ON ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEMS, AND THK 



dead vegetable matter, it produces far more benefit than evil ; the benefit 

 being universal, but the evil partial and limited. In 1731 and 1732 they 

 appes^red in great numbers on the banks of Zealand, and considerably 

 alarmed the Dutch, lest the piles by which these banks are supported should 

 have been suddenly destroyed. They never, however, staid long enough 

 to commit mischief, the climate, perhaps, being too cold for them. 



Another genus worthy of notice under this order is the actinia, which 

 includes those species of naked sea-worms which are vulgarly called sea- 

 daisy, actinia Bellis ; sea-carnation, a. Dianthus ; sea-anemony, a. Ane- 

 monoides ; and sea-marigold, a. Calendula ; from their resemblance to the 

 stems and flowers of these plants. The first three are found on the warmer 

 rocky coasts of our own country, as those of Sussex ; and the last on the 

 shores of Barbadoes. The sea-carnation is sometimes thrown upon our 

 fiat coasts, and left evacuated of its water by the return of the tide ; in 

 which case it has the appearance of a slender, long-stalked, yellow fig. 



Most of us are acquainted with some species of the sepia or cuttle-fish, 

 which is another genus of the order before us. The common cuttle-fish, 

 sepia officinalis^ is an inhabitant of the ocean, and is preyed upon by the 

 whale and plaise tribes ; its arms are also frequently eaten off* by the con- 

 ger-eel, but are reproducible. The bony scale on the back is that alone 

 which is usually sold in the shops, under the name of cuttle-fish, and is em- 

 ployed in making pounce. These animals have the singular power, when 

 pursued by an enemy, of squirting out a black fluid or natural ink, which 

 darkens the waters all around, and thus enables it to escape. This natural 

 ink forms an ingredient in the composition of our Indian inks. The 

 worm or fish, was formerly eaten by the ancients, and is still occasionally 

 used as food by the Italians. In hot cHmates, some of the species grow 

 to a prodigious size, and are armed with a dreadful apparatus of holders, 

 furnished with suckers, by which, like the elephant with its proboscis, they 

 can rigidly fasten upon and convey their prey to the mouth. In the eight- 

 armed cuttle-fish, sepia octopodia^ which inhabits the Indian seas, the arms 

 or holders, are said to be not less than nine fathoms in length. In conse- 

 quence of which the Indians never venture to sea without hatchets in their 

 boats to cut off" these monstrous arms, should the animal attempt to fasten 

 upon them, and drag them under water. This genus, with that of the 

 argonauta and nautilus, constitute the order cephalopoda of Cuvier, 

 which belongs to his class named molluscje. 



The medusa is another genus entitled to attention, as affording various 

 species that shine with great splendour in the water. The worms of this 

 kind are vulgarly denominated sea-nettles, and consist of a tender gelatin- 

 ous mass, of various figures, furnished with arms or tentacular processes, 

 issuing from the under surface. The larger species, when touched, produce 

 in the hand a slight tingling and redness, and hence, indeed, the name of 

 sea-nettles, by which they are commonly distinguished. A few of the 

 species are found on our own coasts ; but by far the greater number are 

 exotics. 



The asterias, sea-star, or star-fish, is another genus of molluscous worms, 

 and, in some of its species, is known to all of us. The most curious 

 species of this genus is the asterias Caput Medus£B or basket-fish ; which 

 inhabits most seas, and consists of five central rays, each of which divides 

 into two smaller ones, and each of which smaller ones again divides into 

 two others ; the same kind of division, and subdivision, being continued 

 to .-A vast extetit, and every ray regularly decreasing in size, till at length the 



