s[1], are not by any means rare; many
kinds are brought up in the nets, or may be extracted from the stomachs
of the larger market fish. One very large species[2], figured by
Joinville in the manuscript volume in the library at the India House, is
not uncommon; it has thick arms, from which and the disc numerous large
fleshy cirrhi of a bright crimson colour project downwards, giving the
creature a remarkable aspect. No description of it, so far as I am aware
has appeared in any systematic work on zoology.

[Footnote 1: _Asterias_, Linn.]

[Footnote 2: _Pentaceros?_]

_Sea Slugs._--There are a few species of _Holothuriae_, of which the
trepang is the best known example. It is largely collected in the Gulf
of Manaar, and dried in the sun to prepare it for export to China. A
good description and figure of it are still desiderata.

_Parasitic Worms._--Of these entozoa, the _Filaria medinensis_, or
guinea worm, which burrows in the cellular tissue under the skin, is
well known in the north of the island, but rarely found in the damper
districts of the south and west. In Ceylon, as elsewhere, the natives
attribute its occurrence to drinking the waters of particular wells; but
this belief is inconsistent with the fact that its lodgment in the human
body is almost always effected just above the ankle, which shows that
the minute parasites are transferred to the skin of the leg from the
moist vegetation bordering the footpaths leading to wells. The creatures
are at this period minute, and the process of insinuation is painless
and imperceptible. It is only when they attain to considerable size, a
foot or more in length, that the operation of extracting them is
resorted to, when exercise may have given rise to inconvenience and
inflammation.

_Planaria_.--In the journal above alluded to, Dr. Kelaart has given
descriptions of fifteen species of planaria, and four of a new genus,
instituted by him for the reception of those differing from the normal
kinds by some peculiarities which they exhibit in common. At Point
Pedro, Mr. Edgar Layard met with one on the bark of trees, after heavy
rain, which would appear to belong to the subgenus _geoplana_.[1]

[Footnote 1: "A curious species, which is of a light brown above, white
underneath; very broad and thin, and has a peculiarly shaped tail,
half-moon-shaped, in fact, like a grocer's cheese knife."]

_Acalephae_.--Acalephae[1] are plentiful, so much so, indeed, that they
occasi