BY THOS. STEEL. 577 



of the spirit through the corks, and if the jar is placed in dark- 

 ness, enables the specimens to be preserved indefinitely without 

 any depreciation in colour. I mention this fact specially, as 

 more than one of my friends who have preserved land-planarians 

 have erroneously attributed loss of colour caused by exposure to 

 light to bleaching by the spirit. Spirit, I have found by careful 

 observation, will not cause any further alteration in colour after 

 the fugitive body colour has been dissolved, if the specimens are 

 kept in darkness. I have specimens preserved in this manner 

 which have remained quite unchanged for seven or eight years. 



In conclusion I desire to express my thanks to the friends 

 already mentioned who have furnished me with specimens, to 

 Professor W. A. Haswell, F.R.S., &c, for his kindness in giving 

 me the use of his copy of Professor von Graff's Monograph, and 

 to Mr. J. P. Hill, B.Sc, F.L.S., for histological and other assist- 

 ance. 



As it is extremely desirable that specimens of these interesting 

 worms from as many parts of the colonies as possible should be 

 secured for study and description, I shall be very pleased to hear 

 from anyone willing to assist in the work of collection. 



Postscript (6th Oct., 1900). 



Geoplana mediolineata, Dendy, var. simularis, n.var. 

 (PI. xxxiv., fig. 6.) 



A few days after this paper was.read, I received from Mr. J. 

 W, Mellor, of Fulham, near Adelaide, South Australia, a fine 

 collection in a living state of the planarian of which I had only 

 previously seen one perfect and several damaged specimens from 

 near Adelaide, and two damaged examples from Western Aus- 

 tralia, and which I had determined to be a variety of G. quinque- 

 lineata, Fletch. & Hamil. 



Mr. Mellor's collection includes a large and graduated series 

 which clearly proves that the form in question is really a variety 

 of G. mediolineata, Dendy; and I am desirous, therefore, of 



