Miscellaneous. 153 



condition under which specific characters, or what are so deemed, 

 become modified. 



The bearing of the phenomena of development upon the solution 

 of the great problem of the natural system of classification is rapidly- 

 becoming appreciated, and day by day the inadequacy of a single 

 adult specimen, or pair, for the scientific illustration of a species is 

 becoming more obvious, but especially in the department of con- 

 chology. 



I could say much more on a theme so suggestive as the collection 

 of shells now offered to the British Museum by Mr. Cuming, but I 

 fear that I have already trespassed too long on your attention in ad- 

 verting to the more prominent features of its scientific character. Of 

 its money value I cannot speak from my personal experience as a 

 collector, but of all objects of natural history shells are those of 

 which the current or market-price is most easily determined. Their 

 texture, durability and colour give them something of the character 

 of precious stones, and one molluscous production, the pearl, takes 

 rank among the gems of price. The value of a shell, as of a jewel, 

 depends, no doubt, much upon its rarity, and is to that extent arti- 

 ficial. The Concha unica which today commands the sum of twenty 

 pounds, shall next week, when a score of specimens have come into 

 the market, fall in price to as many shillings. Still, the commonest 

 exotic shell, if it be perfect and well-coloured, and taken from a living 

 mollusk, as is the case with the Cumingian collection, from which 

 • dead ' shells have been strictly excluded, finds its market. 



I am given to understand, by competent authorities, that the sum 

 of £6000, asked by Mr. Cuming in 1846, does not exceed two-thirds 

 of the most moderate estimate of the present market value of his sub- 

 sequently augmented collection. That ten times that sum would not 

 bring together such a series as Mr. Cuming has offered to the British 

 Museum, I do firmly believe, from a knowledge of the peculiar tact 

 in discovering and collecting, the hardy endurance of the attendant 

 fatigue under deadly climes and influences, and the undaunted cou- 

 rage in encountering the adverse elements, and braving the opposi- 

 tion of the savage inhabitants of seldom-visited isles, which have 

 conduced and concurred to crown the labours of Mr. Cuming with 

 a success of which his unrivalled collection is a fitting monument," 

 and of which science, and, let us hope, its cultivators in his native 

 country more particularly, will long continue to reap the benefits. 

 Believe me, my dear Sir. yours sincerely, 



Royal College of Surgeons, January 1848. Richard Owen. 



SAGINA CILIATA (FRIES). 



This curious little plant was found near Thetford in Suffolk by the 

 Rev. W. W. Newbould on June 6, 1847. It agrees so nearly with 

 the description and specimens of Fries that I have no doubt of its 

 identity with his plant. The differences are, that its stems are erect 

 rather than diffuse, and the leaves are nearly or quite devoid of cilia ; 

 both of which seem rather the marks of a variety than of specific 



