136 SKPIA OFFICINALIS. 



INVERTEBRATA. 



Animals destitute of a vertebral column and bony 

 skeleton, for the protection of the brain and spinal 

 marrow. 



Class V.— MOLLUSCA. 



Invcrtebral, soft, inarticulatcd animals, furnished with 

 a more or less prominent head at their anterior part. 



SEPIA OFFICINALIS. 



Officinal Cuttle. 

 Pl. XXII. 



Class Vermes, Lin. Cephalopoda, Cuv. Order 

 Cephalopoda, Lam. 



Gen. Char. Body fleshy, depressed, contained in a sac, 

 which is obtuse behind, and furnished on each side 

 throughout its whole length with a narrow back, 

 strengthened by a calcareous plate, lodged in a peculiar 

 cavity ; mouth terminal, surrounded with eight arms, 

 furnished with pedunculated suckers having their 

 margins surrounded by a corneous ring. 



| 



Spec. Char. — Body smooth, whitish, with purple spots; 

 arms pedunculated, nearly as long as the body ; dorsal 

 plate elliptical. 



Sepia officinalis; Sysl. Nat. Gtnelin, p. 3149; Lamarck, Anim. sans Verteb.vu. 

 p. COS ; Encyl. Method, t. 76, f. 5, 6, 7 ; Pennant, Br. Zool. iv. p. 117. 



