OCEAN GAEDENS; 



The Thyllodoce are a class of Sea- Worms, some- 

 what resembling the land Centipede, which form 

 curious objects of observation when they are in 

 search of food. Instead of spreading a set of ten- 

 tacles, like some of the Zoophytes and Molluscs 

 previously described, they have the faculty of 

 turning the cavity which forms the stomach inside 

 out, like a stocking, the inverted organ pro- 

 truding from its mouth to a considerable distance, 

 which, when it becomes sufficiently covered with 

 the minute Infusorise which form its food, is 

 drawn in, assuming gradually its natural posi- 

 tion, where it remains till the nutriment so intro- 

 duced has been absorbed, when the operation is 

 repeated. 



The Sea-Mouse, one of the largest and common- 

 est of our marine worms, is of a flattened and some- 

 what oval form, pointed at each end, its general 

 colour being pale brown. The clothing of silky hairs, 

 however, with which it is invested, is so splendid, 

 glittering in iridescent colours like the plumage of 

 a humming-bird, that Lamark has appropriately 

 named it Salithea^ or Sea-Goddess — Linnaeus having 

 previously given it the name of Aphrodite^ the 

 Marine Venus. When, indeed, it receives the rays 

 of light, and reflects them from the depths of the sea, 



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