256 NATURAL HISTORY 
feet in length (and perhaps not at its full dretch), but fo tender, flimy, 
and foluble, that out of the water it will not bear being moved 
without breaking ; it had the contradile power to fuch a degree, 
that it would fhrink itfelf to half its length, and then extend itfelf 
again as before. But to run through all the forts of worms, the 
Tethys , the Lerncea fcolopendra^ Pulmones , Fungi , and others, would, 
be remote from my defign, fome few enquiries to excite curiofity 
may here be fufficient, and a' great deal, after entering into the 
minutice , would be dill ineompleat. 0 mare , 0 Littus ! vermn 
fecretumque M atreiov ! ^udm multa invenitis , quam multa di&atis y f 
Sea-nettles, Of fea-nettles (fo called from the pungency with which they 
marine* affed the hand, not very unlike to that of the land-nettle) we have 
the Urtica rubra Saxo innata Aldravandi (Fab. de Zoopbytis , N°. vii.) 
in almod every pool on the fea-flrores, and alfo the Urtica rubra 
Rondeletii , (page 530, lib. xvii. chap, xvn.) In fome caves in the 
parifh of Piran-Uthno, wafhed often by the tide, I found feveral ; 
in colour they varied from the fined; fcarlet four degrees down to 
the deeped; purple, finely powdered with yellow fpecks, which, as 
the animal expired, became more pale and lanquid. Thefe animals 
are as energetick with the clafpers by which they fix themfelves to 
the rocks, as by their arms which are continually waving to and fro 
in fearch of food. 
Of fea-nettles, unfixed and nay ant , I have obferved the follow- 
ing variety : 
The Urtica marina , Plate xxv. Fig. vii. is called Medufa. I 
have not found it fully defcribed, and therefore I jfhall be more par- 
ticular in my account of it : Its figure is round, its back convex, 
marked in the centre with a deeded circle, of an auborn colour ; 
at three quarters of an inch didance from the circle begin the fix- 
teen rays, b b, which point inwards to the centre, and divide into 
two branches or legs as they tend to the circumference, each leg 
terminating in a little egg-like knob, c c, half an inch ’long, one 
fourth of an inch didant from one another : after this infect had 
reded about half an hour in the difh I placed it for view, a hamous, 
crooked, little fang, d d, appeared and was protruded betwixt each 
knob, as in the figure : the fubdance was a kind of jelly defh, in 
the middle hard and cartilaginous, the circle and rays were auborn, 
the body fomewhat clouded for an inch and a half round, and 
under the central circle, but ot the mod perfect crydal tranfparency 
every where elfe : its body was one inch and a quarter thick ; from 
the convexity, it defcended quick near the limb ; fo that the egg- 
like knobs, c c , fpread horizontally. In the centre of the under part 
y Pliny Jun r . to Fundanus. 
of 
