16 Dr. Cantor on the Flora and Fauna of Cimaan. 



insects having been despatched to the Museum of the Hon. the 

 Court of Directors, and a dupHcate series by order of Govern- 

 ment to the Entomological Society of London), it must suffice 

 to state, that Indian forms prevail and Europaean forms are not 

 numerous. Many identical species occurred in the extensive 

 collections formed in the Khasyah Hills and Assam* in 1835- 

 36, by Messrs. M'Clelland and Griffith. Among the forms 

 characteristic of Chusan were a species of Tingis, a Centrotus, 

 and a brilliant golden green Agrion with black wings. 



While engaged in examining and collecting objects of na- 

 tural history in China, microscopic zoology did not alto- 

 gether escape my attention. Sketches and notes were taken 

 as often as my scanty time would permit, with a view to ob- 

 tain some information about the geographical distribution of 

 these minute animal forms, the very existence of which would 

 have been a secret but for the revelation of the microscope. 

 Previous use of instruments enabled me to delineate faithfully 

 what I saw, and I have had the satisfaction to test the cor- 

 rectness of my sketches by comparing them after my return to 

 Calcutta with the beautiful plates of M. Ehrenberg. To attend 

 to anatomical structure, or the measurement of the animals 

 themselves, lay not in my plan ; partly because this branch 

 of zoology is not sufficiently familiar to me, but chiefly be- 

 cause the bustle of a camp-life is anything but calculated to 

 affijrd the otium indispensable to such studies. From com- 

 parison with M. Ehrenberg's great work upon Infusoria, it 

 would appear that most of the forms observed at the island of 

 Lantao, situated in the mouth of Canton river, and at Chusan, 

 also inhabit Europe f- A detailed list of the localities given by 

 Ehrenberg has been prefixed to those places Avhere the Chi- 

 nese animalcules were found. 



The method I invariably followed in the examination was 

 this : I first took a sketch of the animalcules through single 

 lenses, of which my highest power was g^^th of an inch, and 

 then examined the object through a compound of 210 linear, 

 when I nearly always found the sketch to correspond. Unless 

 the powers of the single lenses are added in the sketches, they 



* The richness and interest of the fauna and flora of the province of 

 Assam, which from its position is of our Indian dominions the one most 

 calcuhited to throw light upon the south-western part of China Proper 

 (Yunnan), may be inferred from the reports and collections of the two above- 

 named naturalists : Mr. Griffith has added further to our knowledge by the 

 botanical and zoological collections which he has continued forming by na- 

 tive collectors, trained and privately maintained by himself, in the Khasyah 



Hills. 



f See Dr. Ehrenberg's reflections on the extensive diffusion of species 

 among the Infusoria and their insensibility to climatic variations. — Taylor's 

 Scientific Memoirs. Part X. — Ed. 



