76 Miscellaneous. 



against : fortunately the difficulty is not great ; a canopy composed 

 of any light compact material closely attached to a wooden frame in 

 whose outer margins glass cylinders are so far imbedded as to leave 

 a bold, convex, exterior surface, would completely answer the pur- 

 pose. This canopy, whose area must exceed that of the bed, may 

 be supported on the summits of the bedposts or suspended from the 

 ceiling, as may be most convenient ; and if its periphery were con- 

 structed without angles, it would be a decided advantage. When the 

 extreme difficulty of extirpating bugs from rooms, especially in old 

 houses where they have been suffered to multiply to excess, is borne 

 in mind, the desirableness of possessing the means of securing beds 

 from their insidious approaches will scarcely be denied. 



The plan of protection against the attacks of the bed-bug which I 

 have proposed or advocated, if the latter term should be thought 

 more appropriate, of course was never intended to apply to animals 

 provided with wings or a spinning apparatus ; to prevent their ac- 

 cess to beds, recourse must be had to musquito-curtains, or to some 

 similar contrivance ; but with regard to spiders, as they do not seek 

 to prey upon or even to come in contact with the human species, 

 and as the pain consequent upon the wounds which our more power- 

 ful indigenous species are capable of inflicting is very slight and 

 speedily subsides, there is nothing to be apprehended from the Ara- 

 neidea of Great Britain. 



I am, my dear Sir, very truly yours, 



John Blackwall. 



Description of Sarcoptilus, a new genus of Pennatulid^. 

 By J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S. etc. 



Sir William Jackson Hooker lately sent to the British Museum 

 some bottles containing animals in spirits, some from New Zealand, 

 others from South America, and some without any habitats : amongst 

 the latter there is a fine specimen of a Sea Pen, resembling the true 

 genus Pennatula in general form, but differing from it most essentially 

 in the form of the piniKB and their substance, and presenting a most 

 interesting new form in the family. 



Each of the pinnee resemble the frond of Renilla, Lam. ; they are 

 placed in two crowded rows, one on each side of the upper part of 

 the axis, and, like that genus, they have the polypes scattered over 

 the upper surface of the pinnse, which, as well as the surface of the 

 stem, do not exhibit any spicula, but are smooth and fleshy. 



This genus may be considered as the passage between Pennatula 

 and Renilla. 



Sarcoptilus. 



Coral pen-shaped ; shaft thick, fleshy, attenuated towards the tip, 

 smooth, slightly striated longitudinally, and granulose on the surface ; 

 fl.m subquadrangular, rather thick, flexible when moist, formed of 

 concentric coats and longitudinal fibres. Pinnce placed in two 

 crowded rows, one on each side of one of the faces of the upper part 



