Collection of Shells, Minerals, &fc. 23' 



of fine fruits, and in person attends to the various operations ne- 

 cessary to the successful growth of all the good fruits that can be 

 I'aised in this climate. His selection of plums, pears, cherries, 

 peaches and apples, is equal in variety and excellence to any in the 

 western country. The cultivation and study of one branch of nat- 

 ural history, often creates a taste for the rest. Accordingly, my 

 friend has turned his attention to botany, conchology, and min- 

 eralogy. His collection of fresh water and land shells is very valu- 

 able, embracing nearly all the described species found in the west. 

 They are neatly arranged in cases, and each shell deposited in 

 a movable plaster cell, so that they can be examined separately 

 without soiling or displacing the specimen. His collection of ma- 

 rine shells, minerals, and fossil organic remains, is also very in- 

 teresting. The value of the fresh water collection is much enhan- 

 ced, from having been made principally with his own hands, 

 from the rivers and ponds in the northern part of Ohio, This 

 has given him an opportunity to discover the hidden retreats and 

 haunts of the molluscous races, while searching for specimens, and 

 thus he has been enabled to learn a great deal of their natural 

 history and habits. He was the first to discover the distinction of 

 the sexes in these animals, from the difference in the outlines of 

 their shelly coverings, as noticed in the 26th volume of this Jour- 

 nal. Since that time he has continued his observations, by dissec- 

 tions at different periods of gestation, developing the ova in their 

 various stages, and observing the females of various species, in the 

 act of throwing them off per saltum, while lying on their sides, in 

 shoal water. By the aid of a lens, they are found to be viviparous, 

 and not oviparous, as was generally believed by naturalists. After 

 exposing the roe, or oviducts, to the rays of the sun, the valves of 

 the young shell separate, and can be distinctly seen with the naked 

 eye. It is thought by Dr. K. that all our Uniones and other bivalve 

 shells are distinguished by sexes, and that he will be enabled in a 

 short time, by dissections of the living animal, and the contour of 

 the shell, to point them out. This discovery will be very impor- 

 tant, not only in elucidating many hidden things in the economy 

 of molluscous animals, but also in correcting the nomenclature of 

 American conchology ; several shells of the same species being now 

 classed as distinct shells, when in fact they are only the different 

 sexes of the same shell. It is only by patient investigation, con- 

 ducted by men of leisure and genius, that such discoveries are made ; 



