NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 181 agrees with Bufo in the fully developed frontoparietal bones, differing from Epidalea (Bufo c a 1 a m i t a Auct.) and Pseudophryne in this respect. Pbyllomedusa dacnicolor. Parotoids exceedingly weak, if present. Fingers very slightly, toes one-third webbed. Labial margin projecting, profile sloping. Tympanum one-half orbit. Eyes not very prominent, transparent, inferior palpebra reticulated with white veins. Mandibular outlines straight. Tongue long, pyriform, openly emarginate posteriorly. Skin above smooth ; inferior areolations not extend-ing on pectoral or gular regions. Vomerine teeth in two straight transverse rows between anterior margin of inner nares. A few small pustules on ante-rior part of sides, which are yellow, like the inferior surfaces. Superior sur-faces (narrowly on femur,) violet blue. Upper lip not light bordered ; gular region and posterior faces of femora immaculate. From end of muzzle to posterior border of tympanum 10 lines: from angle to angle of mandible 1 in. 1 1. ; end of muzzle to vent 3 in. 6 1. ; anterior extremity 2 in. ; posterior limb 3 in. 10 1. Hab. Near Colima ; from the large Xantusian Coll. This species diverges widely from the type of Phyllomedusa in its webbed toes and almost absent glands, but the glands are only a little stronger in the P. a z urea. It affords an easy passage to the true Hylae, whose family it en-ters, by the genus Agalychnis Cope. The type of the latter is Hyla c a 1 1 i-d r y a s Cope, and H. m o r e 1 e t i i and holochlora are the other species. They have the tongue long and extensively free, sometimes emarginate, and the transparent inferior palpebra reticulated with strong white veins. The inner toes are remarkably lengthened and free of movement. On the Limits and Relations of the RANIFORMES. BY E. D. COPE. Similar relations to those which exist between the mammalia Implacentia-lia and the remainder of the class, and vice-versa, are apparently repeated in other groups of greater or less rank in the animal kingdom. Among the tortoises, the Pleurodera separate themselves most strongly by the union of their ischia with the plastron, the absence of the arch of the o. prefrontale which elsewhere descends to the o. palatinum, or vomer, and their intergular shield ; while they present modifications among themselves characteristic of most of the other families, arranging themselves according to the develop-ment of the parieto-mastoid arch, in an ascending series, which terminates in Bothremys and Podocnemys, where the temporal fossa is entirely roofed in, as in the sea turtles. In the Lacertilia Acrodonta we have a group equally removed from others of the order. The acrodont dentition, the great development of the o. dentale and final extinction of the o. operculare, etc., and the exclusion of the premaxillare from contact with the vomer, are pecu-liarities not found associated in other lizards, while their parallel representa-tion of the groups of the Iguauida? at least, among the Pleurodonta, is well known. In general these also form an ascending series to be measured by the gradual extinction of the o. premaxillare* and o. columellum, which finally occurs in Chamaeleo. The Raniformes among Batrachia Salientia are in many respects compara-ble to the Acrodonta. They stand at the head of their order, possessing the most compact, powerful and complete organization, and in spite of the con-stant imitation of the many lower types, their is a certain homogeneity in important points. The structure of the sternum separates them at once, and * This bone, said to be single in Lacertilia, is divided iu all the true Scincidae, in Phyllurus among the Geceotidse, and, according to Owen, in Hatteria. 1864.]
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