3S0 Zoological Society. 



April 21. — Reatl *' Observations on the Species of Fedia.** By 

 Joseph Woods, Esq. F.L.S. 



This genus was included by Linnaeus in Valeriana^ and several of 

 the species were conibined by him under the denomination of V. Lo- 

 custa, erroneously considering them as forming but varieties of one 

 species. The genus is distinguished from Faleriana by habit, and by 

 the structure of its fruit, which is always destitute of the feathery 

 crown peculiar to the former. The far greater part of the species are 

 natives of Europe, and Mr. Woods in the paper before us gives the 

 character of twenty-one species, arranged according to the divisions 

 proposed by De CandoUe, and he has united with them the Fedia 

 CornucopicB separated by De Candolle as a distinct genus, from its 

 corolla being furnished with a lengthened filiform tube and an irregu- 

 lar limb. 



The paper is illustrated by figures of the fruit of tKe various species. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from p. 230.] 



October 14, 1834. — A letter was read, addressed to the Secretary 

 by Sir Robert Ker Porter, Corr. Merab. Z.S., dated Caraccas, July 

 24, 1834. In reference to the Tortoises (Testudo Carbonaria, Spix,) 

 presented to the Society by the writer in the spring of the present 

 year (see Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag. vol. v. p. 233), it stated that 

 they are regarded as a great delicacy at Caraccas, and sold as such in 

 the market. 



A letter was read, addressed to the Secretary by the Hon. Byron 

 Cary, dated His Majesty's ship Dublin, Sept. 25, 1834,^ving some 

 particulars relative to a large specimen of the Tortoise from the Gal- 

 lapagos Island, presented by the writer to the Society. The spe- 

 cimen weighs 187 lbs. and measures in length, over the curve of the 

 dorsal shell 3 feet 84- inches, and along the ventral shell 2 feet 3^^ 

 inches, its girth round the middle being 6 feet 3-f inches. It is 

 consequently much smaller than several specimens of the Indian Tor- 

 toise from the Seychelles Islands which have at different times been 

 exhibited in the Society's Garden; the weight and measurements of 

 one of which are given in our report of the Society's Proceedings on 

 the 9th of July 1833 ; Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. iii., p. 300, 

 The lateral compression of the anterior part of the dorsal shell, and 

 the elevation of its front margin, by which the Gallapagos Tortoise is 

 distinguished from the Indian, are in this specimen strongly marked. 



Some notes by Mr. Martin of the dissection of a specimen of the 

 Mangue (Crossarchus ohscurus, F. Cuv.) were read. 



" The dissection was strongly confirmatory," Mr. Martin observed, 

 " of the justice of the position claimed for the animal, notwith- 

 standing its plantigrade mode of progression, between the Ichneumons 

 and the Suricates. To the latter indeed it bears in its general exter- 

 nal aspect and characters a marked affinity; in both we find the pupil 

 circular, and the muzzle elongated, pointed, and moveable. Nor is 

 there much less con-espondence in their general anatomy." The de- 

 tails are given in the * Proceedings ' of the Society. 



A collection was exhibited of skins of Birds, formed by B. H. 

 Hodgson, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z.S., in Nepal, and presented by him 



