• Several marks were made on fine calico, in order to try if it was possible to discharge the colour by such chemical means as were at hand; and it was found that after the colour was fixed at its last na▾ tural change, nitrous, no more than vitriolic acid, had any other effect than that of rather brightening it: aqua regia with and without solu tion of tin, and marine acid, produced no change; nor had fixed or volatile alkali any sensible effect. It does not in the least give out its colour to alcohol like cochineal, and the succus of the animal of Turbo clathrus, but it communicates its very disagreeable odour to it most copiously, so that opening the bottle has been more powerful on the olfactory nerves, than the effluvia of assa foetida, to which it may be compared. All the markings which had been alkalized, and acidulated, together with those to which nothing had been applied, became, after washing in soap and water, of an uniform colour, rather brighter than before, and were fixed at a fine unchangeable crimson. 'As the stain given by this animal fluid is, as far as our experience has gone, indestructible, attempts were made to collect a quantity for the purpose of marking linen, when fresh shells could not be procured. Many shells were broken, all of which were more or less possessed of the colouring succus; this was, by means of a pair of fine pointed scissars, extracted with as little of the adjoining flesh as possible, and ground on a piece of plate glass, with a few drops of spring water. Thus prepared of a proper consistency, it was of a dull green colour, which it continued for a considerable time in bulk; but some which was spread thin changed to its ultimate colour in the course of the day, without the assistance of the sun, though we have found it continue many days in its premature green, if light has been excluded. Some of this matter, when thoroughly dry, taken up by a hair pencil, dipped in water, and applied to linen, was by the assistance of the solar rays speedily turned to dull purple, and afterwards by washing with soap, to a crimson, not much inferior in colour to the recent dye, but never so strong. Whether the colouring matter of this species was ever used by the ancients, is to be doubted, since so small a quantity is produced by each animal. dis We are informed that some Spanish philosopher discovered a shell on the coast of Guayaquil and Guatímala, in Peru, that produced a purple dye. All the description we have of this shell is, that it is the size of a walnut, and that the dye, similar to that of Buccinum lapillus, changes from white to green, and is not purple till dry; the method however of extracting it clearly proves it to be very tinct from that species. The operation is performed either by killing and pressing the animal, or by drawing it partly out of the shell and squeezing, it is made to yield the fluid which serves for dyeing; this is repeated four times at different intervals, but always with less success. If continued the animal dies. No colour at present known, says the Abbe Raynal, can be compared to this, either as to lustre, liveliness, or duration.'* Encyclopædia Britannica, Article Murex.' M. Stroem, M. Stroem, a Norwegian clergyman, who studied with assiduity the natural productions of his country, published (if we rightly recollect) a dissertation on Buccinum lapillus ; in which, among other interesting particulars, he endeavoured to prove that the fine purple dye was procured from the uterine humours of the animal inhabitant. That a liquid secretion, capable of communicating a purple tinge, may exist in the womb as well as in a particular vein of the same animal, implies no contradiction; and, if the Hydratriticea of Linné be, as is now generally alleged, the ovary of the creature in question, its contained juice, as we have known since the days of Reaumur, imparts a fine purple stain to linen. The colouring matter obtained from the animal of Turbo clathrus may be perceived in the form of a beautiful purple liquor, which is discharged by allowing the animal to sicken in consequence of being kept for some days in sea-water. This circumstance, which is noted by Plancus and Martini, tends to confirm the conjecture that it may have contributed to the celebrated Tyrian murex. Indeed it appears much more probable that the colouring secretion of this animal should have attracted notice, and have been collected as a dye, than that of Buccinum lapillus, for the obvious reason that it not only produces the fluid spontaneously, and in much greater quantity, but that its primitive colour is of that richness so glowingly described. • Murex Brandaris, called by RONDELETIUS Murex purpura, is generally believed to be one of the species that afforded that costly dye in the Mediterranean. This shell, which in English has been called the Thorny Snipe's Head, is figured in Chemnitz, vol. x. tab. 160, The vast heaps of shells mentioned by authors to be found about Tarentum, are supposed to be those from which this celebrated dye was extracted, and seem to indicate their place to be one of those where it was prepared; but of what species these really are, we do not find sufficiently ascertained.' Having been thus liberal in our extracts, we must refer the curious reader to pages 122 and 123, for the experiments recorded with respect to the colouring properties of Turbo clathrus. From Mr. Montagu's general observations on Serpula and Vermiculum, it is abundantly obvious that the extrication of these two genera is still very far from complete; and that marked differences may be observed among their animal inhabitants, which are not indicated by any of the external characters of the testaceous coverings. On our own shores alone, for example, seven distinct animals occupy shells of Serpula so exactly similar as not to be discriminated by the eye, and are sometimes all grouped in one contorted mass. The abrasion of the angular prominences, too, in some of the kinds, has tended to create confusion. Of the chambered description of Serpula, the lobata was described in the original work; and we are now informed not only that it is found in a fossil state, among minute Nautili, in the neighbourhood of Sienna, but that multitudes of live specimens have recently occurred among Sertularia, trawled by fishermen from deep water; some fragments of Sertularia abietina being covered with them. The only addition to the specific list of Serpule is the