324 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



forms. No less than five species of Brachyopods 

 or "lamp shells" were taken. Until quite re- 

 cently these were very rare in collections, as 

 comparatively few species inhabit shallow water, 

 but since the days of deep sea dredging expe- 

 ditions we know that they must be very abun- 

 dant in places. Like the crinoids they were very 

 abundant in Paleozoic oceans, but have been de- 

 clining since. They possess bivalve shells which 

 are always equal-sided but never equivalved, and 

 are provided internally with a pair of coiled arms. 

 Early authorities placed them with the mollusks 

 while others believed them to be related to the 

 worms, but modem systematists assign them to a 

 distinct zoological class of their own. We dredged 

 them in great numbers, usually in large clusters 

 much like bunches of amber colored grapes and, 

 as one of our party remarked, looking good enough 

 to eat. Some of them were very large for lamp 

 shells, being nearly two inches in diameter. 



There were a number of exceedingly interesting 

 single corals; one or two exquisite Hydroids; sea 

 anemones, those flowers of the ocean, but so 

 tightly closed and covered with foreign matter 

 that at first we overlooked them. We got many 



