228 Miscellaneous, New Reptiles from Chili^ Brazil, and Persia. By Dr. Steindachner. 1. Hemipodion Kotschyanum, nov. gen. et sp. (Fam. Scincoidei). — Body much elongated ; extremities slightly developed, the anterior with three, the posterior with two toes of unequal length ; nasals divided ; no supranasal shield ; ear-orifice not visible ; inferior eye-lid with a transparent disk ; palate without teeth ; scales smooth ; brown points in regular lines on the sides of the body and on the tail. From Persia. 2. Dromicus chilensis, sp. n. — Scales in twenty-three rows ; three postocular shields ; back brown, with four yellow longitudinal lines, of which the upper ones extend to the posterior end of the upper margin of the eye. From Chili. 3. Geoptyas coll arts, sp. n. — Nearly allied to Geopfyas (Cory-phodon) pantherinus. Scales in seventeen rows ; black streaks on the hinder margins of the 4-7th upper labial shields and corresponding lower labials ; a black band running obliquely backwards and downwards on each side of the neck. From Brazil. 4. Geoptyas Jlaviventris, sp. n. — Back light brown, sometimes with regular black transverse lines, without black streaks and bands on the head and neck ; belly light yellow. From Brazil. 5. Liophis pulcher, sp. n. — Black oval transverse spots, between which smaller ones are placed, on each side of the body, and reach-ing down to the last but three of the longitudinal rows of scales (counting from the ventral margin). A broad black band on each side of the head, extending from the posterior margin of the eye to the neck, and then united by a transverse band with that of the opposite side. Scales on the body in nineteen rows ; eight supra-labial shields ; anal shield divided ; ventral shields 193. From Chili. — Anzeiger der Akad, d. W^iss. in Wien, February 7, 1867, pp. 40-41. On the Nature of Anthers. J. MuUer, the elaborator of the Euphorbiaceae for DeCandolle's Prodromus, has published three brief papers in the * Memoires de la Socie'te de Phys. et d'Hist. Nat. de Geneve,' upon points relative to the anther, which fell under his observation in the progress of his work. The first is a case in which the anther had reverted to a leaf, giving evidence that this organ is homologous with a plane lamina, its margins or Hue of dehiscence answering to the margins of a leaf. The second is upon the trilocular anther of Pachystemon, neatly showing that this (and, by just analogy, the three-celled anther of Ayenia also) is not a combination, but answers to a single leaf. The third exhibits the double flexure, in the bud, of the apex of the filament in Cephalocroton, the anther remaining upright, as con-trasted with the inverted anthers of Croton. — Silliman's American Journal, January 1867.
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