Queries and Ansnsoers. 481 



and when ifs head and body are above the surface, and its fins, which re- 

 semble hands, are visible, it may be easily mistaken by superstitious mariners 

 for a semi-human fish, or mermaid. (Furet de Londres.) What is a Du- 

 gong?^W. Feb. U. 1830. [One of the Cetacea. CoW.] 



The curious Worm found by your correspondent W. W., and described 

 p. 103., is, as he rightly conjectures, a species of Gordiu^, so called from 

 the complicated knot which they are capable of forming with their long and 

 thread-like bodies. I once found them in considerable numbers, after showery 

 weather, on a bed of young turnips, during the early part of summer, in this 

 vicinity, having discovered them by the circumstance mentioned by W. W., 

 of the greater length of the body being elevated above the herbage, and 

 waving to and fro in the air. The garden in which these occurred was also 

 walled in, but had a small well or spring, not far distant from the bed of 

 turnips, and from which all the seed-beds were watered in dry weather; 

 from which I, at the time, supposed they were derived. Whether this 

 was the case ; or whether their ova were brought thither by the winds, and 

 developed themselves amongst the moist leaves of the turnips, and that 

 they are really terrestrial, must remain undetermined ; as also the object of 

 then- curious movements in the air ; and the power which has been given 

 them of mounting along the stems and leaves of plants, which has been 

 denied to every other kind of worm with which we are acquainted. A 

 very absurd opinion is still held in regard to the Gordim, or hair-worm, by 

 the vulgar, which it may be worth while to mention, viz. that they owe 

 their origin to the long hair of the mane and tail of horses, which, on 

 remaining a sufficient time in water, they conceive to become animated, and 

 converted into these slender worms. — J. P. T. Corky March^ 1829. 



Substance drawn up at Sea {Jig. 117.), in 7 or S fathoms Water. Oct. 23. 



1829. — It was about the size of a child's head, but depressed. It had 

 been attached to the ground on the under side, but was torn off: on the 

 upper, flattish, irregular, with prominences like the teats of a cow, only 

 somewhat less, and turned a little on one side. Consistence rather soft 

 and yielding, but not retaining an impression; covered with a skin the 

 surface studded with flat tubercles, each with a mark in the centre, but no 

 perceptible orifice. Colour, a bright yellow. Internally, it is full of irregular 

 channels, leading from the surface, and freely anastomosing. Query, its 

 scientific name, situation, and relations? — J. Couch. PolperrOy June, 1830. 

 Three new Species of'Rubi(?). — The following is a description of three 

 ^ubi which I have met with in this neighbourhood, and which are not 

 mentioned in Sir J. E. Smith's English Flora. Probably one or two will 

 prove to be species new to this country. If you should consider this 



