Chili-Argentine confu 

 sion, Schinz heads the reference "Viscaccia Molina," but his enumera 

 tion of the digits, 4-3, and his measurements (taken from Azara) of V. 

 americana^ are clearly diagnostic of the Argentine animal. Oldfield 

 Thoma*. 



A correction of Vernonia gigantea pubescens. 



Through a misapprehension of the case the subspecies pubescens was 

 referred (Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 13: 179, October, 1900) to Vernonia gigantea 

 of the Atlantic seaboard, which dees not occur in the Alleghenies or west 

 ward. The species so common throughout the latter range is V. maxima 

 Small (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 27: 280, May, 1900). Hence the name of 

 the subspecies collected near Baileysville, West Virginia, is Vernonia 

 maxima pubescens. E. L. Morris, Dept. Biol., Washington High Schools. 



*Probably not published before 1825 or 1826 (Palmer). 



