CRYPTODIBRANCHIATA. 



187 



Generic character -. calyx of five sepals ; corolla ' 

 tubular, five-cleft, in the throat of which there are 

 five hollow scales concealing the stamens ; stigma 

 tritid ; capsule three-valved, seeds three. These 

 plants were introduced into our collections twelve 

 years ago ; and thrive well in the greenhouse, potted 

 in loam and moor earth. They are propagated by 

 cuttings without difficulty. 



CRYPTODIBRANCHIATA (De Blainville ; 

 CEPHALOPODA, Lamarck, Cuvier ; SEPIA, Linnaeus). 

 These molluscs form the first order of the modern 

 system of Malacology or that science which treats 

 of soft bodied animals, without bones or articulations ; 

 some, however, possessing internal testaceous portions, 

 and by far the greater number external shells or 

 coverings, varying in an infinite degree of form ; the 

 intermediate links of affinity between these singularly 

 organised creatures, mark those interesting changes 

 which take place throughout the system, many of 

 them to be satisfactorily proved by analogous reason- 

 ing, to be the consequence of necessity arising from 

 peculiarity of circumstance or situation. 



This order of molluscous animals, as far as is yet 

 known of them, includes species of the type, possess- 

 ing the highest and most perfect organised parts and 

 faculties of all the mollusca ; they enjoy all the ani- 

 mal functions of seeing well, hearing, moving with 

 ease and rapidity from one spot to another, of pur- 

 suing and seizing their prey ; and they even appear 

 to possess something like a feeling of attachment to 

 each other. It having been remarked by an accurate 

 observer of nature, whose observations we have fre- 

 quently been permitted to quote, on these animals and 

 molluscs in general, that he has remarked and repeat- 

 edly made the experiment of placing other molluscs 

 v> ith members of the Cephalopoda, and always found 

 they were driven from their society, and obliged to 

 congregate in a different part of the same space to 

 which they were confined ; observing also, that when 

 one of these intruders presented itself, or had wan- 

 dered outoi'its assigned limits, the Common Cuttlefish 

 particularly, exhibited, as it were, immediate signs of 

 uneasiness. That peculiar breathing kind of motion, 

 which resembles the exhaustion and filling of their 

 bladder-formed bodies, became more rapid ; their ten- 

 tacular appendages much agitated ; and, in a few 

 seconds, the whole of the family were in motion, oc- 

 cupied in driving the stranger from amongst them, all 

 united as it were in a common cause against the sup- 

 posed enemy. Their movements, however, upon thi 

 /occasion were by no means rapid ; on the contrary, 

 they seemed guided by a regularity of purpose gene- 

 rally understood to themselves, and it might almost 

 be imagined directed by a recognised commander 

 they never assailed the intruder, each after his own 

 fashion surrounding it promiscuously, but clearing a 

 passage, left ample space for retreat ; and then, from 

 the nearest to the most distant point, they closed in 

 and prevented its intrusion. In this movement much 

 purpose was exhibited, for the Sepia: did not form them- 

 selves into a solid mass, but each of them appearing to 

 have a place allotted to it, moved nearer to the sphere 

 of action, with something like regularity; each one pre- 

 pared and in motion, but not going far from the spo 

 in which it had been reposing : the impulse of alarm 

 appeared general, but rather to excite caution thar 

 anger, though the result invariably was the same, tha 

 of precluding the stranger from entering into thei 

 congregation. These observations were made on i 



part of the Dutch coast, where some acres of marsh 

 land were overflowed each tide ; and the situation 

 being, doubtless, favourable to these creatures, their 

 numbers were countless the whole space exhibiting 

 a palpitating moving mass of creatures, in some parts 

 so closely packed as to have the appearance of form- 

 ing but one animal. Professor Kops, of Amsterdam, 

 visited the spot in the summer of 1816 ; and his inte- 

 esting remarks on this occurrence form a paper read 

 it an academic meeting in Holland. The following 

 ? ear, however, the same spot was deserted, and not a 

 ingle sepia to be seen there. 



The body of the animals of this order are enveloped 

 and partly free, in a very thick mantle, expanding into 

 a wide opening at its anterior side ; the edges free, 

 and detached all round, looking like a sack or opened 

 Bladder, without any trace of muscular abdominal disc, 

 or of a foot ; this body is most generally naked, either 

 unprovided with solid internal parts, or inclosing a 

 shell or other hard substance ; sometimes provided 

 with an external substance or testaceous portion, co- 

 vering or sheathed in the body. This is never com- 

 posed of two opposite valves, its shape is extremely 

 various ; it is placed dorsally, and serves as a shield 

 or protection to some of the more delicate organs. The 

 animal is completely inarticulate, provided with a 

 very large head, more or less projecting ; this presents 

 ibur or five pairs of conical tentacular appendages at- 

 tached at their base to a kind of skull which envelops 

 the brain, and are furnished with suckers used for 

 prehension : these arms are disposed in a circular 

 order, in the form of a coronet. The mouth is alto- 

 gether anterior, elongated or tubular ; armed with a 

 large pair of horny teeth in the form of a parrot's beak, 

 acting vertically against each other. The mantle is 

 diversified ; the gills or organs of respiration various ; 

 rarely symmetrical, lateral, and concealed in the sac ; 

 the circulation is double, one particular, the other 

 general ; the heart unilocular, sometimes with the au- 

 ricles divided, and very distant ; no medullary cord 

 along the body, but provided with a few scattered 

 nerves and ganglions. 



This oxler includes the genera Octopus in the first 

 family, and the second family Dccacera, contains the 

 Lvligo and Sepia. They are abundantly found in the 

 seas of all countries, and probably larger and more 

 numerous in those of warm latitudes, where marvel- 

 lous stories are related of their gigantic structure ; 

 they, however, are so much involved in ignorance and 

 mystery, resting only on the uncorroborated testimony 

 of incompetent judges, that though we are not in a 

 position to contradict them positively, we are unwil- 

 ling to receive them as well-established facts. Not 

 that we absolutely reject the possibility of much we 

 have heard respecting them being true, for every in- 

 stant of our existence brings to light new discoveries 

 in the animal kingdom, elucidating the phenomena of 

 nature ; and we have constantly had occasion to r e- 

 mark, that marvellous as many of the tales of olden 

 times at first appeared, they more or less have origin- 

 ated in a simple matter of fact, distorted or magnified 

 by subsequent narrators, and disguised at all times by 

 ignorant credulity, which eagerly adopts that which 

 cannot easily be disproved. We are, however, as we 

 have just stated, cautious without being incredulous ; 

 never forgetting that Bruce's Abyssinian beefsteaks 

 drove him from society, and broke his heart by slow 

 degrees. We have also the assertion before our eyes 

 of a recent delightful writer, who says he is really 



