CIRRIPEDES. 71 



draw within the vortex created by their cirri the minute 

 and powerless animal culi with which the surrounding 

 element abounds. In order to account for the election 

 made by those two types of the Cirripedes as to site, it 

 might be supposed that the ova were of diflferent specific 

 gravity, that those of the Balani from their greater density 

 were disposed to remain at or sink to the bottom, while 

 those of the Lepades being lighter tended to rise towards 

 the surface, and by a glutinous property attached themselves 

 to the first solid body with which they came in contact ; 

 there will be no further occasion for the exercise of our 

 ingenuity however to account for this remarkable circum- 

 stance, when aware that in the first state of these animals 

 they not only possess perfect freedom and power of motion, 

 but organs of sight which furnish them with the means of 

 making tliat election which is best suited to their respec- 

 tive habits as impressed upon them by Omnipotence, and 

 members calculated to anchor them securely to the chosen 

 spot ! how otherwise should we find the Coronula and Tubi- 

 cinella exclusively on the backs of the Whale tribe, the 

 Chenolobia on the shells of Turtle, and Acasta as invaria- 

 bly imbedded in Sponge ? 



That these animals should have been a great stumbling 

 block to systematists is not much to be wondered at, 

 considering the complete disguise under which they usually 

 present themselves, and our total ignorance of that part of 

 their Natural History about to be developed. The cele- 

 brated Linnseus arranged them under the sole generic 

 title of Lepas, with the Testaceous Mollusca, (Shells.) 

 Naturalists of the present day, anxious to group them from 

 theirNatural affinities, deduced principally from anatomical 

 structure, have scarcely been more happy in assigning to 

 these animals a more suitable station. M. Cuvier, for 

 example, arranges them with the Mollusca, of which they 

 constitute his sixth or last class, by which means they are 

 interposed between the above named race and the Annelides 



