Rösel. Even consenting to the opinion that all forms of Amaba may eventually be shown to be transitory phases of the same species, it does not render the determinations of Ehrenberg and his followers, in regard to A. princeps and A. diffluens, any the less incorrect.

Arriving at the conclusion that the common large Amaba, usually assigned to A. princeps is the same as the Proteus of Rösel, the question arises as to its appropriate name. Of the specific names employed for the little Proteus, that of "Chaos" is the oldest, but appears to me less appropriate than that of "Proteus," applied afterwards. As the latter cannot be used in its generic sense, it might be accepted in its specific application so as to perpetuate the name given to the animal by Rösel, its discoverer. While, therefore, in strict conformity with the rules of zoological nomenclature, the little Proteus of Rösel, the Proteus diffluens of Müller, and the Amaba princeps of Ehrenberg, would be called Amaba chaos, I would suggest that it should be called Amaba proteus.

RECENT LITERATURE.

MONTEIRO'S ANGOLA AND THE RIVER CONGO.1-Now that Mr. Stanley has discovered the source of the Congo, and crossed the continent to the Coast of Angola, one will turn to the present book for the excellent account it gives of a region so little known. The country described by the author lies between the River Zaire or Congo and Mosammedes or Little Fish bay, comprising ten degrees of latitude. In this region, an interesting and rich part of tropical Africa, Mr. Monteiro lived and journeyed for many years. How the lowland country of the Angola coast may strike the stranger, and how the traveler journeys through its unique scenery, may be ascertained by a glance at the view here given. A number of similar full-page engravings adorn the book, which is full of interesting information regarding the country and its people, their manners and customs, and the effects of slavery upon them. All books of this sort sooner or later exhaust the human features of the country, and we are then regaled with interesting notes regarding the animals and plants, many of them so strange and striking. Some of the characteristic insects are rep

1 Angola and the River Congo. By JOACHIM JOHN MONTEIRO. With map and illustrations. New York. McMillan & Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 354

resented in the accompanying cut, while the Manis, a type illus

Pelopous spirifex and nest.-Devil of the Road.-Dasylus ep.-Caterpillars' nests.-Mantis, and nest.-Manis multiscutatum and Ants' nests.

trating the fauna of Southern Africa is seen in one of its characteristic attitudes.

The most wonderful natural product of this country is undoubt

edly the Welwitschia mirabilis. Mr. Monteiro collected specimens of the plant, flowers and cones for Dr. Hooker, which supplied

some of the material for his well-known monograph on this plant. Monteiro states that the country about the River San Nicolau, or 14° S. latitude, seems to be its northern limit. The

following account is extracted by the author from Dr. Hooker's work: "The Welwitschia is a woody plant, said to attain a century in duration, with an obconic trunk about two feet long, of which a few inches rise above the soil, presenting the appearance of a flat two-lobed, depressed mass, sometimes (according to Dr. Welwitsch) attaining fourteen feet in circumference (?), and looking like a round table. When full grown it is dark-brown, hard, and cracked over the whole surface (much like the burnt crust of a loaf of bread; the lower portion forms a stout taproot, buried in the soil, and branching downwards at the end. From deep grooves in the circumference of the depressed mass two enormous leaves are given off, each six feet long when full grown, one corresponding to each lobe; these are quite flat, linear, very leathery, and split to the base into innumerable thongs that lie curling upon the surface of the soil. Its discoverer describes these same two leaves as being present from the earliest condition of the plant, and he assures me that they are in fact developed from the two cotyledons of the seed, and are persistent, being replaced by no others. From the circumference of the tabular mass, above but close to the insertion of the leaves, spring stout dichotomously branched cymes, nearly a foot high, bearing small erect scarlet cones, which eventually become oblong and attain the size of those of the common spruce-fir. The scales of the cones are very closely imbricated, and contain when young and still very small, solitary flowers, which in some cases are hermaphrodite (structurally but not functionally), in others female. The hermaphrodite flower consists of a perianth of four pieces, six monadelphous stamens with globose threelocular anthers, surrounding a central ovule, the integument of which is produced into a styliform sigmoid tube, terminated by a discoid apex. The female flower consists of a solitary erect ovule contained in a compressed utricular perianth. The mature cone is tetragonous, and contains a broadly-winged fruit in each scale."

BARROIS' EMBRYOLOGY OF NEMERTEAN WORMS-The author of this work is well known for his labors on the developmental history of sponges. His aim in the present essay is to give as complete a history as possible of the normal development of a group of nemertean worms. These are low, in the adult state, non-segmented worms with a wonderfully extensile body, whose young are in some cases (though not in those mentioned by the author) related in form to those of the true Annelids, being segmented. M. Barrois concludes from a study of the development of a number of genera (Lineus, Amphiporus, Tetrastemma, Polia,

1 Mémoire sur l Embryologie des Némertes. Par M. JULFS BARROIS. (Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Sixtième Série. Tome vi. Paris, 1877.) 8°, pp. 232, with 12 plates.