HAIR. in this distinction as the redeeming point of her destiny. Often would a blush of pleasure suffuse her cheek as she caught a stranger's eye regarding them admiringly, when at her lowly toil. The home HAIR is an eloquent emblem. It is the mother's pride to dress her child's rich locks; the lover's joy to gaze on the hair locket of his mistress; the mourners de-liness of her gait, the poverty of her conspair to see the ringlet stir, as if in mockery of death, by the marble cheek of the departed. How the hue of hair is hallowed to the fancy! From the glossy raven," to the "silver sable," from the "brown in the shadow, and gold in the sun," to blond and silken thread, there is a vocabulary of hues appealing to each memory. 66 The beautiful economy of nature is signally displayed in the human hair. The most simple expedient in the animal frame, the meanest adjunct, as it were, to the figure, yet how effective! "Hyacinthine locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Disheveled, but in wanton ringlets wav'd, In this passage, the blind bard of Paradise has interpreted the natural language of woman's hair before the artifices of fashion had curtailed its natural grace. Whoever has attentively perused one of the pictures of the old masters, where a female figure is therein represented, must have perceived, perhaps unconsciously, that the long, flexible ringlets conveyed an impression to the mind of dependence. The short, tight curls of a gladiatorial statue, on the contrary, give the idea of self-command and unyielding will. There is a poetical charm in the unshorn tresses of a beautiful woman, which Milton has not exaggerated. I have seldom received a more sad conviction of the bitterness of poverty, than was conveyed by the story of a lovely girl in one of the continental towns, who was obliged to sell her hair for bread. She was of humble parentage, but nature had adorned her head with the rarest perfection. Her luxuriant and glowing ringlets constituted the pride of her heart. She rejoiced dition, were relieved by this native adornment. It is wonderful to what slight tokens the self-respect of poor mortals will cling, and how the very maintenance of virtue depends upon some frail association. A strain of music, glimpses of a remembered countenance, a dream, a word, will often annihilate a vile intention, or unseal the fountain of the heart. A palm-tree in England drew tears from an Eastern wanderer, and the native wisdom of Jeannie Deans led her to make her first visit to the Duke of Argyle, arrayed in a plaid, knowing his honour's heart"would warm to the tartan." And And thus, to the simple-hearted maiden her rich and flowing hair was a crown of glory-the only circumstance that elevated her in her own estimation. when the iron necessity of want came upon her, and she was a homeless orphan -when everything had been parted with and all appeals to compassion had failed, the spirit of the poor creature yielded to hunger, and she sold her hair. Before this sacrifice, she had resisted, with the heroism of innocence, the temptation to purchase food at the expense of honour. But when the wants of nature were appeased, and she went forth shorn of her cherished ornament, the consciousness of her loss induced despair, and she resigned herself hopelessly to a career of infamy. Abundant hair is said to be indicative of strength, and fine hair of susceptibility. In the hair are written the stern lessons of life. It falls away from the head of sickness, and the brows of the thoughtful. The bright lot of childhood is traced in its golden threads, the free buoyancy of youth is waked by its wild luxuriance; the throe of anguish, the touch of age, entwine it with a silver tissue; and the intensity of spirit will there anticipate the snows of time. The hair of Columbus was white at thirty; and before that period, Shelley's dark waving curls were dashed with snow. In the account of the execution of the unfortunate Mary, the last touch of pathos is given to the scene when it is stated that, as the executioner held up the severed head, it was perceived that the auburn locks were thickly strewed with grey. Associations of sentiment attach strongly to the hair. Around it is wreathed the laurel garland of fame. Amid it tremble the flowers of a bridal. The Andalusian women always wear roses in their glossy black hair. The barbarous practice of scalping, doubtless originated in a savage idea of desecrating the temple of the soul, as well as of gathering trophies of victory. The head is shaven by the monks in token of humility, and the stationary civilization of the Chinese is indicated by no custom more striking than that of wearing only a single forelock, the very acme of unpicturesque. There were few more characteristic indications of a highly artificial society than the absurd state of dressing the head once so fashionable. Even at the present day, no part of female costume betrays individual taste more clearly than the style in which the hair is worn. To tear