PEACH. ROOT SPECIES OF POKCELLIO. 119 



ing vegetable and animal substances. Tliey afford a dainty bit 

 to domestic fowls, which devour them with avidity, and are always 

 scratching our yards in search of these more than any other arti- 

 cle of diet. This is their chief importance in an economical aspect, 

 and being so abundant they form an item of no small value to the 

 poultry breeder, though one of which but little notice is taken. 

 In former times the species of this family were highly reputed for 

 their supposed medicinal virtues, and old books upon the materia 

 medica inform us that when dried and pulverized " they have a 

 faint disagreeable smell, and a somewhat pungent sweetish nause- 

 ous taste, and are highly celebrated in suppressions, in all kinds 

 of obstructions of the bowels, in the jaundice, ague, weakness of 

 sight, and a variety of other disorders." And the wine of Milli- 

 pedes, prepared by crushing these animals, when fresh, and in- 

 fusing them in " Rhenish wine," is spoken of as " an admirable 

 cleanser of all the viscera, yielding to nothing in the jaundice 

 and obstructions of the kidneys." In the light of modern science 

 we can ipapute the cures attributed to these creatures only to the 

 effect produced upon the iraagioation of the patient, and the 

 curative powers of nature, for beyond some slight demulcent qua- 

 lities, they must be wholly inert, and are now wisely discarded 

 from the pharmacopseias. 



Six American species, pertaining to the genus Porcellio are 

 known to me, as follows : 



The Smooth Porcellio (P glaber) hag the surface of the hody smooth and 

 slightly shining, of a brownish black color, each segment presenting, except along 

 the middle of the back, numerous short whitish lines or oblong dots arranged longi- 

 tudinally and near the outer margin a whitish spot; under side and legs white or 

 creum yellow; antennae and projecting apical filaments unicolor with the body. 

 Length half an inch. This sometimes when captured doubles itself into a ball, simi- 

 lar to the Armadillos, but is incapable of assuming a form so compact and perfectly 

 spherical as the crustaceans of that genus. It is less common than our other species. 

 Young individuals are slightly paler, and a variety which I name confluentus , and 

 which is quite rare, has the oblong dots more or less confluent, forming Irregular 

 white spots. This is at once distinguished from all our other species by having the 

 surface perfectly smooth and even, without either elevated points or granules. I had 

 long regarded this as identical with the P. lavis of Europe, but specimens of that 

 species, taken in the forest of St. Germain, France, and kindly sent me, with other 

 species of these crustaceans pertaining to western Europe, by my esteemed fiiend 

 and correspondent, Andrew Murray, W. S , Edinburgh, show it to be different. That 



