132 LUMBRICUS. 
tance behind the root of that organ, and at the root appears what is the 
mouth. 
About sixty pencils, composed of three bristles, two of them long, 
border each side of the body. There is considerable disparity between 
the length of the second and the third. But these pencils do not seem to 
indicate articulations. The course of the intestinal organ is exposed 
throughout the whole body by the transparence of the parts. It is con- 
siderably enlarged near the origin. 
The motion of this animal narrowly resembles that of the Nere7s, being 
undulatory, serpentine, or executed only by contortions. It appears like 
the most minute eel to the naked eye, the setaceous pencils being invisible. 
The bristles are in no degree recurved or hooked, as some have supposed. 
After the weeds and acquatic plants, about the roots of which those 
animals lurk, have been withdrawn from the water, they quit the grosser 
materials, and swim above. 
Prate XVII. 
Fic. 6. Nais proboscidea. 
7. The same, enlarged. 
Il. LUMBRICUS. 
Recent naturalists, subdividing the overgrown portion of the Sys- 
tema, comprehending animals of all common features, have introduced 
a new and numerous class under the name of Annelides. In this it is 
proposed that those of the verminal tribes, distinguished by the partition 
of their bodies into segments or articulations, a sanguiferous system, and 
certain other specialties, shall be included, all combining to denote a 
higher position in the animal scale. 
Herein numerous animals of very opposite conformation and habits 
are associated, which, to take the subject generally, impairs the value of 
the section. But every one must be glad to avail himself of any osten- 
sible place where he can record the subject of his observations. 
A few species shall be described, by such as seem their prominent 
