88 ANNELIDA. 



Second Oedek — Doksibeanchiate Annelidans. 



In the DorsibrancMate Annelidans tlie respiratory 

 organs consist of fringes or arborescent tufts, dis- 

 tributed in pairs along the sides of the back. In 

 some cases, every ring is thus furnished, but in 

 others, only those rings which are near the middle. 

 These worms are all free : they burrow in the mud or 

 sand, or swdm in the open sea ; they are therefore 

 supplied with organs of locomotion, which, for the 

 most part, assume the form of moveable spines or 

 packets of retractile bristles attached to each seg- 

 ment of the body. 



It is not, however, by mere prosy description that 

 we can convey to our readers any adequate idea of 

 the beauty of these splendid worms ; here we must 

 let their great historian, M. de Quatrefages, speak for 

 himself: his pen can best portray what his patient 

 industry has so admirably displayed. 



"Upon the Isle de Chaussy," says that distin- 

 guished anatomist, " the wandering Annelids occu- 

 pied my special attention. Hitherto, I had only 

 known this numerous family of sea-worms through 

 engravings ; and although I had formed a tolerably 

 exact notion of their structure, I had not the slightest 

 idea how many points of interest attached to them. 

 When I had once surprised within their secure 

 retreats the Polynoe with its lucid scales, the Pliyl- 

 lodoce with its hundred bright-gi-een rings, the 

 Eunice with its purple crest, the Terehella surrounded 

 by a cloud of innumerable living cables which serve 

 it in the place of arms, — when I had seen displayed 

 before my eyes the rich fan of the Sahella, and the 

 enamelled collar of the Serj)ula, I no longer smiled, 

 as I had done before, at the thought of the naturalist 

 having conferred upon them the most charming 

 names he could think of These despised creatures 

 seemed to me no less worthy of a naturalist's ho- 

 mage than the most brilliant insect or the fairest 



