their ale is produced the fruit, which consists of numerous black, cylindrical, pointed pods, each about two lines long, disposed in a panicle, and supported upon a common peduncle; their surfaces tuberculated, and their points sometimes forked. Besides these, hollow, spherical, or oblong vesicles, placed upon short, flat, dilated stalks, and occasionally tipped with a minute point, are scattered, though in small quantities, over the stem and branches, the largest of them almost equalling in size the berries of juniper, to which they have been well compared. This Fucus is very flexible and soft; the substance of the leaves and bladders membraneous, thin, and tender, their colour a reddish brown." In classing it amongst British Fuci, Mr. Turner expresses his doubts of its being a native of our shores, but has followed Linnæus and other botanists. He considers that there are two sorts, one of which belongs to the shores of the Mediterranean, and the other to the West India islands. are The small fish, at the commencement of this Number, drawn from some that have been found among the Sargasso weed; the following account of which we have been politely furnished with by Mr. Bennet, of Bulstrode-street. The large figure represents one of those fishes to which, on account of their uncouth appearance, the name of toad-fish has been popularly given. Under this denomination there have been included many very dissimilar kinds, extreme ugliness being held as alone sufficient for the establishment of an undeniable claim to the title. The present fish, and those nearly related to it, advance, however, peculiar claims to the appellation. Their belly and side fins are borne upon supports which project from the body in the semblance of limbs, their similarity to which is increased by the jointed form they acquire at the point of union of the fin with its support, and still farther by the finger-like appearance of the rays of these fins, which are unconnected by membrane at their tips. This curious structure imparts to these fishes not only somewhat of the outward form of a quadruped, but also a portion of its habits, and they are, accordingly, capable of crawling like toads among the sea-weeds and rocks which they usually inhabit; the side fins, which are placed farther back than those of the belly, performing on each occasion the functions of hinder feet. Nor is this mode of locomotion confined to the water alone; it may, also, be exercised by them on land, for their gillopenings are so small, that evaporation takes place but slowly from within them, and thus the gills are kept moistened, the circulation of the blood is preserved, even out of the water, for two or three days. So remarkable a deviation from the usual appearance and habits of the class to which they belong, has naturally caused them to be regarded as objects of curiosity; and it is recorded, that living specimens have been successfully and transported from the East to Holland, where they have been sold at considerable prices. The fishes of this genus, to which Commerson gave the name of Antennarius, (on account of the filament which they possess on the forehead,) are met with in the sea of warm climates, in the east as well as in the west. They subsist chiefly on small crabs, to surprise which they hide themselves among the sea-weed, or behind stones. Their flesh is said not to be edible; it may, perhaps, have been rejected, on account of their disgusting appearance, and is certainly too small in quantity to allow of its being important as an article of food. In swimming, they usually gulp down air, and, thus distending their capacious stomachs, enlarge themselves into a rounded half-floating mass, much in the same manner as the globe or balloon fishes. Their nearest affinity is to the fishes known as anglers, with which they agree in the form of their gill-openings and fins, and in the possession of filaments on the head; but the monstrously disproportioned head of the anglers, which is depressed from above downwards, and the enormous opening of their mouth, readily distinguish them from the toad-fishes, whose head is of moderate size, and, like their bodies, compressed laterally. They are either smooth or variously hairy or bristly, and are always destitute of the regular scales with which fishes are generally invested. They are furnished, especially on the lips and the under parts, with numerous short loose processes of skin, which add considerably to their sense of touch. There is great variety in the different kinds in the length of the filament on the head, and its termination is still more varied in some it is almost simple, as though formed of a single undilated hair; in others, it is surmounted by a small dense globular mass of short filaments; and in others again, it has two, or even three large fleshy processes at its end, not unlike the baits which terminate the fishing filaments of the anglers. In the species figured, the Antennarius lævigatus, the skin is smooth, and furnished with short loose processes; the filament on the head is short, and terminated by a small knob of clustered minute filaments; this is succeeded by two other processes, each resembling a fin supported by a single ray, and fringed, especially towards its upper part, by loose portions of skin; to these succeed the back fin, supported, as usual, by many rays. The colour is pale, irregularly blotched, spotted, and streaked with brown, the markings varying considerably in different individuals: it is also dotted irregularly with white. By these characters it may be known from the other species of the genus, with which it appears to have been associated by Linnæus, under the common name of Lophius Histrio. It was first scientifically distinguished by M. Bosc, a French naturalist, who observed it, on his voyage to America, among the Sargasso weed: he described and figured it, not without some imperfections, in the Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle. It has since been figured, but not described, by Dr. Mitchell in the Transactions of the New York Society; and one very nearly resembling it has been described by Mr. Bennett with a figure, in the Geological Journal. The genus to which it belongs is most completely treated of by M. Cuvier, in the Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. The other fish, which we have figured, is one of the apparently numerous group known as pipe-fishes, several of which inhabit our own coasts. These, with some allied kinds, are peculiar for the arrangements of their gills, which are disposed, not in rows resembling the teeth of a comb, but in detached lumps ranging in pairs along the gill, bearing bones. On this account, the family has been distinguished by M. Cuvier under the name of Lophobranches. The whole of the fishes belonging to it have the body covered with hard plates, instead of scales, and are generally angular in their contour. Among them, the pipe-fishes are distinguished by the great length and slenderness of their bodies, which are not greatly dilated in any part; their snout is also lengthened, and furnished at its extremity with a very small mouth. No group of fishes is more variable, as regards the number of the fins. In all of them the belly fins are wanting; some, like the one before us, have side, back, vent, and tail fins; in others, the vent fin is deficient; in others, the side fins are also wanting; and others, again, have no tail fin; the only fin, with which they are furnished, being that of the back. The several kinds are best distinguished in the first instance, by the presence or absence of the fins, and in the next by the number of the plates investing the body and the tail, to which accessary characters are afforded by the number of the angles exhibited by a section of the body and of the tail. In the species figured, to which Mr. Bennett has recently given, on account of its residence among the Fucus natans, the name of Syngnathus fucicola, all the fins, except the ventral, are present; the number of plates, anterior to the back fin, is 14; anterior to the vent, 16; and posterior to the vent, 26; the body is heptagonal, and the tail quadrangular. It is marked across the sides by numerous broad dark bands. As in all the other pipe-fishes, in which the same number of fins exists, the females, after the exclusion of their eggs, bear them about under their tails, in an enlargement, formed for the purpose, under the skin of this part, which is so transparent as to allow of the eggs (as in some of the specimens before us, which were taken in August or September) being seen distinctly through it. The specimen figured, is a male of about half the usual size of the species. The female differs only by the body and snout being proportionally shorter, and the tail comparatively longer. |