Barnacles. 115 
mushrooms; so we find, in the works of an old 
poet named Du Bartas, these lines :— 
“So slow Bootes underneath him sees 
In the icy islands goslings hatched of trees, 
Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, 
Are turned, as known, to living fowls soon after; 
So rotten planks of broken ships do change 
To Barnacles. O transformation strange! 
"Twas first a green tree, then a broken hull, 
Lately a mushroom, now a flying gull.” 
The mvestigations of modern science have quite 
exploded this foolish notion ; we now know exactly 
what transformations the Barnacle undergoes ; 
strange enough some of them are, but it does not 
change into a Goose, although its specific name has 
reference to that bird, being derived from anas, the 
Latin for Goose. 
The shell of the Barnacle is composed of five 
pieces joined together by membranes; four pieces 
are lateral, that is to say, they form the sides, the 
word comes from the Latin latus—a side; the 
other is a single narrow slip, which fills what would 
otherwise be an open space down the back between 
the valves ; these parts of the shell appear to be 
somewhat loosely connected, so as to allow free 
action to the animal lod¢ed within, which is en- 
