15S 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July 1, 1865. 



anemones, and is a great ornament in an aquarium, 

 creeping about the side of the tank, and expanding 

 its base into an irregularly elliptical form (fig. 11). I 

 have seen one with its base expanded to a length 

 of five inches and a breadth of two and a half. In 

 this specimen the marginal spherules were pinkish 

 white. 



The Dahlia Wautlet {Tealia crassicornis) is 

 abundant all round the coast, at or near the verge of 



low water, and is often left dry, when numbers may 

 be seen huddled together, with their stomachs ex- 

 truded, forming unsightly jelly-like masses. But they 

 are as often to be seen in the pools with their ten- 

 tacles fully expanded (fig. 12), or with those organs re- 

 tracted, and the body covered with fragments of shells 

 and sand. I have never seen this species appear to 

 such advantage and in such plenty as in the lai'ge 

 pool near the " Boiling Caldron " at Spanish Point. 



Fig 13. 



It is literally paved with individuals of all sizes and 

 colours ; some are fully six inches in diameter, if 

 not moi-e, and there are many with large tapering 

 snow-white tentacles, which contrast pleasantly with 

 the ordinary red or grey forms. The great size of 

 this species prevents its being a desirable inmate of 

 a small aquarium, and a slight injury to the base 

 in detaching it is extremely likely to cause death. 



I have exhausted all the space permitted to me on 

 this subject, but I cannot conclude this brief sketch 

 of some of the more common of these " flowers of the 



ocean," which are so truly animal -flowers as to have 

 deceived insects themselves, without quoting an 

 anecdote illustrative of this fact, as narrated by 

 Mr. Jonathan Crouch. "On one occasion, while 

 watching a specimen that was covered merely by a 

 rim of water, a bee, wandering near, darted through 

 the water to the mouth of the animal, evidently 

 mistaking the creature for a flower ; and though it 

 struggled a great deal to get free, was retained till 

 it was drowned, and was then swallowed." 



SIMPLE OBJECTS.— IV. 



The Fouk-hokned Ctclops {Cyclops quadricornis) . 



WIDE-MOUTHED bottle, a walking-stick, 

 and an india-rubber band to fasten it to one 

 end of the stick, are the only tools needed by the 

 mieroscopist to enable him to secure an abundance 

 of aquatic animals for his investigation. 



The first dip into a neiglibouring pond or road- 

 side ditch, at this season of the year, will not fail to 

 fui-nisli him with Baphn'uB, Cyperides, and Cyclops 

 in abundance, sufficient, in fact, to occupy his atten- 

 tion for weeks to come. Such a gathering we made 

 the other day, which, on examination, proved to be 

 rich in that little and best-known Eutomostracou, 

 the Cyclops quadricornis. 



Let not the reader start in alarm ; the creature 

 in question is not in the most I'emote way connected, 

 except by name, with those one-eyed monsters of 

 heathen mythology whom "Vulcan employed to forge 

 thunderbolts for Jove ; but is a small one-eyed 

 crustacean, of elegant form and jerking movements, 

 and withal clad in a transparent horny armour, com- 

 posed of many pieces dovetailed and jointed together 

 with a skill and nicety sufficient to have excited 

 envy in the breast of an ancient armourer. The 

 armour in which the Cyclops is thus encased answers 

 a double purpose. It protects the soft and gela- 

 tinous body from injury, and it serves as an external 

 skeleton for the attachment of its various muscles 

 and articulations. In the species before us this 

 covering consists of ten plates or segments. Pour of 

 these encase the head and thorax in such a manner 

 that no division, as in the Insecta, is perceptible 

 between these two parts of the body. The remain- 

 ing six segments are devoted to the protection of 

 the abdomen, &c. It is in the first and largest 

 segment, w^hich is somewhat buckler-shaped, that we 

 find centred the solitary eye from which the animal 

 derives its fanciful name of Cyclops. On each side 

 of this organ are situated the double antennae, 

 which gives to the little crustacean its specific 

 name of (Quadricornis. 



In the female Cyclops (fig. 3) the superior or 

 largest pair- of antennte are light and flexible organs, 

 being long and tapering, with a graceful curve or 

 sweep. The articulations, which are numerouSj 



