205 
Bascanion ornatum occupies a peculiar place in the genus because it 
combines the characters of the two series above described. All of the 
specimens of B. ornatum show both cross-bands and longitudinal stripes. 
However, here both the stripes and the bands persist in the adult. Of 
the two Smithsonian specimens, which are both a little more than five feet 
long, the cross-bands are more distinct in one specimen than in the other. 
In the new specimen, which is a young animal, only thirty-eight inches 
long, the cross-bands are also not strongly marked. It is clear then that 
in B. ornatum immaturity of the specimen is not associated with greater 
distinctness of cross-bands, as is the case in the B. constrictor and B. 
flagelliforme. In other words, the cross-bands are a fixed character of 
both adult-and young of the species ornatum. These facts indicate that 
this species represents, with respect to coloration, the most generalized 
type in the genus; it is, therefore, the most primitive species, from which, 
on the one hand, the purely cross-banded series has descended on account 
of the obliteration of longitudinal stripes. The longitudinally striped 
series, on the other hand, has arisen because of the disappearance of the 
cross-bands. . 
On THE HEART OF LUNGLESS SALAMANDERS. By HENrRy L. BRUNER. 
[Abstract. ] 
In the American Naturalist for 1896 Hopkins announced the discovery 
of a septum atriorum in the heart of certain lungless salamanders; he 
omitted, however, in his description, the valve which, both in lungless 
forms and in those with lungs, guards the sinus-atrium opening. 
A study of the heart of lungless salamanders had already been made by 
the writer before the paper of Hopkins came into my hands. Investiga- 
tion of the same species used by Hopkins shows that the latter has 
described the sinus-atrium valve as a septum atriorum. I conclude, fur- 
ther, that no trace of a septum atriorum exists in the adult lungless sala- 
manders studied by me (Plethodon cinereus, ¥. erythronotus, Desmogna- 
thus fusca, Salamandrina perspicillata, Spelerpes fuscus). 
The conus arteriosus of certain lungless salamanders shows a spiral 
fold (e. g., Plethodon), but it seems to be absent in Desmognathus. 
