290 NOVEMBER. 



panded into a broad trumpet- shaped club, the extremity 

 of which is somewhat concave, and is delicately marked 

 with radiating grooves. This organ is usually painted 

 with the same brilliant colours as the gill-tufts, and by 

 its length, size, and form, makes a very conspicuous 

 feature in the charming Serpula. Its length is such, 

 that when the gill-filaments are rolled up and with- 

 drawn, the conical club enters after all, and is found 

 accurately to fit the trumpet-like orifice of the tube, 

 just as a cork fits tightly into the mouth of a bottle. 



Ordinarily those organs which appear in pairs are 

 formed so as to be the counterparts of each other. But 

 here is an exception. One only, sometimes the right, 

 sometimes the left, indifferently, takes the remarkable 

 form that I have been describing, the other being much 

 shorter, and terminating only in a small knob, like the 

 head of a pin. Why should there be this difference ? 

 Why this exception to an all but universal rule ? The 

 reason is obvious. Yes, obvious enough when seen and 

 noticed ; but it tells an eloquent tale of the Divine 

 forethought and care. If both of the antennae were 

 furnished with the terminal cone, one would interfere 

 with the other in the performance of their closing, 

 corking-up function ; they would jam in the doorway, 

 and the tube would be left open. Hence the one is 

 left undeveloped, yet retaining, as I believe, the latent 



