32 THE bbe-kbbpbr's guide ; 



bryology, or style of development before birth or hatching. 

 On both embryolog-ical and morphological grounds, Huxley 

 and other recent authors are more than warranted in separa- 

 ting the Vermes; or worms, from the Articulates of Cuvier as a 

 separate phylum. The remaining classes are now included in 

 the branch Arthropoda. This term, which means jointed feet, 

 is most appropriate, as all of the insects and their allies have 

 jointed feet, while the worms are without such members. 



The body-rings of these animals form a skeleton, firm, as 

 in the bee and lobster, or more or less soft, as in most larvae. 

 The hardness of the crust is due to the deposit within it of a 

 hard substance called chitine, and the firmness of the in- 

 sect's body varies simply with the amount of this chitine. 

 This skeleton, unlike that of Vertebrates, or back-bone ani- 

 mals, to which man belongs, is outside, and thus serves to pro- 

 tect the inner, softer parts, as well as to give them attach- 

 ment, and to give strength and solidity to the animal. 



This ring structure, so beautifully marked in our golden- 

 banded Italians, usually makes it easy to separate, at sight, 

 animals of this branch from the Vertebrates, with their usually 

 bony skeleton ; from the less active MoUuscan branch, with 

 their soft, sack-like bodies, familiar to us in the snail, the 

 clam, the oyster, and the wonderful cuttle-fish — the devil-fish 

 of Victor Hugo — with its long, clammy arms, strange ink-bag, 

 and often prodigious size ; from the branch EJchinodermata, 

 with its graceful star-fish and sea-stars, and elegant sea-lilies ; 

 from the Coelenterata with its delicate but gaudy jelly-fish, and 

 coral animals, the tiny architects of islands and even conti- 

 nents ; from the lowly Porifera or sponges which seem so little 

 like an animal ; and from the lowest, simplest. Protozoan 

 branch, which includes animals often so minute that we often 

 owe our very knowledge of them to the microscope, and so 

 simple that they have been regarded as the bond which unites 

 plants with animals. 



CI<ASS OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



The honey-bee belongs to the class Hexapoda, or true in- 

 sects. The first term is appropriate, as all have in the imago, 

 or last stage, six legs. Nor is the second term less applicable, 



