WCP2295

Letter (WCP2295.2185)

[1]

7, North Bank,1

N.W.

March 21st 1873

____________________

My Dear Wallace

You and Mrs Wallace have been in my thoughts [1 word illeg.] daffodils &c which I want you to see but how[?] [to] manage it this weather?

As to Batrachians2 I will say all I can now as I am not likely soon to bring anything out about them. Ophiomorpha containing only a few genera one need say nothing about.

As to the Urodela I would not take Gray's3 arrangement4 in their case any more than in any other — He makes sad confusion & gives endless trouble to those who work after him.

[2] The primary subdivisions of the Urodela used to be easy enough when one[?] thought permanent gills an important character but now the Axol[o]tl has upset that & it seems to be not improbable that Menobranchus may only be a persistant larva of some lost Spelerpes [.]

What then are we to think of Proteus & Siren ?

Still as this is a mere conjection about Menobranchus I suppose I must for the present be [1 word illeg] with Proteus

I think I should divide the order into 4 families

  • Sirenidae — Siren

2. Proteidae — Proteus &

Menobranchus

[3] 3. Amphiumidae - Amphiuma

4. Salamandridae Salamanda, Triton

Cynops,Taricha , Seiranota,

Notophthalmus, Chioglossa,

Hynobius, Onychodactylus

Amblystoma, Aneides * Plethodon, Heredia+, Desmognathus, Hemidactylium, Batrachoseps

Spelerpes, Geotriton, Oedipus

Sieboldia__ Menopoma

____________________

My new genus Pectoglossa (P.[roceedings of the Z.[oological] S.[ociety] 1867. p. 698)5 is only Amblystoma,

Geotriton is interesting as the only form with sphenoidal teeth inhabiting the old world [.]

____________________

I need not[?] refer you to the Faun[a]. Japonica[.]6 Gray has described a new genus7(which I believe[?] good) a few years ago the specimen is in the B[ritish]. Mus[eum] but I have not seen it.

____________________

  • For[?] Aneides see Baird's Iconographic [En]Cyclopedia II (1st Edition) 1849 p. 2568,9 & Herpetology of [the] U[nited] States10
  • Exploring Expedition under C. Wilkes U[nited]. S[tates]. N[avy]. Pl[ate]. I. fig[ure]s. 26-3311Pro[ceedings]. Acad[emy]. Philadelph[ia]. VIII. 1856. p. 141 & p. 23512

[4] Günther13 told me that someone[?] on the Continent (I think a Russian)14 had recently published a work15 on the Urodela.

With much[?] kind regards | I am| Yours very truly| G J Mivart [signature]

I will look over Tables with pleasure

I add a bit[?] of the Genera in Grays Catalogue which I convinced[?] myself (when I carefully went[?] through the B[ritish]. Mus[eum] Collection) were [1 word illeg.]

Bradybates = Pleurodeles16
Euproctus.
Ommatotriton All these I believe[?]
Lophinus are really Triton
Cynops
Taricha

Molge is only a species of Hynobius.

Heterotriton17
Xiphonura are really Amblystoma
Ensatina

Oedipus is a kind of Spelerpes.

1
North Bank is a street in London near Regent's Park. Google Maps. 2020. Google Maps <https://www.google.com/maps/place/N+Bank,+St+John's+Wood,+London/@51.528493,-0.1710033,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x48761ab90c2178e3:0x8481aafdf445a0d9!8m2!3d51.52846!4d-0.1689402> [accessed 24 April 2020].
2
Mivart's paper on Batrachians had been read at Zoological Society of London. Mivart, St. George Jackson. 1869. On the Classification of the Anurous Batrachians. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 37, Issue 1. [pp. 280-295]
3
Gray, John Edward (1800-1875). British zoologist and curator at the British Museum.
4

Gray, J. E. 1850. Catalogue of the Specimens of Amphibia of the Collection of the British Museum Part II. Batrachia Gradientia, etc. London: The Trustees of the British

Museum.

5
Mivart, St. George Jackson. 1867. On Plethodon persimilis of Gray. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. [pp. 695-699]
6

Fauna Japonica, the first book written in a European language on the zoology of Japan, was published in five volumes between 1833 and 1850. Siebold, P. F. von, Temminck, C. J., Schlegel, H. De Haan, W. 1833-1850. Fauna Japonica. Leiden:

Lugduni Batavorum. The Japan Foundation Information Centre. n.d. Philipp Franz von Seibold. The Japan Foundation Information Centre Library <https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/about/jfic/lib/archive/pdf/1307mini_e.pdf> [accessed 21 January 2020]

7
Gray, J. E. 1867. Notice of Lutronectes whiteleyi, An Otter from Japan. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. [pp.180-182]
8
Baird, Spencer Fullerton (1823-1887). American naturalist and ornithologist. Director of the US National Museum 1850-78.
9

Heck, J. G. and Baird, Spencer F. (translator and ed.) 1849. Iconographic Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature and Art. 2. New York: Rudolph Garrigue

[p. 257]

10
Baird, S. F. 1858. United States Exploring Expedition under the command of Charles Wilkes, U[nited].S[tates].N[avy]. Herpetology. 20. Philadelphia: Sherman & Son.
11
Baird, S. F. 1858. United States Exploring Expedition under the command of Charles Wilkes, U[nited].S[tates].N[avy]. Herpetology. 20. Philadelphia: Sherman & Son. [Plate I., fig[ure]s. 26-33]
12
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 8. 1856. Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson. [p. 141 and p. 235]
13
Günther, Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf (formerly Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf) (1830-1914). German-born British zoologist. Keeper of the Zoology department, British Museum 1875-95.
14
Severtzov, Nikolai (1827-1885) Russian explorer and naturalist. Sclater, P. L., and Saunders, H., (eds.). 1885. Obituary. Nikolai Alexsyewich Severtzoff. The Ibis. Vol III. Fifth series. Number X. April. London: John van Voorst. [pp.238-9]
15
Severtzov, N. 1873. Vertical and Horizontal Distribution of Turkestan Wildlife. Moscow: Izviesta Imper. Obshchestvo Liub. Estest., Antrop. i Etnogr.
16
This list is grouped with a curly bracket.
17
This list is grouped with a curly bracket.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2295.2185)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcription checked by Siewert, Betsy [2020-10-30] Transcription checked by Ghosh, Susan [2022-06-18] Transcription checked by Lucas, Paula [2022-06-18] Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2022-06-19]

Please cite as “WCP2295,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2295