Ancient Myriapods. 93 



that if we consider these three lobes as three leaflets which 

 have become united, we then have a complete correspond- 

 ence with the number of parts in a normal leaf. In 

 the second case the flower was proliferous and greatly 

 reduced in size, while five leaves exhibited various stages of 

 reversion. In all five leaves the three terminal leaflets had 

 become joined so as to form a more or less strongly three- 

 lobed leaflet. Counting these lobes as the representatives 

 of leaflets, it was then found that there was an exact numer- 

 ical correspondence with the parts, 5-7, of a normal leaf. 



Ancient Myriapods. 



G. F. Matthew, F. R. S. C. 



The Common Earwig is the best known example of a 

 class of articulate animals, not very familiar to us because 

 of their comparative scarcity and secretive habits. In these 

 respects they are the opposite of some species of the im- 

 mensely more numerous, and obtrusively familiar Hexapods 

 or True Insects. Myriapods ditfer strikingly from the lat- 

 ter in their long worm like bodies composed of numerous 

 segments, and having equally numerous or more numerous 

 feet. 



So distinct are the Myriapods in these and other respects 

 from the true insects, that many writers recognize them as 

 a separate class, of equal rank with the Crustaceans, Hexa- 

 pods and Arachnids (spiders and scorpions). 



Though now comparatively rare, in past ages the Myria- 

 pods played an important part in peopling the land areas of 

 the globe, and possessed great diversity of structure. Only 

 a few species from the Palaeozoic rocks have been known 

 until of late years, but gradually the number has been in- 

 creased, and as their dizersity of form has been recognized, 

 the importance of their bearing upon the classification of 

 insects has become more manifest. 



A sketch of the discoveries of fossil Myriapods which 

 have been made from time to time, may serve to show how 



1 



