90 



KNOWLEDGE 



[April 1, 1899. 



Scalpelhtm irHonis 

 Hoek. From Hoek. 



Oolite, the valves range from eighteen to the rather 

 bewildering number of over a hundred. On the other 

 hand there are genera, such as PicheJaspis, in which the 

 five plates, so far from requiring to be supplemented, 

 themselves dwindle away to more or less feeble strips, and 

 lead the way to groups which have no valves at all. 



In the BalanidfB, or Acorn Bar- 

 nacles, the peduncle, which in Lejms 

 is sometimes more than a foot long, 

 does not put in an appearance. Hence 

 these are sometimes called sessile 

 cirripedes, as being seated fairly and 

 squarely on their bases, that is on 

 their heads, without the intervention 

 of a stalk. Sometimes, on the other 

 hand, they are distinguished from 

 the pedunculates as the operculate. 

 The reason of this is that the shields 

 and back-plates no longer form the 

 main walls, but give place to a 

 more or less cylindrical, shelly 

 circumvallation, in compartments 

 four to eight in number, often very 

 firmly consolidated, and having a 

 sort of roof, usually somewhat sunk 

 in, compactly closing the summit. 

 This roof, or operculum, is formed 

 by the neatly fitting and movable 

 scuta and terga. As in the peduncu- 

 late Thyrostraca, these valves can 

 open or shut for the protrusion or shelter of the feathered 

 limbs. When the living animals are placed in a bowl 

 of sea-water, as soon as all seems to be safe and 

 quiet, the valves will slowly open, and the plumes will be 

 displayed. In one respect the Cirripede is like the vulgar 

 criminal who, in response to his sentence, informs the 

 worshipful magistrate that he can " do it on his head " ; 

 but the criminal is loose in an involuntary prison, while 

 the Thyrostracan is fastened to a fortress of its own con- 

 struction. From this it waves its arms for food, summoning 

 any minute marine animals that happen to find life not 

 worth living to come to its embrace. 



Among the Cirripedes there can as a rule be no rivalry 

 in love, no heartless desertions, no inequality of the 

 sexes, because in almost all of the group both sexes 

 are united in one body, and such interchange of afifection 

 as may, notwithstanding this, take place between different 

 individuals, must in these fixed animals be determined 

 much more by the accidents of proximity than by choice 

 or inclination. But in the genera Ihla and Scalpellum, 

 Darwin found that there were, besides the usual combined 

 forms, some independent females. Upon each kind, in some 

 instances, he observed curious little parasites, and pro- 

 ceeded to make the strange discovery that these seeming 

 parasites were independent males of the species on which 

 they were found. Those of them which he found attached 

 to animals of double sex he named " complemental males." 

 Anyone who wishes to pursue this difficult branch of 

 investigation must not fail to study what the original 

 discoverer has written upon it, and what has since been 

 added by Dr. Hoek in 1884, and Dr. Aurivillius in 1894. 

 In another branch of the subject, Dr. H. J. Hansen has 

 marked the opening of the present year by giving reasons 

 for cancelling that group or division of the Cirripedes 

 which bore the uncouth name of the Abdominalia. Darwin 

 himself gave eight years of steady work to the study of 

 this great sub-class of the Crustacea. Alluding to the 

 published results, in his autobiographical chapter, he says, 

 "I do not doubt that Sir E. Lytton-Bulwer had me in his 



mind when he introduced in one of his novels a Professor 

 Long, who had written two huge volumes on limpets." 

 Aa to the complemental males, he says, " This latter 

 discovery has at last been fully confirmed ; though at one 

 time a German writer was pleased to attribute the whole 

 account to my fertile imagination." In the opinion of 

 Dr. Hoek, and of most competent naturalists, Darwin's 

 monographs, though with such errors as all foundation 

 works contain, mark the dividing line between the dark 

 ages and civilization in respect to the science of Cirripedes. 

 One very anomalous form dates back even to the Wenlock 

 limestone, so that they are not creatures of yesterday. 

 But, though the group may thus claim to be coeval with 

 the trilobites, instead of following the trilobitic example of 

 passing into decay and extinction, it appears to have been 

 continuously expanding. We may regard ourselves, with 

 the vanity natural to man, as living in the era of Shake- 

 spere and Galileo, but from a geological point of view, 

 we are rather, according to Darwin, living in the Age of 



Cirripedes. 



« 



CUSTOMS OF SHAKESPEARE'S GREENWOOD. 



By George Morley. 



[While correctly representing tlie existing customs of Shakespeare's 

 greenwood, the subjoined examples are not confined exclusively to 

 Warwickshire.] 



THOUGH the influence of modern civilization has 

 had a depreciating eflect upon the customs of the 

 country in certain places, the sequestered position 

 of Shakespeare's greenwood has, in a great measure, 

 rendered it impervious to the revolutions of change ; 

 and in many of the out-of-the-way hidden villages there 

 may still be seen the quaint and often picturesque customs 

 in which " the rude forefathers of the hamlet " were wont 

 to take delight. 



And not only in the immediate greenwood of Warwick- 

 shire are customs practised to-day which date so far back 

 as to render their origin obscure, but in centres of the 

 county which are now busy with the hum and bustle of 

 industry, and the gathering place of toiling thousands, 

 customs of quaintness and antiquity are still prosecuted 

 with a vigour which at present shows no sign of abating, 

 in spite of legal attempts to crush them. 



One of these erstwhile village customs is that of the Shrove 

 Tuesday festival of football which is played annually in 

 the streets of Nuneaton — the " Milby " of George Eliot's 

 " Scenes of Clerical Life " — and also at Atherstone. On 

 the morning of the day the towns present quite a holiday 

 appearance. The shops are closed and shuttered, and the 

 young men turn out in hundreds to play their balls through 

 the streets from one end of the town to the other, and win 

 cheers and bright smiles from the faces of their bonnie 

 lasses. In the observance of this custom Warwickshire 

 enjoys an almost unique position, for there seems to be 

 only one other place in England (the town of Dorking) 

 where the practice is carried out. 



The Shrove Tuesday festival is the first custom of the 

 year in Warwickshire. The next custom is that of the 

 mothering. It is the tie which binds the hearts of the family 

 together, making every member of it one — in feelings, 

 aspirations, thoughts, and sympathies akin ; and bringing 

 them all together at least once a year, after the manner of 

 the rhyme used for the occasion. 



" The lad and lass on Mothering Day 

 Hie home to their mother so dear ; 



'Tis a kiss for she and a kiss for they, 



A chine of pork and a sprig of bay, 

 A song and dance — but neyer a tear." 



