C H I L O P O D A CHINCHILLID^;. 



like brushes. The legs are twenty-four in number. 

 The genus Polyxemts, Latreille, belongs to this family. 

 The type is found in profusion beneath the bark of 

 trees. 



1, Glomeris marginatus. 2, Armadillo viilgaris. 



. CHILOPODA (Latreille; Syngnatlia, Leach). 

 An order of wingless insects, corresponding with the 

 Linnasan genus Scolojiendra, and distinguished by 

 having the body of a leathery-tike texture, and 

 depressed, and the antennae composed of fourteen or 

 more joints. See CENTIPEDES and CUILOGNATHA. 

 Having, in the former of these articles, given an 

 account of the structure and habits of the animals of 

 which this order is composed, it only remains for us, 

 in this place, to give a short sketch of their classifica- 

 tion. 



Dr. Leach, in the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia 

 Brittanica, has divided this order into three families. 



1st, The Ccrmntada: (Inccqnipedes of Latreille's 

 Cours d' Eutouiologie), having the body proportion- 

 ably short, with the upper surface protected by eight 

 plates, and with the under divided into fifteen semi- 

 segments, each bearing a pair of legs, terminated by a 

 very long and multi-articulate tarsus. This family, 

 which is composed of the single genus Cermatia, is 

 formed of exotic insects, frequently found in houses 

 under beams or joists of the wood work, running with 

 great velocity, and often losing many of its legs when 

 seized. 



'2nd, The Scolopendridts^JEquipedes, Latreille), hav- 

 ing the body, divided both in its upper and under 

 surface, into an equal number of segments ; the legs 

 short and of nearly equal size, the posterior pairs 

 being but little longer than the anterior. Here 

 belong the true Centipedes, Sco/o/xndra, and the 

 genera Cryplops and Lithobius, of each of which there 

 are British species. 



3rd, The Geojrfiilidce (united with the latter by 

 Latreille), and having a very great number of equal 

 sized legs, the body being narrow and almost filiform, 

 each segment bearing two pairs of legs. Some species 

 are luminous, as the Gcophi/ut elect ricus. Figures ol 

 Geophilus longkvrnis, and of Lit/uAiiis forcipatus, two 

 British species, serving as types of those two families, 

 will be found in our article CENTIPEDES. 



CHIMONANTHUS (Lindley). A fine orna- 

 mental flowering shrub, a native of China and Japan ; 

 Linn&an class and order Icosandria Polygynia ; 

 natural order Rosacea:. Generic character : perianth 

 scaled; outer lobes like bractas, inner lobes resem- 

 bling petals; corolla, none; stamens inserted in the 

 fleshy throat of the perianthe ; exterior ones perfect 

 and small ; anthers adnate and two-celled, interior 

 like threads and downy ; styles several and filiform. 

 This plant, on its first introduction into Europe, was 

 called Calycanthus prcecojc ; afterwards described as 

 Mcralia, by Loiseleur Deslongchamps, in his Flora 

 Gallica ; but finally named by Lindley in the Botani- 

 cal Register. 



25 



This plant is greatly esteemed by the Chinese, not 

 only for its early flowering and fragrance, but for some 

 medical extract obtained from it, and which is parti- 

 cularly available in counteracting the virulence of the 

 small-pox, so much dreaded by that smooth-faced 

 people. It is almost hardy enough to bear the open 

 air in this country ; but as it flowers in winter, and as 

 Frost tarnishes the blossoms, the best way to see it in 

 beauty, is to give it a place in the conservatory, or 

 against a south wall in the flower garden. Mr. Sweet 

 states that there are three varieties or species in 

 the London collections, all of which thrive in any kind 

 of garden soil. The plants are usually raised from 

 layers, or by young cuttings planted in sand under a 

 lass, and placed in hotbed heat. Seeds sometimes 

 ripen in this country, whence seedlings are easily 

 raised. 



CH1NCHILLIDJE. The chinchilla family, an 

 exceedingly interesting, and, in so far as individuals 

 are concerned, a remarkably numerous group of 

 rodentia, or gnawing animals, inhabiting the southern 

 parts chiefly of South America. The fur of one 

 species (lanigera), has been known and highly prized 

 for a considerable number of years ; but it is not very 

 long since much was known in Europe, either of the 

 animals themselves, or even of the country of which 

 they -.vere natives. 



It has now, however, been tolerably well ascertained 

 that there are three distinct species, if, indeed, they 

 ought not rather to be, as they sometimes have been 

 considered as separate genera. 



They all belong to the herbivorous division of gnaw- 

 ing animals, and their teeth are adapted for bruising 

 the hard and dry vegetation upon which, from the 

 peculiarity of their native regions, they are sometimes 

 obliged to subsist, as well as on the more succulent 

 leaves which they can procure in the season of 

 growth. They are all gentle and inoffensive animals, 

 spending great part of their time in their burrows 

 under ground, though in many parts of the plains 

 their burrows are so very numerous, that the horses 

 of travellers and hunters are in constant danger of 

 stepping into them, and throwing their riders, and 

 fracturing their legs. 



At one time they were confounded with the 

 hamsters (cricetia"), to which they have a good many 

 points of resemblance ; but still, in their appearance 

 their structure, and their locality, they are fully 

 entitled to rank as a distinct family, and a family 

 which gave no small portion of its original character 

 to the zoology of the district in which they are found, 

 Nor is it a little remarkable, that two portions of the 

 world, which, from the geographical antipodes to each 

 other, at least, as nearly as any two portions of land 

 of considerable extent should have a remarkable 

 coincidence in their mammalia, even although in 

 climate, as well as in local position, they differ very 

 much. Siberia, especially the southern parts of the 

 steppes, which lie near the bases of the Altaian moun- 

 tains, have, in many respects, a structural resemblance 

 to the pampas or plains which lie between the Rio- 

 de-la-Plata, and the southern Andes. Both arc flat, 

 and composed in great part of sand. Both are, in 

 many places, burnt up at one season of the year, 

 and covered with rich herbage at another, and both 

 are but thinly inhabited, in consequence of the paucity 

 of their productions as serviceable to man ; but both 

 contain an immense number of herbivorous rodentia. 

 In respect of its fur animals, Siberia is, indeed, a sort 



