THE SPIDER. ; 809

sects, being simple, though six or eight in number; spiders
have algo eight legs, two more than in the class Insecta.
The most remarkable feature in the structure of the spider,
is the power of producing slender, silk-like threads, called
gossamer; the gummy matter of which these are formed is
secreted in little bags, connected with a circular orifice near
the end of the body; within this orifice are five spinnerete,
through which the silken thread is drawn; these spinnerets
are pierced with thousands of tubes, too minute for the
naked eye to discern, and each emitting a thread of wonder-
ful fineness, which uniting, like the strands of a rope, form
the thread by which the little creature suspends itself, and
also forms its web. “Thus the spinning apparatus of the
disdained spider, when viewed by the eye of science, be-
comes one of the most wonderful pieces of animated mecha-
nism, and is of itself sufficient to establish, that nothing
short of Divinity could have framed it*.”

The female spider lays a number of round, whitish eggs,
which are sometimes merely placed in a crevice, without
any protection; others are enclosed in a cover of gos-
samer; and a third kind in a soft envelope. “The at-
tention which spiders pay to these cocoons almost equals

* Constable’s Miscellany.