barnacles; their facts and their fictions. 389 
its motto sets forth, I have, I hope, gently bridged over the 
gulf between myth and fact, marvel and the comparatively 
commonplace. But before quitting the region of romance for 
strictly prosaic and matter-of-fact territory, I would direct 
attention to a curiously parallel story which Professor Max 
Muller omits to mention in his otherwise most exhaustive 
account of the Barnacle-tree myth. This will be found in 
chapter xxvi. of “ The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maun- 
devile, Knt.,” which treats “ Of the Gentries and Yles that ben 
bezonde the Bond of Cathay ; and of the Frutes there,” &c. 
This “ Knyght of Ingelond, that was y bore in the toun of 
Seynt Albans, and travelide aboute in the worlde in manye 
diverse contreis, to se mervailes and customes of countreis, and 
diversiteis of folkys, and diverse shap of men, and of beistis,” 
and who has, it seems, been wrongfully accused of purloining 
his descriptions from the great Venetian Ulysses, Marco Polo, 
makes mention of the following among the curiosities of 
Cathay : — 
And there growethe a manner of Fruyt, as thoughe it were Gowrdes : 
and whan thei hen rype, men kutten hem a to, and men fynden with inne a 
lytylle Best, in Flessche in Bon and Blode as though it were a lytylle 
Lomh, with outen Wolle. And men eten both the Fmt and the Best; and 
that is a gret Marveylle. Of that Frute I have eten ; alle thoughe it were 
wondirfulle : but that I knowe wel that God is marveyllous in his Werkes. 
And natheles I told hem of als gret a Marveylle to hem that is amonges us : 
and that was of the Bernakes. For I tolde hem that in oure Countree 
weren Trees that beren a Fruyt, that becomen Briddes fleeynge : and tho 
that fellen in the Water lyven : and thei that fallen on the Erthe dyen 
anon : and thei ben right gode to Mannes mete. And here of had thei 
als gret Marvayle that sume of hem trowed it were an impossible thing 
to be.” 
I bave given in the plate accompanying this article a fac- 
simile (fig. 1) of the woodcut which illustrates this tale, as it 
possesses some interest when compared with the figure (see 
opposite page) reproduced from Gerardo’s “ Herball.” 
Let us now turn our attention for a while to the not less 
wonderful, though possibly less romantic, history told to us by 
hard facts. 
The Barnacles proper and their allies, the Acorn-shells, which 
have been classed together by zoologists under the term 
Cirripedia,” from the cirri, or curls of hair, in which their 
feet terminate, may be divided provisionally, and conveniently 
for purposes of description, into the Pedunculated and Sessile 
groups. Though the former are also in a sense sessile, in that 
they are fastened, when adult, to other bodies which may be 
