THE SAND PIXTLET. 249 



specific appellation must be accepted, I suppose, as ex- 

 pressing the general resemblance of the painted disk to a 

 flower. 



In Mar, 1858, by the kind courtesy of J. Scott, Esq. of 

 Her Majesty's Customs, I was favoured with two consign- 

 ments of this pretty little species, including upwards of a 

 dozen specimens. They were procured at Fowey, in Corn- 

 wall. When turned out of the package in which they had 

 travelled, they looked like little earthworms. 



Some of them I dropped into holes which I had made 

 with a stick in damp sand, carefully pouring the sea-water 

 in afterwards. These maintained their place, and soon 

 protruded and expanded their disks from the surface of the 

 sand. Others I simply laid on the sand when covered 

 with water; these presently began to bore with the in- 

 ferior extremity, and soon descended as far as the level 

 of the disks, which then expanded, as if at home. 

 Several of those specimens I still possess in health, after 

 about eleven months' captivity; and I have reason to 

 think that in the meantime they have produced living 

 young. 



After they had been domiciled for a time in a wineglass 

 nearly filled with sand, and covered with a shallow layer 

 of water, I wished to remove them to a larger vase. On 

 washing out the sand, I found the animals firmly adhering 

 to the glass by the lower parts of their bodies. When 

 removed, they would take instant hold of the smooth glass, 

 with the suckers on any part of the body, four or five of 

 these drawing out to a considerable length when force was 

 applied. On examination of these suckers, we see that 

 the skin is covered with very minute and close-set, irre- 

 gularly shaped, rounded warts, which have a firmly adhering 

 function. They are best seen on the distended skin of the 

 hinder extremity, where, under a power of 150 diameters, 



