mo valde capaci, rotundato. Aperturâ circulari. Peristomate expanso, reflexiusculo, valde incrassato, continuo, intus flavo, interdum cæru lescente. Apice pallide purpurascente-rubicundula..

Long. 52, Lat. 39, Alt. 37 mills. Apertura 29 mills.

Habitat in collibus nemorosis circum fontes fluminis Pegu dicti. A very solid shell with the surface rarely in good condition and rather sparsely distributed. It is barely so globose as C. flavilabris, B. to which it is nearly allied, and from which it differs in sculpture, form and greater solidity.

:

With respect to C. patens, Bl. I find myself unable to regard it as a distinct species or even race, but merely as an individual variety of C. fulguratus, Pf. as I have no where observed it sufficiently numerous to be viewed in any other light. Another marked variety of C. fulguratus also occurs with a large thin shell and white or cærulescent peristome, in some places not rarely but it is clearly an individual variety of the predominant form. Both these varieties are good illustrations of how races originate, and [become?] eventually what most systematists would regard as distinct species; not as some would argue, by change effected by migration, or enforced to meet changed conditions of good climate or the like, but by individual aberration, and the cotemporaneous up-growth of aberrant individuals into races and eventually species, as the Darwinian most correctly asserts but not as far as I can see by any pressure of physical conditions co-relatively, as the Darwinian theory no less incorrectly argues. Some other principle, than of mere dependance on physical conditions, has yet to be discovered, before the problem of what governs variation, or in other words the "origin of species" can be regarded as satisfactorily solved. PUPINA BLANFORDI, Th.

Testâ pupinæformi, politissimâ, flavescente-corneâ. Anfractibus quinque. Peristomate albo, non expanso. Canalibus albis. Long.

6, Diam 3.5 mills. Habitat, Pegu.

This species was forwarded to me by Mr. W. T. Blanford as a possible variety of P. Peguensis, B. It is intermediate in its characters and aspect, between P. Peguensis, B. and P. artata, B., to the latter of which it more closely approaches in the shape and unreflected form of its peristome. Whilst in fact P. Blanfordi ranks naturally as a near ally of P. artata, B., P. Peguensis, B. holds a similar relation to P. arula, B, and it is questionable if all four species will not prove to be

equally connected; P. Peguensis coming between P. artata and P. arula.

P. Arula, B. P. Peguensis, B. P. Artata, B. P. Blanfordi, Th. POMATIAS PEGUENSE, Th.

Testâ auguste sive obtecte umbilicatâ, turritâ, costulate striatâ, translucente, flavescente-corneâ. Apice obtuso, lævi. Anfractibus septem sive octo, tumidis, lente crescentibus. Aperturâ sub-circulari. Peristomate duplici, extra brevissime expanso, intus continuo, crasso, juxta suturam leviter inciso. Operculo tenui corneo. Apertura 2.5 mills.

Long. 10. Lat. 3.5 mills. Habitat in monte marmoreo, cavernoso, haud procul a Gwa, pago littore Peguensi.

This Pomatias is accompanied at the Limestone hill near Gwa by the following shells which I give to illustrate the range of some of them.

H. rotatoria, V. d. Busch. (small). Hydrocena pyxis, B.

mens.

Diplommatina.
Helicina.

Pomatias Peguense, Th.

The Diplommatina I have not made out, as I got no good speciThe Helicina is very variable, and is I have no doubt H. Andamanica, B. but two distinct varieties occur, differing chiefly in size, and both smaller than the type, (as I regard it) from Port Blair, but as some of these shells may have been described before, I refrain from naming them. They are respectively five and six mills. diameter whilst the type measures eight mills. From the Andamans, however, I have a single small Helicina, smaller than either of those from the mainland, and I believe all four forms are merely races, all merging into each other, but my sole specimen has gone home to Mr. Benson, who, from its vast discrepancy in size from the type he is acquainted with, will probably regard it as a distinct species. Haud ego.

I cannot conclude this paper without offering a few remarks on the arrangement proposed by my friend, Mr. W. T. Blanford, for the Helicidous groups in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for February, 1863. The division of the whole, into two great GROUPS or SECTIONS,- -A marked, by having the mucous pore at the truncated extremity with a superimpending lobe, and-B having the mucous pore in the elongated non-truncate extremity, devoid of an overhanging -lobe,—is a natural and probably well marked one, but I think a still farther restriction of the term Nanina, than that Mr. Blanford has adopted, is called for in any natural classification.

