80 SUPPLEMENT 



We have already said, that M. de Lamarck divides the 

 serpulae of Linnaeus into four genera : these are serpula pro- 

 per, spirorbis, vermilio, and Galeolaria. The spirorbes differ 

 from serpula only because the entire testa is constantly ap- 

 plied to some body : vermilio, which belongs to the gasteropod 

 mollusca of the " regne animal," and differs not from ver- 

 metus, — because the operculiform tentaculum of the animal 

 is sm'mounted by a small testaceous piece ; and galeolaria, 

 the second division of serpula, in the text, because this tes- 

 taceous piece, operculiform, is not simple, but very complex. 

 M. Savigny has not adopted this an*angement, nor indeed 

 mentions any species with calcareous operculum : his dispo- 

 sition of the species is deserving of all attention in conse- 

 quence of the above-mentioned principle which he has fol- 

 lowed, of taking the animal into consideration, as well as the 

 envelope. 



The genus Spirorbis was established by Daudin, for the 

 species of Serpulae by Linnaeus and Gmelin, whose testa, ad- 

 herent in its entire extent, is rolled flatly, in a manner almost 

 regular, and thus forms a sort of planorbic shell. As for the 

 rest, the Spirorbes have all the characters of the true Serpulae, 

 the animal perhaps difTei'ing still less than the shell. Accord- 

 ingly, M. Savigny has rejected this genus from his distribu- 

 tion of Annelida. 



The manners and habits of the Spirorbes do not differ fi'om 

 those of the other Serpulae : they are always very small ; some 

 of them are to be found in all seas, fixed upon every species 

 of marine body, dead or living. M. de Lamarck characterizes 

 five living species, but it is not improbable that there is a 

 greater number in existence. 



The name Sabella has been employed by Linnaeus in the 

 tenth edition of the Systema Naturae, and afterwards by 

 Gmelin, in the thirteenth edition of the same work, to desig- 

 nate a genus of his order of testaceous worms which he de- 



