24 



■which the prey is enjrulphcd, according to the ordiaary 

 mode of feeding in the bivalve molhisk"!. However, for 

 practical purposes they are conveniently and generally 

 classed with the zoophytes proper. There is the greatest 

 variety in the form and arrangement of the cells in this 

 group, and consequently in the resulting compound struc- 

 ture. Like the hydroid zoophytes, it is either erect and 

 shrub-like, or creeping and parasitic ; slender and delicate, 

 or solid and stony ; and in many cases furnished with 

 curious appendages, in the shape of birds' heads, consisting 

 of a kind of vulturis' head with a moveable jaw, which 

 keeps snapping continually, and whose use is surmised to be 

 connected with the- prehension of food; and whips, or 

 jointed bristles, also endowed with a power of independent 

 movement, apparently for the removal of foreign substances 

 from the polypidons. The genera of this class are founded 

 upon the texture and arrangement of the cells, and on 

 their shape and appendages." 



Captain Cox, on rising, expressed the great pleasure he 

 had experienced in listening to the very able paper contri- 

 buted by Dr. Pittock. He also expressed his concurrence 

 with the very appropriate remarks made by the wortby 

 Mayor on opening the proceedings. He had not prepared 

 a paper himself, but the subject which he was about to 

 introduce to the notice of the meeting was one of great 

 interest, not merely to naturalists, but also in a commercial 

 point of view, and more particularly to the ladies. By the 

 kindness of Mrs. Friend, of Northbourne, he was able to 

 exhibit before them specimens of the silk worm, and he 

 proposed to give a few particulars respecting that interest- 

 ing little creature, and of the production of an article which 

 entered largely into the composition of ladies' dresses. He 

 might observe that the attempts to cultivate the silk worm 

 profitably in this country had hitherto proved entiro 

 failures on account of the difficulty of procuring its food — 

 mulberry leaves— in sufficient quantities and at a low cost. 

 The silk worm was exceedingly ravenous, and the amount 



