1832.] PLANARI/E. 25 



village of Maclre de Deos. This is one of the principal lines of road 

 in Brazil ; yet it was in so bad a state that no wheeled vehicle, 

 excepting the clumsy bullock-waggon, could pass along. In our 

 whole journey we did not cross a single bridge built of stone ; and 

 thoso made of logs of wood were frequently so much out of repair, 

 that it was necessary to go on one side to avoid them. All distances 

 are inaccurately known. The road is often marked by crosses, in 

 the place of milestones, to signify where human blood has been 

 spilled. On the evening of the 23rd wo arrived at Rio, having 

 finished our pleasant little excursion. 



During the remainder of my stay at Eio, I resided in a cottage 

 at Botofogo Bay. It was impossible to wish for anything more 

 delightful than thus to spend some weeks in so magnificent a 

 country. 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 attractions 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 invertebrate animals. The existence of 

 a division of the genus Planaria, which inhabits the dry land, 

 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 

 pause, this organ still retained its vitality. 



I found no less than twelve different species of terrestrial 

 Planarire in different parts of the southern hemisphere.* Some 



* I have described and named these species in the Annals of Nat, 

 Hist., vol. xiv. p. 241. 



