22 Specimen of the Botany of New Zealand. 



most probable, they must have been so small, so membrana- 

 ceous, so soft, and so rudimentary, as almost to be useless to 

 the animals for locomotion. The mouth, so analogous to that 

 ofApus, makes us imagine that theTrilobites were carnivorous; 

 and they may possibly have fed on Acrita, Annelida, or naked 

 Mollusca. That they had to search for their food, and that 

 they possessed some small power of locomotion, is to be in- 

 ferred from their highly organized eyes ; for no truly sessile 

 animal is provided with sight. The Balanus, when it becomes 

 sedentary, loses its eyes, as does also, in like case, the female 

 Coccus. I imagine, therefore, that although the Trilobites 

 were to a certain degree sedentary, more particularly the blind 

 ones, they must have had some power of crawling over a flat 

 surface ; but whether they moved by rudimentary, soft, mem- 

 branaceous feet, or whether it was by means of the undula- 

 tion of setigerous segments, like the earth-worm, or by wrin- 

 kling the under surface of the abdomen like a Chiton, are ques- 

 tions yet to be determined. One thing, moreover, is in my 

 opinion clear, from their longitudinally trilobed form and la- 

 teral coriaceous margin ; namely, that they had the power of 

 adhering to a flat surface, like a Chiton, Bopyrus, or Coccus. 

 While thus sedentary, the hard, although thin dorsal shell, 

 probably saved them in some degree from the attacks of fishes, 

 just as that of Chiton protects such Mollusca from all fishes 

 except the Scarida. The Trilobites probably, like Ostrece, 

 Chitones, Cocci, and other sedentary animals, adhered in 

 masses one upon the other, and thus formed those conglome- 

 rations of individuals which are so remarkable in certain 

 rocks. 



IV. — Flora Insularum Novce Zelandice Precursor ; or a Spe- 

 cimen of the Botany of the Islands of Neiv Zealand. By 

 Allan Cunningham, Esq. 



[Continued from vol. iii. p. 319.] 

 TILIACEjE, Juss. 

 Entelea, B. Br., Juss. 



Calyx 4 — 5 phyllus. Petala 4. Stamina indefinita uniformia, Antkeru 

 subrotundisincumbentibus. Stigma denticulatum. Capsula sphceroidea, 

 echinata, 6-loculari-s, semi 6-valvis. polyapdriria. 



