They are progressively deposited in the nest of down that covers its body, which it withdraws as they are laid, and shortly after dies. When observed by a microscope in July or August, that which appeared as dust, are so many eggs, as white as snow, out of which issues a gold coloured animalcule, of the shape of a cock-roach, with two horns, six feet, and a forked tail. In Languedoc and Provence the poor people are employed to gather the Kermes, the women letting their nails grow for that purpose, in order to pick them off with greater facility. In a good season they multiply exceedingly, having each from 1800 to 2000 eggs. Some women will gather two or three pounds in a day. Those who buy the Kermes to send to foreign parts, spread it on linen, sprinkling it with vinegar to kill the worms, which produce a red dust; this they separate from the husks -it is the finest part; the husks being only of half the value of the dust. It is most in demand on the African coast. The people of Tunis use it for dying the scarlet caps so much used in the Levant. They export every year 150,000 dozen of these caps. The Kermes of Spain is considered the best.-Hunter.

Another species of Oak is the Quercus Suber, which produces on its bark the Cork, stripped from the tree without injuring it, every eight or ten years.

"It is remarkable that the Oak was held sacred by the Greeks, the Romans, the Gauls and the Britons. Among the Romans, it was dedicated to Jupiter. By the Britons it was held in great veneration; and some of the most solemn ceremonies of the Druids were held under it."-Hunter.

The gathering of the Missletoe, that grows upon the Oak, made a part of the religious worship of the Druids.

"When the end of the year approached, they marched with great solemnity to gather it, inviting all the world to assist at the ceremony in these words-The new year is at hand: gather the Missletoe.' The sacrifice being ready, the priest ascended the Oak, and with a golden hook cut off the Missletoe, which was received in a white garment spread out for that purpose. This being ended, two white bulls, that had never been yoked, were brought forth, and offered up to the deity, with prayers that he would prosper those to whom he had given so precious a boon. Of the Missletoe, thus gathered, they made a potion, which they administered as an antidote to poison and for other disorders."-HUNTER.

We may be again amused with the superstition of Evelyn, when he relates,

"The disasters which happened to two men who, not long since, felled a goodly tree, called the Vicar's Oak, standing at Norwood, not far from Croydon, partly belonging to the Archbishop, and was limit to four parishes, which met in a point. On this Oak grew an extraordinary branch of Missletoe, which in the time of the sacrilegious usurpers, they were wont to cut and sell to an apothecary of London;

and though warned of the misfortunes observed to befall those who injured this plant, proceeded not only to cut it quite off, without leaving a sprig remaining, but to demolish the Oak also. The first soon after lost his eye, and the other broke his leg.”—EVELYN.

CLASS-Zoophytes. ORDERS-Acalephæ, (continued) Entozoa, and Echino-dermata.

PAPA. There is another genus of animals, Anna, belonging to the order Acalephæ, as interesting and curious as the Actiniæ, whose history has amused you so much I refer to the Medusa. The Medusa, in appearance, very much resembles a hemispherical mass of jelly; and has a pedicle, or foot-stalk, something like that of a mushroom, at the bottom of which is the mouth; so that it draws up its nutriment nearly as plants do.

ANNA. How is it known that it is not a plant, Papa? PAPA.-It has two peculiarities, my dear, which essentially distinguish it from plants. The one is the possession of a stomach, in which its food is digested: this is always found in animals, but never in plants; the other is its power of contraction.

HENRY.-IS contractility, Father, a distinguishing characteristic of animals? There are two or three plants which possess the same property in a surprising degree.

PAPA. There are; but they do not possess it in a degree at all equal to the Medusa and several other Zoophytes. The Sensitive plant, it is true, shrinks when it is touched; but it cannot contract and dilate itself at will as the Hydra and Medusa can; the Medusa, especially, makes use of this power to move itself upon the surface of the water, and to rise and sink at pleasure: I think, therefore, we may mention contractility among

the characteristics which distinguish an animal from a vegetable.

HENRY. The plants which possess the power of contraction certainly possess it in a degree far inferior to Zoophytes. I have observed the Medusa, of which you are speaking, in constant activity on the surface of the water, by alternately contracting and developing themselves.

