1880.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 131 



exceedingly that I did not appreciate the scientific interest of the 

 subject, and send you the specimen in a fresh state, but the busy 

 routine of a country practitioner's life leaves no time for the study 

 of other than subjects of practical value in one's every day ex- 

 perience." 



The worm preserved in alcohol is much coiled, of a clay color 

 and opaque, or only feebly translucent, but more so at the head end. 

 If it is really a human parasite, it appears to differ from all those 

 heretofore described, and also seems different from other known 

 parasites. It certainly is neither Eusfrongylus gigo-^^, nor is it the 

 Guinea-worm, Filaria medinensis^ though nearly related to this. 

 Its characters are as follows : Body long, restiform, nearly uni- 

 formly cylindrical, smooth, shining, elastic, 

 tough, without evident annulation other than 

 transverse wrinkling, with the anterior ex- 

 tremity evenly tapering in the continuous 

 head, the end of which is rounded and smooth 

 or without appendages of any kind ; the pos- 

 terior extremity not tapering, with the caudal 

 end incurved, bluntly rounded, without ap- 

 Fig. 1. Fig. 2. pendages and imperforate or without evident 



1. Cephalic extremity ; 2. anal or genital apcrturc. Mouth a terminal 



Caudal extremity ; the diaso- .., , i- -ii , /. 



nai marking indicates the porc without lips, papillte, or ai'maturc 01 any 

 ret?e^gume'l''^Teram:'. ^md. Tharyux Cylindrical, and opening into 

 ters. a straight cylindrical intestine, apparently 



ending in a blind pouch. Generative organs unobserved. Length 

 of worm, 26 inches, greatest thickness, TS mm. Width of head 

 just behind the rounded extremity, 0'375 mm.; opposite the com- 

 mencement of the intestine, 0*625 mm.; at the middle, 1*5 mm.; 

 at the incurved caudal extremity, 1*5 mm. Length of oesopha- 

 gus, 1-125. 



The worm, of exceedingly simple character, is clearl}'" neither a 

 Gordius nor a Mei-mis, and though apparently more nearly allied 

 to Filaria, a, more intimate knowledge of its structure may prove 

 it to be different. For the present it was proposed to distinguish 

 it with the name of Filaria restiformis. 



On Rochelia patens. — Mr. J. II. Redfield remarked at the 

 meeting of the Botanical Section, that Rochelia patens was 

 founded by Nuttall, upon a plant collected by W^eth on Flat 

 Head River, in the Rocky Mountains, and was described in the 

 Journal of the Academy, 1st series. Vol. YII, p. 44, in 1834. 



Dr. Gray in the Synoptical Flora of North America, II, p. 197, 

 remarks concerning the plant that it may be an Eritrichium, but 

 has not been identified, nor was it in the Academy's Herbarium. 



Mr. R. stated that this specimen had been recently found among 

 the Academy's specimens of Echinospermum, and had been pro- 

 nounced by Dr. Gray to be Echinospernnnn florihundum^ Lehm., 

 a species widely diffused in Western North America. 



