76 Miscellaneous. 
against : fortunately the difficulty is not great; a canopy composed 
of any light compact material closely attached to a wooden frame in 
whose outer margins glass cylinders are so far imbedded as to leave 
a bold, convex, exterior surface, would completely answer the pur- 
pose. This canopy, whose area must exceed that of the bed, may 
be supported on the summits of the bedposts or suspended from the 
ceiling, as may be most convenient ; and if its periphery were con- 
structed without angles, it would be a decided advantage. When the 
extreme difficulty of extirpating bugs from rooms, especially in old 
houses where they have been suffered to multiply to excess, is borne 
in mind, the desirableness of possessing the means of securing beds 
from their insidious approaches will scarcely be denied. 
The plan of protection against the attacks of the bed-bug which I 
have proposed or advocated, if the latter term should be thought 
more appropriate, of course was never intended to apply to animals 
provided with wings or a spinning apparatus; to prevent their ac- 
cess to beds, recourse must be had to musquito-curtains, or to some 
similar contrivance ; but with regard to spiders, as they do not seek 
to prey upon or even to come in contact with the human species, 
and as the pain consequent upon the wounds which our more power- 
ful indigenous species are capable of inflicting is very slight and 
speedily subsides, there is nothing to be apprehended from the Ara- 
neidea of Great Britain. 
I am, my dear Sir, very truly yours, 
Joun BLackwALL. 
DESCRIPTION OF SARCOPTILUS, A NEW GENUS OF PENNATULIDA. 
By J. E. Gray, Ese., F.R.S. etc. 
Sir William Jackson Hooker lately sent to the British Museum 
some bottles containing animals in spirits, some from New Zealand, 
others from South America, and some without any habitats: amongst 
the latter there is a fine specimen of a Sea Pen, resembling the true 
genus Pennatula in general form, but differing from it most essentially 
in the form of the pinne and their substance, and presenting a most 
interesting new form in the family. 
Each of the pinne resemble the frond of Renilla, Lam.; they are 
placed in two crowded rows, one on each side of the upper part of 
the axis, and, like that genus, they have the polypes scattered over 
the upper surface of the pinne, which, as well as the surface of the 
stem, do not exhibit any spicula, but are smooth and fleshy. 
This genus may be considered as the puleiee between Pennatula 
and Renilla. 
SARCOPTILUS. 
Coral pen-shaped ; shaft thick, fleshy, attenuated towards the tip, 
smooth, slightly striated longitudinally, and granulose on the surface ; 
avis subquadrangular, rather thick, flexible when moist, formed of 
concentric coats and longitudinal fibres. Pinne placed in two 
crowded rows, one on each side of one of the faces of the upper part 
