PLANARIA. 



157 



here and there maintains its ground. On scallop- 

 banks, in from ten to fifteen or twenty fathoms, the 

 variety of marine animals is so great, that the dredge 

 rarely comes up without bringing with it some object 

 to interest the dredger. These are of many races, 

 extending upwards from the simplest members of the 

 animal kingdom, the Sponges, to the more highly 

 organized Molluscs. In so great a variety, I can notice 

 only a few of the more striking species. 



I shall begin with an animal of a very low type of 

 structure, the Planaria. Of this genus some species are 

 found in the sea, though 

 the majority are natives 

 of fresh water, where 

 they may be seen glid- 

 ing over the stems and 

 leaves of water-plants, 

 and among the threads 

 of Confervee, feeding on 

 such small animals as 

 come in their way, and 

 as they are able to over- 

 come. The species re- 

 presented in our figure 

 was taken on the west 

 coast of Ireland. It was 

 about two inches long, 

 of an oval form, very 

 thin and flat, of a milky 

 white colour, marked with narrow longitudinal stripes, 

 or lines, of a dark-brown or blackish hue. It had 

 two ear-like appendages at its broader end ; and its 



