HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF. 



253 



acquaintance with these adult crustaceans in a state 

 of nature. 



Barnacles — order Crustacea, specific name Cirri- 

 l^edia [Lat. cirrus, a curl ; pes, a foot] — begin life as 

 active larv^, resembling nauplius, and may be found 

 every autumn swimming along our coasts in great 

 numbers. This larva at its first moult develops a 

 lateral mantle-fold. At its fourth change the front 

 of its head becomes fixed by the flattening of one of 

 the joints of the antennre, and by the secretion 

 poured out by a gland which, though placed in the 

 body has its duct opening into the altered joint. At 

 the fifth stage the eyes and antennce vanish, the head 

 becomes fixed by a broad base of attachment, the 

 mantle-like fold of integument surrounds the body. 



Gardens, London, a " Wonderful natural curiosity, 

 called the Goose Tree, Barnacle Tree, or Tree bear- 

 ing geese, taken up at sea on January 12th, 1807, and 

 more than twenty men could raise out of the water." 

 This "wonderful natural curiosity," was nothing 

 more nor less than a tree-trunk covered with barnacles. 

 The name of the individual under discussion, Lepas 

 attatifera, literally " goose-bearing," takes us back in 

 spirit to the times when the popular superstition 

 proclaimed that the branches of certain trees on fall- 

 ing into the sea, collected [sea-foam on themselves, 

 and therefrom hatched a sort of shell-fish called 

 barnacles, which in their turn evolved the bird going 

 by the name of the barnacle goose. 



This superstition of the Middle Ages owes its 



Fig. 211. — Bemicles transforming into Geese. 

 (After Gerard.) 



and becomes calcified into a shell of many valves, 

 within which the hinder parts of the body are enclosed, 

 together with their six pairs of limbs. These limbs 

 remain free and capable of protrusion, while the 

 mouth with its mandibles lies at the bottom of the 

 mantle cavity. Both the sexes are combined in one 

 individual, and their fecundity is something marvellous. 

 But to proceed, on passing along the beach a few 

 hours later I noticed to my great amusement that the 

 log had been taken possession of by some fishermen, 

 who had rigged a tarpaulin over it, and were charging 

 one penny admission to view the "Wonderful Sea 

 Lioness." " What elastic imaginations some people 

 possess ! " was my comment. My companion replied 

 that he had seen a paragraph in " Notes and Queries " 

 to the effect that there was exhibited in Spring 



Fig. 213. — Barnacle Goose. 



origin no doubt to the play of words, the bar- 

 nacle being confounded with the barnacle goose. The 

 former is derived, according to some authorities, 

 from the Irish barneack ; according to others it is the 

 diminutive of the "Laiin perna, a shell -fish, pervaaila 

 being transformed into bernaada by a mere interchange 

 of labial explodents, in strict accordance with the 

 primary rules governing the permutation of sounds. 



The name of the barnacle goose, on the other hand, 

 is derived from the Low Latin bernaca, through the 

 French bernaqne. We have, according to Ducange, 

 JSemaccE, aves ana's palustribus similes [Bernacae, birds 

 resembling the fowl in the marshes]. 



The story once placed on a sound footing, sceptics 

 were told to read their Bibles, and give special atten- 

 tion to Genesis i. 20 : " And God said. Let the 



