found on the South Coast of Devonshire. 77 



or posterior end : this membranous part is considerably amorphous, 

 but is usually turned upwards on the back, and sometimes meet- 

 ing, though most times the margins are reflected; this, as well as 

 the back, is of a beautiful bright grass-green colour, marked on the 

 superior part of the fins or membrane with a few small azure spots, 

 disposed in rows; the under part with more numerous, but irregu- 

 lar spots of the same : the fore part of the head is bifid; the lips 

 marked by a black margin: the sustentaculum is scarce defina- 

 ble, as it most commonly holds by a small space elose to the an- 

 terior end, and turns the posterior end more or less to one side: 

 it sometimes, however, extends itself for the purpose of loco- 

 motion, in which it scarce equals a snail. 



Although this animal does not strictly correspond with the cha- 

 racters prefixed by Linnams to the genus Laplysia, yet it approxi- 

 mates so nearly to the L. depilans in its external form, that we can- 

 not hesitate to place it with that animal, though we could not 

 discover any membranaceous plate* or shield under the skin on 

 the back. 



While we are on the subject of the Laplysia depilans, Ave cannot 

 help remarking how strange it is that the poisonous touch and 

 offensive smell, which appear to have been the origin of its name, 

 should be without reason handed down to posterity, and that 

 such an opprobrium should have so long been fixed upon one of 

 the most harmless and inoffensive of creatures. 



On the coast of Devonshire we have had frequent opportunities 

 of handling these animals with impunity; for they neither affect 

 the hand nor the olfactory nerves, but are as destitute of smell as 

 of any depilatory power. They seem, on this part of our coast, to 



* This part is properly corneous, and is the link between the true mullusca and tes- 

 taceous animals. The Bulla aperta and some other shells are concealed in the same man- 

 ner by their respective animals. 



grow 