We there find (loc. cit.) shells of two very naturally divided types all ranged together under NANINA or its subgenus MACROCHLAMYS, B. illustrated respectively by the species, Vitrinoides, lubrica and petasus on the one hand, and pansa and similar unpolished shells on the other. A more natural arrangement would surely be to restrict the term Nanina to those shells of the great Section A possessing a polished epidermis, of which N. vitrinoides may be regarded as the type, indicatory as such a condition of the surface usuaily is, of either lubricatory tentacular processes attached to the mouth, as in the type, or of close relations to the more typical species so provided.

This separation effected, the remainder form a natural group of which pansa may serve as a type, but want of all books of reference, prevents my offering any generic name, which a little research will soon supply. In this Section A, it may be remarked that Mr. Blanford includes H. ligulata, whilst H. Tranquebarica and its allies he ranges under Section B.

In the present paper I have included them, from a mere study of the shells, under one group, (GALAXIAS), which I should not have ventured to do in opposition to Mr. Blanford's observations, but for his remark on H. ligulata, which "shows a passage into the other Section." It is therefore probably aberrant to some extent from Tranquebarica, but not more so perhaps than from the group with which Mr. Blanford has associated it. Mr. Blanford's remark on the similarity of the animals of H. vittata, Fér. and H. fallaciosa, Fér. is interesting, as a shell given to me by Mr. H. F. Blanford* tends to connect

H. proxima, Fér. Besides the difference in form H. proxima has a white interior. H. vittata invariably brown or brownish black when adult. H. F. B.

these seeming dissimilar species. H. vittata is a very variable shell as the following measurements of specimens in my cabinet show. A. 28 x 22 mills.

C. 20 × 13 E. H. fallaciosa 14 x 6 mills.

D. 24 x 11

Specimens A, B and C of H. vittata are all from Ceylon.*

A being a very elevated var, B a depressed var, and C the ordinary small var. D is the shell received from Mr. H. F. Blanford, and though white and more of the form of H. fallaciosa than of H. vittata, yet it must, I think, be classed as a variety or local race of the last. Numerically reduced the proportions are nearly thus-

A. 15

B. = 10 C. = 6 D. = 6 E. 2

So that if allowance is made for a better series of specimens from which measurements might be made, we see that individuals of the type shell A and C differ nearly as much from each other, as specimen E (H. fallaciosa) does from C. But this method of stating the relation, very inadequately represents it, D having the aspect and size of H. vittata, with the precise depressed form of H. fallaciosa, with whose colourless varieties it may be compared, as unlike vittata, it is colourless and white. It would be very curious if intermediate forms should eventually be discovered more closely connecting these at first sight utterly dissimilar species H. vittata and H. fallaciosa.

Thaiet Mio, October, 1863.

* I may add to this list the extreme measurements of specimens in my own collection shewing still greater variability.

α

b

с

Diam. 17 m.m. 17 m.m. 29 m.m.

Alt. 18 m.m. 19 m.m. 22 m.m.

Specimen a is of uniform chestnut brown, b white with faint brown bands and violet apex, c white with flesh colored apex. H. F. B.

Errata in Mr. Theobald's paper, in No. 4 of 1863.

On Ancient Indian Weights.-By E. THOMAS, Esq.

[The subjoined article was sketched, with a view to the limited illustration of the subject announced in its title, for insertion in the Numismatic Chronicle: but so large a proportion of its contents have proved in the progress of the enquiry to relate to questions beyond the legitimate scope of that Journal, while they would seem well adapted for the pages of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, that I have revised and added to the original paper, in the design of its simultaneous publication in England and in India. I am the more anxious that it should appear in the latter country, as there alone can its higher aims be suitably discussed; thence also must we seek a due definition of the indigenous plants upon whose products these weights are based, and a determination, by actual comparison of growing seeds, of the initiatory scheme of Indian Metrology. From that continent must come the further ethnological and philological evidence, which is to determine many of the questions I have ventured to raise. Wherever the final decision may be pronounced, it is clear the witnesses are still mainly in the land whose past history is under investigation. EDWARD THOMAS].

The attention of archæologists has recently been attracted to the weights and measures of ancient nations, by the elaborate work of M. Queipo,1 and the less voluminous, but more directly interesting article of Mr. R. S. Poole, on the Babylonian and other early metrologies.2 At the present day, when ethnological inquiries engross such an unprecedented share of public notice, any parallel study that may contribute by material and tangible evidence to check erroneous, or suitably aid and uphold sound theories, should be freely welcomed, however much its details may threaten to prove tedious, or the locality whence its data are drawn may be removed beyond the more favoured circles of research.

The system of Indian weights, in its local development, though necessarily possessing a minor claim upon the consideration of the European world, may well maintain a leading position in the general

1. "Essai sur les Systèmes Métriques et Monétaires des Anciens Peuples," par Don V. Queipo, 3 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1859. See also a review of the same, Journal des Savants, 1861, p. 229.

2. Article “ Weights," Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," London, 1863.