Miscellaneous. 
153 
condition under wliich specific characters, or what are so deemed, 
become modified. 
The bearing of the phsenomena of development upon the solution 
of the great problem of the natural system of classification is rapidly 
becoming appreciated, and day by day the inadequacy of a single 
adult specimen, or pair, for the scientific illustration of a species is 
becoming more obvious, but especially in the department of con- 
chology. 
I could say much more on a theme so suggestive as the collection 
of shells now ofifered to the British Museum by Mr. Cuming, but I 
fear that I have already trespassed too long on your attention in ad- 
verting to the more prominent features of its scientific character. Of 
its money value I cannot speak from my personal experience as a 
collector, but of all objects of natural history shells are those of 
which the current or market-price is most easily determined. Their 
texture, durability and colour give them something of the character 
of precious stones, and one molluscous production, the pearl, takes 
rank among the gems of price. The value of a shell, as of a jewel, 
depends, no doubt, much upon its rarity, and is to that extent arti- 
ficial. The Concha unica which today commands the sum of twenty 
pounds, shall next week, when a score of specimens have come into 
the market, fall in price to as many shillings. Still, the commonest 
exotic shell, if it be perfect and well-coloured, and taken from a living 
mollusk, as is the case with the Cumingian collection, from which 
‘ dead ’ shells have been strictly excluded, finds its market. 
1 am given to understand, by competent authorities, that the sum 
of £6000, asked by Mr. Cuming in 1846, does not exceed two-thirds 
of the most moderate estimate of the present market value of his sub- 
sequently augmented collection. That ten times that sum would not 
bring together such a series as Mr. Cuming has offered to the British 
Museum, I do firmly believe, from a knowledge of the peculiar tact 
in discovering and collecting, the hardy endurance of the attendant 
fatigue under deadly climes and influences, and the undaunted cou- 
rage iri encountering the adverse elements, and braving the opposi- 
tion of the savage inhabitants of seldom-visited isles, which have 
conduced and concurred to crown the labours of Mr. Cuming with 
a success of which his unrivalled collection is a fitting monument, 
and of which science, and, let us hope, its cultivators in his native 
country more particularly, will long continue to reap the benefits. 
Believe me, my dear Sir, yours sincerely. 
Royal College of Surgeons, January 1848. Richard Owen. 
SAGINA CILIATA (fRIES). 
This curious little plant was found near Thetford in Suffolk by the 
Rev. W. W. Newbould on June 6, 1847. It agrees so nearly with 
the description and specimens of Fries that I have no doubt of its 
identity with his plant. The differences are, that its stems are erect 
rather than diffuse, and the leaves are nearly or quite devoid of cilia ; 
both of which seem rather the marks of a variety than of specific 
