188 Scientific Intelligence . 



ral individuals. (See Sillimans Journ. vol. x. p. 48.) My friend, Dr Voight 

 of Rochester, having heard of the occurrence, travelled to the place and in- 

 quired into the facts. He procured the three which were deformed, and 

 very obligingly placed them at my disposal. The dam, or mother, was of 

 the sort called the Black Snake, or Runner, one of the most frequent and 

 prolific of the New York serpents. The species is very well known, and 

 is apparently the Coluber constrictor of Linnaeus, and Le Lien of La Ce- 

 pede." The monstrous individuals figured, are between four and five 

 inches long. The full grown animal frequently attains the length of 

 six feet. Dr Mitchill, a few years ago, had received from the Fejee 

 Islands a two-headed serpent, four inches and three quarters in length; 

 and intelligence had reached him, when he was writing the previous notice, 

 of a snake which had been taken near Lake Ontario with three heads, and 

 which was to be sent to him.— Sillimans Journal, vol. x. No. i. p. 48 — 53. 



27. Mercantile importance of Snails.— M. de Martens states, that the 

 annual export of snails {Helix pomatia) from Ulm, by the Danube, for 

 the purpose of being used as food in the season of Lent by the convents of 

 Austria, amounted formerly to ten millions of these animals. They were 

 fattened in the gardens in the neighbourhood. This species of snail is not 

 the only one which has been used as food ; for, before the revolution in 

 France, they exported large quantities of the Helix aspersa from the 

 coasts of Aunis and Saintonge in barrels for the Antilles. This species of 

 commerce is now much diminished, though they are still sometimes sent 

 to the Antilles and Senegal. 



The consumption of snails is still very considerable in the departments 

 of Charente Inferieure and Gironde. The consumption in the Isle de 

 Rhe alone is estimated in value at 25,000 franks ; and at Marseilles the 

 commerce in these animals is considerable. The species eaten are Helix 

 rhodestoma, H. aspersa,wnd H. vermiculata. In Spain, in Italy, in Turkey 

 and the Levant, the use of snails as food is common. It is only in Britain 

 that the Roman conquerors have failed to leave a taste for a luxury which 

 was so much used by the higher classes in ancient Rome; though it 

 would be very desirable, for the sake of the produce of our gardens, that 

 some of the leaders of fashion in eating would, by introducing them at 

 table, take the most effectual method of keeping our native species within 

 due bounds. — Bull, des Sciences Nat. 1825, No. 10, p. 21-7. 



BOTANY. 



28. liolany of New South Wales. — In the " Geographical Memoirs of 

 New South Wales," lately published by Mr Baron Field, there is a valu- 

 able memoir by Mr Allan Cunningham, Botanical Collector for his Majes- 

 ty's gardens at Kew, upon the " botany of the mountainous country, be- 

 tween the colony round Port Jackson and the settlement of Bathurst ; be- 

 ing a portion of the result of observations made in Oct. Nov. and Dec. 

 1822, and disposed according to the natural orders. Several new specimens 

 are described, and the whole is rendered particularly valuable by the ob- 



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