2 
MARSUPfATA. 
corpus callosum and septum lucidum: the cerebrum is small in 
proportion to the animal, contracted in front, and its surface is 
smooth, or presents but few convolutions: the cerebellum is 
entirely exposed 1 , and has the vermiform process large in propor¬ 
tion to the lateral lobes; the olfactory lobes are large. Two 
venae cavre enter the heart 2 . 
The order Marsupiata embraces a large assemblage of 
quadrupeds, amongst which are those animals familiarly 
known as Opossums and Kangaroos. At the present period 
the great metropolis of the order is Australia*; certain species 
of the group, however, are found in the Molucca Islands, and 
one genus, containing many species, is peculiar to the New- 
World, and although chiefly confined to the tropical portions, 
is met with as far north as the United States (where, however, 
one species 3 only is found), and extends in the southern 
direction to Buenos Ayres 4 , on the east side of the Andes, 
and Valparaiso on the west 5 . The species found in the 
islands north of Australia (if we except New Guinea) all 
belong to one genus (Phalangista), which occurs likewise in 
Australia, but they agree amongst each other in having the 
fur short, dense, and crisp, and the tail with the apical portion 
naked, and studded with fleshy warts,—characters which, in 
the opinion of some naturalists, entitle them to the rank of a 
subgenus to which the name Ctiscus is applied. NoPhalan- 
1 In some marsnpialia (such as the true Opossums and the Dasyuri), even 
the corpora quadrigemina, or optic lobes, arc uot covered by the cerebrum. 
^ e ltiarn from Prof. Owen’s Papers that in the Marsupialia the right 
auricle of the heart has no trace of a fossa oralis , or an annulus oralis . In 
the Omithorhynchus, Meckel found a deep, hut closed, fossa oralis. “ Ad 
charncteres supra dictos uddantur. Uterus hipartitus; vagina, vel in toto, tcI 
partirn septo divisa ; cunnlcs, ct intestinnlcs, et genitalis in cloacam communcm 
recepti ; maribus scrotum ante penem positura.” 
3 Dideljthys tinjiniana. 
4 Mdelpbyit crassicamlala , und D. brachynra . 
6 Did. cl cyans. 
