APLYSTA. 217 



The Apli/sicB are commonly known as '' Sea-hares/' the 

 two " ears/' or head lobes, and the arched back, accounting 

 for the notion of a likeness which, after all, is rather remote. 

 From the appearance of a dead specimen, it is astonishing 

 to find how poor an idea is obtained of the beauty of the 

 living mollusc, as it may now be seen in the Zoological vi- 

 varium. In an interesting communication to the 'Zoolo- 

 gical Journal' by Dr. Bancroft, that gentleman, in giving 

 an account of a package of specimens of marine animals 

 collected by himself at Jamaica., thus speaks of his disap- 

 pointment, at the same time graphically describing the object : 

 —"Another molluscum is also sent in the cask, an A/jl^/sia : 

 but, quantum mutatus ah illo, as I saw it for a very short 

 time before it died ! Death produces a woful alteration in 

 the appearance of this tribe of animals ; for -the body and 

 members are all so shrunk up, especially when preserved in 

 spirits, that no one can form any just notion of the real 

 structure or habits of the individual from the niere inspec- 

 tion of a specimen in this state. Every little seeming wart 

 or papilla now on its surface, was in life a tentaculum more 

 or less branched, semitransparent, agreeably coloured, vary- 

 ing from half to one inch in length, each arm of which used 

 to stretch itself out in all directibns; the different stems on 