PAPA. And I dare say you have seen some of them sink in the water with great apparent ease, by powerfully contracting themselves so as to lessen their dimensions in every direction. A remarkable peculiarity of the Medusa is the consistency of their bodies: they seem to be composed principally of air and water. The largest Medusa, if dried, is reduced to a very few grains; and, if exposed to the action of heat, it will melt away just like jelly. Indeed, as I said before, its substance more resembles jelly than any thing else.

ANNA. I dare say the Jelly-fish, as John called it, which we found at Ramsgate, was one of these creatures; my aunt told me not to handle it, for it would probably sting me.

PAPA.-I have no doubt that it was, and your aunt's caution was a very wise one; for many of them have a benumbing and stinging quality, and handling them has been known to produce inflammation and even fever.

HENRY. Their power of stinging is a very singular

one.

PAPA. You know that they have been called Sea Nettles in consequence of it. It is probably occasioned by some secretion from the skin; and is without doubt intended to serve instead of other instruments and weapons to defend them from the attacks of their enemies, and also to enable them to catch their prey; for, would believe it, Anna, these creatures usually feed on fish! fishes several inches long have been found within them. The Medusæ have another property as remarkable as that of stinging: they have the power of pro

you

ducing light. It is now ascertained that the luminous appearance which the sea sometimes presents in a dark night, and which has been ascribed to electricity, to phosphoretic particles in the water, and to the decomposition of animal substances, is caused by these creatures. A very small species of them, called the Medusa Scintilla, which is not bigger than a pin's head, has been discovered, by Professor Macartney, to be the sole cause of that luminous appearance, which has been observed, to the astonishment of sailors, in different parts of the The number of these little animals is so immense, that it has been computed that if eighty thousand persons had been employed ever since the Creation in counting them, and each had counted eighty thousand a week, they could not, at the present time, have told the number in one cubic mile of water.

ocean.

ANNA. What astonishing multitudes of them there must be!

PAPA. The most luminous of these animals is the Medusa Pellucens, discovered by Sir Joseph Banks, in his passage from Madeira to Rio Janeiro; it had the appearance of metal violently heated, and emitted a white light.

HENRY.-One thing I admire in the Medusa, and that is, their retiring modesty. I have understood that they never offer their light in the presence of any other; nor until that of the sun and moon have been for some hours withdrawn.

PAPA. They might furnish a hint to some ostentatious persons, who are continually endeavouring to render themselves conspicuous and to gain admiration by outshining others. You have now some acquaintance, Anna, with two orders of Zoophytes, the Polypi and the Acalephæ. There are two others: the Entozoa, or parasitic Zoophytes, those animals that exist in the bodies of others and often produce disease and death; one species of them, the Fluke, causes the rot in sheep of which so many sometimes die in marshy places: and

the Echino-dermata, in which are the Asteria, or Starfish, and the Echinus, or Sea-urchin.

ANNA. O the Star-fish! I have one of them among my curiosities; my aunt procured it for me at Ramsgate.

PAPA. Did you ever find out its mouth or count its legs?

ANNE.-No, Papa.

PAPA.-Its mouth, as I have told you is common in all the radiated tribes, is in the centre of the rays in the under part of the body. It is armed with bony teeth that are, of use in seizing and breaking the shells on which the animal feeds.

ANNA. But where are its legs, Papa? I never found out that it had any.

PAPA.-Probably you never saw them: for it has the power of extending and withdrawing them, something in the way that the snail extends and withdraws his horns. The body of the Star-fish, you know, is commonly divided into five rays or branches; and the feet are arranged in several files throughout the whole length of the branches from the mouth. Reaumur, I think, counted fifteen hundred and twenty legs in one Star-fish. HENRY. And yet how very slowly they move. I have often observed them creeping in the water with a scarcely perceptible motion.

PAPA. These legs have other uses besides that of aiding their motion. They appear to be of service in assisting them to take their prey, and also in enabling them to adhere to rocks and other substances, by which they withstand the force of the waves.

HENRY.-Does not the Star-fish possess, in a considerable degree, the power of reproduction?

PAPA.—Yes; if by any violence a ray is broken off, which, as most of them are very brittle, not unfrequently happens, a new one will, in a short time, appear. This creature is, I believe, the lowest animal in which any nerves are discoverable,