244 Miscellaneous. 



The Keitloa (Rhinaster keitloa). By Dr. J. E. Gray. 



The Keitloa, wliich was first described bj Camper from a head 

 received from the Cape of Good Hope, was regarded by Cuvier as 

 the adult of the common Eovili {R. bicornis) ; but he had only 

 seen the figure of the skull which he copies as that of an adult 

 Cape-Rhinoceros in his work on fossil bones. Dr. Andrew Smith 

 described it from living specimens, and showed, by the development 

 of its horns, the general form of its body, and habit, that it was a 

 distinct species, recognized by the natives ; but cabinet zoologists 

 who have even visited Africa, and must have seen the animal alive, 

 persisted in regarding it as the same as the Bovili or M. bicornis. 



The British Museum has lately purchased a complete skeleton of 

 an adult female which Mr. Jesse obtained in Abyssinia ; and the 

 comparison of the skull with that of the Bovili (B. bicornis) in the 

 British Museum, which was obtained from Mr. Petherick, proves 

 that they are most distinct species, and that Camper's figure is a 

 correct representation of the skull of the Keitloa. The skull of the 

 Keitloa is much more solid and heavy than that of the Bovili, though 

 tliis is partly dependent on the age of the animal; but still I am 

 inclined to regard it as characteristic. The face, forehead, and 

 crown are much wider than in the skull of the Bo^dli, the sides 

 of the face being convex, and not flat as in that species; and the fore- 

 head under the hinder horn is convex and shelving on the sides, and 

 this part is flat in the skull of the Bovili. In fact the Keitloa is evi- 

 dently a most distinct and well-marked species, the skull having a 

 very different appearance, especially when looked at on the crown. 



Though the natives give the two Rhinoceroses each a distinct name, 

 the generality of African travellers confound the two browsing 

 species together under the name of the Black Rhinoceros of the 

 forest and bush, as distinct from the Mahoohoo or White Rhinoceros 

 of the grassy i)lains. 



Organogenic investigation of Eupomatia. By H. Baillon. 



The Eupomatioi, the exceptioiial organization and multiple affinities 

 of which have occupied so much of the attention of botanists since 

 the time of Robert Brown, may be studied from an organogenic point 

 of view now that one species of the genus is cultivated in our hot- 

 houses. This investigation reveals some imexpected facts, which, 

 indeed, could only be made known by it. 



It shows, among other things, that the flowers of these plants lodge 

 in their concave receptacle a truly poJycarpie gynascium ; that what 

 has been described as a single areolated stigma merely represents a 

 portion of the dorsal Avail of the ovaries ; that the stigmata are in- 

 dependent of each other and equal in number to the carpels ; and, 

 what would be most inadmissible a priori, that these flowers are 

 destitute of a true perianth, a single modified leaf acting the part of 

 the protective agent of the sexual organs. As the consequence of 

 these observations we obtain this fact, that the Ei(pomatice, an ab- 

 normal genus among the Annonaceiie, both in the form of their floral 

 receptacle and in the mode of insertion of their stamina, serve as a 



