436 Dr. E. P. Wright on the Bats of the Seychelles. 



the drupe, siibglobose, 4-grooved, slightly compressed, is 1 line 

 in diameter, with a polished submembranaceous lax pericarp, 

 apparently filled with mucilaginous juice which disappears in 

 drying, enclosing four nucules, as before explained, attached 

 to a membranaceous ventricose central column.* 



3. Rhahdia viminea^ Dalz. in Hook. Icon. tab. 823 ;-^Ehretia 

 (Xerodema) viminea. Wall, Cat. 906 ; D G. Prodr. ix. 569 ; 

 — Ehretia cuneata, Wightj Icon. iv. tab. 1385 ; — ramosa, 

 ramis teretibus, vimineis, adpresse setosis ; foliis alternis, 

 copiosis, cuneato-oblongis, apice rotundatis et brevissime 

 mucronatis, supra glabris, subtus adpresse setosis ; petiolo 

 limbo 10-plo breviore : racemis in ramulis novellis termi- 

 nalibus, brevissimis, 2-3-floris ; pedicellis brevibus, imo 

 bracteatis ; sepalis lanceolatis, pilosis ; corolla breviter tu- 

 bulosa, limbi lobis oblongis, apice rotundatis, campanulatira 

 expansis ; antheris lineari-oblongis, exsertis ; drupa parva, 

 pallida. — In India orientali, prow. Martaban, Madras, et 

 Malabar. 



This, according to Dr. Wight, is a small, very branching 

 shrub, growing on the sandy banks of rivers, like the two 

 preceding species. The drawings of Wight and Hooker quite 

 agree in all points of structure with the figures given by Mar- 

 tins of the typical species. The axils are 2-3 lines apart ; 

 the leaves are 8-10 lines long, 3-3-J lines broad, on a petiole 

 ^ line long ; the flowering branchlets are ^-J inch long ; the 

 sepals are lanceolate, canaliculate at the apex, 3 lines long ; 

 there is no disk ; the form and structure of the ovary, style, 

 fruit, and albuminous seeds as in the typical species. 



LVI. — Notes on the Bats of the Seychelle Growp of Islands. 

 By Ed. Perceval Wright, M.D., F.L.S., Professor of 

 Zoology, Trinity College, Dublin. 



The Seychelle Islands would appear to be destitute of Mam- 

 malia, if we except two species belonging to the order Cheiro- 

 ptera. One of these is the well-known Pteropus Edwardsii^ 

 which is very common on all the islands of the group. The 

 Flying Fox is a favourite food of the Creole inhabitants : I 

 never shot a specimen that the body was not eagerly demanded 

 by my cook. When skinned within a few minutes after death, 

 and roasted the same day, the flesh, though dark, is very good. 

 I have often seen and several times shot these bats flying in 

 strong sunlight between 8 and 10 in the morning ; but though 



* A representation of this species, with ample structural details, will 

 be given in Plate 84 of the * Contributions to Botany.' 



