Queries from CD on the distribution of molluscan genera referring to SPW’s Manual of the Mollusca [pt 3 (1856)], with SPW’s answers.
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Queries from CD on the distribution of molluscan genera referring to SPW’s Manual of the Mollusca [pt 3 (1856)], with SPW’s answers.
Thanks for information about variability in shells.
Comments on Harvey’s Seaside book [1849].
"I am growing as bad as the worst about species and hardly have a vestige of belief in the permanence of species left in me".
Note on cases of representative shells that are not clearly either varieties or species.
Proportion of molluscan species to genera in various periods. The difficulty of determining species increases with the number of species per genus. Identifying species within a genus is most difficult in that period in which the genus shows its greatest development.
SPW and Waterhouse agree on island faunas; gives Australia and Tasmania as examples. The "stream of migration" from Asia to Tasmania.
Looks forward eagerly to the publication of CD’s "specific" researches.
Invites CD to send his memoranda [on Manual of Mollusca].
Has reduced 20 Cyrena species to geographical varieties of one species, Cyrena fluminalis. Hooker is reducing Indian flora at the rate of 19 to 1.
Recommends W. H. Harvey’s Seaside book [1849] and Charles Pickering’s Races of man [1850].
Lists Lusitanian shells with wide ranges beyond that geographical province.
Antiquity and elevation of land mass is more important than latitude for the distribution of shells.