THE LEAF- WORMS. 241 



The vermiform figure of this animal, its swollen 

 posterior extremity, and its tendency to irregular 

 constriction, combine with the absence of suckers, and 

 the deterioration of the oral tentacles, to mark its 

 affinity with the SipuncuUdce^ in which family I think 

 it should be placed. I know the characters of the 

 genus CMrodota of Eschscholtz, only from their cita- 

 tion in Professor Forbes' " Star-fishes," but cannot 

 help thinking, with Montagu, that our Torquay speci- 

 mens come very close to Miiller's Holothuria inJicerens, 

 judging from' the figure and Latin diagnosis of the 

 latter; for unfortunately I cannot read the Danish 

 language. The only difference I notice is in the form 

 of the tentacles, Miiller's species having each sixteen 

 terminal digitations, while ours has but four. 



THE PHYLLODOCE. 



Many of the Marine Worms, as I have before said, 

 are very elegant creatures, and not a few present us 

 with great variety and brilliance of colours. Pre- 

 eminent among them are the Leaf-Avorms, according 

 to the verdict of most who have studied this Class of 

 beings, from Fabricius downward, who styled them 

 " Virgines pulcherrimse inter Nereides." In the little 

 shallow hollows that are to be found on the surface 

 of the rocks covered at high tide, green with the 

 puckered leaves of the lettuce-like Ulva, and affording 

 a happy home to multitudes of Purples, Periwinks, 

 Tops and Mussels, we may often see, gliding in and 

 out, the worms of this genus, which the indefatigable 

 Savigny named after the sea-nymph Phyllodoce : — 



" Phyllodoceque 



Cseigariem effusse nitidam per Candida colla." — VlRGiL. 



R 



