Geographical Distribution o/Bulimus. 271 



bine to favour the growth of arboreal species, the genus is repre- 

 sented with prolific splendour. Mr. Cuming must have truly 

 felt like one transported to the fabled garden of the Hesperides, 

 when beholding the lofty trees of these sunny isles laden with 

 snails of such magnificent proportions. Aladdin, in the Arabian 

 tale, could not surely have contemplated the rich clusters of vari- 

 coloured fruit in the garden of the African Magician with more 

 astonishment, nor probably gathered it with more avidity. 



" It was in 1836/' relates Mr. Broderip, " that Mr. Cuming 

 proceeded to the Philippine Islands by permission of the Queen 

 Regent of Spain, and aided by powerful recommendations from 

 her government, which opened to him the interior of the islands, 

 and caused him to be received with a noble hospitality, equalled 

 only by the warm interest which facilitated his pursuits wherever 

 he arrived and made himself known." Species of which we had 

 but an imperfect knowledge, in consequence of the bad condi- 

 tion in which a stray individual chanced to reach our cabinets, were 

 found in luxuriant plenty, and many new kinds were discovered 

 in their airy solitude in equal abundance. Had De Ferussac, the 

 enthusiastic admirer of this tribe, lived to see the glorious series 

 of Bulimi accumulated in the Cumingian collection in different 

 stages of growth, and in the finest state of preservation, from the 

 egg to the adult, he would have been indeed amazed. 



The genus Bulimus, as restricted by Lamarck, comprehends 

 an extremely natural group, though presenting important differ- 

 ences of growth and texture ; and these variations are peculiarly 

 local. In the Philippine Islands, the species are of large and 

 rather solid growth, with a remarkable hydrophanous epidermis, 

 that is, permeable by water or other evaporable fluid ; on the 

 barren hills of Lima, and in the sandy plains of Chili and Peru, 

 they are mostly small and delicately formed ; in Brazil, the species 

 are remarkable for having the aperture in frequent instances 

 denticulated ; and in New Caledonia, Venezuela, New Granada 

 and New Hebrides, they not uncommonly exhibit with equal pe- 

 culiarity a plaited duricula-like columella. 



It is a curious feature in the Philippine species, that the varie- 

 ties of pattern which constitute their chief ornament reside only 

 in the epidermis. The colours of the shell rarely describe any 

 sort of configuration ; they are mostly blended into a uniform 

 tint, over which a fanciful pattern is produced by the epidermis 

 forming a double porous membrane in some places, and a single 

 one only in others, developed, moreover, with the same continu- 

 ous regularity as the textile marking of a Volute or Cone. This 

 phenomenon is easily detected by immersing the shell in water, 

 when the light portion, or upper porous layer, of the epidermis 

 becomes saturated, and the ground colour of the shell is seen 



