JONES S AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 
137 
allies, published nearly twenty years ago, the most hasty perusal of 
which would have shown Professor Jones the erroneous nature of the 
several statements embodied in the extracts which we have just quoted. 
For, in Professor Forbes’s work it is most distinctly stated that the true 
star-fishes constitute not merely a genus , but a distinct order , termed 
Asteriadae, of which order the common cross-fish, by name Ur aster (= As¬ 
ter aeanthion) rubens, is the most abundant species ; and further, that the 
genus Asterias of modern zoologists contains but a single British species, 
A. aurantiacea , commonly known as the Butthom. Again, the northern 
sea-star, U. glacialis, a species quite distinct from U. rubens , is said to 
reach the length of thirty-three inches, a statement which, from our 
own personal observations, we are enabled fully to confirm. Moreover, 
the usual colour of this species is not purplish or grayish, as Professor 
Jones informs us, but inclines rather to a pale reddish or orange brown. 
The entire work abounds with loose and inaccurate statements, simi¬ 
lar to the preceding, which it is not necessary that we should notice in 
detail. 
The plagiarisms of our author are frequent, and in some cases are so 
evident as to render the detection of the source whence they have been 
derived a task of but little difficulty. His work abounds also with 
quotations, which, on more than one occasion, he neglects to acknow¬ 
ledge. The account of Cydippe pomiformis is a miserable imitation of 
the graphic and beautiful description of this Ciliograde given by Mr. 
Patterson in his well known ‘ 1 Zoology for Schools.” Several long extracts 
are taken from the works of the late Sir J. G. Dalyell, whose voluminous 
writings have been to Professor Jones an ample storehouse of facts, 
from whence he might at all times draw when other sources failed. 
Nevertheless, original passages now and then occur, from the perusal 
of which we may gather the mode in which the personal researches of 
Professor Jones were carried on, and the results which he thereby at¬ 
tained. Thus, on one occasion, he lost himself on a dark night upon 
the Yorkshire coast, and was thereby enabled to observe the phospho¬ 
rescent appearance sometimes assumed by the sea. 
Upwards of 750 lines of poetry are contained in the present volume. 
In many cases we have been unable to ascertain the name of the author 
from whom these extracts have been taken, and we have, therefore, been 
led to suspect that perhaps they may have emanated from the pen of Pro¬ 
fessor Jones himself,—a conjecture which (it has been suggested to us) 
one of his praen omens would seem to render probable. 
We have yet to speak of the illustrations. These are, without 
doubt, the worst which have ever appeared in any of the numerous pub¬ 
lications of Mr. Yan Yoorst, usually so remarkable for the excellence and 
originality of the figures which they contain. Indeed, w r e are at a loss 
to understand how plates so inferior as the present could ever have been 
produced by so distinguished an artist as Mr. Tuffien West,—the author, 
be it remembered, of the excellent lithographs which accompany the “Mi¬ 
crographic Dictionary” of Griffith and Henfrey, the “British Diatoma- 
ceee” of Smith, and the “ Fresh-water Polyzoa” of Allman. Many of the 
