Note 2746 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES. (continued 2)

Ἀπλυσίαι, from ἀ, “not,” and πλύνω, “to wash.” These aplysiæ or halcyones, Cuvier says, are a kind of sponge, of too thick and compact a nature to admit of their being washed. It is arbitrarily, he says, that Linnæus has applied this name to a species of the molluscæ, which is, in reality, the sea-hare of the ancients.