

■>>'/ 



AND PORTO SANTO. 149 



of a large clock), devouring the wood, and clogging up the aperture 

 behind it with compressed saw-dust. My friend Dr. Heineken, 

 thinking I should hke to examine this worm, Colonel Gordon very 

 politely sent it me in the wood. In one instance, just below 

 where it was pursuing its circuitous course, there was a green 

 healthy sprout ; wliilst all those above it were dead. 



The following description will prove, that it forms a new genus 

 of the second family of the third order of Cuvier's class, annelides, 

 and its discovery is the more interesting, from the circumstance of 

 the lumbricus terrestris having been hitherto the only known 

 animal of the whole class that did not live in water. There being 

 ah-eady a genus of insects named xr/lophagus by Fabricius, I would 

 propose calling it xj/leborus^ citri. 



Blood red ; nerves radiating in fibres ; body composed of thir- 

 teen rings or segments, united by flexible membranes; the segment 

 nearest the mouth cartilaginous, the next four square, the rest 

 round ; jaws tliick and forcible (protected by fleshy processes, one 

 above, three below, and one on each side in the form of a fleshy 

 spine), attached to a collar of six pieces, apparently for their 

 support and movement; a small spine on each side of the upper 

 part of each of the four first rings; without feet or moveable 

 hairs; breathing by the pores of the skin; the intestine longer 

 than the body, and forming a fold before it reaches the anus, as 

 in the genus thalassemo; wliite; i an inch long, diameter of the 

 first ring f, the others decreasing gradually until the body ter- 

 minates almost in a point. Vide fig, 35, a and b. 



If Homer's beautiful description of the Phoeacian Isle, where 

 fruit succeeded fruit, and flower followed flower, in rich and 

 endless variety, be applicable to any modern one, it is to Madeira. 



s S:/X7))3ogor qui lignum exedit aut vorat ut vermes. 