the hair is a true expression of despair, and the patriarchal ceremony of scattering ashes on the head, was the deepest sign of sorrow. How much the desolate grandeur of the scene on the heath, in Lear, is augmented by his "white flakes" that "challenge pity," and what a picture we have of Bassanio's love, when he says— "Her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece, Which makes her seat at Belmont, Colcho strands, And many Jasons come in quest of her." The women at the siege of Messina, wrought their hair into bow-strings for the archers, and on a similar occasion in the Spanish wars, the females of a small garrison bound their hair under the chin, to appear like beards, and arranging themselves on the ramparts, induced the enemy to surrender. Sampson's hair was singularly associated with his misfortunes, and the abundant locks of Absalom wrought the downfall of his pride. It is often a net to entrap the affections. The hair speaks the heart. Laura's flying tresses haunted Petrarch's fancy : "Qual Ninfa in fonti, in selve, mai qual Dea Chiome d' oro si fino a l'aura sciolse ?" sical existence :It is the surviving memorial of our phy It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread "There seems a love in hair, though it be deadof our frail plant-a blossom from the tree, Surviving the proud trunk; as if it said, Patience and gentleness is power. In me Behold affectionate eternity." D'Israeli paints Contarini Fleming, the creature of passion, after his wife's death as clipping off her long tresses, twining them about his neck, and springing from a precipice. Miss Porter makes Ellen the ensanguined hair of his murdered Mar embroider into the banner of Wallace, Marion. Goldsmith's coffin was opened to obtain some of his hair for a fair ad- "Cenci With King Philip.-"Bind up those tresses. Oh what love I note In the fair multitude of those her hairs! Constance. "To England: if you will." I tore them from their bonds; and cried aloud, As they have given these hairs their liberty! that alters colour with every motion towards the SOME men's minds are made of changeable stuff light.-Butler. ZOOLOGY-No. VIII. CLASS IV.-RADIARIA, OR RAYED THE figure of a Star-fish was introduced at page 82, previous volume, as an example of what is meant by a rayed or radiated animal. We have now reached the class to which the Star-fish belongs, and as the rayed appearance here attains its highest degree of development, to this group the title Radiaria is given. Here are found those creatures which may be regarded as the representations or types of the Radiate animals, such as the Star-fish, with its rays or arms round a centre; and the SeaUrchin, with its rows of little knobs and spines diverging from a central spot. There are, however, other animals, which are not furnished with a hard, leathery, or prickly covering; but, on the contrary, are soft and jelly-like, such as those which are known round the coast by the names of Jelly-fish, Sea-jellies, or Sea-blubber. In them, however, there are rays proceeding from the centre to the circumference, like the radii of a circle, so that they also belong to this division. The difference in structure and covering points out, however, a very natural division of the class: just as if it were arranged that two corps intended to live under very different circumstances, should each bear its distinctive uniform, adapted to the exigencies of the service, and the safety and comfort of its members. The spine-covered Radiaria form a group whose duties are performed about the shores, or at moderate distances from land, and at fathomable depths. The gelatinous Radiaria, on the contrary, have as their dwelling "The sea, the sea, the open sea. Shakspeare tells us of "A mermaid on a dolphin's back, I will not venture to affirm that these stars were changed into Sea-jellies and Star-fishes, and that this is the reason they still retain a certain degree of resemblance to their original form. But I may assert, that the common names, both in our own and in foreign dialects, evince a popular recognition of a real or supposed likeness. Such an idea must have been in the mind of the poet Montgomery, when he penned the lines "The firmament Was throng'd with constellations, and the sea Let us, however, now regard them, not with the eye of the poet, but with that of the naturalist. ORDER ACALEPHE, OR SEA-NETTLES. "Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire, and behold our home! These are our realms." BYRON. I WAS staying with my family at the sea-side, during the summer months, and was returning home one evening, when, as I approached the door, I heard loud and violent crying. Quickening my steps, I found the cries proceeded from one of my boys, a little fellow about eight years old. He was sitting in the hall more than half undressed, and roaring with pain. I found he had been bathing, and had been severely stung by a jelly-fish. These creatures have long been celebrated for this stinging power. It was well known to the old