but, perhaps, the most interesting of all entomological books which I have seen (and for introducing me to which I must express my hearty thanks to Mr. Stainton), is “Practical Hints respecting Moths and Butterflies, forming a Calendar of Entomological Operations,” (36) by Richard Shield, a simple London working-man.
I would gladly devote more space than I can here spare to a review of this little book, so perfectly does it corroborate every word which I have said already as to the moral and intellectual value of such studies. Richard Shield, making himself a first-rate “lepidopterist,” while working with his hands for a pound a week, is the antitype of Mr. Peach, the coast-guardsman, among his Cornish tide-rocks. But more than this, there is about Shield’s book a tone as of Izaak Walton himself, which is very delightful; tender, poetical, and religious, yet full of quiet quaintness and humour; showing in every page how the love for Natural History is in him only one expression of a love for all things beautiful, and pure, and right. If any readers of these pages fancy that I over- praise the book, let them buy it, and judge for themselves. They will thus help the good man toward pursuing his studies with larger and better appliances, and will be (as I expect) surprised to find how much there is to be seen and done, even by a working-man, within a day’s walk of smoky Babylon itself; and how easily a man might, if he would, wash his soul clean for a while from all the turmoil and intrigue, the vanity and vexation of spirit of that “too-populous wilderness,” by going out to be alone a while with God in heaven, and with that earth which He has given to the children of men, not merely for the material wants of their bodies, but as a witness and a sacrament that in Him they live and move, and have their being, “not by bread alone, but by EVERY word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Thus I wrote some twenty years ago, when the study of Natural History was confined mainly to several scientific men, or mere collectors of shells, insects, and dried plants.
Since then, I am glad to say, it has become a popular and common pursuit, owing, I doubt not, to the impulse given to it by the many authors whose works I then recommended. I recommend them still; though a swarm of other manuals and popular works have appeared since, excellent in their way, and almost beyond counting. But all honour to those, and above all to Mr. Gosse and Mr. Johns, who first opened people’s eyes to the wonders around them all day long. Now, we have, in addition to amusing books on special subjects, serials on Natural History more or less profound, and suited to every kind of student and every grade of knowledge. I mention the names of none. For first, they happily need no advertisement from me; and next, I fear to be unjust to any one of them by inadvertently omitting its name. Let me add, that in the advertising columns of those serials, will be found notices of all the new manuals, and of all apparatus, and other matters, needed by amateur naturalists, and of many who are more than amateurs. Microscopy, meanwhile, and the whole study of “The Wonders of the Little,” have made vast strides in the last twenty years; and I was equally surprised and pleased, to find, three years ago, in each of two towns of a few thousand inhabitants, perhaps a dozen good microscopes, all but hidden away from the public, worked by men who knew how to handle them, and who knew what they were looking at; but who modestly refrained from telling anybody what they were doing so well. And it was this very discovery of unsuspected microscopists which made me more desirous than ever to see – as I see now in many places – scientific societies, by means of which the few, who otherwise would work apart, may communicate their knowledge to each other, and to the many. These “Microscopic,” “Naturalist,” “Geological,” or other societies, and the “Field Clubs” for excursions into the country, which are usually connected with them, form a most pleasant and hopeful new feature in English Society; bringing together, as they do, almost all ranks, all shades of opinion; and it has given me deep pleasure to see, in the case at least of the Country Clubs with which I am acquainted, the clergy of the Church of England taking an active, and often a leading, interest in their practical work. The town clergy are, for the most part, too utterly overworked to follow the example of their country brethren. But I have reason to know that they regard such societies, and Natural History in general, with no unfriendly eyes; and that there is less fear than ever that the clergy of the Church of England should have to relinquish their ancient boast – that since the formation of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century, they have done more for sound physical science than any other priesthood or ministry in the world. Let me advise anyone who may do me the honour of reading these pages, to discover whether such a Club or Society exists in his neighbourhood, and to join it forthwith, certain that – if his experience be at all like mine – he will gain most pleasant information and most pleasant acquaintances, and pass most pleasant days and evenings, among people whom he will be glad to know, and whom he never would have known save for the new – and now, I hope, rapidly spreading – freemasonry of Natural History.
