228 Miscellaneous, 



New Reptiles from Chili^ Brazil, and Persia. 

 By Dr. Steindachner. 



1. Hemipodion Kotschyanum, nov. gen. et sp. (Fam. Scincoidei). 

 — Body much elongated ; extremities slightly developed, the anterior 

 with three, the posterior with two toes of unequal length ; nasals 

 divided ; no supranasal shield ; ear-orifice not visible ; inferior eye- 

 lid with a transparent disk ; palate without teeth ; scales smooth ; 

 brown points in regular lines on the sides of the body and on the 

 tail. From Persia. 



2. Dromicus chilensis, sp. n. — Scales in twenty-three rows ; three 

 postocular shields ; back brown, with four yellow longitudinal lines, 

 of which the upper ones extend to the posterior end of the upper 

 margin of the eye. From Chili. 



3. Geoptyas coll arts, sp. n. — Nearly allied to Geopfyas (Cory- 

 phodon) pantherinus. Scales in seventeen rows ; black streaks on the 

 hinder margins of the 4-7th upper labial shields and corresponding 

 lower labials ; a black band running obliquely backwards and 

 downwards on each side of the neck. From Brazil. 



4. Geoptyas Jlaviventris, sp. n. — Back light brown, sometimes 

 with regular black transverse lines, without black streaks and bands 

 on the head and neck ; belly light yellow. From Brazil. 



5. Liophis pulcher, sp. n. — Black oval transverse spots, between 

 which smaller ones are placed, on each side of the body, and reach- 

 ing down to the last but three of the longitudinal rows of scales 

 (counting from the ventral margin). A broad black band on each 

 side of the head, extending from the posterior margin of the eye to 

 the neck, and then united by a transverse band with that of the 

 opposite side. Scales on the body in nineteen rows ; eight supra- 

 labial shields ; anal shield divided ; ventral shields 193. From Chili. 

 — Anzeiger der Akad, d. W^iss. in Wien, February 7, 1867, pp. 40- 

 41. 



On the Nature of Anthers. 



J. MuUer, the elaborator of the Euphorbiaceae for DeCandolle's 

 Prodromus, has published three brief papers in the * Memoires de la 

 Socie'te de Phys. et d'Hist. Nat. de Geneve,' upon points relative to 

 the anther, which fell under his observation in the progress of his 

 work. The first is a case in which the anther had reverted to a 

 leaf, giving evidence that this organ is homologous with a plane 

 lamina, its margins or Hue of dehiscence answering to the margins of 

 a leaf. The second is upon the trilocular anther of Pachystemon, 

 neatly showing that this (and, by just analogy, the three-celled anther 

 of Ayenia also) is not a combination, but answers to a single leaf. 

 The third exhibits the double flexure, in the bud, of the apex of the 

 filament in Cephalocroton, the anther remaining upright, as con- 

 trasted with the inverted anthers of Croton. — Silliman's American 

 Journal, January 1867. 



