THE PRANIZM. 463 



able. Sometimes they are of a grass-green colour, or blue or ash- 

 grey; and they are often transparent and dirty white. A variety 

 of the common British kind is of a reddish-brown colour. Not only 

 are they interesting on account of this peculiarity, but they have 

 also afforded much discussion concerning their relation to the crea- 

 ture represented in the central figure, which belongs to the genus 

 Ancciis. M. Hesse, a distinguished French naturalist, made a great 

 sensation amongst carcinologists some years since by asserting 



SPECIES OF Praniza AND Anceus. 



that his researches had led him to be certain that the Anceus v^2JSt 

 the mature form of Praniza, and that the female Anceus' s eggs 

 were developed into creatures like those represented above. Whilst 

 he was pursuing his investigations, Spence Bate was completing 

 some very careful researches upon this very subject, and the English 

 naturalist arrived at very difterent conclusions. He showed that 

 the young Praniza was not quite like its adult form, but that the 

 resemblance was great, and that the young of Praniza cceruleata 

 was more like Anccns than the lately-hatched of the other Pranizcs. 

 The dis'tinctions in the anatomy of the genus Praniza and Anceus 



