CEPHALOPODA. 
13 
Sepia, Lam, 
The Sepiae, properly so called, have the two long’ arms of a LoHgOi 
and a fleshy fin extending along the whole length of each side of the 
sac. The shell is oval, thick, convex, and composed of numerous and 
parallel calcareous laminae, united by thousands of little hollow 
columns, running perpendicularly from one to the other. This 
structure rendering it friable, causes it to lie employed, under the 
name of cuttle-bone,' for polishing various kinds of work ; it is also 
given to small birds in aviaries, for the purpose of whetting their 
bills. 
Tlie ink-pouch of the Sapiae is detached from the liver and situated 
more deeply in the abdomen. The glands of the oviducts are enor- 
mous. The eggs are produced attached to each other in branching 
clustei's resembling those of grapes, and arc commonly termed sea- 
grapes. 
The species most commonly found in the seas of Europe, 
Sepia officinalis, L. ; Rondel., 498, Seb., III., iii, attains the 
length of a foot and more. Its skin is smooth, whitish, and 
dotted with red. 
The Indian Ocean produces another. Sepia iuberculata, Lam. 
Soc. d’Hist. Nat., 4to. pi. i, f. 1*. 
Nautilus, Lin . 
In this genus Linnaeus united all spiral, symmetrical and chambered 
shells, that is to say, such as are divided by septa into several cavities ; 
their inhabitants he supposed to be Cephalopoda. One of them, in 
fact, belongs to a Cephaloiiode that strongly resembles a Sepia, but it 
has shorter arms — it forms the genus, 
Spirula, Lam. 
In the hind part of the body, which is that of a Sepia, is an inte- 
rior shell, which, although very diff’erent from the bone of that animal 
as to figure, ditfers but little in its formation. A correct idea of the 
latter may be obtained by imagining the successive laminae, instead of 
remaining parallel and approximated, to be concave toAvards the body, 
more distant, increasing but little in breadth, and forming an angle 
between them, thus producing an elongated cone, spirally convoluted 
in one plane and divided transversely into chambers. Such is the 
shell of the Spirida, Avhich has additional characters consisting of a 
single hollow column that occupies the internal side of each chamber, 
continuing its tube with those of the other chambers to the very 
* Small bodies, armed with a spine are frequently found among Fossils — they are 
the extremities of the bones of the Sepise. They constitute the genus Beloptera 
Deshayes. See my note on this subject, Ann. des Sc. Nat. II, xx, 1, 2. 
There are some other — but petrified — Fossils, which appear to be closely allied to 
the above bones. They are the Ryncholitiies of M. Faure Biguet. See Gail- 
lardot, Ann. des Sc. Nat., II, 485, and pi. xxii, and of Orbigny, Ib., pi. vi. 
