JJocU Mitchill on the Proteus of Lake Erie. 63 



Cardamine Uniflora. — Well described by Pursh and 

 Mich. Omitted by JNuttal, probably as doubtful, or per- 

 haps inadvertently. Found in the rocky Prairies of Jeffer- 

 son County, Alabama, in March. 



ZOOLOGY. 



HERPETOLOGY. 



Art. Vin. — Observations on several Reptiles of North- 

 America^ which seem to belong to the family of Proteus. 

 In a letter from Samuel L. Mitchill, M. D. Professor 

 of Botany and Materia Medica in the University of New- 

 York, fyc. to Charles de Schretbers counsellor to his ma- 

 jesty Francis Emperor of Austria, and director of the 

 Imperial Museum of natural history, (^c. ; dated New- 

 York, June 7, 182.3. 



(Read before the New-York Lyceum, June 9, 1823.) 



Sir, 



I have long ago acknowledged the receipt of your letter 

 from Vienna,of 1 7th September, 1 821 , by the hand of the con- 

 sul Baron Von Loederer, with the specimen and description 

 oi i\\e proteus anguinus from Carniola, you obligingly sent. 



Some time before, I had been invited to examine an an- 

 imal from Lake Erie, which seemed to be a species of the 

 same genus. The account I wrote of it, was read to the 

 lyceum of natural history, on the 8th October, 1821, and 

 afterwards printed in the American Journal of Science and 

 Arts, vol. 4. p. 181-3. To avoid prolixity 1 now refer to 

 that paper, for information I do not wish, at present, to re- 

 peat. 



The creature I mean, is that which the white fishermen 

 have called by the vulgar name of Hell-bender, and the In- 

 dians Tweeg. It is surely aquatic ; but can live, it is said, 

 twenty-four hours out of the water. Feeds upon univalve 

 molluscas ; for on dissecting one of them, I found several 



