selves to the twigs of trees, or to other elevated bodies, with their heads undermost. Some attach themselves to walls, with their heads higher than their bodies, but in various inclinations and others choose a horizontal position. Some fix themselves by a gluten, and spin a rope round their middle to prevent them from falling. Those which feed upon trees attach themselves to the branches, instead of the leaves, which are less durable, and subject to a variety of accidents. The colours of the caterpillar give no idea of those of the future flies.

The metamorphosis of insects has been regarded as a sudden operation, because they often burst their shell or silky covering quickly, and immediately appear furnished with wings. But by more attentive observation, it has been discovered, that the transformation of caterpillars is a gradual process from the moment the animals are hatched till they arrive at a state of perfection. Why, it may be asked, do caterpillars so frequently cast their skins? The new skin, and other organs, were lodged under their old ones, as, in many tubes or cases, and the animal retires from these cases, because they have become too strait. The reality of these encasements has been demonstrated by a simple experiment. When about to molt or cast its skin, if the foremost legs of a caterpillar are cut off, the animal comes out of the old skin deprived of these legs. From this fact, Reaumur conjectured, that the chrysalis might be thus encased, and concealed under the last skin of the caterpillar. He discovered that the chrysalis, or rather the butterfly itself, was inclosed in the body of the caterpillar. The proboscis, the antennæ, the limbs, and the wings of the fly, are so nicely folded up, that they occupy a small space only under the first two rings of the caterpillar. In the first six limbs of the caterpillar, are encased the six limbs of the butterfly. Even the eggs of the butterfly have been discovered in the caterpillar long before its transformation.

From these facts it appears, that the transformation of insects is only the throwing off external and temporary coverings, and not an alteration of the original form. Caterpillars may be considered as analogous to the fetuses of men and of quadrupeds. They live and receive nourishment in envelopes till they acquire such a degree of perfection as enables them to support the situation to which they are ultimately destined by Nature.

ZOOPHITES, OR PLANT-ANIMALS.

THESE Wonderful productions are so denominated on account of their existing in the shape of plants. They are very numerous, and the greater part of them have so great a resemblance to vegetables, that they have generally been considered as such, although the horny and stony appearance of several of the tribe declares them at first view, to be of a widely different nature from the generality of plants. In others, however, the softness of their substance, and the ramined mode of their growth, would lead any one not acquainted with their real nature, to suppose them vegetables. The hard, horny, or stony zoophites are in general known by the name of corals; and of these several distinctions are formed, either from the structure and appearance of the coral or hard part, or from the affinity which the softer, or animal part, bears to some other genus among soft-bodied animals, or mollusca. The zoophites may be therefore said to unite the animal and vegetable kingdoms, so as to fill up the intermediate space.

Belonging to the class of zoophitic-worms, the fresh-water polypes are infinitely curious. These animals may be found in small streams, and in stagnant waters, adhering to the stems of aquatic plants, or to the under surface of the leaves, and other objects. If a polype be cut in two parts, the superior part will produce a new tail, and the inferior part a new head and arms; and this, in warm weather, in the course of a very few days. If cut into three pieces, the middle portion will produce both the head and tail; and in short, polypes may be cut in all directions, and will still reproduce the deficient organs. The natural mode of propagation in this animal, is by shoots or offsets, in the manner of a plant: one or more branches or shoots proceed from the parent stem, dropping off when complete; and it often happens that these young branches produce others before they themselves drop off from the parent; so that a polype may be found with several of its descendants still adhering to its stem, thus constituting a real genealogical tree. The polype likewise, during the autumnal season, deposits eggs, which evolve themselves afterwards into distinct animals;

and thus possesses two modes of multiplication. It seems paradoxical that a polype should be able to swallow a worm three or four times as large as itself, which is frequently observed to happen; but it must be considered that the body of the animal is extremely extensile, and that it possesses, in an extraordinary degree, the power of stretching itself according to the size of the substance it has to swallow. It seizes its prey with great eagerness, but swallows it slowly, in the same manner as a snake swallows any small quadruped. The arms of a polype, when microscopically examined, are found to be furnished with a vast number of small organs, apparently acting like so many suckers, by the means of which the animal can hold a worm, even though but slightly in contact with one of its arms; but when on the point of swallowing its prey, it then makes use of all its arms at once, in order to absorb it the more readily.