Meanwhile, I hope – though I dare not say I trust – to see the day when the boys of each of our large schools shall join – like those of Marlborough and Clifton – the same freemasonry; and have their own Naturalists’ Clubs; nay more; when our public schools and universities shall awake to the real needs of the age, and – even to the curtailing of the time usually spent in not learning Latin and Greek – teach boys the rudiments at least of botany, zoology, geology, and so forth; and when the public opinion, at least of the refined and educated, shall consider it as ludicrous – to use no stronger word – to be ignorant of the commonest facts and laws of this living planet, as to be ignorant of the rudiments of two dead languages. All honour to the said two languages. Ignorance of them is a serious weakness; for it implies ignorance of many things else; and indeed, without some knowledge of them, the nomenclature of the physical sciences cannot be mastered. But I have got to discover that a boy’s time is more usefully spent, and his intellect more methodically trained, by getting up Ovid’s Fasti with an ulterior hope of being able to write a few Latin verses, than in getting up Professor Rolleston’s “Forms of Animal Life,” or any other of the excellent Scientific Manuals for beginners, which are now, as I said, happily so numerous.
May that day soon come; and an old dream of mine, and of my scientific friends, be fulfilled at last.
And so I end this little book, hoping, even praying, that it may encourage a few more labourers to go forth into a vineyard, which those who have toiled in it know to be full of ever-fresh health, and wonder and simple joy, and the presence and the glory of Him whose name is LOVE.
APPENDIX.
PLATE I.
ZOOPHYTA. POLYZOA.
THE forms of animal life which are now united in an independent class, under the name Polyzoa, so nearly resemble the Hydroid Zoophytes in general form and appearance that a casual observer may suppose them to be nearly identical. In all but the more recent works, they are treated as distinct indeed, but still included under the general term “ZOOPHYTES.” The animals of both groups are minute, polypiform creatures, mostly living in transparent cells, springing from the sides of a stem which unites a number of individuals in one common life, and grows in a shrub-like form upon any submarine body, such as a shell, a rock, a weed, or even another polypidom to which it is parasitically attached. Each polype, in both classes, protrudes from and retreats within its cell by an independent action, and when protruded puts forth a circle of tentacles whose motion round the mouth is the means of securing nourishment. There are, however, peculiarities in the structure of the Polyzoa which seem to remove them from Zoophytology to a place in the system of nature more nearly connected with Molluscan types. Some of them come so near to the compound ascidians that they have been termed, as an order, “Zoophyta ascidioida.”
The simplest form of polype is that of a fleshy bag open at one end, surmounted by a circle of contractile threads or fingers called tentacles. The plate shows, on a very minute scale, at figs. 1, 3, and 6, several of these little polypiform bodies protruding from their cells. But the Hydra or Fresh-water Polype has no cell, and is quite unconnected with any root thread, or with other individuals of the same species. It is perfectly free, and so simple in its structure, that when the sac which forms its body is turned inside out it will continue to perform the functions of life as before. The greater part, however, of these Hydraform Polypes, although equally simple as individuals, are connected in a compound life by means of their variously formed POLYPIDOM, as the branched system of cells is termed. The Hydroid Zoophytes are represented in the first plate by the following examples.
HYDROIDA.
SERTULARIA ROSEA. PL. I. FIG. 6.
A species which has the cells in pairs on opposite sides of the central tube, with the openings turned outwards. In the more enlarged figure is seen a septum across the inner part of each cell which forms the base upon which the polype rests. Fig. 6 B indicates the natural size of the piece of branch represented; but it must be remembered that this is only a small portion of the bushy shrub.
CAMPANULARIA SYRINGA. PL. I. FIG. 8.
This Zoophyte twines itself parasitically upon a species of Sertularia. The cells in this species are thrown out at irregular intervals upon flexible stems which are wrinkled in rings. They consist of lengthened, cylindrical, transparent vases.
CAMPANULARIA VOLUBILIS. PL. I. FIG. 9.
A still more beautiful species, with lengthened foot-stalks ringed at each end. The polype is remarkable for the protrusion and contractile power of its lips. It has about twenty knobbed tentacula.
POLYZOA.
Among Polyzoa the animal’s body is coated with a membraneous covering, like that of the Tunicated Mollusca, but which is a continuation of the edge of the cell, which doubles back upon the body in such a manner that when the animal protrudes from its cell it pushes out the flexible membrane just as one would turn inside out the finger of a glove. This oneness of cell and polype is a distinctive character of the group. Another is the higher organization of the internal parts. The mouth, surrounded by tentacles, leads by gullet and gizzard through a channel into a digesting stomach, from which the rejectable matter passes upwards through an intestinal canal till it is discharged near the mouth. The tentacles also differ much from those of true Polypes. Instead of being fleshy and contractile, they are rather stiff, resembling spun glass, set on the sides with vibrating cilia, which by their motion up one side and down the other of each tentacle, produce a current which impels their living food into the mouth. When these tentacles are withdrawn, they are gathered up in a bundle, like the stays of an umbrella. Our Plate I. contains the following examples of Polyzoa.
