IXTRODUCTION. §]_ 



bcr ancT October, 1818, -wliicli were intended as a sort 

 of prodi'omus of his discoveries in the West, he nowhere 

 speaks of havmg collected land shells, although the flu- 

 viatile species, divided as usual into several genera and 

 sub-genera, occupy considerable space. As he could 

 not, without a- gross infraction of that comity practised 

 among natui-ahsts, which secures to each his own discov- 

 eries, and which even he was not prepared, at that time, 

 entirely to disregard, openly assume the species described 

 or made known by Mr. Say, he could publicly gratify 

 his mania for genera-makuig only by the construction of 

 these new genera. But, he gave to the specimens in 

 his own cabinet, specific names wliich he thought more 

 appropriate than those of Mr. Say, and they gradually 

 found their way to his correspondents abroad, and par- 

 ticularly to M. Ferussac, with these names attached. 



In his Annals of Nature for 1820, M. Rafinesque 

 proposed three new genera and several species, viz. : — 



GENUS PHILOMYCUS. 



Philomycus. " Differs from Limax by no visible mantle, 

 the longer pair of tentacula terminal and club-shaped, 

 the shorter tentacula lateral and oblong. The name 

 means, friend of fungi, on which they feed. 



" Philomycus quadrilus. Gray, back smooth, with four longi- 

 tudinal rows of black spots, long tentacula black and ap- 

 proximated; rather attenuated behind, tail obtuse. On the 

 banks of the Hudson, length over half an inch. 



