The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation

by Erasmus Darwin

NOTE XXVII … SHELL-FISH.

The armour of the Echinus moveable; holds itself in storms to stones by 1200 or 2000 strings: Nautilus rows and sails; renders its shell buoyant: Pinna and Cancer; Byssus of the antients was the beard of the Pinna; as fine as the silk is spun by the silk-worm; gloves made of it; the beard of muscles produces sickness; Indian weed; tendons of rats tails.