. The California horticulturist and floral magazine. Fruit-culture; Gardening. 144 THE CALIFORNIA HORTICULTURIST. imal burrowing in the husks of cocoa- nuts which are found floating in tropical seas. The ship-worms are ovo-viviparous, the eggs being hatched in the body of the parent, and ejected therefrom through the upper siphonal tube. The young ship-worm, like the young oys- ters and others of the bivalve mollusks (Conchifera), swim freely for a time until they pre-empt or fix upon a pile or other submarine woodwork, when they com- mence burrowing. "While doubtless a great deal of dama
. The California horticulturist and floral magazine. Fruit-culture; Gardening. 144 THE CALIFORNIA HORTICULTURIST. imal burrowing in the husks of cocoa- nuts which are found floating in tropical seas. The ship-worms are ovo-viviparous, the eggs being hatched in the body of the parent, and ejected therefrom through the upper siphonal tube. The young ship-worm, like the young oys- ters and others of the bivalve mollusks (Conchifera), swim freely for a time until they pre-empt or fix upon a pile or other submarine woodwork, when they com- mence burrowing. "While doubtless a great deal of damage is done by them, nevertheless, as is observed by the brothers Adams, "they are useful agents in breaking down and destroy- ing fragments of wrecks and floating timber, which otherwise might be dan- gerous impediments to ; The ship-worms are frequently two to three feet in length, the body quite soft, but protected by the shelly coating which is deposited by them upon the sides of their burrow, forming a tube, to which, however, in the recent (not fossil) species the body is not attached; the boring is done with the foot, but whether with the shelly valves, which are shaped much like the nibs of a pod- augur, or by some other process, is not by any means a settled question. In our species the shelly tube is so thin that it is impossible to split the wood without shattering it, but in one species, the Teredo gigantea, or giant ship-worm of Linnaeus, the tube is often a yard long, and two inches in diame- ter,"* and exceedingly thick and strong. The operations of the teredo sug- gested to that distinguished civil engin- eer, Mr. Brunei, his method of tunneling the Thames River, f ; Having glanced at the xylophagous * t Woodward's Manual of Mollusca, 2nd ed., p. 507. mollusks, we will now turn briefly to the wood-eating Crustacea, to which the species referred to by Dr. Hewston be- longs. The order of Isopod (or equal-footed) crustaceans inhabit the lan
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