PEACH. ROOT — SPECIES OF PORCELLIO. 119 



lag vegetable and animal substances. They afford a dainty bit 

 to domestic fowls, which devour them with avidity, and are always 

 scratching our yards in search of these more than any other arti- 

 cle of diet This is their chief importance in an economical aspect, 

 and being so abundant they form an item of no small value to the 

 poultry breeder, though one of which but little notice is taken. 

 In former times the species of this family were highly reputed for 

 their supposed medicinal virtues, and old books upon the materia 

 medica inform us that when dried and pulverized " they have a 

 faint disagreeable smell, and a somewhat pungent sweetish nause- 

 ous taste, and are highly celebrated in suppressions, in all kinds 

 of obstructions of the bowels, in the jaundice, ague, weakness of 

 sight, and a variety of other disorders." And the wine of Milli- 

 pedes, prepared by crushing these animals, when fresh, and in- 

 fusing them in " Rhenish wine," is spoken of as "an admirable 

 cleanser of all the viscera, yielding to nothing in the jaundice 

 and obstructions in the kidneys." In the light of modern science 

 we can impute the cures attributed to these creatures only to the 

 effect produced upon the imagination of the patient, and the 

 curative powers of nature, for beyond some slight demulcent qua- 

 lities, they must be wholly inert, and are now wisely discarded 

 from the pharmacopeias. 



Six American species, pertaining to the genus Porcellio are 

 known to me, as follows: 



The Smooth Porcellio ( P. glaber) has the surface of the body smooth and 

 slightly shining, of a brownish black color, each segment presenting, except along 

 the middle of the back, numerous short whitish lines or oblong clots arranged 

 longitudinally and near the outer margin a whitish spot; under side and legs 

 white or cream yellow; antennas and projecting apical filaments unicolor with 

 the body. Length half an inch This sometimes when captured doubles i'tserj 

 into a ball, similar to the Armadillos, but is incapable of assuming a form so 

 compact and perfectly spherical as the crusteceans of that genus. It is less 

 common than our other species. Young individuals are slightly paler, and a 

 variety which I name conjhtentus , and which is quite rare, has the oblong 

 dots more or less confluent, forming irregular white spots. This is at once 

 distinguished from all our other species by having the surface perfectly smooth 

 and even, without either elevated points or granules. I had long regarded 

 this as identical with the P. hvis of Europe, but specimens of that species, 

 taken in the forest of St. Germain, France, and kindly sent me, with other 

 species of these crustaceans pertaining to western Europe, by my esteemed 

 friend and correspondent, Andrew Murray, AY. S., Edinburgh, show it to be 

 'different. That species has a dusky spot below the knees which does not ap« 



