Miscellaneous. 349 



by a septum. I could never trace fluid or globules passing down tbe 

 shank to the common stem of the polypidom. 



The polype and the tobacco-pipe seemed perfectly independent of 

 each other. I found active polypes without accompanying tobacco- 

 pipes, and very often tobacco-pipes in full snap, with the inhabitants 

 of the capacious drawing-room floors beneath dead and gone, their 

 cells swept and garnished, tenanted only by some vagabond Solifer, 

 and possessing no signs of their former inhabitants, beyond a few of 

 the brown liver-like spots adhering to their transparent walls. 



I never could make out why the tobacco-pipe opened his mouth, 

 or why he shut it, although the jerking movement of the globular 

 stomach (?) would make one believe that he did so to some purpose. I 

 once saw a small Navicula evidently pinched tightly by the beak of a 

 tobacco-pipe, which in a few seconds opened and let him escape, 

 whereupon having been saved from this Scylla he plunged inconti- 

 nently into the Charybdis of the polype below, and in a short time 

 was whirling round and round on his long axis in its stomach. I 

 watched it for some time, and it certainly appeared to me as if he (or 

 t^) was being ground down or sucked out in some manner, as he went 

 in of a strong burnt sienna colour, and gradually became nearly trans- 

 parent. I was unfortunately prevented from seeing his exit. 



These tobacco-pipe appendages bud out from the central stem at 

 its free extremity at the same time with the larger polype-cells, but 

 appear to arrive at maturity later than these, remaining as mere in- 

 flections of the tube, without jaws, for some time after the cell below 

 is tenanted by an active polype. 



The large polype seems to bud out from the central stem into the 

 cell prepared for it, and at first has a very simple and hydroid ap- 

 pearance, but rapidly gains all the functions of its elder brethren. 



I never fornid any appearance of egg-capsules on any of my sp^ 

 cimens. ,,, 



[We have inserted the above as a clever piece of Natural History 

 description, — but the " tobacco-pipes " have long since been fully 

 described by Van Beneden, Busk, &c. as ' Avicularia.' — Ed.] 



Description of a new species q/ Helix y>*om Van Diemen's Land, 

 By LovELL Reeve, F.L.S. &c. 



Helix Launcestonensis. Hel. testa umbilicatd, abbreviate- 

 conoided, trochiformi, superne rugosd et ferrugined^ quasi epi- 

 dermide indutd, infra Icevigatd, nitente^ intense nigrd; fascid di- 

 stinctd luted cingulatd; spird obtusd; anfractibus sex, supernb 

 convexiSf medio concavis, carinis lineisque gemmulatis undique 

 cingulatis, peripherid acute carinatd, basi convexd; umbilico me- 

 diocri, pervio, subprofundo ; aperturd obliquh lunari, peristomate 

 tenui, vix rejlexo, margine columellari breviter dilatato. 



Hab. Launceston, Van Diemen's Land. 



This very characteristic new species of Helix has just been received 

 from Van Diemen's Land, where it was collected last summer by 

 Mr. Ronald Gunn in a dense beech forest, north-east of Launceston. 



