Additional Remarks on Lepas anatifera. 639 



Channel ; and, about four leagues from land, they picked up 

 a bottle, smelling strongly of rum, and closely corked, upon 

 which three congregations of iepas have rooted themselves. 

 The first is about the neck of the bottle; the second, con- 

 sisting of two only, is in the middle of what, from the weight, 

 must have been the under surface ; and the third depends, 

 like a bunch of flowers, from the hollow at the bottom. They 

 are of the variety described by Dr. Weatherill in V. 339. But 

 I notice that that part of the pedicle which is nearest to the 

 shell is, in several of them, considerably enlarged, or swollen, 

 so as to be as big again as the lower part ; and this swollen 

 part is very sudden in its enlargement. The pedicle is 

 fastened to the bottle by a substance in appearance very like 

 plaster of Paris. The individuals are, with four exceptions, 

 very large, and must be old. I do not know whether there 

 is anything else particularly observable in them; but the 

 circumstance of their being attached to such a vessel as this 

 bottle is certainly curious. If this bottle had contained any 

 document by which we could trace its course, it would have 

 been an interesting means of ascertaining the actual direction 

 of its passage. But, in default of such evidence, I can but 

 conjecture that it was thrown overboard in the warm lati- 

 tudes about the Gulf Stream ; and that it has been floating 

 across the Atlantic in the set of the current towards our 

 shores. That it has been long in the water the state of the 

 cork bears witness, as well as the great size and number of 

 the barnacles; but, tossed about, as it must have been, during 

 the period of its immersion, notwithstanding the ballast sup- 

 plied by its passengers, it must have had a difficult voyage 

 on account of these passengers ; who, in first attaching them- 

 selves to so slippery a craft, and then maintaining their 

 position so long, are entitled to our notice. Mr. Kirby 

 (Bridgcwater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 6.) enumerates the backs of 

 the turtle, the dolphin, and the whale, as some of the agents 

 of locomotion to the balanites ; but the present instance 

 shows that the lepadites are as capable of attachment to 

 equally smooth and rounded surfaces. I have conjectured 

 that this bottle has been long at sea. Mr. Kirby tells us, how- 

 ever (vol. ii. p. 9.), that Poli found full-sized sessile barnacles in 

 October, which were not bigger than the point of a needle in 

 the beginning of June; but, he adds, these were attached to 

 boats that had long been stationary. The case, here, is of 

 lepadites attached to a smooth cylinder of glass, which must 

 have been in constant rotatory and vibratory motion, subject, 

 also, to the fluctuation of stormy waters. Thev, probably, 



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