262 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



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may stiffen the integument^ and in so far fulfil a pro- 

 tective office, I find tliem in other places — for example, 

 in the membrane which lies next the " brain/' 



To discover a new animal is surely a legitimate pride. 

 We are pleased if among sand-numerous " varieties " 

 we can alight upon even a new variety, and affix our 

 names to it ; but a new animal — something no prying 

 zoologist has ever seen the like of before, something no 

 " plodding German " has described, somethmg we can 

 call our own, and having given it a Greek name, write 

 with modest glory milii after it, instead of Linnseus, 

 Cuvier or Owen — is not that a pleasure and a pride ? 

 But you must be very circumspect, or you will find, as 

 I did, after long examination and some parental pride, 

 that some " plodding German " has been before you. 

 One day looking down ujijon a tuft of red sea-weed 

 (Poli/siphonia), on which were clustered several speci- 

 mens of Lagenella repens (one of the Ciliobrachiate 

 Polyzoa, so thoroughly investigated by Dr Arthur Farre 

 and Van Beneden),* I observed a quantity of tiny cups 

 in motion. On removino- a bit of weed to the stag-e of 

 the microscope, I fancied these cups to belong to a new 

 Ascidian ; but many examinations gradually dispelled 

 this notion, and left me completely puzzled. I ran- 

 sacked my books in the vain effort of identification, and 

 began to think the animal before me was a novelty. 



* Farre : Ohsei'vaiions on the Minute Structure of some of the higher 

 forms of Polypi. (Philosophical Transactions, Part II., for 1837.) 



Van Beneden : Histoire Naturelle des Polypes Composes d!eau douce. 

 1850. 



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