132 NATURAL HISTORY. 



later Darwin attacked the group and published a monograph in two thick 

 octavo volumes which will never be superseded. In turning its pages or 

 examining the plates one cannot but recognize the accuracy and thorough- 

 ness with which he did his work — characteristics which reappear in all 



his later works. 



In marked contrast to this accuracy stand some of the old beliefs con- 

 nected with these animals. The story has oft been told, yet so interesting 

 is it that it will bear another repetition. It occurs in many of the works 

 of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, with minor variations, 

 hut with the same substratum of the marvellous. Gerarde, writing in 

 1633, says : " There are founde in the north parts of Scotland, and the 

 islands adjacent, called Orchades, certain trees whereon doe growe certaine 

 shell fishes, of a white colour, tending to russet, wherein are conteined 

 little living creatures; which shells, in time of maturitie do open, and 

 nut of them grow those little living foules, whom we call Barnakles, in the 

 north of England Brant Geise, and in Lancashire tree geise ; but the other 

 that do fall upon the land do perish and come to nothing." This tale he 

 relates not as coming to him by hearsay, but as something that he himself 

 lias witnessed, — "But what our eies have seen and hands have touched 

 we shall declare." He gives a rude woodcut of the whole process, show- 

 ing the geese inside the valve of the barnacle, and others swimming freely. 

 •• They spawne, as it were, in March and Aprill ; the Geise are found in 

 Maie and June and come to fullnesse of feathers in the moneth after. 

 And thus having through God's assistance, discoursed somewhat at large 

 of Grasses, Herbes, Shrubs, Trees, Mosses, and certaine excresences of the 

 earth, with other things more incident to the Historic thereof, we conclude 

 and end our present volume, with this woonder of England. For which 

 I rod's name be ever honored and praised." 



The myth did not originate with Gerarde; Max Muller, in his work on 

 the Science of Language, traces its whole course and shows that its source 

 was in the similarity of names of bird and crustacean. Nor did it end 

 with ( rerarde ; for Walton in his < Compleat Angler' says : — 



•• So slow Bootes underneath him sees 

 In th' icy islands goslings hatched of trees, ' 

 Whose fruitful leaves falling into water 

 Arc turned 'tis known to living fowls soon after. 

 So rotten planks of broken ships do change 

 To Uarnacles. () transformation strange! 

 'Twas first a green tree, then a broken hull, 

 Lately a mushroom, now a flying gull." 



