so NOTES ON CERTAIN FISHES, ETC., 



in the hand, the water thereof may afford a good 

 cosmetick. 



[The next paragraph on folio 33 verso is evidently 

 added subsequently.] 



Another elegant sort that is often found cast up by 

 shoare in great numbers about ye bignesse of a button 

 cleere & welted & may bee called fibula marina 

 crystallina. 



hirudines marini or sea Leaches.'' 



vermes marini very large wormes digged a yarde deepe 



includes both Anemones and certain Scyphomedusae (not Pulnio). Under 

 'some . . . called Squalders of a burning and stinging quality,' I 

 think Browne must refer to our common stinging Scyphomedusae belong- 

 ing to the genus Chrysaora or Cyanaea, of which there are three species. 



"The vague description of what he calls 'sea buttons' [see below, also 

 second letter to Merrett] would suit either a Medusa or a Ctenophore. The" 

 additional note, 'two small holes in the ends,' rather upsets matters, but I 

 think he must refer to some sort of jelly-fish, probably damaged, which is 

 usually the case when cast up on the shore. If the buttons worn in those 

 days were like filbert-nuts or eggs, I am inclined to think that the reference 

 must be to a Ctenophore, genus Pleurobrachia, but if flat, then to one of 

 the Hydromedusae. It would be safe to say, ' probably a kind of jelly-fish,' 

 which is about as vague as the reference. " See also Dr. Reuben Robinson's 

 description of "Squalders" in a letter to Browne (Wilkin i., pp. 422-424). 

 It seems probable that the gelatinous masses referred to in the early part 

 of this letter, which Dr. Robinson says were ascribed by Dr. Charleton to 

 "the nocturnall pollution of some plethorick or wanton starr: or rather 

 excrement blowne from the nosthrills of a rheumatick planett," were the 

 remains of the undeveloped spawn of frogs, the bodies of which had been 

 eaten by rats, crows, or herons, and had become swollen by exposure to 

 moisture. 



'' It is difficult to determine the species of marine Annelids referred to 

 by Browne; the Sea Leech is probably Ponlobdella lavis. The "large 

 wormes " digged for bait, mentioned more than once, are Lug-worms, 

 Arenicola piscatorum ; the Vermes in tubulis testacei may be tube-worms of 

 the genus Terrebella, or a species of Serpula. Tethya or " Sea dugge " 

 (not "Sea dogs,'' as Wilkin has it) might very well apply to Ascidia or 

 one of the allied genera. Simple Ascidians, generally known as Sea-squirts, 

 are common littoral forms; the animals figured by Rondeletius under the 

 heading "DeTethyis" (p. 127) are simple Ascidians. The vesicaria marina, 

 or "fanago," might well refer to the egg capsules of the common Whelk 



