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1. The Venezuelan Province. 



The highest condition of the genus is in intertropical America, which 

 yields nearly one-half of the number of species known from all parts of the 

 world. In the luxuriant districts of New Granada and Venezuela, watered 

 by the tributaries of the Magdalena and Orinoco rivers, with a tempera- 

 ture varying from 70° to 100° in the shade, about sixty species have been 

 collected at different altitudes. On the mountain-sides near the sea, away 

 from the land breezes, with little vegetation, where the thermometer never 

 falls below 80°, are a few species, B. erectus, Cacticolus, etc., of which the 

 shell is extremely thin and sombre from the want of moisture for the ani- 

 mal, which is curiously spotted and painted, and attaches in clusters to the 

 parched Cacti, eating into their fleshy substance. The animals of the 

 beautifully variegated shells of the Philippine Bulimi are of a uniform dull 

 grey colour. These contrasts between animal and shell are worth noting. 

 Higher up on the mountains of Venezuela for the space of about 2,000 

 feet, the country being still of a sandy and stony nature, with little vege- 

 tation except Cacti and other dry prickly plants, and a few trees in the 

 ravines, the Bulimi are still comparatively small, but the shell is more 

 brilliant in colour. B. Curianensis, Knorri, and Studeri are beautiful ex- 

 amples of this type, of which the darker varieties inhabit the higher and 

 woodier situations. They are rarely found at a greater elevation, or in a 

 lower temperature than about 76° within doors. Proceeding upwards on 

 the mountains of Venezuela, the plants become thicker, and give place to 

 large trees, with underwood of broad green leaves, enveloped in clouds and 

 mists which occasion considerable humidity. In these situations at an 

 elevation of from 4,000 to 6,000 feet are the richly-coloured B.fulminans 

 and Blaiavilleanus, and at a still greater altitude reaching to 8,000 feet, with 

 a proportionately lower temperature of from 65° to 70°, under decayed 

 leaves in thick moist woods, in ravines and in crevices of the mountains, 

 are the large stout dark-painted B. Moritzianus, astrapoides, pardalis, 

 Funchii, etc., representing the most highly calcified condition of the genus 

 hitherto discovered. 



2. The Brazilian Province. 



Passing in a south-easterly direction into the great territory of Brazil, 

 we have no information of the presence of any typical assemblages of 

 Bulimi until reaching the countries of Bahia and Minas Geraes. It can 

 hardly be doubted, however, that in Guayana, Para, and all that country 

 constituting the great basin of the Amazon, many fine species occur, in 

 addition to B. Bensoni, which belongs to the widely spread B. zebra type, 

 as well as in Piauhy, Goyaz, and the more sterile parts of Pernambuco. 

 Prom Bahia southwards to Rio Janeiro, the genus is represented by about 

 sixty species, in six characteristic typical groups, extremely local, and of 