VALKERIA CUSCUTA. PL. I. FIG. 3.
From a group in one of Mr. Lloyd’s vases. Fig. 3 A is the natural size of the central group of cells, in a specimen coiled round a thread-like weed. Underneath this is the same portion enlarged. When magnified to this apparent size, the cells could be seen in different states, some closed, and others with their bodies protruded. When magnified to 3 D, we could pleasantly watch the gradual eversion of the membrane, then the points of the tentacles slowly appearing, and then, when fully protruded, suddenly expanding into a bell-shaped circle. This was their usual appearance, but sometimes they could be noticed bending inwards, as in fig. 3 C, as if to imprison some living atom of importance. Fig. B represents two tentacles, showing the direction in which the cilia vibrate.
CRISIA DENTICULATA. PL. I. FIG. 4.
I have only drawn the cells from a prepared specimen. The polypes are like those described above.
GEMELLARIA LORICATA. PL. I. FIG. 5.
Here the cells are placed in pairs, back to back. 5 A is a very small portion on the natural scale.
CELLULARIA CILIATA. Pl. I. FIG. 7
The cells are alternate on the stem, and are curiously armed with long whip-like cilia or spines. On the back of some of the cells is a very strange appendage, the use of which is not with certainty ascertained. It is a minute body, slightly resembling a vulture’s head, with a movable lower beak. The whole head keeps up a nodding motion, and the movable beak occasionally opens widely, and then suddenly snaps to with a jerk. It has been seen to hold an animalcule between its jaws till the latter has died, but it has no power to communicate the prey to the polype in its cell or to swallow and digest it on its own account. It is certainly not an independent parasite, as has been supposed, and yet its purpose in the animal economy is a mystery. Mr. Gosse conjectures that its use may be, by holding animalcules till they die and decay, to attract by their putrescence crowds of other animalcules, which may thus be drawn within the influence of the polype’s ciliated tentacles. Fig. 7 B shows the form of one of these “birds’ heads,” and fig. 7 C, its position on the cell.
FLUSTRA LINEATA. PL. I. FIG. 1.
In Flustrae, the cells are placed side by side on an expanded membrane. Fig. 1 represents the general appearance of a species which at least resembles F. lineata as figured in Johnston’s work. It is spread upon a Fucus. Fig. A is an enlarged view of the cells.
FLUSTRA FOLIACEA. PL. I. FIG. 2.
We figure a frond or two of the common species, which has cells on both sides. It is rarely that the polypes can be seen in a state of expansion.
SERIALARIA LENDIGERA. PL. I. fig. 10.
NOTAMIA BURSARIA. PL. I. fig. 11.
The “tobacco-pipe”” appendages, fig. 11 B, are of unknown use: they are probably analogous to the birds’ heads in the Cellularae.
PLATE V.
CORALS AND SEA ANEMONES.
CARYOPHYLLAEA SMITHII. PL. V. FIG. 2. PL. VI. FIG. 3.
THE connection between Brainstones, Mushroom Corals, and other Madrepores abounding on Polynesian reefs, and the “Sea Anemones,” which have lately become so familiar to us all, can be seen by comparing our comparatively insignificant C. Smithii with our commonest species of Actinia and Sagartia. The former is a beautiful object when the fleshy part and tentacles are wholly or partially expanded. Like Actinia, it has a membranous covering, a simple sac-like stomach, a central mouth, a disk surrounded by contractile and adhesive tentacles. Unlike Actinia, it is fixed to submarine bodies, to which it is glued in very early life, and cannot change its place. Unlike Actinia, its body is supported by a stony skeleton of calcareous plates arranged edgewise so as to radiate from the centre. But as we find some Molluscs furnished with a shell, and others even of the same character and habits without one, so we find that in spite of this seemingly important difference, the animals are very similar in their nature. Since the introduction of glass tanks we have opportunities of seeing anemones crawling up the sides, so as to exhibit their entire basal disk, and then we may observe lightly coloured lines of a less transparent substance than the interstices, radiating from the margin to the centre, some short, others reaching the entire distance, and arranged in exactly the same manner as the plates of Caryophyllaea. These are doubtless flexible walls of compartments dividing the fleshy parts of the softer animals, and corresponding with the septa of the coral. Fig. 2 A represents a section of the latter, to be compared with the basal disk of Sagartia.
