[1] It appears likely that the little knobs at the end of the snail’s feelers, are, as some naturalists assert, in reality eyes; if so, we were wrong in calling the creature blind. Yet is their position and construction so different from organs of sight generally, that they serve rather to strengthen than invalidate the above observations. The number of the horns varies in different kinds of snails from two to six, and some have none at all. These tentacles, when present, are always situated above the mouth; some of them have the knobs at the base, others at the sides; and it has been conjectured that they may be organs of smell, as well as of sight and touch. THE COMMON SNAIL Is called by naturalists _Helix aspersa_, the generic name being derived from a Greek word signifying spiral, and having reference to the shape of the shell; the plural is _Helices_, a term applied to all convoluted or twisted shells, which terminate in a point like a church spire: a spiral-shelled fossil is called a _helicate_. The specific name comes from the Latin _asper_—rough, whence also our English word _asperity_—roughness, and several others. The _Helicidæ_, or _Helix_ family, is that which includes the land shell Snails and the naked Slugs, and in this family there are several genera; they are distinguished from the shelled water Snails, both sea and river, by having a different breathing apparatus, and some other points of internal construction which it is not necessary to describe here. The Common Snail has a mouth, of which it makes good use, as market gardeners well know, and yet this mouth is not furnished with teeth; instead of these, the upper lip, which is of a horny texture, is what is called _dentated_, from the Latin _dentus_—a tooth, that is, divided or separated, so as to present somewhat the appearance of a row of teeth in the jaw; this lip is of an arched form, and appears to be a very serviceable kind of instrument to Mr. _Helix aspersa_, who, if his character be not _aspersed_, is very destructive to all sorts of greenery. The lower lip is divided only in the middle, where there is an opening of some width: it is not horny, like the upper one. Snails lay eggs, which are about the size of very small peas; they are soft, and of a whitish colour. Being semi, that is, half, transparent, or clear, their contents can be partly seen; and in those of a water Snail, deposited against the side of a glass bottle, the young were detected with partially formed shells upon their backs.