comparatively large size, is an irregularly concave shield, mostly of rather 

 horny substance, secreted for their protection. The animal presents a 

 singular variety of form and colour, and there are many species without 

 any trace of a shell ; they have, however, always a distinct head and ten- 

 tacles, and may be at once distinguished in this respect from the Bulla. 

 The shelled genera are — 



Aplysia. Do lab ELLA. 



Genus 1. APLYSIA, Linnceus. 



Animal; head distinct, having four well-developed tentacles, with 

 two small sessile eyes at the lateral basis of the upper ones ; 

 branchial cavity closed by an opercular lobe, containing in some 

 instances a horny shell ; mantle variously extended into over- 

 lapping lobes. 



Shell ; rather convene, thin, horny, a little acuminated and beaked 

 inward behind, rounded in front. 



Among the few mollusks described by the writers of ancient Greece, the 

 Aplysia occupies no inconspicuous place. The front pair of tentacles in 

 this genus are mostly largely developed, partaking of the same disposition 

 to amplitude and folding as other parts of the animal, and from the fancied 

 resemblance of the Mediterranean A. depilans, with its ear-like tentacles, 

 to a crouching hare, the Greeks named it Aayoos 6a\aTTio<i. Nicander, 

 Dioscorides, and Pliny speak of superstitious and of poisonous qualities 

 attaching to it, and the Sea-hares are not regarded with affection even by 

 fishermen of the present day.* 



The Aplysia are very generally distributed, and exhibit many fantastic 



* " Few mollusks have had greater popular fame, or a worse character than the Aplysia. 

 From very ancient times they have been regarded with horror and suspicion, and many writers 

 on Natural History, conversant with them only through the silly stories of ignorant fishermen, 

 have combined, in ancient and modern times, to hold them up to censure for their poisonous 

 qualities. To touch them, according to Europeans, was sufficient to generate disease in the fool- 

 hardy experimenter ; whilst Asiatics, reversing the consequences, maintained that they met with 

 instantaneous death when handled by man. Physicians wrote treatises on the effects of their 

 poison, and discussed the remedies best adapted to neutralize it. Conspirators brewed nau- 

 si 'mis beverages from their slimy bodies, and administered the potion, confident of its deadly 

 powers. Every nation in the world, on whose shores the poor Sea-hares crawled, accorded to 

 them the attribute of ferocity and danger. Yet, strange to say, there does not appear to have 

 been the slightest foundation for a belief in their crimes. The Aplysia is a perfectly harmless, 

 gentle, timid, and, if observed in its native element, beautiful animal. Its odour is sometimes, 

 it is true, not over pleasant, and when irritated, it ejects a fluid, the vivid purple hue of which 

 may have excited alarm. Its shape, in which it resembles more than most mollusks the body of 

 some little quadruped, attracted the attention of the curious ; but why it should have excited 

 their fears, and filled with terror the muscular hearts of sturdy fishermen, is a problem to be solved 

 only when the predisposing causes of groundless superstitions shall have been sifted and traced to 

 their minutest roots." — Forbes and Hanley, Hist. Brit. Moll., vol. iii. p. 553. 



