Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. S'DS 



opon by these animals, were found in various states of destruc^ 

 tion ; some so far gone as to have only the adductor muscles 

 remaining ; but all of them had lost the faculty of closing their 

 valves, and appeared to be dead. If testacea be the ordinary 

 food of the asteria^, an enormous quantity of them must be 

 destroyed, if we may judge by the number of these animals. 

 M. Deslongchamps inclines to the opinion that the asteriae at- 

 tack the mactras while the latter are still alive, and that, pro- 

 bably, by means of some fluid, capable of producing torpor, 

 they force them to open their shells, and thus allow the intro- 

 duction of the singular bodies described, and which act as 

 suckers. He is the more inclined to think so, that none of th6 

 mactrae, which he examined, had the least smell, or presented 

 any other indication of having been dead for any time. It 

 must, however, be remembered, that bivalve shells of this, 

 or any other analogous species, tossed about by the waves, are 

 no longer in their natural state, but have been raised from their 

 native haunts under the sand, either by boisterous weather, or 

 after intense frost, by even a scarcely more than ordinarily 

 ti^oubled state of the sea. Shells in this state are frequently ob- 

 served on our shores. In some the animals are dead, in others 

 so much weakened, as to be unable to close their shells, while 

 others may, at least after gales, be for a time apparently as 

 sound as ever. Now, it is more than probable, that the aste- 

 riag could only attack those which were absolutely dead or dying, 

 and from which the insertion of their suckers could experience 

 no opposition ; for it would be impossible for them to insinuate 

 even a pretty solid substance, much less a mere vesicle^ between 

 the closed valves of a living shell ; and, on the other hand, how 

 should the asteriae contrive to make the shell of a vigorous ani- 

 mal open, in order to let them throw in their imagined torpori^ 

 ferous fluid ? 



BOtANY. 



.7. Conclusions of M. Bureau de la Halle's Inquiries, re- 

 specting the Ancient History, Origin, and Native Country of 

 the Cereales, and especially Wheat (Triticurri hihernum and 

 asii'vum), and Barley (Hordeum vulgare and hexastichon).->-^ 



