1 HI HVOSI AGONES. 



ICTIDES. 



A enecfcnen of thb specie* in UM Britimh MuMum meaaures 15 feet 

 U wagA. and wa* obtained by Miu Auning at Lyme Regis. The 

 frrn interest of this foesil consists in Uio fnct that the part* of the 

 o luoidM ere in a elate of preaervatiun. 



/. iesytreem*. A speeimen from Wbitl.y ii about 6 feet in length. 

 It has a remarkably Blender aod elongated muxzle. It U not otherwise 

 ID a well-preserved condition, and Dr. Mutell *ay* that it U not 



/. Uitfrvm, (Kuoig). It U chancteriKd by the great breadth of 

 the for* part of UM cranium and the Urge sue of the parietal foramen. 

 The periphery of UM vertebra U flatter than in thoao of other specie*. 

 The upper portion of the circle of iclerotic plates remains in the 

 orbit in UM specimen in UM MuMum. 



With rtfard to UM geological distribution of these animali, they 

 abound throughout UM Lias and Oolitic Formations. The chief repo- 

 aitory ha* been hitherto cooaidered to be in the Lias at Lyme Regis, 

 bat as Dr. Bockland states, they abound along the whole extent of 

 this formation throughout England, from the couU of Dorset, through 

 Somemt and Leicestershire, to the coast of Yorkshire. The Lias of 

 Ocrmany and Franc* contain* them. " The range of the genus 

 Ickikyotamrtu," cays Dr. BucUand, " seems to hare begun with the 

 Muacbelkalk, and to have extended through the whole of the Oolitic 

 p- riod into the Cretaceous Formation. The most recent stratum in 

 which any r. rnmii.s of this genus have yet been found is the Chalk 

 Marl at 1 t-'.vrr, where they bare bean discovered by Dr. Hantell : I have 

 found them in the Oault near Benson, Oxon." (' Bridgewater Treatise.') 



1' HTHYOSIA'GONES (RUppel), one of tbe many names (na 

 Aptyclxu, Von Mayer; Solcnita and Ttlliniin, Schlotheim; Trvjund- 

 liltt, I'arkinson ; Ltfadittt, Germar) which have been given to the 

 pair of shelly bodies found in many of the Ooolitic Itocks, and not 

 unfre>|uently in the mouths of AmmonUa at Solenhofun, so as to prove 

 their connection with the animal which inhabited that shell. By 

 Huppell and YolU they were conceived to form an operculum. The 

 two valve* meet on a strait toothless binge-line, their free edges 

 forming the remaining two sides of a triangle rounded at its apex. 

 The substance of UM shell is transversely fibrous ; its inner surface 

 concentrically striated with linn of growth. (Parkinson, Org. Jtem., 

 pLxiii. fia.9, 10,12.) 



1'CICA, agenus of Plants belonging to the natural order Burieracca. 

 It has a small obtusely 5-toothed calyx ; 5 petals inserted under the 

 disc, recurved, sessile, valvate; 10 stamens shorter than the petals 

 inserted with them; a cup-shaped disc with 10 crenatures at the 

 margin ; a sessile fi-celled ovary with two collateral pendulous ovules 

 in each cell ; a very short style ; a 5-angled stigma ; a globose obtuse 

 1-3 celled drupe with thick and fleshy dissepiments ; resinoua seeds 

 without albumen. The species are shrubs or trees with unequally 

 pinnate leaves, and white flower* Mated on panicled racemes which 

 are terminal or axillary. 



/. ktitnjJtfUa has ternate or pinnate leaves, with stalked, ovate, 

 acuminated, entire, simply-veined leaflets ; the racemes simple, rather 

 shorter than UM leaves. This plant is the /. Aracouckini of Aublet 

 It a tree 60 foet in height, growing in Guyana, on the banks of 

 UM river Couron, where it is called by the natives Aracouchiui. 

 Whan an incision is made in the bark of this tree a yellow balsamic 

 armnatic fluid exudes, which retains its fluidity a long time after 

 exposure to UM air. This fluid is used by the Guyanese as an appli- 

 cation to wound*. A resin is found also in the needs, and the natives 

 of Guyana carry the nuts about with them on account of the scent 

 they give out. These nut* they often send as presents to their friends. 

 The larib* also UM the exudation for mixing with oil, with which 

 they anoint their bodies. 



