78 Miscellaneous. 



quantities of both tar and pitch might be manufactured in the forests, 

 if a remunerative price could be obtained for the article. 



This species has been named after Captain Latter, as the dis- 

 coverer, because all our acquaintance with the tree has been derived 

 from him, beyond the vague knowledge that a tree of the pine 

 family existed somewhere on the banks of the Salwen. He reports 

 it as growing with the Engben, which is a species of Dipterocarpus 

 that is met on the sandy shores of the province of Tavoy, side by 

 side with Casuarina muricata. This pine is not found west of the 

 Donaw mountains, a part of an unbroken range of granite mountains 

 that runs down from the falls of the Salwen to the old city of Tenas- 

 serim, and which here separates the valley of the Thoungyeen from 

 the region watered by the Gyne and its tributaries. In a note to 

 the writer. Captain Latter adds : — " In the valley of the Thoungyeen 

 it is found growing on the raised central plateau of sandstone, mixed 

 up with Engben trees ; and in proportion as the elevation increases 

 the Engben disappears. In the Lower Thoungyeen, towards the re- 

 motest parts of the valley, it is found on ranges of hills west of 

 Theglar river. These are its sites on the British side of the Thoun- 

 gyeen. On the Shan side of the river it is said to be more abundant, 

 and appears to occupy the lower portion of the Toungnyoo range, 

 where the sandstone formation is more prominently developed. 

 From the accounts of Burmese foresters, who have seen the pine 

 forests on both sides of the river, the tree appears to be of a finer 

 growth on the Shan side than on the British, where trees are to be 

 found of nine feet in girth and proportionably tall. I should say 

 that on the British side of the valley the tree ranges at an altitude 

 of 1000 to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, and that its lati- 

 tude is about 17° north." 



Possibly it may prove to be a known species ; but it is not among 

 the twenty-two species described by Loudon as the denizens of Great 

 Britain, nor among the twelve species described by Michaux in his 

 * North American Sylva,' nor is it either of the Indian species de- 

 scribed by Roxburgh. Should it however be a species described in 

 some other work to which the writer in these *' outskirts of civiliza- 

 tion " has no means of access, some of the members of the Society 

 will probably be able to point out the identity ; and though then 

 this note will be no contribution to science, it will still be a contri- 

 bution to our knowledge of the resources of the Tenasserim pro- 

 vinces, — Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Jan. 1849. 



Description of a new Helix and Streptaxis, from the Collection of 

 H. Cuming, Esq. By Dr. L. Pfeiffer. 



1. Helix Strangei, Pfr. H. testd late umbilicatd, depressd, soli- 

 diusculd, superne confertim costulato-striatd, nitidd, castaneo- 

 corned, subpellucidd ; spird pariim elevatd, obtusiusculd ; anfrac- 

 tibus 5 vix convexiusculis, ultimo subdepresso, basi sublcevigato ; 

 aperturd subobliqud, lunato-ovali ; peristomate simplice, recto, ie- 

 nui, marginibus conniventibus. 



Diam. 24, altit. 10—11 mill. 



From Brisbane Water, New South Wales (Mr. Strange). 



