Geographical Distribution o/Bulinius. 271 
bine to favour the growth of arboreal species, the genus is repre- 
sented with prolific splendour. Mr. Cuming must have truly 
felt like one transported to the fabled garden of the Hesperides, 
when beholding the lofty trees of these sunny isles laden with 
snails of such magnificent proportions. Aladdin, in the Arabian 
tale, could not surely have contemplated the rich clusters of vari- 
coloured fruit in the garden of the African Magician with more 
astonishment, nor probably gathered it with more avidity. 
It was in 1836,^^ relates Mr. Broderip, “ that Mr. Cuming- 
proceeded to the Philippine Islands by permission of the Queen 
Begent of Spain, and aided by powerful recommendations from 
her government, which opened to him the interior of the islands, 
and caused him to be received with a noble hospitality, equalled 
only by the warm interest which facilitated his pursuits wherever 
he arrived and made himself known. Species of which we had 
but an imperfect knowledge, in consequence of the bad condi- 
tion in which a stray individual chanced to reach our cabinets, were 
found in luxuriant plenty, and many new kinds were discovered 
in their airy solitude in equal abundance. Had He Ferussac, the 
enthusiastic admirer of this tribe, lived to see the glorious series 
of Bulimi accumulated in the Cumingian collection in different 
stages of growth, and in the finest state of preservation, from the 
egg to the adult, he would have been indeed amazed. 
The genus Bulimus, as restricted by Lamarck, comprehends 
an extremely natural group, though presenting important differ- 
ences of growth and texture ; and these variations are peculiarly 
local. In the Philippine Islands, the species are of large and 
rather solid growth, with a remarkable hydrophanous epidermis, 
that is, permeable by water or other evaporable fluid ; on the 
barren hills of Lima, and in the sandy plains of Chili and Peru, 
they are mostly small and delicately formed ; in Brazil, the species 
are remarkable for having the aperture in frequent instances 
denticulated ; and in New Caledonia, Venezuela, New Granada 
and New Hebrides, they not uncommonly exhibit with equal pe- 
culiarity a plaited AuriculaATke columella. 
It is a curious feature in the Philippine species, that the varie- 
ties of pattern which constitute their chief ornament reside only 
in the epidermis. The colours of the shell rarely describe any 
sort of configuration ; they are mostly blended into a uniform 
tint, over which a fanciful pattern is produced by the epidermis 
forming a double porous membrane in some places, and a single 
one only in others, developed, moreover, with the same continu- 
ous regularity as the textile marking of a Volute or Cone. This 
phsenomenon is easily detected by immersing the shell in water, 
when the light portion, or upper porous layer, of the epidermis 
becomes saturated, and the ground colour of the shell is seen 
