31 



sionally appearing on the surface of the present earth, in 

 the same manner as they appear to have occurred at very 

 distinct epochs in the more ancient world. 



Captain Portlock then cited the various authors who 

 have mentioned this species of the pedunculated division of 

 Lamarck's class, Cirrhipeda, beginning with its first disco- 

 verer, Ellis, who figured and briefly described it in his 

 Natural History of Zoophytes, pubhshed in 1786. It is 

 there stated to have been obtained in St. George's Channel. 

 It was afterwards found on the western coast of England 

 by Mr. Brier and Mr. Montague, but is still considered 

 there (as stated by Turton in his Conch ological Dictionary) 

 very rare. The Rev. Dr. Fleming communicated to the 

 Wernerian Society, between 1811 and 1814, his discovery 

 of the species in considerable abundance on the coast of the 

 Zetland Islands. Lamarck formed his species, vitrea, from 

 a specimen obtained on the shore of Noirmantier, an island 

 off the coast of Poitou, apparently the first noticed in France. 

 He had, however, seen a specimen of the Lepas Fascicularis, 

 sent him by Mr. Leach, and states his opinion that it is only 

 a variety of vitrea. A cluster of this species of cirrhipedas 

 having been sent to Captain Portlock by one of the Ordnance 

 Survey Collectors, from the north coast of Antrim in the 

 autumn of the last year, he was induced to make further 

 inquiry as to its previously known existence in Ireland, and 

 having mentioned the circumstance to Mr. R. Ball, was in- 

 formed by him of four cases of its occurrence which he had 

 recorded, viz. on the coast of Youghal in 1819 ; coast of 

 Clare, 1823; coast of Clare, 1828; coast of Antrim, 1834. 

 These localities, therefore, taken with his own, consti- 

 tute a very wide range, and show that this species, still 

 considered as very rare on the coast of England, and appa- 

 rently equally so in France, has been traced round the 

 western shore from the north to the south of Ireland. Spe- 

 cimens of Anatifa Laevis, Lamarck, (Lepas Anatifera, Linn.,) 



