346 Miscellaneous. 



argeea, Alsine recurva, Solidago Virgaurea and Podospermum inter- 

 medium rise above 3005 metres, for I found them in the fissures of 

 the abrupt rocks which pierce through the incUne of the central cone 

 and reach the most elevated region. On this naked slope, covered 

 with loose cinders and with scattered bands of snow, the four last- 

 mentioned plants are found associated vdth Euphorbia niccBensis, AH., 

 Scrophularia olympica, Boiss., Pyrethrum Kotschii, Boiss., and some 

 species of Chamcemelum, Saxifraga and Erigeron, which have not 

 been determined ; thus, without counting the latter, the seven species 

 just relerred to are the representatives of the highest regions of 

 Mount Argseus, as they all attain an altitude of 3841 metres. It is 

 interesting to observe in this number the Euphorbia nicceensis and 

 the Solidago Virgaurea, which I am in the habit of seeing so fre- 

 quently in my garden in the plain of Nice. These plants, of which 

 the horizontal development is so great, have consequently also a ver- 

 tical development of 3841 metres, flourishing indifferently in the 

 neighbourhood of the eternal snows, and beside the date-palm, the 

 Opuntia and the Agave. — Comptes Rendus, 23rd January, 1854. 



On certain Statements contained in Dr. T. Williams' Papers on the 

 Respiratory Organs of the Articulata. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, London, March 6, 1854. 



I HAVE observed with surprise and regret such a mass of erroneous 

 statements in the papers now publishing in the ' Annals ' on the 

 Respiratory Organs of the Articulata, by Dr. T. Williams, that I write 

 at once to say, that, at a future period, at my earliest convenience 

 after Dr. Williams has completed his remarks on the subject of the 

 Blood and the Respiratory Structures, I shall feel myself called upon 

 to beg for space in your Journal to attempt to remedy the injury 

 which these errors are likely to inflict on science by their promul- 

 gation. I hasten to inform you of this least it should be supposed 

 that I assent to these statements. 



I am. Gentlemen, 

 Yours very obediently, 



George Newport. 



on the genera volutella and cymbiola. 



It was formerly considered that the chief distinction between Vo- 

 liita and Marginella of Lamarck was, that one had the shell exposed, 

 and the other covered by the expanded and reflexed lobes of the 

 mantle. M. D'Orbigny, in his work on the Mollusca of South 

 America, figured the animal of Valuta angulata, and showed that 

 that species had the mantle lobes expanded and partly covering in the 

 shell ; on this character it has been formed into a genus under the name 

 of Volutella, for it differs from Marginella in having the expanded 



