ORDER ABRANCHIA. 35 



have been regarded as gills ; but I can discover no vessels 

 there. Its epidermis is ample, and envelopes it like a very 

 loose sack. It is the Branchellioti torpedinis of Sav. ; but 

 the species observed on the tortoise should not be associated 

 with it. Hir. hranchiata, Menzies, Linn. Trans. I. xviii. 3., 

 which truly appears to have plumose gills, and which it 

 would be necessary to examine again. 



We also commonly range among the leeches, 



Clepsina, Sav., Glossopera, Johns., which have a 

 widened body, a posterior cup only, and the mouth in the 

 form of a proboscis, and without sucker ; but it may not be 

 impossible that some of them rather belong to the family of the 

 planaria. 



M. de Blainville names them Glossobdella ; Hir. com- 

 planata, or sexoculata, Berg. Mem. de Stockh. 1757, pi. vi. 

 f. 12 — 14 ; H. trioculata, ib. f. 9 — 11 ; Hir. hyalina, L., Gm., 

 Trembley, Polyp, pi. vii. f. 7 ; Clepsina paludosa, Moq. Tand. 

 pi. iv. f. 3, &c. 



I believe them still more allied to the Phylline, Oken., 

 and to the Malacobdell^, Blainv., which have also broad 

 bodies, and are destitute of proboscis and anterior sucker. 

 They are parasite animals : the first are named Epibdella 

 by de Blainv. ; Hir. liip^oglossi, Mull. Zool. Dan. liv. 1 — 4. 

 To the second belongs Hir. grossa, Mull. Zool. Dan. xxi. 



GORDIUS, L., 



Have the body resembling a thread, slight transverse folds 

 only marking its articulations, and neither feet, gills, nor ten- 

 tacula are visible. Nevertheless, in the interior, a nervous 

 system is still distinguishable in a knotted cord. Perhaps, 

 however, it may be necessary to place them definitively 

 with the cavitary intestinal worms, like the nemertes. 



D 2 



