238 On a new Species of Land-Planarian. 
These are, by the direction of Sir Joseph Hooker, carefully 
preserved, and are sent to various naturalists for examination. 
The gardeners take an interest in the matter, and take care to 
bring the specimens in good condition to Mr. Thiselton 
Dyer. 
‘i received a short time since from Mr. Dyer a specimen of 
a living Land-Planarian of the genus Bipalium, which was 
thus found in one of the hothouses at Kew. A similar 
worm was discovered in the same house a year or two ago, 
and one also on a former occasion, and it seems probable that 
the species is established and breeds in the house. 
The present specimen when it reached me was in a dying 
condition, having evidently suffered from exposure to cold. 
A sketch of it, however, was made by Mr. Ray Lankester 
(who received it from Mr. Dyer) whilst it was in a healthy and 
lively condition ; and assisted by this sketch I give here a 
description of the species, which appears to be new. It is 
remarkable in the genus for its great length, which surpasses, 
so far as I know, that of all other species of Bipalium. Un- 
fortunately it is quite uncertain from what region it may have 
come, since the house in which it was found contains plants 
from various parts of the world. It will be remembered that 
Mecznikow’s Rhynchodemus (Geodesmus) bilineatus, the ana- 
tomy of which was described by that author in the Bull. Acad. 
St. Petersburg, 1865, vol. ix. p. 433, was found in a hothouse in 
the Botanic Gardens of Giessen, and was probably introduced, 
like the present species, with foreign plants. It has not been 
met with since. I have given an account of the structure of 
Land-Planarians of the genera Bipalium and Rhynchodemus in 
a paper ‘‘ On the Anatomy and Histology of the Land-Plana- 
rians of Ceylon,” published in the Phil. Trans. for 1874, 
p. 105, and some details of the structure of members of other 
genera of the family Geoplanide, and a list of all the known 
species of Land-Planarians, in a further paper, ‘On the Struc- 
ture of several Forms of Land-Planarians, &c.,” published in 
the Quart. Journ. Microsc. Sci. vol. xvi. new ser. 1877, 
p- 273. 
Bipalium kewense, sp. n. 
Body slightly rounded above, flat beneath, slightly nar- 
rower just behind the head, tapering very gradually poste- 
riorly to terminate in a long and slender hinder extremity ; 
with a narrow but well-marked ambulacral line. | Lunate 
head of moderate size, about twice as broad as the part of the 
body immediately behind it. 
General colour of the body light ochre-yellow above ; 
