76 Beautiful Shells. 



first we stumble upon is Colossus, which, comes from 

 the Latin, and means a great image or statue, like 

 that which ancient historians tell us once bestrode 

 the entrance to the harbour of Ehodes. Embryo 

 comes from the Greek, and means something small 

 and unfinished, that is to expand or grow into a 

 more perfect form, as the seed into a plant. Ani- 

 malcules, are minute or very small animals, such 

 as cannot be distinguished without the help of a 

 microscope, hence they are sometimes called micro- 

 scopic animals; this word comes from the Latin 

 animalis, which means having life. Phosphoric 

 signifies luminous, or giving out light. The Greek 

 name of the morning star is Phosjpha. In Latin, 

 Phosphorus is a term applied to a substance which 

 chemists extract from bones and other animal 

 matter, and which, when exposed to air, burns with 

 a pale blue light, like that emitted by the glow- 

 worm. Many of the oceanic or sea animalculae are 

 exceedingly phosphorescent, so that by night the 

 waves appear like billows of flame. Of this lumi- 

 nosity of the ocean, as it is termed, we shall have to 

 speak on another occasion. We will now return to 

 the Oyster, who, it will be seen, is by no means so 

 solitary in his bivalve palace as might be supposed. 

 He has his torch-bearers, and other attendants, 



