4$ General Notes. [January, 



than three-fourths the size of the State of Texas. Macchiati in 



the October Nuovo Giomale Botanico Italiano enumerates the 



orchids of Sardinia, forty-six species in all. -In the same 



journal, Professor Passerini continues his enumeration of the 

 fungi of Parma. No less than thirty-two species of Peronosporeae 



occur in the Parmensian flora. The re-issue of the third series 



of the well-known Botan mnounced, by the pub- 

 lishers, L. Reeve & Co , London. A second edition of Elliott's 



" Hand-book of Landscape Gardening " has appeared from the 

 house of D. M. Dewey & Co., of Rochester. Botanically, its chief 

 interest lies in the numerous very poor colored plates, the pub- 

 lisher has added. It is to be hoped that no horse-chestnut like 

 the one figured in this book ever existed. There can be no ex- 

 cuse for such wretched plates, and for the numerous typographi- 

 cal blunders, which disfigure the work. However, we do not 

 doubt, that the book may be useful to many who wish to improve 

 their grounds. 



ZOOLOGY. 

 Observations on the species of Planarians parasitic on 

 Limulus. — During the present summer, while engaged in investi- 

 gating food-fishes under the auspices of the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion, near the mouth of the Chesapeake bay, a fine large female 

 specimen of Lim dm f /;/".-. mus was brought to me from one of 

 the pound nets near by, into which it had strayed. Upon making 

 an investigation of the creature's anatomy, I discovered a great 

 number of parasitic planarian worms infesting the gills, and ad- 

 hering to the leaflets of the latter were many thousands of egg 

 capsules, in which the young worms were undergoing develop- 

 ment. From an inspection of a numerous series of these cap- 

 sules, with the aid of the proper method of sectionizing, it would 

 have been possible to have obtained a full history of the develop- 

 ment of the species; for such an investigation the writer was not, 

 however, prepared, nor did he have the time for it, but from the 

 circumstance that there was a great diversity in the size of the cap- 

 sules, he believes that at least three species of these parasites make 

 the gills of the horse-shoe crabs their nidus. That such parasites 

 infest this animal has apparently been known for a long time. 

 Alexander Agassiz alludes to it under the name of Planan i <vt- 

 gulala Muller.and Max Schultze in 1873, at Weisbaden, described 

 the animal before the Congress of German Naturalists, but does 

 not appear to have published anything in their transactions. Re- 

 cently Dr. Ludwig Graff 1 has discussed the subject anew and at 

 greater length and with more thoroughness ; but he recognizes 

 but one form, which he calls Planaria limuli. Dr. Graffs recog- 

 nition of but one species is then the excuse for the present notice, 



1 Kurze Mittheilungen liber fortgesetzte Turbellarienstudien. Zoolog. Anzeiger, 

 II, Apr., 1879, pp. 202-205. 