SAGARTIA ANGUICOMA. PL. V. FIG. 3, A, B.
This genus has been separated from Actinia on account of its habit of throwing out threads when irritated. Although my specimens often assumed the form represented in fig. 3, Mr. Lloyd informs me that it must have arisen from unhealthiness of condition, its usual habit being to contract into a more flattened form. When fully expanded, its transparent and lengthened tentacles present a beautiful appearance. Fig. 3 A, showing a basal disk, is given for the purpose already described.
BALANOPHYLLAEA REGIA. PL. V. FIG. 1.
Another species of British madrepore, found by Mr. Gosse at Ilfracombe, and by Mr. Kingsley at Lundy Island. It is smaller than O. Smithii, of a very bright colour, and always covers the upper part of its bony skeleton, in which the plates are differently arranged from those of the smaller species. Fig. 1 shows the tentacles expanded in an unusual degree; 1 A, animal contracted; 1 B, the coral; 1 C, a tentacle enlarged.
PLATE VI.
CORALS AND SEA ANEMONES.
ACTINIA MESEMBRYANTHEMUM. PL. VI. FIG. 1 A.
This common species is more frequently met with than many others, because it prefers shallow water, and often lives high up among rocks which are only covered by the sea at very high tide; so that the creature can, if it will, spend but a short portion of its time immersed. When uncovered by the tide, it gathers up its leathery tunic, and presents the appearance of fig. 1 A. When under water it may often be seen expanding its flower-like disk and moving its feelers in search of food. These feelers have a certain power of adhesion, and any not too vigorous animals which they touch are easily drawn towards the centre and swallowed. Around the margin of the tunic are seen peeping out between the tentacles certain bright blue globules looking very like eyes, but whose purpose is not exactly ascertained. Fig. 1 represents the disk only partially expanded.
BUNODES CRASSICORNIS. PL. VI. FIG. 2.
This genus of Actinioid zoophytes is distinguished from Actinia proper by the tubercles or warts which stud the outer covering of the animal. In B. gemmacea these warts are arranged symmetrically, so as to give a peculiarly jewelled appearance to the body. Being of a large size, the tentacles of B. crassicornis exhibit in great perfection the adhesive powers produced by the nettling threads which proceed from them.
CARYOPHYLLAEA SMITHII. PL. VI. FIG. 3.
This figure is to show a whiter variety, with the flesh and tentacles fully expanded
PLATE VIII.
MOLLUSCA.
NASSA RETICULATA. PL. VIII. fig. 2, A, B, C, D, E, F
A VERY active Mollusc, given here chiefly on account of the opportunity afforded by the birth of young fry in Mr. Lloyd’s tanks. The NASSA feeds on small animalcules, for which, in aquaria, it may be seen routing among the sand and stones, sometimes burying itself among them so as only to show its caudal tube moving along between them. A pair of Nassae in Mr. Lloyd’s collection, deposited, on the 5th of April, about fifty capsules or bags of eggs upon the stems of weeds (fig. 2 B); each capsule contained about a hundred eggs. The capsules opened on the 16th of May, permitting the escape of rotiferous fry (fig. 2, C, D, E), not in the slightest degree resembling the parent, but presenting minute nautilus-shaped transparent shells. These shells rather hang on than cover the bodies, which have a pair of lobes, around which vibrate minute cilia in such a manner as to give them an appearance of rotatory motion. Under a lens they may be seen moving about very actively in various positions, but always with the look of being moved by rapidly turning wheels. We should have been glad to witness the next step towards assuming their ultimate form, but were disappointed, as the embryos died. Fig. 2 F is the tongue of a Nassa, from a photograph by Dr. Kingsley.
Footnotes:
(1) SERTULARIA OPERCULATA and GEMELLARIA LOCICULATA; or any of the small SERTULARIAE, compared with CRISIAE and CELLULARIAE, are very good examples. For a fuller description of these, see Appendix explaining Plate I.
(2) If any inland reader wishes to see the action of this foot, in the bivalve Molluscs, let him look at the Common Pond-Mussel (Anodon Cygneus), which he will find in most stagnant waters, and see how he burrows with it in the mud, and how, when the water is drawn off, he walks solemnly into deeper water, leaving a furrow behind him.
