Fam. 2, Plate 5. 



Genus 9 Us. SCYLLiEA, Linnaeus. 



Corpus oblongum, lateribus valde compressis, dorso convexo, lobis magnis, biparibus, utrinque 

 cristate Caput sub-inferius ; maxillis cornels, Tentacula duo, anterioria, dorsalia, lamellata, intra 

 vaginas magnas, cristatas, retractilia. Branchiae parvse, ramosse, in lobarum dorsalium facie interna 

 sparsse. Pes linearis. Orificia generationis et ani ad latus dextrum. 



The genus Scyllcea was established by Linnaeus, but was very imperfectly understood 

 until the time of Cuvier, whose elaborate Memoir upon the genus first placed its characters 

 and affinities in their true light, and left little to be added by succeeding writers. Cuvier gives 

 some curious instances of the mistakes made by the early naturalists with respect to the 

 animal on which this genus was formed. Seba, who was the first to publish it, took it for the 

 young of a fish, and figuring it in an inverted position, placed it in the genus Lophius ; and 

 Linnaeus himself, though he so far understood its affinities as to remove it to his class Vermes, 

 and to create for it a new genus, described the animal upside down ; a mistake which was 

 followed by Gmelin, and copied by subsequent authors until near the time when Cuvier wrote 

 his memoir. It was also supposed by some of the older naturalists, that the animal was per- 

 manently fixed to the sea-weed on which it was found ; an idea originating in the firm hold 

 which it takes of the stems of Fuci, to prevent its being dislodged by the force of the waves. 

 All authors describe the foot as deeply grooved, but this view of its formation is only a remnant 

 of the old errors. From a knowledge of other mollusks with similar habits, we have little 

 hesitation in saying that the foot will be found perfectly flat when crawling on a level surface, 

 but that, its sides being highly flexible, it is capable of grasping a cylindrical stem, as in other 

 allied genera, with great ease and firmness. 



This genus includes only one or two species, but is widely diffused through the seas of 

 both hemispheres, to which its habit of living on floating sea-weeds mainly contributes. Its 

 recognition as an inhabitant of the British seas is but of recent date, but as the number of 

 observers increases, it will most likely be found more frequently on the Atlantic portion of our 

 coast. 



Scyllaa is not more remarkable for its curious external form, than interesting on account 

 of its internal anatomy. In it is observed the first distinct partition of the liver mass, as well 

 as an approach towards that branched form of the digestive organs so remarkable in the , 

 Eolididce : for not only is the liver divided into globular masses, as represented by Cuvier, 

 but from these masses ramifications proceed, which pass into the dorsal lobes, some of them 

 even penetrating into the branchial tufts ; a circumstance which has escaped the observation 

 of that great naturalist. Taken in connection with JDendronotus and Eumenis, this genus 

 well illustrates the series of modifications by which one form of organ is gradually changed 



