Cuvienx Pkdntapus. 473 



manner, straw-yellow spotted with scarlet : ventral disk large, 

 oblong-quadrangular, rugose, but not scaly, having short tu- 

 bular suckers set in two, or at some places in three, rows 

 round the sides and within the margin of the square, and a 

 single row down the middle of it, becoming triserial at the 

 ends (a) : anal aperture terminal, posterior, simple. 



The coat of this remarkable animal, which our figure re- 

 presents of its natural size, is very thick and coriaceous, divi- 

 sible into two parts ; viz. an exterior, scaly, true skin, of a 

 subcalcareous texture, and an inner muscular layer, formed of 

 ligamentous fibres arranged in close parallelism, and transverse 

 or circular in their direction ; so that, when in action, their 

 effect must be a compression of the body, by which it will 

 be elongated and rendered slenderer. The protrusile part of 

 the mouth is entirely formed by a continuation of this liga- 

 mentous coat, which likewise, in a more delicate modification, 

 forms the arborescent tentacula. The oral aperture in the 

 centre of these is small and simple ; but it immediately widens 

 below into a short pharynx, which is lined with a beautifully 

 plaited and crenulate membrane, and strengthened with a circle 

 of 10 osseo-cartilaginous pieces, between which we find the 

 large salivary pouches depending. The intestine is long and 

 tortuous : the ovaries are attached to one side near the upper 

 end, in two large bundles of orange-coloured filaments, filled 

 with granules, or ova, the filaments floating free in the visceral 

 cavity, and measuring nearly two inches in length. Near the 

 anus, and encircling it, there is a canal fully an inch long, 

 formed by a membrane whose upper margin is prolonged into 

 irregularly ramified filaments, which seem to lie loose about 

 the intestine, and are considered to be organs of respiration. 



The structure of the skin, as already mentioned, explains 

 in what manner the body is extended ; but to shorten and 

 dilate itself, to retract and move the tentacula and masticatory 

 organs, there is a very powerful apparatus supplied. There 

 are fine strong ligaments inserted around the anus, exterior 

 to the canal, in connexion with the branchiae, which run up 

 along the sides of the body, to which they are closely adherent, 

 and are inserted into the ring at the base of the tentacula. 

 The three ventral ligaments, when they reach the margin of 

 the pedal disk, become suddenly much smaller, and run across 

 the disk in this diminished size, the tubes opening along their 

 sides, when they again enlarge and taper to their insertions : 

 but the two lateral ligaments are thickest in the middle, and 

 regularly tapered at each end to their place of insertion. 

 When the latter reach a spot corresponding to the inferior 

 line of the pedal disk, they are joined to another strong liga- 



