THE SAND riNTLET. 
249 
specilic appellation must be accepted, I suppose, as ex- 
pressing the general resemblance of the painted disk to a 
flower. 
In May, 1858, by the kind courtesy of J. Scott, Esq. of 
Her Majesty’s Customs, I was favoured with two consign- 
ments of this pretty little species, ineluding upwards of a 
dozen specimens. They were procm-ed at Fowey, in Corn- 
wall. AVhen turned out of the package in which they had 
travelled, they looked like little earthworms. 
Some of them I dropped into holes which I had made 
with a stick in damp sand, carefully poming the sea-water 
in afterwards. These maintained their place, and soon 
protruded and expanded their disks from the surface of the 
sand. Others I simply laid on the sand when covered 
with water; these presently began to bore -with the in- 
ferior extremity, and soon descended as far as the level 
of the disks, which then expanded, as if at home. 
Several of those specimens I still possess in health, after 
about eleven months^ captivity; and I have reason to 
think that in the meantime they have produeed living 
young. 
After they had been domiciled for a time in a wineglass 
nearly filled with sand, and coveredjwith a shallow layer 
of water, I wished to remove them to a larger vase. On 
washing out the sand, I found the animals firmly adhering 
to the glass by the lower parts of their bodies. When 
removed, they would take instant hold of the smooth glass, 
with the suckers on any part of the body, four or five of 
these drawing out to a considerable length when force was 
applied. On examination of [these suckers, we see that 
the skin is covered with very minute and close-set, irre- 
gularly shaped, rounded warts, which have a firmly adhering 
function. They are best seen on the distended skin of the 
hinder extremity, where, under a power of 150 diameters, 
