Barnacles. 115 



mushrooms; so we find, in the works of an old 

 poet named Du Bartas, these lines : — 



"So slow Bootes underneath him sees 

 In the icy islands goslings hatched of trees, 

 Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, 

 Are turned, as known, to living fowls soon after; 

 So rotten planks of broken ships do change 

 To Barnacles. O transformation strange ! 

 'Twas first a green tree, then a broken hull, 

 Lately a mushroom, now a flying gull." 



The investigations of modern science have quite 

 exploded this foolish notion; we now know exactly 

 what transformations the Barnacle undergoes; 

 strange enough some of them are, but it does not 

 change into a Goose, although its specific name has 

 reference to that bird, being derived from anas, the 

 Latin for Goose. 



The shell of the Barnacle is composed of five 

 pieces joined together by membranes ; four pieces 

 are lateral, that is to say, they form the sides, the 

 word comes from the Latin latus — a side; the 

 other is a single narrow slip, which fills what would 

 otherwise be an open space down the back between 

 the valves ; these parts of the shell appear to be 

 somewhat loosely connected, so as to allow free 

 action to the animal lodged within, which is en- 