concamerata, which is thus described : Shell suborbicular, compressed, flat beneath, slightly convex above, of a sub-pellucid white colour, with three irregular volutions, and numerous dissimilar concamerations; the exterior whirl has about nine glossy and tumid cells, of unequal size, but usually a larger and smaller alternate. Diameter half a line. This very minute species is at once distinguished from S. lobata by possessing much more numerous, and infinitely more minute chambers, which are smooth and glossy, and not of that frosted ap pearance, the lobata is invariably found to be, when examined by a microscope. It is a rare specics, taken up by the Amphitrite ventilabrum in the construction of its tube, which is described in Testacea Britannica as Sabella penicillus ; but its natural habits are like S. lo bata, fixed on Sertularia.' We concur with the learned author in excluding from the division of Testacea those singular sand-cases and tubes which are denominated Sabella, because they are destitute of carbonate of lime, and owe their external appearance to the sand and minute fragments of shells which are accidentally agglutinated to the animal membrane; but we are by no means prepared to assert that they are scarcely worth a place in the cabinet of the naturalist.' From the cabinet of the naturalist we know not on what principle any of nature's productions ought to be rejected; and, though the Sabella are not animals, but their retreats or coverings, they are as much intitled to our notice as shells themselves, whose claims to rank as scientific species, in any natural distribution of the animal kingdom, are altogether illegitimate. Yet who would banish such beautiful and interesting objects from the repositories of the curious? The tender and delicate sand-tubes cannot, it is true, vie in either elegance or variety with the boundless stores of Testacea: but their history is far from devoid of interest, and affords a pleasing illustration of that diversity of wise and kind contrivances which nature delights to exhibit in the protection of her offspring. To this Supplement is subjoined a catalogue of the shells of North Britain, principally the result of the joint researches of Mr. Mr. Laskey and Mr. Henry Boys: but a more ample enu meration, by the former gentleman, will be found in the first volume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, which we have reported in our Number for September last. While we lend our most cordial testimony to Mr. Montagu's intimate knowlege of his subject, and to the persevering diligence with which he has prosecuted his inquiries, we now almost despair of the pleasure of being permitted to compli ment him on the precision or correctness of his composition. Many of his descriptions labour under a certain degree of indistinctness, from an injudicious accumulation of words; and the very first sentence of his introduction is as clumsy as it is ungrammatical. By the persuasions of our scientific' friends to give delineations of many of the shells described in Testacea Britannica, which at the time were omitted from the magnitude of the undertaking at a distance from the arts, we have been induced at our leisure to select such of them whose figures may serve to elucidate, and have had them engraved, together with several new and interesting species, for the use of the public.'-The following sentence is rendered nearly unintelligible by the parsimonious use of the preposition with. These are crowded in a yellowish earthy matrix, mixed with Nautilus crispus, and another very minute non-descript species rarely, and less frequently Serpula lobata.'-In the first of the ensuing quotations, that is oddly omitted, and, in the second, as oddly inserted. It is a duty the public has a right to expect from every writer, more especially in the cultivation of science that professes to discourse upon particular subjects, he should offer his own opinion.'-It has three series of tubercles of equal size on each volution, whereas M. adversus not only has the middle series much smaller, but that these become,' &c. A violation of the concord of noun and verb also frequently occurs; as, strie distinguishes, strie is, a vestige were, &c. lliant may sound more learned, but certainly is not more expressive than gaping; and veneris, applied to a family of shells, will probably extort a smile from the surgeon or the apothecary. In extenuation of such verbal delinquencies, it may, perhaps, be urged that habits of correct and elegant writing are not readily acquired in mature years: but some respect is surely due to the public taste, and to the accuracy and dignity of the characteristic language of science; and any literary friend of the author would fulfil the easy task of bviating those more glaring defects to which we have alluded, ART ART. III. OUR report of the first part of this publication will be found in the 58th vol. of our New Series, (p. 20.) In pursuance of his design, the author now celebrates the Vine, and the Palm, rather with reference to our historical associations, and our feelings of friendship and religion, than with any view of recording the habits and physiology of the individual plants. A stranger to the limited scope of the poem might well be startled at the extensive range of its title, which is commensurate with that of the vegetable kingdom: but he who candidly examines the performance, on its reduced and appropriate scale, will readily admit its claims to our favourable regard. If Mr. Tighe does not often soar to the heights of the sublime, nor dazzle us with corruscations of wit or beauty, he as seldom descends to the level of prose, or has recourse to low conceits, unmeaning epithets, or tawdry ornaments. His language and images are rarely at variance with the genuine spirit of poetry, bis versification is generally harmonious, and his sentiments are correct, manly, and honourable. The opening of the third canto, which derives much of its impressive effect from the beauties of contrast, will in no respect detract from our tempered suffrage of commendation : Beneath her shadowing vine may Friendship rest Once more, though Love may fail, and Peace neglect With happier notes the sympathetic lyre. Fain would I turn from Desolation's track, And teach new flowers to bloom, where War hath late Still darker fates urge on the rapid storm; Fly, Muse, with me from these ungenial shores; A more enlivening strain: seek, Muse, with me |