Greek naturalists, who gave to the order the scientific name Acalephe, signifying a nettle, a term which they still retain as their distinctive appellation. But although some species might, because of this power, be justly raised " to that bad eminence," the name is not restricted to them; and hence the innocent are confounded with the guilty. Not more than three or four species of those known on the British coasts do in reality sting; all the rest are harmless. The appearance of the large tawny coloured species, when seen in the water, on a fine summer or autumn day, is extremely beautiful, as it gracefully moves by the contraction and expansion of the outer margin of the "umbrella," or disc, exhibits its fringed margins, and rises to the surface, or sinks at pleasure beneath. Earlier in the year, we may find our boat surrounded by others marked with purple circles, and so numerous are these jellyfishes that on some occasions its progress is even retarded by the resistance they offer. Our walks along the shore furnish us with examples of many hundreds of both kinds stranded on the beach, and known by the classic appellation of Medusa. It is curious to examine one of these great pads of jelly, and find how little solid matter it contains. One tested by Professor Owen weighed two pounds, at the time of are passed; here the young become covered with the minute, hair-like bodies, called cilia, and are thus enabled, when they forsake the parent, to swim about in the water. We read with interest and wonder of the marsupial pouch of the Kangaroo, where the immature young is nourished; here is an analogous contrivance, belonging to an animal of humble rank, living by thousands on our own shores. Let us now pursue the progress of the young Medusa. After swimming about for some time, under the form shown at fig. 23, it fastens itself to some fixed object (fig.24), and four arms are gradually developed its removal from the sea; but when the The sexes in the Medusa are distinct. watery parts were drained away, and the From the eggs, while yet within the ovaries remainder dried, there remained but a thin of the mother, the young are developed, and membrane not exceeding thirty grains in pass into pouches observable on the lower weight. This remarkable peculiarity is so surface of the body. Each of these four little known, that I shall extract from Pat- pouches is a nursery, where, secure from terson's "Zoology for Schools" the follow-harm, the first stages of helpless infancy ing illustrative anecdote :-"An eminent zoologist, now a professor in one of the English Universities, had been delivering some lectures in a seaport town in Scotland, in the course of which he had adverted to some of the most remarkable points in the economy of the Acalephæ. After the lecture, a farmer who had been present came forward and inquired if he had understood him correctly, as having stated that the Medusæ contained so little of solid material, that they might be regarded as little else than a mass of animated sea-water? And on being answered in the affirmative, he remarked that it would have saved him many a pound had he known that sooner, for he had been in the habit of employing his men and horses in carting away large quantities of jelly-fish from the shore, and using them as manure on his farm, and he now believed they could have been of little more real use than an equal weight of seawater. Assuming that so much as one ton weight of Medusa recently thrown on the beach had been carted away in one load, it will be found that, according to the experiments of Professor Owen, the entire quantity of solid material would be only about 4 lbs. avoirdupois weight, an amount of solid material which, if compressed, the farmer might, with ease, have carried home in one of his coat pockets!" As the Medusa moves gracefully through the water, we might suppose that the entire of the disc, or "umbrella," contracted and expanded. But this is not the case; it is the part round the margin that alone possesses this contractible power. The lower surface of the body has a fine net-work of vessels, wherein the circulating fluids are exposed to the vivifying influence of the oxygen of the water. Each movement becomes, therefore, an act of respiration; by the same impulse it both breathes and moves. This beautiful and economic arrangement has suggested the application of a term by which this peculiarity is indicated. The tribe has been termed Pulmograde, from two Latin words, pulmo, a lung, and gradior, I advance. Analogous terms, some of which will be mentioned in the next chapter, have been suggested by peculiarities in the mode of locomotion, observable in other tribes. Fig. 23. Fig. 24. Fig. 25. Fig. 26. which are succeeded by four more (Fig. 25), so that in ten days from the time it left the parent receptacle, it is furnished with eight arms, which are busily employed in the capture of food. At first it swam about in the manner of a Polygastric animalcula (p. 84); now it catches its prey, moored |