(3) These shells are so common that I have not cared to figure them.
(4) Plate IX. Fig. 3, represents both parasites on the dead Turritella.
(5) A few words on him, and on sea-anemones in general, may be found in Appendix II. But full details, accompanied with beautiful plates, may be found in Mr. Gosse’s work on British sea-anemones and madrepores, which ought to be in every seaside library.
(6) Handbook to the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal Palace.
(7) An admirable paper on this extraordinary family may be found in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings for July 1858, by Messrs. S. P. Woodward and the late lamented Lucas Barrett. See also Quatrefages, I. 82, or Synapta Duvernaei.
(8) Thalassema Neptuni (Forbes’ British Star-Fishes, p. 259),
(9) The Londoner may see specimens of them at the Zoological Gardens and at the Crystal Palace; as also of the rare and beautiful Sabella, figured in the same plate; and of the Balanophyllia, or a closely-allied species, from the Mediterranean, mentioned in p. 109.
(10) A Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast, p. 110.
(11) Balanophyllia regia, Plate V. fig. 1.
(12) Amphidotus cordatus.
(13) Echinus miliaris, Plate VII.
(14) See Professor Sedgwick’s last edition of the “Discourses on the Studies of Cambridge.”
(15) Fissurella graeca, Plate X. fig. 5.
(16) Doris tuberculata and bilineata.
(17) Eolis papi losa. A Doris and an Eolis, though not of these species, are figured in Plate X.
(18) Plate III.
(19) Certain Parisian zoologists have done me the honour to hint that this description was a play of fancy. I can only answer, that I saw it with my own eyes in my own aquarium. I am not, I hope, in the habit of drawing on my fancy in the presence of infinitely more marvellous Nature. Truth is quite strange enough to be interesting without lies.
(20) Saxicava rugosa, Plate XI. fig. 2.
(21) Plate VIII. represents the common Nassa, with the still more common Littorina littorea, their teeth-studded palates, and the free swimming young of the Nassa. (VIDE Appendix.)
(22) Cyproea Europoea.
(23) Botrylli.
(24) Molluscs.
Doris tuberculata.
– bilineata.
Eolis papillosa.
Pleurobranchus plumila.
Neritina.
Cypraea.
Trochus, – 2 species.
Mangelia.
Triton.
Trophon.
Nassa, – 2 species.
Cerithium.
Sigaretus.
Fissurella.
Arca lactea.
Pecten pusio.
Tapes pullastra.
Kellia suborbicularis.
Shaenia Binghami.
Saxicava rugosa.
Gastrochoena pholadia.
Pholas parva.
Anomiae, -2 or 3 species
Cynthia,-2 species.
Botryllus, do.
ANNELIDS.
Phyllodoce, and other Nereid worms.
Polynoe squamata.
CRUSTACEA.
4 or 5 species.
ECHINODERMS.
Echinus miliaris.
Asterias gibbosa.
Ophiocoma neglecla.
Cucumaria Hyndmanni.
– communis.
POLYPES.
Sertularia pumila.
– rugosa.
– fallax.
– filicula.
Plumularia falcata.
– setacea.
Laomedea geniculata.
Campanularia volubilis.
Actinia mesembryanthemum.
Actinia clavata.
– anguicoma.
– crassicornis.
Tubulipora patina.
– hispida.
– serpens.
Crisia eburnea.
Cellepora pumicosa.
Lepraliae,- many species.
Membranipora pilosa.
Cellularia ciliata.
– scruposa.
– reptans.
Flustra membranacea, &c.
(25) Plate XI. fig. 1.
(26) Plate X. fig. 1.
(27) There are very fine specimens in the Crystal Palace.
(28) Coryne ramosa.
(29) Campanularia integra.
(30) Crisidia Eburnea.
(31) Aquarium, p. 163.
(32) P. 34. Figures of it are given in Plate VIII.
(33) P. 259.
(34) But if any young lady, her aquarium having failed, shall (as dozens do) cast out the same Anacharis into the nearest ditch, she shall be followed to her grave by the maledictions of all millers and trout-fishers. Seriously, this is a wanton act of injury to the neighbouring streams, which must be carefully guarded against. As well turn loose queen-wasps to build in your neighbour’s banks.
(35) Very highly also, in interest, ranks M. Quatrefages’ “Rambles of a Naturalist” (about the Mediterranean and the French Coast), translated by M. Otte.
(36) Van Voorst & Co. price 3s.