R E E V E S I A R E P T I L E. 



Fabricius, Laporte, Burmeister, &c., the chief of which 

 are lied units, Zcltts, P/oir/ria, Nnbis, Petalochirus, 

 Hofdfttihts, &c. The genus Reduvius is distinguished 

 by the elongate-oval form of the body, the moderate 

 length of the legs, the anterior tibia) are provided 

 n-ith a cushion at the tip, and the antenna? are four- 

 jointed. The type is the Redimns personatus, Linn., 

 which is about two-thirds of an inch long, of a brown- 

 ish-black colour without spots. It is generally found 

 in houses. 



REEVESIA (Lindley). A Chinese plant bearing 

 monadelphous flowers, and belonging to the natural 

 order Bythwriaccce. It thrives in any light rich soil, 

 and may be increased by cuttings, 



RENANTHERA(Loureiro) is a splendid genus 

 belonging to the parasitical Orchidaccce. The plant 

 is grown in damp moss in a warm stove, and flowers 

 freely. 



RENEALMIA (Dr. Brown). A genus of orna- 

 mental perennial herbs, natives of New Holland. The 

 flowers are triandrous, and the genus is arranged 

 among the Iridete. The species, of which there are 

 three already described, are cultivated in the stove, 

 and thrive in turfy-loam and heath-mould. 



REPTILE (JReptiKa). A class of vertebrated 

 animals, and the third in succession in most of the 

 systems, the place being between the birds and fishes. 

 The name " reptile," is derived from the Greek word 

 signifying to crawl or creep ; and thus it is not very 

 descriptive of the whole of the order, neither does it 

 express a kind of motion which is peculiar to ^hose 

 animals which the order includes. Among verte- 

 brated animals, indeed, there are not any that can be 

 called creeping animals, except the creeping reptiles ; 

 but, when we come to the invertebrated animals, we 

 find very many that crawl or creep. Among reptiles, 

 too, there is to be found every kind of motion which 

 is found among any of the other three orders of ver- 

 tebrated animals ; but it is not performed by means 

 of organs exactly similar, or in exactly the same style. 

 Thus, for instance, many reptiles walk, run, or leap, 

 and some of them with great agility ; but their limbs, 

 though they consist of nearly the same number of 

 bones, are not articulated like those of the mammalia. 

 The limbs of a reptile have always something the air 

 of supplemental bones stuck upon the body of it, and 

 not parts of the whole as one harmonious organisa- 

 tion. Some reptiles are capable of performing a sort 

 of flight ; but they do it by means of membranes, and 

 not of any organs resembling wings properly so 

 called. Those that swim, and many of them are ex- 

 cellent swimmers, do not perform that motion by any 

 thing resembling fins, but by the flexure of the body 

 or the action of the limbs. Even the creeping or 

 crawling of reptiles is different from that of the in- 

 vertebrated animals, chiefly Mollusca and Annellidcs, 

 which perform the same description of motion. In 

 both of these, there is an alternate " holding on," by 

 means either of different portions of one sucker-like 

 foot, or of two such organs, at different parts of the 

 animal ; and the real motion is performed by the 

 alternate lengthening ami shortening of the body. 

 The possession of a vertebral column prevents any 

 lengthening or shortening of the body in reptiles, 

 and, therefore, those which have no feet, perform 

 these motions by means of flexures of the body, 

 though in many of the species this motion is so rapid 

 that they seem to glide along. In order to produce 

 these, there must be a concentration of muscles on 



the spine. This, however, though it holds in many 

 of the genera, by no means holds in all the class ; for 

 there are three of the four orders into which it is 

 divided, which have but little motion of the dorsal 

 part of the spine, and some which have none at all. 

 In the class of reptiles, therefore, we are unable to lay 

 hold of any general character of the organisation or the 

 mechanical action, which will carry us through the 

 great majority, and thus enable us to see their place 

 and use in the world, before we come to divide and 

 distract our attention with the details. 



There are swimming mammalia, and there are 

 mammalia which can perform a sort of flight ; but, 

 notwithstanding this, any one who takes a general view 

 of the mammalia as a class, can be at no loss to say 

 that they are the inhabitants of the land or solid parts 

 of the earth's surface. If the examination is con- 

 tinued until it becomes more minute and runs into 

 the differences which appear among the order of the 

 groups and sections, it only requires a corresponding 

 knowledge of the different parts of the land itself, to 

 say where each of these shall find its appropriate habi- 

 tation ; and the few mammalia, in comparison with the 

 whole number, that are inhabitants of the water, are 

 just as easily pointed out, as it is to decide when we 

 see an ape and an antelope, " That climbs a tree by 

 grasping with the hands, and this bounds along over 

 firm surface of the earth." 



There are also some birds which have not only got 

 no flying feathers, but which have got the bones of 

 the wing-s merely rudimental and enclosed within the 

 skin of the body ; and there are some others which 

 have the wings more like swimming flaps than like 

 instruments for moving through the air ; yet, when 

 we take a general view of the class, we have not the 

 least doubt or hesitation in coming to the conclusion 

 that there are creatures which, upon the whole, are 

 fashioned for making their way through the atmo- 

 sphere. Even in the case ot the wingless and the 

 flap-winged ones, we come nearly to the same con- 

 clusion ; and upon examining them we feel that, if 

 a little more were added to them, they would quit 

 the earth or the waters and soar aloft. If we go into 

 the details here also, we have no difficulty in inferring 

 the locality from the structure, and pronouncing one 

 to be of slow flight, and another of rapid that one 

 is a tree bird, another an air bird, a third a ground 

 bird, and a fourth a water bird. It must be admitted 

 that from mere examination of the structure of birds, 

 we cannot so well tie them down to geographical 

 localities, as we can so tie down the mammalia. This 

 we might expect from the nature of the element in 

 which birds move. The air circulates freely round 

 the whole of our planet ; and the very same portion 

 of nitrogen which is given out in breathing by a man 

 at London, may, after uniting again with the requi- 

 site quantity of oxygen, be breathed by a man at the 

 antipodes, after the lapse of no very great number of 

 months, or even of days. Therefore, it is perfectly 

 natural to conclude, that the bird which can ride in 

 the air as in a chariot, should partake something in 

 the discursive power of that chariot ; and that the 

 bird which is under the line at one season of the year, 

 should be near the margin of the polar ice at another. 

 But this does not prevent us from easily arriving at 

 the general place which birds occupy in the system 

 of nature, or the particular place of any one genus, 

 family, or other division or sub-division, which has 

 in its different members so many characters in com- 



