7402 MoUusks. 



named cliffs, this species cannot rightly be considered a moisture-loving raollusk. It 

 rather appears that this animal prefers a station where an intermediate condition of not 

 too wet and not too dry is the order of things. H. hispidus occurs in wet places in 

 the neighbourhood, but no H. revelata in its company. From the preceding notes 

 maybe gleaned of H. revelata, /rs<, it is a plentiful species at Whiisand Cliffs; 

 secondly, this shell is full grown late in autumn, as dead shells in good condition, 

 in great numbers, were found in early winter; thirdly, superabundant moisture, as 

 well as an arid state, are not congenial to its development, as the species shuns both 

 conditions. — /. /. Reading ; Plymouth, January 15, 1861. 



The new British Physa. — It is with pleasure I see this mollusk, which has been a 

 subject of controversy with me for several years, has stood the test of a thorough 

 examiuation and proved to be distinct, and feel that I must add my testimony to its 

 claim to rank as a true Briton. It was about four years since, when collecting fresh- 

 water Mollusca, that I first found this species, and was struck with its apparent 

 difference from anything I had, but, being quite a novice in Conchology, was unable 

 to point out its minute distinctions. I therefore brought it to the notice of several 

 conchologists of my acquaintance, and they declared it to be Physa fontinalis; with 

 this decision T was, however, not satisfied, and kept the specimens apart, carefully 

 labelling the locality. Upon coming to Kew last spring, I immediately recognised 

 my old acquaintance — namely, the Physa— in the tanks used for aquatic plants .in 

 the Botanic Gardens, and pointed it out to Mr. Choules, and he, upon referring to 

 his journal, found that many years since he bad collected plants for these tanks in the 

 locality I mentioned to him, and without a doubt the Physa must have been brought 

 with them, where it had remained unknown and uncared for till last summer. The 

 notice sent by Mr. Choules (Zool. 7278) has led to its identity by gentlemen whose 

 authority we cannot doubt. In answer to Mr. Dalton's query, I can state that con- 

 finement in the tanks does not by any means tend to develop the spire to an un- 

 natural extent ; the specimens sent to Mr. Norman were the average size to which it 

 attains in its native habitat, but one specimen I have in particular is a much l.irger 

 shell than any I have seen in the tanks. It is by no means common in its natural 

 locality, the few specimens I have and those sent for examination being, I think, all 

 that are at present known; but I cannot conceive it at all probable that it has been 

 introduced to the little spot where, four years ago, I first found this new addition to 

 the British Mollusca. — William Hugh Gower; 3, Park Cottages, Kew. 



Paludina vivipara not invariably viviparous. — That the specific name of this 

 mollusk is not (invariably at least) descriptive a sufiicient proof has just occurred in a 

 fresh-water aquarium, inhabited by several individuals for many months past. 

 A remarkably fine specimen has deposited some large semi-transparent eggs, from 

 which, I have every reason to believe, the young emerged in a day or so afterwards: 

 they were visible within their covering, and afterwards in the neighbourhood of the 

 deserted membrane. The little creatures (it may not be new to observe) are, at this 

 early age, clothed all over the shell with pellucid hairs, and a row of spines remains, 

 imtil they are about half-grown, surrounding the middle of each volution, but at 

 length they appear to become quite smooth. Those lately excluded are, at the present 

 time, very elegant objects, the shell delicately ornamented with the spiral brown lines, 

 which, in the parents, become partially obscured by some vegetation accumulating 

 upon them, the more, perhaps, from their extremely sluggish habits in keeping long 

 quite motionless at the bottom of the water. Possibly in the summer, and in the 



