2 Dr. M. Schultze on the Terrestrial Planarise. 



demand for new and more detailed information upon the natural 

 history of these inhabitants of the primaeval forests has unfortu- 

 nately been very sparingly satisfied since the date of the state- 

 ments of the meritorious traveller. It therefore gave me peculiar 

 pleasure to obtain such information from an approved observer, 

 Dr. Fritz ^Killer, who has been settled for some years in the 

 colony of Blumenau in the south of Brazil, and now in Desten'O, 

 on the island of Santa Catharina. Although his statements have 

 been thrown off under unfavourable external circumstances, and 

 without those optical aids which would have been desirable, I do 

 not hesitate to publish them, as forming valuable additions to 

 our previous knowledge. I at the same time take the opportunity 

 to bring together what we know of these animals from Darwin 

 and some others, and, lastly, add the results of some microscopic 

 investigations into the intimate structure of these animals, which 

 I made upon a specimen, well preserved in spirits, brought 

 home by Dr. Burmeister, and handed over to me to be used as 

 I pleased. 



It is well known that 0. F. Midler, the founder of our know- 

 ledge of the Turbellaria, discovered a species living upon the 

 laud, under stones in moist earth, to which he gave the name of 

 Planaria terrestris (Vermium Terr, et Fluv. Hist. ii. p. 68). 

 According to the short description of this animal given by the 

 celebrated Danish zoologist, it possesses a nearly cylindrical 

 body, only somewhat flattened on the ventral surface, 8 lines in 

 length, and frds of a line in breadth ; it is blackish-grey above 

 and white beneath, and exhibits two small black eye-spots at the 

 anterior extremity. Duges saw the same species in France 

 (Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1 ser. xxi. p. 82) ; and adds to Miiller's state- 

 ments, that the position of the buccal orifice, the form of the mus- 

 cular oesophagus, the arborescent ramifications of the intestinal 

 canal, the male copulative organ, and the seminal vessels, agree 

 with the same parts in our freshwater species. 



As far as I am aware, my friend Fritz Miiller is the only 

 person who has since this period met with the animal, which is 

 certainly a rarity. It was in the neighbourhood of Grimmen, 

 near Greifswakl, that several specimens were discovered under 

 stones; they were unfortunately only examined with the lens, 

 but exhibited all the parts desci'ibed by Duges. 



In the following, I have brought together F. Miiller's state- 

 ments regarding the Terrestrial Planarice of Brazil, which have 

 reached me in various letters : — 



" Points of agreement with the Planaria of fresh water are, 

 the position of the buccal orifice towards the hinder third of the 

 lower surface of the body, and also the dendrocoelar nature of 

 the intestine ; in the latter, there are the ordinary three branches. 



