PLANARIiE. 33 



been spilled. On the evening of the 23d we ar- 

 rived at Rio, having finished our pleasant little ex- 

 cursion. 



During the remainder of my stay at Rio, I re- 

 sided in a cottage at Botofogo Bay. It was im- 

 possible to wish for anything more delightful than 

 thus to spend some weeks in so magnificent a coun- 

 try. In England any person fond of natural history 

 enjoys in his walks a great advantage, by always 

 having something to attract his attention ; but in 

 these fertile climates, teeming with life, the attrac- 

 tions are so numerous, that he is scarcely able to 

 walk at all. 



The few observations which I was enabled to 

 make were almost exclusively confined to the in- 

 vertebrate animals. The existence of a division 

 of the genus Planaria, which inhabits the dryland, 

 interested me much. These animals are of so 

 simple a structure, that Cuvier has arranged them 

 with the intestinal worms, though never found 

 within the bodies of other animals. Numerous 

 species inhabit both salt and fresh water; but 

 those to which I allude were found, even in the 

 drier parts of the forest, beneath logs of rotten 

 wood, on which I believe they feed. In general 

 form they resemble little slugs, but are very much 

 narrower in proportion, and several of the species 

 are beautifully coloured with longitudinal stripes. 

 Their structure is very simple : near the middle of 

 the under or crawling surface there are two small 

 transverse slits, from the anterior one of which a 

 funnel-shaped and highly irritable mouth can be 

 protruded. For some time after the rest of the 

 animal was completely dead from the effects of 

 salt water or any other cause, this organ still re- 

 tained its vitality. ■.- - - 



Vol. L 3 



