35^ On the EcJiinoidea or Sea-Urdiins, [Sess. 



other classical autliors.^ They even seem to have been early- 

 regarded as a luxury or delicacy, and were used at table 

 both raw and cooked. Pennant says that in his time they 

 were eaten by the poor in many parts of England, and they 

 are still so used on the Continent. E. sphsera and its con- 

 gener Psammechinus (E.) esculentus are the species mostly in 

 favour. The parts selected for food are the ovaries, which 

 are full of eggs in spring, when the ova are matured, and are 

 said to equal the best fish-roe. 



I can only refer, in a sentence or two in conclusion, to the 

 extinct forms of the sea-urchins. These are numerous, and 

 at the same time well preserved. There are nearly 2000 

 extinct species in all. Prof. Geikie remarks that they 

 " have been so abundantly preserved, that their geological 

 history and development are better known than those of most 

 classes of invertebrates." Wliile marine life is always more 

 abundantly conserved than terrestrial, those animals with hard 

 parts, like the sea-urchins, have, of course, a great advantage in 

 this respect over soft-bodied animals. The Echinoidea cover a 

 very wide area in the geological record, ranging "from the 

 Ordovician period to the present day." It is in the Oolite 

 and the Chalk, however, that they are found in greatest 

 numbers, and these later fossils resemble living genera, while 

 the Palaeozoic forms differ considerably from those now exist- 

 ing. Many " quaint and curious " examples , must have 

 burrowed in the sandy bottoms or scooped out the rocky 

 margins of ancient seas. Eegarded as a whole, living and 

 extinct, the Echinoidea furnish abundant material for patient 

 study and investigation ; and after having made even a slight 



^ Thus Plautus, in one of his Comedies, incidentally mentions the food 

 gathered from the sea-shore, and eaten presumably by the poorer classes, 

 amongst the number being sea-urchins. In the "Rudens," a fisherman, be- 

 wailing his wretched condition in a curiously modern fashion, says : — 



" CoticUe ex urbe ad mare hue prodimus pabulatum. 

 Pro exercitu gymnastico et palaestrico lioc habenius : 

 Echinos, lopadas, ostreas, balanos captamus, conchas, 

 Marinam urtieam, musculos, plagusias striatas." 



Thus translated by Riley — " Each day from the city do we come out hither to the 

 sea to seek for forage. Instead of exertion in the wrestling-school and the place 

 for exercise, we have this : sea-urchins, rock-mussels, oysters, limpets, cockles, 

 sea-nettles, sea-mussels, and spotted crabs, we catch." — " The Fisherman's Rope," 

 Act ii. sc. 1. 