Corals on being gathered perfectly fresh, and placed in sea water, appear to put forth small flowers from all the minute cavities, or hollow points, on the surface. These supposed flowers (for such an idea has been entertained) are real animals; and consequently corals are to be considered as aggregates of animals, either forming, or at least inhabiting, the calcareous substance of the coral in which they appear. The smaller corals, commonly known by the name of corallines, or sea mosses, are so many ramified sea-polypes, covered with a kind of strong, horny case, to defend them from the injuries to which they would be liable, in the boisterous element destined for their abode. The harder, or stony corals are equally of an animal nature; the entire coral continuing to grow as an animal, and to form, by secretion, the stronger or horny exterior, which may at once be considered as its bone, and the habitation in which it has constantly to dwell. A coral of this kind is, therefore, a large compound zoophite, springing up from the rock, in which it seems to have taken root, and shooting out into branches like a vegetable production.

Sponges afford another curious instance of zoophitic life. There are forty-nine species of this zoophite, each of which is characterised in the Linnean system as a fixed animal, flexile, torpid, of various forms, composed either of reticulate fibres, or masses of small spines interwoven togeth

er, and clothed with a gelatinous flesh, full of small mouths on its surface, by which it absorbs and rejects water. The existence of the animal inhabitant within its cell has been satisfactorily ascertained by the observations and experiments of Ellis on the spongia tormentosa. He remarked its contraction when exposed to pain or injury, as well as the expiration and inspiration of water through its tubes. He thus established the position that sponge is an animal, and that the ends or openings of the branched tubes are the mouths by which it receives its nourishment, and discharges its excremintitious matter. This position chemistry has since abundantly supported, by proving the ammoniacal property of the cellular substance of sponge.

THE BANIAN TREE.

[See Plate, No. 26.]

PROCEEDING to the vegetable kingdom, the BANIAN, or BURR TREE, the ficus indica of Linneus, claims a particular attention. It is considered as one of the most curious and beautiful of nature's productions in the genial climate of India, where she sports with the greatest profusion and variety. Each tree is in itself a grove, and some of them are of an amazing size, as they are continually increasing, and, contrary to most other animal and vegetable productious, seem to be exempted from decay: for every branch from the main body throws out its own roots, at first in small tender fibres, several yards from the ground, which continually grow thicker; until by a gradual descent, they reach its surface; where, striking in, they increase to a large trunk, and become a parent tree, throwing out new branches from the top. These in time suspend their roots, and, receiving nourishment from the earth, swell into trunks, and shoot forth other branches; thus continuing in a state of progression so long as the first parent of them all supplies her sustenance.

A banian tree with many trunks, forms the most beautiful walks, vistas, and cool recesses, that can be imagined. The leaves are large, soft, and of a lively green; the fruit is a small fig, when ripe of a bright scarlet; affording sustenance to monkeys, squirrels, peacocks, and birds of various kinds, which dwell among the branches.

The Hindoos are peculiarly fond of this tree; they con

sider its long duration, its out-stretching arms, and overshadowing beneficence, as emblems of the Deity, and almost pay it divine honours. The Brahmins, who thus "find a fane in every sacred grove," spend much of their time in religious solitude under the shade of the banian-tree; they plant it near the dewals, or Hindoo temples, improperly called pagodas; and in those villages where there is not any structure for public worship, they place an image under one of these trees, and there perform a morning and evening sacrifice.

These are the trees under which a sect of naked philosophers, called Gymnosophists, assembled in Arrian's days; and this historian of ancient Greece, it is observed by Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, affords a true picture of the modern Hindoos. "In winter the Gymuosophists enjoy the benefit of the sun's rays in the open air; and in summer, when the heat becomes excessive, they pass their time in cool and moist places, under large trees; which according to the accounts of Nearchus, cover a circumference of five acres, and extend their branches so far, that ten thousand men may easily find shelter under them.

On the banks of the Narbudda, in the province of Guzzerat, is a banian tree, supposed by some persons to be the one described by Nearchus, and certainly not inferior to it. It is distinguished by the name of the Cubbeer Burr, which was given to it in honour of a famous saint. High floods have, at various times, swept away a considerable part of this extraordinary tree; but what still remains is nearly two thousand feet in circumference, measured round the principle stems; the over-hanging branches, not yet struck down, cover a much larger space; and under it grow a number of custard apple, and other fruit trees.— The large trunks of this single tree amount to three hundred and fifty, and the smaller ones exceed three thousand: each of these is constantly sending forth branches and hanging roots, to form other trunks, and become the parents of a future progeny.

The CUBBEER BURR is famed throughout Hindostan, not only on account of its great extent, but also of its surpassing beauty. The Indian armies generally encamp around it; and, at stated seasons, solenin jätarras, or Hindoo festivals, to which thousands of votaries repair from every