SirWi J. Hooker on the Erythraea diffusa. 437 



of the body and of a less regular shape ; but the ascription of 

 functions to these organs is surely in a great degree conjec- 

 tural. I could detect no traces of either a vascular or nervous 

 system ; and the absence of the former seems remarkable after 

 finding it so fully developed in Phylline. The skin is a thin 

 pellucid pellicle traversed with lines in a netted manner. 



The specimens from which our description is taken were 

 found in the stomach of a conger-eel. They stuck to the vil- 

 lous surface by their ventral sucker, but were removable with- 

 out difficulty. Their motions are very slow. The anterior 

 extremity can be lengthened to a considerable extent, when it 

 assumes the form of a narrow cylindrical neck ; and the figure 

 of the body is also changeable, though less so than the front. 

 I presume it is this protean character which induced Rudolphi 

 to call the species Distoma polymorphum. 



Plate XV. fig. 4. Fasciola anyu'rflce of the natural size. — Fig. 5. The 



same magnified. — Fig. 6. The anal extremity as it appeared when evolved 



by pressure. 



[To be continued.] 



XL VIII. — On the Erythraea diffusa, Woods (Gentiana scil- 

 loides, Linn. fil.). By Sir W. J. Hooker. {With some 

 Remarks on the Genus. By Dr. Griesbach.) 



[With a Plate.] 



In the year 1835 our valued friend Mr. Joseph Woods made 

 an interesting discovery in Britany of an Erythrcea, which he 

 had good reason for believing to be undescribed, and to which 

 he gave the appropriate name of diffusa. His account of it, 

 in his ' Botanical Excursion into Brittany 5 *, is as follows. 



ie On the 25th of June we came to Morlaix, and on a piece 

 of rough ground, at a very short distance south-west of the 

 town, found an Erythrcea, which appears not to have been 

 previously noticed. Its characteristics are the diffuse mode 

 of growth^ without any indication of a leading stem, and the 

 few flowers, not above two or three, in a panicle. This did 

 not arise from late shoots, as the Erythrcea had hardly yet 

 begun to flower, and this may be considered as among the 



* See Companion to the Botanical Magazine, vol. ii. p. 274. 



