VI AGLOSSA 149 



ill the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, a transfer which had the 

 desired effect. Eggs were laid, and more during the following 

 nights ; they hatched out within thirty hours. The whole brood 

 was lost, before any of them were older than a few days, since they 

 were attacked, beyond the possibility of a cure, by a Saprolegnia 

 or some similar pest. 



Hymcnochirus, represented by one species, //. hoettgeri, has 

 lieen discovered in the Ituri, German East Africa, and in the 

 French Congo, and has no doubt a much wider distribution. 

 It is scarcely 1^ inch long, and is easily recognised by the 

 toothless mouth, the half-webbed fingers (hence the generic 

 name), the incompletely webbed toes, the third of wliich is 

 longer than the fourth, and tlie absence of sensory muciferous 

 canals in the skin. The three inner toes are, as in ^enopus, 

 furnished with small Ijlack claws. The skin is rough, beset witli 

 small granular tul)ercles. The general colour above and below 

 is olive-brown. The vent is, as in Xenopus, produced into a 

 spout or semi-canal, but is devoid of dorsal flaps of skin. 



Plpa. — This Neotropical member of the Aglossa is quite tooth- 

 less, but the jaws of the adult have horny substitutes. The only 

 species is P. americana, the famous Surinam Toad, chiefly 

 known from the Guianas, but undoubtedly extending much 

 further, having recently been reported from the neighbourhood 

 of Para, 



The general shape of this creature is very peculiar. The head 

 is much depressed and triangular ; the eyes are very small ; the 

 skin forms several short, irregularly-shaped flaps and tentacles 

 on the upper lips and in front of the eye, and at the angle oi" 

 the mouth. The tympanum is iiivisil)le. The pupil is round. 

 The fingers are very slender and free, ending in star-shaped tips ; 

 the toes are broadly webbed. The whole skin is covered with 

 small tubercles and is dark brown above, while the under parts of 

 the very flat and depressed body are whitish, sometimes with a 

 dark brown stripe along the middle line. In the female the skin 

 of , the back forms growths for the reception of the eggs, and in 

 these the young undergo their whole metamorphosis. 



The most characteristic feature of the skin,^ which has 

 exactly the same structure in both sexes, is the papillae, which 



^ Groenberg und Klinckowstroeiu, " Ziir Aiiatoiiiie der P/^'« «;;(er^canrt," Zool. 

 Julirli. Anal. vii. 1894, p. 609. 



