239 



long* known, but its existence in Upper Assam, within the dominions of the East 

 India Company, and spread over a district of hundreds of miles, gives promise of 

 its being cultivated upon an extensive scale : indeed, extensive plantations have 

 been already formed in the mountains of Camun in Sirmare, and Gurwhal between 

 the upper Jumna and the Ganges. 



Zoological. 



Crustacea. — We find that Mr. J. F. Brandt has published at Moscow, a 

 Conspectus Monographic Crustaceorum Oniscidorum. He divides them into 

 two tribes, the Ligies and the Oniscinees. The first tribe forms two genera, 

 Ligia and Ligidium. The second tribe is separated into two sections, the Por- 

 cellione.es and the Armadillins. The first are divided into Hexarthrica, contain- 

 ing the genera Trichoniscus, and Platyarthrus, and Schizarihrica, containing the 

 genera Porcellio, Oniscus, and Philoscia. The second section of the Oniscinees, 

 viz., the Armadillins are divided into the Armadillidies and the Cubarides. The 

 first contains only the genus Armadillidium. The second are again subdivided 

 into Monoexocha, containing the genera Cubaris and Armadillo, and the second 

 subdivision, the Diplorexocha, contains the single genus Diplorexochus. — Her- 

 mes. 



The Gossamer. — A pupil of the Academy at Metz has written to the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, stating that he has detected that the film which floats so abun- 

 dantly in the air on fine days in the Autumn, is produced by Spiders. M. Coulier, 

 however, says that he has discovered that they are produced by an Acarus describ- 

 ed by Geoffroy, and that, besides, the remains of this creature are ordinarily found 

 attached to these white and tenacious filaments. Latreille constructed the genus 

 Gamasus of this Acarus, and in fact it is frequently found spreading wide tissues 

 over trees, but it can scarcely be supposed that these filaments are exclusively pro- 

 duced by the Acarus. Ray, Lister, and the majority of English Entomologists, 

 since their time, ascribe it to a Spider, whose proceedings have been often watched. 



Geological. 



Amber. — M. Aycke,* who for many years has farmed the collecting of Am- 

 ber in Prussia, and who consequently has had the opportunity of inspecting it in 

 large quantities, conveys much interesting information upon the subject, in the 



* Fragmenlv Zitr Naturgeschichte des Bernstein a, Danzig, 1835, 8vo. 



