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AMERICAN JOURNAL 



than even he could bestow upon them. It may also be reasonably 

 inferred, from what is known of the habits of collectors gener- 

 ally, that only in a very few instances was he favored with com- 

 plete series of specimens from the' embryo to the adult. 



It is also evident, from the general tenor of his opinions, and so 

 much of his personal experience as appears in his work, that 

 the number of species that he had studied from nature were few. 

 There are also other apparent reasons which explain his un- 

 fortunate " opinions," upon which it is unnecessary to dilate. 



The genus Yivipara has been very properly subdivided into 

 four sections or subgenera ; the subgenus Melantho has given 

 Mr. B. most trouble. Next, the subgenus Lioplax. 



It may be suggested, that in his treatment of Vivipara Geor- 

 giana, he confounded two or more species. One of these may have 

 been V. vivipara ; the other, possibly Melantho rufa, — speci- 

 mens of the latter having been sent from Georgia by collectors, 

 labeled " Pal. Georgiana." 



Mr. Binney's separation of V. contectoides from its heretofore 

 supposed identity with the European "vivipara 11 appears to be 

 judicious and well advised.* 



V. texana, Tryon, having been reclaimed by Mr. Tryon from 

 the position assigned it by Mr. Binney, it is unnecessary to say 

 more than that Mr. Tryon's reclamation will unquestionably 

 be allowed, until further acquaintance with the anatomy of 

 species shall confirm Mr. Binney's opinion. 



In the subgenus Melantho he utterly fails to discriminate 

 species. Aside from his failure to recognize the characters of 

 species already established, he also ignores many undescribed 

 species, which he leaves to those who shall resume the subject. 



It will be remembered that among Mr. Say's earlier species 

 was Paludina decisa. His original specimens, it is generally 

 conceded, were from the rivers of Pennsylvania or some of the 

 States on its eastern border. It is generally known that shells 

 of the same type, varying slightly with locality, are found 

 in many of the rivers of the Atlantic Slope from Virginia to 

 Canada. At a later date Mr. Say gave, as an illustration of his 

 species decisa, the figure of a shell of very different form, from 



* I regret that in a hurried review of a paper by Mr. Binney, published 

 in the " Journal de Conchyliologie," Oct. 18G7, aud noticed by me in this 

 Journal, p. 332, 1867, 1 stated that " Paludiiialineata, Kiister, is restored 

 by Mr. Binney in place of his own P. contectoides.'" Mr. Binney did not 

 make such restoration ; in a too rapid reading of the text, 1 misappre- 

 hended him. Mr. Binney is doubtless correct in asserting that Valen- 

 ciennes' species is East Indian, but the species described and figured by 

 Kiister is undoubtedly the shell to which Mr. Binney applies the name 

 contectoides, and certainly has precedence. — G. "VV. Tryon, Jr. 



