Miscellan eons. 219 



one of our domestic mice. In winter it is sometimes found on the 

 snow ; its fur is then silky and glossy." 



The common mouse (Mus musculus) is said to be very common 

 in houses at Erzeroom. 



The Spalax (Spalax typhlus, Illig-.), a specimen of which is also 

 sent, is said to be " common all over the plain. Its food is roots, but 

 it will readily eat bread : its paws are thick and fleshy : it is very 

 expert in burrowing, which it performs with all four of its feet. The 

 pericardium is excessively thin and transparent, and without any 

 traces of fibrous texture. The left lung is entire, and the right one 

 divided into four lobes ; heart, pancreas and kidneys, natural ; peri- 

 toneum of exactly the same structure and appearance as the peri- 

 cardium ; liver five-lobed, with a small appendix ; a large thick, 

 round blotch (resembling an ulcer) on the inner surface of the great 

 curvature of the stomach ; spleen narrow, very much elongated, and 

 adhering to the posterior and left side of the stomach ; capsulce ve- 

 nules firmly attached to the upper end of the kidneys ; caecum and 

 appendix vermiformis of an enormous size, in proportion to the intes- 

 tines : between the rectum and bladder a flat white substance, of a 

 follicular structure, and terminating at its posterior extremity in a 

 thick fleshy canal. Native name, Kior-Seetchdn (Blind Rat.)." 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



" Unio Itineraria." 



Believing that many readers of the Annals of Natural History are 

 unacquainted even with the existence of the Society whose notice is 

 now about to be laid before them, it may not be amiss in the first 

 place just to give a concise account of its simple organization and 

 government before making known the Report of its present opera- 

 tions and progress ; both the Report and the short account thereto 

 prefixed have been translated and carefully abridged from the printed 

 circular of the Society and from the file of correspondence received 

 by their London agent from the Secretaries, Drs. Steudel and Hoch- 

 stetter : the latter — the correspondence — comes down to the 20th 

 March, 1840. 



Abstract from the laws of the Society : — 



"1. The Wurtemburg Natural History Travelling Union, gene- 

 rally known among botanists as the ' Unio Itineraria,' consists in 

 a society of the friends of natural history (especially botany), who at 

 their general expense send out and support travellers and collectors 

 of specimens illustrative of natural history, chiefly botanical, in the 



q 2 



