100 LIST OF KERNS. 



first presumption; the prevailing opinion is, and I think it is the just one, 

 that each pair, in fact, compose one animal. Unlike the other medusoe, the 

 Diphyida swims, or lies laterally on the water, and is composed of two 

 bells, lying side by side, with a kind of stalk from their closed extremities, 

 •which are joined at a short distance from the bells, which have very much 

 the shape of a Campanula; its powers of locomotion are the same as the 

 Pulinonigrada and Cirrhujrada; and from the orifice or mouth filaments, in 

 the same manner, though in less number, protrude. 



Before concluding my paper upon this interesting class of Marine Animals, 

 I must advert to a few facts which are transmitted to us from Ehrenberg and 

 other eminent professors, concerning their general habits, construction, and 

 increase. We have seen that they are all inhabitants of the ocean, and 

 sport at will within its volume, or upon its waves; some by sail-like 

 appendages, but most by the mere powers of contraction and expansion, 

 which either expels air or acts upon cilia; and thus a swimming or progressive 

 motion is produced. Their subsistence is obtained by means of tentacula, cilia, 

 or the exuding of some fluid, supposed to act, in an electrical manner, and 

 taken in by pores, through foliated processes, into one common cavity, where 

 the prey, be it fish, or animals of any species, is, after a fashion, digested. 

 They exhibit no trace of nervous system; those filaments, supposed to be the 

 rudiments of a neuralgic system being of far too uncertain a formation 

 to warrant an assertion to the contrary. Of their production little or 

 nothing is known, although from what has been observed, it is presumed that 

 the young are produced in an almost perfect condition, a most remarkable 

 fact, if correct, connected with such a lost, though beautiful order of beings. 



Lincohis-Tan- Fields, Fehruaiijy 18o2. 



LIST OP THE FERNS FOUND 

 IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF T0RRY13URN, FIFESHIRE. 



1!Y J. 1>. 



1. — IHerls aqaUiaa: here, as everywhere else, very common. 



2. — Lomaria spicaid: abundant in Valleyfield, Wordsmoor, near Grange. 



3. — Scolopendrium vuhjarc: rare. Valleyfield, near the Mansion House. 



4. — Asplenium alternifolium: I insert this Fern in my list because, although 

 now nearly, if not altogether, extinct in the place where it was found — 

 Craigloscar Hill, among damp rocks, by Dr. Dewar — a few years ago, still I 

 think it may be included, though with the foregoing qualification. Only found 

 in four or five stations in Scotland. 



5. — Asplenium adiantum-nigrwn: rare. Very fine on Culross church; 

 but this generally common Fern is not at all common in this neighbourhood, 

 although a few specimens occur here and there, but never in any quantity. 



