SUBJECT CONTINUED. 



concentric blue and yellow rings, like those in a 

 peacock's tail. The flowers too, though various in 

 shape, are generally of a dazzling white, or pale 

 yellow, but the fruit is in one species round, in 

 another oval, in a third oblong, in a fourth egg- 

 shaped and growing in brilliant gold and purple- 

 coloured clusters. 



The Poto or Kinkajou (Pottos caudivolvulus), 

 resembles, in his physiognomy and natural disposi- 

 tion, the active and graceful Lemur. But his organs 

 of mastication and of motion are widely different. 

 His claws and canine teeth are like those of the car- 

 nivorous animals, but then his long prehensile tail 

 bears no affinity to theirs. If some characteristic 

 traits connect him with the bears and coati, his coun- 

 tenance and disposition are not the same. The 

 proper station of his family seems to be imme- 

 diately after the Quadrumana, between which 

 and the carnivorous tribes, he might establish a 

 new connecting link. Links, indeed, there are, 

 which seem to bind the visible creation into one. 

 They resemble the threads that compose the tissue 

 of an immense and ingenious piece of net-work. 

 Nor does there exist a more curious subject of re- 

 search than these connecting links between various 

 orders, genera, and species. We have reason to 

 believe that a gradual and unbroken gradation of 

 living creatures ascends from the rock-adhering 

 zoophyte to the higher species of mammalia, and a 

 sufficient number are everywhere perceptible to 

 convince us that a kind of circular chain unites the 

 numerous branches of the great family of earth to- 