/. krptapkiUa has 5-7-stalkcd oblong acuminated leaflets, with the 

 racemes few-flowered, somewhat corymbose, and six times shorter 

 than UM petiole. It U a small tree, a native of the woods of Guyana, 

 who* it u called Arbre d'Knoen*. The whole plant is sweet-scented, 

 and like UM last apMie* yields a clear balsamic fluid when it is woiinl,.! 

 It is burned as a perfume, and used a* a remedy in dysentery. Tim 

 esede an contained in a viscid pulp which hardens into a gray resin, 

 and is nsd by the natives for burning as a perfume. The Carib name 

 of this Uw is Aronaou. 



There an several specie* of Idea, all of which yield the same 

 transparent fluid, resembling ttirjwntiiK) in many of its properties. 

 /. /aeerioa, a native of Braxil, yields a rcniu, which is brought 

 into UM market under the name of Gum Klenii, but is not the true 

 gntn of that name. /. dtemdra is found in the wood* of Guyana, 

 where it is called Chipa. The fluid which exudes from it yields on 

 evaporation a resin. /. aJuuima grows in Guyana. There are two 

 TariUse of this tree, known by the name of White Cedar and Red 

 Cedar. The latter I* a very durable wood, and is used for making 

 household furniture, boata, canoes, Ac. 



(Don, JMcAteatnlemu Plmlt ; Burnett, Outiina of Botany ; Lindley, 

 /ten) Unlit*.) 



Hi A, one ..f the rlaescs In the sexual system of Botany 

 invented by Unnanu. The name literally means 20 stamen*, but it 

 wa only applied by Uniurui to plants having an indefinite number 

 of Mamma inserted Into the calyx. 



1< IKKCH. 



1 '(.'TIDES, a name given by M. Valenciennes to the Beuturongs, a 

 genus of Plantigrade Mammalia, which F. Cuvier hud previously 

 referred to the genus Paradojmnu. It U the A relict it of Temniinck. 



F. Cuvier, in his 'Dent* dis Mnumiife-ren,' states that be pub- 

 lished, under the name of Paradoxurtu albifroni, in the 9th volume of 

 the ' Mcmoires du Museum,' the figure of an animal which had been 

 sent to him from Calcutta by M. Alfred Duraucel ; and that he con- 

 jectured, from the external characters and the general physiognomy, 

 that the animal which it represented belonged to the genus Paradox- 

 tna. Having subsequently examined the teeth (an examination 

 which he states he owed to M. Valenciennes, who had found the skin 

 and the head of the animal in the cabinet of Brussels, and had 

 obtained them through the complaisance of the director, M. Drapier), 

 F. Cuvier states tbat there is much resemblance in the dentition 

 to that of Paradoxurut. Ictidet belongs, he thinks, to the family of 

 Civet*, which is characterised by a tubercular molar tooth in the 

 lower jaw, and by two similar molars in the upper jaw ; and he thinks 

 tbat it is ' sans contredit ' most approximated to Paradofuna. though 

 it approaches Procyon nearer than that genus, that is to fay, the teeth 

 of Ictidei show an increase of thickness, and have become more tuber- 

 culous. He places it between the Civets, &c.. and the Suricates. 



Cuvier, who gives Ictidet a position between Ailunu [PANDA] and 

 the Coatia (A'tuita), gays that it still bears some resemblance to Procyon 

 in its dentition; but he remarks that the last three molars of the 

 upper jaw are much smaller and less tuberculous, and that this i.i 

 especially true of the last of all in each jaw, which is very small and 

 nearly simple. 



Dr. J. E. Gray gives Arct!ctii as a synonym of Ictlda, in his sub- 

 family I'li'crri'na, the fourth of his family Felidtt. 



M. Lesson thinks that the genus approaches nearer to Procyon than 

 to Paradoxuriu, hut he arranges it between A iluna and Paradoxunu. 



Mr. Swoinson, adopting Temminck's name, which, if it appeared 

 first with a generic description, ought to be retained, makes the form 

 the first genus of his family Didclphidas, or Opossums, observing that 

 it is not marsupial. 



It has the following characters : Head rather short, muzzle 

 pointed ; ears, which are small, tufted with long hairs ; tail long, 

 hairy, prehensile ; feet with five toes on each foot. 



Dental Formula : Incisors, ; canines, 1-. ; molars, -H? = 36. 

 6 1 1 5 5 



Teeth of IrlUei. F. Cuvii r. 

 One-tUlti larger than nature. 



