Dec. 1, 1866.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



267 



for which the various created organisms exist and 

 have their being. This I should call the philosophical 

 mode of study. 



Of the many curious fields of thought which this 

 latter mode opens out to the inquirer, not the least 

 remarkable is that connected with form. 



Resemblances or analogies of form in nature are 

 sometimes very interesting, and not a little startling. 

 Many instances of this analogy will doubtless at 

 once occur to my readers. Eor example, the remark- 

 able resemblance various genera of the Mantidee 

 and Phasmida (Orthopterous insects) bear to por- 

 tions of plants, which has procured for them the 



© '>fj£|?\ 



Fig-. 243. Sponge spicule. 



popular names of '"' walking-sticks," " walking- 

 straws," leaf-insects," &c, &c. These, and other 

 cases of analogy of form which might be cited, are 

 no doubt designed by a beneficent Providence with 



Fig. '111. Aslromma Aristoteli. 



resemblances, in which there is no apparent reason 

 why such should exist. A familiar example is found 

 in the branchiae of the JEolis, which are somewhat 

 like an oak-leaf, and also the resemblance which 

 some of the foraminiferse bear to the nautilus, so 

 great as to induce our older naturalists to class 

 them with the mollusca. The annexed illustrations 

 give instances of curious analogies. In fig. 213 we 

 have a sponge spicule bearing a close resemblance 

 to one of the Polycystina (fig. 211) Astromma 



the view of preserving the insects from certain of 

 their enemies. 

 Other cases, however, occur of no less perfect 



Fig. 245. Pollen of (EnotJtera biennis. 



Arislotelis ; and in fig. 215 we have the pollen of a 

 flower, Oenothera biennis, with a strong likeness to a 

 diatom (fig. 216), Triceratium castellatum. 



Fig-. 246. Triceratium castellatum. 



Ascending higher in the scale of creation, it will 

 be found that similar instances of analogy occur. 

 Many species of Orchids, for example, so much re- 

 semble animal forms that the names Bee Orchis, Fly 

 Orchis, Butterfly Orchis, &c, have been given to 

 them. The most remarkable of these, perhaps, is 

 the Butterfly Orchis {Oncidmm Papilio). The like- 

 ness is in this case very complete. Another instance 

 is that of the resemblance of the shell of the Chitons, 

 a family of gasteropod Mollusca, to the carapace of 

 the Isopoda or Wood-lice, and even, in fact, to the 

 carapace of the Tortoises. 



The subject is a wide one, and more examples of 

 analogy of form might have been adduced ; but I 

 preferred giving these few only in order that my 

 readers might perhaps be induced, by what has 

 been said, to enter on this field of inquiry, and to 

 see, correlate, and think for themselves. It has 

 long been one of great interest to me, and I 

 doubt not if they will pursue it that it will prove no 

 less so to them. G. 



