RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



95 



iSea Beans. 



We would like to ask an3of 30ur readers 

 who have been in Florida whether the so- 

 called "sea beans" emploj-ed in jewehy 

 grow there? We have brought them from 

 Cuba where the^- are " at home" and have 

 heard that the common name was given 

 from their being found at sen. Tiiey might 

 easily drift to the main coast but liave the}' 

 found tlie soil and climate suited to their de- 

 velopment in Florida? 



The yellow bean *' Bromis Spinosus" is 

 commonly known in Cuba by its Mexico- 

 Indian name Guacalote ; its old aboriginal 

 name was Guanana. The boys of the Vuelt- 

 arriba {veultade arriba), or eastern part of 

 the island use these yellow guacalotes as a 

 kind of money, playing their cards and va- 

 rious games of chance for them, and even 

 passing them as money for some articles. 

 The roundness and smoothness of the smal er 

 yellow ones cause them to be much employed 

 in games similar to our marbles, which they 

 call "hor^yitos" or little lioles, " uiiate," and 

 "•jjila." In one game of '' pila " four of these 

 beans are used, three being placed together 

 and the fourth piled above them ; in another 

 they strive to overturn a " little house "and 

 call the game from this "• casilla" from what 

 they build up of the beans. The small, 

 perfectly rounded ones are known as '' teri- 

 toes"-or " mingoes," while a large, flat, vari- 

 ety is called " catatas." Among the yellow- 

 ones a gray bean is often mixed which is 

 the Quilandina bondnc scientifically. 



As the bo^s of the eastern end of the island 

 favor the gaucalote, what is more natural 

 than the hostility shown by the boys of the 

 western end ? So in theVueUabaJo {vaeUa de 

 abajo) where the fine cigars come from, the 

 red beans are employed and the yellow ones 

 scorned. The red ones are commonl}' 

 called mates, and we have been unable to 

 find its scientific name in a ver}- minute 

 work on Cuban natural history. Was the 

 author a Vueltarriban boy ? 



The boys of Bayame name the last bean 

 left in playing their games the gaubino. 



H. M. K. B. 



"I NEVER argy agin a success," said Arte- 

 mus Ward. "When I see a rattlesnaix's 

 bed sticking out of a hole, I bear off to the 

 left, and says I to myself, that hole belongs 

 to that snaix." 



The Shell-Beariug Mollusca of Rhode 

 Island. 



BY HORACE F. CARPENTER. 



Chapter XXXV. 



128. Apf.EXA IIypnorum, Linne. 

 Syns. : 



Phj'sa elongata. Say. 



Phj'sa glabra, DeKay. 



Phj'sa elongatina, Lewis. 



Physa turrita, Sowb. 



Bulinus hypnorum, W. G. Binney. 



This species was described b}' Linnaeus 

 in 1758, as Bulla hypnorum, and afterwards 

 described in English works under ten dif- 

 ferent synonymous names, none of which are 

 included in the above list. It seems to be 

 one of few species which inhabit the circum- 

 polar and temperate regions of Europe, Asia, 

 and America. Shell ver}' thin, fragile, 

 transparent, sinistral, oblong ; color, pale 

 3'ellow ; whorls, six or seven ; spire taper- 

 ing, acute ; suture impressed ; aperture ob- 

 liquely ovate, narrow, one-half the length 

 of the shell ; columella callouslj' edged. 

 Length seven-tenths of an inch, breadth 

 three-tenths. This is the description of the 

 European specimens, and will apply to those 

 of British America and the Western United 

 States. In 1821 Say described a shell which 

 he called Physa elongata, which has been 

 referred by most authors to hypnorum. The 

 specimens vary a great deal from difft-rent 

 localities and those from Rhode Island com- 

 pared with the typical species might easily 

 be taken for different species, we find them 

 here much smaller in size, rarel}^ over three- 

 tenths of an inch in length, very slender, 

 brittle, and thin, with no callously ridged col- 

 umella, and with one to two whorls more than 

 the larger, more solid English specimens. 

 1 have them labelled Physa elongata in 

 my cabinet, side by side with another tray 

 of hypnorum from England, and to look at 

 them together, nine out of every ten persons 

 would say they were different species. 



In Am. Jour. Conch., II., 7, 1866, is a 

 list of new localities for Physa, in which is 

 the following remark : "Physa integra, Ilald, 

 Rhode Island. (Coll. Tryon)." I would like 

 to ask for further information. I know of 

 no such species in the state, and would like 

 to know on whose authority this remark 

 was based, also the precise locality etc., etc. 



